ANNOTATED
GUIDE TO |
PART TWO- The Levels Mystical Ninja contains nine levels, each one set in a different region of Japan and featuring a distinct theme. |
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Ghost Enemies |
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These things have a style of face that is commonly used on Japanese characters. Think of Cactuar from Final Fantasy or all the things in Mischief Makers. The origin of the "three hole" style of face comes from haniwa, ancient Japanese clay sculptures made by the indigenous peoples of Japan. This particular ghost closely resembles a haniwa sculpture with his oval body and limbs. |
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A Haniwa in Final
Fantasy Legends II
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The jolly fireballs are known as Hi no Tama, Hitodama, or ghost flares. They are balls of flame with a mind of their own who are said to hang out with other ghouls and help light their way through the dark night. If you see a hitodama in the sky it's a bad sign. |
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The weird flying umbrellas are, oddly enough, a real creature in Japanese mythology. The Japanese believe that after sitting around for a 100 years, inanimate objects will become possessed by spirits and come to life. Umbrellas that have become possessed in this fashion are known as Kasa no Obake or Karakasa. They tend to be one of the most common "possessed object" goblins you see in Japanese folklore. |
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This guy, who pops out of the ground, is just a generic sort of undead human. We call them zombies, the Japanese call them shibito. The Japanese instruction manual calls him tsuchioyaji, or "soil man." It's worth noting the fact that he wears white. In ancient Japan people were always buried in white, and as a result most Japanese zombies and ghosts wear clothing of this color. |
Kid Dracula Cameo |
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If you attack the wall to the right of the Horo temple entrance a little head will pop out. You can collect it for a free $100. The face is of "Kid Dracula", a fairly obscure Konami character who starred in a self-titled game for both the NES and Game Boy. |
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Bell |
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Halfway through the action zone there is a giant metal bell Kid Ying can "gong" to kill all the ghosts on the screen at once. There are a lot of little bell shrines like these all over Japan. Ancient Buddhists used to ring large, ceremonial iron bells as a way to ward off evil spirits. |
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The boss of Zone I is a Yurei, a traditional Japanese female ghost. She wears a white kimono and has long black hair topped with a triangular hitaikakushi paper hat (a traditional burial vestment). In both the game and popular lore the yurei is accompanied by two floating will-o-the wisps. The thing from the movie The Ring is based on this sort of monster. |
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Hyotoko |
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The bad guys in Zone II are said to be part of the "Hyotoko gang." There is a popular style of humorous plays in Japan known as Kyogen, which feature actors who wear various silly masks intended to represent different character archetypes. The Hyotoko mask is one such face, and represents a generic sort of idiotic male character. His lips are puckered and his eyes are bulging in an expression of moronic bewilderment. The roaming characters in Zone II wear traditional pink Hyotoko masks. They also wear open happi coats with no shirt, traditional male dress for Japanese festivals. At the end of the level, Kid Ying bursts into a bunch of the Hyotoko gang members having a little festival. Two stand on top of a stage beating a giant Taiko drum, while the rest dance around in a clockwise pattern. This is the traditional Bon Odori dance common at Obon festivals in Shikoku.
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Lantern Man |
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The boss of Zone II is Lantern Man, a weird beast-looking thing with a huge lantern structure coming out of his head. The character is based on the Japanese "Lion Dance." People usually associate the Lion Dance with China, particularly Chinese New Year, but they have it in Japan as well. A dancer holds a big wooden lion mask over his face, sticking his legs out of the side to act as the lion's legs. A decorated sheet covers the rest of the human's body. The awkward sort of jerky way Lantern Man walks is very similar to the movements of the dance. As far as I can tell the lanterns are just supposed to be typical Japanese paper lanterns, common decorations at festive events. They don't normally come out of a dragon dancer's head, but I am sure you knew that. |
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shriner |
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On
the bridge area, you encounter these guys carrying backpacks with
jack-in-the-boxes inside. According to the Japanese manual, they are Karakuri Shounin, or mechanical toy
vendor's. An earlier version of this guide thought they were something
higher-concept. |
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Logo sighting |
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Some of the little carnival booths have the red-and-orange Konami logo on them. |
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Gradius |
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If you shill out $100 in the park's arcade booth you can play a modified version of the first level of Gradius, a classic arcade game released by Konami back in 1985. It's a fairly faithful port, as you can see by comparing this screenshot of the Mystical Ninja version with the screenshot of the original arcade version. The Mystical Ninja version of the first level is a bit shorter (and thus easier) and the graphics and sound have been spruced up. You only get one life and the game doesn't keep score. You can see the brand name of the TV is "Konami" as well. |
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Fighting the boss. Note lack of
points or lives.
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The original arcade version was
more spacious.
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Konami Girl |
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The dame who hosts the arcade booth is a Konami mascot character known as Konami Girl. She's the sidekick of Konami Man, who, as mentioned, appears at the maze / trivia booths. |
Takosuke |
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The
"boss" of Zone III (not much of one, since you can just walk right past
him) is another one of Konami's trademark characters, Takosuke
(also known as Takohiko) the
octopus. He's best-known for appearing in the Parodius
franchise. |
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Konami Code |
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Right at the beginning Zone IV contains another Konami in-joke. When you enter the second house near the start, the guy inside will say 'Just between you and me... if you use the command "up up down down L R L R B A", nothing will happen.' He is referencing the famed "Konami Code" which is a sequence of buttons you can press in most Konami games (except this one, apparently) to activate various cheats. |
Otafu |
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Otafuku (also known as Otafu, or Okame) is a cliched face image often used on masks in humorous Japanese Kyogen plays. The image is supposed to represent a classical sort of female beauty ideal, and over the years an Otafuku face has evolved into a generic symbol of joy and happiness in Japan. The
whole theme of Zone IV is based on Otafuku (the villains are
said to be part of the "Otafu Army"). All the enemy characters
have chubby white Otafuku faces, which is supposed to be
funny and ironic. A western equivalent would be like having an evil
army based around the yellow smiley face. The clowns in the previous
level had Otafuku faces as
well. The bosses of Zone IV are a two fat wrestlers, followed by a giant floating head. The loin-cloth wearing fatties are obviously supposed to be Sumo wrestlers, from the famed Japanese national sport. The flying head is simply a giant Otafuku. The traditional plumpness is what's being particularly parodied in this battle. As the face gets closer and closer to death, it gets fatter and fatter (and jollier) until it eventually explodes. At various times, the face also scatters its features, which is a reference to a traditional Japanese "pin the tail on the Donkey" type game in which Japanese children try to assemble a Otafu face from paper cut-outs.
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Buddha |
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In the background of the Otafu Army base you can also see statues of the traditional meditating Amida Buddha, albeit with a jolly Otafuku face. Japan is no longer a predominantly Buddhist country, but it was in ancient times, hence why there are more Buddhist references in Mystical Ninja than you might expect. |
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These guys, by contrast, wield the katana, the traditional Ninja sword. |
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The boss of the level, master Ninja robot Sasuke, throws out Kunai. Kunai were originally designed to be spades for the garden, but Ninjas adapted them into a deadly throwing weapon. |
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Tengu |
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Tengu are the mythical beasts after which Zone VI's Tengu Mountain is named. They are these weird humanoid creatures that supposedly dwell high in the mountains. Tengu have long noses, colored faces, and magical shape-shifting powers. They're are also supposed to be good at martial artist. Tengu Mountain features numerous rock carvings of Tengu faces, easily identifiable by their long noses. Midway through the level Kid Ying must fight three real-live Tengu as well. Two of them have red faces and wield katana swords. The third, blue-faced one throws a leaf-thing. This is supposed to be a Japanese Aralia leaf, which the Tengu use to make fans to control the wind.
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Kabuki |
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The boss of Tengu Mountain is a fun character who is supposed to be a Japanese Kabuki actor. Kabuki is Japan's oldest and most famous form of theater; it is known for its elaborate costumes and highly expressive performances. Most of the plays tell stories of life in ancient Japan. The boss character dresses in traditional Kabuki style, with bright colors, long billowy robes, wig, and wild face paint. When he moves, he makes the trademark exaggerated gestures that are typical of a Kabuki actor. |
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Zone VII features these bomb-dropping birds as one of the level's primary enemies. I assume they must have some relevance to Japanese folklore, since a very similar character appears in Super Mario Brothers 2 and the Adventure Island series. I've learned that whenever one game appears to be plagiarizing an idea from another, usually they are not plagiarizing at all, but simply using the same obscure Japanese cultural reference. I've had no luck researching the matter to date. Can anyone help? |
Ryujin |
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The boss of Zone VII is a sea monster named Hakuryu. He's based on the legendary Japanese sea-god Ryujin. Ryujin was said to be a giant, white, snake-like dragon. He lived in the ocean, controlled the tides, and ruled over the sea creatures. |
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A contemporary drawing of Ryujin
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Language |
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The
people in Zone VIII all speak a strange gobbledy-gook language that
you can only understand after purchasing an expensive translation book.
This is because the Ryukyu Islands historically spoke different
languages from the mainland Japanese, including Amami, Kunigami,
Miyako, Yaeyama, Yonagun, and Okinawan. All of these languages are
essentially dead or very near-death today. |
Hannya |
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Zone VIII also introduces a new enemy, the Hannya carpenters. Hannya is another traditional style of Japanese mask. Intended for villainous characters, Hannya faces are demonic looking, with yellow eyes and horns. The carpenter enemies all have Hannya faces, as does the game's final boss, as we will later see. |
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Daruma |
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The theme of the action part of Zone VIII is Daruma. Legend has it that the original Daruma was a great philosopher in the fifth or sixth century who spent so much time sitting in a cave philosophizing that eventually his arms and legs atrophied and fell off. Today his legacy lives on in the form of Daruma dolls, which are these little red round things with no limbs. When you have a wish, you buy a Daruma, and color in one of his pupils. Then when your wish comes true, you color in the other one as well. The various roly-poly enemies in the Zone VIII fortress are all based on Daruma dolls. The boss and mini-boss are based on two unique variations of the traditional version. The mini-boss, with his multi-colored mid-sections, is based on the "Daruma tower" children's game. The objective is to use a tiny hammer and try to smash out the bottom sections one at a time, without causing the whole tower to collapse. Sort of like "Jenga." The final boss takes the form of a balancing toy with a Daruma head. I'm sure you've seen these sort of things before, we have them in America as well. They call them "wobblers" or "bobbers" or "balancing men" or whatever. They have two arching arms, at the end of which are two weights. The weights keep the toy balanced, and you can place it on the tip of a stick and it won't topple over.
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Samurai |
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The final boss of the game is a character called General Shogun. He's the leader of the Hannya carpenters. When he appears in human form during one of the cutscenes you can see he wears a Hannya mask just like his underlings. In the boss battle General Shogun rides inside a giant mechanical Samurai suit, which in turn rides a fearsome beast. Samurai were of course the ancient warrior class of Japan, who wore elaborate, colorful suits of armor. Shogun attacks using archery, which was one of the main staple weapons of the Samurai. The beast he rides a mythical Japanese lion-dog hybrid creature, known as a Shisa or Koma-inu. It's amusing to note that "Shogun" means "general." So in essence the character's name is General General.
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