jikkyou_oshaberi_parodius_a.txt

jikkyou_oshaberi_parodius_a.txt - 76 chars/line

PentaroX's Parodius 3 FAQ (v1.01 - 4/03 - see Revision History)

email: [email protected] (remove NOSHPAM before mailing)

(May be redistributed freely, but please do not spam my email address,
attempt to make money off of this, etc. You get the idea. This
document copyright 2000, by PentaroX.)

Oh yeah, and if you put this on your website or otherwise distribute
it, email me, would you? :)

You can find this FAQ at GameFAQs, About.com, and ... some other places.
Either way, there's also a copy at http://www.pentarou.f2s.com/faq/.

Parodius 3 - Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (Super Famicom)

Contents

#) Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Line | ~ %
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-----
1) Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 | 5%
2) Parodius History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 | 9%
3) Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 | 20%
4) Gameplay / Keys / Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 | 29%
5) Powerup Bar / Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 | 35%
6) Fairies / Walkthrough (Note that this doesn't exist) . . . . 634 | 91%
7) Unanswered Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 | 92%
8) Revision History / What needs to be done . . . . . . . . . . 672 | 95%
9) Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 | 98%
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-----
(Line #'s and the %'s are approximate. The file is 734 lines total.)

1. Introduction

What IS Parodius, you ask? Simply put, one of the best games
which Konami has ever released. It's a sidescrolling shooter, originally
based on the Gradius engine, but it's evolved quite a bit. The game
itself is fairly simple, and there's something next to zip in terms of
storyline (Kill Octopus. Laugh. Har har har...). However, the gameplay,
music, graphics, etc. are pretty hard to beat, especially on the SNES/SFC.

How can you get a copy? EBay. Whoo boy, good luck though.

Ask me for a ROM and I'll give you a USC Trojan Pony virus file,
which when opened will burn your toast, force your pet cat and dog to
spontaneously claw and destroy all of your furniture, and as if that
weren't enough, it also has a built-in paper shredder! ... What more
could you ask for? ... Oh yes, it has a stuffed white tiger too.

About the FAQ: I started on this sometime around December of
last year. Then I stopped for awhile. There wasn't much reason for it,
but I didn't complete it until somewhere around March 11th. Then I
uploaded it to GameFAQs, not realizing that DDCecil had just uploaded
his own FAQ ten days ago. And Cecil's FAQ was superior to mine--Yikes. =P

Anyhow, since I don't like to repeat what others have done, I'm
going to finish what you see here and release a final FAQ. The only really
important stuff which is different from DDCecil's FAQ is all the weapons/
option/etc. data for each character, which is listed out completely with
descriptions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Parodius History

I'm only going to cover the Super Famicom games. There are also
versions for the GameBoy, for the PSX and Saturn, and if I'm not mistaken,
for the PC-Engine (TurboGrafx 16) and the original Nintendo. If you want
to play Parodius, I strongly suggest that you get a PSX / Saturn import
from your local importer, because those are likely to be less costly than
a SNES cart. Unless you're a diehard van. ^_- (I meant FAN! Ack. Not
that it's bad to be a DieHard van.)

Parodius 1 - early 1990s. I think 1991?

Story: Kill big evil octopus.
("Squash the incests!" - as my anthropology professor might say)

Two player, very much like Gradius III. Had character select, and four
selectable characters - Vic Viper, Twinbee, Takosuke, Pentarou. Very
primitive, but still fun. Not to mention %@#$ing damned hard.

Amusing, but it also had a minor little boss which was ... a bald eagle
which was supposed to make fun of the USA or something like that. Tragic,
because it would have been nice to see Parodius in the US.

Oh yes. Did I mention that it had a lot of sexual innuendos? I don't
know how many of you have ever heard of Gradius 2, or even played it, but
the boss music from G2 was changed to a "strip club" sounding kind of
thing...y. Anyhow. No need to spoil things for you.

P.S. - Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R, B, A is a really great code.

***

Parodius 2 - 1994

Story: Kill big evil octopi, apparently.

A very worthy sequel to Parodius 1. Had a lot more characters, and 2P
had another set with different gfx (but equivalent weapons/powerup bars).

A little bit easier...if ... uh ... the special level wasn't so hard.

Plenty of new features. 8 difficulty levels, beat #7 to get #8, beat #8
to get... absolutely nothing. NOT WORTH DOING. ... Anyhow. There are
something like seven or eight levels, plus two special levels - one which
you get for simply beating the game, and the other which you get for either
reaching 500K points or beating the previous high score (I think).

Music is far superior, as is gfx/etc. Plenty of cameos from past games,
and parodies now include Goemon, Tokimeki Memorial, Dracula X, and some
other games. Revival (thank the lord!) FINALLY implemented, making the
game easier and probably a lot more fun, too.

***

and Parodius 3 - 1995 - is it just me or are they releasing sequels
awfully quickly?

Story: Kill more big evil octopi, and that darned bomb thingy which
blew up the ALL-NIGHT club

Quality game. Same number of difficulty levels, no new special levels
to my knowledge, adds numerous extra features. Really spiffy voice
acting. (Kind of reminds me of the Japanese Chu-Chu Rocket commercial
sometimes. "Boum! ... Nice-ah mistake!") Luckily, Konami was smart
and put in a feature for disabling the annoying male voice actor that
taunts you every so often.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3) Menu Options

Okay, I'm sure a lot of people have seen the "menu-dai-yo" or
whatever it's called. I've figured out a bit of it, since I do read a
little Japanese (I read a little Chinese, you see). Okay, actually I used
mostly trial and error until I discovered later that I could read a little
of it. Bah, whatever. :P

From top to bottom: (I -could- give you the romaji for everything,
but alas, I'm very lazy)

1. Single Player Game
2. Two Player Game (Turnbased with Revival On or Off)
3. Load Game
4. High Score List for current level of difficulty
5. A statistics page, for individual chars - on this diff. lvl *
6. Options - 1
7. Options - 2

* - See Unanswered Questions. I've only figured out a little
bit about this ...

Options - 1 has the following options (they're in English, luckily)

> Rest: Number of lives you start with. 0 through 9.
> Game Level: 1 through 7. If you beat level 7, you get number 8, which
is well near impossible. If you beat number 8...nothing.
> Controls: Shot, Missile, Bellpower keys - self-explanatory.
> Auto Shot: ON or OFF - I strongly suggest ON. Auto-shot lets you hold
down the Shot/Missile buttons to fire. For certain
characters (Mike, for example) you may wish to consider
turning autoshot off, because of the wave laser.
> Roulette: ON, OFF, or DISP -
DISP ("Display") shows roulette capsules as purple.
> Oshaberi: ON or OFF - toggles that annoying voice =P
> Music: MONO, STEREO, or OFF - self-explanatory
> Revival: Toggles Revival ON or OFF.

For information on such things as Bellpowers, Revival, etc., see the
Gameplay section.

Options - 2 has these options:

> Ranking Clear - clears rankings if you select YES
> Data Clear - clears data if you select YES
> Option-1 Initialize - I think this sets Options 1 to default every time.
> Start Round - Each time you beat the entire game is the same as one
"round." Each round is one step up in difficulty...and if
you use Difficulty 8 and Round 7, you'll be a very unhappy
guy...Also, I didn't realize it before, but I find that
DDCecil's FAQ points out that you get this by beating
difficulty 8.
> Start Stage - Again, thanks to DDCecil's FAQ - this one you get from
reaching 70/70 fairies. Pain in the %@$#...this would
have made getting 70 fairies so much easier =P

Options - 2 also tells you the number of fairies you have collected.

For those who wish to know about the flowers that Pentarou is watering,
each time you enter the Options - 2 screen, the flower animation changes.
And it loops, too. If you wanna watch it, simply select Options2, then
watch the animation, leave the screen, re-enter, and repeat.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) Gameplay, Keys, and Commands

Note: If you know how to play Gradius, you know how to play Parodius, with
two exceptions - the bellpowers and the Oh! "powerup." For information on
that see the next section (5 - powerups / etc.).

Gameplay is fairly simple. You are the character that flies around. You
kill things using the SHOT button. You kill things around you using the
MISSILE button. And then there's the BELLPOWER button. That you use for
special powers you pick up from bells, much like Twinbee. In fact, I
believe bells come straight out of Twinbee, although I've never seen it.
Anyway, you use bellpowers to kill more things.

As you go along killing things, you will notice powerup capsules. These
come in three flavors which will be discussed along with powerups, character
powerup bars, and bellpowers in the next section. Anyhow, powerup capsules...
power up your powerup bar which lets you powerup your ship and power up
your cannons and your missiles until you've powered up so much you are SICK
and TIRED of powering up stuff, at which point you either:

1) beat the game by killing yet more "things" and "stuff"
or 2) die and have to repeat the above paragraph

As you may have guessed, 2) is more likely.

The SHOT (your main gun) has several different options, which vary based
upon which character you choose. All characters have the same basic gun,
which can be upgraded to a double, which is usually an additional (or
several additional) cannon(s), or a laser, which is a powerful cannon which
tends to obliterate enemies in its path.

The MISSILE ("side" gun) also has several options which differ with
character chosen. These vary from single shots downwards, to bombs which
drop forward, to stick figures which dance the night away.

Options and Gradeups increase your Destructive Power(tm) and allow you to
kill more things. Yay. Shields prevent you from taking hits, and allow
you to kill some more things, including octopi and random penguins.

Then you either beat the game or die.

That, I think, is pretty much all that you need to know.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

5) Powerup Bar / Characters

The Powerup Bar is your one and only source for powerups. A standard
powerup bar looks something like this in Parodius (note the differences
from Gradius/Life Force/Nemesis):

[ Speed Up | Missile | Double | Laser | Option | Oh! | Shield ] [ ]

Note two differences from a Gradius powerup bar - the "Oh!" which when
selected will remove all of your powerups (including speedups!!), and the
little box at the right which shows any bell powers you are using.

Bellpowers are those bells that sometimes pop up instead of powerup
capsules. Shoot them enough and they change colors. Shoot them some
more and they cycle colors. Leave them at yellow and you get points -
if you get several in a row without missing any bell powers (i.e. without
letting any fly off the screen), your points progress as follows:

500-1000-2500-5000-10000 -> 10000 after that. Keep collecting bells and
you can pick up a bunch of extra lives.

Different colored bells give you different powers: Note that any bells
besides purple and yellow will remove any shield which you have and
disable the shield option until the power is used up.

Purple - acts as a blue powerup capsule, EXCEPT it turns all enemies
into red capsules. Very useful.
Green - makes you really Big and Scary(tm) and invincible. Run into
things, kill them, etc. etc. You have a limited time(~15sec).
Green bells are used instantly.
Blue - A *true* megacrush - the kind that destroys shots and enemies
and lasts for several seconds. You can save up to three, these
are used with the bellpower button. Uncovers fairies. I would
personally suggest that you try to collect these.
Red - An odd vertical bar that you shoot out ahead of you. It comes
out as a projectile, and then shoots out a bar up and down,
acting as a barrier which absorbs shots and enemies. And yes,
it does damage to bosses if you shoot it right on top of them.
You get three at once, and use them with the Bellpower button.
Grey - A megaphone appears in front of your character. This acts as
a shield which takes infinite hits for awhile, plus if you
press either the attack or bellpower buttons, it shoots out an
insult (literally) in front of it, which essentially increases
the length of the shield. See, length does matter. Grey bells
are used instantly and last for around the same time as green.

The cycle, I believe, is Green-Purple-Blue-Grey-Red. I may have grey and
red mixed up.

Suggestion - if you're using Winbee of Lord British, don't pick green,
blue, red, or grey bells up unless you want to lose all of your M.Shields
or Shippos. It really, REALLY sucks when you have four M.Shields/three
Shippos and they all disappear at once.

But back to powerups and such.

As aforementioned, powerup capsules come in three flavors. Most of them
are dropped by certain enemies...colored red (ooh ahh):

(Color - description)
Red - these increase your powerup bar
Purple - roulette capsule - be careful with these if you have a lot
of powerups, because bad luck can help you get the Oh!
option.
Blue - destroys all enemies, leaves shots intact though

The powerups and what they do are listed as follows:

(... Big ASCII Table Time! ...)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| SPEED UP - increases speed of your character. You NEED at least one. |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Name | Description |
|----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
| Speed Up | Increases Speed |
| S.Speed | Soitsu's Speed Up. No difference...? |
| D.Speed | Doitsu's Speed Up. No difference...? |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| MISSILE - usually the 2nd option on powerup bar. |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Missile | Direction Fired | Description | # |
|----------+-----------------+----------------------------------------+---|
| Missile | 45º down, climb | Disappears on impact. | 1 |
| T.H.Wind | 45º u/d, climb | Disappears on impact. Very useful. | 2 |
| 2.Way | 45º u/d, curves | Doesn't climb, but otherwise like above| 2 |
| R.H.Wind | 45º u/d, climb | Only 1 missile - goes on opposite side | 1 |
| | | of screen. | |
| S.Bomb | 45º d, curves | Explodes for area damage for awhile | 1 |
| Poton | 90º d, climb | Obliterates stuff in its path- POWERFUL| 1 |
| S.Missile| 90º d [climb] | Drops straight down, climbs w/ gradeup | 5G|
| D.Missile| see S.Missile | see S.Missile | 5G|
| H.Bit | Homing | Rests above & below Ran, homes in a | 2 |
| | | very curvy fashion. Lifetime increases| |
| | | with grade-ups. Very useful. | |
| M.Bomb | up to 4, 45º, | Essentially like a 4-way (see 2.Way) | 4G|
| | arcs like S.Bomb| missile. Not very useful with Mike. | |
| | | I _think_ they're powerful, but they | |
| | | don't explode!... | |
| Homing | 4 homing | Homing missiles, homes with an arc. | 4G|
| M.S.Gun | up to... ~300º | Spread bombs.--With full grade-ups | 6G|
| | up and down | Rupa is well near invincible. | |
| Rocket.P | Forward | Very odd. Goes forward, acts like | 1 |
| | | Link's Boomerang, goes through enemies.| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Note: "#" is no. of shots maximum (G = with full gradeup) |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| DOUBLE cannons - usually the third option in the bar |
| These _I_ consider "double" cannons because they shoot regular shots |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Weapon | Direction Fired | Description | # |
|----------+-----------------+----------------------------------------+---|
| Double | 45º upwards | 2nd cannon that shoots upwards. | 1 |
| Tailgun | 180º back | 2nd cannon that shoots backwards | 1 |
| 3-way | 45º above, below| Three cannons pointing forward | 1 |
| Wide |~30º above, below| Up to six cannons forward | 5G|
| S.Way | 35º to 180º fwd | Up to nine cannons forward from 3 | 3G|
| | | # of cannons increases w/ Gradeup | |
| D.Way | | Same as S.Way... | |
| H.Vulcan | 35º above, below| Homing, plus you retain orig. cannon! | 5G|
| | | Considered a "laser" | |
| Reflect | 45º above, below| Bounces off walls, plus increases in | 5G|
| | | size. ... considered a "laser" | |
| Ripple | Fwd, ~15º up/dn | Small "laser" which increases in size | 2 |
| S.Laser | Fwd, veers u/d | Two forward shots go up/down 90º if |10*|
| | | an enemy is above/below the shot. | |
| GradeUp | Varies | Upgrading your regular cannon by using | 5G|
| | Up to 30º spread| Grade Ups gets you a few extra shots | |
| | | which have a wee bit of a spread. | |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Note: "#" is no. of shots in EACH DIRECTION max (G = with full gradeup) |
| *S.Lasers have up to ten shots forward with potential for 5 up / 5 down |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| LASER cannons - usually the fourth option in the bar |
| These destroy everything in their path- complete and utter annihilation |
| |
| * All lasers go forward only! * |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Weapon | Description | # |
|----------+----------------------------------------------------------+---|
| Laser | Single, long shot which moves up & down with you, | 1 |
| | obliterating anything in its vertical path except for | |
| | harder enemies, which is annoying. | |
| T.Laser | Two shots forward which expand with distance. Useful. | 6 |
| Laser | Mike's 3rd option - like a T-laser, but starts out as | 3G|
| | one shot only, and then expands to three with gradeup | |
| | Gets some pretty good width range. | |
| Wide | Expands into a really big shot which does a LOT of damage| 2 |
| | in its path. The limit of 2 shots is particularly | |
| | restricting, so you may want auto-shot OFF. Grade-Ups | |
| | increase its width until it's somewhere around 1/2 of the| |
| | screen width--sadly, Mike isn't so great in Parodius 3. | |
| S.Gun | Doesn't obliterate everything in its path - instead it |12G|
| | explodes like a S.Bomb and does spread damage! VERY |(4)|
| | powerful, but do use with caution. Also, since this is | |
| | Pentarou/Hanako exclusive, note that technically you can | |
| | have up to twelve shots at a time with three Options. | |
| | These shots veer up and down ~30 degrees if you move | |
| | yourself up and down, which is quite useful. | |
| | (Eh...maybe I should've classified it as a "cannon") | |
| S.Laser | Up to four charge lasers. Destroys all enemies which | 4G|
| | touch you during charging. No, it doesn't destroy shots.| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| OPTION options :) |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Option | Description | # |
|----------+----------------------------------------------------------+---|
| Option | A "doppelganger" to quote the Gradius 1 manual. Follows | 4 |
| | you around, and fires the same shots that you do. Sorry | |
| | folks, no S, R, or F.Options this time around. | |
| | Winbee only gets three, I think. |(3)|
| Grade Up | Up Grades (ha, ha) your weaponry. That's about it. | 4 |
| Option | Pentaro/Hanako's special options - they work kind of like| 3 |
| | Grade-Ups, but if you move around you'll see little | |
| | penguins following you around which act as regular ones. | |
| | Also applies to Twinbee - but NOT Winbee. | |
| S.Power | Simple grade-ups. | 4 |
| D.Power | Options which seem to work as gradeups (with the d.way) | 4 |
| Shippo | Winbee's "special" options - must be selected after | 3 |
| | you have at least one option. Converts the option into | |
| | an invincible little option which also absorbs shots. | |
| | IMPORTANT NOTE - IF YOU HAVE THESE, DON'T PICK UP ANY | |
| | BELLS EXCEPT FOR YELLOW AND PURPLE! A "shippo" counts as| |
| | a FORCE FIELD, so ALL of your shippo turn back into | |
| | Options if you pick up a special bellpower. | |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| SHIELD - force fields, etc which protect you from shots |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Shield | Description | #hits |
|----------+------------------------------------------------------+-------|
| Shield | Forward shield ONLY. Fwd. coverage depends on char. | 12 |
| | D.Shield, S.Shield, and O-Trap are all Shields. | |
| | Note: Different Shields provide different amounts of| |
| | forward-facing coverage. IMHO Ran's is pretty nice. | |
| M.Shield | Lord British's shield - up to four, fwd/up/down/back.| 12-48 |
| F. Field | Force field - hits in all directions are absorbed. | 3 |
| Barrier | Essentially a force field. A little larger. | 3 |
| Bubble | A VERY large shield, which absorbs shots much like | 6? |
| | a force field. It absorbes more hits and decreases | |
| | in size with hits taken. | |
| | Note: Bubble's size only applies to the shots and | |
| | enemies which run into it. Walls and crumbling walls| |
| | (or "Cake and Cookies" =P) don't count, which means | |
| | that in the Goemon level, your bubble can "run" into | |
| | the wall, as long as you're not touching it. | |
| M.Crush | Megacrush - destroys all enemies onscreen for short | onscn |
| | period of time, including shots. Also reveals | |
| | fairies, and does a bit of damage to tougher enemies.| |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

I'm pretty sure I've listed everything, but I may have missed a few things.

So, well, email [email protected] if you find any problems. Yes, of
course I give credit to those who send me suggestions.

* * *

5 and a Half) Characters

Yes, each character has an individual powerup bar. Some are good, some are
just plain terrible. I personally like Rupa, Sue, Pentaro, Hanako, and
Lord British in particular. But anyway:

VIC VIPER - blue ship - Gradius / 2 / 3 / Gaiden

[ Speed Up | Missile | Double | Laser | Option | Oh! | F.Field ]

Some people like a double/missile + option combo. I don't know, I think
it's not as useful in this game. Yeesh, only 90 degree coverage. =P

LORD BRITISH - Um, the red ship - Life Force / Nemesis / Gradius Gaiden

[ Speed Up | T.H.Wind | Ripple | Laser | Option | Oh! | M.Shield ]

T.H.Winds, Ripples, Options, Lasers, what more do you need? The weaponry
is particularly useful in covering large portions of the screen. The
M.Shield, when fully powered up, is great, but the problem with it is
that the shields are just too big.

TWINBEE - The blue ship with boots :) - Twinbee 1 / 2 / etc etc

[ Speed Up | Rocket P. | Tailgun | 3-Way | Option | Oh! | Barrier ]

Some people like Twinbee. I personally don't. I find that the 3-way is
very annoying in that you only get one shot per direction at a time, which
is also my complaint with double / tailgun. Oh well.

Barrier isn't quite the same anymore. All it is is a force field, and a
large one at that. ... It sucks. Take it from me.

Note that Twinbee's options are not the same as Winbee's. Winbee options
act like Vic Viper's and Twinbee's act like Pentaro's. And I believe
both have a maximum of 3.

WINBEE - The red ship with boots and a heart-shaped cockpit

[ Speed Up | Rocket P. | Tailgun | 3-Way | Option | Oh! | Shippo ]

Winbee is very hard to power up properly, but the Shippo option is VERY
nice, esp. if you have three of them. Once again, remember to never-ever
pick up any special bell powers while you have Shippos active.

TAKOHIKO - Takosuke with a baseball cap. ... Is Takohiko Takosuke?

[ Speed Up | 2.Way | Tailgun | Ripple | Option | Oh! | O.Trap ]

Better than Belial IMHO, but I would use Lord British instead.

BELIAL - the yellow octopus with a red bow

[ Speed Up | Missile | Double | Ripple | Option | Oh! | O.Trap ]

Hmm. I don't really like Belial. But that's just me. Typical
stuff.

UPA - the white-diapered baby

[ Speed Up | Homing | Wide | Laser | Grade Up | Oh! | M.Crush ]

Four homing missiles is useful, but from experience, because
Upa doesn't have a shield, he doesn't get enough coverage with
his shots - EVEN with homing - leaving him quite vulnerable.

Keep in mind that Homing Missiles are "arc"-type homing
missiles, which means that they have to slowly turn before hitting
something. Ran's H.Bit is far superior and faster.

Upa was probably a lot better in Parodius 2...

RUPA - the pink-diapered baby

[ Speed Up | M.S.Gun | Wide | H.Vulcan | Grade Up | Oh! | M.Crush ]

Nearly invincible with full-gradeups, M.S.Gun, and the H.Vulcan.
Some people may not like the lack of a shield, but that's what a
megacrush is for. Because the H.Vulcan homes and the M.S.Gun gets
a spread attack, Rupa can kill just about anything that appears
onscreen.

GradeUps | Bombs / directions
---------+-----------------------------------------------
1 | two, short-range, 45 degrees above and below
2 | two, long-range, see above
3 | four, same as above but plus one up / one down
4 | six, the above plus two behind

Also note that Rupa is very weak when you start out with her. It
is essential to Grade Up ASAP, because the starting M.S.Gun and H.Vulcan
are particularly weak.

MIKE - Jellicle Cat Extraordinare, except he's brown and white and stuff

[ Speed Up | M.Bomb | M.Laser | Wave | Grade Up | Oh! | F.Field ]

Wave is useful, but because the Mousie Bomb is terrible, Mike isn't quite
the same as that pig from Parodius 2. Tragic. The force field is
incredibly cute, though. It's not that the Mousie Bomb is a bad missile,
but rather that Mike uses Grade Ups. It's just not worth it.

Then again, the pig from Parodius 2 was simply the easiest way to play,
with the Round Shot AND the Wave laser. Mike's wave laser is actually
more powerful than the pig's, but that's also what makes it bad, because
it's so darned slow. M.Laser isn't all too useful, especially when
compared to the OVERPOWERED Round Shot nine-way 3-shot/direction 360
degree cannon.

RAN - white cat

[ Speed Up | Homing Bit | Reflect | S.Laser | Grade Up | Oh! | Shield ]

Reflect is useful. S.Lasers are very useful but particularly weak. Homing
bits are GOOD. Conclusion: either you like or you hate him. :) I've never
seen a white cat flying an invisible airplane before, but I guess there's
a first for everything. Anyhow, Ran is particularly strong while you're
low on powerups, but a fully powered-up Ran isn't *that* great. The Shield,
luckily, gets a lot of coverage (almost 180 degrees above and below)

BTW, Reflect with gradeups would be my weapon of choice for Ran. They're
kinda like three-way-bouncy-lasers...'cept BIGGER, and really powerful.
On stages with lots of walls, Reflect is awesome.

If you let Ran idle for several seconds, you'll hear a kyuuto wittle Miaow
sound. Awwww.

SOITSU - green stick figures on paper airplane

[ S.Speed | S.Missile | S.Way | S.Laser | S.Power | Oh! | S.Shield ]

Unique, and has a fairly good arsenal. I don't like the missiles that
much though. Except on Level 1. Anyhow. The S.Way is really nice.
S.Lasers...are like E.Lasers with four R.Options if you've played Gradius3.
I didn't like them, but you might. Oh, and you might like his(their?)
shield...

DOITSU - red stick figures on paper airplane

[ D.Speed | D.Missile | D.Way | D.Laser | D.Option | Oh! | D.Shield ]

I prefer Soitsu. Very interesting, but this is kind of up in the air...
if you want to play one or the other, it couldn't hurt to try both.

Come to think of it, Doitsu may actually be better because of the twin
lasers, which tend to be more useful, but then again you can't run into
enemies and live. =P

PENTAROU - blue penguin

(yes, this is where my nick comes from X_X it wasn't supposed to stick,
but it did...and here I am now.)

[ Speed Up | Poton | Double | S.Gun | Option | Oh! | Bubble ]

Bubble is more useful than it was in Parodius 1/2. A LOT better.
But there is one main reason for playing Pentaro--the S.Gun.
It kills. And it blows things up. And it does area damage. Thus
Pentaro tends to be fairly powerful even without options

Also note that since the spread gun gets approximately 30 degrees of hit
range above and below, it can act very much like a double cannon. Add
to this the area damage, and you have one heck of a cannon.

If you play through level 1, you'll notice some odd dancing penguins
that jump up and down when you shoot them, which are nearly invincible.
Well, Pentaro's S.Gun can destroy them for 2500 points apiece. Other
things can be destroyed, such as:

- the satellite moai head's radar top (remnant from the big Moai
ship from Parodius 1 and 2) - around 1000 pts, I think
- Your favorite Twinbee Friend's two options which shoot out small
lasers at you. I think they're 1000 points.
- The food / candy level, those annoying circles of ... berries
or coins or whatever - the individual little pieces are 1000pts
- Kurobei's little flying plates (or Saucers if you prefer) -
the blue, red, yellow ones and the ones he/she is holding on
top of the two sticks.

I was wrong about the Bubble shield. In Parodius 3, the size of the
Bubble means that you do take hits more often, BUT you are temporarily
invincible after taking hits. Furthermore, you can run the Bubble into
the wall without taking damage to the shield. However, like a force field,
if you _yourself_ run into the wall, the shield will take damage.

This is useful in getting that annoying closed-off fairy inside the pencil
"box" (pun intended) in level 2. You can go straight through the pencils,
shoot and collect the fairy, and if you're quick enough and still have
enough shield strength, get out as well.

HANAKO - red penguin with yellow bow

[ Speed Up | S.Bomb | Double | S.Gun | Option | Oh! | Bubble ]

Lots of destructive power. I like the Poton(Proton) Torpedo's climbing
capability a bit better, though. Besides, the "Poton!" voice is cute. ;)

For info on Bubble, see Pentarou above.

MEMIM - the blue fairy girl

[ Speed Up | R.H.Wind | Tailgun | T.Laser | Option | Oh! | F.Field ]

The arsenal is almost like classic Gradius 3 fare. Very good stuff.

By the way, although Menim's sprite appears to be larger than the other
characters, her feet don't count as the part that can be shot. That,
of course, helps a lot. :)

SUE - the red fairy girl

[ Speed Up | Option | Laser | Double | Missile | Oh! | F.Field ]

Exactly like Vic Viper - but what's this?

The order is different - so in other words, if you want a character
which can be powered up easily, you should play Sue. Enough said there.
IMHO, Sue is better than most similar characters with a similar arsenal,
i.e. Belial and Vic Viper. Only problem is that missile and double are
so far down the line, and they do come in handy sometimes.

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6) Fairies / Walkthrough

-- There will be no Fairy Guide / Walkthrough, since DDCecil has done quite
a good job on one already. See his FAQ.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

7) Unanswered Questions - if you have the answer to any of these, please
send me an email ([email protected]).

> What's the difference between D.Speed / D.Power and Speed Up / Grade Up?

..I don't see much of a difference...

> How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

..161.8?

DDCecil reports that his brother has discovered that the number is exactly
1200. Wow. There IS order in the universe after all. O_o

> What are the individual statistics for individual characters?

I don't know, but the last number is the highest score that you have gotten
with said character. I think the first number is the # of times you played
as that character, not sure about the second number.

7.5) Common Questions

> Is it "Pentarou" or "Pentaro"?

They're interchangeable. Either way, it's pronounced "PEN-ta-roe." At
least, I think the first syllable is the one you stress. The "ou" is an
old-fashioned way of denoting that the 'o' is a long 'ohh' sound.

> Why can't I seem to see which character I'm selecting?

Because you're running an emulator. You need to get the cartridge. ^_-

Actually...you need transparency on. Use a 640x480 resolution mode with
lots of colors (ooh, pretty).

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8) Revision History

03/13/2K - 0.5 - Initial version. Finished half of the sections.
03/15/2K - 0.6 - Made corrections. Lots of thanks to DDCecil's FAQ for
providing information for the corrections. Also, I forgot
to add Ran's Search Laser to the weapon descriptions, and
I went through and fixed several typoes and grammatical
errors. No, I don't use spell check, I despise it.
03/17/2K - 0.7 - More corrections. Finals are over. (yay) I've updated
information on the Bubble/Barrier.
04/03/2K - 1.0 - Final version. I got tired of advancing by 0.1 each time
(grin). No, this version won't be final if there's more
stuff which ends up being discovered.
07/14/01 - 1.01- Just noted a change of email. Nothing new otherwise.

What needs to be done:

-> This is it, pretty much final.

-> Answer Unanswered Questions, especially the one about the tootsie pop

-> I've discovered that if you leave certain characters idle, you hear a
sound or two...try leaving Ran idle for a few seconds, and he(she?) will
meow. I've found that this is true for both Ran and Mike. Other than
that, nobody seems to make any idle sounds. So I guess there isn't much
that needs to be done _there_.

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9) Credits

DDCecil's FAQ for valuable information on the third menu option, and on
acquiring Stage / Round Select.

9.5) Conclusion?

Thank you for taking the time to read through this.

Until next time (or until a Hello Kitty doll decides to cause another riot
in Singapore and/or Taiwan for the good of mankind),

- PentaroX ([email protected])