Kaette Kita! Gunjin Shogi: Nanya Sore!? (Famicom) Guide by E. Phelps, ver. 1.0 (aka LastBossKiller) - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Disclaimer === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission by the author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2015 E. Phelps ---Viewing This Document--- This document contains Japanese text. To view it correctly, set your browser or word processor to view "Shift-JIS" format. For example, if you are using Internet Explorer, using the dropdown menu, go to View -> Encoding -> More -> Japanese (Shift-JIS). You could, instead, open this document with Microsoft Word, and it will ask you about the encoding automatically, allowing you to select Shift-JIS. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Intro ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - Gunjin Shogi, or "Military Shogi", is a Japanese board game that is not very much like Shogi at all, but much more like Stratego. If you know how to play Stratego, then you basically already know how to play this game, although there are some notable differences. Military Shogi can take on different variations which mostly involves different sized game boards or different numbers of pieces, but the basic rules are always essentially the same. The title Kaette Kita! Gunjin Shogi: Nanya Sore!? would be translated "It's back! Gunjin Shogi: What's that!?" It's a good game if you want to play Gunjin Shogi. The computer AI is decent and offers a pretty fair challenge without being impossibly hard, and you can even play two player. The only criticism I have is that the controls are very unresponsive. You have to push the buttons pretty hard and long to get the game to respond. You get used to it, but it's annoying. In this guide, I offer an overview of Gunjin Shogi rules, an explanation of the game's menus and controls, how to beat the game, and strategies. - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Contents ===== = = = - - - - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - Search words are given in square brackets []. 1. Rules [sec1] 2. Menus and Controls [sec2] 3. Two Player [sec3] 4. Computer Opponents [sec4] 5. Game Ending [sec5] 6. Strategy [sec6] 7. Password [sec7] - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Rules ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - [sec1] In this version of Gunjin Shogi, each player has a 4x6 rectangle on which they place their pieces. The two 4x6 segments are connected by a one square wide bridge in two locations, which serve as "bottle necks" that your pieces need to pass through to move into your opponent's territory. Each player takes a turn by moving one piece on the board. The allowed movements for each piece is different depending on the piece. Most pieces can move one square in any direction, but others can move more. If you move a piece onto one of the squares occupied by your opponent, one (or both) of the pieces will be eliminated from the game. Which piece is eliminated is determined by a chart which says which pieces will win in each possible combination of match-ups. Here is the most interesting part of the game: Both players play with their pieces face down, so you don't know which of your opponent's pieces are their strong pieces or weak pieces. When a piece is moved onto an opponent's piece, a third person will look at the players' pieces and reveal whose piece is eliminated, without the players being allowed to know what their opponent's piece was. Even if your opponent's piece is eliminated, you will not be allowed to see what it was. To play effectively, you must pay attention to the movements of your opponents pieces to try to figure out what they are by their movement pattern. But this is not enough. You must also learn about which of the opponent's pieces are strong by trying to attack them and observing the outcome, requiring you to make some sacrifices. For example, if you attack your opponent with the "Airplane" piece and it is defeated, then you know that the opponent's piece is one of the three pieces that will defeat the Airplane, and you can label that piece as a "strong" piece. To win a Gunjin Shogi match, you must capture your opponent's base. The base is the segment on each side of the game board that takes up two squares. Each player will begin with one of their pieces on the base, and this piece will never be allowed to move from the base. To capture the base and win, a player must move one of their pieces onto the opponent's base, at which point the winner between the attacking piece and the piece on the base will be decided in the usual way. If the attacking piece wins, then the game is over and the person controlling the attacking piece wins the game. However, if the piece guarding the base wins, then the attacking piece is eliminated and the game continues as usual. If the pieces mutually eliminate each other, the game also continues as usual, although the base will no longer be guarded. Some pieces are not allowed to capture the enemy base. The only pieces that are allowed to capture the base are: General, Lieutenant General, Major General, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, and Major. A Mine is not allowed to be placed as the guard of your base. Any other piece can serve as a base guard. You can also win the game in two other ways: (1) Your opponent cannot move any of his pieces, and (2) Your opponent's six pieces which are able to capture your base are all eliminated. Like Stratego, each player also has a flag that they need to place on their side of the game board. However, this flag seems to serve no purpose in this NES game (perhaps it serves an important purpose in the true board game though?). Capturing it gives you no advantage, nor should you worry if your opponent captures it. Here is the chart which determines what pieces will win in an encounter. An "O" signifies that your piece (listed on the left side of the chart) will win the encounter. An "X" signifies that both pieces are eliminated. 1 2 s n t d L L L M L i i e e A E G G G C C C u u i C n e e e o o a t t r a g n n n l l M p e e p v i e e e o o a t n n l T a n M r r r n n j a a a a a l e S i a a a e e o i n n n n r e p n l l l l l r n t t e k y r y e General X O O O O O O O O O O O O X Lieutenant General X O O O O O O O O O O O O X Major General X O O O O O O O O O O O X Colonel X O O O O O O O O X Lieutenant Colonel X O O O O O O O X Major X O O O O O O X Captain X O O O O O X First Lieutenant X O O O O X Second Lieutenant X O O O X Airplane O O O O O O X O O O O O Tank O O O O O O X O O O X Cavalry X O O X Engineer X O O Spy O X X Mine X X X X X X X X X X X O X Most of the game pieces can move one space in any direction. Pieces with other movement patterns are listed here: Airplane - Can move vertically the entire length of the board and pass over any other piece, but can only move one space horizontally. Tank and Cavalry - Can move two spaces vertically or one space horizontally. Engineer - Can move the entire length of the board vertically or horizontally. Mine and Flag - Cannot move. - - - = = = ======================== = = = - - - - - - = = = == Menus and Controls == = = = - - - - - - = = = ======================== = = = - - - [sec2] When the game begins, you can choose between 1 or 2 players. This section will describe the one player game. For two player, skip down to the "Two Player" section below. Next, you choose to start or continue: さいしょから　はじめる - Start from the beginning. つづきから　はじめる - Continue. You will be asked to enter a password. If you chose to enter a password, you will see the Japanese "alphabet", plus the symbol 完, which means "complete" and is selected when you are done entering your password. Press "A" to select a letter and "B" to go back a letter. You will next be asked to choose the computer opponent to play against. The options are: でびる　はろういん - "Devil Halloween" うるふ　かぽね - "Wolf Capone" ぴっころ　こうてい - "Emperor Piccolo" ぴっとらー　そうとう - "President Pitler" どすこい　おやかと - "Dosukoi Oyakata" Each time you defeat one, you will see a medal over his head. You need to get four medals to complete the opponent. They all seem to use the same AI and be of equal difficulty. After choosing an opponent, you will begin setting up the game board. You are asked several questions, which I list below: わたしが　はいち　して　いいの？ - "Should I do the arranging?" Say yes if you want the computer to place your pieces for you. If you say no, you will manually place your pieces. To do so, press up or down to change which piece is shown at the middle of the screen, then press "A" to select it. Go to a position on the board and press "A" again to set it there. If you made a mistake, you can place a piece on top of one that is already set and the first one will no longer be set there. はいち　は　それで　いいの？ - "Is this arrangement good?" Say no if you want to redo the piece placement. せんとうちゅうの　あにめ　は　いるの？ - "Show animation during battle?" Say yes to see a short battle clip when two pieces meet during the game. あなた　が　せんて　かな？ - "Do you move first?" Say yes if you want to have the first turn. During play, to move a piece, place the cursor over it and press "A". If the piece can move, the squares it can move to will be highlighted. Select one of those tiles to move the piece there. Press "B" to unselect a piece. Press "Select" to see the chart which tells you what pieces can defeat what pieces. Press "B" to see the names of all of your pieces. Press "Start" to see which of your pieces have been eliminated and how many of your opponent's pieces have been eliminated. - - - = = = ======================= = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Two Player ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = ======================= = = = - - - [sec3] If you play a two player game, you will first be asked to select a game board to play on. They're all the same except for the graphics. The themes are: はたけ - "Field" もり - "Forest" うちゅう - "Space" まち - "City" どひょう - "Arena" The entire point of the game is that your opponent doesn't know which of your pieces are which. So how do they implement that in two player? Well, each piece is represented by a number that both players can see. Before play starts, you select which numbers represent which piece. So have your friend look away at this point until you've finished. After choosing the numbers, you will be asked the same questions that were asked in one player for setting the pieces on the game board. After that, second player will select which numbers represent what pieces, the piece placement is repeated for him, and the game begins. - - - = = = ======================== = = = - - - - - - = = = == Computer Opponents == = = = - - - - - - = = = ======================== = = = - - - [sec4] To beat the game, you have to defeat all of the computer components four times, then a secret opponent will appear who you have to defeat one time. There are no differences between the opponents in terms of AI or difficulty. The only difference is the themes of the pieces. Below, for each opponent, I list the pieces that are used and correlate them to the original pieces. For example, when you play against Devil Halloween, the Tomato is the same as the General. You can see a chart of which pieces can defeat which pieces by pressing "Select" during play if you don't want to refer to this guide all the time. ---でびる　はろういん - "Devil Halloween" Pieces used and what they represent: とまと - "Tomato" (General) にんじん - "Carrot" (Lieutenant General) いちご - "Strawberry" (Major General) だいこん - "Daikon" (Colonel) かぶ - "Turnip" (Lieutenant Colonel) たまねぎ - "Onion" (Major) ばなな - "Banana" (Captain) じゃがいも - "Potato" (First Lieutenant) おれんじ - "Orange" (Second Lieutenant) きゃべつ - "Cabbage" (Airplane) ほうれんそう - "Spinach" (Tank) きゅうり - "Cucumber" (Cavalry) ちえりー - "Cherry" (Engineer) きのこ - "Mushroom" (Spy) ますかっと - "Muscat" (Mine) はた - "Flag" ---うるふ　かぽね - "Wolf Capone" Pieces used and what they represent: らいおん - "Lion" (General) とら - "Tiger" (Lieutenant General) くま - "Bear" (Major General) かば - "Hippopotamus" (Colonel) すかんく - "Skunk" (Lieutenant Colonel) いぬ - "Dog" (Major) ぶた - "Pig" (Captain) ねこ - "Cat" (First Lieutenant) うさぎ - "Rabbit" (Second Lieutenant) あひる - "Duck" (Airplane) ぞう - "Elephant" (Tank) ねずみ - "Mouse" (Cavalry) さる - "Monkey" (Engineer) きつね - "Fox" (Spy) わな - "Trap" (Mine) はた - "Flag" ---ぴっころ　こうてい - "Emperor Piccolo" Pieces used and what they represent: あーす１ごう - "Earth 1" (General) あーす２ごう - "Earth 2" (Lieutenant General) あーす３ごう - "Earth 3" (Major General) むーん１ごう - "Moon 1" (Colonel) むーん２ごう - "Moon 2" (Lieutenant Colonel) むーん３ごう - "Moon 3" (Major) はれー１ごう - "Halley 1" (Captain) はれー２ごう - "Halley 2" (First Lieutenant) はれー３ごう - "Halley 3" (Second Lieutenant) みさいる - "Missile" (Airplane) たんく - "Tank" ろぼっと - "Robot" (Cavalry) めかまん - "Mechaman" (Engineer) えすぱー - "Esper" (Spy) きらい - "Mine" すてーしょん - "Station" (Flag) ---ぴっとらー　そうとう - "President Pitler" The pieces used by Pitler have the same names as the original pieces. たいしょう - "General" ちゅうじょう - "Lieutenant general" しょうしょう - "Major general" たいさ - "Colonel" ちゅうさ - "Lieutenant colonel" しょうさ - "Major" たいい - "Captain" ちゅうい - "First Lieutenant" しょうい - "Second Lieutenant" ひこうき - "Airplane" たんく - "Tank" きへい - "Cavalry" こうへい - "Engineer" すぱい - "Spy" じらい - "Mine" ぐんき - "Flag" ---どすこい　おやかと - "Dosukoi Oyakata" All the pieces used in these battles are named after sumo wrestling terms. For example, Yokozuna is the grand sumo champion, Oozeki is the second rank sumo wrestler, Sekiwake is the third rank, and so on. Here are the pieces used and what they represent: よこづな - "Yokozuna" (General) おおぜき - "Oozeki" (Lieutenant General) せきわけ - "Sekiwake" (Major General) こむすび - "Komusubi" (Colonel) まえがしら - "Maegashira" (Lieutenant Colonel) じゅうりょう - "Juuryou" (Major) まくした - "Makushita" (Captain) ３だんめ - "Sandanme" (First Lieutenant) じょ２だん - "Jonidan" (Second Lieutenant) りじちょう - "Rijichou" (Airplane) ぎょうじ - "Gyouji" (Tank) じょのくち - "Jonokuchi" (Cavalry) しんでし - "Shindeshi" (Engineer) ものいい - "Monoii" (Spy) おやかた - "Oyakata" (Mine) ぐんばい - "Gunbai" (Flag) - - - = = = ======================= = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Game Ending ===== = = = - - - - - - = = = ======================= = = = - - - [sec5] To beat the game and see the ending credits, you have to beat each of the computer opponents several times. Every time you defeat one, a medal will appear above his picture on the opponent select screen. You need to get four medals on four of the opponents. For the fifth opponent, after you defeat him for the third time, the screen will start shaking and a new opponent appears who is a sushi chef. You have to defeat him one time to beat the game and get the ending. The battle against the sushi chef is crazy hard. Why? Because you don't even know which of your pieces are what. The game randomly chooses what the pieces represent and it changes every time you play. For example, the Uni ("Sea urchin") piece might be your General on one game, but it might be a Tank on the next game. But the game doesn't tell you, so you have to figure it out every time you play. It's really hard! Here are the pieces you will play with: てっか - Tekka あがり - Agari かい - Kai かっぱ - Kappa ねぎとろまき - Negitoro Maki まぐろ - Maguro いくら - Ikura うに - Uni いか - Ika たこ - Tako えび - Ebi かずのこ - Kazunoko おしんこまき - Oshinko Maki はまち - Hamachi さば - Saba たまご - Tamago There is a trick to figure out what all the pieces are in each game! The ordering of the pieces is always the same as the list shown above. So if "Ebi" is the General, then Kazunoko is the Lieutenant General, Oshinko Maki is the Major General, and so on, following this order: General Lieutenant General Major General Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Major Captain First Lieutenant Second Lieutenant Airplane Tank Cavalry Engineer Spy Mine Flag So, when a new game starts, find out who is the Airplane by selecting your pieces until you find the one that can fly across the board. Then, just compare the sushi pieces list to the above list, except shifted in whichever way you need to have the Airplane aligned with the sushi piece it is now represented by. For example, if Saba is the Airplane, then Tamago is the tank, Tekka is the Cavalry (since the list wraps around itself), Maguro is the General, etc. Now that you know the trick, this battle is no harder than the others. When you win, you beat the game! - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Strategy ===== = = = - - - - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - [sec6] In this section, I will provide a basic description of how you can go about defeating the computer in this NES game. Obviously, these strategies will need to be modified if you ever try to play against a human opponent. ---Unit placement: I prefer to let the computer place my pieces since it's so time consuming to place them myself. But if you want to place your own, keep the three strongest pieces and the Spy near the front row so they can get into the action whenever you need them. It doesn't seem to matter where you place your Mines since the computer seems to magically avoid them anyway. Otherwise, the character placement isn't too crucial. I usually put a weak character on my base so that I have all my strong ones available in the battlefield. But you can place a strong piece or your Spy on the base if you want to take a more defensive approach. The strategies explained below would then have to be modified. ---Clearing a path to the enemy base: The opponent has two Mines that can be placed anywhere on their side of the game board. To begin the game, I will move my Airplane pieces to the opponent's side of the board and try to clear a path to their base. The Airplane can eliminate a Mine piece without being eliminated itself, and it can also move vertically across the entire length of the game board, allowing it to attack on the first turn. The only pieces that can eliminate the Airplane are the three strongest pieces, so we can hope to avoid landing on those pieces until we've managed to clear a path to the enemy base. Of course, one of your opponent's pieces can move into the cleared path and block it again, but we will know that it is not a Mine at least. ---Identifying your opponent's three strongest pieces: The most important part of the game is identifying which of your opponent's pieces are the three strongest. These are the greatest obstacles between you and your opponent's base. During the path clearing phase described above, your Airplanes will likely be defeated in a short time. It is of the utmost importance that you remember which of your opponent's pieces did this! These are their most dangerous pieces and will effect your strategy for the rest of the game. The computer will almost certainly be using Airplanes to attack you in the beginning. It is worth eliminating the opponent's Airplanes with your strongest three pieces to prevent the Airplanes from destroying the rest of your game board, but be aware that the computer will identify your strong pieces at that time, and unlike you, the computer never forgets! ---Battle of the three strongest pieces: When you have identified one or more of your opponent's three strongest pieces, you will have to decide on a course of action for attacking them or avoiding them. Which course you take will likely be dependent on where your pieces are situated and which ones you can conveniently move into the area where you expect the action to take place. We need to be very afraid of the opponent's strongest piece, the General. The General can only be defeated by another General (in which case both Generals are eliminated at the same time) or by the Spy. The Spy is a very weak piece whose sole purpose is to eliminate the General, so you will want to protect your Spy if you can since it can be defeated by essentially any other piece on the board. You will also want to be very careful that your opponent's Spy doesn't reach your General. Since the Spy can be eliminated by any piece except for the General, we will rarely know if we've eliminated the opponent's Spy from the board, even if we get lucky and remove it with the Airplane during phase 1. If you are suspicious, you can attack a piece with one of your weak pieces that you don't mind sacrificing. The Engineer is good for this since it can move the length of the board horizontally and vertically. To protect our General, we should be more aggressive with our second strongest piece instead, the Lieutenant General. When you know a piece is one of your opponent's three strongest, you still will not know which one it is. By using the Lieutenant General to attack it, we can have three possibilities: (1) It is their Major General, which will simply be eliminated. (2) It is their Lieutenant General and both pieces are eliminated. (3) It is their General and your piece is eliminated. If possibility (1) occurs, we can be happy that we now have more strong pieces than the opponent, but we are still afraid because we don't know where the opponent's General is. If possibility (2) occurs, there is no gain or loss and we will instead be more aggressive with our Major General, who is now the second strongest piece remaining. If possibility (1) occurs, we lose our second strongest piece, but we can be happy that we have identified the location of the opponent's General. From this point forward, we will try our best to eliminate this piece with our Spy, so don't lose track of it! If you manage to eliminate the opponent's General, your General is nearly invincible! But you must still be careful to avoid the opponent's Spy and his Mines. Otherwise, it is time to be very aggressive with the General and plan to move to the opponent's base. ---Making a break for the opponent's base: If at any time you think you have a good chance to move one of your strong pieces toward the enemy base without being confronted by his strong pieces, then do so as soon as possible. If you notice a piece that's in your way hasn't moved for the entire game, then it may be a Mine. Sacrifice a weak piece or use the Engineer to remove it if you can spare the time. The computer will also be keeping an eye out for an opening to make a run at your base. If the computer gets one step ahead of you (meaning it can reach your base in less turns than you can reach his) and you have no one strong enough to defend it in the way, then you will probably lose. If you think this may happen, then you will want to make an early break for his base, even if you think the path is still dangerous. ---Plan B: Don't forget you can win by defeating all of the opponent's pieces that are capable of capturing your base. Sometimes, this is the only possible way to win. For example, if the computer places the General on its base and your General gets killed by the Spy, you won't be able to capture his base. - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ===== Password ===== = = = - - - - - - = = = ==================== = = = - - - [sec7] To start at the last battle against the sushi chef, enter the password: すしくいねなんやそれ - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Conclusion === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - I hope you found this guide useful. If you have information that you'd like to contribute or other suggestions for how the guide can be made better or if you find any mistakes, please send it to lastbosskiller@gmail.com. I will give you the proper credit for your help. Thanks to the NES FAQ Completion Project regulars for providing a fun environment for exploring old, obscure games! A special thanks to BoringPolitico for explaining the basic rules of the game which ultimately made this faq possible!