=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ___ ___ ___ __ ___ __ __ __ \ \ / / / \ | |/ / | | _ | | | | \ V / / ^ \ | ' / | | _| |_ | | | | > < / /_\ \ | < | | |_ _|| | | | / . \ / _____ \ | . \ | | |_| | | | | /__/ \__\ /__/ \__\ |__|\__\ |__| |__| |__| Platform: PC-Engine Release Year: 1992 FAQ Version: 1.1 Last Update: 08/05/2006 Authors: Jeff Lambert & Bt Garner Extra Help: Thomas "SkyeWelse" Liebert =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ABOUT THIS GUIDE: This walkthrough was originally written by Bt Garner, who runs the Turbo mailing list among many, MANY other things. I decided I'd play through Xak 1&2 and use this guide as a reminder. Turns out there were some omissions and errors so I decided I'd submit a revision to GameFAQs with my own modifications. THIS IS DONE ENTIRELY WITH BT'S APPROVAL. My notes about the game: As I'm writing this in 2006 I will be totally honest with you... play this on an emulator! The game can be very cheesy in terms of dying, and although it offers a save-almost-anywhere feature, you're much better off using save states. I started playing Xak 1&2 after playing through Ys 4 (excellent translation from NightWolve) and needing more PC-Engine Action RPG goodness. This is an old game but I feel like it still has potential for a fun time in this day and age. Enjoy it! I would also like to thank SkyeWelse and his awesome Xak/Ys/Zelda shrine: http://gameflaws.com/xyz/ Check it out. He rewrote parts of this guide with proper item and location names. This guy knows his XYZs! BTW my GameFAQs username is jeffx2k... feel free to say thanks if this helped! This guide may ONLY be posted on GameFAQS, the XYZ shrine and the Turbo ML. For additions/corrections, email xradicalx@gmail.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- GENERAL TIPS: - Talk to everyone... three times! - Reaching a new level makes a world of difference - Purchase best equipment at all times - Make sure to magically enchant your weapons and armour as certain enemies, such as undead can only be hurt by magic - Keep 4 of each spell in stock to avoid backtracking - You can die from the weakest enemy if not careful - In Xak II you can turn your Force shot on/off. Using Force Shot helps a lot - In Xak II, at some point you'll be able to purchase a magic cross from the village magic shop. This item allows you to recover your magic points at the expense of some of your HP. Very useful item! - SAVE OFTEN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- GAME PLAY: What the buttons do: I: Jump (if in an applicable scene) / Select Menu item II: Attack (HOLD - turn turbo off) / Cancel Menu Run: Uses whatever is selected in ITEM A Select: Calls up the Menu Item: There are two item blocks, A and B. Things in "A" generally need to be used (by pressing the run button), however, there are exceptions (the GREEN Spell, for instance, instead if you have a green spell in Item A, and come to an appropriate place to use it, you will be asked if you want to use it or not). Most things in B work the same way as the exceptions to "A" above, although there is generally not a question since "B" items are not of the use once variety. The Menu is in english, and fairly straight forward. Unfortunately at the time of this writing, no English patch has been made available. However, an MSX version of this game is available including full translation. Check out the XYZ shrine for the full details. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- MAGIC SCROLLS: There are 5 spells. BLUE (Teleport)- Return (most of the time returns you to the last town) RED (Death Spell)- Kills any normal enemies on screen instantly YELLOW (Lightning Bolt)- Like the Death Spell, but deals damage GREEN (Disintigrate) - Destroy wall (used only in the caves of Xak 1) SILVER (Dispel Magic) - (available only from the Gnomes living in a treasure chest house in Xak 1, and used on a ghost in the Tower of Zeglard) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ITEMS: There are scads of items. These are the less obvious ones. Life Mantle - Cape of healing, allows you to heal anywhere once equipped Gauntlets - Raises Latok's strength while equipped Protection Ring - Raises Latok's defence while equipped Benura - Opens chests in the Tower of Zeglard Bread - Restores a small bit of life Dried Meat - Restores a medium amount of life Gemil Potion - Restores life completely =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- WEAPONS: Xak I: Short Sword - First sword you are able to wield Gradius - The second sword Falcion Sword - Third sword Saber - Fourth sword Broadsword - Fifth sword Great Sword - Final Sword Xak II: Gradius - First sword you are able to wield Falcion Sword - Second sword Saber - Third sword Broadsword - Fourth sword Great Sword - Fifth sword Xak Sword - Final sword =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ARMOUR: Xak I: Leather Armour - First set of armour you can equip Ring Mail - Second set Chain Mail - Third Set Scale Mail - Fourth set Brigande - Fifth set Plate Mail - Final set Xak II: Leather Armour - First set of armour you can equip Ring Mail - Second set Scale Mail - Third set Brigande - Fourth set Plate Mail - Final set =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- SHIELDS: Xak I: Small Shield - First shield you are able to equip Round Shield - Second shield Large Shield - Third shield Tower Shield - Fourth shield Silver Shield - Fifth shield Knight's Shield - Final shield Xak II: Small Shield - First shield you are able to equip Round Shield - Second shield Large Shield - Third shield Tower Shield - Fourth shield Silver Shield - Fifth shield Knight's Shield - Final shield =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- WALKTHROUGH: Please note Xak I&II plays exactly like Ys I&II in the sense that when you select "New Game" you are automatically taken to Xak I. The only way to play the sequel is to actually complete Xak I and SAVE your game while playing the second!! Otherwise you can't "choose" to play Xak II on its own. 1. Fearless Village - In order to get out of the village, you will need to search the church (there's something between 2 of the benches) and then into the house on the left of the church. With your 600 gold, get the first set from the weapon/armor shop on the bottom right of the church. No need for anything from the items/spell shops. Level up once or twice in the next screen. Head to the Northeast exit, then the northern exit. 2. In the forest area with the "grey cats" - there are three openings, the upper one leads to the 1st boss, go first to the opening on the left and speak with an injured blue haired girl named Fray. Offer to carry her and take her to the opening on the right in the cat area, and into to the house (answer YES). Then take girl back to the first town (drop her off at the nurse). Go back to the house by the cats and you will now be able to enter the north area. After beating the boss, go back to the house for 1000 Gold. 3. On your way back to the town, you will encounter another 'injured' person. It is Bobby, the Blacksmith's son from Fearless village (or rather a demon imp sent to assasinate Latok who looks like him.) Answer NO to both questions, or it's GAME OVER. Kill the resulting imp after the second NO. 4. You should have enough gold to buy the second set of armor and weapons in the first town. 5. Leave the village and take the northeast exit, but this time take the east exit instead of northern. Continue along the path. The green enemies can be hard to kill at this point, try and bypass them. This leads to the Fortress of Molum. 6. The Fortress is very annoying and also pretty hard. Try and develop enemy-killing techniques such as pushing against them so they can't fight back. Your objective is to find 3 keys. Only the last key is hard to find. *NOTE* It is imperative that you show your "ROYAL FAMILY CREST" (First item (Gold Color) ITEM B) to each of the people you will come across inside the Fortress. If you do not, they will not help you nor give you the items you need to continue forward. 1. Upon entering, go left, up - key is visible on shelf. 2. Return to entrance. Door on right can be opened if you check it twice. Talk to the prisoner. Go down and into the room to the left of the cell. Use your first key. (MEDICINE CABINET KEY) Get Ointment from the shelf and return to the prisoner. He will give you the second key. (MASTER KEY) 3. Eventually you'll find a person in a corner of the room, after talking to him, go back to the 3 flames (1F, NE section), and you will get a bucket of soup. Take the soup (ITEM B) back to this guy and you'll get the 3rd Key. (WATER PRESSURE REGULATION ROOM KEY) Make sure you inspect all the bookcases. At some point you will find a Strategy Book which will increase you your strength and defence, giving you one-hit kills on all enemies, this is good for a couple of level ups. Reach for at least Lv 12. 7. Go back to town and get the 3rd set of armor/weapons. The Water Dragon boss of Fort Molum is nearly impossible to beat without this equipment. In my case, I wasn't able to put a dent in the boss before I was level 14. Kill the salamanders south of the first village and go further for great experience. 8. After beating the boss - find the room with the single man that hasn't helped you yet. Show him the crystal ball you got from the boss to advance the story. Then return to the one door that you can't open with any of the keys -- it will be open. Talk to the man in there, crystal ball in hand. 9. Move onto the 'southern' area of the forest (where the salamanders are). If you continue West, you'll find a Gondola bucket that can lower you. The mayor of the second town of Normana can teach Latok how to use the Gondola (the bucket) for you (although, you can jump over the bucket and "walk" inbetween the wires, so long as you jump over the bucket at the bottom of the screen as well). The second town is East, and then directly South (through the MARSH, watch your HP) of this area. 10. Go in the bucket, and through the cave. On the exit of the cave is a pirate. After you've spoken to him, go back to the goon hideout (NE of the pirate exit) and you will find a bottle of rum on the upper left table. Go back and give this (ITEM B) to the pirate. But the pirate wants more rum. Repeat, the pirate will give you the PIRATE'S TREASURE KEY that will allow you to open the chests by the goons that you couldn't open before. Inside one of the chests you'll find a Red Gem. 11. In the caves, there are 2 hidden doors sealed aways behind a rock wall. You need to purchase a GREEN spell (Disintegrate Magic Scroll) (2nd town) to open these doors. After you've done the first one, you'll free a prisoner. You then need to go back to the second town, a demi-boss will be there for you to beat (he's easy). Exit the town, then re-enter to buy another GREEN spell (if needed). Also talk to the Mayor -- he will give you "ESP Medal" (round, gold thing -- Item B) which you need. Go back to the cave and open the second hidden door. In this area you will find a white emblem on the wall. To open this passageway use the ESP Medal and a doorway will open up. Make sure you're level 16 and have equipped the fourth set of equipment. 12. In this area you will talk to a "creature" called a Rock Biter, which takes the shape of a face carved in a rock wall you need to select the ROYAL FAMILY CREST [first thing in Item B] and a passage will open up. 13. In this area, you will need to repeat the steps in 12. Past this is the 3rd boss, The Fire and Water Elementals and the Fusion Elemental (the guy in the second town didn't count) 14. To get past the Vicksvorm Gate Statues - you need to select the RED GEM as Item B. 15. Repeat the steps from 12. This will take you to the 3rd town, The Hobbit village of Nemnu (3T) 16. There is a cave in the NW section of town -- most of the action takes place in here for the next little while. Eventually you'll come to a stairway that you cannot enter (4F). Go back down to 2F where the skull in the middle of the floor was, answer NO, then go back to the stairway - you will not yet be able to enter it, instead, go South, East, then South and talk to the Elves in the chest again - they will give you a SILVER spell (Dispel Magic Scroll). Take this spell to the ghost on 3F (Item A). This will cure him. Go back to the town (3T) and the boy will be at the first house on the right. He will give you a BUNNY?!??! Yes, a rabbit familiar that he exclaims will make a good mascot for Latok's journey. As odd as it is to receive a pet bunny rabbit, Rabbie does come in handy in sniffing out small items. This bunny as Item B will alow you to proceed to 5F however, before you leave town, be sure to buy a BLUE spell [Teleport] you WILL need it. 17. On 5F, there is a skeleton, talk to him and you will be asked to go back to the village of Nemnu (3T) and tell his sister Yui that he has now passed on. Return to town and tell his sister and return to the skeleton on the 5th floor. If you are at a high enough level, he will give you the broadsword. This will do a lot of damage to the enemies in the tower, but first it needs to be magically enchanted or it will not do any damage to undead enemies. When you enter 7F, there is a chest that if opened will send you to a a confined prison. This is optional however to open this, but if you do you will need to have a BLUE spell (Teleport) to get out. Since you're back in town, you should buy some of the things that look like grenades called (Benura) These (when selected as Item A) will permit you to forcefully open a couple fo the chests in the upper levels of the cave. 18. Don't open the chest on 7F again -- it'll do the same thing everytime. The boss is on 9F. After you beat him, answer NO, or else your game is truly over, re-loading isn't even an option (he asks you if you want to join him) 19. Land of Fire. There are three sections here, on the first, there is a cave on the far right of the screen. Go in and talk to everyone (answer YES), and you will be given a Blue Cape (Fire Mantle) that protects you from the curtains of fire in the Fortress of Flame (beware -- in the fortress, there are certain rooms filled with posionous gas that suck your HP down fast. It helps to use the RED CAPE (Life Mantle) ([press run] and jump a lot). You'll need to find the GAS MASK in the fortress on the second floor of the east side of the fortress. You can equip this to roam freely in the toxic gas rooms. 20. In the fortess, on the 2nd floor, upper right, you'll get a red potion (Medicine), take this to the girl in the cave. Also in this room is the Dragon Ring, but I'm not sure if you can get it now, or have to wait. It's in between a couple of beds and you'll have to use Rabbie, your rabbit familiar to sniff it out under the bed. Before you can do this, you must do the following: A. Second floor medicine delivered to the girl in the cave (Rachael) B. Be maxed out at level 25 C. Talk to everyone in Rachael's cave hideout including the Bard 21. On the 1st floor, there is a fireplace in the back, go there 3 times to eventually extinguish the flames and you will be able to enter the 3rd floor. 22. On 3F, there is a flame room, you need the Dragon Ring (Item B) - see number 20 if you don't already have. Xak becomes a shooter (ala Dragon Spirit) for a few moments... 23. After you beat the boss which is a giant fire salamander, you go to the Temple Puzzle. Talk to the injured swordsman, (Rune) before hand -- he'll give you the GREAT SWORD. 24. The goal of the temple puzzle is to utilize each passage once and only once, and then use the Blue Diamond one last (the Blue Diamond will be designated as "*" in this file). The layout of the temples are: B G E B F D G A D C G A * A E * You start in between the "E" and "*" temples (lower right). One pattern that works is: A C B F G E D * 25. This will take you to the boss of Xak 1, Zemu Badu. After beating him, it's onto XAK 2! 26. Answer YES to the girl on the tree. 27. Town exits: North: Dock East: Forest South: Fountain West: Crystal Valley East of town, there are 3 stumps that indicate areas that are accessable, so long as you have the Tautook Statue (Looks like a head) (Item B). The middle and right one will remain open, but the left one (that leads to the city) will have to be re-opened anytime you want to pass through it. The first area to go to is the stump on the Far East (north). 28. In this area there are 3 caves and one tree that you can enter. Start at the left-most cave (with the Tautook Statue), then move to the one on the far right ("The treehouse."). Answer YES. 29. Outside the house, answer YES to the sage -- you can then go back to the left cave and pass through. On the way back out, you'll see a group of travelers who are stranded in the forest. Select YES to the one with the witch hat (Horn Ashtar) to allow him to borrow your Tautook Statue to get out of the forest. 30. Eventually you'll find another cave in this area - in it is a MIRROR. Take this mirror (Item B) back to the tree house and you'll get another Tautook Statue. Take the statue to the middle stump (27) and go south. 31. In this area, there is a tree to the far right. You will need to have the MIRROR (Item B) to enter it. [note, you may have to go back to town and talk to a few people before doing this, I tried it, it didn't work, but later it did?] 32. This leads to a sky bridge with holes. Stepping in a hole is death. Save often. 33. This leads to a forest area with 2 caves. Forget the left one for now (also, the pool by the entrance will restore your Magic) and instead go into the right one. In the caves, there are pools. Standing in these will restore your HP. You'll eventually come across a goon's bedroom. Search it carefully [left side] and you'll get a SNAKE KEY. 34. In the back of the cave, you'll find doors that cost 10G to open. Do it. Behind the first one is a boss. If you are at level 33 (and have FORCE ON), he's a breeze to beat. After the boss you'll get a Globe, 1 out of eight total. 35. Continuing on, you'll come to 3 doors (with little wings). The first two (left & middle) are red herrings. The right one leads to a boss (FORCE ON, again). Before entering the next room, make sure you've found an item that looks like a ring (SNAKE RING, should be in the left cave after unlocking a door using the Snake Key). Equip this item before entering the boss fight or the boss will perform a magical curse that will take away a large percentage of HP before the fight even begins. The ring prevents this from happening. After the fight you'll get a second Globe. 36. After beating the boss in 35, go left and search the bedroom, talk to the sleeping girl. After carrying her on your back, Latok cannot use his sword. The chest on the right has a secret passage take you out of this cave, and into the other one (if you'd taken the other entry mentioned in 33). Your main goal here is to get the girl back to the treehouse, and then to town (Tautook Statue needed to activate the stump). 37. After returning the girl to town, you are now ready to journey on to the next demon infested area. Return to the cave if you have not found all of the items (the one on the left). You'll need the snake key for one door, and also, there is an area with two pools (one north of the other), to the east of these is a candle and cape. You will get something here. Go back to town. 38. The priest in the church will give you 10000G -- the Nun on the right will restore your MP for 100G. Speak to everyone in town. 39. The west exit will now be available to you. 40. After crossing the lower bridge, do NOT take the first exit to the left, instead, head north and talk to the people in the house -- they will ask if you can rescue their daughter (Of course!), and will give you GLASSES. Go to the exit on the lower left now. 41. Crystal Valley Mine: Get ready for some of the worst dungeon design you have ever seen. It's easy to get lost in this one. You will want to equip the Glasses and leave them on will permit you to go through doorways that you aren't able to see without them. One thing to remember is that staircase with visible stairs lead "down", go for the ones without visible stairs. Check every chest you see (duh) you'll need to find the ELEVATOR KEY. It will enable you to use the elevator (strange thing on the West side of every floor -- see 42). On one floor, you will see four chests in the middle of the room, with no visible path. To get them, simply walk through the wall directly North of this 'room' and you'll walk right through the wall. There is really nothing that useful inside the chests however. 42. The boss of the Crystal Valley mine is in the lowest level of the mine floor (lower left selection on the elevator menu). This floor is very different from the other floors. You need to cross some poison fields, and then run into a bunch of crystalized people. One of them has something for you it seems, so "talk" to them. A Blue Pendant. After fighting the boss you'll get another Globe and a BLUE STONE. 43. Go back to town. Talk to the people in the bar, then go talk to the Nun on the left in the church. Exit town to the South (the fountain). Answer YES to the old man. You will get transported in the sky. 44. Castle Caulyan (Sky Castle): The castle has 2 parts (right and left). You start in the right one by unlocking the door with a new key that was slipped into the inventory (STAR KEY). The towers are 'connected' via a "Tree Stump Bridge" (on 3F). Clear out as much of the right side as possible. There is a boss on the top floor, a Wind Elemental, defeating it will award you with a shield-looking object (WIND MEDAL) and MOON KEY. 45. The bridge is a PAIN to cross (you will want to save often). It took me a while to figure it out -- the key is to not think of the logs as being different heights, but rather that they zig zag (are not in a straight line). They have different North/South co-ords. To make most of the jumps, you will need to move the controller up and down as well as left. 46. Left Sky Castle: The 3rd and 5th floors have "Mouseholes" - let the WIND MEDAL be Item B and you will be able to shrink down in size and enter them (in fact on 5F you will need to do this). Inside the mouseholes you'll fight rats and find treasure chests. Eventually you'll discover a chest that holds two IRON BARS. After finding the two iron bars, go down to the basement on both the East and West sides of the castle. Each basement has a machine in the center room that you can use one of the IRON BARS on in order to open a hatch to the secret underwater passeways. You'll need to find a diving suit first before you can descend into the waters. On the East side, after going through the underwater passage you'll find a man who is an engineer for the castle. He offers to trade you his SUN KEY for your BLUE STONE. Select yes to his offer and retrieve the SUN KEY. Use the SUN KEY in the room after the water passage of the West side of the castle. Here you'll fight some large skeletons and enter a holy shrine of sorts where you'll find a HOLY CHARM. You'll have to use this HOLY CHARM in the top floors of the castle (I think it is automatically, though I could be wrong) in order to eliminate the army of cursed undead that can do massive damage to Latok. The boss of the castle is on 9F, and once you beat him, you will be transported back to town. On 5F, there is a force field on the right, the mousehole will allow you to get to the other side. 8F has cursed undead (as mentioned above) that will need to be eliminated by use of the HOLY CHARM as the entire floor is deadly. Or, you can run like hell! Use your healing cape and Jump through as much of this level as you can (I put the I-button turbo ON until the stairs). 47. After you've beaten the boss, you'll get a fourth orb and end up back in town - talk to everyone (including the weapons guy, and the magic guy, in that order), and enter the church and talk to the nun there. She will explain that she has been watching your progress all along and is the protectorate of the White Dipole. She gives you Globes 5 and 6 then exit town to the north (boat). 48. On the ship, go below the deck and talk to the girl in the bed, then go talk to the captain. You then go underneath again and talk to everyone. Go up -- goons will be on board, kill them and talk to the people on deck. One of them will transport you down below. This will happen 2 more times (the last time, talk to the captain). Then, go up to the bow (north) and you will encounter yet another boss. After beating the boss, (Necromancer, from the first game) you'll end up on the beach of Death Mountain island. 49. Talk to the Hag - she will disappear. North of here is an area that you will not be able to pass unless you have the thing that looks like a SEAL BOOK (Looks like a stack of newspapers) selected as Item B. 50. The Shrine of the Gods (left and right): The objective here is to complete a warp maze puzzle by putting each of the eight globes into place in the statues, that create mirrors for you to use as a warp when you have the MIRROR equipped. You start with 6 out of 8. The final two as well as a special gold key (SWORD KEY) have to be found before the final door. Do the right one first - stand in front of a falcon statue to active the "teleport" door (Blue Door). In order to use the teleporter you need to have the MIRROR selected as Item B. These aren't too tricky and when you get to the end, just back track to get out. After you've finished the right tower, go back to where the Hag was, and there is a plank of wood there - search and you will get a HORN'S HAT. 51. Proceed to the Left tower. Operates the same as the right. At the end of this tower you'll come to a room with 3 teleporters in the shape of an inverted "T". The lower ones just return you, the upper one takes you to the XAK SWORD. However, the MIRROR will not get you there, the GOLD KEY (SWORD KEY) (Item B) will. DO NOT RETURN TO THIS ROOM! Once the sword has been removed, there is no other way out! 52. You are now outside of the towers, EQUIP the XAK SWORD and get ready or the last few bosses. SAVE NOW!! Move to the upper left area (between the two towers), and you'll be swiched to that shooter mode again. The last guy you need to kill is tricky (even if you're fully powered up). IMHO this part is kinda cool but it sucks your dragon is way up in the middle of the screen... very un-SHMUP-like. 53. You are now at the entrance to the last boss, Zamu Gospel. He is VERY EASY to beat when fully powered up, so use your HEALING CAPE to restore HP before going in. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The End!