Revision: 2001-4-10 DARK LAW Meaning of Death FAQ / WALKTHROUGH by Haeleth =============================================================================== CONTENTS =============================================================================== 1 Preamble 1.1 Foreword 1.2 Copyright information 1.3 Contact information 1.4 Contributors 1.5 General notes - revision history - completeness of the FAQ - why this isn't a translation guide - why there isn't a cheats section 2 - Walkthrough 2.1 Beginning of Destiny 2.2 Death-Creature 2.3 Ed and Karon 2.4 Guide of Death 2.5 Return of a Saint 2.6 King of Hell 2.7 The Search 2.8 Sorceror's Daughter 2.9 Lefia Reunion 2.10 Temple of the Wizard 2.11 Dungeon Mode 2.12 All Things 3 - Gameplay 3.1 Controls 3.1.1 Movement 3.1.2 Attacking 3.1.3 Using magic and items 3.2 Statistics 3.3 Abilities 3.4 The town 3.5 Researching spells 4 - Tables 4.1 Monsters 4.2 Weapons 4.3 Armour 4.4 Items 4.5 Jobs 4.6 Magic 5 - Maps 5.1 Sealed Cave 5.2 Sealed Labyrinth 6 - Miscellaneous questions - the rubbish bin - disabling battle messages - the Turbo-File - Murasame - relation to other games - emulating the game - the melons - the meaning of death - the Latin =============================================================================== 1 PREAMBLE =============================================================================== 1.1 FOREWORD Of the SFC RPGs released in Japan, the great majority never reached Western shores. Many of these have been undeservedly neglected even by fans of the genre. Dark Law is certainly one of these, a refreshing breath of originality (or the next best thing) in a genre dominated by Final Fantasy lookalikes. Had it but borne the Square logo, there would have been a thousand incomplete translation projects already, and more FAQs than you can shake at a stick. In their absence, however, I can only offer the best efforts of a single fan, and pray that the quality of the game prove a sufficient mask for my failings. -- Haeleth 1.2 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION - Dark Law is copyright 1997 ASCII Corporation. There are references in the FAQ below to "ROMs" or ROM images. These are duplicates of copyrighted material, and in most jurisdictions the possession of such files is either illegal or limited to copies made by the owner of the original media for backup purposes or for personal use. The author of this FAQ in no way condones or encourages the illegal possession or distribution of such material. Part of section 6 deals with playing the game on an emulator. This is solely for the benefit of any who are legally entitled to do so, that is, who are able to create and use a ROM image without infringing the applicable laws. Again, the author of this FAQ does not condone the use of emulation for piracy, or encourage it as an alternative to playing the game from the original media on a genuine SFC. - This FAQ is copyright 2000-2001 Haeleth. You may distribute this FAQ freely, with the following restrictions: 1. You MAY NOT use this FAQ in any way for commercial gain. You may never distribute it as part of a package on which a profit is being made; nor may you ever charge third parties more than cost. You MAY, however, charge a nominal sum to cover the price of distribution media where applicable. 2. You MAY NOT reproduce or distribute this FAQ in any form or with any content other than the current without the explicit permission of the author. This includes forms which are substantially the same (e.g. hard copies, HTML formatting) as well as more far-reaching modifications, such as translation. The sole exception to this restriction is that you MAY produce or reproduce modified versions strictly for personal use. 3. Likewise you MAY NOT use or reproduce material taken from this FAQ for any purpose at all without authorial permission, with the exception that you MAY reproduce extracts within the bounds of "fair use" legislation: that is, of limited size, for non-commercial use, properly attributed. The reader must be made aware of the existence and location of the full FAQ, either in a bibliography or, when distributed in electronic format, optionally through a hyperlink. Anyone failing to conform to these requirements will face my wrath. Moreover, anyone using the whole or any part of this FAQ for commercial gain may face legal action (unless they give me a cut of the profits); and anyone attempting to pass the whole or any part of this FAQ off as their own work will face public humiliation. You have been warned. :D All trademarks to which reference is made are acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners. 1.3 CONTACT INFORMATION Hæleþes áwendende is currently located at "http://haeleth.port5.com/". The most up-to-date release of this FAQ can always be found here. Please check here before emailing me about anything. (I'll try to keep the version at GameFAQs relatively up to date, but it may not reflect minor revisions or corrections.) My email address is haeleth@hotmail.com. This address is solely for correspondance related to my FAQs, translations, or the games concerned. Polite responses are not likely to be given to ROM requests or to questions answered in this FAQ or at Hæleþes áwendende. Also, please DON'T ask me to take on any other projects. I'll think about what to do after Dark Law when I get that far, and no sooner. If you want to know whether such and such a game is translated, or how to begin translating yourself, your best bet is to visit a general site - the Whirlpool (http://donut.parodius.com) is probably the best one for English translations, and the folk there can direct you to more specialised sites if necessary. Constructive criticism or offers of help (excluding beta testing for my translations - I'll ask for that when I need it) are welcome, and all contributions will of course be duly credited - just below this, in fact. In particular, please do let me know of any errors in the FAQ, however slight. 1.4 CONTRIBUTORS Dark Kyosuke: Stylistic suggestions; background info; alerted me to the saving issue. Gray Brangwin: Extensive notes on all sorts of things. If you see a technical detail, it's as likely to be his as mine. 1.5 GENERAL NOTES - Revision History 2001-2-10: First public release (i.e. on GameFAQs; the WIP versions had been available from my site for a couple of months). Substantially complete, but with quite a number of uncertainties and omissions. 2001-2-18: Numerous corrections and clarifications to the walkthrough, notably in "The Search" and "Lefia Reunion", neither of which could be successfully completed by following my instructions. Watashi no baka nê~. Expanded "Controls" and "Magic Guild" considerably, and - having sussed out the magic system at last - added twenty formulae to the spell list. By request, added a section on emulating the game. 2001-2-27: Very minor revision - basically just updating my site's URL. 2001-3-29: New information from various sources added, including several more spells and a couple of things I'd missed in the walkthrough. A number of minor corrections and clarifications throughout; several tables revised, etc. 2001-4-10: A less minor update at last! A number of additions to the walkthrough, particularly in "Return of a Saint" and "King of Hell"; the endings thing finally sorted out, and the monster table updated with a new set of data. - Completeness of the FAQ This is not quite a complete reference guide to the game yet. The walkthrough will take you to the end of the game, but I know there are things missing on the way: in particular, one of the scenarios is only partially covered, but that's because it crashes on emulators. Likewise the tables, particularly that for the monsters, still lack certain important data, and are patchy in areas. I should perhaps mention a deliberate omission in the walkthrough: that I've been rather inconsistent in my mentions of monsters. If they're 'event' battles I've usually told you about them, but there are a lot of cases where I'm expecting you to deal with anything that comes your way. There are several major queries I have at the moment. Please, if you know or find out the answers to any of these, let me know! - this FAQ may never be complete without your help. The questions are: What are the formulae for the last three spells? How do you fight Daruk Golem? Is there any point to restoring the seal on the cave? Conjectural answers to some of these questions are given at the relevant points. - Other sources of information Okada's page, '1st.AAA': This is "http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Spade/1021/darklaw.html", and is a fairly complete guide to the game: it's beautifully concise, and makes this FAQ look incredibly bloated by comparison. It is, however, in Japanese, and thus doesn't have to spell things out for players who only have problems because they can't read Japanese... (I've emailed Okada for permission to quote him; unless he objects I'll assume it's okay to do so.) - Why this isn't a translation guide Particularly where the walkthrough is concerned, this FAQ assumes that the player is able to play the game, but needs help in making progress; so you'll probably need to understand some Japanese if you want to have a clue what's going on. I have not included any translations, even of key scenes. Why take this route? Simply because I've read too many FAQs which tend the other way, and give you a blow-by-blow account of the story, of every scene, so one barely has to play the game at all. I prefer the sort which has as few spoilers as possible, and that's what I've tried to write. As you may have gathered, I am currently engaged in translating this game into English. So those of you who don't read Japanese need not despair; before too long, I hope, you'll be able to play the game in a more familiar language. Well, it'll probably take less time than it would take you to learn Japanese, anyway. - Why there isn't a "cheats" section Partly because I disagree on principle with cheating (unless I'm doing it); and partly because this game is insanely simple to cheat at anyway. One code will give you all the power you could ever need. If you really can't bear the thought of playing it properly, read through 3.4 carefully. I'm sure you'll work out what to do. There are one or two codes - not precisely cheat-related - that I'd like to include, so such a section may appear in future. In particular, it should be possible to make a set of codes which will be equivalent to playing through "Ed and Karon" - thus bypassing the problem of this scenario crashing in emulators. So far, though, all I've managed to produce are some truly amazing noises in my ill-fated attempt to make a "music select" code. The number of the current track is stored in memory at $7e0609 (and possibly also $7e060b). Try changing the values to something else ($00-$18) and changing screens. :) =============================================================================== 2 WALKTHROUGH =============================================================================== Dark Law, unlike many RPGs, does not have a single linear path along which the player is forced. It's scenario based: each scenario is a short quest which the player can complete to advance the story and build up experience. In practice the order of the scenarios doesn't allow that much variation, but it's still freer than the average offering. When you select 'start from the beginning' on the 'new game' menu, you'll be presented with a pretty standard character creation system (name each character and then assign their stats). After this section, the game begins with the scenario "Beginning of Destiny" (2.1). You can create between one and four characters, of which any three can be in your party at one time. (At certain points in the game you'll temporarily receive an extra member, allowing a maximum party size of four.) The 'default' names are based on their hair colours (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green). When building your party, bear in mind that while the men are stronger, they need more experience to gain each level. The centre of the game is the town, which is menu-driven. Most scenarios are begun by talking to the various characters you'll meet here. See section 3.4 for details of the various locations within the town. I'm assuming that you'll pause between scenarios to heal, upgrade your equipment, level up, and so on, so it's worth getting to know the place when you first arrive. To level up and hunt for items the player can always head to the Sealed Cave / Sealed Labyrinth, which is the game's main dungeon. The monsters rapidly get tougher as you head in, so caution is advised. There are maps in section 5 which may prove useful. When you reach the point at which you can take "All Things", be sure to pause to complete the Sealed Labyrinth: the equipment you'll find in there will be invaluable in the final battle. Scenario requirements are detailed below. The order is that in which you should probably take them. Note that in some cases I haven't investigated the precise requirements for a scenario - levels marked with a query are guesses based on the general pattern. NAME - the section here (2.x), "Scenario: ..." in main menu.* Location: "Go to ..." in destination menu, "Location: ..." in main menu. Level: your lead character must be within this range or the scenario will not be available. The figures are inclusive. Prerequisites: any other requirements, e.g. scenarios you have to take first. Reward: the maximum benefit you can get from a scenario. In most cases it's possible to come out with less. The quoted values for 'exp' and 'gold' are restricted to explicit end-of-scenario rewards. Items: any otherwise unobtainable items found. Note that this isn't "complete" in that it basically only includes important items or things you get at the "scenario clear". There may well be other things lying around. The four scenarios with [#] after the name are the ones in which the seal crystals are restored. 1 BEGINNING OF DESTINY Location: Holy Sophia Temple Reward: 50 gold 2 DEATH-CREATURE Location: Toras Forest Level: 1+ Reward: 1100 exp, 10 gold Items: Teardrop, M-stone 3 ED AND KARON Location: Masaki Head Level: 2-4 Reward: 1900 exp, 20 gold Items: M-stone, Aqua Stone 4 GUIDE OF DEATH [#] Location: Reynard Castle Court; later, South Creek Level: 4-6 Prerequisites: complete "Death-Creature" Reward: 1800 exp 5 RETURN OF A SAINT Location: Deep in Fangi Forest Level: 6-8 Reward: 2000 exp 6 KING OF HELL Location: Mt. Drake Mine Ruins Level: 7-?9 Reward: 2500 exp Items: Short Sword + 7 THE SEARCH [#] Location: Toras Forest Level: 8-?10 Reward: 2400 exp Items: Damascus Sword 8 SORCEROR'S DAUGHTER Location: Dr. Heifer's house Level: 9-11 Reward: 2700 exp, 280 gold 9 LEFIA REUNION [#] Location: Shanoah Town Level: 10-12 Reward: 3000 exp Items: Golden Heart 10 TEMPLE OF THE WIZARD [#] Location: Mt. Molor Depths Level: 11-?13 Prerequisites: complete "King of Hell"? Reward: 3200 exp, 900 gold Items: Ashura? 11 DUNGEON MODE Location: Sealed Cave and Sealed Labyrinth 12 ALL THINGS Location: Holy Sophia Temple Level: 13+ Reward: the ending sequence. :D 2.1 BEGINNING OF DESTINY As the game begins, you'll find yourself lying outside an ancient temple. Walk south off the screen, and follow the path down. If you want to read that monument you can see on the right, the way through to it is hidden almost directly to its left; but it won't be significant for a long time yet. In any case, your objective is the cliff edge. Examine the projection to the right twice. Now collect either or both of the vines (there's one on each screen: if you take both, the next scene is slightly different), and examine the projection again to tie the vine or rope to it. Climb down. After waking up, walk through the doorway to your south. A long conversation follows. It doesn't matter whether you answer 'yes' or 'no' when Orion asks whether you'll help with the work - you'll end up doing it anyway. After this you'll return to bed. When you wake up again, head south again and go outside. Talk to Orion, then follow him left and up. Talk to him twice more and take the hoe. Don't start work yet: instead head north onto the next screen. See that blue sparkle? That's a Silver Dagger, so dig it up. Now head south two screens. There's another sparkle in the bottom left: grab that too, it's a Blue Crystal. You can sell it in Shanoah for a few extra pieces of gold (every little helps). Now head back north and get hoeing! If you're lucky you may find some more crystals. To get away with the minimum amount of work, hoe the top left square, and then go and talk to Orion. Now hoe the one above the bottom left, then the one to the right of that, and then any one of the remaining unhoed squares. If you talk to Orion again now, he should be happy to chat for a while. You regain control back on the southern screen. Move east a little for a nasty surprise, then go and (you guessed) talk to Orion. He'll give you a letter. Talk to him again. Now you're free to depart at last - so head off east and set off for the town! Shanoah is explained in section 3.4. Go to the castle, where you must talk to King Reynard. You'll hand over the letter; he'll give you 50 gold and authorise you to enter the Sealed Cave. And that's the end of the initial scenario. 2.2 DEATH-CREATURE To begin the scenario, talk to the guy at the pub and agree to help him. Now you must buy a potion if you don't have one, and leave the town. Select the middle option, '??', to go to Toras Forest. Follow the path north. Before the end of the first screen you'll see a little hole in the rock. If you examine that, you'll fight a couple of Toras Vipers. It's a very easy battle, so you might as well do it for the EXP. Then carry on until you reach Lambar's hut. Enter the hut. You need to examine the wolf's head on the table; then leave again and keep going north. On the next screen the path forks. Examine the obstruction on the right-hand fork and the boulder blocking the left-hand way. Since you can't go any further, head back to the hut. It's still empty, but now if you go back north and up the lefthand side someone will appear. Talk to her, examine the boulder, then keep talking to her (you'll give her a potion) until she moves it. Take the new path and head north into the cave. Immediately to your north is a dead end with a nest at the end. Examine it twice, then head round to the room to the west of it. On the way, roughly at the centre of the screen, you'll pass a very short passage to the north, leading to an obvious dead end. If you search that dead end, though, you'll find an M-stone! I don't think you can get it when you come back here in a later scenario, so grab it now. Anyway, when you reach that back room, examine the hole in the north wall three times; you'll find a pendant, which is the Teardrop accessory (so equip it!). Now head south again; you'll drop out of the hole from which the woman fell. Return to the hut. Talk to the woman first if you don't want to miss any dialogue; the outcome is the same whoever you select, though. Talk to her a second time if you want to learn her name. Now you can head back to the town. Go to the pub and talk to end the scenario. 2.3 ED AND KARON (NOTE: I've tried this in all the emulators available, and they ALL freeze at a certain point. This walkthrough will take you that far, but no further, so you'll have to wait until someone fixes the problem. If anyone with access to a working SFC wants to flesh out the end, I'd be happy to include it.) (NOTE: Because I can't complete the scenario, for the above reason, I haven't bothered to play it repeatedly. I'm aware that this section contains several inaccuracies and that merely following the walkthrough to the letter will not trigger all the necessary flags to proceed. If stuck, talk to everyone and examine everything repeatedly!) Talk to Kofu at the Magic Guild, and agree to help him. The second item on the menu outside Shanoah will now take you to Davis' house at Masaki Head. Note that you can only cross the causeway to his house during the daytime. Night will fall a short way into the scenario, so make sure you're ready before you set out. Head right towards the house. The door's locked, so continue right. Chat with the boy, then head back round to the front: Davis should be back. He'll invite you in. After a conversation his son will call him out, and you'll regain control. There's a save point in the back room if you want to use one. Anyway, leave the house and head round to the back. There's a door where the boy and the dog were earlier; go inside. Talk to them, then head back to the house and go to bed. In the morning, talk to Davis. Then head round to the barn and talk to Ed. Go back to Davis and talk again. When the music changes, head back round to the barn and talk AGAIN. Now head back to the causeway. Examine the highest point. The bird will deposit a bottle in the water to your left, which contains a letter from Kofu. Read it. Now when you return Ed should be missing from the barn. (At this point you might have to enter the house and examine the scrolls on the shelves behind Davis - I can't remember if this is necessary or not.) Head to the back of the barn and examine the floor until you find a loose plank. Remove it. Now go to the plank to the right of it, and slide it across into the gap to reveal a ladder. Go down. At the bottom, you can go either left or right. If you go left, you'll come out in a pit behind the house; there's nothing to do here yet, and you might be attacked by Zombies, which will slaughter you unless you run. So go right instead. You'll come to a mazelike cave; there are Oak Jellies in here, but those should be no problem. There are two exits at the top of the screen. The one to the right is a dead end for the moment, since you can't open the door. You need to know that, though, so head up that way and check the door and the handle (to the left of it). Now go back round to the opening to the left, and go through the door. You'll be in a large rectangular room. There's a corpse in the top right corner. Make sure your HP is full, because when you've examined it a few times, the Eleanor Zombie will attack. She's not as tough as the normal Zombies ("wæs se gryre læssa / efna swa micle swa bið mægþa cræft / wiggryre wifes be wæpnedmen..."), but she uses magic, Wolfstorm and Earth Heal. Now head to the ladder, climb back up, and go round to the front of the house. When Ed leaves, follow him. Go to the room to the right of that in which you fought Eleanor. Ed will open the door. Inside is that "Gate of the Dead" of which Kofu's letter spoke. Read the note on the floor, and talk to Ed. He'll try to remove the Magic Stone from the wall, but fail; so it's up to you. Return to the barn and collect a bucket from the top right, then head to the causeway and fill it with water. Go back to the Gate of the Dead and try it with the Magic Stone. Things will get rather exciting. (Don't worry - I'm told this isn't the Magic Stone you're looking for.) At this point all emulators freeze, so I haven't played this scenario any further myself. Okada says: "After the 'Scenario Clear', before you leave, investigate the tomb in the woods behind the house for an item (the Aqua Stone); returning, you obtain the Shield Magic Stone below the path." Expanding, I imagine that after the scenario ends, the path to the right of the shed is opened up and you can go into the woods to (Eleanor's?) tomb, on which the Aqua Stone accessory is hanging. What "below the path" means I don't know. It could refer to the zombie pit, or to the lower part of the causeway. If you find out, please let me know... 2.4 GUIDE OF DEATH Head to the Temple in Shanoah. Try to talk: nobody's there, but you can head inside. Do. Talk alternately to the standing man and the lying man until a third character shows up. When everything's finished, leave this room: you'll be back at the Temple menu. Select 'talk' again. The scenario begins. Once you enter South Creek, you won't be able to leave again without forfeiting the scenario. This includes losing battles: if your party is annihilated, you'll wake up back in Shanoah, and you won't be able to return to South Creek. So make sure you've got some healing items, and save at the inn before you leave! It's probably preferable to make sure everyone's at level 5, too, if you can stand it - but you can always level up when you get there. When you're ready, exit the town and select '??'. Cross the bridge. There'll be a short scene with Hybard. If you head east, you'll come to a ruin. Examine the rightmost block to find an inscription. To enter the house, examine the door twice. Head right and down, and examine the book on the table a few times. Then go upstairs and enter first the room on the left, then the one on the right. If Hybard doesn't appear, go back downstairs and examine the book again, then come back. After a long conversation you'll get your bodies back. Follow the good doctor to the ruins. He's not there, so head back to the house and examine the window three times. You'll jump up and get the book from the table. Now return to the ruins and read that inscription. It's rather cryptic, so you need to think about it a bit: go back to the house and examine the window again, then return to the ruins. Presto: intrat deus ex machina! So go ahead, knock at the Gate of Darkness three times. An entrance will open. Need I tell you to go inside? At the moment you can go back to the save point by the bridge to rest if necessary - save any potions you may have for later. When you reach the upper floor there's no way down again, so level up now if you think you need to. Head west. Read the notice and examine the machinery, then go through the doorway. Head up to the interesting apparatus in the top left. Examine the plate in the floor, the light coming in (twice), and so on. You have to check the left-hand window at least four times before you can get the prism. When you have it, put it on the block in that beam of light (you have to do this from above the block). Now the lift is working, so go back out to it and ride it up. Examine the crate in the top right corner of the room until you get the bottled cheese, then leave the room by the door to the south. Note that the Undead Wolf monsters you meet in this next area are exceedingly nasty. I'd definitely advise running unless you really know what you're doing. You can't open the middle door, so go through the right-hand one. Examine the pile of sacks twice, then the table in the middle of the room. Go up to the place from which the rat appeared and examine the wall. Now examine the desk to your left, then push it under the hole you saw. Climb onto it (the drawer serves as a foothold) and examine the wall twice, then go back to the left-hand room and take the wedge from the crate. Return to the desk and climb back onto it, and examine the wall twice more. Get back down and take the candlestick from the table to the right, then back up and you'll be able to climb up to the hole. Head up and left. There are two gratings. Look through the right-hand one, then head over towards the other. When you regain control, take four steps. You'll wake up back on the bridge again. The scenario will now end when you leave South Creek. If you leave right away you'll receive 1600 EXP; if you go and listen at the front door first you'll get 1800. It isn't a very difficult choice, is it? Now when you return to the Sealed Cave you'll see that one of the crystals of the seal at the entrance is lit up. 2.5 RETURN OF A SAINT Head to Shanoah Temple. Talk to the Archbishop. It doesn't matter what your first answer is, but be sure to say 'yes' to his second question - he'll only ask once! He'll give you a letter, and the scenario begins. Make sure you have potions and antidotes aplenty, since the enemies here are tough and poisonous. Good armour is a must, too. When you're equipped, head to Fangi Forest in the usual way. Enter the tent and talk to the injured monk. You'll give him the letter. Now leave the tent and head north. The Blue Crystal is the marker Frammel mentioned, and shows the path you need to take; you can grab it if you want. When asked if you want to proceed, agree. As you approach the house, you'll be challenged, and a Poison Corpse will attack. Kill it (use fire-based spells if you have any). Try to open the door; you won't manage. Now you have a choice. If you want to be healed, or to save, then go back to the tent. Talk to Frammel to advance the plot, and then he'll heal you on request. If you want to do things the hard way, then don't do that: instead, examine the door three times then try to leave - another Poison Corpse attacks, you'll hear a voice, and then the door is unlocked. Either way, once you're inside, head round to the ladder and climb down. If you explore to the northwest you'll fight some more Poison Corpses before coming up against an array of locked doors; so head south instead, then south again. On this next screen you'll see a pair of Hell Bandits guarding a door. Ignore them for the moment: go round past the opening leading into their room, and off to the north. You'll see one of the children you're looking for to your right (behind the guarded door); to your north, another door, which has neither a keyhole nor a visible switch. Search the wall to the right of the door, halfway between the right-hand torch and the end of the passage, then push the switch. The door will open. On the other side you'll find a corpse; examine it twice and opt to read the note, then examine it again to find a ring. Now head back round to those Hell Bandits and kill them. Push the switch to the left of the door they were guarding and go in. Talk to the girl. You'll end up back by the tent, where Frammel will give you some holy water. If your MP is low, you can touch the fire to restore it; rest at the save point in the tent to restore your HP. Return to the house and climb down as before. Head south to the room where the girl was imprisoned, and search the box in there until you find an item (the Silver Robe). Now head back towards the ladder. Before you get there you'll be brought up short by a strange sound; so head back south again. Two Poison Corpses will have appeared. When you've disposed of them, search the north wall next to the light to open the secret door they came through, and follow the passageway behind it. Sandoro is waiting in the next room. The spirit isn't going to give him up easily; after a brief conversation you'll be surrounded by enemies, three Poison Corpses and a Hell Bandit. It goes without saying that this is your hardest battle yet; I hope you remembered to pack some Antidotes! The only strategy I can suggest is that you try to gain the platform - taking out the Hell Bandit in the process - at which point you should be able to defend the stairs and keep more than two of the others from attacking you at once. Magic will also be very useful here - again, stick to fire-based spells, as other elements won't hurt the Poison Corpses. When you've defeated them, head up onto the platform. When Sandoro's finished talking, throw the holy water over him. After a short scene with the spirit, you'll return to the tent once more. Talk to Frammel (he'll go back into the tent), and then to Sandoro, who'll offer you a key. Naturally you want to accept. Return to the cellars once more, and this time head northwest - take the upper door in the little side passage near the ladder. You'll have to fight a couple of Poison Corpses if you didn't deal with them earlier, but now you can get through all those locked doors. First head down the stairs to the left, enter the library, and read the book on the table; then take the ones to the right, and check the chests in the storeroom (one contains a Morningstar, the other a Large Shield). Of the other two doors, the one on the right leads to a small room containing two jars; the one on the left will restore your HP, the other your MP. Finally, open the back lefthand door. The Hell Bandit in here shouldn't tax you too far. Examine the only other interesting feature of the room. That's all you can do for now, so head back to the tent and talk to Frammel again. He'll tell you who the spirit is (an ancient high priest, Dianoas), and offer to read you the letter. It doesn't seem to matter which option you choose; either way, he'll give you an amulet. Back to the cellars again! Take the south door in the side-passage, and go round to the northwest. There's another group of monsters in this room. If you didn't get Sarac's ring earlier, you'll have to fight them; if you did, then it'll take care of them for you, which is definitely worthwhile. When they're gone, head up the steps. A stone in the northwest corner will start glowing when you approach. Examine it, and out pops Dianoas' spirit! After a moving speech he'll disappear again, and you'll pick up the stone. Take it back to Frammel. And everyone's happy again. You'll return to Shanoah. Go to the temple and listen to Darme's sermon, and you'll finally receive your exp. 2.6 KING OF HELL Go to the inn and talk. Basconar will introduce himself and offer you a quest. You, being obviously the intrepid type, will accept. As usual, leave Shanoah and head for your destination - this time it's Mount Drake. Head left across the parched rock. Follow the ominous shadow, and enter the mine. Follow the tunnel. Take the little detour and search the sack, then continue south and emerge blinking into the daylight again. Follow the ledge; you don't need to wait long to learn more about that shadow. After the fight, head down the ladder and east, where you'll find that save point you saw earlier and a large hole. Climb down into it; you won't get far, but you need to do so anyway. To the left of the pit is a pile of rocks, which you also want to examine. Now head back up that ladder and enter the mine over at the far left. The map-room you saw earlier is off to the right. Go and search the bag in there to find an rock with strange characters carved into it. Take it, then grap the pickaxe. That's all there is here, so backtrack to the entrance to this part of the cave, and take the northwest passage. Near the top of this screen there's a dead-end passage to your left, and beyond it a small room apparently blocked in. If you search the north wall of the dead-end you can open a secret door into that room; there's a skeleton inside which you can examine (you'll find, but leave, an eyepatch). You'll be coming back later, but that's all for now. In the same area, south of this small room, there's a pick lying on the floor; you want to grab it. Head north again. There's a save point. If you check the sacks in this room you may find a Red Crystal. Anyway, head into the next room, where lurk a woman and another of those Gargbat things. I'm sure you can guess what this is leading to. Go on, kill it. Now examine the bag below the table for a rope ladder, read the letter on the table if you want, examine the shovel up north, then head back outside and down the first ladder. Hack away at that pile of rocks; if you're lucky you'll get a crystal. Climb down into the hole, using your ladder to extend the existing one when you need to. Head east, then follow the 'chibi' which appears and head north. (If you go south instead, you'll find a set of islands you can jump across, but there's no point doing so yet.) There'll be a short conversation. After it, go to the small patch of mushrooms to the west and eat one to raise your lead character's intelligence. (If you repeat the act, it'll have no effect, and then the third time you'll be poisoned, so don't be greedy.) Then continue to the north. You'll find Vitus, Basconar's missing friend. Chat with him for a while, then talk twice to the creature that's looking at rocks to his left: it'll read the stone you found earlier for you. When you go back south, there's another Gargbat to fight. Keep going, and you'll run into an old friend. She's less than delighted at this reunion, however, and will summon yet more Gargbats for you to play with. This time you'll fight three at once. It gets worse; once you defeat these, she'll summon a Heat Garg. This beastie can cast Flare Storm three times, which might give you rather a headache, so keep your HP up. Icefall is very effective, as you might guess. After that, return to the eyepatched skeleton. Examine it again, and the rock under its head, then go north to collect the shovel. Now, the question remains where to dig. You can try the rock by the skeleton, but there's nothing under it. Instead, go back to the map room. If you look at the map (with your eyes, that is - examining it has no effect), it's actually a map of those islands you can jump between down at the bottom of the mine. If you head down there, and try digging at the spot that's circled on the map (it's the middle one of the three largest stones on the largest island), you'll find a Damascus Sword. (No, I didn't get this by myself. The one with the sharp eyes is Gray Brangwin.) Now all that remains is to talk to Vitus some more and then leave. Antoniana will drop by as you approach the exit. When you get back to Shanoah, go back to the inn and talk to Basconar. You'll get an option to ask him about Nealertos, but whatever you reply, you've completed the scenario. 2.7 THE SEARCH Go to the shop in Shanoah and talk. A girl (Eris) will appear and notice your pendant (the Teardrop). Here's a diagram of the conversation: Eris mentions the pendant. Tell her about it? / \ / NO YES \ | Tell her where | you found it? | / \ | YES NO | / \ Give it to her? She leaves sadly; / \ Scenario cancelled. YES NO / \ 20 gold, Teardrop, good ending worse ending \ / Scenario begins. Obviously you want to end up on the left. Make sure you give her the pendant if you want the better ending! Check around inside Lambar's hut; there's nothing there, of course, but you really do need to examine everything to proceed. Now head north. Remember the right-hand path, which was blocked back in "Death-Creature"? This time you can jump over the blockade, and, if you head north, you can almost be drowned. Fortunately a chap called Rokifel (Meryl's brother) will show up just in time. Now head back round to the cave and go in. Head up to the hole where you found the Teardrop. You may have to fight some Bloodsuckers on the way. As you approach you should hear a terrible scream; if you don't, go round looking at things and coming back here until you do. Go and find out who it was: Eris, who is lying below the hole. Talk to her. You'll leave her in the bed in the hut; now go back to the marsh where you met Rokifel. Guess who's waiting? The Death-Creature will run away, however, and you can't follow it over the poisonous water. So return to the hut; Eris is no longer alone. Fortunately the other occupant of the hut is McStarr, a knight from Reynard Castle. He'll ask whether you'll accompany him. If you choose to, he'll join your party. (There's no reason not to, since you can't proceed without him.) Now show him the marsh, then the hole. Return to the hut for a ladder. You'll find Eris missing instead. Examine her bed, then hurry to the marsh. When you regain control, with Eris 'safely' back in the town, head back to the hole in the cave. Use the ladder to climb up to it. Now, in this room there's a door and some complex machinery. You might be forgiven for thinking that you need to use the one to open the other. You'd also be wrong. In fact, they control the marsh. Examine the valve in the lefthand room, then turn it; the tank should ring when you strike it. Make sure you can hear water in the pipe in the right-hand room (turn the handle if you can't) and then head back round to the marsh; it should hvae drained, to reveal a doorway. Enter, and climb the stairs. Turn the handle to fill the pool, then swim round to the other tank and turn the handle on this one too. Finally, swim back to the right hand side and empty the pool again. Now return to the tank in the cave and turn the left-hand valve again (the tank should go 'thud' when you strike it). Now when you return to the marsh the water will be clean, and you can swim across to where the Death-Creature disappeared earlier. Examine the grass at the north end of the bank to reveal another hole, and crawl in. Have a look around inside. Examine the crystal ball and the books several times to find out some truly shocking things. When you've done that you'll be able to find a panel in the ground by the left wall. Open it and turn the handle inside to open that door back in the cave. Now head back over there and go through the new entrance. You'll arrive at a fork in the beautifully decorated passage. The right-hand branch leads to a locked door, so head left, up the stairs, and through the doorway at the top. Of course you'll have to deal with those suits of armour first; they're actually Undead Knights. Now go through the door. When you regain control, pull the lever to your right, then head back down to the fork, up the right path, and through the now-open door. Ignore Kane and Eris, and head back after the sorceror and the Death-Creature. There'll be a short scene, and then you'll face the sorceror in a new form: the Vampire. This is "Vampire (1)" in the monster list. As you can see he's barely tougher than those Undead Knights you polished off earlier, so don't let the change in music bother you. Oh, and don't bother using magic on him; I haven't found any that hurts him yet. Just get in close and hit him until he dies. Now head back south to end the scenario. If you got the better one (2400 exp), you can talk to McStarr in Centoria Park for a postscript. 2.8 SORCEROR'S DAUGHTER Talk to the girl at the guild and give a positive response. Now leave Shanoah and head for Dr. Heifer's house. Knock on the front door. Talia will invite you in. Talk to her again and she'll show you round. Eventually you'll regain control in a bedroom. Talk to Cycas, then leave the room. You can leave Heifer's house now if you want, and return to the guild; you'll get some gold and exp for your troubles. There's more to do here, though, and you get less of both if you leave now. So don't; instead, go down to the lab again. Examine the machine in the centre of the room, looking particularly at the gear on its bottom left. There's a handle on the second shelf from the left behind it. Use the handle with the gear, then turn it twice to reveal a staircase. Cycas will rush in; ignore him and go downstairs. Enter the room at the bottom. Check the crates in the corner for a couple of Revivals. Now take the door in the back wall - there's a fairly easy-to-miss switch in the wall to the right of it that'll open it. Inside, there's another switch which opens the gate to the right; go through. Look into the cells; when you've checked the rightmost one Cycas will come through. Eventually he'll ask you whether you know of Nealertos; I hope you'll answer truthfully, although it doesn't seem to matter that much. In any case he'll be lost in thought again, so leave him to it and head back up to the lab. Kill the Fang Gel; go upstairs and fight the Shadow Dueller. He's nasty; his Magic Surge attack can really hurt, and he can sometimes heal as fast as you hit him; worse, you can't hurt him with magic. When you've killed him, follow Cycas. Go upstairs, and through the left-hand door into Heifer's room; examine the desk drawer to find his keys. Now you can explore a bit further: there's a letter to Cycas in the other room up here, Talia's, and you can put two of the Chemicaloids in the basement out of their misery and talk to the third. So do all that. When you return, Heifer will be dead. Talk to Cycas. Back in Shanoah, return to the Guild for your reward. You can go to the park, too, for a little scene with Hybard (I think this scenario was what triggered it). 2.9 LEFIA REUNION Talk to Meryl in the park and give the usual positive answer. Now leave Shanoah Town and select the option to, um, "Go to Shanoah Town". I mean the "??" option, not the "Town option". Try the gate. It won't open, so examine the wall, then try the stone instead. Meryl will arrive and open the gate for you; then she'll join your party. Head up the path and enter the mansion. Try the door to the right of the stairs. It's locked. You can use the Unlock skill to get through if you have it, otherwise there's a key: go through the door to the left of the stairs. There's a save point in here,and another door; use this one as well. Examine the sacks a few times until you find a key. Now you can just unlock that door. There's nothing much through there but a bathroom, but you're coming back. Take the stairs up when you've finished searching the ground floor. Examine the statue twice. Now, there are four doors here, each with another statue behind it. You need to examine them in the right order; which obviously you don't know. So head back downstairs and through the left-hand door. Check the bookshelves until you read a passage from one of the volumes; then go into the kitchen (where you found the key) and examine the large bin. Now examine the mess on the floor, and lift the floorboard to reveal a ladder. Do I have to tell you what to do next? Start checking the wine racks. When Meryl leaves, try to follow her. You'll be attacked by a pair of Hell Worms. Kill them, then leave. You'll find Meryl hors de combat on the sofa. Talk to her; you won't get any sense out of her, though. Examine her bottle four times. You can't find the vintage on the label, but you can see that the motif on it is the Earth spirit. Now talk to Meryl; again; she's slightly more coherent, enough so to be able to demand water. So go back to the bin she pulled over, and examine the bucket beside it; then round to the rooms on the other side of the stairs, and grab the silver bowl by the sink in the bathroom. Take it back round to that bucket, fill it, and offer it to Meryl. She'll tell you the vintage of her bottle. Why did you want to know it? Well, if you head back down into the cellar and examine the other bottles, you'll learn that the vintages are these: 984 Water 986 Fire 988 Fire 990 Wind 991 Water 993 Wind 995 Earth As you might guess, this is the order in which you need to examine the statues. To which you need to add Meryl's bottle (Earth spirit, and the year Meryl told you). So you can go back and examine the statues (from the left, they're Earth, Water, Wind, and finally Fire) in the order of the vintages. Then check the statue on the landing twice; it should sink into the ground, allowing you to pass. You may be wondering whether I could just have told you the order in the first place? Well, yes, I could, and you could have gone straight through. But you need the silver bowl to proceed, and you can't get it unless you go through the proper procedure. Besides, don't you agree that it's nice to know WHY such and such a combination is the answer to a puzzle? Anyway, go past that point. The passage is blocked. Examine the obstruction, then fill the bowl with water again and replace it where you first found it. When you return here the wall will be gone, so you can pass that point and take the stairs. Enter the room at the bottom. Head over to the right and talk to the girl. You can see a passage to the right of this room; there's a way through hidden directly below the girl's bed. Off this passage are two doors; open the upper one and enter. After Meryl leaves with Lefia, go back to the main room. Try the door at the top; you can't open it. Examine the pipes to the right of it. Now go back to where you left the bowl of water. Pick it up, go through to the room to the left, and check the sink in the top left. You'll be given the option to empty the bowl into it. Pick the bottom option, "no". Then check the sink again, and then put the bowl back on the switch and return to the door you couldn't open. Meryl will return and arrange matters. Go through it. Time to fight another Vampire - this one is #2 in the table. As you can see, it uses a LOT of magic; the advantage of that is that its more powerful spells will drain its MP fast, so if you can hang on for a while it'll lose the ability to heal. If you have trouble defeating it you might like to try ranged weapons, since that way you'll be able to keep your party separated, and its area spells won't hit everyone. Killing it will complete the scenario. >From now on you can talk to Lefia at the inn (you'll be able to choose between Chris and her). If you go there now and talk to her, you'll receive the Golden Heart, which you'll need if you want to complete the Sealed Cave/Sealed Labyrinth quest. 2.10 TEMPLE OF THE WIZARD Get this scenario at the Guild, and head for Mt. Molor. Enter the house. There's plenty to look at in here - the coat inside the wardrobe, the jewellery box on the table, and so on. The minimal path, however, is this: go through the door at the back, then through the middle door, and examine the picture on the wall; then round to the room on the right, and examine the alcove twice; then back to the front room, and take the goblet from the box by the stove; then put that in the alcove to open a tunnel into the depths of the mountain. This is a point of no return, so make sure you're kitted out and healed up before you go any further. When you're ready, enter the tunnel. Head to the left and kill the Shadow Dueller. Climb down the ladder to examine the sparkle. Now head north; you'll see a sparkle on a rock to the left, and you should be able to jump across and get it (this might require the Jump skill, though). Keep going, and enter the temple. Now keep heading north. You may see Vernon in a passage to your right, or you may be attacked by a number of Demi-Iriasters - I'm not sure what decides this. Anyway, you'll reach a save point - if you take the passageway to the right down you'll reach an orb which will restore your HP. You want this right-hand passageway anyway, but you want to enter it and go up, up the stairs. Head up and right, and Antoniana will appear and join your party. Now head back down past the HP orb and follow the passage round and up the other side. You'll eventually meet Vernon, and a couple of fights will ensue. When they're over, answer Antoniana's question as you wish, and head north again. When you regain control, head back south to the table with the knife on it and examine it twice to grab the knife. Take it back to Antoniana. Next you need to fetch Cycas (he's in bed in the room where you met Antoniana earlier). When that's done, head back to the save point. Now head north. When the path splits, if you take the left door, you'll reach an orb which'll restore your MP; when you've done that (if you need to), follow the right path. When you reenter the temple, what you need to do is take the middle passage and follow it round, then exit to the left, whereupon Antoniana will rejoin you. Head on in. You'll have to kill two Heat Gargs; that's no problem. The _problem_ is that Antoniana won't be helping you in your next battle, which begins in a few seconds - against Nealertos. This can be nasty if you're not careful. Devote one character to healing, and keep them away from him to spread the damage a bit. He's unpleasant, but not impossible; as usual he'll run out of MP before too long. In fact, when I fought him he didn't even heal, and so ended up being much easier than I'd expected to defeat. Pick up the book, talk to Antoniana, and leave the temple; then return to the Guild for your reward. 2.11 DUNGEON MODE Not precisely a scenario per se, you're supposed to visit the Sealed Cave and Sealed Labyrinth to level up and gather equipment between scenarios proper. However, there is another point to coming here, so it deserves a section in the walkthrough. In particular, you want to have done everything here before you begin "All Things". The seal at the door is initially non-functional. As you complete certain scenarios, the crystals will be restored, and after "Temple of the Wizard" it should be operational again, which will prevent you from entering the cave. You can only get in after that if you have the Golden Heart from Lefia, which will open the door. At this point, if you check the list of names by the save point, you'll notice that one has been added: Rokifel's. You can find a complete map of the dungeon in sections 2.11 and 2.12. Note that there's only one save point, which is right at the beginning, so don't go in over your head. As you level up, you'll stop meeting enemies in the lower levels, so trekking back here to save is more inconvenient than dangerous. There's one point in particular where my maps may prove difficult to follow. There are two paths between the third and fourth floors of the Labyrinth, and the fourth floor is divided into two areas which do not connect. What you need to to is to head to the fourth floor, follow the path to "Switch 2", and activate it. This opens the door to "Switch 1" on the third floor, so go and activate that; then return to "Switch 2" and turn it off again. Now you can pass through the other keyholeless door on the third floor and reach the other areas of the fourth floor, which will take you through to the deeper levels. Anyway, follow the maps until you reach the final room of the deepest level (marked '@' on the map). This is the throne room of Amugnon Castle, and King Daruk's corpse is still here. Examine it. If you have the Golden Heart, you'll "receive King Daruk's heart", and then you'll be teleported to the entrance, and the door will be locked again - permanently, so far as I can tell. Now, according to the game's script, it should be possible to fight Daruk Golem somewhere in this area - somehow - but I don't know how to trigger that event. If anyone does, please let me know. 2.12 ALL THINGS Make sure you've done everything else you want to, then talk to King Reynard. He'll give you your final quest. When you leave the castle the town will be mostly deserted; you can still change your party at the Lackdack, and you may still be able to use the arms shop (if you can, don't talk - Gregor will leave if you do). Head to the Holy Sophia Temple. Climb down the well under the cliff, and then go round and enter the temple. The final battle against King Daruk begins. He has two physical attacks: one will hit your whole party anywhere on the screen for a significant amount of damage. It's not actually that hard - if you're at a high level, spent lots of money on stat increases, have the best weapons and armour you can find, and are well supplied with potions and so on, that is. This battle is noticably easier if you've completed the Sealed Labyrinth and collected King Daruk's heart. According to Gray Brangwin, it decreases the number of offensive spells he casts, increases the probability that his attacks will miss completely, and possibly also decreases his defence. If you kill him, you win. There are three different endings: one if you lose the final battle, one if you win without killing Daruk Golem, and one if you win having killed Daruk Golem. The first of these is a short section of the last, but I guess it still counts. As for which is the "good" ending... nobody's quite sure. Watch them all and make up your own mind. =============================================================================== 3 GAMEPLAY =============================================================================== 3.1 CONTROLS Apart from the summary of field controls, this section deals with the game's battle system. Field: Directional pad - movement A - examine, talk, select B - cancel X - menu Battle: Directional pad - movement A - action B - cancel (when moving, return character to initial position) X - use magic Y - use item L+R - hide (escape from battle) 3.1.1 Movement: Your movement range depends on your AP (in turn based on your Agility). AP is displayed in a metre below your active character, and decreases as you move, but based on your distance from your initial position, rather than the number of steps you take. It must be full for you to escape, and you need a fair amount to remain if you want to use magic or items, and a little if you want to attack. 3.1.2 Attacking: When you press the 'action' button once, your character will freeze. Press A again to end your turn, or B to cancel the action. If you have a target selected when you end your turn, you'll attack it, otherwise you'll defend. If you're using a melee weapon, targets are assigned automatically as you move, and you can see before you freeze whether you're going to hit anything. If you're using a ranged weapon, however, this does not apply. Instead, targets are only assigned while you're in the attack pose. You can turn on the spot to face in any of the four directions while frozen without using up AP. If your target doesn't start flashing, you can unfreeze and adjust your position. Note that when you're aiming horizontally, you'll have to adjust your vertical position to hit enemies on higher or lower levels, but that shouldn't be a problem if you check your aim before firing. Also, you can only hit visible enemies, which can be a problem when shooting vertically. Sometimes it helps to open the 'items' screen, which centers the display on the character, before entering the targetting pose; sometimes there'll simply be no way to hit an enemy, which can be irritating. 3.1.3 Using magic and items: After pressing X or Y you'll be presented with a list of available magic or items. Select the one you want to use, and press X or Y again to confirm it. You'll then have to choose a target. There are five targetting modes. Items are (I think) always "single", but spells vary. Single: the "hand" cursor indicates the target. It'll switch between valid targets as you press the directional buttons. All: absolutely all targets are selected, even if they're not visible. Area: the rotating target cursor indicates the centre, and all targets within the area will flash. You can move the cursor freely to find the best area. Directional: an arrow at your feet indicates the direction of the spell; as with ranged weapons, you can choose any of the four directions, and you'll have to adjust your position to take the terrain into account. As always, your target(s) will flash. Random: just like it sounds, a target is chosen at random. Unlike attacking, you won't defend if you try to use a spell or an item without a target - it simply won't do anything, so you'll have to find a target or cancel. 3.2 STATISTICS Each character has a rating for seven essential attributes and two variable. The former, described more fully below, are rated from 1 to 25. Their values can be changed temporarily with magic, or permanantly by either donating money to the Temple or by levelling up. Stat changes on levelling up are determined by a character's job, and in some cases a stat may fall. The latter are HP and MP, representing (as usual) the character's health and magical power; the absolute maximum value for each is 9999. Both can be recovered with items, by making a tiny donation at the Temple, or by staying at the Inn; HP can also be recovered by resting on save points or with the Restore Lute skill. The maximum values for each will increase on levelling up, or on donating a large sum to the Temple, by an amount determined by the character's job. A word needs to be said about these job-related changes. The amount in each case is NOT absolute: there's a fair random element involved. If you save before levelling up, you can reload and try again if the results aren't to your satisfaction. Note that the random seed is only changed when you change screens (for this purpose, the whole town counts as a single screen), so this takes patience. It's a lot more bearable if you use save states on an emulator. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Accuracy: "Raises weapon hit rate in battle." When your accuracy is low, you'll often only do 1 damage even on enemies with low dexterity. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Dexterity: "Ability to evade enemy attacks" Likewise: the higher your dexterity, the greater the chance that even accurate enemies will barely scratch you. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Intelligence: "Raises magic power and evasion" Note the latter: even non-magic users will benefit from greater intelligence. Besides, frankly, you'll probably want all your characters to be able to use healing magic. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Skill: "Ability essential for opening things like locked doors" This directly affects the speed at which the numbers change. You only need it high on one character, whom you should put in the lead when you want to pick a lock. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Agility: "Determines movement range and AP in battle" This is very useful (it lets you get the first hit in with melee weapons), and essential if you want to equip heavy armour and still be able to move. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Vitality: "Determines time taken to recover status and physical strength" I think this affects how long status ailments last, and how much HP is restored when you rest at a save point or use Restore Lute. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Luck: "Depending on this value, good things may happen..." I've no idea what this does. It might affect your chances of scoring a critical hit, or of finding treasure. It also seems to be necessary for some of the better jobs... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3.3 ABILITIES KEY: * indicates that only one character needs to learn the skill. # is the same, but the character must also be in the lead position to use it. M indicates that a skill is used through the menu: select the "skills" tab of the character submenu of the "status" tab, then select the required skill to use it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Critical "Hit rate up" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cross Attack "Sword skill knowledge level 2" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Discount # "Sometimes buy items at discounted prices." You can do this anyway, but the skill may make it easier. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dispel *M "Release items from ancient curses." I have yet to find a cursed item... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hit & Way "Attack and simultaneously evade." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Judgement *M "Identify unidentified items." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jump #? "You can jump over things to a certain extent." Another dubious skill. I haven't found a use for it. For example, it DOESN'T allow you to jump over the branch in Toras Forest - you can't jump over it in "Death-Creature" even with the skill, and you can jump over it in "The Search" even without the skill. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Magic Barrier "Protects against magic damage." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mental Barrier "Protects against magic status attacks." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Overpower "Attacks sometimes thrust enemies away." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restore Lute *M "Play music that restores HP in the middle of dungeons." I have a feeling this doesn't work outside the Sealed Cave/Labyrinth, but I haven't tested this thoroughly. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Scroll "Memorise spells in order to use magic." Required to buy, research, or use magic. This is probably a priority. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Shoot "Hitting the enemy with a projectile weapon becomes easier." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Slash! "Certain kill sword skill" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Swimming * "You can cross over streams, lakes, etc." I don't know of any places where this skill is useful. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Swordmaster "Sword skill knowledge level 1" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Trick Guard "Ability to ward off enemy attacks skillfully." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Unlock # "Investigate the shape of the key that opens a door's lock." Essential in the Sealed Cave/Labyrinth - unless you're following my map. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I don't yet understand how you learn abilities. They're learnt when you level up, but rather than being attached to your level they seem to be learnt according to the number of enemies a character has killed. There also seems to be a random element. The remarks about random elements in the section above on stat changes probably also apply here. There are values in the ROM which seem to be related to the learning of abilities. More investigation is needed to work out precisely what they mean, though! Here are a few examples: Traveller: [Scroll] 6 Hunter: [Shoot] 7 [Jump] 8 Thief: [Hit&Way] 6 Guardian: [Shoot] 7 [Swordmaster] 5 Poet: [Scroll] 7 [Restore Lute] 6 It looks as though, for example, a Traveller will learn 'Scroll' sooner than a Poet. 3.4 THE TOWN -- Pub (Lackadack Pub) This is where you change your party. This facility is unavailable during some scenarios. The process is self-evident: one icon lets you remove members, the other lets you add them. Note that you don't have a fixed 'player character' in this game. You can take any combination of the characters you create, which need not include your initial character. -- Arms (Gregor's Armoury) -- Shop (Seriss' Item Shop) The only difference between these two is the range of goods on sale. You can buy, sell, or identify items which fall into their range - the armoury obviously deals with weapons and armour, while the item shop sells the various medicines (and cloth-based armour). An interesting feature is the ability to haggle when buying. If you refuse the list price, you may be offered the item at a slight discount. Repeat for even lower prices. If you take it too far they'll stop offering the item and you'll have to start again from the list price. The likelihood of a discount being offered is probably increased by the Discount ability. Finally, you'll note that their ranges are pretty limited at the start of the game. You can build them up, though: if you sell them something they don't have in stock, it'll be added to the list. Note that you can only do this with certain items; in general, the more exotic an item, the less likely it is to be duplicable. In such cases you can still buy them back if you sell them, but the entry will then be removed from the list. -- Park (Centoria Park) Read the town noticeboard, or chat with anyone who happens to be around. A good place to keep up-to-date on the plot. Also, if you come here when you have less than 5 gold, you can find 5 gold by selecting the "talk" function - useful if your party was wiped out and you can't afford to heal at the inn. Unfortunately it seems that doing this causes your Luck to decrease by one point each time, which is a Bad Thing. -- M.Guild (Rosasor Magic Guild) As you might guess, this is where you learn magic. Don't bother coming here until at least one of your characters knows the 'Scroll' ability. When that's done, you have two options: you can research spells (see 3.5) or buy them. -- Inn (Chris' Inn) Back in the realm of convention, you can rest or save your game here. Actually you can save your game anywhere in Shanoah just by going to the main menu, so that feature is rather redundant, isn't it? Note that resting here won't heal status ailments - for that, you'll have to go to the temple. Also, you'll wake up here whenever your party is annihilated. The game seems to pretend in such cases that you were just "having a bad dream"... -- Castle (Reynard Castle) You'll find King Reynard here, a good source of background info to the plot. A king you can just walk in from the streets and chat with - now there's a good example for that nice Windsor lady, eh? -- Temple (Saviour Temple) Even the atheists among you will quickly grow to love this place. The first option in here will remove status ailments - and it doesn't cost a penny! The second option allows you to make a donation; it's expensive, but well worth the money: 10 gold: restore HP and MP (the inn is cheaper) 40 gold: raise your characters' Luck 70 gold: raise several stats for each character 80 gold: increase your characters' max HP 80 gold: increase your characters' max MP -- Guild (Tax Guild) This is where you go to change jobs. If you don't read kanji, you might be able to guess which job is which by comparing the salary displayed with table 4.5 below (which is in the same order as the list in the game). 3.5 RESEARCHING SPELLS When you have the "Scroll" ability, go to the Magic Guild and select the first option. This is the centre of the game's magic system; unless you master research, you're stuck with the basic four spells, and you'll have to pay a fortune for them. (For example, if you buy Wind Cutter, it'll set you back 160 gold. If you research it, it costs just 12 gold, and the buying price will drop to 112!) You're presented with a grid of 18 stones (initially 15 - see below), and you can create a formula of up to five glyphs (you can use the same one more than once). When you've done so, select "OK", and Kofu will research the spell which they represent. Here, for reference, is the grid: Glyph name ¦ Price, glyph class ------------------------------------------------------+------------------------ Earth Water Fire Wind ¦ 2: genso (elemental) Liquifaction Vaporisation Solidification Division ¦ 4: jôtai (phase change) Sword Armour Shield Feather ¦ 6: baitai (medium) Horn Blood Bone Flesh ¦ 6: baitai Thunder Heaven ¦10: kaosu (chaos) The fee for the research is based on the glyphs you use. It's done by the row they appear in (see numbers). Just add up the values for each glyph. Of course, you can just try it, and he'll tell you what the price will be, but I thought you might like to know how it works... I mentioned above that there are initially only 15 stones to choose from. The other three are missing, but if you find them and bring them back to the guild Kofu will put them in the grid. Here's where to find them. Medium: Shield - Masaki Head (during "Ed and Karon") Chaos: Thunder - Toras Forest (during "Death-Creature" only) Chaos: Heaven - Sealed Cave (see 5.1 2F, note) There's one other thing. You're probably thinking, "Great! But what formulae do I use?" That's where the spell list (4.6) becomes rather useful. Thanks to the complete decipherment of the "strange poems", plus a considerable amount of trial and error (mostly by others), the formulae for all but three spells are now known. You too can be a deadly warrior-mage... for a price, of course. =============================================================================== 4 TABLES =============================================================================== These data were in most cases simply extracted from the ROM, rather than pieced together through observation. In other words, where they're right, they're absolutely right; if I've misidentified the ROM data, however, they could be completely wrong. See below for exceptions. 4.1 MONSTERS 'Spoils' are items received upon searching an enemy's corpse. In most (all?) cases you can only do this if you defeated the enemy in Dungeon Mode, and it's random whether you receive the spoils or not. The 'status' data is only quoted where I'm sure of it. The data is, of course, in the ROM, but there are a lot of values for the relevant byte which seem unconnected. I'll figure it out when I have time, but until then bear in mind that a blank space doesn't necessarily mean that an enemy _won't_ poison you or whatever. The 'Notes' column is even worse. Basically it contains bits of information derived from observation, which I'm trying to identify in the ROM. Currently among other things it includes the spells I've seen a monster cast, the elements it's immune to, and the type of attack it uses. None of this is complete or consistent, and neither the presence or absence of a note on any subject should be read as a definite statement of fact. They're only in the FAQ because it's more convenient for me than a separate file would be. Neither the status data nor the various notes are priorities for me, since they have no relevance to the translation project and aren't likely to be of the slightest interest to most readers of this FAQ. The likelihood of my ever bothering to decode the monster table completely is fairly slim. No value for experience is given. This is because exp seems to be an attribute of groups of monsters, not of the monsters themselves. For example, I think a group of five Slimes gives you 100 exp and one of three Oak Jellies gives you 90 exp. Based on that, you might think that one of four Slimes and one Oak Jelly would give you 110 exp (do the maths!) - but if my memory is to be trusted it actually gives you 200. NAME HP MP SPOILS STATUS NOTES ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Acid Gel 88 -- Black Head 90 Antidote Black Widow 64 Potion Numb Bloodpicker 110 Antidote Poison Bloodsucker 120 Panacea Numb Blue Murder 206 100 Potion Cave Bat 18 -- Centipede 70 Antidote Chemicaloid 158 -- Cult Murder 106 Potion Dark Matter 60 -- Numb Daruk Golem 666 500 Destroyer Demi-Iriaster 160 200 Silk Robe Uses EH/HL/FA/Pr Desperado 170 48 Bone Ring Eleanor Zombie 90 130 -- Uses EH/WS Fang Gel 137 Antidote Gargbat 108 Potion Numb Immune: K? Grassjack 40 Antidote Poison Heat Garg 118 100 Antidote Numb Uses FSt Hell Bandit 120 (Gold) Immune: T Hellworm 110 -- Iron Golem 380 120 Red Crystal Killer Crow 95 -- Killer Tusk 232 (Gold) King Daruk 999 999 -- Lasciate ogni speranza. Knight Idol 165 Blue Crystal Living Armour 258 186 Red Crystal Mad Dog 155 Potion Magifox 188 280 Blue Crystal Manhunter 190 40 (Gold) Manhunter 2 280 60 (Gold) Master Ninja 200 290 Murasame Bl. Mi-Yaagi 200 186 -- Mouse Eater 25 -- Nealertos 444 444 Ashura Uses Pr; ranged Ninja 190 230 Hinomoto Bl. Oak Jelly 20 -- Poison Poison Corpse 111 Blue Crystal Poison Immune: M/K/T. Shadow Dueller 185 230 Crystal Ring ImnA;EH/BR/WS/(IF/FF);Rng. Slime 14 -- Stone Golem 250 Blue Crystal Toras Viper 20 -- Undead Knight 210 Panacea Undead Wolf 70 Antidote Poison Vampire (1) 210 150 Talisman Uses EH/BR Vampire (2) 275 200 Talisman Uses EH/BR/FB/FA/WS/Pr Werewolf 160 -- Numb Waterworm 85 Potion Zombie 70 (Gold) Poison 4.2 WEAPONS The list is sorted by type first, then attack power. There are few enough that the loss of alphabetical order should cause little inconvenience. NAME PRICE ATK TYPE ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Dagger 8 6 Knife Silver Dagger 20 6 Knife Holy Knife 14 8 Knife Short Sword 24 10 Short Sword Short Sword + 34 12 Short Sword Damascus Sword 50 18 Short Sword Ashura 666 39 Short Sword *1 Long Sword 40 16 Sword Long Sword + 56 22 Sword Bastard Sword 62 24 Sword Great Sword 84 26 Sword Moon Blade 55 16 Katana Hinomoto Blade 70 24 Katana *2 Murasame Blade 120 30 Katana *3 Hand Axe 20 6 Axe Battle Axe 44 12 Axe Great Axe 68 18 Axe Destroyer 999 36 Axe Slingshot 15 4 Bow Small Bow 20 8 Bow Longbow 40 12 Bow Crossbow 68 16 Bow Arbalest 105 23 Bow *4 Light Mace 40 10 Mace Heavy Mace 46 12 Mace Flail 60 16 Mace Warhammer 90 16 Mace Morningstar 58 18 Mace Ebony Staff 10 4 Staff Bone Staff 30 6 Staff Chrome Staff 34 8 Staff Iron Staff 26 10 Staff 1: In Bhuddist mythology, 'ashura' (Skt. 'asura') signifies the fourth 'path of being', above animals but below humans - the "warlike demons". The translation of the name should explain why it is given to weapons. 2: 'Hi no moto' (origin of the sun) is one of the Japanese names for Japan. 3: 'Murasame' is the name of a famous swordsmith. See the relevant question in section 6 for the legend - it's too long to go in a note. 4: An arbalest was a large mechanical bow used in medieval sieges (in Europe). 4.3 ARMOUR NAME PRICE DEF WEIGHT TYPE ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Leather Suit 8 1 0 Under-armour Chain Suit 14 2 0 Under-armour Cotton Robe 6 1 0 Armour Silk Robe 20 2 0 Armour *1 Leather Armour 30 2 0 Armour Ringmail 38 3 1 Armour Scale Mail 50 4 1 Armour Chainmail 58 5 2 Armour Brigandi 72 6 2 Plate Breast Mail 80 7 2 Plate Plate Mail 96 8 3 Plate Hinomoto Plate 105 9 3 Plate *2 Silver Plate 120 8 3 Plate Knight's Mail 110 10 2 Plate Silver Robe 100 6 0 Armour Black Mail 95 11 4 Plate Leather Shield 16 1 0 Shield Buckler 30 2 0 Shield Small Shield 50 3 1 Shield Large Shield 70 4 1 Shield Tower Shield 85 6 2 Shield+ Knight's Shield 94 7 2 Shield+ Veil Shield 100 8 3 Shield+ *3 1: This is obviously a better buy than Leather Armour. That's why checking the shop as well as the armoury is a good idea! 2: See 4.2 note 2. I imagine this is that distinctive 'samurai armour'. 3: "Makes the bearer invisible". Sounds nice, ne? 4.4 ITEMS NAME PRICE TYPE ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Potion 8 Medicine Antidote 8 Medicine Panacea 15 Medicine Revival 70 Medicine Tranquiliser 20 Medicine Blue Crystal 10 Gem Red Crystal 20 Gem Ebony Ring 22 Accessory Bone Ring 30 Accessory Silver Ring 80 Accessory Crystal Ring 96 Accessory Talisman 34 Accessory Rabbit Leg 40 Accessory Aqua Stone 20 Accessory Golden Heart 10 Accessory Teardrop -- Accessory M-stone -- Special (see the "Magic Guild" entry of 3.4) 4.5 JOBS Only certain jobs are available for any character at a given time. The availability is probably based on a character's stats, and there may well be a random element - I haven't investigated. I also can't tell you when each ability is learnt, which stats change on level up, or what equipment each job allows, because I haven't identified these data. On this last point, it's largely common sense - obviously a warrior is going to be able to wear heavier armour than a clerk. NOTE: abilities are listed in numerical order (as given in the ROM), not in the order in which they're learnt. '?' in the Income column indicates a random element. The value of this is (obviously) random, but apparently it's tied to your character's level - your earnings increase as you level up. Gray Brangwin reports earning 350 gold as a thief at around level 20. I dread to think what they earn at level 99... but the word is probably "sugoi!" JOB TITLE INCOME ABILITIES LEARNT ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Traveller 0 Scroll Hunter 11+? Shoot, Jump Thief ?+? Hit & Way Farmer 20 -- Merchant 15+? Judgement, Discount Fisherman 11+? Swimming Craftsman 22 Unlock Guardian 20 Shoot, Swordmaster Poet 20 Scroll, Restore Lute Clown 19 Scroll, Discount Monk 32 Scroll, Dispel Cleric 26 Dispel, Restore Lute Scholar 28 Scroll, Judgement Magician 28 Trick Guard Official 34 Judgement, Mental Barrier Soldier 35 Swordmaster Warrior 38 Swordmaster, Hit & Way Bishop 45 Magic Barrier, Restore Lute Sorceror 43 Magic Barrier Knight 45 Cross Attack Samurai 43 Scroll, Trick Guard Ninja 46 Critical High priest 48 Mental Barrier Sage 53 Mental Barrier, Slash! Ruler 100 Critical, Overpower Wizard 60 Magic Barrier, Overpower Crusader 77 Critical, Slash! 4.6 MAGIC "Cost" is the cost to research a spell. After researching it, it can usually be purchased for "cost" plus 100 gold; see "buy:" notes for the exceptions. "Type" gives the targetting type for a spell, in the format target-type: TARGETS - "e" enemies, "f" friends, "a" anything in range. TYPES - "s" single, "d" directional, "r" area, "!" random, "a" all. Name Type MP Formula Cost ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Acid Rain e-r 20 water divide armour 12 Air Shield f-s 16 flesh armour wind 14 Black Rain e-a 14 Cure Poison f-s 7 flesh divide water 12 (buy: 100) Earth Heal f-s 8 bone divide earth 12 (buy: 100) Errth Heal a-s 6 earth divide bone # 12 [notes 1, 2] OR bone divide fire * 12 Fireball e-d 10 fire solidify feather 12 (buy: 160>112) Flame Arrow e-d 14 fire solidify bone 12 Flame Fang e-d 25 fire wind solidify sword 14 Flame Sword f-s 27 sword divide fire * 12 Flare Storm e-r 30 fire wind fire vaporise flesh 16 Heat Lava e-r 44 earth fire earth liquify horn 16 Heaven Breeze a-s 30 heaven * 10 Icefall e-r 45 water earth water solidify blood 16 Landquake e-a 56 earth earth water divide shield 16 Mad Spider e-r 14 earth fire divide horn 14 Physical Rain f-a 30 bone liquify water earth 16 Phisical Rain a-a 25 blood liquify water # 12 [note 3] Plasma Bomb e-r 46 wind fire wind vaporise sword 16 Plasma Bomb? a-r 32 earth wind earth wind earth * 10 Prominence e-r 58 fire fire water liquify horn 16 Prominence? a-r 50 fire fire fire fire fire * 10 Sandstorm e-s 58 Sandstorm? a-! 50 Sleep Mist e-r 28 water earth vaporise blood 14 Sleep Mist? a-r 20 water liquify blood # 12 Stone Squall e-r 36 earth water solidify sword 14 Thunderbolt e-s 50 water wind earth divide shield 16 OR thunder * 10 Wind Cutter e-d 10 wind solidify feather 12 (buy: 160>112) Wolfstorm e-r 32 wind earth wind vaporise flesh 16 *: formulae provided by Gray Brangwin #: formulae taken from Okada's list 1: Jap. "Mars Heal" (in katakana "ma-su" [Mars] resembles "a-su" [Earth]). 2: This spell may either hurt or heal its target. 3: Jap. "Phasical Rain" (in katakana, "fa" slightly resembles "fi"). In some cases, there may be more than one formula for a spell. The result is the same whichever you choose. The only case in which this makes much difference is with Thunderbolt, where one formula is somewhat cheaper, and the other requires a magic stone which can't be acquired by emulator users without a fair bit of hacking. (N.B. There are also duplicates of Cure Poison and Earth Heal in the ROM with different MP costs (12 and 2 respectively), which don't seem to be accessible to the player. Either they're used by monsters, or they're "ghost" entries; I don't know which.) =============================================================================== 5 MAPS =============================================================================== Hurray for ASCII art! Make sure you're using a fixed-width font. 5.1 SEALED CAVE Key: O = Save point T = Treasure chest Numbers indicate floor changes. Lower case letters indicate locks; codes are given in the left margin. 1F: _2_ | | | O | | | ¯|¯ V To Shanoah 2F: ___ ___ ___ _3_ / \ / \_/ \ / \ | T* | _ | | \ / \ / \ / \ / / \_/ \ / \_/ \ (code: 15) | a | _ | \ /¯\___/ \ / \ / / \ / \_/ \ / \ | | _ | | (code: 73) \_b_/ \ / \___/ \ / / \ / \ / \_/ \ (code: 26) | T | | T c | \___/ \_ _/ \___/¯\___/ 1 * It's quite likely the chest in here will be empty, but you'll see a blue sparkle when you open it. Check that area for the Chaos Magic Stone 'Heaven'. 3F: ___ ___ ___ ___ / \ / \ / \_/ \ | T | T | _ | (codes: 695, 151) \_a_/ \_b_/ \ / \___/ / \_/ \ / \_/ \ (code: 68) | _ | c | (code: 13) \_d_/ \ / \ /¯\ / / \ / \_/ \ / \ | | _ | | \ / \___/ \___/ \ / / \_/ \ / \_/ \ (code: 27) | _ | T e | \___/ \_ _/ \___/¯\_ _/ 4 2 4F: ___ ___ ___ _3_ / \ / \_/ \ / \ | T | _ | | \ / \ / \ / \ / / \_/ \ / \_/ \ | a | _ | (code: 328) \ /¯\ / \_b_/ \___/ / \ / \ / \_/ \ | | | _ | (code: 648) \_c_/ \ / \___/ \ / / \_/ \ / \_/ \ (codes: 445, 212) | d T | T e | \_ _/¯\___/ \___/¯\___/ | V to Sealed Labyrinth 1F 5.2 SEALED LABYRINTH The Sealed Cave is pretty straightforward: just follow the map. The Labyrinth, as a brief glance at the maps below will show, is far more complex. I'm afraid the maps aren't very easy to read - limitations of ASCII - so I might be persuaded to do graphical versions, or even a Sealed Labyrinth walkthrough, if people have trouble following them. It should however be possible to complete the Labyrinth with just these maps. It's certainly possible to complete it without them! Key as for Sealed Cave, plus: B: 'breeze' message (indicates a hidden passage) K: a chest containing a scenario item. See right margin for details. L: a special door. See right margin for how to open it. P: plate (inscribed with a 'strange poem') S#: a switch. @: see section 2.11 for details... to Sealed Cave 4F 1F: ___ _2_ _^_ ___ | | | | | Code: 4916 | a P | P | T | Codes: 2123, 32 |_b_|___|_ _|_c_| | | | | | Code: 127 | T d | | | Codes: 743, 21, 80, 124 |_e_|_f_|_g_|_h_| | | | | | Code: 128 | i | | Code: 16, 631 |___|_j_|___|_k_| | | | | | Code: 11 | T l | |___|___|___|___| 2F: ___ ___ ___ ___ | | | | | Codes: 131, 3217 | a b | Codes: 1172, 4210 |_c_|___|___|_d_| | | | | | Code: 5963 | T | e T | | Code: 6638 |_ _|_f_|___|_ _| | | | | | | B T | T B | Codes: 3872, 262 |_g_|___|___|_h_| | | | | | Codes: 5524, 1219 | P i j | P | |___|___|_ _|_ _| 3 1 3F: _2_ ___ ___ ___ | | | |S1 | Code: 8426 | | a | | Codes: 2615, 291, 6667 |_b_|_c_|_d_|_L_| S2 on | | | | | Codes: 189, 538, 121 | e f T g | Codes: 140, 5517 |___|_h_|___|_i_| | | | | | Code: 26 | j | B | Codes: 8427, 8386, 6345 |_k_|___|_l_|_m_| | | | | | | T | L | | S1 on, S2 off |___|_ _|___|_ _| 4 4 | | 4F: ___ _3_ ___ _3_ | | | | | Codes: 8426, 3623 | a | b | Codes: 2413, 811 |_c_|_ _|_d_|___| | | | |S2 | Code: 32 | | e | | Codes: 9678, 9999 |_ _|_f_|___|_g_| | | | | | Codes: 1251, 20 | | T h i T | Code: 8427 |_j_|___|___|___| | | | | | Codes: 9294, 990 | k m | |___|___|___|_ _| 5 5F ___ ___ _4_ ___ | | | | K | Ebony Key | | | | Codes: 6610, 787, 5020 |_L_|_a_|_b_|_c_| Requires Ebony Key | | | | | 6 T | | | | Codes: 2135, 2234 |___|_d_|_ _|_e_| | | | | | Codes: 9859, 3496 | f T | g | |_ _|___|___|_ _| | | | | | Codes: 1849, 1671 | h i T | |___|___|___|___| 6F ___ ___ ___ ___ | @ | K | | K | Silver Key, Dark Key Code: 2204 | | a T | | Codes: 1124, 5813 |_L_|_b_|_c_|_L_| Require Dark, Crystal Keys | | | | | Code: 632 | | L d | Requires Bronze Key Codes: 5665, 9785, 7438 |_e_|_f_|_g_|___| | | | | K | Bronze Key Code: 9821 | L L h | Require Gold, Crystal Keys Codes: 7216, 4311 |_L_|_i_|_j_|___| Requires Silver Key | | | | | Code: 8878 | | | k 5 | K | K | | | Crystal Key, Gold Key ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ =============================================================================== 6 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS =============================================================================== -- What's the 'gomi' (rubbish bin) for in the items menu? You can only carry 22 pages of items - that's 132 items in total, not including anything that's equipped. 132 sounds a lot, but bear in mind that each item uses a space of its own - in a Final Fantasy you can carry 198 items just by stocking up on potions and antidotes! The bin is simply the way you discard unwanted items. The difference here is that the bin can hold 8 items, which can then be restored or destroyed. So you can actually carry 140 items around with you, if you really need to. -- Are those battle messages really necessary? The battle system often strikes new players as clumsy and choppy, because the flow of combat is constantly being broken by messages which rarely contain any information not immediately visible from the graphics. Fortunately you can turn them off: push the second button on the configuration menu (the bottom tab of the main menu). I imagine many will agree that this is an improvement. -- What's that 'Turbo-file' option? The Turbo-file was an external storage unit for the Super Famicom made by ASCII, who are of course also responsible for Dark Law. A number of games support it, notably other ASCII titles, although apparently Bahamut Lagoon as well. It appears still to be available - it's listed on the ASCII site at 2000 yen for a Turbo-File II. The description of this item claims it's a Playstation controller, but I'm pretty sure that's a mistake on their part. -- Is Dark Law the sequel to Dark Lord? Dark Lord (Famicom, Data East: 1991) does indeed bear a strong resemblance to this game. It has a similar structure (free character creation, scenarios), a similar magic system, and - the real clincher - a battle system that is obviously a slightly more primitive version of the one we have here. Is this an actual sequel? I really don't know, mainly because I haven't bothered to play far enough into Dark Lord to get a feel for the plot. However, here's a (very) rough translation of the Dark Lord intro: as you can see, the basic premise seems pretty similar. "In the distant past, a pair of gods were fighting for control of the world... At this time the world was still a place of chaos and turmoil... The god of light, Alpharse, governed all of nature and humanity. The lord of darkness, Ragmaila, led the Demi-Humans and the powers of evil. The long war between the armies of the gods continued without pause... But at length the time came for the end of the fighting... Alpharse gathered his remaining power and confined Ragmaila and the Demi-Humans in defeat... By sealing their spirits in water, the world was preserved... So time passed, with people living in freedom and peace. ...that world was Alph Land. And now... the door has opened!" -- How is Dark Law related to other games? Firstly - it has nothing whatsoever to do with Dark Half (SFC, Enix: 1996). There are a number of striking similarities between Dark Law and an earlier title called Wizap! (SFC, ASCII: 1994). I haven't played it in any depth, so I can't comment much, but I can say that, for example, they both have similar job systems, use the same symbols for the magic elements, and both start off with the hero alone in a mysterious forest on a clifftop from which the only way down is a near-fatal fall. They even use the same font. One (Japanese) review of Dark Law I've read describes it as the "successor" to Wizap!, but I'm not sure whether that means it's actually a sequel, or just uses a similar engine (like the Final Fantasy series). Update: I still have no idea, but there seems to be some degree of character crossover. McStarr (or Maxter, if you prefer) appears in both games. -- Tell me about Murasame. I know this is slightly off topic, but Murasame blades are among the weapons that crop up in an awful lot of RPGs, and people really should know the legends behind these things. His rebus dictis, I'll hand over to Gray Brangwin: "Muramasa and Murasame were both famous swordsmiths who forged blades unparalleled in quality, and virtually indistinguishable from each other, except in one important aspect; in that, whereas blades forged by Muramasa embodied the true samurai spirit and brought tranquility and peace, the blades forged by Murasame were cursed and attracted war to themselves. It was said that if you were to drop a leaf in a stream and then place a blade forged by either in the way of the leaf, the leaf would always veer away from a Muramasa blade, and inevitably be pulled towards and cut in two by a Murasame blade." See, you wanted to know really. -- I'm using an emulator... (See "Copyright information" above for a disclaimer concerning this section.) If you're playing the game on an emulator, there are several things to beware of. Most obviously, you may want to avoid the scenario "Ed and Karon", or at least to abort it when you reach the end of the walkthrough of that section, or your game will freeze. Which emulator to choose is a harder question. Obviously for most platforms Snes9x is your only option; it should be fine. Under DOS or Windows, ZSnes and Snes9x both do a pretty good job, while the other emulators probably won't handle it too well. Neither of these is perfect, however: ZSnes can't manage some of the spell effects, while Snes9x doesn't display the nice shading on the menus. I've been told that there's a problem which can arise if you use both save states and the game's own saving system, which can cause you to lose saved progress. I haven't duplicated the problem myself, but you'd better be careful just in case. It might be a good idea to make sure you use the latest version of your chosen emulator, though. -- How can you write an entire Dark Law FAQ without mentioning the melons? I'd hoped to avoid it. You can have too much of a good thing. I've written about the melons in the FAQ section of Hæleþes áwendende, so look there if you really want to know. -- What IS the meaning of death? "The act or fact of dying; the final cessation of the vital functions of an animal or plant. Often personified." (SOED sv. "death", sense 1) If you meant in the metaphysical sense, well, I'm hardly qualified to comment; I'm a medievalist, not a theologian. Ask a minister of the religion of your choice (I'm including humanism and atheism in that). Most of them seem to agree that it's a wonderful opportunity, whether to catch up with your old friends, to have another go at life, or to have some peace and quiet for once. Unless you've been naughty, in which case things can get quite exciting... Er, you meant in the context of this game's subtitle? Erm... I'm not quite sure. But it's definitely a _good_ subtitle, isn't it? Catchy. Profound. Meaningful. I think. -- What does that Latin sentence below mean? A reasonable translation would be "Here ends the FAQ" (lit. "list of questions which frequently are asked.") Please don't criticise my grammar, I'm not a classicist... =============================================================================== explicit tabula rogatorum quae crebro quaeruntur ===============================================================================