Arcus Odyssey/Act 5: The Arrival

Part 1: Sky Castle
New enemies:
 * Demon: Purple humanoids. They have a ranged attack, but will also try to close on you. Best defeated by putting something between you and it so it can't move closer, and dodging its shots while you hack away.
 * Flying sword: They float straight in one direction. Whenever they reach the edge of the map, or are hit by one of your shots, they fly back to in the other direction, at high speed. So don't attack the thing when it's already past you if you're behind it. If you're clever, you can use these things to kill demons by attacking them when a demon's behind them.
 * Dark Lord: Their attacks explode and split in three directions. If your character has a triple shot of some sort, you can beat them easily by attacking them from a diagonal and then moving when they shoot. Since you will be off to the side, you will have time to move out of the way before the thing explodes.

New items:
 * Magical fire ring, near start
 * Lamp of life and medicine of regeneration, on the white walkway.
 * 2 Magical power crystals, up and to the right of the crystal room.
 * Doll of life, on the right, beyond one of the mirrors.
 * Medicine of regeneration, after the second dark lord.
 * Potion of invincibility, up and to the right of second dark lord.
 * Magical fire-ring and magical power crystal, beyond the potion of invincibility. (to the left)

From the start, go up and to the right to get the fire ring. You will find a demon imprisoned inside a cell—he will tell you some interesting things about Casomira's followers, and say that anyone who offers to help you is probably telling the truth.

Now, go back down and go right. You want to take the bottom path first. Follow it to the end to find two allies. Choose one of them—Keyami has an exploding attack that splits in three directions, and Vortek's is a simple straight shot. Either one is a extremely helpful, since enemies here are tough and you really need the firepower. I prefer Keyami.

Now, move onto the upper path. You will find a u-turn that will send you up and to the left, and face to face with a greater dark lord. Your battlefield is confined, there are no walls to bounce arrows off of, and his attacks explode and strike in three directions at once just Keyami's. Keep moving and attack him while his attack is recovering. Be sure to defeat any demons that are nearby before you confront him, or they will fire on the battlefield as well. If you took Keyami, or if your attack has three shots, then you will be able to hit the dark lord while moving past him without having to face him. Don't rely too much on Keyami, though, because the AI isn't very cooperative, and half the time he will be facing the wrong way.

Before he dies, the dark lord tells you about Casomira's magic mirror. It creates false exits. Once you break the mirror, you will be able to tell which exits are real. Moving up and to the right, you will find a mirror, but nothing you do will harm it. Moving right, you will find a walkway of a different color. Detour southward to get a lamp of life. There is also a medicine of regeneration to the north. Go east, and enter a room with a strange crystal formation. Destroy it, and you will be able to destroy the mirrors. Backtrack and get the two you passed, one in the center of the area right after the first dark lord, the second directly above the crystal room.

Go forward, and you will find a mirror blocking the passageway to the northeast. Destroy it, move up the passage, and turn left. Keep going up and to the left until you find another mirror. Take it out, then backtrack. From the previous mirror, just keep heading right (and down, since this is a slanted view) until you find another mirror. Destroy it, claim the doll of life, and challenge the dark lord. If you can catch him on the edge of one of the corners, you might be able to trick him into constantly firing to the side of you and missing. Otherwise, use the same strategy as against the last one.

Continue up and to the right. Take the medicine and potion of invincibility. If you're short on magic, go to the left to get another crystal, otherwise exit up the brown ramp. If the path is a dead end, it's because you didn't destroy all the mirrors. Backtrack and take them out.

Boss battle
Most of this thing's attacks only hit straight in front of it, so you can just sit a bit to the side and fire. You don't want to be too close to the edge of the screen, though, because you will have to dodge to avoid the creature's shockwave attack.

That last fight was only warmup. Now you have to fight Ginoban. He attacks often, in all directions, and is mobile. His frontal is attack is fast but easy to avoid... just avoid being in front of him =P. His spikes move in several directions, but are slower and can be dodged. He also periodically sends out whirlwinds. They cannot be destroyed, but are very slow. Evade them until they dissipate. He also constantly tries to close on you, so keep moving. Circle around—avoiding the front when possible — and keep firing. This is when having Bead's or Diane's multi-directional attacks is handy.

When he falls, take the power-up gem he drops, and move on. Your companion stays behind to stem the horde of monsters.