Densetsu no Stafy (Legend of Starfy) is the first game in The Legendary Starfy series.
One peaceful day in the floating kingdom of Pufftop, the young prince Starfy is carrying some treasure when he accidentally drops a mysterious jar into the ocean. Suddenly, a huge storm brews, blowing Starfy off of Pufftop and into a cave in the ocean below. He is awoken by the wise Old Man Lobber, who hears his situation and advises Starfy on how to make his way back home. Along the way, Starfy encounters multiple denizens of the sea, while also being opposed by the being that was released from the jar—the evil eel sorcerer Ogura.
Originally conceptualized in 1995 as a "floaty platformer", the game's directors, Hitoshi Yamagami of Nintendo and Yasuhiro Minamimoto of TOSE, went through a few concepts before landing on the character of Stafy, a starlike creature that would largely swim underwater. The game was planned to be released for the Game Boy, but would move to the Game Boy Color and finally the Game Boy Advance throughout the course of its development. The game's success in Japan led to a desire from TOSE to localize it elsewhere, but Nintendo's belief that the game had too many references to Japanese culture to bring it outside its home country kept it from receiving an international release.
Densetsu no Stafy has received two Fan Translations, still both works in progress, the more well-known one being by Torchickens and providing the game's characters with unofficially translated Fan Nicknames. The game, along with the next two in the series, was also rereleased in 2015 for the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan.
This game contains examples of:
- Blackout Basement:
- The Deep Sea can get quite dark. Thankfully, Starfy can hit Lytes to make it easier to see.
- One section of the Sea of Sky is a different variant of this; the room is normally pitch-black, but occasional flashes of lightning from Crabolt will illuminate it. You have to make your way around the room using the lightning to guide you.
- The Chosen One: According to the prophecy found in the Undersea Temple, a particular hero is destined to defeat Ogura—at least for the time being. Moe, naturally, assumes that it must be him, though it predictably turns out to be Starfy.
- Doomed Hometown: The final level in the game is Pufftop Castle, having been raided by Ogura. Within it, you have to bring several lost children to safety while avoiding Ogura's surveillance.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game has several differences from most of the other games:
- Each world has only one large level instead of several smaller ones.
- Instead of new levels unlocking on the second playthrough, new areas are unlocked in the existing levels. (Brought back in the fourth game.)
- The Ultra Star Spin and one of the transformations (Kigurumi) aren't available until the second playthrough.
- Dialogue happens in a separate screen using busts. In later games (except the fifth game), dialogue happens in the level using normal sprites.
- Starfy's victory dance happens in the boss arena rather than on a separate screen.
- The transformation sections never have shortcut doors that let you skip them when replaying the level.
- When killing enemies consecutively, the fourth one gives one Pearl instead of two.
- Starfy starts the game with the Glide rather than learning it.
- The sound effects for low health and dizziness are different.
- Some features from later games are missing entirely: the shop, costumes, transformation upgrades, and a few of Starfy's signature moves (Duck, Double Jump, and Shooting Star).
- Characterization is much more flat and one-note than later games; of note, Moe has next to no redeeming qualities and Ogura is a fairly generic villain, contrasting with their more developed characters later in the series.
- Evil Knockoff: Doppel to Starfy, who looks kind of like the heroic starfish aside from having a greenish tint and big yellow eyes. He even has a spin attack of his own…kinda. He was created by Ogura, and rants about destroying Starfy in his dialogue.
- Faint in Shock: Moe faints when Dolfy (who he thought was a ghost) scares him in the Sunken Ship.
- Floating Water: Found in the Sea of Sky.
- Flying on a Cloud: Flychu is a mouse that literally drives around a cloud. Said cloud also spits out projectiles to attack during her boss battle.
- Gangplank Galleon: The Sunken Ship stage, a haunted shipwreck. Its boss is Boctopus, a pirate octopus.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Ogura is one in his first appearance here, in contrast to his next two. He doesn't display any clear motivations behind his villainous actions other than simply wanting to conquer Pufftop.
- Harmless Freezing: Boerun freezes the Jellato Sisters in blocks of ice, requiring Starfy to melt the ice in a hot spring. Naturally, they're just fine once they're thawed out.
- Here We Go Again!: Just before the credits, Moe asks for a reward for saving Pufftop. Starfy goes to get him some of the castle's treasure...and knocks all of it into the ocean. When Papa Star finds out, he instructs them to go retrieve it before they can get a reward, and Moe begins chasing Starfy around Pufftop angrily. They accidentally run into Ogura's jar, causing it to fall and releasing him once again.
- Is It Something You Eat?: The Pufftop children have no idea who Ogura is, and one thinks that it's the name of a candy. Another thinks that his name refers to a kind of toy.
- Jerkass: Pretty much all of the stage bosses count, though a few stand out due to not really having reasons to do what they do other than to just be jerks for the heck of it.
- Bankiross, the boss of the Stranded Whale, a spiky dinosaur-like creature who entered the Whale's mouth just to cause her pain from the inside.
- Boerun, the boss of the Sea of Ice, who tried to take over the area for himself and froze the Jellato Sisters in blocks of ice when they attempted to fight back.
- Blantern and their lackeys from the Deep Sea, who steal the Tone of Ocean instrument from Wozart—not so they can use it for any purpose, but just to keep it away from him.
- Moe also counts, as his personality isn't as fleshed out here as it would later become, and is depicted as merely an arrogant jerk who takes credit for all of Starfy's victories and won't do anything for the good of others if he doesn't get something out of it as well. His sole soft spot is his crush on Ruby, though she doesn't even make it to Morality Pet status.
- Level in the Clouds: The Sea of Sky, the penultimate stage of the game where Starfy battles three of Ogura's strongest minions.
- Make My Monster Grow: Ogura enlarges Doppel just before Starfy's battle with him.
- New Game Plus: The game's second playthrough sees Starfy going through new areas in each level in order to collect the 45 treasure chests that he dropped. You also have to fight Ogura again at the very end of the playthrough, though it won't be considered complete until you collect all the treasure.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Starfy himself is the one responsible for setting Ogura loose at the start of the game, by accidentally dropping his jar into the ocean. And, just before the New Game Plus, doing it again!
- No Power, No Color: When you meet the Antibuddies in the Whale's body, they're pale gray due to being weak and out of energy. Feeding them a cake will restore their energy and turn them back to their brightly colored selves.
- One-Winged Angel: Ogura actually has three forms, though you get to save between fighting each one.
- You initially fight him in his basic form, where he attacks by spitting out whirlpools that slowly roam the stage. To counterattack, you have to push him into them.
- His second form sees him transform into a spiky, more fish-shaped creature. He spits cannonballs out of his mouth, which Starfy has to deflect back into him.
- Ogura's final form is of a giant, ghost-like creature. He can set his hands on fire and shoot fireballs from them to attack, as well as being able to push Starfy around with them.
- Playing Card Motifs: The four keys that unlock Dolchina and Dolshe's cage have designs based on the four playing card suits.
- Retreaux: The minigames are styled to look and sound like arcade games, and play similarly to Atari's Breakout series.
- Rule of Three:
- There are three objects you bring to Herman in place of his old shell, the last one being the one he accepts.
- You have to chase after Kit Fish three times to finally catch her in the Sea of Ice.
- In order to clear rubble blocking a passageway, Starfy retrieves three different items; a spade, a pickaxe, and a bomb.
- Shell Game: Used in the minigame Shuffle Shades, where a pair of sunglasses is hidden in one of four cans, which then begin to bounce around the screen. To win, you have to shoot the can with the sunglasses three times to make it break (you only have six shots).
- Shout-Out: The fan translation added Boerun announcing "Heeeeeere's Boerun!" when Starfy encounters him.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Sea of Ice, which also somehow contains a hot spring.
- Stalactite Spite: The Sea of Ice features small icicles that fall when Starfy passes underneath them.
- Tennis Boss: Ogura's second form is fought this way, where he’ll spit out cannonballs that Starfy has to spin into to deflect. When they land back in Ogura's mouth, they'll explode and he'll take damage.
- Tentacled Terror: Kragen, a giant jellyfish-like creature who is one of the bosses of the Sea of Sky and attacks using their six tentacles.
- Thunder Drum: Crabolt, one of the enemies summoned by Ogura and the third boss of the Sea of Sky, uses lightning bolts to attack Starfy and has thunder drums visible on their sprite.
- Womb Level: The Stranded Whale stage takes place almost entirely inside the Whale's body.
