Youkai Dochuuki/Walkthrough

Shadow Land (known as "Yōkai Dōchūki" in Japan) is a linear platform game divided into five stages. You must progress through every stage, from start to finish, in order to see the end of the game. Along the way, you only have one health meter and one life. If your health meter is drained, and you do not have any restoration items in your inventory, the game will end. You will then be given an opportunity to continue your game at the cost of additional credits.

The greatest challenge present in this game, is its tendency to punish players who stand around in one spot for too long. Punishments for this can include falling frogs, swarming background demons, are appearances of face demons and Hell Wheels that pursue the player until they are defeated, or scrolled off the screen vertically. Hell Wheels are particularly dangerous since they can kill you with one mere touch.

Differences in the PC Engine version

The PC Engine version is graphically very faithful to the arcade game. However, many of the stages have been simplified. A majority of stages are presented only through horizontal scrolling, and completely lack any vertical scrolling. Vertical travel is typically accomplished by dropping through chasms at the bottom of the screen, which will transport the player to another region.

The PC Engine version is considered both easier and harder than the arcade for a couple of reasons. Although the game still punishes you for standing around in one place for too long, the punishment is less severe, as only two face demons will every appear at once, and Hell Wheels are extremely rare and almost never encountered until the very end of the game. The game is harder, however, because there is no option to continue after you die.

Differences in the Famicom version

Compared to the PC Engine version, the Famicom version is much more faithful to the original presentation of each stage, although it is understandably graphically inferior. Particular to the Famicom version is an additional characteristic of the player which is tracked throughout the game, Piety. The player will have opportunities to make certain decisions which can raise or lower his piety. The game then determines the ending based strictly on the final value of the player's Piety as opposed to the usual method.