Air Date: October 18, 2014
I begin this game on hard mode after putting in the lengthy password. You have to love the nostalgic RPG memories before memory cards were in wide use. I start out at the Cactus Village in Future land which is the last village you arrive at in the game. The chief explained that his marvel box was taken when the aura balls were stolen. I choose not to get the hypnoblow to make it sporty and give the enemies a chance.
Upon disembarking from cactus village, I follow the linear path to the north mountains, where I meet Mr. ABC in the cave. He has subway tokens which I need and his quiz can be answered by selecting "Arigato". Once you answer you will ride the subway into 3 action based stages. These stages are pretty easy but it is a good idea to utilize the dragon eggs to make the process quicker or an enemy gets a lucky shot. In my play through I used the eggs to go through walls rather than waiting on the spiked balls which take forever on the third part. The last portion is a couple short sewer portions which are also linear in nature.
Once these stages have been completed, I arrive at the final tower where I choose to begin the process of gathering the aura equipment for the final battle. I basically conserve my energy as I go selectively fighting only the snake enemies because they seem to be the most straightforward and least expensive in battle costs. The idea here was to try to get some "M" points to utilize the miracle ball attack during the final battle.
The most direct path to gather the aura equipment is to go south, cross the first blue bridge to enter the first stairwell you see. This will net you the aura helmet. Climb back up two flights of stairs until you reach the initial entry stairwell. From here head directly left and place a boo bomb on the single door entry, farthest to the left. The door will blow open revealing the path to the aura armor. Once you return back up from collecting the armor, head back to the right, crossing back over the blue bridge we initially crossed. From here head north, west, south, and then east along the outer track of the room. At the farthest point you will see another single door which can be bombed. This passageway leads down to the aura helmet. Once gathered and you have backtracked back up the staircases, head back to the west and take the first right you are able to when going north. This will lead down the tower toward the final boss location. On the way to the final boss you will see a treasure box on the main path which will contain the aura sword to complete your collection. Continue on this linear path north and you will see the doorway to the final boss.
For the final boss, I recommend you use your sweet buns to revive your HP. I was at level 39 and had no problem with this boss. My boss strategy is pretty much the same from boss to boss and seems to work well. I like to keep up the "de tecoy" during the battle to shield me against the boss attacks. Once the decoy is deployed I exhaust my supply of miracle ball attacks before resorting to the aura sword. During this time I recover energy whenever needed by using the sweet buns, saving the meat bun unless I am really hurting for hp and np. Robo Doc falls quickly using this method, with his "ultra transformation" marking about the halfway point in the battle.
After Robo Doc vanishes the tower explodes in the final scenes and you find yourself back out in front of Mr. ABC's cave with the marvel box. Rather than automatically giving you the ending you need to make a short trek back to the cactus village and give chief Apax a visit to return the marvel box and aura balls. From there the epilogue and credits play.