That is exactly what I was referring to. You must realize that my entire concept of SGnG is limited to what happens in the first level. I had never even seen the second level until this past weekend, when I forced myself through several continues until finally beating the first boss (thanks to the green armor). So now I've seen a bit of the second level as well, though I doubt I'll ever finish it. I tried it several times until finally quitting in fury from trying to climb the ladder at the base of a ship as the deadly water climbed up and a flying pink blob attacked me as I hung helplessly to the ladder, unable to attack it and unable to jump to safety (because of the water).
Maybe you could try watching some videos on youtube to help get through the second level? There're a lot of useful playthrough videos.
I guess my problem is I don't have the bracelet until I get the fifth chest in level 5, which is in the middle of the ghost part.
I simply CANNOT beat the red gargoyle (on a regular basis) with anything other than the arrows. He jumps up in the air and avoids my shot every damn time. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if I'm just extremely unlucky. (Probably the first one.) So when I lose the to boss of level 7 (which I do--a lot) I have to reacquire the arrows, which is just annoying because sometimes it will take a dozen tries before it finally appears.
I take it you mean level 7 here? Yeah you know I can see your problem, I had no idea but apparently the NTSC version of the game is harder, I'm watching this video (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDkKUbFNL0E) of a PAL run through on the hardest difficulty setting and there is no flying gargoyle. My suggestion would be to get the knives and then as soon as you get the special armour the special magic dragon attack should be able to take down the gargoyle relatively easily (you can see it being done in this video but you wouldn't start with the magic armour obviously - it would come from the chest right just as you encounter the gargoyle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNldb7b0P0s). At least if you take this into consideration you wouldn't have to restart so many times waiting for the arrows alone? I feel bad for you though because that must be a real pain in the arse. I hope Greg is playing on the Japanese VC so he gets the true masochistic experience. It's possible some of the other weapon's magic attacks might be of use too.
Edit: Holy ****, search 'SG'nG Torch Run', talk about brutal.