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Finger Flashing Guide
by Ishanji
(
[email protected])
Version 0.1
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* TABLE OF CONTENTS *
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0.0 Legal Garbage
1.0 Version History
2.0 Introduction
3.0 Controls
4.0 Gameplay
4.1 - Advanced Play
4.2 - Game Modes
5.0 Rounds
6.0 Closing
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0.0 LEGAL GARBAGE *
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This guide is for personal use only. Reproduction on personal websites is
allowed as long as the document is unaltered. The only major website allowed to
host this FAQ presently is
http://www.gamefaqs.com. If you see this FAQ on any
other large website, please notify me so I may take appropriate action. That
said, feel free to put it up on your fansite or whatever else you've got. If
some large website wants to host this, they can e-mail me at the address above
and I'll probably say yes, but GameFAQs will be the only place to get the
updated version, so check there first. Reproduction for profit of any sort is
STRICTLY prohibited, and I'll come after you with a big-ass hickory stick if
you do.
ALSO, downloading of ROMs is illegal, do so at your own risk!
Affect (the publisher of Finger Flashing) hasn't produced a game in five years,
which means they're probably defunct anyway, but there's a chance another
company may have the rights to the games, in which case legal action could be
taken upon you. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Beyond all this crap, enjoy the show!
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1.0 VERSION HISTORY *
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0.1 Began on 07/23/06 with full Introduction, Controls, and Gameplay sections.
Rounds section to be fleshed out upon reader requests/boredom.
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2.0 INTRODUCTION *
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Finger Flashing is a puzzle/shooter hybrid released on the PSX in Japan by
Affect in 1999. Affect is practically unknown outside Japan, although one of
their games was released in the US as Phix: The Adventure in 2003 by Agetec Inc.
That game was 3 years old by then, however, and recieved little attention by
just about anyone. Basically this means that information on their games is rare
and hard to get, as I would find out when I searched for information on this
particular game.
Luckily for you, fair reader, I'm here to remedy that situation. If you don't
have this gem, you should search Google, check eBay, or hunt for it at your
favorite import shop, but since mine is the first FAQ for the game, and it's
seven years old, chances seem pretty slim that a place carrying new imports
would have a copy. Still worth a shot though!
Send any feedback on this guide to my e-mail address above! If you contribute
information I'll make sure you're properly credited! And yes, I know there's
some poor formatting and English, just ignore that.
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3.0 CONTROLS *
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You could always go to the controller settings in the option screen to see these
but that wouldn't be any fun!
Square - Rock
X - Scissors/Cancel in menus
Circle - Paper/Confirm in menus
Triangle - Stop time
R1 - Speed Up
L1 - Slow Down
Start - Pause
The controls are fully customizable, so if you don't like the setup then you're
welcome to change it! Sadly, there are games made today that still lack this
convenient feature.
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4.0 GAMEPLAY *
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BASICS
In Finger Flashing, you play as either the wizardess Poi or the bazooka-wielding
Cyikke. There is no difference besides aesthetic, so choose whichever you like.
Your objective is to prevent your enemies from reaching the bottom of the screen
Your movement is restricted to six lanes left and right (no movement is allowed
up or down), while your enemies march ever downwards to reach you, and it's up
to you to stop them! But how, you ask? With the rules of rock, paper, scissors
of course! Just in case your childhood was so sad as to never include that
classic game, the basic premise is that rock beats scissors, scissors beat
paper, and paper beats rock. Simple, huh? As explained in the controls above,
there are buttons that correspond to each element of rock, paper, scissors. So
to defeat your enemies, simply hurl the appropriate element at them! There are
three types of enemies with whom you will become very familiar:
Rock Gargoyle - Defeated with "Paper" (Circle)
Metal Scissor - Defeated with "Rock" (Square)
"Paper" Hand - Defeated with "Scissors" (X)
No, those aren't their real names, but for the sake of description that's the
best I could come up with. Learning to recognize these enemies quickly is your
only chance for survival in the tougher levels, so make up your own monikers if
it helps! It's also worth noting that each element of the game has its own color
by default. Rock is mapped to the square button, which is pink, and likewise
Rock Gargoyles are largely pink. Metal Scissors are blue, and Scissors is mapped
to the blue X button, just like the Paper Hands wear red capes and Paper is
mapped to the red circle button. It's a nice touch that should be pointed out.
If you hit an enemy with a shot that does not defeat them, it will instead spawn
an enemy of the type that your shot was. For example, if you shoot a Rock
Gargoyle with a Rock shot, then another Rock Gargoyle will appear. If you shoot
that Gargoyle with a Scissors shot, then a Metal Scissor will appear. You still
recieve points for defeating these extra enemies, which at first glance would
seem like a good strategy, but they make your game harder by putting enemies
nearer to you, and by affecting your speed bar, which will be covered in the
advanced play section.
COMBO FUN
The enemies can also react to each other with the rules of rock, paper, scissors
to create combos. If you defeat one type of enemy (for example, a Metal Scissor)
then all adjacent enemies of the opposing type (in this case, all Paper Hands)
will be defeated, and in turn defeat all enemies of their opposing type. This,
as you can imagine, makes for gigantic combos, which are absolutely required to
perform well in the game, both for greater points (since every hit in a combo is
worth more than the last) and for other gameplay elements (which will be covered
in the advanced play section). Since combos are so important, you must learn how
to spot where in a cluster of enemies you'll have to shoot to defeat them all.
It's important to note that even if you shoot the right enemy to complete a
combo, any enemies offscreen will not be affected, so make sure you've got the
entire wave onscreen before comboing out, or you'll be in big trouble since
you'll spend so many extra hits cleaning up. Occasionally, a flashing enemy will
appear, and if you shoot it then all the enemies on the screen will be cleared.
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4.1 ADVANCED PLAY *
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UI + ENEMY READOUT
There are a lot more levels to the game than simple rock, paper, scissors though
To familiarize yourself with these elements, you have to jump into the game and
see all the extra stuff that appears onscreen. First, on the left side, you have
your enemy readout. It's set up as a 6-width grid, just like the playfield, and
is divided by lines into waves of enemies. As enemies show up onscreen, they
also appear on the readout with a corresponding icon, and a fraction to the left
of their wave. The left number of the fraction is how many hits (misses don't
count) it took you to defeat the wave, while the right number is the maximum
number of hits that the game wants you to use. This is much like golf, where you
are better off taking less shots than more. Once the whole wave is defeated, the
game looks to see if you used more shots than you should have, and if so, then
it adds to the speed bar at the right side of the screen.
SPEED BAR
As said before, you cannot control your character upwards or downwards, but
there is something that can: the speed bar. The speed bar is the lovely little
bar at the bottom right of the screen that dictates how quickly you run towards
your enemies. It begins as a dark grey, progresses through green, yellow,
orange, red, all the way up to light grey. I've never seen it get past that
point, and it seems to stop accumulating, but that's could be just because it
can get difficult to survive once the bar is that high. Simply put, the more
full the bar is, the faster you're forced to go. Thus, the more you screw up,
the more the bar fills, and the faster you go, making it easier to screw up,
and so on. Luckily, these effects can be reversed. While the bar fills due to
excessive shooting, combos can drain the bar, so even if the game expects you
to defeat a wave in one shot, doing so will decrease the speed bar. Lastly, this
bar will also change in when you enter a new stage in the round you are playing
(for example, moving from 1-1 to 1-2).
SPEED CIRCLE
The speed bar is not all that controls your speed, though. To the right of it,
there is a small blue ball with a number inside. By pressing the R1 button, you
increase the number inside the ball and the speed that you approach enemies,
while by pressing L1 you decrease the number and slow it down. There are five
levels of speed, and the higher the number in your speed circle (which ranges
from 1-5), the higher score you'll get for defeating an enemy. A single enemy is
worth 10 points at speed 1, while it's worth a much greater 150 points at speed
5. The benefits can be worth the challenge, and since you can change your speed
on the go, it's an integral part of the game to keep moving as fast as possible
while maintaining control. This effect is cumulative with the speed bar, and so
if you have a light grey speed bar and a speed circle set at 5, you'll be going
at insane speeds, while a dark grey bar with a speed circle at 1 means you're
crawling like a tortoise. This way, if your speed bar increases, you can lower
your circle so that you have more time to find the right place to shoot for a
combo, decreasing your bar and letting you eventually put your circle back up
so you can get more points. This is a very interesting dynamic which gets a lot
more simple when you begin to play the game instead of just reading about it.
TIME STOP
But what if you get so overwhelmed that no amount of quick shooting and speed
circle decreasing will get you out of it? Well, luckily for you, this game is
apparently set in the Matrix, and you can stop time by pressing Triangle.
Those red orbs below your enemy readout indicate how much you can stop time,
and each time you use the ability it will consume one orb worth of energy. These
constantly refill themselves one at a time, so don't be stingy with the power!
Much better to use it than to lose the game and all your points with it! As long
as you've got at least one orb worth of energy, you can use the power, and if
you have an orb currently charging it will consume that power first (so if
you've got 1.5 orbs left and you use the power, you'll still have your last orb
half charged). This feature makes the game much simpler, so don't try to hoard
it! It won't get you much except some extra points at the end and it saves you
from losing all the points you've accumulated so far!
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4.2 GAME MODES *
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STORY
In this mode, you choose a round in which to start, and then progress through
each stage in the round until you've beaten it, at which point you move on to
the next round. Your objective is simply to score as high as possible without
dying. You may continue as many times as you like, but your score and everything
else will reset when you do. You'll restart in the exact stage you died in,
which is nice if you just want to see all of the game, but it also means you'll
have no chance to recoup your lost points. Thus, if you're trying to get the
best score possible in Story mode, you'll have to start in stage 1 and work your
way all the way through the game without dying. Obviously, since combos award
the most points, your strategy here will be to move at the fastest rate which
you can successfully make combos, since they will be worth more at higher speeds
Creating combos also helps you fulfill your hit quota for a given wave. Whenever
you are at or under the number of hits required for a wave, you recieve a star.
Each star is worth 100 points by itself, and when you earn 5 stars they'll turn
into a big star worth 1000 points, doubling their value. Lastly, each time orb
you have is worth 4000 points, so you'll get a whopping 20,000 points if you
have them all fully charged at the end of a round! To make things even nicer,
even if an orb is only partially charged, you still get credit for whatever was
left in it, so a half charged orb nets you a still sweet 2000 points. Can you
survive through all 10 grueling rounds?
TIME TRIAL
This mode plays similarly to story mode, except instead of your objective being
to get a high score, it is to finish a given round in the shortest possible
amount of time. Instead of a point counter and stars, there is simply a timer
in the upper right hand corner. Time stops do not keep time from accumulating
on the clock, so they should be used sparingly, while defeating enemies without
combos to increase the speed bar may be a viable strategy in this mode.
SCORE ATTACK (1,3,5)
As the name implies, the point of this mode is to get as high of a score as you
can in a limited amount of time (1, 3, or 5 minutes depending on what you
choose) The rules of this mode are a blend of Story and Time Trial, with a timer
that counts down as well as points and stars. Obviously moving as fast as you
can has a double purpose in this mode, since it will increase your score and
the amount of enemies that you will encounter onscreen before time is up.
BATTLE
This competitive two-player mode has many ways to win and lose. A random stage
is picked, and then it is played just like the standard game, however when an
enemy reaches the back row it is not game over. If one of the player characters
collides with something (enemy, object, etc) they will be defeated as normal and
the other player will be the winner. If both players die at the same time, then
whoever had the higher score will be the winner. This can have interesting
implications, since walls of creatures that would normally end the game can be
used instead to make it more difficult for the opponent to move past a point.
I don't have much more information on this mode, since I haven't had the chance
to try it out with a friend yet, but it seems pretty self explanatory as long
as both players arefamiliar with the basic game. I imagine that if you beat the
round, the player with the highest score wins, though.
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5.0 ROUNDS *
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(This section is not quite completed. If there is demand for it or if I'm
incredibly bored, I'll write an entire walkthrough for each round, stage by
stage and include strategies for each stage as well as the final challenge for
the round. But for now, this synopsis will have to do.)
In most games, these would be called levels or stages, but we'll give Affect the
benefit of the doubt here. There are 10 different rounds, each of which has
unique stage elements as well as art. Each round has some random elements to it,
such as where exactly the enemies will appear onscreen and sometimes what type
they'll be, but for the most part the structure and solutions are similar. At
the tenth stage of each round, there is a challenge round, which still keeps
to the rock-paper-scissors theme, but is different from the main game in some
aspect. The first round, for example, disables your time stopping ability and
gives you three puzzles to solve (by clearing them from the board) in a limited
amount of time, otherwise you're trampled by the pieces. The second round
launches a barrage of enemies at you but does not count them as waves so you
recieve no stars (although your speed circle still changes the point values of
the enemies).
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6.0 CLOSING *
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Thanks to...
GameFAQs, for hosting this FAQ
Affect, for publishing this game
Home of the Underdogs, for letting me know about this great game and many others
The ePSXe team, for turning my laptop into a portable PSX so I don't need a TV
My girlfriend Lacey, for putting up with my nerdy habits
*end transmission*
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