The Story

After having been defeated by Funky Fungus, Seto Taisho, the crockery general, returns to Japan with its dreams of glory now shattered. However, during its absence, the country has fallen in turmoil. Awakened by the magic arts used by Seto Taisho in order to recruit its army, the Yokai - the monsters and goblins of Japan, to which our character belongs itself - have been popping up everywhere, frightening and harassing the population. The police and military forces are unable to withstand the hordes of mischievous creatures, which seem to be invulnerable to human weapons.

"It's all your fault!", everybody cries, pointing their fingers at Seto Taisho. "You should not have messed with those powers!"

It takes a Yokai, then, to defeat the Yokai - and Seto Taisho, being the culprit, cannot do anything but wielding his jug-pointed spear, and liberate its homeland from the very forces it has so carelessly unleashed. Its own kind...

The Game

Seto Taisho Vs. Yokai is a platform game where the player, as Seto Taisho, must attack the Yokai in each screen by hitting them with its spear. Each creature will behave differently: walking, bouncing (both vertically and diagonally) or chasing.

The action unfolds across three levels of 12 screen each, plus a boss screen. The levels are:

1. The Shrine And Temple.
   Seto Taisho's adventure begins at sunset at a Shinto shrine located near a Buddhist cemetery. A strange mist floats around, but seems solid enough to be walked upon. The final confrontation is set into a temple where Tesso, the mad monk-rat, awaits.
2. The City.
   Among light signs and aidoru posters, the urban area is filled with dangerous presences creeping out of its darkest hideouts. The Wanyudo, a frightening flaming demon, rules here.
3. The Mountains.
   It is dawn: weird beings roam around the trees, rocks and lakes, and Seto Taisho must challenge and overcome them before facing the Tengu, the mightiest of the Yokai.

How To Play

On the lower part of the screen you can read, from left to right:

1. your score;
2. the current screen number (not present in the boss and bonus levels);
3. the time counter;
4. the number of lives at your disposal.

Seto Taisho can jump across platforms, but it must care not to fall from a height greater than about half of the screen, or it will be blown to smithereens. The same will happen if it collides with any of its enemies. In the third level, you will also need to move underwater - where Seto Taisho's movements will slow down, while the other Yokai will be unaffected - and upon slippery icy surfaces.

Hit your enemies by keeping the Fire key pressed, but be careful: the Yokai will often change their direction when hit and could catch you by surprise. Seto Taisho cannot use its spear while jumping (it needs to stand on the ground!), but it can do it while walking, by keeping the direction and Fire keys pressed at the same time.

After a number of hits, a Yokai will be sent back to its own dimension. Sometimes it will leave one of the following behind:

1. MANEKI NEKO
   The "beckoning cat" will give Seto Taisho an extra life, up to a maximum of nine. If it already has nine lives, 1000 points will be received instead.
2. WADOKEI
   This Japanese-made mechanical clock will reset the time counter back to 99.
3. ONI
   An evil demon that will reset the screen to its initial condition, but leave the time counter intact.

After dispatching all the enemies in the screen within the time limit, the GANBARE! (Go on!) message will appear and you will be carried to the next screen. After the twelfth screen, you will have to face the end-of-level boss. At the end of each screen, you will be awarded 10 points for each second left.

Every screen must be completed before the time counter reaches zero; in this case, the "TIME UP!" message will appear and Seto Taisho will lose a life.

If you lose all of your lives, you will have the chance to keep on playing from the last screen reached, by using credits. You begin the game with one credit and can earn another one if you pass the bonus screen. After the GAME OVER message you will be shown the final score and will be asked if you wish to continue. Press the "Y" key to resume the game or the "N" key to quit and return to the start menu. You may use your credits everywhere in the game, except for the third and last boss screen.

In the bonus level, Seto Taisho must push the two Hitotsume Kozo inside the box placed up high in the screen by hitting them with its spear. If it touches them, it will have to start again. Completing the level within the time limit will earn you an extra credit and 2000 points.

Game Controls

O - Left, P - Right, Q - Jump, M - Fire
H - Hold

Seto Taisho can be controlled with the keyboard or with a Kempston or Sinclair joystick.

Keys can be redefined by pressing key "1" in the start menu. Each control to redefine will appear on the screen: you will then have to press the corresponding key of your choice.

Hints And Tips

1. Try to adopt an effective strategy to solve each screen; sometimes you will have to move at the very beginning, while in other situations you will need to wait for the right moment to act.
2. Do not throw yourself recklessly against your foes (as Seto Taisho would usually do!). Use the screen elements to attack them from advantage positions, or avoid being attacked by them too soon.
3. There is something we did not tell you about, but we will leave you the pleasure of discovering it by yourselves...

The Yokai

1. Seto Taisho
   The "Crockery General" is nothing but a ramshackle heap of old and battered kitchenware: its head is a tokkuri bottle for sake, its body a teapot, its legs spoons and its arms made with small plates. Its weapon is a spear with a small jug as a point - not very effective in fact! Despite its noticeable weakness, Seto Taisho has an aggressive attitude and is always looking for some adversary to challenge. It tried to invade Fungiland, but heroic Funky Fungus forced it to flee and return to Japan. Like other Yokai featured in the game, Seto Taisho belongs to a kind of monsters named tsukumogami, i.e. common household items magically animating themselves against humans, angry for having been put away or disposed of by their owners.
2. Bura-Bura
   A paper lantern typically found in Shinto shrines. Its lightness, together with the hot air generated by a lit candle placed inside it, allows it to fly.
3. Nuppeppo
   The Nuppeppo is an inhabitant of cemeteries: it is in fact a lump of rotting flesh, sentient and able to move. It is said that its stench is enough to knock a man out! Neverthless, it is not very aggressive and is easy to defeat.
4. Kara-Kasa
   An umbrella with an eye and a long tongue; its handle has turned into a leg and a foot of human shape. It flies by opening and closing itself, pursuing Seto Taisho everywhere.
5. Menreiki
   The Menreiki are traditional masks used in the ancient Gigaku drama-dance performance. Each one of them has a name and a definite meaning. The Yokai in the game is inspired to the style of Chido masks.
6. Kuchisake Onna
   A modern Yokai, the Kuchisake Onna ("slit-mouthed woman") is driven by homicidal impulses, having gone mad due to the mutilation she suffered during a dental operation, which went awry for some unknown reason. Her most distinctive trait is in fact her large, gaping mouth. She attacks her victims with a knife and is very fast, since she used to be an athlete in the past.
7. Toire No Hanako
   "Hanako of the toilet" is a malevolent spirit appearing as a five-year-old girl wearing a school uniform. They say she infests the WCs of primary schools, hence the name.
8. Nue
   Not even the Japanese can say what exactly the Nue is; it could be described as a sort of chimera with the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog), the paws of a tiger and a snake for a tail. It is able to fly as well.
9. Kappa
   Do not let its scrawny looks deceive you: the Kappa, a water creature with long limbs and a strong beak, is a formidable and resilient enemy. Be particularly cautious when you will have to attack it in its natural environment.
10. Yuki Onna
    Despite her ethereal appearance, the "snow woman" is an obstinate as well as deadly adversary. Her touch is enough to turn every entity, living or not, into brittle ice, which she then blows to smithereens.
11. Tesso
    The real name of Tesso (literally "iron rat") was Raigo. He was a senior monk of the Mii-dera temple in Kyoto. One day, Emperor Shirakawa (1053-1129) asked him to pray in order to have a son that could succeed him on the throne. The heir was born, and Raigo asked in return to have a temple of his own. However, the rivals of Mii-dera, the fearsome warrior monks of the Enryaku-ji temple, opposed the request, and the emperor, who did not want to antagonize them, refused to comply. Raigo got so angry that he protested by initiating a hunger strike, which ultimately killed him, but soon after, he was born again as a monstrous hybrid: Tesso, the lord of rats, animated by an insatiable hunger for vengeance. Tesso is the first level boss: he is found in the temple and attacks Seto Taisho by sending his rat hordes against it.
12. Wanyudo
    A servant of Hell, Wanyudo appears as a giant flaming cartwheel with an elderly man's head, with a fierce look, in the center. According to legend, it is the damned spirit of a daimy? (feudal lord) who sadistically mistreated his subordinates during his life - he was particularly fond of torturing them by having them tied to a cartwheel. Wanyudo comes at the end of the second level and, besides its mortal touch, it also shoots equally lethal energy bolts.
13. Tengu
    The Tengu are mighty Yokai, dwellers of the mountain. They can assume different shapes, but the most common one is that of a winged, red-skinned being with a long and thin nose, dressed as a yamabushi (a sort of Buddhist hermit). Found at the end of the third and last level, Tengu is a merciless foe that will give Seto Taisho no quarter.
14. Hitotsume Kozo
    Differently to the previous Yokai, this creature shaped as a kid with a large bald head and only one eye is a wimpy and good-natured character. He is only met in the bonus level.

Game Features

1. Three levels of 12 screens each, plus a boss screen for each one of them and a bonus screen.
2. 9 enemies, 3 bosses and 1 bonus character.
3. A different background music for each level.
4. SetoLOAD, a new turbo loading scheme, specially devised for the game.

Game Credits

Written by Alessandro Grussu.

Created with:

1. Arcade Games Designer 4.6 [Jonathan Cauldwell]
2. ZX Paintbrush 2.6.1 [Claus Jahn]
3. Notepad ++ 6.9 [Don Ho]
4. Pasmo 0.6.0 [Julian Albo]
5. Bin2data 1.0 [Bob Stains]
6. Vortex Tracker 1.2 RCD [Sergej Bulba]
7. Tapir 1.0 [Andy Barker, Steve Brown, Dunny, Tomaz Kac, Mikie]
8. Uses RSC+ZX7 data compression technology by Einar Saukas.
9. "Fader" routine by William Frazer.

Portuguese translation: Marcus Vinicius Garrett Chiado.
Playtest: Gabriele Amore.
Additional testing: Flávio Massao Matsumoto.

Program, audio & visual © 2016 by Alessandro Grussu. All rights reserved. Every commercial distribution of this product without the express consent of its author is strictly prohibited.
Website: http://www.alessandrogrussu.it