Shintaro, Ayane, and all the bosses.
Yokai Hunter Shintaro is an action game made by indie studio RivalThird, based on the Run-and-Gun / Platformer format seen in numerous old-school arcade games, but in an ancient Japanese fantasy setting.
In a version of Meiji-Era Japan where humans and yokai co-exists among each other, a rogue tengu, desiring powers of ancient yokai lords, intends to awaken a great evil from long ago in a bid to take over the land of living. Stealing a set of ancient stones and making his way to the Shuten dōji's slumbering place, the tengu seeks to awaken the King of Yokai, Shuten dōji.
All hopes lie on two heroes. Shintaro, the Yokai hunter, and his protege Ayane, must battle their way through a colourful plethora of yokai enemies sent by the tengu, defeat various hostile yokai lords in leage with the tengu, before confronting the tengu in Shuten dōji's domain.
There is no time to lose!
- Airborne Mooks: Ravens, flying eyeballs, winged skeletons, some Chōchin-obake and the like.
- And the Adventure Continues: The game ends with Shintaro and Ayane embarking on another quest as soonas they defeated the tengu and Shuten dōji.Ayane: It seems that there is still a lot to do. What is our next destination? You could use a little help...
Shintaro: I want you to meet some friends of mine. Be prepared, this has just begun... - Attack of the Killer Whatever: The Oboroguruma, a possessed sentient horse-carriage, is one of the many yokai-themed bosses.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: Cursed Plains have you riding a wolf across the stage and attacking everything that gets in your way besides leaping over spiked barricades to avoid getting damaged.
- Book Ends: The tengu is confronted at the end of the first and last level. The first time ends with a You Can't Thwart Stage One as he escapes, and he's expectedly stronger the second time you battle him, besides having an additional attack where he creates flaming fists. Though he's NOT the Final Boss of the game...
- Boss-Arena Idiocy:
- Biwa, the Demon Monk, have a powerful attack where he summons a giant skull that spits a thick energy blast filling up the lower half of the screen. Which would be impossible to avoid, if not for the area you fought him containing platforms which you can jump on. In fact, this boss would be impossible to hurt (since he's airborne the entire battle) without jumping on the conveniently-placed platforms.
- The King Mook sumo Oni has a Shockwave Stomp as one of it's main attacks, but luckily there's an indestructible permanent platform right in the middle of the arena helping you dodge.
- The King of Yokai, Shuten dōji, can create walls of flames sprouting from ground level, which you avoid by leaping on one of two platforms in the middle of the arena.
- Dem Bones: You'll be facing sentient, animated skeleton enemies constantly in the game, from skeletons throwing bits of bones at you, to swordsman skeletons and cannon-operating skeleton mooks.
- Dragon-in-Chief: While Shuten dōji the King of Yokai is the game's main villain and the major threat to all life on earth, most of the game revolves around your efforts to stop his dragon, the Tengu, from reviving Shuten dōji.
- Everything Fades: How every defeated enemy, including bosses, dissappears from the game. This is actually one of the least violent action games in the Run-and-Gun genre.
- Flying Face:
- Flying, burning skulls, which can materialize from out of nowhere to chomp on you. These enemies somehow appears in every single stage.
- Doomed Train concludes with you battling a Sōgenbi (a Yokai resembling a floating, gigantic severed head surrounded by flames) boss.
- Flying on a Cloud: Biwa the Demon Monk is seated on his levitating cloud for the entirety of his boss battle, as he floats all over the place while launching his attacks.
- Frog Ninja: Forbidden Ship has an Ōgama ninja serving as the boss, who can jump expertly all over the place In a Single Bound and can use a Doppelgänger Attack to corner you from both sides.
- Gashadokuro: The boss of the cavern stage, that you confront at the exit leading into a colosseum. It's skull is a few times larger than your entire character, and somehow, despite the monster being a giant set of bones, still have one left eye intact. Which it uses to shoot Eye Beams.
- Ghost Ship: Forbidden Ship is set on a spooky, yokai-infested abandoned ship. With kappa in the water ready to pounce aboard.
- Giant Mook:
- The giant Daruma Doll enemy that takes up half the entire screen, several times larger than you and capable of absorbing quite some hits before going down. They're immobile however and attacks by spitting bouncing balls at you.
- Gigantic, one-eyed Bakeneko appears in the Hell Volcano stage, breathes fiery projectiles that are harder to avoid and can take far more punishment than smaller yokai mooks.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Played straight with Shintaro and Akane, the former using his katana to slice and dice through Yokai while the latter using her unlimited summply of throwing knives.
- Hunter of Monsters: Shintaro and his protege Ayane are Yokai hunters, which the title proudly proclaims.
- Kappa: One of the enemy varieties in Forbidden Ship, who attacks by pouncing out the water to ambush you from beneath. Oddly enough, despite the kappa being one of the more prominent (if not the most) yokai from Japanese myths, you only encounter a small number of them, with most of the stage's enemies being skeletons.
- Karakasa: One of the many yokai-themed foes popping up in the game, who attacks by hopping about trying to pounce on you.
- Lethal Lava Land: Hell Volcano, which is filled with Lava Pits you need to jump across.
- Locomotive Level: Doomed Train is set inside a train infested with Yokai and assorted monsters. It inevitably turns into a Traintop Battle halfway through, leading to the boss fight against a Sōgenbi.
- Long Neck: The Rokurokubi yokai shows up as a recurring enemy, represented as heads on elongated necks trying to reach you and attack.
- Mirror Monster: The Ungaikyō yokai, who bursts out of a mirror and turns into an exact duplicate of your current character, leading to a Mirror Match boss battle. Including using exactly identical Smart Bomb attacks!
- Musical Assassin: Biwa plays a pipa capable of shooting projectiles and materializing skeleton enemies to back him up.
- Night of the Living Mooks: "Last Graveyard" have zombies popping out from underground. In a game where you face Yokai most of the time, they're one of the few Western-based enemies for you to battle.
- Oni: Gigantic Onis armed with spears and clubs, either coloured red or blue, are another yokai mook you get to slice up. Hell's Volcano notably has a King Mook blue oni that reaches the ceiling.
- Platform Hell: Later levels will have platforms appearing all over the damn place, and most of them leads to fatal drops.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The King of Yokai, Shuten dōji, whom is sealed in a statue in the final level, Jigoku House. The tengu seeks to awaken him to Take Over the World, and actually succeeds (prior to you defeating him), and Shuten dōji inevitably becomes the game's difficult Final Boss.
- Shaping Your Attacks: In his second battle, the tengu can create giant fists made of fire and send them at you as an attack.
- Smart Bomb: You can collect the souls of The Phoenix, The Tiger or The Turtle, which allows you to summon them onscreen and deal devastating damage to all onscreen yokai.
- Spider People: The Jorōgumo boss is depicted as a woman with a giant spider as her lower half, just like in the yokai myths. And her webs function as a Razor Floss that cuts away your health upon touch.
- Sumo Wrestling: The King Mook giant Oni is depicted as a sumo wrestler, constantly thumping the arena with his feet which can send a Shockwave Stomp that deals severe damage. And when you're on ground level, he'll also try crushing you via Giant Foot of Stomping.
- Technicolor Fire: Most of the yokai who breathes fire have them coloured green or yellow. The King of Yokai, Shuten dōji notably blasts you with purple flames.
- Temporary Platform: Be wary when the game starts throwing areas with platforming obstacles at you; some of these platforms can teleport when you're standing on them. Though they do reappear a few seconds after dissappearing.
- Tengu: The game's main villain, who is fought as early as the first boss. He repeatedly flies around the arena trying to attack you from above and occasionally using his Teleport Spam to ambush. And defeating him the first time will lead to him defeating you instantly with a powerful energy blast covering the entire screen before he pulls a Villain: Exit, Stage Left.
- Yōkai: Basically 70% of the onscreen enemies in the game. Including having a Oboroguruma and Sōgenbi as bosses and starring lesser-known yokai like the Bakeneko.
- Yuki Onna: The snow-themed stage, unsurprisingly, have one of these as it's boss. And expectedly she has ice-related powers, including summoning gigantic snowballs as projectiles, materializing icicles dropping into the arena and creating a spear made of ice to slice you up.
