Let's Play Wonder Boy III, 7: Lion-Man, part: all

Hi gang! I'm back, in lion-man form! Something you may have noticed is that lion-man is hells of charming. I'm gonna see if that shopkeeper in the tower will sell me stuff now!

Nope! OK, well there's only one thing to do, then:

Just like mouse-man, lion-man can break these blocks and head down the well.

Unlike mouse-man, he can also break these blocks.

And these ones, scoring me some cash and magic. Oh, and a permanant maximum health increase. That's fortunate, because I'm very close to the point where this game gets difficult.

I smash some more blocks to get back out. The door drops me off near a high-placed breakable block that you might remember me having trouble reaching with mouse-man.

Lion-man has no such difficulty. Unfortunately, he is broke. Nothing for it but to carry on and come back later.

Without mouse-man's ability to stick to the ceiling, I have to jump over these wells. I screw it up and fall down the second one, leading to a dead end.

Well, that's kind of annoying.

My second attempt goes a little better, and I manage to enter lion-man's stage proper. You might notice that there's nothing stopping mouse-man from getting in here. Perhaps you even noticed that back when I took mouse-man down into the well back in piranha-man's first update and wondered why I didn't explore all my options. Well, the answer to that is that firstly I'm not planning on doing any sequence breaking until after I run through the game normally, and secondly I didn't wanna get myself killed. I think it's possible to beat lion man's stage as mouse-man, but I'm not sure it's something I'm capable of. I'll take a shot at it in the post-game, with the end-game gear and/or a glitch on my side to make it easier.

So: we're in a cave underground, facing off against bats. Pretty much makes sense.

As does my taking hits. Fortunately, green bats are pretty much incapable of harming lion-man. I've still got all my hearts!

Sweet revenge (not shown: it hitting me again).

You know I said I was very close to where the game gets difficult? Not there yet.

I love lion-man's expression as he swings his sword. He looks so nervous about it.

A dead end! Still not difficult, though. Just annoying.

It's not super-obvious from the shots, but these blue bats are taking two hits to kill. Plus they're taking a pixel or two off my health when they hit me. The former is just because I couldn't afford a better sword, though.

I hate these guys.

I went up here and took this guy on because some of the dead ends in this stage have hidden doors in them. Not this one, though! Nice of that dude to drop a potion for me, but I'm already carrying as many as I can.

Moving on some more, a Willow Wisp appears.

I deal with the situation, then chase its cash drop around a little.

I take the high road to another dead end, which allows some faeries to start moving in on me.

Having resolved that conundrum, I reach a pool of lava.

It's easily bypassed, and the enemies in the area dealt with. This master skeleton doesn't even pull the seperate body/skull trick. What's with this area?

Moving forward, the bats actually get weaker, and the dead ends shorter. Lion-man is a tough dude. This area is baby stuff. Especially given:

Yep. Since I'm already at full health (and have three revival potions), I have no need of this.

Contrary to appearances though, that hospital is well placed, because this is where the game gets difficult. At least if you don't know how to do it right.

I actually do know how to do it right, but I forgot to. I got a hit in on that guy, but something bad is about to happen:

Yeah, that sucked. Falling in lava always does a lot of damage, and the enemies in this area are placed specifically to make you do it. I'm about to fall back into the earlier lava pit when that fireball hits me, but luckily I've an ace in the hole:

The dragon mail, while not as good at decreasing regular damage as my prince armor, makes me immune to lava. I take a dip to celebrate.

OK, so I know what to do here: jump over the fireballs, land when the enemy sinks back into the ground, kill it from behind. Easy.

Oh right. These guys don't come up at you unless you're in front of them. Moving on, then.

Oh noes! Note that I actually took appreciable damage getting hit here, and I fell in the lava. I tried to kill the shadow-man from the lava, but didn't seem to be able to connect, so I gave up on that.

After a few more attempts.

What makes this bit really tricky is the guy coming up behind you. If you leave it alone, it'll be shooting fireballs at your back as you go forward. It only appears once you move past it, so you have to jump back at it. Assuming you manage to land on the second platform safely. This is actually a pretty good place to use some of the magic you've accumulated through the game to this point, but I kind of forgot I had it.

Keep an eye on my HP total through these shots. This is going kind of badly.

I guess that's why they hid that hospital there.

At this point I try out attacking from the lava again, and discover that you actually can hit the enemy from down there. Whoops.

Once I have standing room on the second platform, I take out the guy on the first platform with ease (well, getting hit only the once, which is similar).

I finally get to move on. I took out the enemy on the first platform specifically so that I could attack this guy without being attacked from behind. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't worth it.

I'll admit it: shadow-men are a weakness of mine. I coulda just moved on, but no, I had to go back and let this guy hit me.

Twice. In the end it's all worth it though, because it drops a heart, getting my health back to where it was before I took it on. Hooray.

I reach the next cavern, and do something very important: switch back to my strongest armor. Now that the walls are blue, I'm sure there's no more risk of lava.

The enemies in this area are familiar and weak. It's nice.

And we're back in dead end territory. This is kind of an important cul-de-sac, though:

It houses the Tasmanian sword. I have no idea why it's called that, and to be honest I don't get that much use out of it playing normally, but it's got a glitch that opens up the game to sequence breaking. I'll show it off after the main run finishes. For now, I can't afford it, and that means:

Grinding! Luckily this isn't a bad spot for it.

It gets me a 34 point attack boost, which is pretty nice. Unfortunately I lose the gold drop boost from the lucky sword when I equip it.

I head back to the branch point and take the lower route.

My poor wallet! I switch back to the lucky sword for a sec.

No point getting small drops from chests, after all. For some reason it took me ages to find this hidden door. I thought it'd be off to the side or something.

The enemies respawn after I leave the hidden room, but that's no problem. I move on. This enemy pairing is a little tricky, since the green shadow-man can throw fireballs that go below my shield.

I get hit fighting the flower, but the damage is negligible, and when I kill the shadow-man it drops a heart to make it up to me.

Another branch point! Groups of fire flowers like this are an annoyance: if you don't time your attacks carefully, fireballs from the back ones will slip past your shield when you attack. I manage, though.

Back in the red zone, I meet a nice cyclops who takes away a bit more than a full heart of my health.

It also takes like a million hits to kill. I cut out about ten more screenshots of me hitting it. It's not difficult, mind, because you just push it up to the wall and spam attack, but it takes time. Given how much it hurts me and how little I hurt it, I'm wondering if I'm out of my depth here (I think I forgot to switch back from the lucky sword to the Tasmanian, which might explain it somewhat).

I head through the outer wall of the underground castle and pause to equip my boomerangs. That my AP is 130 confirms that I'm still using the lucky sword at this point. With the Tasmanian, I'd have 164.

Ugh. Ninjas. These guys aren't too bad on their own: they throw a star at you, then jump. If you time it right, you can catch the star on your shield, then just tap attack to kill them as they come down on you. If there's a bunch of them around, or other enemies to deal with, they're a nuisance.

They aren't so great when you screw up the timing, either.

It goes a little better the next time, and I move onto the next screen to meet a green ninja.

These guys take two hits to kill, but the first one stuns them long enough to get in the second. The presence of fuzzballs is an indicator the game wants to take it up a notch.

Dodging ninja stars and getting hits in is a little trickier when there are fuzzballs around.

Still, I get by.

Stars and ninjas from both sides at once. Just what I need.

The prince armor is a real asset at times like these, increasing the odds of health drops.

The next screen steps things up, introducing enemy samurai. They walk towards you, then jump away when you start to swing at them. Once you hit them once, they're stunned long enough to finish the job, but as usual that's only guaranteed when they're alone.

At this point I realise I'm using the wrong sword and switch it up. The next samurai goes down in one hit.

Or maybe I just missed the shot where I kept fighting him. Anyway, I carry on and reach the castle entrance.

Inside I meet the next version of the samurai enemy: the green.

These charming fellows pull the same trick as the red dudes, jumping away as you go to hit them, but they also have a projectile they release afterwards. They hit fairly hard, too, as I discovered after waiting too long to strike.

Attacking in pairs is just unfair. Luckily, I've got a trick up my sleeve:

Unluckily, I don't perform it very well. What you do with samurai is throw the boomerang at them instead of attacking. It'll knock them away, then knock them back in towards you on the return. If you play it smart, they'll be pushed right in front of you ready for you to hit them again. If you play it like me, you'll walk into them as they get pushed forward and take a hit. Then get hit by a bat.

At least the bats don't do much damage. Having dealt with them, I move on to the next part of the stage.

The change of background colour brings with it a new threat: levitating ninjas! These guys somehow start out floating above the ground, and throw a star that goes straight over my shield. Fortunately after jumping they come down to ground level, and are easily dealt with.

I manage to get a samurai right.

OK, this sucks. Two levitating ninjas and a samurai, all at once? The only consolation is that the ninjas hit for much less damage than the samurai, so as long as they're the ones hitting you you're doing ok.

Unfortunately, once the ninjas are gone I still have to deal with the samurai, and I do it poorly. I'm now very close to consuming one of my life potions. Fortunately that dying samurai is about to drop some health.

Aww yuss. Three quarters of a heart. I'm all set now.

With minimal ninja damage I manage to take out these two and move on to the next area.

Oh great, a tougher samurai. Let's see what we can do:

So, I actually got a pretty good encapsulation of the blue samurai experience, if I do say so myself. Just like the earlier ones, these guys jump away when you swing at them. They then throw three fireballs, which I think can be avoided by running under, but which I manage to cop in the face, costing me a revival potion. From which I get only two hearts! Weak! Anyway, after that I manage a much better boomerang attack and take him out.

At this point floating blocks are old hat, and I make it to the next area with ease.

These ninjas are tougher, taking two hits to kill, but they don't have any new moves.

My boomerang trick goes wrong again, and I lose another potion.

That's more like it!

Sweet victory.

Ohgodthere'smore. Note that between the first and second shots I've lost almost a full heart of health to these next level ninjas' stars.

You can only hit one enemy at a time, so when two dudes are jumping you at once it's pretty tough. I manage to pull through, but I'm running low on health again.

I didn't get a clear shot of me getting hit here, but I assume I moved too close under the ninja when it landed. At least this one started on ground level so I could block its star.

This place just keeps going! My last potion only gives me back one heart of health, and another hit from that damn ninja has me very close to death. Can I pull myself together and pull this thing off?

Nope!

At least in death Wonder Boy is restored to his human form. In an act of wondrous kindness, this game allows you to continue after death. If you manage to get the potion icon to stop on a red heart you even get a free potion when you do. Too bad I didn't manage that. This .gif is a little longer than it needs to be because I waited for the music to stop before pressing the button to start the potion icon. I uh, forgot that .gifs don't have sound.

My first stop is the nurse. Fortunately, despite starting with only one heart, I've still got all my money.

Back to business! I stop off to pick up the Muramasa blade I couldn't afford last time, taking my AP from 164 all the way up to 250. It's a pretty good sword, and should improve my chances for surviving the level. Still, I'm gonna use the Lucky Sword for the first part of the level, to get some cash.

I remember to switch to the dragon mail for the lava parts, and while I'm at it notice something disastrous: I've lost all my attack items! Even though I've been forgetting to use them most of the time, that's still annoying. Also of note: dying doesn't refill the chests.

I didn't bother with the lower path my first time through here, but this time I stop in. This cyclops will always drop a large heart, giving you a full health restore, if you're at less than full strength.

If you leave and come back with your health still full, it'll drop a fireball every time.

I grind magic for a little while, then realise that it's taking forever and switch back to the Muramasa blade. I think I'd put the lucky sword on for the easy early part of the stage, then forgotten to switch back. I was also still wearing the dragon mail, which is how my health got so low. I switch back to something less sucky before heading into the castle.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work out for me.

Attempt #3! I think I'm just before the floating block bit. Without boomerangs, how do I deal with samurai?

Fireballs! This is probably actually a lot safer than trying to knock them towards me with boomerangs, come to think of it.

This goes marginally more smoothly than on my first run.

I actually come out ahead after fighting this guy, since he dropped health for me.

I get my revenge on the ninja that killed me the first time.

I manage to take out these two as well, but it looks like this run is about to come to an end, just like the first two. So frustrating!

Oh man! That's the boss door! If I can just fight this boss without getting hit once, I won't have to go through the stage again!

Or I could go in here for a full health refill and a free potion. Nice!

I check to make sure I've equipped the best stuff I have, and head in to fight:

The Daimyo Dragon!

It's actually a pretty easy fight: There's a little flash above its sword, then four balls come out. I just jump in and hit, and almost a quarter of its health is gone already.

Then it swings its sword at you. You gotta get pretty close to dodge the blue balls, but the sword's range is shorter than it looks.

Repeat.

I make a mistake trying to dodge between balls, but they don't do much damage. I might not've survived that if I hadn't gotten the health refill, though.

This direct hit might've stung a bit worse if I hadn't still been invincible from the earlier hit.

A couple more hits and it's all over.

Another brilliant performance from me here. Anyway, say hello to Hawk-Man. What can he do? Well, you might be surprised:

Then again, you might not. Mashing the jump button allows Hawk-Man to fly. It's basically the exact same thing as Piranha-Man's swimming, except in the air. Hawk-Man's other quirk is that he takes damage if he gets wet. Something of note here: you can actually go back through that door for another run at the dungeon. I don't recommend it.

The thing about flying is that it can be a bit hard to control. In particular, if you get hit you'll start falling, if you attack you'll start falling, and if you try to move up off the top of the screen without building enough momentum you'll probably fall back down immediately. I decide that discretion is the better part of valour and give up on those bats.

This chest is full of cash, which is nice, and a health refill, which is also nice, but nicest of all is having boomerangs again. That's mighty nice.

This shop takes care of my excess cash problem, selling me some faily expensive Hades Armor. When I open up the menu to put it on, I notice that all my stats have taken a dive. Hawk-man isn't as strong, tough, or charming as lion-man, plus some of the stuff I have equipped gives extra boosts to lion-man that hawk-man can't get. I switch to less specialised gear. The Hades Armor gives a better boost than the Prince Armor, but I put the latter back on anyway, for two reasons: one is that it improves item drops, and the other is that the Hades Armor has the special property of refilling your health when you die, but you lose it in the process (there's an exploit associated with this, but I'm saving it for the post-game). I don't wanna risk losing it, so I won't be wearing it. I'm pretty sure it's actually not possible to get back to this room once I leave (via conventional methods: I'll show how you get back here with other methods in the post-game), because Hawk-Man can't get into lion-man's stage, and there's no transformation room to allow you to enter with Lion-Man and change to Hawk-Man to fly up there.

I head back into town and get a new password. Phew! Now that I can fly, I can reach the last few areas of the game and pick up the last few items before entering the final dungeon. Join me next time, when I do that.

TL,DR: