Youkai Dochuuki/Stage 4

Arcade
In order to complete this stage, you must locate and defeat three mini-bosses who guard the three treasures. Only after you collect the three treasures will you be able to go to the guardian of the River Styx and ask for her permission to cross. There are many branching paths that lead to the various locations in this stage. One word of warning: If you thought the Hell Wheels were difficult to deal with in the previous stage, even more will appear in this one. The best strategy is to run forward as much as you can without ever stopping to turn around unless you absolutely have to. As soon as the stage begins, you will be attacked by a pair of single horned green demons who try to jump and cling on you and drain away your money. Shoot at them as soon as possible. You will be right outside of another shop. If you were cursed by Pandora's Box and turned into an old man, you'll have to spend 10,000 on the large ? to break the curse. Spend as much money as you can, as there's no reason to save any of it. From the shop head to the right, and enter the cavern. Shoot any zombies or frogs that get in your way, and watch out for a pair of hunger demons near the end. Jump over a set of rocks that have many one-eyed demons bouncing around. Continue right until you see a set of stairs. A ramp below the stairs leads down. Follow the ramp and the steps to the bottom. A wind demon is likely to be hanging out in the area, blowing wind at intruders. Run to the right, and watch out for more clinging demons, along with a red demon with a bow and arrow. Eventually you will reach another staircase. Run past it and stay on the lower path. The scenery will change to a forest area. At this time, you should turn around and try to deal with any Hell Wheels that might be giving chase. When the area is clear, run to the right until you reach a large tree. This is the first mini-boss, the demon of trees. The demon is mostly invulnerable to all of your attacks. On occasion, the tree will sprout a tentacle that will spit a seed at you. The seed will bounce around the screen while you try to attack. The tentacle is the only vulnerable point on the tree. Charge up your ki and wait for the tentacle to appear. Then shoot at the tentacle before it disappears, and before you get hit with a seed and lose your charge. After you hit the tentacle enough times, the demon will be defeated. It will leave the treasure of wood behind for you to collect.
 * Treasure of Wood

From the tree, run back to the left and return to the set of stairs that you passed along the way. Climb up those steps and the ramp to the level above, and continue climbing up the next set of steps and ramp that you find. From here, it is a very short run to the right until you reach a set of steps to a ledge. Unfortunately, you some Hell Wheels may have appeared in that time. Turn around and try to remove them before you approach the ledge. As you walk across the ledge, you will see fire whirling around something to the right over the lava. This is the second mini-boss, the demon of fire. This is the easiest mini-boss, as he remains stationary, only choosing to defend himself with the flames that circle him. The good news is that he is always vulnerable as long as he is visible, and you don't have to stand at the end of the ledge to hit him. If you get pushed back too far to the left, you may have to walk forward again just to make him appear. Charge up several blasts of ki and shoot at him until he is defeated. The treasure of fire will appear at the end of the ledge.
 * Treasure of Fire

Some of the paths on the stage are just dead-ends. On the way to the third treasure, you may discover a path that is actually a trap. From the demon of fire, return to the left, and drop down both sets of stairs and ramps until you are on the very bottom. Then continue running to the left until you reach the original staircase that brought you down here. Climb up those steps, and continue to climb up the next set of steps to the level above. You will see yet another set of steps, but if you don't wish to waster you time, run to the right. If you are curious, follow the stairs up to the highest level and run to the left. You will reach a shiny and reflective platforms that leads to a pond with what appears to be a goddess bathing in it, but her back is turned to you. If you approach her, she will turn around and reveal her true frightening form. To make matters worse, coils of poo will begin to fall from the sky, making it more difficult to get away. You clearly won't earn a heart by visiting here, so don't bother.
 * The false goddess

Instead of bothering with the false goddess, run to the right rather than climbing the third staircase. Another clinging demon and a bow and arrow demon will try to stop you. After passing under a gate, you will reach another set of stairs. Climb these, and if any Hell Wheels appear, try your best to get them to your left. At the top, run to the right. A large flame breathing Buddhist will appear. If you have plenty of health, you can try to simply leap over him, but there will be more behind him, and health is precious at this point. If you feel you must fight the Buddhist, be sure to defeat any Hell Wheels around you first. Two hunger demons and a rock appear between the first Buddhist and the second. Jump up the sets of stairs as you begin crossing a stone bridge. A third Buddhist will appear after a gap. Beyond this bridge is a region of spiked floors with hovering clouds. Landing on the spikes will hurt Tarosuke, so stick to the clouds, and small ledges of clear land. At this point, it's very likely that you are being chased by a gang of Face Demons and Hell Wheels. Don't try to turn around and fight them all, just do your best to leap from each cloud and safe ledge to the next. At some points, you must wait for a cloud to rise in order to safely jump. If you can use one of the following enemies as a means of transport to save time, do it. When you reach the very edge, you will see a 500 money bag out in the air. You can leap to collect it, or simply fall down to the level below. You will find a small pile of rocks with some talismans on it. Shoot it once to break the talismans, which will unleash the third and final mini-boss, the demon of stone. This demon is actually a spirit who disperses the rocks all around it, and then draws them back into itself to recreate the pile. Obviously, it is only vulnerable to attack when the stones are dispersed. Charge up your ki and wait for the demon to launch the rocks. Then shoot your ki at the exposed spirit. Obviously you are safer if you stand back as far to the right as possible. Keep shooting fully charged blasts of ki at the spirit until it is defeated. Then it will leave the treasure of stone behind.
 * Treasure of Stone

Now that you have all three treasures, it's time to head to the river and ask the guardian for permission to cross. The point of saving the demon of stone for last, is that the exit from his location deposits you right on the path to the river. From the demon, head to the left and fall down the next gap. You will take a shortcut all the way to the branch that leads to the river. Once you arrive, immediately run to the right. You will encounter a rather large variety of enemies as you make your way to the river. Ignore as many as you can, and only stop to deal with the ones that you must. Eventually, you will reach the three eyed-guardian of the river, who is accompanied by a rather large flock of ravens. She will ask to be shown the three treasures. If you don't have them, she will tell you to go find them. If you then attack her, she will sic her ravens on you. It is actually possible to cheat and jump over the guardian using the enemies as a means to get higher into the sky than you normally could, but this is difficult to pull off. Assuming you have all three treasures, she will grant you access to the river. You will cross to the other side, and when you arrive, you will find a red Oni seated at a table. He will invite you into the fifth world where you fate will be decided. He will indicate that your performance will have an impact on getting into heaven, and then he will wish you good luck.
 * The River Styx

PC Engine
The fourth stage of the game is subtitled Sabaki no Tani (lit. "Valley of Judgment"), and begins with three Green Zako walking towards Tarosuke just before the fourth instance of Zakka's shop. If Tarosuke has been turned into an old man by the box given to him by the lead mermaid on the previous stage, his walking speed will be severely hindered and he will take more damage when he gets hit - so if you have enough money left to buy any of the remaining items, you will once again want to consider the Yokai Jiru and Jigoku Don if you are running low on energy, along with the Tennyo no Unko in order to restore Tarosuke to his original form.

Once you have left the shop, continue to the right and jump onto the cloud platform moving up and down. There are two Gaki and four Hitotsume to contend with once you have made it to the other side, along with a range of spike-tipped mountains. You will have to jump onto a series of cloud platforms in turn in order to bypass them, and there is another Kao floating around in mid-air on the other side. Shortly after, you will come across several Iwa arranged in a triangular pile on a campfire - and when the flame beneath them ignites, they will throw themselves around the screen and return to their original position once the flame has gone out. The flame takes quite a few hits to defeat, and will leave a crystal ball with a stone in it behind when extinguished. Once Tarosuke has collected this crystal ball, he will proceed to the second part of the stage.

The second part of the stage begins with several Brown Babito flapping around in mid-air (which will each leave a 100 money bag behind when killed) and a Jigokuwa blocking your path. He spits fire at Tarosuke and takes several hits to defeat, but will leave another crystal ball behind when killed. This one has a flame in it, and once Tarosuke has collected it, he will proceed to the third part of the stage.

The third part of the stage begins with two Kumo floating around in mid-air and a Jumoku blocking your path. He spews Green Babito at Tarosuke and takes quite a lot of hits to defeat, but will leave a third crystal ball behind when finally killed. This one has a tree in it, and once Tarosuke has collected it, he will be taken back to the second part of the stage - but this time, you will have to jump onto the cloud platform moving up and down and walk off the next platform once you have made it to the other side in order to proceed to the fourth part of the stage.

The fourth part of the stage begins with two Kao floating around in mid-air, and several cloud platforms moving up and down. You will have to jump onto each of them in turn in order to cross the pits beneath them, and you will be taken back to the first part of the stage once you have made it over the last one. This time, you must walk off the edge of the platform just after Zakka's (closed) shop in order to proceed to the fifth and final part of the stage - which begins with two more Kao floating around in mid-air, and two Gaikotsu patrolling a stone floor. A Bird will also fly over from the left and drop several bombs before Tarosuke meets up with the Mountain Hag, who will not let him bypass her if he does not have all three crystal balls. Just before the end of the stage, there is a short pool of water; the Fake Tennyo will rise up from its depths and start chasing Tarosuke once he is halfway over. Don't let her catch up with you, because the Fire Demon on the other side will let you proceed to the fifth and final stage of the game, Rinnekai (lit. "Land of Transmigration").