You begin the game by attempting to sneak into the castle of Cagliostro by scaling the rooftops of the ancient building. There will be many pits that you have to jump over. Without a balloon, you will fall to your death if you happen to fall in.
You will face a few different enemies here, ranging from jetpack equipped henchmen, ninja-like stalkers that attack with claws, bats and… cats. For some reason, cats wander about the rooftop, and they can be more of a threat than the humans which attack you because they are so low and difficult to hit.
Attempt to reach and destroy every white briefcase that you encounter. This is your first opportunity to stock up on life saving items. They take three bullets or one sword slice to open.
Occasionally, you will have to leap across huge gaps. They are always preceded by a sloping roof. To make it across these jumps, you must run from the top of the sloped roof to the bottom and build up a lot of speed. Jump at the last second to clear the gap.
Near the end you will encounter two men (who not so coincidentally look like the hooded villians from Rolling Thunder) who fire mortars at you. Run below the first one and attack the second one from behind. When the screen stops scrolling, you've reached the end. Push in front of the door.
You will find yourself on the left end of the third floor hallway. You must run all the way to the staircase found on the right side. As you cross the floor, you will encounter tables which you must leap on or over. Alternatively, you may hold when you press to leap to the upper platforms above.
Enemies are fairly simple here. They include defenseless guards, guards with swords, more ninja types, and more cats. The castle seems to be crawling with cats. The guards with swords hold their swords at an angle that deflects your bullets half of the time.
This time, you will pass doorways which you can push to enter. A majority of the doors won't contain anything, and your character will simply exit the door. If you don't feel that it's safe to exit, you can hold and remain behind the door for as long as you like.
On other occasions, the door will lead to a room. In these rooms, you will find one of two things. Either you will find a person who has something to say to you, or you will find a room full of white briefcases. Destroy every briefcase to collect the items they contain. On this floor, the only person you will encounter is the butler.
Make your way from the right of the hallway back to the left, popping in to explore every door that you come to. If any of your characters have been captured, it's important to search ever room in case you find one of your companions tied up and awaiting rescue.
On the second floor, those ornamental armors aren't so ornamental; some of them come to life and attack you. They hold shields, so you should either fire low, or shoot them from behind. Bats also swoop down to attack.
You will meet a woman who tells you that someone ordered Hulk to kidnap Clarisse. You will also find another room containing briefcases. Break them all to collect more items, including a ruby ring which will help you gain more accurate information from people.
Once again, you must cross the floor from the left side to the right side. As you begin, the shadowy ninja enemies will appear and jump up to greet you. Shoot them away before they have a chance to get close to you.
In the first door that you can explore, you will meet a woman who advises you to wear your goggles (this will cost you the first ruby ring you collected). If you do, you will be able to see the laser traps which trigger the fall of objects from the ceiling to the floor. They appear as little red buttons and are activated when you run past them.
Note that if you use the goggles, and then enter a door which causes the scene to change (i.e. you found a new room), and exit back out to the hallway, the effect of your goggles will be canceled, and you will have to use another pair to see more traps. The good news is, both rooms with white suitcases contain more goggles for you.
Eventually, you will reach the end of the hallway where you must pass through the last door. This will initiate the boss fight.
The boss of the first stage is a man in a tall suit of armor. He marches across the room waving a club. On occasion, he will toss the club. Goemon is not a good choice for this fight, as he will be not be able to compete with the reach of the club. Lupin can hold his own against the night, but it will be difficult to dodge the thrown clubs at the range he must stand to hit the knight. The best choice, by far, is Jigen, who can push the knight against the right side of the room while standing all the way on the left side. At that range, the knight cannot throw his clubs far enough to hit Jigen. Jigen can just remain on the left and fire constantly until the knight is defeated. It will turn out to be Hulk inside the armor, who will inform you that Clarisse has been take by China Kim.
in front of the door.
to leap to the upper platforms above.
