Upon successfully entering Astaroth's chamber with the Shield/Cross, you will see Astaroth, standing in front of his throne with Princess PrinPrin held captive at his side. She will run off to the right and give you room to battle Astaroth and the fight will begin.
Astaroth has two faces; the one on his head and the one present on his abdomen. They are both capable of spitting balls of fire at you. You must avoid getting hit by these fireballs. Those shot from the lower face are easier to jump over, while those shot from his head require greater distance from Astaroth. However, since the Shield/Cross is a short range weapon, you must typically get close enough to Astaroth to be hit by these higher fireballs. How to hit Astaroth? Jump, and JUST as you are about to land, fire. These shots will always hit him if you are close enough.
You must fire ten Shields/Crosses at the lower face in his abdomen to completely defeat Astaroth. Your shots will not hit him if you are standing on the ground, or at the peak of your jump, and must obviously be fired at some height in between. If you connect with ten shots before being killed, the game will advance
If you defeat Astaroth after one play through of the game, you will receive the message shown to the left. You will be sent back to the first Stage and are required to play through it once more in order to receive the true ending where you rescue Princess PrinPrin and restore peace to your kingdom. The level of difficulty will increase with enemies moving just a little faster, and firing bullets at you with greater frequency. Truly, only great players are capable of reaching Astaroth the first time, but only the best will be able to see the ending to the game.
The fight against Astaroth is fairly faithful and accurate to the arcade version. You may find that the range of space where Astaroth is vulnerable to your attack is a little more forgiving, but also slightly higher than you would expect (roughly between the bottom pair of eyes and Astaroth's beard). True to the arcade, you must also finish this version twice in order to see the true ending. Thus you will see the message presented on the right (with one more spelling mistake compared to the arcade) upon beating Astaroth the first time.
