Daikatana FAQ(GBC) version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent. However, if you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry. Special stuff I'll ignore for this guide only: I have no idea what the PC game is like. I've heard the jokes. But I have nothing concrete to judge. Except I think Superfly Johnson is a bit of a silly name. **** AD SPACE: **** My home page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 1-1. EVALUATION 1-2. NOTATIONS ETC. 1-3. PLOT AND SPOILERS 2. CONTROLS AND INVENTORY 2-1. MOVING 2-2. ITEMS 3. ENEMIES AND SUCH 4. WALKTHROUGH 4-1. DOJO AND SEWERS 4-2. FORTRESS 4-3. FORTRESS 2 4-4. FURNACE 4-5. LEVEL 4 4-6. DAIKATANA AREA 4-7. ANCIENT 4-8. UNDER ATHENS 4-9. ATHENS 4-10. MEDUSA 4-11. VILLAGE 4-12. CASTLE 4-13. SAN FRANCISCO, 2030 4-14. SHUTTLE 4-15. SHUTTLE LEVEL 2 4-16. LAB AREA 4-17. HELIPAD AREA 4-18. MISHIMA'S TOWER 5. VERSIONS 6. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION 1-1. EVALUATION Daikatana for the GBC is a much less ambitious effort than the full-scale effort for the PC. But from what I can piece together about the PC version's release and its commercial failure and my experiences with the GBC version, the focus served the game well. Some of the time travel bits are mumbo jumbo, and there's too much of the people from the future constantly rewriting the past, and yet the ending absolves all of the hard-coded plot lines. And although you don't really have to use much of the large selection of weapons you've been given, it's no less fun to go through several periods of time whacking bad guys with sticks. Enough to put off some atrocious dialogue and the confusing morphing effects created by the three main characters you switch between during the game. Athens and the ancient village are done rather well and while the futuristic parts seem wound up a bit too hastily, it's still fun to thrash a motorcycle with a magic sword. Much of the game's strategy revolves around hitting someone with a sword and causing them to bounce three squares away and hiding around bends. There are a few puzzles, and a bit of mapping doesn't hurt. I completed this game in five hours with the aid of save states, boss fights being the main impediment. A few days later I completed the deal with 855 armor points left(using save game status.) Despite not having much to do physically, the transfer between the past and the future works well. And if the game is outlandish and goes beyond suspension of disbelief, that's tempered by some likable cartoon graphics. Overall Daikatana does a good job of looking back on 2-d NES games such as Metal Gear and Zelda and capturing parts of them as well as their feel. It's a bit on the short side, but it's better to be too short than too long. 1-2. NOTATIONS ETC. U, D, L and R mean up, down, left and right. 3U means 3 squares up. UR or DL mean upper right or down-left respectively, and 3U2R means 3 up, 2 right. 1-3. PLOT AND SPOILERS For those who want to go through the game and say, well, you are trying to find a lost magic sword that lets you go through time and then you need to find the other guy who has a duplicate of it that's the same thing and beat him up, this may not be necessary. But here is what I got after a couple of play throughs of the game and analysis of the text. [later] 2. CONTROLS AND INVENTORY 2-1. MOVING The directional arrows let you move Hiro. You can move him diagonally, or if you run diagonally into a wall, you will continue in the direction you can still go. You can also tap the controller to move slightly and turn around. This can be critical if you are hiding out. The A button lets you jump. When you are in the air you can jump up to two squares in any direction, and you can steer yourself while airborne. You may want to run before you jump to get the full range. It does not let you jump over enemies. If you touch enemies, you suffer damage. The B button lets you perform an action on an item. If there is a secret floor tile(usually denoted by a square around the tile) stairs will be revealed down. Otherwise the action is usually performed on the square above. If there is a door, and you have the key or don't need one, the door opens. You can even push some objects. If you have no item to perform an action on, B lets you use your weapon. You may push it rapid-fire. When pushing an object you must release and press the B button to move it multiple squares. The select button lets you pick an item. If you push any button other than select it cancels the operation. The save button lets you save games in one of three slots. If you are using an emulator and wish to use save states, my recommendation is to have one for non-boss or non-fight settings and another for tough fights, because you can get zinged without knowing in, or you can be in a position to get nailed. Save states can make the game too easy if abused(i.e. you know where a boss will teleport next.) And thus I don't recommend using them too much. The game is natural enough to get through pretty quickly. 2-2. ITEMS You pick up an item by standing on it. It then goes in your inventory. If it's a special non-weapon it goes on the right--this never fills up, because you will for instance give that item back to its rightful owner or lose that item. For instance, a bomb is classified as a weapon you can't fire. Then there's medicine for a sick person as well. Sometimes there are refills for certain projectile weapons. When your total shots are at 99 for any one weapon, or you do not have that weapon, you can't pick up the refills. There are also capsules and armor of various colors. Capsules heal hit points. Armor adds armor points. If an enemy hits you, you lose armor points first and then hit points. If an enemy takes away the last of your armor points, you never lose hit points on top of that. You can't take a capsule if you have maximum hit points. This poses an interesting problem--if you have, say, 87 rounds of ammo and a couple more fights, it might be worthwhile to come back for the ammo later if you want to maximize things. Items' effectiveness can be color coded. Yellow capsules/armor = 50 Red capsules/armor = 100 Green capsules/armor = 200 Blue capsules = 200+? There's not enough armor in the game to get to 4 digits, and even if there were you'd have to play perfectly. If you can save armor for a boss fight, that is for the best. Since before then there should be healing tablets lying around. Items do not regenerate, but you can find them in drawers(push B below drawers) or even fireplaces. Movable items are reset once you leave the room and return. 3. ENEMIES AND SUCH There are a few relatively effective ways to beat enemies. One of the first things you note is that, if you hit an enemy straight on with a sword, it usually bounces backward. Sometimes it bounces at an angle. This can work to your advantage. You can defeat melee opponents pretty easily by moving in and timing things right--especially since you don't bounce. Also you are immune after a hit so if you really need a quick win, or two monsters are too much for you to handle, you can just zoom in and clobber opponents. The main thing to watch for is getting outflanked--you can usually handle one enemy, but two from different directions spell trouble. There is one major solution to this: hide in a corner, or off to the side of a tunnel. Because your enemies' main weakness is that you can hit them at a diagonal, even though you can't face that way. If someone is 1U1L of you you can hit up and usually get contact. Now, it may be more like .5L, but the point is that you can hit them before the computer AI ever considers hitting you, or turning to hit you. So the enemy will bounce back and come forward again, and you can repeat until your fingers get cramped. Computer monsters also get trapped in corners, where it's fun to bash them. Sometimes you have to have rhythm and not just bash enemies indiscriminately, though, especially when they get fast. Melee enemies go down pretty easily this way, but missile weapon enemies can be tougher. Fortunately they take a while to set up, and you can often let them line you up, move diagonally out of the way, and move in. Sometimes you can use the same trick as for melee enemies in tight quarters, but other times you may have to run, duck, and zigzag back in to kill off long-range foes. Fortunately, their arrows are very slow. There are a few more tricks to learn, however. The most important one is knowing when and how to leave and reenter a screen. Sometimes where you enter can fool the enemy AI. Let's say you had the following map: XXXX X... X.XX X.XX .... < monster comes from here .... XXXX You'd do well to enter this room from the bottom of the two squares and not in the middle. Because you can actually run at the monster, turn up quickly and score a hit. If you do it right the monster bounces back right and comes back left. Other times you may want to position yourself in the middle of two tiles. For instance if there are robots coming from above and below, you can hit them before they turn into your entry niche, but if you were absolutely on one square, a robot might be able to turn before you hit him, since enemies can only pivot once they reach a background icon square. And here's a tip--they really, really don't like to. If you're able to get two enemies to lump together, you can hit them both at the same time with your sword. It's amazing how sparingly effective missile weapons are in this game if you sit down and consider how the sword works. Another good occasional trick is to kill one enemy quickly, go off the screen, and come back to kill the other. This is useful when you know two will rush you and it's easier to pick them off individually than to pick one off in a scramble. Monsters don't regenerate unless you take stairs somewhere and come back. Elevators don't count as stairs. Don't be intimidated by bigger monsters. Although they injure you when they touch you, they're also much bigger targets. Don't feel guilty if your sword thrusts force an enemy back in the corner. Just sit kitty corner and wallop them. Enemies are not damaged by stuff like heat tiles that can take 5 HP from you. However, if they fall into the deep water as a result of you hitting them, they disappear with a splash, which is cute, but not practical on a wide scale. Sometimes you may want to just avoid enemies. You don't really get points for killing them. Goad them one way and turn them another. Other times you may find it easier to kill an enemy from one exit than from another. Sometimes you'll be in the perfect cul-de-sac just around a corner and an enemy won't oblige. Then you may have to show yourself a bit and retreat. Also note when an enemy is kicked back so that, as he is coming at you, he will be more than one square away when he turns. Move forward on them so this is not the case. 4. WALKTHROUGH 4-1. DOJO AND SEWERS Map: 1-pre-pre | 2 | 3 | 9 4 | | 8-7-6-5 You start out as Hiro and there's a scene with talking. Come on! Wooow! I'm tired!! That's all for today. Is this the Dojo of Hiro Miyamoto? I need to meet with Hiro. I'm Hiro Miyamoto. Do you work for Kage Mishima? No, I despise the Mishimas. ...Well...come inside. We'd like to talk in private...would you mind? (3 people go off) I'm Toshiro Ebihara. I have a very important story to tell you, as long as you are a real samurai. Ok, ok, just tell me your story. Centuries ago, there was a huge battle after a long discord between the Mishimas and the Ebiharas. Mishima made your ancestor Usagi forge the mystic sword Daikatana in order to have an advantage in the battle. But it was so hard and took a long time to achieve it. Usagi finished the Daikatana enough to be satisfied with its power. Then Inshiro asked Usagi to hand it over to the Ebiharas. In order to avoid the disaster when Mishima got it... Then Usagi and Inshiro worked together to defeat Mishima and they sealed the Daikatana under Fujiyama. But then, why are we still under complete control of the Mishimas? Because Mishima has found the Daikatana sealed beneath Mt. Fuji! And then he changed history! Changed history? No way! That is the power of the Daikatana. Master! Our Dojo is being attacked! It's Mishima's Team Ninja! They found this place at last! OK guys, I'll leave the fighting to you! This virus is spreading extremely fast. My parents were victims of the virus... Because Mishima owns everything, anger grows on a daily basis. But no one can resist Mishima, because Mishima monopolizes all rights to the vaccine. Master Ho! We need to be stronger! Strong enough to end Mishima's fear politics. Move Hiro off to the left(his henchment block the way to the right) and on the next screen, have him move to the stairs. This gets you to the first puzzle area. This bit will be largely introductory. Dojo-1 Stand below the box. The game will tell you what to do. Hold B and push up. Release B, hold it and push up. "I used up all my resources searching for the Daikatana. But a descendant of the Mishimas, Kage Mishima, got ahead of me. ?? But Mishima anticipated my discovering the Daikatana!" Get the ion blaster in the upper left. Dojo-2 The game explains what you need to do to jump. You can direct yourself while you're in the air. Jump the gap--with two squares jumping range, you don't need to be at the edge. If you miss, you lose 5 hit points for each try. "My ancestor Tatsuro Ebihara was creating a cure for this awful virus. Yes, there is a cure for the horrible virus that's spreading through out[sic] the world!" Get the armor in the upper niche. This gives you 50 armor points, which will substitute for hit points lost. Then jump over the gap to the left and go down the DL stairs again. Dojo-3 Push the switch at the top(step on it) after the instruction to do so. That will open the door guarding the DL stairs. "Tatsuro worked so hard, and finally finished the vaccine. But Kage Mishima stole it by abusing the power of the Daikatana." "That means...our history was..." "Changed by Kage Mishima! We have to defeat Kage, and change history back as it should be!" You may want to save before the next bit, just in case. It's your first fight. Dojo-4 First room with enemies. They come right at you and you'll probably suffer one hit, maybe two. This should not be a problem with your armor. It's possible to retreat, run down, and win cleanly, but it's impractical. Retreat quickly if you were not ready. They do 6 damage, so it should just be your armor that takes a hit. You can stand in the entryway and fight them off. Once you do, you get a cut scene. Nooo! Hiro... I have one more favor to ask you... Don't talk! Your wound may open... I know that I'm dying...the virus has torn down my body... Hiro...please do me a favor. Please save my daughter Mikiko! She's crept into Mishima's fortress but she has not come back yet... Please! Get into Mishima's Kyoto fortress and save her from Kage! P, please... ... Slump [get: hologram of Mikiko] Dojo-5 This is a room with an alligator. There are two ways to get around him. Note you move as fast as the alligators. The first plan is to go to the square on the bottom that doesn't have a guard rail and jump down just when the alligator passes. You can run left and make it pretty easily. The second is to kill the alligator, which requires you either to move diagonally and quickly and stab up, or to wait a bit after the alligator goes back left. If using an emulator wth save states you might want to try both. Dojo-6 Here you can just wait for the alligators, which appear to be coming at you, to head up before they get in the gap. Then you can run left to the next screen. You can also follow them up and hit them with your stick a bunch of times. They're sitting ducks. Note that there are stairs to dry land, but the alligators can run up there, too. Dojo-7 This is the first time you'll have to kill the alligators or take serious damage. You'll learn about niches here. Go up/left and face down. The alligators will come to you from the left. Keep hitting down with your stick and they'll be dispatched pretty easily. When you are down in numbers you don't want enemies attacking you from both sides and this level helps enforce this. Dojo-8 A bit easier here. Just go left and hit the alligator when he comes at you and note he slides diagonally. This will happen a lot in the future. You may need to go down to the bottom edge and hit left a bit if you want to kill him, but you can also move diagonally UL to get to the next scene. Dojo-9 "This is Mishima's fortress... Mikiko's trapped somewhere inside." Walk a bit forward and you'll fall through as the walkway is zapped. "Ooooh!" You fall through to the swampy area under the fortress. 4-2. FORTRESS Fortress-1 Not much to do here except go up and pick up the ion blaster. The waters are dangerous here. Touch them and lose five hit points, regardless of armor. Shouldn't be a problem in this roo. Fortress-2 Or this one. It's not clear if that's a big door or stairs just above you, but if you approach them, a ghost will appear on the left strip you couldn't reach. "It's locked!/What the hell was that?" The door goes up and you may continue. This ghost will reappear. If you've overdosed on time travel stories as I have, or if you remember the final trick in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, you may have a guess. (No, it's not Napoleon activating a waterslide for you to go across the toxic sludge.) Fortress-3 You'll have your first encounter with swooping birds here. One will stop just when your passage north ends. You can wait for it to come down before moving forward and striking it. You can wait there for the birds to come back and nail the bird the second time. I just sit there flashing my sword a bunch and don't worry about timing the swoop. Now for the jumps. They're pretty easy if you just hold left down as you jump and let go when you land. Back off to the right a bit if you're too close to the edge. Then go up on the other side and repeat, mirror-image, two jumps each way. Taking the left passage up leaves a dead end. Fortress-4 Another two birds to destroy before you start your jumps. You can stand on the uppermost square to hit at it and it's one of those cases where the game gives you the benefit of a very serious doubt. Here the jumps are a bit trickier and again the trick is to stand about in the middle of each square as you jump. Left, up, left. Then go up to the next screen. Fortress-5 Two more birds and a similar set of jumps back. Right, up, right and now go through the hole in the top center. Fortress-6 Here is your first puzzle. You need to create a bridge across the muck. From top to bottom, here is what the switches do. You need to pull two down. 1. UR bridge part 2. DL bridge part, but vanishes next turn 3. UL and DR bridge part, but vanishes before next turn 4. DR bridge part, but vanishes next turn Only 1 then 3 works. Fortress-7 One purple bad guy will run at you, and if you can stay in the center of the edge, you can whack him to bits. Then go left and up and sock the other guy into the corner and beat him up. He's pretty stupid and never figures out you're around the edge. Get the ion blaster recharge. Fortress-8 There's no shame in taking a hit or two here, but I find going UL to take the one purple guy out works well. You can lead them left and then turn. They should be pretty much stuck together. Go up and hit B to enter the elevator. You'll come out on another floor. 4-3. FORTRESS 2 Fortress2-1 First of all there's a capsule here if you need to restore any hit points. The yellow/orange restored up to fifty. If your hit points are at 100, nothing will happen. The capsule will be left for later. If you're at 80 or 90, then, you may want to wait. Finally a choice of which direction to take. You can go right to start, but you get a clue if you go down first. So we will. Step on the DL button and you'll see the room below. A door will open there. Go down. Fortress2-2 The bad guy will go into the left dead end and just sit there. You should be able to smack him down and continue on. Fortress2-3 Your first meeting with a gold robot. These are intimidating and take a few hits and do good damage, but if you can get one to approach you in a corridor, it's a matter of striking when it is a unit away. It will keep running at you. As you get better you can run after it while it's hit, back it into a corner, and whack it to death more quickly. Hit the DR button and go to the previous room and talk to the prisoner for a clue. "Push 4 buttons in the correct order and the door should open. The order was 3, 1, ... I'm not sure of the order after that." Well, it's not much of a clue especially because they won't be labeled. But it probably saves time overall. Back at 2-1, step on the other button and see a door open to the right. Fortress2-4 You can run by the blue gunner thing, which takes 7 hits and does 8 damage, and will hit you twice even if you run in and club it. It's not worth wasting firepower either. Kill the purple guy and go through. (If you really want to kill the blue thing, sucker it out of the top hole and go to the DR. Go one up and start hitting your stick down. It'll keep getting kicked to the left and you'll win without damage.) Fortress2-5 You need to beat the golden guy to open the door at the bottom. Quickly go left so you are UR of the robot and then swing down. It'll bounce back into the corner and you can move in and keep thrashing it easily. Fortress2-6 Another grey patrolman. You can just move in to the left and thrash him before he has a chance to shoot. Fortress2-7 This is the room where you have to use the code. Note that the bottons have depressions on them telling you what numbers they are. If they weren't in order it would make for a bit tougher puzzle. Anyway you know the combo is 3,1,2,4 or 3,1,4,2. It is in fact a clockwise march from the DL. Fortress2-8 Another intersection. You'll see Superfly Johnson to the north if you go visit him. But you'll probably want to go down first. Fortress2-10 You'll probably have to take 5 hit points' loss running into the orange or purple ball buzzing around. Fall left and go UL to get the security card(the big red thing) and push B under it. The guards disappear. You can now retreat back up and run away from the gold robot. In 2-8 you will want to stand just below the purple machine and push B. You'll see the door open and there'll be a big cut scene. Fortress 2-11 "Hey! Can you hear me? Are you all right?" "...Who, are you? I really don't care who you are... help me please! If you do, I can lend you a hand! I can be freed by the access card. When you get the card, insert it into the console of the next room to free me..." You saved my life! Thanks! My name is ... Superfly Johnson! I'm Hiro Miyamoto! I'm here to save a girl named Mikiko Ebihara. ME? Is she a prisoner? Anyway, leave it to me! I was once the security chief of this fortress! What? Why were you...? well, mishima was torturing people so I asked him to stop it! I told him I wanna quit my job, then they locked me in here! I see, so you are on my side, fighting against Kage Mishima? Yup! Well, let's go and give a good scare to Kage! Search her name in the Database... Mikiko...No...no match. I don't think Mikiko is the usual kind of prisoner, she must be top secret. What do you mean? Her name is not in the prisoners list... If only I knew what she looked like... [hiro shows hologram] Oh, this is Mikiko right? That will help me with the search!! ... ... Ya, I got her! I got it! Really? Where is Mikiko? She's on level 4, kept in isolation and being treated as a VIP! It's further on, in the fortress. I can guide you! Superfly, Security Ex-Chief can show you a pretty fast shortcut to her! (Superfly breaks the gate in the UL. You now change to have Superfly as the lead. Before following you might want to go in the room where he was locked to get a capsule.) 4-4. FURNACE This is a tricky part of the game, with many walkways and so forth. The best bet is to run through all this and avoid enemies, especially with well timed jumps. If you know the way through, it's pretty easy, but if not the motion can be confusing. You also have to work with a mechanical device late in this level. One thing you need to know about walkways is that they do not affect when you jump, so if you want to cross one that goes in the opposite direction you want, you can jump onto it a few times. If it leads out of the room, jump onto it and when you land, you'll be able to enter the next room if your jump made it to the very edge. Walkways won't kick you out of a room--you still have to push that way. Map to L4 | 10 | 6-7-8-9 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 Furnace-1 XXXvXX^XvX XXX X XXX^XXvXXX XXX XX XXX XXX^XX^XXX XX XX XXXX XXXXX There's a grey guy waiting at the top and a bird off to the side. If you're very quick you can angle UL to get on the walkways and then go up and attack the bird to the right. There's no wrong way to leave this room, but the best exit is in the UR. Furnace-2 XX^XX^XX^X XX X XXvXX^XX^X XX >> >> X XXvXX^XX^X XX XX XX X XX X X XXXvXX^XvX If you entered from the DR this is pretty easy. Just tear up the right edge. However entering from the DL is a bit trickier. You may have to kill an enemy bird, and you don't want to exit to the UL or center, because those lead to lava pits that drain HP rather quickly, and you'll need to jump your way back. The best place to cross is the center row with the walkways. Get on solid ground so you can kill the birds. Furnace-3 Assuming you came in on the right, it's a straight shot to the big door(push B below it.) Otherwise jump and push down for all you're worth. Furnace-4 Here you need to step on one button to get the platform started back and forth. You can run quickly to jump on it its first time across, but waiting is much safer. Jump to get off it so you don't fall down the pit and use the walkway above. Furnace-5 You can go right and down here to get the capsule to heal hit points, if you need to. Otherwise you will want to go up the right wall(jump past the blue shooter) to get the sidewinder, retreat down, go all the way left, and take the UL walkway. You may corner a golden robot there, but the blue robot may get to snipe at you. Back down if it does, and if you need to avoid losing HP. Furnace-6 If you entered the right way, you just need to walk up and left. Otherwise start jumping and holding the down button. That fan chops up hit points even more quickly than the lava. Furnace-7 Not really bad if you just run and jump right from the start and avoid the golden guy in midair. The DR exit leads to a dead end where the blue machine will ambush you if you go back. Again, survival is more important than killing the bad guys, but you can probably jump to an easy place, hit the blue from a slight diagonal, and push it around in a corner. Furnace-8 Another level where I recommend you just head right. If you want to kill the bad guys, XXXXXXXXXX XXX ^v^v X >> ^v^v X XXX ^v^v X XXXXXv^v > XXX Xv^v X >> Xv^v X Furnace-9 XXXXX.XXXX X///=..//X X=//...//X X.////.//X >.///////X X///.././X X////////X XXXXXXXXXX Here's a puzzle with a grappler that moves around. Step on the button. Jump up when you see the pincher one square above you. Then hold the controls up and left as it goes across the exit to the north. This will make you fall on the main platform in the north, and because you didn't start too late, you won't fall off after you land. Waiting to drop from the grappler after this forces you to wait to drop left near the end, which leaves you back where you started. The shadows are a bit deceptive. You can get back by stepping on the other button and catching the grappler at the bottom of the upper island, but you won't need to. Furnace-10 Bash the gold robot into the door, which you will open with the B once you've won. You can even circle around and not kill the robot. This leads to an elevator that leads to level 4. 4-5. LEVEL 4 In this area you need to go back and forth a little more. You find Mikiko here, and there's even a basement with a special item. There are also some areas requiring a few jumps--or the ability to know when to sacrifice a few hit points by landing in watery stuff, which takes six and not five hit points from you now. You're now playing with Hiro. Level 4-1 This floor is level 4... Top secret lab complex... They keep the temperature of this place terribly low... Body Temp. Regulator should be somewhere on this floor! OK, I'll take the lead! You might need that capsule to recharge here. Or you can save it for later. Go down to 4-2. Level 4-2 You can't go left just yet. You need a body temperature regulator. It's in this room, but first, push the gold robot into the DR corner and hack it to bits. Then wait for the blue guy to move around, and when it is in a corner, stand at a diagonal and hack it to bits, too. Push B on the left of the two doors in the room. Voila, your item. Go up to 4-1 and left to 4-3. Level 4-3 You don't need to destroy the enemy here. Just head down quickly. Level 4-4 Four quick jumps in a row here. Jump down off the walkway when you get close to the blue/purple water. Then jump down again. This releases the door to the left. Two jumps left, use the walkway, jump up and go left. This path, quickly executed, should allow you to avoid the blue shooter, which always tries to line up with you. Level 4-5 "Mikiko... We need to turn off this shield to get Mikiko... Let's look for the shield switch! There's a switch in this room. It's not the shield switch, but it has you say "What was that noise?" That noise opened a passage in 4-1, in the UR. Go back there. You may get hit by a blue guy in 4-4 and 4-3, but I have a strategy to avoid that. When you get to 4-4, don't move. Wait until the blue shooter comes near and hit it. Run a square right and then jump up. Lean one square right as you jump. Depending on where the shooter below is, you can either jump straight up or up/left. On 4-3, again wait for the shooter to pull up and jump forward to the left/right of him. You should be able to make it to the top, where you can go right all the way. If it is about to shoot, just jump and land one down. Level 4-6 Get the sidewinder cartridge. You have three machines here that show different colors: red, green and blue from left to right. There's a machine at the bottom flashing purple--the color of the dome around Mikiko. The smaller machine changes colors based on which ones you switch. Its color is a combination of the ones turned on. Purple=red+blue so hit the two machines on the end. (Note hitting a machine a second time turns it off, in case you mess up.) Now go back to 4-5. Mi:... ... groan... Wake up, Mikiko! ... Are you awake yet, Mikiko? ...you... who are you? I'm hiro miyamoto and this is... Superfly Johnson! Why are you here? Your father Toshiro Ebihara... He asked me to save you... Dad! Where is my father? Did he come with you? ... I miss my father so much! Mikiko, I'm sorry but... your father... he's gone... He asked me to rescue you, then ... he died oh...no... sob sob... he was killed by the virus, right? No...he wasn't. He was killed by Mishima's Team Ninja... Oh my god! Kage Mishima!! Now I must have revenge for my father's death! But, what about the Daikatana? Haven't you recovered the Daikatana yet? No... not yet. Wait! It's very dangerous up ahead in this fortress! He's right. Let's retreat now and... ...What?! If you won't come with me to get the Daikatana, I'll go alone! OK, OK, Mikiko! I can't let you go alone, alright? Level 4-7 Mikiko shows you how to use the teleporter. Enter it and you'll get to the Daikatana area. mikiko, do you know the code? hush! I'm recalling.. .i stole a glance at the code when they brought me here ... yes, OK, I got it! Hurry up! Get on the teleporter quickly! (you don't have to but when you do...POOF!) 4-6. DAIKATANA AREA This area has a side quest and a timer release for a bridge to the Daikatana. You'll want to avoid, also, the pit traps in a combat room you have to pass through. The side quest has some cartridges and some armor, so why not give it a try? Map of area: 8 12 | | 6D7 5 | | 3 - 4 11 | | | 2 9 - 10 | 1 Daikatana-1 This is easy enough. Just get out of the teleporter and head up. Daikatana-2 Here you need to take care of the blue shooter. Stay below it and thrust up to send it into a corner. Stay diagonal from it a bit and keep thrusting up so that you hit it. With that nuisance out of the way you can concentrate on getting around that door to the right. You may notice you can jump on that small table but not the big one, which is twice its size. Well, if you move the big table left twice, you can jump on the small and then the big table. Push B to break the window you can now reach and A to jump through it. Daikatana-3 Go along the tunnel up, left, up and right. Fall down when the blue shooter isn't near, and you can ambush it for one hit staying just left of it. Then watch what corner it goes into and use the corner-diagonal bashing trick on it. Push B when under the switch to open the gate right. You don't have to go that way, but visiting 4 and 5 rounds the story out a bit. You can skip to 6 if you don't want to read all that. Daikatana-4 A grey gunner and a gold robot are here. You can outrun them whether you are going up to the Daikatana area or down to the side quest bit(Daikatana-9.) Daikatana-5 A computer room with a pit at the very north. The first time you enter, you'll see: "Hey...what's that?" "That's the long lost Daikatana!" "Problem is, how should we get it?" [note: this is skipped if you just visit the other rooms first and do what you need to do to get the Daikatana.] If you are going to get the Daikatana right now, skip to Daikatana-12. Otherwise, continue. Daikatana-6 This is a room with plenty of pits(orange squares.) If you depress a button in the room above, monsters may appear. Button 1: 2 gold robots Button 2: purple fighter, blue shooter These monsters are meant to disrupt your trip to the Daikatana room, but they only appear once. Daikatana-12 I got it! I finally got the Daikatana! Ha, ha, ha,... ... ...I didn't expect you to make it this far! Who is that? Kage Mishima! pink Hey! Look at him! He also has a daikatana? SF Two daikatanas exist? Hi Ha! You are such idiots! This is what happens when you can warp time and space! I sensed a distortion of the dimensions and came back to see you all here, the descendants of Ebihara and Usagi! Kage Mishima! Time to die! (blu) You don't understand, do you? You'd better be careful, Hiro. Don't you know that our Daikatanas are one and the same? So what about it? ...no, stop, Hiro! Kage is right! What do you mean, Mikiko? It's extraordinary! An object can exist as two separate entities at the same time and in the same place! But if the two Daikatanas ever touched... They would repel each other, try to deny each other's existence, much like matter and antimatter, and the world may collapse upon itself! Ha, you can test your hypothesis if you'd like, but I wouldn't recommend it. No chance! Fight fair and we can settle who the real owner of the Daikatana will be! Shut up, you fool! You think you can stand a chance against me, the great Kage Mishima? Ha! That's a laughable concept! What!? Usagi created this Daikatana, and you're one of his descendants. But you don't know how to use its true power! OK, I wil show it to you, silly Ebihara girl and stupid Superfly! I'll banish you all forever to the ultimate prison...the inescapable Prison of Time! watch and see the true power of the Daikatana!! Aaaauuggg!! (fall thru space) heh heh heh... ha-ha-ha-ha!! [new scenery appears] 4-7. ANCIENT This isle has some tricky bits, with backtracking, two critical items and your first boss. Oh. You also have better power-ups. Map: 7 | 13 - 14 6 # | 12 - 11 8 - 5 : | | 10 - 9 4 - 15 | | 1 - 2 - 3 16 Ancient-1 ... ... ...? W, where am I? ...Mikiko? ... Superfly? I must have lost them somehow... And the Daikatana seems to have lost all its power. There's a red armor worth 100 armor points off to the side. Take it and go right. Ancient-2 "Charon's Horn! Give it to me! I can cross the sea by riding in Charon's boat! Charon's Horn! Let me hear it! The sound of Charon's horn can call Charon!" OK, we get the point. It's best to be as brutally repetitive as possible with the upcoming fight, too. Go up and when a skeleton is about to appear below, go right. Then start clubbing left. The other may come, but if not, bait him in. Ancient-3 Here you can just face up and the spider will come down and try to go after you. They proceed in leaps and bounds. The skeleton will try to throw knives at you through the rock. When you tire of this charade, go up or down. Then duck back when the skeleton runs after you. There's always a corner to run around so you can take care of the skeleton and whomp him in said just-turned corner. Before entering the next screen, ready your sidewinder. It'll make things a lot easier. Ancient-4 Go up and face left across the gap. Gun down the spider and shoot twice at the skeleton. You may have to duck down when the skeleton fires at you, but you can move back up and fire left again. Should only take 2 shots with the sidewinder for the spider and 3 for the skeleton. Jump across the gap. Exit up. Ancient-5 Here boulders will be falling. You can see the shadows--or the vertical passage of the rocks. Head diagonally towards the stairs, but don't worry if you get hit. There's a capsule just past. Ancient-6 You'll want to rush the titan above soon after getting the capsule and energy water. Just go up again. Shouldn't be too tricky to avoid boulders, but with the sidewinder it shouldn't take long to annihilate your enemy. Ancient-7 This is a tricky boss fight as you may think it's the hammer that does the damage. It's not. When the titan hits the ground, a boulder drops on you for five damage. He can't damage you directly. So the solution? Get in close and whale away. It takes 20 hits with the sidewinder, 35 with the ion blaster. You can fire 5 times or so close in, which means you only lose 20 of your hit points, and you got at least 50 from the capsule in the previous room. Easy enough. On winning this fight, you get fifty extra maximum hit points, the standard for a boss. You also receive a hammer, which is about twice as vicious as your stick/sword. It also allows you to bust through those rocks that are blocking important items. So get the hammer equipped and keep it. Ancient-8 Duck down and left, and the skeleton will come right. Bash him twice as he runs by. Then take care of the spider after it stops its runs. Use the hammer on the UL of the rocks and exit down. Watch out--read ahead a bit if you are a perfectionist about taking damage. Ancient-9 hold down/left immediately to get away from the skeleton chucking missiles. Go behind the single rock and club the spider once it stops. The skeleton will be hitting the rock, so move up/down to dislodge him and run around so he comes at you. Then nail him as before. Or you can just chicken out and run away. But you'll have to deal with him the same way later. Ancient-10 Bust the rock in front of you and walk on the plank. Falling in the water costs 5 HP. Just if you were wondering. The object of the boat area is to get the drachma from the locker and get out. Once you get the drachma, monsters will appear in every room. But it's best to run away and avoid them. Ancient-11 A bedroom. Exit left. Nothing in any of the drawers. Ancient-12 A room with some weak boards. Since falling through them does you no damage, you can take a small shortcut dropping through the rightmost one. Nothing in the drawers. Ancient-13 A bedroom. Hit the UR drawer to get a red capsule. But don't take it until after you've gotten through the fights--you'll need it more then. Ancient-14 Some water around a chest. Enterprising players may note that a full diagonal jump will get you across. But you can just walk around if you don't want to risk it. Stand below the chest and hit the B button. A skeleton appears. "What will you do with my money? I won't give the drachma to you!" Use the box as a shield and trash him and leave. You can probably run circles around your enemies--or more precisely, run diagonals around them. Don't stand still except to lure the skeletons--often moving the opposite direction you ultimately intend to lure your opponents works well, because spiders and skeletons take so long to figure where to move and to throw, respectively. Running into skeletons' lines of fire when you're far enough away effectively freezes them. Room 12 is a bit tricky if you need to avoid the weak floorboards. But 11 has the beds as a bunker. With all this done, you'll want to move back to Ancient-5. You shouldn't need to take the left down exit and go right to get the capsule behind the boulder, but you can. Taking the lower right exit features a bend in Ancient-4. Ancient-15 Here, from the UL, you have to jump two gaps. Charon's horn is beyond a boulder you can smash although you may want to deal with the spider first. Then go south. Ancient-16 Just walk to the pier. If you have the horn, Hiro will blow it. If you don't have the coin, Charon will demand it and leave you. If you have the coin, you move on to Athens, the next part of the game. 4-8. UNDER ATHENS 14 : 13a 13b 13c \ | / \ | / 12 | 11 4-3<<