Chapter one: Devil in Delos

Only a few inches in the game, we encounter the first generic enemies. The shooter snake makes an appearance, this time disguised as some sort of dragon.

This is actually the most beautiful level in all the game. The landscape looks very nice and with all the parallax scrolling and the clouds you really get the impression of flying high above the ground.

Medusa is the first boss. Not much to say here. Her head floats around and she shoots lasers that reflect at odd angles. Very easy, actually.

Inbetween levels, Artemis appears in a huge magic mirror and sends you messages. As these are usually not very helpful, feel free to laugh about the badly done voice overs.

Chapter two: Death Dungeon

Halfway through level two, we encounter this variation on the R-Type ring of doom. I have no idea why this one is composed of roast chicken.

This scene is very tricky if you are actually in the middle of the ring (as you are supposed to be, I guess), but if you just stay at the lower left corner, it's ridiculously easy.

After taking apart the ring, the coloured glass window shatters and you descend into the dungeon.

The dungeon's an interesting passage because the screen scrolls in funny directions at times.

Sadly, the walls and enemies here look like they have been painted by a four-year-old.

The three Graiae are the bosses of level two. Shoot their hands first, then avoid the floating heads while trying to get a few hits in.

The vulnerable spot is the glowing orb. It looks like an alien egg to me, but the manual assures me it's a crystal.

After level two, instead of a message from Artemis you get this picture of Typhon.

He obviously has a severe bad breath problem. Once more poor dental hygiene drives a gifted young man into becoming an evil super-villain.

Chapter three: Blue Parboleos

This scene's pretty cool. You have to go through this high speed passage, while griffon riders come up from behind. They follow your path, so you can make them crash into the walls.

Every now and then, the game displays captions like this one. I suppose they are meant to be helpful, but actually most of them are utter nonsense.

'Siren is a dreadful witch.' Good to know that. Otherwise I might have thought she's throwing those fireballs because she fancies me.

Chapter four: Fire Devildom

Every shmup must have a snake, a fire stage and an ice/crystal level. We encountered the snake in level one, so here's the fire stage.

This level's very generic. In fact, I wouldn't miss it much.

This fire monster is easy to beat. Just avoid his floating arms and dart in and out to hit him.

The vulnerable spot is the head, as another one of those highly useful captions just tells us.

Chapter five: Icebound Soul

The ice level is another generic type of shooter stage.

This one's pretty cool, though. It works like an oversized pachinko machine, as those big spiked balls roll through the corridors.

This boss is supposed to be Scylla. But wasn't Scylla a sea monster? I wish my knowledge of Greek mythology was better.

For unknown reasons, I found it impossible to beat this boss when I had two options. I always died because I couldn't take out those purple things quickly enough. However, with only one option it becomes very easy. Must have something to do with the firing rate.

The wall in front of Artemis gets removed bit by bit to show that she is taking off some of her clothes. Maybe she wants to encourage Apollo that way.

Note that she didn't wear a bra in the first picture. I wonder how she managed to put it on with her hands still cuffed to the wall.

Chapter six: Watchdog in Hell

This level is an absolute nightmare. Do you see that little green man there? These guys are everywhere and they throw those huge brown things of which I want to believe that they are rocks. The rock-throwers are not easy to take out and if you don't do it quickly enough, the screen gets very crowded with no room left to dodge. You actually have to memorize where those guys will show up and then shoot them just before they appear onscreen.

This is where you desperately miss a TATE option for that game.

Finally, the single decent boss of the game.

This is actually supposed to be Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of hell. Doesn't look much like a dog to me, but at least it has three heads.

I bet Artemis is completely naked by now. Maybe that's why we only get to see this closeup.

Chapter seven: The Temple of Typhon

This level is an insult to the eyes. I can't understand why the Namco guys had to make the last level that ugly. It looks like the stuff I did in DPaint when I was about fourteen.

After that tough level six, this one's really easy. I never managed to die here. You have to collect the letters P, H, E, L, I, O and S to upgrade your sword's charge shot from a moderately sized fireball to an impressive beam of mass destruction.

This is the first part of the final boss fight. The caption informs me that the hooded figure is Typhon. The word 'Phelios' to the right means that I managed to collect all the letters necessary for the sword upgrade.

You can see me using the upgraded super charge shot here. One of those is enough to destroy Typhon. He reappears seven times, but it's always equally easy. Killing him boosts your score, so you can collect a considerable amount of extra lives.

After killing Typhon several times his pet demon awakes. The fight gets really tough and very frustrating here. The demon will advance slowly until he's virtually on top of you. It gets very difficult not to run into him, even if you are allowed to touch his wings and legs.

To make things worse, he can only be injured by fully charged super beams. Surprisingly, the vulnerable spot is his crotch, so keep firing there. (Ouch!)