Subject: [Koukaku Kidoutai -Ghost in the Shell-] FAQ From: crs1219@infoREMOVEramp.net (Donny CHAN) Date: 16 Nov 1997 05:50:02 GMT [Suman, kono message mo Eigo dake.] m(__)m 88888 88 88 88888 88888 88888888 888 888 88 88 888 888 888 88 8 88 8 88 88 88 88 88 888 88 88 8888 8888888 88 88 88888 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 888 88 888 888 88 88 888 888 88 888 88 88888 88 88 88888 88888 88 IN THE 88888 88 88 8888888 88 88 888 88 88 88 88 8 88 88 888 88 88 88 88 88 88888 8888888 88888 88 88 888 88 88 88 88 88 88 888 88 88 88 8 88 8 88 8 88888 88 88 8888888 8888888 8888888 Koukaku Kidoutai -Ghost in the Shell- FAQ Updated: 15 November 1997 (Saturday) Created: 24 August 1997 (Sunday) By Don "Gamera" Chan (crs1219@inforamp.net) Caution: This game isn't suitable for players allergic to motion sickness. Disclaimer: This FAQ is based on the Japanese NTSC version of the game. This FAQ may contain elements derived from Zhou Tai An's Ghost in the Shell - Player's Guide. Zhou's permission has been secured. (OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if parts of this and Zhou's FAQs re-appear verbatim in some paper vidgame mags.) (Thanks to Alex van Vucht for the ASCII logo.) INDEX 0. Wanted 1. Controls 2. Screen 3. Training 4. Missions 5. Movies 6. Voice Actors 7. Miscellaneous 8. Thanks 9. References __ 0. WANTED This GITS PS FAQ requires these stuph: - A map of the bombs in the Mission 3 areas, preferably in ASCII art. - A table that lists which terrorist units need how many missiles or Vulcan bursts to destroy. - Any known bug, code, trick, and urawaza. - In the anime sequence before Mission 1, what did Bateau say before Togusa said "Kawaisou"? - Info about Class B and SS in Training Mode. - Info about Movie 13 and 17. - Kusanagi Shousa's measurements. ^_- - The boss mecha's names. - The terrorist units' proper names. - YOUR Training Mode and Mission Mode best scores. ("Kimi no ai wo matteru ze!" - Greenwood no minna-san, Koko wa Greenwood) 1. CONTROLS The GITS controls are: SELECT button: Inside view or outside view. START button: Pause, continue, restart, or quit. Joystick/keypad: Movement. Up is forward, down is backward, left is turn left, right is turn right, &c. The Fuchikoma can climb onto most walls. (Remember: "You meet a better class of people in the vertical (axis).") L1 or L2: Slide left. R1 or R2: Slide right. (L1 or L2) and (R1 or R2): Pressing both L and R buttons prevents the Fuchikoma from sliding left or right, but increases its forward and backward speeds. Useful for retreating from an enemy's weapon range. (The player can combine the joystick/keypad and slide left/right buttons to manoeuvre the Fuchikoma such that the direction it's facing and the heading of its movement are different. Essential for keeping its line-of-fire at a target while it's dodging the target's weapons. Overall, reminds me of the IBM games MechWarrior 2 and System Shock (eg, stop before a corner, turn towards the wall, slide into the new corridor while firing the Vulcan, then slide back into the old corridor), except the Fuchikoma can climb onto most walls.) Jump: Also a quick way to reset the Fuchikoma's orientation after it climbs onto a building or wall, causing the player to lose his/her situation awareness. The Fuchikoma receives no damage no matter how far it falls. Also, the player can control the falling Fuchikoma's movement. Eg, the Fuchikoma can jump off a skyscraper and stick back to the wall before it lands on the ground. Vulcan: Each button-tap is a burst of six autocannon shots. Short range. Unlimited ammo. Lock-On Missile: Hold the Vulcan button. After the Vulcan burst, the Lock-On Marker on the target will turn red. A Lock-On Gauge appears at the centre of the bottom edge of the screen. Each orange block in the Lock-On Gauge is one missile, up to 6 missiles per barrage. Medium range. Unlimited ammo. While the Fuchikoma's Lock-On Gauge is charging, but hasn't locked any missile on the target, incoming fire that hits the Fuchikoma will abort the Lock-On Gauge. OTOH, if white lock-on sights have already appeared on the target, incoming fire that hits the Fuchikoma won't abort the Lock-On Gauge, and the Fuchikoma can release its missiles at the target. The player can hold the Vulcan button to activate the Lock-On Gauge, then move towards the targets to lock missiles on them, then release the missiles. No need for getting into missile range and provoking the targets ("Incoming fire has the right of way." - Murphy's Laws of Combat) before activating the Lock-On Gauge. If a target needs fewer than six missiles to destroy, the Fuchikoma will lock fewer than six missiles at the target. Eg, a Vulcan turret needs only four missiles. Missile kills give fewer points than gun kills ("Real Men use guns only." - Flight sim veteran players). Also, in Training Mode, missile kills don't change the Fuchikoma's Hit Rate. (In Training Mode, an excellent Hit Rate affects the Fuchikoma's Class. See the Training and Movies sections below.) Grenade: Area-effect weapon (bomb). Short/medium range. Limited ammo, up to 3 Grenades. 2. SCREEN The screen defaults to the outside view, and shifts between the outside and inside views when an object or wall behind the Fuchikoma blocks it from the player. (The programmers did this instead of making the object/wall transparent.) To manually choose one of the views, press SELECT. In practice, the inside view gives the Fuchikoma a better line-of-sight when firing at a target that's behind a corner in a corridor, or a corner of a building. The features in the GITS head-up display screen: Upper left corner: Timer (eg, in Training). Upper right corner: Number of targets remaining (eg, keycodes in Mission 1, bombs in Mission 3). Or, Direction Indicator that indicates the direction (duh) of the primary target in the mission. (The DI isn't as easy to read as one may think; see Mission 10.) Or, the boss mecha's Energy Gauge. Lower right corner: Radar. The Fuchikoma is at the centre of the 360-degree Radar. Red dots are hostiles. Small white dots are also hostiles. Tiny white dots are hostile weapons, eg, rockets and Vulcan rounds. Big green dots are entrances. Small green dots are Items, ie, Energy Packs and Grenades. The short arc that spans from the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock positions of the rim is the threat warning indicator. It turns from green to yellow when a hostile is nearby. The long arc that spans from the 1 o'clock to 8 o'clock positions of the rim is the Energy Gauge. The yellow icons between the Radar and the lower right corner of the screen are the number of Grenades remaining, up to three. Centre of bottom edge: Lock-On Gauge. See above. Lower left corner: Score. Above the Score is the Message Screen. All messages are already in English. 3. TRAINING Six stages. Objective: Destroy as many targets and as fast as possible. The target's colour doesn't matter; all targets are hostiles. Green targets (in the screen, not in the Radar) are immobile, white targets are mobile, and red targets shoot back at the Fuchikoma. When the Fuchikoma moves towards a projector that projects a red target, the Fuchikoma has enough time to fire one Vulcan burst at the red target after it appears, and before it begins to shoot back at the Fuchikoma. ("When the enemy is in range, so are you." - Murphy's Laws of Combat) There are a few ways to take out a red target: - Jump towards the projector. When the Fuchikoma's landing, fire a Vulcan burst at the projector. - Move towards the projector, fire a Vulcan burst at the projector, and jump the Fuchikoma. - Move towards the projector, fire a Vulcan burst at the projector, and slide the Fuchikoma back or to one side. In theory, half of a red target's burst will miss a jumping Fuchikoma, and the Fuchikoma's Vulcan burst will take out the red target before the rest of its burst tracks the Fuchikoma. In practice, stuph happens. The Fuchikoma may shoot too earlier, the Vulcan burst may miss, the red target may survive the Vulcan burst, &c. After satisfying the victory condition of a Training stage, go to the check point (the green dot(s) in the Radar) to get a time extension (like a racing game) and enter the next Training stage. The Fuchikoma can get some Grenades in some stages. Don't get target-fixated on a Grenade. If you can't get it in one or two passes, don't waste any more time. Satisfy the victory conditions first. OTOH, the Fuchikoma can't get any Energy Pack that heals the Fuchikoma, so it depends on the player's skill to conserve its energy. IMO, the purposes of the Training stages are to familiarise the player (who's a new member of Kusanagi Shousa's team) with the manoeuvreability of the Fuchikoma, and the opportunity, range, and uses of its armament. (Kusanagi Shousa, Bateau, and Togusa call the player Shinjin or "New Guy.") Training 1: 60 seconds. Destroy 16 of 22 targets, on buildings and on the ground. "Reberu appu! Reberu appu! [Level up! Level up!]" - Fuchikoma Training 2: +40 seconds. Destroy 18 of 18 targets, in the corridor. Training 3: +60 seconds. Destroy 20 of 26 targets, on the sides of the building. The front and back sides of each building have five targets each. The outside of each building has two targets. The inside of each building has one target. Destroy all targets on the front side of one building, then one or both targets on the outside of the same building, then all targets on the back side of the same building, then enough of the targets on the front and back sides of the other building. Afterwards, move the Fuchikoma to the inside of the building, jump off, land on and get the Grenade, and dash for the exits. Training 4: +50 seconds. Destroy 18 of 22 targets, amongst the rocks and trees. Begin from one corner of the area, and sweep the area from the entrance side to the exit side. Use the Radar to search and destroy the targets. Training 5: +50 seconds. Destroy 20 of 26 targets, amongst the containers. Some targets are panels on the sides or tops of the containers that don't appear till the Fuchikoma's near them. Begin from one corner of the area, and sweep the area from the entrance side to the exit side. Use the Radar to search and destroy the targets. Training 6: +50 seconds. Destroy one of one target, a hostile Fuchikoma. This area is enclosed, and the hostile Fuchikoma has attacks similar to the player's Fuchikoma: non-area effect but unlimited-ammo Grenades and Vulcan; no Lock-On Missiles. As the hostile Fuchikoma's weapons are both forward-mounted, slide around the hostile Fuchikoma to avoid its weapons and attack it from its sides. (I prefer to engage it with missiles because I don't need to always point my Fuchikoma at the bandit.) While sliding the player's Fuchikoma, move towards the hostile Fuchikoma whenever possible to keep it in missile range, and to keep the player's Fuchikoma away from a corner or wall. When the player's Fuchikoma's about to slide into a wall, prepare to release the L or R button, tap Jump+(the other side button) to reverse the player's Fuchikoma's sliding, and to avoid the hostile Fuchikoma's weapons. The Fuchikomas can't climb onto the walls in this area. When the player's Fuchikoma's in the hostile Fuchikoma's rear arc, pause and Vulcan the hostile Fuchikoma. Observe which way the hostile Fuchikoma's turning, then slide the player's Fuchikoma accordingly and beware of the closest wall. (One-point advice: To achieve a high Hit Rate, the player needs to know the effective range of the Fuchikoma's Vulcan. Instead of carelessly strafing at a target as the Fuchikoma dashes or slides, keep pointing the Fuchikoma at a target (esp mobile white targets), and make sure all rounds in its Vulcan burst hit the target. Destroy each target with one Vulcan burst to keep the Hit Rate as close to 100% as possible. (Back in Falcon 3.0, I sometimes Fox Two at a bandit in guns range, switching to guns if the bandit defeated my heater.) In Training 6, against the hostile Fuchikoma, to maintain the Hit Rate: point the player's Fuchikoma at the hostile Fuchikoma, and while the player's Fuchikoma slides away from the hostile Fuchikoma's front arc, fire a Vulcan burst at the hostile Fuchikoma. Correct the player's Fuchikoma's facing to make sure most of the Vulcan burst hits the hostile Fuchikoma. Then hold the Vulcan button to lock missiles on the hostile Fuchikoma. Keep the Fuchikomas in short to medium range from each other. Don't panic when the hostile Fuchikoma's Grenade or Vulcan hits the player's Fuchikoma. When the player's Fuchikoma's about to face the hostile Fuchikoma's front, keep sliding and jump once over the hostile Fuchikoma's attacks. (Optional: To spoof the hostile Fuchikoma's aim, jump the player's Fuchikoma whenever the player's Fuchikoma releases its missiles.) Also, getting and NOT using the Grenades is critical for a high score. As of 1997.10.23, I haven't achieved Class B.) 4. MISSIONS 12 stages. Mission 1: An Assault. The Bay Area. Destroy all blue robots (those equipped with beam lasers, not missiles), then enter the warehouse (the green dot in the Radar) to destroy the boss robot. Reserve as many Grenades for the boss robot as practical, or don't use any Grenade to get some bonus points. The background objects outside the warehouse are indestructible. Eg, the buildings and fencing are laser-proof. 9_9; To easily destroy a blue robot that's behind a fence, lock missiles on it, jump up but not forward, and release the missiles while the Fuchikoma's in the air and higher than the fence. To destroy a helo, climb onto the wall of a building under a helo and look up. Vulcan the helo when it's above the building. ("Neutral will ultimately triumph over Evil and Good because Neutral is cheap!") Or, use Lock-On Missiles. In both cases, make sure there's no hostile behind or under the Fuchikoma that will poke the Fuchikoma's back. (One-point advice: For new players with a fetish for gun kills and thus higher scores, here's the "low and slow" method of bullying less aggressive terrorist units, eg, immobile Vulcan turrets, mobile white AFVs with Vulcans, and mobile legged robots with missile launchers. (More aggressive terrorist units are ones that pursue the Fuchikoma, eg, green cyborgs with automatic rifles and spider-like robots with beam rifles.) First, fire a Vulcan burst at a target. If it doesn't hit, move forward one step and fire a Vulcan burst again. If it hits, fire another Vulcan burst or two until the target's destroyed. Prepare to jump or slide to one side (eg, tap L1+Jump or R1+Jump once) if the target returns fire.) Mission 2: Black Water. The Sewer. Move towards the green dot in the Radar, where the boss robot is. En route, destroy as many hostiles and mines as possible. Search all corridors for Items: Energy Packs and Grenades. To destroy the flying robots and Vulcan turrets in the tunnels, hold the Vulcan button before entering their tunnels. Activate the Lock-On Gauge, move towards them or slide into their tunnels, lock-on and release Lock-On Missiles, then retreat. They buy the farm after four or five missiles each. To destroy the cyborgs (humanoid targets), strafe them with the Vulcan once or twice, then dodge or withdraw from them. Repeat till they explode. Be advised that, with light amplification on, their flamers may look like explosions. Check the radar to see if the dot representing the target is present. The boss robot has five weapons: beam laser (medium range), electricity (long range), fire (short range), missiles (long range), and Vulcans (long range). The electricity, missiles, and Vulcans are direct-fire weapons; the Fuchikoma can easily avoid them. The beam laser strafes the tunnel twice at a time. The electrical attack only affects the water channel on the floor of the tunnel. The safest way to destroy this boss robot is stay just inside the Fuchikoma's Lock-On Missiles range and brass up the boss robot with missiles. Place the Fuchikoma at the lower left or lower right corner of the tunnel. When the beam laser strafes the tunnel, the Fuchikoma should jump over and towards the direction from which the beam laser came. Eg, when the beam laser strafes in a counter-clockwise direction, the Fuchikoma should jump towards the left and over the beam laser. When the Fuchikoma is on the walls of the tunnel instead of at the lower corners, the Fuchikoma may hit the ceiling as it jumps, and the beam laser may hit the Fuchikoma. Whenever the Fuchikoma isn't jumping, hold the Vulcan button to achieve lock-on. (Comment: By staying at the lower left or lower right corner of the tunnel, jumping over the beam laser, and staying at the extreme range of the Fuchikoma's Vulcan, it's simple to Vulcan the boss mecha to destruction. To avoid the boss mecha's lightnings, missiles, and Vulcans, don't stay too close to the channel on the floor.) Mission 3: Firecracker (aka "Frustration Central," IMO). The Complex. This mission has four areas. The Fuchikoma must destroy all bombs in one area within a time limit to get a time extension, then enter and destroy all bombs in the next area. After the Fuchikoma destroys all bombs in the third area, the timer is disabled, and the Fuchikoma must destroy the boss robot in the fourth area. One Vulcan burst destroys a bomb. Strafing (spreading a burst) at multiple bombs may not cause enough damage to destroy all of them at once. To save time, use Lock-On Missiles to destroy a cluster or row of bombs--but only when there's no bandit near the Fuchikoma. Also, one Vulcan full burst destroys a cyborg, but strafing at a cyborg may not cause enough damage to destroy it. Yaw to the left or right of a falling cyborg because it still has time to fire a rocket or two at the Fuchikoma. A Vulcan turret takes about four missiles to destroy. When moving in an area, avoid bumping into and climbing the buildings and structures. The player will waste precious seconds to jump off the building and recover his orientation, even when he pauses the game. (Fortunately, DarkLord's article in Game Weekly Magazine has a crude map of the areas and bombs. m(__)m The following tips presume the player's familiar with the terrain in the first three areas, and are the procedure I destroyed the bombs. Your mileage may differ.) Area 1: Assume the Fuchikoma begins at the south end of the area. The exit to Area 2 is at the northwest corner. There are four bombs north of the Fuchikoma. Vulcan the bomb directly before the Fuchikoma. Vulcan or missile the cyborg, then destroy the other three bombs. Get the Grenade. Move to the northeast and destroy the two bombs beside the building. Face west and move to the southwest to destroy the two bombs south (left) of the nearest Vulcan turret--ignore that Vulcan turret. Face and move to the southwest. Activate the Lock-On Gauge, get into missile range of the Vulcan turret to the southwest, and missile it. Vulcan the bandit if it survives, and destroy the two bombs near it. Face north and move to the northwest. En route, ignore the Vulcan turret to the Fuchikoma's northwest (left front). Destroy the cluster of four bombs near the northwest corner. Get the Grenade. Face south and move (slide) west, towards the northwest corner, to open the entrance to Area 2 (big green dot in Radar). Activate the Lock-On Gauge just before entering Area 2. Area 2: Assume the entrance from Area 1 is at the southeast corner. The exit to Area 3 is at the southwest corner. (After the Fuchikoma exits one area and enters the next area, the entrance closes and doesn't re-open. The Fuchikoma can't climb onto or over the wall between two areas, AFAIK.) Get into missile range of the Vulcan turret west of the entrance and missile it. Face north and destroy the row of five bombs north of the Vulcan turret. Destroy the cyborg north of (behind) the five bombs. (When I write "destroy a bandit," unless the bandit's already at short range, I mean try to missile it when it appears out of the haze and is beyond Vulcan range, then Vulcan it.) Face north and move to the northeast. Destroy the two bombs between the column and the building. Face northwest and move to the northwest. Destroy the Vulcan turret and the cluster of four bombs near it. Sight the cyborg north (right) of the four bombs and destroy it. Face west and destroy the row of three bombs on the platform. Two more bombs are on a bridge above the centre of Area 2. The Fuchikoma can't missile them from the ground; the missiles will hit the bridge. From where the Fuchikoma destroyed the cluster of four bombs and row of three bombs, face southeast, move southeast, and climb onto the north side of the nearest column. This column should be higher than the bridge, and the bridge should be north of the column. When the Fuchikoma is high enough on the column, activate the Lock-On Gauge, turn around and face the ground, lock-on the two bombs, and missile them. Jump off the column, face southwest (left rear), and move to the southwest, towards the west wall. Move south, along the west wall, to open the entrance to Area 3 at the southwest corner. En route, ignore the Vulcan turret south (left front) of the Fuchikoma. Activate the Lock-On Gauge just before entering Area 3. Area 3: Assume the entrance from Area 2 is at the southwest corner. The exit to Area 4 is at the centre of the east wall. Destroy the two bombs to the northwest from the entrance. Face east and move east. Sight and destroy the cyborg behind the columns. Destroy the row of three bombs east of (behind) the cyborg. Two more bombs are on a bridge above the west (left) half of Area 3. From where the Fuchikoma destroyed the row of three bombs, face southwest, move southwest, and climb to the top the nearest column. This column should be the southeast corner of the bridge, and has a Grenade on its top. Missile the Vulcan turret at the centre of the bridge and the bomb east (right) of the bandit. Move towards the opposite end of the bridge and missile the other bomb. Face northwest, jump off the bridge, and move to the northwest. Destroy the Vulcan turret and the row of three bombs north of it. Face east and move to the east-southeast. Ignore the cyborg northeast (left front) of the Fuchikoma, but avoid its rockets. Move into the alley south and east of (behind) the brown columns to destroy two pairs of two bombs in the alley. Face south and sight the Vulcan turret and a row of three bombs. Destroy the bandit. (To save time, I Grenaded it.) The three bombs are actually south of (behind) the rail south of the bandit; the Fuchikoma can't missile or Vulcan them from north of the rail. Move south and onto/over the rail, and destroy the three bombs. (To save time, I Grenaded them.) One more bomb is in the corridor *inside* the round building south of (behind) the row of three bombs. The entrance of the building is to the southwest (right) of the three bombs, on the northwest side of the building. Destroy this final bomb to disable the timer. After the timer is off, and before opening the entrance to Area 4 in the east wall (northeast of the entrance of the round building), collect the two Energy Packs and two (?) Grenades in Area 3 (small green dots in Radar). Beware the regenerated bandits in the Area (white dots in Radar). Area 4: This is an enclosed area like the Mission 1 warehouse, but smaller. As in Mission 1, slide around the boss robot and keep hitting it with Vulcan and missiles. If the Fuchikoma bumps into a wall as it slides, reverse the direction it's sliding. Don't press both L and R buttons at once, or the Fuchikoma will stop sliding. The boss robot has four weapons: Bits (Gundam jargon for remote-control weapon-pods) equipped with lasers (long range), fireballs (long range), missiles (long range), and Vulcans (long range). When it fires its fireballs, it can raise and rotate its body about as fast as the Fuchikoma can slide. But its feet stay on the ground, so slide around and shoot at its nearest foot and its Bits when it raises its body and fires its fireballs. (If you feel overwhelmed by the Bits (improbable as the Bits have poor tracking), Grenade them.) When the boss robot hovers, the white circles on the ground are harmless. (Thanks to Michael Mi Wang and Mike Tsui. BTW, yes, I had a full-job documenting work instructions and test procedures before the company relocated.) (Comment: It's simple to slide around and Vulcan the boss mecha to destruction. Instead of wasting any Grenade, missile the boss mecha's Bits.) Mission 4: Chase I. On the Sea. In this mission, till the Fuchikoma engages the boss ship, the Fuchikoma's always moving forward on a straight path. However, the Fuchikoma can change its facing and jump, and has limited movement to its left and right. At either edge of the path are rows of mines over which the Fuchikoma can jump. It's probably more advantageous for the Fuchikoma to stay near the left edge of the path. Before the Fuchikoma reaches the boss ship, the Fuchikoma meets laser tripwires, cyborgs with rocket-launchers on jet skis, flying cyborgs firing beam rifles (their mecha design reminds me of the Power Loaders in POWER DoLLS, but their annoyance reminds me of the Floaters in X-Com), and a flight of four bombers. The Fuchikoma can jump over the tripwires, or destroy the buoy at one end of a tripwire to disable it. A cyborg with rocket-launcher on jet ski takes two Vulcan bursts to destroy. When the Fuchikoma's Vulcan is shooting at this bandit, it's fairly simple to visually spot and evade (dodge or jump over) the yellow dot that is the bandit's rocket, as the Fuchikoma isn't releasing its missiles and the Fuchikoma's missiles have smoke trails. (Reminds me of the hostile missiles in Sky Target and Virtua Cop 2.) Also, it's safer for the Fuchikoma to shoot at this bandit from directly aft of (behind) the bandit, because the bandit's rockets fly laterally a bit before they track towards the Fuchikoma. A flying cyborg takes six missiles plus a Vulcan burst or two to destroy, or *several* (read: too many) Vulcan bursts without missiles. If the Fuchikoma doesn't quickly destroy this bandit, it'll hover above the Fuchikoma. Then it's hard for the Fuchikoma to shoot at it because the Fuchikoma's Vulcan has no elevation at close range (game design flaw, IMO), and the bandit prevents the Fuchikoma from jumping over the tripwires. To destroy the flying cyborgs: anticipate their appearance (esp before the bridge, and the channel between the two freighters), slide away from but rotate the Fuchikoma to face them, soften them with six missiles when they are in-range, then jump and Vulcan them. (I hate off-boresight, two-dimensional, visual range furballs.) Their beam rifle has a charge time. Ready to jump over the beam rifle shot when the beam rifle is glowing. There are four bombers. (B_lls. Where's the ASDF when we need them? Or, are those fratricidal ASDF bombers?) The first one flies parallel to the bridge, and perpendicular to the Fuchikoma's path. Then a flight of three flies on top of the Fuchikoma's path, and in the opposite direction. When the bombers roll in, hot, avoid their bombs and don't move the Fuchikoma under the bombers. (I don't know if we can shoot down a bomber with missiles. They tend to disappear into the haze before I could see if I'd shot down one. OTOH, we can shoot down a retreating flying cyborg.) Missiles are important in this mission. Eg, when the mission begins, activate the Lock-On Gauge, turn the Fuchikoma around, and blow up one of the jet skis. Slide behind the other jet ski and blow it up. Then activate the Lock-On Gauge again to brass up the first flying cyborg. In this mission, there are two Grenades. Soon after the above engagement, there's a Grenade just left of the rightmost support of the girder that extends from the left edge of the screen. Before this Grenade is a row of four mines, and behind the Grenade are a row of three mines and a laser tripwire. There's another Grenade in the channel between the two freighters. When the Fuchikoma reaches the boss ship and its two escorts (no, I don't treat these ships as female), a timer counts down from 60 seconds. Destroying an escort gives a time extension of 30 seconds. Unless the Fuchikoma sinks an escort, it can't slide around the escorts and the boss ship. (Remember this condition!) As soon as the Fuchikoma sinks an escort, it can slide around the boss ship and the other escort. Try not to stay at the left or right edge of the path, or an escort might ram the Fuchikoma that's at the edge and can't jump or slide away from the escort. Each escort alternates amongst three weapons: missiles (direct-fire, long range), rockets (indirect-fire, long range), and Vulcan (medium range). When evading its weapons, jump laterally. If the Fuchikoma jumps straight up and down, two rounds in each burst of Vulcan might hit the Fuchikoma. Attack an escort from its sides. Reminder: When the Fuchikoma's shooting at an escort with missiles and Vulcan, the other escort (and the boss ship when it's near enough) will be shooting at the Fuchikoma. After the Fuchikoma sinks the escorts, the boss ship has three weapons: mines (in pairs, aft only), rockets (indirect-fire, long range), and Vulcan (medium range). The Fuchikoma has more flexibility around the boss ship, so change the Fuchikoma's facing more often to keep its line-of-sight at the boss ship. Missile and Vulcan the boss ship, and dodge or jump over its weapons. Don't let it ram the Fuchikoma. (Some players prefer to sink the boss ship with the Vulcan because of the Vulcan's continuity. I prefer fewer Vulcan and more missiles for the missiles' better damage.) Mission 5: An Invisible Shadow. The Old City. The Fuchikoma must destroy a boss cyborg equipped with kougaku meisai or Optical Camouflage. When the boss cyborg is Optical-Camouflaged (invisible), the player can see its movement by the splashes on the water, and the red dot in the Radar. Unlike the Mission 1 boss robot, the Fuchikoma can't lock missiles on the invisible Mission 5 boss cyborg. The Fuchikoma chases the boss cyborg in an urban area (reminds me of the Sham Shui Po district in Hong Kong), populated by robots with missiles (direct-fire), rockets (indirect-fire), or Vulcan (direct-fire), and cyborgs with rocket-launchers (doesn't remind me of the Sham Shui Po district in Hong Kong). Beware of these bandits when the Fuchikoma's engaging the boss cyborg. Also, a bomber regularly rolls in and pickles a series of iron bombs. OTOH, the Fuchikoma can climb onto the buildings (small comfort). 9_9; (BTW, the Chinese signs on the buildings make sense and aren't as idiotic as those in Kowloon's Gate.) Energy Packs and Grenades are available on the ground and the roofs of the buildings. Each time the Fuchikoma seriously damages the boss cyborg, it switches to Optical Camouflage and runs to another area in the Old City. After the boss cyborg repeats this routine a few times, the Fuchikoma's final fight with the boss cyborg is in an enclosed area entered through an alley between two tall buildings. After the Fuchikoma enters this enclosed area, it can't exit this area. (If the boss cyborg runs into the Fuchikoma, it'll push back the Fuchikoma.) The boss cyborg has two attacks: SF2 Guile's sonic boom (two at a time) and Grenades (after the boss cyborg dashes towards the Fuchikoma). The Fuchikoma can slide away from the sonic booms and jump away from the Grenades. When the boss cyborg's standing, missile or Vulcan it. When the boss cyborg's dashing towards the Fuchikoma, slide to the boss cyborg's rear and missile or Vulcan it. Repeat this tactic till the boss cyborg buys the farm. Another way to take out the boss cyborg: Keep the boss cyborg at the extreme range of the Fuchikoma's Vulcan. Don't move the Fuchikoma, keep firing the Vulcan at the boss cyborg, and wait for the boss cyborg to react. When it fires a sonic boom at the Fuchikoma, dodge it, stop the Fuchikoma, and keep firing the Vulcan at the boss cyborg. When it dashes towards the Fuchikoma, slide the Fuchikoma to the boss cyborg's side or rear, stop the Fuchikoma, keep firing the Vulcan at the boss cyborg, and adjust the Fuchikoma's distance from the boss cyborg. Repeat this tactic till the boss cyborg buys the farm. Mission 6: Chase II (aka "Spy Hunter 3D/G", IMO). The Speedway. In this mission, the terrorists' order of battle are: AFVs (armoured fighting vehicles) with turreted Vulcans, gunships (attack helicopters) with missiles and Vulcans, and bikes with mines and multiple missile launchers. Use the Radar to anticipate the AFVs and gunships. When a white dot appears, turn to the terrorist, slide the Fuchikoma to one edge of the speedway, lock-on and release missiles when the terrorist's in range, slide to the other edge of the speedway to evade incoming fire, and Vulcan the terrorist. Jump when the Fuchikoma's releasing its missiles, to disrupt the terrorist's aim. Eg, if the Fuchikoma's jumping when an AFV begins to fire at the Fuchikoma, this may cause the AFV to aim too high and miss the landing Fuchikoma. The terrorist bikes are harder to detect on Radar. Listen for the exhaust note of a bike (if your TV is good enough), and missile the bike ASAP. If it survives into close range, prepare to L1+Jump or R1+Jump to evade its mines and missiles. The speedway has a junction. The left branch has more terrorists. The right branch has fewer terrorists, but the Fuchikoma has to jump over some gaps in the speedway. If the Fuchikoma fails to jump over a gap, the Fuchikoma takes some damage and climbs back onto the speedway. When the Fuchikoma reaches the boss tractor-trailer, a timer counts down from 60 seconds. The boss tractor-trailer has three parts: the second trailer (rear), the first trailer (middle), and the tractor (front). Destroying a trailer gives a time extension of 30 seconds. Unless the Fuchikoma destroys both trailers, it can't slide around the boss tractor-trailer. (I don't know what happens when the Fuchikoma survives till the timer reaches zero. Does the Fuchikoma self-destruct? Or does the boss tractor-trailer accelerate away from the Fuchikoma?) The second trailer has two pile-drivers that punch holes on the ground as the boss trailer-tractor slides from side to side. One method to deal with this is to keep the Fuchikoma in one lane, face the second trailer, and continuously Vulcan/missile it. When the second trailer's in the Fuchikoma's lane, jump straight up to avoid the holes. (I kept the Fuchikoma in the rightmost lane, held the R1 button, and jumped whenever the second trailer moved into the Fuchikoma's lane.) The first trailer has a continuous beam laser and rear-mounted Vulcans. The Vulcans prevent the Fuchikoma from staying directly behind the first trailer, while the beam laser strafes from side to side. One method to deal with this is to slide the Fuchikoma to one side to avoid the Vulcans, while pointing and firing the Fuchikoma's Vulcan at the first trailer. When the Fuchikoma reaches one edge of the speedway, or when the beam laser almost catches the Fuchikoma, L1+Jump or R1+Jump (not left+Jump or right+Jump) to jump laterally over the beam laser and Vulcans, and to slide the Fuchikoma towards the other edge of the speedway. The tractor has rear-mounted missiles and front-mounted Vulcans. Jump laterally or slide around to avoid the missiles. (Sliding around the tractor is easier than sliding around the Mission 4 boss ship because the speedway has visible edges to remind the player of the Fuchikoma's heading and its relative position from the tractor.) Missile and Vulcan the tractor till it buys the farm. Mission 7: Villains Lurking in the City. The City. In this mission, note the terrorists' order of battle include red, spider-like robots with beam rifles, like the Mission 1 blue Keycode robots, that can climb onto walls. To engage the boss robot, the Fuchikoma must first destroy four beam cannon/missile launcher turrets in the city. Some of these turrets are on the bridge or on the roof of a building. The safest way to deal with them is to climb onto a wall below and perpendicular to a turret, and missile the turret. Or, climb onto the wall, stop the Fuchikoma just below the top edge, and wait for the turret to strafe with its beam cannon. When the beam cannon passes by the Fuchikoma, climb over the edge and Vulcan the turret for a gun kill. When the Fuchikoma engages the boss robot, any nearby terrorist unit will self-destruct. (No back-poking to worry about.) The boss robot has a beam machine gun, cluster bombs, a flamer, and shock waves. The cluster bombs are centred on the boss robot, so don't keep the Fuchikoma too close to the boss robot. OTOH, if the Fuchikoma's too close to the boss robot (and if you've Newtype potential), manoeuvre the Fuchikoma between the cluster bomb explosions to minimise damage. The boss robot always jumps before it causes a shock wave. The Fuchikoma needs to jump over the crest of the shock wave. Prepare to jump the Fuchikoma just before the boss robot lands. Mission 8: The Encounter in the Darkness. Underground Passage. In this mission, the terrorists' order of battle include cyborgs with triple missile launchers, and rotary-wing robots with beam machine guns. The Fuchikoma can lock-on and missile the terrorists at maximum range, for no or little damage to the Fuchikoma. (Eg, hold Vulcan button, L1+R1+forward, lock-on and release missiles, L1+R1+back, and check Radar. Repeat when necessary.) Moving the Fuchikoma on the ceiling may improve the Fuchikoma's line-of-sight. Eg, at the spot where the Fuchikoma switches to light intensification and must destroy four targets behind a low wall, the Fuchikoma may climb onto the ceiling before the low wall, switch to inside view to see the four targets, and Vulcan them for some gun kills. The boss robot's area is a cylindrical room. The Fuchikoma and the boss robot can climb onto the ceiling and wall. The boss robot's an improved Fuchikoma with flares, Grenades, Optical Camouflage (ach), spread beam, and Vulcans. (Gee, what's with all these Gundam jargon? @_@ Since I'm writing this FAQ bit by bit (ach, another Gundam term), I may conform all the weapon names later.) The flares hover briefly before they guide towards the player's Fuchikoma. Thus, spend a second to see which way the flares are tracking before jumping or sliding the player's Fuchikoma. Unlike the Training 6 boss Fuchikoma's Grenades, the Mission 8 boss Fuchikoma's Grenades have a blast radius. Most of the boss Fuchikoma's attacks are 2D, linear attacks (eg, Vulcan turrets and white AFVs), so the player's Fuchikoma can climb onto the wall or ceiling to avoid them. OTOH, the boss Fuchikoma can also climb onto the wall or ceiling, and its flares are a 3D attack. To (try to) avoid the flares, jump then slide the Fuchikoma, or slide then jump, to dodge the early flares and to spoof the later flares. Mission 9: Wormwood. Aeropolis II/Geofront. In this mission, the terrorists' order of battle include AFVs with spread missiles, cyborgs with automatic rifles, battle axes, or triple missile launchers, flying cyborgs with beam rifles, and the usual turrets. Most of the terrorists' weapons are 2D and linear (eg, spread missiles and Vulcans), so the Fuchikoma can climb onto the ceiling and ignore the terrorists that aren't in the Fuchikoma's way, or aren't guarding Items. The Fuchikoma can't climb onto the ceiling or walls of an elevator. (Actually, when a Fuchikoma that's on the outside wall and looking down at the floor slide into the elevator, the Fuchikoma may remain on the elevator wall as the elevator moves.) In one area, there's a chasm where the Fuchikoma can simply jump down to a lower floor, instead of climbing onto and moving down the wall. Jumping down the chasm may be a bad idea because waiting on the lower floor are AFVs and turrets. Just before entering the boss mecha's room, the Fuchikoma steps onto a moving platform. While the platform is moving, the Fuchikoma can't get off the platform, and encounters four flying terrorists. In the boss mecha's room, a Timer counts down from 60 seconds, and the Fuchikoma must destroy eight columns on the floor. Extending from the ceiling above each column is a robot arm with a beam laser. The Fuchikoma can destroy the eight beam lasers, but the Fuchikoma must hit the beam laser at the end of a robot arm. Shooting at the robot arm causes no damage and wastes time. Destroying a beam laser gives a time extension of 20 seconds. When the timer has fewer than 10 seconds, "Move quickly!" appears in the Message Screen. To clear this boss mecha, climb onto the ceiling and first take out all eight beam lasers. (In fact, the Fuchikoma can jump onto a beam laser for inappropriate fun.) Remember to slide away from the beam lasers and to NOT jump, or the Fuchikoma will land on the floor. Also, don't move the Fuchikoma into the force field around the core of the generator. After the Fuchikoma destroys all beam lasers, destroy the columns. After the Fuchikoma destroys four columns, the generator will attract the Fuchikoma towards its core and into its force field. Keep moving or sliding the Fuchikoma away from the core. Eg, place the Fuchikoma between a column and the wall of the room, face and Vulcan the column, and move the Fuchikoma backwards. The "snowflakes" are harmless. After the Fuchikoma destroys six columns, the generator will also produce random chain lightnings. After the Fuchikoma destroys eight columns, the generator will play dead. After the Fuchikoma destroys nine columns, the Fuchikoma will switch to Optical Camouflage. BUG. When the Fuchikoma steps onto the platform and it just begins to move, the Fuchikoma can move off the rear edge of the platform and onto the empty but texture-mapped floor below the platform. The platform continues to move towards the other end of this area. Though there are grooves between the tracks, the floor is actually flat: an invisible surface covers the grooves. (If this sounds too good to be true, well, it's true, but the programmers or debuggers were annoyingly exact. When the platform reaches the other end of this area, a gate opens to let the platform enter its dock, then closes behind the platform. The free Fuchikoma can climb onto the rear edge of the platform, but it can't move through the closed gate. The Fuchikoma can't climb through the walls at this end of the area either, though it can see the entrance to the boss mecha's room through the wall.) Mission 10: Cutting of the Central Nerve. Aeropolis II/The General Floor. (This Mission has the same BGM as the OP animation.) ^_^ New units in the terrorists' order of battle include: mobile mines, red Bits with beam rifles, and brown terrorists with flamers. The mobile mines will track towards the Fuchikoma, and self-detonate if the Fuchikoma is on the floor or wall. They won't self-detonate when the Fuchikoma is on the ceiling. Thus, for most of this mission, the Fuchikoma should be moving on the ceiling. When the Fuchikoma's Vulcan blows up a mobile mine, don't rush the Fuchikoma into the explosion, or it'll damage the Fuchikoma. Also, the explosion won't destroy any nearby mobile mine. OTOH, if a mobile mine's on the floor under the inverted Fuchikoma, the Fuchikoma may: ignore the mobile mine and move on; or dash back and Vulcan the mine again; or lock-on the mine, dash back, and release missiles at it. Note: When the Fuchikoma's on the ceiling, the big green dot in the Radar is also reversed. So fly by IFR and trust the Direction Indicator at the upper right corner of the screen. But sometimes it's hard to discern if the Direction Indicator's pointing to the Fuchikoma's front or back. So if the Fuchikoma encounters empty corridors, or terrorist units that it may have destroyed before, clear the corridor, jump onto the floor, and check the Direction Indicator and Radar. The terrorist with flamer needs two Vulcan bursts to destroy. As soon as the Fuchikoma enters the two boss robots' room, climb onto the ceiling. Each boss robot has four weapons: beam shotgun, beam sabre (like the ones in Virtual-On), mines (three per shot), and missiles. The mines can't hit the inverted Fuchikoma. Keep sliding the Fuchikoma to avoid the boss robots' other attacks. When the Fuchikoma slides, try to keep one of the boss robots in the Fuchikoma's front arc. Vulcan, then lock-on and release missiles at one or both boss robots. Repeat. When the boss robots' energy is down to 1/4 or 1/2, one of the boss robots will probably explode. The doors through which the boss robots enter the room won't open when the Fuchikoma stands on them. (BTW, the note about a ninth column in the previous Mission was disinformation. In Mission 9, there was no ninth column. Just checking if you vidgame reviewers are really playing this game. But the note about the moving platform bug was true.) 8P "Joudan ya. Sugu shinjin'na, BOKE." - Inuzuka Saori to the protagonist, Sotsugyou Vacation (PlayStation, 1997) Mission 11: Push Up from the Bottom! ("Up yours!" IMO.) Aeropolis II/The Duct. New units in the terrorists' order of battle include: mine droppers. This mine dropper appears as a rod on the ceiling or wall. When the Fuchikoma's in its range and under the mine dropper, it drops multiple mines on the Fuchikoma. Unlike the dumb mines in previous Missions, this mine dropper has unlimited ammo. OTOH, it doesn't activate when the Fuchikoma's on the ceiling and standing right next to it, or when the Fuchikoma's on the wall and above it. Unless the Fuchikoma's in a narrow duct, the mines from a mine dropper only hit the path directly under it, but there may be one mine dropper on each wall at one spot in the duct. Again, as soon as the Fuchikoma enters the boss mecha's room, climb onto the ceiling. The boss mecha's a two-parter. It begins with four weapons: energy balls (five per shot), energy waves (up to four per shot), lightning (two-hit), and missiles. WRT the quintuple energy balls, dodge the first one or two, then move towards the boss mecha to force the others to overshoot the Fuchikoma as they guide towards it. WRT the energy waves, they have little elevation, so they'll probably miss the Fuchikoma on the ceiling, unless the Fuchikoma's in medium range from the boss mecha. WRT the lightning, a cone of lightning appears before the boss mecha, then it releases a stream of lightning that only hits if the Fuchikoma's directly in front of the boss mecha. When the boss mecha's energy is down to 1/4, the boss mecha becomes a hovering locust-like mecha with continuous beam machine gun and missiles. Avoid the boss mecha's front arc and missiles, and Vulcan/missile it. (Thanks to Kee-Hyun Paik for Mission 11 and 12 tips.) Mission 12: The Darkest Hour is that Before the Dawn. ("Frustration Central II", IMO.) Aeropolis II/The Rooftop. New units in the terrorists' order of battle include: Bits with spread beam guns. The double missiles from the turrets in this Mission seem to have better agility than previous missile turrets. Also, beware of multiple dumb mines. If the Fuchikoma moves beyond the outside edge of the (brown and yellow) floor, it'll fall off the building and Game Over, instead of climb onto the outside wall of the building. For reference, the gunships are always parallel to the ground, and there are two landing spots for choppers (the "H" marks (Ecchi?)) on a balcony way below the Fuchikoma's floor. Behind the gate guarded by one missile turret and three Bits, note the wall (actually an underside) with two rows of four mines (and a gunship behind the mines) through which the Fuchikoma must move through is dark grey, not light grey. While destroying these mines and gunship, remember the Fuchikoma's upside-down and don't jump! This Mission has three checkpoints. The first is three platforms in a row across which the Fuchikoma must jump. The second is a gap across which the Fuchikoma must jump. The third is a narrow bridge. ((Be advised: You may ignore this paragraph.) Why did the [censored] programmers at Exact must be such [censored] sadists to include the [censored] Super Mario jumping from platform to platform [censored]? The last time I did some of this [censored] was in Origin's Ultima VIII for DOS. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. I [censored] wasted over two hours and 20 minutes to complete this otherwise physically short Mission (and my Fuchikoma engaged the boss mecha only three or four times during this duration) because I [censored] at trying to jump across those three [censored] platforms. (Actually, it was effectively two [censored] platforms. See below.) My Fuchikoma had [censored] fallen short, overshot, missed to the left ("Just a little bit outside!" - Major League), missed to the right, AND slid off the [censored] middle platform so many times it wasn't [censored] funny. (About the only thing I didn't do was to try jumping across those [censored] platforms while the Fuchikoma's inverted, to see if the Fuchikoma can stick to the undersides of the [censored] platforms, which I doubt.) Maybe there are easier ways to jump across those [censored] platforms, but I didn't waste more time to figure out them. (I usually play fighting games and RPGs. I don't usually play shooting games, except the Virtua Cop series.) OK, I could've been less frustrated if I wasn't in a rush to finish this game to free the PS for Sotsugyou Vacation. (OTOH, a friend seems to have similar problems with Dark Forces II for WIN95. At least he can save game during a mission.) Fortunately, for a 3D graphics-intensive PS game, GITS has a relatively short load time, possibly from efficient programming.) Anyway, here are some tips for players more used to action games. There are (at least) two ways to jump across the three platforms. One, jump from the top edge of the wall facing the platforms. Two, jump from the half-platform on the wall facing the platforms. (I tried both, and prefer the first option, because it involves one fewer platform than the second option.) BTW, the Fuchikoma can't climb beyond the yellow borders of the walls (or it'll fall off the building), or climb onto the cables suspending the platforms. Before trying to jump across the platforms, line up the Fuchikoma with the line on the floor, or the half platform on the wall facing the three platforms. A slight yaw to either side will amplify when the Fuchikoma jumps and cause the Fuchikoma to miss the middle platform. Move back the Fuchikoma, L1+R1+Forward to dash forward, tap Jump when the Fuchikoma's at the top edge of the wall facing the platforms, release L1+R1 and hold Forward for a second, before the Fuchikoma lands on the middle/second platform. If L1 or R1 isn't released evenly, the Fuchikoma will yaw in mid-air. If Forward is held for too long, the Fuchikoma will slide off the platform. When jumping from the second platform to the third platform, jump from the forward half of the second platform. When jumping off the third platform, aim for the wall to the Fuchikoma's right (1-2 o'clock), where there's a light and one of the cables is anchored. Guarding the entrance of the corridor after the three platforms is a missile turret, near an Energy Pack. Inside the corridor are mines and a spider-like robot with twin beam rifles. Between this corridor and the next is a gap. One way to cross the gap is dash forward the Fuchikoma before it jumps. Another way I didn't try is climb to the top of the wall facing the entrance of the next corridor and jump towards the entrance. Even if the Fuchikoma falls short of the entrance, it may stick to the wall around or under the entrance. Inside the next corridor are two green terrorists with automatic rifles. These are annoying because their hits abort the Fuchikoma's Vulcan bursts, and the Fuchikoma can't run over them. (So I Grenaded the both of them and got the Grenade in the next corridor.) Between this corridor and the next is a narrow bridge, guarded by a gunship. The bridge has four mines on it: two on top side, one on left side, and one on right side. (Comment: On second thought, and after some calm tries, tapping L1+R1+Forward+Jump to hop from the brown platform on the wall facing the grey platforms to the platforms doesn't seem as hard as I first thought.) In the boss mecha's stage, slide at will. The Fuchikoma can't fall off the rooftop. The boss mecha's another two-parter. In Part I, it has five weapons: cluster bombs, shock waves, spread missiles, two mega beam swords, and Vulcans. Also, it can slide. The cluster bombs, spread missiles, and Vulcans are easy to avoid. Keep the sliding Fuchikoma in short to medium range from the boss mecha. When the boss mecha slides and possibly gets into the sliding Fuchikoma's way, prepare to slide the Fuchikoma in the opposite direction. The shock wave and mega beam sword(s) are harder to vis-ident. The shock wave has a short execution time. When the boss mecha raises one or both arms, instead of wait and see if it's drawing its mega beam sword(s) or energising the shock wave, jump the sliding Fuchikoma anyway. When the boss mecha's energy is empty, it grabs the Fuchikoma, and both fall off the building. When both are falling, the Part II boss mecha has only one weapon: continuous Vulcans. It restarts with full energy, but Grenades do good damage to it. Slide the Fuchikoma away from the Vulcans, and tap the keypad to move the Fuchikoma towards the boss mecha's top, bottom, or sides. It shouldn't take long for the Fuchikoma to Vulcan the boss mecha to destruction. (When the timer reaches zero, do both the boss mecha and the Fuchikoma hit the ground?) After the boss mecha buys the farm, it's Labatt time. Sit back, relax your thumbs, and enjoy Movie 6 and 7. 5. Movies The following conditions of the movies might be incorrect. Movie 1: Opening. The OP animation. (Hey, the hostile Fuchikoma has a flamer and Optical Camouflage.) Movie 2: Mission-1. Before Mission 1. (What did Bateau say before Togusa said "Kawaisou"?) Movie 3: Mission-2. Before Mission 4. Movie 4: Mission-3. Before Mission 7. (The sound effects person at the af-reco (after-recording) studio certainly did his/her job. Listen for the scraping sound when the Fuchikoma scratches its head. BTW, is the Fuchikoma in Aramaki's office supposed to be the player's?) Movie 5: Mission-4. Before Mission 10. Movie 6: Ending. After Mission 12. Movie 7: Staff. After Mission 12 and Movie 6. Movie 8: Training-1. The Fuchikoma is destroyed in Training 1 and gets Class E. To destroy the Fuchikoma before the timer reaches zero, stop the Fuchikoma on a target. Movie 9: Training-2. The Fuchikoma passes Training 4, fails Training 5, and gets Class C. (The player gets Class C even when the Fuchikoma's an Hit Rate of 93% and 104 destroyed targets.) Movie 10: Training-3. The Fuchikoma passes Training 3, fails Training 4, and gets Class C. Movie 11: Training-4. The Fuchikoma fails or passes Training 1, isn't destroyed, and gets Class E. Movie 12: Training-5. The Fuchikoma passes Training 1, fails Training 2 or 3, and gets Class D, even when the Fuchikoma's Hit Rate is 82%. Movie 13: Training-6. Kenson Yee said the conditions of this Movie are Class B and a score of 800,000-900,000. Movie 14: Training-7. The Fuchikoma fails Training 5 or 6, and gets Class C or D, even when the Fuchikoma's Hit Rate is 93%, with 104 destroyed targets. Movie 15: Training-8. The Fuchikoma passes Training 6 and gets Class A, even when the Fuchikoma's Hit Rate is 90% (!), with 99 destroyed targets. Achieving 100 or more destroyed targets don't get achieve Class S. (Maybe my Fuchikoma didn't get Class S because it was heavily damaged.) Movie 16: Training-9. The Fuchikoma passes Training 6 and gets Class S. An Hit Rate of 84%-87% and 96-98 destroyed targets help. Movie 17. I can only presume this Movie is titled "Training-10" and is for Class SS. Zouggari said he achieved Class SS with an Hit Rate of 91%, a Score of 1,360,600, which included 5 Perfects (115 Destroys), and his Fuchikoma ended with good "health" (green Energy Gauge). According to the Production IG official homepage (see below), the OP animation of the game is about two minutes long, and uses 4,000 cels. The total length of the animations between missions is about 10 minutes, and uses 3,500 cels. Production IG states, for comparison, a 30-minute OVA uses about 7,000 cels. IIRC, Production IG claims they produced the animations at 30 fps, but have to accommodate the PS's specs and play the animations at 15 fps in the game. While it's not the GITS PS OP animation, we can download a promotional QuickTime MOV file from the SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc) official homepage at: http://www.scei.co.jp/cgi-bin/title.cgi?pnum=scps10043 (If one hasn't watched the real game, he/she might notice in that MOV file the Fuchikoma's ability to climb onto buildings, but IMO he/she might not appreciate the Fuchikoma's axis-turns and lateral slides.) BTW, the above URL is just a frame. The formal URL of the SCEI official homepage is: http://www.scei.co.jp/soft/fr.html We can use its SCEI-only search engine to search for the advertisements, front and back cover illusts, and MOV files (if any) of other PS games. (I tried it on 1997.09.22, and it didn't (seem to) have any info about NOeL 2 and Sotsugyou Vacation yet. T_T Sabishii.) Calvin Choi suggested we can use the Psxvideo for WIN95 util to view the Movies. I've that util (v1.06, 1997.02.17), but haven't tried it with the GITS game CD. 6. VOICE ACTORS (Seiyuu) Kusanagi Motoko TSURU HIROMI Aramaki Daisuke Itou Souichi Bateau Ogawa Shinji Togusa Suzuoki Hirotaka Ishikawa Kobayashi Kiyoshi Saitou Hiyama Nobuyuki Fuchikoma Miwa Katsue Sawamura Takiguchi Junpei Thanks to Doi Hitoshi (the usual suspect -_-; WRT seiyuu stuph) for the transliteration. Gundamaniacs may remember Suzuoki Hirotaka as Captain Bright Noah in Gundam (and now Saitou Hajime/Fujita Gorou in Kenshin). The staff roll in Movie 7 has the complete list of characters and seiyuu, but I may or may not transcribe those later. Max Hagedorn said the Ghost in the Shell Official Art Book has B&W recent photos of the seiyuu. Anyone has scans of these photos? 7. MISCELLANEOUS (Free Talk) Seems the non-Japanese NTSC version has a front cover that has (somewhat) less bondage than the original front cover. Wonder if the (apparently) full-body nudity in the OP animation will survive in the foreign NTSC version? (IMO, probably not, given the previous changes to the Sophitia in the OP animation of Namco's Soul Edge, uh, Soul Blade.) In a Mission, when the Fuchikoma stands still and does nothing (I was enjoying the techno BGM, OK?) one of three reminders regularly appears in the Message Screen: "Keep working!" "Pursue your mission." "What are you doing?" In a memory card, a GITS save game is one block in size. The icon shows the sweating head of a Fuchikoma, blinking its mono-eye. After the player completes Mission 12 and saves game, the save game title becomes "COMPLETE", instead of "MISSION #". In the ROOT sub-directory of the CD, there's a SYSTEM.TXT file written in JIS. Seems like a config file, but the STARTUP.PEX file it mentions isn't executable under MS-DOS. A friend's comment when he first saw Kusanagi Shousa: "Why is she not wearing pants?" -_-; (Me: "No comment.") BTW, to annoy a GITS PS player while he/she is concentrating on sliding left and right to dodge incoming fire, hum or sing the old Spiderman cartoon theme song. The following is the track list of the Ghost in the Shell PlayStation original soundtrack CD, released by Sony Music Entertainment. (Thanks to Norm and Oichoich.) 1. Takkyu Ishino "Ghost in the Shell" 2. Mijk Van Dijk "Firecracker" 3. Brother from Another Planet "Ishikawa Surfs the System" 4. Hardfloor "Spook and Spell" (Fast Version) 5. Westbam "Featherhall" 6. Joey Beltram "The Vertical" 7. Scan X "Blinding Waves" 8. The Advent "The Searcher" 9. BCJ (aka CJ Bolland) "Spectre" 10. Dave Angel "Can U Dig It" 11. Derrick May "To Be Or Not To Be" (Off the Cuff Mix) Sierra Hotel (high scores), as of 1997.11.15. For simplicity, only one pair of high scores per player are listed. Training Mode Score Class Name 1,360,600 SS SLI 1,021,000 S KEN 1,000,100 S DON Mission Mode Score Destroy Name 1,322,000 435 DON 748,800 326 SLI 370,600 109 KEN (SLI = Slim99; KEN = Kenson Yee; DON = Don Chan.) 8. THANKS (Social democracy in action) Alex van Vucht (For the ASCII logo.) Calvin C. "SAInt" Choi (For Training 1-6 and Movies info.) DarkLord (For Mission 1-12 tips.) Doi "Toshi Nibunnoichi" Hitoshi (For seiyuu info.) Don "Gamera" Chan (Kusanagi Syousa no koe sukkyanen.) Fran Kan Gilbert Wong Katou Masayuki Kee-Hyun Paik (For Mission 11 and 12 tips.) Keith Miyake Kenson "Tenshi" Yee (For Training 6 and Mission 9-12 tips.) Lee Freedman (For Mission 4 tips.) Max "Metool" Hagedorn (For Movies and seiyuu info.) Michael Mi Wang (For Mission 3 tips.) Mike Tsui (For Training and Mission tips, and watching me play this game.) Nagano Satoshi Norm (For info about the GITS PS OST CD. (Huh?)) Oichoich Ralph Jenkins (For identifying the GITS PS Kusanagi Shousa's seiyuu.) Takizawa M Tamar Pandi Zhou Tai An (For his Ghost in the Shell - Player's Guide.) Zouggari (Slim99) (For Movies and Training info.) No thanks to the following Geschlechtskrankheit: Neil Trumbie (GhostHacker@mindspring.com, Neil@Trumbie.com) 9. REFERENCES These are mainly Usenet newsgroups and Websites about this game. I exclude Websites about the GITS anime movie that don't necessarily have info useful to the players of this game. Anime PlayStation (http://www.aiai.com/~freddy/animepsx/action/gits.html, http://www.aiai.com/~freddy/animepsx/cheat/code/gitscode.html). Atelier Kaia (http://www.angelfire.com/tx/kaia/). Digital Magazine GAME BUSTERS / GAME NEWS (http://www.busters.or.jp/gb/news/1997/m07/d30/sp01.html). Game Cheat Workshop (http://home.hkstar.com/~cplo/psx/ps_g.htm). Game Players Magazine, No.53, 1997.07.18 (Cineaste International Ltd). [GARAGE] SOFTWARE SCPS-10043 (http://www.scei.co.jp/cgi-bin/title.cgi?pnum=scps10043). Ghost in the Shell Official Homepage (http://www.iijnet.or.jp/mmedia/gits/top_frame.html). Ghost in the Shell PlayStation (http://www.csnsys.com/john/ghost.htm). National Console Support, Inc (http://www.ncsx.com/gshell2a.htm). planet 32 (http://www.cart-mart.com/planet32/index.html). PlayStation Magazine, No.15, 1997.08.08 (Tokuma Shoten Co Ltd/Intermedia Company). PREVIEWS - International (http://www.diamdcom.com/previews/international/ghost.html). Production IG Official Homepage (http://www.production-ig.co.jp/topmenu2.html). PSX Power Preview: Ghost In The Shell for PlayStation (http://www.psxpower.com/previews/64.html). SCEI SOFTWARE [?USk<@"(r)'… Ghost in the shell] (http://www.scei.co.jp/sd2/ghost/index.html). Secrets of the Sega Sages (http://www.segasages.com). Seiyuu (voice actor) database (http://www.tcp.com/doi/seiyuu/seiyuu.html). Shooting Star!! (http://www.ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp/~s960654/seigetsu/). VideoGameSpot: Ghost in the Shell (Import) at a Glance (http://www.videogamespot.com/psx/shoot/ghostits/index.html). www.gamefaqs.com (http://www.gamefaqs.com/). ŸSŸ"ŸN (http://ac2.aimcom.co.jp/~irino/cd.htm). d'á3/4öøE (http://www.gamars.com.tw/buster/code/ps755.htm). ?USk<@"(r)'… (http://www.sme.co.jp/Music/Info/SonyTechno/feature/9707/). alt.games.video.sony-playstation fj.rec.games.video.home.playstation hk.rec.videogame rec.arts.anime.games rec.games.video.sony PS As I said before, I'm interested in this game not because I'm a GITS fan (read its manga years ago, and didn't watch its movie, but I'd watched other Oshii-directed anime before: Dallos, Patlabor 2, and Urusei 2) or a Shirow Masamune fan, but because I'm a TSURU HIROMI fan. ^_^; (To paraphrase the Fushigi Yuugi OP song: "Konomi no seiyuu no tame ni, ima nani ga dekiru kana?") I wouldn't be playing this game if Tanaka Atsuko remains as Kusanagi Shousa's seiyuu (no offense to Tanaka-han or her fans intended though). PPS Yes, I've written longer game FAQs before (eg, Falcon 3.0 and Ultima VI). My other current consumer game projects: - Sentimental Graffiti link list, last updated on 1997.11.15. - Sotsugyou series link list, last updated on 1997.07.10. @_@ -- "Tuyokereba, iki. Yowakereba, sinu." - "Tenken no Souzirou" Seta Souzirou, Rurouni Kensin -Meizi Kenkaku Romantan-