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- Naju Data Dump -
Fan-made lore and random junk on The Guardian Legend's many parts

WARNING: Data corrupted. Attempting restoration of files...
Text file size is very large - long infodump should be expected.
(in other words, wall of text up ahead)

Naju Surface Defense Grid

Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!

That's exactly how many sirens you get before getting face to face with the boss. You've bypassed everything that threatened you so far - asteroids, fighters, asteroids that spawn in a circle out of thin air, circle things that never seem to die, and turrets - and you're itching for a challenge. The boss of today: the defense grid. Hi there... okay, you're creeping us out, that's too many mechanical eyes staring at us today.

Although no points will be given to originality for this thing (oh come on, turrets? Every shmup has those), it certainly is a good start for the game, especially when it comes to the feel of the bosses. Naju's surface defense grid is a cluster of eleven [11] large turrets and four [4] small turrets. Each of them starts off spitting out one or two energy shards once every fourth opening with each one having its own blinking point. Although for all intents and purposes one can dodge these things pretty easily, it's either it will wear you down or you're inexperienced, so eventually you'll be in trouble...

...unless one actually bothers to shoot the bullets. This is the first point when it comes to The Guardian Legend's bosses, and maybe the whole game as well: you can destroy the bullets, one way or another. This turns the fight from a stream-fest to a shoot-fest where it's kind of like just fighting spawners spitting out infinite glowing things and dodging the occasional stray that manages to get through. Of course, even with that, at some point you're going to end up damaged, and one can only take so much punishment from the stage - which, mind you, is quite intense for a first stage - and the boss with only eight [8] hearts to spare, and with each shot taking away half a heart...

...wait, what are those glowing explosion-like things doing? Yep, that's the second point: anything that can be destroyed can spawn power-ups. It's random: sometimes you get a blue chip, sometimes a red chip, sometimes a heart, sometimes a tank-thing (which brings you from almost dead to full and has a new sound with it, as you find out later). So not only can you destroy the enemy's shots, you can also get stuff from them and the turrets that die. That's a definite change of pace from the usual shmup - it's already starting to look like someone put an RPG in a shooter here.

Anyways, destroy the turrets, and you find out that as the turrets explode one by one, the rest start firing faster to compensate.. Unfortunately for them, though, that's the best they can do - they can't regain the wide angle of attack that they had -  and eventually there will be a lone turret pathetically firing one or two bullets at you every opening. While you can destroy it and move on, it's a bit more interesting, though tedious, to sit in the right spot, leave something on the B button, and watch as every single last shot gets eaten up - oh, and each bullet is worth score.

Speaking of score, you probably got a refill along with a +1 to maximum health as you hit 30,000 points. Okay, now combine that with the farm you just made out of the lone turret, and do the math. No, not really: the intervals increase each time a milestone is reached, so eventually it gets a bit boring. Besides, the powerups still exist, and since the NES doesn't delete stacking powerups and does have an object limit, you're gonna have to collect something sooner or later when the turret decides to stop spitting.

Eventually, though, that last turret ends up dead, the screen flashes, a nice ditty plays and you move on. Hoo-hah, Corridor 0 complete!

Fun fact: I died twice to it the first time I played the game. Guess sometimes even wimpy bosses best you, yeah?

Oh, and this is the only time those turret sprites will appear in the game, ever. Enjoy them while they last: you won't see them ever again. Especially the larger ones: their corner-opening scheme is a nice change of pace. Plus, they kind of resemble the Protoss Photon Cannon (Starcraft reference, ho!).

Just sampling my write-ups for... pretty much everything in the game. I'll be making more if you approve.

[UserK]

That's quite some dump man!

[Quoise Games]

we approve

[Blob2779]

It's random: sometimes you get a blue chip, sometimes a red chip, sometimes a heart, sometimes a tank-thing

Fun fact, item drops aren't random, they run on a completely predictable cycle, which can be found in its entirety here http://bombch.us/TUv .  Therefore the current speedrun strategy for the first boss is to make 3 powerups spawn, increment the counter a few more times (so the spawn comes sooner), then the next 2 powerups will be hearts, allowing you to be extra aggressive.  It is helpful to know throughout the game though.

(Disclaimer: I didn't discover or make any of this, the chart was made by ZakkyDraggy, I don't know if he was the first person to document the cycle.  There's a fair bit of information around, and if I create a speed-running topic I'll probably try to pull what info I can together here, but I'll wait a bit on that.)

[arseniy]

That's awesome! And who is ZakkyDraggy? Can he join here?

[Blob2779]

That's awesome! And who is ZakkyDraggy? Can he join here?

He's an ex-tgl 100% speedrunner (and a speedrunner of other stuff).  I assume that most people who are heavy into researching TGL info must know that this place exists.  If he didn't join while he was running TGL, he probably won't now. 

Sadly, nowhere is actually established enough to be a primary source of info, with good info/knowledgeable people being split between here, gamefaqs, and the speedrun and tool assisted run forums (and likely more places I don't even know about, and who knows what the Japanese fanbase knows that I don't).  I can't really change where information is discovered or posted, but I can help spread the information to the more general fanbase, and perhaps by doing that, may gain access to new information. 

[deepshock]

I saw his work. 53 minutes is pretty nice. I practiced for a speedrun of it before (because it'd require only a minimum of advanced stuff and I was new to the practice), but I ended up really busy over the rest of the year.

[Blob2779]

53 minutes is theseawolf1, the any% runner, he still runs from time to time, but afaik is very busy.