Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe

At first this achievement was looking pretty daunting. After getting near the end of the game and failing I did some research and this is what I found and it worked great for me.

Character doesn't matter. Route doesn't matter. What matters is that you have to defeat the final boss without using a continue. After every level your score will continue to add up. Towards the end of the game it should be approaching a B or A ranking. Now that that's cleared up this game is crazy cheap how do I defeat it?

Even with a save state function it can be pretty difficult. Here is how you out-cheap the game. Pick the panther. Now you're going to be spamming his amazing high speed unblockable move: Forward, Back, Forward, Attack+Jump. I did this move over and over and it decimates the enemies. For areas where there isn't much room use the Jump and Down+Attack.

So lets recap....
Pick Panther
Spam Forward, Back, Forward, Attack+Jump
Don't Use any continues
Save often
...Profit

The Panther solution is actually pretty good, but for those of us who either aren't quite able to perform the combo all the time or (like me) have a semi-dodgy controller, I've found a solution that, while more difficult, you'll be able to succeed in fighting the Big Bad for the second time.

The character I picked was the barbarian (Ax-Battler stand in for GAIII with the two-handed sword). The reason for this is because he has decent attack strength and has the longest reach of all the characters in terms of normal attacks. His magic is also fairly decent and will help you throughout the adventure.

The first four stages should pose little trouble to you, so long as you learn your weapon's reach, know when to combo attack, when to jump attack (the downward variety does more damage but enemies will likely react to it more than the regular jump slash), when to use the projectile attack (it has the longest range but it can be jumped over, be aware of that) and learn how to exploit the enemy AI. From stage 5 onwards, you need to have learned how the enemy fights, and how you fight.

Exploiting the AI will become a necessity later on as you fight tougher opponents and in groups of four. Here are some of the things that can make things easier:

With larger enemies such as the titans or the ram creatures, try to position yourself above or below them, then attack when they are in range of your attack laterally. Don't move to them. By making them move to you, you will be able hit them before they can attack you. If you try to move to their lateral range, you'll simply get smacked around. Watch out for other enemies if you're being mobbed and don't take chances attacking if another is poised to strike. You're trying to minimise the amount of lives lost here. =P

Another trick that works very well with defensive enemies is to have your back turned to them, then use the "desperation" attack when they get in range. The A+B attack that has you striking both sides. They rarely, if ever defend against an attack if you have your back turned. Watch out for those that can dash to you when you do this. They will dash attack you if you do it often enough, but compared to the damage you'd deal them, it can be worth doing. If you can spare some magic, use it to interrupt (especially if you know you'll get more).

Magic is going to be very precious, since good use of it will make things much easier. Saving states is also a must. In the later levels, save state when you make progress (preferably when you have done exceptionally well and took little, if any damage).

Rescuing prisoners will be extremely beneficial to you, as every 5 you free gives you a life. You'll need those, as well as Hearts that drop on certain levels. Hearts increase your life gauge, and fully heal you (VERY useful in a pinch)

The path I did (which gave me two lives and three hearts) was as follows: Vast Field - Ancient Mound (Four prisoners) - Dim Jungle (2 prisoners and a Heart) - Bloody Street (3 Prisoners. Go on the "Upper" path to free them. This will also take you to: ) - Death Mountain (2 prisoners and a heart. By this stage there's no point freeing any more prisoners other than the first one and the last heart you can reach regardless of your path. I decided to go: ) - Ride the Whirlwind - Gate of Fate.

If you manage to still keep your credits intact by the time you reach the castle, and it still reads C, don't fret. So long as you don't run out of lives, and if you can knock some enemies into the holes (which counts towards the Laws of Gravitation Achievement anyway), you'll be able to fight the Big Bad the second time when you beat him.

With 4 continues up your sleeve and one magic pot every death, he will go down quick with some well timed jump slashes (not the downward stab). Congratulations! You completed a rather tricky achievement!

Here is Golden Axe III Walkthrough by IGN. You can find information about move sets, unique moves, items & magic, creatures, enemies and what way to choose at path forks:
http://www.ign.com/faqs/2009/golden-axe-iii-walkthrough-4401...
Credit goes to IGN.com.
"True ending" is achieved if you fought the Prince of Darkness twice and defeated him (so you're able to retrieve the golden axe).
In order to avoid problems you should choose Chronos «Evil» Rait (humanoid panther) as your hero - arguably the most powerful character in the game, mainly due to his super move in which he lunges across the screen in an unstoppable, unblockable attack.

I beat the game and most fighters with the blue armor wearing swordsman and a lot of saving in the final stages.
The game has the same dumb exploit you can use in Golden Axe II (the survivor mode) where you jump with and chop with between enemies and nearly no intervention.

The best way of beating most bad guys is walking tiptoe forwards. In some cases only one enemy walks into the screen making jump chopping easy! Be sure to stop before gaps and jump over the gaps so enemies jump over them. This can help you earn the achievement where you throw enemies down the hole.

Your main focus lies on saving hostages and not losing energy bar after energy bar. Five hostages saved is an extra life.

To get the true ending you must beat the hawk man TWO times AND did not lose a credit (thus being beaten to the point where it says "continue" with a countdown.)
After you beat the hawk man twice a short movie plays (the hawk man transforms into a king, asking you to save the princess before being struck by lightning. )
You enter the palace. From here you will fight a ton of bad guys again until you meet the final boss. If you played good with saving a lot you have full bars of magic. It helps beating the boss fast in the first phase.
Jump chop some times until he gives up. He will be beaten and the princess shows up being all happy. For most people this is where the game becomes amazingly hard.
The boss has his second phase where he wields the golden axe and can use magic attacks on his own that cannot be blocked.

The good news here is that from this point it does not matter how many continues or lives you use. Try to combine jumpchops and level 1 magic (you get 1 magic every time you lose a life)
I just jumpchopped, died about 4 or 5 times using level 1 magics. After another jumpchop he died. Ending played where I got the golden axe, this cheevo and the cheevo for finishing all games!

Good luck. If you give a thumbs down, please tell me why so I can edit this solution.

I just want to state that I got this on my first try and I used a continue on stage 5, but still had a grade of B when I got to stage 7 with no more continues used.

My theory is that you can only use 1 continue, but must have the correct grade.

The panther + move is fantastic for clearing the game. (I lacked using it efficiently before I had to use my continue)