Wonder Boy in Monster World [GEN] One Life Clear

The RPG elements here aren't quite up to the standard set by The Dragon's Trap, but this is still a pretty nice game.
1:31 - Shion is painfully slow until you buy the leather boots. I don't like it when RPGs start you out horribly weak so you can level up to a tolerable level, but at least it only takes a minute to gather 30 gold.
3:55 - I switch out my sword for the first spear in for sale in Alsedo. Spears have better reach than swords in exchange for being unable to use a shield. I like spears much better, but the game generally wants you to be using a sword. The ocarina won't appear until you talk to the fairy who dropped it. You're supposed to bring it back to her so she can teach you the three songs, but I just wrote them down to cut out a bit of backtracking.
10:48 - It isn't necessary to talk to Princess Purapril here, but it is necessary to talk to the servant who unlocks the door to the city.
17:02 - Don't leave Lilypad without the marine boots. They are as good as if not better than the legend boots. They give you a good running speed, and the only the pygmy boots give you a better jumping height. Ignore the ratings on the stats screen, they are nonsense.
22:00 - Once you kill Gragg or Glagg, the other becomes more aggressive. It's a bit easier if you spread your damage out evenly rather than focusing on one at a time. The trident they drop has the same attack power as our knight sword, but it's a spear and it allows us to swim.
55:28 - Too bad the battle spear costs 10,000 gold. I'd buy it if it was sensibly priced. As is it's far too much grinding for something that's going to be outdated soon anyway. Excalibur's damage is still perfectly acceptable. It can be tricky to fight on the slippery terrain. Fortunately, most of the enemies in this area are weak against fire storm and quake.
1:06:07 - Pygmy Shion is this game's version of the Mouse-Man form from The Dragon's Trap. He can't climb walls but he can still fit through small gaps and he still has a horrible attack range. I make a short trip back to the pyramid before entering the volcano because pygmy Shion can get another heart and a charmstone there. It's a good idea to use lots of magic in the volcano. The enemies resist fire storm but quake and thunder work well. I like that the boss battle against the Tyrant Dragon uses the boss theme from The Dragon's Trap.
1:15:55 - There's a hidden shop in Purapril city that takes charmstones. One charmstone can be traded for a heart, two can be traded for magic spells.
1:22:36 - Switching to pygmy Shion here isn't necessary, but it's not far out of the way unless you're skipping the legend boots, and it'll get us another heart later.
1:25:31 - The marine boots let Shion jump higher than the legend boots so it's best to switch to them for the moving platform section.
1:33:12 - Biomeka is much harder in the western version of the game than he is in the original Japanese version. I find that switching to the marine boots helps a lot - the marine boots' better jump height makes the buzz saw less of an issue, and the legend boots' speed is more of a liability than a help.