Yōkai Dōchūki

Yōkai Dōchūki (妖怪道中記, lit. "Phantom Travel Journal"), known as "Shadowland" outside Asia, is an arcade game that was released by Namco in 1987. It runs on Namco System 1 hardware and is Namco's first 16-bit arcade game. This game was not released in the United States, likely because of its questionable (by U.S. standards) content. However, an English-language version of the game, titled Shadowland, exists.

Gameplay

The player controls a boy named Tarosuke who travels through "Jigoku" (the Japanese concept of Hell) fighting "yokai" (mythical Japanese monsters) on his way to his final fate, as determined by Buddha. He destroys his enemies by firing small Ki bullets, which can be charged to increase their power, though if overcharged, he is left unable to move or fight for a few seconds. During boss battles, Tarosuke kneels at a shrine to Buddha and prays, summoning "Monmotaro" (not to be confused with "Momotaro") a spirit which floats in the air and drops energy balls on the boss and any lackeys he has.

Like Dragon Buster, and Wonder Momo, Tarosuke has a life meter (labeled as "POWER"), but only one life; if the meter is empty, the game is over (unless he has a certain item). There is no score counter, but the game utilizes currency (only referred to as "MONEY"), which is used to buy items, among other things.

There are a total of 5 stages:

• "Jigoku Iriguchi" (Gateway to Hell)
• "Kugyou no Michi" (Path of Penance)
• "Yuukai" (Ghost Sea)
• "Sabaki no Tani" (Valley of Judgement)
• "Rinnekai" (Land of Transmigration)

There are multiple paths which can be taken in many stages, which may influence which of the five endings the player gets. One of the paths leads the player to a fairly racy dance hall show, after which they are given a box. If they open the box, they might get 10,000 in money, or might be turned into an old man until they buy a particular item in a shop (this is based on the tale of Urashima Taro).

There are 5 different endings depending on what you do during the game:

1. you go to Hell
2. you go to Slave World
3. you go to Beast World
4. you return to Human World
5. you go to Heaven

The endings are listed in ascending order of difficulty.

Ports and related releases

The game was later ported to the Nintendo Famicom (this version adds a "pious" counter), and PC Engine consoles. The PC Engine version is available for the Japanese Virtual Console.

Tarosuke appears along with other characters from this game in Kyuukai Douchuuki, a "yakyuu" (baseball) video game. Tarosuke also appears as a playable character in the Namco x Capcom video game. In the game he teams up with Taira no Kagekiyo from Genpei Tōma Den.