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xxxxxHakuoki: Warriors of the Shinsengumixxxxx
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Disclaimer
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This is not a spoiler-free FAQ.
While I never actually play the Hakuoki: Demon of Fleeting Blossom,
or watch the anime adapatation. Bosses name, character description,
and strategies on this FAQ may be contain a spoiler for those who
are concerned or sensitive about spoilers.
I will, however, not go into the details about the story description
between mission in story mode, and try to keep spoilers minimum on
that.
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Table of Contents
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I. Introduction
II. How to play
A. Controls
B. Battlefield
C. Post-battle
D. Fury (Rasetsu) form
III. Characters
IV. Unlockables
A. Characters
B. Difficulty
C. Extra
V. Items and Jewelry
A. Item
B. Jewelry
VI. Bosses Strategy
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I. Introduction
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Hakuoki: Warrios of the Shinsengumi is a spin-off game from Hakuoki:
Demon of Fleeting Blossom. The original game is a visual novel otome
game set in the Bakumatsu era (roughly 1853 to 1867), centering around
the men of Shinsengumi (founded in 1863).
Player avatar is a girl called Chizuru Yukimura, and the objective
of the game is to develop a relationship with one of the heavily
fictionalized Shinsengumi members.
Warriors of the Shinsengumi, however, is a vastly different game compared
to the original game. It adopts a traditional hack and slash beat-em up
like how the currently popular Dynasty Warrior is.
Basically, you control one of the Shinsengumi members, face of against
hundred of infinitely spawning enemies, and only finish the level once
you beat the designated boss of the stage.
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II. How to play
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A. Controls
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TO grasp the basic, you can familiarize yourself with Dojo mode. It is
basically a tutorial explaining the control of the game, especially
if you are unfamiliar with hack and slash genre like Dynasty Warriors
series.
To summarize:
D-pad - camera movement
Analog - character movement
Square - normal attack
Triangle - powerful attack
Triangle (hold, then release) - charge attack
Cross - jump
Circle - "sakura" attack
L - quick camera adjust in front of you
R - guard
By pressing square numerous times, you can also deal "combos". Usually up
to4 times. This combo, while weak, is ideal for clearing a lot of enemies
when you find yourself surrounded.
You can also further combine square buttons with triangle buttons to deal
a "powerful combo". It is done by pressing triangle button before the
square button finishing attack (4th attack of square).
This combo, while powerful, sometimes leave you an opening to enemies
attack for certain characters, especially enemies with firearms. Use
with caution.
B. Battlefield
--------------
To finish a stage, there are usually "goals" you have to fulfill.
The game itself is extremely clear on this, so you should not get lost
or unsure how to finish a stage.
The goals are usually;
1) Head to designated location, as shown in the map.
2) Defeat certain number of enemies (usually 10 to 20).
3) Defeat the area boss, as shown in the map.
After combination of above, you will be presented with the stage boss.
Defeat to finish the stage, or don't approach if you still want to earn
experience or money.
C. Post-battle
--------------
Finishing a stage will earn you experience, money, and items.
Experience, like in many RPG genre, is to level up your character.
In this game, leveling up with earn your character extra health.
Attack and defense, however, with not rise as you level up.
Money and items are for crafting a jewel, and equipable item. The
item that you get alone are merely ingredients, you will need both
money and items to craft an equipable one.
Equipable item have many advantage, from the most basic one like
increasing health, attack, defense, or the borderline useless one
like changing the music to your liking.
D. Fury (Rasetsu) form
----------------------
Unique to Hakuoki setting and storyline, apparently, there is a drug
that transforms some of the characters in Hakuoki a being stronger
than ordinary human. Out of the eight playable characters, six of
them have this fury form. The characters that cannot assume fury
form are Sanosuke Harada and Shinpachi Nagakura.
The transformation to fury form happens when you lose all your health.
Reviving you with full health and stronger status. However, it is
best that you do not get overconfident after entering a fury form,
because if a stage is strong enough to overwhelm you, and make you
lose all health, you would best be very cautious, after being revived
in fury form. Treat is more like second chance to finish the stage,
rather than a strong power boost.
Beware that, however, this seems to happen on random frequency.
Sometimes, you MAY not trigger the fury form upon losing all your
life and simply treated to game over screen. It may or may not
be caused by storyline. For example, after the Memorial story mode
after Hajime Saito willingly take the drug to enter fury form, you
will always go into fury form after losing all your life from that
stage onwards.
I would advise you just to treat your first life as your last life,
playing with caution all the time, and not relying on the fury form
to trigger at all upon death. If you ever somehow die, and get
revived as fury form, play even more cautious, like I stated above.
For some reason, he has a lot of thrusting in all his attack. Thus
making it hard to connect his combo properly at times, especially
against many enemies at once.
His powerful combo has a large overhead slash after the first sword
thrust. While the combo itself is guaranteed to connect to whoever
you hit, beware that the slow overhead slash may leave you vulnerable
to firearms for a bit. Take caution when using this against boss
that has firearms enemies visible.
His sakura attack consisted of flurry of slashes, followed by couple
of thrusts, and finished with another flurry of slashes. Connecting
the thrusts into finishing slashes may be tricky at times because it
is possible to push enemy bosses too far with your thrusts, making
them too far for the finishing slashes to connect. The easy way to
make sure all of the attacks connect is to corner enemy into wall,
before unleashing the sakura attack.
Hp per level: Very low
Atk: 130
Def: 90 (lowest def)
His third square attack will lunge him forward with a wide horizontal
slash. Useful when surrounded by many enemies.
His powerful combo is very fast and cover a lot of ground, even your
back, before the wide finishing slash. Good against enemies and bosses
alike.
His sakura attack is even harder to utilize than Toshizo Hijikata, as
it begins with a flurry of thrusts, ending with a long range thrust.
Because of the far range of the finishing thrust, you can still connect
it, but it is very hard to land. To use it effectively, like Toshizo
Hijikata sakura attack, corner enemy bosses into a wall before
unleashing it.
Like Souji Okita, his third square attack will make him dash forward,
although his slash have less coverage compared to the former. Still
useful regardless, when surrounded by many enemies.
His powerful combo will connects automatically after you land the first
slash, useful against single enemy like the bosses. It does not cover
much when surrounded though, so it is best to just use his normal combo
against many enemies.
His sakura attack consisted of numerous fast and wide slashes in front
of him, followed by huge slash in the end. Not a lot of mobility, but
a very good sakura attack against enemies and bosses. The last slash
has considerable delay that will make probably miss most of the time
though. Be careful where you land the last slash, as you may give the
AI an opening that they need.
Hp per level: average
Atk: 90 (lowest atk)
Def: 95
Despite having the lowest attack and defend. He has a lot of agility
to offer. His most notable attack is his sweep / dash attack. It dash
him forward very far, and can be follow up by a slash and ending with
an upward slash.
His powerful combo also cover a lot of range, but his jumping overhead
slash is actually slow compared to the rest of his combo, and kinda
hard to connect. Still faster than Toshizo Hijikata overhead slash though.
Most of the time, the enemies should not be able to interrupt
you.
His sakura attack is very, very agile. You can move freely in his sakura
attack, unlike any other character in this game, and make sure all your
attack hits. One of the best sakura attack in this game to use against
enemies and bosses alike.
Perhaps due to his choice of weapon, his normal attack coverage is
really good. His first two normal attack will generally hit almost
everything around you.
However, his normal attack and overhead slash of his powerful combo is
very hard connect, to the point you might as well just stick with his
normal combo in all situation. If you can master his powerful combo
though, then it's really worth dishing out the damage. Still, beware that
it is kinda slow and can be interrupted by enemies like Toshizo Hijikata
overhead slash.
His sakura attack, unfortunately, is like brick compared to Heisuke
Toudou. It is consisted of series of slashes, followed by couple of
thrusts, and finished with another slash. Like his normal attack, the
spear slashes in his sakura attack can reach quite far. Unlike Toshizo
Hijikata, it is also easier to connect his thrusts into the final slash.
Another problem is Sanosuke Harada himself is hardly moving during his
sakura attack, and thus, it might miss if you unleash your sakura attack
too far. You don't need to corner the enemy bosses on the wall to make
sure all his sakura attack connects, but you would best position yourself
next to them before unleashing it.
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Unlockables
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A. Characters
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Unlockable characters are Chikage Kazama, Keisuke Sanan, and
Shinpachi Nagakura.
To unlock Chikage Kazama, finish Hijikata Toshizo Memorial story mode.
Chikage Kazama will be unlocked on Memorial story mode and skirmish.
To unlock Chikage Kazama original story mode, finish Chronicle story
mode with every Shinsengumi characters.
To unlock Keisuke Sannan, finish Heisuke Toudou Memorial story mode.
Keisuke Sannan is only useable on skirmish mode.
To unlock Shinpachi Nagakura, finish Sanosuke Harada Memorial story
mode. You may also need Keisuke Sannan to be unlocked beforehand, or
finish Heisuke Toudou Memorial story mode after.
Shinpachi Nagakura is only useable on skirmish mode.
Hp per level: Very high
Atk: 170 (highest atk)
Def: 95
A difficult character to use despite his amazing raw attack stat.
His normal combo ends with a thrust that will lunge him forward. Totally
not safe to use, honestly, because the range is very narrow. The catch
is, unlike other character, you can actually combine with normal combo
with his sweep / dash attack right after the end of his normal combo.
The sweep / dash attack will make Chikage Kazama dash in front of him
with horizontal slash, followed by back step and another dash slash,
ending with an upward slash. The move, in entirely, is very hard to
make it work properly.
His powerful combo is an upward slash, followed by couple of thrust
before doing a wide slash that will knock the enemy away. The thrust
deals a lot of damage to enemy bosses, but take not that it is very
easy to miss with due to the narrow range of the thrusts. It will
also leave you vulnerable to firearms enemies if you do not take care
of them beforehand.
In my opinion, the general idea of using Chikage Kazama is not to rely
so much on his normal or powerful combo, but his unique movement in
between combo that allows him to dash forward and backstep to avoid
enemies and scatter them, even if you cannot connect the whole combo.
His sweep / dash attack alone is very useful when you want to target
a firearms unit.
His sakura attack is very awkward to use. The first three slashes
are very, very slow, especially the third one, which will most likely
give enemy bosses time to block, or evade the rest of the attack if
you cannot land the delayed third slash.
If you can connect his delayed third slash however, what follow is a
flurry of slashes, ending with another wide slash in the end, dealing
a very painful damage due to his high attack.
However, another problem is that, like many other characters sakura
attack, you probably would not be able to connect it unless you
cornered the enemy bosses into a wall. Thus, it is not really a sakura
attack that you should rely on frequently, but can almost guaranteed
to kill boss up to hard mode, if they do not manage to block or avoid
all the sakura attack.
Hp per level: Very high
Atk: 120
Def: 110 (highest def)
Sort of powerhouse character, but slow. His third normal attack have
quite a delay, and his powerful combo first slash is probably the
slowest combo in the game.
For his powerful combo to connect, you must start a powerful combo
from third normal attack, so that you can keep the enemy in the air
until your first slash of powerful combo can land. It deals quite
a lot of damage to bosses, but considering that you have to take a
risk of landing two slow attacks in succession, be very mindful of
your surrounding before performing the powerful combo.
Surprisingly, his sweep / dash attack is quite quick, so use that
to escape If you are ever surrounded by enemies. You can also
actually connect his sweep / dash attack from normal combo without
doing the slow slash. The trick is to push the square button exactly
twice, then delay your timing a bit before pushing the analog pad +
triangle button. This way, you can have a quick 4 hits combo with
Shinpachi Nagakura.
His sakura attack consisted of two huge slashes, followed by the
slowest possible attack, ever, out of all sakura attack, despite
the long range. Needless to say, you will most likely miss this,
even when you already cornered bosses into wall, making the rest
of slashes after that irrelevant. Do not rely on this sakura
attack so much for ultimate damage dealer. Be very careful of enemy
counterattack if you did not land the third slash.
Unlike the rest of the characters, his normal combo is quite
unreliable to clear many enemies at once, just stick to his
powerful combo instead.
Uniquely, you can do his powerful combo in two ways. You can either
use square button two times before pushing triangle to do an upward
swing, rendering enemies defendless in the air, or use square button
three times before pushing triangle to do a normal wide swing to the
finishing slash. The first one is actually kinda hard to connect
though, despite sounding more useful, as it is possible to mess up
the timing combo when your enemy is in the air. I would stick to the
second variation instead.
His sakura attack consisted of couple of slashes in front of him,
followed by three huge swing of slashes as finisher. It is fast
enough for you to connect all the slashes. One of the better sakura
attack in the game, despite having less number of slashes compared
to other characters.
B. Difficulty
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Initially available difficulty are easy, normal, and hard mode.
The higher the difficulty, the more hp and defense that enemies
has, as well as stronger attack. This is particularly apparent
when you face off against a boss or getting shot by infinitely
spawning firearms unit in harder stage.
To unlock demon mode, the hardest difficulty, simply beat any
story mode on hard, be it Chronicle or Memorial. Bear in mind
that it really is not a cakewalk if you are new to the genre.
I would recommend starting hard mode only after your character
have at least two equipment slots (level 10+), and good jewels
to equip.
C. Extra
--------
Galleries and audios are unlocked as you play through story mode,
both Chronicle and Memorial.
Galleries CAN be missed, if you proceed the stage to fast. Take
your time and slowly finishing objective, and then defeat any
suspicious enemies you see in order not to miss any. I myself
still have problem getting everything unlocked in the galleries.
Each character have unique "reward" voice as you finish the game
in each difficulty, giving you the incentive to play the game
finish the game on every difficulty (easy / normal / hard / demon).
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V. Items and Jewelry
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A. Item
-------
Item is acquired by killing enemies or bosses, and they drop
randomly, and I mean VERY randomly, without any set of pattern.
No matter what difficulty you play, you can seemingly acquire
any item on any given stage. However, it holds true that the
higher difficulty you play on, the more chances you have in
getting items to make a good jewelry equipment.
On the flipside, you barely need any good jewelry on easy and
normal difficulty, you can go without and item and finishing
a stage just fine. You will definitely need them to go through
hard mode though, and most importantly, demon mode.
B. Jewelry
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Jewelry is basically the fancy name for equipable items here.
The equpable jewelry can be a straightforward raw status boost,
a boost in money / experience, a better chance to get otherwise
hard to get items, or just to change music during battle to
your favorite song of Hakuoki.
The equipable jewelry always come in three level, which are;
"slightly increase", "increase", and "greatly increase". The
items needed to craft a "greatly increase" jewelry is naturally
harder / rarer to come by compared to "slightly increase" jewelry.
To give you a picture of how it works, "slightly increase"
experience jewelry gives you extra 1 experience for every enemy
defeated, "increase" experience jewelry gives you extra 2
experience for every enemy defeated, and "greatly increase"
experience jewelry gives you extra 3 experience for every enemy
defeated. While it may not look like much on paper, the
difference will be apparent if you compare the experience gained
after defeating 50 enemies.
A more direct example would be how "slight increase" attack
jewelry gives you only 20 raw attack boost, while "greatly
increase" jewelry gives you 200 raw attack boost.
A nice thing to know about jewelry is that they do stacks, when
you equip more than one of them, whether it's raw status boost
or the money / experience boost. For example; You can get up to
600 attack boost if you equip three adamant gauntlet, or you
can receive extra 9 experience point for every enemy defeated
if you equip 3 wish charm.
On higher difficulty, you would want items that greatly reduce
firearms damage, as these bunch are really nasty on difficulty
like hard or demon. If you are brave enough, you could also just
go rambo with three adamant gauntlets, completely focusing on
killing enemies as swiftly as possible, before you get killed.
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VI. Bosses strategy
-------------------
Below are some of the unique bosses that you will encounter
throughout the stages of Chronicle and Memorial mode. This is
probably almost not necessary for easy or normal mode, but they
could really pack some punch if they catch you off-guard. As
such, I will list an effective strategy that I know of, on how
to deal with them.
Kyo Shiranui
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Recurring boss on Sanosuke Harada Memorial mode. Also sometimes
fought on other characters story mode.
Use a pair of guns, long range. His sakura attack can blow a
chunk of your health without a chance to guard. In higher
difficulty he could easily take 3/4 of your health until zero.
Being a ranged fighter, he would naturally try to gain distance
from you. Try to close the gap quickly with sweep / dash attack
whenever he gets away from you, then combo him as soon as he
try to get up.
Kyujyou Amagiri
---------------
Recurring boss on Heisuke Toudou Memorial mode. Also sometimes
fought on other characters story mode.
Use his fists to attack. His attack will frequently knock you
in the air, leaving you defendless against another attack from
him.
Capitalize on his close range, use your weapon to start
attacking him on distance and let the latter half of your combo
damages him. Watch out for his sakura attack though.
Chikage Kazama
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Recurring boss on almost every character story mode.
Final boss for Toshizo Hijikata and Hajime Saitou Memorial
story mode.
Boss for chapter 5 of every Shinsengumi Chronicle story mode.
His sword reach is quite long, but he does not really possess
a wide swing attack, making it easy for you attack him from
the sides. He attack can be quite damaging if you actually
get caught in his combo though, beware of that.
His sakura attack is hardly a threat unless you are backed into
a wall. His sakura attack delay after his second swing will
give you enough time to guard if you did not manage to do so
when he unleash his sakura attack. Do so to reduce the damage.
Kaoru Nagumo
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Exclusive recurring boss on Souji Okita Memorial mode, also
the final boss.
Honestly, He hardly has anything that stands out. His only
dangerous move is a low sweep that can caught you off guard at
times, but the damage itself is not much compared to what you
can usually dish out. Especially when you are Souji Okita in
the story mode.
Just keep using Souji Okita powerful combo, and you should be
able to take him down almost effortlessly, due to how agile
it is. If there is anything noteworthy, just be careful not
to get hit by his sakura attack. That's it.
Keisuke Sannan
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Final boss on Heisuke Toudou Memorial mode.
Even less noteworthy than Kaoru Nagumo as final boss, despite
being a playable character. Nothing really dangerous about him.
Just don't get hit by his sakura attack is all.
In the story mode, just keep using Heisuke Toudou agile powerful
combo to deal with him thoroughly.
Takamori Saigo
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Boss for the first and third stage of every character Chronicle
mode.
Use huge gatling gun. Dangerous if you let him gain distance
from you. His normal attack and sakura attack can pack quite a
punch.
However, he lacks the agility of Kyo Shiranui, making it easier
to close the gap between you and him. Just make sure you are
not surrounded by enemies while taking him down.
Kogoro Katsura
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Boss for the second and fourth stage of every character Chronicle
mode.
He is a very agile as a swordsman, and his AI would sidestep a lot
to avoid your combo, then counter attack you after your attack miss.
His fourth stage incarnation is especially nasty with a lot of
firearms enemies. He would sidestep your attack, let the firearms
hit you, then whack you with his combo.
To deal with him, make sure you kill every firearms enemies in sight
first (or just use firearms damage reducing jewelry). Then try to
corner him on a wall, so that your wide powerful combo can land
the hit even if he sidestep.
You can also wait for him to attack, then sidestep during guard
yourself (using his own trick against him), and then combo him
afterwards.
His sakura attack also packs a lot of punch and cannot be guarded
once you get hit by it. Pay very close attention when he is about
to use his sakura attack. You really, really do not want to get
hit by it.
Kodo Yukimura
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Recurring boss on every character story mode.
Joke boss. His combo will somehow stop after landing two hits, and
his sakura attack can be guarded after first two hits.
Just combo him to death.
"Ultimate Fury" Kodo Yukimura
-----------------------------
Final boss on every character Chronicle mode.
Has a very, very powerful normal combo. Three hits from him are
generally enough to take half of your health away in normal
difficulty and above. He also will back dash against your attack
quite a lot, then counter attack you after your attack miss.
However, unlike any other boss battle, the battle against him is
always 1v1, so without any interruption from enemy troops, the
trick is to simply corner him into a wall, and combo away until
he dies (since he can't back dash against your attack if you
corner him into a wall). The good "wall" to use is the large in
the middle of the map, stuck him there and combo him away until
he die.
His sakura attack is a large, aoe attack that cause a lot of
damage, and very hard to guard against (or maybe unblockable),
but the start-up of the attack is very, very slow. Making it
obvious whenever he try to use it. When you see he is about to
unleash his sakura attack. Get the heck away from him. Do not
even bother try to guard. Just run far, far away, then come
back, and attack him after he is done with his sakura attack.
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Closing
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Copyrighted December 2014, Clark Nguyen (blasster)
Hosted only on Gamefaqs.
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