The Let's Play Archive
Part 11: Wanpaku Graffiti Missed Information
Kaboom Dragoon posted:
All this, and the thing I forgot to mention in the playthrough was what 'Wanpaku' actually means: for the record, it means 'naughty', as in mischievous or rascally 
Choco1980 posted:
Well, let's see what I can do with spotting things this time around. For the record, I love this installment because it's so out there and wacky. Plus, monstas
Anyways, to clarify, if you get the "good" ending, you learn that this game is a prequel to the first/arcade installment, not a sequel. But we'll get to that I'm sure. Mighty Final Fight on the other hand came out like, 3rd in the series for it's set, and I'm pretty sure it's non-canonical. Whether or not this game is with its series is unknown.
Also, I'd like to point out that the graves that included Rick and the Pumpkin King (I have no idea where he's supposed to be from. Monster Party had a similar boss early on) are numbered like apartments. Rick's is "F. 13" Friday, perhaps?
As said, I hope I don't have to explain what's going on with the red-jacketed first mini-boss.
Those little flying things outside the house are hitodama. In Japanese folklore they're what people's souls turn into when they die. A sort of ghost. They're little floating balls of fire. I suspect they were from the same phenomenon we in the west call "Will o' the wisps".
Am I the only one thinking the hands inside the house might be a reference to Evil Dead 2? There are, of course, many other horror movies about severed hands coming to life, though usually it's either some sort of trick on the severee, or a delusion of their own. The earliest I can think of being "Mad Love" with Peter Lorre, and is very much worth your time.
As far as the doll boss goes, it's got references aplenty. You guys were right to notice the Exorcist gag. Did you think about the doll boss in the newer game? Also I think Poltergeist is an obvious one here. Also perhaps it's possible they are referencing one of the killer doll movies from the era. There's Dolls, the Charles Band film that would serve as the prototype for his future Puppet Master series, and then there's Dolly Dearest, which is sort of a girl's Child's Play type film, and the cover/poster featured the doll grimacing at the viewer in the same posture as the doll in the game. Who knows.
The spiders could just be spiders, in fact that's likely. I kinda am reminded of facehuggers a little though, but that's probably my imagination.
The figure in the door is very familiar looking to me but I just can't place it. My first guess was the "Beyond the Door" (not really) series, but that doesn't have a figure standing in it. 
As far as the chicken boss, this one's driving me crazy, as I remember a movie from then that involved a poltergeist throwing everything in a kitchen around, including sending the cooked bird out of the oven to attack, but I can't remember what it was. Clive Barker's "The Yattering and Jack" has a similar scene and was adapted for Tales From the Darkside, but I doubt that's it. I recall flying knives from the 86 movie House as well--which I have a strong unproven theory that others share that Dr. Chaos started as an nes adaptation of that movie. Also, finally for this point, around 5 years back Troma made a movie entitled Poultrygeist, a musical about a fried chicken joint opening over a Native American burial ground, resulting in chicken-human zombie hybrids.
The last observation to make is again grasping at straws, but a giant mama rat getting revenge for you killing her babies makes me think first of the 80's anthology film Nightmares, which has an installment with just such a plot. (it's also the one with Emilio Estevez fighting The Bishop of Battle)
That's all I have for this installment though
SoylentG posted:
The "doll" boss didn't tickle my horror-movie senses, but reminded me of Nuke-kubi: In japanese folklore, Nuke-kubi are women under a curse that causes their head to detach from their bodies when they sleep, flying around and causing mischief.
Drakli posted:
Say, weren't those maids wind up dolls?
That reminds me of an enemy in one of the Ganbare Goemon games. There's an old master who runs an entire clan of robot ninjas he invented. One of the enemies in his stage in one of the Famicom/SNES games is a robot maid who's only attack is tripping and spilling her tea on you.
Seem like a weird coincidence, since the Goemon games were done by Konami, not Namco or Bandai.
Then again, clumsy maids are kind of a thing in Japan. Also, robot maids.
Seyser Koze posted:
Here's those umbrella youkai. Probably better known to geeks as Kogasa Tatara from Touhou 12. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa-obake
EDIT: And the feet sticking out of the lake is a reference to a famous murder mystery about a backstabbing family picking one another off over an inheritance or some such. The name escapes me at the moment. EDIT x2: It's The Inugami Family, you can see a trailer of a movie adaptation here. The relevant split-second image is at around the 40-second mark. I think it's been remade since then.
Seyser Koze posted:
The Japanese toilet god is Kanbari (who made an appearance in a couple of recent Shin Megami Tensei games). The toilet creatures might also be a reference to the movie Ghoulies, but at this point I'm seriously just googling "horror movie toilet" and posting whatever pops up.
