Youkai Dochuuki/Stage 1

Arcade
As soon as you start the stage, eight gray zombies will approach you from the steps. You can actually charge up your ki and release one blast that will kill all eight, but it's just as easy to destroy them one at a time. Collect the 1600 in money that they leave behind and jump up the stairs. Leap on to the clouds that hover and up and down over the water. Tarosuke can swim in the water, but he can't charge ki, and there are water demons floating about, so he's better off on the clouds. The large clouds rotate, and Tarosuke will drift to left if he stands still on one. Jump up to collect the 500 money bag, and continue to hop along the clouds until you reach a stone wall. Between two walls is a pit filled with souls who suffer constant starvation. Tarosuke will suffer a good amount of damage if he falls in, so jump over the pit. A bunch of moths will gather in front of the tree to the right as the path drops down and returns to the left.



Descend down the steps until you see a one-eyed creature appear below a 500 money bag. If you wish to collect the 1000 money bag above it, you'll have to make a running leap off the lowest step. Then follow the path to the right. Frogs may begin to fall from the sky as you approach the next set of steps, where some gray zombies will greet you. Jump up to collect the money bags suspended in mid-air, while you shoot the zombies down and walk onto the pier. Walk to the edge and leap far out into the water to get ahead of the water demon moving back and forth. Jump up to collect the three 500 money bags and then jump up to the next ledge. As small frogs fall from the sky, shoot the large frog to the right. If you shoot him enough, he will grant you access to a gambling mini-game, described to the right. Jump back in to the water, but watch out for a very large headed water demon that pops out of the water. It will give you a 1000 money bag if you defeat it, but it takes a large number of shots, and is best ignored and jumped over. As you approach the steps, a red bird may fly overhead dropping little birds down like bombs. A brown smoke demon will also appear, and a rock will bounce down the steps. Before you climb the steps, you can continue swimming to the right, where you will find a heavily guarded 1000 money bag.

Jump up the steps until you reach the top. If you like, you can explore to the left first, where you'll find a 500 money bag guarded by a single gray zombie. Head back to the right, and a lot of frogs will fall down from the trees. Collect the purses and money bags suspended in mid-air until you reach a split in the path. A ramp will lead down to an alternate path, but there are a large number of enemies and very few money bags, so it is recommended that you stick to the upper path. After you collect two purses and a 500 money bag, a tree demon will materialize in front of you. Faces drop from the tree like fruit and hover toward you, but they can be destroyed with two shots. The tree will produce a 1000 money bag if defeated, but it's actually faster and safer to simply hop on the tree's head and continue past it. Two purses will fall from the sky, followed very quickly by a rock. Jump over the rock, and you will reach a second ramp that connects with the lower path. If you continue running to the right, you will find a 500 money bag at a dead-end guarded by a hopping snake.

As you drop down the ramp, watch out for a rock which will appear just above the steps that lead back to the left. Drop down the steps and prepare to deal with the gray zombies that greet you at the bottom, as well as on the opposite side of the steps as you proceed to the right. More falling rocks will appear, as well as red birds, so proceed with caution until you reach the entrance to the cavern. Depending on how slowly you proceed through this area, face demons may appear to harass you. Once you get inside the cavern, charge up your ki. When it's fully charged, advance to the right until you see two hunger demons, which look like red skeletons. Shoot your ki to destroy them both with one shot and collect the 500 money bags they leave behind. Charge up to destroy one more hunger demon. Then simply drop down off the ledge to collect another 500 money bag on the way down, and shoot the gray zombie across the gap. Drop down again, and walk back to the left. You may have to fend off a moth, or a face demon as you make your way to the end of the platform.

When you land at the bottom of the stage, the red Oni will introduce himself as the boss of the stage, and he will tell you that you must defeat him in order to advance. Tarosuke will then summon his spirit partner Monmotaro, and then kneel before the Buddha statue to the left. Now you are in control of Monmotaro until the end of the battle. Monmotaro can fly to any location within the playfield, but there are few places that are safe. Red demons walk along the floor, and ghosts fill the room from the ceiling. The Oni himself sits on the right side, pounding a club up and down into the ground, which can take away a lot of health if Monmotaro is struck by it. Obviously, you want Monmotaro's spirit flames to strike the Oni, but they will get lured away by the ghosts and demons in the room. The demons can be killed with only a few hits, but the ghosts take a tremendous amount of hits to remove (in the arcade version). For this reason, it is best to lure as many of them away to the left side of the screen, before returning to the right and firing as rapidly and as close to the Oni as you can get so that your flames strike him and no one else. You can also fly up and over the Oni's head and attack from the opposite side. Once defeated, the Oni will drop a 10,000 money tile which Monmotaro can collect before disappearing.

PC Engine
The introductory stage of the game is subtitled Jigoku Iriguchi (lit. "Gateway to Hell"), and begins with five Gray Zako walking towards Tarosuke. Each of them will leave a 200 money bag behind when killed, and there is also a 500 money bag embedded in the stone wall just before a staircase leading upwards. Four more 500 money bags are suspended in mid-air over a long pool of water inhabited by several Mizu, which will also leave 500 money bags behind when killed. Once you have made it to the other side of the pool, jump over the flame pit, collect the 500 money bag embedded in the stone wall and kill the four Hitotsume. Each of them will leave a 100 money bag behind when killed, and there are two more Gray Zako just before another upward staircase. Collect the three 500 money bags embedded in the stone wall before jumping into the next pool of water, then walk up to the Gama Gaeru once you have made it to the cloud platform in the middle - which will ask Tarosuke to bet on whether the dice it is throwing will land on "odds" or "evens". If you guess correctly, your amount of money will be doubled; however, if you guess incorrectly; you will lose half of your money to the Gama Gaeru. After this "mini-game" is over, a Big Mizu will rise out of the water. It will leave a 1000 money bag behind when killed, and there is also a Kao floating around in mid-air (which will leave a 500 money bag behind when killed). Once you have made it to the other side of the pool, a Bird will fly by and drop several bombs (which will each leave a 100 money bag behind when destroyed). Just before the drop into the boss's cave, there are several 200 and 500 money bags suspended in mid-air, along with three Green Zako (which, like the Gray ones, will leave a 200 money bag behind when killed), a Gaki (which will also leave a 500 money bag behind when killed), and two Gaeru (which will each leave a 100 money bag behind when killed). Once Tarosuke has walked off the edge of the platform, he will fall down into the boss's cave. The boss of the first stage is the Red Oni, who will attack by summoning four of his minions (which look exactly like him, only smaller) and two Yuurei. In order to summon Monmotaro, Tarosuke will kneel at the statue of Buddha and pray to it. Momotaro must drop an energy ball on each of the Oni's minions in order to defeat them all - and once he has done so, the Oni will disappear and leave a 100 money bag, a 500 money bag and a 10000 money block behind. Tarosuke will now proceed to the second stage, Kugyō no Michi, (lit. "Path of Penance").