_____ _ _ ___ ___ | __ \(_)| | | \/ | | | \/ _ | |_ __ _ _ __ ___ ___ | . . | __ _ _ __ | | __ | || __| / _` || '__| / _ \ / _ \ | |\/| | / _` || '_ \ | |_\ \| || |_ | (_| || | | (_) || (_) | | | | || (_| || | | | \____/|_| \__| \__,_||_| \___/ \___/ \_| |_/ \__,_||_| |_| Voton's (voton@iastate.edu) Gitaroo Man FAQ/Walkthrough v. 1.2 Table of Contents i) Version History ii) Introduction iii) Cast of Characters iv) Controls v) Gameplay 1) Charge Phase 2) Attack/Defend Phase a) Attacking b) Defending 3) Final Phase 4) Scoring a) Miss b) OK c) Good d) Great e) Rankings vi) Walkthrough 0) Training 1) Panpeus 2) Flying-O 3) Mojo King Bee 4) Ben-K 5) Ben-K take 2 6) Kirah 7) Sanbone Trio 8) Gergorio Wilehem III 9) Kirah take 2 a) Battle b) Unite 10) Zowie 11) Master vii) Multiplayer viii) General Tips ix) FAQs x) Legal Stuff __________________________ i. Version History 12/3/02 - Version 1.2 Tweaked a few things I was unhappy with. Nothing major. 12/2/02 - Version 1.1 Added a few more FAQs, some more Tips, and fine-tuned a lot of the other sections. Nothing too major, though. 12/1/02 - Version 1.0 Made the general FAQs and Walkthrough, including Controls, Tips, Multiplayer info, and an Introduction. Nothing special, just getting started. ;) __________________________ ii. Introduction Gitaroo Man is a rhythm game for the PS2. The game centers around our protagonist, U-1, and his magical Gitaroo. His Gitaroo is, quite basically, an electric guitar, but it can be used as a weapon if in the right hands- and there are quite a few hands trying to get it! U-1, with the help of his quirky sidekick, Puma, must wield his Gitaroo in a mighty effort to save his world and Planet Gitaroo from the clutches of Zowie and his evil minions... and maybe, just maybe, U-1 can find some self-confidence along the way! __________________________ iii. Cast of Characters U-1: Our main man and hero. Quite basically, he's a loser. He gets flushed and embarrassed around girls, he's horrible at skateboarding, and he's just an overall failure at life. He's got the self-confidence of... well, someone who has no self-confidence. Gitaroo Man: U-1's alter-ego. Put a Gitaroo in U-1's hands, and he transforms into a shining, gleaming rock 'n roll god. Puma: U-1's dog. He doesn't seem to be a normal pet (hey, he can talk... can your dog?), but he's as loyal as any normal, non-talking dog. He's U-1's right-hand ma, err, dog. He's also the only perso, err, animal who knows U-1's secret identity (on Earth, at least). AC30: Puma's true form. Some sort of strange dog-machine, he also works as a storage place for U-1's Gitaroo. Pico: U-1's dream girl. She's nice, funny, and likes to rollerblade. What more could a guy ask for? Don't answer that. Regardless, U-1 tries like mad to impress her... and usually fails horribly. It's not that she doesn't like him- he's just that uncoordinated. Kazuya: U-1's rival. He's the smart, rich, talented guy that can skateboard circles around U-1... and he does. He is always around when U-1 fails, and loves to point out what a loser he is. Zowie: The evil mastermind from Planet Gitaroo. He wants to collect all the Gitaroos to make himself invincible, so he can rule the Universe. Bears a striking resemblance to Kazuya, although they are neither related nor the same person. Ming-Ming: The Puma to Zowie's U-1. Although he (she?) can't transform into a techno-cat, he can make some wicked (no pun intended) music anyway. __________________________ iv. Controls The controls for this game are rather simple, but can take a while to master. You only use 5 controls for this entire game: -The left analog stick changes the direction you are "aiming" your attacks -The X, O, Triangle and Square buttons dodge attacks and also work to activate attacks or charges. That's it. Those are your controls. To help you understand how to use them, go on to... __________________________ v. Gameplay As I stated before, this is a rhythm game. Any "match" actually consists of a song, which in turn consists of (up to) three phases. They are: 1) Charge Phase - This phase consists entirely of "attack" actions (see below for more info). The difference for this phase, though, is that instead of harming your enemy, you heal yourself. The better you do, the more you heal. Simple, eh? 2) Attack/Defend (Battle) Phase - This is where you spend most of your time. While in Battle Phase, you'll either be Attacking or Defending. a) Attacking: This is the hardest one to describe without being able to show you. Basically, you control a dot in the middle of your screen. When in Attack Phase, a line will move toward your dot, and disappear when it reaches your dot. On the line are little areas that are activated if you press a button at the exact time it reaches your "Attack Point" (the center). The key to this, though, is that you also have to have the analog stick tilted towards the direction the line is coming from. So you'll be trying to coordinate direction with timing, and if you pull it off correctly, your Gitaroo will wail out some sweet music. b) Defending: There's a downside to Gitaroo combat- you can be attacked! When your adversary starts wailing out notes, it's time for you to start dodging them, in an attempt to avoid taking damage. Icons will come from four directions (up, down, left and right), and will bear a symbol corresponding to a Playstation button (circle, square, triangle, and X). Conveniently, the icons have only one symbol per direction. That means that icons coming from the left are ALWAYS squares, from the bottom are ALWAYS Xs, from the top are ALWAYS triangles, and from the right are ALWAYS circles. In order to dodge, you just have to press the corresponding button just as the icon reaches your Attack Point. Simple, eh? 3) Final Phase - Once you've nearly completed a battle, this is your chance to wail on your opponent and finish him (or her) off for good. It's all attacking, and all you. No breaks, no dodging... just music, fast and furious. 4) Scoring - Not a phase, but important nonetheless. As you're attacking and defending, you'll likely notice words popping up all over the place. You'll see one of four words every time an attack or defense comes up: Miss, OK, Good, or Great. Obviously, these vary with how well you do at pressing the buttons at the right time. a) If you press the button at the wrong time or have the analog stick in the wrong direction, you'll get a Miss. These are the ones you want to avoid at all costs. Getting 200 OKs and 2 Misses is infinitely better than getting 100 OKs and 25 Misses (with the extras going to Good or Great). Missing an attack (excluding Charge Phase attacks) will harm you. Missing defends will also (obviously) harm you. Since this is a game where you are trying to inflict the most damage while taking the least, Misses are a bad thing to have. b) OKs are just that- OK. They're better than getting a Miss, but not by much. Basically it means that you did the bare minimum in order to hit the attack/defense. Getting an OK on an attack doesn't mean much, other than the fact that your attack will do minimal damage. Getting an OK on a defense means that the attack doesn't hit you, but it's still not as good as getting a great. c) Goods are, well, pretty good. On an attack you will do full damage, and on a defense attacks will be dodged. d) Greats are what you're really looking for. This is received when you press the buttons at exactly the right time, and when you have the line perfectly in your sights. A Great attack will do maximum damage (as long as it is held out for its full duration), and a Great defense will make all attacks nonexistent. This is the way for you to survive the truly tough fights- Greats, and lots of them. e) Each time you finish a song, (assuming you DO finish) you will get a ranking. This ranges from E (I believe) to S (for those who are very rhythmically gifted). 5 things are weighed into the equation for rankings: Number of Misses, Number of OKs, Number of Goods, Number of Greats, and Health left over at the end of a song. Therefore, the more Greats/Goods you get, the fewer Misses/OKs you get, and the more health you end with, the higher your rank will be. Be warned, though- S rank is very VERY difficult to get. Bs and As can be achieved with a little work, but you first times through you will probably be getting Cs and Ds, mostly. This game requires a lot of practice in order to prosper. But keep at it, and soon you'll be raking in the A (or even S) Ranks. Getting higher ranks also unlocks new characters in the Collection portion of the game. __________________________ vi. Walkthrough 0) Training Your opponent: No one! His Gitaroo: Nothing! Location: Your bedroom Difficulty: 0/5 Song: None Style: N/A Advice: Nothing, really. This is just to get you acclimated with the game. I never used it (until I decided to write a Walkthrough), so if you feel like skipping over it, it's no big deal. You'll get the general idea soon enough. Notes: What's up with your backup band? They appear throughout the game, but this is the kind of quirky Japanese humor that is spliced everywhere throughout this game. Gives it a certain charm, though. 1) Panpeus Your opponent: Panpeus, the little red devil His Gitaroo: A musical axe (the type you cut down trees with) Location: Your bedroom Difficulty: 1/5 Song: Twisted Reality Style: Rock, pure and simple Advice: You may have slight troubles with this level at first, but just plug away. It's really a very simple melody, and soon you'll find yourself performing the attacks (and even defenses) without even thinking about them. Notes: This is a good song to practice if you're a beginner. It goes slow enough to give you plenty of time to see what's coming, but it can still give you a decent workout on some of the attacks and defenses. 2) Flying-O Your opponent: Flying-O, a flying saucer-like robot, and his Little-Os His Gitaroo: A built-in synthesizer Location: Business district of U-1's city Difficulty: 1/5 Song: Flyin' To Your Heart Style: Japanese Techno-Pop Advice: This song can be daunting at first, since it moves much faster than the first battle did. However, after a few practice runs, you'll find yourself handily beating the snot out of Flying-O and his little buddies. Sick 'em, Puma! Notes: This song has a lot of analog stick movement on the attacks (at least more than you're used to so far). Be sure to keep an eye on where your analog stick is pointing, so you don't end up missing some notes just because your aim was just a little off. 3) Mojo King Bee Your opponent: Mojo King Bee, a man dressed in a leisure suit/bee costume His Gitaroo: A wicked trumpet Location: The woods just outside of U-1's home city Difficulty: 2/5 Song: Bee Jam Blues Style: Blues/Disco Fusion Advice: This song is long, and compared to the last two songs, it's a marathon. Keep your wits about you and your fingers dry, though, and you should be able to beat it without too much difficulty. Watch out for Mojo King Bee to switch up some of the rhythms on you- this is a very jazzy blues song, though, so he's allowed to! ;) Notes: One of the most catchy songs in the game. The trumpet absolutely wails on some of the verses. The chorus is nice, too. You'll probably find your feet tapping along to the music. 4) Ben-K Your opponent: Ben-K, a giant interstellar shark His Gitaroo: None! Location: Space, in some sort of warphole Difficulty: 2/5 Song: Unnamed Style: Hip-hop-ish... It's too short and uninteresting to really classify Advice: Be prepared to have trouble with this level. It's dodging, and only dodging... but some of the button combinations you have to perform are pretty crazy. After a while, though, you should be able to get a hang for the rhythms. Good luck and keep at it. Notes: I recently changed the difficulty rating on this one. At first I'd thought it was tough, but once I finally beat it, I realized it wasn't very hard at all. It's only a bit over one minute long, so if you can just hang in there, you should make it through. Besides, you don't have to worry about attacking at all! 5) Ben-K take 2 Your opponent: Ben-K, in his new robot form (think transformers) His Gitaroo: Turntable pecs (don't ask me) Location: Asteroid/Space Station Difficulty: 3/5 Song: 'Nuff Respect Style: Jamaican/Rastafarian, with a hint of Techno Advice: Payback time. This battle is a little slow, and a little drawn-out, but you should be able to beat it pretty easily once you get a sense for the tempo and rhythm. The only hard thing about this level is that all the notes are LONG notes. And by long, I mean LONG. In many attack phases you only get two attacks, and most of your dodge phases are only 4-8 button presses. There are a lot of charge phases in this song, though, so don't get too worried. Notes: This song can be a little frustrating at times. You can find your cursor slipping off the track, even when you could SWEAR it was pointing in the right direction. Just keep at it, and try to be mindful of where you're pointing with the analog stick. 6) Kirah Your opponent: Kirah, a beautiful girl from Planet Gitaroo Her Gitaroo: None! Location: Planet Gitaroo, near the beach Difficulty: 2/5 Song: The Legendary Theme (Acoustic) Style: Folk? Just a simple acoustic guitar song Advice: This isn't really a battle. This is you trying to make this new girl Kirah like you. So play your heart out, and hope that it's good enough for her. There's no dodging here, nor is there any charging. You start with your health bar full, and you have to make it through the song without making so many mistakes that you drive the girl away. It's a short song, and fairly simple, and as long as you keep your eye on the line, you should do alright. Once you wear her down, she'll fall asleep on your shoulder, and you and Puma will also fall asleep. Notes: This song should be a breeze after some of the songs you've dealt with. As long as you pay attention to the speed and rhythm, you should be able to beat this song your first time through. 7) Sanbone Trio Your opponents: The Sanbone Trio, three skeleton musicians Their Gitaroo: Their bones (Xylophones) Location: A village on Planet Gitaroo Difficulty: 4/5 Song: Born to Be Bone Style: Latin Advice: Good luck. This song is leaps and bounds above most of the other songs you've done, difficulty wise. You start with minimal health, and worse than that, you don't get to charge until partway into the song. The first few times you play this song, you might find yourself dying before you even transform into Gitaroo Man. Dodge as best you can until you free Puma and get to transform, and then once you get to charge, be sure to squeeze every ounce out of it that you can. This level is very difficult, but once you do half a dozen tries you should be able to work your way through it, sooner or later. It's a fun song, though, so it's no big deal. Notes: Some of the rhythms in this song are just downright nasty. Don't sweat it if you miss a dodge or an attack here or there- it's bound to happen. When you're missing entire lines, though, that's when it's time to be worried. 8) Gregorio Wilehem III Your opponent: Gregorio Wilehem III... a very effeminate man. His Gitaroo: The Cathedral Location: A Cathedral on Planet Gitaroo (go figure) Difficulty: 4/5 Song: Tainted Lovers Style: Progressive Metal Advice: A difficult piece, but far from impossible. The most frustrating thing about this level is that they give you two charge phases very early in the match, and very close to each other. You'll likely find that the second charge goes nearly entirely to waste, since you'll hopefully be at or around full health already. After the second charge it's full-out war for the rest of the song; no more healing after that. Keep trying and you should be able to get it without too much trouble. Notes: Does Gregorio creep anyone else out? I don't get what he's supposed to be (they don't mention him in the story, or why he's working for Zowie). As far as I can tell, he's just some creepy guy that lives in this cathedral. He talks about his mother a lot, too. He's... strange. 9) Kirah take 2 Your opponent: Kirah?? She's Zowie's right-hand girl. Or is she? Her Gitaroo: Some goofy looking s-shaped guitar Location: Gitaroo Stadium Difficulty: 3/5 a) Battle Song: Overpass Style: Hard Rock Advice: She comes out with both arms swinging. Just hang in there, and keep wailing back. You should be able to make it through without too much trouble. Notes: None b) Unite Song: The Legendary Theme (Electric) Style: Somewhere between Soft and Hard Rock Advice: Here's where to cut loose. Charge up, and once it's battle time again, go nuts. The song is a little harder than the last time you played it, but it's still the same old melody. You should be able to make it through this one in your first couple tries. Notes: Kirah eventually decides that you're right, and joins your side mid-song. At that point, it becomes less about harming her than about staying alive yourself. Keep dodging and attacking (remember you take damage if you miss attacks) and just try to get out alive. 10) Zowie Your opponent: Zowie, finally. You get your turn to wail on him. His Gitaroo: A giant Gitaroo that seems to go with his giant robot suit Location: Above the Stadium, and ultimately just up in the sky Difficulty: 4/5 Song: Resurrection Style: Heavy Metal Advice: This song is a marathon, pure and simple. It has fast dodging sequences, difficult attacks, and is a long song. Thankfully, there's a charge sequence many times throughout the song, so if you can peg the melody for the charges, you should be ok if you don't take too many hits during the battle phases. Keep at it, and once you get to the Final Phase, you're almost completely done. Notes: It's funny that Gitaroo Man looks more evil than Zowie in this one... he also looks cooler, and I guess that's what they were going for. This is a fun song, too, once you get a sense for the overall tune. 11) Master Once you beat Zowie, (whether you had the game on Normal or Hard difficulty) you'll unlock "Master Play." Master Play is EXACTLY like Single Play, except all the songs are harder. You might have noticed that I didn't rank a single song on this above a 4, yet. That's because all the songs in Master Play are 5s. In fact, some (Sanbone Trio, anybody?) are probably 5+. You play EVERY note that is in a song, and you bend EVERY note whenever it gets bent. You also have to dodge about twice as many attacks, and about twice as fast. It's a real challenge, even for those who consider themselves Gitaroo gods. I won't do a Walkthrough for this, though, since it's just a harder version of the same thing. Good luck if you try to conquer it. Once you've beaten Master Play, you can certifiably say that you are the True Gitaroo Man! __________________________ vii. Multiplayer One of the nicest features of this game is that it offers multiplayer battles. Up to 4 people can play at a time, and it can make for some fast and furious battles. If it's one-on-one, you will play opposite sides (one person will play "Good" and one will play "Evil," and you will get the guitar parts of your "alignment"). If it's 4 players, you will split up in pairs of 2, and will divide the song approximately in half between your two players. You can play all of the songs except for the all-dodging song, the all-attacking song, and the songs that you play while you battle Kirah in the Stadium. You'll find that long after the story mode has lost its draw, you'll still be playing the same old songs with 1-3 of your friends. A quick note for Multiplayer: the scores you get on notes (Miss, OK, Good, Great) have greater meaning in Multiplayer. In Multiplayer, if you get an OK to dodge but your opponent gets a Great for Attack, you'll take damage. You can't just ride out songs by not missing anything. Granted, you take significantly less damage from any attack if you dodge it, but in some battles Greats become a necessity. If your opponent is throwing near-constant Greats at you, the only way you're going to survive (and possibly win) is to get mostly Goods or Greats, also. __________________________ viii. General Tips - It's rumored that if you release an attack just before it's over, you will do more damage than if you just hold it past the ending point. This could be right, but don't quote me on it. See for yourself. - Don't get freaked out if you miss one or two attacks or defenses in a row. Many people will start frantically mashing buttons when in this situation, but that won't get you anywhere. Just try to get a sense of the rhythm at that point, and try to get back in the beat. You'll find you'll make more headway if you can keep your head like this. - Don't be too hard on your controllers. This game is NOT pressure sensitive, so mashing the buttons extra hard or snapping the control stick extra fast won't get you any bonus points. Try to keep cool, and a lot of times you'll find that you'll do better when you're not all tense like that. - When attacking, keep an eye on where exactly your analog stick is pointing. I can't stress enough how many times I've fallen off a note, sat there and said "I swear I was pointing the right direction!!" and when I looked, I was almost a full 30-45 degrees off from what I thought I was aimed at. - More to come soon. __________________________ ix. FAQs -If I "fall off" an attack before I finish it (the line goes outside the blue cone), does that count as a Miss? =No. It counts as whatever it counted as, but it just won't do its full damage (or healing). -Do I have to use the circle button when attacking, like it says in training? =No. Any of the buttons will work, and there's no bonus to using any certain one. I personally prefer to use X, because it's the most comfortable for me, but you can really use any of those four buttons that you want to. -Is there any way to play The Legendary Theme in multiplayer? =No, for the love of God. There's absolutely no way to play that song, other than in single player mode. Same goes for the all-dodging song, and for the song you play while you battle Kirah in the Stadium. Sorry, but you can't. -When I try to play Resurrection in 2-player mode, there isn't any backup music. Have I gone deaf? =No. We've had two cases of this, and possibly more (anyone else suffer from this?). It just doesn't seem to play the backup music... and that makes it very hard to play your parts, and to dodge. My advice is to just avoid that level if you're having this problem. It's not worth the frustration. -Kazuya and Zowie look almost identical. Is Zowie a transformed version of Kazuya? =For all anyone knows (other than the game's creators), no. There's nothing other than appearances that would suggest that. If the creators really WERE going for that, though, is a completely different story. Why don't you write and ask? (An interesting note: The voice actors for the two parts are actually the same person... if this means anything, though, is unlikely) -I can't find a copy of Gitaroo Man anywhere. Is it just too new, or what? =No- this game came out in February of 2002. It's rumored that the game is out of print, but KOEI's website said nothing of the sort. It's really not quite caught on, yet, but if you search hard enough, you should be able to find a copy. Good luck! -Every time I let go of my analog stick while attacking, I see it flash to the left and then disappear. Is there something wrong with my controller or game? =No- apparently this is a fairly common thing. Doesn't mean much, just can be a little distracting when you're trying to do those really hard runs. -More to come as I receive (or think of) them. __________________________ x. Legal Stuff This FAQ is Copyright 2002 Vic Elder, aka Voton All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This document is to be used primarily for personal use. It is not to be copied, edited, or otherwise reproduced, unless it is for strictly personal use. If you see it posted in an altered form or on another website, please be sure to let me know. (See below for contact information) First I'd like to make a nod to "Gitaroo Glacius" and "jmdbcool" from gamefaqs. While I didn't use anything of theirs, I did look over their FAQs to give me an idea of what I wanted to do for my FAQ/Walkthrough. I'd also like to thank Jason Rupp for introducing me to this game, which I never would've played otherwise. Also, thanks to Jordan Allen for being such a generous roommate and allowing me to play his videogames. Last, but not least, thanks to Tim Rush for showing me that I was really bad at genre-ing music. A tip you'd like to add? An error that you noticed in my guide? A FAQ that doesn't appear in my guide or my FAQ section? E-mail me at voton@iastate.edu or, better, yet, AIM me at "votonfaq"- I'm almost always on, although I may be away. Be warned, though- If you ask a question that I've already answered in here, or if your message is spam or flame bait, I will promptly ignore/delete your message, and if you persist with such questions, I will block your account or e-mail address. Any persons to submit such things to me will be credited in this section (or I may add a credits section, if I get enough people submitting things). ______ _ _______ _ (_____ \ | | (_______) | | _____) ) ___ ____ | | _ _ _ ____ | | | __ / / _ \ / ___)| |_/ ) | | | || _ \ |_| | | \ \ | |_| |( (___ | _ ( | |___| || | | | _ |_| |_| \___/ \____)|_| \_) \_____/ |_| |_||_|