============================================================= = Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball: Character Mood FAQ = ============================================================= Version 1.4 February 3, 2003 By Sharpsight trevor_w_a@hotmail.com ===================== = Table of Contents = ===================== 1. Version History 2. Introduction 3. How to use this guide 4. The Girls 4.0 - Direction notation 4.1 - Kasumi 4.2 - Hitomi 4.3 - Ayane 4.4 - Tina 4.5 - Leifang 4.6 - Helena 4.7 - Christie 4.8 - Lisa 5. How moods change 6. Conclusion ====================== = 1. Version History = ====================== 1.4 - Clarification on what I mean by moods. 1.3 - Corrected Helena's descriptions again. 1.2 - Added how moods change and made minor corrections. 1.1 - Minor corrections. Nothing new especially. 1.0 - Original Launch =================== = 2. Introduction = =================== This is my first guide. Originally I was just putting it together for the forum and my personal use but it was suggested to be made into an faq. So here it is, hope you find it useful! ============================ = 3. How to use this guide = ============================ A big part of DOAX involves the moods of the characters. The moods of your partners and your opponents will greatly change the way they play volleyball. This guide will explain how to identify each character's mood based on their icons. The icons are oval shaped, and are used throughout the game in the menus and locations to represent the characters and, as this guide explains, their moods. The three possible moods for the girls are "unwilling", "usual", and "confident". Unwilling characters will not play as well as the others. They're dispassionate; sometimes even letting the ball fall down at their feet. If the opposing team has an unwilling character, target your spikes at them, as they're much more likely to drop it. Confident characters, on the other hand, will have almost perfect timing most of the time; aiming for the holes in your defense and diving for even the most difficult shots made against them. Be wary of confident characters, and try to keep the ball away from them as much as possible, thus increasing your odds. When selecting which game to play look for a team with an unwilling character playing, and avoid games with confident girls playing. If you follow this guide you will notice the differences. I promise. It makes a world of difference which mood everybody's in! Also keep an eye on your partner's mood. They are affected the same way your opponents are, and if they're unwilling to play with you, chances are they won't be playing with you very long either! If any of these descriptions are confusing, or if you are consistently having difficulty identifying certain girls, these icons can be viewed in exhibition mode. Please note that this guide is NOT a guide for how to get a someone to join your team, nor is it a guide for getting people to accept swimsuits. I have not made any tests as to how mood affects potential partnerings or gifts. Also, the moods in this guide have nothing to do with the notes you see over girls' heads. This is how much they like you, not thier mood. ================ = 4. The Girls = ================ ============================ = 4.0 - Direction Notation = ============================ All directions are from our perspective unless listed otherwise. Ex. I would say "She's looking left." She's actually looking right from her perspective, but from where we're standing it looks like her eyes are going to the left. If you find this confusing, look in the manual on page 10-11. I would say Leifang's head is tilted to the left, and she's looking right and slightly up. I would say Helena's head is turned to the right and she is also looking right. ================ = 4.1 - Kasumi = ================ Notes: Kasumi is probably the most difficult to identify of all the girls. There are only small differences between all three of her icons. Be careful when identifying her. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Kasumi's head is tilted VERY slightly to the RIGHT and turned slightly left. She is wearing a black swimsuit with both straps visible. Other Identifiers: She is looking left and the left half of her face is shaded. Notes: This portrait is VERY similar to her confident portrait. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifier: Both straps of her white spaghetti string swimsuit are visible. Other Identifiers: She's looking left and her head is turned left. Notes: Similar to her Unwilling pose. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifier: Kasumi's head is tilted VERY slightly to the LEFT. Other Identifiers: She's looking straight at the camera and she's wearing a black spaghetti string swimsuit with both straps visible Notes: VERY similar to unwilling Kasumi. ================ = 4.2 - Hitomi = ================ Notes: Pay close attention to her swimsuit as it is the easiest method of identification. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Hitomi wears a conservative black swimsuit with blue trim. Both of the straps are clearly visible. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned right and tilted down. She's also looking right. Notes: Very similar to her confident icon. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: No swimsuit visible. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned slightly right and she's looking right at the camera. Notes: Look at her left shoulder (right from our perspective). Make sure there isn't a small red strap by her hair. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: The red spaghetti string is visible beside her hair on the right side of the frame. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned to the right and she's looking right. Notes: This pose is very similar to Hitomi when she's unwilling. =============== = 4.3 - Ayane = =============== Notes: Careful with Ayane, some similarities between poses. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Ayane is shrugging and wearing a strapless swimsuit. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned far to the left. She is looking left and slightly down. Notes: Very similar to confident, but the shrugging gives it away. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: Ayane's head is turned right. Other Identifiers: She's looking slightly to the right. Notes: This one is easy to identify as it's the only one with her facing right. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Ayane's wearing a black swimsuit with straps visible. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned far to the left and tilted up slightly. She is looking left and slightly up. Notes: The straps on her shoulders distinguish this one from unwilling. ============== = 4.4 - Tina = ============== Notes: Tina should pose no difficulty to identification. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Her head is turned far to the right and tilted up slightly. Other Identifiers: She's also looking far to the right and she's wearing the yellow & orange swimsuit that's in the "handkerchief" style. Notes: I love that swimsuit :) --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: Her head is turned left Other Identifiers: She's looking straight at the camera, and you can clearly see the same orange & yellow swimsuit. Notes: Even better shot of that swimsuit in this portrait! :D ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Tina's wearing a black swimsuit with both straps visible. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned slightly to the right and she's looking straight at the camera. Notes: She isn't wearing the swimsuit... :( ================= = 4.5 - Leifang = ================= Notes: Lei Fang's mood's aren't especially hard to identify. Careful with the differences in head tilt. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: You can't see her braids in this shot. Other Identifiers: Leifang's head is turned left and tilted slightly down. She's looking left, and she's wearing a purple swimsuit with pink flowers Notes: Another way to check this one is her head tilt. The other two shots have her head tilted to the left. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: An extreme head tilt to the left (40-45 degrees). Other Identifiers: Her braids are visible, she's looking right and up and she's wearing a white swimsuit. Notes: The head tilt gives this one away easy. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Her head is tilted slightly to the left (about 10-15 degrees). Other Identifiers: Her braids are visible. She's wearing a white swimsuit with red trim and red spaghetti strings. Notes: This one can be confused with her usual pose. Remember the usual pose has a 45 degree tilt. ================ = 4.6 - Helena = ================ Notes: Just look at her ribbon! ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: She's wearing a blue/purple coloured ribbon. Other Identifiers: Her back is to the camera so that the back of her right shoulder is visible, she has hair over her left eye, she's looking right and her head is turned so that it's right over her shoulder and tilted slightly down. Notes: This is probably the easiest portrait to identify in the game. Any number of points gives it away. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: Red ribbon this time. Other Identifiers: The red swimsuit she's wearing has straps that look like they're going together to a pendant, her head's turned right and tilted slightly up and she's looking right. Notes: The ribbon gives it away. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Her ribbon is a sort of tan/yellow colour. Other Identifiers: Her head is aligned straight at the camera and she's looking slightly to the left. Both the straps of her spaghetti string suit are visible. Notes: I don't like that ribbon. It's ugly. ================== = 4.7 - Christie = ================== Notes: Nothing especially difficult with Christie. Her confident pose looks really cool though. Scary almost. ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Christie's head is turned to the far right in this icon. Other Identifiers: She's also looking far to the right. Notes: Fairly easy to identify. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: Her body is turned so that her left shoulder is at the bottom right of the frame, masking her right shoulder from view. Other Identifiers: Her head is turned left and she's looking left. She's wearing a black spaghetti string swimsuit. Notes: Don't confuse this one with confident. Look at her shoulders for this one. Her head can be misleading. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Looking straight at the camera. Both shoulders clearly visible. Other Identifiers: She's wearing a purple spaghetti string swimsuit and her head is turned slightly left and tilted slightly down. Notes: This one can be confused with her usual pose. Make sure you can see both of her shoulders. ============== = 4.8 - Lisa = ============== Notes: Lisa was really tough to identify until I noticed her arm in her unwilling pose. Watch for it! ------------------- - Mood: Unwilling - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Her left hand (right from our perspective) is behind her head. Other Identifiers: She's looking slightly to the right, her head is tilted to the right and she's wearing a black swimsuit with both straps visible. Notes: Watch for that hand. --------------- - Mood: Usual - --------------- Key Identifiers: Lisa's head is turned to the left and tilted down slightly in this pose. Other Identifiers: She's wearing a pink swimsuit with both straps visible and she's looking slightly to the left. Notes: Use the pink swimsuit as verification for this one. ------------------- - Mood: Confident - ------------------- Key Identifiers: Both straps of a red spaghetti string swimsuit are visible and she's looking straight at the camera. Other Identifiers: Her head is tilted to the right. Notes: The only big difference between this one and unwilling is the hand behind her head in the unwilling pose. ======================= = 5. How moods change = ======================= Moods in DOAX were put in as a method to "scale" the AI's throughout the game so players will always have a challenge. As such, character moods will only change when you play volleyball with them with the exception of your partner, who will also be affected by gifts. To go from unwilling to usual or usual to confident you need to win 1-3 games against them. To go from confident to usual or usual to unwilling you need to lose 1-3 games against them. These matches need not be on the same day, or even with the same partner. The number of matches it takes seems to be random, and can even exceed 3 games, but that is quite unlikely. Also, how thoroughly you win or lose also affects the number of games it will take them to change moods. Note: This also means that if you don't play volleyball against someone then their mood will not change. So, unfortunately, if you win consistently you will typically run out of easy matches by usually the fourth or fifth day, assuming constant volleyball playing. Your partner follows different rules, though. They will still gain in confidence by winning games, and lose confidence by losing, but you can also increase their mood (or decrease it) through gifts. Love items work best for this, of course. So it's a good idea to always have a love item or two on hand in case you ever play a couple bad games of volleyball. Give them the love item overnight and they will usually go back to being confidant again by morning. Bribing your partner works best if your partner likes you naturally. (It's much more difficult to raise Ayane's morale while playing Kasumi than raising Tina's while playing Lisa.) Be sure not to give your partner gifts they don't like, or the opposite will occur! They will lose confidence if they don't approve of your gifts, so think your gifts out carefully! ================= = 6. Conclusion = ================= I hope you all found something of use in this guide! This guide has been made by myself (Sharpsight) without any sources other than Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball itself. If you have any comments/ corrections/flames/praise please email me at trevor_w_a@hotmail.com. Be sure to include "DOAX" in the title, else I might mistake it for junk mail. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about secrets in this game, nor how to unlock them. Just putting this in here because I've received a tonne of mail asking how to unlock things. Sorry guys, your guess is as good as mine. Thanks to John Aten and 'Mike' for making useful guide suggestions. No thanks to Serge Zaretsky. He's a jerk. Don't brake if you see him crossing the street. I call dibs on his XBox. A special thanks to Team Ninja for making not only DOAX but DOA3 as well. Two of the best games on the XBox! This guide is for personal use only and is not to be reproduced in any way (whole or in part) without my permission. Check www.gamefaqs.com for the latest version of this faq. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2003 Trevor Armstrong