Sengoku 3 FAQ v1.2
by CT Chua
About Sengoku 3 (Sengoku Denshou 2001 in Japan)
Sengoku 3 is a cooperative scrolling fighter, or beat-em-up, developed by
Noise Factory, a subsidiary of SNK after it went bankrupt.
Guidelines to using this FAQ:
This document protected by US Copyright Law, and the Berne Copyright Convention
of 1976. It is for your personal and private use only. You may not, without
prior written permission by me, CT Chua, the author of this FAQ, to reprint,
or reproduced in any form, in part or in whole. This is a free document that
cannot be used in any form of real-life monetary trade or transaction.
This file is hosted solely on GameFAQs (
http://www.gamefaqs.com).
"Sengoku 3", as well as its characters, is copyrighted to (c) SNK Playmore.
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[001] Contents
To make it easier to get to the section you want to, use the Ctrl+F search
function of your computer and search for one of the numbers [00#] listed below
[001]: Contents
[001a]: YouTube video links
[001b]: Version history
[002]: Technical terms
[003]: Normal attacks
[003a] - Standing attacks
[003b] - Running attacks
[003c] - Airborne attacks
[003d] - Strategies for utilising normal attacks
[003e] - Air combos
[003f] - Advanced strategies
[003g] - Topping the scoreboard
[004]: Thrown weapons
[005]: Characters and special moves
[005a] - Kagetsura
[005b] - Falcon
[005c] - Kurenai
[005d] - Kongoh
[005e] - Okuni
[005f] - Byakki
[006]: Enemies
[006a] - Common strategies
[006b] - Enemy-specific strategies
[007]: Walkthrough
[007a] - China
[007b] - Italy
[007c] - Japan
[007d] - Brazil
[007e] - France
[007f] - Kyoto
[008]: Contacts and special thanks
[001a]: YouTube video links
Most of you probably don't know, but I have put up a few videos demonstrating
Some of the things I wrote in this guide. The videos are posted by CLsto.
Notice that it is quite similar to my username here "Corlist". I may do more
videos regarding techniques and boss fights in the near future.
The plate trap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isf2lws6Idg
The phoenix boss bomb exploit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccRgxJqiNo0
The last boss Byakki "technique":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwu3LfVXC04
The entire Japan stage (very low quality & no sound):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0hpPQ8oFCE
So far, there hasn't been any bad comments about the videos, so I'm happy.
Even if there is, I'll assume you're a troll and ensure that your comment
vanishes as quickly as possbile.
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[001b]: Version history
Seriously, who'd be interested in a long list of changes that doesn't really
affect the FAQ at all? But for the record, in this version of the faq that
you're supposedly reading I wanted my FAQ to be free from errors regarding
alignment, spelling and overall grammar which might imply unprofessionalism or
not giving a damn.
I fixed the alignment after using WordPad instead of Notepad (boo!) and also
removed or fixed several Captain Obvious statements or other sentences that
just sound weird or awkward.
Don't learn it the hard way, use WordPad. Why? Look at the following lists.
WordPad
+ Line breaks, spaces and tabs are shown exactly as it is in the browser.
+ Infinite undos and redos. (as much as your RAM allows)
+ Wrap-to-window makes typing in 80 character widths like a dream.
- Takes somewhat more processing resources.
Notepad
- Line breaks, spaces and tabs love to mess up when displayed in the browser.
Hunting them down is also a nightmare.
- Only ONE, pathetic ONE undo or ONE redo.
- Typing in 80 character widths is a pain - you need to scroll up and down
constantly.
+ Lightweight and fast.
===============================================================================
[002] Technical terms:
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First A, Second A, Last A
First B, Second B, Last B
They refer to particular attacks in the game's combo system. All ground combos
must flow from a weaker attack to a stronger attack. It is somewhat similar to
magic series in the Marvel's versus series.
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Special
Specials, basically are moves that use up power from your power gauge. They
can either be used to escape by disrupt enemy combos, or as a powerful
finishing move to your own combos. Specials are either the Down, Down + A or
Down, Down + B specials. There are also throw specials which can only be
performed in the exact same situation as normal throws. DMs, or full-screen
attacks, are also considered specials. The A+B+C defensive recovery is also
considered a special, as its properties and usage are very similar.
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Invincibility
When something is in this state, it cannot be hit or grabbed. There are many
ways you can attain invincibility. Standing up when knocked down, performing
specials or defensive escapes, to name a few. Enemies can achieve this by
doing a defensive recovery, defensive escape, going into a freefall state or
simply just by lying on the floor. You character will be invincible for a very
brief moment when he or she successfully hits an enemy with a normal attack.
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Grab & Throw
A grab is performed automatically when your character walks towards an enemy
which is not invincible. You can grab almost any enemy in the game, except the
phoenix, the "Evil Door" boss and the last boss. Your character will hold on
to his/her foe for a short time and you can perform a throw to the left or
right by pressing left or right + A/B respectively. Thrown enemies, as well as
its comrades who gets knocked down by the former, go into a freefall state.
You can cancel your grab by dashing (double-tap left or right) to either
direction, in that case you will launch the target with a body bash.
Kongoh is special when it comes to grabs. First, he is able to walk during a
grab. Second, he cannot dash to cancel his grab.
During the grab animation, your character is vulnerable. While throwing an
opponent however, you are fully invincible until you recover.
Special throws are accessible to both Kagetsura and Kongoh, which is done by
pressing down, up + B. You cannot simply do this standalone, you must grab
someone first.
Additional note: You can even perform throws on launched enemies, after
hitting an airborne enemy with the third of the first B's, hold down left or
right and then press any attack button (you can even do a special throw!).
It looks rather weird.
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Launched state
A launched state is caused by either jumping A, a running B, last B or a
shuriken. You are able to freely attack launched enemies, as long as they do
not block (most bosses do), fall to the ground, run out of life, move out of
the screen or use their defensive escape.
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Freefall state
A "freefall" state is the state where the target is granted invincibility
while they are falling to the ground. All last A and dash A attacks, throws, as
well as most specials, cause its target to enter a freefall state. Bombs also
cause enemies to go into a freefall state.
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Defensive escape
A defensive escape makes the caster fully invulnerable and leave the screen.
It can either refer to the characters' A+B+C special, the vampire's bat escape
or the phoenix's escape. Both the phoenix's and the bat's defensive escape
triggers when hit exactly 10 times in a continuous chain.
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Defensive recovery
Most enemies in Sengoku 3 have some form of defensive recovery. Defensive
recoveries are a measure to prevent players from standing next to a downed
enemy and repeatedly throw out punches. Like character specials, these moves
are usually fast as lightning and fully invincible.
Enemies perform this move when your character is standing close to them while
they stand up. Do the exact opposite, stay a fair distance away, preferably
above or below the body, when enemies get up.
Ninja girls and samurais may perform moves that resemble defensive recoveries
randomly while standing. These are slightly slower and do not possess any
invincibility.
Below is a list of enemies with defensive recoveries:
- Samurais
- Ninja girls
- Vultures
- Frogs
- Faces
- Old men with bats
- All bosses
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Parry
Not to be confused with blocking, a parry will occur when your character
slash attacks at the same time as with a weapon-wielding enemy's attack,
causing both weapons to clash. You character will be left in a stun state but
it is not cancellable into a special, leaving you vulnerable in a group of
enemies. Note that punches, kicks, jumping attacks and specials cannot be
parried. Enemies with no wielded weapons also cannot parry your attacks.
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Blocking
Only bosses can block attacks. All real bosses have the ability to block, that
is, you will not be able to damage them with normal attacks while they are in
a launched state. Combos which do not chain properly will also be vulnerable
to blocks. All specials and occasionally, Byakki's last A, cannot be blocked.
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Power gauge
The power gauge is displayed in the screen right below the health bar. It can
hold a maximum of 3 bars. You can charge your power gauge by doing damage to
anything (enemies, scenery or otherwise) with anything besides moves that
use up your power gauge - that is to say, specials. Certain characters, such
as Byakki, charge their power gauge much faster than others. Certain attacks
also charge more power than others.
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Combo gauge
The combo gauge is a pretty unique addition to a side-scrolling fighter. It
starts off empty. Whenever you attack an enemy, it fills up a little, but this
amount in the gauge drains rapidly. But once you fill it up to full, the bar
flashes red and yellow, and drains slowly. All your attacks also do more damage
while your combo gauge is flashing.
Once the bar is drained, your combo is broken, along with the temporal increase
in damage. There is a high-score table with the top scores on the 5 longest
combos in the game. Like the power gauge, certain attacks would fill up the
combo gauge more than others.
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Time
The time remaining is shown in the centre on top of the screen. If it counts
down to 10, it will start flashing (like the combo gauge). When it reaches 0,
you lose a life.
Each count on the clock is 5 seconds in real time. Most of the time, you will
probably not notice that you are "racing" against the time, much like the
Metal Slug games also by SNK. Time will be added when you complete a segment.
Segments are not screens, as there can be multiple segments in a screen
itself. As a general rule of thumb, once the screen moves from a static
"fixed point", you have finished a segment. Short of taking a nap or a lunch
break, you probably won't take 5 minutes to actually complete a segment.
If you died and continued, the time will reset to 60 counts if it is below 60
counts. If it's above 60, it'll continue counting from there.
Also, at the end of the round, each count in the time gives you a 100-point
bonus.
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===============================================================================
[003] Normal attacks
Normal attacks are the bread and butter of this game and knowing them well is
paramount if you want to do well in this game. I would say that normal attacks
make up 70% of the game.
There are many types of normal attacks in this game and they can be
classified into three main groups - Standing, running and jumping attacks.
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[003a] Standing attacks
Under standing attacks, there are first, second, and third A or B attacks. I
chose not to show a long table of all possible combos, which is pretty useless
since you could, and should, improvise. You are able to combo 9 attacks in a B
to A sequence illustrated by this chart below. None of the attacks may whiff
(that is to miss completely) or you will not be able to continue the chain.
+--------+ +--------+
|First B |-------------->|First A |
+--------+ +--------+
| | |
| +----------------------+ |
| | |
V V V
+--------+ +--------+
|Second B|-------------->|Second A|
+--------+ +--------+
| | |
| +----------------------+ |
| | |
V V V
+--------+ +--------+
|Last B |-------------->|Last A |
+--------+ +--------+
You can only start the sequence at the First B or the First A, although you
can stop at any point you wish.
For example, (The standard chain)
First B (x3), First A, Second B, Second A (x2), Last B, Last A.
Input: B,B,B,A,B,A,A,B,A
Note: To do the above combo correctly, you need to wait for a short while
before pressing the 2nd Second A. If you tap too quickly, the game will
tend to skip the 2nd Second A and go into a Last A.
You are able to start the sequence from any part of the chain and continue
downwards but you cannot chain backwards, like from a Second B to a First B.
You can choose to forgo any part of the standard chain to get to the Last A
or Last B earlier.
An example would be
First A, Second B, Last B, Last A
Input: A,B,B,A
An interesting point to note is that you can cancel the last of the first Bs
into a throw, even on an airborne opponent, provided that they are not too
far away. On ground opponents, however, as long as the last of the first Bs
hit, you are able to cancel it into a throw.
All of the above attacks, except the Last A, can be cancelled with specials,
dashing or throwing a weapon. The Last A can only be cancelled with specials.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[003b] Running attacks
Strictly speaking, there are only two running attacks when you disregard the
body bash as a running attack. To do running attacks, you must first... run.
In case you didn't know how to run, double tap either left or right and hold
down on that direction which you ran to.
Body bash
The body bash is a short ranged bash that launches enemies. You are also not
able to perform the body bash while running prolonged, you can only bash the
enemy on the very first second or so in your running animation. The damage
that it does is also downright pathetic.
Yet, despite its utter uselessness against combating your enemies, it has a
pretty much undiscovered use.
As you might have known, there are destructible scenery in the game which can
contain goodies. Instead of raining down powerful slashes to destroy them
quickly, you can consider using body bashes on them. What's the rationale
behind this? See the "topping the scoreboards" section below for that.
Running B
The running B works quite similarly to a body bash in that it also launches
your enemies. However, it has a much better range. Simply put, it is a really
useful move that you will be using quite a lot. Either to keep a launched
enemy floating or to quickly interrupt a slow attack by an enemy, this attack
is your best bet. But watch out, the running B attack has considerable lag
if it misses and whiffed attacks cannot be cancelled for safety.
Running A
While it has two distinct advantages compared to the running B, specifically,
it does more damage and has a longer range, it is still not as useful. This is
because it is slower and does not launch the enemies it hits. Its only
practical use I can think of is to end a combo when the enemy is hit too far
outside the screen. It's is also liable to parries, especially due to the
slower speed that it has - a disadvantage that the running B does not possess.
Running attacks may only be cancelled into specials.
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[003c] Airborne attacks
There are only two airborne attacks, the Jumping A and the Jumping B. Unlike
standing attacks, airborne attacks have a very simple cancelling system.
Jumping As and cancel into Jumping Bs and vice versa. Knowing this, all air
combos are either B,A,B,A,... or A,B,A,B....
Jumping B
This attack is mostly used as an air-to-air. It is a very good attack for
air-to-air encounters it this attack does not retract over time - that is,
pressing B right at the start of the jump will keep the character's leg
outstretched until he/she lands and virtually no timing is needed to
counter an enemy's jumping attack (just press B as early as possible.
This move is generally also used to start the air combo sequence as it is
launched instantly.
Jumping A
Once you master the art of air combos, you will do this move rather frequently.
Besides having a longer range, this attack also launches your enemies, making
it an ideal choice when tackling a group of distanced enemies.
Kagetsura's and Falcon's jumping A does two hits while the others do a single
hit. You should keep in mind that Kagetsura's jumping A launches on the first
hit while Falcon's launches on the second - you have to time your attack
properly to ensure that your enemies are launched by this attack with the two
aforementioned characters. Landing among and without launching your enemies
will almost certainly require you to use a special or risk getting hit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[003d] Strategies to utilising normal attacks
After all that rather "un-useful" information, it's time for the real talk.
Now that you (perhaps) know normal attacks inside out, you might think that
doing the standard chain alone is enough. The answer is, unfortunately, no.
The key to winning the game is to survive by keeping away and doing damage at
the same time.
One key point you should remember is that you can cancel any standing attack,
with the exception of the last A, into a dash.
Lets take for example a situation... You have a green swordsman in front of
you and another green spearman far behind you. You run to the green swordsman
and start pulling off the standard chain but you notice the spearman moving
slowly to your back. Continuing in your combo will very likely cause you to
lose some health. Thus, instead, you should cancel your combo into a dash and
run away from the spearman. You could also run towards the spearman and try to
interrupt him with a running B. This is a fundamental to surviving the stages.
Infinite combos are part and parcel of this game and learning how to do them
is rather important. Now keeping in mind that you can cancel a lot of standing
attacks into a dash, you could keep an opponent afloat with standing attacks,
and dash forward with a running B when he is getting a bit beyond reach and
then continue attacking.
Running Bs are key setups to infinite ground combos. As whiffed attacks
cannot be cancelled, you need to be careful about the timing of your attacks.
Once the enemy you are hammering away at is launched too high, wait for a
brief moment before continuing your attacks.
If you are cornered while comboing an enemy, you can consider cancelling your
attacking into a throw, you are fully invincible during the throw until you
recover from it, so you can use that to escape sticky situations as well.
You should also know that normal attacks can hit multiple enemies who are
standing close together. This means that a good situation would be one that
all the enemies in the screen are bunched together in a tight pack. The best
way to take out this group would be no doubt a well-timed jumping A.
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[003e] Air combos
Ok, now let us talk about that elusive air combo that quite a lot of people
are unsure about. It is considered to be the most undiscovered part of the
game and it is quite true as some players could finish the game once or twice
and are yet clueless about its execution. Unlike the Marvel vs series, air
combos in this game are not purely for flash or simply yet another way of
doing damage. It is so useful, you can be guaranteed to lose a lot less life
once you grasped its concepts.
The one main setup to air combos is something that people are already
familiar with, and that is the normal attack cancelling with a dash. Now,
perhaps for the first time in a guide, clearly state the exact keys you can
press to perform a simple air combo.
(Standing close to an enemy)
B, B, B, dash, running B, B, B, B, dash, C, B, A
After this air combo, you can continue attacking after you land, as you should
land before your enemy does. This air combo setup can also be used to escape
that same scenario where the spearman is on your back poised to strike. The
key advantage is, however, you do not need to give up on the enemy which you
are attacking when you are at risk of getting hit. Instead, by executing this
air combo, you will land yourself a comfortable distance away from your enemy
while continuing to attack your original target.
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[003f] Advanced strategies
Damage dealing is considered pretty basic since they involve nothing but
infinites, comboing or specials. These advanced strategy below provide nifty
tricks to both survive and to do damage.
- Absolutely never, ever do a running A. Running As are slow, can be parried,
cannot be cancelled into anything outside of a special and recover slowly if
missed.
- Also, never start the sequence with a First A. They are slow and have a short
range. The running B is a much better substitute.
- Don't jump vertically, unless dealing with a two skulls at once. It's worse
than standing still.
- If your power gauge is running dry, you can do a quick running B and then
body bash enemies as they fall. Retreat afterwards. This will charge a whole
lot a gauge while doing minimum damage to enemies.
- Consider using bombs as self-defence. They have a rather large effect area of
effect upon explosion, so if you find yourself close to being surrounded, toss
a bomb into one direction and run towards that same side.
- There's no such thing as trading hits in the game, it's either you or them
getting hit. Don't try to do so, enemies usually have a range advantage, that's
where specials come along.
- Since you'll recover life after a boss battle, a B, B, B, A, B, A, A, A, ABC
will work fairly well when you do not have enough power to do a special. In
fact, the long period of invincibility allows you to get up close on the boss
and work in another combo, which you will be able to finish with a special due
to all the hits you get in.
- Consider trying the above combo after luring the boss to a food container.
The combo will knockdown the boss and destroy the container, while the
defensive escape lets you grab the food without interruption from the minions.
Furthermore, the health restored will usually make up for the health lost from
the ABC.
- Weak enemies move less and procrastinate more. Work to destroy stronger
enemies in a group. Enemies usually spawn 2 at a time, and no more than 4 can
be onscreen at once. Letting 1 weak basic swordsman or spearman dance around
while dealing with only 2 advanced enemies at once helps a lot.
- Whenever you are going to lose life anyway, either from the skulls by the
last boss or cannon ball wave by the frog ball, just press ABC as a panic key.
The life loss will be minimal, and the 5 sec invincibility allows you to exact
revenge. A prime example of this is when you are hit by the B special of Okuni.
Pressing ABC before the special detonates lets you avoid any damage from it
altogether.
- Unless you're going for highscores, ignore all coins, golds or other point-
giving items. Greed kills.
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[003g] Topping the scoreboard
If you are a first time player, forget this section completely.
Once you have gotten yourself accustomed with the controls of the game and are
decently capable that you could survive China stage without continuing, you can
consider beating the high scores.
There are two high scores in this game, the first is the standard high score
table you will see in almost every other game, the second one is the combo high
scores.
Action Points
------------- ------
First B ________ 100
First A ________ 200
Second B _______ 200
Second A _______ 300
2nd Second A ___ 500
Last B _________ 400
Last A _________ 500
Throw __________ 500
Throw collide __ 100 (targets hit by the thrown enemy)
Body bash ______ 200
Running B ______ 300
Running A ______ 500
Jumping B ______ 400
Jumping A ______ 600
DM _____________ 100 (full-screen attack)
Shuriken _______ 500
Plate __________ 600
Bomb impact ____ 500
Bomb AOE _______ 300
Kunai __________ 500
From the chart above, you should see that throws are one of the ways to get
high scores. In fact, in the China stage at level 3, I could get 230000 by
throwing everybody I saw and playing normally only gave me about 180000.
However, this will take a lot of time and patience and experience. If you are
not careful, it could cost you a lot of credits as well.
But instead of throwing everybody you see, you can also try to do simple
ground infinites (like B,B,B, running B) to try to get a large combo. Since
combos factor into your score when you defeat a boss at the end of a stage,
this can actually be killing two birds with one stone.
There isn't really a fixed point chart for destructible scenery like tables
and chairs, but the more powerful of an attack you use to do the last blow on
the destructible object, the more points you will get from it.
If you think that throwing everybody you see or trying to make a 200 hit combo
is way too hard, you might want to try this. Boss fights are such that they
are endless until the boss is killed. With that in mind, you can try to squeeze
every little bit of points out of a stage is by defeating normal enemies during
a boss fight. Unless you are extremely skilled (and rich, for that matter), you
most probably wouldn't go very far with this strategy.
During the boss fight, hit only the minions that spawn and do not damage the
boss. You can continue infinitely during the boss fight and kill as many
minions as you please, and the score will endlessly rise. On my very best
attempt, I got 50000 points on a single credit on the China Stage boss, so 100
credits might get you 5 millions points - that's more than you can get
throughout the entire game but that would cost you too much effort to make
it worthwhile.
If trying to get a highscore is not your thing, you can instead try to get the
highest combo.
As stated above, the key to getting a high combo is to do a B,B,B running B
infinite on everybody you see. Once you get your combo gauge flashing by doing
some longer variations of the standard chain, do the infinite on everybody you
encounter. Obviously, it is better to attempt such a feat in a single play game
rather than a two player game. Unless the other player cooperates, this will be
difficult, since the number of enemies that spawn do not increase and the other
player might restrict your screen space.
You will need to have a keen knowledge on the exact locations on where the
enemies in an area will spawn so that you would not have too much pause in
between hitting enemies, which would cause your combo to break.
Another point to note that if you couldn't find an enemy to hit somehow, doing
body bashes on destructible scenery will help a lot, as it fills up the combo
gauge considerably, while enemies in the screen spawn for you to rack up the
combo.
Once you clear every single enemy in your screen, you should again turn your
attention to the chairs and tables that you could bash to get in as many combo
hits as possible.
The hardest part when trying to get a large combo as once you bashed the last
you could on that table, you need to rush to find the closest possible enemy
and hit him. This is where many people would mess up.
The easiest place where you can pull off up to a 300+ hit combo is at the
China stage right at the beginning, that place has 3 sections, each with quite
a lot of tables and chairs and simple enemies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[004] Thrown weapons
Thrown weapons are not very important in the game, considering that they
are somewhat uncommon. You should save them to deal with difficult opponents
later in the game as they deal decent damage and, with the exception of bombs,
have a long range.
You also score points by collecting a single type of weapon in excess - that
means, if you already have nine of a type of weapon and you collect more, you
will get bonus points. Shurikens and kunais award you 1000 points and bombs
award you 2000 points. Since there are only 9 plates in the game, you can't
score a bonus for that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shurikens
By far the most common weapon in the game, you start with 3 of them. They
cause enemies struck by them to go into a launched state (working very much
like a running B), allowing you to combo afterwards. You can even throw
multiple shurikens and they will all connect, provided you do not launch
them too high. Shurikens are rather poor at damaging multiple enemies
unless they are standing very close together. They deal above average damage
and charge your power gauge by a large amount.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bombs
Bombs are often underestimated and unliked for being "unspammable" - meaning
that you can't throw multiple bombs in quick succession to deal big damage.
This is because bombs cause a target to go into a freefall state. They deal
about the same damage as shurikens but the explosion caused by a bomb stays
in the screen for a while and has the potential to damage multiple enemies
much better than shurikens.
Their true power lies in its ability to deal extreme damage to enemies that
cannot be tripped - the Evil Door Boss being a very good example.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kunais
These cool-looking throwing daggers are easily the most popular weapon in the
game. Kunais do not do as much damage as bombs or shurikens, but it makes up
for being able to damage all enemies in a straight line by passing through
each target like a .50 BMG. They are also very useful for dealing big
damage to bosses, since a kunai is able to stun the target long enough for
another kunai to combo. Kunais will not cause an enemy to go into either a
launched or freefall state.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plates
Not only are plates unorthodox, they are also the rarest weapons in the game
(Only 9 of them exist in the whole game). They travel and damage in a very
similar way as shurikens but are not as powerful. In fact, they do as much
damage as 1st Bs, which is really pathetic. Plates do not trip their targets.
You might be thinking, so what the hell are plates used for? The only
practical way of utilising plates will most likely be using them in a "plate
trap".
Since launched bosses block normals, extended combos must not launch them. In
a plate trap, you will corner the boss and do the first 7 sequences
b,b,b,a,b,a,a and then throw a plate. The plate will stun the boss long
enough for you to connect another 1st B and continue the chain, resulting in
a semi-infinite which can last until you run out of plates.
The only boss where you can perform the plate trap on is the Fire Samurai in
China. You might think that it works on the Lightning Samurai as well, but
trust me, I've tried - it does not work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[005] Specials / Characters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General information about specials
All specials, except throw specials, can be cancelled into from any normal
ground attack - even last A. Specials can also be done when your character
is in a damage-stun state and this is used to escape extended combos from
advanced enemies and bosses. You cannot cancel whiffed normal attacks into
specials.
Down Down + A specials (hereby called A specials) are usually combo
specials, they are quick in execution and are usually able to hit launched
enemies fairly well.
Down Down + B specials (hereby called B specials) are usually defensive
specials. They generally are slower in execution but have a larger hit-area.
They also tend to last long, giving you much needed invincibility time.
Throw specials, accessible to only Kagetsura and Kongoh, are executed by
holding onto an enemy and entering Down Up + B. They are somewhat like the
A+B+C defensive escape move. The primary target of a throw special will
receive major damage while surrounding enemies will be hit for much less.
Defensive escape specials are done by pressing A+B+C at the same time. Upon
execution, your character will take minor damage and leave the screen
immediately, leaving behind a small explosion. After which your character
will reappear in the screen and have about 5 seconds of invincibility.
This is particularly important to characters like Byakki and Okuni, as their
specials can only hit forwards. This can also be used in situations where you
are drained of power to defensively perform A or B specials. It is also
extremely useful for picking up food objects when there are many enemies in
the way.
Desperation moves (DMs) are the same with all characters, albeit with
different animation. They drain one whole bar of power and during its
execution, all enemies (and your ally) are not able to move, allowing it to
interrupt almost every move in the game, with the exception of the last boss's
healing move and your ally's desperation move. The damage is pretty pitiful
considering how much power it takes. DMs will not be discussed in individual
character specials as they have no tactical differences.
The names in inverted commas "" beside the Specials are the official names for
those moves, retrieved from the official Sengoku 3 manual. Many of the words in
the manual were too small to be discernable (or in simpler terms, too freaking
blur) and I only added those I could confirm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005a] Kagetsura
This is what you get when you mix lightning with a sword-wielding ninja. He's
your average character with average speed and damage. Nothing exceptional about
this character, no ground-breaking specials or normal moves. His normal throw
distance is fairly short and doesn't have much potential to knock down a lot of
enemies. His weapon throw speed is insane though. I can see why he and Byakki
are brothers. Although Kagetsura's skills are mostly lack range, they are
rather quick in execution.
The official name for his DM is "Flying Serpent Shock"
Speed: B
Reach: A
Damage: B
Specials: B
Gauge charge: B
Specials
A special "Slicing Beads of Destruction"
Kagetsura quickly charges his blade with lightning and slashes forwards,
charging up his foes with a nice current of electricity. It is reasonably, but
not very fast. It is very poor for defensive purposes as it lasts a very short
time and only hits in one direction.
B special "Lightning Flash Attack"
Kagetsura draws his blade and charges head first forwards while sheathed in
blue energy, electrocuting foes. This move is very fast and has almost no
startup time. It also covers a fairly large area forwards. It does three hits,
with the last hit doing the brunt of the damage. It does not make up as a
combo special because it hits launched enemies only once for pitiful damage.
As this special covers decent ground, you can safely use it on a group of
enemies from a good distance.
Throw special "Strike Drop"
Kagetsura grabs his foe and carries him/her flying up and out of the screen,
landing with a small bomb-like explosion. Generally used only on bosses; not
too useful. Sure its fun to move around in the air to try to land your victim
in a crowd of enemies but it does not fill in combos or as defense well. Only
use it for flash or if you simply must expand gauge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005b] Falcon
Falcon is the master of anti-air combat. His last A has a really high hit area
and is very good for dealing with spearmen and swordsmen jump attacks, as well
as the diving attack of vultures. His jumping A can hit airborne enemies very
well, generally making it a bad idea to jump at this guy. Falcon's specials
are also excellent for combos or defense. However, he falls short several
other areas. His air combo does poor damage and his reach is occasionally
lacking. He is also crippled with a slow weapon throwing speed.
Speed: B
Reach: B
Damage: B
Specials: A
Gauge charge: B
Specials
A special "Devouring Flame"
Upon execution, Falcon dashes forward. On contact with an enemy, he does a
running A and then a last A which sets his enemies ablaze. After about 1/3 of
the screen width, Falcon will stop dashing, and the special will be aborted.
Certain bosses with prolonged invincible moves, like the lightning samurai's
attacks, are able to fully avoid the whole dashing animation(which lasts for
less than a second), wasting your power. Another weakness of this special is
that if it does not hit all your enemies, you will be left in a vulnerable
position, stuck in the long recovery time of this move.
B special "Flight of the Phoenix"
True to Falcon's namesake, he creates a flaming phoenix out of his powers and
releases it forwards. The phoenix charges straight and setting ablaze all
enemies along its path at an amazing speed. Take note, While creating the
flaming phoenix, the sprouted wings can actually hit. It can even hit enemies
a fair distance behind Falcon, making it an excellent defensive special. The
wings of the phoenix, upon conjuration, do slightly more damage compared to
the launched phoenix.
While this special is similar to Kurenai's B special, Kurenai's phases to 4
directions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005c] Kurenai
Kurenai is the choice if you prefer fast slashing and kicking. Sister of Okuni,
Kurenai is the fastest character available. Her jump A is extremely fast and is
coupled with above average damage, giving her the ability to finish off enemies
in record-breaking time. Being a female character, she is unable to do "Throw
specials" like Kagetsura and Kongoh. Unlike other characters, Kurenai's agility
allows her to do a 5 to 7-hit air combo, although it takes a bit of practice to
pull that off consistently.
Speed: A
Reach: C
Damage: A
Specials: B
Gauge charge: B
Specials
A special "Kurenai's Slicing Blade"
Kurenai spins forward with 4 hits, which ends with a flaming slice. Enemies hit
by the last hit will be engulfed in flames and thrown back for a short
distance. This special is rather useless for anything outside of ground-only
combos as it does occasionally launch enemies too high for the last (the most
damaging) blow to connect. Also, the B special covers a considerably larger
area, works in launched combos well and has very long invincibility; making
the existence of the A special very questionable indeed. Needless to say, this
is not often used by players.
B special "Doppelganger Divider"
Kurenai splits into 4 images and phases towards the left, right and diagonally
towards both directions. The area covered is the whole stretch that Kurenai's
images streak past. As with her A special, enemies under attacks are engulfed
in flames and thrown back for a short distance. The ability for the B special
to hit both forwards and backwards makes it a much better choice than her
other special.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005d] Kongoh
According to the stereotypes about ninjas, they usually do not wield large
heavy poles, but that's besides the point. Kongoh is the powerhouse of the
game with the biggest damage per strike, enemies bludgeoned by his massive
pole generally do not survive.
He trades speed for damage and reach, however, and is therefore a little slow
on his footwork. His reach generally comes from his really long and thick
pole. He also has the ability to grab an enemy and walk around the screen at
the same time. Upon pressing A or B, he single-handedly throws his victim away
screen width. While it may seem cool at first, you will soon find it a
hindrance as you cannot dash to cancel your grab and it takes a long time for
Kongoh to release a enemy he got hold of.
Throws, however, are not the essence of this game. The most important things
are normal attacks. Kongoh, with long ranged and damaging attacks, is best
suited for calm and controlled play to keep enemies at bay.
General Discussion
Speed: C
Reach: A
Damage: A
Specials: B
Gauge charge: C
Specials
A special "Kongoh Driver"
Kongoh shoves his heavy pole forwards. If it touches an enemy, he picks
him/her up with the pole's end and slams them hard on the floor. Effectively
like any other A special but in essence, is a throw special as only a single
primary target will receive the full force of the special. It does not choose
the best target for you, so in a situation when the boss and its minions are
standing close together, you might accidentally pick up one of the latter,
wasting considerable gauge.
B special "Whirling Club of Flames"
With great force, Kongoh holds back his pole (which can hit enemies behind
him),charges it (which gives it a red hue) and flings it outwards. The pole
then spins in place a few metres in front of Kongoh for a few moments before
returning to him, very much like a boomerang. When thrown at a large group,
this special can really pump up the numbers on the combo meter. A good
special that his both forwards and backwards and lasts for a decent amount
of time.
Throw special "Satanic Stallion Slam"
Kongoh spins with his victim upwards all the way out of the screen and
subsequently pile-drives them into the ground. Similar in many aspects to
Kagetsura's throw special, including the ability to move around your
character (with your victim) while in mid-air.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005e] Okuni
Okuni is perhaps the weirdest character in the game in my opinion - look at
her jumping B and you will get what I mean. She uses a fan in her attacks. She
is fast, but not as fast as Kurenai when it comes to air combos and
occasionally her reach is lacking. She is Kurenai's elder sister.
Speed: A
Reach: B
Damage: B
Specials: B
Gauge charge: A
Specials
A special "Fan Fandango"
Okuni swings her fan upwards and the smashes it down, giving some foes a
shocking. Similar in many ways to Kagetsura's A special.
B special "Hurricane Habanera"
Okuni flips her fan sideways forwards and ring of energy blasts out. The
ring of energy moves across the screen very quickly until it comes into
contact with an enemy and stops. Shortly after, it "detonates" in a small
radius and slices up whoever unlucky enough to be in nearby.
This special is so fast it can actually be used to combo from attacks.
However, it is not able to hit many enemies at once due to the fact that it
detonate when it collides with an enemy. Strangely, it will not detonate if
it touches frogs or dogs; instead deal minor damage to them. While it might
seem like a disadvantage at first, you can actually use this special to
bypass the boss's frog minions who are standing in your way and directly
damage the boss. The ring will pass through the frogs, raise your combo gauge,
and then hit the boss for big damage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[005f] Byakki
While Kagetsura incoporates lightning in his attacks, Byakki prefers to summon
other-worldly demons do the dirty job. His damage solely on ground is on par
with Kurenai's formidable 5 hit air combo - without even tagging on an
additional special. Not only does his attacks and specials do high damage, they
also have a decent range. One exceptional attack worthly of mention is his last
A attack where he throws his circular blade straight out and it returns to him
in a boomerang-like fashion. This attack cannot be parried and amazing range.
Furthermore, it can also hit enemies on the way back. It also has great damage
to boot.
Speed: B
Reach: A
Damage: A
Specials: B
Gauge charge: A
Specials
A special "Summoning of the Evil Talon"
As mentioned above, Byakki specialty lies in the utilisation of monsters. In
this special of his, he summons a demonic hand, in the form of an eagle's
talons, in front of him, out from the ground, to attack the enemies and launch
them back for a middle range distance. Unlike all other specials in the game,
this special does not cause his victims to go into a freefall state, allowing
you to combo afterwards. In fact, you can repeatedly juggle a cornered boss
with this special as Byakki recovers instantly after the hand disappears.
B special "Summoning of the Evil Shadow"
Also posing his signature "two fingers" gesture, a demon appears in front of
Byakki and viciously impales foes with its claws. This special has a much
bigger hit area than the hand special but is also fast enough to be used in
combos. However, enemies standing very close to Byakki as well as enemies
behind him are able to fully avoid this move. Also, since Byakki is stationary
during this move, he can also put himself into a bad situation if several
enemies gather behind him. In the case when you are surrounded, it is better
to do a defensive escape rather than this or his other special.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[006] Enemies
In order of frustration, this is based solely on my opinion
1. Blue vulture
2. Hellhound
3. Purple ninja girl
4. Green samurai
5. Red vulture
6. Brown spearman
7. Old man with bats
8. Frog
9. Face
10. Monster
11. Orange ninja girl
12. Yellow samurai
13. Blue swordsman
14. Houndsmaster
15. Green spearman
16. Green swordsman
17. Blue skull / yellow skull
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[006a] Common strategies
The Up/Down trick
Since most basic enemies are only able to hit you while you are in the same
horizontal plane, standing above or below them would greatly reduce the change
of you getting hit. Do not move into the enemy's plane, let them enter yours
so you have a split-second advantage.
Bunching enemies together
Enemies have a common thing - they will try to get close to you. With that in
mind, you could move around the screen a bit in an attempt to get all enemies
to bunch up, so that they can be taken out much more easily.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[006b] Enemy-specific strategies
Swordsmen
Basic: Green Advanced: Blue
They are the most common and the easiest to defeat. The basic swordsman really
procrastinates before attacking - it could stand in front of you for two
seconds before swinging his blade. You shouldn't really lose health fighting
them.
The advanced form, which is slightly blue, attacks immediately when you are
in range. Occasionally it also does a medium-ranged jumping attack, do your
own jumping attack to counter that.
They are completely helpless at long range, so jumping attacks will defeat them
easily.
They do not have defensive recoveries, so you can happily stand beside them
and throw out first Bs, while they are on the floor, and combo afterwards.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spearmen
Basic: Green Advanced: Brown
Being slightly less common then swordsmen, they are a greater threat. This
is because their attacks have a very long range and are often quite damaging.
While the basic version can be dealt with like the basic swordsman, the
advanced form would be a big problem to new players. The advanced form</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
has to be dealt with either the Up/Down trick stated above, or with a running
jump in.
If there are more than 1 of these enemies, it is quite imperative that you
bunch them together, as their long range can cover each other effectively -
that is, while you are comboing away at one of them, another spearman
could sneak behind you and take the liberty of removing 30% health from you.
The brown spearman can occasionally pull off a jumping attack which also has a
very long range.
As with swordsmen, they do not have defensive recoveries, so no worries about
standing next to them while they stand up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samurai
Basic: Yellow Advanced: Green
Samurais have more vitality than either the swordsman or the spearman, but
are even less common. The samurai is the only humanoid enemy that does not
jump no matter what.
His normal attacks are nothing to write home about, but his one trademark move
that new players would hate is for is his running stab attack. (Reminds me of
a similar and equally annoying move by Amano Hyo of the Last Blade) In that
attack, he holds his sword with the hilt at his gut, reaching horizontally
outwards. After jogging on the spot for a brief moment (that's the startup
animation), he would run towards his target. He could even run diagonally,
although there is a maximum angle in which he can run. So you are safe if you
use the Up/Down trick.
You can also jump over his running attack, but you have to be careful as that
attack can hit quite high, and could get you in mid-air.
As for the advanced form of the samurai, he has more health and has a three-
hit combo attack. You should perform a special to avoid getting hit by
all of the three hits. Advanced samurais tend to do defensive recoveries
more often as well.
Besides those, there isn't much difference between the basic and the advanced
samurai.
They do possess a defensive recovery, so I'd stay away if they get up after
being knocked down.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ninja girls
Basic: Orange Advanced: Purple
These scantily-clad (well not really), assailants that you will meet quite
often are nothing short of annoying.
They do like to jump all over the screen but are fortunately not able to
attack while doing so. Due to their jumping behaviour, they are difficult to
bunch together. Their basic standing attacks also have a fairly large hitbox,
and could hit jumpers rather easily.
But the single attack that makes them a great irritant is their defensive
recovery - a large sweeping swipe upwards. This attack is instant, like all
others, but has an extreme range reaching out 2/5ths of the screen.
The advanced form is even worse, as they could do their defensive recoveries
even while standing.
The best way to deal with them, without a doubt, is to use air combos. Since
they like to jump around, they could jump into your air combo and then you
could combo them to death.
But if you can't do air combos, then you have to play very carefully and use
specials to kill them quickly - your life would be a whole lot easier.
As previously mentioned, they have a defensive recovery, so stay far away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frog
Frogs are one of the few enemies that do not have an advanced form. They are
also rather small, and you are not able to hit them on the floor with first
Bs.
They have 3 attacks, the tongue attack, the spit attack and its "explosion"
attack.
The tongue attack is mainly its anti-air air move, so if you jumped into a
group of frogs you would see a lot of tongues sticking out. They have a very
low profile, making it difficult to hit them with aerial attacks. They will
also use their tongues to attack you on the ground as a standard short-ranged
strike.
The second attack is its acid spit. Frogs will execute this attack rather
frequently, especially if you are close to them but not jumping. The bubbly
spit (or maybe gastric juice) is pink in colour and can hit you two times for
decent damage. The spit will naturally disappear after a short while.
The last attack is its defensive recovery. The frog will close its eyes and
and forcefully "puffs" out some sort of gas out from its skin on its rear. This
attack is quite painful and needless to say it is invulnerable during its
execution.
Knowing those, the best strategy to deal with frogs is to hit them with a
running B and combo afterwards. They do not have much health and can be
disposed of quickly with a short and powerful combo.
Frogs have lot health, and die quickly to bombs or kunais, making them a good
tool if you are facing difficulties.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Old man with bats
I know that this is a very bad name, but I can't think of better ones. One of
the few rare enemies, only 4 of these men exist in the game to my knowledge.
One strange is, that they do not make slashing sounds when they hit you
despite carrying two daggers. They are also the only normal enemy who possess
a defensive escape.
They have two attacks. The first attack is when it holds out both of its arms
and a large group of bats appear from apparently inside its sleeves. The bats
then move themselves across the screen, covering a reasonably wide area - some
bats even move diagonally. The bats, however, do not traverse the entire screen
and some eventually dissipates after travelling a short distance. Although this
attack does pathetic damage, but the man does use it very frequently.
The other attack is where it charges straight at you with arms outstretched,
with the same animation as the bats releasing. This attack is very fast and is
very likely to hit you. It only does this if you are standing near him in the
same horizontal plane.
It moves around rather quickly and it is difficult to use the Up/Down trick on
him.
If you did 10 attacks on him in a combo, you will find that you will suddenly
be unable to attack him further. He will suddenly be surrounded and literally
"carried away" by his bats and then reappear in another place.
While reappearing, however, it cannot execute his defensive recovery. So two
long combos will finish it off.
Occasionally, it also jumps and makes an attack with an awkward range... but
that is nothing to worry about.
All in all, the best way to tackle it is with a jump in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monster
Monsters are weird enemies first seen in the Brazil stage, about at the same
time which you would first see frogs. They have purple skin and wears blue
rags.
They have a standard close range melee attack and an annoying attack that,
quite literally, uses their heads. In the latter attack, the devil would
dislodge its head from its body, and it will start to fly straight horizontally
towards the direction it is facing.
That freaky attack will only be executed when you are standing directly at the
devil's horizontal plane. Unlike the old man with bats, the head of the monster
travels very quickly and has an infinite range.
With that in mind, it is best to approach him with the Up/Down trick, even
though the monster does move around a lot like the old man with bats.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Face (or rather faces)
The last of the monstrosities you'll be accustomed with in the Brazil stage,
this monster is by far the ugliest freak you'll see in the game. You had
better get your combos working well by the time you meet this thing, as it
has a boss-like behaviour of punishing a broken combo.
The "face" breaks a lot of conventions set out by the rest of the enemies that
you'll face (no pun intended) in the game.
Firstly, the "face" is always "flying". That means you can't grab it even if
you walked towards it. Yet despite that, standing attacks wouldn't launch it
normally.
Secondly, the defensive recovery of the "face" is rather slow and does not hit
instantly.
Lastly, the best way to engage the "face" it is to charge at it straight on,
unlike the rest of the enemies in Sengoku 3.
Apart from the annoying laughter that the "face" makes, it has 3 attacks.
The first attack is telegraphed. It starts off with the "face" spinning in
place and then it charges forwards. The face is vulnerable during the whole
attack and it is best to strike while it is spinning.
The second attack is also rather telegraphed, not to mention rather easy to
avoid. In this attack the "face" gets all fired up in a blue flame and shoots
out 2 medium-speed fireballs. Strangely, the fireballs cannot hit you if you
stand on the exact same horizontal plane as the "face". They could only hit
if you stood a bit above or below that horizontal plane. Without a doubt, you
have all the time in the world to strike the "face" while it executes this
strange attack.
The last attack is its defensive recovery. This attacks works in pretty much
the same way as the first charging attack, but the "face" is completely
invulnerable throughout it. It starts of with the face getting all fired up
again, but this time with a red flame. Simply walk up or down to avoid this
attack. Be careful, if you broke a combo, the "face" will pull of this attack.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vultures
Basic: Red Advanced: Blue
Thankfully, you will not encounter this pain in the rear until the USA stage.
These bothersome birds possess 3 rather effective attacks.
The first attack is in which is spins vertically upwards, which I like to call
its Shinryuken. This attack is its defensive recovery but does not have much
horizontal range, much like the actual Shinryuken.
The second attack has the vulture spinning on the floor, while moving a bit
backwards. (Apparently the vultures love spinning). This attack gives the
vulture a pretty low profile and many jump ins could miss, resulting you in
losing life. There really isn't a real counter to this move, besides watching
your jumps.
The last attack, perhaps the most annoying one, is the one in which the vulture
flies 2 feet up and then dives straight at you. They like to back out of the
screen before pulling off this attack, which make it unpredictable. The best
counter to jumping attacks is generally your own jumping attacks. But when
multiple vultures dive it you at different directions, then will you have a
problem. Pull out a special in that case.
The advanced form of the vulture can do a three hit combo. It simply loves
to do the diving attack at every opportunity although the three hit combo is a
rather rare occurrence.
You shouldn't charge at the vultures, the key way to kill them is to punish
them after any of their attacks or try to nail then during their diving attack.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hellhounds
They are usually found with the tall houndsmasters. Hellhounds look just like
your usual black dogs. These are fast enemies which you should always use
punches to deal with, as they are quick enough to interrupt your slashes.
They only have 1 attack and that's the charging attack. After attacking,
whether they hit or not, they will end up on the other side of you. Thus,
multiple hellhounds charging at you could be a serious problem and you can
lose a lot of life if you panic.
You can easily deal with them by having them line up in a straight line and
then throw punches like crazy. Once you hit them with the last B perform a
last A and they should be dead - their vitality is rather low.
If for some reason the dogs do swarm you, pull off a DM. Like frogs,
kunais and bombs also work exceptionally well against them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Houndsmaster
Houndsmasters carry two large axes can throw them like Byakki. They are usually
seen with hellhounds. Despite being an "advanced" enemy, the houndsmaster
does not have a defensive recovery.
None of their attacks are any special for concern - besides the axe throwing
attack. While that attack could stop you from charging or doing jump ins on
him, he is a complete victim to the Up/Down trick. Absolutely pathetic despite
the high vitality it possesses.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skulls
Basic: Blue Advanced: Yellow Boss-only: Red
Skulls shouldn't really be considered as an enemy as you do not need to defeat
them to advance through the stages. A mere annoyance at most.
Blue skulls are slow and move horizontally. They can be easily destroyed by
a well-timed vertical jump B - even if they come in both directions.
Yellow skulls are slow but they accelerate and move raise in height as they
move across the screen, making it impossible to jump over them.
Red skulls are the minions that are summoned by the last boss during his full
screen attack. They are indestructible and move horizontally, like blue skulls.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007] Walkthrough
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General hints
!) Safety first
1) Only destroy chairs and tables if you need some food.
2) Don't take an item when an enemy is standing near it. Remember, safety is of
the upmost importance.
3) Avoid the corners of the screen at all costs; it is easy to get attacked by
an out-of-screen attack if you stand near them.
4) If you really need to get a food item which is surrounded by enemies, use
the defensive escape (A+B+C).
5) There can only be a maximum of 4 enemies on screen at once, you can take
advantage of this in some ways.
General hints for a two-player game
1) Both characters cannot hit the same enemy at the same time, so attack
different enemies.
2) Try to combo towards the same direction, this way, there will be more screen
space for long combos.
3) Try to watch out for each other, pulling off a DM to save your friend can be
very helpful.
4) Using a special to cover your buddy while he picks up much needed food is
also a nice move.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007a] China
At the start of this stage, you will see a few basic swordsmen, a table with
some steamed buns and a chair. Refrain from destroying the table, as once its
destroyed, the buns that were once on top on it will be destroyed as well.
Rush at the basic swordsman and combo away, but keep safety as your first
priority. If you want, you can also use your shurikens to deal with them,
although I recommend that you save them for the yellow samurai that you will
encounter later.
Once no more enemies spawn, you can get the buns if you need some healing, or
save it for your friend if he needs healing instead. Wreck the chair to get
3 more shurikens.
When you are done, proceed along with the flashing go arrow in the screen and
You will encounter more basic swordsman, deal with them as with before and
destroy the bicycles later to find a sandwich and some plates.
When you proceed further, you should see a yellow samurai and two basic
spearmen. If you have problems dealing with the yellow samurai, you can throw
your shurikens. Do not throw your plates, for they are far too precious. Either
way, when its done, you should destroy the motorbike to get a pizza. You
should stand a bit to the left of the motorbike and start slashing. If you
stood too far to the right, you would be taken to the next area without the
chance to take the pizza. You should remember this kind of scripted event
that will trigger depending on the position of the screen which you are
standing at.
At the next screen, you will see two spears on the far end of the screen.
Unfortunately, you can't pick them up. They spears are in fact the exact
spots in which basic spearman will spawn. Dispose of them quickly. More
spearmen will show up, dispose of them in the same way.
In the middle of this area or so, there is a stone table and a stone stool.
The stool contains a bomb while the table contains more plates. When you
finish off the swordsmen, you should walk up to the area with the stone
furniture, as yellow samurai will be next. Try to line them up by keeping a
good distance horizontally away and keeping still. Soon they will bunch
together and charge at you, tackle them with a jumping A and combo away.
A stone stool containing a gold coin is further in the right. More yellow
samurai will appear, run to your left and left them charge at you in a
single file, defeat them using a jumping A as well.
In the next area, there is a bench which contains Onigiri (rice balls). To the
right of this room, there will be two large exhibits displaying items like in
a museum. Destroying those will give you a crystal ball worth 2000 points and
a jade vase worth 1000 points. Two spearmen will appear immediately - get rid
of them quickly. Swordsmen will appear soon afterwards after defeating them.
There will also be skulls appearing once only two enemies remain in the screen,
you can either dodge them or kill them.
The next room that you enter has a potted plant, destroying it will reveal more
steamed buns, if you need it. But if you don't, then leave it until the boss
damages you enough and then destroy the potted plant for the food. On higher
difficulty levels, you could find yellow samurais and basic spearman spawning
in this area before the boss fight, on lower difficulty levels, there will be
no enemies at all. Once you move pass that potted plant, the boss fight will
start.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some tactics you should know when fighting any boss
1) Don't stand on the same horizontal plane as the boss
2) Don't stand next to boss when he/she recovers (due to defensive recovery)
3) Don't launch the boss, unless for self-defense
4) If you hit a boss when it is airborne, it will block.
5) A boss will attempt its most powerful move if it lands from a blocked attack
The Fire Boss
As this is the first boss that new players will see, he is rather easy.
If this is the first time you play against him, use the Up/Down trick on him.
Jumping at him isn't really a great idea, so don't do it. Try your best to
isolate the boss from his minions, or bunch the boss with his minions, then
combo away.
Once you launch him with an attack, stop attacking and use a special, as you
can't hit him while he is airborne. If you do hit him while he is airborne, he
will block that attack (assuming that it was not a special), and upon landing,
he will do his most dangerous attack - the hopping fire explosions.
The hopping fire explosions can occur if he blocks an attack or if he is
standing a long distance away from you. In this attack, fire blazes around his
body and he jumps a total of 3 times, each higher than the previous, and
attempts to smash you while landing. While he is on his apex from the jump, he
will actually track your position but he is not able to change the direction
in which he goes to after this initial tracking.
To put it simply, move sidesways, preferably by sprinting, to avoid the
attack.
If for some reason you cannot avoid that attack, perform a DM, that's down,
up, A+B by the way.
Besides these, there is another strategy, which is rather cheap if I may add,
to defeat the boss. The strategy is what I like to call the plate trap.
Corner the boss on the right end of the screen and then perform the standard
chain. Stop when you reach the 2nd second A and then throw a plate. Start
the standard chain again after that. You can do this for a total of 4 times,
although just 3 is needed to finish the boss.
Once you have defeated him, check your current health. If it is full (or near
full), go to the Italy stage. If it is half or so, then go to the Japan stage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007b] Italy
After that long cutscene, engage the basic swordsmen. There are two chairs and
a table here. The chairs contain bombs while the table has pizza on it. As
usual, do not destroy the table until you took the pizza that is on it.
More basic spearmen and swordsmen will show up, defeat them as using the best
way you used during the China stage. Eventually no more enemies will jump in
your screen and a go arrow prompts you to go to your left.
When that happens, grab the pizza if you need it and destroy the table and
chairs and grab everything. For some reason if you do not need the pizza, then
don't take it and don't destroy the table.
Now stand below the table (if it isn't destroyed) or stand at where the table
was (if it is destroyed) and move slowly towards your left. Once you see
yellow samurais spawning on the bridge, run to your right until you reach the
right screen border. The samurais should stand together and charge at you,
throw your bombs at them. Once they're dead, process across the bridge.
On this screen, there are two wooden barrels. The one on the right contains
a silver coin (100 points) and the one of the left has a jade vase on it. To
grab the jade vase, simply jump on top of the wooden barrel.
A go arrow tell you to move left, do so slowly and run to your right as you
did the last time, and they will gather. Two swordsmen and a yellow samurai
should be not be a big problem.
The same go arrow tells you to move left again, but now there are two basic
spearmen and a yellow samurai. Use your specials here if you have to, or take
cover by getting them stuck at the wooden barrels and dispose of them
appropriately.
Further to your left, there will be yet another two basic swordsmen and a
yellow samurai use the same "running and gathering" tactic as you did
before and they should be no problem.
After you defeat them, on higher difficulty levels, there can be up to 3 female
ninjas spawning at the same places, you can still stick to running and try
to get them to bunch up, but you have to be careful. Whatever the case,
process to the alley that the go arrow is pointing at.
Once again you will see two wooden barrels as you enter this area. Do not
destroy them, however, as you will be far too busy dealing with the female
ninjas to take items from them. The left one contains a 2000-point crystal
ball and the right one has 3 shurikens.
Move a bit further to your right and 4 female ninjas will jump down (probably
from the roof) in at four locations, effectively surrounding you. Run around
the area while jumping and throwing out random jump attacks. Once they are
standing together somehow, use specials to finish them off. Two more female
ninjas will jump down after you finished them off. Female ninjas do drop
kunais and it will help a lot to stock up 9 of them.
When the coast is clear, you can by all means grab the things in the barrels.
Walk to the bottom of the screen and sprint to your right, by doing this, you
should be able to dodge the two yellow samurais. Two more female ninjas will
jump down while you busy with the two yellow samurais - utilise the screen
space as much as you can and use specials if you have to. The last wooden
barrel on your right reveals a 700-point scroll-like object.
Finally, its the last area of the Italy stage. Before you go wild and start
charging across the screen, you might want to get the goodies that are in store
for you in those mailboxes. The one on the left has 5000-point gold bars (wow,
I didn't know people put those in mailboxes) and the one on the right has
steamed buns that you should be familiar with from the China stage.
Once you have grabbed them, move slowly to your right until two female ninjas
run into the screen. Now try to move to either to top of the bottom left of
the screen to prevent more female ninjas from coming into the screen. Don't
move out too far from either corner, unless you feel like dealing with four
female ninjas in a very small screen.
Once the two are down, move to your right and four female ninjas will drop
down from the ceiling in the same way as before, but now you have more screen
space to move around - so it should not be that much of a problem.
When no further enemies spawn, proceed to the boss fight.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okuni
Introduction:
Okuni: What ho! It's been a while, eh?
(I have no idea why "ho" appear in the dialogue, but don't imagine stuff)
Kagetsura/Falcon/Kongoh: Mistress Okuni.
Kurenai: Sister!
Okuni: Along with Byakki, how long have I waited for this moment...?
Okuni: You're a lucky person to embark on your journey to Hades with my special
dance,
Okuni: rumored to be the best in the land. Now here you shall die!
Defeated:
Okuni: I am defeated...
Kagetsura/Falcon/Kongoh: Fight with us, Mistress Okuni.
Kurenai: Fight with us, Sister!
Okuni: N,no! This cannot be. I cannot betray Byakki!
(turns and runs away)
Mistress Okuni also has the same habit as Byakki, that is, you cannot break
your chain combos, or she will counterattack. She is much faster than Byakki
though and she is also lucky to have very annoying female ninjas as her
minions, making this fight particularly tricky. The best combo you can do will
involve kunais, which are freely available in the as there are so many female
ninjas. So after a few attacks, throw all your kunais but do not throw them
when Okuni is outside of the screen and instead do a long range special to
finish the combo.
Her female ninjas like to jump to your back and put you in a bad situation.
In that case use a special to bail yourself out - even if you are in the midst
of a combo on Okuni.
The best thing you can attempt is to line Okuni up with her female ninjas
and then spam your kunais. This will be three-fold. First, it will get rid of
her minions temporarily by killing them. Second, it will charge your power
gauge considerably. Finally and most importantly, it will cause substantial
damage to the boss - even more so if you end the kunai frenzy with a special.
The lack of screen space to run about is one thing that makes this harder than
either Byakki or the Fire Samurai. The same strategies apply, only that you
have to be twice as careful.
Either way, once you win, you should be taken to either the Japan stage or
the Brazil stage without you having to select either one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007c] Japan
At the start, while you jump off from that rooftop, you should be able to see
the plate of a whole chicken on top of a water tank. As usual, if you destroyed
that water tank, the food will be destroyed as well. But getting to there isn't
as simple as a single jump. Instead, you will have jump multiple times,
starting from the square-shaped elevated floor on the top right of this screen.
The chicken brings your health to a full 100%. The water tank on the right
contains 3 bombs.
Since you will be fighting only basic enemies, this area shouldn't be all that
hard. However, if you killed off all the enemies and you haven't took the
chicken, it will be difficult to get the chicken, especially if you are in
control of Kongoh. Therefore, it is recommended to keep one last spearman
alive so that you have more time to get to the chicken for some healing.
When you're done, head to the right and your characters will jump off from
the roof of the building. You will see them in a fall from a rather great
height until the next cutscene, where they land in a rooftop of yet another
building. They don't break any bones or get injured in any way from that
huge fall that they made, which is a mystery.
Once you're in the rooftop which advertises Noise Factory, you have the option
of getting the sandwich contained in the box on top of the screen before
fighting. This shouldn't be needed because the chicken would have done all the
healing you need anyway - unless you are in a two player game.
Either way, moving to the right should result in 4 basic spearmen appearing,
two by two. Defeating them will give you another 4 basic swordsmen to kill.
Do so until the go arrow tells you to move to the right. Run all the way to
the right until you see a weird-looking guy on a cloud of bats (that's the
old man with bats) and run all the way to the left. The old man with bats
should follow you to the extreme left, which will isolate it from the basic
spearman which spawns on the right. If you have shurikens, throw them
slowly on this old man until he dies. If not, use specials. When the old man
dies, he drops gold bars which are worth 5000 points. If you killed him
quickly enough, the basic spearman would still be at the edge of the screen
at the right. Four basic spearmen should be around at this point. However,
you do have a huge screen space to run around to bunch them up and finish
them off. Female ninjas will also spawn at higher difficulties - take
advantage of the large screen space to deal with them as well. Once only
a single enemy is left, you should make your way to the top right of this
level. Finish off this last enemy and jump on top of the red steel I-beam
and sprint non-stop to your right. When the screen shifts to allow you to
move to the right, destroy the potted plant as quickly as possible - a chain
of A,B,A,A,B or air combos work nicely. Grab the handheld - perhaps a NeoGeo
pocket colour, for a cool 10000 points.
Your characters will make their way out of that small corridor and jump from
the centre - instead of jumping off at that place immediately. It doesn't
make any sense if you ask me.
Anyway, now you are at a train station and a train has just left. This is
one of the areas which you could abuse the system where only 4 enemies can
be at the screen at once.
A go arrow prompts you to head right, do so while standing on the yellow
warning line. When the enemies pop up, run to the left. They should follow
you and a few of the basic swordsmen should fall into the lower platform.
Deal with the remaining swordsmen on the same platform as you - if any.
If all the swordsmen fell into the lower platform, then jump off from the
right and kill all of them.
Either way, try to get one or two basic swordsmen to hang around at the
lower part of the level. When that is done, move slowly to your right until
two yellow samurais appear and run to your left. They will charge at you
together so deal with them with either a jumping A or a running B.
Do the same thing again, moving slowly the right and running to the left.
Deal with the two yellow samurais - one of them might jump down the lower
platform but it shouldn't be too much to deal with one or two swordsmen and
one yellow samurai.
When they're settled, two more yellow samurai could spawn - when the machine
is on level 6 and above. Lure them to the train tracks and finish them off.
Once that's done, proceed to the lower right edge of the higher platform -
where two advanced spearmen will spawn at. Throw punches fiercely and then
combo, depending on what the other spearman does, you might need to pull off
a special and retreat to the lower platform. When they are all lured to the
bottom, it is just about doing combos and pulling off specials when you notice
that you are at risk of losing life.
Again, after you defeat them, your character will pull off an amazing
acrobatic feat of jumping up the subway stairs to the city instead of climbing
them.
Once you are outside, you should see three telephone booths and a street
sign. Unfortunately, only the street sign can be destroyed. If you need
healing, the cup noodles from the street sign does help quite a lot. If
you do not want the enemies to spawn yet while you heal, you need to stand
as close to the left of the cup noodles as possible.
When you're ready, move to the right and two basic swordsmen and an advanced
spearman will spawn. The advanced spearman will throw his spear as he enters
the screen and you should stay out of the way. At this point, instead of
killing everybody, you can try and get rid of only the advanced spearman.
Doing so will make sure that you do not have to deal with two advanced
swordsmen and two advanced spearmen simultaneously. This is rather hard
to pull off in one player. But in a two-player game, the other player could
play as Kongoh and carry around one basic swordsman while the other player
gets rid of the rest of the enemies that come in groups of two.
Things can get very messy here as more advanced spearmen, swordsmen and
yellow samurais spawn. Use your specials here liberally. When no more
enemies appear, run to the right and run back. Two yellow samurais
will line up for your slashing pleasure.
Move to the right again and you will see a projectile fly towards you, and
your character will automatically jump to avoid it. A boss fight ensures.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byakki
Introduction:
Falcon/Kurenai/Kongoh: Lord Byakki!
Kagetsura: Brother!
Byakki: Now here's a howdy-do, sires...
(At least "sires" is much better than "ho")
Byakki: You shall now taste the rage of one who was falsely accused and
banished from the clan.
You: Falsely accused?! Just what was behind your sudden disppearence?
Byakki: I was framed! No one believed me... save Mistress Okuni...
Byakki: Bah! Enough idle words, sires! 'Tis time for action!!
Defeated:
Byakki: Quickly! Finish me off!
You: Do you not share a similar duty? I beg of you, fight with me!
Byakki: Argh! What now...? You'll regret your foolish mercy!
(turns and runs)
Magically, you will see that Byakki still has his blade with him, despite the
fact that it has flown away to the far left of the screen. This man has a nasty
habit of interrupting attacks that do not chain properly with his own attacks
- this makes sure that if you do attack him make sure you press your buttons
right. While he is a reasonably easy boss to defeat, his spearman minions make
your job slightly more complicated.
He isn't really much of a concern as he is completely helpless when he is not
in the same horizontal plane as you. You cannot really afford long combos on
this boss as he has spearman minions to assist him. Always strive to protect
yourself and put damaging the boss as the second priority.
When you are in the same horizontal plane as him but he is far away, he would
do a running jump B on you, something which you can easily avoid by moving up
or down.
Use the same strategy as you would deal with the fire samurai to deal with him,
he really isn't that hard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007d] Brazil
After you defeated your third boss, your character(s) will begin to walk to the
left, only to find themselves surrounded by the top halves of monsters. Okuni
and Byakki appears and Byakki does his DM to save you.
Okuni: I could not leave you to foul destiny's hands...
Byakki: If I let this opportunity go by, I am but a traitor.
Byakki: Say you believe in me now, and I will join you in battle.
You: Well then, let's slice and dice some booty!
The character select screen will show again and you may now select Okuni and
Byakki.
At the start, you are treated to a little boat ride. The boat that is used
is the same as the one that you see in Italy. You should be able to see two
interesting looking stone totems. The one on the right contains a crystal ball
while the one of the left contains rice balls.
If you are selecting either of the "boss" characters, repeatedly body bashing
into the totems would charge up about 1 power bar each.
Proceed to the right and you will encounter frogs. Deal with frogs by doing
running Bs and then combo. From this point onwards, it would be helpful to
stock up on bombs.
When the frogs are dead, a go arrow points to the right. Run and jump towards
that direction and should now be standing behind two monsters and more frogs.
Do a simple standing combo - end it with a special if you wish. Air combos
are not really recommended at this point, as frogs could easily nail you in
mid-air.
When the coast is clear, you can bash the wall on the right to charge up more
power. Be careful though, as you can accidentally destroy the wall with a bash
which will result in you in taking the longer path.
If you are a first-timer and do not want to waste credits, you should go up
the platform at the top. If you just want to see what's so interesting about
that hole in the wall, then by all means proceed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you went up by the elevated platform, skip this whole section. If not,
read on. Now that you have entered this underground passage of sorts, the
first thing that attracts your attention should be the chasms of fire and
spiked flooring that are ahead of you.
You do not need to face any enemies yet, besides that fire chasms and spikes
(if you consider those to be enemies). Common sense should tell you to jump
over the obstacles. do so. The first jump is not that hard. If you are having
problems, try standing as close to the spikes or fire chasms as possible and do
a normal jump.
On this first platform where you jumped to, there is a totem containing
cup noodles if you need healing. Move further to the right and faces will
show up. Faces are rather predictable opponents that you can treat as
frogs. You can do air combos on them - but the fire chasms will make that
quite difficult to achieve. Either way, you will be facing quite a lot
of these floating freaks while being careful not to touch the fires on the
floor.
Upon exiting the dungeon, you will encounter more faces and you should already
have stocked up on bombs already. When they're dead, move right and four
monsters will magically appear in your screen. Move up a bit and kill them
quickly and stay around that area with the totem. Destroy the totem and pick
up the green bottle (looks like poison) to heal.
Faces should get stuck on the left, move over there and finish them off. Move
over to the next area.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you enter this area, you should be able to see the pyramids in the
background. Besides the pyramids, there are also 3 frog statues that look
deceptively like the frogs you encountered before. In a short while, you will
see the statues come to life. You shouldn't stand next to them, however, as
they will do their defensive recoveries. Kill them off quickly. Destroy the
top totem for a sandwich and the bottom totem for bombs.
Move to the right and kill the two more frogs that appear. When they're dead
run all the way to the right while staying at the centre of the screen. If
you do it right, you should be standing right behind an advanced samurai. Do
a quick combo on him and end it with a special when the advanced spearmen
are about to hit you. The samurai should be dead first and two more advanced
spearmen will throw their spears to signal their arrival. When this happens,
you should run around the screen in an attempt to gather the spearmen together.
Since advanced spearmen move quickly and have a long range a large group
consisting of 4 of them will make them very difficult to handle - you may want
to use specials here.
Now move to the top of the screen and sprint to the right. A blaze of fire
should sweep across the screen rapidly - that's the phoenix.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Phoenix
The phoenix has four attacks. The phoenix is only invulnerable during its
defensive escape.
This first one is the flaming charge (it looks suspiciously similar to Falcon's
"Flight of the Phoenix" special), which is easily avoided by walking up or
down. The second one, the diving attack, is slightly more difficult to avoid.
However, the cry of the phoenix can be heard before it actually does the attack
and gives you ample time to prepare. The diving attack must follow a flaming
charge and is the only time the phoenix will/can do it.
If the phoenix leaves the screen with the anything except a flaming charge, it
will perform an off-screen flaming charge.
If it stays in the screen, it will do either the lightning flap (which is fast
but can only hit horizontally) or the fireballs (which fans out but is slow) .
If you manage to launch the phoenix, you can actually combo it in the air.
However, after exactly ten hits, the phoenix will perform a defensive escape,
which is basically just flying away, into charge and then dive.
If you stand next to the phoenix when it recovers, it will go into
super-armour mode and cannot be knocked down, raining fireballs at the same
time. In this situation, characters like Byakki can spam his reserve of
weapons (Especially bombs!) and cause horrendous damage to the phoenix, usually
to the point of killing it, since Byakki throws weapons so damn quickly.
One last point of note: the phoenix's flaming tail can damage you if you stand
too near it. So in a two player game, players should stand on the same side to
so to avoid getting burned by the tail.
When its dead, collect the gold bars that are dropped.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that long jump, you are now at the stage where you will fight the boss.
But before that, you might want to destroy the wooden barrels to get items. The
lower one contains a chicken while the one on top contains bombs. It is
possible to get only the bombs without engaging the enemy. An old man with bats
and two advanced samurais will appear to give you problems, I advise that you
get rid of "batman" first. Move to the left to fight the frog boss.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Frog Boss
The boss has only two attacks. Both attacks have the same "reaching to my
backpack" startup animation. Although both attacks are very damaging, they are
way too predictable to be actually of any concern.
The first attack is where he pulls out an arm-supported cannon and fires a
cannonball. The cannonball splits itself in a wave like fashion and effectively
covers the whole screen ahead of him. It is, however, decently easy to jump
over the cannonball shot. Less experienced players can choose to perform
specials to avoid the blast. The boss is completely vulnerable throughout this
attack and you can actually disrupt the shot by attacking him before he blasts
his cannon.
In his second attack, he pulls out a sword and briefly slashes forwards. He is
invincible throughout this attack's duration and, if used as a defensive
recovery, hits instantly.
He will only attempt the sword slash attack if you were standing reasonably
close to him. He will try his cannonball blast in all other situations.
With these in mind, you can bait him to do his cannonball blast by standing a
good distance away or above/below him and punish him after that. Just be
careful of the frogs and their defensive recoveries.
When he's dead, its time for the USA stage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
[007e] USA
When you jump into this area from who knows where, you should be able to see
a motorbike like the one in the China stage. It contains plates, which are
useless (from this point on), so don't bother picking them up. You can body
bash the bike to charge up power nonetheless and it is good to have it out of
the way for more screen space.
Move to the right and you will encounter three red vultures. These birds are
even more annoying than female ninjas. However, since they are the basic
version of vultures, they will not do their diving attack that often. So if
you kept them in your screen, they should be manageable. Even as they jump into
the screen, they can do their defensive recoveries, so you should stay away.
Walking up or down is great way to avoid them. Stock up on the useful kunais
that they drop.
Once no more of those birds spawn, move slowly to your right as guided by the
go arrow. When you see enemies appear, run to your left. The houndsmaster,
along with two advanced samurais, should gather nicely in a bunch for you to
kill. When they're dead, two basic vultures and two advanced spearmen will
come and join the fun, use specials liberally. When they're dead, head over
to the right and destroy the stop sign for a hamburger. Do not move too far
to the right though, or you could lose the chance of getting to pick it up.
Two choices are given to you at this point. You can either follow the road
for advanced female ninjas, hellhounds and basic vultures or jump down to
the sewers where you will encounter frogs and faces.
I recommend that you go to the bottom path for it is much easier. However,
going the top path allows you, in a two-player game, to stock up full on
kunais. Unlike in the Brazil stage, none of the paths are actually shortcuts,
they are just alternate paths leading to the boss fight.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The top path
When you enter this area, you will see three red vultures on top of the wall.
Jump up and run all the way to the right and then jump down from the wall. The
vultures will awaken and charge at you, but they will miss. Try to finish them
off together, or you will have a problem when the hellhounds come.
If you didn't manage to kill off all the vultures and the hellhounds appear,
do a DM.
Once they're all dead, move along the lower path, following the go arrow. 2
basic and 2 advanced female ninjas should appear on top of the wall. When
they do, run to your left. If you need a bit of healing, you can jump up to
the top of the wall from that position and run to the right. There is a potted
plant containing a burger.
If there are no vulture at any point of time, you can take advantage of the
block of wall at the centre of the level to block your enemies. All you need to
do is to stand on one side of the wall and enemies will pile up on the opposite
side. Use specials to get rid of them when they do.
Once they're all dead, jump on top of the wall and run to your right, jump off
the wall when you reached the edge of it. By doing so, you should be standing
next to the houndsmaster. Grab him and throw him to the left, this will knock
down the hellhounds along with the houndsmaster, where they can be easily
dealt with.
Move towards the top right and destroy the brown-coloured steel barrel that is
above the hole which you are supposed to jump down. It contains another
handheld worth 5000 points. This time given to you to grab it is very short
though.
Skip the next section for info about the boss fight.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The bottom path
If you chose this path, then you will end up in a rather similar situation as
the one you had when you chose the bottom path in Brazil.
Initially, you only have to deal with faces in a wide, open area. Keep your
eyes open for blue skulls and avoid them as well.
Further on in the next screen, you will have to deal with frogs, faces as well
as electric fences. These fences have a wider hit area then it seems. Try to
get to less constricted areas with less fencing and finish them off. Spits and
electric fences will make staying unharmed difficult, so use bombs if you have
them - they are not very useful against the boss.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lightning Boss
This boss is a major pain to deal with. He possess an extremely annoying
multiple lightning spheres attack as well as a plethora of moves that grant him
annoyingly long invincibility. To top it off, he has brown spearmen and
occasionally green samurais to complicate matters.
You should know that it is very very easy to lose health in this fight. You
need to be constantly on your toes in order to defeat him unscathed.
The lightning boss always starts the match with a lightning sphere attack.
Anticipating that, dash jump towards him. This will land you at a very
advantageous position far from his minions. Immediately use a special, or jump
away, when any of the lightning spheres risk touching you. I advise that you
only attack him after he finishes a slow attack, like his teleport attack, as
his attacks makes his whole body electrified, damaging you when you go near
him.
There is a way to do extreme damage to the boss and it is quite possible to
finish him in one combo. However, this is rather hard to pull off.
First, you must be controlling Byakki for this to work. Start off the fight by
gathering the lightning boss with his minions to either side of the screen.
Use the A+B+C defensive escape if you have to.
The moment they are bunched together, combo them with B,B,B,A,B,A,A and then
throw all 9 kunais. His minions should be dead by now. Once you are done
unloading, do his A special. Even though bosses are able to block normal moves,
they are unable to block specials. This means that you can juggle the boss
repeatedly in the corner with Byakki's A special and potentially kill him off
in one painful combo.
You now have one last stage to defeat - Kyoto</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
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[007f] Kyoto
Unlike other stages, you do not start off with a fight immediately. Instead
you will see your characters jump into a hole formed at a zebra crossing. To
deal with the door boss you will face later, you should stock up on bombs at
this point onwards.
Once you jumped down, you will not encounter enemies immediately. Instead, you
need to move to the right and 4 advanced swordsmen should appear. Utilise the
screen space as much as you can, running and jumping to gather the enemies and
take them out.
Waves of advanced enemies will appear, 4 by 4, in this sequence: Spearmen,
samurais, hellhounds. Followed by two green samurais and two houndsmasters.
After those, you will encounter one of the most irritating enemies in the
game - advanced vultures. Advanced vultures like spamming their diving attack
a lot and this makes them very difficult to handle in groups. If there is just
one normal enemy worth using specials on, it is them.
Further down, you should encounter a houndsmaster and two hellhounds. Lure
the hellhounds and finish them off. After that, bring the houndsmaster to the
far left, throwing him if necessary. Keep him alive and grab the buns contained
in the barrel in the far right. Finish the houndsmaster off after grabbing the
buns.
When you move ahead again 4 of the damn advanced vultures should drop into the
screen. Run as far left as you can to try and get them together. Use specials.
Once they're dead, two more advanced vultures and two advances samurais should
appear. Kill them using specials as well.
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The Door Boss
The door boss, possibly the easiest boss in the game, has a major weakness - it
cannot do any form or defensive recovery or defensive escape and can't be
"tripped".
Two things in the game work exceptionally well on this boss - bombs and
Falcon's B special. Since the boss cannot be knocked down, bombs will
hit the boss twice for ridiculous damage, so characters like, again, Byakki and
Kagetsura, with their insane throwing speed, can finish the boss in seconds.
Working in the same way as bombs, Falcon's fire wing special can hit the boss
twice - Once during the conjuration of the wings and once during the launching
of them - also causing great damage.
At the start of the fight, dash straight into him, do B,B,B,A,B,A,A and throw
all your bombs on it. The fight will finish so quickly you'd laugh.
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In this section, you should run to your right as quickly as possible and avoid
the spears thrown by the advanced spearmen. Combo them as they bunch up. 3 more
advanced spearmen should come from the right. Avoid their spears, gather them
up and then finish them off. More screen space is available to do that.
Finish off the proceeding waves of advanced swordsmen in this fashion as well.
When you killed off 6 advanced swordsmen, 4 monsters will appear in the screen.
Bunch them together while avoiding the heads and then finish them off.
Two more advanced female ninjas should appear later, but you can take advantage
of the wide area you can run about. When you finished the two of them, four
more will jump down in a similar fashion as the monsters. Again, run around,
gather, and kill.
When the four ladies are down, two more will appear. You have to be careful at
this point or you'll accidentally trigger the boss fight with these female
ninjas. Do not move past the wooden barrel.
The screen space will suddenly get restricted - but it should not be too hard
dealing with two advanced female ninjas.
When you are ready, destroy the wooden barrel and carefully pick up the cup
noodles - if you need it.
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Second encounter of The Fire Boss
He is pretty much the same as before, except he has a different colour and he
apparently loves to do the hopping fire explosions.
You can take advantage of his jumping habit and isolate him from his minions.
This is not a true boss fight, so it means that the minions that are spawned
have a limit and will stop spawning if you kill enough of them. Before you
carry that out, let me tell you that it is a very painful affair to eliminate
his minions while the boss is pounding the ground with his jumps.
So what you should to do is the exact opposite - kill the boss as quickly as
possible and get rid of the minions later.
The boss doesn't have much life and two long combos will be able to kill him.
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In this area, you should be able to see gaps with spikes in them. Approach the
spikes from the bottom of the screen and jump across, you should be able to
avoid the yellow skulls this way. Finish off the faces while keeping on the
left edge of the level. There is another wooden barrel containing cup noodles
somewhere at the centre of the level if you need it. Once those faces are dead,
celebrate and throw confetti, for you won't see any of them anymore.
Jump across the spikes and you see yet another wooden barrel. It contains
buns.
If you do not take it before the enemies appear then you probably won't be able
to take it without being interrupted, so it will be helpful to do a A+B+C
defensive escape and grab it. In this tiny area, you will face a swordsman,
spearman, 2 samurais and 2 female ninjas, all in their advanced forms. This is
probably the hardest normal fight of the game, so use specials like there's no
tomorrow.
When that's done, the last two old men with bats will jump in for a fight. They
most probably won't stand together, so you should kill them separately. If they
do stand together, make them regret it.
It's time for the last boss in the game.
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"The Timeless Soul"
You: It is not too late. The evil deity has not yet revived completely.
You: Then we must not miss this golden opportunity!
Evil: My resurrection is ineluctable. No one can stop it!
Instead of standing in awe, run to the right as fast as you can at the start,
or you will get hit by an advanced swordsman.
The last boss, a.k.a "The Timeless Soul", presents a great challenge. He has a
highly damaging 3-hit combo that takes away 60% and players with average
reaction times will likely take at least two hits before using a special to
avoid further damage. In this case, the two hits will still do about 40%
damage.
The trademark move of this boss, however, has to be the full screen attack.
The boss holds up his blade and has a fiery aura around him. The screen then
turns purple and blue. Soon after many a row of skulls will appear and start
to streak horizontally across the screen - this happens a total of four times.
A Kanji/Chinese character appears in the background, read in Chinese as "Yuan",
throughout the whole attack. His full screen attack will hereafter be known
as "Yuan".
Do not try to attack him while he is in this stance, he is completely
invincible. Furthermore, if you come into contact with his burning body you
will lose a hell lot of life.
Do not use due to "Yuan":
Kagetsura: Lightning Flash Attack
Falcon: Devouring Flames
Kurenai: Kurenai's Slicing Blade
Although you are highly recommended to use specials on this boss to do as much
damage as possible, using these specials on him will usually result in him
doing his "Yuan", which equates to mega ouch. This is especially so for Falcon.
Let's say you chained into his devouring flames. After connecting the flaming
uppercut, you will be stuck in many recovery frames, all while standing right
next to the boss, where he will most likely do his "Yuan".
Now for the skulls, unlike yellow or blue skulls earlier in the game, they
cannot be destroyed with normal means - that is to say, attacks or specials.
This means that the only real choice of avoiding it will be either jumping or
hitting an enemy while the skulls moves past.
While the boss can throw out his "Yuan" at anytime he wishes, he generally only
does it when you stand quite near to him and if you broke a combo.
In the case which you are stuck in a bad situation where you are surrounded and
the boss pulls off this annoying attack, you can use a DM to bail yourself out.
The DM actually cancels out his "Yuan" and make all the skulls vaporise.
However, if you stand close to the boss and execute a DM, you will likely get
attacked afterwards because there is recovery lag from the DM and the boss
doesn't get knocked down.
This boss does like to block slash attacks, basically meaning that you will
usually have to resort to using nothing but punches or kicks. He doesn't block
the first attack that is made on him that is done with a slash, but he will
block everything after that slash is made.
To play it safe, do a B,B,B,B,B combo and then dash away. Rinse and repeat.
There are, however, two ways in which you can do major damage to him. The
first way is done with Byakki.
First, combo him with an all B combo into a last A, that is, to press the B
button to get five hits on the boss, press A to get him to throw his weapon
and then cancel it into his A special. Byakki will recover from the A special
before the boss does, and he is able to walk down a little. The boss will then
follow Byakki down, where you can pull off the same thing again. In fact, it is
possible to drive the boss into healing in four of such sequences, without
ever excite him enough to pull off his "Yuan".
The other way can be achieved with any other character, the only condition is
to have a large reserve of bombs and then start throwing it on him. The only
difference between throwing bombs on the last boss compared to the Phoenix and
the Evil Door boss is that you should not throw it in quick succession.
Instead, you should wait a short while before each toss, such that each bomb
will touch the boss once it has recovered from the previous one. There is no
better setup to this other than throwing it directly, if you cancelled into
throwing the bomb from any of your normal sequence of attacks, chances are he
will pull off his "Yuan".
If you do not mind this minor spoiler, read on.
Evil: Goowhoa! The vendetta entrusted to me... will not be buried in the
earth's bowels a second time...
(melts away in a pink mess)
You: Vendettas guide people to misery, now return to the darkness.
Evil: I will arise again, whenever and wherever one has need for my power!
(Envelopes in dark smoke and disappears)
You: (Walks towards the left, leaving the screen)
Kagetsura: Our job is done...
Falcon: We cannot escape the gravity of this age.
Kongoh: But before the evil one awakes again, other ninjas will be raised to
follow in our footsteps.
Byakki: And the timeless weapons, too, shall serve new masters.
Kagetsura: Well then, I know not when, but I swear this: we'll meet again...
(All runs and jumps away to the left)
(Notice how only the men talk)
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[008] Contacts and special thanks
My email is corlist (at) hotmail )dot( com
That's without the parenthesis and replacing at with @ and replacing dot with
a full stop.
Email me if you have questions about the game or want to suggest some kind of
strategies. Emails pointing out grammar or spelling mistakes are also welcome.
Please put the title of the email you want to send "Sengoku 3 FAQ".
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Special thanks to
SNK Playmore (c) / Noise Factory
For developing and publishing this classic
Mr. Steven89
For showing me this game and for being an amazing Kurenai player
Some of the text inside is actually written by him, so if you find that some
parts of the FAQ seems to be of a different tone, it is because I couldn't
bring myself to change them.
My keyboard
For withstanding 42 pages of torture
Myself
For realising my dream of writing an FAQ/Walkthrough
My daughters
For healing my soul when it felt broken and for always being there... still
Both of you are indeed a very strong motivational force while I am writing this
FAQs.
You
For reading
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Sengoku 3 FAQ v1.2
Copyright (c) CT, Chua 2007-2008
