Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire(TCD) - Walkthrough
Version 1.0
Copyright August/02/2008 by Apathy000
[email protected]
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Game Story
III. Options
IV. Basic Controls / What's on Screen
V. Ships and Weapons
VI. Strategies / Tips
VII. Bosses
VIII. Stage 1
IX. Stage 2
X. Stage 3
XI. Stage 4
XII. Stage 5
XIII. Cheats and Codes
XIV. Final Thoughts
XV. Copyright
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I. Introduction
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Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire, aka Sapphire, was a game released by
Hudson, a company that has already put out excellent shooters such as Blazing
Lazers, Super Star Soldier, Gate of Thunder, and Lords of Thunder. Sapphire
is one of the rarest Turbo-CD games that is on the market. Getting a hold of
the game could cost you several hundred dollars, so getting the original Turbo-
CD is out of reach for most people. But now you can get the game at a
reasonable price in a compilation called Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection -
PC Engine Best Collection that contains Sapphire and two other games for the
PSP.
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In this guide I am not going to list wave after wave of enemies. That would
be way too boring for me, the author, and for you, the reader. Instead I
will focus on the difficult parts in each level, the mini-bosses, and the
boss.
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II. Game Story
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Well, since this IS a Japanese game with Japanese text I really do not have
a bloody clue as to what is actually happening in regards to the storyline.
But it has to do with some guy in a ship trying to hunt down a terrorist.
If you have a translation of the intro, the cut scenes, and the ending I would
be REALLY happy if you sent it to me. *Hint* *Hint*
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III. Options
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In the title Screen you get two options, Start and Config.
1. Start - Starts game.
2. Config
a. Level - allows you to select Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulties.
b. Extend - This will give you an extra life whenever you reach a certain
score. You have a couple choices here.
- 100000, 200,000... this sequence will give you an extra life every
100,000 points.
- 50,000, 100,000... this sequence will give you an extra life every
50,000 points.
- 200,000 EVERY... this sequence will give you an extra life every
200,000 points.
c. Music - Allows you to listen to all the tracks.
d. Sound - Allows you to listen to all the sound effects.
e. Credit - You can choose from 4 to 9 continues.
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IV. Basic Controls / What's on Screen
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1. Controls
II - Fires weapon
I - Bomb
Run - Equivalent of Start on other systems. This can be used to Pause
while in-game.
2. What's on Screen
a. Player Label - On the bottom you will see either a 1P or a 2P text for
whether you are player number one or two.
b. Score - Below the Hi score on the top left of your screen you can see
your current score.
c. Lives - Right next to your score on the lower part of the screen is a
number next to a ship. This is the number of extra lives you have.
d. Bombs - Next to the letter "B" on the bottom is a number. This is how
many bombs you have.
e. "Press Run!" - You will see this next to your player info on the
bottom if there is not a second player already playing.
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V. Ships and Weapons
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A. Description
The game Sapphire gives you a choice between four different ships and
each ship has four different types of weapons. Each ship also has a set
speed, and you will be surprised at how slow most of the ships move in
Sapphire. The speeds range from the speedy white ship to the super slow green
ship. The white ship is by far the fastest, it can go all over the place and
dodge everything that comes its way. The green ship is by far the slowest
ship in any game I have played, it takes about 3 seconds to move from one side
of the screen to another. At first you will be disgusted at how difficult it
is to move anywhere, but there is a method to this madness. The slower the
ship, the more powerful it is. My favorite ship is the super-slow tank-like
green ship. I love it for its power, for its ability to simply destroy
everything, including bosses, in seconds with its Blue shot. While dodging
things becomes extremely difficult when it can hardly get out of its own way,
but it can get past parts that will take weaker ships a minute or more.
The weapon system is quite good as well. Each of the four ships has
three types of shots with four levels of strength, and two bombs. You can
only hold one type of shot at any time, but you can get a power-up of a
different color and still retain your current weapon's strength. The faster
ships have the potential of getting strong weapons, but you will not be able
to have anything really nice until level 3 or 4. A strong example of this is
the blue power for the blue ship. At level 1 the shot is extremely short, it
hardly goes past the ship. Get it to full strength however, and it goes
across the entire screen, easily competing with the shots of the other more
powerful ships. The slower ships tend to have shots that are strong right off
the bat, which is good since you tend to die a lot until you know the game
well enough to have your ship already in position before bullets or lasers
come your way.
In order to change weapons from your original Red weapon, you have to
move over a pickup of the color you want to get. The pickups come out of
enemies and they cycle through the three weapon colors available to you. You
get a choice from Red, Blue, and Green pickups. Getting a pickup of the color
that you currently have will increase its effectiveness until it reaches max
strength. Getting a pickup of a different color will only change your
weapon. You can tell when a weapon is at max strength by seeing 5,000 points
when getting a pickup of the same color.
You can get the pods when you go over a weapon pickup if you do not
already have them. The two pods on either side of your ship shoot bullets
outward, and they block enemy bullets. The pods also have another function
that you will find useful at certain points. If you do not fire your bullets
you can charge up the pods, and then fire them out. Not firing for about five
seconds will make charge up to max. The longer you charge them the longer the
pods will stay out hunting enemies. Firing out the pods will make them home
in on enemies and kill them. If the pods go after two different enemies there
is a line of electricity between that damages enemies and blocks bullets.
You get two bombs for every continue, and you can get more bombs by
killing some mini-bosses. Using a bomb makes you invincible for as long as
the bomb lasts. The bombs are ridiculously effective against bosses.
B. Sapphire ( Blue Ship, left most ship )
She has the most balanced ship of the bunch. Her speed is the second best,
but her weapons are still powerful. Her weapons start off weak, but when you
get them to max they are about as strong as any other ship's max weapons.
1. Red Weapon
Special Property: None
-Level 1 - Two red shots forward.
-Level 2 - There are now three red shots going forward.
-Level 3 - Four red shots straight forward.
-Level 4 - Shots are a bit larger.
-Level 5 - Four large straight beams forward.
2. Blue Weapon
Special Property: Piercing
-Level 1 - One blue beam shoots forward.
-Level 2 - Two blue beams shoot forward.
-Level 3 - The two beams shoot more rapidly.
-Level 4 - The two middle beams combine into one larger one, and two
smaller beams shoot on either side of the larger one.
-Level 5 - Two straight beams forward and two more beams shooting
slightly off from being straight forward, so 4 four beams in total.
3. Green Weapon
Special Property: Bounce
-Level 1 - One small green bullet shoots forward, and you have two
going off at about 60 degree angles.
-Level 2 - The middle green shot becomes bigger than the other shots
on the sides.
-Level 3 - The other shots are now as big as that middle shot was at
level 2. Another shot is added that shoots backward.
-Level 4 - The shots moving forward and backward are now darker in
color than the others, and presumably more powerful.
-Level 5 - All the other bullets are now as dark as the darkest shots
of level 4.
C. Charlotte ( White Ship, second leftmost ship )
Charlotte has an extremely fast ship. The downside is that the ship is by
far the weakest in the game. It can take you minutes to defeat a boss with a
weapon at its base strength. She also has difficulty in taking out non-boss
enemies without her weapons being at high levels. Her Green weapon is her
strongest weapon, however since its length is very lacking it is very easy to
die when trying to hit enemies with the short weapon.
1. Red Weapon
Special Property: None
-Level 1 - One small red shot forward.
-Level 2 - The red shot becomes a bit bigger.
-Level 3 - You now have two red shots.
-Level 4 - A shot going backwards is added. Not very useful
unfortunately.
-Level 5 - The two shots in front are now even larger.
2. Blue Weapon
Special Property: Piercing
-Level 1 - One tiny blue beam shoots across screen.
-Level 2 - The tiny beam is now slightly more impressive looking.
-Level 3 - That tiny beam is back, but now you have two other small
beams on either side.
-Level 4 - You have one large beam again with two smaller beams on
either side.
-Level 5 - Two large wave beams go forward and two more beams shoot
forward on either side, 6 beams in total.
3. Green Weapon
Special Property: None
-Level 1 - Very short weapons that fires two green elliptical shots
forward about three ship lengths.
-Level 2 - The length is upgraded to about half the screen.
-Level 3 - The length does not change, but you lose one shot in front
to have two shots going out at 45 degree angles.
-Level 4 - You now have your second shot in front again.
-Level 5 - Two elliptical green shots shoot forward with two similar
looking shoots going off at a slight angle. Now it reaches about halfway
across the screen.
D. Helena ( Green Ship, second rightmost ship )
She is totally unbalanced in favor of strength over speed. Her movement is
disgustingly slow, but her Blue weapon has the potential to become the
strongest in the game. She also gets a unique homing weapon. With her Blue
weapon powered to max she can kill bosses in a matter of seconds. Very
difficult to play with.
1. Red Weapon
Special Property: None
-Level 1 - Two small beams shoot forward.
-Level 2 - One beam is added to the original two.
-Level 3 - Yet another beam is added.
-Level 4 - They take away a beam, leaving you with three, but the
remaining three are upgraded.
-Level 5 - Four large straight beams shoot forward.
2. Blue Weapon
Special Property: Piercing
-Level 1 - A small blue comet-like shot shoots forward
-Level 2 - A second shot is added.
-Level 3 - The comets become larger.
-Level 4 - The comets are downgraded back to what they looked like at
Level 2, but you get two spinning triangles on either side that shoot out at
something like 30 degrees.
-Level 5 - The comets in the middle are upgraded again. This is the
most powerful form.
3. Green Weapon
Special Property: Homing
-Level 1 - One small green beam shoots forward.
-Level 2 - Two small homing shots are added.
-Level 3 - You get two slightly larger shots in front
-Level 4 - The homing shots become larger and shoot more rapidly.
-Level 5 - Four large straight beams shoot forward accompanied by two
large homing shots.
E. Jasmine ( Red Ship, right most ship )
Jasmine is strong, but she is the second slowest choice of ship. If you
want ship that is strong right from the start, but is not as slow as Helena,
try out Jasmine. Her Green weapon is her strongest, and if you are close to
the enemy you can really wreck them. Since the Green weapon's missiles
explode they are also slightly piercing. Her Red weapon at the base strength
seems to be the strongest of all the ships' Red base-strength weapon.
1. Red Weapon
Special Property: None
-Level 1 - One small red shot forward.
-Level 2 - Two red shots go forward.
-Level 3 - Four shots go forward.
-Level 4 - Two shots move forward and the ones on the end move
slightly outward. I cannot really consider this a worth while upgrade.
-Level 5 - Four large red straight beams shoot forward accompanied by
two beams that shoot out at a slight angle.
2. Blue Weapon
Special Property: Piercing
-Level 1 - A triangular blue bullet shoots forward.
-Level 2 - The weapon becomes larger.
-Level 3 - The weapon becomes even larger and seems to shoot more
rapidly.
-Level 4 - It shoots even faster now and looks slightly bigger.
-Level 5 - Jasmine gets very large blue shots that are very strong.
3. Green Weapon
Special Property: Exploding / Semi-Piercing
-Level 1 - One missile shoots forward.
-Level 2 - A missile going backwards is added.
-Level 3 - The missile going backwards is removed and now shoots
beside the one in front.
-Level 4 - A missile going backwards is added again.
-Level 5 - Two missiles go to the left and right of your ship. This
is very useful in a lot of situations, but the fact that you only get this at
the highest level limits the time you will have it, unless you are very good
at not dying.
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VI. Strategies / Tips
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-Keep your bombs in reserve for bosses, but if you have 0 lives, use them up
if you think you may die.
-Sometimes playing very aggressively is the best defense.
-Remember that you get 2 bombs every time you come back from a continue.
-Like most shooter games, the amount of bullets are limited on screen. The
limitation is not time based. Because of this, if you move your ship closer
to the enemy you can fire faster since the bullets will disappear "off screen"
faster.
-You can time-out mini-bosses.
-You can time-out bosses.
-When you start a new life after dying you are invincible for 3 seconds.
Make use of this to grab nearby pickups.
-When you use bombs you are invincible.
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VII. Bosses
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1. Stage 1 Boss
This boss fires these purple lasers that are a similar color to the
background at the start of the round. On Hard, these lasers move too fast to
dodge with Helena so just bomb this form. If the bomb is not enough to kill
him, then it will fire a large beam out of its front. Once it explodes a bit
it moves to the second phase of its attacks. The ship will start moving from
side to side firing out parts of its body while firing purple lasers.
Carefully move along with the boss avoiding the parts it shoots out and the
lasers. Then it will grab you with tentacles that come out of the ship. Keep
holding the back button to avoid being crushed against the boss. It will let
go after a couple of seconds. At this point it should be almost dead if you
have been constantly firing.
2. Stage 2 Boss
This boss really should have been the first boss in the game he is so easy.
If you have a high level weapon or a strong ship you can totally waste him in
under 20 seconds. At the start a 3d-looking head will spew various easily
destroyable stuff at you for a couple of seconds. Then long blue wires extend
from its head which it will then start whipping them in front of him as he
moves from side to side. That is all the attacks of that form. The second
form is that of a skull head that can potentially be very dangerous. The
first attack is easy to dodge, it floats around the screen firing lasers
straight forward. Stay right smack in front of it as it moves and keep
firing. The second attack is its most dangerous. It shoots little bullets
out of its easy that then break apart into smaller bullets. To avoid this
attack stay as far away from the head as possible when it stops firing
lasers. Other than that the boss is easy.
If you have Helena's Blue shot powered up to max the boss is a massive
joke. With Helena, the first form dies before it can use the laser whips, and
the second form dies before it can even fire the bullets from its eyes.
3. Stage 3 Boss
The most robot-like of any boss, this crab thing will own you in the face
without bombs and if you have a weak weapon. I will say it right here that it
may be better for you to just bomb it to death if you are not familiar with
the boss. One bomb for each form and a few seconds of firing should kill it
completely. However, if you have a strong weapon and decent reflexes this
will be over without much trouble.
In the first form it slashes with its claw, creating a destructible red wave
that shoots at you. If you have a weak weapon you cannot kill this. The crab
in this first form has a second attack that is basically fast, unblockable
lasers. Every so often the crab will slash with both claws, creating a larger
wave attack that cannot be destroyed.
The second form is about as hard as the first. Its first attacks are
simplistic, it fires large sphere at you in the same pattern every time. Keep
shooting it as much as possible during this. The second is much harder,
especially for slow moving ships. The crab will form into a large spinning
disc and move around the screen. With slow ships, Jasmine and Helena, simply
moving out the way is very difficult let alone dodging the lasers and bullets
it fires at you. With Helena's strong blue weapon you can wipe it out before
it starts moving much in this attack, but Jasmine is not strong enough to do
that. With Sapphire or Charlotte you can keep moving ahead of the crab
without too much trouble. With any ship I would recommend a bomb when it
starts doing this attack to finish off the boss.
4. Stage 4 Boss
A giant pharaoh mask is the first form of this boss. It fires blue bullets
towards the bottom of the screen. Dodging these is fairly easy, however its
next attack makes it much harder. It will fire large missiles that move
toward you from the sides of the screen, and since only a couple of weapons on
some of the ships is capable of taking out attacks from the sides you may want
to use a bomb if you see that death is eminent.
The second from is that of a humanoid robot. It immediately spread tiny
seeds that balloon out and move try to ram you. Destroying the seeds before
they become large makes dodging them a lot easier. The robot also shoots a
spread of elliptical flame shots. You need to dodge them by a fair margin,
since they seem to have a wider hit box than what you see on the screen. The
robot also transforms back to the pharaoh head to shoot blue bullets at you
every once in awhile.
5. Stage 5 Boss
The first form of the last boss is a shuttle. The shuttle has a large area
that you cannot go behind for most of this phase because of its engines. When
the engines stop firing it fires lasers and bullets at you.
The second form is a large ship with cannons on the front. It moves back
and forth firing its cannons occasionally along with lasers and missiles.
Very difficult to dodge on hard with a slow ship. One bomb usually can take
care of most of this form.
The third form is where it goes into the background. A crosshair follows
you around and fires at you. The only hard part of this is to kill the rocks
around. You cannot damage him, but he will move to the next phase quickly
enough.
The fourth form is by far the hardest thing in the game. The first attack
is easy enough, it moves to the bottom of the screen and shoots its booster
while it moves up. Lasers try to shoot you while it is doing this. Now comes
the hard part. Use bombs if you got them since it is very hard to dodge all
the stuff it sends at you. It reverts to the second form only with more
bullets and a faster shooting cannon. The cannon in particular is hard to
dodge since it gives no warning whatsoever before it fires. Moving along with
the boss slightly away from it in case of cannon fire is the best way to avoid
dying. If you are using a slow ship like Helena or Jasmine the dodging all
the shots and the cannons is very, very hard. You might want to consider just
bombing this final form to death.
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VIII. Stage 1 (City)
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1. Level
Since this is the first level there are very few difficult sections. One of
the hardest is early on in the level when enemies suddenly appear and surround
your ship. The best defense against this is to not fire your pods right away
but wait until an aura surrounds them. Fire them out when you see that and
the pods will home in on them and destroy them all. There are two such waves
early on.
After more enemies a large ship with turrets and ships launching off of it
will come on screen. There are two easy methods to get past this. The first
way to stay on the left or right edge of the screen and just dodge the
unblockable lasers from some enemies. The second way is to go almost to the
top center of the screen and kill all the ships come down from that middle
area.
The first mini-boss makes an entrance after that big ship. It starts off as
a small blue ball, but gains other red balls that partially protect it from
your shots. If you have some type of piercing weapon then this will pose no
problem. The mini-boss drops red balls onto you, but they are easily defeated
with any type of weapon at any level. The mini-boss can become hard if you
cannot kill it quickly. It will then have its red balls form into a cross-
shape or a kind of half square that will then move around screen. These
shapes will then move around screen and are just fast enough you pose you a
serious problem if you have a slow ship. The good news is that the core is
completely exposed at this point, and it dies very quickly if you are firing
at it.
On Hard the following two sections are very difficult to do without dying.
Orange mechs fire some shots and then either die or leave the screen. Three
gray mechs shoot indestructible bullets all over the place. You can forget
dodging them if you are in a slow ship like Helena. There are two safe spots
on the upper left and right of the screen, but you would have to have moved
your ship several seconds before they come on screen to dodge their shots.
The second mini-boss is a pain to destroy due to the fact that it can fire
at you with super fast tiny red bullets from its legs on Hard. At the same
time it shoots a spread of blue shots and missiles at you. Just use a bomb on
this guy and keep firing. One bomb almost totally wipes him out, and you
immediately get another bomb after you kill him so it should not be too much
of a problem.
2. Boss
This boss fires these purple lasers that are a similar color to the
background at the start of the round. On Hard, these lasers move too fast to
dodge with Helena so just bomb this form. If the bomb is not enough to kill
him, then it will fire a large beam out of its front. Once it explodes a bit
it moves to the second phase of its attacks. The ship will start moving from
side to side firing out parts of its body while firing purple lasers.
Carefully move along with the boss avoiding the parts it shoots out and the
lasers. Then it will grab you with tentacles that come out of the ship. Keep
holding the back button to avoid being crushed against the boss. It will let
go after a couple of seconds. At this point it should be almost dead if you
have been constantly firing.
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IX. Stage 2 (Medieval)
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1. Level
The first trouble spot is the dragon that spits out fire balls. It flies
very close to the bottom of the screen and does not give you much room to
maneuver in. I find it a good idea to avoid the thing by not trying to get
directly in front of it.
Later on a large tank like object rains missiles down all over the screen.
You can destroy them, but I find it amusing that the weaker, faster ships find
this part difficult, because if they do not have a high level weapon they may
not be able to even kill a single missile before it collides with them.
A short while later a giant golem is summoned by black mages in a magic
circle. Depending on the difficulty this boss may be a major problem, or a
total joke. If you are fighting it on Easy, it fires destructible bullets at
you, and this is the only attack that could possible hit you if you stay in a
corner. The other two attacks, the rock throw and the jet of flame only harm
things in the center of the screen. On other difficulties it shoots
indestructible bullets that prove a slight challenge to block. On Hard the
guy shoots them like crazy so you cannot really dodge them too well. A neat
trick I found with Helena is to move your ship into where its head appears and
continually fire with the Blue shot until it starts shooting bullets at you.
Then just dodge one or two waves of the bullets and you can kill it. Or you
could just use a bomb and a couple of bullets to send the sucker to oblivion I
suppose.
In the castle there are three pieces of advice I think I should give. The
first is that long snake heads pop out of the paintings. The second is to
stay in the middle of the spinning red spheres until the door opens, and then
go through the door. Stay near the entrance of the to avoid enemies that fly
horizontally across the screen.
2. Boss
This boss really should have been the first boss in the game he is so easy.
If you have a high level weapon or a strong ship you can totally waste him in
under 20 seconds. At the start a 3d-looking head will spew various easily
destroyable stuff at you for a couple of seconds. Then long blue wires extend
from its head which it will then start whipping them in front of him as he
moves from side to side. That is all the attacks of that form. The second
form is that of a skull head that can potentially be very dangerous. The
first attack is easy to dodge, it floats around the screen firing lasers
straight forward. Stay right smack in front of it as it moves and keep
firing. The second attack is its most dangerous. It shoots little bullets
out of its easy that then break apart into smaller bullets. To avoid this
attack stay as far away from the head as possible when it stops firing
lasers. Other than that the boss is easy.
If you have Helena's Blue shot powered up to max the boss is a massive
joke. With Helena, the first form dies before it can use the laser whips, and
the second form dies before it can even fire the bullets from its eyes.
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X. Stage 3 (China)
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1. Level
After the initial wave of weak enemies, a giant wall appears, which I guess
is the Great Wall of China. On the wall is a green robotic mini-boss that
will harass you until you either kill it you leave the wall a short while
later. It has a massive amount of health compared to other enemies so only
expect to kill it if you have a strong weapon. Small flying ships move along
the sides of the map shooting bullets, and generally being a pain. The
hardest part of the section is to get down a pattern that avoids all the
bullets from the enemies and the mini-boss. A kind of elliptical movement
works well for me.
Once you leave the wall you fly into the sky and have to fight a phoenix
mini-boss. This mini-boss is quite hard. Little ships try to kamikaze into
you while firing bullets for the entire fight. The phoenix has two types of
attacks. The first is where it releases medium sized blue bullets that
explode, sending blue lasers onto the bottom section of the screen. These
lasers are really hard to see against the background for reason. Its second
attack is to fire out large lasers from its tail. This guy is a large pain
and I heavily recommend the use of a bomb and a couple bullets to kill it.
Killing it quickly may actually result in something harder than waiting the
boss out. Once you kill it, purplish red ships fly to the top of the screen
and fire fast, tiny, hard to see bullets at you. Killing them as quick as
possible is a good solution.
After that section a temple transforms into a giant turtle. Killing the
turtle is something you want to try to do since it will give you a bomb. Stay
away from the head, it pops out a good distance to fire out bullets. Also
avoid the bottom left of the screen since that is where it exits after about
10 seconds.
The third mini-boss, a floating man with kites that transforms into a
dragon, is much easier than the phoenix. For one thing you can clearly see
all of his attacks, and there is an easy pattern to killing him. Never stay
directly in front of the dragon while it sprays flame from its mouth. The
dragon will also throw these ball and chain type weapons with yin yang symbols
on the ends. The ball and chain weapons grow in length depending on
difficulty. Stay slightly off center from the dragon and continue to fire and
move with it. Avoid the ball and chains when necessary. At one point it will
stop firing and go to the top of the screen. This is your best chance to kill
it. Go to the very bottom of the screen and keep firing. The dragon will
rush downwards and fire spikes, but if you have the pods and continually fire
you should be able to kill them and the dragon here.
2. Boss
The most robot-like of any boss, this crab thing will own you in the face
without bombs and if you have a weak weapon. I will say it right here that it
may be better for you to just bomb it to death if you are not familiar with
the boss. One bomb for each form and a few seconds of firing should kill it
completely. However, if you have a strong weapon and decent reflexes this
will be over without much trouble.
In the first form it slashes with its claw, creating a destructible red wave
that shoots at you. If you have a weak weapon you cannot kill this. The crab
in this first form has a second attack that is basically fast, unblockable
lasers. Every so often the crab will slash with both claws, creating a larger
wave attack that cannot be destroyed.
The second form is about as hard as the first. Its first attacks are
simplistic, it fires large sphere at you in the same pattern every time. Keep
shooting it as much as possible during this. The second is much harder,
especially for slow moving ships. The crab will form into a large spinning
disc and move around the screen. With slow ships, Jasmine and Helena, simply
moving out the way is very difficult let alone dodging the lasers and bullets
it fires at you. With Helena's strong blue weapon you can wipe it out before
it starts moving much in this attack, but Jasmine is not strong enough to do
that. With Sapphire or Charlotte you can keep moving ahead of the crab
without too much trouble. With any ship I would recommend a bomb when it
starts doing this attack to finish off the boss.
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XI. Stage 4 (Egypt)
===========================================
1. Level
For the first whole section of this you should be wary of moving too far up
screen. Many enemies that cannot be killed quickly rush down at you, so
leaving powerups to move closer downward is a good idea. Lots of floating
Pharaoh heads come down to almost the bottom of the screen and insolently fire
bullets at you. Move to either the left or right side of the screen to have
these bullets disappear against your pods.
The entrance to one of the pyramids is blocked by these flowers that move
towards you unless you shoot them. The flowers cannot be killed, but they can
be pushed back by shooting at them. Missiles slowly fly down that are minor
annoyances. If you kill a missile bullets fly out. Once inside the pyramid a
short maze area awaits you. Extremely difficult area on Hard since the
enemies fire indestructible bullets. On other difficulties they do not,
making it this area a lot less troublesome. A good strategy is to memorize
where most of the ships come from at this section and be ready to fire on them
before they appear. Or you can charge up your pods and fire them when the
ships come on screen. Towards the end of the maze a whole line of ships fly
wherever you might be. Even the pods are not sufficient for that part and you
may have to use a bomb to survive on Hard. If you stay on the sides towards
the end, it becomes easier to block the bullets with your shield.
The mini-boss is a squid. If you have the pods to block the tiny missiles
it fires, stay right in between its claws and keep shooting away at its head
as it moves around. Staying in between the claws is easier than staying near
the bottom of the screen, because down there you have to move kind of
carefully to avoid shots it fires from the claws. It should die before it
even gets to its next attack. If it does not, then it fires these really
annoying curving lasers. Stay up high on the sides to avoid them.
The final pyramid contains the hardest section in the stage for slow ships.
Pillars burst up out of the ground and will block the movement of your ship
and cause you to be crushed against the edge of the screen and the pillars.
If you are directly over the pillar when it comes up you will also die. If
you are in a slow ship try staying the right edge of the screen for the most
part to avoid most of the pillars. If you are using a fast ship then stay on
the right side, but keep trying to move up a bit. Fireballs carrying pickups
are placed at certain points throughout this section. On hard, destroying a
fireball will make it shoot out three indestructible mini fireballs.
2. Boss
A giant pharaoh mask is the first form of this boss. It fires blue bullets
towards the bottom of the screen. Dodging these is fairly easy, however its
next attack makes it much harder. It will fire large missiles that move
toward you from the sides of the screen, and since only a couple of weapons on
some of the ships is capable of taking out attacks from the sides you may want
to use a bomb if you see that death is eminent.
The second from is that of a humanoid robot. It immediately spread tiny
seeds that balloon out and move try to ram you. Destroying the seeds before
they become large makes dodging them a lot easier. The robot also shoots a
spread of elliptical flame shots. You need to dodge them by a fair margin,
since they seem to have a wider hit box than what you see on the screen. The
robot also transforms back to the pharaoh head to shoot blue bullets at you
every once in awhile.
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XII. Stage 5 (Space)
===========================================
1. Level
The first section has several waves of rocks that do not take much to kill.
The next couple ships are fairly tough, but if you concentrate on one of them
at a time you can kill them easily and take the weapon pickups they drop.
There is a large ship with multiple sections for the next part. I suppose it
is like a giant mini-boss since you can time it out. In fact timing it out is
a good strategy if you notice an area that might be good for that. A good
area to time it out is on the second section, just stay on the left or right
side of the turrets on top and wait. If waiting is not what you want, then
you need to fire at the ship to kill it. There are laser turrets on the ship
that have a slight glitch. The lasers fire straight down and then make a 90
degree turn when they are across from your ship. Staying right on the bottom
of the screen makes them go off screen slightly and you will take no damage
from them. It is better to avoid the lasers altogether and stay up near the
top of the screen. The final section of the ship fires tiny balls from the
bottom corners. There is not a easy spot to stay on near the top. Stay on
the bottom near where the ship fires the balls and keep killing them. The
ship will take damage from some of your shots and will die eventually.
Once the ship dies one way or another you have the next section. After a
bunch of easy enemies are these mechs that fire tiny little guns that float
near you firing tiny green shots. Dodging these bullets is challenging to say
the least so I always tend to use a bomb here if I have any. The screen
shifts after a certain amount of time passes to move you into a ship.
Although an area is blasted in the side of the ship, not going through the
hole will not kill you. Various weak enemies have their last chance at you
until you leave the ship.
The first mini-boss is a big black ship with a flexible moving head attached
to the front. Avoid being right in front of the head, it shoots bullets in an
arc. The back of the ship also fires bullets at you. The first large attack
of the mini-bosses a beam that sweeps the bottom of the screen, moving high on
either side dodges this. The second attack is similar in effect and the
method to dodge it, the only difference is that the main part of the ship
fires green bullets.
The second mini-boss is an octopus-like robot. Its legs prevent you from
moving upward from the bottom of the screen while it fires bullets at you.
Failing to kill it quickly allows it to pull of its second attack. It spreads
out its legs and will invade the lower area. You must maneuver between the
legs to avoid the legs.
2. Boss
The first form of the last boss is a shuttle. The shuttle has a large area
that you cannot go behind for most of this phase because of its engines. When
the engines stop firing it fires lasers and bullets at you.
The second form is a large ship with cannons on the front. It moves back
and forth firing its cannons occasionally along with lasers and missiles.
Very difficult to dodge on hard with a slow ship. One bomb usually can take
care of most of this form.
The third form is where it goes into the background. A crosshair follows
you around and fires at you. The only hard part of this is to kill the rocks
around. You cannot damage him, but he will move to the next phase quickly
enough.
The fourth form is by far the hardest thing in the game. The first attack
is easy enough, it moves to the bottom of the screen and shoots its booster
while it moves up. Lasers try to shoot you while it is doing this. Now comes
the hard part. Use bombs if you got them since it is very hard to dodge all
the stuff it sends at you. It reverts to the second form only with more
bullets and a faster shooting cannon. The cannon in particular is hard to
dodge since it gives no warning whatsoever before it fires. Moving along with
the boss slightly away from it in case of cannon fire is the best way to avoid
dying. If you are using a slow ship like Helena or Jasmine the dodging all
the shots and the cannons is very, very hard. You might want to consider just
bombing this final form to death.
===========================================
XIII. Cheats and Codes
===========================================
1. When you enter SEX in the initials input screen the game will change it
to SOX. It is not much of a cheat, but it is clearly unusual behavior.
**verifed
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XIV. Final Thoughts
===========================================
While this game is not without its flaws, it shines quite brightly when
placed among the horde of shooters for the Turbo and Sega systems. While I
cannot recommend for you to pay several hundred dollars for it, I can
recommend it as part of the compilation for the PSP(since the price is around
$30-$40 at playasia with no region protection). I have mixed feelings about
whether I should rate it an 8/10, or an 9/10, but the fact that music is so
good, it supports 2 players, and the anime-like style of the story pushes it
up. So, I give it a 9 out of 10.
===========================================
XV. Copyright Aug/02/2009 by Apathy000 aka Michael Zacka
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