Pocky & Rocky / Kiki Kaikai: Nazo no Kuro Manto [SFC] Hard, One Life Clear 

The whole game has beautiful visuals. Did you see the trailer for the new sequel Natsume is working on? It looks even better. A Kiki Kaikai sequel by the original Natsume crew is a dream come true. Here's hoping for a PC port.

Thanks! It's a really great game. I hadn't tried it until 2010 or so, but it's always been a favorite since then.

And Reimu Hakurei from Touhou resembles Sayo-chan :D

Thank you for getting the order right!

They're both wearing miko uniforms. They're both Shinto priestesses.

Yup. No lockshot is one of this game''s few weaknesses.

Japanese hard mode is a bit harder to one life clear but American hard mode is harder otherwise. The substantial difference in one life play is that the JP version lets you carry up to 3 bombs while the US version lets you carry 4. US hard mode is harder to 1CC because the US version alters your starting number of lives and bombs based on difficulty - easy mode gives you one more of each and hard gives one less. The JP version starts you with two extra lives and one bomb regardless of difficulty. The JP version's extra starting bomb doesn't make any real difference in difficulty because it's very easy to hit the maximum number of bombs very early in the game. If I started this run with one less bomb the only difference would be that I wouldn't have killed the mid-boss at 4:44 as quickly. On the other hand, if my bomb capacity were higher I could have used another bomb against the vampire (the one I used wasn't a very solid hit) or Black Mantle, which would have helped a lot. The only other functional difference I'm aware of is that the stage 5 lantern enemies have just a bit more health in the Japanese version. They still go down fast, but the extra fraction of a second is usually enough for them to get a shot off. To be honest though, the real reasons I favor the Japanese version are because it's uncensored and because Sayo and Manuke are much better names than Pocky and Rocky.

@@vanguardsarcade4682 What was censored from the Japanese version? As far as I've heard, this game didn't have any particularly questionable content. About the only big key difference is the way the text was simplified; besides the name changes, the story facts and dialog were cut down somewhat (probably to save on memory) and the first boss speaking in Tōhoku dialect was lost in translation.

@@Flegan777 The stage 4 harpy boss was changed into an armored bird-knight.

@@vanguardsarcade4682 Huh, I never found any screenshots of that before. And that change doesn't make sense; I found a sprite sheet of her and it's not like she has visibly gigantic knockers or anything. Thanks for the reply.

@@Flegan777 maybe it was because of the colour of the body it looks like she's naked

Snes9x