Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus Boss Fight Playthrough to the Ending: Defeating Yokai with Aerial Combat and Daruma

The story begins with the protagonist suddenly falling from the heavens. While exploring the surroundings, they meet a fox named Asahi, who treats them to a tea that draws out the protagonist's power. After that, the protagonist becomes able to attack by transforming their earring.

The first boss is Kiri-Kiri Bozu, where you learn the basics of combat. According to the streamer, the main battlefield in this game is the air. Landing an aerial attack lets you double jump, so by continuing to land hits you can stay in the air and keep fighting. Your combo count rises with each attack, and while the streamer says it "isn't a particularly meaningful number," they note that it feels good.

Next, since a monster's eye is needed as an ingredient for the tea, the protagonist heads deep into a cave and fights a giant insect-like boss, the "Enraged Tamanomushi." The streamer says that fighting an enemy in a dim, cave-like setting with this system felt "pretty much like a Japanese-style Hollow Knight." Because the controls feel good and the game is carefully crafted down to the details, they recommend that people who like this kind of 2D action give it a try.

A new action is also added at this point. You become able to grab things like incoming projectiles and throw them back, and in this fight, by grabbing the objects the rampaging boss drops and hitting the boss with them, you can dodge and attack at the same time. The streamer mentions up front that they'll rely on this action right up until the very end.

The other new element is the "Daruma." Using a Daruma lets you unleash a special technique, but because it has a cost, it's positioned as a big move you can't spam.

To head to the central city called the Sakura Capital, the protagonist tries to cross the bridge leading to the capital. There, the yokai Hashihime attacks.

Hashihime's weak points are the red flames lit on her head, but they're too high to reach as is. So first you deflect the enemy's attack, then strike what comes out of it to launch yourself into the air. The streamer explains that once you get up high, you can keep hopping from one of the enemy's weak points to the next and keep hitting them.

Here, the Daruma mechanics are explained in detail. Stringing together consecutive attacks in the air fills the gauge on the left of the screen, and when it's full, your next Daruma attack is powered up. In other words, the basic flow is "build up the gauge and unleash a Daruma." The Daruma equipped at this point flies straight sideways, so it's best to fire it so that it passes through both weak points in a straight line.

The streamer is impressed that the Daruma gives combat a sense of rhythm, keeping it from becoming a matter of just hitting nonstop and making it more fun. There are apparently eight types of Daruma in total, and they also like that it seems you'll be able to change your combat style going forward. Partway through the fight the bridge is destroyed, and the protagonist kept attacking the weak points while dodging the giant flames Hashihime hurls, defeating her.

Upon arriving at the Sakura Capital, the protagonist gets their Daruma maintained at the Daruma shop, receives upgrades at the tea room, and eats ramen at the ramen shop. After enjoying a tour of the capital, they climb the western mountain and visit the beetles' dojo.

The opponent here is Kabuto Yokozuna, the most skilled of the beetles. As befits a yokozuna, the early part of the fight is on the ground, but from the middle onward the stage shifts to the air. You latch on with aerial attacks, soar upward, and fight while dodging incoming balls and keeping a delicate distance. The streamer praises it as a fun aerial battle that looks easy but actually demands surprisingly precise control. The feeling of continuously landing combos in midair is extremely exhilarating, and they say having fights like this is one of the real joys of the game.

The final stretch returns to ground combat. Since attacks from the ground force you to keep your distance, the protagonist finished things off by roasting the boss with the new Daruma they'd just had maintained.

On the way to the next area, the protagonist learns a new technique and becomes able to enter and exit pipe-like structures. The Jorogumo fight is built around using these pipes.

You're invincible while entering and exiting a pipe. Also, depending on the height at which you enter, you can shoot out high from the exit as well, which you use to launch aerial attacks. In this fight, the boss also uses Daruma, periodically summoning spinning Daruma. The streamer says they're surprisingly powerful, so don't forget to keep them spinning.

Partway through, the boss starts periodically putting up a barrier on her head. On the ceiling are threads with bombs hanging from them, and leaping onto one drops the bomb. Hitting the boss with it breaks the barrier. You avoid the pillars of fire by going in and out of the pipes.

Through this fight, the streamer comments on the game's combat as follows: rather than fine-grained back-and-forth clashes, it gives the impression of having plenty of big battles that make use of the stage. At the same time, delicate control is required in the air, so both the micro and the macro are well made. After defeating Jorogumo, the protagonist rescues the captive groom and is invited to the wedding.

While strolling around the wedding venue, the protagonist is, for some reason, picked on by Kitsura, the shrine fox, and ends up fighting. By this point, they had upgraded their weapon with materials found while exploring, significantly increasing their damage. Because of this, they say they reached the second form right away. The streamer says they felt that upgrades from completionism and exploration are one of the real joys of this kind of Metroidvania.

In the second form, the boss floats up and it becomes an aerial battle. Using conveniently appearing footholds to leap up all at once, they aimed for the head as usual and won.

The protagonist undergoes a trial at the tengu's dwelling and fights the tengu trio. The streamer jokes while fighting that "with three opponents, you get three times the hitboxes—what a deal."

This fight reveals the story's background. The world is threatened by a monster called Gashadokuro, and defeating it has been the tengu clan's long-cherished wish. The protagonist, who appeared on the scene, is regarded as a ray of hope, and their power is being tested. The streamer says it's unwelcome to have heavy expectations placed on them without their say, but they're fine with it since they get to beat up lots of strong enemies.

After a while of hitting them, the two underlings exit, leaving only the boss. From here, the attack patterns change and he goes into serious mode. With the number of opponents to hit dropping from three to one, there are fewer openings to counterattack, making things a hassle. The streamer jokes that in manga and the like there are scenes where someone says "Come at me all at once," and that they were saying it because it really is easier that way. They also say that crow tengu strongly bring Touhou Project to mind, and that the boss's movements felt very much "true to character" in that sense.

Returning to the Sakura Capital, the protagonist finds Gashadokuro rampaging. The device that had been built by the Shogun and Asahi and had brought eternal prosperity to the capital is destroyed as well.

With the help of the crow tengu, the protagonist climbs all the way to Gashadokuro's head and gets inside it. Placing the talisman as planned defeated it in one shot.

Here it's revealed that this Gashadokuro had been deliberately assembled by Asahi in order to destroy the device. The streamer sums it up by saying there seems to have been a lot of turmoil among the higher-ups too.

The Sakura Shogun, ruler of the Sakura Capital, had chosen to stand by and watch even in this situation. Here, the protagonist comes face to face with the Shogun. While the Shogun is a dedicated ruler devoted to the capital's prosperity, he is also someone whose tyrannical behavior—such as burning neighboring villages to obtain fuel for the device—had become intolerable. The streamer explains that the game's story is about being guided by Asahi, who felt righteous indignation at this, to bring down the Sakura Shogun.

The final boss fight against the Sakura Shogun features a great many form changes, and you must overcome six phases in total.

After the first phase ends, the battlefield changes, and you enter the second phase, fought in a place similar to an earlier boss fight. However, he doesn't recreate that boss's attacks; he simply presses you with powerful attacks of his own. The clone technique doesn't disappear until you hit the real one. The streamer says that, as a final boss fight that recreates previously visited places, it has a flavor slightly similar to Chrono Trigger. After the fire attack he does an annoying move where he becomes invincible, but you can skip it if you finish him off before then.

In the third phase, the stage returns to the first battlefield. This attack is surprisingly annoying to deal with normally, but the invincibility frames on the midair plunging attack were very useful, they say. The streamer notes that they were saved by the exact same tactic as in Hollow Knight working here. Many of the enemy's actions on this battlefield are easy to handle and the patterns are quite limited, so the streamer views it as a sort of breather.

The fourth phase is an ice stage that crumbles when touched. The streamer calls it "the most fun stage of the final boss fight," while also describing it as "a hellish place" where you can't stay in one spot, other gimmicks are scarce, and icicles periodically fall from the ceiling. They broke through it quickly, finishing four of the six phases.

The fifth phase is once again the first battlefield. Although the same attack patterns seem to continue, the number of attacks increases subtly with each phase, making it a surprisingly nasty phase. The homing attack in particular has a vastly different number of hits than at the start, and if you dodge it the same way as before, you're likely to fail. Since the attack lasts a long time, the streamer advises taking a longer run-up than usual. His other actions are almost unchanged.

In the final sixth phase, the terrain changes significantly, but the attack flow of projectiles, clones, and fire remains the same. However, there are a great many clones, so you use the throwback action learned early on to throw projectiles back and attack. This easily reduces their numbers and lets you hit the real one as well. It's a stage with few footholds, but updrafts are blowing, so you can fly indefinitely. After dodging the fire attack is your chance to attack, and here the Sakura Shogun was defeated.

After reaching the ending, the streamer looks back on the game as a whole. While it's a game whose hand-drawn-style art tends to grab attention, they felt that the delicate sound design throughout is also pleasant, giving it a strange charm that somehow puts the mind at ease. They also felt considerable care in the difficulty along the way, and conclude that they enjoyed it immensely to the very end as a rewarding action game.