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Psycho Dream FAQ
For the Super Famicom
by Charles MacDonald
Version 1.0 (03/20/03)
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Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~
Unpublished work Copyright 2003 Charles MacDonald
This guide cannot be reproduced in any way, shape, or form, nor can
it's contents be submitted to magazines, other web pages, etc. It
cannot be put up on any web page and is only to be found at GameFAQs
and my homepage <
http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/>. This guide was
created and is owned by me, Charles MacDonald. Furthermore, it is
protected by US Copyright Law and the Berne Copyright Convention of
1976.
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Psycho Dream is a side-scrolling action game much like Valis. It was made
by Riot/Telenet, who coincidentally developed the Valis series. The game is
for one player, has fairly high difficulty due to quirky hit detection, and
is moderately long but doesn't have a lot of replay value.
Game story
~~~~~~~~~~
You control either Ryo Shizima or Maria Tobari in your quest to find a
woman named Sayaka who's been abducted by monsters. Most of the game takes
place in an abandoned city that's infested with insect-like creatures.
I don't have the manual for this game, so I can't elaborate on the plot
any more than that. :)
Gameplay
~~~~~~~~
The status bar at the top of the screen indicates several things:
- Character's name
- Score
- Life points (16 total)
- Time (300 seconds per stage)
- F.AT meter (number of special attacks in reserve, starts with 3)
- Track (stage number)
- Chapter (substage of given track)
- Boss life points
The bosses usually have a lot more than 16 life points, but the meter only
shows that many. It can take several direct hits for them to lose one point
off the meter.
The goal of each level is to make your way from one end to the other. There
are some stages where the game will automatically scroll the screen
horizontally or vertically, where your goal is to either survive for a while
or beat all enemies on-screen. Each stage ends in a boss encounter.
Your character attacks with a hand weapon by default, but can obtain a gun
too. Each type of weapon has 4 power levels. There is also a special attack
which damages all enemies present, but this has a fixed number of uses.
Generally the gun is weaker than the hand weapon, but it has better range.
Controls
~~~~~~~~
Y - Attack with hand weapon or gun.
B - Jump. Hold button to jump repeatedly.
A - Use special attack (takes one use of F.AT meter away).
L/R - Hold while pressing directional pad to run, or to jump higher.
Start - Pause game
X - Unused
Select - Unused
Special button combinations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Down+B - Jump down a level (where applicable).
L+X - Character is killed immediately. Useful if the game glitches or
you happen to get stuck somewhere.
L+R+X - Game restarts.
Items
~~~~~
Enemies drop several types of crystals which have various effects:
Green - You get a shield granting temporary invincibility which lasts
for about 4 seconds.
Purple - Your F.AT meter goes up by one point.
Red - You regain a few life points.
Yellow - If you have a hand weapon, it's power level goes up by one. If
you have the gun, you get a hand weapon at the same power level.
Blue - If you have a gun, it's power level goes up by one. If you have
a hand weapon, you get a gun at the same power level.
Power levels for hand weapons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lv Ryo Maria
1 Sword Whip
2 Sword + armor Single claw
3 Double sword Double claw
4 Spinning sword Spinning claw
Power levels for gun weapons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lv Ryo Maria
1 Gun, single shot Gun, single shot
2 Gun, triple shot Gun, triple shot
3 Gun, triple shot Gun, triple shot, homing
4 Gun, 6-way shot + sword Gun, 6-way shot, homing + butterfly wings
When Maria has the level 4 gun weapon, you can float in air by holding
the B button after jumping or when falling.
When you are at the maximum power level for either weapon type, it seems
that the chance of finding purple crystals is higher.
I've noticed that when using a level 4 gun, it seems that taking a certain
amount of damage will make your character shoot some projectiles which
kill the surrounding enemies and then you revert to a hand weapon. I haven't
been able to make this occur reliably, so it's something of a mystery.
Strategies
~~~~~~~~~~
Track 1 boss
When the boss is appearing, stay away from the right side of the screen.
Even though it takes a while for it to fully enter the room, your character
will take damage by touching the space where the boss will finally end up.
Wait around for it to pull it's arms back, then run forward and strike the
monster in the face as many times as possible. While waiting, watch for
the arms coming out of the TV screens, and for the yellow projectiles which
can be destroyed with your weapon.
Track 2 boss
The weak point to go after is the boss' head. Most of the attacks it uses
can be dodged, including the fire which is avoidable by running to the left
edge of the room.
Track 3 boss
Hit the purple orb which is holding Sayaka a few times. When it starts
flickering, it can no longer hurt you and the boss will show up.
The moth-like boss has a lighting attack which you can dodge by standing
directly underneath it. It will use this attack when you can see streaks
of colors flying towards it's anntennae. It can be damaged by hitting any
part of it's body, but watch for the wings which will damage you. If the
boss stays off-screen too much, you can run away from it to draw it closer,
however you'll be in range for it's lighting attack.
The best strategy for this boss is to wait for a lighting attack, then jump
up just a little so you can hit it's body from the underside without having
the wings or lighting hit you. Having a powered-up hand weapon makes this
much easier.
Track 4 boss
Attack the coccon until the boss breaks free. When you are to the left of
the boss, it will run towards you and do a jump at the end. If the jump
is far enough, you can run unerneath it, otherwise you will be hit. If you
are to the right of the boss, it does a broad jump backwards which can be
avoided easily. Sometimes it will touch the ground with it's anntenae and
shoot a wave of fire at you.
I'd advise trying to stay on the left side, hitting the boss as many times
as you can before it charges forward. When this happens, run left and
jump if it is about to touch you, this will give you enough clearance to
avoid getting hit. You can repeat this until you get to the corner of
the screen, where the boss will ram you as there's no space to move. When
this happens, run as far right as you can to get the boss to jump back
closest to the right side of the screen as possible. This will give you
enough room to repeat the attack and dodge method a few times. Providing
you have enough life points, you'll last longer than the boss does.
Track 5 boss
All you have to do is get close enough to hit the body of the boss, and
stay away when it's arms go up before it does a bubble attack.
Track 6 boss
Attack both claws until the arms disappear. After this, concentrate on
hitting the bosses' head. You can also hit the projectiles to destroy them,
which sometimes turn into yellow crystals.
Levels 03-01 and 03-02
Your goal is to destroy all of the ground targets. Ignore the ones on the
ceiling. Only the hand weapons will work, if you have a gun or accidentally
pick one up, wait for a monster to drop a yellow crystal to switch weapons.
If you have a powered-up hand weapon, try to position yourself between two
of the ground targets so you can spin and hit both at once.
Pro Action Replay / ZSNES patch codes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7E00:8Axx - Always play stage (xx= 00-22).
7E09:7620 - Always have shield.
7E09:7801 - Shield lasts until end of level when picked up.
7E0D:21xx - LSB of time (in BCD, x=00-99)
7E0D:220x - MSB of time (in BCD, x=0-9)
7E1E:4010 - Always have 16 life points.
7E1E:5903 - Always have 3 uses of the special attack.
7E1F:F801 - Enable stage select menu.
Stage select
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When enabled with the above code, choosing START or CONTINUE at the title
screen will take you to a stage select menu. Press up or down to move the
cursor (which is initially invisble) and button Y to pick a level. The last
two entries in the list with no accompanying text both select stage 04-02.
There are some changes to the control scheme when playing with the stage
select mode turned on:
Left shoulder button - Freeze game
Right shoulder button - Advance freezed game frame-by-frame
Select - Cycle through hand weapon / gun power levels.
There are two bytes of information printed in the upper-left corner of the
display. I'm not sure what the high byte is, the low byte is the current
stage number which is the same value indicated in parenthesis on the stage
select screen, and is also the value used by the PAR code to always play a
specified stage. It is unrelated to the track/chapter numbers.
The game code is supposed to enable the stage select menu whenever buttons Y,
Start, X and the Right shoulder button are pressed on controller 2. However,
the game never executes the code which checks these buttons, so this feature
may have been disabled for the final production version of the game.
Stage list
~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a list of each stage and it's corresponding number for the 'Always
play stage' code:
# Trk/Ch Description
00 01-01 TV station roof #1
01 01-01 TV station roof #2
02 01-02 TV station elevator
03 01-03 Track 1 boss
04 01-03 Inside of TV station, first hallway
05 01-03 Room from first door in second hallway
06 01-03 Hallway from second door in second hallway
07 01-03 Room from first door in first hallway
08 01-03 Hallway from second door in first hallway
09 02-01 Sewer 1
0A 02-01 Sewer 2
0B 02-01 Sewer 3
0C 02-01 Sewer 4
0D 03-01 Elevator w/ ground targets 1
0E 02-02 Subway 1
0F 02-02 Subway 2 (both paths lead to stage $10)
10 02-02 Subway 3
11 02-02 Subway 4
12 02-03 Subway 5
13 02-03 Subway 6
14 02-03 Subway 7
15 03-02 Elevator w/ ground targets 2
16 03-03 Track 3 boss
17 02-03 Track 2 boss
18 04-01 City at night (not normally playable, leads to stage $1A)
19 04-01 City at night
1A 04-02 Waterfall
1B 04-03 Track 4 boss
1C 06-01 Theme park cave (all paths are part of same stage)
1D 06-02 Theme park maze
1E 06-02 Theme park maze
1F 05-01 Running level
20 06-03 Track 6 boss
21 06-03 Ending scene
22 05-01 Track 5 boss
Contact
~~~~~~~
E-mail: cgfm2 at hotmail dot com
WWW:
http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/
Credits and Acknowlegements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riot and Telenet for making such a unique game.
Chris MacDonald for the translation help and beta testing.
Contributors to ZSNES, which I used along with a PAR for cheat finding.
Qwertie for the SNES Knowledge Base.
Unpublished work Copyright 2003 Charles MacDonald
