A recent update from a bootleg ROM dumping site included a few new bootleg ROM dumps by bootleg game publisher Li Cheng. Among the latest batch of dumped games was Zook Hero Z, the predecessor game to
Rockman DX3/Zook Hero 2, and one of the earlier games developed by Vast Fame. (Note that Li Cheng released it as "洛克人DX6, or "Rockman DX6" in Chinese, but the game is still widely known as either "Zook Hero Z" or "Zook Z"). Zook Hero 2 has had a few dumps, but Zook Hero Z had no released and working ROM dump until recently. As with other Vast Fame games, it is a legitimately decent game and has a pretty good soundtrack. (More information about the game itself
here).
From what I've gathered from a brief testing session with the game, gameplay is functionally practically identical to Zook Hero 2, down to having the exact same movement tricks that made the "all stages" run of the latter game so much fun. I'll be doing some more testing with this game later.
EDIT: After a day of testing, this is the route I devised. As with Rockman DX3, the bosses don't have any actual names, so in my notes they're just named after their basic element or defining feature. From left to right/top to bottom, the bosses in order are, as I call them, Cannon, Earth, Ice, Grass, Water and Fire.
EDIT2: Fixed route as per
this post
- Cannon ~ Foot Upgrade
- Earth ~ Boss
- Water ~ Hand Upgrade
- Grass ~ Boss
- Water ~ Boss
- Fortress 1
- Fortress 2
- Fortress 3
- Cannon ~ Boss
- Earth ~ Head Upgrade
- Fire ~ Body Upgrade
- Ice ~ Boss
- Fire ~ Boss
- Fortress 4
- Fortress 5
- Fortress 6
- Fortress 7
- Fortress 8
- Fortress 9
Yes, the game has a total of 9 fortress stages. You automatically enter the first three after defeating three bosses. Then, after defeating six bosses and collecting all four upgrades, you automatically enter the final six fortress stages.
Some routing notes:
- The Foot Upgrade is supposed to be obtained in Cannon's stage by using the Grass weapon, but it is possible to abuse movement to go past the camera and out of bounds exactly as in the Rockman DX3 run. I get the Foot Upgrade first because it has no other prerequisites and it can save some frames in movement.
- The most important thing in the route is the Hand upgrade, which allows charging Zook's weapons for extra damage. Using a charged shot of a weapon a boss is weak to allows one to do 4 damage per hit and defeat them in 4 hits as a result, which is a major timesaver. (To compare: regular weapon shots do 1 damage, charged regular weapon shots do 2, or 3 with the Arm upgrade; most boss weapons do 2 damage, 3 when charged, and do one point extra if it's the boss' weakness.)
- Speaking of which - this game has actual weaknesses for bosses, unlike Rockman DX3. However, of the 9 bosses that count as main bosses that have weaknesses (the six main Robot Masters, and the Fortress bosses in Fortress 4, 5 and 6), 6 of them are weak to Water, 2 to Grass and one to Fire. The other weapons have no bosses that are weak to them, and sub-bosses (any in-stage minibosses, and all Fortress bosses except the aforementioned ones) have no weakness weapons.
- The Earth weapon is needed to destroy a block to access the Hand upgrade, and due to how the stage is laid out, this cannot be bypassed. Thus, Earth is fought first to the Hand upgrade can be obtained thereafter.
- Next up, we need a weapon that bosses are actually weak to, and a weapon to effectively defeat sub-bosses for the Fortress stage. The best weapon against sub-bosses is charged Ice (actually charged Grass, but it consumes just a bit too much ammo to defeat a 50-HP miniboss without running out). Ice is, for some reason, weak to Water, so Water is done first and Ice next. (Annoyingly, this means the Water stage is done twice in succession, which might come across as boring or repetitive. Oh well, can't really help it here.)
- After the three Fortress stages, we have 3 bosses left to defeat: Fire, Grass and Cannon. Cannon is weak to Grass and Grass is weak to Fire, so there's only one optimal order to use boss weapons on them. The two remaining upgrades, which do not really have much benefit in the stages, are pretty much interspersed between the boss-fighting stage runs. The only rule is to end with a boss last, as with all bosses defeated but not having collected all upgrades, a small cutscene appears with Dr. Steve telling Zook to get all the upgrades, which costs a small bit of time. Aside of that, of note is that the Head Upgrade should require the Cannon, but which can be bypassed, and the Body upgrade requires Ice which cannot be bypassed - however, I already have Ice by that point anyway.
- The remaining Fortress stages follow. Note that the three Fortress bosses in 4, 5 and 6 are all weak to Water. Apparently water bubbles are very deadly weapons.
- Fortress 8 is of note as it contains the traditional boss rush. (A cutscene with Dr. Steve actually explains this, stating that Dr. Mitt "repaired his robots").
- Fortress 9 contains a two-phase final boss, and defeating it triggers a cutscene that signifies the game as completed.
