Jigoku Meguri (translated roughly as Hell Tour), also known as Bonze Adventure, is a platform game for arcades released in 1988. This TAS is of the PC Engine port made in 1990. You play as Bonze Kackremboh, a Buddhist priest and son of the Divine Dragon. Your mission is to confront Emma, the King of the Underworld, as he has lost control of the underworld and monsters from Japanese folklore are spilling into the overworld. Bonze must travel through nine levels to get to Emma.
This run clocks at 12:15.77, which is miles faster than the fastest RTA run, which sits at 17:56
Bonze's only form of attack is shooting Buddhist prayer beads at his enemies. Collecting a ring of prayer beads will increase the amount of beads allowed on screen, up to 5 I think. The beads begin as blue, the weakest beads. Collecting a green, red or purple bead will turn the beads that colour respectively, and collecting other beads of the same colour will increase the size of your beads. The different colours also allow you to use different special attacks when you press down and attack. Green gives you a ring of smaller beads that envelope the screen, red gives you a wall of fireballs that shoot outwards, and purple is a screen-wipe lightning attack. Purple is the most powerful, green is the least, however all of them are used in this TAS.
Invincibility frames are your best friend in this game. Being inside an enemy while invincible damages them every frame (I think)Two items can give you invincibility frames. One is the angel thing, which gives you a forcefield, which gives you an extra hit and a second or two of invincibility frames. The second is the mirror, which gives you like 20 seconds of invincibility. This item is the most useful, as it means I can just speed through enemies without dying or slowing down to hit them.
One thing to note about this game is the item pickup. Hitting the ground in certain places with your beads will make an item spawn. It is very easy to change what items are spawned, but, knowing my luck, very hard to get what you need. Usually I need the mirror, but it's so rare I can just never get my hands on it, despite my manipulation attempts. There are places of slowdown that can be improved, but when I tried it, I could not get the invincibility required to kill the boss of level 3, so I had lost more time than I gained. Everything is as it is for a reason, I guess.
Level 1:
The Graveyard
Ahhh, the graveyard. What would a Ghosts n Goblins game be witho... wait a minute
Yeah so this level is fairly straight forward. I pick up an invincibility mirror so I can just walk straight through the evil obelisk and to the end of the level. Also, ladders are weird ijn this game. Instead of pressing up or something, instead you just kinda stick to ladders when you're in the right place. The fastest way to climb is not hold up, but rather to jump out and back into the ladder, so you stick to it again, and rinse repeat. It gets more annoying in the later levels.
Level 2:
The River
The ONLY boat level in the game. Though it controls the same as boatless Bonze so it doesn't matter that much. The geyser blocks the bottom path at the end of the level, which forces a slowdown because I can't jump over the spikeball without waiting a bit.
Level 3:
The Sea of Fire
From water to fire. This level has falling skeleton platforms which can be a nuisance, not because they fall but because they fall SOOOOOO SLOWLYYYYY. Twice in this run they block my path, very annoying. Also this level has an unskippable boss. I defeat it by using the lightning attack from the purple beads and using the mirror from the secret patch in the boss arena to deal invincibility damage. Few more beads and the guy is down
Level 4:
The Wood-Panelled Skeleton-Walled Lava-Filled Doom Room
Contrary to what you may think, the eyes are not enemies, but instead act as a trampoline, giving me a forced free jump. Also, sometimes there is a frame where you can jump off of a death floor, which can be very useful.
Level 5:
The ICCCCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This ice level makes it very hard to turn around. Turning around in the air in other levels is usually instant, but in this level, it is almost impossible to do quickly. The quickest way to turn around is to hit a wall and then turn around, as it happens instantly and saves time over turning gradually. I damage through the slime thanks to the angel item, saving me loads of time and button-mashing.
Level 6:
The Designer-Needed-To-Fill-Their-Maroon-Quota Maze
You can't jump past that spike ball on the first time on the platform at the start of the level, so I have to wait for the second cycle. Lots of button mashing and ladder climbing shenanigans is needed for this level. Halfway through, a lamp is touched to warp to another part of the level. Another mirror is used to ignore enemies.
Level 7:
The Surprisingly Fiery Sperm Cavern
Not much to say about this one, except the holy water things can also increase the bead size, depending on if the colour matches. The red guy bosses can be ran past
Level 8:
The Obelisk of Fragility
Break both stones, then break the obelisk to get sent toooooo...
Level 9:
Room of Big Red Guy!
Shoot him with two big firewall attacks to send him packing. Now, here comes the final boss. Die to its first projectile
Yeah you read that right. Die.
Level 10:
Dragon Time!!!!
SCREW IT, YOU'RE A DRAGON NOW!!!!!!! SHOOT FIREBALLS!!!! DODGE THE ENEMY'S FIREBALLS!!!!! YEAAHHHHHH!!!!!! The TAS ends on the last fireball input. The game is now over.
Thanks for reading this. Hope this TAS gets accepted as a lot of effort went into this one, mainly with ladders and the item roulette thing.
feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Thanks to EZGames69 for the review! The run look good indeed, and potential improvements aren't a problem if the run is okay overall. Accepting.
