So, this thread was kind of old, but making new threads is a big hassle. I recently played through this game for the first time in about 15 years, and it's actually kind of fun. I thought it might be even more fun to optimize. Many of the items in the game are not needed for completion, and there's very little scavenging for "Spirit Points" (money), so I thought this might turn out to be not so boring. In fact, I did a crappy little test run, and I made it to the entrance of the Demon's Lair in about 13 minutes, so this game could probably be completed in about 20 minutes or so.
A few comments and explanations:
-As far as I can tell, you only need a piece of fruit to hurt the Demon (the final boss). You can't reach him with a pear, but you can with a pomegranete, which has the second worst range (pear being the worst).
-The Sword of the Spirit is not necessary for completion. It would be absolute suicide without it in an un-tool-assisted run, though. It's main uses are to uncover a huge shortcut in the Demon's Lair, and it's the only thing that can hurt some of the enemies in the Demon's Lair.
-The Raft is not necessary for completion, and so neither is the Jawbone. That means you don't need to kill dudes in the street for 10 minutes trying to acquire 195 spirit points. The only advantage to the raft is that you could get the Sword of the Spirit. The jawbone is only useful to get the raft. Therefore, neither is necessary.
-The Helmet and Shield merely eliminate damage you take, so they aren't needed. Although I ran into problems with not having the Helmet, as you will see (if you watch the run).
-This run is purely a test to see if the route would work, and probably half of it was played in real time, which should be readily noticeable. So there's stuff like walking into walls, missing shots, etc.
-This game also has an "End Game" option, which is similar to Metroid's. If you choose End Game, you're given a password and the option to continue or end. If you choose continue, you start with three hearts (Zelda style) at the entrance to whatever region you're in (Park, Shipyard, Downtown, etc.). This is very useful, especially when I have to backtrack after getting the Boots. However, if you're inside a building, or on top of a building (like when I'm getting the Breastplate), it transports you to the last door you entered, or something. It's not real consistent, but I do know that it wasn't helpful in those cases.
-I have no idea what ROM I used, it was just called spiritual_warfare.nes. I do know that it's version 6.1, though, because that's what it says on the title screen. I'll get a less vague one in the future. Sorry.
Basically, the route is:
-Get pear (Park)
-Get Belt of Truth (Park)
-Get key (Downtown)
-Get Breastplate [use key] (Downtown)
-Get key (Downtown)
-Get Boots [use key] (Warehouse)
-Get key (Downtown)
-Buy grapes (Prison)
-Beat game
However, I ran into some trouble, as I'll either need four more heart containers, or the Helmet to protect me from explosions. Otherwise, I can't enter the Demon's Lair, because of the forced TNT explosion right at the entrance. There are three heart containers that aren't too far out of the way, so I think what will happen is that I'll have to pick up those up. Also, I might just get a pomegranete instead of the grapes, but I'll figure that out once I actually make it inside the Demon's Lair.
Any comments are welcome. If you think you have a better way of doing something, let me know; I'm not really an expert in this game.
Here's the test run, up until I could go no further (at the entrance to Demon's Lair):
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/2011/Spiritual%20Warfare.fcm
