===================================================================== -- GHOULS 'N GHOSTS - FAQ/WALKTHROUGH - VERSION 1.0 -- JANUS OPERATIVE Janus79057@hotmail.com Date of last revision: 8th June 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Ghouls 'n Ghosts Basics III. Walkthrough IV. Closing Notes ===================================================================== I. INTRODUCTION Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a tough game. It's also a FANTASTIC game! The whole theme, the music, the diversity and energy in the challenges that lie before you in this adventure... Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a fun experience, even if the whole double quest thing is a little cheap and the graphics are ultimately pretty basic. The difficulty can be very imposing, though, as the game forces you to commit fully to jumps in the style of Castlevania and it throws every horror imaginable at you, so hopefully this walkthrough will be useful! The first and most likely last edition of this guide was submitted on the 8th June, 2005. ===================================================================== II. GHOULS 'N GHOSTS BASICS Arthur is a noble knight, but he is not the most agile of heroes. Once you jump you are committed, so it is imperative that you judge distances carefully. Stay on the ground when you can. Two hits kill you -- the first stripping you of your armour. You can find the golden magic armour to cast spells by holding down the attack button, but this does not grant you an extra hit. - WEAPONS - I made the names of the weapons up, but they're fairly obvious. I also rated them using stars (out of five), giving a mark for the normal strike and the magic power! DAGGER --------- This weapon is great. It's small, but very fast and the magic power grants you a double, which is always Normal: ***** useful. However, I have never come across it that Magic: ***** frequently, so it may be hard to find. GREEN DISC ----- Its magic power is a shield that deflects enemy projectiles. It is as useless as that sounds, but Normal: ***** the normal shot is tremendous! The green discs are Magic: * faster than the lance and although they are the same size when through to the side, they are wider when thrown upwards. They also slide across the ground. LANCE ---------- This is the default weapon. It is fast and effective and the magic power takes the form of a Normal: **** useful two way lightning strike that hits enemies to Magic: **** the left and right of you. I would only select a new weapon if you see the green disc or the dagger, or if you particularly like to use the axe. AXE ------------ The axe is a strong, quick weapon, but the way it fires at an angle can make it harder to use than the Normal: *** lance or the green disc. Conversely, for some Magic: **** sections it will be better than the lance or the disc, but for overall usefulness it has to come fourth. Its magic power is a explosion that destroys enemies close to you, and it's very effective (and flashy!). GIANT SWORD --- This is powerful, but requires you to get close to enemies for it to be effective and that is very Normal: ** risky, therefore it is of limited use. The magic Magic: **** power is flashy and effective, but to be honest it doesn't matter as this weapon is limited. BLUE FIRE ------ Blue fire is about the best description I can give of this useless weapon. It has terrible, awkward Normal: * range so never use it. The magic power is great, Magic: ***** releasing two spheres of blue fire that circle the screen, but the normal shot does not make this a good option at all. ===================================================================== III. WALKTHROUGH I did this on "practice" difficulty, which is actually normal, or even hard by the standards of most games. I lost the manual some time ago so I don't know the proper names for levels, but that doesn't really matter. I compiled the walkthrough using an emulator, as that was the only way it was ever going to get done without me hating this game (and it's too good for that). It's been a while since I completed it, though, so I went through the cart version just to make sure my advice worked. In less contrived words, I was as thorough as I could be! --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL ONE: THE RISKY WOODS! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jump over the stocks and kill the blue reaper that you should see ahead of you. Duck on the mound of grass and throw a lance to kill the next reaper. Ensuing blue reapers should be dealt with in a similar manner, and they appear from the tall grass in the background as well as just randomly on the path. When you reach wall with vultures perched on it, jump and throw a lance to kill it. It is easiest to stay on the bottom path now, as this enables you to throw a lance at the vulture from below. Watch out for reapers that appear where you are standing (the edge of the wall), though. Climb over the large hill that lies before you and you should arrive at a second wall. Again take the bottom path and watch out for a treasure chest here as it tends to contain armour if you have lost it. Destroy the orange plant if you want, but be careful to avoid its three way fire -- you shouldn't stand directly below when it attacks. Then go under the guillotines and you should come to a big, barren tree. Vultures sit perched on the branches, so look up and throw lances. Those that leap off and head for you can be killed by ducking and throwing lances at them. Proceed forward under the huge guillotine and cross the bridge past the hilarious windy tree. This can be tricky. You need to keep walking, as this should enable you to go under the first very small tornado and over the second. Then a creature with scimitar arms arrives in the form of a tornado -- duck and he should miss you, hovering just above your head. Jump over the next tornado and duck under the rest to ensure your safety. Once through the storm, climb the hill. Concentrate on the three fire plants, as these present the biggest danger due to their projectiles. You can run away and the long roots should vanish if these are causing you problems. It is easiest to take the left path up ahead, but be careful for plants and roots that rise up randomly. There is also an ugly, feeble troll prowling this area. Continue onwards and fall down the hill to meet the boss. -- FIRST BOSS: BIG GREEN OGRE KNIGHT! -- Walk up to the boss and then swiftly run back to engage it in battle! He will follow. I found it easiest to stay near the back wall, though maybe this is just a comfort thing. You must jump or duck to avoid his small fireballs, while constantly throwing lances at his face. You may need to jump and throw lances to hit his face. If one of his fireballs threatens to get you just jump forward or back. This one-pattern fool is easily slain! --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL TWO: THE FLAMING DESERT! --------------------------------------------------------------------- You start in front of a hut at the bottom of a hill, so run up this hill! It's fairly easy because you can see the flying shells coming and easily identify the point where they will land. Generally they land in front of you, but there will be some occasions when walking forward under them is your best option, as going too far backwards can land you into trouble with respawning enemies. You come to a section where fragile platforms bridge valleys filled with quicksand. To effectively detail the gaps in the platforms I have described their position in relation to Arthur's size, so on the first platform there is a gap one sprite length away from the end. On the second there is a gap one sprite length away from the start and the end. You should have already jumped on to the higher ledge by now, though. On this ledge there is a gap right in the middle. On the last ledge there is a gap one sprite length away from the start and the end. You can just run up the sand if you fall here, though. On the next one there is a gap one sprite length from the start, one right next to this and one right at the end. On the next platform there is a gap two sprite lengths from the start and one right at the end. Once past this section wait for the wheel to turn round and go when you see a space, jumping out on the other side if it looks like the fire will hit you. Next bit can be very hard, but it is actually very simple. Dodge the skulls thrown and walk up to demon high above you. He will jump off the mound of skills and drop to ground level. If you shoot he will fly up and if you walk forwards he will swoop down into you, so stay still and don't fire. This will cause him to stay on the ground. Jump and shoot and you should catch him. Stay still and he will fall to ground again. Proceed onwards and watch out for the columns of sand that fall down off the screen. Fire birds tend to come in groups of about four here, so when you've killed four progress forward a bit before the next group swarms around you. There may be a huge axe here, but KEEP THE LANCE! You need it to duck and hit the green plant enemy up ahead. Fire birds appear randomly now, with the fire from ceiling forming new ones. You can shoot these fireballs from the lava on the ceiling ceiling. Progress right and jump and shoot at the plant enemy. Then leap onto cobbled ground! -- SECOND BOSS: THE GREAT FIRE LION! -- This boss has three attacks, which he first performs in succession. He leaps high over you and releases four slow fireballs that move downward. Then, he flies just over your head and back again in an attack which you must duck to avoid. Finally, he walks forwards and releases a whole chain of fireballs before usually leaping high into the air quickly after. The fireballs are little trouble -- just shoot them and they vanish. When he moves forward, though; that can be a problem because you need to be fairly close to hit and dodge his leaping attack. Run away, but don't run too far otherwise the battle will be out of sync and you won't be able to see what he is doing. You need to stay central, walking backwards and forwards slightly to keep him in your sights and bombard him with lances. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL THREE: THE GARGOYLES OF DOOM! --------------------------------------------------------------------- The floor in this stage is constantly rising, so act quickly! Straight away you should kill the knight on the left wall by throwing a lance upwards into his body. Just hit his arm or sword and it will take longer for him to die. With this done your priority should be to stay to the right of the screen and shoot upwards, as this is where the small green demons congregate. Ignore the knights on the left until they detach from the walls and crawl into you -- they are easy to hit when they do this. Obviously some you can hit easily (such as the one near the point where the gap gets smaller), but knights such as the one hanging down with two swords should be left until you are level with them, making it easier for you. There will be a green disc power up here, which can be useful, and also a sorcerer appears from a chest. Avoid him or get rid of him. Eventually you will get to a gap with two knights either side and spiked platforms above. Quickly kill the knight to the left and hopefully you still have time to get the knight on the right by throwing a sword or disc so it hits him just below the sword. This can be tricky, so you may wish just to wait until he comes towards you. Kill the small green demons that get in your way, but don't spend too long eradicating them all. Now rush right! The bloated demons are a pain, but you need only kill those that get in your way, because you need to move quickly to the wall that stands in front of you. Destroy it before the ground rises above the blue rock and continue on. It's best to go above the spiked platform, but you could try going under it if the bloated demons hold you up. Jump through the gap and the ground stops. Step onto the pink tongue next. It should take you under the gargoyle where you can kill an enemy, and then you should see a pink tongue rising out of the gargoyle you passed. Flying enemies will swarm round you, so kill them all. Jump up and shoot downward if you have to because it is imperative that nothing gets in the way of your jump to the small moving platforms below. You must act quickly, though, because the tongue recedes and there's no way back. Now, in the very definition of annoying, you must duck under a treasure chest. Don't open it because a sorcerer is inside (if you do open it jump back a platform because you won't kill him in time otherwise). The hard part isn't over. The next section is very hectic: you must proactively kill the flying enemies because they are bound to get in your way, yet you must also focus on the jumping because you get one chance most of the time. First leap on the pink tongue to your left, then the pink tongue to your right and duck under the rock. Now fall down (DON'T jump down) onto a platform and jump to the right, killing enemies as you go. Towards the gargoyle on the right you may have to wait for a while on some platforms (slow your movement down) to wait for the tongue to come in from the right. Fall from this tongue onto the one below and, finally, you reach safety. -- BOSS THREE: KILLER CLOUDY BLOODSHOT EYE! -- This boss is weird. He has one attack which involves him (it?) revving up in a circle before darting towards you. There's a certain amount of luck involved here, as you have little influence on his movement. Just stay out of his way when he revs up and hopefully you will avoid having to make a harrowing jump, as he darts forward at random heights (he could do it below the platforms, missing you completely, or even come to a stop before he gets to you. You can't hit him when he is spinning round (the red explosion graphic signifies a successful hit to the eye). --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL FOUR: THE CRYSTAL MINES! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't, whatever you do, jump into the green crystals. The blue reapers are back! Now they are a lot faster, so proceed right only after you have killed the ones in your path and head BELOW the skeleton, avoiding the blue projectiles spewed by the stone golem before you kill it. Don't take the high route. Just don't. Jump and kill the stone golem, retreating to avoid the Chain Chomp-esque beast. Jump and shoot to defeat this. Stay to the very left of the platform above the defeated stone golem and lure the next Chain Chomp monster out to kill him. Otherwise he'll get you. Climb down the stairs up ahead to take the easier lower route. Keep constantly firing to kill the Chain Chomp monsters and then kill the stone golem you run into. After this you must fall down the watery slope into a treasure chest. Don't jump -- the crystals will kill you. Just endure the sorcerer's magic if you can't kill him and wait for elderly Arthur to regain his youthful vigour! Continue to fall down the watery slopes, climbing up them when necessary until you reach the hand positioned at the bottom of a steep slope (it slopes to the left). Walk towards it and a blue snake will crawl out. This is hard unless you have the green discs. You need to duck and shoot. It is important to shoot down when possible here, clearing up the route forward and avoiding tricky confrontations. When you reach the end of this sloop and one mirrors it directly below you need to drop onto this slope and stand on the far left so you can jump over the hill to the right. Continue downwards, killing the green hands and you will eventually come to a green leaf platform. Follow it down, killing the snake to the right, and immediately jump to the adjacent platform when at the bottom, otherwise a plant will eat you. Repeat this with the succession of green platforms (they become faster) and then leap onto the back of what I can only assume is a giant slug monster. -- FOURTH BOSS: GIANT SLUG MONSTER! -- You can often make this boss harder than it actually is. Firstly, the orange worm cannot be killed, so just avoid it. It leaps out of circular gashes that it creates in the surface of the slug monster thing. Also, green maggots climb up the side. These are easy to jump over as you can just stand still and jump and often they'll go under you. Kill them if they appear in excessive numbers together, and of course avoid the orange worm when he gets near a group of maggots. That would be a very hard situation. All you need to do is jump up and shoot down at the orange hearts, landing four hits to destroy one. Death usually comes due to overconfidence -- trying to get too many hits in when you should be running for safety, so remember that as you avoid the enemies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL FIVE: THE CASTLE OF TERROR! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Kill the skeletal snake to the right and leap over the treasure chest as it contains a sorcerer. Ignore the snakes on the left until they get too close and just kill the ones on the right, heading this way until you reach a demon. It difficult to hit these -- you need to wait until they are overhead or until they have fired their three- stream projectile attack. They will swoop at you but can't actually swoop low enough to hit you when you are standing perfectly still. After the series of demons you encounter some flying enemies that are easily despatched, and then you reach the section with ladders and trolls. These trolls are sick on you if you stand under them, but they are slow so you can often kill them before they attack. Stand next to them and they are very fast, though. The next bit is potentially impossible, but it really isn't _that_ bad if you follow my advice! First, climb the ladder and wait for the two spiked poles to come out of the two skulls opposite each other at the bottom. You may have to wait a while. When they close and open again climb through. Now two poles come out of the skulls above you on the left, while one forces you up from below on the right. Go into the gap than climb down again as two poles come in from either side. Then immediately go up as the next pole should come out of a skull near the top. Then two poles come out of two skulls on the right, after which one comes out of the top left. Get as close to this one and then hurry to the top when it opens. I'm sure there are other ways of getting through this, but this is the one I chose to describe! At the top a fat monster in a red coat appears. He breathes fire which you can duck to avoid, and dies after a few shots to the face. Then you climb a ladder and are greeted by two fire breathing heads on either wall. Simply stand below them and shoot upwards, as their fire can't get you here. Be careful to avoid their heads, though -- head to the middle of the room if they get too low as it is easier to dodge the fire with lots of open space. Two fat monsters wearing red coats appear from green doors now. This is easy. Just duck their flames and then jump and shoot. Up ahead on the platforms joined by ladders you encounter three smaller versions of the cloud eye boss you met before. These are easy, too, as they are small and attack infrequently. You also have lots of different height platforms to enable you to easily evade their one attack. The next problem arises in the form of yet another green monster head that breathes fire. You need to stand on the spot to deal with this fiend, leaping over his fire or ducking under it while shooting up to kill the green demons that swoop towards you. There will be times when it will be easier to move about to evade his attacks, though. Fire at him when his head lowers to ground level. -- FIFTH BOSS: THE KILLER QUEEN BEE! -- If you have the sword then just give up now. It's practically impossible to hit the bee, so don't let the game trick you into picking it up just before the fight. Stick with your long range weapon! The lance allows you to hit the boss fairly easily, but watch out for the four green orbs he fires. It is also best to remain on lower ground (rather than the raised central area), as this makes it easier to counter its second attack. The bee will disintegrate and be carried to another part of the arena in a stream -- shoot this stream and it bounces up over your head. YOU WIN? NO! As Merlin puts it, you need to find the "goodess"! --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL ONE REVISTED! --------------------------------------------------------------------- This level is still fairly easy. The blue reapers move faster, and the vultures take two hits to kill, though. And the troll jumps at you, so don't get to close (hit him from below if possible). Beat the boss in exactly the same manner. He's still simple to defeat. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL TWO REVISTED! --------------------------------------------------------------------- On the way up the hill there is a solid blue object which you must jump over -- wait until you have killed the enemies that come over it, of course. Also, although the gaps in the platforms occur exactly at the same places, flying enemies appear here. When you get to the demon atop the pile of skulls it is a little trickier than last time because he moves faster. You should stop and lure him down to the ground before waiting for him to run towards you. Shoot him and jump over him and then face the other way and shoot. This is tricky, but it is the best way to avoid his swoop attack. Everything else in the level is basically the same, only faster. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL THREE REVISITED! --------------------------------------------------------------------- The first part is essentially the same in difficulty to before, but the second part is harder. The third blue tongue (the one after the treasure chest with the sorcerer) has a blue fire on it. You need to jump this fire but you need to do this straight after ducking under the green island, which can be hard because you need to generate some pace. It may be easy to avoid the tongue going right and just jump on the one that goes to the left (the one with the blue fire on it) straight away. After this the boss is easy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE FOUR REVISITED! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Be careful of the Chain Chomps here -- they spit grey projectiles now, which can be hard to see as the come past the grey earth. It would be best to take the top route at the part where the ladder offers you a choice, though. You can just run past most of the time and avoid difficult confrontation. The boss of this level is the same, but two orange snakes appear now. It is best to just shoot at the hearts in any old order and keep moving around, as if you stay in one place and concentrate on one heart you are liable to get caught more than if you were jumping round). --------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE FIVE REVISITED! --------------------------------------------------------------------- The stage is not the hard part, strangely enough. Actually getting the proper magic power from the Princess is what will bother you. As far as I can tell you need to have the magic armour and then you can get the magic power to defeat Loki from one of the treasure chests that would normally contain armour. One is situated by the green eye monument just before the troll section with the swooping demons and another is situated just before the last green demon face that breathes fire. You may have to run past them before they appear. You may need to repeat the stage several times, which can be annoying, but once you have the magic power you can't lose it even if you do lose the magic armour. --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- FINAL BOSS: LOKI, PRINCE OF DARKNESS -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Run up to this big red fiend and he will move his legs for you, which looks slightly ridiculous. Anyway, stand in the centre of the room, dodging the thin projectiles he emits and continually shoot at his face. This is such an easy final battle that I almost feel insulted. Make sure you don't stay in one position, though, as the floor will collapse -- just move about a bit in the middle. Beat him and, finally, you are victorious. ===================================================================== IV. CLOSING NOTES I was going to write up the selection of codes for the game, but these are all on GameFAQs anyway, so it's a bit pointless. If you have any comments then contact me at janus79057@hotmail.com This file is Copyright 2005 by Janus Operative, and may be freely distributed as long as proper credit is given to the author. =====================================================================