SPACE BATTLESHIP **** **** **** **** **** **** *********** ********* **** **** ****** ***** ***** ****** *********** ********* **** **** *** *** *** ** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** ******* *** *** *** *** *** ******** *** *** *** ***** ******** *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ********* *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ********* A.K.A. STAR BLAZERS Japanese Playstation Game FAQ _ | <_)I ____ copyright 1999 Nick Flor _/|_ / / / <<<|o|___ / / / __I I I \/ / / _ __===/__\ ooooo _I __ / / / / ===/__\_/ oooOOOOOOoo \_/__\===/ \_______ | \____________________/ \__________/ I__I_/______/ =====\ \\ | = = = = = = =======| // \&/ ========| \_______________________________(o o o)____________________========| / D =======| | D =====/ \_____D______________________________________________ | ____|____ \__________/ <<<_______> \ \ \ \__\__ http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/3904/geoyamato.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is my attempt to write an FAQ on the Japanese version of Space Battleship Yamato. I do not know japanese. This faq is intended to help those who have imported the game, don't know japanese and are stuck. This faq best viewed with a fixed width font! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.0 - Contents 1.0 - What's new (updates) 2.0 - Story 3.0 - Game menus 3.0 - buttons 3.1 - start menu 3.2 - game menu 4.0 - Character menus (Star Blazers name / Yamato name) 4.1 - Captain Avatar / Juzo Okita 4.2 - Nova / Yuki Mori 4.3 - Venture / Daisuke Shima 4.4 - Wildstar / Susumu Kodai 4.5 - Dr. Sane / Sakezo Sato 4.6 - Conroy / Saburo Kato 4.7 - Eager / Kenjiro Ohta 4.8 - Dash / Yasuo Nanbu 4.9 - Homer / Yoshikazu Aihara 4.10 - Orion / Hikozaemon Tokugawa 4.11 - IQ9 / Analyser 4.12 - Sandor / Shirou Sanada 5.0 - Character away party controls 5.1 - "x" 6.0 - Walkthrough, so far very verbose, sorry. 6.1 - The begining, New Game Start 6.2 - Gamilon Carrier and Fighters - day 1 6.3 - Mars 6.4 - The Floating Continent, Jupiter - day 2 6.5 - Saturn and Titan - day 3 6.6 - On the way to Pluto - days 4 - 6 6.7 - Pluto - day 7 - 8 6.8 - Alpha Centauri and the Asteroid Maze - day 8 6.9 - Asteroid Maze, Deslock Mines - day 9 6.10 - Asteroid Maze, 3 deck fighter carrier - days 11 - 15 6.11 - Alpha Centauri, Star System and Planets - (upgrades!) days 15 - 20 7.0 - Strategies 7.1 - The medic 7.2 - Exploration pays 7.3 - Asteroids 7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28) 7.5 - Wave Motion Gun Range? 8.0 - Frequently Asked Questions 8.1 - Where can I get the game? 8.2 - Will there be a U.S. version of the game? 8.3 - Where can I get a translation? 8.4 - Memory Card 8.5 - How do I get passed THIS part? Playstation Yamato Game Discussion Board 9.0 - Game basics, event descriptions and interpretations, other misc. 9.1 - Upgrades 9.1 - Sector descriptions 20.0 - FAQ Credits -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 - what's new (updates) 05-29-00 - updated 3.1 options menu selection 4 finally defined 04-23-00 - updated 6.7, added 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 9.0, 9.1 changed credits to 20.0 04-22-00 - updated 7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28) 04-12-00 - added 8.5, Playstation Yamato Game Discussion Board 01-09-00 - added 5.1, 6.6, 6.7, 7.5, added to 7.3 01-07-00 - changed 4.1 Captain Avatar's menu, added 8.4 - Memory Card 12-15-99 - added to party menu, added to Saturn, added to strategies sec 7 12-08-99 - updated the "Where can I get the game?" and "U.S. Version" sections, added function to option menu. - added Japanese names to contents (section 4) - added sections 6.2 thru 6.4, and 8.3 - added info to story and section 5.0 character controls 09-01-99 - added section 8.0 FAQ's 08-30-99 - added walkthrough section (I started the game over) - added to battle movement of section 4.3 - added radar functions to section 3.2 08-11-99 - addition of Dr. Sane option - addition of credits, contents, strategies -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 - The story The Playstation game is based on the first television series of Yamato, Having watched the series Star Blazers as a kid and watching it over and over on video tape, I have memorized the series. If you have seen Star Blazers first series, retitled for video, "The Quest for Iscandar" you will see that this game follows the events in the series almost exactly. I am using the Star Blazers names in this text because they are what I remember the most. The characters are cross referenced in the contents(section 4). Earth is under attack from the mysterious planet Gamilon. Gamilon planet bombs cover the Earth in radioactivity, and in one years time Earth will be unlivable. A group of Starblazers call the Star Force undertakes a dangerous mission. Refitting an old Earth battleship, the Yamato, the Star Force takes off on a 148,000 lightyear voyage to the planet Iscandar, where Queen Starsha offers the people of Earth a machine to remove the radiation. The Star Force must battle the evil Gamilons to reach Iscandar and return within one Earth year! Hurry Star Force, there are only 365 days left! There is alot of new animation in this game as well as 3d renderings. But the game uses the same music and sound effects from the show. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 - Menu functions Buttons - "O" is select "x" is cancel "triangle" is toggle on/off (see auto weapon selection) "square" brings up area maps Radar shows the sector, enemy ships are dots. Cosmo Radar shows the surrounding area, sectors containing enemy ships appear orange. 3.1 - Star Menu - this is in English, you can "start new game", "load game", or goto "options" "load game" - this takes you to the load screen, you can only load from memory card 1 and you have a maxium of 3 save slots. "options" - you have 5 options here option 1 - select if you want dialog boxes to print slowly (letter by letter and makes printing noise) - left character highlighted, or fill quickly (show all text immediately, no sound effect) - right charachter highlighted. option 2 - individual weapon fire animation: on = "o", off = "x" option 3 - station move animation: on = "o", off = "x" option 4 - This determines if Sandor tells you when he's done fixing somethint = "o" or if he doesn't tell you = "x" option 5 - dual shock on = "o", off = "x" 3.2 - Game Menu - bring up by pressing "o", displays the characters, pressing "triangle" shows you their posts instead of faces. I only know the characters by their Star Blazers names, so here they are as they appear on the screen. (note pressing up or down on the direction pad flips the ring, so it will appear opposite) Starting with Captain Avatar, you all know who he is right? Captain Avatar - options, load, save, other Nova - Radar Venture - Pilot Wildstar - Guns Dr. Sane - medical Conroy - Black Tiger fighters Eager - navigation Dash - Gunnery Homer - communictions Orion - engineering, IQ-9 - medical (for now) Sandor - repairs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 - Character Menus - bringing the character to the bottom of the screen by pressing the direction pad left or right displays the characters hit points/health in the middle of the screen You do have to watch this, when a character's health become low you should move them to their quarters to bring them back up. It does not take long for them to regain hitpoints their, but they will not gain any if you do not move them. I have found this to be very important for Captain Avatar, Conroy, and especially Sandor. Hitpoints go down for various reasons, Conroy loses them in fighter combat, Sandor loses them during repairs. Each character has there own menu list. The first option on everyone's menu is "change post" each character has a few post specialties, for example, if Wildstar wants to fly his fighter, he needs to be moved to the hanger to launch. To take his place at the guns Dash has to be moved over, and to take Dash's place, IQ-9 has to be moved. IQ-9 cannot man the guns, but he can man Dash's post. 4.1 - Avatar - at his normal post not during battle 1 - change post / goto quarters 2(or absent) - this option doesn't always appear, I have no Idea what this does, the captain talks a bit then his hitpoints goto half ???? 3(or 2) - the ship and crew rest a day, I don't know how this helps 4(or 3) - load game (looks like a square, then horizontal line, then a K like character) 5(or 4) - save game (looks like a backwards J, then horizontal line, then a J like character) 6(or 5) - options screen (same as game menu) - during battle another option appears between 1 and 2 4.2 - Nova - radar 1 - change post / 1-medical, 2-quarters 2 - main radar 4.3 - Venture - piolot 1 - change post / 1-navigation, 2-quarters 2 - move/rotate ship within zone You can choose to move the ship. move to a specific area, also use "R1" and "R2" buttons to ascend or descend. You can choose to rotate the ship. You can choose to shift the ship. this uses a burst of speed to move the ship in any one direction a short distance very quickly. 3 - move ship one or more zones 4a - while moving this option is full stop. 4b - when stopped and not in battle this becomes warp (jump several zones) - orion must boost energy to 120% and Wildstar must have all guns off, Sandor may need to have the ship fully repaired. 4.4 - Wildstar - Guns 1 - change post / 1-gunnery, 2-hanger, 3-quarters 2 - fire gun, use this to select a single weapon to target and fire 3 - auto fire, select weapons to fire automatically in battle by highlighting and pressing the "triangle" button you can select upto 4 weapons. selected weapons appear blue. you then have to press "O" to activate, pressing "x" will not save your changes. -Hanger 1 - change post 2 - launch fighter 4.5 - Dr. Sane - medical 1 - change post 2 - Whenever a character is killed (0 points), that character becomes shaded and is no longer playable. At this point, Dr. Sane can use his option It takes a while for the operation but the character is completely healed. 4.6 - Conroy - Black Tigers 1 - change post / quarters 2 - launch fighters - select fighters by pressing "triangle", "o" to launch - in battle - you can select ships by pressing the left shoulder buttons. you can highlight them by pressing "triangle" then when you give a command you give it to all the ships - make sure you watch them, as soon as they are done with the target they return to formation and will not attack again until you tell them. 1 - get in formation, options for flying formation 2 - attack 2a - attack closest target? 2b - attack target you choose 3 - return to ship 4 - (appears when some ships still in hanger) call more ships 4.7 - Eager - navigation 1 - change post / 1-pilot, 2-quarters I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him 4.8 - Dash - gunnery 1 - change post / 1-main guns, 2-quarters I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him 4.9 - Homer - communications 1- change post / 1-radar, 2-quarters I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him 4.10 - Orion - engineering 1 - change post / 1 - engineering, 2 - quarters 2 - increase power 120% - move Orion to engineering when you want Wildstar to fire the Wave Motion Gun. 4.11 - IQ-9 - medical 1 - change post / 1 - radar, 2 - communication, 3 - gunnery, 4 - navigation, 5 - quarters I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him 4.12 - Sandor - repairs 1 - change post / 1 - weapon shop, 2 - quarters 2 - repair, choose the area to repair (damage in yellow) and select how many points, out of 64 to delegate to it - when in the weapons room, pick the weapon you want to replace (missles, torpedos, lost fighters), how many you want to make, and how many points to delegate. - he has to be at the post inorder for the repairs to take place Sandor will apear on the screen when the repairs are done. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 - Character away party controls Party members are shown on the screen by their Japanese family name, which you can reference against the Star Blazers English name in the contents describing section 4. You are given an green cursor saying "GO" on the screen. You position the cursor over a character and press "triangle" to select them, you can select more than one character. You can also use the L1 and L2 buttons to move a highlight box over the character faces and use the "triangle" button to select (green highlight box) or unselect (red highlight box) the characters. A yellow highligh box signifies that that is the current character that the selection cursor is over and that he is a selected character, confused? Also, the L1 and L2 buttons don't work if your cursor is over a character at that time. With characters selected you can move the cursor to a "target"; an enemey, a machine, or a player character and press "O" to preform a task. The tasks are standardized. Targeting an enemy causes the characters to attack. Targeting a machine/object causes activity on that machine/object. (sometimes only IQ-9 only will work on an machine/object, he tends to blow things up.) Targeting a player will cause healing of that character IF the character targeting is a medic. Medics can even heal IQ-9. The map, there is a green map in the upper part of the screen. White dots on the map represent party members, red dots represent enemy units. Each area of the map must be explored by a party member before you can view the area. But after an area has been entered you can more the cursor into any of the rooms and see what is going on without having a party member in that room. This can be useful for planning attacks by knowing the enemies movements. You can go back to the ship if you decide you want to change options, or you forgot something. Press "select", you will be asked a question, anser "yes" to go back to the ship. To get back to your party members and the mission, just bring up the menu, and select a character who is on the mission. Im not sure if the game allows you to return to the ship on every mission. 5.1 - "x" over a area of ground selects and deselects all -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 - Walkthrough - there are no translations only descriptions of the happenings based on the series Star Blazers. 6.1 - New Game begining The game starts showing Captain Avatar's fleet, the only remaining Earth fleet, facing Gamilons at Pluto. Captain Avatar issues orders. *load* The Gamilon fleet opens fire on the Earth fleet. The Captain gives more orders. *load* A ship flys passed the Earth fleet at a very high speed. *load* Mars. Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture on the Mars base feel a crash. They are ordered to investigate. *load* Princess Starsha's sister Astra lies dead next to her crashed ship. Venture and Wildstar find the message capsule she is still holding. *load* Back to the battle. Captain Avatar orders a withdraw. Alex Wildstar decides his ship will remain behind to protect the retreat against the Captain's orders. *load* CGI movie of Alex's ship attacking and then being destroyed. *load* Captain Avatar's flagship returns to Earth. There are pictures of planet bombs heading toward a green and blue Earth, and the destruction they caused as the explanation scrolls up the screen. Radioactivity has forced humanity into underground cities. In only one year, the radioactivity will reach the cities and all human life will become extinct. The surface of the Earth is a red desolate desert. *load* The General and Captain Avatar review the message capsule. It is from Starsha on the planet Iscandar. She offers a machine to remove the radioativity from Earth. But she cannot send it. Earth must send a ship to retreive it. For the 148,000 light year voyage to Iscandar, Starsha sends plans for a Warp drive. With Earth's fleet decimated, a project was started to rebuild the sunken battleship Yamato. They decide to fit it fit with this Wave Motion Engine. Alarms sound. *load* Wildstar is distraught that his brother is dead. The alarm sounds. There's a Gamilon ship scouting the Yamato! Venture and Wildstar take a fighter and head out to get some revenge. *load* From their fighter they see the Gamilon plane. It flys away with a burst of speed. Wildstar's and Venture's plane has engine trouble and plumets to Earth. *load* Animation of Wildstar and Venture seeing the Yamato. *load* Wildstar and Venture, in a hallway are called to the Yamato bridge. *load* On the bridge Wildstar and Venture meet Captain Avatar. The ship shakes. *load* CGI animation of the ship powering up. Wildstar and Venture take the controls. ***You are promted "Yes" or "No", "yes" is default. This is for a tutorial of Wildstar's menu and functions, gunnery. One screen shows you can have a maximum of 4 weapons on auto fire. One screen describes firing ranges. ****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks you if you want to go through the instuctions again. *load* The halfburied Yamato is shown. ****You are prompted to press "O", the character menu selection appears. You can only select Wildstar, and from his menu #3, auto fire. Then only one weapon, the main guns. Press "triangle" to activate (turns blue), then "O" to confirm changes. Then press "X" to get out of the menus. *load* CGI of the guns firing on a Gamilon carrier. *load* Back on the bridge. *load* Captain Avatar addresses the Star Force crew. *load* Venture's brother, Jordy says goodbye as the Star Force marches by. Nova's parents say goodbye. Orion's grandaughter says goodbye. Back on the bridge. In Captain Avatar's quarters, Wildstar confronts Avatar. Wildstar believes the Captain is responsible for Alex's death. Wildstar see's a picture of the Captain and his son and daughter. Does Wildstar know that the Captain's son was on Alex's ship? *load* Pluto Gamilon Base, Conl. Ganz and Bane fire an Ultra Menace Missle at the Yamato on orders from Leader Desslok. CGI animation of missle launch. *load* Back on the bridge, they have the missle on screen. The Yamato prepares for launch. CGI of Yamato lift-off, and destruction of the missle. The Yamato flys on! *load* Back on the bridge. *****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "Yes" is default. This is a tutorial of Venture's menu, Navigation. Shows how to move in battle. ****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks you if you want to go through the instuctions again. *load* You are now on the "Yamato View" screen. *load* Dash describes the enemy ship which appears on screen with stats. *load* the Gamilon ship *load* battle screen. Ok, your first battle. Press "square" if you want to bring up the radar which overlays and shows the ships in the area. First lets start moving. You don't want to be a sitting duck do you? press "O", select Venture, select option 2 (the only one available right now), select move. Now move the arrow until you are over the enemy ship (a spinning triangle with arrows will appear) and press "R2" to lower your ship below it, now press "o" to confirm. Ok, you're moving. Now press "o" again, pick Wildstar, and pick option 3:auto fire, move up and down to choose your weapons. I like the main gun turrets. Press "triangle" on upto 4 weapons (they will turn blue when active), then press "o" to confirm, and "x" to return to the main menu, "x" again to return to the battle. Use your "d" pad to move your view. Different ships require different tactics, this ship keeps decending so main guns will be less effective, you can go back to the autofire screen and choose front torpedos. *** You destroyed the ship! Now a screen appears that shows the experience points your characters have earned. *load* Back on the bridge *load* The opperations room. Your mission is explained ****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "Yes" is default. This is asking you if you want an explanation of Warping, Orions option. You must have the ship at 100% energy (ship must be fully repaired, and all autofire weapons must be off) and the ship must be stopped and not in battle. Orion must be on the bridge (default station). Then pick Orion's 2nd option (it says "UP") this brings the ships power to 120%. Then pick Venture's 4th option, Warp. You are shown a map and may move the ship to the desired destination. A line between positions means the warp can be done, it can only be straight, and any celestial objects between the points will cause the ship to stop. ****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks you if you want to go through the instuctions again. *load* Gamilon base on Pluto. Ganz and Bane send out a ship Dr. Sane and IQ-9 have some kind of discussion, then the enemy ship arrives, Dash describes it with stats. Conroy says send out my fighters! ***** Don't forget to save your game frequently via Captain Avatar's 5th option. 6.2 - Gamilon Carrier and Fighters - day 1 The key to this battle is destroying the flagship. Should you use Venture to pursue the ship, you will never catch it. You must use Conroy to launch the Black Tiger Squadron. I would highlight the entire squadron and target the flagship. Once it is destroyed you can target the remaining fighters. It might be a good idea to use Wildstar to turn on the main guns for autofiring, though they will not damage the fighters too much. It is important to have Sandor repair the damage to the ship. When you have destroyed the enemy have Wildstar turn off all auto fire. Then have Orion boost power to 120%, at this time you can have Venture preform a warp to Mars (the first planet to the upper right from your current position). It would be a good idea to rest Sandor at some point by moving him to quarters since every repair he makes drains his hit points. Keep an eye on him throughout the game, you will need to rest him allot. Also check Conroy's hit points after each Black Tiger assalt. 6.3 - Mars Upon reaching Mars you get an animation of the Pluto base comanders and leader deslock no doubt impressed with your abilities. Then the ship goes to read alert and falls to the surface of Mars. -Have Sandor repair the ship, and don't forget to save. *you are prompted *yes* or *no* - Yes will give you a tutorial on what to do in the away party. You will go directly to the save screen if you pick no, and you will goto it after the tutorial if you choose yes. You then must send out a party to blow up some boxes. You have no choice in who you take even though they take you to the selection screen, just hit "O" and then yes. Let Nova hang back, she is the only medic and if she dies you cant heal the others. IQ9 is needed to blow up the boxes. Wildstar and Venture will take care of the enemy soldiers. Place the "go" cursor over the party member(s) you want to control and press "triangle" to select them. When selected they will attack/heal a target your select or move to a spot you select with the "go" cursor by pressing "O". If you take the southern route you will come accross 3 boxes, upon blowing up the 3rd box you will be back on the ships main bridge. Then it starts to snow. Owwww....Ahhhh......! And you the ship launches again. Now have Venture head toward Jupiter! Watch out for those pesty Gamilon cruisers. 6.4 - The Floating Continent, Jupiter - day 2 Another techical problem? Yes, Jupiter sucks you into it's atmosphere! After some missles hit you, the crew talks to themselves. Have Venture rotate the ship towards the Floating Continent, Send Orion to the engine room, and have Wildstar FIRE THE WAVE MOTION GUN!!! Now the Wave Motion Gun will be available for most of the game from this point on, but be careful it is limited (bullets infront of the HP bar), you can only use 3 per stretch of space completed. Now head for Saturn! 6.5 - Saturn - day 3 Upon reaching Saturn you are asked to save. Once again you are taken to the party select screen and can't make any changes! So Wildstar, Nova, and IQ-9 land on Saturn's moon, Titan to collect some Titanite. (well, at least that's what they do in the Star Blazers episode, I don't know what the Captain tells them.) Head to the left, and there is an opening sort of hidden in the top of the screen, the next screen the opening is on the top right, there will be a Gamilon soldier waiting for you, have IQ-9 and Nova stay back while Wildstar finishes him off. Have Nova heal Wildstar when his hit points are low. Go left off the screen, there will be 3 more Gamilons as you head down and arround. When you come to the screen with the tank, be careful, one hit will kill Wildstar and Nova. You have to have IQ-9 plant a bomb on the tank to destroy it. 6.6 - On the way to Pluto - days 4 - 6 Now head towards the upper right hand corner of the screen. You must find the path to Pluto through the asteroid fields. There will be many battles. When you get 5 sectors left to Pluto, you are in for a suprise. A fleet of orange sectors appear, 8 all togeter, barring your passage. When you start a battle, ships from adjacent sectors will enter your sector as you finish or before you are done. I used the wave motion gun to clear some away and make a break for it, but the Captain and Nova came on the screen to say some things, and when I looked at the map all 8 sectors were gone. I guess because they were all packed together the blast destroyed them all, even though they were packed 4 sectors across, and 2 deep and I fired at a 2 deep section. When entering the sector just before Pluto, video is shown of 3 Ultra Menace Missles heading your way! You then must defeat the 3 closing missles to move on! 6.7 - Pluto - day 7 - 8 Upon entering Pluto's sector video shows the Yamato being attacked by the Reflex Gun! After the second hit you crash to the sea floor on Pluto. You are asked if you want to save again. Now you must send out a party to destroy the Reflex Gun! And guess what, this time you can actually choose some members of your party! Take the Western path until you come to a room that has a computer/switch in the lower right hand corner. Have IQ-9 activate the switch, now you can head back and take the Southern route to the reflex gun. IQ-9 has to blow up a few weapons along the path, then he can blow up the Reflex Gun. You are then returned to the ship, don't forget to repair, you are SEVERLY damaged. Head toward the "G" marked sector passed Pluto. But on the way you will be ambushed by Ganz and Bane, the Pluto commanders. They escaped and the explosion on Pluto and are coming after you! This will be a tough battle, because more and more ships enter the sector. Make sure you have Sandor repairing the ship, and watch out for when Ganz and Bane's ship joins the battle, it's missles pack a mean punch! An important point is that when Ganz and Banes flagship arrives, labeled "B.Ship" in battle, it will try and ram the Yamato. If they suceed they will destroy you instantly. As soon as they arrive in the battle fly away from them, target your rear guns and the black tigers on it. Once the Gamilons are taken care of you are home free. 6.8 - Alpha Centauri and the Asteroid Maze - day 8 Avatar takes the crew to the operations room and displays the new area on the screen in the floor. There is an asteroid mazer which leads to a "3 star system". Two possible routes are displayed. 1-through the maze, 2-arround the maze through a star system. I believe they tell you the days each will take, and what the advantage is. As I headed the Yamato towards the entrance of the maze a message capsule from Queen Starsha arrives and she tells you something, what I have no idea. There areas on the radar that are show to contain little dots, smaller than the asteroid cells, and appear purple on Nova's map. These areas prevent any radar from working. When you fly in you cannot see enemys in your sector during battle, meaning your cannot home in on a ship and follow it. Also you cannot see your way out, so make sure you remember the path. You can fly straight through these cells and you will remain on course without problem. Enemy ships can hide in these areas waiting to ambush you also. 6.9 - Asteroid Maze, Deslock Mines - day 9 As you hit an opening near the begining of the maze, you are suddenly surrounded by "Deslock Mines" and a battle begins. The Yamato is helpless it cannot fire or move. Sandor is greyed out and cannot be accessed. You must send the Black Tigers out to destroy the enemy ships, once that is done you are free to move on passed the mines. 6.10 - Asteroid Maze, 3 deck fighter carrier - days 11 - 15 When you get further along the maze, about half way through. Dash displays a new enemy ship, a 3 deck fighter carrier and shows its stats. It launches bomber fighters that come in on the Yamato from above. You will never catch up to the carrier in the Yamato. The key here is to head towards it until your Black Tigers are in range that you can target them on it, I suggest targeting them all on it. Let your main guns take out the bombers. 6.11 - Alpha Centauri, Star System and Planets - (upgrades!) days 15 - 20 The star system in the lower right hand corner of the screen consists of a single star surrounded by 2 planets, then asteroids, then 3 more rings of planets. When you head to a planet sector, usually the crew has something to say, maybe they are analizing the planet and finding nothing, also most have hidden enemy ships that will attack you. In this system only the closest planet to the sun has anything important. When you arrive there you will fight hidden enemies, when you defeat them the Yamato will land and your supply ships will hit the surface to collect stuff. The crew talks and Orion and Sandor are excited about something being "70%". What it is I don't know, but I believe it is some kind upgrade. A text box appears that is surrounded by 2 stars, I think this is an upgrade announcement. However it is not obvious what the upgrade is. There is a second upgrade on this map. On the right side of the map half way down there is an empty sector completely surrounded by asteroids, when you go in you find a capsule that contains another mysterious upgrade, the same text box surrounded by stars appears. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 - Strategies At various times trough out the game certain strategies are needed to advance. These can occur during battleship flight or battle or they may require the crew to venture out on there own. 7.1 - The medic Don't forget to take a medic! The medic heals injured players and can even heal dead players on the scene. 7.2 - Exploration pays Try exploring the various planets, asteroids, and anything that seems weird on the screen. You seem to find several "special" things in these places. Power-ups of some type I think, but I cannot see any real changes. 7.3 - Asteroids Always keep in mind you can cross asteroid fields of 1 hex thickness. This means you can hop between strips of open space by squeesing through them. You have to enter them, your ship stops, then you have to remember which direction takes you out to the other side because your radar stops working in some instances. Also these are great places to hide from enemy ships, they can't enter. 7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28) After Alpha Centauri at the exit end of the "Unknown Area", a Gamilon ship rams your ships side and the Gamilons board the Yamato. The Gamilon captain comes on screen to tell you what is going on. The only thing I can figure out are that there are rules you must follow if you intend to remove the Gamilons from the ship or he will blow it up. 1- you have 15 minutes only, 2- you can only have 5 members in the party I have had people email me that they are having problems with this part of the game, I have recently played through it again and have come up with 2 possible reasons: 1 - there is still an undefeated ship attacking the Yamato besides the boarding ship. To check and see, use "select" to return to the Yamato screen and check if anyone is still attacking the Yamato. If your fighters are out, they will still be attacking the boarding ship (to no avail) if they were targeting it before hand. 2 - You are letting a Gamilon get passed your characters. This is just a theory, but when I went into the first 2 rooms, the one character I sent in died. But the Gamilon then left its position to run towards the next room. Maybe one of the rules is you cannot let a Gamilon get passed your party to the rest of the ship. Here's what I have done. I picked Wildstar, Nova (a medic), IQ-9, M. Gunner, and Sniper. Go down from the first room into a room with an exit to the east. (Destroy any enemies you encounter along the way) Go East to the next room with exits North and East. Send your sniper East. He will stop in the doorway of the new room, say something and then start shooting the one Gamilon on the same level. There are also sniper Gamilons on a ledge in this room, but the will not or cannot reach you when you are in the door. Now the Gamilon on the same level as you is a machine gunner, you will get hits in while he is running towards you to get within range. My sniper died. The Gamilon then ran into the room with everyone else, finish him off. I then sent Nova in to heal the dead sniper and had them both head back out of the room to take the North route. I sent the sniper North alone, he was killed, but the Gamilon ran down to his level. I then sent everyone in to finish him off, and again had Nova heal the sniper. I then sent everyone up the stairs and out of the room East, then South from that room, this brings you to the ledge. Take out the Gamilons all along the way, then head back down to the room with the North and East exits, and then East into the room where the ledge that is now empty is. Now you can go East into a room with South and East exits. There is nothing but an empty ledge South, you may be able send a sniper there to take out Gamilons in the room below. I just went East. A Gamilon is exiting the room to the South, but in A couple of seconds another Gamilon will come out of the room to the North. I took out that Gamilon and headed North, the room is empty but just make sure there are not Gamilons left in there. Then go South and South again, go down the stairs and into the next room to the West. Now keep heading West, taking out Gamilons and healing along the way. When you get to the final room there is one more brown Gamilon standing on the left with a purple Gamilon. Presumably this is the Gamilon captain. He comes on screen and talks, then you can go and take them both out. You are done! The Gamilon captain and Wildstar talk, Avatar and Orion speak, the enemy ship detaches and free falls into space. 7.5 - Wave Motion Gun range? In an attack at Pluto I use the wave motion gun to clear 2 sectors in a mass of 8 sectors filled with ships, all of the sectors were touching one another in a chain 4 wide and 2 deep. The gun showed the destruction of the 2 I was aiming at, then the Captain and Nova spoke and the remaining 6 were gone from my map also. Either this particular part of the game allowed the gun to clear them all, the ships ran in fear, or you can blow multiple sectors away if they are adjacent. Ill return to this subject when I have learned more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.0 - Frequently Asked Questions 8.1 - Where can I get a copy of the game? I have just seen the game at www.animenation.com. I have had excellent experiences ordering from them. I would suggest them first! (but it isn't listed on there website anymore as of 12-7-99, email them, maybe they will order it for you.) I got my imported, japanese version of the game at www.buyrite1.com. They took over a month to get me the game, and they have poor reviews on various newsgroups. I also saw the game for sale at www.gameclub1.com. I don't know anything about there service. Basicly find a place that imports playstation games and see if they can get it for you. www.gamedge.com lists the game, but I don't know about them as a company. 8.2 - Will the game be available in the U.S. format? I don't know yet. Why don't you send Email to vg_web@bandai.co.jp and ask them! Maybe they will bring it over if we show them some interest. 8.3 - Where can I get a translation? This is my question!!! If anyone knows where I can find a tranlation of any parts or all of the game please email me! Or if you know a good website/program for translating the japanese characters. It may help with translating some of the menu functions! 8.4 - Memory Card Just a comment, the game requires 6 empty slots to save, even if you save just one game. 8.5 - How do I get passed THIS part? Playstation Yamato Game Discussion Board If you are stuck on a part that I haven't covered because I am so slow at updating, and I cannot answer your question via e-mail, visit: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/harbor/3904/geoyamato.html and click on the Playstation Game Discussion board, maybe you can get help or help others there! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.0 - Game basics, event descriptions and interpretations, other misc. 9.1 - Upgrades There is a certain event that I can interpret as nothing other than an upgrade notification. Section 6.11 describes 2 places where this event occurs. The event is a text box, which so far has displayed a single line of text, with no character pictures in the box. This text is enclosed by 2 five pointed stars on either end. The upgrades are not obvious, and so far I have not been able to determine what they have actually done. They may increase your weapons firepower or your ships defenses. But this is only speculation at this point. 9.2 - Sector definitions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20.0 - Credits Thanks to Captain 3man john.coon@macdill.af.mil for help with Dr. Sane's options! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most current version of the faq can be found at http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/harbor/3904/playam.html Nick Flor For great Star Blazers and Yamato info visit http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/3904/geoyamato.html Please mail me anything you have discovered, or with anything I have done wrong!