Viewtiful Joe
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Contents
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Forward
I - General Tips and Information
1 - Tips - The powers, bad guys, overall tips
2 - Rainbow Road - Go for all Rainbows!
II - Tips for Shop Items and Moves
III - Beating the Bosses
General Tips
1 - Charles III
2 - Hulk Davidson
3 - Gran Blue
4 - Another Joe
5 - Alastor
6 - Fire Leo
7 - King Blue
8 - Captain Blue
I - General Tips
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1 - Tips
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The Powers
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The Powers - Slow
Arguably the "best" power. As well as the more obvious uses, get used to using
it to give you a moment to yourself during battle and to spot which direction
enemies are going to attack in (especially when there are no skull marks), and
to force the enemies with the propellers on their backs on to the ground.
Obviously the only way to get a multiplier bonus as well - easiest is to first
dizzy an opponent and then slow, hit the targeted enemy and then any others
around you. However, once you release the slow you can no longer build up Vs,
whilst you can turn zoom and mach speed on and off and keep the Vs you have
earned.
The Powers - Mach Speed
Great for running fast between sections, and making you fall / land faster.
Also used for collecting boxes from the background, due to the after images
which are released when fighting. Not very good (not very good *at all*) for
getting Vs. Even after dizzying an enemy, you are *much* better off attacking
them normally than you are using mach. Not only is it harder to hit, but if you
set the enemy on fire then they will die quicker, and you will also damage all
enemies around you without getting much more Vs for them (especially if you
have all the after image powerups). So although great for clearing things out,
not very good for Vs. I only tend to use mach in combat when after images are
needed (like doing the rockets part of level 7 quicker) or when the fire or
whatever is required for a puzzle. I repeat - there are *much better ways* of
getting high V scores without touching that mach speed.
The Powers - Zoom
Arguably the "best" power, but works far far better in tandem with slow than
alone. Although you may have quickly worked out that a Slow RHOH is best on
bosses, this is actually the best attack in the game by miles, and will tear a
lot of enemies apart very quickly (especially if you can hit them in the air.)
Zoom also has an excellent "scare" effect on the weaker enemies (most
noticeably the normal grunts and the cowboys.) If you zoom in when they are
standing close to you, they will stop doing anything and just like shake and
quake on the spot. Great for freezing those cowboys before they shoot.
Especially good against the Red Leaders and Commanders (guys with swords) and
the Biker hard-to-stun grunts. Just uppercut them into the air *normally*, not
slowed or stunned, and then as they fall back down catch them with a
slowZ-RHOH. This will also give you a target on the sword guys on the second
hit, and makes them very very easy all of a sudden.
Also note that you are practically invincible during the spinning kick. This is
especially useful for Alastor's "Round Trip" attack. Neither the jump up or
splash drop are really all that good, but a little experimentation may prove
fruitful to your own style of play.
Bad Guys
--------
One of the amazing things with Viewtiful Joe is that, although when you first
face them they can seem most fearsome, almost every enemy in the game can be
killed very very easily. Here are some tips, which presume that you know the
basic attacks etc. of each enemy.
Basic Grunts - however you like. Dizzy, a couple of hits, then dizzy another
and hit him to build up Vs, repeat as much as you can, and finally go to a slow
and take them all out for a multiplier.
Ballerinas - Can be dizzied by dodging. Can also get targeted by punching them
a few times during slow.
Helmet Grunts - Basic guys in a biker helmet. Can be dizzied but recover faster
than a basic grunt, and have an aura which prevents you hitting them with
normal attacks (and who would want to?) Can be targeted by punching a few times
during slow.
Biker Grunts - Attack twice with skull marks. Then attack a third and forth
time without skull marks. The 3rd attack will be the opposite height of the
2nd, and the 4th attack the opposite of the 3rd. Still takes a while to dizzy
them, seeing as they have to attack 4 times, which means if you get surrounded
or something they can be tough to dizzy. If it doubt, uppercut them when they
are not attacking and then catch them in a slowZ-RHOH on the way down.
Cowboys - Can punch back their bullets during slow, which will stun them. Can
also be scared by zooming in when close to them. Then slowZ-RHOH.
Sword guys (both types) - Uppercut them into the air normally, and then
slowZ-RHOH. A target also appears on them very briefly if you dodge a basic
sword attack.
Girlies - "Don't touch me!" These are easy as well. Slow and punch them once to
knock off their aura. Then punch them again, still slow, and *then* zoom and
finish with slowZ-RHOH. If you haven't seen them beaten this easily before,
well, take a look.
Yellow Big Guys - Also very easy. At a distance they will throw baseballs -
listen for the grunt and then slow or jump to avoid. Stand close and when you
see them starting to attack, slow so that you can tell which of their attacks
it is. If it is a punch, start jumping still in slow and then let go, land
behind him and slowZ-RHOH. If he is beating his chest, just start up a
slowZ-RHOH right away and lay into him whilst he is beating - you should take
him out before he leaps into the air. If not, or if you are not quite quick
enough, just stay on the ground and let him go over you, then slowZ-RHOH from
behind. As far as I know, the only way to dizzy these guys is with the item
that appears sometimes which dizzies all enemies on the screen. Their dizzy
animation is quite cool though so look out for it.
Gun Guys - The bazooka types can be stunned by sending their bullets back at
them. The seeking missiles can't be sent back, slow dodge them. Best to
uppercut these guys into the air and then slowZ-RHOH. If they start fighting
you can deal with them like the regular Biker grunts.
Joker - So easy it is foolish. When the slot machine appears, use the Z button
to skip the sequence of him jumping out. This will make him always land in the
same place each time, falling rather than jumping. If you learn where this spot
is, nine and half times out of ten, just be ready there for him, slowZ-RHOH,
and he will just die almost right away. So very very easy.
Metal Leos - Also very easy once you have the method down. Get close and hit
2-3 times with a slowZ-RHOH. Then unzoom, unslow and dodge their attack. *As
soon* as you have dodged it, slowZ-RHOH again. This will break his shield. Keep
at him, right until you have to dodge the next attack. Unzoom, unslow again.
Then, *as soon* as you have dodged it, back into the slowZ-RHOH. Keep beating
him and he should die *without starting to spin*. The key here is learning when
you break off your attacks, and to start hitting him again as quickly as
possible, and keeping a balance on your VFX so that it does not run out.
If he does start spinning, it is far easily that Leo to tell the attacks apart
by sound here - he will just grunt for a high attack, but do a long laugh for a
low attack. But you should be able to take out every one of these that you face
without them ever spinning.
Overall Tips
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Basics of V Points
Never use normal attacks, as you get no V points for them. Use the weak enemies
than can be dizzied and targeted easily as a way to then get targets on the
harder, bigger guys.
Big V Points Fast
If there are a couple of enemies left to come on the screen, rather than dizzy
and almost kill all of the current ones, you are sometimes better off to kill
the first ones, and keep the Vs combo going into the new ones that leap on, and
only use slow for the final ones.
EG 8 normal grunts are coming onto the screen. 4 are there already, and the
bottom corner says X4 more. Rather than taking the first 4 to the brink of
death and then killing them for a X4 (maybe a X5 or 6 if you can get one or two
of the others jumping on), kill each of these after dizzying them for their Vs.
As soon as one dies, another will come on, so you should have no trouble
keeping the Vs going until you have killed 4. Then dizzy and take them last
four close to death, and then slow for a X4. You might not get as many Vs, but
it will still you a lot and is a lot faster, which when going for Rainbows
especially is a big advantage.
Slow Smash!
After you have delivered a killing blow to a targeted enemy in slow, they will
still fly off, but another hit will just smash them rather than give another
number to the multiplier. However, you will get more Vs for smashing the enemy
in this way than you will if they just hit the floor (3-4 Vs compared to 1). So
especially if you need a lot of Vs from a small number of enemies, be sure to
get this move in.
Wall Pin
If you can pin a targeted enemy against a wall, hit them once with a punch
forward, and then jump right away and start pummelling in the air for a quick,
multiplier heavy kill.
Items
Alternating between punch and kick when slowed will make the enemy drop the
blue VFX refilling items. For every ten, you will either get a big blue one or
one of those controllers that stuns all the enemies.
After Image Anytime!
In this instance, the fairly useless Shocking Pink has its moment of glory.
Don't hold down K any longer than you need to, and get the bomb out as quickly
as possible. Then simply mach speed attack the bomb. Seeing as you can't get
"stuck" against the bomb you will move past it quite quickly, but at worst a
couple of these will get you anything from the background, in the comfort of
having no enemies around.
Mario Whistle
Hold down K to bring out a Shocking Pink and then just keep on holding it down.
Joe will whistle a couple of bars of a classic tune. Different if performed in
the air.
X Voomerang
If you keep the button held down when starting up a Voomerang, it will
eventually open out into an X shape, which will then do more damage.
Extra Damage
Everything does more damage when slow. And everything does more damage when
zoomed in. And everything does even *more* damage when zoomed in *and* slow.
This goes not just for your attacks, but also Voomerangs, reflected bullets and
enemies hitting tanks, aircraft or each other. Try it against one of the tanks,
or anything with an energy bar, and you will see the difference. If you are
slow and already have targets on all normal enemies, you will also do more
damage to enemies that cannot be send flying (the girls, tanks, aircraft).
Getting a combo up a little and then slowZ-RHOH can take care of these things
very quickly.
No Limits
Although the max the counter for a V combo can display is 9999 Vs, Vs above
9999 are actually still calculated and awarded once the combo ends. If in any
doubt, once you unlock a Super character you will clearly see the proof in
this. So rather than breaking of a combo when it reaches around 9999, just keep
going.
Rainbow Road
-------------
For the final lockable, infinite VFX, you must get Rainbow Vs for every stage.
A R-V is obtained by getting a V ranking for V Points, Defence and Time for any
given task. To get an R-V for an entire level, rather than just have a higher
average of R-Vs than any other ranking, you must have an R-V for *every* task
on the level, included the boss. A single even normal V will cost you your
Rainbow. So, it is not easy.
After managing this on Adults with Joe, I was rewarded with Super Joe. To get
him, select New Game and then press Z when selecting your character. It is very
hard getting all R-Vs with Joe, let alone any of the others (I shudder to think
of Alastor), but it has been done and rewards you with the Super version of
that character, so you can choose the one you feel most comfortable with.
Strike a Balance
You will need a balance of speed and Vs to get a Rainbow for each task. Defence
speaks for itself - either never get hit, or master the Ukemi. I suggest both.
The feeling of elation which you get whacked and Ukemi to safety, preventing
the loss of fifteen minutes of hard work, is lovely.
Needless to say, the timer for the Time ranking does not "slow" when you do,
so using slow too much can lead to a loss in time. You are best building up Vs
by dizzying and fighting enemies normally, and then using slow on the final few
to get a x3 / x4 multiplier. This will go a lot quicker, arguably get you more
Vs, and ultimately you don't *need* a 9999+ combo every time to reach the quite
generous V point targets, so don't do over board. Try and find a comfortable
method for each section, something that can be replicated quite easily, because
you will have to do these again, and again, and again before you are finished.
Pain and Perseverance
Get to know the levels well *first*. Don't go doing the start of the level
again and again until you can get a R-V, and then move onto the second task
whilst doing the first one with an R-V every time. You must practice and master
getting an R-V on each section at the *same time*, and only go for the final
product when you know you can do the whole level. This will save you a lot of
pain.
However, if you get to the last stage of the level and eat one, or take too
long, then all the hard work you have done getting R-Vs on every section until
then is wasted. You have to do it all again. This is true gaming pain, and
there is nothing you can do but swallow it and go back to the beginning.
Extra Viewtifuls
Collecting hamburgers when you have full life will give you some Viewtifuls.
Also, if you punch a big box open in slow, not only will it open in one hit but
you will also get 10 Viewtifuls for it. Although these may not seem like much,
they can tip the balance from A to V in some situations.
Also, it should be noted that any coins etc. that you collect also count toward
your V Point ranking. E.g. just killing Joker the first time he appears is
hardly likely to get you enough for a V on that section; but you then have time
to get the coins out of the machine and still get a V for time, and these coins
will provide a V for points as well.
II Tips for Shop Items and Moves
---------------------------------
Cheeseburger - Same as what it does in the game. Seeing as you don't get your
energy back between sections, can be useful if you are looking not to continue.
Shocking Pink - 10 bombs. Hold down the Kick button to use it. If you are not
sure, wait until lev 2 or 3, you can pick some up for free and try them out.
Voomerang - 10 boomerangs. Hold down punch. Actually make a few of the bosses
much, much easier, as well as some enemies (like the electric "guards"), but
never actually vital.
Sliding - Down + kick. Slide along the ground. Sometimes good for linking
combos together, and can be interrupted with another move. Mach speed +
repeated sliding is the fastest you can move on the ground.
Air Joe - In the air, alternate between punch and kick. Produces a nice mid-air
combo, and can be pulled off almost as fast as you can press the buttons.
Red-hot Kick - Down + kick in the air. A downward slide kick, the angle of
which is also sometimes good for collecting objects. Also, seeing as you can
cancel any normal attack with a jump, during a slow combo jumping and red hot
kicking an enemy behind you can be very, very useful. If you leave the title
screen on and watch the demo, you can see our friend the Director pulling off
this very move (in fact, I learnt this from him, and I must say it is
excellent.) After it hits, you can then do another one (in a different
direction, if you wish). If you zoom in on this move, you will get the Dragon
Kick, a burning version drill kick will make you land on the ground even if you
hit something, rather than bouncing away. Also, if the normal red hot kick
hits, you can *then* zoom right away and get a Dragon Kick in the same
direction. This makes a nice two hit combo, for instance the first blow
knocking off the "aura" of an enemy and then the flaming kick coming through.
Mach Speed 2 / 3 - After buying level 2, level 3 goes on sale. Increases the
number of after-image Joes that appear during Mach Speed. Useful for getting
the boxes in the background quicker, and level 3 is pretty much a must have for
the first half of the final boss.
Viewtiful Forever - When in the auto-dodge (during slow) zoom in and stay
zoomed until the dodge finishes. Can be zoomed in or not when the dodge starts,
it only matters that you are zoomed at the end. There is not question of tricky
timing here, so it is very easy to do it whenever you want. It uses up all your
VFX, so unless you are feeling especially snowed up or the dodge has turned you
back into normal Joe anyway, best to avoid using this move. Will knock down all
enemies close to you, but not do much damage. It is then easy to fall into a
pattern of having to wait until you recover, which leads to you being attacked
again almost as soon as you do, which leads to another VF, and the cycle
repeats. Although you get some Vs for it, not that many, and really only pull
this out the bag as a last resort.
Almost useless on bosses, you are far better to try and remain in Viewtiful
mode as much as possible.
Ukemi - just before you hit the ground after being knocked over, zoom in. You
*cannot* do this move by just being zoomed in all the time, you have to do the
zoom at the right point. You will get one heart of energy back, and will not
lose your Defence ranking for that task. So, you can get knocked down 10 times,
so long as you Ukemi them all you will keep your defence. There is noting you
can do about being hit by attacks that don't knock you over, and needless to
say an attack that does more than 1 heart of damage will still result in a loss
of energy.
The best way to pull off Ukemi is to train yourself to press slow as *soon* as
you get hit or knocked over by anything. It is very hard (with decent reactions
you might manage a 50% or so success rate) to pull this off without being
slowed, as unless you are expecting the hit you have a very short time before
you hit the ground, and have to time it quite precisely. If you train yourself
to press slow as soon as you are hit, you will give yourself plenty of time to
react. You can then just press it when the ground rushes up (although this can
be hard to see) or try for a "cheap" Ukemi, in which you just keep slow held
down and zoom in and out madly. 90% of the time this will do the job, but it is
not perfect and best used only if you are unsure of exactly where the ground
is.
VFX Turbo Charger - Speeds up the recovery of your FX bar. Buy this first. It
really should be the very first thing you buy. It makes the game a lot easier,
because you will have so much more VFX to use, and makes getting combos and
better ranks and thus more Vs easier because your bar will refill quicker.
Nothing is as useful as this, and I recommend you just bite down and save up
for this first. You should be able to afford it by the middle of the second
level, on a go starting from scratch.
Life - Add another life marker to the top of the screen. Starts cheap, gets
expensive. Very expensive. In fact, *massively* expensive. But worth it,
obviously - and toward the end of V-Rated, you won't have much else to spend
money on.
Take 2 - When you die, your hearts will just fill back up on the spot and you
carry on. Useful for boss battles and the like, and always stays pretty cheap.
LIV - An extra life. Nice if you don't want to continue or need to get through
a long section (first half of level 5 and level 6 come to mind) without
continue points. But gets more expensive each time you buy one, until you reach
20,000 at which point they will always cost this much.
III - Beating the Bosses
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General Tips
Fighting the bosses in the rock hard game comes down to one thing - a pattern.
Although each boss has a large number of attacks, by learning how they react
and then working out a pattern that takes advantage of this, you can prevent
most of them from using over 50% of the attacks that they actually have.
Also, the best boss tip there is - a slow red hot one hundred (zoom and punch).
Aside from Charles for the first time, because you won't have zoom, I have
found this to be the best attack for hitting every boss. During the FAQ, this
move will be referred to as the SlowZ-RHOH. Please note that I have changed the
Alastor strategy quite significantly since the first version of this FAQ.
The strategies are based upon my experiences playing the game up to unlocking
Super Joe, which means I have also beaten level 6 "perfectly". There are
probably still some strategies and small boss tips that I have not included or
at not aware of - however, what you find here will be more than enough to put
you well on the way to achieving Godliness.
1 - Charles the Bat
-------------------
If you hit him whilst he is flying around, he will split up into a lot of
little bats. Killing each of these will cause him a little damage, and gives
you some Vs, but aside from using this to stop him throwing his boomerangs
there is very little point in beating him his way, as it is also very time
consuming.
When he does throw the boomerangs, you have two choices. Drop off the ledge and
into the water below, and then run back to the start - if up jump as much as
possible, you should not get hurt. This takes quite a lot of time though. You
can also jump over them, and then watch carefully for when they come back. Use
slow to dodge them if you feel things are a little tight, but make sure your
VFX recovers before you attack him so that you have a full bar.
Then he will hover for a moment - you will see dust blown up on the ground from
his wings - and spiral up into the air. If you are unsure about dodging the
falling stalactites, use slow to check their positions. Then Charles will move
back and forth for a short while. Now is your chance. Again, use slow if you
wish to make sure of a hit. Uppercut one of the stalactites up into the air so
that it hits him. He will drop to the ground. You know have time to give him a
pasting before he recovers and flies back up into the air. Be warned though -
this recovery will hurt you if you are close. It is best to hit him in slow
anyway for more damage, (and zoom if you have it), and so you will dodge his
recovery so long as you have some VFX left. If you change back to Joe, get out
of there.
It is also possible to make him lose height, and indeed force him onto the
ground, using slow. If you have plenty of VFX this can work out OK, but it will
often leave you with little VFX left to actually hit him with before he
recovers.
He will also sometimes perform a vortex like spinning move across the screen.
He will do this four times in a row, at the height at which Joe is when he
starts the move. If you slow him down, you can hit him out of it and then get
dizzy hits like above.
This method of beating does not allow him to attack at all, but requires some
Voomerangs. By level 6 you should have picked some up, even if you never buy
them, and I recommend using this here, especially if you are going for all
Rainbows. Anyway, the key is that a Voomerang will knock him to the ground. So,
as soon as the battle starts, rev up a Voomerang and knock him to the ground.
Proceed to lay into him as normal, but stop before he recovers and *before* you
change back into normal Joe. Back away to a decent Voomerang distance and
quickly hold down punch to start one up again. When he recovers and flies up
into the air, you will have a short while before he attacks again (unless he is
going for the Vortex, but if you are quickly you can knock him out of it, or
dodge and V Forever to stop him in his track). Now he is back on the ground,
just repeat this process.
There is another stage to this which means you can beat in literally seconds.
After the first Voomerang hits, rather than closing in and RHOH, rev up another
Voomerang and let it go with him on the ground. Then, zoom in and slow right
away. I recommend that you do this once or twice just to see the damage that it
will do. A lot. However, seeing as you get no Vs at all for using Voomerangs,
if you want a decent V ranking for your Rainbow you will have to RHOH him a few
times. However, a balance of using this technique can make those repeated times
through level 6 in the pursuit of perfection go a lot, lot quicker.
To collect the reels on level 6, knock him to the ground and mach him to get
the box in the background. For the ones too high to jump to, stand underneath
them and when a stalactite falls, make such it is beneath them and then
uppercut it into the air to knock them down to you. However, the means breaking
the pattern of using the Voomerangs, and also takes a bit too long for my
liking, so when going for the Rainbows I didn't bother picking these up. If you
sacrifice the final block of VFX, it gives you a leeway of 50 reels you can
ignore, and this is useful when going for Rainbows, because having to stop
entertaining the boss to pick up items is what makes level 6 *really* annoying.
2 - Hulk Davidson, the Rhino
-----------------------------
Hulk will react in numerous ways to various attacks, and knowing his reaction
and the correct response is the way to beat him. The biggest problem here is
the screen size - he will often be off screen, making it hard to tell if he has
lost his axe, is about to charge, is jumping around, whatever. Learn the sounds
he makes and his reactions in each situation, so you are aware of what he is up
to even when he is off the screen.
His basic attack pattern is to jump into the air 2 - 3 times. The red splash
which he lands will damage you, so don't get too close. If you move up close to
him when he is on the ground, he will swing his axe and three skull marks will
appear low. This attack with *always* be low, making it very easy to dodge. You
can now hit him if you like, a SlowZ-RHOH will not do much damage but this is
good for gathering a couple of Vs. If you use mach here and keep on hitting
him, eventually he will go for a Big Red Skull Mark of Death, and after the
napalm lands will go into the charge, meaning you can force him to charge after
even only one axe swing. I don't really recommend this technique though, as it
is a little unpredictable, and you don't need to do it for a time V or a Vs V.
If you happen to remain at a distance, (and I don't recommend this,) then he
will throw his axe at you. This will bounce around the room for a while, unless
you get hit, and then he will catch it again.
If you stay close to him, then after 3 axe swings he will get ready to charge,
lowering his head. He does not "rev up" for very long before he charges, so get
out the way by mach running to the other side of the screen and jumping onto
one of the platforms above. It can be a little hard to tell when he has hit the
wall even if you are on one of the lower platforms, but you will get a feel for
the timing of this move after you have seen it a few times, as well as the
sounds he makes. If it hits you, will get a very big feel for it - Ukemi can
save you a little of that heartache. However, it is a pretty easy attack to
avoid.
Once he hits the wall, you can lay out some big damage. Obviously SlowZ-RHOH is
your best bet here. Drop through the platform and land behind him, and lot go.
You will not really be able to see much of his reaction, but if you notice that
he has turned around, if you see his axe handle blocking your attacks or if you
see the Big Red Skull Mark of Death, turn around and mach speed out of there.
It is best to *never* take this until you lose Viewtiful - always mach speed
away somewhere during your last bar of VFX, at the latest. Also, try to avoid
hitting the axe. If you break it, the change in pattern (described later) may
cause you some trouble.
If you make a clean escape, and his axe is intact, then he will return to
bouncing and you can repeat this process. This is probably the best way to beat
him, and if done smoothly it will go quite quickly and you may never see his
other attacks. Be warned though, if you fail to hit him enough when he is
dizzy, he will stamp the ground and bring out the missiles when he recovers.
Another way is, when he throws the axe, slow to make sure it will miss you,
then mach speed under it and lay into his unprotected hide. If you time this
right, you can get a lovely SlowZ-RHOH into him without him getting away.
However, you get more damage for hitting him from behind, and the loop
described above is thus the best way to deal with him.
If you attack him in slow or with a SlowZ-RHOH at any other time, he will block
the attacks on the handle of his axe. Keep this up, and there is a good chance
the Big Red Skull Mark of Death will appear. This can be dodged, but this
attack hitting the ground will also cause the napalm to fall from the ceiling.
So long as he still has the axe, he will then hop back a little and charge.
However, if you keep hitting the axe, then eventually his axe will break. Now
you can lay a beating on his unprotected self - if it does break, then find him
*right away* and RHOH. He will often jump onto the highest, central platform.
If you don't get to him and hit him quickly, he will stamp the ground, the
central desk will open and missiles will start to come out. If you hit these
they will fly toward him, and they may even end up breaking the *new* axe he
will get, which leads you a nasty cycle. If you manage to pound him before he
stamps the ground, keep it up as long as you can and he should just get a new
axe and go back to bouncing.
If the napalm falls, and you get set ablaze, use mach speed to put yourself out
before you get hurt. It takes quite a while to lose health from this attack,
and a very brief mach will put it out. It is really more an annoyance than
anything, but it prevents you from being able to stand still and attack him as
you will get damaged.
For safety, I recommend the close axe dodging charge technique, rinse and
repeat. Using this technique, you will always know what is doing next, and he
will never use his more random attacks. During stage 6, collect all the film
reels and after dodging the axe use a little mach to get the boxes in the
background. A box hidden behind the desk gives you 10 reels, and these + the
others in the room + the ones from Charles will give you 2 extra blocks of VFX,
if you bother with the bat ones.
3 - Gran Blue, The Shark
------------------------
The easiest boss, just because his pattern is the easiest, and you can do the
most damage to him. However, let your guard down and you can still suffer, and
the slightly random nature of the mines positions can cause problems.
When it starts, he will leap up out of the water and turn to face you. Get
close and SlowZ-RHOH right away. He will start spitting stuff from his mouth.
Keep hitting him until it is in the air, and then jump and be sure to *dodge* a
piece of the junk. If you want a rainbow for this boss, (on level 4), you will
need to dodge some junk to get a high enough V ranking, as on adult he dies so
quickly you won't get one otherwise.
He will perform this attack 4 times in a row, each time jumping over you before
starting it again. If you keep hitting him *after* he finished spitting then he
will do the tornado push-away attack, and the move to the next phase, so make
sure you let him do all 4. On adults, level 4, it is possible to kill him after
just these 4 attacks, and so long as you dodge junk in-between, you will get a
Rainbow V. I recommend letting your VFX go back up to one extra block
in-between each attack (as you will turn back to normal after dodging.)
Then he will start his main attack. Be careful here, as the animation looks
quite similar to the spit, but is actually different. So long as you remain
aware of how many spits he has done (he will be on your left side when this
attack begins) then you will have no trouble. He will start flying through the
air toward you, snapping his jaws. He will travel in a straight line for a
short time - get a feeling for how long this is based upon how long the
snapping sound goes on for and get into this rhythm. Each time he growls it
means he is about to change direction, and will then start heading toward where
Joe is at that point.
The best way to avoid this is to stand on the far left of the screen, out of
the water. When he starts charging, let him come straight toward you, and hop
over his nice and low and then mach speed to land quickly on the other side of
him. This will lead him back straight again, directly toward you. Repeat this
until he starts breathing heavily. Although I am not positive, I think he
changes direction 7 times. Just keep an ear out for the breathing.
If you use the above technique, then he will always be on the ground at the
end, which means you can give him a good pasting. On Adults, this will kill
him, but if you want a V for Vs then you need to open the boxes in the
background. In this case, I find leading him onto the middle platform when he
is snapping and then mach speeding him to open the boxes works best. This means
you will probably have to go around through the water pattern, but it is the
safest way to open the boxes.
Anyway, as you RHOH him, eventually he will use the spinning attack on and push
you away, or you will run out of VFX and have to back off. Now he will probably
head into the water. Follow him *right away*, because if he starts panting in
the water he will start to get energy back. Catch up with him, and SlowZ-RHOH
again, it won't do much damage so just do enough to stop him from getting any
more energy back.
Now he will twirl on the spot and the screen will fill with water. He will spit
out fish - either a set of piranhas who will chase after you (zoom spinning
kick will take them out) or others which will just travel straight until they
hit a wall. Then he will twirl again and mines will appear. Quickly position
yourself (preferably back up on the left side, which will be out of the water
again later) and get a mine directly between you and him. He may swim a little
to position himself first, so be careful. Then he will start the chomping
attack again. So long he hits a mine, it will stick in his mouth. Move in for
the attack, SlowZ-RHOH by all means but not for too long. The important thing
is that you *hit* him, so that the mine explodes in his mouth. If you are in
slow then this explosion itself will do quite a lot of damage.
The water will make the water go down. If you mess this up and don't get to the
mine in time, or for whatever reason, he will spit fish again. So long as the
water recedes, he will now most likely go back to chomping, (sometimes he *may*
start spitting stuff again, but don't count on him doing it 4 times.)
But, ultimately, even on Ultra V rated, you won't have to fight him for that
long to finish him off. On Level 6, getting a rainbow, the hardest thing is
having to open the boxes. At the top left, where there is a box with a
hamburger in it, if you throw a Voomerang off the screen to the left, a box
with 10 reels will drop onto the screen. I don't tend to bother getting these
reels here, but if you are going for perfect then you may well have not found
this box.
4 - Another Joe
---------------
He is annoying because you can fight him for a long time without really getting
anywhere. However, he is a real "pressure" boss, just like when Alastor reveals
himself later - keeping on top of him will shut down most of his attacks, and
make him pretty easy.
So, ultimately, the secret is to stay as close to him as possible. He has two
main attacks. When he says "Henshin a go go, Baby" spinning images will emerge
from him, and either rotate around him or around you. You can destroy the ones
around him with a zoom spinning kick (which is your friend at any point where
clones are attacking you.) If they are around you, he will also send images
flying from the background. Don't slow down, but zoom and use the spinning kick
repeatedly. The secret here is that you can zoom out to check what is happening
and then zoom back in *without* stopping spinning, if you are quick enough. To
deal with the images he is throwing and the ones around you, you will have to
push your VFX to the max, and you won't dodge the images attacks in slow so
there is no Viewtiful Forever get out clause. However, once you have tried this
method a few times, as with everything, you will get used to it. Also, even on
level 6, you should have plenty of VFX by now.
If he says "Henshin a bye bye" then he will lay images across the platforms. If
you can find and hit the real him whilst he is doing this, you can stop the
attack, but this is quite hard. Voomerangs can take out a lot of the images.
Otherwise, wait until he says it again - which means the images will start to
attack - and start spinning. Jumping and then descending spinning can help,
because at some point before all the clones are dead he will come in for an
attack, and if you are in the air then he won't be able to hit you. However,
this method is not 100% perfect - unfortunately, although very rarely, (and you
should be invincible during the spinning kick), sometimes the images will hit
you.
When he calls Six Machine, deal with the craft as quickly as possible. Two slow
hits will knock it from the air, and then finish it off on the ground. I have
tried using it's bombs / shot against Another Joe, but to no real effect.
Anyway, Six will always drop a hamburger, which can be very useful. Also, to
get the boxes in the background on level 6, knocking Six to the ground in the
right area and then mach speeding him can do the job. There are maybe 2
burgers, the rest are Vs, and you will need these to get your V for Vs
If he is doing the shot attack, be careful. If you use slow, the shots will get
bigger, just like they did when you used the craft on stage 3. These will then
a lot more damage. If you hit him from above or below you will have an easier
time preventing this.
Now you just need to stay as close to him as you can. When he starts an attack
he is vulnerable, so SlowZ-RHOH him. You will hit about 5 times and then he
will spin kick, you will dodge. Viewtiful Forever if you like - it will kill
any images nearby.
Sometimes he will do a skull mark attack - be sure that you have actually
dodged it before counterattacking and a SlowZ-RHOH will do a full 5. Sticking
close to him and putting the pressure on is the way to do it. When jump between
platforms to get to him, however, be careful not to zoom too early to start the
SlowZ-RHOH - you will do the downwards dive and almost no damage, making him
run away. He tends on hang around on the sets of platforms on either side of
the generator, rather than at the ends.
There is also an extended combo you can use for a little bit more damage. Do
the first three blows of a RHOH as normal, but then zoom out and punch him
normally for the 4th blow (still slow). Cancel the punch with a jump once it
has hit and then do a Dragon Kick (Red Hot Kick and zoom in.) This will set him
on fire and also dizzy him. Close in again whilst he is dizzy and then
SlowZ-RHOH for 1 more hit. Get close again and repeat. The problem with this is
that it "moves" him around the screen a lot, and requires you to chase around
after him a little more as well, so whilst it can buy you some time I do not
recommend doing it every single hit. But it is worth learning, just to add a
little variety to the battle if nothing else.
5 - Alastor - The Midnight Thunderboy
--------------------------------------
Although the RHOH at normal speed will do quite a bit of damage to him, there
is an even better way of beating him, which we will come to later. The
slowZ-RHOH will knock him over, getting 2 hits. You can then follow up and get
2 more before he recovers.
As soon as the boss starts, he will usually come at you with a Stinger. Quite
easy to jump and avoid, and then it will leave him open for your first attack.
Alastor is not that hard because you can keep the pressure on him quite easily.
The air raid is easy to dodge because when the move starts, a flicker of
lightening (that won't hurt you) will show you where the move is going to hit.
Just get out the way of this before the real attack comes.
If he uses round trip, a slow zoom spinning kick will send the swords back at
him, which - whilst not great damage - is better than nothing. However, he will
throw a lot of swords. Best to start spinning and then slow when you see each
sword about to hit you, just enough to send them back, and then unslow again.
If your VFX bar is long enough, you should be able to return almost all his
swords this way.
When lightening falls from the round things flying in the air, you have a few
choices. Hitting one of them will stop it where it is. Jump on top of one and
you can ride is around. These are not especially hard to avoid alone, they just
make taking time to hit him a little harder. However, if you can keep the
pressure on him (and use the tactic below) you should never see this attack.
If he uses vortex, which is quite rare, at worst slow and dodge it. If you are
pounding him on the ground, he will also sometimes just this as a recovery, so
beware of beating on him for too long at once time.
His ultra violet kick can be dodged much like Captain Blue's kick, best to try
and get under the arch of it and then hit him in the back.
He can always be knocked out of the air, if you can get to him, and so if you
mess up your ground infinite and he recovers, hop quickly onto the building at
the side and then jump again toward him in the air, hoping to knock him back
down again.
The secret to beating him very, very easily is setting him on fire. Knocking
him into the larva or hitting him with a Dragon Kick will set him alight. He
will then appear above the closest of the two fountains, drop in to put himself
out, and be dazed. When he is dazed here, hit him twice with a slowZ-RHOH to
knock him to the ground, and follow up with a Dragon Kick whilst he is on the
ground (you will have to be quick) to set him alight again. Then you can just
rinse and repeat this over and over until he is dead.
6 - Leo
-------
Ok, this is the tough one. Definitely the hardest boss in the game the first
time around, but a very definite pattern at which you will get a lot of
practice, so actually not that hard to perfect once you get onto the Rainbows.
As soon as it starts, get up to a rock and Mach Speed punch it until you get
set on fire. This will protect you from the fireballs. Then head toward him.
However, *don't* attack him straight away. Instead, Mach Speed again on the
closest rock to him, to build your burning time back up. As there is no
"burning meter" or whatever, again, this relies on your experience with
burning, and getting a feel for how long you need to attack for.
Then hit him and immediately jump away. His flames will go out, but you will
probably still have some fireballs flying around the area. If you start to
attack him right away, these can easily hit you in the back. The rock you
attacked before you hit him should have given you enough burn to make it
through until the fireballs disappear - if you are not sure, use slow if any
come close and jump between them.
Once the fireballs are gone, move up to him. Skull marks will appear, so dodge
his attack and then hit him 3 times in slow. He will attack again, dodge and
then start to hit him in slow again. After 3-4 more his shield will break. Now
comes the *vital* part, especially on V-rated - zoom in right away and get 2
hits with a SlowZ-RHOH. You can only get 2. Then zoom back out and dodge the
attack that follows.
Although this does not do a massive amount of damage, you will find that it
adds up. Also, when his energy gets low (about a bar and a half left), he will
go *crazy*. Insane. Moving at a super fast speed, and become highly
unpredictable. If you use this extra SlowZ-RHOH every time, you will only have
to face this crazy beast once. If you don't, then you will have to face it
twice, and even with full energy it can easily wipe you out.
OK. So now he will start spinning on the spot. He with make two different types
of growl - one for high attack, and one for low. Obviously there are also skull
marks (unless you are playing Ultra V-rated... but let us not go there.) You
can use the sounds, but I prefer to slow when he growls, see which one it is,
and then unslow and react. After 5 dodges, he will be dizzied. SlowZ-RHOH him
for 5 hits. He will leap into the flames.
And then jump out again. At the moment he jumps out, I find it prudent to use a
little Mach Speed and dash along the platform a little - there is a chance that
he will decide to come out right on top of you. Then he will start to run
around spitting out the rocks that you need to use to flame up. If you have to
jump over him, do so in slow, just in case you have to avoid a rock. And, when
you are on the ground, use slow to make sure the falling ones are not going to
hit you. If you happen to dodge one when jumping him *and* when one comes down,
this will probably rob you of Viewtiful, and may well get you hurt seeing as
you won't be able to flame up in time.
This boss gets really tricky when he decides to break his pattern, or when he
stops on the edge of one of the gaps in the platform. In the gap case, just
make sure you are well fired up before heading over. If he breaks his pattern -
sometimes he will just decide to jump back into the fire without giving you a
chance to hit him, for example - always think of what move his going to be
doing next, and use slow to keep your wits and bearings. There is nothing worse
them him leaping into the flames and then coming out right on top of you, but
it can be avoided if you think clearly.
It takes 10 or so times on V-rated to take him down, and with him getting
harder at the end, you will need a lot of skill, patience, and practice, to
beat him. However, the smaller, finer points I have detailed here will
definitely help - get fired up again right before you hit him, make sure the
fireballs have vanished before you attack him, use the SlowZ-RHOH after the
shield breaks for that little bit more damage, Mach dash when he jumps out just
in case.
7 - King Blue
--------------
As soon as it starts, he will be floating around in the background. He will
actually come forward enough for you to hit him here, so do so.
The key to air hitting King Blue is this. Jump, slow when you are alongside
him, and punch. *Then* zoom in. This will prevent you from doing the downward
dive in the air, which may make you lose your position. This is actually a
great tip for the game as well, if you wish to do a spinning kick in the air or
whatever and don't want the dive to come out. Anyway.
Then just SlowZ-RHOH him. This first time, he will not attack, so you can go
right to the end of your VFX, although best not to use it all.
For his basic lightening attack, just *stand still*. This is one of the few
attacks in video game history, that I can think of, which requires you to stand
still to avoid it. But it makes sense.
Then, the missile command tower will emerge from the ground, and King Blue will
start to do crazy lightening attacks. Don't worry. When the tower starts to
emerge, make sure you are right next to it. As soon as it is high enough, Mach
Speed and start to pound it. Your after-images will fly into the background and
hit Blue, *stopping his attack.* This lightening attack is very hard to avoid
otherwise. When there is a big ship in the background, your after-images will
also destroy that as well.
Keep an eye out for the missiles in the background. Unfortunately, as far as I
can tell, there is no way of telling if they are going to fly on high or low. I
thought maybe it was related to them starting from the left or right, but it
does not seem to be. Anyway knows how to tell this, let us know.
But anyway, keep pounding the tower and watch out for the missiles. If they are
high, you ignore them until the second-to-last one, crouch that one, then jump
the last one. Use slow liberally until you know if they are high or low. If
low, jump, dodge or punch the first one, and then crouch the second.
Then finish off the tower using Mach. It will sometimes drop a hamburger (I
think maybe on the 4th or 5th time.) Although the images will not do massive
damage to him, it stops his attacks, gets rid of the laser from the background
and all damage adds up.
He will then do a normal lightening attack. Just stay still. If you jump, don't
double jump, as the animation from this alone can be enough to push you into
damage.
Now the Die Fighter attack. Double jump and kick or punch twice in the air to
hang there for a moment - this should lead the fighters off. Then, using his
now floating cane as a guide, drop down next to him, slow, punch, zoom,
SlowZ-RHOH. If you do this for too long then the lightening from the cane will
start up and hit you, so again, get a feel for how long you can push this.
Normally into your last bar of VFX is OK.
Then drop to the ground and crouch. Even at its lowest point, the lightening
from the cane won't hit you if you are crouching. He will also make lightening
rain on all sides, but just stay still.
The big ship will have appeared in the background and so you will have the
laser to contend with as well. If it is going to hit you when you are crouched,
obviously you can't move, so slow and dodge it.
Then the missile tower will come out again. Get some images out as quickly as
possible to stop his attacks and destroy the big ship. Be mindful of the lasers
movements here - you may have to dodge it before it stops completely.
Which brings up back to the missiles, and back around. Rinse and repeat.
Actually pretty... easy?
You can also cheap Blue off with Voomerangs. Once you hit him with one (slow
and zoomed of course) after he recovers he will just go for the lightening. If
you have another Voomerang ready, just keep on hitting him with them. However,
as with Charles, you will get no Vs for this.
And speaking of Vs, finally - for those going for a perfect, at least on Adult,
even if you don't use any Voomerangs just beating him normally won't get you
enough Vs very easily. You are best to dodge the Die Fighters on purpose once
or twice or so, then Viewtiful Forever, and pick up plenty of Vs that way. You
have the time to do this as well, and it does not really mean breaking the
pattern. Just watch out for his lightening and the laser after doing this (I
find it best to not bother trying to damage him after doing this.)
8 - Captain Blue
----------------
The full powered blue fights much like his earlier versions, aside from a new
rain of lightening attack which is pretty tough to avoid.
The best method I have found is, when it starts, double jump and then kick /
punch to hang in the air *above* the effects of the lightening.
The times you are really looking to hit him is when his aura "disperses." If
you dodge one of his skull mark attacks, or if the lightening uppercut misses,
you will see the blue aura around him fly off, leaving him unprotected. Now you
can SlowZ-RHOH him to your hearts content.
He will often jump away from you and then quickly come back with a Captain Blue
kick - Mach Speed under him, and then close from behind and get some hits in.
However! As with most of the bosses, there is a cheapy cheapy oh so laughably
easy method of beating Blue senseless. The key is the dropping splash-kick you
get if you zoom in when descending in the air, then slow before you hit the
ground (and hold the slow down.) Although you can also use the Red Hot Kick, I
find this move far better for Blue.
So if this hits him, it will knock him off his feet and also, if it is up,
knock off his aura. Hitting him with the move for the first time is the only
hole in this technique - just go for it as soon as you can and get him on the
ground. Then do this move on him repeatedly until he knocked into the *corner
of the screen*.
If you had to do the move more than once to get him into the corner, be sure
that you go to the slowZ-RHOH only after you have *just* knocked his aura off.
Although you won't be able to see him so well, this next part is *vital* to
defeating him without letting him recover. When his aura comes back on, knock
it off again *and then right away* zoom out and cancel into as small a jump as
possible. Having had his aura knocked off in this way, Blue will *always*
attack either high or low - but you will be in the air. Then, right away, turn
that small jump into another plunging downward kick, which will knock him back
off his feet.
However, seeing as his aura is still off, if you slowZ-RHOH him again now it
will recover a lot quicker than before. Taking advantage of the long time he
will lie on the ground you can also recover some VFX here, and then perform the
drop jump again, after his aura has recovered again, knocking it off and
allowing you to go back to the start of the process.
Although you will have to be very careful with the order of the button presses,
making sure you follow the process precisely and using as little VFX as
possible on each move, you will find that the only hole in this method is
hitting him with the move in the first place. Although Blue is pretty easy on
the lower settings, he can be tricky on Ultra V, and this method will let you
perfect him on any difficulty.
Version History
---------------
Release 0.5 - Boss stuff based on Adult and V-Rated, as Joe. Shop translation
with a few tips. Thinking of adding some stuff once I finish Ultra-V.
Release 1 - Much updated Boss info after beating Ultra V and also getting all
Rainbows. Added the very useful tips at the beginning, bad guys stuff, fleshed
out the Shop move descriptions, generally added a lot to every section, trimmed
out even more of the waffle and really boiled down to the facts. I hope. If it
is updated again, it will probably be nothing more than just be more
streamlining.
Other Stuff
-----------
Thanks to Capcom for the best, and hardest, action game since Devil May Cry.
Getting all Rainbows is certainly more demanding than anything in DMC, but I
still can't really pick between them in terms of overall difficulty.
Gotta love all the DMC references as well. "Trigger me baby!"
In case you are wondering, all stuff relating to this game is the copy write of
respective owners and so on and so on.
Also, if you want to use this FAQ, or any part of it, or anything, please let
me know. However, I really intend for it to just stay up on GameFAQs.com.
If you have any pointers, questions, more tips, whatever, you can mail me on
[email protected]. However, as I said at the start of the boss section,
unless you have some pure gold I am not so bothered about small tips for them.
