________ __ / _____/______ ____ _____ _/ |_ / \ __\_ __ \_/ __ \\__ \\ __\ \ \_\ \ | \/\ ___/ / __ \| | \______ /__| \___ >____ /__| \/ \/ \/ _________ .___ / _____/_ _ _____________ __| _/______ _____ _____ ____ \_____ \\ \/ \/ / _ \_ __ \/ __ |/ ___// \\__ \ / \ / \\ ( <_> ) | \/ /_/ |\___ \| Y Y \/ __ \| | \ /_______ / \/\_/ \____/|__| \____ /____ >__|_| (____ /___| / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ # # # # # # # # # # ######### # # ##### ## # ## ## ###### ## # # # # #### ## # ### ## ##### ## # ## ## ###### ## # # # # #### ## # ## ## ###### ## # ## # ## #### # ### ### # ######### ### ##### ################# # # ## #################### # #### ## ############# ########### ####### ############# ############# #### ## ############# ### ######## #### ############## # ###### ####### ############## # # #### ###### ################ ## ###### ################ ######## ############### ### ## # ### ## #### # ############ ##################### ##################### ##################### ##################### ##################### ########## ######### ########## ######### ######### ######### ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ####### ######## ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### ######## ####### ############## ######## ############## ############## ############## ============================================= Great Swordsman FAQ/Walkthrough By: The Bass and Treacherous SHizzle ============================================= Great swordsman is a game where you fight people with swords and stuff. It is very old but surprisingly fun and unique. It may seem random at first, but there are strategies for each of the opponents. Be wary, if you lose one battle you have to start the game all over again. Gameplay: All you have to do in this game is walk left and right and stab high, medium, or low. Combinations of these movements can create awesome strategies, or can send you into an acute state of Arachibutyrophobia and cause you to run around in circles screaming (believe us, we did it ourselves a few times playing this game). You can cancel the stab at any time by releasing the attack button and you can block incoming attacks by stabbing at the same height as your opponent. ================ Stage 1: Fencing ================ Story: You are at the world fencing championships. You are trying to prove that you are the greatest swordsman on the planet. If you look in the background, you will notice an observing crowd and five clones of Hitler presiding over the contest. Rules: To prove yourself, you must win 5 points before your opponent does. Whoever scores the first hit each round scores a point. If the opponents hit each other simultaneously, they each score a point. If someone is forced out of the ring twice in one round, his opponent gains a point. If time runs, out both fencers are awarded a point, unless one of them has gone out of the ring, in which case, the guy who can stay on the frigging mat gets a point. If both opponents reach five points at the same time, the fencer with a higher score wins. So it is important to keep that score up when you are evenly matched. Just keep attacking to do so. To prove that you are the greatest swordsman on the planet you must face three opponents. ------------------ Opponent 1: Appels ------------------ Story: Appels is one of those fighters that isn't so much talented as well trained. Appels has gotten as far in the fencing world as he has through shear will and determination, not because of his innate abilities. Appels is also known as "honest Appels" because he's a good guy who would never lie to you. This of course makes for a horrible strategy, and if you can't master Appels you should perhaps become a statistician. Strategy: To beat Appels you must master the first of many strategies: the stebach (ste BAHK) strategy. In this strategy you must get just in of range of your opponents sword, enticing them to strike at you. When they strike at you, you take a step back, narrowly avoiding their blow, then strike. At this point, your opponent finds themselves sticking half their body out and is easily hit while pulling back from their own failed attack. This strategy takes practice to implement but is very versatile and can almost always be employed when other strategies fail. Test it out on Appels and when you can use it confidently against him, you will be ready to move on. ------------------ Opponent 2: Redon ------------------ Story: Unlike Appels, Redon is a total dick. He's pompous and arrogant and you hate his guts. The only way you can put him in his place is by defeating him in fencing. He has much more raw talent than Appels, but he has not spent enough time training to fully develop his skills because he thinks he is already the best. Strategy: A unique strategy is used to defeat Redon: the altilo (ALL tee low) technique. Redon usually holds his sword in the middle position. Put your sword in the low position and slide it under his. When he attacks, hit high. This will do two things: block his sword and make an attack. He will most likely block the attack. But then hit low. Continue alternating low and high thrusts going all the way in at each blow. Eventually, you will hit Redon. The nice part about this strategy is that you are continually blocking Redon's attacks so it is very difficult for him to hit you. The same stebach strategy used on Appels can also be applied here. It is faster, but more dangerous. ------------------ Opponent 3: Fantin ------------------ Story: Fantin is a sword-fighting master. Except for you, he is the greatest swordfighter alive. He combines Redon's raw talent with Appels motivation and training. He fights only to improve his own skill, to always become stronger. He comes across as quiet and emotionless. Strategy: There are a couple strategies for Fantin depending on what he is doing. If he starts off with his sword at middle height, put your sword high and strike him at the first available opportunity. You will most likely match him and each get a point. You can often do this the entire match. At the end you tie and win by default. If this doesn't make you feel superior enough or you mess up and he hits you one time, there are other strategies to fall back on. One is to use the high stebach technique. Just like you did with Appels, let him get close enough to stab you and when he does, step just out of the way and do an overhead. This may take some practice, but once you learn it, it can be used to defeat many opponents. If Fantin starts off with his sword high, you can almost always just walk right up to him and land a low blow on him. He usually just stands there and takes it. Once you Defeat Fantin you get a bonus stage, which is pretty self-explanatory. Just block the incoming arrows with your sword based on their height. =============== Stage 2: Kendo =============== Story: After becoming the greatest swordsman in the world, it is revealed that you will now use a time traveling device to become the greatest swordsman of all time as well. You travel back to ancient Japan and enter the World Kendo Championship. Because the Japanese cannot be trusted to preside over their own matches, a couple Hitler clones have traveled back with you to judge the contest. Rules: Kendo is harder than fencing due to the limited range of the attacks. You must get much closer to your opponent to attack. This takes some getting used to, but once mastered.. It is still the hardest stage. In addition, you now only have two rounds to play per match, so you can make fewer mistakes. The other rules are the same, but this time you must defeat five opponents to advance to the next stage/era of sword fighting. ------------------- Opponent 1: Senpou ------------------- Story: Senpou is retarded and practically mute. Fighting is the only thing he can really do. They just throw him in the ring and let him go at it. Yet, this has made him one of the top five kendo masters in all of Japan (six once you arrive). Strategy: Senpou isn't very bright and it shows. All you have to do is swing low a few times to get him to start swinging low. Once he does that you can easily hit him with an overhead strike, which has more reach than his low strike. He's so dumb, he'll fall for this twice, and you will win. ------------------ Opponent 2: Jihou ------------------ Story: Jihou is really just your average Japanese sword master. He's not really a very interesting guy. Not much to say about him. Strategy: Jihou is one of a couple swordsman in this game who can be defeated easily right at the start. Just walk up to him and do an overhead on the first round and it will connect. The only thing is that this must be done precisely (but hey isn't swordsmanship all about precision and timing) or it won't work. Just practice until you find that sweet spot. The second round, Jihou has wised up, and the old strategy will not work. Instead you must employ a new strategy: the orpok (ore-PAWK) strategy. In this strategy you must start doing overheads (thus convincing Jihou to match you). Get as close to him as you can, both of you doing rapid successive overhead attacks. Then, suddenly thrust at his chest and you'll hit him. He'll be so shocked he won't know what to say, and you can proceed to the next opponent. This may take several tries to get right, but it's a pretty safe strategy, so just keep working at it until you get the timing and distance right. ------------------- Opponent 3: Chuken ------------------- Story: Chuken is actually a really nice, quiet guy. But he's also a master swordsman and has no qualms about taking you down. Strategy: Firstly, do not try the orpok strategy with Chuken as you did with Jihou, because he is a master of the orpok strategy and will hit you well before you hit him. Chuken can be very aggressive at first and will try to force you back out of the stage if you let him. Start by rapidly advancing on him with low or high attacks to get him to back off. CAREFUL, DON'T GET TOO CLOSE. It is now time to introduce a new strategy. You may have found that the standard stebach technique used in fencing does not work as well in kendo due to the short distance of the swords. To defeat the top kendo masters, you must employ a new technique known as the himisugo (hee MEE sue go) technique. This is kind of a variation on the standard stebach technique to be used on very aggressive opponents. Stand just out of the range of your opponent's sword, and just after he attacks, swing low. Your opponent will miss you and, in his eagerness, step forward to strike again. As he's stepping forward, your low attack will hit him. The strategy is sort of like stebach, but without stepping backward after your opponent attacks. The round after you first beat him, Chuken will always start with his sword in the low position. When he does this, you can employ a new and easy strategy known as the fusion (fu-zhun) technique. Keep your sword at middle height and walk up to Chuken. Don't walk all the way. Make sure he approaches you. He'll stand in from of you with his sword down, and yours inches from his chest. After you stand there for a bit, he'll become confused and wonder what's going on. While he's contemplating the nature of his existence, just poke him in the chest with your stick and win. This is one of those rare 100% techniques that always works on the first try. ------------------- Opponent 4: Fujitsu ------------------- Story: Fujitsu is the only "evil" opponent you will fight in the game. It is his ambition to rise to power and rule with an iron fist. Know that this battle is not just to determine who is the greatest swordsman, but also for the fate of all Japan. Strategy: Firstly, note that Fujitsu is a very ambitious man. As a result he will come right at you for all it's worth right at the beginning. He's very fast, and it can be difficult to block his attacks. You could inevitably be forced back out of the ring. Don't let him push you around like this. Start off walking toward him and making high thrusts. Force him to back off. Then, when he's as far back as possible, use the himisugo technique. In this case you'll be using a low swing while he uses thrusts. Remember, he's good and the timing is tight. Practice and try not to get pushed off the screen. ------------------- Opponent 5: Taisho ------------------- Story: Taisho may look like a big rough and tough guy on the surface, but he's really just a big teddy bear. THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN UNDERESTIMATE HIS INCREDIBLE POWER! He is the greatest swordsman in the world and unless you can defeat him, you will lose your place as the greatest swordsman in all of history. Strategy: Taisho can be defeated pretty easily with the himisugo technique. Like Fujitsu and Chuken, he's an aggressive opponent. In fact he is so aggressive you will not be able to push him back to his half of the screen like Chuken and Fujitsu. Instead he will kill you. This means you have less space to implement the himisugo strategy, so you must be accurate. However, he's slow to block and quick to advance after a missed swing, so the himisugo technique works quite well. Enjoy your second and last bonus stage. =============== Stage 3: Roman =============== Story: After defeating every swordsman in Japan, you travel back in time further to the gladiatorial arenas of ancient Rome. But this time, the battle is not with toy swords. No, now you fight not only for your title, but for your life. To make matters worse, you face not humans, but the ancient Roman gods themselves. A single hit on you will spell the end of your career. The Hitler clones that traveled back in time to judge the contest have already been killed and offered up as sacrifices, so only Death presides over this contest. The stakes are high, but if you succeed, no one, man or god, present or past can possibly claim to rival you as the Great Swordsman. Rules: The first thing you'll notice about this arena is the amount of reach the swords have (quite a bit of freedom after the close and fierce battles of kendo). You can strike from almost half a screen away. Be aware of this as you weigh the dangers of stepping forward. As we said, one hit spells death unless you both hit at the same time. Then it doesn't count (it's still a video game, okay). Time and ring outs mean nothing in the field of gladiatorial combat. Slay or be slain. The rounds will continue until someone is dead. In this stage you must defeat not three, not five, but seven (that's right SEVEN) gods (that's right, GODS). We won't bother covering story for these characters. We're sure you all know who Zeus is; so, on with the strategies. ----------------- Opponent 1: Mars ----------------- Mars is the God of war and one would therefore suspect, impossible to defeat in combat. But Mars is also overconfident, and it is his overconfidence that is his downfall. Do overhead strikes, ALL OVERHEAD STRIKES, and his chest will soon be filled with your sword. ------------------- Opponent 2: Hermes ------------------- Hermes is actually a god from Greek mythology. We can only imagine that he has come to ancient Rome to prove the value of Greek over the Roman gods. Hermes is the messenger of the gods and so is very light on his feet. This makes him one of the more difficult opponents in the game. There are a couple of ways to approach him. An overhead stebach technique is possible to use when your opponent goes medium or low, but it can be risky and hard to pull off. A fusion (few-zhun) strategy is possible. The best thing to do is to employ a new technique that will actually work for most of the gods in this stage: the dzarm (ZARM, silent d) technique. This is hard to describe, and tricky to learn, but it works most of the time and is a safe strategy. If you've gotten to this stage in the game, you've probably noticed that you can sometimes perform "special" kills, knocking off someone's helmet or disarming them. There is a not too difficult way to do this in gladiatorial combat. Do overhead attacks to get your opponent to do overheads. Then stand away from your opponent (more than the distance for himisugo). When you're both standing with your swords raised, do a bit of a feint and start to stab overhead. Go more than halfway in but pull back so they won't hit your sword. As you pull back, they will strike as well. Just before they've hit you, press and hold middle strike. If your timing is good, you will bring your sword down onto theirs and disarm it right into their god skulls. This is hard to learn how to do (even by showing someone) but it works most of the time and is a very safe strategy since you never actually get within range of your opponents sword. Work with it for a while and make it yours. Once you've mastered the dzarm technique, you're very close to mastering all of Rome as well as all of time and space. ------------------- Opponent 3: Apollo ------------------- Apollo is the Greek god of the sun god, and he is used to being high in the air. Take him down to the floor by doing repeated low strikes. That's right, you both just get down in the dirt like a couple of crabs trading low strikes back and forth over and over. Eventually Apollo will crack under the strain of fighting so low and try to stand up and do an overhead strike. You will easily chop off one or more of his legs before he does this. Usually he freaks out toward the end of the round, so just keep at it until about three ticks are left on the time at the bottom. ------------------- Opponent 4: Helios ------------------- Not to be outdone by the Greeks, Helios, the Roman god of the sun, has come to succeed where Apollo has failed. He will not fall for the same trick Apollo did, having just watched you do it. He's a little more levelheaded. But his head might be a little too level for his taste once you bust out the dzarm technique and drive his sword through it. ------------------ Opponent 5: Orion ------------------ Orion is one of the fastest opponents you will ever meet. He can block your attack and then move in and make one of his own. He is especially skilled at ducking under overhead strikes and moving right in and taking you out. Fortunately he is can be taken out at the very start by a properly timed overhead strike. The difficulty is that the timing can be difficult to get down, but once down, Orion is less like a god and more like a tree stump to a great swordsman. As the match starts, immediately move forward and stop in the right spot. You'll have to figure out where by trial and error and good judgment. Try using the backdrop to measure how far you've gone. Pause for a fraction of a second, because you if you go too fast, he'll see your intent and block. Then swing out a middle attack and cut his head. This is really quite similar to the technique employed in the first round of Jihou, but the timing is tighter and the pause can throw you for a loop. "Pausing" really is just "let go of the movement before you hit overhead". If you make a mistake, (Orion frequently strikes at the same time as you do) despair not. Simply try again the following round or step back, approach, and try again. It's just a matter of timing. If he blocks, it means you aren't pausing. If he hits you as you hit him, it means you need to go a bit earlier. If he hits you before you hit him you need to go quite a bit earlier. ------------------- Opponent 6: Uranus ------------------- Uranus thinks he's so hot because he's the god of the heavens, but you know what? He succumbs to the dzarm technique just like Helios and Hermes. ----------------- Opponent 7: Zeus ----------------- Oh, almighty Zeus, felled by the same dzarm technique that defeated all the other Roman gods. So sad. BUT WHO'S THE GREATEST SWORDSMAN NOW?!!?!? ========== Conclusion ========== Upon beating the game you will be given the opportunity to play through it all over again, but faster. Many of the strategies here do not work at this speed. You may attempt to play through this mode, but we have nothing to say about it because we're currently writing this in America, and in America we don't tolerate that sort of crap. You are already Great Swordsman. That should be enough. On a side note, Treacherous Shizzle feels that The Bass makes no sense. We would honestly be suprised if anyone used this faq, but direct any questions or comments to . If any hot females would like to direct some naked pictures too, then send them to .