Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a 2021 remake of Monster World IV for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows. It is the third remake in the Wonder Boy series after Wonder Boy Returns in 2016 and Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap in 2017.

Plot
Asha, a young woman is standing atop a cliff face in the villager of Estafan when she senses someone calling for help. She is interrupted in her thoughts when her father comes to collect her stating everyone is waiting for her. It is the day she sets out on her journey to become a warrior.

To prove herself a warrior she must travel to the Tower of Silence, activating it with the orb of Courage. Whilst there she has to overcome various combat trials defeating mummies, pig monsters, wolf monsters, one eyed oni climbing chains, activating platforms and avoiding spike traps.

After defeating the Centipede Woman who guards the tower, Asha obtains a magic lamp, which contains a Lamp Spirit, who informs her he will now serve her and transports her to the Kingdom's capital, Rapadagna. Asha goes to meet Queen Praprill XIII who welcomes her and bestows upon her the title of Warrior.

No sooner has Asha obtained her new title then she is assigned the task to save the four spirits that protect the land. Clouds of darkness and monsters are beginning to over take over the land, and Asha is sent to go and save the Earth Spirit first.

Going to the castle's treasure room she recieves a mysterious golden egg which she places at the statues of the gods. The egg wobbles back and forth, jumps around the plateau and then hatches into a tiny blue creature who can fly with his ears known as Pepelogoo.

Adopting this tiny creature, Asha sets out to save the Earth Spirit...

Gameplay
The player takes control of Asha. From the beginning Asha is capable of using a sword and shield. She can bounce off of enemies using the blade when jumping atop them, or perform simple sword swipe attacks to finish enemies off.

After completing the Tower of Silence however, Asha obtains Pepelogoo, a blue creature that flys with it's ears and is useful for puzzle solving. Pepelogoo is immune to extreme temperatures and can be useful for blocking dropping fire blocks, riding atop lava, or freezing into an ice block to create a platform for Asha to get to higher ledges.

Asha can also call Pepelogoo, allowing her to double jump and glide with him. Over time Pepelogoo will grow bigger, allowing Asha to perform slightly different actions with him.

Asha herself starts off with three hearts although this can be upgraded by collecting ten  'Life Drops'.

Asha is also capable of equipping new Swords, Shields and Bracelets, each of which will affect her stats in some way. One bracelet for example will upgrade her base hearts from three to seven, and some shields grant elemental resistances.

To restore health Asha can use her elixirs if in a dungeon or heal herself at a statue by praying to the gods.

Unlike in the original title, the player can now save from any place in the menu. There is no autosave function however, even after the completion of a dungeon, and it must be manually done.

Trivia

 * The physical release comes with the original Monster World IV.
 * The Sage of Save still pops up in this game to give you sagely advice although he laments that since players can now save from any place he is out of a job. Talking to him no longer saves the game, so players MUST save manually from the menu to avoid losing progress.