Densetsu no Stafy 4 (Legend of Starfy 4) is the fourth game in The Legendary Starfy series, and the first one for the Nintendo DS.
One day, a fish named Mattel arrives at Pufftop from the far away Ami Kingdom. She begs for their help to save her kingdom, detailing that a mystical relic of the kingdom called the Mon Amour Stone had been stolen. Ordinarily, the stone protects the kingdom's residents, but someone had taken it and used it to cause calamity across the kingdom. Mattel had managed to escape, and now asks Starfy to come with her to help save the kingdom. He, along with Starly and Moe, agree to go and face the stone's thief. Unfortunately, the thief—the mysterious Degil—is using the Mon Amour Stone to watch Starfy's journey and begins to send her strongest minions after him in order to deal with him.
4's gameplay is very similar to its predecessors, with one notable difference being the existence of an actual HP meter (as well as upgrades to it) rather than the typical 5 hearts of health present in the other entries of the series. The game also included Spill abilities, special abilities that can be used by collecting red pearls to fill up the SP gauge.
This game contains examples of:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Arcy kidnaps Starly with the intention of making her his bride.
- Bandit Mook: Kaimo, a mole enemy that appears in Flourishing Desert during the New Game Plus, hides in the ground and pops out to steal pearls from Starfy or Starly. Attacking it will stun it and cause it to release the pearls.
- Batman Gambit: Akureima pulls a layered one off on the heroes in Cupid Village; he first kidnaps Ruby and hides her in the area, disguising himself as her, knowing that once the heroes see through his disguise they'll go and find her. Once they return, Akureima declares that he was just distracting them so that he can steal the Cupid Bow. Anju is sure that the bow is well-guarded, but agrees to let Starfy and Starly retrieve it to make sure it hasn't been stolen. They successfully bring back the bow, only for Akureima to appear and take it from them, having counted on them to get it to save him the trouble of stealing it himself.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Played With with Degil; the game states that Prince Coral didn't reciprocate her affections because she was a rotten person, though Degil assumed that it was because of her looks, and stole the Mon Amour Stone to make herself beautiful. Starly implies later that Prince Coral could have loved her had she genuinely been a good and kind person, but Degil dismisses her as simply being jealous.
- Bishie Sparkle: Prince Coral has this when you first meet him.
- Button Mashing: Required for the boss battle against Owlrun: He spawns a tornado you are required to shoot with projectiles by pressing the Y button very quickly (you are in a propeller suit during this battle), or you'll lose a big chunk of your HP-meter.
- Carnivore Confusion: Kamekichi is a fisherman turtle in a world of Funny Animal fish.
- Color Failure: Starfy and Starly turn gray with shock when Mattel and Prince Coral embrace after Degil's defeat, and reveal that they're engaged.
- Creepy Doll: Zozobi's doll, which you have to chase through the level until you corner it at the end.
- Door to Before: Each level has one in the form of the Warp Monks and Warp King, Jizō statues whose main function is to let you return to the level's entrance once you've completed the objective. The Warp Monks are small gray statues that are dressed differently depending on the area, and are usually found in rooms with level-important objectives. Talking to them will allow Starfy or Starly to warp to the Warp King, a large, golden statue that is found near the entrance of each level. Levels with multiple objectives or collectables spread across various rooms will often have multiple Warp Monks.
- Doppelgänger Spin: During his boss battle, Akureima will create multiple copies of Ruby or Moe which spin in a circle around the arena, hiding himself among them. One of the copies will occasionally experience Shapeshifting Failure by gaining Akureima's blue eyelids and green antennae, that one being the real Akureima that you have to attack to make him reveal himself.
- The Dragon: Owlrun is Degil's Dragon, being her most loyal and powerful servant, as well as possibly an advisor. He's the last of Degil's minions that you fight before facing Degil herself.
- Edible Ammunition: Both of this game's versions of the Kigurumi costume (pig and octopus) allow Starfy to fire food items; pork dumplings for the pig costume and octopus dumplings for the octopus costume.
- Faint in Shock:
- Moe faints when Akureima announces that he's captured and hidden away Ruby.
- Moe also faints when the Mirage Fairy reveals her true form.
- Failed a Spot Check: The heroes somehow fail to notice Fugusshu hiding conspicuously in a bush in the direction they're facing until he reveals himself.
- Game-Breaking Bug: On the New Game Plus, there is a mole enemy in 6-3 who steals pearls from you. When you defeat it, single-point pearls are spilled on the floor amounting to the stolen pearls. If you attack it once it's stolen enough pearls, the game will crash.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Powerful Spin is a spell that can be used by Starfy where he and Moe spin together as an attack. Mattel, who teaches the ability, specifically notes that it's dependent on the strength of Starfy and Moe's friendship. However, Starfy first learns this ability during a time where he and Moe are separated due to them having an argument, and you can still use the move all you like even before you find Moe again.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Choking, a crab with a change purse-like body who is one of Degil's minions and the boss of the Tree of Beginning.
- Gonky Femme: One of the residents of Tear Lake is Saimami, a polite rhinoceros woman in a pink apron and makeup. She's not particularly cute-looking in contrast to most of the other cast.
- Gratuitous French: Runosaru, a monkey artist who paints a portrait of Degil, peppers French words and phrases in his dialogue.
- Grimy Water: Tear Lake has one level with purple patches of water caused by the water filtration system being broken, which deal damage to Starly when she touches them. They vanish once the filtration system is working again.
- Gusty Glade: Some areas in Cupid Village have Kumo Ojisan, who will occasionally blow gusts of wind to the left or right to hinder Starfy and Starly. To avoid this, they have to stand behind barriers until the wind dies down.
- Hailfire Peaks: Millennium Mountain mixes ruins, jungles, and a volcano among its levels.
- Helpful Mook: The red flowers you can occasionally find in stages spit out large red pearls when attacked, making them a sort of counterpart to the Pearl Sprite.
- Idol Singer: Kisumi. The first time Starfy and co. meet her, she's refusing to do a photo shoot since she lost her lipstick. You get an Idol Mic for retrieving it for her.
- Level in the Clouds: Cupid Village mixes this up with Level Ate, being a cloud-themed level full of sweets where angels live.
- Light Is Not Good: Degil is pale white and uses a heart motif, as well as having attacks that involve roses and kisses. She's also the Big Bad of the game, who steals a powerful artifact from the Ami Kingdom in order to make the kingdom’s prince love her.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Prince Coral.
- Lunacy: The Mon Amour Stone—and, by proxy, Degil—grows in power the fuller the moon is. By the time Starfy and co. reach Degil, the moon is completely full and she is at her strongest.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: When Akureima announces that he intends to steal the Cupid Bow, Starfy and Starly retrieve the bow from where it's guarded to prove to Anju that it hasn't been stolen. Cue Akureima appearing to take the bow right from them, saving him the trouble of retrieving it himself from where it's kept.
- Mistaken for Gay: When Starly shows up to join Starfy and Moe to confront Arcy, he declares that she's the one he's been searching for. Moe mistakes Arcy as talking to him.Moe: (translated) …You talkin' to me? I know I'm a cool guy, but I'm not interested.Arcy: (translated) No, no. I'm not talking about you, clam. I'm speaking to the young lady.
- Musical Assassin: Geishachi, whose main method of attack is playing notes from her shamisen.
- New Game Plus: After Degil's apparent defeat, she starts to get back up and begins to absorb the power from the kingdom. Starfy and the others escape back to Pufftop, and later meet back up with Old Man Lobber in his cave. He tells them that Degil is still yet to awaken her true power, and instructs them to collect the Answer Cards scattered around the kingdom in order to unlock the path to Degil and defeat her once and for all. You then are tasked with playing through all the game's levels again with different paths to collect the Answer Cards—the cards being used to solve riddles given by Tobira Majin, which unlock more paths. You also get the ability to switch between Starfy and Starly on the fly while playing a level. Once you collect all the Answer Cards, you get to fight Degil again and face her extremely tough final form.
- Oblivious to Love: Mattel doesn't seem to notice that Starfy's crushing on her. Considering that she's actually engaged to someone else, this is probably for the best.
- Percussive Maintenance: When Saimami tells Starly that the water filtration system of Tear Lake is broken, she recommends just giving it a good smack—in this case, a Star Spin—to fix it.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Degil continuously explodes when she is defeated.
- The Power of Friendship: The whole point of the Powerful Spin; it specifically works because of the strong friendship Starfy and Moe have with each other.
- Riddle Me This: A feature that shows up in the New Game Plus, where you must unlock new routes in stages by answering riddles given by Tobira Majin. In order to answer the riddles, you have to collect answer cards that feature objects, then use the right ones for each riddle.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: Millenium Mountain is full of ruins, as well as Moai-based enemies.
- Shifting Sand Land: Flourishing Desert, filled with ruins, pyramids, and cacti, of course. And since it isn't a Starfy game without water to swim in, the third stage in the area is an oasis.
- Shipper on Deck: Starly and Moe become supportive of Starfy's crush on Mattel once they find out about it, with Moe even pushing him to confess his feelings to her once Degil is defeated. Unfortunately, this never comes to pass due to Mattel being Prince Coral's fiancee.
- Spot the Imposter:
- After stealing the Cupid Bow, Akureima flees and hides within groups of Harisen-san, disguising himself as one of them. To find which one is fake, you have to disturb Kumo Ojisan so that he scares the Harisen-san, causing them to reveal their spines. Akureima will have tentacles instead of spines, letting you attack him and remove his disguise.
- This is the main gimmick of Akureima's boss battle, where he'll create several illusions of Ruby or Moe, the one that he's disguised as occasionally flickering back and forth to show its telltale blue eyelids and green antennae.
- Supernatural Fear Inducer: The first gate of Degil's castle, Okubyounomon, induces fear on anyone who approaches it. Once Starfy passes the Test of Courage and destroys all of the Frightened Hearts, the gate transforms back into its old self, Yuukinomon, which undoes this ability.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Degil uses the Mon Amour Stone to overlook Starfy and Starly's progress in the Ami Kingdom as she sends her most loyal and strongest minions to try to kill them. As you defeat the bosses that were sent to assassinate you, she becomes more visibly and verbally frustrated when she sees that Starfy and Starly have defeated her minions and are getting closer to defeating her in her lair.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Fugusshu is normally invincible during most of his battle, due to being covered in spines that hurt Starfy if he tries to attack him. Naturally, one of Fugusshu's attacks is to shoot his spines at Starfy, leaving him completely vulnerable to attacks until he regenerates them.
- Threatening Shark: In addition to the Snark enemies, there's also the Aishack in Tear Lake, a large, magenta, spiky shark creature. Kamekichi has been trying to capture it so that it stops bothering the fish.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: The Propeller Bit is a rabbit-like helicopter vehicle that throws carrots as ammunition and shows up in some levels, including the battle against Owlrun—thankfully without its usual One-Hit-Point Wonder status.
- Wicked Heart Symbol: All over the place with anything associated with Degil; even the Mon Amour Stone is in the shape of a heart, meaning that it becomes this while Degil has it and even more so when Degil wears it on her chest for the final battle.
- Degil's castle (which is really the Ami kingdom's castle) is adorned with hearts from top to bottom. Even the gates that lead out of stages in her castle are heart-shaped.
- The Frightened Hearts and Hearts of Conflict are upside-down hearts that are blue with terrified faces and red with flames inside, respectively. For two of the gates in Degil’s castle, you have to destroy these hearts to turn the gates back to normal.
- Wingding Eyes: Starly's eyes turn into hearts when she meets Prince Coral, showing that she has fallen in love with him.
- Wutai: The theme of the Hidden Village of Koimaro. Bamboo walls, Kitsune masks as decoration, fried shrimp enemies…you get the picture. Ninjas Shurkit and Kittana appear here, as well as the boss of the area having a Geisha-inspired appearance.
- You Didn't Ask: Starfy, Starly, and Moe are completely blindsided by the fact that Mattel and Prince Coral are engaged, though Prince Coral himself is surprised that they didn't already know. Moe admits that they never thought to ask with everything else happening.
- You Shouldn't Know This Already: You can’t answer Tobira Majin's riddles without the correct answer card, even if you're able to guess the answer beforehand. Since you can only start collecting answer cards in the postgame, this prevents you from accessing the additional routes before you're supposed to.
