Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

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JaySevenZero
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Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can leave your thoughts regarding Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura) for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Simonsloth »

I have been desperate to complete this game as some sort of fitting sequel to my previous comments regarding Ghosts and Goblins. I regretfully admit defeat with my progress being even more pitiful than the previous game. I have just finished Zelda 2 and felt pretty good about myself as it is notoriously challenging. This game is in another league of difficulty. I couldn’t even make it past the 1st stage. I decided to instead revel in OneCreditBen’s superior skills and when watching I realised that you can throw upwards. I’m no longer just feeling like I am rubbish at the game but am also feeling extremely stupid. I don’t think I’m cut out for this series.

(Now I’m back to the drawing board and am going to see if this new skill can get me further.)
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Nupraptor »

Ghouls N Ghosts! I had the megadrive version back in the day and played through multiple times. I had made previous attempts at Ghosts N Goblins and couldn't get past the first level, but this was a lot more manageable and accessible.
This was still in the relatively early days of the megadrive and the visuals were hugely impressive compared to the 8 bit systems. Those bold, colourful cartoon sprites are still very appealing to me even today. The first level "Shielder" boss was the real poster boy for the game. His image would frequently crop up on promotional material and you can see why! A huge armoured bright-green ogre that was the height of the screen! And he detached his own head to attack you with fireballs. What a treat! How epic it felt to fight such a monster.
The epic feel was enhanced by the rousing music - the first level theme in particular is an all time classic - and by the map at the start of each level that showed you a preview of the trials and terrain yet to come.

There was a sense of fun about proceedings, with Arthur rocking around in his boxers after taking hits and being turned into a duck or an old man if you had the misfortune of finding a wizard in one of the chests. This would usually spell doom, but you would always try to stave off death by flapping or shuffling around in your transformed state to avoid the relentless enemies.

There was no "aftertouch" on the jump, so once you jumped, you were committed. This meant that you would have agonising fractions of seconds where you realised you had made a mistake, but could only watch helplessly as Arthur hurtled into a fiery pit, an amorphous cloud monster or a stream of vomit from an ogre. Kudos to the ogre for fighting the forces of good despite his bad case of gastroenteritis.

The selection of weapons added variety, although I feel the connoisseur's choice was the rapid fire daggers. Some of the others were definitely lower tier or actively detrimental. On a serious run, you wanted to avoid the golden sword for instance, which was high damage, but only had a close range attack. If you accidentally got it, there would then be a fight for survival until the next decent weapon drop.
Each of the weapons in turn could unleash a magical attack if you managed to pick up a suit of the magical armour. This armour really made you feel like you had powered up, with it's golden sheen and flowing cape. You could then summon a doppelganger, a shield or various pyrotechnics depending on which weapon you had. For the serious player, the magical attacks served relatively little practical benefit and you were better off focusing on basic attacks and dodging enemies, but it was fun to have the option. The crowning glory of the magical attacks was the lightning strike you could summon if you had the magic armour and the lance weapon. It was visually stunning when Arthur pumps his fist to the sky, calling down lightning that shoots out to the sides and leaving him temporarily silhouetted in black from the sudden flash. Who's the daddy?

Notoriously of course, you have to play through the game at least twice to complete it. I say at least, because there were a few occasions when I got to the end of my second run through, but without the amusingly-named Psycho Cannon weapon that you needed to take on the final boss. This leads to you being sent back to the start AGAIN! When you finally did reach the end with psycho cannon in hand, you were rewarded by a crowning boss fight against the demonic "Loki". This grinning red devil was larger than the screen and could shoot lasers from his hands. That's the kind of thing I expect from a final boss! If you could dodge through his legs, past his lasers and strike at his head, then you had done it, you had beaten the game! You then had the treat of watching the end credits with the hastily tacked-on and badly translated explanation of the game's plot.
You were Knight Arthur! "Warrior the strongest" and wearer of boxer shorts!
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Simonsloth »

Update: after a sleepless night of tears, vomit and having to juggle 2 sick kids and a poorly spouse I’ve finished it. By that I mean the first level. It’s strange because I had that “one last credit” vibe when I turned it on and that this was going to be the one. I think the bleary eyed delirium of sleep deprivation may have actually been in my favour.

I feel like I have conquered one of the life’s biggest hurdles and my sense of accomplishment is through the roof. That’s me done though. I know I am essentially admitting defeat but to me this is victory. A small one but a victory nonetheless.

I’ll leave the actual completing to the experts and I take my hat off to their superior prowess. This game does not suffer fools and this morning I can say I’m a fraction less foolish.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by ratsoalbion »

Level two’s music is wonderful!
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Simonsloth »

ratsoalbion wrote: November 11th, 2018, 9:23 am Level two’s music is wonderful!
The few seconds I heard of were nice before I died and turned it off:) I was playing on PSP Capcom collection so no save states and no way of getting to level 2 without completing the first again. I look forward to the show and hope I’m not the only one who struggled.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.11.18) - 345: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by ratsoalbion »

Oh hell no, it's a pig.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Suits »

Foolishly, I lumped my Ghouls n Ghosts on the Mega Drive in with the more recently played Super Ghouls and Ghosts and gave it a wide berth.

After listening to the podcast over the last two days, I established that it is in fact a much better, much closer to the arcade version.

Which thinking about it makes sense, I’d just never really thought about it much.

Anyway, I played this last night after the podcast (which was very enjoyable) and instantly enjoyed it a lot more that SGG.

I don’t see myself finishing it but it’s great to pick up and have a quick blast with.

I then watched Ben’s Weapon Roultette playthrough and enjoyed that too :lol: .
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by ratsoalbion »

Yeah, SGnG is the sequel, the next game in the series.

Ben loves it too - as do we - so it is on the shortlist for Volume 8.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Suits »

ratsoalbion wrote: November 28th, 2018, 11:18 am Yeah, SGnG is the sequel, the next game in the series.
Ah, right.

OK that makes sense.

I seem to remember it playing like a bit of a pig on the SFC - I may be confusing it with something else though.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by ratsoalbion »

The PAL conversion wasn’t good.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by OneCreditBen »

Suits wrote: November 28th, 2018, 10:49 am Foolishly, I lumped my Ghouls n Ghosts on the Mega Drive in with the more recently played Super Ghouks and Ghosts and gave it a wide berth.

After listening to the podcast over the last two days, I established that it is in fact a much better, much closer to the arcade version.

Which thinking about it makes sense, I’d just never really thought about it much.

Anyway, I played this last night after the podcast (which was very enjoyable) and instantly enjoyed it a lot more that SGG.

I don’t see myself finishing it but it’s great to pick up and have a quick blast with.

I then watched Ben’s Weapon Roultette playthrough and enjoyed that too :lol: .
They're both fun but in very different ways.
SGG plays more like one of those Capcom Disney Platformers in many respects, whereas Ghouls n Ghosts retains that brutal arcade and is loads more unforgiving.

Weapon Roulette was a lot of fun but it stiched me up loads with the firebomb!
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by OneCreditBen »

Also I feel I can do more with this game somehow.
I think the no death clear might be the video that I'll always look back to with fondness, but I can't help but think I can beat this game in different ways on harder difficulty settings. I've done a few 1CCs on Daimakaimura and have been making a load of progress on the World Version on Hardest difficulty. It's like being in an abusive relationship. No matter what this game does to me I'll always forgive it, for just a split second of the sensation that those difficult clears bring. Let's get the kettle on shall we...
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Michiel K »

I made this video at Ben's encouragement, following our discussion of the game on the podcast.

This probably only works at the default dip switch settings of the World ROM set. I imagine the funny finger hands firing much faster at higher settings, throwing a spanner in the works.

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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by OneCreditBen »

Michiel K wrote: February 21st, 2019, 11:06 am I made this video at Ben's encouragement, following our discussion of the game on the podcast.

This probably only works at the default dip switch settings of the World ROM set. I imagine the funny finger hands firing much faster at higher settings, throwing a spanner in the works.

How am I only just seeing this now?
That's an awesome video, with some great technique.

I really like the dagger for this part of the run. I'd recommend when you get to the second to last downward slope, jump and fire down as you go down it. You can kill the last hand just as it spawns. Also if you look at a quicker drop pattern at the end, you'll generally avoid the green heads having enough time to fire eggs. Awesome video my friend. I really enjoyed this!
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Michiel K »

^^^^Getting old, Ben! You responded to this on Twitter, when I put the video out! :D Thanks again, man. And good pointers, as expected.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

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Michiel K wrote: August 19th, 2019, 3:29 pm ^^^^Getting old, Ben! You responded to this on Twitter, when I put the video out! :D Thanks again, man. And good pointers, as expected.
Wow hahaha. I must have forgotten. It was great to catch up on though, clearly felt as fresh as it did when you recorded it. I'm clearing this every night at the moment, I honestly can't stop playing it. I don't need to, I'm not recording it. It's just fun, it's just so much fun.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by Michiel K »

That's what it's all about.
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Re: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)

Post by OneCreditBen »

Michiel K wrote: August 20th, 2019, 3:54 pm That's what it's all about.
Playing the MD version LOADS at the moment.
Professional mode is quite the ask. Great fun though, I really like the music more than I thought I would as well.
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