Mahjong Fight Club (DS) Guide by Barticle at hotmail.com - Ver. 1.02 - 16/09/12
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| __| ___ | __|| || ||__ __| | __|| | | || || () |
| _| | || | || | ~~| |~~ | |__ | |__ | || || <
| |~ | || | || || | | | | || || || () |
|___| |___||______||___||___| |___| |______||______||________||_______|
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01 INTRODUCTION 05 CONTROLS 09 ONLINE PLAY 13 RULES
02 FEATURE LIST 06 GAMEPLAY 10 MISSION MODE 14 MANUAL REFERENCE
03 BEGINNING PLAY 07 INDIVIDUAL PLAY 11 RECORDS 15 CONTACT
04 MAIN MENU 08 RANKING 12 OPTIONS 16 THANKS
------< INTRODUCTION >-------------------------------------------- [Section 01]
This is a guide to the 2006 Japanese DS video-game Mahjong Fight Club* DS Wi-Fi
Taiou (or "MFC" for short). I wrote a guide to the PS3 version of MFC last year
so, I'll admit, much of the content here has been adapted from that. There's a
lot of little differences though so I've reworked or rewritten much of this.
I've tried to use both Japanese and the equivalent English mahjong terminology
throughout this guide, in most cases giving the oriental term first and the
English version afterwards in brackets. I know that some purists will object to
my use of the terms Chow, Pung and Kong when referring to Japanese mahjong but
these are the words I learnt from my first mahjong game and they've been pretty
much standard in English texts on mahjong for around ninety years so I'm quite
comfortable with their use here.
Obviously if you can read Japanese you'll be able to read the instruction manual
and the menus in the game so this guide is aimed primarily at English speakers.
You shouldn't be daunted by the Japanese text as there are only a few short
menus and options pages. The layout of these is mirrored in this guide so you
should be able to find your way around the game without any difficulty.
To limit the length of this document I've decided to omit full details of the
rules and equipment of mahjong on the assumption that anyone buying this game
will probably already be familiar with them. If you are new to the game, or you
play a version other than the modern Japanese "Riichi" rules that appear in this
game, then you might like to read my complete guide to the terminology and rules
of Japanese mahjong. It's available as a 78-page, illustrated, linked PDF and
can be accessed from the United States Pro Mahjong League download page.
http://www.uspml.com/site/downloads.htm (Barticle's Japanese Mahjong Guide)
Also if you want help following some of the Japanese text in the game then take
a peek at the translation chart I made last year for the PS3 version of MFC.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/935678-mahjong-fight-club-zenkoku-taisenban/faqs
If you want to discuss Japanese mahjong then join the international community of
enthusiasts on Reach Mahjong's English forums. Hope to see you there. :)
http://www.reachmahjong.com/en/forum
This guide is designed to be viewed using a monospaced (non-proportional or
fixed-width) font, preferably Courier New. Some sections of the document will
display incorrectly if you are using a proportional font like Times New Roman.
*The original Japanese title is Maajan Kakutou Kurabu DS which, of course, means
Mahjong Fight Club DS; on the box cover this is also spelt using the katakana
script as Maajan Faito Kurabu. The word Kurabu is interesting - it's a trans-
literation of the English word "club" (Japanese has no L sound so this becomes
an R) but instead of being spelt in katakana in the main title, which would be
usual for a loanword, it's instead spelt out in kanji, using an older system
called Ateji. It's quite clever because not only do the three kanji spell the
Japanese rendering of the English word but they can also be loosely translated
as "together fun place" which could be taken as a definition of the word "club"!
The game's subtitle, given in red kanji beneath the main title on the cover, is
Wi-Fi Taiou which means "wi-fi support", a reference to the game's online play
option. The text above the main title is Nihon Puro Maajan Renmei Kounin, or
"Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML) licensed".
------< FEATURE LIST >-------------------------------------------- [Section 02]
Since it can be difficult to find any detailed information in English about the
content of a foreign game I like to include a quick description of the gameplay
features when I write a guide for a Japanese game - so here it is!
o Download Play and Wireless Play for 2 to 4 players
o play against characters based on real JPML pros
o Mission Mode with 36 mahjong challenges (see Section 10 below)
o online play works outside Japan and doesn't need a subscription
o two save slots for separate player profiles
o save up to 16 hands and watch replays later
o record scores from 32 series of six real-life matches
o modern Japanese mahjong rules including Riichi, Dora and red fives
o thirty-six user-defined rules in Free Rules mode (see Section 13)
o Dora and Riichi alerts
o Tenpai display to show your waits and which discard/s would make you Furiten
o option to auto-reject melds to keep hand concealed
o option to highlight Tsumogiri (a drawn tile discarded immediately)
o jump to your Tsumo (drawn tile) with a single button press
o magnified hand display and big command menu suits finger input on touchscreen
o unlockable wallpaper, tile-sets and music
o hugely comprehensive player stats (see Section 11)
o 40-page full colour manual
o Japanese language only
Overall I can say that Mahjong Fight Club is easily the best mahjong game I've
seen on the Nintendo DS. (Konami didn't pay me to say that - maybe they should!)
------< BEGINNING PLAY >------------------------------------------ [Section 03]
While the vast majority of the game uses Japanese text, your first instruction
is in English. Enjoy it while it lasts, then "Press Start Button" like it says,
or tap the touchscreen if you prefer.
The first menu you're shown is a simple one with only two options:
.----------------------.
| Start Game |
'----------------------'
.----------------------.
| Quick Play |
'----------------------'
You can use the second one to jump straight into a game on a guest account. This
will be a one-round match played under Fight Club Rules (see Section 13) and,
because you're not playing under your player profile, your usual config settings
(like music off!) will not be applied and it won't contribute to your stats.
Alternatively you can select the first one if you want to create or use a player
profile and have access to the full range of modes, functions and options.
If you pick the first option you'll be taken to the Player Selection screen. You
can choose between two save slots on the touchscreen. For existing profiles the
top screen will show the player name, number of hours played (matches only) and
ranks in both online and offline play. The touchscreen will show the name plus
the date and time the data was last saved. Press A to select a profile, X to
delete one (then top option to confirm) or B to return to the top menu.
When you pick an empty slot you'll need to enter a username for the new profile.
You'll be given an on-screen keyboard with the Japanese hiragana characters but
you can also press X to cycle between this, katakana script and English capital
letters. Tap the green button (or press B) for backspace delete or the red one
to confirm and continue.
(The same name will be used for both online and offline play so choose wisely!)
You'll notice that you can only input up to five characters for your name. This
seems a little short by western standards but since each kana represents a
syllable (or technically a mora) in Japanese you have enough for five syllables.
Even if you're unfamiliar with Japanese writing systems you might like to play
around with writing your name in kana. Look up "katakana" on Wikipedia for more
information and a good conversion table.
The second thing you have to do is to choose which part of Japan to represent.
There are two stages to this - first you pick a region and then a prefecture
within that region. The regions are presented to you in the form of a map, in
the following order (from bottom-left to top-right).
| | | number of
| colour | region/s | prefectures
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
1 | pink | Kyuushuu and the Okinawa archipelago | 8
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
2 | orange | Chuugoku and Shikoku | 9
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
3 | yellow | Kinki (also known as Kansai) | 6
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
4 | purple | Chuubu and Hokuriku | 10
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
5 | lime green | Kantou | 7
---+------------+--------------------------------------+-------------
6 | dark green | Hokkaidou and Touhoku | 7
This map is identical to the one in the PS3 version of MFC except that it adds
one further option in the top-left corner of the screen - this has two kanji
characters spelling the word Kaigai which means "overseas". Pick this and you
get to choose between Hong Kong (on the left) and Taiwan (on the right).
It doesn't really matter what you select here. I don't have any affiliation to
any specific part of Japan so I chose Chiba-ken as my prefecture since this is
home to the Mahjong Museum. :)
After this you need to confirm your choice of name and territory. Pick the top
option (yes) to accept. Once these preliminaries are complete you'll be taken to
the main menu and many happy hours of mahjong gaming pleasure await you!
------< MAIN MENU >----------------------------------------------- [Section 04]
The main menu for the game has the following five options:-
.---------------------.
| Individual Play | - see Section 07
'---------------------'
.---------------------.
| Online Play | - see Section 09
'---------------------'
.---------------------.
| Mission Mode | - see Section 10
'---------------------'
.---------------------.
| View Records | - see Section 11
'---------------------'
.---------------------.
| Options | - see Section 12
'---------------------'
The next couple of sections explain how to play the game. The following sections
then explain the modes and options available.
------< CONTROLS >------------------------------------------------ [Section 05]
This section discusses the controls that are available during a mahjong match.
A menu bar is shown along the top of the touchscreen with five tabs as follows:
_________ _________ _________ _________ _________
| || || || || |
|_________||_________||_________||_________||_________|
| | | | |
command (red) ----' | | | '---- info (blue)
| | |
auto-win (yellow) ----' no calls (purple) '---- thinking time (green)
These are explained below in conjunction with the button controls.
d-pad up - re-open Command pop-up menu when available
(or red tab)
One of two pop-up menus will appear when you can make some
sort of special action (see below).
The menu will appear automatically except in situations where
you have rejected an option (i.e. to declare Riichi or to
declare a Kong using a self-drawn tile) and that option is
still available on subsequent turns.
Rather than bother you with constant pop-ups, the red Command
tab on the menu bar will start flashing and you can press up
on the d-pad to re-open the pop-up menu.
You can also open it by tapping the red tab on the menu bar.
A or L button - select tile
- discard selected tile
- confirm selected menu option
You need to press A (or L) twice in order to discard a tile.
On the first press the tile becomes selected (and appears
raised above the others) and on the second it is discarded.
The same applies if you use the touchscreen - tap a tile once
to select then again to discard.
(NB if a tile is already selected (i.e. in a raised position)
then you only need to press/tap once to discard it)
d-pad down - cancel pop-up menu
B button - cancel pop-up menu
- toggle between current tile and the one just drawn
(NB the default option on the Chii/Pon/Kan pop-up menu is to
cancel so you can also dismiss the menu by just pressing A)
d-pad left/right - choose tile
- select option on pop-up menu
(NB to save time you can move the cursor along your tiles
while your opponents are still taking their turns)
X button - extra thinking time
(or green tab)
This control is only relevant when you have the time-limit
option applied (see Section 12). You can use this option
once per hand to be given an extra ten seconds to make your
move. The on-screen control is labelled Choukou which means
"lengthy consideration" (literally "long think").
You can also activate this function by tapping the green tab
on the menu bar.
(NB online games are always played with the time-limit)
Y button - calls allowed on/off
(or purple tab)
This toggles a mode which automatically rejects any offers to
steal discards to make sets (Chii, Pon or Kan), except when
you're Tenpai and can call Ron of course.
The two kanji on the on-screen button are an abbreviation of
Naki Nashi which means "without calls".
You can also activate this function by tapping the purple tab
on the menu bar. When the tab is highlighted you're in
"through" mode and all calls will be rejected.
Select button - confirm rule settings
(hold)
This shows the rule options in force in the current game,
either the Fight Club Rules or your own custom rule-set as
appropriate. These are shown on the top screen over seven
pages in the same layout used in the rule options screens.
While holding Select, press L/R to page through the rules.
Start button - suspend match
When you press Start you'll get two options. Pick the right
one (or press B) to return to the game. Pick the left option
to exit the current game.
The next time you select individual play (top option) off the
main menu you'll be given a single menu option. Pick this and
then take the top option (yes) to resume the previous game.
(or bottom then top to start a new one - and accept the
consequences on your stats if it was a ranking match!)
R button (hold) - display player information panels
(or blue tab)
This control shows the players' names, ranks and scores on
the top screen. The display is explained in Section 06.
The little black box in the top-right corner shows the match
duration (green text = one round, magenta text = two rounds),
the number of Riichi sticks on the table and the number of
Honba counters currently applied.
If playing in Mission Mode (see Section 10) your objective
and progress will be shown at the bottom of the touchscreen.
You can also hold the blue tab on the menu bar to achieve the
same effect as holding the R button.
yellow tab - automatic win on/off
When the on-screen button is illuminated the game will
automatically claim a win for you at the first available
opportunity, regardless of whether it's by Ron or Tsumo, or
if you have the option of completing a higher-scoring hand.
I guess they ran out of buttons because it seems you can only
activate this by using the touchscreen menu bar.
There are two different command pop-up menus that appear on the touchscreen when
one or more actions are available to you. It's easy to tell them apart as one
has five buttons and the other has four. Any actions that are unavailable will
be greyed out.* _______ _______ _______ _______ _______
| || || || || |
| || || || || |
| || || || || |
|_______||_______||_______||_______||_______|
| | | | |
Chii (call Chow) ----' | | | '---- Tsugi e (next)
| | |
Pon (call Pung) ----' Kan (call Kong) '---- Agari (declare win)
_______ _______ _______ _______
| || || | | |
| || || | | |
| || || | | |
|_______||_______||_______| |_______|
| | | |
Riichi (ready bet) ----' | | '---- Kyanseru (cancel)
| |
Kan (declare a Kong) ----' '---- Agari (declare win)
In keeping with the overall Chinese theme of the game, the buttons are marked
with kanji characters. However each also has a label above written using the
Japanese katakana script. The following terms are used...
-----
__|__ _____ CHII
| - call Chow (steal a discard tile to complete a Chow set)
/
__|__o \
| / PON
/ | \ / - call Pung (steal a discard tile to complete a Pung set)
.' /
_|__ \
| | / KAN
| | / - call Kong (steal a discard tile to make a Kong set)
/ / / - declare a Kong using a self-drawn tile
_____ _|__ " | |
./ | | | | AGARI
| | | / - declare a win (can be either Tsumo or Ron)
/ / / /
\ /____ /\
/ /\ ' / \ TSUGI E
| / \ \ - skip to the next tile (i.e. reject the option to call)
| / \
| | -----
| | ____ __|__ RIICHI
/ | - declare Riichi (make a ready bet)
/ /
\/ \ | | |
/\/ _|__ / --+--. | | KYANSERU
/\ | _) / | | | / - literally "cancel" (dismiss the pop-up)
\ | / '-- \| |/
(If you want to see those represented more neatly then check the top row of the
translation chart I made for the PS3 version of Mahjong Fight Club.)
The Next/Cancel button is always coloured red (and on the right), the Win button
is yellow and the others are blue. Dismiss the menu by pressing d-pad down, or
by pressing B or by selecting the red button and pressing A.
*Often you will have a choice of several options on the pop-ups, depending on
the current situation. On one occasion while playing MFC PS3, where I was Tenpai
and had a waiting group of 11123 tiles in the same suit, the player to my left
dropped the fourth 1 tile in the same suit and, unusually, I had a choice of
Pon, Chii, Kan or Agari at the same time. True story!
------< GAMEPLAY >------------------------------------------------ [Section 06]
This section covers the actual process of playing a game.
At the start of a match you'll be shown your three opponents. If there are any
pro characters they'll pop up on the top screen and introduce themselves.
Each player has a little information panel. Yours is on the touchscreen and the
other three are on the top screen. You can view these at any time during play by
holding either the R button or the blue tab on the menu bar.
.--------------.-----. Each panel shows several pieces of information. Firstly
| Name | CPU | the player's name - pretty straightforward. The box in
|--------------'-----| the top-right corner will say "CPU" if you're playing a
| Rank | computer-controlled opponent or it will give the name of
|--------------------| their home prefecture if they're a real person. Next up
| Score | is their rank - if they have a Dan or Master grade this
|--------------------| will include the name of the god they're affiliated with
| Score difference | (see Section 08). The colour of the frame around their
'--------------------' panel will also indicate their affiliation: green for
Genbu, blue for Seiryuu, purple for Suzaku and grey for Byakku. Alternatively it
will be gold if they have a Kouryuu level or if they're one of the JPML pros.
The next row down displays their current points total. Under Fight Club Rules
this will start at either 20,000 pts for a one-round game or 25,000 pts for two.
Finally the bottom row will be blue if they're currently the points leader (i.e.
in 1st place), otherwise it'll be brown and the figure given in yellow will show
how many points away from 1st place they (or you!) are.
The game will determine the seating positions and if necessary move the other
players relative to your fixed position at the bottom of the screen. Then the
starting dealer will be chosen and indicated with the octagonal gold medal that
moves around the table during the game as required. The first dealer also gets
the small square orange round-wind marker which will sit next to them for the
duration of the match (and flip to reveal the "south" kanji in the second round
of the game if appropriate). Then the game begins...
At the start of each hand the female announcer tells you which round you are in
("Ton" for East and "Nan" for South) and how far through it you are, for example
"Ton San Kyoku" for the third hand in the first/East round. This is also shown
in the centre of the top screen throughout the match and next to this is a large
number showing how many tiles remain available for drawing from the Live Wall.
The final hand of the final round is announced as "Ourasu" and this is shown in
pale blue katakana on the screen.
Immediately after the hand count, the announcer gives the Honba count (if any)
- counting any previous consecutive draws or dealer wins - using the standard
Japanese numbers, for example "Ni Honba" if the counter is at two; this can also
be viewed in the top-right corner of the upper screen when you hold R (the first
number indicates how many Riichi sticks are on the table and the second is the
Honba count - each win is worth an extra 300 points multiplied by this figure).
In the middle of the table display is the Dead Wall - it shows the full Dead
Wall with seven stacks of two tiles each, even though you don't really need to
see the first two stacks which are used as replacement tiles after a Kong is
declared. The third column shows the normal Omote Dora indicator and the other
four can be used for Kan Dora indicators as required.
There is no explicit visual indication of your current seat-wind but there are
several ways to determine it. Firstly the pair of dice* on the top screen always
sit in front of the current dealer (east) so you can count around the table in
a counterclockwise direction: east, south, west, north. Secondly you can use the
round-wind marker in combination with the hand counter - in the first hand of
either round the player with the marker will be east, in the second the player
to their right will be east, etc, and you can count as before. Thirdly you can
listen to the announcer because she always says one of the following phrases
after the initial tiles have been drawn/dealt...
"Anata wa Oya des(u)" = You are the dealer (east)**
"Anata wa Nan-cha des(u)" = You are the south player
"Anata wa Sha-cha des(u)" = You are the west player
"Anata wa Pei-cha des(u)" = You are the north player
The touchscreen has the menu bar at the top (see previous section) and beneath
that is your hand of tiles. If you have the option enabled (see Section 12) you
will also get a magnified view of these in the bottom half of the screen.
The basic action of selecting and discarding a tile can be done with either the
d-pad and the A (or L) button or by tapping the touchscreen (and stroking it if
you want to scroll the magnified display). Any other actions will be presented
on one of the two pop-up menus, as illustrated in Section 06.
.-----. \ / \\ / ------- When a player makes a call or
| | / / | declaration you hear them say the
| | / / --+-- appropriate word and it also appears
|_____| / / |__ as text over their tiles (so you can
tell who did it, even if you have
RON (discard win) TSUMO (self-drawn win) the sound off). Pon is given in green
text, Chii in blue, Kan in purple and
Riichi and the two possible types of win (shown here) are given in gold. When a
discard tile is stolen by another player (by Pon etc) it is still shown in with
their other discarded tiles but it appears greyed-out; this is useful in deter-
mining if you - or your opponents - are Furiten on a certain tile.
The game applies the order in which calls can be made, working around the table
from the discarding player, and it also enforces the rule of priority on calls
(Agari > Kan/Pon > Chii) so often you will be offered a Pon or Chii and, regard-
less of whether you accept or not, another player will take the tile by Ron.
When you draw a Dora tile (including red fives) this is indicated by a short
"glimmering" effect when the tile appears in your hand. When you self-draw a
tile that lets you declare a win, this also has the glimmering effect but that
doesn't mean that the tile is a Dora. (although it could be if you're lucky!)
Each time you or another player discards a Dora this is accompanied by a sort of
"whiplash"-type sound to draw your attention to it. Sometimes it appears that
you have drawn a tile and it's made the same sound but it's actually just your
Kamicha (the player to your left) dropping a Dora.
When you are Tenpai (with a "ready" hand), the game displays several pieces of
useful information. Each time you select a tile which would leave your hand
Tenpai you are shown your waits - with pictures of one or more tiles above your
hand - and you can try several options before you finally choose which tile to
discard. Various pieces of information are shown around the wait tiles...
o The two white characters to the right say Machi which just means "wait/s"
o The yellow text beneath a tile says Yaku Ari or "with Yaku" which shows that
it would give you Yaku, or complete the requirements of a Yaku. For example if
you are waiting on a 1 or 4 on a Tanyao (All Simples) hand then only the 4
would give you the Yaku, or if you are waiting on a pair of 8's and a pair of
Hatsu (green dragon) then winning on the Hatsu wait would give you Yakuhai.
o If red text appears above a wait tile this means that your current choice of
discard would leave you Furiten from that tile, unable to win by Ron.
o Finally if a red X appears over a tile this indicates that all four of that
tile have been played and no more are available; the game doesn't tell you how
many of each tile are available, only if all are gone.
When you call Riichi, selecting the option from the pop-up menu, the game will
highlight which tiles you can discard to give a Tenpai hand and the waits are
shown as above. You can press B if you decide to cancel the Riichi but you
cannot then change your mind again - if you want to reach you will have to wait
until your next turn! If you have less than 1,000 points at the start of a hand
(ouch!) then a message will flash on the screen above your tiles to let you know
that you are unable to use Riichi in that hand (look out for the "1000").
If a hand ends in an exhaustive draw, i.e. when the Live Wall is depleted, the
announcer says "Ryuukyoku" (drawn hand) and this is also shown in the centre of
the top screen with two silver kanji. Starting with the dealer, each player in
turn then declares if they were Tenpai by saying "Tenpai" and laying their tiles
face-up on the table; a speech-bubble next to the hand also shows their waits.
The remaining players then declare "No-Ten" (not Tenpai) and, if you are playing
with No-Ten Bappu (see rule 5.3 in Section 13), the 3,000 pts are shared between
the players as appropriate.
When a hand ends in a win, the word Ron or Tsumo will appear over the winner's
hand. If the hand has scored one of the limits then a column of lightning will
descend onto the table, either onto the winning discarded tile (for Ron) or onto
the Dora indicator on the Dead Wall (for Tsumo). The intensity of the blast will
vary according to the size of the limit applied.
The score display is then shown for the winning hand, giving a breakdown of the
Yaku (scoring elements) and points over both screens...
____________________________________________
Tsumo or Ron --> | ## |
|--------------------------------------------|
winning player's --> #### #### |
name and rank | ##### ## <-- discarder's name
|--------------------------------------------| (if applicable)
| __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ |
winning hand --> || | | | | | | | | | | | | || || <-- winning tile
||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__||__||
| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
| |_|_|%|_|_|_|_| | <-- Dead Wall
|____________________________________________|(Dora indicators)
| .----------------. |
| | ## -# | |
Yaku present --> | :----------------: |
and Han value | | ### =# | |
| :----------------: |
Dora count --> | | K7 2 | |
(if any) | '----------------' ## ## <-- limit applied
| ## ## | (if any)
| _ _ _ _ |
Fu and Han --> | #+# ## | /_ (_)(_)(_) # | <-- point value
totals for hand |____________________________________________|
The Han counts for each Yaku (scoring element) and the total Fu (minipoints) and
overall Han (doubles) are all given using the same Japanese characters used on
the tiles of the Manzu (Craks) suit. With the exception of Chii Toitsu (Seven
Pairs) which always yields exactly 25 Fu, the Fu total will be a multiple of ten
using the kanji Juu which denotes the number ten and looks like a + sign, for
example twenty would be given as =+ (Ni-Juu).
The names of the Yaku will be given in kanji too. For the most common ones check
the translation chart I've posted for MFC PS3. If you want a full list download
my Japanese mahjong PDF guide (see Section 01).
The Yaku and number of Dora are read out by the female announcer, in Japanese of
course, and including (for the five types of Yakuhai) "Chun" for red dragon,
"Haku" for white dragon, "Hatsu" for green dragon, "Bakazehai" for round-wind
and "Jikazehai" for seat-wind. If you have only one Yaku (perhaps only a one-Han
Yaku?) she will append the word Nomi which means "only". Dora are counted with
proper Japanese numbers (rather than the Japanese renderings of the Chinese ones
often used in Japanese mahjong), i.e. Ichi, Ni, San, Yon, Go, Roku, Nana, etc,
so for example "Dora Go" means you got five Dora - lucky you! :)
After this the info panels for the four players are displayed and the changes to
the points are applied, with gains in yellow and losses in red. First the points
for the hand are distributed, then for any Riichi stakes on the table and then
payments for Honba are added if applicable.
When the game ends, either because the required number of hands have been played
or due to a player being made bankrupt under the Buttobi rule (see Section 13),
this will be indicated by two silver kanji in the centre of the screen.
After this, the game distributes the points for the Uma and Oka (see rules 3.2
thru' 3.6 in Section 13), again with gains in yellow and losses in red, and it
then awards the P-points scored and - most importantly - the Orbs. More on those
later in the guide.
Next you are shown a screen which displays your current rank (see Section 08),
your gains or losses of experience points / normal Orbs / golden Orbs, and any
changes to your rank resulting from this.
Finally the game will ask if you want to play another match (with the same mode
and settings as the previous one).
1. Yes - play another game
2. No - return to the menu
*The dice in the game are the traditional Chinese dice used in mahjong with an
enlarged dot on the 1 side; this is painted red as this is an auspicious colour
in China. Thinking about it, the larger dot probably improves the balance of the
dice too...?
**The word Oya means both "dealer" and "parent" so the line "Anata wa Oya desu",
in addition to "you are the dealer", can also mean "you are the parent" which
could be a useful phrase to know if you ever find yourself involved in a
paternity suit in Japan!? ;)
------< INDIVIDUAL PLAY >----------------------------------------- [Section 07]
Pick the first option off the main menu to access the Individual Play menu which
has the following options:
.---------------.
| Single Player |
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Wireless Play |
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Download Play |
'---------------'
These options lead to a series of sub-menus which I think could most simply be
illustrated as a flowchart through the wonder of ASCII art. :) The choices here
are explained below.
.-----------------.
.-----------------. _| One-Round Match |
_| Ranking Match |_| '-----------------'
.------------. | '-----------------' | .-----------------.
| Fight Club | | .-----------------. |_| Two-Round Match |
_| Rules |_|_| Pro CPU Match |_ '-----------------'
| '------------' | '-----------------' | .-----------------.
| | .-----------------. |_| Two-Round Match |
.---------------. | |_| Confirm Rules | | '-----------------'
| Single Player |_| '-----------------' | .-----------------.
'---------------' | .-----------------. |_| One-Round Match |
| _| One-Round Match | '-----------------'
| | '-----------------'
| .------------. | .-----------------.
|_| Free Rules |_|_| Two-Round Match |
'------------' | '-----------------'
| .-----------------.
|_| Rule Settings |
'-----------------' .-----------------.
.-----------------. _| One-Round Match |
.------------. _| Ranking Match |_| '-----------------'
| Fight Club | | '-----------------' | .-----------------.
_| Rules |_| .-----------------. |_| Two-Round Match |
| '------------' |_| Confirm Rules | '-----------------'
.---------------. | '-----------------'
| Wireless Play |_| .-----------------.
'---------------' | _| One-Round Match |
| | '-----------------'
| .------------. | .-----------------.
|_| Free Rules |_|_| Two-Round Match |
'------------' | '-----------------'
| .-----------------.
|_| Rule Settings |
'-----------------'
.-----------------. .----------.
_| One-Round Match |___| Commence |
| '-----------------' | '----------'
| | .----------.
.---------------. | |_| Suspend |
| Download Play |_| '----------'
'---------------' | .-----------------. .----------.
|_| Two-Round Match |___| Commence |
| '-----------------' | '----------'
| .-----------------. | .----------.
|_| Rule Settings | |_| Suspend |
'-----------------' '----------'
In the "Single Player" modes you play offline against three computer-controlled
players* (a.k.a. "bots") although you will play different types of characters.
You usually compete against players who are (nominally) the same level as you.
With "Wireless Play" you can play wirelessly (hence the name) with local friends
who own a copy of the game. With "Download Play" you can also play with people
in the same location but they don't need a game cartridge to play. I'm afraid I
haven't used either of these modes so I don't have much to say about them, but I
will add that Wireless Play requires you to specify whether you'll be the host**
(top option) or not (bottom option).
(Update: Dave from the reachmahjong.com forums gave a little insight into the
Download Play mode. He reports that the time limit for moves (see option 1.1 in
Section 12) is permanently enabled, the slave units have music and sound effects
(but no voices) and bots will fill the empty seats to give a full game of four
players when you only have two or three human players.)
MFC has thirty-six rule options (see Section 13). When you pick "Free Rules" you
can use the "Rule Settings" option to configure them each time before you play.
Alternatively you can choose to use the fixed "Fight Club Rules" which can be
viewed with the "Confirm Rules" option. With either choice you can check the
current rules during play by holding the Select button and paging with L/R.
In games played under Fight Club Rules you can gain (or lose!) rank according to
your performance (the various rank scales are explained in Section 08). The use
of this fixed rule-set ensures a proverbial level playing-field for all players.
In single-player Free Rules mode you can play a series of matches against the
same opponents and the game will track your cumulative scores. When these are
displayed in tabular form on the touchscreen you can press X to save the data in
one of your Score Logs slots (see Section 11). I guess this would work in the
local multiplayer modes too.
A "Ranking Match" is a match in which you play for rank (hence the name). Under
Single Player you play against bots with the same grade as you, although you'll
also sometimes get (what I like to call) a guest appearance by one of the JPML
pro characters. If you "defeat" (my term - it means you come 1st and they come
4th) one of the pros you win Pro Stars off them (see Section 11).
You can win or lose Orbs and P-points based on your final position. Sometimes a
random bonus will be applied (and announced at the start of the match) so that
more Orb or points are up for grabs. (see next section)
In a "Pro CPU Match" you always compete against three of the JPML professionals
and you play for ranking under Fight Club Rules. You can "defeat" a character to
unlock them in your personal stats (see Section 11) but cannot earn Pro Stars in
this game mode - I guess it would be too easy since every time you win a match
the 4th place player would always be a pro.
Finally you can choose to play either a "Two-Round Match" - the standard length
in Japanese mahjong - or a "One-Round Match" which will be half as long. ;)
*The bots also appear in matches played online to fill empty seats when there
are insufficient human players available and this is why they are clearly marked
with "CPU" - to distinguish them from real people.
**Japanese games tend to use the word Oya ("parent") to indicate the host - the
same word that denotes the current east player (in English, the "dealer") in
Japanese mahjong. The other players, either in Wireless Play or in a game of
mahjong, are called the Ko ("children").
------< RANKINGS >------------------------------------------------ [Section 08]
There are three sets of rankings* used in the game - the Kyuu ranks, Dan grades
and Kouryuu levels - which are explained below, in that order.
You will have separate ranks for online play and individual play.
*If you've had any involvement with any of the Japanese martial arts then you'll
probably be familiar with the Kyuu/Dan scheme used here. It's basically the same
as the system used in karate, etc, so when you reach the Dan grades you're then
a "black belt" in mahjong! :D
= Kyuu Ranks =
/ ----- You start at the bottom of the Kyuu ranks which have ten levels
\/ / | /__ numbered from 10 (the lowest) up to 1 (the highest).
\ / | /
/ | / These grades are written with a Japanese numeral followed by
-----\ | / the kanji for Kyuu which is shown to the left.
/|\ / \/
/ | / /\ The numbers 1 to 9 are the same as those on the tiles of the
| / / \ Manzu (Craks) suit and the symbol for 10 looks like a + sign.
Each time you play a game under Fight Club Rules during the Kyuu ranks you will
either gain or lose experience points [keikenchi] according to your performance.
After each game you're shown a screen with one large circle and ten smaller
circles around it - the large circle shows your current Kyuu rank and the outer
ones show your progression through the ten levels, starting at the top-right
with 10th Kyuu. There will be two numbers on the touchscreen - the top one is
the number of experience points won/lost in the previous game and beneath that
is the amount required to advance to the next rank.
When you level-up you get a screen with a red diamond that says Congratulations
or, if you lose enough points to drop a level, you get a blue diamond and a Down
message. The numbers of experience points (XP) needed to complete each of the
ten Kyuu ranks are as follows:-
Kyuu | 10th | 9th | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st
-------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+------
XP required | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 200 | 250 | 300
-------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+------
cumulative | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 550 | 700 | 850 | 1050 | 1300 | 1600
Successful completion of 1st Kyuu promotes you to the first Dan grade.
The game is pretty generous with experience points - you get loads for a big win
and don't lose many even if you come fourth - so it shouldn't take very long to
get through all ten ranks. As I recall it took me about six or seven games, and
I jumped from 8th up to 4th off the results of one big win (about 52k after Uma
thanks to a couple of Dora-heavy hands).
= Dan Grades =
___ ___
| | | When you graduate out of the Kyuu ranks you move onto the eight
|___ / |__. Dan grades which are numbered from 1 up to 8 (yup, it's the
| _____ opposite order to Kyuu). The first Dan grade is called Shodan,
|___ \ / which means "beginning rank" and is written with two kanji. The
| \/ higher grades are just named after the Japanese numbers but you
_|__ /\ must keep in mind that Nidan and Sandan (2nd and 3rd Dan) are
| / \ written using the formal Daiji kanji instead of the usual ones.
When you first become Shodan, the game assigns you an affiliation to one of the
Four Gods (which are going to need a little explanation) and it also logs the
date and time on the final page of the stats (see Section 11 below).
The Four Gods featured in the game originate from Chinese astrology where each
of them presides over seven constellations (hence the artwork on the top screen
in the Mission Mode menus). In Japan they are called the Shijin, which literally
means "four gods", and they are often included in video-games and manga. In MFC
each of them represents a different style or aspect of play.
Japanese name: Seiryuu
description: blue dragon (Azure Dragon of the East)
Chinese name: Meng Zhang
aspect: Luck (many Dora in winning hands)
Japanese name: Suzaku
description: red bird (Vermillion Bird of the South)
Chinese name: Ling Guang
aspect: Quickness (completing/winning hands quickly and therefore often)
Japanese name: Byakko
description: white tiger (White Tiger of the West)
Chinese name: Jian Bing
aspect: Attack (many Han in winning hands)
Japanese name: Genbu (the literal reading of the kanji is "mysterious warrior")
description: green tortoise-snake (Black Tortoise of the North)
Chinese name: Zhi Ming
aspect: Defence (seldom giving an opponent their winning tile)
What's that you say? You want another one? Well luckily for you there is a fifth
god in this scheme too who comes into play later in the game.
Japanese name: Kouryuu
description: golden dragon (Yellow Dragon of the Centre)
Chinese name: Huang-Long
When you advance into the Dan grades, the game will assign you to one of the
Four Gods; this is based on your playing style during the Kyuu ranks. So for
example, in my case, I had a low payment rate (i.e. strong defence) therefore I
became affiliated with Genbu. My initial rank was Genbu Shodan, followed by
Genbu Nidan, etc (see table of Dan below).
You advance through the Dan grades by winning Fight Orbs [faito oubu] in ranking
matches and Pro CPU games (I'll refer to these simply as Orbs to save on a small
amount of typing). For each Dan grade you will be given a set of Orb slots to
fill in order to advance up to the next Dan, but you can also lose Orbs and if</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
your slots are currently empty you'll be demoted back down to the Dan below. The
Orbs are coloured to match your God, for example with Suzaku they're purple.
You win or lose Orbs according to your position at the end of a game (and the
length of the game played) as shown in the following table which appears on page
14 on the manual. You are also awarded what I call "P-points" so I've added
these below too. While the Orbs contribute to your personal rank, the P-points
are more about representing your home prefecture I think.
| 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | 4th Place
Game Length | Orbs | P pts | Orbs | P pts | Orbs | P pts | Orbs | P pts
------------------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------
Tonpuusen | +1 | +2P | -- | +1P | -- | -1P | -1 | -2P
(one-round match) | gain | gain | none | gain | none | loss | loss | loss
------------------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------
Hanchan | +2 | +4P | +1 | +2P | -1 | -2P | -2 | -4P
(two-round match) | gain | gain | gain | gain | loss | loss | loss | loss
In a one-round game the Orb won by the player in 1st is taken from the player
in 4th, similarly in a two-round game the two Orbs won by 1st are taken from 4th
and the one for 2nd is taken from the player in 3rd (much like the Uma). That
might sound obvious but it has significant consequences (explained later) when
playing ranking matches after you graduate out of the Dan grades.
You also get a bonus Orb each time you fill all your Pro Star slots in a ranking
match (see Section 11) and one for making a Yakuman (limit hand).
Your primary goal should be, of course, to win Orbs in every game you play but,
if this looks unlikely, then you should at least strive not to lose any. For
example you might go out with a cheap one-Han hand in the final Kyoku in order
to increase your score just enough to edge up into 3rd place if you're playing a
one-round game and thus narrowly avoid the loss of an Orb that comes with 4th.
Of the two choices available in ranking matches and Pro CPU games I think it's
better to play Hanchan because (I find) it's easier to come 1st or 2nd (relative
to 3rd or 4th) than it is to consistently come 1st (relative to 4th).
There are also two bonuses which will be applied randomly in ranking matches and
have an effect on the number of Orbs paid. One is the "double Orbs" bonus which
means you win (or lose) twice as many Orbs as normal; obviously in this scenario
it's especially good if you win but also especially bad if you lose so you might
choose to adopt a less risky play style to avoid coming 4th. The other is the
"winner takes all" bonus in which the player in 1st receives Orbs from each of
the other three players (either one Orb each in a one-round match and two Orbs
each for a two-round match); in this case, if you're not too worried about your
general stats, I think it's worth taking a few risks to get the three/six Orbs.
A third random bonus giving double P-points can also be applied to a game.
The number of Orb slots you are required to fill in order to complete each Dan
grade are as follows:-
Shodan (1st Dan) | 5 Orbs Godan (5th Dan) | 7 Orbs
-------------------+---------- ---------------------+----------
Nidan (2nd Dan) | 5 Orbs Rokudan (6th Dan) | 8 Orbs
-------------------+---------- ---------------------+----------
Sandan (3rd Dan) | 6 Orbs Nanadan (7th Dan) | 9 Orbs
-------------------+---------- ---------------------+----------
Yondan (4th Dan) | 6 Orbs Hachidan (8th Dan) | 10 Orbs
A little arithmetic shows that you need a total of fifty-six Orbs to complete
the Dan ranks; Orbs lost are not counted towards your total.
When you finally fill the tenth slot at Hachidan you advance to the rank of
Master [masutaa], so in my case my ranking became Genbu Master; I think this is
equivalent to the 9th Dan grade which is the highest ranking seen in the pro
characters. As a Master you continue to win or lose Orbs as usual but the game
also gives you a special Orb from one of the other Four Gods each time you take
1st place. There are three to collect but you lose them all whenever you come
2nd, 3rd or 4th, so basically you need to win three consecutive matches.
Once you have all three special Orbs you're shown a congratulatory screen and
the game credits roll! So in one sense you've won the game, but in another sense
it's only just begun...
= Kouryuu Levels =
After the credits finish you're shown a big explanation about how you are now
affiliated to Kouryuu - the golden dragon - the fifth of the "Four Gods" above.
You are assigned the rank of Kouryuu level 1 and you now compete for golden
Kouryuu Orbs as well as the normal kind. You have a set of ten golden Orb slots
to fill but the game gives you five Orbs to start you off (so you need to win
five more to rank-up).
Now when you win Orbs, the type of Orb received will depend on the type of
player you capture them from. You can win golden Orbs (which will count towards
levelling-up) from both pro characters and other Kouryuu players but you just
get the standard coloured Orbs (which won't!) off Master players. Similarly the
type of Orb taken from you when you lose them is dependent upon the type of
player that takes it, e.g. if a Master comes 1st and you come 4th you will only
lose one or more normal Orbs. (phew!)
In ranking matches you will usually play against one Shijin-affiliated Master
player and either two Kouryuu players or one Kouryuu and one pro, so on average
you might expect to receive one normal Orb for every two golden Orbs you win and
sometimes you can spend 10-15 minutes fighting hard to win a Hanchan only to see
the Master in 4th give you two *normal* Orbs which won't advance your level. :6
Consequently you might prefer to play in Pro CPU mode where all Orbs won will be
golden; also you can avoid the double-edged sword of the random Orb bonuses and
you can improve your chances of adding to your collection of pro defeats too,
although you won't receive their Pro Star thingies in this mode.
When you fill your five empty golden Orb slots you'll be promoted to Kouryuu
level 2 and you'll have another five slots to fill; the same applies at Kouryuu
levels 3 thru' 9 - each time you need five more golden Orbs. After you hit Level
10 you'll see that you now have *ten* golden Orb slots to fill for each level,
and then when you get to Level 20 you're required to collect *twenty* golden
Orbs for each level advance!* :6
Here's a quick summary of the various rankings:-
10th Kyuu --> 9th Kyuu --> 8th Kyuu --> 7th Kyuu --> 6th Kyuu --> 5th Kyuu -.
|
.- 2nd Dan <-- Shodan <-- 1st Kyuu <-- 2nd Kyuu <-- 3rd Kyuu <-- 4th Kyuu <-'
|
'-> 3rd Dan --> 4th Dan --> 5th Dan --> 6th Dan --> 7th Dan --> 8th Dan -.
|
...Kouryuu level 3 <-- Kouryuu level 2 <-- Kouryuu level 1 <-- Master <-'
And so it continues... you can keep playing to advance your level. You might
also like to work on improving your stats, bettering your records (for example
most consecutive game wins), adding to your Yaku (and Yakuman!) collection and
getting more pro defeats.
NB: At any stage during the Dan grades, Master rank or Kouryuu levels you can
check your current status and Orb total in the stats pages. (see Section 11)
*It's not quite as bad as the infamous grind on Warcraft, but once you get to
Level 20 (and need twenty golden orbs to advance each rank) levelling-up becomes
quite a slooow process.
------< ONLINE PLAY >--------------------------------------------- [Section 09]
Pick the second option on the main menu for online play. You can play anywhere
in the world (well, it works here in the UK at least!) without a subscription.
Obviously you'll need to have your DS/DSi connected to the internet, probably
through your domestic wireless router. If you haven't used this before make sure
that your encryption is set to WEP.* You can establish and test the connection
from the System Settings menu on your console, but you will have to repeat this
process using the Japanese version of the same screens within MFC before you can
play the game online.
I think that menu tree in Section 07 was quite effective (YMMV!) so let's have
another one to give the menu structure for online play...
.-----------------.
.---------------. _| One-Round Match |
establish _| Ranking Match |_| '-----------------'
connection? | '---------------' | .-----------------.
.-----------. | .---------------. |_| Two-Round Match |
_| Yes |_|_| Friends Match |_ '-----------------'
.------------------. | '-----------' | '---------------' | .-----------------.
| Fight Club Rules |_| .-----------. | .---------------. |_| One-Round Match |
'------------------' |_| No | |_| Confirm Rules | | '-----------------'
'-----------' '---------------' | .-----------------.
.------------------. .--------------. |_| Two-Round Match |
| Friend Settings |_ _| Friends List | '-----------------'
'------------------' | '--------------'
| .--------------.
.------------------. |_| Confirm Code |
| Wi-Fi Settings | | '--------------'
'------------------' | .--------------.
(see below) |_| Enter Code |
'--------------'
Pick the top "Fight Club Rules" option to play a match. All games are played
under the fixed rule-set and can therefore contribute to ranking.
You can choose to play a "Ranking Match" against strangers or a "Friends Match"
with people you know.
Just like in individual play, you can use "Confirm Rules" to review the Fight
Club Rules and you can play either a "One-Round Match" or a "Two-Round Match".
The "Friends List" option will list all your current friends (up to 64). If you
have no friends :( then you cannot select the Friends Match option.
Use "Confirm Code" to check your own friend code (on the top screen) or "Enter
Code" to add a new friend.
You'll need to use the "Wi-Fi Settings" option to set up the connection before
playing online. This takes you to the Japanese version of the DS connection
wizard screen. There's a narrow orange box on the right (which leads to options
to check your MAC address and wi-fi connection ID, delete your connection info
and transfer your connection info) but it's the big blue box on the left that
you need to select.
Clicking the blue box leads to a new screen which is very similar in layout to
its English equivalent. There are three boxes at the top of the touchscreen,
each of which corresponds to three possible connections. Pick one, and then on
the screen that follows click the wide blue bar at the top. This will scan for
available networks and show whether they're locked and their signal strengths.
Hopefully you gave your router a cool name so you can recognise it easily. Pick
this and then enter your WEP encryption key on the little on-screen keyboard
that appears, then press A a couple of times when prompted. A connection test
will follow, and then you can quit out of the wizard back to the menu. If your
signal strength is no good try moving closer to your router! ;)
When you select a ranking match you'll get a new matchmaking screen while the
server tries to find three opponents for you. This might take a few minutes. Do
remember that most players will be in Japan and there's a significant difference
in times, for example Japan is 8 hours ahead of the UK in the summer (and, since
they don't use daylight-saving time, 9 hours ahead during winter). You should
expect to find more people online at evenings (Japan time) and weekends.
Once the player roster is confirmed you'll get another screen listing all the
players. Each player must confirm that they're ready (click the one menu option
presented) before the game starts. The list will say "OK" for each ready player;
while you're waiting you can review the rules on the top screen (page with L/R).
The process of playing mahjong works the same as offline (see Section 06) except
the game saves before and after every hand, the time limit function (see Section
12) is always applied and it's a bit slower than playing against bots offline.
Also the wi-fi signal strength is always shown on the top screen.
You have a separate rank for online play and - from what I've seen of it so far
- the rankings seem to work exactly the same way (see Section 08). I reached
Shodan rank online after seven matches (including three one-round games).
After the match, click the top option to play again against the same opponents.
If all the human players have disconnected you'll probably need to go through
the matchmaking again, although sometimes the system will let you play against
three CPU players and this still contributes to your online ranking.
After establishing the connection for online play, you'll need to terminate the
connection before you return to the main menu. From the online menu press B and
then pick the top option to confirm, then press B again.
*WEP encryption offers practically no protection against a serious attack so use
it at your own risk. If you're paranoid (like me) you'll want to change it back
to WPA or WPA2 after gaming!
------< MISSION MODE >-------------------------------------------- [Section 10]
One very cool addition to the DS version of MFC is the Mission Mode, launched
from the third (middle) option off the main menu. This consists of 36 challenges
or "missions" in which you have to play mahjong against the computer and achieve
a specific objective in order to pass.
The first 32 missions are organised into four categories, one for each of the
Four Gods (see Section 08). Within each category there are eight missions and
they all relate to the "aspect" of the relevant god, so for example all the
challenges for Genbu are about defensive play. Initially only the first mission
in each category is available - beat 1 to unlock 2, beat 2 to unlock 3, etc -
and they get progressively more difficult.
If you're unsuccessful on an attempt you get a "Failed" message (in both kanji
and English) and you can retry; you can take as many attempts as you like. When
you finally succeed you get a "Stage Clear!" message, the next mission in that
category will become available and one of the Orbs on the top screen (in the
relevant god's colour) will be illuminated.
The fifth category is Kouryuu's and it will be locked and unavailable until you
have cleared all 32 missions in the first four categories. It contains just four
missions - one for each of the Four Gods.
You can hold the R button (or the blue virtual button on the toolbar at the top
of the touchscreen) to view player names, ranks and scores as usual. Added to
this view is a text box at the bottom of the touchscreen which describes the
current objective (in white) and indicates your how close you are to achieving
it (in yellow). For example the objective might be to use five Dora and your
position could be that you need to use a further two (having got three already).
You can only undertake one mission at a time. Say for example you're doing the
first Seiryuu mission and your objective is to win a hand with one Dora but you
get a win with four - you'll have fulfilled the requirements of the first four
missions but the game only registers the pass on your current mission. :9
The categories are listed on the Mission Mode menu in the following order...
.---------------.
| Genbu | - Black Tortoise (Defence)
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Byakko | - White Tigrrr (Attack)
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Suzaku | - Vermillion Bird (Quickness)
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Seiryuu | - Azure Dragon (Luck)
'---------------'
.---------------.
| Kouryuu | - Golden Dragon (boss?)
'---------------'
The objectives for all 36 missions are listed below. I'm most grateful to Poochy
for previously translating these and posting them on the RM forum.
o Genbu (category 1)
The aspect of the black/green tortoise/snake thing is Defence so the missions
here mostly relate to safe defensive play - not letting one of your opponents
declare a Ron win off one of your discard tiles (i.e. not getting "ronned").
Mission 1 - Over one hand, don't get ronned
(On this mission and any of the others with no points or position
requirement you can play completely defensively throughout if you
like, discarding your middle tiles first to leave the potentially
safer Terminals and Honours for later.
Alternatively you can go for a quick win (as they say, the best
defence is a good offence!) but it's probably best not to declare
Riichi since you would lose control of your discards.)
Mission 2 - Over one hand, don't get ronned and finish with 20,000 pts or more
Mission 3 - Over one hand, don't get ronned and finish the match in 1st place
Mission 4 - Over one hand, win the hand with a wait of two or more sides
(The two-sided Ryanmen wait (e.g. _34_ waiting on 2 or 5) should
serve you well as it's an efficient structure but you could also
use a Shanpon (two pairs) or Nobetan (e.g. 6789 waiting on either
a 6 or 9 to make the pair) or maybe a nice multi-sided wait.*)
Mission 5 - Over one round (i.e. a whole Tonpuusen match), don't get ronned
Mission 6 - Over two hands, don't get ronned and finish the match in 1st place
Mission 7 - Over two rounds (i.e. a whole Hanchan match), don't get ronned
Mission 8 - Over one round, don't get ronned and finish the match in 1st place
o Byakku (category 2)
The tiger is all about Attack - building high value hands, combining Yaku
(scoring elements) and/or Dora bonus tiles to increase the number of doubles.
Mission 1 - Over one hand, play as non-dealer and get a win worth 900+ pts
(In these first few missions the target score is the amount needed
to draw level with the current leader in the scenario presented.)
Mission 2 - Over one hand, play as non-dealer and get a win worth 1,900+ pts
Mission 3 - Over one hand, play as dealer and get a win worth 3,900+ pts
Mission 4 - Over one hand, play as dealer and get a win worth 5,700+ pts
(For example a Pinfu hand won by Ron gives 30 Fu (minipoints) so
you'd need at least three Han to achieve the target.)
Mission 5 - Over one round, get wins worth 10,000+ pts in total
Mission 6 - Over one round, get wins worth 15,000+ pts in total
Mission 7 - Over two rounds, take 1st place after starting with only 5,000 pts
Mission 8 - Over one round, take 1st place after starting with only 5,000 pts
(Good practice for making a dramatic manga-style comeback! See if
you can do it with a quadruple Yakuman or something!)
o Suzaku (category 3)
The bird's aspect is Quickness so the missions here relate to winning hands as
quickly (or often) as possible, and to generally playing fast.
Mission 1 - Over one hand, declare a win in 55 turns or less
(The mission will end after fifty-five tiles have been drawn.)
Mission 2 - Over one hand, declare a win in 47 turns or less
Mission 3 - Over one round and with a 6-second move timer, finish in 1st place
(Once per hand you can press X to get extra thinking time.)
Mission 4 - Over one hand, declare a win in 39 turns or less
Mission 5 - Over one round and with a 4-second move timer, finish in 1st place
Mission 6 - Over one round, win two or more hands
(You don't need to take 1st place and the bankruptcy rule is not
applied so just keep pushing!)
Mission 7 - Over one hand, earn two continuances as dealer
(The option for Tenpai Renchan (see rule 5.1 in Section 13) is set
to Nashi so effectively the objective is to get two dealer wins.)
Mission 8 - Over one round, win three or more hands
(Again the bankruptcy rule is not in use and you're not required
to win the match so you can afford to lose a few points, however
you start with only 3,100 pts so it's easy to get knocked below
1,000 pts and therefore unable to use Riichi which is otherwise
quite useful for adding Yaku to a hand that has none.)
o Seiryuu (category 4)
The blue/green dragon favours Luck, which translates into receiving (and then
actually using) Dora bonus tiles, and thus making big scores. Use Riichi to
add the Ura Dora and declare Kongs where possible for the Kan Dora. Also all
eight missions are played with six red fives so make good use of them too.
Mission 1 - Over two hands, win a hand with at least one Dora
Mission 2 - Over one round, win hands with at least two Dora
Mission 3 - Over one round, win hands with at least three Dora
Mission 4 - Over one round, win hands with at least four Dora
Mission 5 - Over one round, take 1st place with at least 30,000 pts
Mission 6 - Over two rounds, win hands with at least five Dora
Mission 7 - Over one round, take 1st place with at least 40,000 pts
Mission 8 - Over two rounds, take 1st place while an opponent is busted out
(I actually beat this mission in the second hand of my very first
attempt! The player to my left got hit by a Mangan and then I
followed up with a four-Dora dealer Hanemen. Boom - headshot!)
o Kouryuu (category 5)
After completing everything above you'll unlock the golden dragon's category,
so I guess he's kinda like the end-of-level boss! There are four missions and,
just like the other ones, you need to beat one to unlock the next.
Mission 1 - Over two rounds, don't get ronned and finish in 1st place
Genbu's final mission - Defence.
Mission 2 - Over two rounds, take 1st place after starting with only 100 pts
Byakku's final mission - Attack.
Mission 3 - Over two rounds, win five or more hands
Suzaku's final mission - Quickness.
(The bankruptcy rule is not applied in this mission so you can
quite literally go for broke - and beyond!)
Mission 4 - Over two rounds, win hands with at least ten Dora
Seiryuu's final mission - Luck.
(As with the earlier blue dragon missions the rule options include
the maximum possible number of red fives.)
The sub-menu for each of the first four categories also shows a "personal best"
record for you. For Genbu it's the most sides* on a wait, for Byakko it's the
biggest Han count for one hand (including Dora), for Suzaku it's the quickest
time for a hand win and for Seiryuu it's the highest number of Dora used.
Completing all missions in one category will unlock the corresponding god's
tabletop (wallpaper) to use during play - see option 3.1 in Section 12.
*For example, a group of 34567 tiles in a Tenpai (ready) hand has a three-sided
wait - it can be completed with a 2, 5 or 8 in the same suit.
------< RECORDS >------------------------------------------------- [Section 11]
The Records functions can be accessed from the fourth option on the main menu.
This gives a sub-menu with the following three options, each explained below.
.-------------------.
| Score Logs |
'-------------------'
.-------------------.
| Hand Histories |
'-------------------'
.-------------------.
| Individual Data |
'-------------------'
= Score Logs =
The first option lets you record the player scores from thirty-two series of up
to six matches each - games played in real life with actual tiles! It's a handy
little feature to include in the game, although it's probably just as quick to
use pen and pencil. :9
Pick one of the thirty-two slots and press A to open it; you can also press X to
wipe it, then top option to confirm deletion). The game will automatically add
the current date and time to a new record. You can then select cells from the
grid on the touchscreen for players 1-4 and matches 1-6 and use the numberpad
that appears to enter scores.
Each field is limited to three digits so you'll need to enter scores in the
standardised shortened form where all four scores sum to zero (e.g. +12, +3, -5
and -10). You can determine these by dividing each individual's score by 1000,
subtracting the 30,000-point buy-in and then applying the Uma and Oka. Check the
Final Scores page in the Reference section of my PDF guide (see Section 01) for
more info and a worked example.
Press +/- to toggle between positive (white) and negative (red) numbers, BS to
backspace, C to clear and the red button to enter. Once you've entered three you
can use the green button on the fourth one - it will automatically calculate the
fourth player's score such that the four scores sum to zero. This button is
labelled Toppu (top) so I guess you're supposed to use it for the player in 1st
and the game can round it up or down as necessary.
The game will sum the total scores for each player within a series.
You can also select the 1P/2P/3P/4P headings to enter player names which will
then appear in the top screen. Just like when you created your player profile
(see Section 03), you can press the X button to cycle between hiragana, katakana
and English input.
In the grid view press X to update the date/time recorded for the series.
In addition to recording data from real life matches, you can also use this mode
to review score data saved when playing a series of MFC games under Free Rules.
You can save match results by pressing X when prompted after a game.
= Hand Histories =
At the end of any hand played on MFC DS you can press X when prompted (at the
bottom of the touchscreen) to commit the previous hand to the cartridge memory.
This saves only that hand - not the whole match. You can save up to sixteen
individual hands and replay them here. You might save a hand in which you scored
a Yakuman - or maybe just "the one that got away"!
The sixteen save slots will be listed on the touchscreen. You can scroll through
these with either d-pad up/down or by tapping the little yellow arrows on the
screen. For each occupied slot, the list will display the date and time along
with the value of the win (either the Han count or the limit if appropriate,
e.g. Mangan, Haneman, etc) or Ryuukyoku if the hand resulted in a draw.
For the selected match you'll be shown more info on the top screen - the date
and time and the value again, then on the third row is the hand count (e.g. Ton
San Kyoku for the third hand of the east round) and on the final row are details
of the mode, e.g. Individual Play, Free Rules and Hanchansen (two-round match).
Tap a slot once to select and again to confirm or use the d-pad to select and
press the A button to open it.
The game will run an animated replay of the selected hand using the normal in-
game view. There are five virtual buttons at the top of the touchscreen.
_________ _________ _________ _________ _________
| || || || || |
|_________||_________||_________||_________||_________|
| | | | |
restart (red) ----' | | | '---- info (blue)
| | |
speed (yellow) ----' pause (purple) '---- end (green)
Tap the red button (or press X) to skip back to the beginning of the hand.
Tap the yellow button (or press d-pad left/right) to cycle through the six speed
settings. The >> symbols next to the word REPLAY on the touchscreen indicate the
selected speed.
Tap the purple button (or press B) to pause, then again to unpause.
Tap the green button (or press Start) to end the replay and return to the menu.
When prompted, pick the left option to confirm quit.
Hold the blue button (or hold R) to view the info windows on the top screen, the
same panels that can usually be viewed during a game showing the player names,
prefectures, rankings and scores.
Hold Select to view the applied rule options. While holding Select you can use L
and R to page through the rule settings (see Section 13).
If you've enabled the option for Tsumogiri tiles to be highlighted yellow (see
Section 12) this feature will be active in the replays too.
= Individual Data =
The third option under Records is used to view the stats from your matches. The
stats mode has ten sections as follows:-
A. Basics
B. Match Log
C. Twenty Matches
D. Four Gods Index
E. Detailed Info*
F. Yaku Distribution
G. Orbs*
H. Regions
I. Pro Players
J. Events
These ten sections are represented by the boxes near the bottom of the touch-
screen in the following arrangement...
[ A ] [ B ] [ C ] [ D ] [ E*] You can cycle through these sections using
[ F ] [ G*] [ H ] [ I ] [ J ] d-pad left/right or just tap the touchscreen.
In some sections - when prompted by the icons at the top-right corner of the top
screen - you can use the shoulder buttons to view data from online matches (L)
or "individual play" (R). On certain sections you can use d-pad up/down to page
or scroll through the data on the page, and on some sections you can tap A to
cycle through data for all matches / two-round matches / one-round matches.
*Sections E and G are both locked at the start of the game and only become
available after you move up into the Dan grades (see Section 08). This applies
separately to online and offline play, e.g. if you reach 1st Dan in offline play
you'll be able to view offline data in sections E and G but you won't be able to
view online data there until you achieve 1st Dan online too.
o Basics (stats section A) You are here: [-A-] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Top screen:
When you first start the game this will show the following...
1. Player name
(gap)
2. Rank position - your current Kyuu rank
3. Current cumulative XP total / Cumulative XP required for promotion
4. Prefecture - the territory you chose to represent when you first started
After promotion to the Dan grades it will look like this...
1. Player name
2. Attribute - whichever of the Four Gods you're now associated with
3. Grade position - your current Dan grade (or Master) or Kouryuu level
4. Orb total - either normal Orbs (during Dan grades) or golden Orbs (after)
5. Prefecture
Bottom screen:
1. Time spent playing selected mode (online or individual)
2. Time spent playing in total
(gap)
3. Current date
4. Current time
(Check Section 08 of this guide if you need to know more about the various
systems of Kyuu ranks, Dan grades, Gods, Orbs, points, etc.)
o Match Log (stats section B) [ a ] [-B-] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press A to view data for all matches / two-round matches / one-round matches.
This section is labelled Senseki which means "scores" or "results", or it can
also mean "military record" - reports from your mahjong battles!
Top screen:
1. Number of matches played (total)
2. Number of matches played (today)
3. Average placing
This is an arithmetic mean of your game placings, given to one decimal
place. (so, for example, if you'd played only four games and came 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th in them your average position would be (1+2+3+4)/4 = 2.5)
4. 1st place finishes (number and percentage)
5. 2nd place finishes (number and percentage)
6. 3rd place finishes (number and percentage)
7. 4th place finishes (number and percentage)
Bottom screen:
1. Total gained points (blue)
2. Total lost points (red)
These are both based on final scores, so if in a single match you won 8k in
one hand, won 12k in another, then lost 8k, won the game and received 5k of
Uma (see rules 3.3 to 3.6 in Section 13) this would add 17,000 points to
your blue total and nothing to your red, even though you lost points once.
3. Total points profit/loss (blue minus red)
4. Average points profit/loss (total profit/loss divided by number of matches)
o Twenty Matches (stats section C) [ a ] [ b ] [-C-] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press A to view data for all matches / two-round matches / one-round matches.
This section summarises the last twenty games you played.
The graph plots your positions, with the most recent games on the right side.
1st is shown in blue, 2nd green, 3rd yellow and 4th/bust/quit in red (the same
colouring scheme used in Koei's Mahjong Taikai IV game). A victory is also
indicated with a little crown symbol.
The table below gives more information for the same matches. The most recent
game is listed at the top.
Column 1: Game type - blue for one-round games or green for two-round games
Column 2: Position 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th in the same colours as above
If you get busted out this is represented by four red hiragana
characters spelling the word Buttobi (see rule 2.5 in Section 13).
Column 3: Points profit/loss - blue for profit or red for loss
Column 4: Date and time
o Four Gods Index (stats section D) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [-D-] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press A to view data for all matches / two-round matches / one-round matches.
Press d-pad up/down to cycle through pages to view data for either all games
(two pages) or only your most recent fifty (two pages) - check for the "50" in
the second box down on the top screen.
Much of this section will be blank until you've completed fifty matches.
Top screen:
This view displays both numerically and graphically your performance against
the four criteria of the Four Gods (see Section 08), each of which represents
a different aspect of your playing style.
These stats are only populated once you've played fifty matches.
1. Four Gods Index - this is simply the sum of the four rows below
This is given as a number out of a possible total of 1000. (black row)
2. Luck - Dora usage rate
This is Seiryuu's aspect, given as a total out of 250. (dark blue row)
Luck is calculated from the average number of Dora (including red fives) in
your winning hands, e.g. if you had 83 Dora in 63 wins that would give an
average of 1.32 Dora per win.
3. Quickness - average hand win rate
This is Suzaku's aspect, given as a total out of 250. (burgundy row)
Quickness is based on the number of hands you won out of the total number
of hands you've played, based on the reasoning that a player who completes
their hands more quickly will declare more wins.
4. Attack - average Han per winning-hand rate
This is Byakko's aspect, given as a total out of 250. (blue-grey row)
Attack is determined from the average number of Han (doubles) in your
winning hands. On the PS3 version of MFC you needed an average of over 4
Han per win to get up to the maximum rating.
5. Defence - payment rate
And this is Genbu's aspect, given as a total out of 250. (dark green row)
Defence is based on the proportion of hands in which you discard a tile
that's taken by Ron to complete another player's hand (and therefore have
to make a payment). The lower your payment rate the better your rating.
Since you can score a maximum of 250 points on each of these four categories
the theoretical maximum overall score is 1000. After a streak of luck on the
PS3 version of the game I got my highest score (over 50 games) which was 928!
Defence As you've probably figured out, the right side of the screen
Attack <> Luck gives your scores for the four categories in graphical form
Quickness with Defence at the top, Luck on the right, etc.*
The four scores are marked on four axes with a common origin and the points
are joined to form an irregular quadrilateral. The data for your most recent
fifty matches is shown in blue and for your entire history in white. The grid
is marked with lines at 50-point intervals.
I think the graph concept is very interesting and can be used to analyse your
own style of play - are you a "well-rounded" player or are you biased towards
certain aspects? Are there aspects of your play you might want to improve?
*You'll notice that the aspects of the Four Gods are given in the appropriate
places on the chart, for example Seiryuu is the Azure Dragon of the East and
his aspect - Luck - is shown on the right (east) side of the chart.
Bottom screen:
This view shows six rates, including four used to determine the ratings shown
on the top screen. Pressing d-pad up/down switches between viewing the figures
(e.g. 44/450) and the same data as a percentage (e.g. 9.8%), and between data
for either all your matches or only the past fifty.
1. Hands won / Hands played = average hand win rate (%)
2. Total Han scored / Hands won = average Han per winning-hand rate
3. Hands ronned / Hands played = payment (%)
4. Dora used in wins / Hands won = Dora usage rate (%)
5. Hands won with Riichi / Hands won = Riichi win rate (%)
6. Hands won by Tsumo / Hands won = Tsumo win rate (%)
o Detailed Info (stats section E) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [-E-]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
This section unlocks after advancing to the Dan grades (see Section 08) and
specifically it unlocks separately for online and offline play.
Press d-pad up/down to page through the entries.
Page 1:
This page gives breakdowns of all the hands you've won (numbers on the left
side and cyan bars) and also all the hands your opponents have won by Ron off
one of your discards (numbers on the right side and red bars).
Top Screen:
This gives a breakdown by hand value.
1. 1 Han
2. 2 Han
3. 3 Han
4. Mangan (hands hitting the lowest limit - 2,000 Base Points)
5. Haneman (hands with 6 or 7 Han)
6. Baiman (hands with 8, 9 or 10 Han)
7. Sanbaiman (hands with 11 or 12 Han)
8. Yakuman (limit hands or "counted Yakuman" hands with 13+ Han)
You'll notice that four-Han hands are not listed separately here, instead
these are counted in the entry for Mangan hands. This is not an unreasonable
approximation since any four-Han hand with 40 or more Fu (minipoints) would
have Base Points exceeding 2,000 and therefore be paid as Mangan and, as can
be seen from the score tables on page 29 of the manual, a four-Han hand with
30 Fu is only a few hundred points short of Mangan anyways.
Bottom screen:
This gives a breakdown by type of win.
1. Riichi - wins where you won after calling Riichi
2. Dama - wins where your concealed hand became Tenpai (ready) but you did not
call Riichi; this is known as Dama Ten or "silent Tenpai".
3. Naki - wins where your hand was open, with one or more exposed sets made
from calls on other players' discards
Below that are two more rows.
4. Total number of hands you've won
5. Total number of hands won by your opponents off your discards
Page 2:
This gives exactly the same data as page 1 but now the figures on the top
screen are presented as percentages instead of pure numbers.
Since both sides of the table give an exhaustive breakdown of all the hands,
the percentages on each side should always add up to 100%.
Page 3:
Top screen:
This shows the trends in your Dora usage - a percentile breakdown of the types
of Dora you've used in your winning hands (the four rows will sum to 100%).
1. Honours tiles - winds and dragons
2. Terminal tiles - 1's and 9's
3. Simples tiles - 2's thru' 8's (not counting red fives)
4. Red fives
The fifth row is a separate stat calculated from your Dora-use count divided
by the number of hands won.
5. Proportion of winning hands containing Dora
This differs from the "Dora usage rate" in stats section D which gives the
average number of Dora per winning hand. For example if you'd only won two
hands and one had no Dora tiles and the other had four then the proportion
here would be 50% and the Dora usage rate would be 2.
Bottom screen:
This screen shows your Riichi trends - your percentage win-rate on different
types of Riichi.
1. Riichi wins
The number of times you won hands after calling Riichi.
2. Riichi Ippatsu wins
The number of times you won with Ippatsu after calling Riichi.
3. Okkake Riichi wins
The number of times you won after calling Okkake Riichi.
Okkake Riichi, or "chasing Riichi", is simply the name for calling Riichi
after another player has already "reached" in the same hand. The opposite
of this, when you are the first player to call Riichi, is Sensei Riichi.
(This isn't the Sensei that means "teacher"; the second kanji is different
so it means "head-start" or "pre-emptive" instead).
(The PS3 version of Mahjong Fight Club actually has four Riichi stats but the
data for Hikkake Riichi is not given in the DS version - even though there's
plenty of space for it on the screen!)
Page 4:
Top screen:
The table here shows trends in your waits in your winning hands, given as a
breakdown into seven different types, with numbers, percentages and a graph.
1. Ryanmen - e.g. two-sided _45_ waiting on a 3 or 6
2. Tanki - i.e. a single tile waiting to make a pair
3. Shanpon - e.g. 22 and 77 waiting to make one Pung
4. Penchan - edge wait e.g. 12_ waiting on a 3
5. Kanchan - centre wait e.g. 6_8 waiting on a 7
6. Multiple waits - e.g. _23456_ waiting on a 1, 4 or 7
7. Other - i.e. Nagashi Mangan and probably Tenhou too
Bottom screen:
This screen gives six more figures which you can think of as two blocks of
three. The first three show how many turns on average it takes you to make
ready, to declare a win and to declare Riichi.
1. Average turns to Tenpai (ready)
2. Average turns to win
3. Average turns to Riichi
The other three are "personal best" records.
4. Most Dora in a single winning hand
5. Most consecutive match wins
6. Most consecutive hand wins
o Yaku Distribution (stats section F) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[-F-] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press d-pad up/down to page through the entries.
This section counts the number of times you've made each of the different Yaku
(scoring elements) and Yakuman (limit hands) in your winning hands.
For each entry the tables show the number of times you've won with that Yaku
and the percentage of your winning hands in which it occurred.
Every Yaku you've completed is highlighted in cyan and each Yakuman in gold.
If a Yaku is shown with a small red square next to it you can hold the A
button to get a more detailed breakdown, for example with Yakuhai you can view
a pop-up showing how many times you made it with round-wind, seat-wind, Haku
(white dragon), Hatsu (green dragon) and Chun (red dragon) in that order.
Similarly with any Yaku that observes the property of Kuisagari (so the Yaku
is worth one fewer Han in an open hand) the pop-up will show a percentage
breakdown with Menzen (concealed) on the left and Naki (open) on the right.
The Yaku are listed in the following order over the four pages...
Page 1:
1. Riichi (ready bet)
2. Daburu Riichi (Double Riichi)
3. Menzen Tsumo (Concealed Self-Draw)
4. Ippatsu ("one-shot" win after Riichi)
5. Pinfu ("no points" hand)
6. Tanyao (All Simples)
7. Yakuhai (see above)
8. Ikkitsuukan or Ittsuu (Pure Straight)
(gap)
9. Rinshan Kaihou (After a Kong)
10. Chankan (Robbing the Kong)
11. Haitei (Last-Tile Tsumo)
12. Houtei (Last-Tile Ron)
13. Iipeikou (Pure Double Chow)
Page 2:
1. Ryanpeikou (Twice Pure Double Chow)
2. Chanta (Mixed Outside Hand)
3. Junchan (Pure Outside Hand)
4. San Shoku Doujun (Mixed Triple Chow)
5. San Shoku Doukou (Triple Pung)
6. Chii Toitsu (Seven Pairs)
7. Toi-Toi Hou (All Pungs)
8. San Ankou (Three Concealed Pungs)
(gap)
9. San Kantsu (Three Kongs)
10. Honitsu (Half-Flush)
11. Chinitsu (Full Flush)
12. Honroutou (All Terminals & Honours)
13. Shou San Gen (Little Three Dragons)
Page 3:
1. Nagashi Mangan (All Terminals & Honours Discards)
2. Chinroutou (All Terminals)
3. Dai San Gen (Big Three Dragons)
4. Shou Suu Shii (Little Four Winds)
5. Dai Suu Shii (Big Four Winds)
6. Suu Ankou (Four Concealed Pungs)
7. Suu Ankou Tanki Machi (Four Concealed Pungs with Pair Wait)
8. Suu Kantsu (Four Kongs)
(gap)
9. Ryuuiisou (All Green)
10. Tsuuiisou (All Honours)
11. Kokushimusou (Thirteen Orphans)
12. Kokushimusou Juusanmen Machi (Thirteen Orphans with 13-Sided Wait)
13. Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates)
Page 4:
1. Junsei Chuurenpoutou ("Pure" Nine Gates)
2. Tenhou (Heavenly Hand)
3. Chiihou (Earthly Hand)
4. Renhou (Hand of Man)
5. Dai Sharin (Big Wheels)
6. Paa Renchan (Eight Consecutive Dealer Wins)
7. Kazoe Yakuman (Counted Yakuman)
There are also two numbers shown at the bottom of all four pages:
1. Total number of Dora in winning hands
2. Total number of hands won
Each Yakuman you make is also logged and dated individually on section J of
your stats (see below).
o Orbs (stats section G) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [-G-] [ h ] [ i ] [ j ]
This section unlocks after advancing to the Dan grades (see Section 08) and
specifically it unlocks separately for online and offline play.
Top screen:
After completing the Kyuu ranks you'll enter the Dan grades and be assigned to
whichever of the Four Gods (see Section 08) best fits your playing style. Your
god will be pictured on the top screen.*
The caption at the top-left gives your current Dan grade which is composed of
four characters - the first two are the name of your God and the last two give
the actual grade, so the third character is the number of the rank. Special
kanji are used for 1st, 2nd and 3rd but normal Japanese numbers are used for
the 4th thru' 8th.
The grey slots at the bottom show how many Orbs you need to collect in order
to advance to the next grade and also how many you currently have.
Once you become a Kouryuu player (see Section 08) your god will be replaced by
the yellow dragon (but his mane will be in the colour of your god, so in my
case it's green for Genbu). Also the grey slots will now indicate how many
golden Orbs you've got and your level is shown at the top-left of the screen.
Bottom screen:
Press d-pad up/down to toggle between pages 1 and 2.
Page 1:
This screen counts the number and types of Orbs you've won and lost. During
the Dan grades it will show normal Orbs and then during the Kouryuu levels it
will count your golden Orbs instead.
1. Current Orb total
2. Orb gains
This does not include the three Orbs you receive when you're first promoted
into the Dan grades or the five golden Orbs you get at Kouryuu level 1.
3. Orb losses
4. Bonus Orbs
You receive a bonus Orb when you make a Yakuman (limit hand) or when you
complete a full set of Pro Stars (see below).
There's a separate single entry below this with a row of five stars (and later
two rows of five).
5. Pro Stars
Each of the JPML pro characters is listed (in stats section I) with between
one and five silver stars, lets call them Pro Stars. Sometimes a pro will</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
appear in a ranking match as a special guest. If you take 1st place in the
match and the pro comes 4th then you win their stars (you can win Pro Stars
from the same person more than once).
During the Dan grades, for every five Pro Stars collected you receive an
additional Orb. Once you've been promoted out of the Dan grades to become a
Kouryuu player you'll need to collect ten stars for each bonus Orb.
This entry shows your total number of Pro Stars won (on the right) and your
current progress towards your next bonus Orb (on the left).
Page 2:
This page gives a breakdown of the different types of Orbs you've collected.
This is shown both numerically and graphically, with losses on the left (red)
and gains on the right (cyan).
1. Seiryuu - blue Orbs from Blue Dragon players
2. Suzaku - purple Orbs from Vermillion Bird players
3. Byakko - cyan Orbs from White Tiger players
4. Genbu - green Orbs from Black Tortoise players
5. Kouryuu - gold Orbs from pros or other Golden Dragon characters
6. Rank position - ??
*Your God is depicted in front of an octagon formed from the eight trigrams or
Gua of the I'Ching, the ancient Chinese divination system. If you're familiar
with the I'Ching you'll notice that the trigrams are arranged clockwise in the
sequence Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth, Thunder, Fire, Lake and Heaven (which
is known as Fu Xi's Arrangement, one of the two common circular arrangements).
On the version of this view shown after each ranking match, each of the eight
sides of the octagon corresponds to one of the eight Dan grades so it serves
as a visual indication of your progress.
o Regions (stats section H) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [-H-] [ i ] [ j ]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press d-pad up/down to page through the entries.
Top screen:
This screen tracks the numbers of P-points you've accumulated (see Section 08)
1. Prefecture - the territory you chose to represent when you first started
2. Current P-point total - the difference between the next two rows
3. P-points earned
4. P-points lost
Bottom screen:
The table on this screen collates your wins, losses and totals against the
locations of your opponents.
The first page lists the ten regions previously given in the table in Section
03, followed by "CPU" (for computer opponents) and overseas (for Hong Kong and
Taiwan). The next six pages give a breakdown by prefecture and the final page
lists Hong Kong and Taiwan separately.
If you play exclusively offline then only the CPU row will be populated.
o Pro Players (stats section I) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [-I-] [ j ]
Press d-pad up/down to scroll through the entries.
This section lists the forty-eight professionals from Nihon Puro Maajan Renmei
(also known as Japan Pro Mahjong League, JPML or simply "Renmei") who appear
in the game. For each one it lists their Dan grade and name.
Initially every pro is greyed out until you "defeat" them, i.e. you take 1st
place in a match in which they come 4th. Now when you select them you'll see
their image on the top screen along with their rank, birthplace, star rating
and their name, plus other details scrolling as a tickertape along the bottom.
Also (after defeating them) you can press A to make them talk. *8^)
o Events (stats section J) [ a ] [ b ] [ c ] [ d ] [ e ]
[ f ] [ g ] [ h ] [ i ] [-J-]
Press L to view data for online play or R for "individual play".
Press d-pad up/down to scroll through the entries. (The newest ones will be at
the bottom of the page.)
This final section keeps a record, with date and time, of every notable event
that occurs, for example when you start playing MFC, when you clear each of
the categories in Mission Mode (see Section 10), when you're promoted to the
first Dan grade (see Section 08), then to Master status and then beyond into
Kouryuu (golden dragon) Level 1 and Level 10.
This page also makes a note each time you make a Yakuman (limit hand), which
is a nice feature. The name of the specific Yakuman (Dai San Gen, Suu Ankou,
etc) is also recorded.
------< OPTIONS >------------------------------------------------- [Section 12]
There are sixteen features available under the Options section, accessed from
the final option off the main menu. These are displayed over three pages which
you can cycle through using the shoulder buttons L/R. Use the d-pad up/down to
pick one and left/right to modify it.
Once you've made changes you can press the A button to confirm and exit, the B
button to exit without saving changes or the X button to restore the defaults.
The default setting for each is marked with an asterisk (*). Options which are
unlocked as you progress through the game are marked with a hash (#).
Page 1 - Operation [sousa]
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1.1 Name: Discard Time Limit [dahai seigenjikan]
Options: On [ari] / Off* [nashi]
Info: This option applies a time limit to all your moves - both when it's
your turn to discard a tile and when you're given pop-up menu options
like Chii or Pon. You have seven seconds to make your move.
If you fail to discard a tile by the end of the seven seconds then
the game will automatically discard your selected (raised) tile or,
if none is selected, it will discard your Tsumo (the tile you just
drew). When there are only five seconds left to make your move a
countdown will appear above the tile that will be discarded and with
three seconds remaining the timer will start beeping at you.
Once per hand you can press the X button to be given extra thinking-
time; you get about ten seconds.
Pressing the Start button does not pause the game or the timer!
The time limit feature is permanently enabled in both online and
local multiplayer modes so you might like to practise using it in a
few single-player matches before facing your friends - or the world!
1.2 Name: Cursor Movement Speed [kaasoru idou sokudo]
Options: Fastest [saihaya]
Fast [hayai]
Normal* [futsuu]
Slow [osoi]
Slowest [saichi]
Info: This setting governs the movement speed of the arrow which is used
to select a tile to discard.
1.3 Name: Tile Magnification [kakudai pai]
Options: On* / Off
Info: This gives you the option to disable the enlarged portion of your
hand shown as giant tiles at the bottom of the touchscreen.
1.4 Name: Magnified Tiles Movement Direction [kakudai pai no idou houkou]
Options: Forward Direction* [junhoukou] / Opposite Direction [gyakuhoukou]
Info: You can scroll along the row of magnified tiles by touching anywhere
within the frame occupying the lower half of the touchscreen and
sliding horizontally (just take care not to tap the same tile twice
or you'll select and discard it). With this option you can specify
whether the tiles move with or against the direction of your stroke.
Try both options and pick whichever feels more natural to you.
1.5 Name: Computer Discard Speed [CPU dahai sokudo]
Options: Fastest* [saihaya]
Fast [hayai]
Normal [futsuu]
Slow [osoi]
Slowest [saichi]
Info: This option is used to set the speed at which the three computer-
controlled players take their turns in an offline game.
1.6 Name: Vibration [shindou]
Options: On / Off*
Info: If you have a DS Rumble Pak connected to the GBA slot on your DS you
can use this option to enable in-game rumbling.
If however you have a DSi or DSi XL then you won't have the necessary
GBA slot and you won't even be able to connect the Rumble Pak so you
can disregard this option. It looks like the new 3DS (launched in a
couple of months at time of writing) is lacking the GBA slot too. :6
Page 2 - Sound [onsei]
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2.1 Name: Voices [onsei]
2.2 Name: Sound Effects [koukaon]
Options: On* / Off
Info: Two simple options to control in-game sound.
2.3 Name: Music Playback Mode [BGM saisei moodo]
Options: All On* [subete on]
In-Game Off [taikyokuchuu ofu]
All Off [subete ofu]
Info: With the In-Game Off option selected, music is played while you're
navigating the menus but no music is played during games.
The other two options turn the music on or off totally.
2.4 Name: In-Game Music [taikyokuchuu BGM]
Options: Normal* [noomaru]
Mahjong Fight Club 1# [Maajan Kakutou Kurabu 1]
Mahjong Fight Club 2# [Maajan Kakutou Kurabu 1]
Mahjong Fight Club 3# [Maajan Kakutou Kurabu 2]
Gradius# [Guradiusu]
Nemesis 2# [MSX Guradiusu 2]
Legend of the Mystical Ninja# [Ganbare Goemon]
Yie Ar Kung Fu# [Ii Aru Kan Fuu]
Info: When you first play the game only the standard music is available but
additional music-sets can be unlocked during play.
I've listed the sets here in the order they appear on the options
page; this is not the order in which they became unlocked.
The MFC3 option was unlocked after my tenth match, I got Gradius upon
promotion to Shodan grade and Yie Ar Kung Fu after completing the Dan
grades and becoming a Kouryuu player (see Section 08). MFC1 unlocked
after I got my first Yakuman (limit hand) and MFC2 after winning five
consecutive offline matches.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Nemesis 2 BGMs unlocked after
the "crushing" [gekiha] of respectively ten and twenty opponents in
Pro CPU Mode. This refers to what I call "defeating" a pro character
- taking 1st place when they come 4th. Each such defeat will be shown
in stats section I (see Section 11 above).
The latter options on the list should please Konami otaku! These
music-sets are taken from historic Konami games (where appropriate
I've given the titles of the American versions above). When you
select the first Gradius option it not only changes the music but it
also replaces all in-game sounds with retro shmup sound-effects. :D
2.5 Name: Sound Mode [saundo moodo]
Options: Surround* [saraundo] / Headphones [heddofon]
This gives two choices for optimising the sound output.
I always forget you can use headphones with the DS - my DSi XL has a
discrete 1/8" headphone jack on the front. I did try it once with a
pair of closed-earcup monitors and Geometry Wars: Galaxies and got
some impressive bass response. If you haven't already, give it a try!
Even without headphones you can tell that the game applies basic
stereo effects to the audio - when the player seated to your left or
right makes a discard or spoken declaration the sound comes from the
speaker on the appropriate side.
2.6 Name: Your Voice [jibun onsei]
Options: Male A* [dansei A] / Male B [dansei B] / Female [josei]
Info: This gives a choice of three options for your own character voice,
used for calls/declarations like Pon, Riichi, Ron, etc.
Page 3 - Screen [gamen]
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3.1 Name: Table Type [taku no shurui]
Options: Normal Table* [noomaru]
Normal Table (Blue-Grey Colour)
Normal Table (Blue Colour)
Normal Table (Grey Colour)
Normal Table (Green Colour)
Normal Table (Red Colour)
Normal Table (White Colour)
Random [randamu]
Simple [shinpuru]
Floormat [tatami]
Houndstooth Check [chidori(goushi)]
Black Tortoise# [Genbu]
Vermillion Bird# [Suzaku]
Azure Dragon# [Seiryuu]
White Tiger# [Byakko]
Gold# [ougon]
Gradius# [Guradiusu]
Castlevania# [Akumajou Dorakyura] (literally "Demon-castle Dracula")
Legend of the Mystical Ninja# [Ganbare Goemon]
Yie Ar Kung Fu# [Ii Aru Kan Fuu]
Info: This option lets you pick the tabletop graphics (wallpaper) shown
during play. Initially only the first eleven options are available.
The Random option is very random - it gives you a different tabletop
at the start of each hand!
The tabletops for each of the Four Gods are unlocked by clearing that
god's category in Mission Mode (see Section 10) and then Gold (it
says "gold" rather than "golden dragon") becomes available when you
complete the fifth category there.
The last four options are again based on classic Konami titles, with
screenshots from the four vintage video-games. For me the Yie Ar Kung
Fu option unlocked after I won three consecutive matches and the
Gradius, Castlevania and Mystical Ninja tabletops became available on
achieving 4th, 6th and 8th Dan respectively (all in single-player).
3.2 Name: Tile Colour [pai no iro]
Options: Normal*
Black#
Red#
Blue#
Yellow#
Random#
Info: This lets you change the colour of the tiles, or more specifically
the colour of their backs.
3.3 Name: Discard Discrimination [tedashi hanbetsu]
Options: On [ari] / Off* [nashi]
Info: A Tsumogiri is a tile which you draw and then discard immediately, as
opposed to drawing one tile but then dropping another from your hand.
If you watch an opponent's hand carefully when it's their turn you
can see whether the tile they discard is the one they just drew (it
will be at the far right end of the row of tiles) or if it's one they
already had (it will come from within the row). This can give useful
clues about the content of their hand.
(Random example: if they're holding a 3_5 element and draw the 6 in
the same suit they'd probably drop the 3 from within their hand to
leave the more efficient _56_ element, so *sometimes* a non-Tsumogiri
3 discard means they're waiting on a 4 or 7 in that suit.)
Normally, as in real life, you have to observe carefully and remember
which tiles are non-Tsumogiri, but when this option is On, all Tsumo-
giri discards are permanently highlighted in pale yellow.
Don't confuse this with the pale grey shading which indicates a tile
that was called by another player (by Chii, Pon or Kan). Sometimes a
tile will be shown dark yellow if it has both types of shading.
3.4 Name: Touch Mark [tacchi maaku]
Options: Normal* [noomaru]
Crosshairs [shoujun]
Cherry Blossom [sakura]
Pawprint [ashiato]
Flower Circle [hanamaru]
Info: This final option can be used to change the visual effect shown when
you press the touchscreen. The default option is a ripple effect.
*This is the default setting for the option.
#These options are not available when you first begin the game; they become
unlocked as you progress through the game.
------< RULES >--------------------------------------------------- [Section 13]
The first rule of Mahjong Fight Club is you do not talk about Mahjong Fight Club
and the second rule of Mahj... sorry, it's an obvious joke! :)
There are thirty-six rule options in the game. When you play under Fight Club
Rules a fixed rule-set is applied - you can view this using the Confirm Rules
menu option (see Section 07). Alternatively you can select Free Rules and pick
your own custom rule-set with the Rule Settings option (see Section 07 again).
The rules are displayed over seven pages which you can cycle through using the
shoulder buttons L/R. The listing below gives the rules in the sequence they
appear in the game along with a description. To set an option under Free Rules
use the d-pad up/down to pick a rule and left/right to modify it. Once you've
made changes you can press the A button to confirm and exit, the B button to
exit without saving changes or the X button to restore the defaults.
The default for each option under Free Rules is marked with an asterisk (*). The
default settings also constitute the fixed Fight Club Rules, with the exception
of the starting score (rule 3.1) which will be either 25,000 pts in a Hanchan
(two-round match) or 20,000 pts in a Tonpuusen (one-round match).
You can confirm the current rules applied during a match by holding the Select
button and paging with L/R. The rule options (Free Rules defaults / Fight Club
fixed) are also summarised in the first table on page 27 of the game manual.
Many of the options here use the following two words to indicate if it's used:
__|___ | _
_|___ |/ \ ARI
/ |/ \ | | denotes "existence" and describes a rule that's applied (on)
\_/ _/ ' _/
__/__ _ |
/ . | NASHI
/ _|_ | means "without" and describes a rule that's not applied (off)
/ (_| |__/
Page 1 - Basics [kihon]
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1.1 Name: Kuitan (open Tanyao)
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: When Kuitan is Ari the game allows the scoring element Tanyao (All
Simples) on an open hand.
1.2 Name: Kuikae (no melding restriction)
Options: On [ari] / Off* [nashi]
Info: When Kuikae is Ari you can break a complete concealed set (a Chow or
a Pung) within your hand to call an opponent's discard (with Chii or
Pon respectively) and then immediately discard the third tile from
the original set on the same turn.
If you are playing a game with Kuikae Nashi (for example under the
fixed Fight Club Rules) and you try to make an illegal discard, the
game will block the move and give you a warning message - a line of
white text immediately above your hand of tiles which says Kuikae Wa
Dekimasen which means "(you) cannot do Kuikae".
Page 2 - Wins [agari]
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2.1 Name: Go Honba Ryan Han Shibari (two-Han minimum with five counters)
Options: On [ari] / Off* [nashi]
Info: Normally Japanese mahjong is played with an Ii Han Shibari (one-Han
minimum) so your hand must have Yaku (scoring elements) worth at
least one Han in order to be able to legally declare a win with it.
When this option is applied a two-Han minimum is imposed when the
Honba counter shows five or more (i.e. after five consecutive hands
have resulted in draws and/or dealer wins).
Han from Dora bonus tiles are not counted when checking if a hand
meets the one/two-Han minimum requirements.
The rule is usually known as Ryan Han Shibari, although this can be
shortened to Ryan Shi. Ryan is the Japanese pronunciation of the
Mandarin Chinese counting-number two, Han are the "doubles" awarded
for Yaku (and Dora) and Shibari means "binding".
(The term Shibari is also used in bondage so it can yield some exotic
image results when doing web searches!)
2.2 Name: Agari Yame (the "quit while you're ahead!" rule)
Options: No Continuance* [renchan shinai] / Continuance [renchan suru]
Info: Under the Agari Yame rule, if the player at east (the dealer) wins
the final hand of the match and is leading on points then they have
the option to end the game (and collect the Uma and Oka - see below)
rather than playing the Renchan (extra hand) that would usually be
played after a dealer win (and risk losing).
Instead of giving you the choice of whether to stop the game, MFC
automatically stops if you win a hand as the last dealer.
I've used the common name for the rule here but in the game the full
title for this option is Saishuu Kyoku Agari Yame which means "final
hand winning stop". The last two characters can be read as Todome
which means "finishing blow" (a term which is popular in samurai-
based fiction) but it's also the core of the word Yame(ru) which is
the verb "to end" or "to stop" - although I prefer the samurai term!
2.3 Name: Ta Cha Hou (multiple win)
Options: On* [ari] / Head Bump [atama hane]
Info: The kanji for this option say "many person win" so this would allow
Double Ron - when two players can both win on the same discard.
If this option is disallowed then the "head bump" rule applies and
only one player wins, specifically the one closest to the discarder
working counterclockwise around the table.
If two players win on the same tile and only one of them called
Riichi then only the one who "reached" gets the benefit of the Ura
Dora (and any Kan Ura Dora).
Double Ron is a not uncommon occurrence, but Triple Ron is. The
latter would be covered by the following rule option.
2.4 Name: San Cha Hou Ryuukyoku (draw when three players win)
Options: No Draw* / Draw and Seat-Winds Unchanged / Draw and Seat-Winds Rotate
Info: This is the first of the five situations which can force an abortive
draw in modern Japanese mahjong rules (the other four are listed as
rules 5.4 to 5.7 below).
The draw occurs when three players declare a win on the same tile.
The three settings for this rule are as follows:-
o Ryuukyoku Nashi (no draw) therefore Triple Ron - ouch!
o Ryuukyoku Oya Nagare Nashi (new hand played with same dealer)
o Ryuukyoku Oya Nagare Suru (new hand played with new dealer)
2.5 Name: Hakoware Tobi (bankruptcy)
Options: On [ari]* / Off [nashi]
Info: When this rule is used a game will end early if the points total of
one or more players drops below zero.
This rule is usually known as Dobon or Buttobi (or Tobi for short).
If this happens to you the outcome will be recorded with the word
Buttobi (in red) in the Twenty Matches section of the stats pages.
Page 3 - Points Calculation [tensuu keisan]
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3.1 Name: Mochiten (starting score)
Options: 20k* / 21k / 22k / 23k / 24k / 25k / 26k / 27k / 28k / 29k / 30k
Info: This option is used to set the number of points that each player
holds at the start of a match.
On the PS3 version of MFC there are separate options to specify the
starting scores used in one and two-round matches, but here there's
only one option that covers both.
3.2 Name: Oka no Settei (setting of winner's bonus)
Options: On [ari] / Off* [nashi]
Info: Technically players always buy into a Japanese mahjong game with
30,000 points - this is called the Genten - but they often start the
game with a lower amount, known as the Haikyuu Genten, for example
25,000 (as specified with rule option 3.1 above). In this case the
excess points can be paid to the overall winner of the game as a
bonus called the Oka.
For example if players start the game with the standard amount of
25,000 pts then each of them puts 5,000 pts into the pot and the Oka
would then be 20,000 pts.
If you set the starting scores to the lowest permitted value (20k)
then each player would pay 10k into the pot and the winner would
receive a very tasty 40,000 pts Oka! :o
3.3 Name: Uma no Settei (1st place) (setting of score adjustments)
Options: 0 to +30k (default is +5k*)
3.4 Name: Uma no Settei (2nd place)
Options: 0 to +15k (default is zero*)
3.5 Name: Uma no Settei (3rd place)
Options: 0 to +10k (default is zero*)
3.6 Name: Uma no Settei (4th place)
Options: -30k to 0 (default is -5k*) - cannot be set manually
Info: These four options can be used to specify the Uma - a final exchange
of points at the end of the game. Unlike other video-games that give
only a few predefined settings, MFC gives you more freedom over what
figures to use - you can specify the amounts the players will gain or
lose. With the default settings, the player who is in 4th place pays
5,000 pts to the player in 1st (and there is no change to the scores
of the 2nd and 3rd place players).
The game seems to apply the following rules: the Uma for 2nd cannot
exceed the Uma for 1st (otherwise it might be sufficient to make 2nd
the game winner), the Uma for 3rd cannot exceed that for 2nd (for the
same reason), the total amount of points exchanged cannot exceed
30,000 and the Uma for 4th place will always be set automatically to
balance the other three values.
This works similarly to the Uma options in the PS3 version of Mahjong
Fight Club except there's less freedom on the DS, specifically you
cannot set negative values on 2nd or 3rd place so the poor 4th place
player always pays the whole amount!
Page 4 - Bonus Tiles [dora]
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4.1 Name: Ura Dora
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: The Ura Dora indicator is the tile under the standard (Omote) Dora
indicator and is applied when someone wins with Riichi.
4.2 Name: Kan Ura Dora
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: A Kan Ura Dora indicator is a tile under any Kan Dora indicators
which again come into play when someone wins after reaching.
A new Kan Dora indicator is revealed each time a Kong is declared, up
to a maximum of four. (There is no option to stop this.)
If rule 4.1 is set to Nashi then this one will be fixed Nashi - you
cannot have Kan Ura Dora without the Ura Dora.
4.3 Name: Akago Pinzu (red fives in Dots suit)
Options: Off [nashi] / 1 / 2*
4.4 Name: Akago Manzu (red fives in Craks suit)
Options: Off [nashi] / 1* / 2
4.5 Name: Akago Souzu (red fives in Bams suit)
Options: Off [nashi] / 1* / 2
Info: These three options let you set the number of red five tiles in each
suit. Each red five in a winning hand adds an extra Han (double),
just like normal Dora. As with other Dora, these cannot be used to
meet the one (or sometimes two) Han minimum for going out.
Some folks like to play with one in each suit while others like to
play with just two in the Pinzu (Dots) suit so, to cover both bases
(and to fill a full row in the box), Japanese tile-sets usually come
with four red fives and often people play with all four, hence the
default settings in the game.
Page 5 - Drawn Hands [ryuukyoku]
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5.1 Name: Renchan no Shurui (types of continuance)
Options: Win* [agari renchan] / Ready [tenpai renchan]
Info: A Renchan is a continuance - an extra hand played without the seat-
winds moving so the dealer "stays on". This is counted in addition to
the standard four hands which make up a round.
With the default setting a continuance is played only when the dealer
wins the hand. With the other setting an extra hand is also played if
the hand ends in an exhaustive draw in which the dealer is Tenpai,
i.e. they have a "ready" hand, one tile from being complete.
See also the following two rules.
5.2 Name: Keishiki Tenpai (Yaku-less Tenpai)
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: When Keishiki Tenpai is Ari a hand can be counted as Tenpai even if
it contains no elements which give it Yaku (scoring elements).
5.3 Name: No-Ten Bappu (draw payments)
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: The No-Ten Bappu is the payment of 3,000 points paid in the event of
a hand ending in an exhaustive draw (when the Wall is depleted). The
players that are Tenpai (see above) each receive a share of the 3,000
points, which are paid by the players that are No-Ten (not Tenpai).
With No-Ten Bappu set to Nashi, no points are exchanged on a draw.
The following four options (5.4 to 5.7) relate to four of the conditions which,
along with San Cha Hou (see custom rule 2.4 above), make up the five different
situations which - optionally - can force an abortive draw in Japanese mahjong.
There are three possible settings for each, in this order:-
o Ryuukyoku Nashi (no draw)
o Ryuukyoku Oya Nagare Nashi (new hand played with same dealer)
o Ryuukyoku Oya Nagare Suru (new hand played with new dealer)
5.4 Name: Yonin Riichi (four-person reach)
Options: No Draw* / Draw and Seat-Winds Unchanged / Draw and Seat-Winds Rotate
Info: This occurs when all four players call Riichi in the same hand.
5.5 Name: Suu Kan Nagare (four Kong re-deal)
Options: No Draw / Draw and Seat-Winds Unchanged* / Draw and Seat-Winds Rotate
Info: This occurs when four Kongs are declared in the same hand by two or
more players (if one lucky player gets four Kongs in a single hand
then they can get the very rare Yakuman of Suu Kantsu).
(In his book Teach Yourself: Mahjong, David Pritchard describes this
as a "curious rule" but actually it's a logical consequence of the
internal structure of the Dead Wall in modern Japanese mahjong. There
are only four tiles available as supplement tiles (drawn after a Kong
is declared), the other ten are all potential Dora indicators - one
Omote Dora, one Ura Dora, four Kan Dora and four Kan Ura Dora.)
5.6 Name: Suu Fon Renda (four Winds discard draw)
Options: No Draw / Draw and Seat-Winds Unchanged* / Draw and Seat-Winds Rotate
Info: This happens when the first discard of all four players is the same
Wind tile. The name Suu Fon Renda means "four-wind barrage"!
5.7 Name: Kyuu Shu Kyuu Hai (9+ Terminals & Honours draw)
Options: No Draw / Draw and Seat-Winds Unchanged / Draw and Seat-Winds Rotate*
Info: This one happens when a player begins a hand with nine or more
different Major tiles (i.e. Terminals and Honours) after their first
self-draw, although a draw only occurs if they choose to accept it.
If you start a hand with nine or more Terminals and Honours then the
game will give you the option to declare this and accept the re-deal;
it does this in the form of a dark grey text window on the top screen
which says Kyuu Shu Kyuu Hai (four kanji, the first and third are the
number nine) and two buttons on the touchscreen. Pick the left option
(yes) to accept the draw ...but of course in this situation surely
you will want to try for Kokushimusou (Thirteen Orphans) instead! :D
The name Kyuu Shu Kyuu Hai means "nine types, nine tiles".
Page 6 - Scoring Elements [yaku]
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6.1 Name: Tsumo Pinfu (self-draw Pinfu)
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: When Tsumo Pinfu is Ari you can claim the scoring element Pinfu on
a Tsumo (self-draw) win. Pinfu is defined as a "no points" hand, with
no Fu (minipoints) other than the basic 20 or 30 for going out. A
Tsumo win is normally worth an extra two Fu but with this rule you
waive the two Fu and take the extra Han (double) for Pinfu instead.
6.2 Name: Riichi Ippatsu ("one-shot win")
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: This simply turns on/off the Ippatsu scoring element.
6.3 Name: Nagashi Mangan (all Terminal and Honour discards)
Options: Baiman / Mangan* / Nashi
Info: When Nagashi Mangan is Ari, if a hand ends in an exhaustive draw, all
of your discards are Majors (Terminals and Honours) and none of these
have been taken by other players then you can claim Nagashi Mangan.
By default this scores as a Mangan hand (12,000 points for a dealer
or 8,000 pts for a non-dealer) but you also have the option to set it
to Baiman (24,000 pts for the dealer or 16,000 pts otherwise).
6.4 Name: Dai Sharin Yakuman ("Big Wheels" limit hand)
Options: Limit Hand* [yakuman] / Off [nashi]
Info: When this rule is Ari the game allows the optional Yakuman called Dai
Sharin (literally Big Wheels) - a hand of 22334455667788 specifically
in the Pinzu (Dots) suit.
Even if this rule was set to Nashi such a hand would still score big.
You'd have a good chance of making the thirteen Han required for
counted Yakuman (see rule 7.2 below) since the Big Wheels structure
always gives you Chinitsu (Full Flush), Ryanpeikou (Twice Pure Double
Chow), Tanyao (All Simples) and Pinfu at least.
6.5 Name: Manzu-Igai no Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates in suits other than Craks)
Options: On* [ari] / Craks only [manzu nomi]
Info: The rare Yakuman of Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates) - a concealed flush
hand composed of 1112345678999 plus one duplicate - is sometimes only
allowed in the Manzu (Craks) suit.
This rule lets you choose whether the hand is allowed only in the one
suit or in any of the three; the default is all three.
Page 7 - Limit Hands [yakuman]
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(NB: The last two rule options on the previous page relate to Yakuman too.)
7.1 Name: Yakuman no Choufuku (Yakuman stacking)
Options: On* [ari] / Off [nashi]
Info: A Yakuman is a rare and precious thing but it is possible to get more
than one at the same time! For example you might get Tsuuiisou (All
Honours) with Dai San Gen (Big Three Dragons). When this rule is Ari
you can "stack" multiple Yakuman in one hand.
The theoretical maximum number of Yakuman on a single hand with
Double Yakuman allowed (see rules 7.3 thru' 7.6 below) is seven! :o
This could be achieved with a combination of Dai Suu Shii (Big Four
Winds), Tsuuiisou (All Honours), Suu Ankou (Four Concealed Pungs)
with a Tanki wait, Paa Renchan (Eight Consecutive Dealer Wins) and
either Suu Kantsu (Four Kongs) or Tenhou (Heavenly Hand). I like to
dream of such things but in reality this would be impossibly rare!
7.2 Name: Kazoe Yakuman (counted Yakuman)
Options: Limit Hand* [yakuman] / Off [nashi]
Info: When this rule is applied any winning hand with thirteen or more Han
(doubles) will be scored as a Yakuman (limit hand).
Unusually my very first ever Yakuman was a counted one. I had a hand
with two Kongs and with Riichi, Tanyao and a staggering eleven Dora!
I wasn't even playing with red fives. I think this might be a world
record for most Dora ever! ;) (I'm sure it's not really.)
7.3 Name: Dai Suu Shii Hou (Big Four Winds win)
Options: Daburu Yakuman* / Yakuman
7.4 Name: Suu Ankou Tanki Machi (Four Concealed Pungs with pair wait)
Options: Daburu Yakuman* / Yakuman
7.5 Name: Kokushimusou Juusanmen Machi (Thirteen Orphans with 13-sided wait)
Options: Daburu Yakuman* / Yakuman
7.6 Name: Junsei Chuurenpoutou ("Pure" Nine Gates, i.e. with 9-sided wait)
Options: Daburu Yakuman* / Yakuman
Info: These four rules can be set individually to allow the four possible
optional Daburu Yakuman (double Yakuman) hands. These score twice the
normal Yakuman points, e.g. 96,000 pts for a dealer win! :D
The four possible double Yakuman hands are:-
Dai Shuu Shii - four Pungs of wind tiles
Suu Ankou Tanki Machi - a hand with four complete self-drawn Pungs
won after waiting on the pair
Kokushimusou Juusanmen Machi - one of each Terminal and Honour tile
waiting for a duplicate of any one of
the thirteen tiles to complete it
Junsei Chuurenpoutou - a flush hand of 1112345678999 waiting on a
duplicate of any one of those nine tiles to
complete it
*This is the default setting for the optional Free Rules and the permanent
setting in the fixed Fight Club Rules (used in matches played for rank). The
only exception to this is the starting score under Fight Club Rules which will
be either 25k in a two-round match or 20k in a one-round match.
------< MANUAL REFERENCE >---------------------------------------- [Section 14]
The game manual has several useful reference sections which are explained here.
Page 27 shows the fixed Fight Club Rules that apply in both ranking matches and
Pro CPU matches. See previous section for a full list of these in English.
Under that is a list of all the Yaku (scoring elements and Yakuman (limit hands)
recognised in the game, although it lacks the illustrations found in the manual
for the PS3 version.
One Han - pung of dragons, seat-wind or round-wind [yakuhai]
Concealed Self-Draw [menzen tsumo]
"no points" hand [pinfu]
All Simples [tanyao]
Riichi
"one-shot" win after Riichi [ippatsu]
Pure Double Chow [iipeikou]
After the Kong [rinshan kaihou]
Robbing a Kong [chankan]
Last-Tile Tsumo [haitei raoyue]
Last-Tile Ron [houtei raoyui]
Two Han - All Pungs [toi-toi]
Mixed Triple Chow* [san shoku doujun]
Triple Pung [san shoku doukou]
Pure Straight* [ikkitsuukan]
Mixed Outside Hand* [chanta]
Double Riichi [daburu riichi]
Three Concealed Pungs [san ankou]
Three Kongs [san kantsu]
All Terminals & Honours [honroutou]
Seven Pairs [chii toitsu]
Little Three Dragons [shou san gen]
Three Han - Half-Flush* [honitsu]
Twice Pure Double Chow [ryanpeikou]
Pure Outside Hand* [junchan]
Six Han - Full Flush* [chinitsu]
Yakuman - Four Concealed Pungs [suu ankou]
Little Four Winds [shou suu shii]
All Terminals [chinroutou]
Thirteen Orphans [kokushimusou]
Big Wheels [dai sharin]
Four Kongs [suu kantsu]
Big Three Dragons [dai san gen]
All Honours [tsuuiisou]
All Green [ryuuiisou]
Nine Gates [chuurenpoutou]
Heavenly Win [tenhou]
Earthly Win [chiihou]
Human Win [renhou]
Eight Consecutive Dealer Wins [paa renchan]
Counted Yakuman [kazoe yakuman]
Double - Four Concealed Pungs with pair wait [suu ankou tanki]
Yakuman Big Four Winds [dai suu shii]
Thirteen Orphans with 13-sided wait [kokushimusou juusanmen machi]
Pure Nine Gates (with a 9-sided wait) [junsei chuurenpoutou]
Other - Nagashi Mangan (All Terminal & Honour Discards)
Dora bonus tiles (not technically a Yaku)
NB: For more about Yaku and Yakuman options (and Double Yakuman for that matter)
see the information about rules pages 6 and 7 in Section 13 of this guide.
Page 28 gives a minipoint calculation table with the scoring units given in the
following order:-
Win [agari] ............................................................ 20 Fu
Concealed Ron Win [menzen ron agari] ................................... 10 Fu
Self-Draw Win [tsumo agari] ............................................ 2 Fu
Edge Wait [penchan], Centre Wait [kanchan] or Pair Wait [tanki] ........ 2 Fu
Pairs [jantou]
Seat-Wind [menfon] ................................................... 2 Fu
Round-Wind [chanfon] ................................................. 2 Fu
Dragons [san gen pai] ................................................ 2 Fu
Double Wind (when seat-wind and round-wind coincide) ................. 4 Fu
Simples [chunchanpai], Terminals [routouhai] and Guest Winds [otakaze] 0 Fu
Sets [mentsu]
Major Tiles (Terminals & Honours) [yaochuuhai]
Chows [shuntsu] .................................................... 0 Fu
Pungs [koutsu]
Concealed Pung [ankou] ........................................... 8 Fu
Exposed Pung [minkou] ............................................ 4 Fu
Kongs [kantsu]
Concealed Kong [ankan] ........................................... 32 Fu
Exposed Kong [minkan] ............................................ 16 Fu
Minor Tiles (Simples) [chunchanpai]
Chows [shuntsu] .................................................... 0 Fu
Pungs [koutsu]
Concealed Pung [ankou] ........................................... 4 Fu
Exposed Pung [minkou] ............................................ 2 Fu
Kongs [kantsu]
Concealed Kong [ankan] ........................................... 16 Fu
Exposed Kong [minkan] ............................................ 8 Fu
Page 29 gives a simplified points table which can be used to look up the points
scored by cross-referencing Han (doubles) across the top and Fu (minipoints)
down the side. For each Fu value, the top one is for Tsumo (self-draw) wins and
the bottom one is for Ron (stolen discard) wins. The bottom row (25 Fu) is for
Chii Toitsu (Seven Pairs) hands.
Pages 30 to 33 give an introduction to the professional mahjong players that
appear in the game, both as "special guests" in ranking matches and as the only
players available in Pro CPU matches. There are 48 pros in total - 28 male and
20 female - both genders listed in rank order with the highest first. The brown
box for each gives their name and rank, the text beneath this gives their title
victories, place of origin and blood type.**
*Any Yaku marked with a star here (or given in red text in the manual) obey the
rule of Kuisagari and are worth one Han less when open.
**In Japan some people believe that your blood group/type (Ketsuekigata) has a
bearing on your personality, not unlike the beliefs surrounding zodiacal birth-
signs in the West.
------< CONTACT >------------------------------------------------- [Section 15]
I welcome all feedback on this guide and any contributions you'd like to make.
I'm also happy to receive questions about this or any other mahjong game, or
about the rules and terminology of Japanese mahjong.
You can email me at barticle at hotmail.com - obviously changing the "at" to an
@ and removing the spaces. It would be helpful if you include the word "mahjong"
in the subject line and tell me which game you're playing.
------< THANKS >-------------------------------------------------- [Section 16]
I would like to thank...
o Poochy for previously translating the mission objectives and unlocks (and for
information used in my MFC PS3 guide upon which this one is based)
o Dave for the Download Play info
o USPML for hosting my PDF mahjong guide (and GameFAQs for hosting this one!)
o Etsuko for confirming the Saichi reading
o Tuttle, Nintendo and (especially) tangorin.com for great language resources
o bradybunch101 for an eBay bargain :)
o CBL, Aes Dana and Ultimae for beautiful sounds
o Chuck Palahniuk
I will be happy to give credit and thanks to anyone who makes a contribution.
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/ \___ ________ _________/ \__ ___ ______ / / ________
-------o / __ / \___ // ___/\_ ___// // ___// / / __ /
| ANOTHER / / / /_____/ // / / / / // / / / / \/ /
'---------/ /-/ // __ // /-----/ /---/ // /---/ /--/ _____/---------.
/ / / // / / // / / / / // / / / / / GUIDE |
/ \/ // \/ // / / \_ / // \_ / \ / \________ o-----'
\______/ \______/ \_/ \____/ \_/ \____/ \___/ \___________/
--
Mahjong Fight Club (DS) Guide
Copyright 2011-2012 James R. Barton
Initial version 1.00 completed 25 January 2011
Current version 1.02 completed 16 September 2012
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
This guide may be downloaded and printed for personal, private, non-commercial
use only. This work is subject to copyright. It may not be hosted online or
otherwise distributed publically or reproduced either in whole or in part
without the advance written consent of the author. Any violation would
constitute an infringement of copyright and is strictly prohibited.
The only websites with the author's consent to publish this guide are GameFAQs
(www.gamefaqs.com) and its affiliates (i.e. Gamespot).
If you find this file hosted on any other site I would be grateful if you would
inform me at the email address given at the top. Thanks!
