7 Blades FAQ v 1.2 JP Last update December 1, 2001 Copyright Casim Neff November 19, 2001 And readable grammar courtesy of Europa. I. Copyright Information II. About this FAQ/Contact Info- III. Extra Control and Menu Explanations A. Extra Controls B. Game Options Menu Translations C. Control Settings Sub-Menu Translations IV. Gokurakumaru (極楽丸) Walkthrough (the sword guy) A. General Information B. Battle Stat/Sword info C. Stage Walkthrough V. Teppo Oyuri (鉄砲お百合) Walkthrough (the gun girl) A. General Information B. Battle Stat/Gun/Additional gun parts info C. Stage Walkthrough VI. Plot of the Game, or What the Hell Happened!!?? VII. After The Game Ends. Reload! A. General Facts About Replaying as an Extra Character B. Playable Character Listing VIII. Food A. General Food Stuff B. Food Effects Listing IX. General Hints, Tips X. Acknowledgements --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ｉ.Copyright Information- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Just by writing the above copyright, I am covered by international copyright law. Suck it! Seriously though, please feel free to copy and distribute this FAQ, but only if you are doing so for a purpose which does not entail profit. Thus, if this FAQ is bundled or sold with a product or service which requires the transaction of cash I will not be happy, and if I find out I will send you a kind email demanding my fair and rightful share of the proceeds you have earned by stealing my FAQ. --------------------------------------------------------------------- II. About this FAQ/Contact info- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ was intended as full walkthrough for Gokurakumaru and Teppo Oyuri but along the way I started adding extra control/hints/small food information. Because, I only wanted to do a walkthrough, I likely stop here and will not be doing any sort of manual translation, full food listing or other endeavour which will take lots and lots of time, unless someone would like to donate their own research to me. Hopefully, I will get around to cleaning up the grammar and spelling, but in its current form, I believe it is more than useful enough to completely kick this game's ass. If you disagree, tell me what I need to fix or donate the sections please. The only thing I will probably update from here on out (on my own) is the story's plot, which I'd rate my current summary at somewhere around 70-80% correct (probably less). If you can help in any way on the plot summary that'd be really great,. OR if you have any other ideas for the FAQ / questions / complaints in general. Email me at mecasim@yahoo.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Extra Control and Menu Explanations- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This section is only going to cover the controls and menus which are not completely obvious after a few minutes of play. A. EXTRA CONTROLS -Pushing in the LEFT ANALOGUE STICK will cycle through the radar display's magnification factors. Almost really, but can be done. -O+TRIANGLE is an attack for Gokurakumaru, but it will also reload Oyuri's gun. -Pushing in the RIGHT ANALOGUE STICK will have two effects depending on how your controls are set up (look at control menu explanation for more). Either you will attack with your special or you will attack with either your special or O+TRIANGLE attack. -To use the quick inventory, press and hold B while playing and hit the directional pad corresponding with the item you want to use. -To put an item from your inventory in the quick inventory, press and hold SQUARE while highlighting the item of your choice and hit the directional pad to place an item in the quick inventory slot of your choice. -To clear your quick inventory, hit TRIANGLE whilst in the inventory screen. -In the inventory screen to hit R1 or L1 to go to a game options menu B. GAME OPTIONS MENU TRANSLATIONS The options in the game options menu (found after start up or by pressing R1/L1 while in the game inventory screen) are the mostly the same. The in game inventory game options screen has one more option than the initial option screens selectable from startup. Here are the explanations with Japanese with the options selectable for them. -サウンド (sound) -ステレオ (stereo) -モノラル (mono) -振動 (use analogue stick) -有 (yes) -無 (no) -血表示 (blood effects) -有 (yes) -無 (no) -自動記録 (autosave, also the option for seeing the overworld map between stages) -有 (yes) -無 (no) -音量設定 (sound level settings - you can figure these out on your own easily) -操作設定 (control settings) C. CONTROL SETTINGS SUB-MENU TRANSLATIONS- OK, the default setting should be fine for playing through the game, but there are some things I would have changed if I read the manual more carefully the first few times I played through the game. However, don't expect a full translation, I am only translating the extra control settings not the button settings. You should be able to figure the button settings out easily if you wish to change them (although I'd recommend you not since the buttons are setup good as is). Instead, the translations in this section are for the options listed on the right hand side of the screen. They are with their options. -追撃操作 (targeting settings for L2 button) -押している間 - You will target enemies only when pressing L2 -押す度切替 - You will target enemies indefinitely or until you press L2 -側進操作 (Directional facing settings with the R1 button) -押している間 - You will keep facing a constant direction only when pressing L1/R1 -押す度切替 - You will face a direction constantly until you re- press R1 (recommended since hitting L1 will cancel directional facing mode anyway) -主観操作 (first person mode settings for SELECT button) -押している間- you will stay in first person mode only while pushing SELECT -押す度切替 - you will stay in first person mode until you press SELECT -主観上下 (Up/Down settings for select BUTTON first person mode) -通常 - up goes up, down will look down in first person mode. -反転- directional controls for up and down are reversed. -必殺操作 (Gokurakumaru special attack, button settings) -同時押す (special attack will activate when you hit either the RIGHT ANALOGUE STICK or O + TRIANGLE. As an extra however, you can use Gokurakumaru`s normal O+TRIANGLE attack by hitting the RIGHT ANALOGUE STICK when you special attack meter isn't full) -R3 (special attack is only used when RIGHT ANALOGUE STICK is pressed in, useful for saving up a special attack, recommended) --------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Gokurakumaru (極楽丸) Stage Walkthrough --------------------------------------------------------------------- A. GENERAL INFORMATION Gokurakumaru`s background is pretty short and sweet. He is a tough mercenary who is willing to get in a fight at the drop of a hat, and is something of a womaniser (if a poor one). He travels around with two friends, his gun slinging girl (Oyuri) and sidekick (Togizo) who provides comic relief and carries his food and seven swords (the namesake of the game, and Gokurakumaru`s claim to fame). He is also the character with the most incomphrensible storyline or rather, his story line makes Oyuri`s story line understandable. I therefore recommend you play Gokurakumaru first before Oyuri (because I played Oyuri first and had no idea what was going on). Also, he is a tougher character to play overall than Oyuri. Finally, he has no special items to gather at all or that I know of. In the course of the game he will receive all of his blades one by one, so don't worry about trying to find hidden items, have fun chopping through things instead. B. BATTLE STAT/SWORD INFO Ok, I'm not going to give a full run down on the blades (damage, where found etc), simply because by using/receiving the blades, it should be obvious what they do. I will just add some commentary on the uses you can put them too, or if I think they suck or not. Also,. remember there are NO hidden blades in the game that I am aware of. As for my blade commentary, make sure to try out all normal combos. They are O+O+O, O+O+TRIANGLE and O+O+(O+TRIANGLE). Also remember that your throwing blade (second blade) is your best friend for beating most of the games bosses easily. When that blade fails however (and if you have the gold blade or your eight blade) that is your other best friend. Ok, that's it, stage walkthrough time. C. STAGE WALKTHROUGH- Ok, this stage section is divided in such a way to correspond to the save points after you complete an area. In reality, the game is sometimes divided into up to 4 sub area areas within the each stages and sometimes the stage is only one area with one fight. Heads up. Stage 1- When starting a new game the first thing you'll be asked is if you would like a tutorial. Reply yes or no, if you reply yes, you will practice your moves on the first stage of the game. After that, the game will start and you will again find yourself on the first stage but fighting for real. The stage is very simple to navigate, just lay the smack down on the mercenaries which jump you. It should be very hard to die, even if you try. You do not have to kill the archer on the hill just the mercenaries on the ground. Not much in the way of secrets. If you run around the little hut/shop place and chop at the supports you can have it fall down. The red table/chair things and the little shed/outhouse in the back, you can destroy if you want also. There should be at least one piece of food dropped by one of the enemies you defeat, as well they is a food hidden behind a rock near the hut/shop. At this point in the game you will have the first two blades, the katana and throwing blade. Switch to the second blade for this battle as it does more damage and can be thrown. Much more useful. After you beat this stage you will be given the question if you would like to auto save from this point on (changeable in the game options menu), if you choose no, you will be asked if you wish to save your game. If you choose yes, you will autosave and proceed to the next stage Stage 2- Back in town, you reunite with your girl (Oyuri) and your sidekick (Togizo). It seems your sidekick has unwittingly led the town posse back to the hotel you are staying at! Get ready to fight! You'll start the first part of this stage receiving your third blade, the big two-hander. This will probably be the best weapon to use on this stage because there are a lot of weak enemies crowded in a small space and big wide arc is useful for taking them out. Anyway, the principle of this part is simple, kill enough enemies so you can run downstairs and out into the street. Before simply running down and outside, take time to collect the food that is scattered around the hotel as there is enough to fill your inventory (most notably, pick up the sake in the room next to the one you start in by the stairs and save it until you have a fight you think is hard as it gives Gokurakumaru a limited strength boost and big health recovery). Also, you can harvest food from the enemies you kill as they will drop lots of food as well. Another fun thing about this small section is that the hotel is the best place to up your kill count in the game. While you are upstairs only a limited amount of enemies will come up to attack you, but if you stay downstairs, enemies will keep flowing without stopping. So if you want to max the kill count meter (if that's possible) this is the place. Anyway, the next part of the stage will have you running down a street and encountering more enemies plus some samurai looking guys in brown- grey outfits. Follow the arrow, kill everything in your way and you'll get a cut scene where you are now apparently being hunted by a ninja. The night doesn't get any better! After this cut scene, the area you can run around in gets a whole lot bigger. You don't actually have to kill any ninja though they will be all over the place, so you can just opt to run towards in the direction of the green arrow and the stage exit which shouldn't be too hard to find on your own. When you reach the flashing stage exit gate, attack it with your sword and you'll escape the ninja by fleeing to the nearby island of Dejima (and foreign trading post in olden days of Japan). However, you won't quite make it there as you hoped. A final note: In the city there are various food items scattered around, but the one that is most worth finding is a small grey turtle-like food that can be found by the jumping left off the bridge that you are facing when you start the stage, and follow it all the way to its end. The turtle food should be by the far shore partially behind a rock. This food will give back all your health and makes you temporarily strong, definitely save it for when you need it. Also, this stage houses the ingredients for the only food you can make from other food in the game. It takes four empty spaces in your inventory. You need to pick up the food on the stick behind the staircase in the hotel, the food laying in the middle of the road just before you get to fight with the samurai and his guards, the food laying just behind you as you start the section with ninja after you beat the samurai and his guards and finally the food laying just in front of the gate to the exit of the stage. When you have all four of these foods (two will be the same actually, and all are foods on a stick), then next time you open your inventory screen they will combine to make a food which gives back all your health and makes you unable to be knocked down temporarily. Stage 3- Oh,.shipwrecked on Dejima and all you have is your crappy starting katana. What to do? Run and kill of course! Or better still, just run in the direction of the green arrow. Killing the sea ninja isn't required nor is it very much fun as they jump around so much. You'll likely not feel you are getting anywhere for a while, but just keep running and eventually you'll leave this stage. The fun fact about this stage is that you have only one weapon AND you can't pick up any food at all. Rather, if you find food you will instantly eat it on the spot. This will last for several stages so get used to it and think of it as a lesson in not relying on sidekicks too much to carry your weapons and food. Even sidekicks die sometimes.(not that yours died, but you don't know that yet). Stage 4- Yeah! Have a lot of fun with this next part. Meet the game's bosses and break your sword on them! Starting this stage, you'll be busting on some sort of funky zombie party and will do what Gokurakumaru does best in situations like this, act tough and get in a fight! Actually, you'll have two fights, one is with the priest (or rather with some paper spirits he attacks you with).and the second is with a gold giant the priest controls but seems to lose control of. The only thing you need to do is burn up the paper spirits, so just stand by the big fire in the middle and you'll get to the next fight on this stage - the out of control Gold Giant. Basic strategy for the Gold Giant is to just damage it as fast as you can until you get the corresponding cut scene which ends this stage. It's not important to stay out of its way,just attack, attack, attack until you break your sword and run away - Ha! You can also break open the fire box during the paper spirits fight and there is a piece of food hidden in the middle of the fire. You can run in this fire (after breaking the box) without damage. Stage 5- It doesn't get any more "fun" than this point in the game, forced to retreat because you broke your only (and worst) sword in half and still haven't found your sidekick. Don't worry, it ends soon. It could be worse, you could be playing as Oyuri.(you'll know what I mean when you play her story). Anyway, the principle of this stage is the same, run towards the arrow, kill stuff, or rather, just evade stuff as it's much less time consuming, but it's up to you. About halfway through the stage you'll meet up with a annoying shadow ninja who despite being a boss fight, you are not actually expected to kill (actually you can't kill him, even if you try. He is easy even with half a sword, but after damaging him about halfway he will just hide in the shadows around you rather than attacking and thus exposing himself to death). So once you meet the ninja, run, run or put the ninja in his place and then run. You'll have a fair bit to run still and you'll need to knock down a door or two so you can find the path to the stage's end. If you're having problems finding it, just attack anything on the walls or ground that looks breakable and eventually you'll find the path to the exit (even if it doesn't at first look as if you are going the right way from your radar. If you follow the paths after breaking through objects, you'll get there). Stage 6- The end of your sword woes! You'll find some ninja (and a ninja girl leader), a girl being tortured and your sidekick along with a cameo guest appearance by the priest who decides to kill you and the ninja with his zombie army. Well, he'll fail because you and your sidekick have been reunited and nothing can stand in your way, especially since you will receive the fourth blade (your best so far and it has a good special) here. The strategy is the same here for both of the fights which make up this stage. Kill, kill, run around and find the copious amount of food that is in this area. Also, knock down a lot of screen doors and get a new woman (Himika) to follow you now. She's quite smitten with you too, even if she doesn't say a whole lot about herself or what she knows about the ninja on the island or the zombie warriors or what not. But really, I doubt Gokurakumaru would be very interested in that sort of stuff anyway. So saying - next stage! Stage 7 You'll start this stage on a road with a hill (which you cannot jump up to climb) and boulders getting rolled down at you (actually you'd have to purposefully run into the boulders to even get hit by them). Follow the arrow and kill the boulder guys and the dogs which get sent after you and revel in having TWO sidekicks now! By the way, while you have Himika, if she dies, you are forced to retry the stage, so watch out from here on. The final extras of this stage are some oranges hidden in a ruined building near the stage exit, and that's it. Stage 8- Ah, the fun cave, stage eight. Separated into 3 parts, the stage is very easy in principle, follow the arrow, fight the boss, follow the arrow. Unfortunately, the "follow the arrow" part (usually such a no- brainer) is quite annoying. Since Gokurakumaru is unable to jump and hang onto ledges, you are forced more or less to fall down the crevices and then get to the far side of the cave and climb all the way up a set of short block stairs. Of course, there are LOTS of enemies around here, including (I think) your first encounter with enemies carrying guns. Watch out (especially at the very bottom level of the cave where there are lots of gunmen) as even if their bullets fail to hit you, they will tend to hit Himika a lot. Plus, if you do get hit gun bullets can stun lock you and lead to a fast death. Be careful and you should be fine. As for the boss of this stage, after you cross the cave, it's the shadow ninja again. Again, he should be no problem, but he's a bit quicker this time and seems to do more damage. Just stay in one place and keep attacking all around you and you should be fine. Once again he'll run away, and once again after this, you get to cross back over the cave. The one big thing of interest here is that you find Oyuri's gun (oh no!, my girl. What's happened to her?). However, you won't be meeting her for a while. It's all good though, because you get a new member to add to your party. Stage 9- Now you're out of the cave into a stage composed of two parts in which the ninja girl is now one of your sidekicks. THREE SIDEKICKS, count them, three!! The first part is a downward slope filled with bunches of zombie minions. Eventually, you need to kill them all, but you can decide to run past them and then fight them all at the bottom of the slope. After this, you get to the next part of the stage where you start at the start of a street which is populated by yet more people that need killing. Annoyingly however, some of those people are gunners set up in crossfire conditions that can stun you and / or kill Himika rather easily. Be careful. Use your throwing blade or lots of running around and you should be fine, just don't try to brute force it through the middle of the mob or you'll be losing lots of health. After this, find the road up the dirt hill to he left of the mansion and put the charm on the ninja girl with your tough manliness. Grr! Stage 10- Inside the mansion, looking for Oyuri (just in case you forgot or didn't know, that's been his goal up until now), you have unwittingly stumbled upon the Gokurakumaru lame puzzle adventure section of the game (while also getting a new weapon - actually 2 new weapons, but you will get one right away). Be prepared for lots of running around. The secret to making this stage short is just not fighting at all but using your running attack to bust through enemies and just getting to where you are going. Anyway, here are the steps, lets get going, there are more fun places in the game! 1. Run through the first door. 2. Get in the hallway and take a left, exit onto a balcony. 3. Take a right, go through the last door. 4. Find the control panel in this room and keep pushing buttons until you open a door without letting enemies out. Follow the path behind this door and let Himika turn on an elevator. 5. Run back to the room you started out in and take the elevator to the third floor 6. Take the first door, the first left in the hallway and exit onto the balcony. 7. Take the third door on the balcony and follow the hallway. You get a cut scene where the ninja girl explains that she is touring around with you to find her ninja grandmother (actually like a ninja priestess but when you meet her later she's an old girl). 8. After this, go back downstairs to the second floor balcony and take the middle door to get to the library and find a key. 9. Go back up to the third floor and run towards the balcony area. You then get a cut scene and meet a new guy you need to kill (it so happens that they had the ninja priestess hostage earlier). 10. Go back down to the second floor and beat up on the guy you just talked to on the second floor balcony. Scoop up the key he drops. 11. Go to the third floor balcony, second door and get out of this stage and get rid of the weirdo once and for all! Also, you get to backhand the ninja girl (Gokurakumaru hits her because she stops him from saving the falling body - supposedly that of the ninja priestess. However, the ninja girl is one step ahead of him because she knew by the body's smell(wow!) that it was a fake.) 12. Move on out of this dump and onto... Stage 11- You are now in the Kabuki house. Get a new blade (the best and my favourite so far because of the slash attack) and follow the arrow - whee! By now you might be figuring out that Himika is not just an ordinary 'elevator power generator turning on' sorta girl. She'll get a small flashback when Gokurakumaru decides to lock her in a room after finally realising that legions of people that need to be killed and non- combative females don't mix too well. Anyway, after this, follow the arrow and find Oyuri (finally!) even though she happens (strangely enough) to be all decked out in kimono and makeup. Not wasting a chance to mack (though also being compelled by the spell holding Oyuri), Gokurakumaru will jump on stage, feel up his woman and then realise afterwards that he has been outsmarted by the priest. But not before you are made to have a flashback battle of sorts where you can't kill anything (the way to win it is to jump through the broken fence area by the cliff, or you can beat up Oyuri and merc crew for a bit if you want). Anyway, it seems your quick thinking earlier about locking Himika in a room has backfired as the priest attacks you with spiders bearing Himika's face and thus starting the main fight here. The main fight here is rather easy. Stay mobile and attack from a distance to maximise survival, or you can duke it out up close with the giant spiders (you need to kill all of them), but they will spray poison on you which will stun you, and that's not what you want. Also, the area has bunches of small spiders (which can annoyingly stun you sometimes) giving further incentive to just keep running and slashing in for attacks with the seventh blade or just using your throwing blade. After the fight, Oyuri will mysteriously disappear and you'll run to check if Himika is alright. Instead (perhaps the biggest downer in the game), you will find the Gold Giant in her place and he will kill the ninja girl. On the bright side, from now on, since Gokurakumaru gets pissed that he keeps losing the females in his violent action-packed life, he will get very pissed and start acting like the badass he is focusing only on killing everything that has been bothering him up to this point. For me at least, this makes the game more fun. As an extra bonus, from here on you tend to fight lots of main fights with not so many running around stages. Anyway though, you have the big Gold Giant to defeat. Like the first time you fought him, just him at him. If you have a special, use it, otherwise keep bashing. You may need some health if you are low before starting the fight, otherwise I say just switch to seventh blade and keep at it until he gets to half health and brings the house down around you cheating you of finally taking him down. After this you should have some big and long cut scenes, another short reunion with Oyuri and you'll run off to take down a demon (his words, I'm not actually sure if he means the priest guy or the Gold Giant tho..both probably). Stage 12- Well, this stage doesn't offer a demon but it does offer you the first time you can permanently take down one of the many fools who have dared cross you thus far. But first, you have a forest to run through - yeah! Actually, first you'll notice that although there is a big forest ahead of you, the green arrow keeps swinging wildly around. The reason is that it is pointing at the only enemy (the clown looking guy). Kill this normal enemy and then proceed towards the arrow as it will now be pointing to the end of the forest path and to some stairs. Before you go up the stairs, take a look around the area beneath it and you should find some food near the corners. Also, if you like the forest a lot, there is a platter of sushi (another full health recovery item) somewhere in the middle. When you are ready climb the stairs to find... ...The stupid shadow ninja. Perhaps one of my favourite cut scenes! Even Gokurakumaru realises how unthreatening and lame this guy is (you've beaten him 2 times already!). However, you have to fight him once again, so you might as well finish him off here. This time however he is stronger, but his tactics are more or less the same. With the food you found earlier you should have no problem beating him. Find a weapon you like (I used the sixth blade) and just keep attacking where you think the ninja is, alternating to different areas if you hit nothing. And even easier way of taking him down is to run to the a corner of the area you fight him in to limit the places the ninja can pop up, virtually ensuring you a hit every he comes out of the shadows. After this lightweight, it's time for some more interesting fights. Stage 13- Unlucky stage thirteen and my longest stage description so far! This shrine area is spilt into 3 areas, 2 of which have main fights. The first area you are in will be a flat place before some stairs going up. Look around this area first and you should find two food items (you'll need these for the first time you fight the stage boss). Next, run part way up the stairs so you can see just over the top into the courtyard at the top of them. You should see some big headed things drop down from the sky. After this, run back down the stairs and run around. The head monster things should start dropping down around you. Run and wait until they drop, then kill them. After this, go up the stairs. When you go up the stairs, lightning will hit the two statues there and you'll get to fight two stone dogs that breath fire. These dogs aren't so hard, just run a lot and then use your AB slash from the last katana you received and you should take them out fine. However, before you take them out, make sure to lead them around the area first. You'll notice that they will knock down tress and the lanterns in the area. You'll want to lead them into hitting the stone bases they originally started out on. When they break these pedestals apart, two more food items will pop out from them. After this kill the doggies. Next, you'll pass through a gate and get a showdown with the annoying demon/priest guy who has been hassling you for so long. Before that though, two of his bodyguards will attack you. This fight is really easy, but the first time you play it you may use some food. The basics of the fight are that the guy who is flying around does no damage to you at all (except he keeps using wind attacks to push you around the stage) and the lightning guy is the one you gotta watch out for since his attacks do the damage. The easiest way to take them down is to kill the cloud guy (easily done with the last katana you have) and then go for the lightning guy with your second blade that you can throw. When the lightning guy is doing his electric field attack, just stay outside of the circle and throw the blade at him, or wait around until he charges you and throw or slice him. To avoid his lightning rain attacks, just make sure to keep running and you'll be fine. Also, watch out for Oyuri (who is in a tower above you) when she starts shooting some rocket launcher shots (it's annoying but she will hit you sometimes). A final note: When you kill the cloud guy or the lightning guy they will drop food. However, after you kill the second guy (in whatever order you kill them) you will move onto the next fight immediately, meaning you will only usually be able to pick up the food item from the guy you kill first. If you kill the cloud guy you'll get some decent food, but if you kill the lightning guy first you will get food which brings back all your health plus reducing damage done to you (thus you'll want to kill the lightning guy first and get food that you'll want to save for the last fight in the game). Anyway, after taking care of the two bodyguard clowns you get to showdown with the priest guy. Grrr - this guy is tough, at least the first few times. However, I found a really easy way to beat him as opposed to when I first beat him so here goes. First, during this fight you'll want to use your newly acquired gold sword and the second sword which you can throw. As soon as the fight starts, the priest guy will send paper ghosts at you. You'll need to kill all of these as they can get really annoying as they can sometimes (and sometimes permanently) stun you. Mash your attack buttons with the gold sword and with the big attack radius you'll eventually kill all that come near you. However, while taking out the paper spirit things, run over to one of the nearby rocks and start attacking it. After a few combos you will cut the rock in half (while killing any paper spirit which comes close to you as a benefit). The main reason in going after a rock (any rock) right away is that when there are rocks that are broken on the stage, the priest guy will not usually use his explosion magic. Instead he will take his time mending the rocks you've broken. However, you can keep ahead of him by destroying more and more rocks faster than he can mend them. Extra note: In two of the rocks are food items. The first rock with food is up and to the left of your original position. The second food item is in the rock to the immediate right when facing the collapsed roof on the stage. The situation you want to get to when running around destroying rocks and ignoring the priest guy is always having a few rocks needing to be repaired by the priest and keeping all the paper spirits dead. Usually, the game's AI will focus on repairing the rocks, rather than releasing another stream of paper spirits and this is the situation you want. When this happens run at the priest guy. You will notice he will slowly back away from you. Keep running at him until you back him into a corner. If any blue lines circle him it means he is going to use some magic. Prod him once (and only once) with your gold blade to interrupt his casting. Keep backing him into a corner. When you have the priest up against the wall and, hopefully no stupid paper spirits flying around, attack him with your gold blade. If you use your auto combo by mashing the buttons he will disappear and reappear somewhere else after every other combo you get on him. You don't want this. Instead, just hit once with your blade and then wait a half second and hit the button again. This should be slow enough that you will keep hitting him with an overhand chop only. Keep doing this and you will quickly draw his life down past halfway while keeping him in a corner. After he reaches halflife you'll likely be abruptly hit by flying rocks. This phase of the fight can get really hard really fast if you let it. Keep calm, and only stand up after all the rocks have shot past you. When on your feet, switch to your throwing blade and keep chucking it at him. Don't even try evading the rocks, just focus on getting in as many hits with your throw attack as you can. Eventually you'll get knocked down by a rock again. Wait on the ground not pressing any buttons and wait until all rocks pass over your head. Stand up again and resume your attack and/or use any food you need and repeat until the priest is dead. Although this is a very brute force tactic, it works great since if you only get hit by one rock and never stand up to get hit by other flying rocks. You will do much more damage to him with your 2-3 flying blade strikes than with his one rock hit. If you even have 1 food item on you, you can easily win this battle with some practice. But, seeing as how this entire 3 part stage has 5 health items (assuming you didn't use them all beforehand) there should be no lack of food. As an extra, another way to beat him is that you can perma-stun the priest with properly timed throwing blade attacks if you back him up against a wall. I killed him once in less than a minute with this method, but only once, as the timing and positioning is fairly hard. If you are still having problems, start over and play through the stage again so you use no health items at all until your fight with the priest. You may die halfway through the stage sometime on the lighting/cloud bodyguard fight, but remember you can use the continue "cheat" to refill your life by dying and continuing at sub-stage continue points rather than using food. The sub-stage continue points (NOT save points) for stage 13 are at the very beginning before the stairs, the beginning of the bodyguard fight and the beginning of the priest fight. Good luck, the priest main fight was really hard for me the first many times I played it, but only because I didn't do any of the above the first time. Now however, it's a cakewalk. Anyway, after finally taking out one of your major antagonists (and once again losing Oyuri and obviously angering Himika so much that a city has risen from the sea) its time for the next stage. Stage 14- Fun Stage 14! You get to run through a desert-like battlefield in which the armies of Himika have risen from the sea/dead and are fighting lots of ninja. Basically, all you need to do is run towards the arrow and you will quickly find the end of the area. Mostly (especially if running), the enemies will fight each other and leave you alone. As bonus however, you can go about killing some ninja for the good food that they drop with a high frequency (+60% health). Also, the big extra is to build up your special attack meter and switch to the gold sword (if not using it already) and let loose with a special attack. You will end up killing almost everything in the entire battlefield! You have to try this, it's very cool. Stage 15- After the battlefield you'll enter a tower. You'll get to fight more ninja and more minions of Himika (along with some rolling gear-like things). Fight as normal (preferably with the gold sword) and use your special to clear enemies at your leisure. At the end of this stage you'll fight a spinning wheel/sun god looking thing. Since it floats above you a lot and because it's spinning spikes will hurt you, the easiest way to beat it is to take out your throwing blade and keep your distance. Also, the rolling gear things will drop food (looks like a white box) that will damage you highly but will instantly max out your special attack meter. Useful for finishing of some of the main fights you face during the whole end game stages. Stage 16- It's time to take on Gold Giant which turns out to be controlled by none other than Himika - BLARG! After all that babysitting you did for her this is how she repays you. Although she does come on to you some, it seems she has no intention of apologising for taking out that cute ninja girl or returning Oyuri, so, its once again fight time. (two fights that is) The fights actually couldn't be any easier than they are, but I suppose Himika was never a very imposing figure. Anyway, the first fight is you versus an upgraded Gold Giant. This guy has a sword and shield and a big cloak. He is also a bunch slower (though he has a charging attack now). Pretty much however, this fight is just for fun. The easiest way to take him down is stay out of his reach and away from falling pillars (which he will knock down) and keep throwing your second blade at him. Or, you can have a little more fun and take out your sixth blade and attack the pillars on the stage to fill your special attack meter and then have fun only defeating him with specials. It's actually possible to beat him with only one special from the sixth blade - 100% health to 0! Sw33t! After this, you get a pissed off Himika who creates illusionary multiples of herself and starts flying around flinging magic at you. Although you may attack her flying globe selves, you may not feel at all like you are doing any damage (in fact you are not). However just keep at it attacking her constantly (preferably with the throwing blade) and always making sure you hit at her when she lands and you will eventually beat the battle. Use health if needed, though if you are quick enough, she will only get one or two magic attacks off at you for the whole fight. Knocking the fight out of her gets you a big dose of flashback from Himika and the reason why she is so jealous over Gokurakumaru, as well as explaining her history (read the general plot summary at the end of this FAQ for details). She and Gokurakumaru have a tender moment about being alone and the loss of a loved ones. After which, she gets killed by the ninja leader Hanzo - Oops. It would seem that Gokurakumaru forgot about the one nemesis he hasn't put an end to yet. Well, there is just enough time left in the game to fix that, so... Stage 17- ...it's onto the last stage! You'll find yourself onboard one of the spiked flying saucer things which the ninjas have been flying around dropping from. Split into three parts, the first and second parts are composed of just killing all the ninjas you see in the circular rooms. I suggest using the gold blade here for the area energy effect the special has to kill off the ninja and if you need to stock up on ninja food (which you'll need if you have none or not much food), using the normal combo on the gold blade to kill the ninja. The third part of the stage will be your final and last main fight with the ninja leader Hanzo. Not a terribly hard fight, but likely the toughest in the game. He's fast, has good attacks, decent damage and it's hard to tell where he's coming from, but luckily you have the gold blade which has immense area hitting ability and he tends to charge you more often than not. The only strategy which seems to work well since he runs around too quickly is just go out on one of the wing spikes of the ship and then keep combo`ing with the gold blade to hit all the area around you and use health when needed. Also, recognising some of the basic attacks patterns Hanzo has will increase your chances of hitting, along with watching the radar to know where he really is. With two or more food items of decent healing value the fight should be not a big problem. After this it's cutscene time, credits, walk into the sunset and time to play Oyuri (if you haven't already). Remember, don't save over an Oyuri game file if you have one! The files don't combine, you will just erase your Oyuri file by trying. Finally, after the credits, reload the save file and you'll be able to play through the game again, this time being able to select stages. Before picking a stage press the R1 and R2 buttons to change you character to enemies you fought in the game. Find Hanzo and play as him. He's so super cheap! --------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Teppo Oyuri ((鉄砲お百合) Walkthrough- --------------------------------------------------------------------- A. GENERAL INFORMATION The long and short of Oyuri's character is that she is a gun-slinger who has a working relationship and a personal relationship with Gokurakumaru as his girl and partner. The game never goes into much detail about their background, but the love/personal relationship aspect between the two is played up as the storyline plays out. Otherwise, it's enough to know that she gets to use a gun and Gokurakumaru does not and it makes her stages very easy to run through. Also, she has more slots to pick up food with than Gokurakumaru, though they will be taken up quicker. B. Battle Strategy/Gun/Additional gun parts info. Oyuri has four main guns and some fire seeds which she uses during the game. However, since the pistol is the most useful in terms of damage, range, rate of fire and ammo, you'll be using it a lot, or I recommend that you do. Basically, run around and shoot A LOT with the pistol and you'll complete the game fine, but if you want to know about all the guns, here they are... Pistol This is the primary weapon you will be equipped with during the game and it will be your bread and butter weapon throughout the entire game. The pistol is the only gun to have infinite ammo, but will need to be reloaded (this happens automatically) after you empty the chamber. The game's initial pistol has 4 shots, though eventually you will find a 6, 8, and finally a 10 shooter. None of these pistols are hidden and all are more or less given to you as the game progress. All shots fired are single-shot style in a straight line away from Oyuri. Rifle This gun shoots very much like the pistol but does more damage and has a limited ammo supply. Although the gun never needs reloading (i.e. if you have 100 rifle shots and you can shoot 100 times until the gun empties), the only way to find more ammo is by collecting extra ammo lying around the stages or by collecting rifles dropped by enemies. This weapon is useful for taking out far away snipers or enemies, but since it is hardly ever dropped by enemies I rarely used it at all as compared to the pistol. Rate of fire is slower than the pistol. Gatling Gun Like the rifle, this gun has limited ammo which must be collected during the stages, but ammo is much more plentiful than the rifle. Also, as the name implies, this is a machine gun, so the rate of fire is higher than the pistol and the rifle, whilst damage is on par with the pistol. A useful gun when encountering large packed groups of enemies or you really just want to kill something fast, but because the ammo is limited, it too takes 2nd seat to the pistol. Shotgun A single shooter with about the same rate of fire as the rifle, which fires in small spray of 3-4 bullets. The shotgun will be perhaps the least used gun in the game. Ammo tends to be extremely limited and if firing from a distance it is hard to hit a target with more than 2 bullets from a blast. Alas, each bullet does less damage than a pistol bullet so the pistol is much more useful. Perhaps in large groups the gun can be useful, but because of the slow rate of fire it's really not worth it. Rocket Launcher Also a single shooter, this gun will try its hardest to be of no use to you. The ammo for this gun is extremely limited (I found about only 25 shots going through the game twice) and the damage in compensation for it being so rare is mediocre at best and will not kill medium level enemies. However, it does do the highest damage per shot of any gun so it can come in handy during 1 or 2 boss fights. Continuing with the negatives however, the gun fires in a straight but short arc so its range is limited (this can be compensated in part by jumping and firing and thereby extending the arc). Also , the rocket launcher projectile explodes with a fairly large radius, which while good for mobs of enemies, it will also damage you and any companions you have with you. If you want to easily kill your companions or yourself and thereby end your game this is the gun to do it with. Fire Seeds WTF?!? You thought she only used guns, WRONG! During the annoying parts of the game where Oyuri loses here pistol (twice) you will receive fire seeds from somewhere or someone which you can toss at enemies. Although these are unlimited and require no reload, the seeds do almost no damage, have horrible rate of fire and even worse range. It is recommended you don't try to kill anything when you have them, or use your spare guns (rifle, gatling, etc) during these times she is cursed with these stupid seeds. A small (very small) blessing with the seeds is that she is given an X + TRIANGLE attack like Gokurakumaru normally has. This attack is a short kick which will knock down enemies and appears unblockable. Oyuri also has 3 (count them - three and only three as far as I know..but three more than Gokurakumaru!) secret items she can get. Only one can be used at a time and must be selected in the quick inventory panel on the main screen in order to be used. You can do this by going to the inventory, highlighting the appropriate item and hitting SQUARE and. Whilst holding this button put the attachment in a quick inventory slot by hitting the directional pad. Also, unfortunately, every special item picked up will permanently take up an inventory space as you can not drop special gun items once they are picked up. Luckily they are all useful. In the order they are found as well as usefulness they are... Barrel extension This will make each bullet shot break through the guards of enemies (but not boss enemies - too bad). Useful, or at least better than the normal pistol. Found on stage 9 in the mansion behind one of the picture frames in the second hallway. Triple Shot As the name implies, you fire 3 bullets per button tap. You don't get 3 bullets per shot, but you fire 3 at a time. As a side effect your overall rate of fire is decreased and you run out of ammo faster, however it's really useful for dealing extra damage to bosses and killing things quick and is a good tradeoff. Found up the stairs on the second level during the Kabuki theatre stage fight in the middle of stage 11. Unlimited Ammo Unlimited ammo - or more precisely, you never need to reload with the pistol (and only the pistol). Very good, found a bit later in the game, but easily the best gun item. Makes the game suddenly very easy (if the game for Oyuri was not already so). Found in stage 16 during the fight in the robot factory area. It is tucked away in the corner of the area in a glass case. Shoot the glass case to retrieve it. C. STAGE WALKTHROUGH Ok, this stage section is divided in such a way to correspond to the save points after you complete an area. In reality, the game is sometimes divided into up to 4 sub-areas within each stage and sometimes the stage is only one area with one fight. Heads up. Stage 1- When starting a new game the first thing you'll be asked is if you would like a tutorial. Reply yes or no. If you reply yes, you will practice your moves on the first stage of the game. After that, the game will start and you will again find yourself on the first stage but fighting for real. Should be no problem to win, you only need to kill everyone on the ground. There should be a food hidden behind one of the rocks by the hut/shop. After you beat this stage you will be asked the question if you would like to autosave from this point on (changeable in the game options menu). If you choose no, you will be asked if you wish to save your game. If you choose yes, you will autosave and proceed to the next stage Stage 2- Start with a little conversation with Gokurakumaru and his servant Togizo. Unfortunately it seems you and Gokurakumaru are wanted by the local town posse who crash into your room. First you'll need to shoot your way out of the inn you are in to get downstairs and into the street (note: there are a bunch of food items around the inn and behind the stairs). Next, you run down the street killing everything until you come to a gate with a samurai and more guards. Kill the samurai to get past the gate. At this point you get jumped by ninja (why? I have no idea) and you are let loose to run around a big area to fight bunches of ninja. Follow the green arrow to your next exit and kill all the ninja around the exit to get to stage 3.or as an extra, run around town collecting food or jump into the river. You will cross and search for a small turtle soup item (which will give back all your health) near the far left river bank. Also, this stage houses the ingredients for the only food recipe you can make in the game (as far as I know that is). It takes four empty spaces in your inventory. You want to pick up the food on the stick behind the staircase in the hotel, the food laying in the middle of the road just before you get to fight with the samurai and his guards, the food laying just behind you as you start the section with ninja after you beat the samurai and his guards and finally the food laying just in front of the gate to the exit of the stage. When you have all four of these foods (two will be the same actually, and all are foods on a stick), then next time you open your inventory screen they will combine to make a food which gives back all your health and makes you unable to be knocked down temporarily. Stage 3- During your flight from town by boat, you get capsized at sea by some sort of sea monster and find yourself awake and alone in the nearby foreign trading island of Dejima. You are also held captive by some zombie-like person but are rescued with the unlikely help of the mercenaries from Stage 1. Stage 3`s battling takes place entirely in a small room with no gun. Simply try to kill as many things as possible or wait for a few minutes until your companions kill most of the zombies and you will go to stage 4. Stage 4- Wheee, fun! No gun! but only for a minute or two. Run around the outside area and you will find your gun lying on the ground. With this, kill the zombies walking around and follow the green arrow to the double gate with extra guns behind it. Shoot down the gate with your pistol (can only be shot down with the pistol btw) and run in the direction of the green arrow. Beware though! Past the double gate is fairly large and flat area you must run across which is infested by crows. The crows are in infinite supply, so its recommended you just run as fast as you can directly towards the arrow. If you are having problems with the crows getting you stunned and killing you, there should be some food before the double gate area which prevents you from being knocked down. Experiment with food to see which works best. If you don't have anything, run in zigzag pattern and jump a lot. You'll eventually get out of the annoying crow area. Stage 5- Zombie alley. This part should be easy enough, though it introduces perhaps one of the first and only very simple jumping and hanging puzzles. Fight through this area until you reach the zombie party at the end and kill them all to save a little girl. Stage 6- With the little girl in tow, you find yourself in sniper alley. It's highly recommended you take this area slow, killing all the snipers as you go as you can easily find yourself in sniper crossfire which can stun and kill you. Furthermore, because the snipers are up in the roof your mercenary companions are of no use. After this, you will find yourself running through an area of rolling boulders and more baddies. Just follow the arrow and you will be fine. Stage 7- Cave area. Very easy or very annoying. You basically need to get across to the far side of the cave area. You can very easily and if you're careful, jump/hang to the far side in no time. If you fall however you need to climb some stairs and perhaps deal with some baddies below you. After you get to the far side you'll be treated to your first boss fight with a ninja girl. Beating her shouldn't be much of a problem, just watch her attacks and respond accordingly. After this, you will lose your gun and must again cross back to the other side of the cave area. Fun! Stage 8- Escaping the cave area you now have a downhill jog infested by lots and lots of ninja. Run past them all to the bottom whilst collecting the guns laid out for you and dispose of the ninja with your collected guns (not your fire seeds) at the bottom of the hill. After this, you have a short fight up to a mansion through some more zombie baddies. Stage 9- In the mansion! This area decides to have you play puzzle again as opposed to action/adventure, here's what you do. In the foyer of the mansion take the right door. Follow this hallway down and out into a big garden area. Follow the walkway around to the other side (not down the steps to the big door) to a smaller door which will lead you into a hallway. Follow this hallway around and check doors until you find yourself in a kitchen with lots of zombie baddies. Take the door on the opposite side of the kitchen, pass through another door and you will find yourself in a wine cellar. In the wine cellar, more zombie baddies! Jump, fight or evade your way through them until you find a door you haven't yet gone through and you will find yourself in a rocky passageway. After passing through the door into this area STOP! Take an immediate right from in this passageway and you should find yourself in a small room with what look like flashing white pieces of wood. Shoot or hit the pieces of wood with extra guns or seeds and they will break and the ceiling will fall down revealing a gun (this time a six- shooter, ya!). After you get your gun you will see a cutscene of a door opening. This door is down the left of the rocky passageway. Go down and find it, enter it and beat the boss guy in there. After this you'll be needing to help your mercenary friends, so go back up to the big garden area around the outside ledge and back to the first hallway you entered in this mansion and. One of the doors on the left- hand side (if facing the direction of the foyer) will be open now. Go through this and there will be a large staircase around the perimeter of the room. Fight your way up the staircase to the top. At the top, enter the door and find the room with what looks like a big map or big stained glass thing (I'm not sure what it is really). Anyway, in this room, on one of the walls there is a control panel type thing. Activate this control panel and the map/stained glass thing will light up. At this point, run back down the stairs into the first hallway you were in and you will see the paintings glowing. Activate the paintings in this hallway to get a key, some food and a alarm bell which brings some guards to their death by your hands. The key you get will open the big door down the steps in the garden. First however, run back through the garden into second hallway and open the paintings up in this hallway. Here one of the paintings will give you the 'Barrel Extentsion' gun item. After getting this, go back into the garden, down the steps and in the big door to fight the first boss enemy (a big fat guy with a machine gun and rocket launcher) which might give you trouble. The basic plan for this battle is to kill off all the extra enemies first and then run around the fat guy while firing by using a combination of L1 and camera rotation buttons. The fat guy is at his weakest when he fires a rocket blast (which of course you don't want to get hit by) because he falls down and when he stands up again he is vulnerable to attacks for a second or so. Repeat as often as necessary avoiding shots in a circle then running at him when he falls down from a rocket launcher blast until he dies. Stage 10- For some reason now all the zombie warriors are running away from you. Perhaps only beating up on fat, badly dresses bosses makes you worthy of fear. Use this opportunity to kill them or chase them around to the stage exit which they will lead you to. Stage 11- You thought you had fun in the mansion, it only gets better now. You are now in the Kabuki house. First you want to take the left passageway, blasting or simply running past the enemies in the halls until you find some stairs at the end of the hall. Next, take these stairs to the 3rd floor. (Caution.-.if you run too fast in the 1st floor hall the little girl who is tagging along with you can get caught in enemies and then die, thus ending your game). On the 3rd floor, follow the hallway all the way around checking all doors to see if they will unlock. Eventually you one of the last doors will be unlocked for you and you will come into a sort of windowed room (there is a mushroom in this room near the middle btw). Run the length of the windowed room and you will find another door which will take you into a smaller room with a bunch of spiders on the floor (easily taken care of by jumping on a nearby table then firing or by using a rocket launcher shot). Anyway, take care of the spiders then leave the room. At this point, you'll get a cinematic sequence where the little girl beckons you to follow her. Follow her all the way down to the first floor and she will eventually take you down to be a treasure room of sorts. Here you will get dolled up in a kimono and... Get warped to the Kabuki stage where after a brief reunion with Gokurakumaru you get a fun blast-em-up main fight with clones of your mercenary buddy. (In this area you'll also find the second hidden item, the triple shot. Before you kill all the enemies near the stage, run around and find the stairs up to the catwalks(?) circling the stage. Way back in the back you will find the hidden gun item sitting there waiting for you).After you kill all the enemies you'll be taken back to the Kabuki house entry way. This time, your enemies have all changed into freaky clones of your former comrade! Take the left passageway again to the stairs and up to the second floor. Search around the second floor, opening all the doors until you find a mirror, shoot the mirror and you'll get a HUGE dose of bad luck in the form of one of the tougher bosses in the game, a shadow ninja guy (not the same one which plagues Gokurakumaru though) To beat this boss, I suggest you put on the triple shot gun addition and then hide in the back corner of any room and keep firing at a 'good spot' on the way. By now in the game you will notice that your shots rebound off of hard objects, so a good spot on the wall means a place where you shoot and the 3 bullets from your triple shot spread out to hit most of the area in the room. As this ninja will run away after every hit, if you keep a hail of bullets bouncing around the room you can usually kill him given enough time. Note:.Every so often you will get hit by him as though as he has an attack which goes through walls (grr, mad cheap attack). However, you can out cheap him with the triple shot, especially if you have any food items stocked up in your inventory so as to make the battle a battle of health, not of tactics. Anyway, after you beat him, you'll go down to the first floor where the little girl will not so nicely push you in a well. (some reward for killing a ninja). Stage 12- After getting pushed in the well you get chased down by a huge and freaky beast. Simply run straight down the only way you can and eventually you will come to a big open area where someone throws you a gun, along with having some more enemies. Run around through the enemies and get the gun (the 8-shooter) then finish everything off. After this you get a small cutscene, some emotional stuff after being thrown into a new hell (but you did get a new and better gun!) and you are off to... Stage 13- Ah, perhaps the hardest stage in the game, which is not saying much really. Anyway, this stage has you running through a dark forest littered with zombie gunners and normal zombie warriors. You can easily get caught in deadly crossfire if you run straight down the path, but really it shouldn't be too hard if you mix running with a little shooting. After which you come to a stairs to a shrine/temple and you get to... Stage 14- After climbing the stairs, you'll be confronted with lots of flying paper doll things, which are relatively harmless and easy to kill. Around this are scattered some foodstuffs as well. After picking these up, continue towards the mission arrow to a tower. Enter the tower and jump climb to the top and you get a cinematic of Gokurakumaru facing down some Japanese demon looking guy, but instead of having to fight his two guards - Boss fight time! This time however, you are not part of the main action, instead you are in the tower and shooting at whatever's moving on the distant ground below. Although it's hard to tell what is what down below and you can't lock onto the bodyguard go into first person shooting mode and shoot, shoot, shoot and eventually you'll kill the 2 bodyguards and you'll get a long cinema sequence of stuff happening all over the island, another brief reunion with Gokurakumaru and then you'll find yourself in... Stage 15- An underground cave with lots and lots of monsters and some ninjas. This time the ninjas are helping you - Fun! Run around and kill everything that you can lock onto and you'll be fine. Note: Some of the freaky snake monsters drop rare food items, but since you are in the water it's hard to find them, so run over the bodies of already dead enemies. Eventually everything will be destroyed by the dragon which surfaces.(does the plot get any weirder?) and you'll escape with the ninja leader to some underground tunnels. Stage 16- The tunnels are pretty easy, just watch out for the spiky grass areas (shootable btw) and the clams in the dark part of the caves (these clams, like the spike grass aren't lock-onable but can be shot using your first person shooting technique). The tunnel is very short and only branches once (to a dead end) so it's easy to find your way through. In this area you'll also find the last gun (10 shooter) in a glass case (shoot to break it open). After getting this, find the exit (some ornate looking doors) and go through. Through the doors you come to what looks like a robot manufacturing area with lots of robots. Kil,l kill, shoot, shoot! But before you kill all of them with your pet ninja's help, in the back of this area, semi- hidden are two glass container things like the one your 10-shooter was in. In one of these is the last gun addition item, the 'unlimited ammo'. I suggest putting this on to use right after you get it, as it's more useful than the 10-shot with triple bullets but it's just me. Anyway, kill the last robots and... You get to an area with a vertical shaft. Climb to the top of the vertical shaft and find a switch which will unlock a door at the very bottom of the shaft which is guarded by funky island native looking guards. Go through this door and find a main fight with the ninja leader who has helped you up till now - Whee! This is a semi-tough fight, but recognise his patterns to avoid his attacks. If you have the unlimited ammo addition on, you can back him up to the point where he can't get close in and attack because of all the lead you are dumping at him making the fight very easy. After this... Stage 17- The last stage of the game for Oyuri. Get treated to more very long cinematic scenes and then you get to fight a metal monster. This fight is very easy if you know what you're doing and very hard if you don't. Basically, don't get anywhere close to the metal guy as his attacks do a lot of damage, have great range and he will usually run through your bullet shots to beat you up. (his stomp attack is especially annoying as it hits everything, even if you are in the air, within its range). However, don't think shooting him is a bad idea some of your shots will back him up, and some will do minor damage to him. If you have the unlimited ammo addition on, you can simply keep running and pestering him with bullets from afar until about 1/3 of his life is left. After this, you will notice that he stops taking damage from all your bullets (not just pistol bullets). To finish him off (or if you want to only use it from the beginning) you will need to pick up the glowing silver key/tree looking thing in this area. Because it's heavy, it will take a second or two to pick up but it can be fired like a rocket launcher. If you miss with your shot (or if your shot doesn't kill the metal guy), you will drop the key/tree thing and it will charge up for about 10 seconds before it can be fired again. The basic process for firing the key/tree thing is to lure to metal guy to the far side of the stage, running past him and picking up the key/tree, and then lining up a shot when the metal guy comes within mid distance (the key/tree thing isn't very accurate past mid distance). After taking the metal guy down you've beaten the game with Oyuri, yeah! After this it's cutscene time, credits, walk into the sunset and time to play Gokurakumaru (if you haven't already). Remember, don't save over a Gokurakumaru game file if you have one! The files don't combine, you will just erase your Oyuri file by trying. --------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Plot of the game, or what the hell happened!!? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, to say that this game has a REALLY messed up plot is an understatement in the biggest way. Although I'd like to think that I have some small competence with Japanese, I'm still somewhat not sure about what happened in the game. I have finally read all through the manual, but some of the cutscenes are way too fast for me to understand everything. So far however, here's what I've made out from experiences. You judge for yourself. First, your characters get stranded on Dejima (a historical trading post where the Japanese traded with foreigners, namely Dutch? I forget) after being chased out of town by a gang of ninja and a town posse. Anyway, it seems that the island has been taken over by a weird religious sect of zombies (headed by a kabuki/demon/priest looking guy called Omyoji that only Gokurakumaru normally fights but which Oyuri sees in her path through the game). Omyoji, a retainer at the imperial court once upon a time, was exiled when the Bakafu government came to power. Because of this betrayal, he has decided to create a revolutionary faction (more revenge I suppose) of zombie followers (along with foreign mercenaries/followers) to strike back at Japan. Also, during his time creating his zombie sect on Dejima, he has unearthed some old magic/technology in the form of a Gold Giant which he is using as his new religions mascot (idol). However, old technology/magic always comes with strings attached, and very soon in the game (when Gokurakumaru first encounters Omyoji and the Gold Giant) that the tech/culture in the form of the Gold Giant starts doing things on its own. Furthermore, it would seem with the old tech/magic awakening, some non zombie survivors (in the form of a young bratty girl and a young woman named Himika) somehow bond with tech/magic. Although later on you come to wonder if the young woman was not just a survivor of the Dejima populace but was instead also unearthed in Omyoji's excavations. Regardless,in flashback sequences during the end of Gokurakumaru's game, it seems that in the past Himika was a queen of a nation that was conquered by some tribe (the ancestors of modern Japanese people?) and before she was captured she was hidden away by her lover Jigo (who we learn later, in Oyuri's end game, is actually still alive in the form a second Gold Giant - Oyuri`s end fight). So when she gets unearthed/awakened, she wants to reunite with Jigo, and perhaps rebuild her kingdom. Although really, it's not clear how such a powerful person got beaten in the first place ages ago (also for note, the name Himika is a derivative of a "real" quasi-historical queen's name, Himiko, who was once the ruler of pre-historical Japan and figures ino some old Japanese mythology where she is usually some sort of sorceress and rules with her brother). But I digress. It just so happens that Gokurakumaru resembles Jigo to a T, which should explain some of Gokurakumaru`s cutscenes, namely the part where she kidnaps Oyuri and comes on to Gokurakumaru after she manages to raise her defeated sunken city(?) and warriors from the seas and from the dead. Now that might explain Himika and Gokurakumaru and Oyuri's part in being tossed around inside a gold dragon and being pushed into wells, but it doesn't explain the gratuitous ninja in the game with their flying spiked ships, guns and stuff. Well, firstly, the ninja are agents of the Bakafu government of Japan. Their leader, Hanzo (who both Oyuri and Gokurakumaru fight) is a once rival of Gokurakumaru and his gang, but it's still unclear what his real motivation and role in the game is). At first, I think he is hunting Gokurakumaru and his gang, but later on it really seems as if he was going to Dejima anyway to either topple Omyoji's zombie insurrection and/or take down Himika's ancient civilisation again. It doesn't make sense though, as Omyoji, much less Hanzo wouldn't have actually known about there being an ancient culture (and city and army and queen) underneath Dejima, but once the whole ancient city pops up from the waves, Hanzo is right there with his ninja and his flying ships and his bombs and stuff attacking the just arisen city. Him and his ninja's roles are still somewhat of a mystery for me. They might have known something about Dejima before (because early in the game Oyuri and Gokurakumaru talk about finding treasure on Dejima), but it's unclear as no one ever mentions anything more specific than "treasure" when refferring to Dejima early in the game. Well, that's just like ninja to not have their motives easily understood, oh well. Anyway, to finish up, the final characters which I haven't cleared up are the mercenaries that Gokurakumaru and Oyuri fight, and who become part of Oyuri's group. Well, they are just that. At the beginning of the game, they are hunting Gokurakumaru and his gang to claim a reward and become rich. Later, they are just scavenging around Dejima and hang out with Oyuri until they meet horrible deaths. --------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. After The Game Ends, reload! --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you reload a save file after you have beaten the game (assuming you saved after you beat the game) you'll be able to play through the game again, this time being able to select stages. Before picking a stage, press the L2 and R2 buttons to change you character to enemies you fought before. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Here is the list numbered in such a way that if you use R2 to scroll through the listing. The listing is the same for both an Oyuri save file and a Gokurakumaru save file. Also, a Gokurakumaru save file cannot play Oyuri stages and vice versa. A. GENERAL FACTS ABOUT REPLAYING AS AN EXTRA CHARACTER Before the listing, some facts about playing the game as non-standard characters. -All characters, except Gokurakumaru and Oyuri will not have inventories. -Food will be eaten without animation on contact, and no food seems poisonous. -Characters other that Gokurakumaru and Oyuri will block attacks sometimes, for no reason (why can't the main characters do this?). -Some of the characters are 'very' fast and have insane jumping ability. Check out Hanzo or the dog - geez! -They will skip sections of the game (i.e. Gokurakumaru`s mansion stage) where you normally have to pick up items. -Some characters have lots of attacks (Hanzo) and others have few. Some of the attacks the characters use can only be used by an uncommon control scheme. I.e. Hanzo has a normal X attack, but he also has a running X attack, and he has an X attack in the air AND different X attack from when lands on the ground after a jump. -Hanzo is by far the cheapest and most fun off all the characters, even if the above description didn't give that away. -Some characters have NO attacks whatsoever. I.e the zombie scarecrow - lame!! B. PLAYABLE CHARACTER LIST 1.(starting point) Gokurakumaru/Oyuri (he will only have the blades he is supposed to have for the stage you play on). You can only save progress (more kills, food picked up, etc) if you play with this selection (this will be Oyuri if you are loading from an Oyuri save file). 2. Gokurakumaru/Oyuri (all blades no matter what stage) (if an Oyuri save file, Oyuri with all gun attachments) 3. Gokurakumaru/Oyuri (only with the broken katana) (or if an Oyuri save file, it's Oyuri with the fire seeds) 4. Gokurakumaru/Oyuri (This selection will be Oyuri if it's a Gokurakumaru save file, and vice versa for an Oyuri save file. 5. Hanzo (ninja leader) 6. Ninja girl 7. Mercanary leader (the of the mercs that Oyuri and Gokurakumaru both beat up earlier in the game) 8. Fat mercenary 9. Mercanary archer 10. Priest mercenary 11. Banadaged mercenary 12. Sky ninja (the ninjas are all mostly the same except for Hanzo and the ninja girl) 13. Sea ninja 14. Yamatai solider (the funny looking guys you fight near the end of the game) 15. Zombie believer, the weak guys you fight near the game's beginning. 16. Shadow ninja (the one that Oyuri fights in the Kabuki house) 17. Lightning guy (that Oyuri and Gokurakumaru fight in the shrine yard) 18. Jigo (the Gold Giant that Oyuri fights at the end) 19. Gold Giant (the Gold Giant Gokurakumaru fights) 20. Rock Dog (stage thirteen dogs that come to life and attack Gokurakumaru) 21. Demon head (the heads that fall from the sky on Gokurakumaru's stage 13) 22. Some other sort of rank and file ninja 23. Earth ninja 24. Rifle-man (from the mansion stages) 25. Yet another ninja type 26. Fat boss (the boss from Oyuri`s mansion stage) 27. Big green robot 28. Sword and shield fighter 29. A zombie scarecrow 30. Posse guy (from the second stage of game - dagger and lantern) 31. Posse guy (forked staff) 32. Posse guy (hammer) 33. Samurai looking guy (from second stage) 34. Boss samurai guy (second stage) 35. Fire-breathing guy (found in both characters early mid games) 36. Clown looking guy (annoying guy from Oyuri's Kabuki stage and Gokurakumaru's forest stage) 37. Yet another basic zombie guy (I never noticed there were two types!) 38. Shadow ninja boss (the one that Gokurakumaru fights) 39. Fighter with basket on his head 40. White robed fighter (found in Gokurakumaru`s Kabuki stage) 41. Dog (from here the list will loop back to Gokurakumaru/Oyuri 1.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. Food --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, this is the food section. Below are the list of what I know about food in the game. It lacks a complete list of food, but my explanation for that is below. If you are looking for the list of food effects, it is the last item in this section. A. GENERAL FOOD STUFF. -There is a strange pumpkin food which has no special abilities whatsoever that can be found whilst fighting the rock dogs on Gokurakumaru's stage 13. Go to the tower (which Oyuri climbs in her shrine stage) and the food will be hidden in a corner on the bottom level of the tower. If you find out what it does or can mix with, please tell me. -Mushrooms give random effects, there is nothing special about them except for this fact. -Gokurakumaru has a short delay when eating food as food can be knocked out of his hand. Oyuri on the other hand will instantly eat food which you highlight to eat. However, food that has been knocked out of Gokurakumaru's hand will be instantly eaten once you attempt to pick it up again. -Food effects (as well as special effects associated with your blade) don't carry over between any cutscene or change of setting in the game. If you move to a new area, whatever effect that was active is cancelled. -Food can heal +20, 40, 60 and 100% of life depending on the food. Food can also damage you up to -20% of your life (however, this may be wrong for the poisonous foods). -Finally, if you eat a food once, the next time you pick up that food, you will have a short description of its effects when you look at it in your inventory rather than having it listed with ????. Finally, excuse me, for not making a complete food listing as there are many, many food items in the game (and they differ in effect per character). As such, I really don't feel like scouring the game over and over again (although I have done so already) to make a complete listing because there are too many foods and most of them do the same stuff. So unless someone wants to contribute a list you'll have to find them yourself and identify them through the in-game system. If I didn't list it in the walkthrough for the character then I'm not going to list it - probably. Instead, here is the list of effects a food can give. B. FOOD EFFECTS LISTING First column on the right (when looking at manual pg.26) -金縛 (Can't move for a short period of time) -回復 (Gain health back slowly for short time) -豪力 (Damage output increased for short time) -金剛 (Damage received is lowered for short time) -混乱 (all controls are reversed for short time) Second column on left (when looking at manual pg.26) -禁手 (Can't attack for short time, but Oyuri can use her kick attack if you have the seeds in your possession) -減少 (Health is lost slowly for short time) -非力 (Damage output decreases over time) -弱体 (Damage taken increased for short time) -不動 (Unable to be knocked down for short time - mixed blessing sometimes) --------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. General Hints, Tips- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok. This section is not very organised, but the hints are varied and general in nature since they are just little extras which aren't needed to really enjoy the game or beat it like some of the very minor control options you have. Below are listed everything you need to know which isn't immediately obvious after playing for 5-10 minutes. -The L1 button is your friend, it is much quicker to turn towards a certain direction by facing towards where you want to look and hitting L1 to centre your screen rather than using the L2 and R2 buttons to rotate the camera. You'll save lots of time running thrrough areas by using L1. -This game is easy. If in doubt, follow the arrow on the radar. If there is no arrow on the radar, it just means you probably need to kill something close by you. The arrow on the radar will only disappear when something needs to be killed, found, or you are at the stage exit already. -the game keeps track of how many kills you make as Gokurakumaru or Oyuri (though separately, not combined). The kill count mostly however means nothing or at least I have not yet worked it out, though I will try to do so later. The only obvious benefit that comes from the kill count (besides humour he, he) is that after every 100 or so kills, your life will be mostly restored. This is very useful for stockpiling and not wasting food to heal yourself with until you need it for boss fights. -an easier way to refill your health is to simply die and re-continue, very useful for when you have no food at all but don't feel like playing cautiously or you want to save your food for later on when you might need it more. -As far as I know, Gokurakumaru has no special hidden items other than special food items to obtain, only Oyuri has. -Also, as far as I know, the game has no special hidden areas or extra areas at all, for either of the two characters. -There is more than one animation for cutting down bamboo in the bamboo forests! Experiment for some minor but fun effects. -When you complete and save your game you can go back through a saved game and play any old stages as yourself or as some of the monsters you fought before (most notably the ninja leader Hanzo or the Metal guy), though after you pick a stage to play, after you beat that stage you will progress again through the game as normal. Don't worry, just exit the game and when you reload the game again you can play any stage. -Also, when you complete the game, you do not move on to the other character's story mode with the same save game file. I.e. you beat Oyuri's game, you will not move on to Gokurakumaru's story. If start a new game and save over your previous Oyuri save game file you will delete your previous hard-won effort (although there is precious little gained by beating the game in terms of special bonuses - still, keep it in mind.). -If you want to learn some easy Japanese, play as Gokurakumaru and keep switching between his blades. He will call out the numbers of the blade he wants when he switches to them. They are ichi-ban, ni-ban, san-ban, yon-ban, go-ban, roku-ban, nana-ban, hachi-ban. "ban" is not actually a number, but adds the meaning of first, second, third etc to numbers when counting items that need to be ordered. -Always use the start button to quit out of the inventory menu, you can inadvertently use food if you if the wrong button. -Found this out recently, Gokurakumaru can deflect bullets fired at him by swinging at them with some of his blades if you time it right. --------------------------------------------------------------------- X. Acknowledgements- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Gamefaqs, for being BS free, easy to use and for hosting this FAQ. Thanks to Japan and America for giving me 17+ years of entertainment! Thanks to the Takikawa City Board of Education for letting me use their computer for the creation of this FAQ and for other general computer usage stuff. Yeah, if you ever come to Hokkaido Japan, come to Takikawa - best city I have ever lived in in Hokkaido! Thanks to Europa for cleaning up lots of my spelling and grammar mistakes, making this FAQ much more readable (able to be read..whatever!). And finally, thanks to those people who have written to me about this FAQ, it makes me want to write more FAQs.