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 zombies walking towards Tarosuke. Each of them will leave a 200 money bag behind when killed, and a sixth zombie will descend down the steps. To collect the 500 money bag in mid-air, you must jump left from the second step. Four more 500 money bags are suspended in mid-air over a long pool of water inhabited by several water demons, 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 pit of starving souls, collect the 500 money bag embedded in the stone wall and kill the four one-eyed demons. Each of them will leave a 100 money bag behind when killed, and there are two more gray zombies just before another upward staircase. Collect the three 500 money bags above the ground before jumping into the next pool of water. Shoot several ki shots (or a couple of charged up blasts) at the giant frog on the platform in the middle of the water. He will then invite Tarosuke to play the betting game described above. The only difference is that you get eight chances, the betting starts at 1000, and increases by a thousand each time to a maximum of 8000, before the game is closed.

After the gambling game is over, a large headed water demon will rise out of the water. It will leave a 1000 money bag behind when killed, and there is also a smoke demon 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. 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 zombies (which, like the gray variety, will leave a 200 money bag behind when killed), a hunger demon (which will leave a 500 money bag behind when killed), and two frogs (which will each leave a 100 money bag behind when killed). At some point, a bouncing monk will appear on the screen. If you touch him, he will stop to speak with you. He will offer to sell you a special treat for 10,000. These treats are needed to convince Toraji the cat, or Ganto the dog, to join up with you, as they can't be purchased in the shop like in the arcade version. 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. When you land, he will ask that you pay him all the money you have in order to proceed. Even if you say yes, he will still insist on fighting, so make sure you say no (the second choice) to keep your money. The Oni will attack by summoning three of his minions (which look exactly like him, only smaller) and two Yuurei ghosts. Tarosuke will kneel at the statue of Buddha and pray to it, and summon Monmotaro to fight in his place. Momotaro must shoot spirit flames at his enemies, which are automatically attracted to the nearest enemy, whether that is the Oni or something else. Every minion defeated drops a 200 money bag, and every ghost drops 100. After the Oni sustains enough hits, he will drop a 10,000 money tile.

Famicom differences
In the Famicom version, the only major difference in this stage is how the gambling game works. Like the PC-Engine version, you start at 1000, and work your way up to 8000 in steps of one thousand at a time. Additionally, do not forget to press when you reach the boss in order to summon Monmotaro, as he does not come out on his own.