The Mysterious Murasame Castle/Momosame

'Momosame Castle, and its town, are separated by a dark wilderness. After clearing the town, Takamaru must navigate through the thick forest at dusk, squaring off with the troops of the most heavily defended castle yet. Once he makes it inside, he must navigate through the longest castle that he has encountered so far, with many branching pathways, and a new castle guard that throws bombs at him. Beyond Momosame is Takamaru's ultimate destination: Murasame Castle.'

Part A

 * The first part of Momosame takes place entirely inside the castle town walls. From the start, head west one screen.  You only need to explore the north pathway if you are interested in collecting the triple shot.  Otherwise continue south.
 * Defeat the two Fire Shinobus. The path to the west is a dead-end, but it leads to the valuable Inazuma Lightning technique, so investigate if you want to collect it.  Continue to the screen to the east.
 * From here, you must detonate the land mines and travel south one screen, and then a number of screens to the west. After traveling one screen over to the west, you can collect a white pillbox.  In the next screen over, you must detonate more land mines before proceeding.
 * From here, the west screen is a dead-end that contains the 3-way shot. Head north.  From there, the north screen is a dead-end that simply contains a Tanooki with the fire shot.  Head west.
 * Beware of the Fire Shinobu here and detonate the land mines so you can travel north. The next screen is the last portion of the town.  Proceed west to reach a mountain bridge where you can find an invincibility helmet before moving on to part B.

Part B

 * Part B is long but slightly more straightforward, with only one dead end path. You must move north, and then west again to reach another mountain bridge.
 * From the bridge, continue west, collecting the 3-way shot if you like, and then move south. This screen contains a white pillbox that you should collect if you're missing any health.
 * From this screen, heading south leads to a dead-end where you must contend with a Tengu in order to reach the screen beyond which contains a hidden Tanooki holding the invisibility technique. While it can be helpful, it's probably more trouble than it's worth.  Continue east instead.
 * This darkened forest contains land mines almost every step of the way. You must detonate each one before you can proceed.  You will move south two screens, and west twice more before you exit the forest and reach another mountain bridge.
 * This mountain bridge screen contains both a triple-shot power up and a hidden Tanooki holding the Inazuma Lightning technique. It will be worth your while to find them before moving on to the west.
 * The remainder of the trip contains no branching pathways. You will travel north a few screens before heading east, north, and west to reach the final screen in the stage and the entrance to the castle.

Indoors

 * Like part B of the outside, Momosame Castle is quite big, but generally straight forward, with a limited number of branching paths that usually lead to captured princesses.
 * Start by proceeding north. Defeat the two sword Samurai to open the door above.  Move up, fight another sword Samurai, and head left.  Defeat another two sword Samurai to open the door above where a princess is being held captive.  Above the princess, you can find a helmet.
 * Return to the room above the start, and head right. Pass through the invisible Ninjas room and move up one room.  You'll need to deal with the Master Ninja or get past him to reach the room above.  This is the first porter room.  Deal with them carefully and proceed up the stairs.
 * In the next room, it is likely that the bomb throwing castle guard will show up to prevent you from passing to the right. Deal with him very carefully and continue.  Defeat the single sword Samurai in the room of invisible Ninjas, and move to the room above.
 * In this room, you will find one sword Samurai along with two spear Samurai. Fight them very carefully.  The path to the left leads to the second princess.  You'll need to fight two sword Samurai in the next room, and a spear Samurai in the room beyond to reach her.
 * Return to the room that contained three samurai and prepare to travel up for another porter fight. Deal with them and climb the stairs to a room with two spear Samurai.
 * From this room you can take the north path which leads to another princess, as well as a white pillbox. The left path ultimately leads to the castle Daimyo.  You'll encounter one more bomb throwing castle guard and one more Master Ninja before you reach the porter fight just prior to the fight with the Daimyo.
 * The Pink Castle Daimyo is a power female fight who relies heavily on the shrapnel-expelling bombs that she throws around the room. Not only will she throw these bombs in your direction, but they explode in 8 directions when they land.  The shrapnel is more difficult to avoid then the bomb.  Try to anticipate where the bomb will explode and move slightly one side of the vertical shrapnel.  Focus on your survival first, and attacking the Daimyo second.