o==============================================================================o
_____ _____ __ __ ______ __ _ ______
| _ \ | ___| \ \ / / | __ | | \ | | | __ \
| |_| / | |___ \ \ / / | | | | | | \ | | | | | |
| _ | | ___| \ \/ / | | | | | |\ \ | | | | | |
| |_| \ | |___ | | | |__| | | | \ \| | | |__| |
|_____/ |_____| |__| |______| |_| \___| |______/
______ __ ______ __ ______
| __ | /__\ | ____| | | | ____|
| | | | /|__|\ | |____ | | | |____
| | | | / ____ \ |____ | | | |____ |
| |__| | / | | \ ____| | | | ____| |
|______| /__| |__\ |______| |__| |______|
B E Y O N D O A S I S
Tips, Techniques, and Trivia Guide
v6.5
+- For Hardcore Oasis Gamers Only -+
by VortexSpin (Nick Gibson)
©2010
o==============================================================================o
TABLE OF CONTENTS
o Legal
o Viewing the Guide
o Updates
o Introduction
o Coming Soon
o Of Interest To the Hardcore
o Quick Facts
o Characters
o Character Cards
o Knife Moves
o Mobility
o Knife Combos
o Weapons
o Swords
o Bows
o Bombs
o Easter Eggs
o Sound Test
o Hints from the Manual
o Hearts
o Classes
o Records
o High Score Tutorial
o Spirit Calls
o Item Guide
o SP Regeneration
o Glitches
o Game Genie Codes
o Mini-Game Guide
o Efreet's Racing Track
o The Secret Crags
o The Secret Islands
o The 100 Level Pit
o The Hidden Waterfall
o Challenges
o Original Story of Thor Plot
o Story of Thor Alternate Versions
o Village Merchant
o Enemy Artificial Intelligence
o Enemy Guide
o Spirit Guide
o Boss Guide
o Frequently Asked Questions
o Special Items
o Game Credits
o Debug Mode
o Links
o Further Gaming
o Contact Me
o Thanks
o Wrapup
As you can see, it's pretty much random. Use "CTRL + F" or a similar search
function to find whatever it is you want. Or just read it from beginning to
end, which is what I had in mind when I wrote it. A lot of the best info
is tucked away inside larger sections.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
LEGAL
You all know the drill. Don't post this on any site without asking me first,
and don't plagiarize any portion of it, either. Feel free, however, to print
this out and/or distribute it, as long as you don't 'distribute it' to another
site. In other words, you can print the document out or share the link with
others, but don't upload the file anywhere without my permission. If you
print it out with any modifications, then you must put in the phrase "Edited
by [your name]" below the version number. If you do not, I will use my Golden
Armlet powers to send my Spirit World bodyguards over to your house. They
will not treat you kindly.
If you are reading this file from any site other than the ones listed below,
please contact me immediately! It means that they stole it!
o GameFAQs.com (Because GameFAQs is part of the GameSpot network, odds are
good that this FAQ is being hosted on multiple sites that are also part
of that network.)
o 1-UP.com
o IGN.com
All content herein is the property of VortexSpin, 2006. All rights reserved.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
VIEWING THE GUIDE
NotePad isn't the best, and it's frustrating that I have to use it. But
that's the way things work, so I'll have to put up with it. However, if you
want to view this in Microsoft Word, then you'll have to change the margins.
Go to FILE --> PAGE SETUP and change the left and right margins to .5 inches.
That way, at least, the paragraphing will be correct and you'll be able to
read this like it was meant to be read. Also put the font to Courier New so
that all of the spaces are a fixed width. Otherwise the formatting will look
like it was designed by an idiot. (Which I'm not.)
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
UPDATES
v1.0 Initially posted.
8/25/05
v1.5 Incorporated Ginny's submissions on the Merchant and SP Regeneration.
9/16/05
v2.0 Big update. We have Enemy, Spirit, and Boss guides up - all three
are major additions. Also a new link, this time from everybody's
favorite online encyclopedia. Minor adjustments and tweaking as well,
such as a new blurb on Story of Thor in the introduction.
10/24/05
v2.5 Added Frequently Asked Questions
11/22/05
v3.0 Touched everything up, modified the formatting and other little things.
I think the look is much cleaner - this is my first FAQ, so bear with me.
Also got rid of some old information and added two paragraphs to the
Introduction that sum up my history in relation to Beyond Oasis. Now
we have a Quick Facts section as well as a Character segment and an Item
Guide. I've also stated the goal of this document in the header portion.
2/20/06
v3.5 Once again I'm updating! Now there's a Credits section and an entry on
the sound test. More little brush-ups here and there, as well as a
correction about the US packaging. Also some surmising about a possible
debug mode. And my first ever ASCII art!
--/--/--
v4.0 Thanks to Ganelon, we have some new content! He used a hex editor to
rustle up the complete class listing, as well as some official names for
the secret moves. I also changed out all the anime-style smilies for the
good ol' American ones. Why? Because anime smilies don't look good in
Courier New. D'oh! A new records section is up - get playing! Also a
few notes on cheating in the Efreet Racing Track. New link, too, and
it's a must-see! A Mobility lowdown is up, with a useful tip from
Flame060. This is the final version of the document. Read the 'coming
soon' section for more information.
3/09/06
v4.5 So much for finality... It's time to rethink the way you look at hearts
and ranks, thanks to a contribution from Du. From the same source
comes a strategy for the Old Dragon that makes one of the tougher bosses
in this game nothing more than your plaything. Also cleaned up some
incorrect information in the Quick Facts section. I rewrote the
Documented Classes section to better reflect the information we have, and
added in a new section for hardcore gamers who are new to the guide.
7/10/06
v5.0 All of you should remember the name Du, because we all really owe him at
this point. He took up Ganelon's flag and did the experimenting required
to get all the data about attaining certain Ranks. This guide is one
step closer to 100% completion. I've renamed the "Documented Classes"
section to, simply, "Classes" in order to better reflect what's going on.
I've also reformatted the whole thing again in my attempt to give you all
a cleaner read. Du's blazing fastest time is on the records page; speed
masters should give it a try!
8/03/06
v5.5 The existence of a beta for Story of Thor has been brought to my
attention by Ganelon, so there's a new section on that. Also a bit of
information on a fanlation of the game. "Story of Thor Alternate
Versions" is the place to check out. A big thanks to King Pie as well
for showing me a new Dytto magic technique! Visit the Spirit Guide for
the full story.
10/01/06
v6.0 More than a year has gone by... Wow. Joao submitted translations of
the Spanish-language character bios - check them out in the Character
Card section. Also an answer about Defenders of Oasis in the Quick
Facts section.
01/18/08
v6.5 Dusted off this old guide to incorporate the final word on the long-lived
debate over the original Japanese script. The answers aren't as exciting
as we would have hoped but hey, it's finality.
07/16/10
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
INTRODUCTION
Hello, and welcome to the Tips, Techniques, and Trivia Guide for the Sega
Genesis title Beyond Oasis. This guide is not a walkthrough. It's a
compilation of gameplay hints and mini guides. In here you'll find all sorts
of useful information, so just look around.
Since some tips apply to multiple categories you'll find a bit of repetition,
but it makes for easier access to the info you want so I'm sure you'll be able
to live with it. =)
A few notes before we begin: many of these tips aren't really that useful.
Since Oasis is such a short game and because it's not hard enough to really
merit a whole lot of 'strategizing', there are quite a few things in here
that someone playing through the game for the first time won't really need to
know. They're more along the lines of trivia, actually, but die-hard Oasis
gamers who want to know everything about their game will be glad to see them
included.
Another thing: extensive playing and a bunch of grief on my part went into
building this, so I'd appreciate a bit of credit if you find something here
and either use it in a FAQ of your own or mention it on a board or something.
Just an ego thing, really. But when you do the work, it's nice to see some
recognition.
Lastly, I want to say how spectacular a game Beyond Oasis really is. I do
indeed own this cart, as opposed to a ROM, and I would urge you to go and find
copy yourself. It's common and relatively cheap on eBay, so just use
some common sense and everything will be fine. That may be a bit more work
than just downloading the ROM, but believe me, it's worth it! It's great to
play the real cart on the real console with a real controller, so go do
yourself a favor and buy it!
Just to give you some perspective on just how much I love this game... I was
actually after a 6-button controller in 2003, and found a nice little auction
that had two 6-button pads and three games - Super Battletank, Beyond Oasis,
and Super Street Fighter II. I'd never heard of any of the games other than
Street Fighter, but I won the auction on eBay for a little over $7 US. What
a great purchase that turned out to be!!! It was a sunshiny day in the
midwest - during early fall, I think. We had all the windows open and warm
breezes were blowing in... The perfect day, and I think that it might have
had something to do with concreting my fandom. I've gotten other great games
on horribly cold or dreary days, but now I forever associate Beyond Oasis with
sunshine and clean air. I also got to play for a then-unheard-of two hours (I
was only twelve at the time), which was enough time for me to get a feel for
it and start having fun from the getgo.
Over the next year, I played it nonstop and beat the game a total of 18 times.
For its 10th anniversary in 2005, I played it for the 20th time, and as of
February 2006 I have played the game from start to finish a total of 23 times.
Not to mention the fact that I have played certain levels/areas/minigames
ad nauseum. Therefore I consider myself to be a true, diehard fan of this
game, and that's the main reason I'm writing this guide. It's my contribution
to a game that has literally given me hours of enjoyment.
Note about controllers: I would heartily suggest a 6-button controller for
this game. Find one that has a good D-pad and dive right in! You'll be able
to change weapons on the fly and access menus faster! Not to mention that
the stock controller's D-pad is abysmal. You'll need something with quality
to pull off these combat moves fast enough!
That's enough of an introduction. Let's get into the meat of this Tips,
Techniques, and Trivia Guide!
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
COMING SOON
Never say 'never', basically. This guide continues to change and expand.
Do I know for sure there'll be more updates or what those updates will be
about? No. So check in every once in a while and see. Long live Beyond
Oasis!
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
OF INTEREST TO THE HARDCORE
So maybe you're a longtime Beyond Oasis diehard, and you're wanting some new
information. Well, to save you the effort of having to sort through all the
stuff you already know, here's a small bullet list of things you'll want to
check out. Maybe you already know this stuff, maybe you don't. Some of the
following information is exclusive to this guide or at least pretty much
unknown, so appreciate it, okay? Okay.
o Undocumented Rising Revenge knife technique. (Knife Moves section.)
o Useful Quick Jump technique. (Mobility section.)
o Extremely neat Sound Test cheat code. (Easter Egg section.)
o The truth about Hearts and Rank. (Hearts section.)
o Test your might! (Records section.)
o Great strategies for the bosses. (Boss section.)
o Equally useful lowdowns on the enemies. (Enemy and AI sections.)
o How to get the different classes. (Classes section.)
0 The original Japanese story revealed. (Original Story of Thor section.)
That should get you started, but don't forget that there's a wealth of info
hidden in with the rest of the content! And if you've got some awesome
strategy or trick hidden up your sleeve, share it with the rest of us! My
contact information is listed near the end of this document. I look forward to
hearing from you.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
QUICK FACTS
o Genre: Action/Adventure, with limited Role Playing elements.
o Developer: Ancient, with assistance from an unknown Sega of Japan internal
development team.
o Publisher: Sega.
o Cart Size: 24 Megabits.
o Game Save: Internal battery.
o Players: One.
o Length: Approximately 6 hours for a first playthrough.
o Versions: Called "Story of Thor" in non-US markets; no known re-releases or
alternate versions for any systems.
o Release Date (Europe): ??? (The Story of Thor: A Successor to the Light)
o Release Date (Japan): December 9th, 1994. (The Story of Thor: Hikari o
Tsugamono)
o Release Date (US): December 8th, 1994. (Beyond Oasis)
o Difficulty: Moderate.
o Original Packaging: In the US it was a cardboard slipcase; black and white
manual; registration card and advertisements. Europeans and the Japanese
got plastic clamshells with color inserts.
o Rating: 'KA' (Kids to Adults). Modern ESRB equivalent would be 'E'
(Everyone).
o Rarity: 4/10. (
http://www.digitpress.com)
o Expected Price: $8 US. (
http://www.digitpress.com)
Another note - this game is not related to Defenders of Oasis at all. Sam
Vance dropped me a line and had this to say: "I got the roms for it and
tried it in a Game Gear emulator. When I loaded the rom, the checksum
said "English version of Shadam Crusaders." And it's a rpg that has a
story about 3 rings. No mention of the Armlets anywhere." Thank ye kindly,
Sam.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
CHARACTERS
Although Beyond Oasis isn't really concerned with plot or characters to the
degree of such games as Landstalker, the game still has a cast of characters
and - to further the goal of making this the ultimate non-walkthrough source
for Beyond Oasis - they are presented here, with short descriptions of each.
o Reharl
The original bearer of the Gold Armlet; fought the sorcerer Agito in a
cataclysmic struggle that took place in the Shadowlands of Oasis, long ago.
The tattered shreds of his spirit send Ali on his quest to defeat the
bearer of the Silver Armlet.
o Agito
Evil wizard who fought Reharl in the ancient past and was destroyed along
with his foe. Now the new bearer of the Silver Armlet is attempting to
ressurect him.
o Ali
The young prince of the island kingdom of Oasis, and the character that you
control during the game. Ali is extremely fit and proficient in the style
of martial arts native to Oasis - two factors that will come into play very
quickly. We don't know much about him, except that he enjoys hunting for
treasure and is very determined, loyal, and heroic.
o Villagers
Goodly citizens of Oasis' coastline town. They all respect and admire Ali,
and look to him for assistance during the calamatous happenings at the
beginning of the adventure.
o Mentor
The man who instructed Ali from youth. His venerable guidance tempers Ali's
initial brashness. Talking to him will give Ali a full HP restoration, and
because of the Mentor's considerable knowledge, Shade can be summoned from
his physical body.
o Castle Citizens
More law-abiding populous.
o Guards
Devoted defenders of the Castle who are prepared to fight to the death to
protect the Royal Family.
o Princess
Ali's younger sister. Ali is very fond of her and is constantly concerned
for her safety. Merely talking to her will give Ali a full HP restoration.
o King
The good and gentle King of Oasis who has ruled justly for many a year. His
knowledge is vital during the start of Ali's quest.
o Dytto
One of the Wild Spirits who was originally sworn to the service of Reharl.
Now she joins Ali with the purpose of cleansing the world of evil. She is
the Spirit of Water.
o Efreet
The fiery elemental whose allegiance is bound to the Gold Armlet. He joins
Ali, burning with rage against those who would consume Oasis.
o Silver Armlet
The evil servant of darkness who is using his namesake to create chaos and
destruction. Destiny will surely demand a confrontation between the bearers
of the Armlets. Until that time, though, the Silver Armlet is content to
let his minions deal with Ali while he furthers the resurrection of his
lord and master, Agito.
o Shade
The Spirit of Darkness who ties himself to Ali's life force in order to
assist the young wielder of the Gold Armlet in his quest.
o Hermit
A strange man who lives on the western side of Oasis' volcano. He seems to
possibly be related to Ali's mentor, as Shade can also be summoned from his
lifesource as well. The Hermit gives Ali some news and an important item...
o Gwyn
Ali's older sister, who disappeared years ago along with the Psychoring.
Everyone thought she was dead, but the Hermit suggests the contrary.
o Bow
The peculiar Spirit of Plants who dedicates his abilites to Ali in hopes of
securing some tasty morsels.
o Cube
A geomagical device that has Agito's lifeforce sealed away inside of it.
The King apparently hid it in the underpasseges of the Castle, long ago.
How this all goes in the Japanese version, I have no idea. Tony Van said that
he changed the main character's name to Ali as an Aladdin joke, not to mention
the fact that he did what he wished with the storyline in general. That's one
of the things I'd really like to incorporate into this guide - info on the
original Story of Thor (Japanese version) storyline. If anyone can help me in
this regard, please contact me...I beg you! =)
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
CHARACTER CARDS
There exist this little Spanish cards that have bios and backstory of the
characters of Beyond Oasis. Not much is known about them - I assume they were
a promotional tie-in for TecToy's release of the game, but Joao Albertoni has
graciously translated them for us in their entirety. Take a gander at this
Spanish website:
http://es.geocities.com/riou_healer/beyond_art.htm. And now
from Joao, editorial notes in parenthesis:
o Prince Ali:
The young and courageous warrior is the son of King Philip. He is the heroes
(sic) of this great adventure. Go to (means something between research and
seek) the bracelets of legend, he has been able to recover the bracelet made
of gold. Expert in use of all weapons, and a (sort of "merit-deserving"
adjective) swordfighter. Frightening (+ly good?) archer, Prince Ali will be
able to command, thanks to the bracelet, the magical elements. (Same
"merit-deserving" adjective) combatant, Prince Ali will fight against
various obstacles to "carry out to finish" his noble quest.
o Bow:
This carnivore plant represents the plant element. It moves under the earth,
following Ali and reappearing under his request. It can attack the enemies,
and destroy the grates of iron that block the passage in certain labyrinths.
It inflates and bursts, liberating poisonous pollen.
o Dytto:
This adorable little fairy represents the element of water. It (worth noting
that it refers to Bow and Dytto as male things) can create a bubble that
paralyses enemies. It starts a "whirlwind of water" that sweeps all the
enemies with its passage. It remakes (sic [should be refills?]) the life
points of Prince Ali.
o Efreet:
The genie represents the element of fire. It turns into a devastating torch
of fire. It creates a fire breath (breath of fire) that sets ablaze the
enemies. It explodes in a multitude of fireballs.
o Shade:
This mysterious creature represents the element of shade. It protects Ali
taking the attacks of enemies in his place. It doubles Ali and allows him
to explore the surroundings in invincible state. It allows Ali to pass the
big holes and grab objects at distance.
o Silver Armlet:
The frightening sorcerer is the most loyal servant of Agito. Vassal of King
Philippe. He betrayed its sovereign and joined the forces of evil,
formidable warrior, cruel, acheater, his magic powers are tenfold by his
Silver Bracelet, he can fly like the bird, appear and disappear ar his
convenience. Prince Ali will fight him in singular (one-on-one) combat to
find the cave of Agito. From this capital (?) combat between the two
greater warriors of Oasis, the luck of Poseidonia will depend.
o Oasis/Poseidonia:
The island of Poseidonia was previously a fertile and peaceful country, its
inhabitants lived happily there in peace and opulence. The abundant crops
and waters full of fish that bathe the coasts contributed to make one of
the most beautiful and harmonious of kingdoms. But the demoniac forces of
Agito, the wondrous mage owner of one of the two legendary bracelet,
(something, "will change"?) all the country. The young Prince Ali, aided by
the magical spirits representants of the four grand elements, the fairy
Dytto, the Genie Efreet, the shade Shade and the plant Bow, will be able
enough for this combat, to finally return the peace to the kingdom...
Dytto is a man? What? O_o At any rate, thanks a lot to Joao for volunteering
to do the translation and submitting it.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
KNIFE MOVES
I figured that Ali's knife should get an entire subsection of its own. It has
the most moves of any weapon, and although it doesn't deal the most damage,
it's insanely versatile and fast. A skilled gamer can breeze through almost
the whole game with the knife alone. At first the moves are a little tough to
execute, but practice enough and you'll grow to love the knife with a passion!
And about the name of the knife. If you look in the weapons menu, you see
it's called the "Alt Knife". Pretty odd. What the heck does "Alt" stand
for? My guess is that it's simply a typo that didn't get caught before
release. I would say that it was supposed to be "Ali" knife, but somehow the
't' got in there. UPDATE: Actually, if you look at Beyond Oasis' prequel on
the Sega Saturn, "Legend of Oasis", you discover that the main character's
ultimate short sword is called the Altair Knife, and you get it by sacrificing
one of the Spirits in the game (Brass). So actually, Beyond Oasis contains
five spirits - the four main ones and then Brass in the form of the absolutely
unbreakable Altair Knife. The more you know!
Before we get to the moves, something needs to be said. Thanks to Du, we now
know that gathering hearts (see the appropriate section) amps up your attack
capabilities. That said, these attacks are all proportional: the Stab is our
unit of measure, so in general the relationships between move damage should
stay the same. Actual damage values will increase, but the ratios will stay
the same. A slash should always be four times more powerful than a stab.
*Should.* It's hard to test these things; hopefully I'm right.
o Stab: This is easy. Just tap B once, quickly. Don't do it slowly, or
it'll turn into a Slash, which isn't the same thing. The Stab is nice for
stopping rushing enemies and maybe finishing off something that only has a
tiny bit of health left, but otherwise it's pretty much worthless. Damage
of 1.
o Slash: Press B. Don't tap it, press it. There's a difference. This move
is very useful when you need to get an enemy out of your face and don't have
time to pull off something more fancy. Damage of 4.
o Knife Dash: You know how to run, correct? Tap the direction you want to go
twice, and then hold on the second tap for as long as you want to run. The
Knife Dash is similar, except you tap three times, then press B. Ali will
slide forward a little ways, knife out in front. This move is most useful
as a finisher. Why? Because it neither knocks enemies away nor
incapacitates them. If you don't kill an enemy with this move, your foe
will be right there when it's over and be ready to knock you flat. Damage
of 2 per impact.
o Running Slash: If you can run, you can do this. Just run, and then press B
at any time. Ali with do a big slash that knocks enemies down. This is a
great, great move that is wonderful for setting up lethal combos. You can
do a slash on something and get in really close when the enemy's on the
ground. Then you can rip off Rolling Slash or something just as the target
is getting up. Damage of 5.
o Spin Attack: The first move that needs a decent D-pad. Sweep the pad in
all directions clockwise, then press B. Make sure you roll the pad enough
to hit all 8 directions. You can start at any direction no matter where
you're facing, but for best results you should start and end in the
direction you're wanting to go. A note on this move: some people call it
"Ground Slash" for good reason. This attack will attack everything low on
the ground and at your height. It will do nothing against airborne enemies
like Bats. So use it against crawling enemies like Snakes, as well as ones
on your level like Ogres and Soldiers. Don't try it against Gargoyles or
Sappers. Damage of 3.
o Rolling Slash: Forward, Backwards, Forward, B. This is one of the best
moves in the game. Not only does it score great damage and multiple hits,
but it also knocks the enemy away from you. (That can actually be a
problem, as the enemy will go flying backwards and won't receive all the
hits. It's best to get the target backed up against a wall for most damage.
They can't get pushed out of the way of your blade!) I use this move pretty
much everywhere, but it's especially great as part of a combo with the
Running Slash. (aka Quicksand Fury. Look at the Combos section for more
information.) Damage of 6.
o Multiple Rolling Slashes: Do a Spin Attack, but don't hit B yet. First do
the Forward, Backwards, Forward. Then hit B up to three times for up to
three quick slashes. So, you a clockwise sweep, F, Back, F, B, B, B for a
3-flip combo. Great stuff here, especially when you tack on a standard
Rolling Slash on the end for a 4-flip super combo! You can really trash the
enemies with this, so practice up! Damage of 6 per flip.
o Oasis Rage: A real cave-man move here. Doesn't require much brains, just
tap B as fast as you can. Ali will start kicking high and low and stabbing
very fast. Keep it up long enough and fast enough and Ali will do a jump
kick. Damage of 1 per impact.
o Kicks: Walk right up to an enemy (as in so close you're touching them) and
press B. You'll do two very fast kicks. This is obviously not a good idea
against enemies with fast reaction times, but it's a lifesaver against
Snakes.
o Jump Kick: Press C, then B while in mid-air. Do it while running for a
Running Jump Kick. Usually not a good idea either way, as most enemies can
knock you out of the air. (Especially Soldiers with swords.) Damage of 2.
o Crouching Slash: Hold C to crouch, then tap B. You'll swipe with the
knife. It causes minimal damage, but it's a pretty fast attack and
therefore moderately useful, especially against those pesky Snakes and
Rats. Damage of 1.
o Rising Revenge: This move has been undocumented before this FAQ, I believe.
Or at least, I haven't seen it anywhere. At any rate, it's useful.
How does it work? Well, first you have to let yourself get knocked down.
That's right, not just bumped, knocked down. Let an Ogre slap you, for
instance. Now, normally Ali would just do a kip and be on his feet again,
right? Well, there's something you can do during that animation! While Ali
is jumping to his feet, you can execute a Knife Dash, a Spin Attack, a Roll.
Slash, or Multiple Roll. Slashes (if you're fast.) Now you may be wondering
why that's so cool. Here's the thing: you can do Rising Revenge even if
you don't have the knife selected! So say you've a bow, and an Ogre gives
you a knuckle sandwich. You drop to the ground, but then pull off a RR
as you're coming up. Ali will pull out his knife just long enough for the
move, then go back to the bow! If you do the Spin Attack or something, it
will knock the Ogre away and you can switch to a close combat weapon! Isn't
that awesome? On a technical note, you may find it a bit hard to pull off
the move. You have to keep practicing in order to get the timing right, but
once you've learned it you'll have gained an incredible new power.
One last thing about these moves: Knife Dash, Spin Attack, Rolling Slash, and
Multiple Rolling Slashes. There are two ways to execute these. If I do them
the way I told you, Ali will move around a bit before he goes into the move
because you're pressing the D-Pad. A better way to do it, probably, is to
hold B so Ali goes into his Slash stance, then hit the D-Pad movements. When
you release B, Ali will execute the move. Personally, I prefer the first
method, but that's just because I learned how to do them all that way. Do
whichever method feels best to you.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
MOBILITY
Beyond Oasis has many jumping and running-related obstacles in the game, so
it's imperative that you get comfortable with controlling Ali. It's not that
hard, but everyone needs some help getting started. For those of you without
manuals, here we go:
o Walk: Press and hold the D-Pad in the direction you want to go. Ali cannot
move diagonally, per se, but if you start walking in one direction and
then slide your thumb to a related diagonal, Ali will strafe (move without
turning) in that direction as he walks.
o Run: Tap the D-Pad twice, and hold it down on the second press. As long as
you continue to hold that direction, Ali will run. Be aware that when you
let up he will skid a few more inches in his former direction of movement.
Like the Walk, Ali can't run diagonally, but once again you can strafe to a
limited degree.
o Crouch: Press and hold the C button. As long as you keep the C button
depressed, Ali will stay crouched. Release to stand up.
o Crawl: Crouch, then press a D-Pad direction. Ali will crawl slowly in the
selected direction.
o Jump: Tap the C button. If you look closely, you can see that Ali crouches
before he jumps. You might also notice a slight delay before he launches
himself in the air. To bypass this, try a Quick Jump. Also notice that
you can change direction in midair with this move.
o Quick Jump: (Thanks to Flame060 for this.) Tap the C button twice very
rapidly, and Ali will jump without crouching first. Useful for platform
hopping!
o Running Jump: Run, then tap C while jumping. You will travel further than
a standard jump, but you cannot change direcion once you're airborne.
Beware the skidding effect!
o Wait: Stand in one place long enough, without pressing any buttons, and Ali
will cross his arms and start tapping his foot. (Yeah, yeah. Not a move, I
know, but you won't believe how many people don't know about this. Folks
nowadays are in too much of a hurry! =P)
If you're not very good at controlling Ali, just practice at the Secret Crags.
(Where you get the Infinite Hyper Bombs). Once you beat that a few times,
you'll be an expert!
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
KNIFE COMBOS
Just like other fighting games, you can chain together attacks in Beyond
Oasis by simply hitting in the next move while the first one is going on. By
doing this you can unleash a string of unbroken assaults that leave the
opponent without any time to respond. Here are some of the ones I find to be
most useful.
o Quicksand Fury: Running Slash, Rolling Slash.
o Desert Wind: Knife Dash, Rolling Slash.
o Blazing Knife: Multiple Rolling Slashes, Rolling Slash.
o Oasis Fury: Running Slash, Knife Dash, Oasis Rage.
o Agito's Bane: Knife Dash, Mult. Roll. Slashes, Rolling Slash, Spin Attack.
If case you need an example, here's a step-by-step for the Blazing Knife
combo:
Do the roll and the forward, back, forward, B, B, B to get the Multiple
Rolling Slashes. Then, while Ali is in the air on the third flip, quickly
hit forward, back, forward, B. Ali will go straight into the Roll. Slash.
Those are just the ones that I find myself using over and over. Basically,
though, you can just put together whatever moves you want and put a neat name
in front of it. =P
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
WEAPONS
Beyond Oasis has a bunch of enemies in it. Odds are that you'll kill upwards
of 1000 foes on your first play through. Some of them are pushovers, some of
them are horribly strong. But you're going to have to kill them, nonetheless.
Thankfully you're equipped with a variety of armaments to jazz things up with.
This section will give you a look at all the different weapons, strategies for
using them, weaknesses, strengths, and statistics. You can even find a damage
estimation for each weapon in order to give yourself a better idea of how much
of what will take down which enemy. (Damage will be indicated in multiples,
as there are multiple strengths to each type of weapon.)
It's important to note that the damage dealt by your attacks increases as you
gather hearts. (See the appropriate section.) Look in the Knife Moves section
for a more complete explanation about how this affects combat.
Swords:
Swords are incredibly useful things. Your dagger is nice, but it doesn't have
a great range, and sometimes it just doesn't pack enough of a punch to fit the
situation. Enter the various swords. These give you a longer reach and cause
more damage. Not to mention you can pull off a move with them that you can't
do with other weapons:
o Chaotic Sword Slash: One of my personal favorites. The moves for it are
the same as the Multiple Rolling Slashes: rotate clockwise, forward,
backward, forward, B. Ali will let loose with five incredibly quick
slashes at various heights. This move scores insane damage in a short
period of time, not to mention how cool it looks. Another great thing is
that it can be used to get more uses out of your swords than you're
supposed to! So say you have a sword and there are only 2 uses left. Do
a Chaotic Sword Slash and you'll get all 5 strikes. In the middle of the
move your weapon (as indicated on the side panel) will switch to the
knife, but you'll continue striking the enemy with your sword. Once you
hit the ground again, you'll be holding the knife. This move isn't very
useful for weaker enemies, as they'll die before they can take all of the
hits, but it's a wonderful thing for Knight and Ogre slaying. *For the
purpose of brevity, I'll usually refer to this move as a Chaotic.* Damage
of 2x.
Now, let's move on to the four different types of swords.
o Sword: Your standard sword. Damage of 5.
o Broad Sword: A bit more powerful. Damage of 6.
o Death Sword: More powerful still. Damage of 7.
o Omega Sword: The most powerful sword in Oasis. It sets enemies on
fire, so it's great for generating Steak and Roast Beef from Rats and
Ogres. This sword can be found in the Infinite variety. Damage of 8.
Strategically, there's just not much to say with these things. They're
considerably less versatile than the knife is: no 360 degree attacks, as well
as a rather slow strike rate. Because of those two factors, you just don't
want to get surrounded when using these. Keep your enemies on one side and be
prepared to make quick switches back to your knife. Better yet, only switch
out for a sword when you need to take down a single tough enemy or quickly
subdue a large, clustered group of foes. (The Omega Sword is great for
setting Rats on fire! They spread around the love, of course, and therefore
it's possible to light up an entire legion of enemies with a single slash!)
Don't forget that you can control the different types of slashes. If you
attack while walking, you'll do a vertical cut. If you attack while standing
still, you'll slash horizontally. A standing jump attack will yield a
downward chop, whereas a running jump attack will result in a horizontal
slice. Keep this in mind when fighting airborne enemies! You'll have to use
the vertical cut or jump attacks to knock them out of the air. A horizontal
slash won't help you.
Lastly, remember that you can still do crouching slashes, kicks, and Oasis
Rage while bearing swords.
Bows:
Bows are often overlooked by Oasis gamers, but in certain situations they're
vital to success. Obviously you'll want them in order to take enemies down
from afar, but what people don't really think about is that when used in the
hands of a skilled and alert person, bows are a great traveling weapon. Here
are the different types of bows:
o Bow: Standard crossbow. Damage of 3.
o Fire Bow: Bow that will set enemies aflame. Available in the Infinite
variety. Damage of 4.
o Metal Bow: A high-powered bow that will pass through multiple enemies.
Available in the Infinite variety. Damage of 5.
o Atomic Bow: To put it quite bluntly, a hyper bomb on a stick. Quite
possibly the best weapon known to man. Available in the Infinite variety.
Damage of 8.
Your available attacks with bows are: jump kicks, kicks, and both standing and
crouching bow shots. The difference between those last two? When you stand
and press B, you can hold it down indefinitely to wait for a good shot. Not
only that, but you can slide around with the D-Pad. If you crouch, however,
you'll let off the bolt the instant the string is drawn, and therefore you
can't adjust your aim.
So about strategy. The standard Bow is basically only useful if you don't
have any of the others. It scores minimal damage and has no special powers.
You can find them pretty readily, though, so you don't have to worry about
wasting ammo.
I want to say right now that the Bow is not the best thing to use against some
types of enemies. Agile foes like Raptors and Trolls will just slide out of
the way and take you down! Swordsmen will reflect the bolt right back at you!
(Which is why using an Atomic Bow on a Swordsmen is really, really stupid.)
Learn which enemies are bow fodder and which ones aren't to be messed with.
Use the Fire Bow and Atomic Bow to burn Rats and Ogres! You'll get great HP
items!
If you're using the Atomic Bow and need an explosion fast, do a crouching
shot. The bolt will hit the ground faster and you'll get the fireworks you
need.
Remember that you need a bow to flip out-of-reach switches some times.
Also don't forget that you have Kicks and Jump Kicks at your disposal when you
have a bow. (Not to mention Rising Revenge!)
A great technique to use while you're running around in the wild is to use the
MODE+B trick to have a Bow at your disposal at any moment. Don't be afraid to
switch out for easier kills! (See Easter Eggs for more information.)
On the general subject of arrows: Dytto's Water Ball will knock arrows out of
the air in flight. Efreet's moves will burn them up instantly, and Bow can
sometimes luck into munching up an enemy arrow. Bow's Poison Pollen will also
seriously cut down the range of your bolts.
Bombs:
These aren't very useful, to be quite honest, until you come across the Hyper
type. They have their merits when it comes to puzzle solving, of course, but
in general they're worthless until said variation. Still, you never know when
you might find a need for explosives.
o Bomb: Your standard bomb. Blows up pretty much on contact with the
ground. Tiny blast radius. Damage of 3.
o Power Bomb: A bigger blast radius, and it takes a moment for the
fuse to burn down. Damage of 5.
o Hyper Bomb: Huge blast radius, capable of inflicting two hits on enemies.
Use these with extreme caution. Damage of 8.
You either throw or roll bombs, depending on whether you're standing or
crouching. The only difference is that they go farther when you throw them.
When throwing bombs from above, you have to think about your alignment with
the enemy. The bomb will land considerably further towards the bottom of the
screen than where you are standing. It's the game's way of making things more
3D, but it means that you have to stand 'north' of your target. Mess around
with this and you'll learn what I'm talking about.
If you're fast, you can slash enemy bombs away from you. On the flip side,
some enemies can send your bombs straight back at you! Beware the evil
Swordsman and the vicious Raptor.
Fire (including Efreet's moves) will make enemy bombs go off in midair. You
can't short-fuse yours with this technique, though. Dytto's Water Ball will
freeze fuses, making bombs drop to the ground dormant, at which point you can
slash them or whatever. Once the freezing effect wears off, though, the bombs
will detonate.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
EASTER EGGS
Cheat codes, Easter Eggs, whatever. There are only four of them, so let's not
get picky, shall we?
o View Records Screen: Press B + START at the title screen. You'll be taken
to a listing of the top five performances on your cart, sorted by Time
(fastest first), Rank (lowest first), Kills (most first), and Jewels (most
first). Nice, if you want to see what's been done by whom without playing
through the whole game.
o View Sound Test: At the Diary Screen, highlight an empty slot and press
B + START simultaneously. You'll be taken to a sound test with musical
tracks (complete with names!), and sound effects. Not to mention a nifty
background. Also, do you notice all the Streets of Rage 2 sounds in here?
(#19 is Vehilits, for example.) If you don't know this already, the company
that made this game - Ancient - is Yuzo Koshiro's design team. They also
worked on the music/sound for the Streets of Rage series, so it's my guess
that they used the Streets of Rage sound library as a starting point when
they were building Beyond Oasis. Thanks to Helldhaz for finding this in
late 2005. Took ten years to find this code... Amazing.
o Force Demo Mode: Don't want to wait for the demos to come up at the title
screen? Press Down/Right + START. The demo will come up. Press START
during a demo to get taken back to the title screen, at which point you
can force the next one again.
o Switch Weapons: You know in the weapons menu, how there's a blue
highlighter for the active weapon and yellow cursor? Well, select the
knife and then put the cursor on another weapon. Then unpause the game and
resume play. Now, at any time, you can press MODE + B to switch back and
forth between the knife and your chosen weapon. Unfortunately you have to
keep the knife as the selected one. Why? For example, let me try to select
a bomb and then highlight a sword. I go back to the game, and I can throw
bombs. If I press MODE + B, it switches to the sword. So far so good.
Now, if I press MODE + B again to revert to the bombs, I'm in trouble. It
will go to the knife instead. Pressing MODE + B after that will simply
switch between the sword and the knife. So this code is only good for
alternating between the default knife and another weapon. Still, it's
better than using the menu.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
SOUND TEST
Here is a listing of the tracks and their duration, courtesy of DarkPulse. Go
look at the preceeding section (Easter Eggs) to find out how to unlock it.
01 - Introduction 2:33
02 - Awakening 0:12
03 - To Begin 1:00
04 - Battle 0:56
05 - Peaceful 1:10
06 - The Story of Thor 2:19
07 - Holiness 1:29
08 - Aqua 0:57
09 - Burning Cave 1:14
10 - Fortress 1:17
11 - Vessel 1:31
12 - Indication 0:19
13 - Stone Place 2:01
14 - Boundless Cliff 0:39
15 - Raging Wind 0:34
16 - Abyss 0:31
17 - Mysterious Green 1:36
18 - Chaos 1:13
19 - Evil Territory 0:46
20 - Water Cave 1:45
21 - The Huge Creature 0:25
22 - Voice from Darkside 0:51
23 - Last Battle 1:17
24 - Triumph 0:06
25 - Item Get! 0:01
26 - Magic Jewel 0:00.6
27 - Encounter 0:38
28 - Requiem 0:06
29 - Concentration 1:55
30 - Fireball 0:32
31 - Deep Hole 2:08
32 - Confession 1:16
33 - Ending 5:20
34 - Master Mind 0:25
(Download the VGZ dump here:
http://project2612.bandwidthmonkey.net)
And to wrap up, here's an intriguing statement from DarkPulse's notes on the
dump:
"This is a RARE Koshiro Soundtrack in the sense that it uses no PCM."
Pretty bizarre...Yuzo usually pushed the Genesis sound chipset to its limits.
Why did he hold back here? Or rather, was it intentional? If you look at the
sound test, there are three options: Music, SFX, and PCM. Sampling of the PCM
and SFX selections would lead one to believe that the game engine uses the PCM
chip to allow for more simultaneous sound effects. Now, I don't know a whole</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
lot about Genesis hardware, so maybe I'm wrong. Still, it seems plausible to
me, considering how many sound effect clips there are and how often they play.
And another, even more interesting comment:
"Odd little bit of Trivia: DJSW was poking in the ROM and found that the sound
test code, including these tracknames, is identical to the US release of
Crusader of Centy. Odder still, considering that code isn't present in the
Euro or Japanese versions - only in the US one."
This is strange for multiple reasons. First off, I didn't even know there
was a soundtest in Crusader of Centy! (Can anyone supply me with the code for
it?) Secondly, I can see how maybe the code might be the same, but the track
names? Why the heck would they be identical? The games were developed by
two totally different companies. (Centy was designed by Nextech, formerly Gau
Entertainment of Ranger-X fame. Nowadays they're called Nex Entertainment.)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Centy came out a full year after Oasis,
and if that's true, then it means that there was a little bit of code stealing
going on, right? Very weird.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
HEARTS
So...just how does that heart system work? Here's the lowdown on it.
When you get to a very low health level - to the point where another hit or
two or three hits will kill you - let yourself get hit once more by some
non-boss enemy. Then kill the enemy that hurt you, and he'll leave a heart
when he dies! It's that simple. To get another heart you'll have to heal
up and reload the screen before trying again. It seems that 1/8th of your
health bar remaining is the magic zone for generating hearts. Please keep
in mind that you have to get an enemy to attack you first. Just killing
an enemy when you've got low health won't do the job.
Previously we all thought there was an invisible XP meter in the game, and
killing monsters gave you XP points until you 'leveled up' - a lot like
regular RPGs. But thanks to contributor Du, we know better now!
Once you see a heart, you have two options: pick up the heart and receive
not only extra health, but increased attacking strength! This is another
revelation from Du: every time you get one, your attacks get stronger!
If you do the math, the game's difficulty is halved merely by picking up
ten hearts!!!
The bottom line is that the damage/health stats for weapons and enemies should
be used only to get a ballpark idea instead of a scientific representation.
Back on topic: your other option is to leave the heart alone. Why would you
do that? Well, that's the catch. You start out with a Rank of one (as you
can see on the Diary menu), and every heart you grab bumps that up by one.
You can get your rank up to 200 (info courtesy of Du). After that you can
pick up hearts, but they won't affect your stats.
At the end of the game, you will be ranked on a high score screen. (Look at
the Easter Eggs section to find out how to see this before then.) One of the
categories you'll be measured in is Rank, or the number of hearts you pick up.
The lower your rank, the higher you will be on the list. So it's a tradeoff:
the hearts will make it easier, but you won't score as high on the final
screen.
You probably shouldn't go for a rank of one on your first try, in case you
hadn't figured that out yet.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
HINTS FROM THE MANUAL
Lost your manual? Never had it in the first place? Well, many of us are in
that boat when it comes to classic gaming. I happen to have one (no box,
unfortunately), so - for posterity's sake - here are some of the hints and tips
from the manual itself. I can't include the entire thing here, so you'll have
to be content with the following.
"The creatures threatening Oasis have specific orders to stop you from
finishing your quest. You, on the other hand, have more to think about than a
few ugly monsters with sticks and spears-all Oasis is depending on you to
defeat the one who wears the silver armlet. You may find that the outcome on
your goal is quite different when you concentrate on your goal and not the red
herrings. Check out the results at the end of the adventure!"
"On the other hand, you may be stymied at one point or another by locked doors
or barred passages. When you're at a loss for what to do next, try clearing
the area of monsters (you know how that works) and the answer may very well
appear in front of you."
"Remember to use Dytto's Healing spell whenever you have the chance (to save
your food supply for more desperate times)."
So maybe that was entirely pointless there, but...uh... Yeah. There you go.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
CLASSES
One of the ongoing goals of this FAQ has been to discover what game results
trigger the various end "classes" displayed during the ending sequence.
Ganelon laid the groundwork by generating a comprehensive list of the possible
classes and also donating some hexadecimal codes to make the process easier.
Du then took this information and ran with it, resulting in a complete table of
the classes and how to attain them. Let's give these two a round of applause
for all their hard work!
COMP. RANK TIME KILLS JEWELS DEATHS RANK CLASS
1 - - - 0 1 Super Hero
>1 <2h - - - - Speed Star
>1 >2h 1500~32767 - - - Berserker
>1 >2h other 60 - - Treasure Hunter
>1 >2h other <60 >99 - Undead
02~10 >2h other <60 <100 ? Champion
11~20 >2h other <60 <100 ? Samurai
21~30 >2h other <60 <100 ? Myrmidon
31~40 >2h other <60 <100 ? Hero
41~50 >2h other <60 <100 ? Swordmaster
51~60 >2h other <60 <100 ? Warrior
>60 >2h other <60 <100 ? Fighter
LEGEND
'Comp. Rank' = (Deaths * 2) + Rank. (1 Death equals 2 Rank hearts.)
'Other' = Numbers 0~1499 or 32768~65535.
'-' = Value doesn't matter.
'?' = Depends on the Rank you got at the results screen.
Game Maximums = 200 Rank
65535 Kills
60 Jewels.
Here's how to look the table. There are 6 priorities:
o First, if Comp. Rank is 1 (Rank of 1 and no deaths), player's class is
Super Hero.
o Second, if Comp. Rank is greater than 1, check the game time; if it's
under 2 hours, player's class is Speed Star.
o Third, if Comp. Rank is greater than 1, time is greater than 2 hours, and
the number of kills is between 1500 and 32767, the player's class is
Berserker.
o Fourth, if not any of the above, if the jewels is 60, player's class is
Treasure Hunter.
o Fifth, if not any of the above, check the deaths, if equal to or greater
than 100 (> 99), player's class is Undead.
o Sixth, if not any of the above, the player's class will be whatever range
the value of the equation (Deaths * 2 + Rank) falls in. For example, if you
died five times and picked up thirty hearts, the the result would be forty,
which would just barely put you in the Hero range.
Sometimes one game result will fit in 5 classes or more. However, only the
highest priority one is chosen. The classes in the table are listed in
order of priority from highest (Super Hero) to lowest (Fighter).
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
RECORDS
Well, if anyone's interested, here's a place where you can send me your Beyond
Oasis results and see how you fare against your peers! We won't do rank or
jewels, since they're not really open-ended, but here you can show off your
best Time, Kills, and Efreet Racetrack scores.
[TIME] [KILLS] [RACING TRACK]
1) 1:07:09 - Du 1) 1866 - VortexSpin 1) 00:55:08 - VortexSpin
2) 1:31:19 - VortexSpin 2) ----------------- 2) ---------------------
3) -------------------- 3) ----------------- 3) ---------------------
4) -------------------- 4) ----------------- 4) ---------------------
5) -------------------- 5) ----------------- 5) ---------------------
So go ahead - get playing and bump me off! (I'm most excited about my Efreet
Racing Track score...hopefully it can't be beaten. Wishful thinker, I know.)
Anybody with determination can easily clear the kills count, too. Du might
have the Time area pretty much cornered, though.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
HIGH SCORE TUTORIAL
Want to get on the top of all the lists? Okay, here's how.
First, you must NOT pick up any hearts during the game. See the Hearts
section for why. Secondly, you have to collect all 60 Spirit Jewels. See the
Jewels section for more on that. Thirdly, you must kill more enemies than
anyone else. (See how to check out the competition in the Easter Eggs
section.) Lastly, you have to do it faster than anyone else has.
Now, my personal copy of Beyond Oasis didn't have any records on it when I got
it. I think it was originally a rental, and nobody had it long enough to beat
it or something. You may not be as lucky. (Whoever gets my cart someday is
going to have a heck of a time getting on that high-score screen! =P )
There is absolutely no way to get rid of the scores except to beat them.
Tough, huh? There's really no way to win all of the categories in one go, so
you're going to have to play through a few times with different priorities.
Okay, to start off with, the Rank and Jewel categories are easy to bump off.
Just get a Rank of one and all 60 Jewels, and you'll go straight to the top,
even if someone else has the same thing. The most recent stat goes to the top
in case of a tie.
Easy to say, but how hard is it to do? Well, most of the jewels are easy to
get. The ones in the 100 level pit are located early enough that - at the very
worst - you could ditch the place after you acquire Bow's and before it gets
really hard. (See the Mini-Games section for more on all that.) With a list
of Jewel locations, you can get the 60 without a bunch of sweat.
As for the Rank, well...that will take a bit more. Just learn how to fight,
basically. Learn how to tear into enemies, learn how to take down the bosses
without much damage. Sorry, but it all comes down to practice. Once you're
good enough, you can get through the entire thing without picking up a single
heart.
Now for Time. You're going to have to trim off every single second you can.
The infinite weapon mini-games are out, of course. And you can't backtrack to
pick up jewels and weapons. You're going to have to become proficient with
the knife and whatever other meager weapons that will be sitting in the middle
of your path. Pick up any hearts you can in order to make it a bit easier.
You should only attempt a time run after you know the game like the back of
your hand. You can't afford to get lost, stuck, or deviate in the slightest
from the quickest path.
Enemies? Hehe... The thing is, the Kill count is entirely open ended. You
can go as high as you want. So, if you invest enough time, you could get
really high kill counts by simply playing the 100 level pit over and over
and over and over. (Believe me, once you get the Omega Sword the first time,
that pit is way easier.) The sky's the limit! Personally, I don't really
care to smash Rats all day, so I don't have a great Kill score.
Here's a note tacked on here: you know at the end of the game, when it shows
how many times you died? There's absolutely no reason in the world that
shouldn't be a big, fat zero. Why? Because when you die, the game does the
same thing as reloading your saved game. So when you're dead, but before the
"Game Over" screen, just reset the Genesis and reload your game. Same thing,
but it looks cooler at the end.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
SPIRIT CALLS
There is a Call for each of the four Spirits: a vial of water for Dytto, a
lamp for Efreet, a reflective stone for Shade, and a seedling for Bow. You
can select these from the Items menu to instantly summon the respective Spirit
without having to find the correct element.
Only thing is, you should never just select it from the Item menu! Always set
it down on the ground (with START) and shoot your Spirit Ball at it. When you
do it that way, not only will you gain the Spirit, but the Call will turn into
an item!
o Dytto Call (Vial): Roast Beef
o Efreet Call (Lamp): Omega Sword
o Shade Call (Oynx Stone): Heart
o Bow Call (Seedling): Elixir
o Lettuce: Mushroom (Not to be confused with a Toadstool. The Mushroom
is the +1/4 SP and HP type.)
So as you can see, Spirit Calls are pretty good things, even if you just want
their byproduct! The only problem is that they take up valuable slots in the
item menu. If you're getting cramped for space, I'd recommend ditching the
Efreet Call for an Omega Sword and the Bow Call for the Elixir. (Efreet Calls
are pretty much worthless once you have the Infinite Hyper Bomb, anyway.) You
should always hang onto Dytto Calls, though, as you never know when you might
need a fast heal. (Especially in the 100 Level Pit.)
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
ITEM GUIDE
This section covers all the pick-ups you'll find that can restore your HP or
SP. Yes, yes, I know this has been documented before. But hey, it's a step
closer to a one stop source.
o Cheese HP + 1/4
o Fish HP + 1/2
o Steak HP + 1/3
o Roast Beast HP to Full
o Orange SP + 1/4
o Apple SP + 1/2
o Pomnegranate SP + 1/3
o Grapes SP to Full
o Mushroom HP/SP + 1/4
o Lettuce HP/SP + 1/2
o Garlic HP/SP + 3/4
o Toadstool HP/SP to Full
o Elixir HP/SP to Full
You can get these simply by luring Fish enemies onto dry ground and keeping
them there (just push them - you won't get hurt) until they die. You can
slash them up a bit to hurry the process along, if you wish. Just make sure
they die by asphyxiation instead of your knife. Tis is a great way to keep
your Item stock full of tasty 1/2 HP Fish. I heal up and restock every time I
see one.
Steak and Roast Beast is often acquired from Rats and Ogres if you kill them
with fire weapons.
Lettuce Can be used to summon Bow. (See the Spirit Calls section for more
info.)
The Elixir is automatically activated when you die, essentially giving you
another life. It can also simply be used like a Toadstool. There are only six
of these in the entire game, unless you count the ones you can get as a
byproduct from Bow Calls. I always try to have them all at the end, for no
particular reason.
Each enemy drops certain Items/Weapons, and none others. This is fairly common
in such games, but you would do well to note it. Why? So that you don't waste
your time trying to get HP items by killing Bats, for instance. (90% of the
time they'll give you Oranges, which are hardly the most helpful things in the
world.)
Another item related tip is what I call 'swapping'. Say you've got about 80%
health, and all you've got in your Item menu are a bunch of Roast Beasts.
They're too valuable to just squander on 20% vitality. Then you happen across
a Cheese. Here's the drill. Drop an item (highlight it and press START), then
pick up the Cheese and use it. You're now at full vitality. Then pick up your
Roast Beast again. This is the best way to keep yourself in top condition.
On a related note, try not to fill up your HP meter. What I mean by that is,
don't use a 1/2 HP (or SP) item if you aren't at 1/2 vitality. Let yourself
get damaged a little more, then use the item so that you don't waste any
precious revitalizing powers. Of course, if you find yourself given the chance
to max out your gauges through Dytto, the Princess, your Mentor, swapping, and
the like, then do so! Just don't use big items wily-nilly when - if you wait
a bit - you'll get more bang for your buck.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
SP REGENERATION
You probably know how certain bits of jewelry you pick up during your quest
will allow you to regenerate SP and HP, correct? (See Special Items for
more info.) Well, have you noticed that your SP regenerates at the beginning
of the game even without the items? Pretty cool.
So you don't need to worry about SP early on in the game. It will build up
rather quickly whenever you're in a non-dungeon environment. I'll have to
check, but I'm pretty sure this effect continues until you meet Silver Armlet,
at which point you'll have to start using SP items.
Ginny submitted the reason for this apparent anomaly with the
recharging feature of the Armlet early on in the game. Here's what he says:
"As for why the Armlet doesn't recharge your SP when you first meet Silver
Armlet until you get the [Psychoring], I offer this simple explanation: the
G.A. alone can only recharge SP in sunlight, which is why SP doesn't recover
over time in dungeons early on. After the fight against the Gargoyles and up
until you leave the cave, there is no sunlight, even when you are outside the
cave. Note the weather; it's raining. Rain means clouds, and clouds make
sunlight's job of reaching the G.A. very hard."
Thanks to Ginny for that! And I must say that Beyond Oasis has to be one of
the most detailed games of the 16-bit era. Seriously, that's a pretty cool
bit of trivia.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
Glitches
One thing you'll find about Beyond Oasis is that it's a very solid game. Some
Genesis titles seem to have glitches and errors everywhere, but it's like you
just can't mess up Oasis. I've seen very few, and most of those were
impossible to trigger at will - they just happen. There is one fairly well
documented one, however, that can be triggered whenever you want.
o Zombie Mode: First you have to find a teleporter. The one at Efreet's
Racetrack (see Mini-Games guide for more) is a good one since it doesn't
have any enemies to mess you up and it's pretty early on, but any of them
will work. What you have to do is get down to extremely low health. Use
bombs on yourself, let enemies hit you, whatever. Just get within a few
health points of dying. Now position yourself so that the next blast will
not only kill you, but throw you back on the teleporter. Once you've been
teleported, you'll find yourself in an odd position: no health, no SP. You
won't be able to leave the screen, and you can't save your game. You can't
use items, either. Not only that, but the next hit will kill you. Odd,
isn't it? Thanks to GetSmart for that.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
GAME GENIE CODES
Yes, there are indeed Game Genie codes for Beyond Oasis.
WARNING-WARNING, DANGER-DANGER, DOCTOR ROBINSON!!!
Before you use these codes, you need to know what the risks are. Here's a
quote from "The Big Book of Game Genie Codes" by the Genesis Project:
"The Game Genie is known to have particular problems with games that have a
built in save game feature. You may not be able to start a new game or save
your game when using Game Genie codes, also a few codes are known to corrupt
or delete your save data which means you will lose any saved games you already
had. In a few very rare cases this may even prevent you from playing the game
even after you have removed the Game Genie as the game will crash when you
enter the save menu, it is usually possible to fix this problem using the Game
Genie itself by looking in the codes for an 'erase save data' code although
you will again lose any saves you had."
That's some serious stuff there, enough to prevent me from ever using the
following codes. Still, they are provided for the curious and daring. Just
one thing: there are no 'erase save data' codes for Beyond Oasis! You are
using these at your own risk, and I cannot be blamed for damage!
Now those who have emulators are in the clear, though:
"This does not generally apply to emulators, the save data may still be
corrupted but you should be able to use the emulator's own 'save game'
features to bypass the problem although this isn't guaranteed to work with
every game."
And at the worst, you could just download the ROM again. (But you're not
going to use ROMs, remember?)
o Master Code: AABT-AA7R
o Protection from most attacks: RFNA-A6YE
o Start Game with 250 HP: 9JKT-AAH4, 9JLA-AAAA
o Start Game with 500 HP: 8TKT-ACH4, 8TLA-ACAA
o Start Game with 100 Rank: NTLA-AAAR
o Start Game with 500 Rank: 8TLA-ACAR
o Start Game with Omega Sword: 96KT-ALGT
o Start Game with Metal Bow: 96KT-ATGT
o Start Game with Hyper Bomb: 96KT-A0GT
o Use MODE to cancel Spirit: NCFT-BNFT, BCFT-AAF0
o SP doesn't decrease: REPT-C6XL
o Don't lose SP on 'Hold A' Spirit moves: REPT-C6YA
o Almost Invincible: 83NA-AA2G
o Ogres can't grab Ali: ACXT-CA6T
o Worms can't grab Ali: AADT-EA30
o Untouchable (Regular Hits): AW8T-AAHT
o Invincible: MXFT-AAF4
o Weapon turns infinite after use: 98CT-BE5J
o Weapons are infinite: RGCT-A6XJ
o Infinite weapons aren't infinite: ALCT-AA5E
o Don't lose SP on 'Tap A' Spirit moves: REPT-C6VR
o "Service Pack" for Walking on Air codes: ABWA-AA9T
o Disable Active Zones: ALFT-AA4W
o Walking on Air: AGRA-BT3L
o Walking on Air (Alternate): ABPA-AA58
o Jump on Air: ABSA-AA6L
Notes on the codes:
o Master Code
Use this code if you get a red screen when you use the codes below. Due to
the lack of free time, I haven't tested the codes above through the entire
game yet, but they worked fine in the early stages of the game.
o Don't lose SP on 'Hold A' Spirit moves
You still lose SP if perform 'Tap A' Spirit moves.
o Almost Invincible
Almost nothing can harm your character. Ali will not die even if his health
is at zero!
o Ogres can't grab Ali
The "Almost Invincible" code successfully protects Ali from their regular
attacks, but won't keep him from being hurt by their grabbing move. To
prevent getting hurt, enable this code.
o Worms can't grab Ali
The same as the "Ogres can't grab Ali" code, only for the Worms.
o Untouchable (Regular Hits)
This code isn't really necessary when you have the first code enabled.
However, you can enable this and observe how it works.
o Invincibility
This property is like the Doppelganger. When Ali goes to a new location, he
gets this property, but it breaks after you jump.
o Weapons turn infinite after use
Choose your favorite weapon, use it one time and you will see the wonderful
symbol of infinity under its picture.
o Weapons are infinite
You can use this code or the 'Weapons turn infinite after use' code, not
both.
o Infinite weapons aren't infinite
Use this code if you want to finish up your infinite weapon.
o "Service Pack" for Walking on Air codes
If you go towards a wall (with the purpose of walking through it) that forms
the invisible water or air stream, the Walk on Air code will not work. To
fix this problem, use the following code with either of the 'Walking on
Air' codes.
o Disable Active Zones
Disables "active zones", which include streams and invisible teleports to
other locations. It means you can't leave current location when this code
is enabled.
o Walking on Air
Problem is, if you press jump button, Ali will fall down. It's not
necessarily a bad thing, as in some situations your character must fall
down. The only difference between this code and the alternate one is that
if you disable the alternate code while Ali is standing on the air, he will
immediately fall.
o Jump on Air
Use it if you like to jump on the air. Don't forget to enable either of the
'Walking on Air' codes before this one!
And there you have it: the Game Genie codes for Beyond Oasis. (Courtesy of
GSCentral, slightly edited. Check out the originals at www.gscentral.com.)
Like I said, I never use these, as I don't need the 'cheaty' ones and I
seriously doubt there's anything interesting to be seen with the 'exploration'
ones. If you use them, though, and find something cool, then by all means
send me an email and I'll put it up here. (You'll be credited, of course.)
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
MINI GAME GUIDE
Here is where you'll find tutorials for all five of the Infinite Weapon
mini-games. These things may seem tough at first, but they are worth it.
Learn the tricks of each one and soon you'll be a master. I haven't included
the locations of the entrances, as you can easily get that information in
other places. This guide is here so you can learn how to become proficient at
them and get the prizes faster!
Efreet's Racing Track (Infinite Fire Bow)
This has got to be the most fun of the five mini-games. Not only that, it's
also the easiest and yields an infinite weapon that can really save your skin
during the course of the game.
The point of this little place is to get Efreet around the track as fast as
possible. As your time progresses, you'll be bumped down in placement, one a
rank at a time. A rank of one gives a better prize than the fourth rank
does.
The faster you do it, the better the prize! From worst to best, the prizes
are: cheese, an elixir, an Efreet call, an Efreet Spirit Jewel, and the
Infinite Fire Bow. Needless to say, you'll want to play this game several
times to pick up all the goodies.
My personal record for this event is 55.8 seconds.
I don't say that in boast or anything; I'm telling you that so you know that
it is possible to get the faster times. At first, you'll find this race to be
very hard. I'm no exceptional gamer, though, so if I can do it, you can do
it. Okay? Now then...
The first thing you should do before anything else is make sure you're using a
controller with a turbo function and a quality D-Pad. Why? Well, think about
it. You have to use Efreet's Fire Dash to race, and the command for that is A
tapped twice. If you try to do it the old-fashioned way, I can guarantee you
that you're going to mess up and make him do his Flame Breath. If that
happens, you're totally messed up. So set that controller to turbo!
Next-for convenience's sake, just cancel Efreet if you have him. It's easier
to stand at the entrance, summon him from the campfire, turn to your right and
start running (even though you won't go anywhere just yet), then hold down the
A button (turbo enabled). That way, the second Efreet appears he'll do a dash
to the right and he'll be in the track, nice and easy.
You'll be teleported onto the island in the middle, and the timer will start.
I have my own path I've figured out, and I'll show you how to do it here.
After quite a few tries, I finally executed it flawlessly on all of the laps.
(That's how I got the 55.8) I do believe, however, that there's still room
for improvement. Can you beat 55.8? Send me an email, along with a picture
(whether it be a screen capture or a digital photo of your television), and
I'll put it up as the new high score along with your name!
Here's my path: I dash four times along the bottom of the path, then up once,
then left, then up, then left three times. (You can see where Efreet is by
his shadow during that last step.) Then down once, and over. Here's a tricky
part: You have to let him coast just a little to the left, then rocket him
downwards so he just barely missed the edge and goes across the finish line.
There's a lap. Now instantly put him back to the right four times, up, left,
up, left, left, left, down, left, down, etcetera.
The only hard parts are making sure Efreet goes up after the fourth dash on
the bottom, as well as the bit near the finish line. To make sure he goes up
when you want him to, hold the up button while he's in the fourth dash.
Also, don't forget to hold down the A button the whole time! Turbo will be
doing the work for you. The only time you should let up on the A button is at
the aforementioned finish line section, when you want Efreet to drift along
for a split second by himself in order to clear the corner.
Lastly, you need to get good at running Ali around on the island. It's
imperative that you be able to see where Efreet is on the track so you can
time the turns. If you understand this pattern and can do it without making a
mistake, you can get 55.8 seconds like I did.
Obviously, once you're good enough you'll have to let Efreet sit around on the
track for a few moments while the timer runs so you can get the 'lesser'
prizes. Isn't it nice to have to hold yourself back? =)
Today I was fiddling around with the racetrack, trying to figure out if
there's a way to cheat by going counterclockwise, then back across the finish
line for a quick lap. And it is possible, just not practical. The 'magic
spot' that you have to cross in order to be able to go across the finish line
is...eh, let me just make a diagram.
_________________________________
___| ___________________________ |_
|_ _| |_ |
| |_ _| M_|
| |___________________________| |
START_________________________________|
The spot that you have to touch in order to validate a crossing of the finish
line is marked with the 'M'. As you can see, by the time you get there it
would be even slower than just going normally. Now, something that might be
interesting to do is to try the course backwards one lap, then forwards, then
backwards, etcetera. It might actually be faster that way, but I have yet to
test this.
Secret Crags (Infinite Hyper Bombs)
This one gave me nightmares early on. The troublesome platforming is hard
enough, but when you add wind and Gargoyles, this thing can be plain torture.
Nowadays I can get through it with only minor problems, but until you play
through it enough you're going to be pulling your hair out.
Turret Crags: The initial screen. Just jump from platform to platform. Make
sure you have Shade and full SP. Let Shade take the turret hits, and Slash
them when they come in range. Then just jump to shore.
The Silent Crags: This is the second screen, and at first it looks
deceivingly simple. No enemies, no wind, no moving platforms. Just four
tiles in the middle of the air. Should be a piece of cake. Problem is, the
platforms disappear rather quickly after you jump on them. Worse yet,
they're positioned so that you can't just jumpy-jumpy down the line.
Here's the trick: take a running jump onto the first one. Positioning is
important here. You have to jump onto the extreme bottom edge of the
platform, so you're practically falling off. Don't stop running! Hop from
that one to the second one to the third one. Now, at this point you can
either keep running and jump to the final tile and to freedom, but often
times you'll find yourself skidding over the edge and plummeting to your
doom on the final platform. A better technique is to stop running, QUICKLY
jump off the third platform and onto the fourth, then take a running jump to
the other side.
When you stop running on the third platform, you have to be snappy! It's
going to be falling out from under you before you can say "Ali", and
therefore you need to abandon it fast. Same with the fourth. Being able to
start running fast is a vital skill for this.
If you fall (and you will), let Shade take you back to the right side. Then
just walk to the former screen and back again to make the platforms reappear.
The Windy Crags: There'll be leaves blowing into your face, indicating the
strong headwinds. Not only that, but there will be multiple moving
platforms. (Five, actually.) This is going to be tough.
Even getting on the first platform requires a bit of skill. The wind is
really going to nix your jumping power, so you have to use running jumps
constantly. Line yourself up with the first platform, then make a running
jump where you just barely leap before you fall for maximum distance. Not
only that, but you have to time it with the platform so that you land when
it's as close as possible.
Once you're on the platform, you have to constantly walk forward to stay on
it. Tap the D-Pad to prevent falling.
After this, I really can't give a whole lot of advice. All of it is timing
that you'll simply have to learn yourself. Remember that you don't jump very
far because of the wind, and also keep in mind that you can just walk from
the third to the fourth platform. You should also know that the fifth
platform disappears like the ones in the Silent Crags. If you fall off, make
sure to reload the screen so it comes back.
The Gargoyle Crags: Okay, this can be either simply difficult or extremely
difficult, depending on what weapons you have. Do you have a lot of swords,
or a sword with a lot of slashes left? Good. Get it out, because you'll be
needing it badly. If you don't, then be prepared to use Slashes as much as
you can when the Gargoyles dive towards you, and get ready to let Shade take
a huge beating.
There are a handful of slowly moving platforms here. No wind, no
disappearing stuff. The challenge is to get across without the Gargoyles
knocking you off! A dive from one of them won't do it, but if you've got a
bunch hitting you at the same time you'll go down.
The key is to keep the numbers of Gargoyles at a minimum. If you have a
sword, just Jump Slash them when they draw near. Use a horizontal slash if
they shoot something at you. At all times, try to keep their numbers down.
They will keep coming, of course, until there are four (or five?) of them.
And since you're killing them, there will constantly be reinforcements
arriving.
Don't forget to cross the platforms as soon as you can. The faster you get
out of here, the better. If you fall, reload the screen to get rid of all
the Gargoyles.
If you don't have a sword, you're in for a bit of fun. You have no other
choice but to stand there and take it (or let Shade take it, rather). Slash
them when they dive, but don't try anything fancy! Roll. Slashes and the
like will send you to the abyss - you've only got about a square foot of
fighting room here!
The Final Crags: The point here is to make it across in a single try, using
as few platforms as possible. That way when you come back there'll still be
something to use. There's no wind to bother you, and just use normal jumps.
Use the top three first. All but two of the platforms disappear, so be quick
about it. The platforms will reload, remember, if you exit the screen and
return, so use that if you mess up. At any rate, you'll make it to the other
side. Use Shade's Shadow Claw to break the boxes and snag the goodies, then
make your way back using the bottom layer of platforms.
At this point, you'll have to go all the way back! Sheesh. No nice
teleporter for you, eh? It's basically the same thing, except for the Windy
Crags. Now you've got the wind to your back, so you've got some major
jumping distance now.
Don't be afraid to use the SP and HP items. The Infinite Hyper Bomb is very
much worth it.
The Hidden Islands (Infinite Atomic Bow)
Instead of simply giving a tedious walkthrough of this, I'll provide you with
a list of tips that will help you to get through the level.
o Get to know the locations of the boxes. The whole point of this is to kill
all the enemies without breaking a box, so you need to know what areas to
try to keep the combat from entering! If you start trying to take on
enemies right next to a box, odds are something's going to happen.
o When you first drop in, let off a Spin Attack as you're falling. This is
one of the few times in the game when standard Soldiers can kill you, so
get them out of your face from the get go. You can continue to do a Spin
Attack until they're dead.
o Go slowly. Memorization really is the key to this. Once you know when the
enemies will appear, you can keep the number of onscreen foes to a minimum,
thereby making it easier for you.
o You can use items here! Just not spirits! Use that infinite Fire Bow to
generate some meat from Ogres and Rats when you can!
o When you see a zombie, get a fire weapon out immediately and reduce it to
ashes.
o Beware of Raptors! Jump kicks and the Spin Attack are your best bet.
o When you see a teleporter in front of you for the second time, you know
that you're in for the final confrontation. Go into an Oasis Rage as soon
as you touch ground to prevent the Knight from crushing both you and the
box. (Which would be disastrous this late in the mini-game.) Better yet,
slide on Turbo for a few moments, walk forward, and hold down B the instant
you see the Knight.
o On the final fight, there are two side alleys. Take the fight in there!
You're less likely to destroy the box that way.
o Be careful with your bombs and the atomic bow! You don't want to blow up
a box!
o You'll get an atomic bow from a Raptor around the middle. Use it before
the end, because it's worthless once you have the prize! On the island
with the single turret and the multiple Raptors, walk just far enough to
load the enemies, then make it back onto the bridge before you're blocked
by the turret! If you do get stuck, stay calm and don't walk left or
right. The Raptors won't activate if you don't come close. That will
give you the time to kill the Turret and get back onto the bridge. Then
use your Hyper Bombs to activate and eradicate all of the Raptors.
They'll get stuck on the walls on either side of the bridge, and you can
throw a bomb to their sides. Try not to wake up more than one Raptor at
a time.
o Right after all those spearmen and the little group of archers and an Ogre,
you'll fight three armored Knights. One of them will drop an Omega Sword!
Be sure to pick it up! You might even want to play through this more than
once for more firepower in the 100 level pit.
Using those tips and your own skill, this mini-game should go down in one or
two tries.
The 100 Level Pit (Infinite Omega Sword):
If you can actually complete this, then you'll find the rest of the game to be
wonderfully easy. (At least compared to what it could have been.) Only
problem is that this side quest is quite imposing and requires a great deal of
dedication. Not to mention skill.
The trick with this one is that you can't use any items whatsoever. That's
right, no items. Much harder than the no Spirits deal with the Secret
Islands, in my opinion. At any rate, you'll fight your way through 100 levels
of random enemies to gain the Infinite Omega Sword. You have to do the entire
thing in one go, by the way. It takes roughly 45 minutes for me, but it
depends on how good you are at fighting.
Here's another list of tips for this side quest.
o You can use the stairs to go up to the surface, one level at a time.
o Every ten levels, you'll fight a boss. When you come out victorious you'll
get a quarter health refill and an item will fall from above. Not only
that, but you'll be offered the chance to bail out via teleporter.
o Although you can't use any items, remember that you can use your Spirit
Calls. (See Spirit Calls for more information.)
o Don't forget that you can indeed summon Shade from the Knights, but also
don't forget that you have to get rid of him in order to progress.
o Dytto is your best friend, as usual. Get her whenever you can from the
Slime creatures and her Jewel that you will find. You can use her Call
when you're desperate, but try to save that thing for truly horrible times.
Don't use her for anything else except healing, by the way. You'll need
that SP!
o Use your swords when you're in a tight spot, as they'll become pretty much
useless when you acquire the Infinite Omega Sword.
o Pause the game, turn off the television, and take a break if you think you
need it.
o Remember that you'll possibly need an hour or more to beat this, so pick a
day to try it when you'll have the time.
o Efreet should be your constant companion, unless you're keeping Dytto for a
while for heals. You can get him from the Infinite Hyper Bombs.
o The Atomic Bow is going to be wonderful here. Use it any time you can get
yourself at a distance from the action.
o Use Multiple Rolling Slashes over and over and over on the Sapper levels.
o Trick the Knights into massacring other enemies whenever you can.
o When confronted by a group of enemies, quickly identify the biggest threats
and eliminate them first.
o When using Efreet, don't use his special moves too much. Just let him
wander around and whack things, as the other moves use valuable SP.
o All of your fighting skills are going to have to be used here. Hold
nothing back, and don't be shy away from prolific use of cheapos. (Like
jump kicking a Raptor repeatedly.)
o It's better to take your time and get through on the first try than
attempting to speed through it. Be aggressive, but remember that health is
your most precious commodity.
o The enemy setup for each level is random, but you'll find that it uses the
same sort of configurations: three Ogres, a raptor, eight rats in a circle,
two Knights, etcetera. Learn how to dispatch each group quickly.
That's about it. Use your brains, be fast on the D-Pad, and keep in mind how
terrific your prize is.
The Hidden Waterfall (Infinite Metal Bow):
Just between you and me, the Metal Bow isn't worth a whole lot. That said,
you should do this one anyway for the jewels and Elixir. Besides, don't you
want all the infinite weapons? Here are the items in the waterfall:
o Green Gem
o Lettuce
o Omega Sword
o Infinite Metal Bow
o Dytto Gem
o Shade Call
o Elixir
You can't get everything on the first go-round, but you don't have to fall to
the opening of Efreet's shrine and make your way back up every time you want
to go through again. When you see the Shade call, get ready to run to the
right. That way you won't leave the area and you'll be able to run up some
watery stairs to the top of the waterfall again. Don't get the Elixir until
you've gotten everything else you want, because you probably won't make it to
the stairs if you wait to run until after you get it. I usually do this
minigame like this:
First Pass: Green Gem, Infinite Metal Bow, Shade Call.
Second Pass: Dytto Gem, Elixir.
And I'm done. There's no point in getting the Omega Sword if you have the
infinite version, and I'm not inclined to go to the trouble for a lettuce.
This is actually even easier than the Racing Track, especially once you know
to use the stairs.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
CHALLENGES
For the skilled wanderer of Oasis there are many quests to complete. No, they
don't give you anything except major bragging rights. But they are, anyway:
the big challenges of Beyond Oasis.
o Quest of the Proud
Get a Rank of 1. You know how to do this.
o Quest of the Perfect
Don't die at all during the game. And no, you can't do the resetting
trick. (See the High Score Tutorial for more on that.)
o Quest of the Jewels
Get all 60 jewels.
o Quest of the Explorer
Get all of the infinite weapons.
o Quest of the Starving
Don't pick up any healing items.
o Quest of the Defenseless
Don't pick up any weapons, unless you need them to solve a puzzle.
o Quest of the Powerless
Don't pick up any Spirit gems at all.
o Quest of the Mighty
Beat the 100 level pit right at the beginning of the game, before you get
any spirits or do anything.
o Quest of the Three Spirits
Complete the Quest of the Mighty, and then don't get Efreet. Yes, it's
possible.
o Quest of the Merciful
Kill only the enemies you have to kill in order to open doors, get keys,
etcetera.
Credit must go to GetSmart for the Quest of the Three Spirits, as his FAQ was
the first place I saw that. Thanks, GetSmart!
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
ORIGINAL STORY OF THOR PLOT
You probably know that originally Beyond Oasis was called "The Story of Thor:
Successor to the Light" in Japan. Thor? There's no Thor in this game, is
there? I often wondered about where the Thor thing came from, and my
curiosity was only strengthened by something Tony Van (the guy who oversaw the
US conversion) said on his website:
"Beyond Oasis was another international game that needed a producer to port it
over to English (but in this case, I was in charge of both American English
and UK English!) It arrived with a badly-translated Japanese story, one that
made very little sense. So when it didn't make sense, I created my own
version of what I thought was right. I think it came out OK, nobody ever
said anything!"
Since then, I've always wanted to know what the original plot was. One with
the knowledge of Japanese could obviously obtain the Japanese original and do
a translation, but so far no one has. Do you know the original Japanese plot
or any differences between the Japanese game and the US version? Drop me a
line and I'll put it up in this section, along with a credit for you. (Also
check out the links section for Van's website so you can see it for yourself.)
I've made progress in this regard by securing a volunteer translator - now I
just need a complete Japanese script for him to look over. If someone wants
to do the legwork on that...by all means! I have very little time for such
things, so it might be a while if I do it.
I did discover that, in classic Japanese fashion, "Thor" is simply the name of
the main character. Don't ask me what Norse mythology has to do with Arabia.
UPDATE: All right, here we go. Pokeiyuu from the GameFAQs board rolled in on
5/26/2010 with the following megaton information. This is all pretty much his
words verbatim since he expressed it so well.
"I dumped the scripts from both the Japanese and English versions of this
game and uploaded the results in an easily comparable spreadsheet.
Difference notes:
Ali is named Ruo in the Japanese.
For some reason, the line from Efreet about how to summon him is not
in the English.
The Japanese gives more directions than in the English. For example, you're
told that the castle is in the West after you're attacked in town, that
the "hidden shrine" is behind the eastern waterfall and that the cave in
Mount A-Rat (Mt. Allat) is to the north.
The name "Thor" comes from the "word," 'toa,' which refers to a spirit
world where no human lives. That is where the war between Reharl and</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
Agito was waged. It's referred to in the English as "the non-entity."
The armlets, when referred to, sometimes use their function as a modifier
in the Japanese. So the bearer of the Gold Armlet is referred to as "The
Governing Gold Armlet," especially by the four spirits, while the Silver
Armlet is referred to as "The Creating Silver Armlet."
The spirits never use the Prince's name to refer to him, deferring his
identity to the armlet. The Prince's name is not known to the armlet
when it is picked up. It is just speaking generically to whomever picks it
up. What will bring the world to ruin is the revival of an ancient
demon by the Silver Armlet.
The conversation that the Prince overhears has a name in the Japanese.
Shade's location is incidental in that conversation in the Japanese as
well. This name, Kuuin, is very close to the older sister princess's name,
Kuvinia.
The conversation where you hear your older sister's name actually happens in
reverse in the Japanese. The speaker admonishes you to go to the castle
and just happens to see Kuvinia's necklace on you and then talks about it.
The forest shrine is said to be in the northwest in the Japanese, while it
is in the northeast in the English.
The English is more judgmental. You're explicitly told that Agito was evil,
and so is the Large Cube.
When the bearer of Silver Armlet is "freed," that person doesn't say who
they are at all in the Japanese. Right before the armlet bearers are
separated during the ending, the Silver Armlet does say the relationship
between them (not that you don't already have a notion as to who they
are...)
In the attacking instructions, the Japanese does say that a Low Kick is
possible. For the "special attacks" except for the Spin Attack, it does
not tell you their motions.
Looking more at the script, the claim that the translator made up large
portions of the English story is pretty much incorrect. He cleaves
quite closely to the source material."
The list of differences between the two scripts was originally posted here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tO6C-0o0GrE4yT6bE0tX3bA&output=html
But in the case that it might be lost to time, here is what can be reproduced
in a simple notepad document. (Just the English side.)
I am Dytto, a water spirit. Water has the power to purify and can wash away
evil. I swear that I am devoted to my master. I will come to serve you when
I see the light ball on the surface of the water.
Hi, Ali!
Hi, Ali. What kind of junk did you dig up today?
Digging in the mud again, Ali? Excavations, you say? What's the difference?
Oh, Ali. Nice armlet. Where'd you find it?
Prince Ali, are you all right? I don't know who they were, but you were
their target.
They may have attacked the castle as well. You must check on your family.
Ali, I have a special today! Why don't you take a look?
Ali defeated the hostile group which attacked him, and hurried to see
his teacher.
He found Dytto, a spirit of water who had been sleeping in the Water
Shrine.
Efreet is my name. I am fire which burns away anything unclean. The Gold
Armlet is my master.
Hey, take me to the ruins next time! Please!
There have been many strangers around here lately. I don't
like them.
I appear from the void to become your shadow. My name is Shade. I pledge
my allegiance to you, Gold Armlet. You may summon me from your own
reflection.
I'm Bow! You are my master. I can be found inside plants. Call me when
there's lots to eat!
He found Efreet, a spirit of fire who had been sleeping in the Waterfall
Shrine.
He captured the enemy base and sneaked onto a ship staying in the harbor.
Ali defeated the gargoyles. He headed his boat in the direction where
Silver Armlet disappeared.
He defeated the monsters in the cave and picked up a necklace which had
a mysterious radiance.
He left for the wall fortress to continue after Silver Armlet.
He defeated the monsters in the fortress and got the Warp Device.
He defeated the old dragon in the crater and found Shade, a spirit of
shadow in the Shrine of Darkness.
It is said that there is a hidden Shrine where a Spirit sleeps. Ali, go
up along the river to find the Shrine.
He found Bow, a spirit of plants who had been sleeping in Forest Shrine.
The stream lead into a dungeon under the castle.
He obtained the Large Cube.
Ali, did you find out who they are? It is our responsibility to deal with
these rebels.
Ali defeated the monster in the non-entity, and fell into a depth of
darkness...
Many ages ago, a devastating battle was waged in the shadowlands of the
Kingdom of Oasis. It was between two powerful sorcerers, Reharl and
Agito.
Both sorcerers drew special powers from their magical Armlets. Reharl
used his Gold Armlet to govern the spirits. Agito used his Silver Armlet
to create chaos and destruction.
The epic battle destroyed them both. The Armlets were presumed to be lost
as well.
Ali, I am calling to you. Please, pick me up.
I am what remains of this Gold Armlet. I now entrust its power to you, for
you have been chosen to undergo a difficult task.
The Gold Armlet has its pair: a Silver Armlet, which has possessed the
soul another. He will lead Oasis to ruin if you do not stop him. The
powers of the Gold Armlet are now yours to wield.
Find the four spirits this Gold Armlet governs, and stop the evil
ambition of the one with the Silver Armlet.
Prince Ali, good luck! Ali, have you been to the Water Shrine? Go to the
east through the village. The Spirit is a trustworthy partner for you.
My master, Gold Armlet, show me your light ball.
Prince Ali! Welcome back!
The King and the Princess are waiting for you in the main hall up the
stairs.
Ali, please go and read the books hidden in the back room before you go.
I'm sure they will help you.
Welcome back, my son! Let me see what you found.
Hmmm, I've heard this story before...if this is really the Gold Armlet,
then IT was the reason for that strange attack today.
The Gold Armlet governs the wild spirits. Ali, go find the spirit sleeping
in the Water Shrine.
So you found the Water Spirit? Then the story must be true!
I have instructed the soldiers to find out who these strangers
are. I will receive a report sometime later.
Ali, you must go to the East Waterfall before the soldiers come back.
There must be another Shrine where a spirit sleeps. Find it to fulfill
your destiny.
Ali, the soldiers reported that some strange groups are camped out in
the field northeast of the Water Shrine.
You must investigate the area before they hurt the villagers.
Gold Armlet, you are brave to come here. But unfortunately, I have no
time to fool with you.
I am Silver Armlet. You cannot stop me, and you will be sorry
you tried!
He caught a faint conversation from downstairs. ...is it to the north?
Yes, in the wall fortress. It is the key to go to the west crater to see
Shade...
Ali, what did you dig up today?
Ali, it's you! It has been a long time! Did you find anything interesting?
Are you all right, Ali? I saw a strange group in the village and I was
worried about you. It's not safe to wander around outside.
I have not seen you lately, Ali. Where have you been?
Hello, Ali. Do excavations still interest you?
You've caught up with me much earlier than I expected. Well, let me reward
you.
Somewhere in this castle, there is a device which can move you through a
warp of time and space. I don't need it, but you will. Show me your power,
Gold Armlet. You must defeat my minions to gain access to the Warp Device!
Welcome, Prince. Yes, I know everything. This is yours.
That ring is a great help to you.
The necklace you found belongs to Princess Gwyn, your elder sister.
As you know, she's been missing for over ten years. This may mean she is
still alive. Now, go back to the castle. Silver Armlet wants something
from inside it, and you must hurry to protect your family.
It was a sudden attack! Is the King all right?
The underground passage there leads to the dungeons of the castle, but the
entrance is blocked by a grille.
My grandpa said that there is a Shrine in the northeast forest. Inside it
is a monster that eats up anything!
............... (LOL - VortexSpin)
Go north once past the East Gate. You will find a large cave in the
mountain.
Ali!
Ha-ha-ha! Hello, Gold Armlet. I'll trade you a Princess for a Large Cube
hidden somewhere inside this castle.
Come to Mt. Allat with the Large Cube and I will trade you for your
younger sister.
You broke my Seal. I am the origin of Agito's power and the keeper of his
soul. His ancient evil can be awakened by me.
Oh, Ali...it's you. You found the Large Cube? It is evil, and I hoped it
would never be recovered from the dungeon. Ali, you must do what you
think is right. We...we are all counting on you...
Prince Ali, we will get to the cave as soon as we can.
Love is beautiful, isn't it? Ha-ha-ha! Give me the Large Cube first.
Good. Now the Princess is yours. Take care of your precious sister, she
tends to get lost easily!
I'm sorry, you were unable to do anything against that foul creature
because of me... I know that nothing I can say will stop you from
following, but... Please take this for good luck. Come back safe and
sound, Ali.
Prince! Princess! Are you all right? It's dangerous around here. Please
go back to the castle, Princess.
Welcome to the non-entity, Gold Armlet. This is the border between
the shadow and the human world.
You cannot use the Armlet's power here. This is the end of your journey!
I have been waiting for you. It's been an interesting game...but now it's
time to finish it. You cannot stop the revival of the Creator of the
Silver Armlet, my master, Agito!
Well done. I must reward you for your persistence, Gold Armlet! I reward
you with your death!
You...won. I misjudged your superior...abilities. But...you will not
defeat Agito. He has returned to resume his throne!
Oh...oh...It's you, Ali. It's me, your elder sister, Gwyn.
I...heard your voice...but...I could do nothing...I was possessed.
Finally, I got back my...my...memories.
I feel the power filling the world. Thank you, my master, Gold Armlet.
You saved our world. But now we must remain here.
I am proud to have both fought for you and beside you. You shall be
remembered forever.
Bow had fun time! Now this Warp will bring you home. Good-bye, friend
Ali!
Ali...wait. I destroyed things and killed people... Even though I was
possessed and controlled...I must make atonement for my sin. Ali, tell
this to everyone. Agito and the Silver Armlet minion have been destroyed
forever. They will never endanger Oasis again. Now, let me say good-bye...
and...thank you...my brother.
Big Attack/Small Attack Press or tap Button B to attack the enemies. Ali
jumps when C button is tapped, and ducks when Button C is held.
Run Ali runs to the direction of the D-Pad. Ali jumps when Button C is
tapped, and ducks when Button C is held.
Spin Attack One of the special attacks with a dagger. D-Pad Forward, Left,
Back, Right + Button B held.
Rolling Slash A special attack with the dagger. D-Pad Forward, Back,
Forward + Button B held.
Double Rolling Slash Enhanced attack of Rolling Slash.
Chaotic Sword Slash A special attack with a sword. D-Pad Forward, Left,
Back, Right, Forward, Back, Forward + Button B held.
Instructions
Magic Bubble Tap Button A to generate a bubble that stuns enemies.
Healing Tap Button A twice.
Magic Storm Hold Button A for 1 second to attack all enemies with a
water tornado.
Press A,B and C buttons together to cancel the summons
Flame Breath Tap Button A to create a stream of fiery breath.
Fireball Attack Tap Button A twice to turn Efreet into a fireball.
Melt Bomber Hold Button A for 1 second to cause a fire inundation.
Press A,B and C buttons together to cancel the summons
Dark Claw Tap Button A. Shade attacks enemies with his claws. Also can
be used to grapple out of reach items.
Doppelganger Hold Button A for 1 second to generate a duplicate which
can move around the area. Ali becomes invincible.
Press A,B and C buttons together to cancel the summons
Bite Attack Tap Button A to make Bow bite his enemies.
Move Underground Tap Button A twice to call Bow to where Ali is standing.
Bow moves underground silently.
Poison Pollen Hold Button A for 1 second. Bow blows up, scattering poison
pollen which stuns the enemies.
Press A,B and C buttons together to cancel the summons
You have something nice, Ali. Give it to me in return for this, okay?
Ali, you sure showed them!
Thank you, Ali.
What unsafe days! I'm so afraid...I cannot go out alone.
Prince Ali. I'm relieved to see you safe! Have you returned to your castle
yet? The King and the Princess must be worried about you.
What was that?
Teach me how to use a dagger next time, okay?
Too many strange things happen these days!
Prince Ali, I pray for your safety. Be careful.
My bubbles can open this water gate, master.
I trust the soldiers guarding the castle. Please be careful, brother.
Father is very worried about you...I am too. Take care and come back safe
and sound.
I know you're very tough, but I'm still so worried. Please, please be
careful.
And that's pretty much all there is to say. In the end, you have to admit
that the Sega of America team did a great job translating the game - it's
almost word-for-word accurate to Pokeiyuu's version. Two opinions that say
the same thing are good enough for me! Case closed, and thanks again to our
man Pokeiyuu for putting so much effort into such an old game, especially now
that the community is dead and gone. How many more secrets lurk inside this
classic?
As for Tony Van's claim to "Thor" being the main character's name (it's not,
as Pokeiyuu points out above it's a Engrish-ized version of a term for the
Spirit World) and his story that he had radically changed the plot of the
game, well... Chalk it up to a bad memory or Van just not being as tightly
involved with the localization as we had thought.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
STORY OF THOR ALTERNATE VERSIONS
Ganelon gave me the heads-up about the existence of what seems to be a Beta of
The Story of Thor. Very little is playable, and for the most part the game is
pretty empty. That said, there are a ton of differences between it and the
final product. Some things are simply not implemented yet, like functional
menus, doors, scripted events, and special attacks. Others are clearly for
testing purposes, like starting off with the Armlet and items lying on the
ground all over the place. Only the Spin Attack is implemented, BTW, so no
Rolling Slashes for you. Others are more interesting, like...
o A totally different lineup of HP items, ranging from scallops to lobster.
o A spear in the weapon menu. It grieves me to see that this was removed
from the final game. The more weapons the merrier
o A different system of weapon uses. No "Death 30", for example. Hard to
tell what exactly is going on, since you can't select any of the weapons.
It seems like the weapons were originally going to be infinite use.
o The Ogre's sprite is completely different, and thank heavens for that.
Instead of the hairy beast we know and love is a thin-limbed, decidedly
dorky looking thing with a vaguely samurai-style helmet.
o Different title screen art.
o Totally different music - the tracks seem unfinished, and the themes do
not exist in the release version. Probably just placeholder stuff until
Koshiro finished the score.
o Mostly different background art. Not very visible in the village and
castle, but check out the mountains and seaside.
o Only Dytto is avaliable since I can only find water summon from, and you
can't dismiss her. All her magic capabilites are avaliable, however.
o No lost health from falling into pits.
o Villager sprites slightly different.
o Ali runs much faster in the beta than he does in the final product. Not
as much skidding/drifting, either.
o Multiple sound effects from Streets of Rage are present. (You can still
find them in the sound test of the commercial release.)
o The Armlet light ball doesn't fall downward when you shoot it, meaning
you cannot summon Dytton from the ocean. I had to get her from the
water source in the Castle.
o It might just be my emulator, but it seems like the graphics are much
darker. In fact, I'm wondering if the beta uses the G/MD's infamous
shadow/highlight mode and the finished game does not.
The obvious question is if this is really a beta or instead just a fraudulent
hack. I'm inclined to believe it's a legit development dump, and here's why.
First, the Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis community is hardly large enough to
merit the attention of pranksters. Secondly, it's not constructed like
fake betas usually are - there is nothing that proclaims loudly 'this is teh
be+a!'. At any rate, I encourage you to check it out and see for yourself.
It's a neat little treat for fans.
And in the process of finding the beta, I stumbled across an interesting
little hack by Madcell and Ken, two MegaDrive enthusiasts. It's a Chinese
fan translation of the Japanese original, and although that's not going to
do anyone reading this document any good, it gives one a cozy feeling to
know that someone out there likes the game enough to translate it.
(Certainly no small feat.) There are a few different versions of this
floating around. Some simply start up the game without further ado, but
the one I saw had a neat little intro - a few lines of Chinese characters,
then the message "By Madcell and Ken, Christmas 2004" rendered in the same
'dusty tablet' style as the credits. Then finally a screen with the Korean
cover art and an option to select either the Japanese original or the
Chinese translation.
Let me reinforce what's been stated elsewhere in the guide - don't email me
about ROMs! I'll ignore you and block your email address. It's not that
hard to find, people, so get off your lazy backside and go use Google!
It's no more difficult to find the ROM as it is to email me, and the latter
course of action will get yourself excommunicated, so to speak.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
VILLAGE MERCHANT
This mystery is a mystery no longer, thanks to a submission from Ginny.
(Thanks, Ginny!) Here is what he says:
"Anything you see in a game is an event (excluding non-moving things like
terrain). This means Ali, bad guys, people, and items. Now each event has
certain properties. One of these is the property of what occurs when you
press the "A" button when Ali is near it. Sometimes, it will cause the
object to "talk". Other times it will set off one of the Spirits actions, or
if you don't have one up, fire an armlet ball. Now there are many other
properties of objects, some that require button presses, some that are just
coded into the object.
Position, for instance, is coded in as automatic, as is how the object moves.
But also what happens when the object is created is programmed in. In the
case of the item in front of the merchant (or in reality, any item that is
"dropped" when you kill a creature) is this sort of deal. The coding is set
to be random. It gives a chance for something to happen, and if that fails,
then the next thing is given its chance, and the next, until all others are
exhausted. In layman's terms, when you come into the area, the item is set to
pop up, but WHAT pops up is done by roll of the dice, basically. The die,
unlike a real one, is weighted so that some things come up more than others.
For instance, the most common object - nothing - has a higher probability of
appearing than the apple, which appears more than the fish, which appears
more than the mushroom, which appears more than the heart, which appears WAY
more than the Dytto Call (I had that come up exactly once, and I have yet to
see it happen again) There may be some truth also to the "If you beat the
game and delete it, and start a new game in the same slot, the better items
come up more often." I've done this one, and hearts seem to appear more
often, though not often enough to make it worth beating the game two or three
times to get the odds of one out of every thousand down to one in 650. (Just
estimates, I didn't count). The easiest way to get the items to pop up is in
and out of the beach, just go and come back...you can stack up the item
screen with stuff if you're patient."
So it is indeed a random event, although there might be ways to increase the
odds of snagging something valuable.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
ENEMY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Understanding how the enemies think is key to success in combat. And since
success in combat is the key to mastery of Beyond Oasis, it follows logically
that getting a handle on your foe's AI is imperative. Here's the lowdown on
the standard AI programming, divided into states:
o Patrolling: An enemy's default state. He'll just wander around randomly
and slowly with a bunch of pauses and changes of direction.
o Locked-On: When you cross the enemy's line of vision or come close enough
that the enemy can hear you (usually a few feet of game distance from his
back and sides), the enemy will turn to face you.
o Chase: This is once the enemy has locked on to you. If you try to run
away, the enemy will pursue you at relatively high speeds - as long as you
are within a reasonable range and you are inside a 180 degree arc projected
in front of him.
o Long-Range: If the enemy can see you and you are at a particular distance
from him, he might attempt some sort of ranged attack. This means shooting
an arrow for Archers, charging you for Pikemen, and rushing you for Knights.
o Close Range: If you're very, very close once the enemy has locked on, he'll
probably pull of an extreme-close combat move. (An example would be a
Soldier's punch.) Some enemies will follow that up with a move that would
usually be a medium range move, like the Swordsman's slash.
o Medium Range: If you're outside of an enemy's close range and not far
enough for a long range attack, it's possible the enemy will launch this
move. Take a Swordsman, for instance. If you're at long range, he's got
nothing. If you're at close range, though, he'll punch you. (And maybe
follow it up with a slash.) But if you're at the 'sweet spot' distance in
front of him, he'll just carve you a new throat without any messing around.
o Defense: Some enemies have a defensive stance that will block your attacks.
(The Knight's shield, for instance.) Some have evasion skills when it comes
to certain attacks (like the Troll's ability to jump out of the way, the
Raptor's insane dodging, and the Turret's hiding mode), while others are
able to deflect things. (The Swordsman and you, for instance.) That's all
part of the Defensive state, although some enemies like to chain a
successful parry with a counterattack. (Raptors.)
Those are the generic states for the enemies. Now, obviously some have more
states and some don't even have all of those. And most enemies don't have all
three types of combat ranges. However, those states are the big ones you'll
be facing and you should keep them in mind while you read the Enemy section.
If there's additional information about a particular enemy's actions, then
I'll include it in the individual listing.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
ENEMY GUIDE
One of the big parts of this guide. In the following section you will find
descriptions, strategies, and miscellaneous bits of information on all of the
minions of Beyond Oasis. If you want to know about bosses, then you should
check out the Bosses section (which will be part of a future update.) For any
other enemy, you've come to the right place.
Something must be understood, though, before we begin, and that's on the
subject of enemy colors. As you progress through the game, the color schemes
on your foes will change. That's not just for variety! An enemy with a
'higher' color is going to be faster, more aggressive, take more hits, deal
more damage, be better at defense, and may possibly even have different moves!
And another thing - about those HP numbers for the enemies - you'll notice each
one will be a range, and that has to do with the colors. The 'lowest' color
type of an enemy might have health of 2, whereas the 'highest' color enemy of
the same type might have a health of 10. That's what the 2-10 means.
Also note that it takes fewer hits to kill an enemy as you gather hearts. Look
at the Hearts section and the beginning of the Knife Moves section for a more
complete explanation.
Archer:
Description: A soldier armed with a crossbow.
Health: 5-10
Attacks: A punch for close range, and several types of arrows for long range.
There are normal, fire, and atomic varieties of these archers.
Strategies: These guys can shoot a lot faster than you can, so it's possible
to get stuck in a never-ending stream of bolts that will send you to the big
island in the sky if you're not smart. Don't stay in line with these guys!
Either close the distance quickly and take them down or use bombs, as they
have no defense against those. A stronger bomb is better, of course, but
really you should just use the first strategy instead. Interestingly enough,
it's possible to position Archers so that, even though they're firing, no
arrows appear. First you need to get to the range that makes them fire
constantly (stay a touch to the side!), then just back up a bit until you can
just barely see them. At that point, you'll be able to see the animation for
firing going on, but no arrows will appear! And yes, there are defenses
against their arrows. You can jump over them, or you can pull out either a
knife or a sword and actually block them in midair! (Don't do that for an
atomic arrow, though, or you're going to find yourself in a world of hurt.)
There are other ways to stop arrows, by the way, although it's starting to
cross from the realm of usefulness in to trivia. You can use Efreet's moves
to burn up arrows mid-flight! (Again, though, watch out for the atomic
arrows.) Alternately, use Dytto's Water Ball to make arrows drop to the
ground. You can't really use Bow, although sometimes - if you're lucky - you
can get him to accidentally chomp one. And, on the subject of arrows, arrows
won't fly as far when Bow's Poison Pollen is in effect. Use that to your
advantage!
Bats:
Description: Black things that fly around. Come on, you know what bats are!
Health: 1-2
Attacks: They will fly around towards you, and if they touch you you'll get
bumped back and lose a little health.
Strategy: Use a standard Slash, a jump kick, or maybe even a Roll. Slash to
just knock you them of the air. They really shouldn't be a problem for you,
unless maybe there's a group of them and you're getting bumped so much you
can't fight. If a Bat is too close for comfort, just duck down until it
passes. Then you can stand up and take it out.
Slugs:
Description: Little armored beetles with long tongues.
Health: 5-8
Attacks: Shoots its tongue out at you, as well as propelling itself through
the air at you. It can also hit you as it's falling from the sky when it
first appears.
Strategy: They just love to curl up when you try to attack them, so start
off with a Slash. It will knock them over and you can do whatever you want
with them. Beware-they do have a long range attack: they curl up and hurl
themselves at you. Just because they look slow doesn't mean they can't hurt.
Bombers:
Description: Soldiers armed with bombs.
Health: 4-20
Attacks: Will punch, like all soldiers, as well as throw bombs. These
soldiers come in three varieties, corresponding with the three types of
bombs. Watch out for the hyper variety: those fuses are shorter than you
think.
Strategy: You can use them to take out their own forces, but in general you
want to kill them from long range. Alternately, close in fast and slaughter
them. Just watch out for a bomb at your feet.
Blob:
Description: Big orange things with blue tentacles.
Health: ???
Attacks: They float around and try to run into you.
Strategy: You can't use arrows on them, and bombs are no good once they get
small and fast. Use swords if you can, and watch your back! Don't let them
surround you!
Cave Rat:
Description: Little squeaking things.
Health: 10
Attacks: They take a crack at you with a bone every once and a while.
Strategy: Fire, my friend! Use your fire bow, bombs, and Omega Swords on
these guys to set them alight. They'll bounce around, setting everything
else on fire. (Including you. Watch out.) Many times they'll burn away,
leaving HP items.
Flame Essence:
Description: Strings of fire (blue or yellow) that wander around.
Health: 8-12
Attacks: Similar to Blobs, they just crash into you and set you on fire.
Strategy: If they're yellow, don't use fire! That means no Omega Sword, and
ditch Efreet, too! If you use a fire weapon on them, they'll regain all
their health. Now if you're fighting the blue variety, then just do whatever
you want. I recommend plain old Slashes and maybe a Spin Attack or two.
Don't get too close.
Gargoyle:
Description: A bat-like flying creature.
Health: 10-18
Attacks: They shoot homing fireballs and often swoop down on you.
Strategy: Get out a sword and just Vertical Jump Slash them until they die.
When they pause in midair, they're about to swoop, so get out of the way. If
you don't have a sword, just wait for them to dive and then damage them while
they're on the ground with whatever attack you wish. With a sword, though,
these things are pushovers.
Troll:
Description: Little hairy things with horns that make trilling noises.
Health: 8-10
Attacks: Horn stabs, and Turret-like projectiles.
Strategy: Fire will stun them for a few moments, allowing you to set up a
killer combo on them. Arrows usually don't work - they're great at dodging.
Use quick attacks to hit them before they jump away.
Pikeman:
Description: A Soldier armed with a spear.
Health: 10-20
Attacks: As usual, a punch, but also a running charge.
Strategy: Kill them from a distance if you can. You can't jump over or
crouch under their charges, no matter what the instruction manual says.
Don't let them charge if at all possible, but if they do you can use a Stab
to stop them. (Or sometimes a Jump Kick, but that's risky.)
Knight:
Description: Huge armored warriors with maces.
Health: 16-50
Attacks: A few different mace attacks, and then a devastating charge.
Strategy: These guys look nasty, but actually they're your best friend.
Coax them into charging at you through a whole group of enemies! Not only
that, but you can summon Shade from their armor, which is absolutely
wonderful. Keep that in mind when you need Shade and don't have any Calls
handy. Lastly, they're wonderful tackling dummies for trying out neat
combos, because they have high health and will take a bunch of damage before
they die. Use a Stab to stop their charges. Some have shields, which means
you'll have to either knock that out of the way or catch them off-guard.
Usually you can duck underneath their maces, too. At any rate, Knights are
just fun to kill.
Treasure Box Mimic:
Description: A treasure chest that shakes around every few seconds.
Health: 9
Attacks: Bites you if you touch it.
Strategy: Arrows, bombs, and swords. Or just knock the crap out of it with
your knife.
Ogre:
Description: A big, hulking thing with a bunch of hair and a tunic.
Health: 12-40
Attacks: It can backhand you, jump on top of you, or just pick you up and
squeeze you into jelly.
Strategy: Knock them down as fast as possible. Otherwise they'll smack you.
Attack as soon as you get into range. Otherwise they'll pick you up and
squish you. Don't linger at medium range. Otherwise they'll jump on you. A
nicely well rounded enemy, as you can see. =P A Chaotic is very nice to
watch on these guys. Use fire weapons if you wish, as you can get HP items
out of them like the Cave Rats. Otherwise I suggest well-timed combos.
Puddle:
Description: A circle of gelatinous fluid that hops along on the ground.
Health: 6-8
Attacks: Jumps into you, shoots glop at you from a distance
Strategy: They can hit you from pretty much anywhere on the screen with their
glop, so get used to dodging. Things like the Atomic Bow are great for crowd
clearance, but otherwise just use Kicks and Crouching Slashes. Remember that
you can summon Dytto from them.
Snakes:
Description: Come on, people. You should be able to tell what snakes are.
Health: 5-6
Attacks: In general it just bites at you, but once they get low on HP they
have a few different tactics. They swell up, and either 1) ram you,
exploding on contact or 2) sit there, swollen, until you cross their path.
Strategy: Same as puddles: kicks and crouching slashes, with an Atomic Bow
bolt when you can. Jump out of the way of their suicide charges.
Soldier:
Description: A...soldier. I don't know what else to say.
Health: 8-16
Attacks: Punches.
Strategy: Don't really care. It'll all work. Probably the weakest enemy in
the game, I would say.
Spirit Sapper:
Description: A bit of green fog in the middle of the room, until you summon a
Spirit. It'll come to life and then go after your Spirit.
Health: ???
Attacks: Once it's in range it will turn blue and begin to suck away SP.
Strategy: Vertical Sword Slashes are the best, but Jump Kicks and even
Slashes will work. Just try to keep a bit 'o
distance between your precious Spirit and this fiend.
Swordsman:
Description: Soldier armed with a longsword.
Health: 10-20
Attacks: A punch and a devastating slash.
Strategy: These are probably the most advanced enemies in the game. They can
reflect bombs and arrows right back at you, so you're only option is close
combat. Stay on the ground-they'll knock you out of the air if you jump.
Use Chaotic Sword Slashes if you can, powerful knife moves if you can't.
Turrets:
Description: Little columns that pop out of the floor with a glowing eye in
their center.
Health: 5-10
Attacks: Only one: a white projectile that will knock you around.
Strategy: Turrets are fascinating little enemies, with multiple variations.
There's the tracking kind that will turn to face you no matter where you go,
there's the limited one that can only shoot in one direction, and there's the
random one that just turns and shoots in a circle. They almost always come
in bunches and is a serious pain in the neck. You'll notice that they often
retreat into the ground. That's their defensive mode. If you try something
fancy like a Spin Attack or a Roll. Slash, they'll sink into the ground
before you can hit them. Smart little jerks, hmm? You have to take them
down, though. Bombs and arrows rock: just stand so they can't hit you and
then destroy them. If you do choose to get in close, though (and sometimes
you have to), then I would recommend Oasis Rage, Slashes, or Kicks. They
won't fire if you're damaging them, so if you can keep up quick attacks they
won't even get a shot off. Remember that you can jump over their shots.
Lastly - it's the cardinal rule of turret fighting - never let yourself get
into the center of a ring of turrets! That's bad, bad news.
Pincher:
Description: Long, brown things with claws that pop out of the ground.
Health: 16
Attacks: They grab onto you and suck life away for a long, long time.
Strategy: If they grab you, hit B as fast as you can and roll the D Pad
wildly. You might want to turn on Turbo for a quicker evasion. As for
actually fighting these things, first you need to memorize where they're
located. Then just tempt them out by crossing their path. If you're quick
you can get a hit on them without getting grabbed. Needless to say, the art
of Pincher slaying is a tad advanced. =/
Wizard:
Description: Cloaked people that appear out of nowhere.
Health: 5-8
Attacks: A variety. First they appear, and then they perform one of a few
different magical attacks. 1) An electric projectile. 2) A homing fireball.
3) A homing flame spurt. 4) A flame spurt right underneath you.
Strategy: Identify what attack they're using. (1) is easy to dodge. (2) and
(3) require you to keep moving, and (4) requires you to move around right as
he's using the magic. Ideally you want to hit them just as they pop up so
they don't use magic at all and simply disappear again. Repeat until dead.
Zombie:
Description: An undead creature in ragged clothing and with a shaggy haircut.
Health: 10-21
Attacks: They slash at you with both arms repeatedly until you die. Ouch.
Strategy: Fire! A single touch will send them to ashes. Otherwise, uh...
Avoid them? And if you can't avoid them, then try to use *big* attacks that
will kill them quickly. You want to take out all of their HP without
knocking them down. If they go to the floor with a bit of HP left, they'll
swim through the ground towards you, jumping up to strike you. In that
mode, they're a real pain in the neck and you'll want Spin Attacks and Roll.
Slashes to finish them off. But...yeah. Fire is good.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
SPIRIT GUIDE
One of the things that sets Beyond Oasis apart from many of the other Action
RPGs of the day was the (mostly) innovative Spirit system. Obviously you'll
*need* to know how to use them in order to beat the game: they're often used
for puzzles. However, one of the requirements for truly mastering and
enjoying the game is the ability to use Spirits in combat situations. It'll
take a deft thumb and quick fingers, but if you work at it long enough you can
actually take on huge groups of foes with only your Spirit. Believe me, there
is no experience that can fully compare with mercilessly slaughtering fifteen
minions with deft controls of Efreet. You ready? Read on, then, whether
you're wanting to become a Spirit Master or you just want the know-how you
need to get through the puzzles.
Before you go though: all techniques use up SP! SP will gradually decrease
even if the Spirit is idle, but techniques will sap the meter faster. You can
regain SP in a variey of ways, like items and special trinkets. You'll want
to keep it high, because the Spirits start to get sick if they get low on SP.
Their moves will be slower and less effective than when the SP count is high,
and if it gets to zero they'll disappear entirely.
Jewels will increase your maximum SP count by five each, as well as amping up
their respective Spirits. You can also summon Spirits from jewels by hitting
the gems with your Armlet Ball. Here's a reference table:
o Blue: Dytto.
o Red: Efreet.
o Black: Shade.
o Green: Bow.
There are 60 total (fifteen each), and you'll want to find them all!
Button Presses: All of the Spirits have the same sorts of button presses.
For simplicity's sake, the different types of controls are addressed here and
are merely referred to by name in the actual subsections.
o Press: Press the A button once, lightly.
o Tap: Press the A button twice, very quickly and equally lightly.
o Buildup: Hold the A button down until the eye at the top of the
blue Spirit Power bar starts flashing. Then let go.
o Automatic: A computer-controlled effect that you don't have to
worry about.
Now for the actual Spirits.
Dytto:
Description: Tiny, blonde, blue clothes, white wings. A pixie, duh.
Location: The Water Temple - your first destination.
Element: Water.
Summon Objects: Ponds, rivers, fountains, Puddle enemies, waterfalls, Blue
Jewels, steam, oceans, Vials.
Follow Method: Tracks you rather well, floats a bit above you and off to the
side. Will cut corners to chase you faster, but is generally slow moving
and can get left behind rather quickly.
Techniques: Water Ball - Press. An orb of water will float off *in the
direction you are moving or the direction you last moved!* In other words,
you aim with the D-Pad. This orb will extinguish fire, open water doors,
and can freeze anything it contacts. Meaning it is very useful! For the
puzzles you'll mostly need it for putting out fires, but it can still serve
a vital purpose in combat. Why? Well, you can use it to set up a
blistering combo of some sort on the harder enemies, or you can freeze bosses
so that you can get in some major damage. If you fancy yourself a veteran,
you could use it to stop bombs and arrows in midair. (Just keep in mind that
she is airborne, and therefore her Water Ball will not hit crawling or
crouching enemies. Also, you'll have to be great at timing if you're going
to knock stuff out of the air. Beyond Oasis is much more 3D than you jaded
modern gamers may realize, so just keep that in mind! =P The more jewels
you get, the longer it will freeze those baddies.
Healing - Tap. Probably the most important technique for any of the
Spirits. Dytto will release a shining halo of light that will chase you
down and restore some of your precious HP. This takes SP, so you can think
of it as a tradeoff. The more jewels you get, the more health will be
restored. Once you have enough jewels, a single dose will serve as a full
restorative!
Second Chance - Automatic. When you are dangerously low on health, Dytto
will heal you if she has SP. This does not mean that you don't have to worry
about health when you have her! Let me explain. If you get a big hit and
you go from 25 HP to dead in a split second, she's not going to help you!
Now, if you get lucky and go to, say, 2 HP, she'll Second Chance you. Better
to keep an eye on the health and do it yourself, but this just might save
your tail in rough encounter. Again, jewels will increase the amount of HP
you receive.
Waterspout - Buildup. Dytto will morph into a tornado of water and careen
across the screen, sending foes to the turf and causing damage. While she's
in this mode, you can't use any of her other moves, so just keep that in
mind. This move is more lethal in cramped areas where she can really
pinball and hit everyone. You can't control her, so in an open area you're
going to have to wait for her to hit the target. More jewels means more time
in Waterspout mode and more damage to enemies.
Water Shield - Buildup. King Pie gave me the heads up on this one. What you
do is start a Waterspout like normal: hold the button until the SP guage
flashes, then let go. But now you immediately press the (A) button again and
hold it down! Instead of roaming around and careening off things, Dytto will
circle you extremely quickly, essentially setting up a shield of water around
you. Pretty neat, no? Let go of (A) and she'll resume her normal bouncing
movement. This is far, far better in most situations than a standard
Waterspout. (Note: if you do this when standing too close to a wall, Dytto
won't be able to complete her revolution and will instead arc back and forth
in whatever free space is avaliable.) Jewels increase the time in Waterspout
mode and the damage dealt to enemies, just like the standard move.
Efreet:
Description: Big, yellow, flaming mane. You can't miss him.
Location: The Waterfall Temple - your second destination.
Element: Fire.
Summon Objects: Torches, open flames, lava, explosions, Flame Essences, Red
Jewels, Lamps.
Follow Method: Roams around the area you are in, generally homing in on
opponents. Will often zip to your side every few moments before going back
on patrol.
Techniques: Flame Breath - Press. Efreet will let loose with a sweeping
stream of flame in the direction you are moving. If you are stationary,
he'll simply do it in whatever direction he happens to be facing. This move
isn't entirely useful, but a savvy player can use it in a variety of ways
during combat. It can be used as a sort of barrier, since arrows and bombs
will be either burned up or set off on contact. The main problem is that it
takes several seconds, during which you're on your own, pretty much. But it
*does* have the potential of scoring a handful of successive hits on the
target. Still, you probably won't use this move much; it's quite hard to aim
properly. Jewels will increase the damage dealt by the fire.
Fiery Punch - Automatic. When Efreet happens across an enemy, he'll dish out
some pain in the form of a devastating blow. Needless to say, this makes
Efreet very handy to have around. He'll work without you having to
constantly control him, and the AI is smart enough to make him capable of
saving your tail at crucial points. His punch, like I said, is very
powerful. It can knock charging Knights and pikemen to the ground! Since
it uses minimal SP to have him running interference, I would suggest that you
have Efreet out when you can, especially in the later stages of the game when
SP is not really a problem. Jewels increase damage.
Fireball Dash - Tap. Efreet will curl up into a column of fire and fly in
the direction you were moving at the time. Anything in his way will take
damage. Great for making Efreet - who sometimes seems to forget his
priorities and go off on rabbit trails - stay on task. And if you need some
help, *fast*, this is the move of choice as well. Just jet him over to the
scene and start tearing up the place. This move will incinerate arrows and
set off bombs, as usual. Jewels amp up damage.
Melt Bomber - Buildup. How fast the puffs of fire go, how far they travel,
and how much damage they do is tied to your SP and Jewel count. If Efreet is
tired (low SP), the attack will be much less spectacular. At any rate, this
move is Efreet's best and is simply wonderful for clearing the house during
an intense melee. Requires a lot of SP, though, so don't use it willy-nilly.
It works best in confined areas with a bunch of enemies.
Shade:
Description: Thin, black, and big claws on his information screen. When he's
on the job, though, he looks like you.
Location: The Volcano.
Element: Life/Death.
Summon Objects: Ice, special reflective pillars, mirrors, Oynx Stones, Knight
enemies, your Mentor, the Sage on the Mountain, Black Jewels.
Follow Method: Sticks to you like glue, following a single frame behind
your current animation.
Techniques: Shadow Claw - Press. Shade will extend himself from you to grab
on to special stakes or campfires; will also break open boxes out of reach
and can be used to drag items to you. It *can* be used for combat, I
suppose - if you're in a smarty pants mood. Jewels increase the damage it
doles out, but even at maximum strength the effect is pitiful. Not worth it,
as far as combat goes. Necessary for solving puzzles, though, and for
getting to secret places.
Doppelganger - Buildup. When you let go, Shade will take over your body
(you'll be sitting in a meditative position on the ground) and you will be
able to patrol the area you are in with your spirit form. You can take no
damage in this mode, but there are serious drawbacks. You cannot leave the
screen, jump, crouch, run, or attack in any way. So basically this is for</pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
puzzles and minor exploring only. (When you are in this mode, invisible
Warp Cracks will become visible, which is pretty neat.) Jewels do not effect
this technique directly, although more SP will allow you to stay in spirit
form longer.
Bodyguard - Automatic. When you are damaged, Shade will take the damage for
you. It will tax the SP meter with every hit, though, so you're essentially
trading SP for HP just like Dytto's healing technique. There are some
advantages, however: mainly that you won't get knocked around and can
therefore concentrate on combat, whereas with Dytto all you can do is take
the hits, get thrown around, and then heal up. This makes Shade a real time
saver for bosses. Be aware, though, that if you take too much damage too
fast or too much in a single hit, Shade can't compensate fast enough and
you'll get knocked down anyway.
Un-Fall - Automatic. If you fall down a pit, Shade will grab you and take
you back to the last point on on solid ground that you touched. It'll cost
SP, but it's better than taking the HP damage. Just remember that midair
platforms don't count as solid ground, so if you fall off in the middle of a
jumping puzzle you'll have to go back to the beginning. =/
Bow:
Description: A plant with teeth. Scary.
Location: Forest Shrine.
Element: Plants.
Summon Objects: Lettuce, small Venus Flytraps in the ground, or Seedlings.
Follow Method: Appears at the location of whatever he was summoned from, and
will appear at your initial location every new screen. You have to make him
burrow towards you if you want him to stay closer.
Techniques: Burrow - Tap. Bow will dig into the ground and pop up at your
feet, ready to do thy bidding. Jewels have no effect on this.
Bite - Automatic. If anything...edible...comes near or if Bow surfaces next
to such a thing, he'll give it a half-hearted nip or two. Jewels increase
damage.
Chomp - Press. Bow will zip out and start gnawing on anything he can sink
his teeth into, whether it be doors or enemies. You can't use this to take
out arrows or bombs, unfortunately, although Bow will accidentally stop
projectiles if they hit him while in chomping mode. Jewels will amp up both
damage and Bow's aggression.
Poison Pollen - Buildup. This move is really only mildly useful in a
tactical sort of way. It's an interesting concept, but there's not really
any use in using it. It can help if there are Pikemen and other fast foes
zipping about and you want to take a crack at them, but you slow down as well
and so your advantage is limited. When in slo-mo, arrows will not travel as
far, so it could be argued that this could cut down the effectiveness of
enemy archers. But do you really want to bother with it?
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
BOSS GUIDE
Beyond Oasis has lots of big, stompy bosses that can deal out some serious
damage. They're also pretty hard to defeat on your first time through, so
let's take a moment and look at each of the more important enemies you'll face
along your journey.
Aqua Crab:
Description: Huge, purple, spider-ish, yellow claws.
Health: Claw - 20, Body - 48
Attacks: Will spit semi-homing bubbles that you can jump over or slash away.
Once its lost its claw, the thing might let loose with a barrage of smaller,
non-homing bubbles that can bump you around. It can also pick you up with
its claw and throw you against the walls (ouch!) or just jump on you.
Strategy: I recommend dispatching the claw as quickly as you can, or otherwise
you're going to keep on getting close-up looks at the wall. Multiple Rolling
Slashes are your friend here, no matter what form the boss is in. Pick
either the face or the claw and go for it, tying together the three quick
flips with a bigger Roll. Slash. If the freak jumps into the air then stop
attacking and get out of the way (watch the shadow to see where he is). Run
to the top of the screen if you can - you don't want to get trapped near the
bottom. Once he lands, he'll probably sidestep a bit before jumping back up
to your position further north. Run down the screen to get away, then start
smashing him when he lands. If you have a sword, use it. Homing bubbles
will get knocked away by the Roll. Slashes, but if one is coming at you when
you're standing, then Spin Attack it away. Most of all, don't let yourself
get thrown! Rolling Slash if you see it coming at you. Throws are the
biggest dangers, and that's why I suggest you get rid of the claw first.
Now, assuming you do that, he'll start blowing masses of bubbles. You can
either wade in again, or you can be a smartypants and pull out a bow. Your
range is more than his bubbles, so... Just remember to get the heck out of
Dodge if he jumps. Don't sweat it if you get hit a bunch - just talk to
your mentor in the village to get full health again. Enough damage and
he'll blow up into multiple pieces. Congrats! (Note: if you have a sword,
use it! Chaotics aren't as safe as Rolling Slashes, but they cause more
damage!)
Flame Skull:
Description: A black skull with horns and claws.
Health: 80
Attacks: He spouts Flame Essences (up to three onscreen at a time), and will
also swipe at you with his claws.
Strategy: A progressively difficult fight. Get Dytto out as soon as possible
and when the skull comes up, go into either multi Roll. Slashes or a single
Chaotic. The point is that you want to get a bit of damage in very quickly
*before* he launches flame. Once you've done a set of Roll. Slashes or a
Chaotic, use Dytto to freeze him! Then lay in as much damage until he starts
shaking. He'll come unfrozen soon afterwards and launch fire. You want to
get out of the area when he shoots the flames. After he submerges, *quickly*
hack up the flame so the screen is clear. At some point the claws will come
out of the water and things will get tougher. If you haven't been cleaning
house every time he releases an Essence, then it'll be that much more
difficult. At any rate, your strategy stays the same, except now you have to
worry about the claws. Jump over them or hit them to stop their charge. Try
to get damage in on the Skull when you can, and don't forget to use Dytto
whenever possible to both freeze him and heal you. This is a tough fight for
novices, but hang in there and he'll go down.
Rock Golem:
Description: A stone with a sour expression and big fists.
Health: 55
Attacks: Brings down parts of the roof on you, can smash you with its fists,
will jump-smash you like the Aqua Crab, and can go into pinball mode and
smash you around.
Strategy: You have to fight him several times over the course of the game, and
he's always a pain. I'll discuss several approaches, since each time you
face the Golem you'll have more advanced equipment. No matter when you
engage him, he's tough enough that you'll want some backup in the form of a
Spirit. Shade, Efreet, and Dytto are all good choices. Bow is not a good
idea. If you have Shade, the tactic will be quite brutal: get in his face
and inflict as much damage as possible. Let Shade absorb as much as he can.
If you select Efreet, then you'll have to fight like a man while Efreet gets
in some hits when he can. If Dytto is your pick, then use her to freeze him
when possible and heal yourself, of course. Now for the actual combat tips.
When he goes into pinball mode, hit him out of it as fast as you can. If he
hits you, you're going to be hurting bigtime. Efreet's Melt Bomber and
Dytto's Waterspout work well for their coverage; jump slashes with a sword
will suffice if you're on your own. When he jumps, you have to watch out for
two things: the Golem himself, much like the Aqua Crab, and the piles of rock
that come down where your standing. If you're moving, then you'll be okay.
Once the rocks are gone, take the moment to tear into him with 'every fiber
of your being', to quote Rurouni Kenshin. Watch out for that mean fist,
though. If you're jumping, it can't hit you. As usual, Roll. Slashes and
Chaotics are the attack of choice. If you're feeling a bit less daring, try
throwing bombs or using bows from a distance: hey, nothing ventured, nothing
gained. Just keep in mind that only Hyper Bombs are really going to give you
the radius you need and that by the time you're far enough away to make these
weapons practical, the Golem will probably be airborne. In summary, keep on
the move, watch his shadow when he jumps, don't let yourself get smashed by
that fist, and get damage in whenever possible. It'll be tough and will
probably put a strain on your supplies, but with skill and wariness the
Golem's arm will fall off and he'll disentegrate.
Turtle Dragon:
Description: You'll know when you see it. =)
Health: 26
Attacks: Shoots rocks at you, reaches out and bites with another mouth (very
Alien-esque), and tries to suck you into its mouth.
Strategy: Keep running to the right, and don't stop the entire time he's
spewing rocks or trying to vacuum you. You can move up and down the screen
when running in order to dodge the stray rock or two that will reach you. At
some point he'll send out the mini-mouth. Now's your chance, so hack it.
You should get two hits in. Use your most powerful weapon. You don't want
to get trapped against the far left side of the corridor, so try to dispatch
this guy as quickly as possible. If you get trapped, it's much harder to
dodge the rocks. It only takes four or five hits with a strong sword to send
the Turtle Dragon packing.
Old Dragon:
Description: Big, red dragon with blue hair and horns.
Health: 85
Attacks: Rams with its nose, blasts off three-way fireballs, and lets loose
with a fearsome stream of constant flame.
Strategy: There are two ways to approach this boss. If you want a challenge,
then the first approach is for you. Be warned: this is a tough, tough boss.
Her attacks are fast, unpredictable, and extremely difficult to dodge.
Expect to receive damage, but hey: you're almost back to better pastures
where you can regain your strength. The only way to damage her is to slash
her face when it's in reach. Use a sword here - bombs and bows are useless
and speed is of the essence. The longer you fight, the more health you'll
lose. If she rams, attack. If she shoots a three-way, slash one to gain
space or simply thread inbetween them. If she starts flaming, run across
the screen away from her. Sounds simple enough, but try it all together.
Very hard. I don't have much advice to give you. Sorry, but this is really
going to come down to your individual skill and how many HP items you have.
(Note: she's a dragon and very in tune with fire, so Efreet is ineffective
against her.) However, if you want to just git 'er done and get on with the
game, I offer this alternate strategy. (Courtesy of Du.) Get out Dytto
before you enter the boss room - you'll have to use a call, but it's worth
it. Then simply get her to ram you and use Dytto's freeze ball to stop her
in her tracks. Now, instead of just trying to get some attacks in before the
spell breaks, go for the gusto by positioning yourself *between* her head and
the edge of the cliff. (You'll be standing underneath her neck.) Now just
use vertical slashes with your sword as fast as you can. She'll keep
cringing and will be unable to escape, even once the spell wears off. In a
short time she'll be toast.
Vernal Wizard:
Description: Little guy on a crystal orb.
Health: 40
Attacks: He releases a spiral pattern of electrical charges, but other than
that he can't damage you. The problem is his big green brain/spore
thing that follows you and bumps you around. The spore sac can't get
you if you're crouching, and the charges can only get you if you're on
the platforms.
Strategy: If you have a bow (should be an Atomic Bow by now), then this is the
easiest boss fight in the game. Position yourself just right on the edge
catwalks that go around the perimeter of the room and let fly! Just a
handful of hits and it's over! Now, if you're in smartypants mode again or
if you don't have a bow, then you'll have to cautiously approach the wizard
and slash at him when you get the chance. It isn't as simple as it sounds.
Why? Because, like I said, you have to crouch in order to avoid getting
knocked off the platform by the sporeball. You have to time your jumps so
you won't get hit when you stand up to move ahead, but that's not the worst
problem. The big ouchie is that when the charges hit you, you'll stand up.
Often that means you'll stand right into the spore sac and you can kiss some
SP goodbye. (HP if you don't have Shade out, although I assume you figured
out that having him is a great idea.) It'll take some doing, but eventually
you'll get up close and can send some crouching slashes his way. Since you
need to kill him as fast as possible, use your most powerful sword. Having a
bow is so, so, so much easier, though. Try to save one, eh?
Non-Entity:
Description: Huge set of three eyes.
Health: 80
Attacks: Sends fireballs raining down on you, tries to draw you into a vortex,
and shoots a hyperbeam at you with its third eye.
Strategy: A tough fight, especially if you didn't obtain the Infinite Omega
Sword, for whatever reason. The idea is you shoot the third eye with your
Armlet Ball so that it opens, and then slash it with (preferably) a
super-powerful sword. Repeat until defeated. The problem here is that
the Non-Entity isn't partial to death and therefore will attempt to keep you
from doing him in. (See Attacks.) Keep moving to avoid the fireballs, run
north whenever the vacuum opens, and step away when the third eye glazes
over - he's about to fire. All the while you need to be focused on
inflicting damage. Forget about saving weapons, just hack him as fast as
possible with your best sword. Hopefully you'll kill him before you get hurt
too much. I realize that I haven't given you much assistance here, but this
is another fight that's just based too much on twitch reflexes to really lend
itself to a detailed tip guide.
Silver Armlet:
Description: Duh. Haven't you been paying attention?
Health: 48
Attacks: Mostly he summons enemies to attack you, but he can also fry the area
and slash at you with a mean blade. He also has a nifty move in which he
hurls a dagger-and-chain weapon at you from medium range. Watch out!
Strategy: The easy way? Get Shade from the ice pillar outside the wind room.
Then dispatch the intial set of enemies that he summons. After that, stand
right next to him and just start slashing. (This works best if you quickly
corner him in the doorway where he can't sidle away.) Most of the time
he'll dodge, and sometimes he'll even attack you. This won't matter, though,
because Shade will absorb it and you won't get knocked over! Whenever Silver
Armlet attempts to blast the room or summon a monster, you'll be right there
with (preferably) your sword. If he seems to be perpetually dodging, just
pause your attack for the briefest of moments so he'll try to summon a foe.
Then nail him. This method won't require much time before the Man in Black
is history. The other way is to try to kill the enemies and get up close to
him and get in some damage when you can. This is the hard way, though, and
you are only forced to do this when you're trying to use a different Spirit.
Shade is great for the next battle, though, so you shouldn't use another
one, anyway.
Agito:
Description: Hehe...I don't think I'll spoil this one.
Health: 120
Attacks: Lets rip with an even worse stream of fire than the Old Dragon,
summons puddly versions of itself that follow you and try to blow up
at your feet, and zips off electrical puffs with its tentacles.
Strategy: You're trying to separate the head from his massive body. You can
only score damage against the neck when it's extended, and it's only extended
when there *are no tentacles active!* You have to kill the tentacles before
Agito will extend his neck and you can score some damage. (Use Rolling
Slashes, as usual, if you don't have a Sword. If you do, then use Jump
Slashes.) The tentacles regenerate quickly, so you have to keep running from
left to right to dispatch them so you can deal damage to Agito himself.
You'll know there's a tentacle up when your attacks start pinging off Agito
with the same sound effect you get when you hit a Knight's shield. The
tentacles shoot electric charges, but you can easily avoid them. The only
real problem are the puddly things that crawl after you and explode. Keep
moving and you should be relatively fine - they turn into items, anyway, so
they can actually help you! With an Omega Sword this fight should be pretty
anticlimactic. (Note: you should still have shade from the fight with
Silver Armlet, but if you don't, then use a Call or something. You *need*
him here to prevent being knocked flat constantly by all the crap flying
around the arena.) The biggest threat is his flame breath. When you see him
pull a face and wind up, GET OUTTA THERE!!! If you're trying for the Quest
of the Proud, this attack will take off half of your HP!!! You can die in a
mere second if you're on the wrong side of his neck when he lets loose with
this. Luckily he only does it near the latter part the of the battle.
Otherwise this fight would be a whole lot harder. Enough damage and you'll
decapitate him. Kudos to you! Now sit back and enjoy the ending sequence.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Instead of a walkthrough, I've just gone through the game mentally (heaven
knows I've played it enough) and formed up a Q&A section that covers all the
big sticky parts of the game. Here it is:
->"All right. So I hopped out of the boat...what should I do first?"
- You're perfectly safe on the beach there, so I recommend you start out by
experimenting with the Knife attacks I list in a previous section. The
fighting starts soon and will be a main feature of the game, so you might
as well at least get comfortable with the keystrokes now before you have a
horde of enemies in your face and after your guts. In particular you should
get the knack of the Spin Attack and the Running Slash. When you think
you're ready, head north to the next screen.
-> "Help! There are a bunch of enemies in the village and they're killing me!"
- Health doesn't matter right now - just get through the fight and there will
be a full health refill shortly. Also, all you really need to do is slay
the big Ogre. The rest are just minor henchmen and will die when their
commander does. Refer to the Enemy Guide if you're still having trouble.
-> "So I talked to my Mentor. Where to?"
- You're heading to the castle, several screens to the left. Use the map.
The flashing yellow pillar is where you want to go.
-> "What can I do in this Castle? Anything interesting?"
- Talk to the King and Princess. (Upon entering the castle, take the left
doorway to the Treasury. There you'll find a Bow, Sword, Orange, and Fish.
Take them all.)
-> "I can't get past the room with all the Puddle enemies! The door's locked."
- Kill the pink one in the upper left corner of the room. He'll surrender a
key.
-> "Anything else to do here?"
- You'll want to snag the Sword and Elixir in the screen with the Ogre. Crawl
along the two streams flowing through the room and enter two hidden rooms
through low archways. You'll find a 50 use Sword and an Elixir.
-> "Any secrets in this Waterfall Shrine?"
- Look for a wall where the dirt has fallen away and some grey brickwork is
exposed. It's in the second screen on the far north wall, and inside is a
100 Bow.
-> "Anything else I should know about?"
- You'll notice there are two bridges near the castle. Go under each and use
the proper Spirit to solve the puzzle and get a jewel.
-> "Where is this Efreet Racing Track thing I've heard about?"
- After you have Efreet melt the ice column and you enter the muddy pond area,
go up and to the right, staying on your current left and not mounting any
stairs. You'll see another exposed wall that can be broken open. Inside is
the racetrack.
-> "Those switches on the boat - what gives?"
- Flip the top one only.
-> "Anything else?"
- Search the area the enemies poured out of until you find a hidden Dytto
Call. You'll have to do it blind, of course, but you should be able to find
it quickly enough. I actually just discovered this in GetSmart's
Walkthrough. I guess you learn something new every day... Thanks, GetSmart!
-> "I'm in the Beach Cave: more switches!"
- Press them so they face these directions, going from left to right: left,
right, right. A hidden door will open.
-> "Uh...I'm stuck in the second screen here."
- Use a bomb to press the switch, then pick up the Roast that falls from the
sky. Then kill the Knight, etcetera, to give yourself some breathing room.
Now you need to *quickly* run over the switch and leap up the stairs before
the steam comes back.
-> "What's with the lone campfire?"
- Light it with a fire weapon, then make waste. Once you kill them all, a
new box will fall down.
-> "I'm in the room with the switches and all the zombies. Those boulders just
keep coming, and I don't know what to do!"
- First flip the switch to stop the boulders. Now, if someone hits the green
panel, the boulders will resume their fall. You have to either be fast and
get through before a zombie trips the switch (unlikely), or kill *all* the
zombies so they can't cause trouble. This is especially easy if you have
the Infinte Fire Bow.
-> "I've gotten to the Wall Fortress, but I can't get past the first screen
with the wind and flames. What do I need to do?"
- Kill the first wave of enemies. The wind makes it hard, but try to kill the
last one when you're pretty close to the flames. The spouts will stop and
you can *quickly* run through the gap before the Knights arrive.
-> "In the Wall Fortress; two Ogres, two switches, and a teleporter behind
a gate. Help!"
- Ignore them if you've got a Hyper or Power Bomb, otherwise kill the one on
the right. Get the bombs, then stand so you can throw a bomb on one and hop
on the other so both are down simultaneously. You'll have to do this
several times over the course of the game, so get used to it.
-> "Got the Key of Time and Space, but I don't know how to use it!"
Shoot the crack with your Armlet. Might take a bit of aiming, though.
-> "So now I've beaten the Turtle Dragon, but I'm lost."
After you obtain the Key of Time and Space and exit the Wall Fortress, head
south to find a warp crack-it's centered horizontally on the screen, pretty
much. Enter to go to the far left side of the screen.
-> "Got to an area with some enemies and a Flame Essence. Help!"
- Kill everything. The spikes will open up for you. Go *right* and ride the
teleporter to get a key, then head left again.
-> "I Beat the Old Dragon, but now the place is falling down around me and I
don't know where to go. Directions?"
- Exit the Boss room, then go south. Use Shade's Spirit Claw to grab the
posts. When you end up back at the first room with the lava lake (that
used to have a Wizard sitting on it), enter the door dead ahead of you. In
the next area, do you remember that stake you saw off to the left past the
decayed bridge? That's where you're going. Use Shade's Spirit Claw to
grab onto it and pull yourself across.
-> "Where are the Secret Crags?"
- Find the Black Jewel towards the bottom of the screen. Jump down to it, pick
it up, then jump south again, offscreen.
-> "Yeah, yeah, so the Sage on the Mountain gave me the thingy and everything.
I'm back at the Beach but now I don't really know what to do next."
- Go South and then East, luring the Fish onto dry land to get some HP items
back. Kill all in your path, then go up the stairs. At this point go back
West and a bit North to find a treasure chest behind a fence. Get Shade
from one of the Knights and retrieve it. Now you'll probably want to enter
the Secret Islands and grab the Infinite Atomic Bow. The Warp Crack is a
bit hard to find: it's in the middle of a peninsula to the right and a touch
down from the treasure chest. There will probably be a Knight stomping
around the area. If you can't find it, use Doppelganger mode to make it
appear.
-> "So how do I get into the Castle?"
- Check out the house in the dock. (It's south from the Castle.)
-> "Where's the 100 Level Pit?"
- On the way to the Forest Shrine (assuming you don't use the Warp Crack near
the Shade Crystal to get a Black Jewel), you'll go left past a bunch of
Zombies, then have to switchback. Right before you go back to the right,
there'll be a big tree standing by itself, off away from the rest of the
woods. Try to walk into its branches - the leaves are hiding the entrance.
-> "I've been wandering around the Forest Shrine for ages and nothing seems to
work! AAAAAAARGH!"
- Calm down and start lighting all the torches and campfires. This is where
that Infinite Omega Sword will come in very handy.
-> "I'm out of the Forest Shrine, with Bow in tow. Should I go back to the
Castle now?"
- (Yeah, I know nobody would ask this. But there's an important answer and
I'm writing the questions.) No. First go back to the Beach (as in the very
first screen in the game) and pick up the Bow jewel. Now go past the screen
with the muddy pond and the Efreet Racing Track and back into that temple
area. Remember that little Venus Flytrap that you couldn't use? Well, get
Bow from it and use him to eat up the grill in the next screen. Fight the
hordes to retrieve and big sack 'o jewels. Only do all this if you're after
jewels and don't care about time, obviously.
-> "The King kicked off. Now what?"
- Exit the Castle to the right. Go up towards the crashing noise to find a
stairway.
-> "So where is this Waterfall mini-game?"
- On your way up to the Non-Entity Shrine and the trade with Silver Armlet,
you'll find a split in the path. Take a right and go to the next screen.
Look familiar? Yep, it's the Mountain Castle. Go back to the ponds between
the exit of the Beach Cave and the Mountain Castle and you'll see a Shade
stake. There you go.
-> "I'm in a room with four switches and the various elements. ???"
- Come on! You could figure this out on your own, if you really tried. Each
switch corresponds to a Spirit; hit the switches in the order you got the
Spirit. (Dytto, Efreet, Shade, Bow.)
-> "Um... I'm in the Shadowlands, but it seems to be a bit of a dead end."
- This is complicated. First you need to kill all the enemies (Puddles and
Gargoyles) in the screen with the spikes. You'll get a key, eventually.
Now find the switch and flip it to the right, head up the stairs, use a
bomb to press the plate beyond the guardrail, go back down the stairs,
flip the switch back, and summon Shade. Go through the door on the left,
then enter the yellow door. Use the Spirit Claw to get across and press
the plate. Go back through and you'll find that the water has drained
away, revealing yet another plate. Step on it and climb the stairs to the
north to grab another key. Finally, go back through the yellow door and
use the stake again. Dismiss Shade and forge onward!
-> "All these switches in Agito's Castle...HELP!!!"
- In the grand entrance, have the two switches on the left side of the screen
facing the left and the one on the right facing the right. You can't get
to the other right one yet - that'll come later.
-> "I'm in a room with fire-breathing wall fixtures and two cannonballs."
- This is the legendary "Shade Room" puzzle that had people losing all hope
and becoming permanent grill fixtures on the nearest SUV back in '94. If
you have Shade, just use Doppelganger to find a Warp Crack in front of you.
If you don't have him, push the cannonballs on the plates to get a Shade
Crystal.
That should help you at least get through the game. Granted, this won't walk
you through all the secrets or get you all the Spirit Jewels, but I think I
covered most of the problem areas. If you need more help, I suggest you
look at a FAQ/Walkthrough, particularly GetSmart's and Flip's. And if you
want complete lists of Jewel locations and you don't want to wait for a
future edition of this guide, go check out GetSmart's document. He has
detailed descriptions of all seventy. For Warp Cracks, I suggest the
appropriate section of the RPG Classics shrine. (See Links.) The pictures are
a great help.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
SPECIAL ITEMS
There are four special items you get over the course of the game that affect
the way you regain HP and SP. Don't worry about missing them-they're all
built into the storyline so you have to get them. At any rate, here they are.
(see SP Regeneration for more stuff about getting back your points.)
o Sunburst Pendant: This gives Ali the ability to get back HP when standing
still in the sunlight. You got that right - standing still. Don't move at
all.
o Key of Time and Space: An attachment for the Armlet that allows you to use
the Warp Doors.
o Psychoring: Use this to regain SP whenever you don't have any Spirits
active.
o Sun's Charm: Build both HP and SP quickly when in the sunlight.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
GAME CREDITS
Here are the wonderfully talented people responsible for Beyond Oasis! You may
recognize several of them from such games as Actraiser (SNES) and Streets of
Rage 2 (Genesis/MegaDrive) - Ancient has its people in lots of games. Tony
Van's website is listed in the link section; you should check that out. You
can also find Ancient's website there, too, but it's in Japanese. =/
Sega of America
Producer Tony Van
Localized Text Tony Van
Product Manager Jaime Wojick
Ancient
Art Direction Ayano Koshiro
Character Design Ayano Koshiro
Main Program Yukio Takashi
System Design Yukio Takashi
Monster Program Hideki Koyama, Akitoshi Kawano
Event Program Hideki Koyama
Sound Program Hideki Koyama
Visual Program Akitoshi Kawano
Game Design Kataru Uchimura
Main Planning Kataru Uchimura
Map Design Tetsuya Kawabata
Event Design Tetsuya Kawabata
Object Art Hitoshi Ariga
Object Illustration Hitoshi Ariga
Background Art Hiroki Tatemukai, Hajime Chikami
Producer Yuzo Koshiro
Music Composer Yuzo Koshiro
Story Writer Juri Ogawa
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
DEBUG MODE
Now don't go freaking out on me here. I have no Debug Mode cheat code for you.
The purpose of this section is to alert ROM snoopers and other such technically
qualified people to the possibility of a debug mode in Beyond Oasis. Why do I
think there's one? If you watch the demos, you'll notice that the demo player
is toting an obviously artificial item and weapon selection. There are no
250 Hyper Bombs, for instance, unless there's some awesome secret area I don't
know about. Also, it's just too tidy that in the one demo he has one of each
type of Spirit Call. (For that matter, it's too tidy that he has 250 count of
four different types of weapons that early on.) So I think it's possible that
there is some sort of hidden debug mode that allows you to select inventory,
starting level, etcetera. (Legends of Oasis has it, so there's a bit more
evidence for the presence of one in Beyond Oasis.) If you know whether or not
one exists or how to unlock it, please contact me for a big credit.
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
LINKS
Here are various Beyond Oasis related links that I think might be useful to
you. You have to take what you read with a grain of salt, as in some cases it
seems as if these people haven't played the game much when it comes to
strategies, etcetera. Still, there's useful information to be had here.
It took a lot of searching on Google to find some of these things, so you'd
better appreciate them! The content of these sites is the property of their
respective owners.
Once again, please email me any cool links about Beyond Oasis you know of and
I'll put them up, along with a thanks to you for finding it.
o Ancient's Official Website: It's in Japanese, but you can use Altavista's
Babelfish or something to get the gist of it. Those with knowledge of
Japanese, I envy you.
http://www.ancient.co.jp
o Spanish Language Fansite: Possibly the only fansite for this game, and it
has some truly wonderful content, too. There are what appear to be
promotional trading-card style mini-guides to the game (all in Spanish,
unfortunately) that have never-before-seen character art, as well as some
great wallpapers custom made by the administrator of the site! (He drew
over the screenshots in some to get better resolution - pretty nifty.) You
must check this out, end of discussion. How this one escaped my Google
searches for so long I have no idea. Enjoy! (Try using Babelfish if you
need some help with navigation.)
http://es.geocities.com/riou_healer/beyondoasis.htm
o GameFAQs: The main page for Beyond Oasis on this site. You can find
cheats, walkthroughs, and a forum here. Go check it out, and say hello!
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/data/586061.html
o RPG Classics: Absolutely great if you want visual help instead of just a
text walkthrough. This one's maintained by Dragon God and was originally
created by Orakio, so give them both a hand! Not everything on here is
quite accurate as far as strategies go, but the pictures are worth it.
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/beyondoasis
o The Colonel's ASCII Maps: This site is old, practically from 'back in the
day', and therefore you have to look at it. =) And there's more than just
maps here, there's a veritable walkthrough/FAQ! Special thanks to Col. G.
L. Sicherman for making this site.
http://www.monmouth.com/~colonel/videogames/beyondoasis.html
o GameLegacies: Formerly Gameamazon, this is the brainchild of Paulos. Once
again, there are some errors here, but overall it's a neat place to look at,
if only to say you've seen all of the Beyond Oasis sites. I don't agree
with everything this guy says, but I respect him for the work he's put
into his site. That said, here's the link to the Beyond Oasis section of
his site.
http://www.gamelegacies.com/beyondoasis.html
o Tony Van: This is the man who did the US conversion of Beyond Oasis. There
isn't much about it on his site, but you can find what information there is
(and there are a few intriguing blurbs) at the following URL.
http://www.goodspear.com
o Wikipedia: A very short blurb on the game, but it's useful if you don't
know what the heck Beyond Oasis is! =P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Oasis
o Sega-16: Your Home for Everything Genesis: This site has become the premier
place for the Genesis gamer. There are reviews, of course, but also scanned
print ads, television clips, dozens of links, and articles with tons of
information that you just can't find anywhere else. Not only that, but the
site has a forum with a fraction of the idiots you'll find on GameFAQs!
Melf (the driving force behind it all) deserves as much credit as he
can get. I'm also a staff writer there - Genesis Knight on the boards.
Drop by and say hello!
http://www.sega-16.com
o Genesis Collective: The place was hacked in 2002 and died soon after. It
hasn't been updated in ages, but all the old information is still there.
Download the Genesis Collective Offline file *now*, while it's still
avaliable! A great place if you want to look at scans and screenshots.
http://www.genesiscollective.com
o Genesis Project: Neat place with manual scans and "The Big Book of Game
Genie Codes". Used to be dead, but now it's alive again!
http://www.genesisproject.com
o 100 Level Pit Walkthrough: Contributor Du will guide you through that
treacherous Mini Game with both strategies and visuals. Pictures are worth
a thousand words, or so they say, and you can't get a better teacher than
Du. He's mastered Oasis combat and might just be your best bet for making
it through alive.
http://www.freewebs.com/beyondoasis
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
FURTHER GAMING
Following are some titles that you might want to look into if you really like
Beyond Oasis. It's hard to really find any games really like it, as it has
such a wonderful level of depth. (Not to mention a signature fighting system
rarely seen back in the day.) Do you know of a game that we wanderers of
Oasis would like? You know what to do-send me an email to get it put up here
along with some credit for you!
Legends of Oasis: This is the prequel to Beyond Oasis. It's available for
the Saturn, and I'm told it's not very hard to come by. It's even more
interactive and in-depth than Beyond Oasis is, so that's a good thing. The
main problem, from what I've heard, is that it's often difficult to find out
what the heck you're supposed to do next. There are more Spirits, different
items, and just a bunch of new things overall, though, so it's probably worth
checking out. The only reason I don't have it is because of how insane the
whole Saturn market is, and I don't like emulation.
Another thing you might consider before you buy is that there really is no
active fanbase for this game. There's a few walkthroughs here and there, but
nothing in-depth. (Like this guide! =D) You're going to be entering
largely uncharted territory, and the odds are that you won't be able to find
answers to many of your questions.
Crusader of Centy: The only other good, top-down action RPG for the Genesis,
really. It's a great game, but it's got one of those one-move combat
'systems', so...uh...it's not really like Beyond Oasis at all. Nevertheless,
it's a wonderful title that-although a bit short-is worth the price of
admission. (Provided that price isn't too much. It's somewhat rare. I
spent $10 on my copy, but then again I traded in some other Genesis games for
store credit. You'll probably have to cough up $20 - $30 dollars for it.)
Go find a copy if you like classic action RPG games.
Landstalker - The Treasures of King Nole: Odds are - if you're active in the
Genesis community - that you've heard of this game. It's got an isometric
view, so it feels quite different from Oasis. And yet again there's that
one-move fighting thing. (I'm starting to appreciate just how awesome the
fighting was in Oasis.) That said, though, it's a jaw-dropping game. Great
story, challenging gameplay, and quite a few secrets. It's also only a
little bit more expensive than Oasis is, so you probably can find a copy
rather easily.
Light Crusader: The only other Genesis game to rival Beyond Oasis in terms of
graphical prowess and attention to detail. It's a bit longer than Oasis, and
has tons of dungeons, but therein lies its greatest drawback. Everything is
underground - no overworlding to speak of. And considering that the emphasis
on outdoor environments is one of the things I like best about Oasis, I don't
think that Light Crusader can really compete. But it does have a great magic
system and awesome graphics. Not only that, but it's probably the cheapest
of all the games listed in this section - I got mine for $5 US, but I see it
all over the place for even less. Beware, though, about the game save! I've
heard from a reputable source that the carts were shipped with low quality
batteries, so you should try to buy it from a place that you can return it to
in case something goes wrong.
Like I said, there just aren't very many games on par with good 'ol Beyond
Oasis. We really do have a great game, don't we? Savor it, and hope for a
third game in the series by Ancient and Yuzo Koshiro!
o==============================================================================o
o==============================================================================o
CONTACT ME
I'm providing my email so that you can contact me for the following reasons:
o to submit something to the guide.
o to provide constructive criticism.
o to give me compliments. =)
o to make corrections to any errors in the guide.
o to suggest things I should add to the guide.
o to ask me a question about the game.
o to just talk about Beyond Oasis. (Whether or not I talk back depends on
whether or not you're an idiot. =D )
o to notify me of an incorrect or dead link.
Basically anything intelligent and genuine. The following are emails that
will get deleted and possibly get the sender blocked:
o ads.
o anything with pornography, profanity, obscenity, and the like.
o anything not about Beyond Oasis or closely related subjects.
o requests for ROMs, warez, and various illegal products.
o "chattese", many grammatical errors, or general stupidity.
o hoaxes. If I find out you're lying, you're done. Plain and simple.
Basically anything that will (or is meant to) irritate me. That said, here's
my email: godly_paladin[AT]hotmail[DOT]com. I look forward to hearing from
you!
o==============================================================================o
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THANKS
This guide owes its existence to more than just me, as once I, too, was a
beginner who needed help. Therefore, here's a little section for me to give
kudos and appreciation to those who have helped me out over my Beyond Oasis
life:
o Daniel and Brenda: My parents, for letting me get my Genesis and Beyond
Oasis in the first place!
o Victoria: For letting me jabber about my new discoveries at her without
complaining.
o GetSmart: His FAQ was what got me started way back when, and I learned a
bunch of cool things from it.
o Flip: Another cool FAQ-writer whose work got me out of a tight spot or
two.
o Black Eyes: Yes, another writer of FAQs who contributed to my first
playthrough's success.
o Ganelon: He told me about the 'Force Demo Mode' cheat and assisted me
quite a bit when I was trying to figure out some things in
relation to Spirit Powers and other trivia. Special thanks to him for also
giving me the complete class listing and several move names!
o Helldhaz: For finding the awesome 'Sound Test' cheat after all these
years!
o The Ancient team and Yuzo Koshiro: For obvious reasons.
o Sega: For equally obvious reasons.
o Ginny: For submitting such a great explanation of the Merchant in Ali's
village and for his tidbit about the SP Regeneration. He's the
first person to submit to this FAQ, too! Thank you very much!
o Electronic Arts: I got the "Rising Revenge" term from their Return of the
King game - which is an excellent one, if I might add.
o DarkPulse and DJSW: For their VGZ dump of the soundtrack and their
intriguing discoveries regarding the sound test coding.
o Flame060: For the "Quick Jump" technique. Danke!
o Du: For his revolutionary heart system information and the new Old Dragon
strategy. Also for his work with the classes! Appreciated!
o Madcell and Ken: For keeping the spirit alive over in China.
o King Pie: For the uber-useful Water Shield move.
o Pokeiyuu: For translating the original Japanese script to confirm the
official English release. Thanks!
And *no thanks* must go to some band named Oasis for filling all my Google
searches with irrelevant topics.
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WRAPUP
And there you have it: the Tips, Tricks, and Techniques Guide for Beyond Oasis.
This game has needed something like this for a long, long, time now, and I
suppose it finally has it. I hope you found out some things you didn't know,
and I hope that this document inspires you to dust off that old black box and
that purple cart! This game deserves a few more playthroughs, no matter how
many times you've gone through it. There always seems to be something new to
do and something interesting to discover.
This is VortexSpin here, on a bright, sunny morning in the US midwest at
11:15 AM on 8/22/05, with only one thing left to say:
Spinout.
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