Kagekiyo will travel through ancient Japan, when the provinces were named by the [[wp:Gokishichid%C5%8D|Gokishichidou]] rule. Guide of the map:
*Stages with blue circle are Big Mode stages.
*Stages with green circle are Over Mode stages.
*Stages in yellow are bonus stages.
*Stages in purple are gag stages filled with staff memo everywhere.
*Other stages are standard Small Mode stages.
*Red arrows indicate the shortest path to beat the game.
This walkthrough will be divided into three parts:
*Part A: From {{nihongo|Hell|地獄}} to {{nihongo|Yamashiro|山城}}.
*Part B: From {{nihongo|Kyoto|京都}} to {{nihongo|Suruga|駿河}}.
*Part C: From {{nihongo|Musashi|武蔵}} to {{nihongo|Kamakura|鎌倉}}.
Kagekiyo will reach next stage by entering a torii in the end of stage. Sometimes a stage may have more than one toriis.
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==Bonus Stage (Small Mode)==
[[File:GT Bonus Stage.png|frame|left|Aim for the useful orbs!]]
Some of the stages are bonus stages without enemies. You will see Amaterasu the Sun Goddess flying around at the top of the screen, raining powerup orbs. Collect as many as you can before the music fades out. Part of the ground will be covered with [[wp:Iris sibirica|iris flowers]], but collecting them has no effect. You will proceed to next stage afterwards.
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==Gag Stage (Small Mode)==
[[File:GT Gag Stage.png|frame|right|Staff: "Welcome to the gag stage."]]
Some stages are filled with staff talks. You will reveal these talks at fixed location, but with random talking people.
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==The Pit (黄泉, Over Mode)==
[[File:GT Yomi Stage A.png|frame|left|Andabaa: "Sometimes money can solve hellish problems."]]
[[File:GT Yomi Stage B.png|frame|right|Enma: "Choose your fate..."]]
Anytime Kagekiyo falls off a Small Mode stage, he will have to clear this stage, filled with skull dogs, skull spiders, and Jigokusha generators, with 10-22 life left. In the middle of stage there is sometimes a blood pool, where Kagekiyo can escape to Kyoto with all Zeni lost, if he has at least 70. At the end of stage, Emma-Ou will show Kagekiyo with eight boxes. By opening a box with "生", Kagekiyo will return to the stage he has fallen, or Kyoto, take the earlier one. If he hits a box of "死", he is dead. There are only four chances to resurrect in this method, and the fifth time Kagekiyo will not be able to escape from death.
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==Timeout==
If Kagekiyo remains upon any Small Mode stage for too long, Yoritomo will rise up in the background and try to flatten him with a shaku which can cause significant damage. If he wastes too much time on any Big Mode or Over Mode stage however, birds will slowly appear on the screen and start flying around above him.
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==General Tips==
*You cannot jump from a falling platform.
*Do not waste your sword points. Only attack hard enemies when necessary or with a scroll.
*Always collect some money in order to buy swords and health recovery, or even an escape from the Pit.
*Not-opened boxes and enemy generators can be used as jumping platforms.
*In the bonus stage, aim for sword points first.
This game's score display (along with the Ken and Zeni counters in the bottom left corner) uses Kanji numerals instead of Arabic ones, which were later reused in [[Mirai Ninja]] for the player's life meter. For those of you who cannot read them, here is what they mean: 〇 = 0, 一 = 1, 二 = 2, 三 = 3, 四 = 4, 五 = 5, 六 = 6, 七 = 7, 八 = 8, 九 = 9.
For those of you wondering where Emma-O and Amaterasu appear in this game, here is the answer: Emma-O, God of the Underworld, appears at the end of the "Pit Stage" that you end up in if you fall down a hole, and he will decide Kagekiyo's fate when one of the eight Tsuzura surrounding him is opened. The result of this action is usually an instant death, but he will sometimes choose to transport Kagekiyo to the next stage instead.
Sun Goddess Amaterasu, however, appears in the "Bonus Stages" that can be reached by travelling to certain locations on the map. She flies around at the top of the screen dropping powerups on Kagekiyo, who has to collect as many as he can before the music ends (especially the brown ones that can only be found on these stages as they will increase his energy capacity when collected).
There is a safer way of escaping the "Pit Stage" if you have the maximum amount of Zeni (99) - by walking into the pool of lava, you will be transported to the stage where the creepy old woman seen at the start of the game speaks for the second time. She will also have a different message for you - and because the first cobweb in the "Pit Stage" never stops generating Skull Spiders until it is destroyed, it is a good way to get the extra Zeni required to escape.
==Stage 1 (Small Mode)==
Welcome to the game. Once Kagekiyo has fallen to the ground after materializing in mid-air, start running to the right and jump up to get the Makimono. There will be three small "Kanameishi" bouncing up behind you, so you can either jump onto one of them for a free ride or just stand in a place where they won't land on you. After this, you will encounter a couple of webs generating Skull Spiders. These webs will disappear once they have generated three spiders each (but if you can destroy them before they have done so, they will leave an Inochi behind), and the spiders themselves will each leave a Zeni behind when killed. There will also be another Makimono above you, so jump up to get it after you have killed all the Skull Spiders. Soon after, there will be three Yari Gaikotsu (which will each leave a Zeni behind when killed), and three more Skull Spider-generating webs (these ones are low enough to be destroyed before they have generated their required quota of spiders). In order to reach the third and final Makimono on this stage, you will have to jump onto the big "Kanameishi" that is moving up and down, then make a big leap from the top of its height to destroy another Skull Spider-generating web. Just before the torii, there is a Gaki Generator which will disappear after it has spawned ten of them - but like the webs, it will leave an Inochi behind if you can destroy it before it has spawned its required quota of Gaki. Once Kagekiyo has entered the torii, he will be transported to the second stage.
==Stage 2 (Big Mode)==
Once Kagekiyo has rematerialized in his larger form, start walking to the right and hold your sword high in the air by pushing the joystick into the "north-east" position. This way, you can press the Attack Button to bring it down quickly on each of the Hitodama you will encounter on the way to the torii. Just before the end of this stage, there is a Gaikotsu who will challenge Kagekiyo to a swordfight. Once you have hit him enough times to make him collapse, waited until his parts have disappeared and collected the Inochi he has left behind, you can continue onward to the torii which, when entered, will transport you to the third stage.
==Stage 3 (Overhead Mode)==
This is the first stage to feature the Map of Japan's Imperial Regalia before it starts. Once Kagekiyo has rematerialized (in his smaller form again), move down and right to get the Makimono. There will be several Honeinu blocking your path here, so you will have to destroy them all before you can pass through. After this, there is a Tsuzura which will increase your amount of Zeni by 10 when opened, along with another Makimono and two whirlpools with Namazu spawning from them. Like the webs and Gaki Generators before them, they will leave an Inochi behind if you can destroy them before they have generated its required quota of Namazu. The Namazu themselves, like the Skull Spiders before them, will each leave a Zeni behind when killed. You will now encounter a Daidokuraku with several smaller Dokuraku attached to it; if you can destroy it, it will leave a Zeni behind. Soon after this, you will come across a bog with Jigokusha spawning from it (like the Namazu-spawning whirlpools you encountered earlier, the bog will leave an Inochi behind if you destroy it before it has spawned its required quota and the Jigokusha themselves will each leave a Zeni behind when killed), along with two Tsuzura which will each increase your amount of Zeni by 5 when opened. Three torii await you at the end of this stage; the top and middle ones will transport you directly to the fourth stage, but the bottom one will transport you to a "Bonus Stage" just before it.
Some of the stages are bonus stages without enemies. You will see Amaterasu the Sun Goddess flying around at the top of the screen, raining powerup orbs. Collect as many as you can before the music fades out. Part of the ground will be covered with iris flowers, but collecting them has no effect. You will proceed to next stage afterwards.
Andabaa: "Sometimes money can solve hellish problems."Enma: "Choose your fate..."
Anytime Kagekiyo falls off a Small Mode stage, he will have to clear this stage, filled with skull dogs, skull spiders, and Jigokusha generators, with 10-22 life left. In the middle of stage there is sometimes a blood pool, where Kagekiyo can escape to Kyoto with all Zeni lost, if he has at least 70. At the end of stage, Emma-Ou will show Kagekiyo with eight boxes. By opening a box with "生", Kagekiyo will return to the stage he has fallen, or Kyoto, take the earlier one. If he hits a box of "死", he is dead. There are only four chances to resurrect in this method, and the fifth time Kagekiyo will not be able to escape from death.
If Kagekiyo remains upon any Small Mode stage for too long, Yoritomo will rise up in the background and try to flatten him with a shaku which can cause significant damage. If he wastes too much time on any Big Mode or Over Mode stage however, birds will slowly appear on the screen and start flying around above him.
