Sakura Wars 3 (aka Sakura Taisen Suree) ------------------------------------------ Paris is Burning (No, not that documentary!) -------------------------------------------- The lowest quality FAQ you never dreamt By Forrest "DUNOTS" Walker ++++++++++++++++++++++++ DISCLAIMER OF SOME SORT ++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is a faq for fun but NOT profit. So no one sue me. This FAQ is also copyright: Forrest Walker, 2001. But feel free to put this faq wherever you like... AS LONG AS YOU ASK ME. Okay? Cuz' I wont say no as long as you credit me. I just wanna know. That said, have fun, skippy! +++++++++++++++ END DISCAIMER +++++++++++++++ Table O' Contents ------------------ 1) Updates 2) Explanation 3) History of ST 4) Characters 5) Guide A) LIPS B) Battle C) Bonus game type thing 6) Thoughts 7) Jazz Musician ------------------- Part One: Updates ------------------- 3/26/01 - v.00 Everything. The game only came out 4 days ago, okay? And it had to be shipped. From Japan. Sheesh. 3/27/01 - v.01 James dictates a letter / we do our first update. You are the expert sniper, and the greatest of all Power Stone warriors. Okay, James... this update contains a bunch of the F2 super attack names, as well as a bunch of data on the enemies' robots. Various little things fixed. 3/29/01 - v.021 It's 12:01... that's really the 28th... Fixed some little things, added data on the final boss and such, updated the Long Day section, put more interesting things about the girls. ---------------------- Part Two: Explanation ---------------------- We beat the game. Go us. As I'm tired of having to continually update this, I'll just put a general Explanation. This was at first made to be a quick litle FAQ for all those who have/might/will have the game and don't know Japanese. It's slowly becoming more than that. Yay. -------------------------- Part Three: History of ST -------------------------- ST is Sakura Taisen. Here's a brief history. For a full timeline, I suggest you head to Ming's Sakura Wars site (http://pei.physics.sunysb.edu/~ming/anime/sakura.html). It's rather comprehensive, and a fun place to boot. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ /\/\/\/\/\/\ WARNING! SPOILERS OF ST 1 & 2 AHEAD! /\/\/\/\/\/\/\ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ In 1913 - 1918, there was this thing called the Demon (Or 'Kouma') War. Big nasty demons came down and attacked Japan, and ostensibly, the world. The four great heroes of this war were: Ikki Yoneda, the oldest of them, and a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War. Great guy, and a drunk to boot. Ayame Fujieda, a nice and somewhat motherly woman, though still sexy in an odd sort of way. Last to join. Shinnosuke Yamazaki, a real Sephiroth type, and as far as I can tell, Ayame's lover. Second to last to join. He helped design the Oubu with Kazuma, I think. Kazuma Shinguuji, who formed the team along with Ikki. He helped design the original Ryoushi-kachuu (bless you), and is Sakura's father. Now, these guys were awesome. Seriously. They took out a big nasty demon alone, just the four of them. You guys have to have the aid of big robots AND higher numbers. Wowsers. Anyway, they have the "Ni Ken Ni To," which basically means "Two Swords, Two Blades." Two plus Two equals four, so each of them had one. This comes into play later. So they beat the kouma, but Kazuma dies, and Yamazaki disappears. Nonetheless, Ikki and Ayame go on to create a countermeasure against future evil. They get Count Hanagoji to assist on the military side, and the Kanzaki Heavy Machinery corporation to help on the industrial side. In 1919, the first successful test drive was made of the Oubu, which is a type of "Ryoushi kachuu," (gesundheit) or Spirit Armor. Basically, they're 10 foot tall robot suits with tailpipes... Anyway, it was done by Sumire Kanzaki, the granddaughter of the guy who owns the company. Her color is Purple. See, she has the spirit power, and you have to have it to use these things, for whatever reason. Meanwhile, Ikki has the "Daiteigekijou," I think. The big imperial theater. It's in Ginza. So in 1922 the "TeikokuKagekiDan, Hana-gumi" is formed. That is to say, Imperial Floral Assault Squdron, Flower Division. Yeah. It's pretty silly. Anyway, They're normally an all-girls theater group, but secretly its the super-anti-evil-robot pilots. Because, see, there's a homophone for TeikokuKagekiDan (Henceforth: Teigeki) that means Imperial Floral Teater Group, though it looks different. And the bad guys don't get it, somehow... Anyway, it's led by Ikki and Ayame, and Sumire is in it, of course. Then there are the other three. First is Maria Tachibana, a half Japanese Russian who fought in the 1917 revolution. Her color is Dark Blue/Black Then there's Iris Chateuxbriand, a little French girl with massive psychic power. Her color is Yellow. And Kanna Kirishima. a 6'6" Okinawan martial art expert. (My favorite) Her color is Red. Then they find the daughter of Kazuma, Sakura. She's the main character, and has in her the power to expel evil, as all of her lineage does. You're supposed to like her. Her color is Pink. And finally, there's the cute purple-haired Chinese girl, Kohran Li, who invents all manner of fun things and maintains the Koubu, which are better versions of the Oubu. Her color is Green. So then there's you, Ichiro Oogami, a hapless Naval enseign (is that spelled right?). His color is White/Silver Good god, he's a goober. Really. While he gets better, he's a total boob most of the time, and can't resist peeping on girls in the shower. Anyway, he's the ONLY man who seems to have the spirit power. You have to clip tickets like a little punk. So there's this guy, Kuroki Satan, and he revives Tenkai, who's some evil guy who hates the Tokugawa or something. Anyway, he assembles the "Kuronosukai," or Hive of Darkness. There are five of them, including Satan and Tenkai. Tenkai, the leader. Kuroki Satan, a guy who looks familiar and has ulterior motives. Kurenai no Miroku, the 'sexy' one. Rasetsu, a grey guy with a chainsaw and a swastika on his forehead. Aoki Setsuna, an evil kid with claws. So they have these dudes called the "MaSouKiHei," Which means something, but I call them "EvilRobotDivers," because that's what they look like. And they put wierd looking things in the ground by saying "UmkirikiribasaraumbattaUmkirikiribasaraumbatta..." They're making the Patriarchal Cross, which apparently has the effect of breaking lots of stuff. You win, great. Then Satan comes back as Aoi Satan, and has three goons, based on a specific combination of Hanafuda Cards, Inoshikachou (Which is worth 6 points). Inoshishi, the boar. He has fire. Shika, the deer. He has Ice. Cho, the butterfly. She (I think and hope) has Electricity. Satan gets the Majinki, the three treasures of Japan, by doing some wierd long-range seducing of Ayame. She kisses him and becomes... uh, Ayame. Her name looks different now, and apparently means evil lady. So he uses these treasures to make a big island and it has a big purple gun and you have to stop him. So you go, and all of your characters die (I do mean DIE.), except you and your favorite girl. You fight Ayame, and beat her. Then Satan's about to kill you, but Ayame saves you and dies. Then you beat him. And he turns into Satan, as in, the Devil. THE DEVIL. Then Ayame becomes the archangel Michael (!!!!!) and revives all of your dead teammates and helps you kill THE DEVIL. She says for him to go to Heaven again, but he says piss off and fades away. And then Ayame leaves. The end. You've just beat up THE DEVIL, by the way. Then, a while later, you get a new member, Soletta Orihime, a half Japanese, half Italian girl who hates Japanes men because of her father. And she talks funny. Her color is Fuschia, or Magenta, I guess. And you get Leni Milchstrasse, a German boy (!!) who was in experiments to turn him into Ayanami Rei... His color is Blue. He has a cool secret I'm not spoiling. It's too good. They're both from the "Hoshi-Gumi," or Star-Division, of your group, which was in Europe. They use Eisenkleid, which means Iron Clothes (basically) in German. It's like your Koubu, but they look different. That's about it. So you have to fight Satan again. It turns out he's Yamazaki. Then a guy kills him and takes his sword. This is Oni Ou. This means demon king. He's cool. Then Ikki gets a secretary, Saki. She's a slut. And there's Kayama, who's an old buddy of Oogami's and a total badass. And a secret agent. Some stuff happens, you go on a vacation, you meet the protectors of the Majinki: The Bara-Gumi (Rose division.) All are male. All are rather... feminine, let's say. Ayame's sis, Kaede, joins up. The bad guy in this one turns out to be Kyougoku Keigo, a high-ranking military man. Oni Ou is his main goon, and is also Kazuma Shinguuji. Doh! Kongou is the master of lightning. Mokujiki has wood. Kasha is well dressed and has fire. Tsuchi-Gumo has earth. Suiko has water, and is Saki. Double Doh! You seal off the evil with Ni Ken Ni To, the end, life rules. But you have to go to Paris to Join the PariKagekiDan, which is headquartered in the "Chattes Noire," which is basically a cabaret. New story entirely, new characters. How interesting. Alright, now that that ultra-long section is over, let's move on to... ---------------------- Part Four: Characters ---------------------- Name: Ichirou Oogami Stage Name (Which I made up): Incompetent Boob Age: 23 DOB: 1/3/1903 Height: 176cm (5'9") Weight: 65kg (143lb) Blood Type: A From: Japan He's you. And you are an idiot. But a good leader. Anyway, he just got into Paris after a MONTH of traveling, and boy is HE tired. He's the hero of Sakura Taisen. That's really all there is to say, except that ladies LOVE him. I mean, really. Oh, and his element is lightning, and his color is White or Silver. Name: Erica Fontaine "Une soeur novice dans un monasterie." Age: 16 DOB: 8/15/1909 Height: 156cm (5'1") Weight: 45kg (99lb{!! I could THROW her!}) [Um, don't tell the girls I told their weights, okay?] Blod Type: A From: France This is the girl to replace Sakura, basically. She's twice as ditzy, and eight billoin times clutzier. Her color is Red, and she loves her some Jesus. The call her "Sister" sometimes, and she TELLS you to thank God at one point. Her, um, element is healing. Anyway, she uses a (Cross shaped...) machinegun, in her Koubu, and on her TEAMMATES... must be rubber bullets. She also has this wierd habit of temporarily assuming the accent of whoever she's talking to, especially if she's just met them. Yes, people get freaked out by it. Name: Glycine Bleumer "La fille de la famille Bleumer, descendante des Ducs de Normandie" Stage Name: Blue Eye Age: 16 (What?) DOB: 4/18/1909 Height: 161cm (5'3") Weight: 46kg (101lb) [God, they're light!] Blood Type: B From: France See, her color is Blue. And Mer means Sea. And she uses water as her element. .... Anyway, the Bleumer family is apparently pretty prestigious, and so she has to keep up the name. And there's an old lady named Trebel (To Re Bu...) at her house. Basically, she's all business, and gets angry easily. And she hates Japanese, though her friend Hanabi is Japanese... She chooses to fight with an Axe. And a shield. Name: Coquelicot (Ko Ku Ri Ko, Japanesified) "Une jeune fille originaire du Vietnam..." Stage Name: Magical Angel Coquelicot Age: 11 DOB: 10/10/1914 Height: 142cm (4'8") Weight: 36kg (79lb) [She has an excuse: She's a kid.] Blood Type: A From: Vietnam Aww, the cute little girl of this game. She lives in a circus, and is much cooler than Iris. Anyway, her color is Pink, and she has the element of magic, I guess. She calls herself "Magic Angel Coquelicot." She is also the only character who EVER calls Oogami by his first name, Ichiro. Unbelievable. Oh, and she fights with, uh, cat... missles... Name: Lobelia Carlini "Un mauvais garçon comme Paris n'en a jamais connu" Stage Name: Saphiel Age: 20 DOB: 11/13/1905 (Two days after mine... go Scorpios!) Height: 179cm (5'10") Weight: 64kg (141lb) [Must be all muscle...] Blood Type: AB From: Transylvania (!!!!!!!!) Holy crap. Okay, first off, she's a wanted FELON. As in, ruthless criminal. Then there's the way she looks... And then you find they kept her in a 15 meter deep PIT, so she couldn't escape. And then she THROWS FIRE... with her MIND. And she has done enough to warrant a prison sentence... of 1000 years!! Holy geez. Anyway, her color is green, and she fights with claws. Name: Hanabi Kitaoji "La fille de la maison des barons japonais Kitaoji" Age: 17 (Ack! This meant she was getting married at 16!) DOB: 5/22/1908 Height: 158cm (5'2") Weight: 46kg (101lb) Blood Type: O From: Japan She's really quite depressed. You see, her fiancee, Philip, died the day they were to be married. That's terrible. Anyway, she's an old friend of Glycine's and she even lives at the Bleumer estate. She's the quiet type, and Oogami saves her from commiting suicide. Her color is Black. She uses Arrows. She can apparently freeze time. ********************** *Secondary Characters* ********************** Name: Grand Mere Job: PariGeki commander/Owner of Les Chatte Noires The fat, blonde lady with a cat. She's pretty cool. At first I thought her name was GrandMa (Gu Ra N - Ma), but then I looked in the booklet... Anyway, she is your boss, plain and simple. And she carries that cat all over the place. Well, whatever. Listen to her, and do it well. Name: Norimichi Sakomizu Job: Head of the Japanese Embassy That pretty much sums it up. He's one of the first guys you meet. He has a mustache and a funny haircut. He, um... does stuff. Yeah. But try asking him about the Revolver Cannon... Name: Mell Raison Job: Grand Mere's Secretary She takes care of business around Les Chattes Noire, along with Ci. They're kind of inseparable. Anyway, Mell does more of the waiting and paperwork kind of stuff, I think. She's classier, and very intense. She's the one with blue hair in a sort of duck tail, and intense eyes. Name: Ci Caprice Job: Grand Mere's Secretary She has lots and lots of orange hair, and is ultra friendly. She even calls you Mr. Samurai, because you're from Japan... Anyway, she sells you bromides and such. That's her end of the deal. Name: Jean (or John) Job: Mechanic He's John Goodman. Anyway, you can tell who he is by the wrench he's always carrying. He loves to drink, too. He takes care of your stuff, and is a great guy. He also invents things, like the spirit-power-ometer in Episode Five. He also made Eclair, your bullet train, and Eclair Forte, the better version. Name: Evian Job: Detective He's the fat guy in the trechcoat who's always on the lookout for Lobelia. He's also an idiot. Name: Trebel (I think) Job: Old Hag She seems to be the head of the Bleumer family or something. She makes you dress up like a maid and can't tell when you're making fun of her. Name: Father Renault Job: Priest He's the local priest at the convent/monastery where Erica lives. He says "Hai" at the end of his sentences. James called him "pensive." ********** *Villians* ********** These guys, the Kaijin, are odd, to say the least. They are all based on some sort of animal, and it almost seems as if they leapt out of Alice in Wonderland. Some of them look human at times. The scorpion girl always does. They also have wierd psychoses, and none of them seem to have any bearing on any of the others. But they all have robots and the same kind of goons... Name: Ciseaux (Shi-zo), or Scissors, but you guys call him Mr. Rabbit Animal: Rabbit Psychosis: Hates when people are happy. Robot: Prelude He ends his sentences with "pion." Apparently this is French for "pawn," but that really makes no sense... Anyway, he has a pink suit, though he ruins it with an ugly yellow vest. He also carries around giant pruning shears. I guess he liked Clock Tower. Name: Python (Pi-tan), Coquelicot calls her Mama Animal: Snake Psychosis: Likes to eat gems. (!!) Robot: Berceuse You can tell who she is from a mile away, so I'm not spoiling anything... Anyway, she likes to eat jewels for some unbeknownst reason, and she can apparently turn people into them somehow. When she looks like a snake, it mostly just makes her face freaking vile looking. Name: Leon (Le-awn) Animal: Lion (duh) Psychosis: He's a jerk. Robot: Marche That's pretty much his deal. he almost hits Coquelicot, and he wants to take the Bleumer fortune. He looks like a regular guy most of the time, albiet with an eyepatch. Again, I haven't spoiled anything, because its dreadfully obvious who he is, if you watch the opening sequence. Name: Nadelle (Na-de-ru) Animal: Scorpion Psychosis: Loves to destroy paintings Robot: Nocturne What the hell? What a strange lady... So, the only thing that makes her look like a scorpion is the red scorpion tattoo on her chest, and the big clawy thing sticking up off her clothes. She holds the "Mosa Lina" (.... no comment on that one, guys) hostage, but then Lobelia burns it up! It turns out it was a fake. They ask Lobelia how she knew it was fake. She didn't... Name: Masque de Corbeu, or Mask of the Crow Animal: Crow, obviously Psychosis: Loves Hanabi's deep, dark depression and pathos. Robot: Serenade Well, maybe he loves it in general, but he goes after her. And he's a wierdo. He makes her think he's Philip. Then he makes you fight him on a ship. I think it's the Titanic, but it's just a stage. He also likes Opera, and can apparently manipulate illusion. (To the point at which it can KILL you.) Name: Calmar Animal: Squid... though shouldn't he be a caterpillar? Psychosis: Megalomania Robot: Symphonie He's bad. He's the leader of the Kaijin, and they think that they should be ruling Paris, not regular people. To accomplish this, he awakens some awful thing called Obscure, which burns and freezes Paris. Name: Saryu, Saliue? (Sa RiYu) Help.... Animal: Uhh.. wait, she's a jester.. that's not an animal.. Psychosis: Making people's hands glow Robot: Aubade She's weird and quiet, and foreboding, and you'll see a lot of her, but she won't really come into play until after you beat Calmar. Then she'll wake up O.A.K., the biggest evil oak tree you never dreamt, and it'll start taking root all through Paris. She uses the power of the Parishi (Huh?), whose spirits have been reincarnated or something. It makes little sense, to me at least. ----------------- Part Five: Guide ----------------- Here's where I explain how you're supposed to play this game. If I don't explain it, that means one of three things: 1) I thought it was too obvious. 2) I don't know, either. 3) I forgot. Anyway, let's begin. First, you have the title screen. Once you hit start, you are presented with a funny little screen. Pick a VMU that has a data, or if it's your first time, pick one with enough room. Then, it gives you some choices. 1) Begin Game: Move on to the main screen with this system file. 2) Copy System File: Duh. 3) Delete System File: Yeah, you probably oughtta hold back on this one. 4) Sakura Taisen 1 File Import: Apparently what you did in One has some effect on Three. You can bring Won-With-Character data from whatever card. That is, if you have the DC version... you DO, don't you? 5) Sakura Taisen 2 File Import: Same deal, yo. 6) Cancel There. Here, I'll list them. 1) New Game: I refuse to explain this. 2) Continue: You pick a save file to load. 3) Load a data saved during a fight. 4) Options 5) A Long Day in Paris: The bonusgame thing. I'll get back to it later. What's in options? This is in options: OPTIONS 1) Cursor speed, I think. 2) Sound: Stereo or Mono. 3) VMU... sound, I guess. 4) I dunno. 5) It's grey. SYSTEM 1) System File Load 2) ST 1 & 2 data import QUIT Great. Now we can move on to other things. --------- A) LIPS --------- LIPS is an acronym. It stands for.... um.... something. Basically, this is how you play most of the game. You stand around, listening as people yammer on, then you get to pick what to do. You get to move on the map, too, but I don't know if that counts as LIPS... Anyway, there are many different kinds of LIPS, and I will atempt to describe all of them. Of course, I won't tell you what to pick and when, as I don't even really know myself most of the time... You know, not fluent in Japanese... What good are LIPS? Well, they alter the outcome of the game. Sometimes directly, but usually indirectly. That is to say, what you say and do will affect how easy the battles are. Getting points with the girls in the PariGeki will make them better in combat, (losing points does the opposite) and sometimes change what they do or say. Getting points with everyone else makes YOU better in combat, which is a new feature for 3. They dropped, however, what I call the "Oogameter," which judged how playful/serious you were and affected what you could say... Also, the girl you are "winning with" is determined by who has the most points, and sometimes by which Epsode you're in. *********** Normal LIPS *********** You have a limited amount of time in which to choose one of 1 to 3 things. Doing nothing is also (but usually a wrong) an option. Sometimes you're picking what to do, but usually you're picking what to say. The timer will be different on different ones. Usually when it's very fast, you need to do something. If it's very slow, you should probably do nothing, though these are hardly rules... *********** Untimed LIPS *********** See the difference? Anyway, this is usually for when you're thinking to yourself and want to decide where to go/what to do, or when you're getting briefed before a battle. Usually, if you keep picking the top one, you'll get to them all eventually. The bottom one is almost always "No thanks," "I'm done," or something to that effect. ********** Double LIPS ********** They first appeared in 2, and they're still around. Basically, a big LIPS counter appears around the edge of the screen and you've got to do stuff before it runs out. What you do varies. ********* Click LIPS ********* These are never timed unless it's part of a double LIPS. Basically, there's your field of vision, and you can click on stuff to do things. Sometimes this sparks a LIPS, or leaving. Usually it just causes either you or someone else to say something. Closed Eyes Cat: Nothing Here. Looking Cat: You can click on this to take a look. Yawning Cat: You can talk to someone. Walking Cat: At the edge of the screen, you can leave, sometimes. Grasping Claw: You can take something. Knocking Cat: You can knock on a door (That's pretty specific, huh?) Blushing Cat: You can look at some boobies. (Even more specific!) People usually get pissed if you do this... too much. ********** Analog LIPS ********** NEW FOR 2K1!! ... Anyway, this is one of my favorite new features. It's called Analog LIPS for a reason, and it's the same reason you couldn't have it in ST1/2. You have to pick an amount. Usually it's volume of yelling or whispering, but it can be shaking hands, or toucing glasses together, or any number of things. It says what you're doing, and the big window around it is blue on the bottom, white on top. Using the Analog stick (Or the D-Pad, but it's really hard), you adjust how much you want to do. Up is more, down is less. It just depends. At one point you shake Erica's hand. Shake it lightly! Well... you get the point. ********* Battle LIPS ********* It's basically just Untimed LIPS, but it's between two battle plans that you've been presented with. Don't worry, you'll be able to know when you have this kind, because it looks totally different from other LIPS. See, it looks kinda like your Koubu. If you've seen them, you'll know when you hit these. Nice part is, THERE'S NO WRONG ANSWER! Yay. ********* Map Events ********* It's not really LIPS, but sometimes, on the external map, you'll suddenly see someone standing there, with a word balloon. You have a limited amount of time in which to hit A before you pass them up. Usually you want these, as it gives you a chance to get more points. I think that on a few rare occasions, though, these will mess you up, so be careful. ******** The Clock ******** Sometimes, you have a limited amount of time in which to do things. There will be a clock to tell you what tim it is. Every thing you do takes five minutes, and moving around takes no time whatsoever. (o_O) Keep this in mind, as you have to make it places on time sometimes (good luck... you'll need it.) ********* Tea Parties ********* These really deserve their own category. It's basically a Click LIPS A) But only with Yawning Cat B) With a Clock. Not a timer, a clock. C) With girls sitting around drinking tea.... These are goofy. You have to talk to the girls in such a way that they don't get mad at you. Perhaps they want you to talk to them evenly. Perhaps they want you to do it in a specific order. Perhaps you have to talk to the correct one last. I really don't know. Figure it out on your own... or should I say, lose points on your own. Oh, well. I just have to learn Japanese. Well, that's it for LIPS and such. Now, we move on to.... --------- B) Battle --------- Alright! Fighting! Frankly, this is the bit I most actively enjoy, but I'm a SRPG fan... Okay, here's how the battles work. It's totally different, and dare I say, better, than ST1 & 2. All the fighting happens on a rather large map, and you have to get around and kill all the enemies. It shows the action from something like overhead, and you can adjust the angle by hitting up or down on the D-Pad, and rotate it with L and R. So you have this big bar at the bottom that's all green and segmented and pretty. Now, if you're a veteran of ST, you go, "Hey, how do I pull up the actions menu? Where are the squares on the ground?" The answers: "You don't" and "Gone" respectively. Now, you have a big action bar with the different actions taking up varying costs. This is awesome. Okay, here's the lowdown. On the far right is your status bar. Blue is Health, Red is Super charge. With a full bar of red, you can do it. But when you do it, you lose all the bar. This bar, however, fills back up as you get hit. You can also charge it. Along the segmented bar (Which can be of varying amounts of segments, depending on how well you've done) are buttons. However many blocks away from the left it is is how much doing that action costs. Attacking always takes one for each button press, and this includes supers. You can also charge Super, defend, and heal. All of these can only be done once per turn. Charging super is self-explanatory. Defending works until that person's next turn, as always. Healing hits you OR any character(s) immediately in front of you. Any lifebars you see will be healed. Note that unlike in ST 1 & 2, you can now heal as many times as you want (as far as I know); it just takes a lot of action. Moving is done by moving the Analog Pad. Simple enough. You can also move at any time, so you can attack, move, attack, and possibly even move again. However, instead of spaces, you have distance. Everyone has their own ratio of distance/action bar. Some people, like Glycine, are slow. Coquelicot, on the other hand, can move farther for each bit. An interesting fact, however, is that you can get movement back by going closer to the point of your origin. This is because it treats distance moved as a simple distance from your starting point. This makes sense, so that you can shuffle around and see where the best place is. Unlike ST 1 & 2, however, you can use this to effectively cheat. If there's a wall in front of you, you can walk real far to get to the hole in it, then go back to where you were, getting movement back. But on the other side of the wall! This is excellent for obstacles of any kind. Which brings me to another point. You can't go through each other anymore. That pretty much balances the goofy helpfulness of the movement measuring, so be careful. Another thing to remember is that sometimes jostling about can get you through tight squeezes, or move that vase you desperately need to. Attacking is also redone. You still have ranges, but now they're treated like movement. Basically, you've got this little grey upside-down cone with rainbow sides that precedes you. With some, like Oogami, it's right in front of him, so you have to get up on them. People like Hanbi, on the other hand, have a very large range, and so the targeting cone hangs way out in front. You can also hit anything closer than the maximum range, of course. You target things by facing them. When you get the cone on or past an enemy, it immediately goes "Beep" and sits above them. (Tip: If you play with getting JUST into range, you can save valuable action meter tis way.) This activates your hit area. This is also handled very well. A patch of ground will begin to glow yellow, and lines at the edge will float upwards. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean. Anyway, anything inside this area will be hit. How do you know if sometihing is inside it, other than your taget? Simple. A ball floats over their head. If it's green, they're healthy. Yellow means they're in danger, and red means its potentially possible to kill them. Everyone has different areas of effect. Oogami's is just a little tiny circle that can only POSSIBLY hit one thing. Coqulicot's extends out from her in a circle. So on, so forth. When you switch to Super (Only when your bar is full), You have the same thing, but with a different pattern, and instead of yellow, it's red. Erica's super heals, so you have to target your friends. And if you are in Super mode at the end of your turn, you'll be in it until you go back. So you attack by hitting the attack button. If it's a super, just wait for it to be done. A regular attack, however, is very VERY different. In this game, you can keep hitting the button to chain more attacks on. You can go up to five. Now, this is extremely useful. While a five-part attack costs a whopping five sections of action, it's also much, MUCH more powerful that attacking five times. If at all possible, do as many hits as you can. There are exceptions, though. After a while you'll get a feel for how many hits will do so much damage. So when you see the monster's bar, evaluate how many attacks you think it will take. Of course, you won't know exactly, so if you think that it'll take 3 or 4, do 3. If it doesn't die, do another, and it will. That way, if you've underestimated your power, you save a section you would've wasted. Make sense? Oh, and the team supers are still around. That is to say, if your favorite girl, or the one whose episode it is stands next to you, or you stand next to her, and you put that character into super mode, you can do a team super. They always have a huge circular attack pattern, and it's colored purple. It's very powerful, too. Very very very. Oh, and it drains both of your bars, but I strongly suggest you do them, both for the strategic and amusement values. And here are benefiets of teamwork: Sometimes, as soon as a combo reaches its third hit, the attacking character will call another character who is within (their own) range to attack the enemy for an assist. It's pretty cool, and does high damage, but usually only characters who like each other do it. Lobelia, for example, barely ever does them, as she is a jerk. (heh) Usually it goes about like this: Glycine: Hanabi! [Glycine's picture appears before whooshing lines] Hanabi: Wakarimashita! (Understood) [Her picure appears next to or below Glycine's] But sometimes you get this: Coquelicot: Kochi kochi! (A taunting or cute sort of way of saying "here, here!") Erica: Dochi dochi? (She applies the same attitude to "Where, where?" That is silly.) Also, you can save each other. For example, Lobelia may be about to get hit. Suddenly, there's a blue flash, and the screen gets capped by words, and someone's picture appears while they shout something. Whatever character it was will suddenly smack the offending enemy, saving Lobelia from all damage. It also takes away all their action meter. The same conditions apply to this as to the assists, and I've never seen it happen on a boss, and never before disc 2, for that matter... Also note that the VMU shows the map normally, and shows status and damage during atacks, and the name of the super when they shout it. Cool! ******* Controls ******* Analog Pad: Move. Pushing in harder makes you move faster. Left/Right: Cycle through targetable things. This is very useful Up/Down: Change camera angle Up, Up: Go to Camera mode. here you can hit left and right to cycle between objects, A to see their range, X to see their Attack area, and Y to see their Super area. B or down take you back. L/R: Rotate the camera. A Button: Attack B Button: Charge super bar/switch between normal and super mode once the bar is full. Switch as much as you like... X Button: Defend Y Button: Heal Start: Pull up your secondary menu. Here, you can do some interesting things. I'll describe Oogami's menu, from left to right. Take Back: You take back what you did. You can only do this as long as the used action is still red. Pass: Next! Status: You can look at the status of various people by pushing different directions. Map Info: Mel tells you stuff about the map. The Protects: Oogami Only. You can protect one girl of your choosing up to three time. You can switch it on your turn. Taichou: Oogami Only. You get to pick various modes for your characters to fight in. However, these modes don't do quite the same thing they did in 2... Wind: Good for movement. Healing and Charging are cheaper, I beilieve. You lose defending. Grass: Normal. Fire: Attack! Charging is dirt-cheap, but defense is much more expensive. You lose healing. Mountain: Heavy D! Defending is much cheaper and healing is at its cheapest. But you can't charge. (Note: You can change this as much as you want on Oogami's turn. Utilize this. For example: Mountain, Defend, Fire, charge, Grass, finish turn. It's like cheating!) System: Options, Save and Quit ****** Koubu ****** Ah, Koubu! Bane of evil robots everywhere! Ahem. Anyway, each of your characters has their own Koubu, which is a suit of robot armor that stands about ten or twelve feet tall and has a pair of funny sensor eye things. In this game, you have Koubu F's. I think the F stands for France. Later, they get upgraded to Koubu F2. (Oh no! No F3!) Also, when they become F2, they each become very different from each other, which is a first for Sakura Taisen, as all times previously, each Koubu just had a different weapon and color. Also, not that they have interesting paint jobs. For example, Erica has a yellow cross, like on her (goofy) outfit. Everyone else has a stripe down the left side, and Lobelia has evil eyes, and upon upgrade, a scary mouth painted on her Koubu. Here's the data on your Koubu. I don't have the name of the supers right now, as they're almost all in French and I find them hard to remember, but I'll put them up eventually. Name: Ichiro Oogami Koubu F Weapon: Two Swords Range: Close Pattern: One enemy Super: Shippuu Jinrai S. Pattern: A small circle around him Koubu F2 Weapon: Two swords... and more fury! Range: Close Pattern: One enemy Super: Kokoun Butou S. Pattern: A medium sized circle around him Name: Erica Fontaine Koubu F Weapon: Cross-shaped machine gun. Range: Long Pattern: Circle around target Super: Sacre de Lumiere, or consecration of Light (Healing) S. Pattern: Big cross extending back towards her Koubu F2 Special Thing: Wings (!!) Weapon: Gatling gun Range: Long Pattern: Big circle around target Super: Grace Au Ciel S.Pattern: Really big cross extending back towards her Name: Glycine Bleumer Koubu F Weapon: Hand axe and shield Range: Mid Pattern: 2 or 3 space deep line in front of her Super: (Wave of water) S. Pattern: Wave extending out in front of her Koubu F2 Weapon: Axe and buckler Range: Mid Pattern: 2 or 3 space deep line in front of her Super: Furie Neptune S. Pattern: Bigger wave extending out in front of her Name: Coquelicot Koubu F Weapon: ..... Cat missles. Range: Long Pattern: A big circle around her Super: Magique BonBon (confirmed by James' Magique Memory) S. Pattern: .... A big cat head around the target. (sigh) Koubu F2 Weapon: More cat missles Range: Long Pattern: A bigger circle around her Super: Magique Petit Chat S. Pattern: A bigger cat head... Name: Lobelia Carlini Koubu F Weapon: Claws Range: Close Pattern: A wide triange extending from her Super: Flamme Unglia S. Pattern: A big spiky thing around her Koubu F2 Weapon: Two sets of claws Range: Close Pattern: A bigger triangle extending from her Super: Demone Falce S. Pattern: A bigger spiky thing around her Team Super: Combustione Team Super 2: Perikoro Gioko Note: When she moves, she doesn't walk, but her whole Koubu becomes a black blob on the ground with claws sticking out. Wierd. Note 2: After upgrade, "Massacre" is written on the left shoulder... in BLOOD! Name: Hanabi Kitaoji Koubu F Weapon: Crossbow Range: Long Pattern: One enemy Super: (Shoots a flower) S. Pattern: A fan extending behind the enemy. (sigh) Koubu F2 Weapon: Longbow Range: Longer Pattern: One enemy Super: Rakka Teichou S. Pattern: A bigger fan extending behind the enemy Okay, your standard enemy is the Pawn, which is a little crappy robot. Of course, they come in different colors and have different abilities, but I'll let you see all those on your own. Starting in the second battle on chapter 10, you fight 'Calamite's, which are odd black spiked things that are colored orange or blue. Personally, I find it odd that you guys have to have spirit power to use the Koubu, but these inanimate robots can walk around just fine.... Oh, well. Name: Ciseaux Evil Robot: Prelude Weapon: Guns, spiky balls and scissor ears Range: Close Pattern: A few spaces in front of him Super: (He cuts you to ribbons) S. Pattern: I forget Name: Python Evil Robot: Berceuse Weapon: A detatchable snake... arms... thing Range: Close Pattern: All around her, I think. Super: (She poisons you) S. Pattern: All around her Name: Leon Evil Robot: Marche Weapon: Clawlionheadthings Range: Middle Pattern: Circle directly in front of him Super: Royal Rage S. Pattern: Endless line in front of him Name: Nadelle Evil Robot: Nocturne Weapon: Claws (guns) and stinger Range: Close Pattern: A few spaces ahead, behind, left, and right of her Super: (She paralyzes you) S. Pattern: A circle around her target Name: Masque de Corbeau Evil Robot: Serenade Weapon: Pecking, Kicking and Yelling Range: Middle Pattern: A circle in front of him Super: Les Destines S. Pattern: A big triangle in front of him Name: Calmar Evil Robot: Symphonie Weapon: Tentacles Range: Long Pattern: A wide, straight path in front of him Super: Chatiment de Dieu S. Pattern: A large blob in front of him Name: Saryu Evil Robot: Aubade Weapon: Stinger Range: Close Pattern: One Enemy Super: Le Roi Des Mouhe S. Pattern: Everything Note: Aubade will split into several smaller Aubades after you damage it enough. One will have a yellow/black swirl on its back, the rest will be red/black. Killing the yellow/black one will turn it back to normal. Evil.. uhh.. Bug: Darunie Weapon: Legs Range: Middle Pattern: Two circles at 45 degree angles to its face.. it's weird. Other weapon: Black orb thingy (takes one person's HP to 1) 2nd Form Darunie Weapon: Unbelievable creepiness Range: Everything Pattern: Everything (It shrinks the floor!) Super: La Croisse Und De Dieux S. Pattern: Everything 3rd Form Darunie Weapon: Laser beams Range: Long Pattern: Rectangle in front of it Super: La Croisse Und De Dieux S. Pattern: Everything Now go win some battles! ---------------------------- C) Bonus Game Type Thing ---------------------------- Ah, a long day in Paris! Unlike Saturn ST1, you can access this as soon as you've completed an Episode. So go for it whenever you want! Anyway, you begin in your room. Mel and Ci may talk to you on the Kinematron. Then you get a menu. Your options are: 1) Quit. 2) Kinematron 3) Go outside If you pick Kinematron, you can do three things. 1) Homepage: You can download dramas here. 2) Load drama: It's like a little tiny episode! 3) Tutorial: Uh... have fun, but why are you reading this, if you're gonna pick that? Hit B to exit this. Once you leave, you have various things you can do. Basically, you go places and do stuff. Here's what you can do. ********* Dramas! ********* On the Kinematron, when you pick Load drama, it'll bring up the VMU list, and look like it's loading a game file (as if you were about to continue from a saved game), but it'll have drama files listed. How to get said drama files, you say? You have to use ST3 to go to the homepage, which means going to the first option, connecting, and clicking on the drama download button on the Sakura Taisen 3 homepage. I'll provide more detailed instructions on how to wade through the Japanese text to get to the actual downloads. Anyways, for the time being, there are three available, two of which us mortals can get. The first has Ci and Mel telling you about dramas, and how to buy and download them. Blah. It takes up 8 blocks. The second is the girls coming to Oogami's apartment to celebrate his birthday. You get a nice picture at the end of all the girls standing around the table, which has a cake on it, and they wish Oogami a happy birthday. As Arina would say, "Yaaaaay." This one takes up 6 blocks. There's a third one available, but you have to pay 200 Dream Dollars or whatever silly currency they have set up, and I believe it took up 65 blocks of VMU space. I have no idea how much that equates to in real money, and I also have no idea how to get them. ********* Minigames! ********* To play a minigame, go to the girl you want to play the game of, then pick the first option. You can get pictures of them by beating the top score in their respective games. -------- Erica: Top room in the Church. Machinegun Sister: help a nun by blowing things away! D-Pad/Analog Pad: Move A Button: Shoot. You can hold it down. B Button: Reload X Button: Super Y Button: Useless L/R: Shoot. The idea here is to blow away all the little pawns who go by. Hitting Erica loses points, but saving her gets some. If you get touched, you die. That's really about it. I'm awful at it. -------- Glycine: Left room at the big mansion. Don't have it yet. -------- Coqueliqot: Cicrus Crazy Rally: Badminton?!? D-Pad/Analog: Useless A: Low/Red B: Right/Blue X: Left/Yellow Y: Top/Green L/R: Useless Hit the birdie with the corresponding colored button. If you hit it right as it goes in the circle, it's a lot better. You get back misses after a while. -------- Lobelia: Bar (Directly left of the Chatte Noires) Tomorrow's Lock: Lockpicking... sort of. D-Pad/Analog: Move... your balls. A: Dash Everything else: Useless There are three little balls of varying sives which you have to naviget through this maze. Touch, um, anything, and you die temporarily, wasting valuable time. Collect coins and get back some time, and get points. Have fun! --------- Hanabi: Right roon at the big mansion. Don't have this one, yet, either. --------- Ci and Mell: Restaurant. A little bit southwest of the Chatte Noires. Casino Taisen! (In the tradition of Koi Koi Taisen and Kakumei Taisen...) If you've played ST1, you'll recognize this screen... Anyway, you go in a casino. You should be able to tell what's what, here. HAVE FUN! ---------- YOU: Les Chattes Noires. KOUBU KNUCKLE! What in the....?!? Somehow, a random beat-em-up found its way into ST3... Anyway, you get to pick one of Oogami's 2 Koubu and engage in some Pawn killin' action. I suspect there's more to it than meets the eye, but we shall see... Analog: Move A: Attack B: Jump X: Assist (It says item...) All else: Useless. YAY! *************************************** TESTS! (As in, sound test, movie test and the like.) *************************************** Movie Test: Park directly above the Chatte Noires. It's a movie test. Watch the movies Mell shows you. Have fun. Picture Test: Library. It's on the bottom left, to the right of the government building. Look at pretty pictures. Ci is cute. Yay. Sound Test: The Cafe, once you've... either beaten the game or won all three quizzes. I don't know which. Thanks, Mere. ************** Hints! (Useless...) ************** Minigame Hints: Cemetary Grand Mere gives you hints. Can you read Japanese? ... Then why bother? Battle Hints: Flower shop. Next to Cemetary Thank you for nothing, Mell. Long Day Hints: Market ACK! A self-referential hint guide thing! It's META-HINTS! Ci tells you stuff like that Owner (Mere) is at the Cafe, or Mell being at the Terutoru (where the Movie Test is...) Meh. ********* Quizzes ********** These are necessary to unlock the last minigame, Koubu Knuckle. I strongly suggest you get it.... Church: 'Easy' Quiz. Father Renault asks you questions. Bluemer Mansion (Center Arrow): 'Mid' Quiz. Trebel will ask you 10 more questions, when you've won Renault's quiz. Gov't Building (Lower Left Corner): 'Hard' Quiz. Evian asks you yet another 10 questions after you've beat Trebel. Win this and you can get Koubu Knuckle! But be careful, they each have a lot of questions to draw from, though not as many as in 2, I think, so you may have to write this down. **************** Other/unknown stuff **************** Japanese Embassy (Just south of Bleumer mansion): It's Norimichi. Yay. Park (with the monument): Jean hangs out here. What's up, Mr. Goodman? Bridge: A whole lotta nothing, thus far. Huh? ************** Go Home to leave. ************** Well? ------------------ Part Six: Thoughts ------------------ My main thought about this game is that it is awesome. It's not just more of the same, like ST2 was. That's not bas, mind you. But ST1 and 2 were really one big storyline, and I think they should be viewed as such. ST3, on the other hand, is a wholly new one with an almost entirely new cast. The ST 1 and 2 characters DO make quest appearances, but Oogami's the only one who hangs around. I like this. The ironic thing is that there's a year or so between the first two games, and only a month between 2 and 3. Kayama is clearly the coolest man alive. In case you don't know who he is, the guy who appears while playing a guitar, then breaks his teeth on bread. Just watch the stuff he does. If you haven't seen him in ST2, go get it. NOW! Also, I really, really like the battle system. It's just pretty. I really would like to see Shining Force 4 using something similar. Please? Can you hear me, Sonic and Camelot? And I'm sleepy. This game is insane. ----------------------- Part Seven: Jazz Musician ----------------------- Of course, by 'Jazz Musician,' I mean 'thanks.' James "Ponta-Kun" Crawford: for buying the damn game and paying half the rent. Also, for remembering stuff I didn't and being able to understand some Japanese. I'd be lost without ya, buddy! James adds a note: I also added the stuff about dramas, and a couple of stage names (Oogami's was not my idea, though, don't hurt me! >_<) I like Kohran. Fred Seguin for the help on French words, like Calmar and Pion. Merci! Ayoroth : For the info on the load-from-battle option. Danke Bitte! Feena : For having a website that I randomly stumbled across with those cool phrases for the girls, and the name of Ciseaux. The Postal System: for getting the game to us. Gamefaqs.com: For A) hosting this POS, and B) For inspiring me to make it. Red Company! (Hee hee hee...): For making these games, not to mention Air Zonk. Kanna: For being so cool. The Academy: For nothing, you big jerks! ------------------------------------------ ========================================== This FAQ by Forrest "DUNOTS" Walker DUNOTS@hotmail.com Big_Joe@n2.com http://DUNOTS.tripod.com Wooga wooga. ========================================== ------------------------------------------