A Konami MSX game from 1987. The heroes, Popolon and Aphrodite must enter the titular Maze to defeat the titular owner of that maze. The game contains ten worlds and an overworld-like castle in which the heroes start, all laid out in a Metroidvania-like Fashion. If you've played La-Mulana, this game should feel eerily familiar to you.
Anyway, I've started a quick testrun on this game, and right now am at the entrance to World 1 at 43 seconds in. I will post a WIP once I get World 1 done.
To get an idea of how the game looks and plays, check out this run up to world 1 made by Vampier:
Link to video
Make sure you pick up the Halo at the beginning of the game, it'll allow you to get back to the castle (save point) from any point in the game.
Once you have the feather you can jump to any opened world in the game.
To optimize the speed-run make sure world 10 will appear at the beginning stage.
While being hit by a big enemy pushing f1 quickly will stop the power drain.
The blue scepter in the worlds prevents you from losing arrows @ boss fights.
I just played through MoG the other day.
Should be a very rich game for TASing. There are many options to explore such as route, items, resource management, luck manipulation, and taking damage to save time. Should be a good challenge!
Let me know if I can help.
Good news, everyone!
I have recently completed a route test for Maze of Galious, following a route Morrison originally thought up. The final movie clocks in at 31:47, which lends itself to massive possible improvements using tool assistance.
Link to video
(Thanks to vampier for encoding and uploading!)
Here's the route:
KEY TO WORLD 1
HALO (essential, since it lets you warp back to a certain screen in the castle, referred to as demeter)
WORLD 1 - BOSS (YOMAR)
ARROWS (essential as well)
BOOTS (let you walk faster if you're under a low ceiling. I chose to get them because their effect adds up, wastes ~27 seconds)
- Halo Warp to Demeter-
WORLD 2 - DOLL (you need it for a bridge to appear), HOLY WATER (divides boss' health by 2), SCEPTER (no arrows lost at boss fights, neatly on the way here) - BOSS (ELOHIM)
- Halo Warp to Castle -
WORLD 3 - BOSS (HAHAKLA)
- Exit to Castle -
CROSS (Required to beat Galious)
- Warp to Demeter -
WORLD 4 - HOLY WATER (Boss pretty much impossible without it) - BOSS (BARECHET)
- Warp to Demeter -
WORLD 5 - SCEPTER (neatly on the way) - BOSS (HEOTYMEO)
- Warp to Demeter -
WORLD 6 - HOLY WATER (neatly on the way) - BOSS (LEPHA)
- Warp to Demeter -
CERAMIC ARROWS (needed for some bosses), DRAGON HEL; (protects against a minor enemy, neatly on the way), FEATHER (warps to worlds already opened)
WORLD 7 - HOLY WATER (neatly on the way) - BOSS (NAWABRA)
- Warp to Demeter -
WORLD 8 - BOSS (ASCHER)
- Warp to World 7 -
WORLD 9 - CAPE (cuts boss damage, unneeded, but on the way) - BOSS (XYWOLEH)
- Warp to Demeter -
WORLD 10 - CAPE, HOLY WATER, SCEPTER (all on the way) - BOSS (HAMALECH)
BABY.
Things I don't get:
The SABRE doesn't take too long to get and enhances the strength of your sword. If it works against bosses, it's definitely worth it.
Things that are not self-explanatory:
Often you need to kill enemies in a room to make something appear or disappear. This is most visible in world 4, where I have to go to some screen to kill bats
To make a boss appear, you have to type his name into the MSX keyboard
Some bosses are immune to some forms of damage
The entrance to world 10 spawns at one of a few predetermined random locations. I got very lucky in this testrun because I didn't manipulate it one bit.
Your control over midair momentum is limited, which can be a problem at times.
Everything from enemy drops to enemy behaviour is manipulatable
Glitches:
Hitting F1 allows you to cut damage drain. This is beneficial for bosses, and, in one case, even required.
Before starting on the proper run, I'll have to investigate on wether the boots and the sabre are worth it and determine, how many drops I need to manipulate. So, I hope you enjoy watching this testrun, and I will update WIPs as I see fit.
Another thing to consider getting would be getting the dagger; it allows you to kill all bats by typing "umbrella" on the keyboard. That would save some time since there are rooms where you have to kill bats to continue; the room with the dagger is already on your route several times.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Looks good, I see how heavily inspired by this game La-Mulana was.
Then I remember the difference between that team and Konami when suddenly BULLET-SPEWING MOAI HEADS.
What other subweapons are there? just different flavors of arrow?
Is the Holy Water in L1 out of your reach?
There's two arrows, two wall-following weapons, and some landmines, I think. The arrows are the only ones that are worth a damn, really.
Maze of Galious for the NES is actually a completely different game with similar concepts; it also has a better selection of subweapons and more difficult route planning (since you have to get money to buy certain items needed to progress).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Looks good, I see how heavily inspired by this game La-Mulana was.
Then I remember the difference between that team and Konami when suddenly BULLET-SPEWING MOAI HEADS.
What other subweapons are there? just different flavors of arrow?
Is the Holy Water in L1 out of your reach?
Thanks, bro. As for the subweapons, what Derakon said. The holy water is out of my reach, but the boss goes down too quickly to really make it worth it, for the same reason arrows aren't worth it.
I'm currently in the process of planning how many keys and arrows to get and how to tackle the bosses, so a fair bit of planning goes into this.
You also need money to buy items in this game, but as you can see, it's not essential. Usually, you would do it, though. Especially the mines, to be able to beat the blob boss of world 4 in a normal way.
More info e.g. here: http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/konami/mog/
If I recall correctly, you have to buy a new sword in the NES version to be able to break blocks, which is necessary before you can finish the first (second?) dungeon. So right away you have to start working on your wallet.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
No worries there, for I will not need a single coin of gold in my run. I have decided to get the sabre, but it's mainly to cut down some enemies quicker. I've begun to run the game up to the point where I don't need to do any elaborate planning. Once there is something substantial to show (World 1 done), I will do an encode.
Someone interested in doing a TAS of MSX The Maze of Galious with minimum items? It looks like you only need very few items to finish the game. Although it will be a lot harder :-)
The items are:
- Great keys (of course)
- Ceramic arrows
- Doll
- Cross or Mines
Would be quite a challenge to finish the game like this, I can't imagine it can be done without rerecording....
Anyone up for the challenge?
