Astyanax is an action game released by Jaleco in 1989 The game takes place in an ancient time when a dark force of demons has invaded the world. The whole human being lives in fear of the demonic raging. Under this situation, God entrusted the earth to Roche, a brave young man. He was bestowed with the highest weapon a fire ax with great attack power. With the gift of weapons, he quickly begins the journey to search for the Castle of Algerine, the hiding place of the dark lord. Here, he must defeat the demon king Argos to bring peace to the world.
Players will control Roche through six stages, in turn, to search for the Castle of Algerine. His stamina and magic power are displayed on the screen. Roche is taken to a forest to begin his journey. He must attack all enemies in the forest with his fire ax battle. By moving left, right and jumping high, he will evade attacks from enemies. Also, throwing an ax while jumping can stun enemies for a short time. Roche will pass the floors of the forest and attack the boss that appears at the end of the stage. The enemy appearing at the end of this first stage is a dinosaur with the ability to stealth and attack him in the air. When attacked by Roche, its body will split into many different monsters. Flexible moves will help him easily defeat that dinosaur.
The stages in the game are linked together through a mysterious passage. Roche will explore a cave with many enemies who are monsters with different shapes. Some traps that are randomly placed in the forest can cause the player to die when colliding with them. At the end of this period, a monster with stone armor will stop Roche. It repeatedly fired large boulders forcing him to step back for safety. Roche continuously jumped high and attacked directly at the enemy. When the armor is broken, it will appear to form a dangerous monster. This phase required Roche’s quick reflexes when attacking and defending. A subsequent cave with many lava pits will appear in the third phase of the game. His enemies are still monsters but they are hard to destroy and move faster.
After passing five stages in turn, Roche will come to the final stage with the demon king Argos as a giant dragon with the ability to shoot flames from his mouth. He must quickly break the gem in front of the dragon’s chest so that it cannot attack. Roche completed his mission when the dragon at the final stage was destroyed.
