Hoshi o Miro Hito(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough
version 1.0.0 by
[email protected](anti spam spoonerism)
Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent. If you
write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by name, then I
will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I am bad about
answering e-mail. Sorry.
I've written maps and sent them to GameFAQs to accompany this guide.
I'd like to thank KingMike for suffering through writing the translation to
the game, RomHacking.net for hosting it, and a bunch of people for helping
with translating pieces of the game that aren't in the IPS patch.
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS
3. STRATEGY AND STATISTICS
3-1. YOUR CHARACTERS
3-2. ITEMS
3-3. ENEMIES
3-4. NONCOMBAT SPELLS
3-5. POTIONS
3-6. COMBAT
3-7. ABILITIES: WHAT DOES WHAT
4. WALKTHROUGH
5. CHEATS
5-1. THE BASICS
5-2. CHEATING WALKTHROUGH
6. VERSIONS/CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
Hoshi o Miru Hito(Stargazers) is renowned for being one of the worst RPGs
ever. But thankfully, KingMike not only translated the game but made it more
playable. He has some utilities which 1) expand the cartridge size to 256 and
2) make the game faster.
Stargazers is an RPG where you start off by the town of Mamus that has been
wasted by some mysterious force. Then you visit the town of Deus, ruined by
some "Skin Rinse Disease." The object is to make it to Ark City and find the
cause of all this mess. Eventually you go to outer space where you meet the
guys that have been messing things up. Along the way you'll find a bunch of
useless items you never use and maybe even make potions you may never use or
have clues for. Despite being a huge sprawl the game seems grossly
incomplete, as the way through is a bit direct and silly.
Stargazers is a game which has enough good points for you to almost sit
through the awful bits. But the puzzles are so alternately asinine and
trivial that they ruin any mapmaking or adventuring fun you can get. Oh yeah,
the original is too slow, and the combat is too unfair, too. But the patch
for it works okay.
There is a guide in Japanese out there. The pictures helped me figure out
what to do at some point during the game.
http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~survivor/hosimiruguide.html
An English review also nicely sums up the game's deficiencies:
http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/stargazer/stargazer.htm
Thanks also to KingMike for translating this game to English:
http://kingmike.emuxhaven.net
It's a bit tricky to get the SRAM patch(make the game go at a reasonable
speed) working, but it's very much worth it. The patch also allows you to
automatically sell weapons at 1/2 price if you are replacing them. The
original game did not even give you this fee.
2. CONTROLS
The most important controls are the emulator controls. Push ` to speed things
up on fceu. Even with KingMike's speed-up there will be times you want to get
through the scrolling text. Combat has a lot of it, and it is boring and
repetitive. You can hold down the ` with another key.
Left/right/up/down are as expected. However, they also try to jump, if you
have enough ability, and they try to go through a door with a key card as
well. You can land on a person if they are just beyond a wall, or you can run
into them so you are facing them.
[select] switches between characters and is thus only operative when you have
two or more characters in your party.
[b] does nothing except to undo [a] occasionally.
[a] brings up a menu.
[speak] speaks to the person you are facing. They do not have to be facing
you.
[medicine] lets you use medicine.
[strength] shows your character's attributes.
[esp] allows you to use ESP. Noncombat, this is
Break(for special walls)
Jump(to set a target or go to one)
Telepathy(to see what's one someone's mind, or communicate beyond
talking)
[discard] discards an item permanently.
[items] gives an option of seeing your regular items, or your ingredients.
You can't use either of them from the menu. The game just sees if you have
them or not.
Combat controls work as follows:
1) order your party's movements if there are more than one party member
2) work through your party. ESP is the default choice. This makes fighting
annoying, because you have to move down 1, and if you have ` held down, you
may move down more than 1.
3) if you choose ESP, you have 4 levels for a spell. The number shown is the
ESP you will have left if you cast the spell. Move left to decrease the ESP
you use, right to increase it.
4) to target an enemy, move up/down in the menu that appears.
3. STATISTICS AND SUCH
3-1. YOUR CHARACTERS
For each PC:
You have a maximum of 65535 experience points, which is level 30
Each player has maximums of 2, 3, 4 and 6 for each spell level. No two
players have the same maximum for any spell level.
The "6" skill is boosted at levels 1-3-5-7-9-11.
The "4" skill is boosted at 4-8-12-16.
The "3" skill is boosted at 9-13.
The "2" skill is boosted at 14-18.
Defense increases by 1 for each level, speed and proficiency increase by 2.
MaxHP and MaxPP increase by x^2 each level, experience neede by x^3.
Experience to get to level x = 7/3 x^3 + 3/2 x^2 + 37/6 x
Math detour:
(No, it's not that hard to work out. You can use the trick of finding
differences between each value, the differences between them, etc., to see
that if there is a formula, it's for a polynomial of order 3 with 7/3 as the
x^3 coefficient, because the differences of the differences etc are 14 at the
3rd time, making the coefficient 14/3! = 7/3. I will not put the proof in
here. The formula has no constant, and so try for x=1 and x=2.)
or if ax^3+bx^2+cx+d = experience for level x,
0a+0b+0c+ d=0
a+ b+ c+ d=10
8a+4b+2c+ d=37
27a+9b+3c+ d=95
You can see d immediately. Now we can twiddle the equations because the
numbers are not all over the place.
32a+16b+8c = 148
27a+ 9b+3c = 95
5a+ 5b+5c = 50
From this, 2b = 3. Then use the 1st 2 equations to solve for a and c.
For character attributes such as MaxHP and MaxPP, these are a bit easier to
figure out. I'll leave the proof to you. They vary as a 2nd degree
polynomial. This means, of course, that experience dwarfs HP/PP in the long
run.
a-term of attr = (2*L1 val - L0 val - L2 val)/2
b = L1 - L0 - a
This was more logical and fun than many parts of the game. I hope you learned
something from it...anyway...
You
LVL|MAXHP|MAXPP| D|SP|PR| EXP |B-J-T-S
---+-----+-----+--+--+--+-----+-------
0 | 50| 30| 0| 8|10| 0|0-0-0-0
1 | 150| 55| 1|10|12| 10|1-0-0-0
2 | 310| 100| 2|12|14| 37|1-0-0-0
3 | 530| 165| 3|14|16| 95|2-0-0-0
4 | 810| 250| 4|16|18| 198|2-1-0-0
5 | 1150| 355| 5|18|20| 360|3-1-0-0
6 | 1550| 480| 6|20|22| 595|3-1-0-0
7 | 2010| 625| 7|22|24| 917|4-1-0-0
8 | 2530| 790| 8|24|26| 1340|4-2-0-0
9 | 3110| 975| 9|26|28| 1878|5-2-0-1
10 | 3750| 1180|10|28|30| 2545|5-2-0-1
11 | 4450| 1405|11|30|32| 3355|6-2-0-1
12 | 5210| 1650|12|32|34| 4322|6-3-0-1
13 | 6030| 1915|13|34|36| 5460|6-3-0-2
14 | 6910| 2200|14|36|38| 6783|6-3-1-2
15 | 7850| 2505|15|38|40| 8305|6-3-1-2
16 | 8850| 2830|16|40|42|10040|6-4-1-2
17 | 9910| 3175|17|42|44|12002|6-4-1-3
18 |11030| 3540|18|44|46|14205|6-4-2-3
19 |12210| 3925|19|46|48|16663|6-4-2-3
20 |13450| 4330|20|48|50|19390|6-4-2-3
21 |14750| 4755|21|50|52|22400|6-4-2-3
22 |16110| 5200|22|52|54|25707|6-4-2-3
23 |17530| 5665|23|54|56|29325|6-4-2-3
24 |19010| 6150|24|56|58|33268|6-4-2-3
25 |20550| 6655|25|58|60|37550|6-4-2-3
26 |22150| 7180|26|60|62|42185|6-4-2-3
27 |23810| 7725|27|62|64|47187|6-4-2-3
28 |25530| 8290|28|64|66|52570|6-4-2-3
29 |27310| 8875|29|66|68|58348|6-4-2-3
30 |29150| 9480|30|68|70|64535|6-4-2-3
Shiba
LVL|MAXHP|MAXPP| D|SP|PR| EXP |B-J-T-S
---+-----+-----+--+--+--+-----+-------
0 | 50| 30| 1|28|20| 0|0-0-0-0
1 | 140| 60| 2|30|22| 10|0-1-0-0
2 | 290| 110| 3|32|24| 37|0-1-0-0
3 | 500| 180| 4|34|26| 95|0-2-0-0
4 | 770| 270| 5|36|28| 198|0-2-0-1
5 | 1100| 380| 6|38|30| 360|0-3-0-1
6 | 1490| 510| 7|40|32| 595|0-3-0-1
7 | 1940| 660| 8|42|34| 917|0-4-0-1
8 | 2450| 830| 9|44|36| 1340|0-4-0-2
9 | 3020| 1020|10|46|38| 1878|0-5-1-2
10 | 3650| 1230|11|48|40| 2545|0-5-1-2
11 | 4340| 1460|12|50|42| 3355|0-6-1-2
12 | 5090| 1710|13|52|44| 4322|0-6-1-3
13 | 5900| 1980|14|54|46| 5460|0-6-2-3
14 | 6770| 2270|15|56|48| 6783|1-6-2-3
15 | 7700| 2580|16|58|50| 8305|1-6-2-3
16 | 8690| 2910|17|60|52|10040|1-6-2-4
17 | 9740| 3260|18|62|54|12002|1-6-3-4
18 |10850| 3630|19|64|56|14205|2-6-3-4
19 |12020| 4020|20|66|58|16663|2-6-3-4
20 |13250| 4430|21|68|60|19390|2-6-3-4
21 |14540| 4860|22|70|62|22400|2-6-3-4
22 |15890| 5310|23|72|64|25707|2-6-3-4
23 |17300| 5780|24|74|66|29325|2-6-3-4
24 |18770| 6270|25|76|68|33268|2-6-3-4
25 |20300| 6780|26|78|70|37550|2-6-3-4
26 |21890| 7310|27|80|72|42185|2-6-3-4
27 |23540| 7860|28|82|74|47187|2-6-3-4
28 |25250| 8430|29|84|76|52570|2-6-3-4
29 |27020| 9020|30|86|78|58348|2-6-3-4
30 |28850| 9630|31|88|80|64535|2-6-3-4
Misa
LVL|MAXHP|MAXPP| D|SP|PR| EXP |B-J-T-S
---+-----+-----+--+--+--+-----+-------
0 | 50| 30| 5|20|30| 0|0-0-0-0
1 | 120| 70| 6|22|32| 10|0-0-0-1
2 | 250| 150| 7|24|34| 37|0-0-0-1
3 | 440| 270| 8|26|36| 95|0-0-0-2
4 | 690| 430| 9|28|38| 198|0-0-1-2
5 | 1000| 630|10|30|40| 360|0-0-1-3
6 | 1370| 870|11|32|42| 595|0-0-1-3
7 | 1800| 1150|12|34|44| 917|0-0-1-4
8 | 2290| 1470|13|36|46| 1340|0-0-2-4
9 | 2840| 1830|14|38|48| 1878|1-0-2-5
10 | 3450| 2230|15|40|50| 2545|1-0-2-5
11 | 4120| 2670|16|42|52| 3355|1-0-2-6
12 | 4850| 3150|17|44|54| 4322|1-0-3-6
13 | 5640| 3670|18|46|56| 5460|2-0-3-6
14 | 6490| 4230|19|48|58| 6783|2-1-3-6
15 | 7400| 4830|20|50|60| 8305|2-1-3-6
16 | 8370| 5470|21|52|62|10040|2-1-4-6
17 | 9400| 6150|22|54|64|12002|3-1-4-6
18 |10490| 6870|23|56|66|14205|3-2-4-6
19 |11640| 7630|24|58|68|16663|3-2-4-6
20 |12850| 8430|25|60|70|19390|3-2-4-6
21 |14120| 9270|26|62|72|22400|3-2-4-6
22 |15450|10150|27|64|74|25707|3-2-4-6
23 |16840|11070|28|66|76|29325|3-2-4-6
24 |18290|12030|29|68|78|33268|3-2-4-6
25 |19800|13030|30|70|80|37550|3-2-4-6
26 |21370|14070|31|72|82|42185|3-2-4-6
27 |23000|15150|32|74|84|47187|3-2-4-6
28 |24690|16270|33|76|86|52570|3-2-4-6
29 |26440|17430|34|78|88|58348|3-2-4-6
30 |28250|18630|35|80|90|64535|3-2-4-6
Aine
LVL|MAXHP|MAXPP| D|SP|PR| EXP |B-J-T-S
---+-----+-----+--+--+--+-----+-------
0 | 50| 30| 3|16| 6| 0|0-0-0-0
1 | 130| 65| 4|18| 8| 10|0-0-0-0
2 | 270| 120| 5|20|10| 37|0-0-1-0
3 | 470| 195| 6|22|12| 95|0-0-1-0
4 | 730| 290| 7|24|14| 198|1-0-2-0
5 | 1050| 405| 8|26|16| 360|1-0-2-0
6 | 1430| 540| 9|28|18| 595|1-0-3-0
7 | 1870| 695|10|30|20| 917|1-0-3-0
8 | 2370| 870|11|32|22| 1340|2-0-4-0
9 | 2930| 1065|12|34|24| 1878|2-1-4-0
10 | 3550| 1280|13|36|26| 2545|2-1-5-0
11 | 4230| 1515|14|38|28| 3355|2-1-5-0
12 | 4970| 1770|15|40|30| 4322|3-1-6-0
13 | 5770| 2045|16|42|32| 5460|3-2-6-0
14 | 6630| 2340|17|44|34| 6783|3-2-6-1
15 | 7550| 2655|18|46|36| 8305|3-2-6-1
16 | 8530| 2990|19|48|38|10040|4-2-6-1
17 | 9570| 3345|20|50|40|12002|4-3-6-1
18 |10670| 3720|21|52|42|14205|4-3-6-2
19 |11830| 4115|22|54|44|16663|4-3-6-2
20 |13050| 4530|23|56|46|19390|4-3-6-2
21 |14330| 4965|24|58|48|22400|4-3-6-2
22 |15670| 5420|25|60|50|25707|4-3-6-2
23 |17070| 5895|26|62|52|29325|4-3-6-2
24 |18530| 6390|27|64|54|33268|4-3-6-2
25 |20050| 6905|28|66|56|37550|4-3-6-2
26 |21630| 7440|29|68|58|42185|4-3-6-2
27 |23270| 7995|30|70|60|47187|4-3-6-2
28 |24970| 8570|31|72|62|52570|4-3-6-2
29 |26730| 9165|32|74|64|58348|4-3-6-2
30 |28550| 9780|33|76|66|64535|4-3-6-2
3-2. ITEMS
The items are not necessarily better as they get more expensive. Some
websites have this documented better, and since a weapon's totals aren't
added in your total attack/defense, there's no way to tell things for sure.
ARMOR:
1=avenger
2=paranoia
3=destator
4=stabilizer
5=protectot
6=rastobataru
1-3 sold in Mamus, 3-6 in Government
Weapon types
0=nothing
1=ray gun
2=hyper gun
3=hell brass
4=rag launcher
5=gyroscope
6=plasma gun
3-3. ENEMIES
Here is a partial list of enemies. In general, enemies that appear in
different areas are about the same strength, but there is no guarantee. You
will probably want to concentate on the
Monster | HP| EP| $$
-----------+---+---+---
Junk | 2| 3| 5
Flak | 3| 5| 6
Crusher | 10| 12| 14
Salamander | 4| 5| 7
Ramzi | 6| 7| 10
Chaser | 8| 10| 12
Returner | 12| 14| 18
Beelzebub | 5| 6| 8
Urigel | 34| 50| 40
San Juan | 26| 32| 32
Nose Eye | 24| 30| 30
Cleopatra | ??| 60| 42
Cleopatra | 36| 40| 32
(there are 2 types)
Shooter | 20| 20| 22
Stalker | 22| 25| 28
Messiah | 32| 40| 38
Battalion | ??| 34| 34
Dona | 62|800| 56
Poison | 52|110| 46
Yuridames | 54|200| 0
Sleeper | 64| 1K| 80
BurstBrain | ??|300| 50
Mokkushi | ??|400| 0
Eliminator??
WhiteCros??
Ranger??
3-4. NONCOMBAT SPELLS
The most useful noncombat spell is the jump spell. You can use it to 1) set 3
different residential places to jump to and 2) jump there from any
nonresidential place. You can overwrite the places, so be sure to put in
places that are hard to get to or relevant to your current quest. This game
has a few shortcuts, so don't waste a jump location on a place you could've
gotten to another way.
3-5. POTIONS
Revival(Item 5): Yamu Ae Ruku
Aim(Item 6): Ae Ruku Eku
Where to get each ingredient:
yamu nut: Mamus Town, west edge
ruku nut: Mamus Town, along east path, just north
ae nut: Deus Town, in the northeast
ue nut: Shifting Forest, center 2x2 bough
eku nut: Shifting Forest, right +-shaped bough
mai nut: Residential Area, southwest
sato nut: Residential Area, northeast
yoshi nut: Ark City, d-inlet just left of the "E" in the SE
kie nut: Ark City, from the big square orchard, or the t-part of the "E"
trees in southeast Ark City
yuka nut: from the psychic in the upper left cell of the guard room in the
Government Section. Free.
3-6. COMBAT
The most important thing about combat is how to avoid it. If you want to get
somewhere fast, find places you can jump/glide over. You cannot encounter
combat when you are gliding over a wall. You also will avoid combat when you
are in a residential area of any sort. In the later parts of the game,
finding a path by walking through walls is vital. I'd recommend you flee
fights anywhere in outer space and cast jump to get around other places.
My suggestion is generally to hit enemies with the most powerful psychic
spells you have right away. Your leader has blast, which works great. Shiba
has jump, which also works great. The worst case is that you or Shiba runs
out of psychic points, which should never happen.
Weapons don't work great in Ark City so if you must fight there, use what
shield/teleport/blast spells you can. Fighter order doesn't matter much so
just push "A" to get through all that. Aine has some cool spells too, and
you'll want to use her as well. Telepathic talking doesn't cost any points,
so don't worry about that.
While you'll get killed a lot in combat, especially early when you cannot
flee, you will find it's not a really critical part of the game. Once
everyone's above level 10, the best way to build yourself up may be a mission
to just blast away at a few monsters in Ark City, return to Mamus, heal up
and return.
??what does ESP cost
??what does jump-spell cost, placing and going
3-7. ABILITIES: WHAT DOES WHAT
??what allows which spells
4. WALKTHROUGH
The most startling thing about the game is this: where you enter is often not
where you enter. With proper clues, or an explanatory puzzle, this would be
okay. But when you are dumped out on the start, you seem to need to start
exploring, and Deus Town is too far away. That, and you may just get hit by
enemies too tough for your novice player. Save states a lot.
4-1. STARTING OUT
Getting started is tricky, because you only have 50 hit points and the wrong
enemy could really whomp you. Flak and Junk are the best enemies to fight,
but Revenants should be avoided. Save the game often, or at the very least
save your state. Since you only need 10 experience, it should not be too
arduous to get to level 1.
The only problem is that 1) you can probably only fight one monster before
you need to get healed and 2) you may lose track of your invisible town. What
I like to do is to walk in a rectangle soliciting fights, 1 above the town,
left to the water, 2 down, right, 2 up, etc. In that way I am never far from
the town. It is in the center of the rectangle.
To heal, go to the south part of the town and say YES when the woman asks if
you want to hear her story. Then have her heal you. You'll need to do this
quite a lot, and even when you gain a level(you'll hear a tinkly noise) you
won't get the added HP/PP, e.g. when maxHP goes from 50 to 150, you do not
get a current HP bonus of 100.
However, as you'd expect, a bonus of 100 HP is a great deal, and you can
fight a few enemies at a time. Don't buy anything with the money you have
yet. Keep piling it up until you get 300 gold. This is the magic number--then
you can buy the best item from the shop in the northwest, the Rag Launcher.
I'd say gold is accumulated at 25% over experience, so you will be at level 4
by the time you get the gold you need. Keep retreating, healing and fighting,
and if you face a Revenant, hit it with the full brunt of your psychic
powers. In town, do not buy anything until you have enough gold for the good
stuff. The Ray Gun, the worst weapon, is worse than your hands.
You may be able to buy a lesser weapon to make fighting quicker, but you'll
have to do more of it, and I didn't want to crunch the numbers to see which
was better.
Once at level 4 and with the Rag Launcher, you'll notice you can hit enemies
for 5 or 6 damage, thus ending encounters before the enemies have a chance to
damage you. This allows you to roam a good deal. So let's start on one quest
that helps during the game--the Deus village quest. You can't complete it,
but you're probably sick of wandering in circles for now.
4-2. WANDERING ABOUT
With the jump ability, you can jump over small rivers. You want to be
fighting and building experience and money now, though, so don't bother with
the jumping. Your goal will be 200 gold so you can buy Desuteta armor, the
best that's available.
First, in Mamus town, pick up a Ruku Nut from the tree just northeast of the
healer. Now walk east to the smaller peninsula, by the mountains. Wander
around the forest to the east, and you will eventually enter a brownish
dungeon.
There's not much to do in this dungeon. Because you can walk through walls,
you can get to the other side. There's a Ue nut in the first cluster of
trees(NE tree) and then there is a +-shape of 5 trees. At the center is a
tree that gives an Eku nut, which you need for the potion for Deus village.
Get it. Now exit the shifting forest, and you will notice you are right back
near Mamus Town. While completely senseless, this is actually rather
convenient for what you want to do.
You need to go to Deus next. If you want, you can go east to the peninsula
and then north to shortcut to Deus village, or you can just walk up the
peninsula. There is an Ae tree east of the wall in the northeast. Take a nut
from there and exit.
Back near Mamus. Enter and go south to the potion seller. Ae, Ruku, Eku in
that order. You have a healing potion. This should be used at Deus. You can
walk in there, and everyone will be cured. This means that they say different
thing. The man south of the shops in particular will tell you about a Colonel
Katsuma in Arc City. Don't worry about that yet. First you need to find your
initial PC partner.
4-3. SHIBA
Heal up in Mamus. You are probably level 5 or 6 right now. Go east across the
peninsula and south through the forest. There's no way to tell whether or not
you will trip a square that sends you to the annoying dungeon, so be prepared
to retrace your steps or have a backup save state handy.
There will be a clearing to the south and a portal at the very south, against
some rubble. You will want to enter it, and now for the culmination of your
first companion quest.
Go up and into the door. Flip the power switch. Go left and enter that door.
Speak to the kid, and bingo, he joins you! His name is Shiba and though he's
weak to start, you can improve him pretty quickly.
You don't have to go home right away, though that is the conservative way to
do things. Basically, to make things easier, you need to get Shiba a level so
he can jump. You can probably do that by winning fights back home, as he
won't risk too much damage. You may be able to jump back home, too.
Or you can simply roll the dice until you get a favorable encounter. Once he
is at level 1, he can jump, and you will want him selected as the leader.
And that is a big deal because there is gold in the dungeon. There's a door
blocking a passageway to the south. 1 north of it you have $100.
Then there is a mess of semi-wall squares you can jump over. Enter them and
you get Shiba $200. With this $300 you can buy him a Rag Launcher, and now
you should be able to beat enemy pairs before they get a chance to touch you.
If you're still doing okay, you can pick up the silver ID card. This is very
valuable later. In the southeast you have a series of isles, and the NE
square of the west-most holds the ID card. That will help you past some weird
tiles in the part of the map you haven't explored yet.
But first you have to get out. The door you entered sends you to the other
side of the fence. The door in the NW kicks you right back where you started.
4-4. ANOTHER ID CARD
When you are feeling brave enough--and really, you probably just need Shiba
with Desuteta armor(and a few levels fighting the enemies to get it)--you can
progress to the next part of the overworld. Enter Shiba's cave and exit the
same door, then go west to where you have some orange-and-white squares. You
can slip through them, then jump-walk over the orange squares to get to an
island with a door. Enter the door. Go to the east, and at the edge go south
into the door. Talk to the man. He will give you a silver ID card. Now you
are on a roll. You will want both of these silver cards you got for later.
Build your characters up until Shiba reaches level 9. You need this so you
can cast teleport spells at the monsters so you can break through to the
first town in Ark City. Also, you will take damage for each electric tile you
step on, and it can build up with no warning when your hit points are low. If
your current leader dies, you die.
However, the level buildup will probably go pretty fast. As you get better,
you will face more monsters and they will do less damage. With the gold you
have, you should be able to buy the best stuff out there. You probably have
1020 gold for each person by now, which is all you need.
4-5. ARK CITY RESIDENTIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL AREAS
Heal up in Mamus Village. Go to the NE where you will see an orange door.
Enter that door. Go to the south. You probably can't damage the monsters, so
just teleport them away. There are two "towns" in Ark City. One is the
Governmental Area, in the southeast, and the Residential Area, in the south
center. Head for the Residential Area. When on the outside, avoid the mostly
grey tiles with blue crisscrosses as much as you can. They are electric
fields. They'll take your leader for 10 points per square and your other
people for more. You can cut through the trees, then go left in the swamps.
In the towns, don't go through any grey doors you don't need to. You can walk
through the walls easily. Either Shiba or your leader should be fine for
jumping. Going through grey doors costs you valuable ID cards. You need to
save the ID cards for game-critical areas you can't jump into.
Weapons are at the top, with armor below. Buy weapons first, then armor. Buy
the best you can get and don't worry about anything else. Remember who needs
how much gold for when you come back here to buy stuff.
South of the armor shop, you have Aine. She is your 3rd NPC--well, she is in
the 4th slot, but #3 is part of a quest. Pick her up. Now, you probably have
someone with 4 jump(Shiba) so cast a jump spell and set one of the slots to
here. That will allow you to return later without tracking all the way. When
you get to level 6 you will have 3 slots. If that happens, I recommend you
leave one slot for this area and one for the residential area. Leave the
final one for Mamus Village to flee in an emergency.
The exit here is confusing. You will be sent to a corridor with a door to the
left. The door leads to outside Ark City. There's a door off screen to the
right, but you can't see it, and you are in a winding maze. This place is
relevant for other reasons we'll discuss later, but for now there's one thing
to know.
Your jump ability is 4+, so you can go through walls. Once you exit, it's
probably more convenient to jump home with ESP than to work through the
fights and the Ark City maze. This is the case with the Residential Area,
too. It's all a bit nonsensical, but then it forces you to go back home and
heal, which is not all a bad thing. By the way, if you do stumble into any
fights, use all your psychic powers at the top level. No sense messing
around, as you can always exit to the surface and cast jump.
There is a nonsense talker to the right behind doors of [[06]] who doesn't
really have anything to say. You can bounce around for a bit, but it does not
help.
So let's retreat to Mamus, heal up, and get Aine a few levels. One of the
nicer flaws of the game is that gold/experience, fixed for each monster, does
not get divided after each combat. So a lot piles up quickly.
Now let's go back to Ark City via Mamus and this time, just go straight
south. At the south shore you'll see a town to the right. That is the
Governmental Area.
ID's are at the very top, with advice below them. You can speak to the guy
giving advice and ask for the 300 gold option, which flags the guy just below
wandering around. He will give you a [[6]] each time you ask him, which is
the big card you need to win the game.
You can exit, then cast jump to return to the overworld and heal up if you
want. It's probably a good idea to build up Aine some more now. She
specializes in telepathy, which means she'll be able to get even more
information out of monsters. You can probably slaughter monsters all over the
place back home, and that is the best place to do so. Just do enough to get
her $500 so she can buy a weapon back in Ark City. You don't want her getting
killed by weak monsters, or by electric tiles if you forget to change back
from her.
Your next trip will be to the Residential Area. You can start part of a quest
there. Now you should be strong enough to attempt a quest. You can just
teleport monsters away if they are too tough.
4-6. THE MAX QUEST
This is one of those quests where you need to talk to people--you can't just
know the information they do. The ultimate objective is to get Misa to join
you. As things stand, she just says "I'm Misa. Who are you?" You need to talk
to a bunch of people so she knows you are friendly.
Return to the Government Area. Make sure you have 1 [06] for the next bit.
You should. This is critical. If you don't have one, or if you have an odd
number, you get stuck behind the door, because the door keeps bouncing you
back. There is no way out. Also, have 4 silver ID's and 2 blue ID's. You can
always get more blue ID's--step outside town, jump to the residential sector,
see Eartha and come back--but the silver ID's may take a while to buy.
[note: buggy in current translated version]
[07] 500 * ?? wrong translation
[??] 1000
[??] 2000
[??] 3000
These ID's cost a lot of gold, so it's a good idea to find people who can get
you the less costly ones.
There's a door inside a building east of the river in the Residential Area.
Enter it and you are in the hospital. Go through the door to the south(this
uses one silver ID) and then there is a guy behind a wall. Use ESP and Break
on the lower left square of the cell you are in, with the nurse. Then talk to
the man. "If you need to talk to someone, see Max."
Note the robot can block your way out of the hospital, as it moves randomly
yet slowly. If you are on fceu, hold the backquote to speed up his random
walk.
Now exit the hospital and there'll be a guy in green with shades. Talk to him
and he says "How'd you hear Max's story? He's dead!" Get 2 more Silver ID's
and go back to the lower left, using "break" and you can talk to the guy
behind the wall again. He refers you to Natasha.
Natasha is in the Research Complex, so let's go there next. Go to the
southeast corner, and the house to the west is Natasha. Eartha is in the
northeast, in a dumpy 2x2 building. You can keep talking to Eartha to get as
many blue ID cards as you want. There's a limit to how many special items you
can have, but however many you take, make sure it is an even number. You need
a blue card to get into the new area and then another to get out.
Misa, the final player character, is there now as a result of your getting
through to Eartha. Talk to her, and she will join you. Build her up the same
way you built up Aine. It should be even easier now, as you should have even
more monsters to fight per encounter.
You can also talk to the guy in the bottom left and he will give you some
information about a book. I'm not sure what it's good for, but it flips a
quest bit. ??
Of course at this point, that sort of building up doesn't really help your
best characters or take the most advantage of them. So after Misa has a few
levels under her belt, you will probably want tougher challenges.
Fortunately, you're probably strong enough you can hang around Ark City a bit
and have your leader torch the enemies with the most powerful "break" spells.
This is a bit riskier, but it is quicker. Enemies don't always take damage
from weapons, so this is a good way to fight a bunch of them quickly. If you
need to flee, you should have the psychic power to do so(jump spells) as
well. Then you just jump back to the start.
4-7. THE OXYGEN PIPE
Now there is absolutely no way to find this unless you are very lucky or very
pedantic. The oxygen pipe is lying on the ground, and you aren't even told
you've found it. You just hear a tone. So if you have the sound off, you
won't even realize you have it! To make matters worse, it's in a weird part
of the complex of Ark City. But you do not have to do anything special to get
it. And the only criterion for picking up the oxygen pipe is if you didn't
have one before, so you can keep dropping it and picking it up, if you want.
Hi-tech fifty-two pick-up! Can you beat it?
If you want to figure it out for yourself, think of all the places you've
been. Think of all the places you've found stuff. Where's a useless place
that seems to have something?
The space tower in the southwest? The side command center?
That weird room to the right of the area when you exit the towns? ("Brain
Room"/Blaine according to some translators)
Maybe that dead end in the Hospital, or a loose block in the Research Lab?
Well, I guess this is a case of Poe's Purloined Letter here. It's in the pipe
maze area (heap bad pun) you enter for no good reason when you exit the
residential/government areas. It's a stupid place to put an item, and that's
why this can be seen as such a tricky puzzle. Not a good puzzle, mind you.
The real kicker, though, is that I cruised over the pipes and completely
missed the pipe when going to the Brain Room, where I thought it was, and
where I listened carefully for a difference in tone--but if I'd taken a
different path, just ONCE, I would have found it. Or maybe I did go that way,
but I already had one in my inventory by mistake, so it didn't register.
Whatever. It's all done now, and you don't have to waste the time--and the
energy sifting through Google translations of Japanese webpages--that I did.
OK, not all done. I'll let you roam around that area for a while, to satisfy
my last remaining vestige of spite--err, your curiosity in case you want to
feel you did it partly on your own. But truth be told, it shouldn't be bad to
find.
It's directly west of the door to the Brain Room, 1 square east of the
vertical pipe. You'll hear a tone, and then you should have [a blank item
since the translation patch is a beta] in your inventory. Now you can go to
the Space Tower!
4-8. OUTER SPACE
If you haven't gotten [key 06] from the guy in the residential area, do so
now. You need one to visit the dolphins in the cockpit. It shouldn't take
long.
The Space Tower is in the southwest of Ark City. It's across a few electric
tiles, but you should have more than enough HP to blow that off by now. You
can also teleport back home, then enter the door in the brown area just west
of the river. That sends you to space, and you can have Shiba jump directly
to space.
But if you wish to stay in Ark City, there are two doors from the Space
tower. The top goes to outer space and the bottom goes to the control room.
You will use up a couple of ??key 07?? if you visit the control room, so it
is unimportant to the quest.
Take the upper door in the lower bit to get to outer space. Have Shiba lead
until you need Misa to use Telepathy ESP. He is the strongest jumper.
4-8-1. LABORATORY 1
The entrance to the laboratory is in the upper left of space, straight west
from the Mamus Town entry and NW of the Ark City entry. Be sure to avoid the
edges as you locate the northwest part of the space station.
There'll be a spaceman by the door, but he is unimportant. Now the maps here
are very tough, but they have one redeeming trick--you can circle around the
edges with Shiba! So do so when you can.
In the first room, W 3S 2W S 2W 4S 3E 4S 3E 3S(yes, that's not quite off the
edge) and right til you can go 3U, then back left til 1U leads to the stairs.
In the second room, 1S then west til past the leftmost corridor. Up and take
the first turn right along the wall. Go 1S to enter the portal.
In room 3, you may have to fight, because you'll need to step on a few
squares. Go right til you can't, 2U, right all the way again, up all the way,
back left and 1D to hit the portal.
In rom 4, 2U then go right. Past the purple fields, 3D R U gets you to the
laboratory.
Talk to the dolphin in the lower right pool.
It may be tricky to align yourself with the dolphin. Use Shiba to cut around
the center posts, if the orcs block you. Then switch between him and Aine as
necessary. To wait for a dolphin to drop by, speed up your emulator, or wait
at a corner to push the orc out of the way. If you wait by the lower left
corner, then when the dolphin turns to an edge(he eventually will) you can go
right and jump over the water, or go up and jump right onto the water. Use
telepathy on the dolphin. Be sure to cast a Jump in the laboratory with
Shiba, so you can make it back here easier.
4-8-2. COCKPIT
Now go to the Cockpit. You don't have to retrace your steps entirely. Just
exit to the first room outside. Cast another jump to Mamus town and come back
up via the special space portal. Or, even better, step off the map and skip
to room 3 where you just need to go 2L 4U R U.
The first room is big but easy. Go 1 north and when you don't see any purple
fields to the right, head down. You should be able to go all the way down
until you see a portal 2L of you. Enter it. Stepping out of bounds skips you
to room 3, which is not the worst thing that could happen. You will want to
avoid fights whenever possible here. But you will have no choice other than
to step on a few squares.
In the second room, half as wide as the first, go 2N and then east and when
nothing but dark grey walls is to the east, head down. You will see a portal
3L after a while. Go to them.
Now in the third room you needn't step on any encounter squares at all. 1D,
5L and all the way up. Then 5R so you are just above the portal and enter it.
There is just one room to go. This is potentially the toughest one as you
pretty much have to take damage. Go 1R, 6D and back all the way left. You
will step on two squares, and you will hit a force field, but you'll make it
through largely unscathed. That leads you to the cockpit, where you have four
dolphins roaming around.
Use Misa's telepathy on the leftmost dolphin. Contacting him is easier as you
can just walk over the pool to talk to him, and he will always be on some
edge of the pool.
Cast a Jump here and use one slot for the cockpit. Then exit and cast jump to
go back to the Laboratory.
4-8-3. LABORATORY 2, COCKPIT 2
Talk to the upper left dolphin, now. He'll give a long spiel, and now you
just have one place to go. Back to the Cockpit and use ESP on the guy on the
left. You'll have a choice of 3 options as they announce you are the chosen
psychic army. You cannot back out of the question.
Top: move to the space colony, gives the happy ending
Middle: gives an ending where nobody is satisfied
Bottom: the dolphins are destroyed and humanity's future looks grim.
There's no real ending except a small final picture.
5. CHEATS
5-1. THE BASICS
Don't worry about setting experience to the max. The computer won't roll it
over. Gold on the other hand...
Also, set your experience to the max and you'll get a level each combat til
the maximum, level 31. This allows you to improve a level a fight and make
you feel like you're not totally cheating.
Quest bits
These are flipped when you perform a certain action that brings you further
along in the game. Some of them, if you un-set them, allow you to gain gold
or an item continually.
0x5c-01 = ??, believed unused
0x5c-02 = flip the power generator switch
0x5c-04 = silver ID in Shiba's underpass
0x5c-08 = 100 gold in Shiba's underpass
0x5c-10 = 200 gold in Shiba's underpass
0x5c-20 = talk to anyone in Deus after bringing the cure
0x5c-40 = ??, believed unused
0x5c-80 = ??, believed unused
0x5d-01 = silver card from old guy
0x5d-02 = with 5d-40, speak to guy outside hospital
0x5d-04 = with 5d-02, speak to guy in SW hospital
0x5d-08 = with 5d-04, speak to Natasha
0x5d-10 = talk to guy in SW guard area
0x5d-20 = ask $300 question from advice guy in Govt District
0x5d-40 = ask guy in SW hospital 1st time
0x5d-80 = telepathy to lower right dolphin in the Laboratory
0x5e-01 = telepathy to left dolphin in the Cockpit
0x5e-02 = telepathy to upper left dolphin in the Laboratory
Armor types
0=nothing
1=avenger
2=paranoia
3=destator
4=stabilizer
5=protectot
6=rastobataru
1-3 sold in 1st town
Weapon types
0=nothing
1=ray gun
2=hyper gun
3=hell brass
4=rag launcher
5=gyroscope
6=plasma gun
1-4 sold in 1st town
??needs translation
0x0b0 = "Hyper"
0x0b1 = "item 2" (Aim potion)
0x0b2 = "item 3"
0x0b3 = "item 4"
0x0b4 = "item 5"
0x0b5 = "item 6" (revival potion)
0x0b6 = "item 7"
0x0b7 = "item 8"
0x0b8 = "item 9"
0x0b9 = "item 10"
0x0ba = yamu nut(s)
0x0bb = ruku nut(s)
0x0bc = ae nut(s)
0x0bd = ue nut(s)
0x0be = eku nut(s)
0x0bf = mai nut(s)
0x0c0 = sato nut(s)
0x0c1 = yoshi nut(s)
0x0c2 = kie nut(s)
0x0c3 = yuka nut(s)
0x0c4-0x0cd = special items
0-none
1=bomb
2=counterfeit key
3=blue id card
4=silver id card
5=gold id card
6=yellow id card
7=shouldn't be oxygen pipe but is
8+=should be oxygen pipe but isn't
[8 may be oxygen pipe? This may be a bug in the program?]
It's a good idea to freeze cheats with these cards, because many can only be
used once before disappearing, which can trap you. And they cost money. The
ones you really need(6 and 8) you can find for free, and there's an unlimited
supply of 3, and 4 is not too expensive.
Here are the stats that define your players. Each player has 26 bytes for his
vital statistics. The names are hard coded somewhere else.
1 2 3 4
===== ===== ===== =====
0x2f9,0x313,0x32d,0x347 = player is in party or not
0x2fa,0x314,0x32e,0x348 = player's CurHP(2 bytes)
0x2fc,0x316,0x330,0x34a = player's MaxHP(2 bytes)
0x2fe,0x318,0x332,0x34c = player's CurPP(2 bytes)
0x300,0x31a,0x334,0x34e = player's MaxPP(2 bytes)
0x302,0x31c,0x336,0x350 = player's defense
0x303,0x31d,0x337,0x351 = player's speed
0x304,0x31e,0x338,0x352 = player's proficiency
0x305,0x31f,0x339,0x353 = player's experience (2 bytes)
0x307,0x321,0x33b,0x355 = player's next lvl exp (2 bytes)
0x309,0x323,0x33d,0x357 = player's level
0x30a,0x324,0x33e,0x358 = player's break
0x30b,0x325,0x33f,0x359 = player's jump
0x30c,0x326,0x340,0x35a = player's shield
0x30d,0x327,0x341,0x35b = player's telepathy
0x30e,0x328,0x342,0x35c = player's health
normal, fainted, illness, kashi
0x30f,0x329,0x343,0x35d = player's gold (2 bytes)
0x311,0x32b,0x345,0x35f = player's armor
0x312,0x32c,0x346,0x360 = player's weapon
0x3c6 = monster 1's HP
0x3c8 = monster 2's HP
0x3ca = monster 3's HP
0x3cc = monster 4's HP
5-2. CHEATING WALKTHROUGH
Well, how much do you want to cheat? You can just set the quest bytes
5c/5d/5e to ff ff 03 and freeze your hit points and your companions' at some
crazily high number. That means fights don't mean anything. Not having to
find certain items makes things a lot easier, too. You still need to complete
Max's quest and pay $300 for info(and get a [card 6]) if you did not fiddle
with the quest bytes, but that should not be a problem.
All you have to do is flip the power generator and get Shiba, pick up Aine,
pick up Misa after the Max quest, and then get the card 6. Get the oxygen
pipe(or set a byte from c4 to cd at 8) and then go to outer space. You can
cut out the laboratory/cockpit trips the first time if you want, too. You can
even cut out talking to the dolphins in order, just setting the game bits to
3E FF 03, and talking to the left one.
Combat is also a bit of a problem, but if you set bits 3c6, 3c8, 3ca and 3cc
to zero, you can win each combat just by defending with your first move, or
even using dud ESP. Start your experience at 65535 and speed up through all
this, and you'll pile up the levels and get the appropriate bonuses. You
could set your skills and levels in hex, but it's tougher than just breezing
through fights.
Do not set your gold too high or it will roll over. Give yourself enough for
good weapons and armor and a few cards, if you need them.
End of FAQ Proper
================================
6. VERSIONS/CREDITS
1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 9/30/2008, complete but with some details of the
translation to figure out. I have put them in brackets.
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they
are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done.
Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow
Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog,
Lagoona, Da Hui and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-
yet-banned message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want
him to be part of mine.
Game Specific:
Thanks to KingMike for patching this game and improving its play. It wasn't
so bad once you got the really lousy bits out. And figured hex cheats. And
had your sense of ironic humor ready.
Thanks to romhacking.net for hosting his translations and blasting it and
others to the world.
Thanks to odino for suggesting this game to me and encouraging me to go
through with it. And for translating it.
Thanks to Richo Rosai for his translation that tipped me off to where the
oxygen pipe had to be.
Thanks to Mieko Furuhashi for her translations that really should have tipped
me off before I asked around again.
Thanks to the folks/guy at
http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~survivor/hosimiruguide.html for his useful
screenshots that showed just what to do and roughly in what order. No thanks
to him for the run around on the oxygen pipe, though! I hope he suffered
trying to find it too...well, a little.
Thanks to ja.wikipedia.org for their cool general information.
typos to send to KingMike
Max'
pshychics
Natasha ... [is printed doubly]
Revenant =~ Cleopatra
Coloniel
Ai/Aine/Ained
advicemonger in residential
Misad ~ "Misa" < - extra spaces in heal dialog mislead
"Set Jump to" is garbled
"BurstBrain" in fight = "Bomb"
telepathy/talk to old man in Deus is garbled once cured
wild cursor if you scroll through menu commands
