Now let's do the opposite

So again, my favorite game is The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. My least favorite part is the Jutsu (or Judo) system. It's over-designed and not very useful. You want to learn a jutsu technique; you have to find a Dojo, pay a big price, it even costs a part of your health bar to learn it. Then, to use it, you need 10 scrolls. And it's generally not super useful in the end. And the worst, the jutsu is forgotten in the next stage.

There are 4 jutsus per character, and they require the scrolls that you are continuously collecting through the game, clearly they put a lot of importance on that system, but it's never worth it. I beat the game dozens of times, but I almost never used the jutsus.

So what's yours?

I saw that question on other subs and thought it could be interesting here, especially since a lot share the same favorite Goemon game :P

So instead of just saying what's our favorite Goemon game, what is our favorite part of that game?

I'll start:

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja; My favorite part is Stage 4. I love that town and its music, and the action stage is great, with its upside-down mechanic. I also think the Otafuku Mask is the best boss in the series, it's really unique and memorable.

Also, as a kid, Stage 4 was pretty much the end of the game for me, as Stage 5 was just too hard for young me. I played the first four stages a lot back then, they bring back good memories

Kirameki, Bunny Fur, and Oni

Which of the 3 is your favorite?

We got both a randomizer mod and a 60 fps/wide screen mod for Mystical Ninja, but is there any attempts at more mods?

While Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was my Introduction to the Goemon Series and the bigger Japanese Culture, Super Mario World was the first I have ever played when I was 3-years old! Pokemon Sun was the first Pokemon game I have ever played when I was 7-years old! Doodle Champion Island Games introduced me to Indie style games and PC Games. Final Fantasy IV made me change my vision on what Video Games can be! Minecraft was my first 3D title for me before Super Mario 64!

https://youtu.be/1On7gSmUuvk?is=lsNA1XC_FUkUMplW

I have been obsessed with the Mr. Goemon arcade game for years, grinding the high score on the Arcade Archives release. Any other fans? Any tips? I know most of the secret item placements

I used LLMs to help create a fan translation of Ganbare Goemon: Kurunara Koi! Ayashige Ikka no Kuroi Kage

If anyone is interested the patch can be found here: https://github.com/Dst0rtr/goemon-kuru-nara-koi-en

https://buyee.jp/paypayfleamarket/item/d1235817600?conversionType=crosssearch

They must be near Mint Condition copies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTGvN72EQmQ
Just posted this little 5 minute video about Shikoku Island. If you enjoyed it, I also have a video concerning stage 1, a LOM review, as well as a complete live stream of LOM on my 83chrisaaron YouTube channel.

I'm a big fan of Goemon game series, since I was a child, I played the snes and N64 titles in the 90's, I found and bought them, one by one in a flea market in Barcelona, loong time ago.

It's was hard to find Japanese games in Barcelona in the 90's.

But I'm also a big fan of Evangelion.

A few days ago I was watching an episode, and suddenly I recognise a familiar voice. 🤭

What do you think folks?

minute 0.20

Maybe Ebisumaru has a dark side?

Released today, from the composer of PARADISE KILLER.

The quality and effort cannot be understated - comes from someone who truly loves the source material.

Showcase live now. Pray for peak.

This is by far my favorite Video Game OST of all time!

I saw this video once where someone took the I am Impact sequence from mystical ninja, and put lyrics on the screen for what it sounded like in English. Some highlights I remember were “hey man, kicking a mad gay YO!” And “Lick a toad, hashish”

This was years ago and I haven’t ever been able to locate it since but it was so good. If anyone has an idea of the video I’m talking about, please share it with me!!

I'm busy chiseling away at my native port of Mystical Ninja (SNES) and continue to find odd idiosyncrasies with the games code that I'd like to share and document.

1: Ghostly fog bug
The fog that appears in stage 1 is a neat effect, however it is bugged in the original game. There is meant to be an additional "cloud" at the top of the graphic, but it gets cut off. Not only that, but it only gets partially cut off, leaving one line of pixels at the top of the screen. What's more, it doesn't animate, and it isn't locked into position, so it moves with you across the stage, unlike the rest of the fog effect

2. Jump Probing
In the original game, you can jump over solid collision tiles. Buying sandals allows you to jump farther, over up to 2 tiles. You can have 0, 1, or 2 pairs of sandals. For simplicity, I will call these 1, 2, and 3 pairs, as this is how it appears graphically in-game. Depending on your play style, you may end up preferring having 2 pairs of sandals over 3. Here's why:

When wearing extra sandals, the normal check for jumping over collision is replaced by 4 probes. These probes will determine if you clear the collision or not. And if not, you will jump in place, or collide with the nearest collision tile.

Things get more complicated when jumping diagonally though. Depending on the position and surrounding collision, you cant clear certain jumps you otherwise could with 1 extra pair of sandals. Below are images of the port that make these probes visible:

This makes jumping diagonally with 3 pairs of sandals over level collision feel very inconsistent. Areas where it feels like you should have complete freedom to clear the jump wont work because of the longer probes that come with 3 pairs of sandals. This is true to the original game, its just satisfying to finally see why this happens.

3. Reproducing Bugs
I'm often surprised by how often certain bugs come up in the port that ended up being completely accurate to the original. One example is an extension of the jump probes we just discussed. You can fairly consistently clip into collision tiles thanks to this.

I had thought his was a bug in my port, but no, this is exactly how it works in the original game. I believe it has to do with one of the first probes reacting to the house, causing the later probes to be ignored. Still not confirmed though.

4. Weird stuff I didn't even know was in the original game
This may have been a 'me' thing, but did you know these guys exist in the original game?

They appear in the lowest area of the town after you activate the ghost fog. Approach them and they'll start jumping at you.
Not a bug or anything, but I never went to this area after activating the ghost fog, I went straight to the action stage and fought the boss, ending the fog, and removing these guys. Hopefully I'm not the only one who'll be surprised by this.

Let me know if you enjoy these posts and I'll make more as I continue with my port!

I have uploaded it a few minutes before but I had a coloring mistake so I have reuploaded it. From left to right: Oyuki (from Uchuu Kaizoku for PlayStation), Yae-Chan, Hadzuki (from Gaiden 2) and female Ebisumaru (from NES/Famicom Ganbare Goemon 2)

We're not getting any younger

I've always loved the "Original" mystical ninja game on super Nintendo. I wanted to build a 1:1 source port of the game that allows for modding, QOL features, wide/ultrawidescreen support, and more.

I've been spending the past two days getting character movement down exactly to the pixel how it was on SNES. You pick up on a lot of subtle and weird quirks when you pay such close attention. For example:

1. Holding left will ALWAYS outprioritize holding right (not possible on DPAD, is possible on keyboard). Doesn't matter what order you start holding them in, Left will always win. Same thing happens with up versus down.

2. You can cancel an attack action as soon as the hitbox comes out by walking in any direction (other than the one you're currently facing), but ONLY with a fresh input. You cannot hold (buffer) a movement while attacking and have it work on the first cancellable frame. It will be ignored. You need the input to be "fresh", only after the hitbox comes out.

3. When you walk into tiles (solid objects in the world) from the top or bottom, they will push Goemon horizontally to the closest edge of that tile to make maneuvering around them easier. This doesn't happen when walking into them horizontally, only when walking vertically.

Would love to hear suggestions of the features you'd like to see!

I Know where to find the first one but i can't find the second one! I am doing is going for all of the Achivements on RetroAcheivements.