大魔界村 (Daimakaimura), known as Ghouls 'n Ghosts outside Japan, is one of the most famous arcade platformers of all time. The Makaimura series is of course famous for its difficulty, built from a devilish combination of limited controls, chaotic enemy spawns, two-hit deaths, and forcing the player to beat two loops for the true ending. This is the second game in the series, after the more famous Ghosts 'n Goblins, and it is generally considered to be the easiest game in the series. "Easiest" is relative; this game is no pushover.
This game's presentation is astounding. This is the second game for Capcom's CPS-1 arcade board and they took full advantage of their newfound power here. The art in this game is simply gorgeous, and the game provides a constant procession of new environments and new challenges. There is not one tile in the game's 5 stages that is wasted. The music consists of simple FM-synth ditties that are nonetheless extremely catchy and memorable. The Stage 2 theme runs through my head constantly. Just fantastic all around.
This was played on the hardest difficulty settings according to the DIP switches in MAME. Difficulty doesn't make a massive difference in this game, but the hardest difficulty makes things a bit more chaotic. Enemies spawn more often and move faster, and maybe there are some other effects. I don't know. I also of course played the Japanese version of the game. The World version of the game has toned-down difficulty akin to playing on easy DIP switch settings. The US version is even easier, featuring extra checkpoints and armor every other chest.
All that being said though, this game isn't that bad difficulty-wise. Hardly insurmountable, as its reputation tends to be. A little bit of practice goes a very long way. Critical to beating the game is understanding the chest system, learning where chests are and what they will drop. The items dropped by a chest depend on how many chests the player has uncovered in the current checkpoint and what type of armor they are wearing. Once you understand the item rotation, you realize that the game is actually really generous with resources.
The run went alright. I took my first death on Stage 4 after struggling a bit on the slopes. I also made a rather big mistake in 2-3. A rock turtle covered up the first chest, so I thought that I had missed the trigger (look closely at 16:32). Then I collected the third chest without looking, thinking that it would be the gold armor, only to get stuck with the axe. I am glad that I was able to recover and get the clear anyway. This game is rather generous, honest!
0:00 Intro
0:53 Stage 1
3:17 Stage 2
5:13 Stage 3
7:29 Stage 4
10:19 Stage 5
14:15 Stage 2-1
16:26 Stage 2-2
19:32 Stage 2-3
22:02 Stage 2-4
24:25 Stage 2-5
28:45 Final Stage
29:00 Ending
32:28 Game Over