tips

TIPS!

- There are four options available to you from the start. The first will allow you to move your cursor to any level connected to a level you've already cleared, the second will allow you to purchase a full health recharge (1,000 yen), the third will allow you to purchase two charged shot upgrades (300 and 900 yen) or allow you to purchase something from the person that you rescued previously from that level, and the 4th will - as far as I can tell - allow you to purchase hints from the professor (300 yen), which are useless to you unless you read Japanese.

- Each level is indicated by an icon on the map and has different rewards correlated to that icon.

- There are four homes, each of which end with a woman who will restore your health to full. Two of these are available from the start and two are just before the last stage.

- There are two hospitals, both of which will provide you with with a full health restore and extend your life bar by one slot. If you choose the full health restore option while on one of these tiles, it will only be 500 yen instead of 1,000.

- There is a shrine (represented by a Torii - one of those red gate-looking things) and a Christian church. Both will give you a yes or no prompt (in English) after beating them. Choose yes, and you receive their upgrade, which then prohibits you from getting the other upgrade (I imagine there's some mild religious humor here about pledging yourself to either, and then the other refusing you for having already pledged). The shrine will give you a talisman that increases the strength of your charge shot and turns it white, and the church will give you a rosary that radically increases your charge speed. The rosary is *way* better and more useful, as the increased power shot is more or less only useful on two of the dragon fights that you may have already done by now and maybe one or two of the robot fights (all charged shots nuke every basic enemy at nearly the same speed).

- There are two factories. The top one will give you a shiny gold suit, which makes Tasuke or Kyapiko glow for the rest of the game. It seems to significantly raise your defense and is probably the most useful item in the game. The bottom one gives you an upgraded sword, which is also very useful.

- There are two shops with different sprites below the first factory. The first seems to be a mom & pop shop that will give you... red bean buns? Onigiri? The sprite is a little inconclusive. This will prevent death and give you a small health recharge instantly when your life bar would run out, and can be repurchased for 600 yen. The second shop appears to be a smaller and more modern convenience store, which will give you a bottle I have to assume is soda pop. That will give you a full health restore when you would otherwise die and fully restore your health, and can be repurchased for 2,000 yen (I use one in the play).

- Aside from that, the very last building is a... police station booth? It's the middle option of the initial levels, and it will give you a permit that allows you to fire your charged shot. Wish I could read the dialogue on this exchange, I bet it's pretty silly.

I think this covers everything you really need to know, otherwise the game is pretty straight-forward and easy. There's a couple of power-ups that appear in various stages, but you can just skip in the video if you want to see how they work, or just figure it out for yourself because it's not very complicated.