Pre-game starts with a text crawl explaining the story. the gods gifted mortals with a Golden Axe lots of wars were fought over it, until the king hid it away evil armies arose and destroy the castle and claim the axe they don't, though, the castle is fine and as we'll see in the opening cutscene - the king calls on the one man that can save the world - AX BATTLER
[game start]
Game starts out in Firewood Castle we're treated to a "cutscene" that is text with a black screen The Golden Axe has been stolen! We have a castle full of guards, but lets call this random guy to go get it instead!
The castle (as well as towns) and overworld control like dragon quest or other RPGs unlike other RPGs, the random encounters are fighting game style really, a lot of this is like Zelda 2, though a lot cooler looking (in my opinion) unlike normal fighting games, if you get hit, the fight is instantly over this is actually great for the speedrun - not only are fights slow, but you get two text boxes after each one you win a lot of the run comes down to luck (low encounter rate) and playing the odds (trying to lose your slowest fights without reducing your health enough to be in danger)
The random fights have a different pool of possible enemies in each area of the game different strats are needed for each, but they are 100% consistent it's all down to player execution, and it's pretty unforgiving
Unlike RPGs and fighting games, but like Zelda 2, the dungeons are platforming/action segments we come to this cave to get a bomb so we can access a town behind a mountain. why is the town behind the mountain? why is a bomb capable of detonating an entire mountain hidden in a cave? don't worry about it, it's Ax Battler between the fights and this dungeon, it should be clear that the hitboxes and movement is a little funky that's part of the game's charm once you're used to it, it's very consistent, just maybe not what you'd expect when you first start
By now, you've probably noticed that Ax Battler exclusively uses a sword don't think about it too hard
Every bridge automatically triggers an encounter, often against one of the harder enemies in the area having extra damage to take on the bridges to lose the fight quickly can be very helpful
The bomb is used to detonate the mountain and get access to Firewood Village that's right, this town, on the other side of a river and mountain range is the village associated with the castle each town contains: an inn, a training hall, and a password hut the inn lets you exchange the magic vases you get for winning fights to heal fully the training hall lets you learn a new skill non-combat skills are essential to completing the game combat skills are essential because it's 100% but also because the game is miserable with only the base attack this town has the high jump, which greatly increases your jump height and makes it possible to get to a lot of otherwise inaccessible platforms
Magic Vases are gained for each victory In addition to inns, you can use them to do magic attacks good news is, these do a ton of damage bad news is, they use the start button, so you can't pause during fights/dungeons worst news is, they make the screen flash like crazy, so when there's a couple of these later, if possible provide an epilepsy/flashing lights warning
The second town is Turtle Village this is handy to visit to potentially set up a post-tower death warp (depending on health) it also contains the first new attack, which allows a full bar of damage instead of a half bar the attack and its hitbox are awful, but they do more damage there's a talking Chicken Leg / Axebeak monster here we won't be talking to them, this is a speedrun ((is talking to this worth an incentive? who knows, I like dumb little incentives))
The tower on the peninsula has the next item we need The tower is full of living statues, ghosts, and traps High jump is required to complete it The item is a crystal, which we're going to throw in the sea by Turtle village
The crystal is tossed into the sea, and summons a giant turtle! even better, the turtle is a dungeon nothing too fancy here, but the enemies sure are weird
This drops us off in the desert next to the town of Sand Marrow this town has the jump attack skill it's not super important, but it's 100%, and when it's handy, it's very handy
The desert (referred to as the Desert of Death) has a comically high encounter rate this is a great time for donations also a good time to try to figure out why there are so many animate skeletons, or why everyone is wearing fantasy bondage armor
The pyramid is interesting it's possible to go through it, and on the way encounter enemies that are unique to that area but what you really want to do is climb it There's a key in a treasure chest, that unlike the items prior to now, isn't actively used the next dungeon contains a door that is only open if the key is obtained
The next town is Southwood it has the very best attack in the game good damage, good hitbox, doesn't feel weird to execute this town has a port, that in any other game, we would get open again we will never see this port again, and will never take a ship into or out of it
The next dungeon is the cave if possible, it's best to go into here with 4 vases if you're confident in your timing, it saves time to change the magic to thunder (allows one cast to clear enemies instead of two) the cave has some very frustrating traps that require precise timing to destroy it also features water that changes your movement speed, and things that jump up out of it
Once clear of the cave, we have to walk to the next town a death at this point sends you back to Southwood, which would be unpleasant
The next town is Brookhill there's a required item here, the compass it's shockingly easy to forget the new skill here is tackle - it allows dashing and a dash attack during the dash attack you're invincible, so it can be pretty handy the dash attack only does a half bar of damage, though but it's needed to clear an obstacle on the mountain, so it's required either way
The forest is a really cruel dungeon some enemies have to be dash attacked, but other enemies take a full bar to kill and if you dash attack them, they'll get a free full bar attack on you if you don't have the compass, the forest dumps you back on the bridge i lost one run to this before I realized I needed to add the compass to my splits, personally
After the forest, there's a lone tree with a fruit how does everyone in this world not have scurvy if this is the only fruit and it's through a maze forest? after getting the fruit is an ideal time to death warp, rather than trek back to town
From here, we get a segment where two dungeons are required back to back
First, it's the mountain there's some cool jumps up through platforms here we also get to see the spot where tackle is required to break a wall at the top, if you don't have the fruit, you walk of screen and are at the foot of the mountain again if you have the fruit, you hold it up and summon the eagle, which takes you to a MUCH bigger eagle
This second area is on the back of a massive eagle flying through the sky the skeletons popping out of the platforms are jerks the shifting wind creates some unique challenges, but it's not terrible
After that, we're at the final overworld segment this area has 3 new, very tough enemies one of them, Death Adder is able to kill you in a single hit this is a major reason 100% is a category - there's an item that makes this so they just do a half bar damage instead worth noting, they are actually called Death Adder Jr in the Japanese version Death Adder has a loooot of kids
The final town is North Valley this has the coolest looking and most useless attack in the game for those familiar with the Golden Axe beat em ups, it's the jump downstab it's horrible to execute, usually leaves you vulnerable, and its generally the worst there are a couple enemies later that magic will be used to kill instead of this miserable tech This town is one of the main reasons 100% became a category in any%, there's no reason to ever come here that means, if you die, you go back to Brookhill, and your run is basically dead that's not very marathon safe, so yay for visiting North Valley worth noting, the the Japanese version, you have to enter the password hut to set your respawn point as this town
Before heading to the end, we need to grab a Magic Stone this is the item that makes Death Adders not an instant kill an old man in North Valley lost this, but I promise, he's okay with us keeping it he actually says as much if you stop back by and talk to him
From here, it's time for an overworld segment, a dungeon with instant death pits, more overworld, then the final castle
The ice cliffs are mean there are not only segments where if you fall due to a bad jump you die there are also segments where an avalanche can knock you off and segments over bottomless pits with moving platforms and to wrap it up, there's a section that you have to dash across and jump at just the right time, or you fall down to an area that's brutal to get back out of
The final castle is a lovely place where the floors and ceiling have spikes jut out at regular intervals fortunately, they also included a lot of moving platforms and platforms that don't have spikes, so that's nice each segement ends with a mirror to take you to the next segment one segment includes a moving cloud that a mistake results in you being back at the start there's also a segment that starts behind a waterfall where a mirror will try to show up and send you back to an earlier portion in the waterfall segment, there's a narrow waterfall that you can hang out in to jump up through a floor - everyone loves speedrun tech, haha one of the last segments has platforms with spikes on the bottom they kind of look like they have angry faces? not sure what that's about the very last jump is miserable - the window for it is narrow, and you have to account for the spikes coming and going
[time end]
After all of this, we're treated to a horrific boss fight! that's a lie the game ends as it started - with text on a black screen that reminds us how awesome Ax Battler is
For the end credits, we get the best song in the game our eagle bro gives us a ride back to the start, and everyone that we never talked to comes out of the towns to cheer us shoutouts to PP Chung/Psychadelic Chung - this music is so good
And that is Ax Battler!
