Lion King Video Game Walkthrough
Carmelina Olden
There's part of the old 90's Lion King platformer that brings the entire game to a standstill. Anybody who played The Lion King for Sega Genesis or SNES already knows what I'm talking about: the monkey level. It's an exercise in frustration, bewilderment, and trial-and-error puzzle solving that has seared itself into the minds of millions of gaming veterans.
Now, Disney wants to remake the game, alongside another of their 16-bit platforming classics, Aladdin. This raises the question: should Disney keep the teeth-clenchingly-difficult puzzle as-is, or should they dial down the difficulty to a level that won't send new players straight to YouTube to find a walkthrough?
For those who never cut their teeth on the old classic, here's how the puzzle works: there's a giraffe in Simba's way, and some trees full of monkeys that will toss Simba around if he jumps into their arms. Each monkey will toss Simba in a different, not-always-obvious direction, often into another monkey's waiting arms. Simba can change the directions that certain monkeys throw him by roaring at them.
Sound simple? First off, you're lying, because of course that doesn't sound simple. Second, it's even more difficult than it sounds. There are dozens of monkeys, most of which are off-screen at any given time, and no good way to get a lay of the land or reliably know which way the monkeys will toss you without leaping in and seeing what happens.
There are good reasons to think Disney should tone down the difficulty of this puzzle. Famously, the hardest section of the puzzle was added at Disney's request shortly before the game was released.
Back in the day, game companies worried that people renting the game would get through too much of the game before returning it to the store, meaning they'd be less likely to purchase the game afterwards. The most difficult section of the monkey puzzle was developer Westwood's solution to that problem, and it prevented most renters from even beating the second level.
In an interview with Game Informer, Westwood co-founder Louis Castle said that the developers didn't like having to add the puzzle, and he wishes that the team had the time to find a more elegant solution to Disney's demand.
Since the difficult puzzle wasn't part of the developer's original plan, it would make perfect sense to tone it down. It's not like the rest of the game is easy - there's no shortage of grueling battles and brain-scratching puzzles in the later levels, so the game would still harken back to the days of classic platformers when beating a game was an accomplishment rather than an expected result.
But there's a problem: the puzzle is iconic. It's such a well-known roadblock that fans of the original game could feel cheated by its removal. Many people even have the solution to the puzzle memorized, which can be a major point of pride for those who spent hours with the original game. It's also worth noting that a remake would be in widescreen, allowing players to see a larger part of the puzzle at once - that advantage alone might make the puzzle simpler, since it would make the player's position easier to track.
It remains to be seen whether or not Disney plans to keep the puzzle in all its frustrating glory, and there will likely be complaints either way. But regardless of the path the remake takes, the original monkey level will maintain its place among other classic gaming frustrations, such as the jet ski segment in Battletoads or the goat puzzle in Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.
This page lists a walkthrough for all quests in Rance Quest. Maximum acceptable level is the difficulty of each quest, after which the game considers you overpowered for that quest and gives you drastically less EXP. You get 1/2 EXP if the character's level is higher than the difficulty, or 1/6 EXP if the character's level is more than 15 higher than the difficulty. The Reputation amount rewarded is cut into half and rounded DOWN every time you redo a quest, and after you clear it for 1 Reputation it will subsequently give you no Reputation.
If the quest is completed with a character with Publicity, such as Lia Parapara Leazas, in your party, you get double Reputation from that attempt at the quest but will get none in subsequent attempts. The idea is that Publicity lets you drain all the Reputation from that quest in one go without suffering any Reputation loss due to rounding down. Check the Hints and Tips page for a more detailed explanation.
Alice-chan gives a customer satisfaction survey about Rance Quest Magnum. She asks various questions like whether the player would buy another game with the same system, if the CGs were satisfactory, and whether the player believes in a god. All results are sent to Alicesoft. Optional quest.
This is the event used to recruit new characters for the most part. Initially it gives you Prima. Then as you progress through the game, it'll eventually give you more characters. Note that you cannot unlock characters back to back; you must clear a quest with a map first, such as Quest #83 or Quest #116. In practice though, you'll usually meet that requirement before meeting any other requirements. All character unlock requirements are listed below:
You'll know you're about to get someone new from this quest if it suddenly shows up in your list of pending quests and it doesn't have a clear counter even though you cleared it before. At other times it will have a "cleared" counter of 1 or more and doing it won't give you anything.
This quest is also great if you need to quickly clear a quest to unlock another. For example, if you have bought Tama's Underwear you unlock Quest #82. However, you need to clear any quest first. The quickest way to do so is to clear Quest #16 again.
Some monsters are contaminating the lands by eating soil and pooping. Just kill them. Trigger 5 red exclamation mark events and win them to clear the quest. There are also random encounters on this map, but they don't contribute to completing the quest.
Description: Rance's grand palace is finally complete! Anyway, the castle screen is now available from your base screen and lets you talk to your party members and Morurun them when they meet the requirements. Non-custom characters may receive a couple of skill points by speaking to them here as well, so check back often!
Description: The initial quest. Just keep going, trigger the green events and 1 red exclamation mark event (if this is the first time you're playing, you might want to go left and touch the spinning cylindrical thing to heal your party before attacking. Has a treasure chest to the upper right but has a fight before reaching there. Eventually the green exclamation event right before the door to the top will end this quest.
The battles here are easier than the 1st yankee quest, but enemies attack you in larger groups. Consider packing your party with Megadeth, Mahoko, Cessna and Alexander and getting your Charisma to 2 before going for this one if you want to do this one comfortably. Ideal for grinding characters up to level 10.
In second area, head to the top and turn right only at the uppermost lane (there's nowhere else to turn when you get there). After turning right, go to upper right at the next fork - you might already see a red exclamation mark further upwards if you're zoomed out enough. Hit it and beat the fight. Nearby, there might be a green portal that lets you escape with your loot (but the quest fails). Past that is another teleporter.
Third area is actually the dungeon that you cleared in your very first quest. Only the events arrangement is different this time, and there are random encounters instead of fixed ones. Make your way to the top. The green exclamation event in the center of the space below the author's house ends the quest. At the author's house entrance itself is another event. There are 2 choices, first one kills Doessky, second one does not (Rance instead pours salt on the old man's sponge cake).
Take Doessky to an island at the very southern region of the map, (green exclamation mark event 3 areas south of your starting area, take right at the first fork on the final map). Doessky must survive.
First go to the left and find the red ! event and beat up the monsters. Then go back to the start block and find the way to the right block, find a green ! event there. When finish watching the event go back to the start block again. Go north and find another green ! chest (you'll get key item " Ninja Glue" ). Return to the starting block. Go to the center of the block, you will find another green ! event, watch it and the quest is cleared.
Note: Though Suzume cannot be healed by active healing or items after this, it is still possible to regain her HP during battles by using healer's passive auto-healing abilities like a Healer's Full Party Protection and Post-Battle Recovery.
A very important quest. It's all a bunch of text about a kalar girl being captured and all and then 1 easy battle, but in the end you will be given a choice whether to take the crystal off her forehead, or not. Aegis Kalar is a very important character, so you'll need to take first choice (not to take the crystal) if you want her to be recruitable. First option is not to take the crystal, second option will take it. Keep in mind that you can only have Rance in your group in order to enter this quest.
Same map as Highway Yankee, which you must have done a couple of times previously. Same target as that quest, except, in area 2 you must do the green exclamation mark at the tent or else you won't be able to go to area 3 (to the right).
In area 3, there's a red exclamation mark event that triggers a boss battle and after this Rance says he doesn't like doing it with women above 30. This event is optional, somehow, but for storyline coherence you might want to do it. After this, proceed to the upper right corner of the map where a green exclamation mark event will end the quest.
WARNING: In this map if you ever take the wrong turn or walk into a false teleportal, you'll be teleported to the top-rightmost area of the map. This is a closed area with nothing to see and no teleporters leading out, not even a green one for escape, and will eventually lead to auto-failure after a few battles even if you manage to last for a while. So DO NOT EVER DEVIATE from the right path, not even for bonuses you see just to the edge of the screen.
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