FAQ for SAKURA TAISEN ONLINE version 1.2 by Carl Chavez (comments@sakuraarchives.com) Latest version of this FAQ can be found at: http://www.sakuraarchives.com Last updated 3 February 2002. The primary function of this FAQ is to explain the rules for the various games that are part of Sakura Taisen Online. In the future, it may contain more information, such as how to sign up for an account and how to unlock extra characters and items. Version 1.2 (3 February 2002) - room info added, link to connection FAQ added, allowance info added Version 1.1 (29 Jan 2002) - rules faq updated, quest info added. Version 1.0 (mid-Jan 2002) - rules faq (preliminary). Please, if you have any corrections, contact me at comments@sakuraarchives.com! ------------------------------------------ CONTENTS ------------------------------------------ I. Connecting to Sakura Taisen Online servers II. "mini-game" rules III. Koi-Koi Hanafuda rules A. koi-koi B. pair koi-koi C. variants IV. Mahjongg rules A. mahjongg B. "sure-kill" mahjongg C. variants V. Poker rules A. normal rules B. variants VI. Daifugou rules A. normal rules B. variants VII. Quests and Raising Money A. Grand Mere B. Yoneda C. Monthly Allowances VIII. Your Room A. Bed B. Dresser C. Kinematron D. Diary E. Goodies Box F. Door G. Window H. Walls I. Clock J. Table K. Floor IX. Credits --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** I. Connecting to Sakura Taisen Online servers ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Terrence Huey has created a connection FAQ that will hopefully help you connect to the Sakura Taisen Online servers if you live outside Japan. http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~hueyt/STO/index.html If you cannot connect after following these instructions, you may have a problem with your Dreamcast's configuration. For step #2, part 14, instead of selecting "User", select "Sega". This will open a Web page to the isao.net servers. Somewhere on that page is a link that will help you automatically configure your Dreamcast after you enter your isao.net username and password. WARNING!!! IF YOU HAVE A NORTH AMERICAN OR EUROPEAN DREAMCAST, ISAO.NET'S AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION WILL CHANGE YOUR NA/EUR CONNECTION SETTINGS WHICH ARE NORMALLY SEPARATE FROM THE JP CONNECTION SETTINGS. YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY NON-JAPANESE ONLINE GAMES AFTER AUTOCONFIGURING YOUR DREAMCAST. YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEND OR RECEIVE E-MAIL WHEN USING A NA/EUR GAME, AND YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE NA/EUR VERSIONS OF THE DREAMCAST BROWSER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, so don't complain to me if you can't use the Dreamcast with your local ISP for NA/EUR games anymore!!! However, this was the only way I could get my Dreamcast configured correctly for STO. Luckily, I can still play the North American version of Phantasy Star Online v1, so that game may work correctly with the isao.net settings... Speaking of PSO v1: one side-effect of the whole configuration process is that you will be able to play the North American version of PSO v1 online with a broadband adapter, which the game can't normally do! :-) --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** II. "mini-game" rules ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- The mini-game that is playable during the connection process is very simple. Four characters appear at the top and bottom of the rectangular "well". The top row descends slowly. Your goal is to make the descending row match the bottom row before the descending row reaches the bottom. Your control pad or analog stick will move the cursor around. The cursor is used to select two characters in the descending row. If you press the X button, the positions of the two characters will be switched. Example: change ABBA to BBAA [A B]B A <-- descending row with cursor around the first two characters [B A]B A <-- descending row after pressing X B[A B]A <-- cursor moved one column to the right B[B A]A <-- X pressed again B B A A <-- descending now matches bottom row If you are unsuccessful in matching the bottom row, you will get 10 points per correctly matched character. If you do succeed, you get 40 points for four matched characters, plus 100 bonus points. If you do it again, you get 200 bonus points. The bonus amount will increase by 100 points for every consecutive successful match. When your connection is successful, you may earn bonus body parts for your avatar based on your performance. I think it is based on the average points scored, so even if you have broadband and the connection takes less than five seconds, you shouldn't have to worry about not being able to unlock those parts. Just match the first two rounds quickly, and you'll average over one hundred points. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** III. Koi-Koi Hanafuda rules ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************** A. koi-koi ***************** In the beginning, each player draws one card to determine something. (Who goes first? Or maybe strong suit?) The cards are reshuffled and dealt. Each player gets eight cards. Eight more cards are placed between them. I will refer to this area as the "play area". Each turn, a player plays a card. If the played card matches another card on the play area, both cards are collected by the current player. Otherwise, the card is placed within the play area. You can see which cards match with what by the brightness: if all of the cards in the play area are dimmed, then there is no card that matches the currently highlighted card. If a card does match, then press the A button to collect both cards. If more than one card is a match, you can select which card you will take. Next, a card is drawn from the deck. If it matches another card on the play area, then both cards are collected by the current player. Otherwise, the card is placed within the play area. Again, if more than one card in the play area matches the drawn card, then you can choose which one to take. The goal of the game is to collect certain sequences of cards. It is difficult to explain these sequences in a text file. You can see the sequences in the game manual. (You do have a manual, right? :-) ) When you succeed in collecting the cards that form sequences, you score the points related to that sequence (again, look at the manual for the point values). A menu will appear that lists all of the scoring sequences you possess. At the bottom will be two choices: "koikoi" (on the left) or "yameru" (on the right). Choose "koikoi" to continue play with the current set of cards. You can try to earn more points in the current set. You can pick "yameru" to collect the points and start a new set. If you pick "koikoi", and then your opponent scores and picks "yameru", then you don't get ANY points for the current set. "koikoi" is a gamble... don't pick it if you feel that your opponent is about to score. You can see a zoomed picture of both your and your opponent's collected cards by pressing the L or R triggers. The first to remove 15 points from the opponent wins the round. In the normal rules, there is only one round. ***************** B. pair koi-koi ***************** This is the same as the standard koi-koi, except there are two teams of two players. Each player gets four cards instead of eight. You can't see your teammate's cards, so you have to guess what your teammate is trying to set up, and help out if possible. You share the same collection of cards. If your teammate scores, then that person gets to choose "koikoi" or "yameru". ***************** C. variants ***************** * In the first variant (second option): There are 3 rounds, not one. Each round is played for 5 points. (Not sure about this next thing) You can't choose between "koikoi" and "yameru"; if you score, it's automatically "yameru". Because of this, you probably want to go for the high-scoring combos. * In the second variant (third option): The game is more customizable. There's only one round, but the points required for the win can be set to 5, 15, 30, or 60 points. (Not sure about his next thing) You can also see all of the cards. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** IV. Mahjongg rules ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mahjongg has many, many, MANY variants, depending on the country and/or the people you're playing with. Sakura Taisen's mahjongg is somewhat like Japanese mahjongg. This explanation of the rules assume you've never played any version of mahjongg. It isn't really like US-rules or Chinese-rules mahjongg, so if you've played either of those, then forget those rules and study these! :-) ***************** A. mahjongg ***************** The object of ST mahjongg is to collect 14 tiles that form a pair, plus any combination of 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, or straight runs of at least three tiles in the same suit (like 1-2-3 or 5-6-7-8). When you form such a hand, you have gotten mahjongg and you win the round. When the game starts, the tiles are dealt out to each player. They are automatically sorted by value from 1-9. There are other tiles representing wind direction (N, S, E, W), blank tiles, and tiles with a red symbol on them that means "middle". If you can't recognize Chinese numbering, this game will be hard for you because one of the suits has Chinese numbering on its tiles. The other suits have dots or sticks that you can count, but that particular suit will be difficult to remember for a while. Each player discards a tile that he or she doesn't want. Then the player must draw a new tile from the ones remaining. If the player draws a tile that results in mahjongg, then that player can press the X button to bring up a menu: SHIMO - RI-CHI - KAN Pick SHIMO (the first option) to declare a win. It may be dimmed if you have what looks like a winning hand... I'm not sure why that is, but it may have something to do with having a pair of direction tiles...? Perhaps you can only have three-of-a-kind or four-of-a-kind with non-numeric tiles. I'm not sure how to claim a RI-CHI yet... When a player discards a tile, the other players (in a clockwise direction) decide whether they want to pick that tile up. The tile can only be picked up if one of the following can be done (a menu will automatically pop up if one of these is possible): RON - PON - CHI- - KAN * a pon or kan that results in mahjongg ("ron") * three-of-a-kind ("pon") * four-of-a-kind ("kan") * a run of three cards, like "2-3-4" or "6-7-8" ("chi") If you take the tile, then you have to set those tiles aside. The other players can see those tiles, and you won't be able to break them apart to form other combinations. It will often happen that you don't want to pick up a discarded tile... for example, if you have a a pair of 2s and a 4, and somebody discards a 3, then you could "chi" the 2-3-4, but then you'd break your pair of 2s. If you pick up a discarded tile, and you didn't do it with a "ron", then you have to draw another tile, and you can't win this round even if the new tile forms mahjongg. ***************** B. "sure-kill" mahjongg ***************** This is like normal mahjongg, except you have a ki gauge for performing "sure-kill" moves. You can use these moves that will let you draw another tile or perform other such rulebending. The special moves are different for each possible partner. I'm not sure what is possible yet, but it's in the manual (in Japanese, heh heh)... ***************** C. variants ***************** Mahjongg is already rather complex. There are two rules variants, and I haven't figured out either one yet... * the first variant, ZAKU ZAKU (second option) ??? * the second variant (third option) ??? --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** V. Poker rules ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************** A. normal rules ***************** In the normal rules of ST Poker, each player is dealt five cards. Next, each player looks at his or her cards and either: * "checks", if the player is the dealer * "bets", if the player is the dealer; the dealer can set the initial amount of money that each player must bet. Max initial bet is 10 chips. * "raises", if the player wants to raise the amount of money that each player must bet. Max raise is 10 chips. * "calls", if the player wants to match the current bet amount. There is no "folding" in the first round of normal ST Poker. Once bets are set, players are allowed to select up to five cards to discard. Any discarded cards are replaced by new cards drawn from the deck. Select cards to discard by pressing the A button when the card is selected. Select multiple cards by selecting one and then moving to another card and pressing A again. If you press A on a card that is already selected, you will discard all selected cards. Press B to cancel a selected card. Press B when no cards are selected to "pass" and not discard any cards. Another round of betting begins, with the same options as before. If nobody raises the initial bet of this round, then nobody can "fold", which means you drop out of the current game round and forfeit all money you've bet so far. If somebody does raise the initial bet, then other players can fold. Another round of discarding and drawing begins. The last round of bets begins. If nobody raises the initial bet of this round, then nobody can fold. If somebody does raise the initial bet, then other players can fold. After the last round of bets, the "showdown" occurs and everybody still in the game reveals his or her cards. Best hand wins, determined by the following (card combinations at the bottom beat anything above): * high card - 2 is lowest, A is highest * pair of cards * two pair of cards * three pair of cards * straight - all cards are consecutively numbered (up to 10-J-Q-K-A) * flush - all cards are from the same suit * full house - three of a kind and a pair * straight flush * royal straight flush - 10-J-Q-K-A, and all cards are flush * four of a kind * five of a kind - joker required Chips won in poker don't count toward money in the shops (unless, perhaps, you win first place?). ***************** B. variants ***************** * first variant (second option) No joker; 20-chip max bet or raise, 2 rounds of discards, 4 game rounds * second variant, "ori ori" (third option) Joker; 20-chip max bet or raise, 1 rounds of discards, 8 game rounds * third variant, "original" (fourth option) Joker; 10-chip max bet or raise, 4 game rounds. Each player is dealt four cards, and three cards are placed face-up in the center of the table. There are three rounds of discards: each player places exactly one card face-up on the table, and then a new card is drawn from the deck and placed face-up in the middle. The object is to create the best possible five-card hand out of the five middle cards and the two cards left in your hand after the three discards. Bets are placed after a card is added to the cards in the middle. After a fifth card is added to the middle, one last round of betting occurs, then the winning hand is determined. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** VI. Daifugou rules ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************** A. normal rules ***************** In Daifugou, you try to get rid of all your cards. If you're first, then you get 4 points. If you're second, you get 2 points. Third place gets 1 point, and last place gets 0 points. After six rounds, the person with the highest point total wins. A nice thing about getting first place is that you will have an advantage during the next round. You will get the two best cards from the last-place player. You can choose two cards to give to the last-place player. The second-place player gets the best card from the third-place player and picks one card for the third-place player. There's a potential problem in getting first place in a round, though. In the next round, you MUST get first place or you will automatically get last place! In this game, the 3 is the lowest card and the 2 is the highest. The joker can beat anything. When the first round starts, the player with the 3 of Clubs starts the game. Play continues clockwise around the table. The first player during any set can choose to place one or more cards on the table. A player may place: * one card (3) * a pair (J-J) * three of a kind (5-5-5) * three or more straight of the same suit (7-8-9 of hearts, or 9-10-J-Q-K of clubs) * four of a kind (SPECIAL EFFECT! see below) * five of a kind (? does this have any effect?) To select more than one card, press the A button to highlight a card, then move the cursor. The previous card will be raised. When you're done selecting cards, press A over an already-highlighted card to make your play. A joker may be played as any card, so it may be selected to create any of the sets listed above (such as 5-5-Jo or 9-Jo-J-Q-K). If a player plays four of a kind, all card values are reversed! Now 3 is the high card, and 2 is the low card! Once an initial set has been started, consecutive players can get rid of cards in their hand if they can beat the current high play. (A player can also pass if strategy calls for it.) Here's an example: 1) first player starts with 4-4 2) next player plays 9-9 3) next player plays 10-10 4) next player plays K-K 5) first player plays 2-2 and gains control of the next set 6) first player plays 5 7) next plays 9 8) next plays joker and gains control of the next set When a player gets rid of his or her hand, the player gets 4 points. If the player is not the person who got 4 points last round, then the previous winner gets 0 points this round and cannot play any more cards until the 2nd and 3rd places are decided. A joker may not be played as the last card in your hand, nor may it be a part of the last set of cards you play. For example, if you have 7-Jo as your last two cards, you cannot play them as a pair of 7s. You must play the joker as the second-to-last card. ***************** B. variants ***************** * first variant, "beginner" (second option) - 3 rounds - winner of previous round does not have to win next round to avoid zero points - no card swapping at the beginning of the next round * second variant, "local" (third option) - 6 rounds - single jokers lose to 3 of spades; the 3 of spades can be - when an 8 is played, then any play afterward must contain an 8 to beat the previous play. For example, a 6-7-8 can only be beaten by a 7-8-9 or 8-9-10. A J-K-A could not beat it, because it does not contain an 8. Other examples: an 8 can only be beaten by another 8; a pair of 8s can only be beaten by another pair of 8s. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** VII. Quests and Raising Money ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- When you perform certain tasks in the online game, you can earn more credits that can be used to buy things from Tsubaki. To claim these credits, you must visit Grand Mere or Yoneda. They will offer five quests at a time. Once you accept them, you can try to fulfill them. When you have completed the quest they will pay credits to you. ***************** A. Grand Mere ***************** TASK CREDITS ----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 1 MAKE GOOD FRIENDS 1200 Exchange name cards with the same person several times (5?). You can only exchange name cards with the same person once per day. NO FOLD 1400 Win a game of poker without ever folding. PLAY 10 ROUNDS OF POKER 600 Play ten games of Poker. DAIFUGOU FOREVER! 1000 Win a Daifugou match, and you must be daifugou for all six rounds. OVERTURN 10 TIMES 800 Be daifugou and then lose the next round 10 times. LEVEL 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ***************** B. Yoneda ***************** TASK CREDITS ----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 1 LET'S EXCHANGE NAMECARDS! 1000 Exchange name cards with ten different people. KOI KOI 2X AND YAME 1200 Win a game by declaring koikoi twice and then declaring yame. TEN BATTLES OF KOI KOI 600 Play ten games of Koi-Koi. SCORE A TRIPLE 10X 1400 Score a triple in mahjongg ten times. (in a row?) WIN WITHOUT DECLARING 800 Win a game of mah-jongg without ever declaring ri-ichi, chi, pon, or kan. LEVEL 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ***************** C. Monthly Allowances ***************** After one month of play, your commanding officer (Gran Mere if you own the Paris version of STO, or Yoneda if you own the Teito version) will give you an allowance of 30000 credits. You can use this money at Tsubaki's shop in case you spent too much money at her shop when you first bought the game. :-) This is great, because some of the quests are pretty hard to complete. You're probably paid every month, but since the game isn't two months old yet, this cannot be verified! --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** VIII. Your Room ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Whenever you start the online game, you are in your room. Your room is your home, and you can personalize it in many ways. After a month has passed, the size of your room will increase. This will let you put more things on the floor and walls. It also lets you reach the window so you can open and close the curtains! If you go to the "My Room" chat room, you can create a chat room that will be hosted in your room. That way, other people can see what your room looks like. Conversely, you can see other peoples' rooms by entering their chats! These objects are in your room: ***************** A. Bed ***************** Use the bed to save the game. The first option lets you save, and the second option cancels. If you don't want to save the game, just turn your Dreamcast off. Your bed can have two stuffed toys on it. ***************** B. Dresser ***************** Use the dresser to change the appearance of your avatar. Your dresser can have two stuffed toys on it. ***************** C. Kinematron ***************** Use the kinematron to contact a Sakura Taisen character who you have met in the game. That character will be your playing partner. ***************** D. Diary ***************** The diary lets you manage your VM files, view the staff roll, and play the connection mini-game. A random bromide appears on the inside front cover. ***************** E. Goodies Box ***************** Use the goodies container next to the door to change the look of any of the objects in your room. You can buy new objects from Tsubaki at the Imperial Theater. You can also get new goodies containers from Tsubaki. Each container has its own unique animation when opening and closing. I prefer the cardboard box, because your avatar will kick it to open or close it! ***************** F. Door ***************** To connect to the Sakura Taisen Online servers, just open the door. If you have not yet connected successfully, the game will ask you for a username and password for a Dricas account. Please read Terrence Huey's Connection FAQ (go to section I for the link) for more information on how to connect to the servers. ***************** G. Window ***************** Once your room is big enough, you'll be able to walk up to the window. Press the A button to open or close the curtains. Unlike the other usable objects, no popup will appear to tell you that you can do something. This is a hidden function! ***************** H. Walls ***************** You can cover the walls with posters purchased from Tsubaki's shop. The smaller photos can be placed over some of the larger posters. As the size of your room increases, you'll gain more wall space for photos! You can also change the wall decorations. Orihime's Italian-themed wall decorations with the red, green, and white bunting will cover some of the photographs on the walls, so that may not be a good choice if you're not an Orihime fan (or Italian!). ***************** I. Clock ***************** The clock displays the current time programmed into your Dreamcast. The glass one is nice on some walls but nearly invisible on others. ***************** J. Table ***************** Your kinematron and your diary are on your table. You can also put four toys of any size on the ends of the table. When your room's size increases, your table's size does not increase. ***************** K. Floor ***************** You can put four toys of any size on the floor. When your room's size increases, you are still allowed only four toys on the floor, but the way to the window opens, so you can now open and close it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ********** ********** IX. Credits ********** --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is Copyright 2002 Carl Chavez. This FAQ may be distributed freely for non-commercial use. It may not be edited or altered in any way. It may not be distributed with advertising in any form without permission. GameFAQs.com has explicit permission to distribute this FAQ. Thanks to Terrence Huey for helping with many translations, for figuring out the quests, and for playing online with me every week. Thanks to Alwin Wong for help with the Daifugou rules and variants. Thanks to Yana (via Terrence Huey) for help with the mahjongg rules.