Romancia/Part I: Rescue Princess Serena

Reminder: This walkthrough is specific to the Famicom version of the game. While some portions of it may apply to the MSX and NEC computer versions, not all of it will be the same.

Reaching Romancia

• You start out in an empty field. As you walk to the right, you will chance upon a hut with two sages inside. Speak to each one. One will restore your life up to 20 points, while the other will provide you with 15 Attack Points. Proceed into the cave on the right.

The forest

• You will enter a forest. Two particular types of enemies will attack you: a yellow hopping bug, and a pink creature which slithers on the ground. If you proceed a little further to the right, you will also encounter a blue flying insect which is more difficult to fight against than the other two creatures. If you proceed even further, you will reach a cave, but without taking the proper step, you will be unable to enter it. Instead, you must remain on the left side of the forest (to avoid encountering the blue insects) and continue to fight the yellow and pink enemies until enough are defeated, and a blue orb descends from the top of the screen. Once you collect this orb, you will be permitted to enter the cave. Note that as you kill creatures, some may deposit a heart or sword on the screen. Collecting these will restore your Life and Attack Points by two. But if you strike them with your sword, they will vanish.
• After collecting the orb, the forest creatures will no longer appear. Approach the cave, and fight your way past two new kinds of enemies, an orange creature with a shell, and a green flying creature. You are not required to defeat a certain number of these, you must merely fight them to avoid taking damage as you pass through the cave. Keep an eye out for any hearts or swords that they drop.

The first boss

• On the other side of the cave, you will reach a body of water with some creatures leaping about. You must reach the right side of the lake, and you can safely avoid these creatures by leaping on the clouds. If you happen to fall in the water, don't panic; it's possible to get out by leaping from the right side of the lake, but you may need to get hit in the process to get enough height to escape.
• Once beyond the water, proceed to the right, and you will encounter a boss fight. A giant lizard with spikes on its back will wander back and forth in front of the entrance to Romancia kingdom. As it wanders about, it will shoot spikes out of its back, which fly around and fall to the ground. You can actually attack the spikes, and you may get hearts or swords from them. This is where you want to spend your attack points. To avoid getting hit, stay back to the left, and hold to fire sword projectiles at the boss. Eventually it will take enough damage and be defeated. At that time, a second blue orb will descend from the sky and allow you to proceed inside Romancia.

Performing good deeds

• Romancia is not a happy kingdom at the moment. The king bemoans that the princess has been kidnapped and begs you to rescue her. He will also restore your Attack Points. As you walk throughout town, you will encounter several instances of townsfolk who have been afflicted with a terrible disease. You should take time, enter every building and speak with everyone that you encounter, more than once, with one exception. When you encounter a man on a cloud who informs you that you must pay him with your life in order to ascend, he will kill you if you speak with him a second time. Additionally, when you enter a house with two pools of water, don't step in the water for now as it will hurt you. As you walk through town, make a note of everyone who mentions illness, as you'll want to remember where they are.

The water gate

• Eventually, you will have to cross a body of water. At the bottom of the water are three pegs. If you push the pegs down in the wrong order, they will pop back up. Push them in the right order, and they will remain down. The correct order is: right, left, middle. After pushing them down so that they stay, exit the water to the right and visit the cave entrance nearby. The man inside will inform you that the water gate is unlocked and you should go visit the fairy. Now you can return to the water and pass through the white wall on the left. However, it will not be apparent that there's anything to do in this enclosure. However, if you explore the left portion of the cave, and try pushing , you will eventually stumble on the entrance to an underground lair where the fairly lives.
• Inside this lair is a maze-like cavern that you must progress through. As you do, a variety of blue creature will attack you. Use your sword to defend yourself as you move right across the bottom of the lair. Eventually, you will be able to jump up to a higher level and proceed back to the left. Jump over the gap as you make your way to the fairy in the small pond to the left. Hop in the water and push up to speak with her. She will provide you with the Magic Key. Now make your way back to the right. Approach the wall in front of the water. You can pass through this wall to the right (although it is one-way, you can't go back through it to the left) and swim up the water to return to the ground above.
• Once back above ground, continue exploring to the right. You will notice two particularly tall trees along the way. If you push while standing between them, you will enter a different area. It should be bright and peaceful if you visited the fairy. Otherwise, it will be dark and gloomy. As long as it's bright, head to the right until you see a fountain. Jump into the fountain and you will collect a vial of Spring Water. It's useless for now. A short distance to the right is a particularly big tree. Stand in front of it and push . This will net you the Fruit of the Life Tree. This magic item is incredibly important, as it brings you back from death five times! Return to Romancia.

Collect Medicine from the church

• Back outside, continue right. You will find a hospital, the entrance to a graveyard, and a church, all before the man on the cloud who offers to kill you, just before a bridge. If you enter the church, the man inside will provide you with a vial of Medicine. If you happen to use it, you will regain 30 Life Points, but don't do this just yet. There are several people who need it more than you. From left to right, they are:
  1. The house to the left of the man standing next to the well. Climb up to the second floor and give the medicine to the sick patient in bed. You will earn one Karma Ring.
  2. The brick building two doors to the right of the well. Give the medicine to the man, and he will claim that he thinks you're the chosen one. One more Karma Ring.
  3. In the building to the right of that, a mother is asking for medicine for her daughter. Give it to her for another Karma Ring, and then speak to her once more, and she'll give you 30 Gold Coins!
  4. In the hospital to the left of the graveyard entrance. Climb up to the second floor and give the medicine to the sick patient in bed. You will earn another Karma Ring.

Curing the well

• Obviously, you must return to the church each time you use up a vial of Medicine, to get another one. And don't think he has an unlimited quantity, he will run out eventually. After you cure these four people, the man running the hospital will inform you that disease has been cured from the land, and he will offer to restore your life points at a rate of 1 Life Point per Gold Coin. However, you're not yet done with the Medicine, as there is one more task for you to perform. Go back to the church to get another vial, and head left to the well. Push in front of the well when the Medicine is selected in your inventory. You will succeed in cleaning the water and earn a fifth Karma Ring. Talk to the man standing to the left of the well and he will thank you. Talk to him a second time, and he will provide you with the Rope as a reward.
  • Those 30 Gold Coins will likely burn a hole in your pocket, and there aren't a lot of good uses for Gold in this game. One clear use is to pay to increase your defense points. In the house to the right of the well is a man who will raise your Defense Points by one for every two gold that you pay. However, there is a secret to this house. If you perform a double jump against the right wall, you can find a secret path through the wall. The game is a little glitchy, and may require you drop back down to make the screen scroll right, and then double jump back up so you can actually explore the area. But if you succeed, you will find another man in the same building who will raise your Defense Points at half price—only one Gold Coin per point. Another use for Gold is to pay for health at the hospital, one coin per Life Point, but you should first utilize the hot tubs to reach 15 Life Points before you pay for any more.

Reaching heaven

• Most of the town will remain the same, but some things will change for the better. For one, the house which contained two pools of water is now actually beneficial. Wade into the water, and you can restore up to 15 Life Points. Remember this as you will want to visit it often. Head back to the church with the Rope in hand and talk to the priest. He'll take the Rope from you, and inform you that they are now able to ring the bell. Head upstairs to investigate the bell for yourself. If you jump up into the bell, it will ring, and you will obtain the Rainbow Rod whose use will become apparent later. Climb back down and talk to the priest. He will give you more Medicine. This one is yours to keep. Talk to him once more, and he will permit you to take the Cross outside. To do this, you must walk to the structure to the left of the church and push up so that you climb to the top. Eventually, you will reach the Cross at the top and collect it into your inventory.

Explore the graveyard

• Return to the building of the second man in need of Medicine, the one who believes you are the chosen one. Provided you have the Cross in your inventory, he will give you a Robe. Next, head back to the right and visit the graveyard. Inside, head to the left until you reach the door. Use the Magic Key that the fairy gave you to open the door. You will see six birds appear and fly around the stage. Chase one of the birds and touch it until you are given a Soul. Souls are necessary to return to Earth from heaven, and you may only collect six of them, so you must use them sparingly.
• By now, your inventory should consist of the following items: Spring Water, Fruit of the Life Tree, Medicine, a Cross, a Robe, a Soul, and the Rainbow Rod. You should also have five Karma Rings. If you've followed the walkthrough to this extent, you are ready to enter heaven. Approach the man on the cloud and speak with him, not once, but twice. As promised, he will kill you. However, since you have possession of the Robe and 5 Karma Rings, your soul will survive the assault, and you will ascend to heaven. What happens next is a little odd. As you rise through the clouds, a sun god and wind god will appear on the screen, spin around a bit and fire projectiles at you. Do you best to avoid them all until you begin to see other angels. The other angels will neither harm you or help you, they will just accompany you to heaven.

Heaven

• You will see the gates of heaven, and be permitted to enter by pushing . Inside, you will first see two men standing in a hall. To the right of them are seven men resting on clouds. Most of them will be unhelpful and uninformative, asking you to leave them alone while they meditate. However, two men will provide you with some assistance. The right most cloud-bound man will bless your Spring Water and enable it to lift curses. The man next to him will provide you with 10 Magic Points, and direct you to use them wisely. Since this is all you can do for now, it is time to return to Earth. The key to doing this is to use the Soul you collected. If you do so, you will revert from an angel to a knight once again. Step back outside the gates of heaven and drop down to the floor below. You will float back down to Earth.

Visit Azoruba

• Now that your Spring Water has been blessed, and you've been granted Magic Points, it's time to visit the neighboring kingdom of Azoruba. In order to get there, you need the Rainbow Rod. Head right to cross the bridge to the right of the man on the cloud. When you enter the bridge region, you will see fish leaping out of the water to take a bite out of you. Attack them if you wish, or simply dodge them. Eventually, birds will swoop down from the sky to attack you as well. You will reach a gap in the bridge. The man standing to the right of the gap tells you to bring the Rainbow Rod. Select it in your inventory and talk to him again, and he will create a platform for you to walk across. The man on the other side is much more accommodating—he will raise the platform for you with no item requirement.

Use Spring Water in Azoruba

• You should now be in Azoruba, which appears to be plagued by perpetual night. Before you enter the town, it is important to be aware of one thing: all of the enemies that you encounter in Azoruba are actually innocent cursed citizens. Killing anything in Azoruba will cause you to lose Karma. Losing Karma can prevent you from entering heaven, and that will assuredly ruin the game for you, as you will be unable to complete it. But you now have the tools to raise your Karma while in Azoruba—the blessed Spring Water. For the cost of one Magic Point, you can use the Spring Water whenever you see enemies in your way, and the enemies will turn into angels. Every time you do this, you will earn one Karma Ring (that is, one ring per Spring Water use, not one ring per angel created.) Therefore, the most you can raise your Karma at this point is by ten, for a total of 15 rings.
• You may be tempted to explore the buildings in Azoruba, and you are certainly welcome to, but you should not explore beyond the fourth door for the time being. If you are playing the English translated version of the Famicom game, be aware that the patch authors modified to game somewhat. They restored some programming in the game that was ultimately left in, but disabled for the final release of the game. You will notice that the inhabitants of the first three homes begin their speeches with "Cheater". This is to inform you that communication with them creates possibilities not available in original game. The third house in particular will help you by providing you with extra souls if you happen to use up the six alloted to you by the game. The fourth house simply contains a pit. It leads to a dark unlit maze which you should avoid for now.
  • Beyond the fourth house, you will see a fairy in a small cave, but to reach it, you must travel far to the right, and then double back to the left. This fairy will bless your Cross so that you can use it as a magical weapon. It will clear the screen of enemies. You won't lose Karma if you kill enemies this way, but you won't gain any either. This step is completely optional, and not recommended at this time.
• After you get your Karma up to 15 rings, it's time to take another trip back to heaven. Be sure to visit the graveyard first and collect a soul before you talk to the man on the cloud, or you will be stuck in heaven! Talk to the cloud man, and ascend to heaven, watching out once again for the sun and wind gods. Back up in heaven, you won't get much more assistance than last time. However, the man who provided you with ten Magic Points will now give you fifteen. Then man to the right of him will also provide you with a new item, the Lamp. Now you will be able to see through the darkness of the underground mazes. Once you have the Lamp and the Magic Points, you are ready to head back to earth and return to Azoruba. Don't forget to collect another Rainbow Rod by ringing the church bell.

Find the correct scroll

• You have two goals for your second venture in to Azoruba: raise your Karma Rings up to 30, and collect a Scroll. Raising your Karma Rings should be easy since you have 15 Magic Points to spend using the blessed Spring Water to break the curse on the creatures. Doing this 15 times will increase the 15 Karma Rings you currently have to 30. Getting the Scroll is a different matter. Don't use up all the Spring Water outside though, you'll want to bring some of it with you when you get the Scroll.Head to the fourth house which contained the pit, and drop down. You should be able to see your way around thanks to the Lamp.
• In this underground maze, you will encounter Blue knights wandering around, but if you strike them dead, you will lose Karma. Instead, use the Spring Water to not only get them out of your path, but to raise your Karma as well. If you run out of Magic Points, you'll have to run into them and get hurt, or sacrifice some of your Karma which is not recommended. You will also see four different men in various locations around the cavern. Each of them will hand you a Scroll, but only one Scroll is the correct one, and you may only hold one Scroll at a time. You can try to find out which Scroll is correct either through trial and error, but there is another means. In the bar in Romancia, there is a former scribe who can inform you of whether your Scroll is the correct one or not, but only after you cough up five Gold Coins to have a drink with him. Do this enough, and you will determine that the man which holds the true Scroll is the man in the upper leftmost corner of the cavern. Speak with him, and then head out of the cavern through the ladders that climb back up.

Have the scroll uncursed

• Once you have increased your Karma count to the maximum of 30, and collected a Scroll (hopefully the correct one), it's time to head back to Romancia. Once you've returned you should visit the man in the cave next to the water gate. Speak with him, and he will lift the curse from the Scroll you collected. This is not the only curse that must be lifted, and the rest can only be lifted in heaven. Collect another Soul from the graveyard (your third so far) and talk to the man on the cloud to repeat the process.
• With 30 Karma Rings, you are practically a saint. Up in heaven, you will be treated like royalty. The first two men standing in the hall will continue to uncurse your Scroll for you. Once again, the man who gives you Magic Points will restore you to 15. More of the men here will help you as well, but you're going to need to free up some space in your inventory. If you still have the Cross or Medicine, use them both up in Heaven so that they disappear from your inventory. The man above the Magic Points provider will be especially helpful. First, he will bless your Robe to give it special powers. Then he will completely remove the curse from your scroll. The two men on the bottom right will provide you with two more items, the Feather of Pegasus' and the Crystal of Foresight. The crystal is an item you need for trade later in the game, but the feather is a magical item that allows you to fly. Since it is magical, it requires magic points like the Spring Water. Once you have 15 Magic Points, the crystal, the feather, and had your robe blessed and the curse on the scroll completely broken, you can return to Earth.

Rescue the Princess

• The time has come for you to finally attempt a rescue of the Princess. To do this, you must return to Azoruba, so collect another Rainbow Rod from the church bell (and grab another Medicine from the priest if he still has some to hand over and you have inventory space for it.) Once you're back in Azoruba, it's time to whittle away all of that Karma you worked so hard to collect. Start slaying the creatures with your sword, reducing your Karma by one point each time until it reaches zero. On the plus side, you will receive one gold coin for every Karma Ring you lose, so your money will be restored to 30. Proceed past the houses, and over the cavern which leads to the fairy, until you reach a pit with two high cliff walls on either side. First of all, do not fall into the pit, as it is rather difficult to get out of. Second of all, you do not have to climb up to the top and hop over the other side. There are actually invisible tunnels through the bottom of the cliffs that are much easier to use. These tunnels are found just one small step above the ground.
• On the other side of the pit, you will reach the castle. Inside, you will encounter some snails, and find the king. He despises anyone with a pure heart and he curses them to life as a pig. Now, life as a pig isn't so bad, since you cannot be harmed by any enemies. But you can't perform other tasks, such as rescuing the princess. So it's important that you have no Karma left by the time you reach him. If you pass him with zero Karma, he will leave you alone and you can proceed to the cave in the back of the castle.

Defeat the snail

• Inside the cave, you will be assaulted by armored creatures until you proceed deep enough into the cave to be attacked by the second boss of the game: a giant snail. The snail produces bubbles that float up into the air and then drop back down. It will wander back and forth across the floor. The safest strategy to use against the snail is to wait until it retreats to the right, and then use your Attack Points to throw a sword projectile at it. The sword will travel with the snail and do substantial damage to it. Even more effective is to chase after it, stabbing it as you run along, but watch out for when the snail turns around. Eventually, you will defeat it and an orb will drop from the ceiling. Collect it to continue on.
• Beyond the ladder to the right of the snail boss is a cave entrance. Inside, you'll find a man who will restore one Life Point per Gold Coin. Climb up the ladder and make your way to the far right where another ladder leads down. The cave at the bottom here has a man who will provider you with one Attack Point per Gold Coin. Your ultimate destination is the ladder leading down between these two caves. If your scroll is not completely uncursed (or you do not have the correct scroll to begin with), you will be unable to pass the last orange door in the dungeon. You must make sure that you have the correct scroll, and that you visit heaven with 30 Karma before the curse of the scroll can be completely unbroken. Assuming you can pass through this door, climb down the ladder.

Avoid the claws

• You will descend down a long ladder to the screen below. Along the way, you will see someone capture in a cell to the right, but you can't get there yet. Continue down and you will meet yet another boss. This one attacks you by launching claws in the air which home in on your position. You can strike the claws down with your sword, but it's not an easy thing to do. As you might expect, you must ultimately pummel the boss by bashing it with your sword until you defeat it. You can use Attack Points or merely stand close enough to it to attack it. Watch your remaining Life Points, and be prepared to move out of the way when it begins to walk across the floor again. Once you defeat it, a blue orb will descend.
• After you collect the orb, you can proceed up the ladder on the right side. Carefully remove the enemies which approach you as you reach the top, and then climb down the steps to approach the cell. You will then free the Princess from her cell, and two angels will appear to escort you back to the castle of the kingdom of Romancia. There, she will be reunited with her father—that is until a winged creature flies in and steals her soul away, leaving her body behind. Though you may have thought the game was over, the hardest part is just beginning.