Xenogears Battling FAQ ver. 1.00 Author: Jonathan Barone Chief motivation: Too much beer one night at 3 am Note: This is a portion of a full Xenogears FAQ that I am currently working on. This section is complete and I have no plans for major revision of it, so I am releasing it now primarily because there isn't anything like it in existence (to my knowledge). Warnings: This document is Copyright Jonathan Barone, 1998. Feel free to post it on a free website, modified or unmodified, or even cut and paste from it, as long as credit is given to yours truly in some way. One thing I will not tolerate is the use of this document or any part thereof for any sort of commercial gain. No part of this document is to be used or quoted from in any media intended for sale, with the exception of reviews. If you notice anyone ripping off parts of this faq (or, god forbid, the whole thing) and either not mentioning me or trying to sell it, please contact me and I'll forward you a copy of the wrath-of-godesque correspondences the perpetrator catches. Note: This document doesn't really contain any profanity, but I tend to get, well, randy at times, so reader discretion is advised. Xenogears is copyright Square Co. Ltd. (1997 and 98). Revision History Version .99 beta: Created (at 3 am one saturday morning) Version 1.00: Completed, first release. This version Battling Square has had a tendency in their titles to include little extra "games". These range from actual games (snowboarding and submarine killer in FF7) to what might be better described as "stupid game-like tasks" (the fish part in FF6, the carnival tent in chrono trigger, etc). For most of them (excluding the stupid task ones), I appreciated the effort, but wasn't going to go out of my way to play them unnecessarily. Then comes along Battling. I probably would've beaten the game a day or two sooner if not for Battling (because I played the optional mode frequently, not because I couldn't beat the mandatory section, thank you). In fact, this FAQ would probably be done by now if not for Battling. As you've guessed, I enjoy this game within a game quite a bit. My friends have various complaints about it being shallow, the movement system being out of whack, the control being sloppy, but I for one think it is very fun. It's no Soul Calibur, obviously, but it is a fast paced, relatively strategic fighting game with a wide variety of characters (even if you toss out the garbage ones). I went ahead and between playing against the computer, my friends, and no one (two player mode by myself) I've made a little mini-FAQ about Battling. I briefly discuss the rules, differences in AI settings, and some of my personal tactics. I have also included a list of all 47 gears you can use once the full game becomes available (when you first gain the ability to fly on the first cd). A movelist would be a bit extreme, since each gear really only has 8 possible combos (and few even have that many), and all the gear's moves feed into them, but I do list any outstanding moves, along with each gear's general attributes and some occasional side notes if the gear does anything special. Rules: The rules are available talking to the rightmost (from their perspective) girl behind the counter in the Kislev Battling Arena, so I feel no need to rehash them here. A bit of addendum tho: The (S)quare and (X) buttons, they claim are weak and strong attack, which is true some of the time, but often, especially in gears with weapons, there isn't really that distinction. It also doesn't really say what Rubber Band mode is. In this mode there's an energy chain or some such connecting the two gears. The chain follows more or less the same laws of physics an unbreakable rubber band would (assuming the gears had identical masses and traction, but it can't be perfect). You can pull the other guy around, if you jump you get yanked back towards him, you stretch farther apart if one of you is downhill, etc. I won't go too far into the strategy of this mode since I think it is kind of stupid, but I'll say that it is a very bad idea to use gears that rely on ranged weapons in this mode, since ranged weapons (except for ether balls) are useless at very short range. Regarding BP, which you earn in Mode 2 battles: basically, you get more for harder difficulty settings, and more still if you get a decisive win (DW). What is a DW? Well, both the ease of getting one and the actual qualifications of getting one increase as the difficulty level does, but basically if you can win in under 20 seconds and take little or no damage (less than 10% or your lifebar or so) you'll get a DW. You'll know immediately that you got one because the girl that debriefs you will be excited rather than bored. One thing to keep in mind is that you get more points for a DW on a lower setting than a regular victory on the next setting higher. Meaning, if you never get the DW on Medium but can manage them most of the time on Easy, stick with Easy if you're just trying to get BP. It is my experience that getting the DWs depends much more on the gear you fight than the difficulty. Fighting the Trooper on Hard is more likely to earn me a DW than fighting El Fenrir on Easy, but since you can't determine this, it is wiser to stick with the difficulty setting you have a better chance at. AI settings: Not surprisingly, the AI for Battling is hardly impressive. It reminds me of TekkenBall in Tekken 3, actually, in that it is an extra game so they probably figured we'd be happy just to have it, and that we could rely on other humans to make it hard. All the settings are beatable, it's not like a real fighting game in which you have to be a master to have a chance at the higher levels. The game is fast enough that the computer at any level has an advantage in always being able to know where they are facing, as most humans are bound to get disoriented by their opponent running around them then suddenly changing direction (many a time I should've hit the guy head on and wound up attacking 90 degrees to the side of where they were as result of this.) You get used to the speed, tho, it's not unlike going from a slow fighting game like Bushido Blade to a very quick one like Soul Calibur. As I mentioned earlier, the challenge of individual battles is based more on the gear the computer is using rather than the AI setting. There are noticeable differences, however: Easy: Computer just stands there a lot. Much less likely to throw ether balls, much more likely to overheat itself running around needlessly. Actually not super easy to get behind, since it tends to not execute long combos, and the gear will automatically turn to face you if it is standing still. Doesn't block much, and unless you do very slow combos it generally doesn't break them. Some of the nastiest gears can still at least hurt you in this setting, but once you are comfortable with the controls and basic strategy, you'll never lose a round on Easy. Medium: Computer moves more than in Easy, but isn't a whole lot more sensible. It has less of a tendency to overheat running, but at this difficulty starts tossing ether balls like there's no tomorrow, even if you are definitely out of range. This tends to overheat it pretty regularly. The computer is easiest to get behind at this level, since it tends to execute long combos at thin air. In addition the aforementioned ether ball tossing, is gets quite a bit nastier when it comes to executing quick attacks at opportune moments, and doing slow combos when it is facing you becomes dangerous. It also gets better about trying to flank/get behind you, but tends to just run in circles around you ineffectually for the most part. Once you're used to the game, you should be able to beat any gear at this level pretty easily, but the tougher gears will probably bang you up quite a bit in the process. Hard: At this level the computer finally gets some tact. It has less of a tendency to throw ether balls til it overheats (although it is still very much capable of it), runs around you more effectively, and worse of all gets very good at stopping combos. One habit it has is keeping just out of reach and waiting for you to start a combo. If the combo is a slow one it'll flank you and attack. If it is a quick one it'll throw an ether ball then run in and start beating you up while you're still staggered from the ball hit. But even at this highest level, it is inconsistent. It'll still overheat to the point of being unable to run or throw balls, it'll still do long combos at nothing, and it'll still run around like an idiot. Perhaps its greatest fault is not knowing when it has you. It doesn't know to just launch a mess of ether balls if you're almost dead, it doesn't know to finish off quick combos once the first part hits you, and it still misses the opportunity to nail you at the end of slow-to-recover-from attacks. Interestingly, I thought, even at this level it is oblivious to the terrain. It'll whiff a lot of attacks above your head if it is on a hill, won't know to get the heck out of the desert and into the water if it is overheated, and doesn't take the ring boundaries into account if it is dodging homing projectiles. After all is said and done, unless you go for a Hard opponent before you're really accustomed to the game, you can probably still beat it 100% of the time, as long as there isn't a big power difference between your gears. With Xenogears you should have no trouble with any opponents in the BP battles, but in Mode 1 you may have trouble if you play a crappy gear against one of the tough ones on this setting. Tactics: I'll keep this section short, since the basic strategies beget actual tactics in most circumstances. My rule #1 is: no matter how tempting it is, you should (almost) never just hammer all three buttons of a combo in rapid succession. You have a small grace period which you can use to make sure they didn't move out of the way in that split second it took to start attacking. This leads to rule #2: the strong three button combos can do magnificent damage, but also tend to be slow (again, with a few exceptions). I only execute these if I am either behind the opponent or they are in the midst of a slow combo themselves. Rule #3: This game pays off cheap tactics too much to not use them. Many of the people have one combo that is extremely effective, then not much else to get excited about. My theory on this is that it is your opponent's fault if they cannot figure out how to counter the attack rather than your fault if you keep using it. There isn't a single attack in the game that is all-powerful, so any decent player should figure it out eventually. If they don't I usually humiliate them with it for a couple rounds, then switch to something else if it stops being fun, but then I'm a competitive fighting game player :). Another thing some people call cheap is using ether balls extensively. They hit the other person when they're down, have great range and tracking capability, and, most importantly, most of the gears have them. This means that you're either on equal terms with the other person or at a disadvantage due to your own choice, so live with it. They certainly aren't infallible, as a small difference in elevation can render them ineffective, as can timely running/jumping, plus the fact that they heat up their user, or actually damage them if they are already overheated (you take a lot more damage throwing an ether ball when overheated as the opponent takes if the ball hits them, so only do it if you're sure the ball will finish them off). Final general rule: projectiles. Ether balls are of course included in here, specifically under the homing subsection. There are basically two kinds of projectiles: straightline (primarily the lasers many gears have) and homing (ether balls, missiles, homing beams, etc). Straight line projectiles tend to be faster, but that's their only real advantage. They are more likely to be stopped by terrain, and even in the case of ones that automatically aim they tend to miss a lot, mostly because even the pretty fast lasers are easy to move out of the way of at anything but point blank range. Most homing weapons (except ether balls, which makes them less effective) are fired out of the gear at an arc, usually an upwards one, meaning that they have very little chance of being affected by terrain, they all are able to make course corrections, from minor (in the case of homing lasers) to major (in the case of ether balls). Projectiles are useless at very close range, as in when your gears are touching, and most have a range about equal to a 3/4 screen at the point just before you start losing polygons. If your gear isn't particularly great at ranged attacks (just the standard ether ball, or not even that), and you're fighting something with scary ranged attacks like Xenogears or EG-Armor you might want to try to draw them into the water, where ranged attacks are nigh-ineffective. A quick and final note about streams of projectiles: these tend to be less effective then would be imagined, as the first beam in a stream of lasers is capable of knocking them either into the air or just out of the way of the rest of them. Streams of projectiles are best used when your opponent is against a wall or rise in elevation. Seems I failed to keep this section short... oh well, here's the part you've been waiting for. Gears: Here's the section that justifies this section of the FAQ's existence, tho not by much. I figure its main use is either that you haven't played before and want to know which gears to not waste your time with, or are just having trouble figuring out how the computer did a particular move (I can't imagine that you would, since each only have 8 potential combos and you could easily test them out in two player mode). But anyhow, here it is, all the gears and comments on them. Some of them aren't worth commenting on, but most have at least their better attacks listed. Weltall- The gear you have to fight in the real game with. Pretty well rounded, some quick attacks, most attacks of average power. Try to stay at the same elevation or lower than your opponent, as most of Weltall's attacks are high. Recommended attacks: None of its combos are particularly outstanding, but if you're quick about it, you can use XS to knock them in the air, then do a whole new combo as they land. SXS does a good amount of damage and is quick, but the kick at the end tends to miss. Vierge- Can't really tell if it has the rod (it should!), but if it does it doesn't extend it much. A pretty mediocre gear, with only one notable attack and generally crummy range and damage potential. Recommended attacks: XSX does a nifty, if slow and not particularly powerful, aerod attack. Heimdal- Very quick, other than that average. Recommended attacks: Both of its attacks that start with SS are very quick, and the one ending in X also does respectable damage. Brigandier- Excellent range, one of the best few in the game as far as melee attacks go. Unfortunately, also one of the slowest. Really only effective against the few gears that are both slow to attack and short ranged, but a well timed ether ball makes Brig ineffective. Recommended attacks: XXS does great damage Renmazuo- S fires its laser (the opposite of most). Not particularly outstanding in any field, but a nice mix of ranged attack and close attack power. Recommended attacks: SSS and SSX are double laser shots, with the latter shooting the second blast at a downward angle. Stier- How was Rico the Battling champ with this thing? Not really bad, but not at all outstanding. Some moderately strong attacks counterbalanced by their relative lack of speed. Recommended attacks: All do about the same damage, so take your pick. Bladegash- One of my favorite gears. Her sword attacks are extremely quick and have moderate range, some of her combos rank as both the fastest and strongest in the game. Recommended attacks: SX is insanely good, and you can time it so the other person gets hit by the second part as they're standing from being knocked down. Siebzhen- Not surprisingly, very slow. However, it's super-laser attack is impressive enough to warrant its use against people that can't block and don't keep their distance. Recommended attacks: X makes it fire a relatively short range (one screen when zoomed in all the way) but extremely powerful and hard to dodge laser. Crescens- Her attacks are a bit stronger than average, and she looks very cool, if nothing else. Not a great fighter, but coolness factor and great victory pose warrant use. Recommended attacks: They're all a toss up. Chuchu- Useless, as in the real game. Weltall-2- Identical to Weltall in terms of attacks, my friend swears it is a bit faster, but I haven't noticed. Xenogears- Unquestionably one of the best gears in the game. It is quite slow, but has some amazing attacks, both hand to hand and ranged. With it you should have no trouble racking up BPs if you go to the arena at the end of the game. Recommended attacks: SXS is great if they run around you a lot, X shoots homing lasers, which do about the same damage as ether balls. SSS is very powerful but also incredibly pokey, and XXS and XS are both very cool to watch and very damaging at close range. El Fenrir- Another of my favorite gears. Fenrir is a great mix of speed, range, and power. It's shorter than average height gives you a huge advantage if you're even just a little bit lower than the opponent. It also has a great coolness factor. Recommended attacks: XXX is fast and nearly impossible to break, but inaccurate, SXS is a effective in most circumstances. El Andavari- A slight improvement over Brig. The X attacks are fast and powerful, but short range. Mixing them with S attacks well makes this gear formidable, but still overall rather slow. Recommended attacks: most combos involving both buttons are effective, but also slow El Renmazuo- Similar to the original, but with a couple added combos that suit it nicely. Not one of the best, but certainly above average. Recommended attacks: Laser combos similar to the original, but SXX also shoots a homing missile El Stier- I think the new Stier is a significant improvement over the old one, if for no other reason than its attacks look much better. It is also about average speed with well above average attack strength, making it very effective against similarly powerful but slow gears. Recommended attacks: XSX looks cool and does great damage. Ganandor- Its shortness and range are both nice advantages, but it has very few moves and the ones it does have aren't very powerful or quick. Recommended attacks: None in particular, just realise that it only has a couple three button combos. Titan- Very slow, but with medium range and most of its attacks wind up creating more actual strikes than button presses. Also has an interesting but not particularly useful ability in throwing two ether balls every time you press R1. Recommended attacks: SSS will fool people a few times before they realise there's a fourth strike. W-Shaver- One of if not the most useless gears in the game. Standard laser ability, weak and super short range melee attacks, and an extremely irritating buzzing noise when it is standing still. If playing someone you hate, run far away from them and stand still til the noise makes them crazy. Recommended attacks: XXS does a triple laser shot, but it doesn't do very good damage, even on the rare occasion that they all hit. Firewheel- One of the coolest and most powerful gears in the game. I love the design on it, especially the way it moves. Its melee attacks are mid to long range, but rather slow, so be careful about creating openings. Recommended attacks: SXX does a very powerful double strike and laser stream, great at keeping the other person from charging you and getting between your wheels. Silverstar- Other than its very cool skin and medium range, unremarkable. Recommended attacks: None Musha- Garbage. One count em one melee attacks (a sweep that'd actually be really nice on a less useless gear) and a slightly better than average rate of fire with its laser. Recommended attacks: S to sweep, hope you really like it. Hatamoto- Long range, pretty good speed, but generally a middle of the lot gear. Recommended attacks: SSS covers a lot of ground and is fast. Backfirer- More garbage. Really small, but no melee attacks, no ether balls (!!) and an unimpressive pair of laser attacks. Recommended attacks: S, inaccurate laser, X, three inaccurate lasers. Shinobi- Seems... kinda cool at first, but not really useful and not as cool as it first seems, either. Very short range, not really fast, and unable to do more than a two hit combo. Recommended attacks: XS does a weird curving homing laser, but it doesn't do much damage and is only useful if they are fairly far away. Wyrm- Damn funny to watch it move, and does decent damage, but other than its humor value not very impressive. Recommended attacks: SSS has good range, speed, and damage, plus the other person'll be laughing at you and will forget to block. Tin Robo- Another comic relief gear. Actually has a couple very respectable attacks, and its small size is nice, but I usually just use it to see its silly victory pose. Recommended attacks: SXX is very powerful and fast Rankar- Excellent range, very good damage, and a daunting size. Probably the best organic thing in the game. Recommended attacks: All about equally powerful, but slow. Etone 1- Very weak, few attacks, and very slow. It has a single good attack and is short, not to mention pretty cool looking, but generally a useless gear. Recommended attacks: SXS is a nasty seeking laser Etone 2- Similar to the first one, few short range combos, cool looking, etc etc. Recommended attacks: SX is a pretty good laser attack, but that's it. Golem- Has in my opinion the single funniest attack in the game, and combined with its generally monkeylike movement and attacks you may want to use it for laughs. Oh yeah, it's extremely strong and rather quick, too. Recommended attacks: SSS is the single funniest and single most powerful attack in the game. It is also very slow. XX is a pair of hard to dodge and very fast kicks. Fixbot- Junk, but try it once and note that it alone is very poorly animated... it's like it is missing a bunch of frames or something. Worker- One of my favorite gears against people, but less effective against the computer that runs around constantly. Extremely short, cool looking (especially when blocking), and with one of the best laser attacks in the game. Note the victory pose... was it not expecting to win or something? Recommended attacks: SS is powerful, wide, and quick, but only works if the person isn't running around. X is a three shot blast from a double laser cannon that does very good damage and is more accurate than a single laser. Dozer- It's short and has a laser. That's it. Probably the slowest single gear in the game, and has no ether balls. Don't waste your time. Death- Freaky looking (note the spooky face), huge, and flight all combine to make it neat to watch. Slowness, standard strength, and lack of moves make is boring to play. Its ether balls are replaced by fireballs, which is neat, but that's it. Recommended attacks: Too slow to be much of a threat, but SSS is pretty effective against slow people/people that can't block. Merman- Great range with its trident and very nice homing lasers. Not enough variety and not really strong enough to be amongst the top gears, but definitely in the upper half. It has the weird double ether ball capability like Titan. Recommended attacks: X shoots a pair of homing lasers. SSS does a very fast trident combo with excellent range. Salvager- Very short and one good attack. Weird blue balls (heh). Recommended attacks: X makes it spin around, sometimes actually hurting something in the process. Trooper- One of the worst gears. Very little variety of attacks, extremely slow, a standard laser, and no ether balls. Recommended attacks: X fires a laser that manages to actually be slow. Twinburner- Looks very cool, and is actually pretty effective. Medium range with its long arms, a couple cool laser attacks, and a great victory pose. Not in the top few gears in the game, but close to it. Recommended attacks: SS does very nasty spin. XS does a crazy laser attack, SX fires seeking lasers. S-Trooper- Hey, the first one sucked, let's make another one. With the same kind of thinking your average horror movie producer likely to have, here's another trooper, similar junky laser, similarly slow, no ether balls again. Recommended attacks: None, really. X for laser. S-Tripper- Nifty looking little fella. Very strong laser attack, but not much variety. Middle of the pack. Recommended attack: SS is a powerful laser attack. Sufal- Overall very slow and without much range in melee. A couple laser attacks, but nothing great. Recommended attacks: SX slow homing laser, XS ground laser EG-Gunner- Pretty fair gear, not really outstanding but can certainly hold its own against most other average ones. Very nice cannon, but not much else. Recommended attacks: X powerful cannon, XXX double cannon, XSX spray EG-Armor- One of the top few in the game. Those things all over it that look like missilepods from battletech or gundam? Those are missile pods. Quick, decent melee attacks, and outstanding ranged attacks make this a formidable gear. Recommended attacks: XXS laser combo, XSX horribly powerful laser and homing-missile combo that makes Xenogears' homing laser attack look pansy. Pedestal- Looks pretty intimidating, but not all that great. Medium range (those big wings don't really extend at all), pretty good laser attacks, but slow. Note the cute little box on its head that looks around while it's fighting. Recommended attacks: SSX laser, XSX powerful homing laser Edin- Looks very cool, and seems like something you should've found in the regular game :/. Pretty effective combatant, powerful and with good range but slow. Her victory pose is excellent. Recommended attacks SXS and SXX are both very powerful but very slow EG-Blade- The famous knife-fighting gear. Why famous? Because it is the last gear on the menu, and while a cool one to watch it is rather crappy at fighting. Recommended attacks- SXS pretty good laser, SS double knife slash Well, there's the gears. I have trouble picking out a single favorite, but it you're looking to cream someone, might I suggest one of the following (I suppose they're in reverse order of my favorite, but that's more based on coolness factor than ability): Worker (only if they don't move much), EG-Armor, Xenogears, Fenrir, Bladegash, and Firewheel. All these are very effective, and any could be your personal best, depending on how you play. I use Xenogears most against the computer, for no reason other than lack of choice (I'd probably stick with Bladegash or Fenrir if I had the choice when fighting for BP), and EG-Armor and Firewheel against people (people aren't as good as the computer at dodging Firewheel's attacks, and EG-Armor's missile combo tends to scare people.... a lot). Suffice to say, I didn't really use any resources to make this FAQ except the game itself and my friends (who may be mentioned at a later time if they so desire). I got the urge to make a FAQ after encountering Kao Megura's masterpiece FF7 FAQ (I'm sure this happened to a lot of people). So some thanks goes to him as inspiration. Note, by the way, that this is a shred of a massive Xenogears FAQ that I'm working on in my spare time (quite a bit of that until exams next month or unless I find a job). I have no date as to when that might be out, but it will contain any revisions to this document I make due to input, later proofreadings, or corrections from outsiders. If you want to make a suggestion/correction, or just mock me for making such a ridiculous FAQ, mail me at mo@gator.net