Hi gang! It's time to look around and see what we haven't seen yet.
First off, here's a hidden door, right there in town. I don't have the charm to buy whatever that first item is at the moment, but I might be able to rectify that by stocking up on charm stones, at the low low price of 100 gold each. I have about 40 of them, and I think the limit is 99, so I'll need 5900 gold to max out. I won't be doing that, though. There'll be enough grinding for cash today as it is.
Heading off to the right, I bump into the invisible wall in the sky. I have to drop down a screen before I'm allowed to move to the right, where I find a previously inaccessible store.
I can't afford the heavenly shield, though, and I already have a key, so there's nothing for me to do here.
Moving on I bypass the lucky sword store and spot a chest I haven't been able to reach before.
I stop off to make sure I've gotten the chest up above already (I have), then take the back entrance to the town sewer and score another life heart.
Just a little demo, while I'm in the area, of the effect of water on Hawk-Man. It's too bad you don't get to play as Duck-Man.
Also, here's me attacking while flying. You can see that it is possible to stay pretty much aloft, but it's also not too hard to drop like a stone.
I cruise back along the top of this area, to see if there's any hidden paths off the top of the screen or over the wall at the end of the area. There are not.
I also take a shot at killing this cloud, which has been such an annoyance to my earlier forms. As usual, it doesn't go too well, but I get it in the end.
I head back to the start of the seaside area and head upwards. You might remember Piranha-Man trying to jump over this gap earlier in the game and not making it. Hawk-Man finds it somewhat easier. Say, the area in that last screenshot looks kind of familiar...
I've found the Dragon's Castle from the start of the game! The place is kind of a mess. I attempt to go in the back entry.
No dice! But I do find this store by holding up in there. Too bad I can't afford the wares. Never mind that it's my shield to begin with.
I also attempt to get over this wall, to no avail.
Look at that! Back at the start.
The area plays much the same as before, though the enemies now drop cash and there are fuzzballs around.
Also enemies take like a million hits to kill (I left out several identical screenshots of me hitting that cyclops). Hu-Man had an AP of 255, while Hawk-Man is sitting on 104.
The old boss room has a solution to that problem, though. Hawk-Man is now as strong as he can be.
This still takes a few hits, though.
There are no falling blocks in this corridor this time, fortunately. The castle has fallen as far as it can.
These cyclopses are still hanging around.
This one drops some armour. That's odd...
My Legendary Armor! Nice!
Unfortunately, even with my defence improved, these guys still hit really hard if you let them.
But then so do I.
Even after revisiting the castle, I don't have the money for the equipment I don't have yet. I decide to look around some more.
I try to get back into Mouse-Man's area, but I can't get below this wall to move on, nor can I fly over it. Bummer.
Crossing the desert is much easier when you're a much stronger character with the ability to fly above all the enemies.
As is the pyramid. The catacombs are a little trickier, what with the enemies on the roof, but I've got too much defence for anything here to really worry me.
I find a hidden room! I stick on the lucky sword to maximise the cash drop, and then:
I get some money, some magic, and two potions. Nice!
The game drops me off outside the Mummy Dragon's chamber, and I head in to fight it again.
Or not! I'm returned to the end of the pyramid.
I make my way out and head back to town.
Unfortunately, there's pretty much only one thing left to do:
I grind. I've now been pretty much everywhere and opened every chest outside the final dungeon, so all that's left to do is buy the equipment I don't have, namely the heavenly shield, legendary shield, and the crystal sword, shield, and armor. The cost of all that stuff is about 20,000 gold. Ordinarily you'd get it by making multiple attempts at the various dungeons and gradually building up cash, but since I've been doing reasonably well I'm pretty poor. On top of that, I'm planning to finish the final dungeon on my first attempt (a plan I may regret publicly stating), so I want to get everything before I go in. If this were a video LP, or if I were just playing for myself, I wouldn't bother, but since this is screenshots it doesn't matter (to you guys, anyway) that I spent about as long grinding for gold making this update as I did playing the entire rest of the game.
After accumulating 7383 gold, I decide I've had enough and head back to town to get the crystal stuff.
Unfortunately I can't afford all of it. And it's not as good as the legendary gear, so only the shield is useful right now! I think the purpose of this stuff is to give you a better chance in the earlier levels if you're having a hard enough time to accumulate the cash to buy it. There's no reason for Hawk-Man to get it except completionism.
I change to Hawk-Man and head for the Dragon's Castle, thinking that the enemies might drop more gold there. Unfortunately, the enemies there also hit really hard, so I decide to head for safer territory and change back into Lion-Man.
Yep. Eventually I get 11 grand. That's probably enough, right?
On the way back through town, I stop off at the hidden shop in the tower basement. My charm is finally high enough to buy some of the items here: fire ball and tornado magic. Presumably once I get more charm stones I'll get access to arrows and boomerangs. Or maybe thunder. I think whichever one isn't sold here is the remaining question-mark item in the hidden shop in the sky.
I get the crystal sword, which of course is not as good as the legendary sword, and change into Hawk-Man.
I pick up the heavenly shield, which gives a pretty nice DP boost.
I come up short for the legendary shield, so I head back into the castle to get the last thousand or so, allowing me to pick it up. Hey! It's not as good as the heavenly shield. Well, not for Hawk-Man, anyway. He gets an extra boost from the heavenly that the other forms don't.
I head back into town and get a password, thinking that I've got everything and am all set to enter the endgame, but then I notice something odd: There's a shield missing. What?! How did that happen?
I look around and discover that I never picked up the knight shield. And I can't afford it now. Sigh.
Since I haven't re-explored the area where I got the thunder saber, I decide I might as well.
Whoops.
I head for a nice safe grinding spot and get the cash I need.
Much better! It's not a great shield, of course, but at least I've caught 'em all.
Here's a little quirk of the flight in this game: whenever you change direction, you go up a little. It's possible to gain height without pressing the jump button if you time it right. This doesn't really matter at the moment, but I'll be showing you an interesting trick with it in the post-game.
All right! I now have all the equipment and a fair amount of magic. All set to face the final dungeon and finish this thing. Or maybe I should max out my charm stones first? I only need 3300 gold! Then I'll be able to buy all the magic! If I grind up a hundred grand or so, I can max everything!
On second thought, I think I've got enough.
Next time: I win! (I hope).
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