FAQ - Guide for Catherine
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=============================================== Catherine [PS3/360] FAQ, version 4 - 11/07/2011 =============================================== Written by Christopher J. Snelgrove(cj iwakura, [email protected]) Game is copywritten by Atlus, Index Corporation, etc. This guide is expressly for use in GameFAQs. Although Catherine has been available in the US since July, I imported the game when it first released. As such, this is based on the Japanese(PS3) version of the game, which I have completed, with additions later added from my playthrough of the US version. Spoilers will not be marked in their respective chapters. I will keep it spoiler-free up until each chapter. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. [Version 4 Updates] A NOTE ON DIFFICULTIES: Rumors that the US Normal Version stages were altered from the Japanese version are proven FALSE. I have played both. Normal US is unchanged, far as I can tell. That said, US Normal DID add the Undo Option; previously Easy Only in Catherine JP. This makes the game MUCH easier, and in many ways, you can break it wide open. Here's a few ways: -If a chain is still active, you can reset it back to full meter with a well-timed Undo. -If a boss screwed you over with a certain attack wrecking the tower or a certain area, try undo. It might do something else. (This is especially useful against the attacks of Cathedral's boss, if you're quick.) -You can make it so that random blocks and/or curses have a different block generation result. Easy and Normal also added an extra continue for every pillow gained, as well as an optional Ultra Easy mode which adds an Energy Drink powerup that can be used during stages. I've not tried out Easy and Ultra Easy, so I can't say as to whether or not the block patterns were altered. Hard is unchanged in both versions. This guide was written for the Normal Mode. I have beaten Hard Mode on Catherine US, and a Hard Mode guide is forthcoming. -US Item Corrections, e.g. 'Grimoire' is now 'Bible' -US confession/story/text questions and alignment results(WIP) -Trophy/Achievement US names (WIP) -Babel/Colosseum Updates (A separate FAQ for Colosseum techniques is pending.) -Cast updates (added bar NPCs) [Version 3 Updates] -The Cathedral walkthrough -The Empireo walkthrough -Updated cast section -Assorted corrections [Version 2 Updates] -Full trophy & OST Unlock list -Assorted corrections ====================================== Table of Contents ====================================== By all means, marry - if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. -Socrates A. Introduction A1. Storyline A2. Game Layout & Alignment B. Cast of Characters C. Gameplay - Daytime & Nightmare C1. Modes / Title Screen C2. Controls C3. The Bar - Stray Sheep C4. The Nightmares C5. Objects & Obstacles C6. Power-Ups D. Walkthrough D1. Underground Cemetery D2. Prison of Despair D2a. Area 1 D2b. Area 2 D2c. Boss D3. Torture Chamber D3a. Area 1 D3b. Area 2 D3c. Boss D4. Inquisition D4a. Area 1 D4b. Boss D5. Quadrangle D5a. Area 1 D5b. Area 2 D5c. Boss D6. Clock Tower D6a. Area 1 D6b. Area 2 D6c. Area 3 D6d. Boss D7. Spiral Corridor D7a. Area 1 D7b. Area 2 D7c. Area 3 D7d. Area 4 D7e. Boss D8. The Cathedral D8a. Boss D9. The Empireo D9a. Area 1 D9b. Area 2 D9c. Area 3 D9d. Area 4 D9e. Boss D9f. Final Boss E. Bonus Content E1. Babel E1a. Altar E1b. Menhir E1c. Obelisk E1d. Axismundi E2. Colosseum (VS) E3. Rapunzel E4. Jukebox Contents E5. Alignment Questions E5a. Confessionals E5b. Story E5c. The Road to Freedom F. Trophies / Achievements G. Acknowledgements ====================================== A. Introduction ====================================== How long in woman delights the fire of love. If eye or touch do not relight it often. - Dante (The Divine Comedy) Catherine is Atlus' first next-generation game, built from the ground up on the Gamebryo engine; notable for powering The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, El Shaddai, et cetera. What sets Catherine apart is that it puts character designer Shigenori Soejima's art into full expressive motion. The character models express real-time expression shifts ranging from fear to panic to happiness, with so much detail that it almost puts the in-game anime cutscenes to shame. The animation in-game, sparse though it is, was created by Studio4C, so rest assured it's high quality as well. Catherine originally built up hype just from being the first next-gen project by the Persona team. With Katsura Hashino directing, Soejima on the art, and long-term Shin Megami Tensei composer Shoji Meguro on the music, it already had a lot of buzz behind the concept. Then the game itself was revealed, and the sheer outlandishness of the concept soon generated more hype than any Atlus game before it. ====================================== A1. Storyline ====================================== The protagonist, Vincent Brooks, is a 32-year-old system engineer, shiftless in both work and love. He's been in a long-term relationship with Katherine McBride, his devoted if clingy girlfriend. Their relationship has been static for years; not on the ropes, but not progressing any further either. Katherine has recently begun pressuring Vincent to commit to something more absolute: marriage. The idea has thrown Vincent's life into a whirlwind. He loves Katherine(or so he thinks), but can't bring himself to settle down just yet. After a night of heavy drinking at his bar of choice, the Stray Sheep, Vincent encounters a young girl name Catherine. She's everything Katherine isn't; a flashy dresser, energetic, and above all else, free-willed. Highly inebriated, Vincent can only remember leaving the bar with Catherine, and waking up the next morning with her in his bed. Shortly afterwards... The nightmares begin. Vincent finds himself in a world populated by nightmarish traps and bi-pedal sheep; all men being punished for their transgressions in relationships. Rumors have abounded for days of people being found dead in the morning, all of whom have been unfaithful or in fractured relationships. If Vincent doesn't find a way out of the nightmares, his fate is the same as theirs. ====================================== A2. Game Layout & Alignment ====================================== Catherine's gameplay consists of two primary segments: the daytime, during which Vincent converses with his friends and strangers at the bar, his workplace, and other assorted locations. The events here affect Vincent's overall alignment, which in turn determines the ending of the game. Key decisions in conversations, even ones with unfamiliar faces, affect Vincent's alignment. The alignment bar has a range from Red(Devil/Chaos) to Blue(Angel/Law). Keeping the bar static in the center(Neutral) is possible, but no easy feat. The Red meter will put Vincent in the direction of Catherine: the Chaos ending. The Blue meter will incline him towards Katherine: the Law ending. Neutrality will lead to Vincent turning both girls down and continuing on his own: the Freedom ending. The day will always end at the bar. Once Vincent leaves, the day comes to an end, and after a cutscene, he will find himself in the Nightmare world. The Nightmare segments are the meat of Catherine's gameplay; essentially giant puzzle mini-games. Vincent has to pull blocks into key positions to scale a tower filled with obstacles designed to kill victims with a quickness. Although this may sound simple, as the levels progress, the variety of blocks become wilder, the traps become deadlier, and the threats become worse. In addition to scaling the tower, Vincent is also in a race against time. Each stage consists of segments; 1-1, 1-2, and so on, with the stage ending on a boss encounter. During the early segments, the floor is constantly disappearing. If Vincent lingers too long, he'll fall to his death. In the boss stages, Vincent will be pursued by a giant creature that embodies his nightmares. In addition to pursuing him, later bosses will also interfere with the tower by sending up projectiles or affecting the construction itself. In between levels, Vincent will also encounter others trapped in the nightmare. Some are friendly and will give hints, some just want to escape, and others still... well, let's say they're less than friendly. Vincent may even encounter a familiar face from the bar every so often, with branching conversations that affect alignment. At the end of each interlude, Vincent has to enter a confession booth to proceed, where a mysterious voice will quiz him on his feelings on relationships and life in general. These heavily affect Vincent's alignment, and in endgame, determine the final ending. Once Vincent survives the boss encounter, he'll awaken to a new day, though he'll find that the morning doesn't always bring relief... ====================================== B. Cast of Characters ====================================== A man says what he knows, a woman says what she knows will please. -Jean-Jacques Rousseau Contrary to what most expect, Catherine does not take place in Japan. Although most of the locations and characters have Japanese aesthetics, the game's setting is actually within America. (An unnamed city, supposedly.) This is made apparent by not only the characters' names, but by English text seen in the locations, bar menus, and news broadcasts. Details on the primary cast follow, spoiler-free. ===================================================== Vincent Brooks (Voiced by Koichi Yamadera[JP], Troy Baker [US]) ===================================================== The protagonist, age 32. A shiftless system engineer with little luck in life or love. First appeared in Persona 3 Portable as an NPC, voicing his worries about his pregnant girlfriend. This lead to wild speculation about him being a cameo for a forthcoming Atlus game, and sure enough, Catherine was the result. Koichi Yamadera is notable having voiced Spike in Cowboy Bebop. Troy Baker was the voice of Snow in Final Fantasy XIII, as well as Kanji Tatsumi in Persona 4. ===================================================== Katherine McBride (Voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi [JP], Michelle Ruff [US]) ===================================================== Vincent's long-term girlfriend, age 32. A down-to-earth woman with lofty expectations of Vincent. She's been content with their simple relationship for years, but pressure from her parents leads to her expecting more from Vincent and their relationship. A commitment to marriage. Kotono Mitsuishi was the voice of Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon, as well as Excel Excel in Excel Saga and Misato Katsuragi in Evangelion. Michelle Ruff is the voice of Etna in Disgaea 2 and beyond, and Yukari Takeba in Persona 3. ===================================================== Catherine (Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro [JP], Laura Bailey [US]) ===================================================== The younger woman who hits Vincent's life like a whirlwind after a drunken encounter in the Stray Sheep bar. Catherine is the polar opposite of Katherine in many ways. She doesn't want to be limited to one relationship, believes in having free-will, and dresses in attention-getting attire. Whether Vincent likes it or not, she's in his room morning after morning, with increasingly worrisome expectations of their relationship. Miyuki Sawashiro was the voice of Dejiko in DiGi Charat. Laura Bailey has been the voice of Gemini Sunrise in Sakura Wars V, Kaineâ in Nier, and Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4, among many others. ==================================================== Orlando Haddick (Voiced by Hiroaki Hirata [JP], Liam O'Brian [US]) ==================================================== Vincent's co-worker in software engineering, Age 32. A man who loves to drink and hang out at the Stray Sheep, as well as a sushi bar called Kappa Heaven. Orlando doesn't agree with the idea of marriage, and frequently advises Vincent against it. He is divorced, leaving him with a more negative outlook on the subject than most. Liam O'Brian was the voice of Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3, as well as the unimitable Grimoire Weiss in Nier. ========================================================= Jonathan 'Johnny' Ariga (Voiced by Takehito Koyasu [JP]), Travis Willingham [US]) ========================================================= One of Vincent's friends at the Stray Sheep bar, also called Johnny by his friends. A used-car salesman, Age 32. Jonathan is a womanizer of ill repute. He refuses to be limited to one relationship for any length of time, and eventually moves on to other women, until he finds the 'one'. Takehito Koyasu has voiced IlPalazzo in Excel Saga, Touga Kiryuu in Utena, and Yosho in Tenchi Muyo!, among many others. Travis Willingham has voiced Relius Clover in BlazBlue, Gabriel Cunningham in Trauma Team(a highlight of a great game), and Guile in Street Fighter IV. ===================================================== Tobias 'Toby' Nebbins (Voiced by Kisho Taniyama [JP], Yuri Lowenthal [US] ) ===================================================== A colleague of Jonathan's in the used-car industry, age 23. Tobias has a thing for older women, and a crush on the bar's waitress, Erica. He's impulsive when it comes to marriage, and plans to marry the first girlfriend he gets. Yuri Lowenthal was the voice of Persona 3's Protagonist & Pharos, as well as Persona 4's Yosuke Hanamura. ====================================================== Erica Anderson (Voiced by Junko Minagawa [JP]), Erin Fitzgerald [US]) ====================================================== The waitress at the Stray Sheep, and Vincent's childhood friend from school; age 32. Always in the know when it comes to town gossip. Among many roles, Junko Minagawa was Sagitta Weinberg in Sakura Wars V. Erin Fitzgerald provided the voice to Midori for Devil Survivor Overclocked, as well as the dub voice for Sagitta; renamed to 'Cheiron Archer' ===================================================== Master [JP] / Boss [US] (Voiced by Norio Wakamoto [JP]), Kirk Thornton [US] ===================================================== The owner of the Stray Sheep bar. Very little is known about him, but he knows all there is to know about the Stray Sheep's clientele. He always wears sunglasses, even at night. Norio Wakamoto was notably the voice of Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, and Kagato in Tenchi Muyo!. ======================================================= Midnight Venus [JP] / Trisha [US] (Voiced by Junko Minagawa [JP]), Erin Fitzgerald [US]) ======================================================= The hostess of the Golden Theatre late-night broadcast, the medium through which the story of Catherine is told. She introduces the cast, and occasionally assists with in-game events. Among many roles, Junko Minagawa was Sagitta Weinberg in Sakura Wars V. Erin Fitzgerald provided the voice to Midori for Devil Survivor Overclocked,a as well as the dub voice for Sagitta; renamed to 'Cheiron Archer'. ===================================================== Justin Bailey ===================================================== A reporter ridden by guilt for an investigation that ruined someone's life. ===================================================== Todd and Archie ===================================================== Friends of Vincent's who run a business. Both have some serious issues. ===================================================== Daniel and Anna ===================================================== A well-off professional couple, but not all is as lovey-dovey it seems. Daniel went to school with Vincent. ===================================================== Officer Morgan ===================================================== A police officer devoted to justice, who can't let the past go. ===================================================== Lindsay & Martha ===================================================== Two mysterious older women who talk in unison, and in cryptic speech. ===================================================== Narrator (Computer-generated by SHOW) ===================================================== The only English-language voice in the game, this is the cheerful voice you'll hear in the pause menu and at the start of nightmares. She also introduces Vincent before the Babel bonus stages. ====================================== C. Gameplay Basics ====================================== "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence? - George Carlin This is a guide to gameplay, as well as obstacles and objects found in the nightmares, and the actions Vincent can perform in both. ====================================== C1. Modes / Title Screen ====================================== From the main title screen, you'll see the following options, along with helpful narration by the voice affectionally dubbed as Sheep Dude. (Fun fact: the screaming sheep will echo over the PS3's menu, if you press the PS button at just the right time.) -Golden Theater(1P) The main game. A new game can be started here, or an ongoing one can be continued. -Babel (1P/2P) Optional, ultra-difficult bonus stages, four in all. To unlock them, a progressively higher number of gold trophies must be gained by score-attacking the story stages. Babel is unlocked after finishing the game. There is no online play, but there are online leaderboards. More detail on Babel will be found in the bonus section. -Colosseum (2P Versus) Unlike Babel, Colosseum uses the story stages, and is for competitive play between two players. All nine are available. -Configuration Adjustment of Vibration and camera control(Normal/Reverse for X&Y axes). Before each stage, you'll see quotations from writers and philosophers about relationships and love in general. I'll include some when the US version releases. ====================================== C2. Controls ====================================== These are based on the PS3 version, but I assume the 360 equivalent is: Square = X / Triangle = Y / X = A / Circle = B / R1 = RT X - pull and push blocks, selecting options, talking to people O - cancel (X and O are reversed in the Japanese version.) Triangle - brings up the cellphone menu (Daytime only) The cellphone lets Vincent save his progress, as well as check messages from his friends and whoever tries to contact him through texts. Previously cleared levels can also be accessed for score and time attack purposes, with unlimited continues. Square (Bar Only) - responding to texts, drinking. Drinking will make Vincent progressively drunker, which can affect his performance in the nightmares. Also, once a drink is finished, he can order a new one at the bar. (Triangle - Whiskey, Circle - Cocktail Square - Sake, X - Beer) Left Analog - Nightmare/Daytime movement Right Analog - Move camera during cutscenes and nightmares (rotational) This allows limited change of perspective during cutscenes, such as looking around, but it's much more useful during nightmare stages. Start - Options (For returning to the title screen, removing subtitles, pausing) Select - Undo Resets the last block push/pull. Also reverts certain boss shenanigans, and random block occurences. VERY useful. Normal/Easy only in US, Easy only in JP. R1 - Subtitle Control L1/L2/R2 - No use ====================================== C3. The Bar ====================================== This is where Vincent spends his days. In addition to getting drunk and meeting his friends, you can also listen to music at the jukebox, check his cellphone for new texts and messages, and chatting with new faces, as well as playing the Rapunzel minigame on the arcade cabinet. Rapunzel is a massive game that spans 64 levels, with its own self-contained story that eventually sheds new light on Catherine's plot. The game plays the same as Catherine's nightmare stages, but without the pressure of a time limit. However, the puzzle design can be much harder than anything found in the nightmare stages. More on Rapunzel will be given later. After completing the first stage, Vincent will start receiving texts from Midnight Venus which tell him how he did on the last stage, along with the trophy(Bronze/Silver/Gold). After viewing the award, you can go back and replay stages for higher scores. Not only does this lead to trophies and achievements, this also unlocks new stages for the Babel levels(more on these later). There's also the bathroom, where Vincent can wash his face and check his texts for private messages that he won't view in the bar; these are usually sent by Catherine, and include provocative artwork of her. After washing his face, Vincent gets a preview of the next nightmare's boss. (Don't forget to look for the cameo of Teddie from Persona 4.) The jukebox includes a variety of music, both from Catherine and other Atlus games composed by Shoji Meguro; including Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, and of course, Persona 3 & 4. Most songs are unlocked throughout the game, while others are gained by accomplishing special tasks or earning trophies/ achievements. Drinking also has a fair amount of depth to it. Each drink leads to Vincent contemplating the events taking place, varying between drinks. Of course, he'll get progressively drunker along the way, which can make bar movement slower and more awkward. When Vincent receives texts from Catherine or Katherine, Vincent can often respond by pressing square. Once a message starts, Vincent choices between lines of text, until a full message is created. The message can then be sent, or Vincent can not respond at all. After a message is sent, the alignment meter will shift based on his response. Sometimes he'll even get new responses based on certain messages. You should always talk to everyone in the bar, because Vincent often gets new messages as time passes, which happens after talking to people. Keep in mind that some people will leave after enough time passes, so use it wisely. Once Vincent leaves the bar, the day ends, and the nightmare follows. ====================================== C4. The Nightmares ====================================== There's been a lot of controversy about the game's nightmare levels. At first, some were disappointed that this wasn't an RPG, a genre Atlus is best known for. Others thought this meant Catherine would be little more than an overwrought puzzle game. They couldn't be more wrong. The nightmare levels require very quick, precise planning, or the player will find themselves rapidly stuck in a no-win situation. As blocks are pulled, blocks that don't have a block beneath them or at an adjacent angle(which a voice affectionally dubs as 'Edge!'), will fall. This can lead to a chain reaction that can bring down entire sections of the tower if the player begins pulling blocks without due caution. This becomes even more difficult in later stages that not only have more elaborate designs, but blocks and enemies that will impede Vincent's progress in all kinds of ways. Shortly after Catherine's release, there was a different kind of controversy: that of difficulty. Japanese players were complaining that even on the Easy setting, Catherine was far too difficult. In my opinion, yes, the game is tough; very tough, even. However, similar to games like Demon's Souls, Catherine rewards perseverence, and learning through trial and error. With enough practice and skillful usage of the blocks and careful movement, you'll eventually find you can breeze through levels that were a nightmare the first go-round. I will attempt to provide helpful strategies as best as I can, but there's no substitute for skills you develop along the way through playing. When all else fails, keep at it. Think outside the box. Atlus did eventually release an 'Easy Patch' to adjust the Normal and Easy difficulties to offer more continues and a 'spring board' function that lets the player advance when stuck once in a level, but I strongly advise against installing it. It removes the challenge from the game. Vincent has limited continues, depicted by a pillow icon in the upper right of the screen. When these run out, the game ends, and you have to continue from a save point. The tricky thing about this is that if you save mid-nightmare and had a limited amount of continues, you can easily get stuck in a bad situation where dying repeatedly will mean frequent game overs. Try not to save unless you know you have continues to spare. Certain stages offer 'endless' bonus continues by putting them after checkpoints and at the start of stages, and you can rack up more quickly enough in later levels, but don't rely on them blindly. Checkpoints begin appearing in Stage 3, but they're still few and far between. Don't come to rely on them, especially if you find them in a spot without easy access to bonus continues. You can easily drain your continues if you find a CP in a spot where you die often afterward without a means of getting more. You can always start back from the beginning instead of from a CP, if needed. In between the nightmares, Vincent will encounter other people trapped in sheep form. (When asked why he's not a sheep, they'll tell Vincent that to their eyes, he is.) Some will be helpful, some not so much, but you should talk to everyone. Certain conversations affect alignment, some offer hints some even offer helpful items. Even if you don't speak Japanese, you can still find the video hints useful. If you plan on score attacking for Gold, I strongly recommend doing this AFTER clearing the stages. You get unlimited continues and easy access to retrying each stage by section until you get the Gold. For Gold, you need to do two things: -Keep as high a chain as possible. Chains are accumulated by climbing without stopping, and the counter gets higher with each floor climbed. The meter under the chain count will rapidly deplete if you stop climbing, so don't backtrack unless you have to, and be quick about it. It helps to save an easily accessible step until later if you have to backtrack, and need to restart the meter fast. -Get a high score. Having a high chain is part of this, but not always enough. Grab as many piles of coins during the stages as you can. Chains are the most important, this is second. Don't sacrifice a chain in favor of backtracking for coins. Get a max chain and clear the stage, first and foremost. If that doesn't get you Gold, then go back and work on getting coins as well. Remember: on stages with multiple areas, getting Gold on the subareas isn't enough. You need to Gold the boss stage too. (I'm not certain if you can Gold the boss stage and not the sublevels and still earn Gold, but I doubt it.) Lastly, once you reach the goal, the stage is done, so don't climb onto it unless you're sure you're ready. You can retry if you didn't get Gold, but it puts you back to the start. You also get a score bonus for segments of the tower that didn't fall away, but the previous factors are what count the most. What follows is a guide to blocks and obstacles found in all the nightmare stages. ====================================== C5. Objects & Obstacles ====================================== ====================================== Standard Blocks (SB) ====================================== Normal blocks. The appearance may vary between levels, but their usage is consistent. As with all blocks, these will only fall if there are no blocks beneath them. Knowing how to use them appropriately will make stages worlds easier. ====================================== Fragile Blocks (FB) ====================================== These blocks appear as dark grey with cracks in them, or crates with pallets inside them (Babel). Once stepped on, they begin to crumble. When stepped on again, they will shatter once Vincent steps off. If you plan to use this as a stepping stone, be sure to climb quickly after the second step. The loss of a fragile block can cause a rapid chain reaction, meaning if you fall, you might not be able to get back up, at least not so easily. ====================================== Heavy Blocks (HB) ====================================== Heavy blocks either appear as solid brown blocks in the main game, or 100Ton boxes in Babel. These work like normal blocks, but take much longer to move. While not a major threat on its own, these can mean the difference between life and death if time is of the essence. ====================================== Immobile Blocks (IB) ====================================== These look the same as HBs, but usually have a face engraved on them. These can't be moved at all, but will respond the same as other blocks without support. These commonly appear in groups to force the player to use limited means to proceed, such as framing a tower of 5x5 blocks. In Babel's stages, they are engraved with a Babel logo. ====================================== Trap Blocks (TB) ====================================== These blocks can be identified by blood stains in the main game, rusty color in the Babel stages. Once stepped on, spikes will shoot up, killing whoever stands on it instantly. The good news, it's a one-time event. There's also several ways to avoid them. The best way, whenever possible, is to let an NPC sheep go over them for you. At best they'll trigger them for you and die, killing two birds with one stone. Even if they survive, the spike threat is removed. These can also be avoided by running across them, or dropping down immediately after triggering it. NEVER pull blocks when standing on an active spike. Vincent will have no chance of evading the spikes, and will die. ====================================== Ice Blocks (IB) ====================================== These are introduced in Stage 5, and are among the most dangerous, since they can be easily underestimated. If you walk onto an ice block from any angle, Vincent will slide untli he reaches a solid block, or worse, the edge. If an ice block is on the end of a floor of blocks and there's nothing waiting to catch his fall, he will die. If you're careful, ice blocks can be easily dealt with. If you drop onto one from above, or climb onto one, Vincent will not slide. Also, framing them with normal blocks will prevent the sliding. Sliding onto a spike block is, of course, very bad. Keep in mind that the sliding effect applies to everything moved onto it, even other blocks and enemies, so be careful before shoving blocks onto IBs. ====================================== Bomb Blocks (BB) ====================================== These can be a real pain. When stepped on, a fuse is triggered, giving a limited amount of time before it explodes. Not only will this remove the block, it turns every block adjacent to it into a fragile block. A badly timed encounter with a DB can easily destroy an entire section of a tower, especially if you find yourself having to climb a bunch of FBs afterward. These should be avoided whenever possible. ====================================== Spring Blocks (SB) ====================================== These appear sparsely, but should be used whenever possible. These blocks vault Vincent high into the air, letting him pass as many as six blocks as long as nothing gets in the way, and he has something to grab onto. These are a lifesaver during boss fights and races against time. Be warned, they can sometimes get you killed if Vincent gets sent into a dangerous obstacle. They can be mistaken for normal blocks; look for the design of a spring embedded within the block. ====================================== Black Hole Blocks (BHB) ====================================== Instant death on contact. These are worse than spike blocks for many reasons. Unlike spike blocks, there's no escaping them. If Vincent makes contact,he dies instantly. Making matters worse, any blocks pushed onto them disappear too. These rarely appear, but are a grave threat when they do. The best way to deal with them is to push them off the tower if af all possible. Avoid at all costs if not. VBs are golden with a purple vortex on the top. Fortunately, these are rarely seen. ====================================== Monster Blocks (MB) ====================================== These only appear in late game, and can be identified by the design of an open-mouth with a giant tongue, or Egyptian hieroglyph blocks in Babel. MBs move on their own frequently, and can either make Vincent's progress easier or even worse. Sometimes they'll ruin any chance at climbing, sometimes they'll make climbing easier by filling in gaps. Leave them alone at your own risk, but if you decide to put a stop to them, stepping on the top will turn them into NBs. If you step on one and it moves out of the way, it spells death if you're over a pit. Be careful: you can't shimmy over the fronts of these either, as they will knock Vincent off. ====================================== Mystery Blocks (MyB) ====================================== These appear both as red curtained blocks in the final stage, and the final boss uses these against Vincent, by cursing him. When he climbs a block after being cursed, EVERY special block (that is, not an NB) on the tower will randomly change into another type. As you can imagine, these can be helpful, or(more likely) very, very bad. Sometimes you'll get a BB, sometimes you'll wind up walking onto a TB, sometimes you'll go sliding off the tower thanks to a newly formed IB. Exert all caution when up against these. ====================================== Random Sheep (RS) ====================================== Other sheep encountered in the nightmares. These sheep just want to survive, and can be seen climbing in the background. RS are very careless. They think only of escaping by any means, but they won't hesitate to knock Vincent out of their way. Fortunately, they are easily disposed of. Just walking into them will let Vincent knock them aside with his pillow, pushing them a block back. This can send them to their deaths if they were on the very edge of the tower, with hilarious(if brutal) results. RS are best used as bait for spike traps. Be careful, they can sometimes hinder Vincent if left alone, either by getting in his way, or worse, moving blocks to help themselves climb. If you're going for Gold, watch out: all the sheep will take coins if they walk over them, ruining high score efforts. ====================================== Enforcer Sheep [ES} ====================================== Fat sheep that wield iron staffs. Unlike the random sheep, they will actively pursue Vincent to knock him off the tower. They go down just as easy, fortunately. Whack them out of your way or zap them to death. They tend to travel in packs, so it's best to use an item to dispose of them all at once. ====================================== Berserker Sheep (BS) ====================================== "WOOOOOOOL!" Gigantic ram-like sheep with massive hammers. They tend to get a preemptive hit against Vincent, and can easily knock him down. They also climb along the sides of blocks, so they won't give up easliy. ====================================== Crimson Berserker Sheep (CBS) ====================================== Run if you see these guys, or try to hinder them by moving blocks or with powerups. They can not be easily taken care of with Vincent's pillow. They will kill him if adjacent to him. Your best bet is either to run, or use a spellbook if you have one. They run MUCH faster than the Berserkers, can jump over blocks to reach even higher, and crush Vincent with ease. They're not as huge, but have spikey red fur. You can't miss them, and they're even harder to avoid. ====================================== Giant Ants (GA) ====================================== Basically the same as RSs, except they can climb along the sides of blocks, and actively pursue Vincent. Aside from being creepy, these are also a huge pain. Deal with them the same as RS, but with more caution. They're tricky buggers. You won't find them often, but beware when you do. ====================================== C6. Power-Ups ====================================== Power-Ups can be purchased between the nightmare stages from Sheep Vendors with coins, or more commonly found in stages. You can NOT have more than one, so if you have one, better use it before getting another. ====================================== Throw Blocks (TB) Usefulness: ***** ====================================== Displayed as white floating blocks. One of the most common and most helpful. These will create a block ADJACENT to Vincent's location, so be careful in how you use them. For example, (V = Vincent, X = Block) xV xx If Vincent uses a TB to the right, this will result: xVx xx In other words, the created block will seldomly provide a direct path, but a means of climbing higher. ====================================== Immobile Throw Blocks (ITB) Usefulness: ****- ====================================== Same as TBs, but these create IBs. Once thrown, you're stuck with it, so use them carefully. ====================================== Energy Drink (ED) (Blue/Yellow) Usefulness: ****- ====================================== Makes Vincent climb two(Blue)/three(Yellow) blocks at once. Very useful in a pinch, but not so much that you should sacrifice progress to reach them. There's nothing you can't reach by building instead, it'll just take longer. Certain stages have yellow equivalents that let Vincent climb THREE blocks. These should be gotten immediately. Also, if you're playing Colosseum/Versus mode, NEVER NEGLECT THESE. They will easily change the entire outcome of a match. ====================================== Lightning Grimoire [LG] Usefulness: ***** ====================================== Lets Vincent cast lightning magic to clear the area of other sheep or GAs. Very useful if the level is full of sheep, or if one just won't get out of your way. There is a charge time of a second or so, but it rarely proves a problem. Just make sure you have a block or two between you and any enemies. ====================================== Purification Chime [PC] Usefulness: ***** ====================================== Gets rid of all obstacle blocks, and makes them normal. An absolute life-saver in later stages. ====================================== D. Walkthrough ====================================== Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil. -Menander This section focuses strictly on gameplay. Hints and branching outcomes for the story segments can be found in the earlier section. Describing how to proceed in words can be tricky, so when necessary, I will use a diagram similar to the following: Legend: O = Platform Block, X = Background Block, - = Void, V = Vincent Before: A XXXXX B XXXXX C XXXXX D vXXXX After: V A XXXOX B XXO-X C XOOXX D OOOXX Each stage is broken down into sections, ending on a boss fight. Some stages have as few as two sections, others can have as many as five. Also, as all the music used in-nightmare is classical in nature, I will list the music used in each stage whenever possible. ====================================== D1. Underground Cemetery [BGM: Holst - Planets Suite - Jupiter] ====================================== Mostly a prologue/tutorial stage. All you really have to do is climb and pull occasionally. You can ignore the tutorial messages(or listen if you really want to). There is only one stage in the Underground Cemetery. Very cut and dry. To get the gold, climb without stopping, and collect as many coins as you can. The goal is a 40-chain combo. To reach the goal, just make a staircase by pushing each block to the left, then climbing. The bell chime is a sound you'll get used to, and start longing for. It's the sign that the goal is very close. In later stages, it'll still feel too far away. Guaranteed Gold Score: 16625, with max chain and coins left behind. ====================================== D2. Prison of Despair [BGM: Holst - Planets Suite - Jupiter] ====================================== Basically the same premise as the UC, but with nastier atmosphere, and screaming sheep in the background. The Prison introduces crumbling blocks, as well as immobile blocks, though they're mostly to limit your movement, and not form obstacles. ************************************** D2a. Area 1 ************************************** In addition to the new blocks, you'll run into walls of blocks that require pulling them out to create a staircase. This is best learned through trial and error, but think of it like so: A XXXXX B XXXXX C XXXXX D vXXXX 12345 By pulling out D1, D2, and D3, you make a platform. After that, you have a base from which to use C2 and C3 to make another. From there, pull out B3. Push B3 to the right so it's over C4. Edge! Then, pull out A4. This will drop you onto B3's edge. Go back to B3's left and pull it back over C3. Then you can climb to the top of A4. The result should look like this: V A XXXOX B XXO-X C XOOXX D OOOXX 12345 This is also possible when the blocks are limited to four across, just trickier, and with more shimmying and adjustment required. This is the toughest obstacle in Area 1. There is one another trick you need to learn here, though: dropping and side-climbing. You will find a few sections where the IBs block your progress completely. To proceed, you'll need to drop down and climb alongside them, then climb up from the other side. This is a basic trick that can still be useful in later stages when things get REALLY crazy. You'll also see a brief segment with two blocks where you can push the entire line over to climb onto and reach a far batch of coins. Not often possible in late-game, but very helpful when it is. At the very end, you need to push the blocks to the left to make a staircase, then pull some to the right to build it outward. This is presented in a way that makes it easy to learn, but keep it in mind. This will be essential in late-game. To get the Gold, climb without stopping. GGS: 12340. ************************************** D2b. Area 2 ************************************** Much the same as Area 1, except you've got some friends. You'll find a TB early on. Hang onto it, you won't need it just yet. There's another sheep here, too. Let him go on his own, there's enough separation in paths that you can continue without him bothering you. Of course, if you get a chance to kill him, do it. It's easy enough if you get to him fast. Once you reach the point where the bell chimes, you'll find another sheep running around higher up. If you're having trouble reaching that point, pull one of the blocks away and one of the highers will fall down to help form a path with. You can either waste your TB here to climb around the sheep, or trick him by running to the right. He'll scurry in the same direction. Then quickly climb up and knock him down, then proceed. Once you're past him, climb up, form a stair from the right to the goal, and you're done. There's quite a few coins underneath if you want the extra cash. It's not necessary, but they're easy to get to. Just shimmy around the goal from the right, then climb down from the left. Getting a gold here requires a bit more perfection. Without a full chain, you won't get it, and even then, you may need some coins too. ************************************** D2c. Boss - FIST OF GRUDGE ************************************** NI-KA-SA-NAI. (There is no escape!) Congratulations, you've reached the first boss. It's the killer. Do not die! (Those blue nails look familiar?) Despite how scary she is, she's pretty standard. But she is FAST. No matter how fast you climb, you'll find she can keep pace easily. About 40% of the way up, you'll find a PC. It's up to you if you want to grab it or keep the TB, but the TB will be much more useful here. You'll find another soon, either way. Either way, keep on climbing. Don't linger here. By the time you're at the halfway point, the boss will use her main power: her fork will stab into the wall, and change every block from your location on down into HBs. If you moved fast enough, this shouldn't hinder you much. There's another TB here. Taking the time to grab it is risky, but doable. Afterward, use the opposite of the staircase trick from Area 1. Pull from the right and climb up, fast. You'll find yet another TB. You can also proceed by making a stair from the 2X3 column on the left, V-XXX OX -O OO then proceeding from the left, but it's a bit trickier. By this point, she should do another HB conversion. Once you hear the bell chiming, don't let that take you off your guard. She'll be on you in moments. I hope you saved that TB, otherwise, this will be tricky. If you did, throw it at the third block from the right, climb up to the left on the third level, then make a staircase from there, and you're done. If you DIDN'T, you'll need to pull blocks and make a path to the third floor so you can make a staircase to the goal. That will take time you more than likely don't have. You can still pull it off, but it'll be tough. Grab the coins, hit the goal, and get out before you get forked up. The light will handle the rest. Handel's Messiah will kick in, and you're homefree. Great Escape!! You Survived. ================================================================== D3. Torture Chamber [BGM: Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 In C Minor - Fate - 3rd Movement] ================================================================== ************************************** D3a. Area 1 ************************************** Guess what? Spike time! You'll see the brutal aftermath of what happens when you're careless with SBs in the background. Poor sheep. Early on, just climb as usual, and keep moving. The spikes won't harm you. You'll see a Bible at the 40% mark. Pull a block to grab it, then drop down and use that same one to climb up to the right. Ignore the area to the right. Climb up to the left, following the stairs to the left and back. When you're at the last crumbling block, drop down and shimmy to the right. Don't stop until you can climb up. From here, you can easily climb up and go to the right for extra coins. Ditch the TG for the block if you want to. Climb the crumbling stair to the left, then go across the three spikes. Drop down from the last one to avoid getting impaled, then make a stair. Once you reach another TG, the bell should start chiming. Ignore it if you want. If you must have it, shove the block once to the right. When you proceed up, you'll see a line of three spikes curving in a stair that leads right, up, then left. Rush across it, then drop down from the very last spike, and you should get through unscathed. From there, shimmy to the left, climb up, and rush right to the goal before the spikes get you. For the gold, get as many coins as you can, and make it without stopping. If you don't, expect a silver at BEST. ************************************** D3a. Area 2 ************************************** Proceed along normally until you get to 40%. You'll see a sheep waiting at the right. Get near him so he climbs to the left. Wait long enough, and he'll get rid of half the spikes. The fourth will turn him to lamb chops. You'll see another one here. Push the blocks under him forward, until you can proceed beneath him, then climb up the crumbling stair to the right. Push the block to the left over, then climb down and shimmy over to the left. Go to the crumbling stair to the left for some easy coins and a TB if you want, then rush up. (This can wreck a chain if you aren't quick about it.) At the crossroads of two spikes, go to the left, then up and around. Pull two blocks from the tower, then push them over to the right. This should give you a bridge to the spike stair. Climb it as high as you can, then drop down from the top to avoid getting skewered. Once that's done, Move the top to the left, then the bottom two under it. Do this until you have a bridge across the gap. Feel free to skip the chime, it will just get you killed, more than likely. If you saved one of the many TBs here, throw it beside the goal, and you're done. If you DIDN'T, push the two over so that they block the gap to the goal, then the two you used to get there. Drop down, grab the chime, then push the SB two spaces left. This will drop the SB above, giving you a bridge to the goal. A Gold here requires near perfection. Get as many coins as you can, and max the chain. ********************************************************************** D3a. Boss - IMMORAL BEAST [BGM - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs] ********************************************************************** Despite appearances, this boss isn't all that much different from Fist of Grudge. It'll chase you slower, but it launches projectiles at you. The hearts are very bad. They charm Vincent, making the directional controls reversed. In a level with spikes, this can spell instant death. The charm does wear off eventually, but not nearly fast enough. The shower of hearts must be avoided, and the only way to do that is to get underneath another block. There's several shelters along the tower, just make sure you're always close to one. Don't get out until you're sure the attack is finished. It comes in two waves, and sometimes the waves double back to hit blocks again. You can sometimes run out between waves, but it's risky. For the most part, the actual climbing is the same as usual. The first real obstacle is around halfway up. You'll see three blocks with coins(easily gotten by dropping onto them), and three suspended above. Push the block out from under the middle of the three, and it'll drop down. Move it to the right, and climb up from the right block. Stop for shelter on the next level before proceeding too far. On the next section, push the middle block twice to the left. Shimmy down and around it to climb up from the far left. There's a cross formation on the next floor. Pull the bottom block twice to the left, then climb from there. You'll need to push the top block to the right, then the lower two to make a stair to the right. At this point you should hear the chiming, and find yourself stuck inside a cross. It's not as tough as it looks. Climb to the right, drop down, and shimmy until you're out of it. Pull one block to the right, climb, and... Great Escape! Getting a gold on this stage is hell, but doable. Get all the coins(which is pretty easy), and keep on the move. You can do it without a flawless chain if you get enough coins, but even with a high chain, you'll want several if not all the coins. Make sure you double back to grab the strays, and shimmy down to the left of the goal for the extra ones there. =============================================== D4. Inquisition [BGM: Bach - Little Fugue in G. Minor] =============================================== ************************************** D4a. Area 1 ************************************** Fortunately, Inquisition has no new blocks. Just new enemies. Also, there's only one stage, and it's fairly straightforward. Right from the start, you'll see two ES waiting for you. You can either ignore them and begin climbing, or try to knock them off. If you're feeling daring, you can head to the south ledge and jump down. There's a bible there which you can use to liquidate them, meaning you can save the one at the start for later. This isn't as risky as it sounds; there's two BBs which you can use to get back to the starting area. After evading the sheep(and you really should before continuing), you'll find a six block tower. You can go about this in two ways: either by making a three block base and strategically making smaller ones, or the easy way: making a four block base, then a three on top of that(to the left), then using a two on the left of the third. XXXX XXXX XXXX OOXX OOOX OOOO From the top of the two-block base, pull the second block, then push it to the right. Climb onto it, pull the block out, then pull the first block back. Your result should be: V XXXX XXOX XOXX OOXX OOOX OOOO Right here is your first checkpoint in the game. Make use of it, unless you want to start over from the beginning if you die afterward. Here's the tough part. There's an eight block tower ascending upward. You can make a four block base from here and reuse your earlier strategy, just be warned: the inverted staircase on the left of the tower will fall if you pull from the left carelessly. They'll have no other support. Make sure you stop pulling from the left once you have the four base. Make your second three-square level from the right. Then make a two square base on the third level. This should be the result: S-XXXXS XXXXXX- XXXXXX- XXXXXX- XXXXXX- -XXOOV- -XXOOO- --OOOO- There may be two ES waiting on top, depending on how you dealt with the quartet at the start. Push the two to the left, starting off a stair in that direction. From there, keep pulling and pushing, and with a bit of backtracking to extend your base to the right, you should have a stair to the top. S-XXXXS XVXXXX- XOXXXX- XXOXXX- XXXOXX- -XO-O-- -XXOOO- --OOOO- When you get to the top, you may an ES blocking you. As you can see, you have a brief window of opportunity to climb next to him if you're quick enough. If you make it, just climb up and you're golden. If you can't get past and you have the second bible, blast him to pieces. If not, then it gets tricky. Jump down until he follows you, then shove the top stair block away, sending him to his death. Another ES may come up behind you. You can easily swat him down from higher ground. Then pull out another block to replace the stair you lost and proceed. This can be very tricky, and require some strategic adjustment between the background and foreground. You have plenty of blocks to work with, but this will wreck your chances at a high score. If you want this done fast, grab both bibles and wipe them out. All of them. Don't forget to get ALL the coins around the goal by shimmying to the other side. A perfect climb and all coins = guaranteed Gold. Note: I've noticed the top two ES may not spawn if you did not kill the four at the start. If you think you can proceed without killing them, go for it. Of course, if you grab both bibles, they're no problem regardless. ********************************************************************** D4b. Boss - THE CHILD [BGM - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs] ********************************************************************** The good news is that there's only one stage. The bad? Here comes the first real challenging boss: the baby from hell. Pull the first block out, then shove it to the right. Climb for the coins, then haul it. The Child is FAST, and will be on you in moments if you linger. Even at top speed, you'll find he keeps up easily. Grab the TB item before climbing to the left. Once you're past the left stair, you should be on a new level between two towers. You can waste the TB for an easy climb, but I don't recommend it. Instead, pull a block out and push it to the left. Then use more from the right to make a stair in that direction. Around this time, the Child will start attacking you with an ascending blast of spittle. It will knock you off, so dodge it no matter what. It only ascends along one pillar, so it's easy to avoid if you keep an eye out. The change of perspective can be tricky, so try to stay in one place if you can. You'll find yourself at the bottom of a three-block opening. Make a base of two to the left, Then pull the middle block and move it to the right. Then pull a block from the tower, and drag it and the one under to the left for a stair. You'll be on top of the rightmost tower. From there, pull a block from the left side and move it to the left. Pull from on top of it, and pull the bottom one to the right for your stair to the next level. There is a crumbling block on the right of the tower, but it'll support you just long enough to climb onto your new stair if you're fast. Check point! From here, you'll find an archway staircase. Make sure you grab all the coins before proceeding to the next area. The path branches into two towers of three, separated by a gap. Use the right one. Pull a base of two, then climb onto the top with a stair. You'll see a drink to the left, but ignore it. You want the TB much more. Once on top, pull a block and use it to cover the gap and climb across. This is basically the pattern for a good chunk of the stage. Once across the gap, you need to get to the top of the left tower, then get to the right. You can either make a stair to the left then bridge the gap, or do it the slick way: pull two from the bottom right of the left tower. Shove those two from the left, two spaces to the right, and you'll bridge the gap AND have a stair to the top of the right tower. You'll notice the right tower from here has fragile support. Proceed carefully. One wrong move can make the ascent much harder. You can still climb, but it'll mean wasting time you don't have a lot of. Pull the far right block from the bottom, and move it to the far left. Then(and only then) pull out the middle block so you have a two block base. From here, pull out the middle block, move it to the right, and pull the one above it. Pull the one below to the left, and you're on top again. You're close, but not there yet. Pull out the middle block so you can climb and get the two coins. Then pull out the middle block from here, and push it to the left to bridge the gap and go to the left tower again. You should hear the bell ringing. Pull another middle block to get another pile of coins. Repeat this for the opposite side: pull the middle, push it to the right, move to the right tower for more coins. Almost there! The Child is hot on your heels, so don't lose your cool. As long as you move fast and avoid the spittle, you'll be fine. Pull out the bottom two, and then one from the left above it. Push that to the left twice. Pull out the right block, pull it to the left, then shimmy down to push it to the left. You can now climb up to the top of the left tower. This should put you on a crumbling block. From here, you can finally use the item you've held onto all this time. (At least, I hope you did!) Throw it to the right, and you're home free. Clime across the new bridge to the goal. You Survived! For the Gold, get a Perfect run with all coins, which is easier than it sounds, fortunately. Follow the path I used and it's a cakewalk, though you'll have a few close calls. The Child climbs VERY fast. (Guaranteed Gold Score: 42060.) ============================================================================= D5. Quadrangle [BGM: Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World - 1st Movement ] ============================================================================= ************************************** D5a. Area 1 ************************************** If you've made it this far, congratulations. Now things start getting crazy. You'll find Vincent on a platform covered in ice. Yep, it's ice block time! Remember the most important thing about IBs: You do not fall from them if you climb onto them from below, or shimmy along. If you WALK onto one, you will slide until you fall or hit a solid block. Remember, never walk blindly here. When all else fails, drop and shimmy. Climb up from the left and pull the heavy block once on the third level. Use that to climb higher, then pull the ice block above the next level to continue onto a floor with two bounce blocks. Use the right BB to reach a platform higher up. I say the right one, because this gives you a straight line to pass by three more BBs. If you bounce from here, you'll miss a lot of coins. Worse, there's a sheep here who'll take them if you're not fast enough. Once you have them, then you can bounce up to the next platform. Proceed carefully here. Climb up from the middle, then slide forward onto the bible panel. Make sure you face RIGHT when you spring up, or you'll be doing this all over again. When facing right, you can climb onto a new panel with a checkpoint. There's a lot of enemies coming up, so feel free to use bibles like candy. You'll find plenty more along the way. Head forward and climb around to get the coins. Drop down to shimmy to the third ice block on this level, and climb up. Pull the block out from here, then climb onto that to make a stair leading right. You'll find yet another stray sheep in your way. Climb into the background, and he should move to where you were. Knock him down from there. Continue to the left, and follow the ice stair up and around. Shimmy down from here and climb onto the next area to the right. Pull the middle block out and move it to the right. Climb up, and shove these blocks over. A block from above should fall. Keep to the right and climb onto the two you moved. From there, pull a block out, and this gives you a stair to proceed upward. You'll be on a set of two ice blocks. From there, climb to the left, placing you on a higher plane of three ice blocks. Drop off onto the foreground edge and shimmy to the left block, then climb back up. Pull the solid block forward, and use this to climb to the left. You'll notice a sheep to the right messing with the tower by pulling blocks of his own. Ignore him for now until you're higher up, then use the bible when a second sheep is in sight. You want both of them dead. Pull the solid block from under the ice tower to the left, and use it to make a stair leading left. Once in front of a smaller ice tower, push these blocks to the left, then pull an ice block out. This should give you a base of two above the current level. Drop, shimmy to the left, then climb from the left onto there. Drop again, shimmy to the right, then climb here. Pull the block out for a new stair leading up. Once you're at the top, the bell should begin chiming. Push the ice block to the right, then make a gap across. Move to the right, then take a solid block out. Move it all the way left. Then pull an ice block and put it with it. This gives you a stair leading up and around to the goal. Be careful of that ice block to the far left! Shimmy down to climb onto it. DO NOT WALK OVER IT, OR VINCENT WILL DIE. Make sure to shimmy down and over for extra coins, and you're done! To get the one under the goal, just take some extra time to climb to the right with a makeshift stair. For the Gold, a Perfect run with the coins is all it takes. ************************************** D5b. Area 2 ************************************** Right from the start, another sheep is there with you. He'll be gone soon. Ignore him and climb up to the middle, then pull the heavy block forward. Use this to climb up, then do the same for the next level. Here's where it gets tricky. Before climbing onto the next area, move the solid block you just pulled to the left. It will slide, and create a stair in front of the next level. Use that to climb up and move forward. It should slide you across the platform onto a solid block. Any mis-step in this area means death. From the safe ground, slide to the right, and grab the TB. You can backtrack for the coins if you want to, but it takes time, and you can easily die trying. It's not worth the effort, and it's not necessary for a gold either. If you go forward from the item and head left, there's a solid path for an easy coin pile. Climb back to the right and head one level above where the TB was. Move back for the coins here, climb up to the right, then slide forward to grab more coins, then continue upward. You'll find a trio of Enforcers here. The one ahead of you can be easily knocked out of the way. Proceeding further can be tricky, since one of them is blocking the stairs that lead left, and trying to go around to the foreground means sliding to your death. So, head to the background. Shimmy to the right until you're on line with the HB up ahead, then slide forward and climb up, then follow the stairs left. When you get stopped, drop down onto the ice stair and continue left. Following this path leads you to the check point. Pull the ice block out from here and climb up, then do the same again. Knock the ES to your left away if you can, ignore him if not, he'll fall soon enough once you climb up. Sliding to the left is death here, so continue upward. When at the third level, pull the solid block out. Drop back down and move left onto the four ice blocks. Drop down and shimmy to the second from the left. Pull this ice block out, and climb from here. Head up and to the right, then pull the further right solid block out. Push it to the left, then climb up and pull the one above it out. From here, pull blocks to the left to make a stair upward. Positioning is key here. You want to make sure you climb up to the next level so that you're lined up with the lone movable block. Pull it out, then move it to the middle so you can safely climb up to the next one and do the same. You'll need to shove it far to the left, then pull it right to get up safely. From here, you'll see a bible. Ignore it and keep the TB. Pushing the available block to slide over to the left leads to an ice stair that goes up and around to the right. Drop and shimmy to climb up and around an ice block to the right. You'll find two paths, one to the left, one to the right. The left one's full of coins, so that's is the one you want. Push the two ice blocks to your right away to the side by one notch, then climb onto the left ice block, pull the solid one above it to the right, then pull the ice block under it over to make a stair leading left and upward. From the top, you can move an ice block to the left, making a bridge to safely get to the coins, and climb up above them. You have to shimmy across the edges to get there. Walking means sliding to Vincent's doom. Once at the next level, you'll see two giant sheep intent on getting in your way. They're no big deal, though. Proceeding across these paths to move the blocks is tricky, but doable. From the next floor, after climbing onto the far left, you can drop from the left to shimmy across to the other side. From there, you can pull an ice block out and push it over to climb to the right. Climb two blocks up, and use another block to return to the middle between the two areas for more coins. Keep climbing to the right until you're around two levels below the exit's floor. Use the blocks to bridge the gap to the exit area while avoiding the last giant sheep. Once you have a clear route, now's the time to use the CB to make a bridging block towards the highest floor. This gives you an easy route to the exit. Grab the last coins and that's it! If you didn't save the CB, you can still get there, but it will be much trickier. You'll need to do lots of moving and reorganizing of the few blocks you have, and possibly drag them from the right tower. You'll have ample time if you made it this far, but you won't have much chance of getting the Gold score. Gold here requires a perfect time, and nearly every coin. The ONLY one you can miss is the extra one at the start. 63310 was my Gold score. ************************************** D5c. Boss - DOOM'S BRIDE [BGM - Shoji Meguro - Woman's Hand] ************************************** She's baaaack! And she is PISSED. Demi-Katherine is mostly the same as her first incarnation, except this time, she drops ice on you from above. This is kind of similar to The Child's attacks, only they drop you much lower. If you get hit by the ice, odds are, The Bride will ice you immediately afterward. Beyond that, the first half of the tower is, surprisingly, very easy. If you can keep track of the ice blocks, you can ascend with minimal challenge. Just keep a steady stair going as the path dictates, and grab the coins along the way. Make sure to take a detour to grab the TB at the 5th marker. Just pull L3's block toward you to make a stair to it, then continue to the left afterward. You'll see some spike blocks too, but they're few and far between, and rarely in your path. Just be careful of them. At around the 26 marker, you can move some blocks to the right to switch to the next tower for extra coins. Don't pass them up. Shortly afterward is a checkpoint, that you probably won't need if you're careful. From here on, the fight really begins. The Bride starts throwing blocks at you, which the wind pulls from the tower. They're easily predicted, just watch for the red glow, and make sure NOT to stand there. The blocks will kill Vincent on impact. The only other concern is having a pulled block ruin your path, but if you keep on the move, that's not likely. This is overall one of the easiest boss fights in the game, creepiness aside. The Bride creates one freaky atmosphere. As long as you keep moving and don't get too unlucky, the goal is easy to get to. There are no complicated patterns, just simple three step constructions along the way. For the Gold, just get nearly every coin along the way, which is fairly easy. They're all on Vincent's path. With a perfect chain, you should have a 96k score, which is instant Gold. Great Escape. You Survived! =========================================== D6. Clock Tower [BGM: Rossini - William Tell Overture Part 2, The Storm and Part 3, The Ranz Des] =========================================== ************************************** D6a. Area 1 ************************************** Congratulations if you made it this far. Unfortunately, here is where things gets nasty. The ground is already falling with a quickness, so don't waste time. And guess what time it is? Detonation Block time! You can't avoid the first one. Run over it, and climb up before it makes things difficult. You can easily get the coins on the next level without trigging the second DB if you shimmy down and across. Do it quickly to keep the chain going. On the next level, you'll see a group of blocks to the left. Make an L shaped stair using the DB as the top one, or else you'll make the right segment fall. V O OO From there, quickly make another stair using the next set. It requires one more level of blocks, but it's the same basic idea. V O OO OOO There's a Solid block power up off to the right. Grab it if you have time, if you'r quick, you'll still keep your chain going, and it can be helpful later in the stage. Use two more L stairs to get to the next level and the one after, O OO and XO OO respectively. This will get you to the check point. You'll see two coins on the far left and right, two levels up. Getting to them is tricky, and requires fast action. Pull the two center blocks out from the tower, then shove them to the far left or right. Use them to climb up, and pull a block out from under the spikes and climb onto them to get one set. Once you're clear of the spikes, drop and shimmy over for the other coins. A DB timer will have been set off by using the stair, so don't waste time. On the next floor, jump onto the open spike pit to grab more coins, then jump back off to avoid dying. Make another mini L stair to get onto the next spike floor, and go onto their edges to avoid being skewered. You'll see some ice blocks here. Pull out a block from the left, then bring it one to the right. Use that to climb up and get the two coins. Afterward, push the block you climbed with over to the right, so there are two together. Use these to create a stair leading up-left to the next floor. Your pulling from earlier should have left a gap in this ice floor. That's good, because a Berserker Sheep is waiting for you. Wait beside the pit, let him fall into it, then slap him down. Continue across carefully. One wrong move and you'll go sliding. When you climb up from the pit, pull the block out. Use these and a DB to make a stair leading up and to the right, but hurry: the Sheep will be back. If you have the power-up from earlier, this is a good spot to use it at. You'll be able to climb up well before the Sheep gets to you. Once on the next level, you'll see some coins far off to the right. Pull two blocks out, and shove them over as far as you can without letting them fall. Use this to get close to the coins, then drop and shimmy over to the coins. Climb up, get them, then go back. You don't actually need to be within reaching distance of climbing onto the coin platform, being close enough to shimmy there is enough. Try not to set off the DB while doing this. Proceeding from here is a little tricky. You'll need to make a stair leading up, then use the top of a mini L stair to make another leading right. There's time for a bit of improv here if you've still got a chain going, so don't stress too much. What you should worry about is the other sheep waiting for you. He's somewhat clumsy, so he may fall off without you even doing anything. From here, the tower becomes more solid. A quick mini-L will get you to the next tier. Pull the block out to the right under the spikes. Climb onto it, and wait for the sheep to approach you. The spikes will take care of him. Climb up and head left. You'll see a block power up to the left, and juice to the right. Head for the block. A simple stair will get you to the left. Shimmy down to get the coins, then push the block away to the left. Let it fall away, and the block above should come down. Use it to climb to the right. The bell should be chiming by now. You can head over to the right two get the coins from the other tower now. After continuing up, you'll see more coins to the left, on top of the ice blocks. Drop from the right, then shimmy over to climb up. If you walk to the coins, you'll fall. From the next level, use a reverse mini-L, XO OO to climb up to the coins. Push the DB to the right, and let the block above you fall, forming a stair to the exit. Easy money. All coins and a Perfect run for the gold. ************************************** D6b. Area 2 ************************************** For the first few steps here, it's standard progress. There's nothing at the bottom, so don't bother heading down there. You'll see a power-up under the second set of stairs, which you can ignore if you still have it from the last stage. Once you get to the wall of blocks, take a careful look. It looks like an easy climb, but this is full of DBs. Careless movement will cause this whole wall to fall like a deck of cards. You can get the coins to the right by climbing, just make sure you push the DB away after you set it off. It should fall before it affects the tower. You may want to consider grabbing the coins last, since they are fairly high up, and it will set your chain standard at their level, and this can make keeping your score intact for Gold a pain. These DBs will cause major damage when you activate them. Not only will they turn all the solids to crumblers, they'll also obliterate any nearby DBs, which can make progress very tough. Use the block you pulled from the right to make a base of two blocks, then pull one from the left of the tower to make it into three. From here, you can make a stair leading up to the left consisting of just solid blocks, by pushing and building leftward. This will get you to the first checkpoint. Here you'll see a tower of DBs that looks like an accident waiting to happen. Also, some of them are glowing red. These affect an even wider radius than the regular ones. Good news? There's a spring board among them. Either make a stair leading to it quickly, or pull blocks out so it falls to you. Whichever you do, the SB will get you to the next section easily. From here, use the solid blocks from the right tower to make a stair. Don't bother with the ones in the background, they're all fragile. From the top, you'll see a spring tower. Pull one free, and use it to jump up to a waiting chime item. Or you can ignore it if you want to hang onto a block power-up, either will be useful. Then pull the SB over to the third block from the left tower. This will get you to another checkpoint. Make a stair from this wall to get to the top, then build from the left on the next level to get to the next tier. Make a mini-L one space away from the left of the tower, and once at the top, shove the DB away. Use DBs from the background to climb up to the left from here. This will cause one heck of a mess, but you'll be above it before it affects anything. Make a stair to the left with the solid block. You should be two blocks shy of the top of this wall. Pull the left block over, then drop and shimmy to the left. Climbing from the left onto it will get you to the next floor. Pull a spring from the left, and use it to bounce upward. From this platform, get the coins from the DB, then quickly pull a spring next to it. Use this to bounce up, but do NOT stay on this block, it will kill you. Drop then climb to avoid the spikes. Once both spikes are gone, pull from the left to make a stair to the right and up. Get the coins here, then continue around to the left, using the spike stair quickly and carefully. The very top will put you on a floor with more coins to the left, and a ringing chime. Make a mini-L from the left using the DB, otherwise you'll affect the tower and cause part to fall. If you want to use the chime item, this is a good time. Once you're on the spike trio to the right, climb up from the right. You can drop off the right side from here, and shimmy over to the left. Get the coins and climb up using the spikes. Give yourself another block to add to the foundation at the bottom here. From there, you can easily make a stair to the next floor. Eventually you'll be in the center of a tower, surrounded by blocks. There's no absolute single way to solve this, but if you aren't going for gold, you'll likely get to the goal through pure trial and error. There's a lot of routes. If you want gold(and less headache), your best bet is to not get into that gap at all. Pull from the tower and keep building up. Make a solid base of four blocks at the bottom, then build from there, moving leftward. Once you're as high as you can go, throw the TB. There's your exit route! The less DBs you hit on the way up, the better: you'll have more of a foundation to work with. Gold requires absolute perfection: Perfect chain(91), and all coins. ************************************** D6c. Area 3 ************************************** Welcome to what is easily the toughest stage yet. Vincent starts at the bottom of an inverted pyramid, with very little room to manuever, and the ground is falling fast. There's a few ways you can solve this, and most of them involve dumb luck. I'll cite MasterLL's contribute from GameFAQs on this one, as it gives you the most time(and you will need it): From the very beginning, 01) Go right 2 steps. 02) Push the 3 row block to the right of you once. 03) Drop down once on right. 04) Pull out block from background. 05) Move back to the top of that block you pulled. 06) Pull the right block toward left twice, go around it and push it once more. This will get you to a level with a Bible. Grab it and save it, the ant will fall on its own. Climb around to the highest block, then pull one out, and make your way down, pulling them out as you go. It will take two trips up and down to make a stair high enough to reach the top, and the two coins. Be quick about it, the floor here falls fast. Don't rest yet. Now you have to do this again with the next area, only from the left side. Once you reach the top, run across the spikes then drop from the end to set them off. There's a stubborn Ant here. Zap it with the Bible, then after moving a block out at the top, climb up to the TB power-up. You'll find yourself in the center of a hollowed-out cross, with no clear way up. Don't panic. Climb to the center left of the interior, and pull the leftmost block out. Push it all the way to the right. One from above will fall down. Push that next to it. Then climb onto the platform, drop, and shimmy over to the outside of the cross. Climb up from there. Aside from a stray ice panel, you have an easy climb up to the next section. Here you'll find another waiting cross formation. Grab the coins, then do the same trick as you did before. Remember to push the blocks TO THE RIGHT. You can not climb this cross from the left side, it's blocked off. Climb up to the top here, and you'll find a lot of coins. Be careful here; two of them are adjacent to a DB. It will set off a short fuse that will destroy the nearby ice blocks, ruining your way up. Make sure you climb across and up before your path is gone. You can also just drop and shimmy to grab the coins on either side of the DB without touching it. Be careful not to slide off when getting the coins on the ice floor. There's an ice block at each end, drop and shimmy to avoid a painful fall. Upward and to the left, you'll see some coins in the center of a cross full of spikes. Be careful here. Once at the top center, drop down, climb up and get the coins, and quickly climb down, then move back up to the top. You can also reach it from underneath by pulling out solid blocks. Takes more time, but with less chance of getting skewered by a freak accident. You'll see a checkpoint to the right. Continuing up-left, you'll find another hollow cross, and the sound of the bell ringing. That was fast! The level is not that long, just difficult. There's a small cross up above with a bible and coins. If you don't mind an ant being in your way, you can pull out a solid from beneath the cross to climb up into it, but this can also cause a lot of blocks from above to start plummetting; including one with a coin. The best bet is to just jump down from above like with the earlier cross. The ant waiting at the top is fickle. If you give it time to go ahead of you, it SHOULD eventually fall off from the right, but sometimes it will come back for Vincent, so be careful. Just above that, you'll see a small cross with ice in the background. Pull a block out from the right of the earlier cross's top, and use that platform to shimmy over and get the coins in the center, then climb to the top of the ice cross. Here's where it gets nasty. You'll see another massive cross, only with twice as much interior space. You can occasionally make the blocks into a stair with dumb luck by pulling and hoping the right blocks fall, but that's a big risk, and time is of the essence here. The floor will be gone in no time, even if you have a perfect chain going. Push the top of the ice cross over to the left, creating your way into the cross. From here, just before entering, throw a block into the opening. This should give you a base of three to work with. From there, pull the far left block over to the far right. Climb onto the two block floor, and pull the right block out, moving it to the left. This will cause one from above to descend. Push that all the way right. This will cause another from above to fall. Climb down, pull the block from under it to the left, and from there, push the one that fell to make a two-block floor with the other. Go back down, push the one you climbed onto back into place, and this will finally give you a means to climb up and shimmy over to the outside of the cross. If you are REAL quick about it, you can still maintain your chain by doing this. Once at the top, go down to the left to grab two more coins. It's not over yet, but almost! You'll see another mini spike-cross. Drop down to grab coins from the center, then go up to the very last area of the stage. A giant checkerboard array of blocks. G XO-O-O X-O-O- XO-O-O X-O-O- XO-O-O -V Although it looks nasty, it's pretty simple if you pull the right blocks. Pull out the two on the left, and make a platform of them. You'll see a bunch fall to the right. From here, you'll see you can easily make a stair leading up to the part of the checkerboard that remained intact. Here was my final result solution, after moving five blocks: (F for foreground, B for background.) V G XB-B- X-B-B- XB--F- X--F-- XFFF-- Goal! The nastiest stage is over with. This wasn't just the hardest Clock Tower level, it was one of the hardest in the game. For Gold, perfect is mandatory. You can miss some coins, but get as many as you can. I missed only one, and still got Gold. ********************************************************************** D6d. Boss - CHILD WITH A CHAINSAW [BGM - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs] ********************************************************************** Despite how horrifying Child Mark 2 is, this is a fairly linear fight. Unfortunately, it's very random too. Most of this stage is very traditional climbing. Nothing crazy at all. Keep from being freaked out, and climb as fast as you can. The Child is REAL fast, and will be on you in no time. At step 5, make sure you head to the left, not the right. Pulling from the right side will drop a lot of the tower away. You'll need a three-tier stair after this. Make one quickly and proceed to the left. Don't worry about triggering any DBs. Most of them will be well behind you by the time they go off if you're fast enough, but if you can avoid them, it can't hurt. At Step 14, the tower begins to branch. You'll see a pile of coins at both sides. Grab the one on the left, then head up to the right, which has two coin piles. From here, start pushing the wall at your right away, so you can make a stair leading to the left center, which has a spring block. It should take about three shoves to the right to make enough room to create a stair to the left. You should make it to the spring just in time to keep your chain going, and avoid the Child. The floor beneath will have turned red by the time you bounce up. From here, make a quick three panel step at the right of the tower, then do the same for the next section. This will bring you to Step 30. Go to the right to get the coins, then to the left for a block power-up. Quickly make a step up to the left tower from here. The boss is very close by, so don't delay. The first(and only) checkpoint is up ahead, which you can get to by pulling out a block. Here's where it gets scary. The Child will SAW OFF the right of the tower, destroying the entire right two block towers. If Vincent is on them by the time it falls, he falls with it. To make matters worse, now the fight gets crazy. The Child will start firing bullets into the air, which come down in the form of projectiles. Avoid them at any cost. Not only will they kill Vincent on impact, but they also create crumbling blocks in their wake. Worst of all, some of them will begin rolling up the tower in form of spiked rolling balls of doom. There is no easy way to predict these. They move on their own, and will adjust to the tower. If a gap is created, they'll stop and go through it, then go back around in the other direction. They only move in straight vertical or horizontal lines, but never take your eye off them. A bad fall or random jump can easily send Vincent right into their path, which spells instead death. Fortunately, if one reaches the top of the tower and has nowhere to go, it destroys them. Climb carefully while avoiding the spikes. There's no unusual patterns here, just get up as quickly(and safely) as possible. Don't forget to grab any coins you see. The tower begins narrowing out around 50 steps, and has a few DBs sprinkled around. If you hit any, make sure to climb up fast before they affect anything. After this, you'll see a brief tricky section with gaps in the wall. Pull out from the ground and make a solid base, and you can climb up easily enough from there. Afterward, the wall becomes solid again, with several springs visible. This is also where the child opens fire again. While avoiding whatever comes down, get the coins from the gap in the right. Then get to the spring, and jump from the fourth block from the left. Be VERY careful before jumping, a rogue spike in Vincent's path can easily spell death. This will put Vincent inside a small rectangular gap. From here, drop and shimmy to the right. Pull the spring board in, and use that to jump up to the next area; again, carefully. There should be many random spikes rolling around by now. This will put you in another enclosed space. Push the blocks away to the right until one falls from the left, giving you a way up. At step 72, you'll find a row of DBs. Trigger them and continue, they won't affect anything. The Child will fire off another volley of shots here. Shortly afterward, another portion of the tower will be sawed off, leaving you with a five block width, and quite a few spikes around. Keep climbing, but carefully. There's a four block wall up ahead. Make a stair while avoiding the spikes, and watch for the boss' final volley of shots. Most of the projectiles should avoid Vincent and aim for the foreground if you're fast enough, but keep an eye on the red areas just in case. Don't be afraid to stop climbing and get out of the way if need be. At Step 92, the bell will finally start to ring. Climb up to the left side, then up to the right. This is the last area! After this, Vincent is home free: a perfect 100 steps, with many easily gotten coins, and Gold is yours. This can either be the easiest or toughest boss to Gold, depending on your luck. Either way, congrats. Hope you enjoyed the warm-up. From here on, things start to get crazy. =========================================== D7. Spiral Corridor [BGM: Borodin - Polostovian Dances] =========================================== ************************************** D7a. Area 1 ************************************** Welcome to the largest array of stages yet. Spiral Corridor is also full of areas that pretty much require to you have mastered everything you learned in the previous stages, whether through trial and error or shown by example by the sheep in the nightmares. The stages here are short, but mind-numbing. Right from the start, you'll see a blocked off stair that requires you to drop and shimmy around two blocks to proceed. At Step 5, you'll see a unique obstacle. OOX XXX XXO Your best way around this is to pull out the middle block from the bottom, push both over, and make a stair from the left of it to reach the top. OOX XXO X-OO Afterward, you'll be in a tall tower area, encased to be three blocks wide. Proceeding is tricky, because the tower is surrounded with solid blocks. Once the blocks are moved to the left or right, they will go no further, so choose your moves wisely. Pull out all three from the bottom. You can still reach the new level by climbing the blocks from earlier. Then pull out the two to the left. Climb onto those, pull the center block out, and move it to the right. After climbing, pull the rightmost block to the left, then get to the other side and move it over to the far left. Pull another out, and move it beside the first. From there, you can easily climb up to the top, and the first checkpoint. There's a spring on the right; ignore it. It'll just cause you to miss a lot of coins. There's free coins up the stairs. Make use of them. Shortly afterward, you'll find another similar tower, but with preset blocks. Climb onto the first floor of two blocks,and move the rightmost block above them to the left. From there, you can climb, grab the coins and move left. From this area, pull a block from the left and move it over to the center by getting to the other side. You can get nearly to the top by repeating this. Once at the very top, you'll need to push the last block all the way over. Then pull out another, move it next to it, and climb up from there to another checkpoint. There's more free coins along the way, leading to yet another tower; four blocks wide, encased by solid blocks. Make a foundation of three blocks from the right side. Pull the two centers above it, and move them to the left. From there, take one from the left and move it all the way over to the right. Take another from the left, and put it with the first. This should have you at the right of the tower, three blocks from the top. Take two more blocks from the right in a similar manner, and move them to the left. From there,pull one block out from the far left, and you have your way up. Be careful: fall at any point while doing this, and getting back up will be nearly impossible. The final tower is just ahead, and the bells start chiming with it. This one is a three-width tower. Yep, you only have a span of three blocks to work with. It took me a while to figure this one out at first. Here's how you start. Pull two out from the right, making a base. XXX XXX XXX XXX XXV XOO From V's location, pull a block out. Then move it to the left, by pulling, then pushing from the other side. After that's done, pull out the center block. This should be the result: XXX XXX XXX VXX OO- XOO From here, do something similar. Left block goes to the right, then pull out the center block. Result: XXX XXX -XV -OO OO- XOO You can keep this up all the way until you reach the top. Pull out the far block, then move it over, then the center, until you can simply pull out a left block and climb to the exit. Gold here is easy. Get to the top without breaking chain, and you're done. All the coins are freebies, you should not have missed any. ************************************** D7b. Area 2 ************************************** The start of Area 2 has a much larger foundation. For a little while. It gets weird fast, though. This is basically a sadistic expansion of the cross puzzles from 6-3. First, grab both coins. Then climb up to the right. At the barrier, push the block to the right. This will drop the blocks above, and give you a path through the background, up, and above in the foreground. Once there, pull the topmost block over so that it's one space away from the solid T formation. Then go around it, and pull the block to the downright forward as well. Now drop down, head to the left of the stage, and climb up the same way you did on the right. Once at the top, drop and shimmy over. You can climb up using the pattern you created on the right side. Update: you can also do this the easy way by climbing to the top, shimmying over, and just pushing one of the two left blocks away, and using the other as a stair to climb up. But where's the fun in that? :P Once you reach the checkpoint, guess what? A Berserker's waiting for you. Obliterate him with the bible you just found, or hang onto it. If you're fast, he shouldn't catch you. You'll see an odd shaped formation up above. Get the coins from both sides, then pick a route. Either is fine, let's say right. Once at the coins in either direction, push the block to the right. Then climb onto it before the blocks above fall. From here, climb onto them. Climb almost as high as you can(stop one short), then drop and head to the left. Along the way, go into the holes in the formation, and pull the blocks out there to make a solid wall. You'll need this soon. Once at the other side, pull every block on the left into the foreground, creating a solid stair leading upward. Four in all. Once this is done, shimmy over to the right. Climb up, then drop and go to the left side, climbing along the wall you made. With enough quickness, your chain should stay intact. You should have time to grab the second Bible if you used the first on the Berserker. The second checkpoint is right after, and so's a ringing bell. Another Berserker is here, but you can easily get around him if you don't want to zap him. On the right, you'll see a floor of three blocks. Push them over, and then the block above them. Climb onto it, and you can use the blocks above as a stair when they fall. Drop from here, and shimmy over to climb up into a familiar sight: a giant hollowed-out cross. If you have a throwing block somehow saved up, now is the time to use it. If not, this will be much tougher, at least to do without losing chain. You basically have to move blocks from the right over to the left, allowing you to shimmy down from there to the outside. This can also be done in a reverse method, whichever you like. First, go to the far center left. Pull this block out, then push it over twice to the right. Once it falls, push it over to join the far right block just under the center. Then pull one from the left, so there's three together at the right. Go onto them, then pull the far right center block out. Push it all the way over to the left. The two above should fall. Push the lower one to the right, then the one beside it. You can climb onto these to get outside the cross. If you want regular, you're done. If you want gold, well... Here's where it gets ugly. You have to go BACK into the cross, then move the blocks over to the left, so you can get the coins from both sides before finishing. This is not optional, I did not get Gold with only one side of coins attained. The final goal: ----S---- ---S-S--- --S-X-S-- -S-X--VS- <~ Drop from beside the right S here. S-XX--XXS <~ Shimmy to the right from here, then climb onto the right S. -S--XXXS- --SX-XS-- ---SXS--- ----S---- The best way to keep your chain in the middle of this is to jump onto the X block V is on when it falls. It should catch it just in time. As for moving them back, the XX in the center left have to go over first. Then push and pull the XX to the center right over with them. That will give you a route to the coins in the left side. This is easily the hardest Gold to get yet, so congratulations if you did. ************************************** D7c. Area 3 ************************************** This level starts off blessedly simple. A simple two-then-one three step will get you up and to the right. That's not enough, though. Make a solid base of three, then two above that. Push those two to the left, then make a stair leading up from there. You'll need a base of two near the top to make it over to the left. Once at the top of the right solid formation, you can pull a block and move it over to get to the left one. This is only possible if you have a base of two to move on. From here(Chain 4), pull out both blocks before climbing up. Then on the next tier, pull out the far left block, giving you a base of three before moving up again(Chain 6). Pull out both blocks here while grabbing the coins, then climb onto this base of two. Pull the middle block out, move it to the far left, then pull out the block beside it, giving another two base at the far left. Climb onto it, then pull a block out and move it to the right, adjacent to the solid block. Move up, grab the coins, then climb down one step. Pull the block out here, then move it to the left. Pull out the center block here, and you have another floor of two(Chain 11). From here, you can pull out a block, move it over, and make a stair to (finally) get you to the waiting checkpoint. You have a choice here, made much easier if you aren't going for gold. If you ARE, you have to take the path to the right, to get all the coins. It's also the least stressful way to ascend, so you should take it anyway. After getting all the coins, climb to the top and make a base of two. Climb onto there, then pull out the right block. Move that over to the left, then pull out the one next to it, giving you a base of two to work with(21 Chain). From here, it gets a little tricky. Pull the left block from here out. The one to the right will fall. Push the left one over. Climb onto that, then go into the back- ground. Pull the block here to the right, then move into the foreground. Pull it out into the foreground, then go to the left, and use the blocks to make a stair leading to a spring block. Jump onto the spring to reach another stair. Face left to climb up. Backtrack to grab the coins, as well as the TB. You can drop from where it's located to get down to the base and climb back up much quicker. From there, climb back up to continue to the final checkpoint. A deceptively simple formation of blocks is waiting here. G X----X X---XX X--XXX X-XXXX -V---- If you got the throwblock power up from before, this is a cinch. Get to the top, move the highest block two spots over, throw a block to the left, and you're done. If not, it's trickier, but still doable. Still, there's no reason not to backtrack and get the TB. Save yourself the headache. ************************************** D7d. Area 4 ************************************** This is easily the shortest stage in the entire game. The bell chimes right from the start. It's also one of the toughest. This is strictly a puzzle. If you know the solution, it's a cinch. If not, you'll be scratching your head for hours. If you saved the TB from before, it will help, but this is simple enough to solve with the right strategy, so it's unnecessary. Getting a gold here can be a pain, but still doable. You only need a Six Chain. :P Fortunately, the chain timer won't start until you climb onto something, and you won't be doing that for a little while yet. Firstly, get the coins to the right. You'll need them. Then, at the third block back from the front, pull a block to foreground from the back. ***X4 **X3^ Pull 4 forward. *X2 X1 Then, go to X2, and push all the blocks at the left away until only one remains. Then pull 3 forward. ***X4 **X3 *X2^ Pull 3 forward. X1 This should give you a base of two in the foreground. From here, go to X3, and pull a block forward from the background. Pull a block out from the tower at X2, then move it to the right, creating a backward-moving base of two. From the back block, pull one from the left to the right. Then climb onto that, and pull the left block to the right again. Head down, and pull every block back by one to create a stair. Head to the top, grab the coins from the left fragile block, then push the highest block back by one. Congratulations, there's the exit! This should get you a max chain, easy. ********************************************************************** D7e. Boss - SHADOW VINCENT [BGM - Shoji Meguro - Woman's Hand] ********************************************************************** This isn't just one of the hardest boss fights in the game, it's also the creepiest by a mile. The stage here isn't affected like previous ones. The floor remains static without a frequent pattern of falling blocks, but after enough time passes, Shadow Vincent will make an entire section of the stage collapse. So be fast, or be dead. Head over to the right and climb up. The floor will shatter, bringing another section down. While you head to the background, SV will headbutt an entire wall, sending it flying, and causing another area to lower. Make sure you aren't standing in front of the wall when SV hits it; the flying blocks will kill you. Head to the far left, where two blocks wait. Pull the lower one to the right, then one above it, keeping them moving until you're one block away from the end of the path. From there, go to the left of them, then pull the lower block left by one. You can then climb up from the left to the next area. Grab the coins and continue climbing to the right. You'll see a large gap. You'll need to move the higest blocks over, then the lower ones. This leaves a single block on the top. Move this to the right to reach the next tower. From here you can pull the blocks to the left to make a stair to the highest point. This requires some backtracking, so be quick, especially if you're after Gold. When you hit the next area, SV will turn an entire tower of blocks into solids. Head to the left, and pull the lower block out from the right tower to reach the coins. Then you'll have to use these like you did the two from before; pulling the lower one and the top one after it to move them both over to the left. Once the top one is at the solid pillar, you're free to move the lower one to the left. Then move one of the upper two to the right, and use that to climb up. Don't forget the coins, you have to get them before moving the top block. You'll have to do more backtracking to pull the blocks to the right and create a square, two trips in all, so don't delay. If you're having trouble keeping the Chain intact, delay grabbing the coins from the first set until it's about to run out. That should give you plenty of time to climb the stairs. Once you reach the wall of three blocks with the solids in the center, you'll see the left and right sides are movable. The easiest way to do this is to pull the right block out, then move a left one out, and take that to the right, creating a rightmost base of two. From here, you can pull the right one out above it, and move that over, creating a bridge to the tower with the coins. (You'll need these for a gold.) You can move these over to the left, and with them, give yourself plenty of leverage to create a stair leading to the top of the tower, and a waiting checkpoint. From here, things get really creepy. SV releases a patch of darkness, making it almost impossible to see around Vincent's immediate area. Worse, the next area is full of death traps: ice blocks, spikes, and the new Black Hole Blocks. One step on these equals immediate, unavoidable death. Head up to the first floor of non-solid blocks. You'll see the entire left side of these are all ice. Grab the rightmost block and pull it out, climbing up afterward. Climb up from here, and pull out the rightmost block. Move this over to the left, and climb up from there. Head to the left, and you can pull out a block to reach the next floor. You'll see this leads to a Spring, but... bouncing up puts you still one shy of a ledge to grab onto. Pull the block under the spring out, and move it over to the left. It needs to be one block left of the spring, so pull it from the left so it doesn't slide. Then go to the right, and grab the block that's two away from the spring. Pull this out, then move it to the left with the other one, creating a base of two. Push the block left of the spring into the background, then move onto that block. Push the vortex to the left away, then pull the spring to the right, and use that to bounce up to the top. (There's another very long, roundabout way of getting the spring here, but that was before I recalled you could move the VB. Just save yourself the headache and do that. :P) SV will start taunting you here, as more blocks appear. This is the home stretch, so don't lose hope yet! The wall here is broken into two sections. There's no way up from the left, so head to the right. Make sure you shimmy to cross the ice bridge; walking is a one-way trip to a vortex block. You can climb all the way up to grab some coins, but don't bother. Get them later. You just need one block. Push the vortex block up here over to the left, then pull one right block out, and put that next to it. Now you can backtrack down and create a stair leading to it. Once above the vortex, the first thing you should do is create a base of two from the right and left(don't use the middle). Move these over to the right and grab the coins you missed earlier. Make sure to shimmy to get them both; walking means death, these are IBs. There's a few ways to create a bridge to the right tower above, but the best method is by creating a stair from the right to the far left of the left tower. Push the left block away into the background, then move the rightmost two over to the right, creating a bridge to the tower. From here, you can make a stair to the (finally) final area. The worst is already over, this area isn't as tough as it looks. You can easily climb into the odd-shaped formation of blocks here, move the left spring over, and let it fall to where you can bring it to the right. From there, bounce up to the left side of the formation. Shimmy down to grab the right set of coins. Push the right block away, and land on the spring. Bounce up, then land on the right to get the coins. Then go back, and bounce up to the left. Follow the path, climb up the final stairs, and this nightmare is over. Sit back and watch the cutscene. You earned it. If you want the Gold, good luck. You'll need nearly every coin to pull it off, and a perfect run. Delay any next-level climbing you can until the last second to keep your chain from breaking. If you follow the steps above, you should be able to do everything, but it takes practice. Congratulations, that stage was one of the greatest challenges. The next one is not as nasty, but it's certainly... different. ================================ D8. The Cathedral ================================ ********************************************************************** D8a. Boss - CATHERINE [BGM - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs] ********************************************************************** I like to dub her as Demi-Catherine considering her hellish appearance, but I digress. She's after both you AND Katherine, and she's pissed. So guess what that means? That's right, kids! Escort mission! (Yaaay!) Well, it's not quite that bad. Katherine isn't a total moron. Her A.I. is pretty sharp. She keeps close to Vincent, and will immediately stop when told (Triangle). Remember this, because if Katherine dies, it's game over. The blocks are not much of a threat. This level has a fairly linear setup. The trick is setting up the blocks so that Vincent can get by, and for Katherine to follow, so you can't just climb at a frantic pace like usual. You have to plan for both of them. One useful trick is that if Katherine's in your way, mean as it sounds, you can knock her off to move past her. She'll just shimmy down, and climb up after he passes. Just make sure to leave her a path. The other major threat is Catherine's lightning blasts. Whoever stands on the panels she targets is dead. Stop Katherine in her tracks the instant you see these coming. If she's on a panel that's marked, better pray she moves fast. This can be bad if she's stuck, but if not, having Vincent hurry on will usually get her to follow. Fair warning: getting a gold here is tough. Real tough. You have two choices from the start; right or left. Head left, and make sure you get the coins along the way. At the ninth chain, you'll climb up past a crumbling block. It'll hold up until Katherine passes it. Continue to the left to grab two more coins, then move the block at the far left over to the right, suspended on the gap. This makes a route for both to use. On the next level, pull the leftmost block out, then climb, grabbing the coin pile along the way. At 17 Chain, go back down the right for the coin you missed, then pull a block from the middle to continue up. Two steps higher, pull the second from the left block out, to climb up and to the right. Use the solid blocks to head upward, but make sure to wait for Katherine. She should have an easy route to follow, but she is slower than Vincent. Catherine will start laughing, meaning that's a sign it's about to get real. Don't be afraid to draw a chain out while waiting for Katherine to catch up. If you look close, there's another coin just above on the tower to the left; it arrives when the next array of blocks come down from above. These aren't easy to get to, especially since Catherine starts bringing the rain right about now. How easy or difficult this is depends on chance; namely where the bolts hit. Once you're at 19 chain, pull the second block from the left out, and move it past the far left edge. Pull out the one to the right, creating a base of two at the far left. Do the same thing two steps higher, keeping a base to the far left. Katherine should have room to move up and to the right, giving you time to climb from here to get the first set of coins; by pulling back to make a backward leading stair. Hurry back; Katherine's waiting. Once you have the coins(24 chain), head back down to help Katherine up, if necessary. You may have to knock her out of your way, but she'll follow quick. Continue up to the right along the solid block stair. At 25 chain, you'll want to build a stair leading up and to the far right, ensuring Katherine has room to follow. Pull a block out, pull one from above it, then pull the bottom one out to the left for the route up. Once at 28 chain, pull the middle of the three out, then move that to the left. Climb up from here to grab more coins, then push the set of blocks over until you can climb down into the gap. Use this route to grab the coins you missed from before. Catherine should be just under you, so be quick. If you hurry back, you should be able to build a stair leading up from the right, only a little larger, getting you to the 34 chain mark. From here, pull out one block to climb higher. Make sure it's one over from the right, so Katherine can follow. Move to the far right before pulling a block out, otherwise you block Katherine's path. Make a stair leading up and to the right, which leads to a 28 chain. Pull the leftmost block out, then climb and continue left. At 31, pull the block out above the crumbling block, and head up, then right. Katherine should still have a path to follow. At 36, pull out the left one to lead to the long plane with four blocks. Make sure to head down to the left for two more coins before creating a step upward. Proceeding from here depends on how Katherine responds. Try to go along with where she dodges. I recommend moving to the right. It's mostly easy to proceed here. At 44 or so, pull out the rightmost block, and head up and around to the left. Be on your guard for more lightning around here. There's an easy route into the background and up to the next area... where spikes are waiting. At 50 chain, pull one block out, and climb up to the spikes, then up and to the right on the next safe area. The good thing about the spikes? They're electric proof. Use this to your advantage if you can, but always make sure Vincent sets off any spikes he can. Katherine can and will get skewered carelessly if you let her. Head up and to the right, then move along to the left. You'll see the start of a heavy stair. One block pull in the center, and you'll be there. The worst is, believe it or not, over from here. Just don't let Katherine out of your sight. Let her keep up with Vincent, and you're done. Don't let your guard down, either. Catherine will still be throwing bolts, and bad timing paired with carelessness can ruin everything. Reach the top with all the coins and a perfect, and bam: Gold. (Perfection is mandatory. You need ALL the coins.) Remember, the difficulty of this stage varies wildly based on how much Cathy's lightning hates you. A random fragile block in a bad spot can easily screw you. Enjoy the moment after this, you dang sure earned it. The nightmare isn't over yet... but the dawn approaches. ====================================================== D9. The Empireo [BGM - Bizet - L'Arlesienne, Second Suite - Farandole] ====================================================== Welcome to hell. Now the nightmares are kicked up to high-octane. This is the real endgame. If you've made it this far, you know who's behind it all. Now you just have to survive, and prove Vincent's lovelife is worth fighting for... and maybe even dying for. Note: the choices here between stages do NOT affect alignment at all. They determine the ending within the boundaries of your alignment up until now. Choose carefully. ************************************** D9a. Area 1 ************************************** The mastermind will be mocking you all the way along. Ignore him. Climb the stairs to the left, then do the same to the right. Hurry past the waiting berserker sheep. He'll follow you to the next area. Once you hit 10 chain, drop down and shimmy to the left. Get the coins and the Bible in the alcoves, then zap those fools. If you're quick enough, you can even get past them and save it. Just don't let them get the two coins above you before Vincent. You can pull the spring out if you want, but it won't do much good. Walking gets you there just as quick. Yes, a checkpoint, already! Ignore it if you're going for gold. You'll see the stage separates into separate towers. Focus on heading up to the right for now. Once you climb twice, you'll notice the red curtained blocks. Step on these with caution. They are RANDOM BLOCKS. They change to anything on impact, including (but not limited to!) ice and spike blocks. Yes, they're nasty. Good rule of thumb regarding these: never stand on them. Walk over them and continue past. If it's a spike, you're dead if you stop. The only other threats are ice(if it's on an edge), or fragiles, if you have limited moves. If it's a moving block, stepping on it stops it dead. If you're going for gold, expect to be doing a lot of tower hopping. There's plenty of room to improv here, and getting up isn't hard at all, if the randoms are nice to you. Even getting all the coins is doable without much effort. A helpful trick is using blocks to bridge the gaps, then dropping and shimmying across them to climb up onto the next tower over. Now doing it and keeping a chain intact, with all these Berserkers out for your blood? That takes effort. You can stick to the right tower until 24 Chain. From there, climb up two levels to get a coin on top of an FB. Then head back down, pull a block out, and head to the center tower. Climb up using one of these blocks to get more coins. Then move that block over to the left to get to the coins there. By bridging the gap, you can shimmy over to the left tower. Then climb up as you were doing on the right side. Grab the block power up here. Pull a block out, and move it to the right to reach the center tower again. Climb up from here. You'll see a bible to the left, but you can ignore it. At 34 chain, pull a block out to climb up for more coins at the center. At 36, head to the left tower, using the shimmy trick. You can climb up normally from here, just be careful of the RBs. Once you hit 40 chain, head back to the center tower by bridging the gap. It gets normal again from here. Well, almost. Pull out two blocks from the base, and move them to the right to bridge the gap. From here, pull from the center, and build a stair up to the left. You should have plenty room to reach the top of this section. Watch the spikes! There's two coins on each end. The left one is on spikes, beware. The bell begins chiming here, just in time for a nasty obstacle. You'll see a base of four blocks in the center, with a gap of two on either side, and a solid wall encasing it, topped by four more blocks. *BBBB* * BB * * BB * This on its own isn't a major hindrance, but when you factor in that it connects to another nastier obstacle above it, it becomes vile. Although tempting, don't waste that power-up yet. Pull out both blocks from the base. Then climb up and pull out the two above it. Head back down, and pull the lower right block out to the right, using that to climb onto the top of the mini tower you created. From here, pull out the next two, making the tower higher. Then head back down to the right, you have room to extend the stair and head back up again. Once on top of here, shimmy down and over to get the coins on both sides, then pull a block out to reach the next tier (50 chain). Hope you saved that block, because you'll be needing it soon. This nasty segment is almost impossible to get through on time without a power-up. Without one, you'll be relying mostly on chance, and lots of wasted time. Pull out the right block, then push it over. Then push the left one that keeps the wall up into the background. It'll collapse. Pull out another block and use it to climb up to the right, and you'll be on a floor that's one block shy of reaching the goal. Throw your block here, climb up to the left, and it's over. One down, five to go! ************************************** D9a. Area 2 ************************************** This is a strange area. It can either be extremely easy, or near impossible, based on luck. Half the blocks here move on their own. If they like you, you'll have an easy route. If they hate you, making any progress becomes a nightmarish feat. You'll also find a few Crimson Berserker Sheep here, so be wary. One false move and they'll splatter Vincent all over the place. There's also a few vortex blocks, so try to shove them away the moment you see them. If you get rid of them fast, they won't pose a major threat. The start might feel similar to World 7's nastiness, but it's not as bad. First head right. Might want to pull and kill the moving block along the way. It's fun! Once you're at 4 Chain, pull the two at the far left out, and pull the random from the top. Push that to the right, then climb up and over to the next level. Once here, pull the left block out, move that over, and you have a path to the solid block at the left, which leads to a spring on the right. This bounces you up to a tier much higher up. Be careful climbing up, there's a random waiting. You can just not climb up, and shimmy to the back to avoid it. Run to the back, and shimmy around the diagonal formation to get all the coins. Then fall off from the left or right to land on a spring, and bounce up to the next area. Here's where it gets weird. Almost all of this wall(the parts that count anyway) consist of moving blocks. It should already be moving by the time you get to it, so there's no real clear way to proceed. Fortunately, it's a large wall, so there's room to improve. In one attempt, the blocks had practically made a stair for me. You can see it directly ahead if you get to the center mover fast enough. Then climb up to the right from there. At 22 chain, the wall breaks up a little, but you should still have enough of a base to climb up to the left. Be careful: the first Crimson Berserker is here. Hit him if you can, run if you can't. You can knock him down if you're fast. The narrow wall makes proceeding difficult, but doable. Also, there's some coins over to the right, so I recommend pulling from the left and building a bridge to reach them before proceeding. If you make it to the next tier safely, there's a bible off to the right. I recommend getting it if you can, since there's a pair of CBs up ahead who will make this area hell. Head into the middle for more coins, and create a base to climb up to the next area. This place is random city, but you have plenty of blocks to climb up with if you're persistent. Be warned: the stage here falls real fast, and will catch up in no time. Don't linger too long. Due to the random nature of this stage, there's no giving an exact strategy. Don't be afraid to retry if the blocks don't go your way. If they do, the route to the exit is pretty much given to you. Getting a gold is slightly trickier, since you'll need to get to the haphazardly placed coins and climb up without the moving blocks causing you to lose your chain. The final route to the goal is a giant checkerboard of movers and randoms. If you're lucky, you might find this the easiest section in the game. If not, be prepared to do a lot of adjusting and climbing around, but even then, there's a lot of room for improvisation. Try to step on as many of the randoms as you can, and never step on the randoms without a clear route to get off it, in case it's a spike or an ice block. Gold is no easy feat, more due to keeping a chain than in terms of coins. Keeping on the move is tricky, but doable, especially if the moving blocks make a path for you. ************************************** D9c. Area 3 ************************************** Weather's getting nasty, isn't it? Only two (non-boss) stages to go, for whatever that helps. Head straight back from the start. Once you're at the end of the solid stairs, you'll see the path branches. I prefer the left. Climb onto the three there, and pull the leftmost two out. Then backtrack, pull one out from below, and create a base of three by pulling one above out. Climb back onto the second tier(which now should be three strong), and make a new base of two, ideally from the right so the left block doesn't fall. Pull out the middle block, then move it over to the far left. You can then climb up, pull a block forward, and backtrack to climb up to the top of this tower. Keep heading up until you hit 14 chain. The towers are still separated, but with better bases. However, there's a few crazy block formations, and a CBS waiting off to the upper right. Pull two blocks out, and move them off to the left, so that one is hanging off the left of the tower. From here, pull a right block out, giving a stair to the top of the protruding blocks, and a solid block item. Pull one block out here, move it to the far right, and pull out one next to it, so you have a base of two at the right. Climb onto this base, pull the left block out, and move it over. This creates another two-base at the left. One's a random, so be careful with it. Pull a block from the right and move it over, creating a bridge to a bible item. It's better to keep the throw block, but you won't need it. Push the bible block over to bridge the gap and get some coins from the right. Pull a block out here, and move the two blocks over, giving you a base from which to continue up to the left. Before making a stair, zap the CBS if you took the bible. If not, lure him down and whack him off the tower. Once you reach the top here(23 chain), pull out the left block, move it to the right, and pull out the one to the left to make another two-base. Pull another at the left above it, and you finally reach a checkpoint. There's some coins on the right side of the tower, so you may want to take a delay to bridge the gap and go get them. Either way, continue up to the left. Make a base of two, then take a block from above them at the left and move it to the right. This gives a stair that leads up to more spacious area, but there's also a detonator block here. Pull the random block out to the right, then hurry over it and up the newly formed stairs to get further up. This should put you at 39 chain. Make a stair leading left, but beware the random base. You can easily get spiked if you walk over and start pulling blindly. A nasty formation shows up here. Lots of spikes lining a gap in the center, and a berserker at the far right. You can easily proceed past this by moving them over, and bridging the gap to climb up higher. Beware the CBs; there's two waiting here. The next area is a haphazard nightmare. Ice, solids, randoms, (which can mean movers), even vortex blocks here and there. It's not quite that difficult, just very tricky. Again, it's difficult to provide precise strategy here. Just keep on climbing up using the strategies you've (hopefully) learned along the way, and you should make it to the final section if you're persistent and careful. The last portion is actually very easy. Lots of spikes, but they're easily dealt with. Make a stair from the left to reach the third layer, then push them to the right. Move them far enough, and you create a stair to the second goal. (Yes, you have two!) As few coins as there are, you'll want them all and the max chain for the Gold award. None are hard to get if you backtrack; chain will be the toughest part. ************************************** D9d. Area 4 ************************************** Up until 12 Chain, all you have to do is run. Well and pull one block out at 10 chain(use the center one). Run past the Crimsons, and you're already at the first checkpoint. (Talk about inconsistent spacing.) Then you'll see a tower with a base of three, extending out to four then five blocks. Pull out the right two, then the right one above them to climb to the third tier. From here, drop and shimmy to move around to the left; after moving a block over to kill the mover. It will stop you otherwise. Once there, rush up to avoid getting spiked until you hit solid ground(18 chain). Backtrack to the left to get the Bible, then continue up by pulling out the middle block. The first thing you step on is a detonator, so don't linger here. Climb to the upper right as high as you can go, then pull the left block over by one. Drop and shimmy into the opening, then move the line over by two. Climb onto that. From here, pull out the far left block for a route up. Use the bible here, but don't wait until you're next to the Crimson. He can kill you even if you kill him first. At 14 chain, you'll find a mover is in the base here. Kill it if it came forward, then use it to climb up, otherwise pick another block. This area here is another 'depends on the movers' section. If they're nice to you, you can easily continue up, otherwise expect to do some adjusting. Either way, it shouldn't take long. Once at 22, pull the rightmost block out and towards the center, then use that to get two floors higher. More movers are here, but there's only two. Get around them and it's a clear path to 27. Make sure you get the stray coins along the way, they're free points. At 30 chain, pull out the spike in the middle, then head up to 32. Another Crimson's waiting above. Either lure him down and whack him, or carefully proceed around him. At 36, things finally get weird. The tower starts building up-left in an inverted stairway. Pull from the middle and head up, but beware the vortex block. You'll be able to drop and shimmy around to a stair leading from left to right. Push the top block over, then the one under it to make a route further up. This gives you a clear route to the next section, which has a block power-up in an alcove, but above two randoms. Go for it, but be careful. Once you have it, go back one step to the right, and make a route from here. The far left has too many obstacles. Once you're two steps higher, drop and shimmy to the right. There's a fragile block here that can cause a large segment of the right to fall away, so be careful if you want all those coins! Shimmy before stepping on it to collect them all, then continue by using the left stair before the vortex at the center. (You can let the right tower fall, missing ONE coin will still get you a gold.) Climb around it from the right, and you'll set off a detonator. Ignore it and continue to the left, you'll be out of its way before it goes off. There's two Crimsons at 58 and 59 chain, respectively. Let them come to you, then knock them down, fast. Once they're out of the way, head up to 60 and make a nice solid base of five blocks from the left. (There's an oddball coin at the right foreground, you can retrieve it by going out of your way and moving a block out and over to the right.) Once the twins are gone, it's an easy path by climbing up-left along the wall. Don't let your guard down; there's quite a few randoms, and the Crimsons can catch up very fast. After this, there's literally a wall of randoms; with solids sprinkled among them. As usual, this can be a cinch, or a nightmare. More often, it's easy, as long as there aren't Movers screwing you up. Pull two out from the base, and one out from above them. You'll have to move these to the right to get to a third and make a stair to the next level, which is easy enough, as long as you don't get hit with random movers or fragiles. After this, you have to pull out one block to get one floor higher. Then there's a free stair to the goal, narrowing leftward, filled with lots of free coins. Almost too easy... Make sure you get all the coins. They're there, after all. Congratulations, that was the very last puzzle stage. Nothing left but bosses, now; in form of the nastiest levels yet. For Gold, max chain, with nearly every coin. (100 chain on the dot.) I got Gold with all but one coin pile(the one on the crumbling tower). ********************************************************************** D9e. Boss - THOMAS MUTTON [BGM - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs] ********************************************************************** The director has revealed himself. So to speak. (Nani-so, Boom!) This freaky-eyed lunatic is packing heat, so watch his aim. The laser sight will trace Vincent's movements, and destroys one block on impact; and possibly Vincent, too, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fortunately, you can easily lure the shots to where you want them. He'll also kick the tower at random. This can both disorient Vincent, AND kill him if you happen to be on the sides of blocks and he kicks where Vincent's hanging on. Also, being above a ledge is no guarantee of safety. Thomas can and will kick above a layer of blocks and to the wall Vincent's at, and flatten him easily. Up until 15 chain, it's a very standard climb, aside from a few stray coins; you can get these by shimmying over to them, but do so carefully. The first set is off to the left, easily gotten by pulling a block out, dropping, and shimmy over to it. Shortly afterward, Thomas hits the gavel, and all the special blocks change. For example, they can all become detonators(bad), spikes(decent), or fragiles(real bad). Be warned, there's also a time freeze when he hits the gavel. If this happens and you just walked onto a spike, it won't give you time to move; you die. At 19 chain, pull one block and move it left to continue into the alcove, then do the reverse at 21. Shortly afterward, the first checkpoint waits, and then Thomas will start busting caps. Be careful, he'll get at least two shots off, sometimes three. The tower starts widening, but the downside is that the gunfire can easily lay waste to the tower's structure by dropping huge portions, especially if you set off a bunch of detonator random blocks. The camera zooms far out when he fires his gun, so you can predict his trail, but be careful about moving carelessly; it's not as easy to see where Vincent's going with the zoom out in effect. It'll zoom back in after Thomas fires his shots. (This also causes mad slow down.) For the most part, this level is very straight forward. Giving precise strategies is difficult, since the level's easiness or difficulty depends on how much Thomas hates you. He can easily ruin a great run by shooting blocks that make proceeding easier, or worse, turning things around by making everything fragile, detonators, or an abrupt spike under your feet. Be careful of the halfway point, when Thomas begins kicking and shooting more. The tower will also start having more gaps in it, so you'll need to do a bit more moving around, but there's nothing even remotely difficult; at least it shouldn't be, as you've made it this far. The only tricky part of note is the very final section, a checkboard area with a few gaps. Fortunately, There's a convenient chime in the center. Pull the stair blocks from the left over towards it, and use them to reach it. This makes all the blocks here solid, making the goal a giveaway. 105 chain max plus all coins for the Gold. Thomas will sit, watch, and mock you; ignore him and get out. You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you? ********************************************************************** D9e. FINAL BOSS - THE DANUZID [BGM - Chopin - Revolutionary Etude] ********************************************************************** Thomas reveals his true form, and the final nightmare is upon you. Freaky appearance aside, this fight is like a nasty amalgamation of the Shadow Vincent and the Thomas Mutton fights. He'll drop large segments of the tower at once if you can't move fast enough. If you see the blocks turn red, don't be standing on them. The laser obliterates everything on and below it. The crazy, if not fun, thing about this stage is that there's lots of ways to go about it. One being a speed run, the other being a 'get the coins' route. I'll start with the quick escape route, then add hints for getting the coins for Gold. You can do both, but it's much easier to use the first route if you just want to survive. You won't have time to backtrack to get the coins on that route, you'll have to do it the hard way if you want Gold. You can still use the hard way regardless, it just requires a bit more time. [Easy Route] The first half is basically a puzzle sequence. From the start, head to the far left and spring up. Do NOT climb here, just face back and Vincent will grab it automatically. If you pull yourself up, you'll be sucked (by a vortex). There's a block behind the vortex. Head into the background, pull it one to the right, then one to the foreground. Use it to climb onto the spring here. [Gold Route] You'll still be using the first spring to bounce up. However, don't bother with the second. Head to the right instead. Three blocks shy of the end, pull a block out. Use this base to head to the far right, and into the background. Pull another out and you'll find a spring. Pull this so it's adjacent to the spring. Bounce up then down to get the coins(don't forget to avoid the spikes they're on), then head up on the spring to the next area. [Routes Meet Here] After bouncing up, climb to the right and head over, then up. At 12 chain, you'll see a spring in the background. Pull it out, then over to the right. Bounce from here and you can grab onto a higher level at the right. Pull a block out and use it to climb one floor up(18 chain). Beware the spikes. You'll next find yourself in an alcove backed by solid blocks, with a 2x1 tower on the left, and a 2x2 on the right. Pull the right solid block out, creating a base of three. Climb onto it, and push the two at the right over by one. Climb onto them, and move the right block by itself over by one, then go to the other side and move it over one more. Climb onto the base of three here, then push the two blocks over by one. At this point, a pile of coins should become accessible; head back for them if you're interested. Climb onto the two afterward, and use the single block on top the same way; pull it right, then go to the other side and push it to the right again, creating a bridge to the next section. Proceed up from here, avoiding the spikes as necessary. Once at 29 Chain, you'll see a spring suspended above. Don't bother climbing up to it, it leads nowhere at the moment. Create a base of two just at the left of the spring, so you can pull it over by one to the left. (You may want to get the coins on the spring's floor before doing this.) This lets you spring up to a vortex. Face it but do NOT pull yourself up. Shimmy over to the right, and a spike platform. Jump right back down to avoid them, then go back up. Push the string of blocks at your left over by two, creating a route upward to the left. Be careful about that vortex. After climbing up, you can push a block over to the right to reach the solid area. Beware the other vortex, just continue up from the middle. Pull the third solid block from the left out, and use that to climb up to the next set of obstacles; a solid wall, for once. A base of two at the center will be enough. Pull a block above them, move it to the right, and use that to reach another block above it, and you have a stair to the checkpoint. At this point, the Danuzid's eyes will flash blue, and Vincent will be cursed. Be careful from here on to the end; whenever Vincent pulls a block while cursed, EVERY special block on the stage will change to something else, often something dangerous. Making matters worse, it's not a pattern like with Thomas' shifts. Every INDIVIDUAL can become something different, so nearly anything can happen from here on out. Once in a blue moon, you can get a random spring board, which will make this worlds easier, but don't bet on it. Aside from this nasty handicap, you get to enjoy a fairly normal path of progress for a little while. Pulling single blocks for steps will be enough to get you a long way up, all the way to 66 Chain. Another wall is waiting here. A nice base of three is plenty for this. Pull two above them, then another above that. Push it over by one, pull a block out, pull the lower one back, and the wall is scaled. Of course, this can be harder if the RNG hates you, and you get hit with an array of detonators, fragiles, or worse, movers, so be wary. You get another breather of easy progress for a few more floors, but there's spikes and such along the way, so it's nothing painless. At 72 chain, you'll need to make a small stair to reach the next area, then another for the next. A base of two will be plenty, since these walls are only three blocks high. At 82 chain, you'll see a stair leading up-right. Pull one block out to give yourself a means to use it, and hurry to the next area. This is where it starts getting wicked. Don't forget to get the trio of coins to the left, especially if you want the Gold. Danuzid will usually blast the area below Vincent at this point, so don't linger. The next floor is divided up into pillars, all topped by spikes, with single gaps in between. Create a base of two, then head into the middle gap. Pull the block out, trigger the spikes and jump off, then climb back on. Pull a block out here, then one more below it. This gives you a route to past this wall. From here on, you'll see a massive staircase appear. Follow it back until you hit a three-high wall. A simple L stair will get you up to another wall. Make an L at the left(or even just a single block followed by one above it, then pull the bottom out) to get past, then do a reverse L stair for the wall above it. And here, it gets brutal. Danuzid begins dropping METEORS. These are extremely difficult to predict. Their targeted area will flash red, with a second or two of warning, tops. Be on the constant move, and keep heading up. The blocks they hit turn into fragiles, but be more concerned with avoiding them. You'll usually be long gone before the fragiles become a threat. This is the home-stretch; a white-knuckle gauntlet of pain. Around 116-119 is the worst obstacle. A wall that's a good five-six blocks high. Keep your cool and create a solid foundation, and ascend this one like all the rest before it. After this, it's all luck. Once you pass this wall, every obstacle requires just a single block to proceed higher, with meteors falling everywhere, vortex blocks lining the path, and Vincent's curse messing things up at every turn. Easy, right? It is, as long as the RNG doesn't hate you. By 140, the tower narrows to three blocks. It gets real tense here, but you can survive if you keep moving and watch the skies, and the flooring. Once you get to 146, LOVE IS OVER! Or has it just begun? Sit back and enjoy what follows, you've earned the rest. This ends the story walkthrough for the JP version. I will update with the choices for alignment and endings, cell phone goodies, and assorted other special additions after I play through the English release. (I'll be doing that on Hard mode, as that's the only way I'll find it challenging after this.) Congratulations on surviving! And thanks for reading. =============================================== E. Bonus Content [BGM - Shoji Meguro, Battle On Stage] =============================================== The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them. -William Clayton If you've made it to these, congratulations. You've cleared Catherine's story mode. And now the nightmares REALLY begin. All the Bonus Stages are offline, but offer online leaderboards for score competitions. Babel and Colosseum both offer single or two-player modes. In 2P mode, player 1 uses Vincent, player 2 uses Katherine. The goal is to be the first one to reach the top of the stage. While Babel is designed with 1P in mind, Colosseum is 2P only. All the Colosseum stages are the levels from the main game, modified for two-player usage, usually with simple upward-climbing designs. I haven't tried those yet, but I will update when I manage to find a second victi-... I mean player to help me take on Colosseum's stages. =============================================== E1. Babel =============================================== All the bonus stages are generally randomized, but follow a basic pattern. Altar, for example, consists of primarily normal, crumbling, and solid blocks. Menhir is when spikes and other obstacles come into play, Obelisk starts including random blocks, and Axis Mundi uses truly frightening patterns, as well as including vortex blocks. The main incentive for playing them(aside from challenge) is more trophies, OST unlocks, and time attack mode, for competing against the online leaderboards. Competition on those is truly fierce, so good luck. I'll include the fastest known times(from the Japan boards) at the time of writing, followed by the PSN ID of the top scorer. If you know the 360 leaderboard equivalents, send me an email, and I'll update and credit the contributions. US times will be updated upon release. Due to the randomness of Altar's stages, I can not provide exact strategies, only hints on what to expect. Use the strategies you learned from the main story mode, and you can endure Babel. It won't be easy, though; make no mistake about that. Don't even think of touching Babel until you've pretty much mastered story mode. You'll need the skills, badly. Each stage has a different English intro, voiced by the awesome computer- generated Show program. Hopefully the US version keeps them intact. =============================================== E1a. Altar [BGM - Shoji Meguro, Battle on Stage (w/rap)] =============================================== To unlock Altar, clear the game and get one Gold Award on a stage. Altar's main obstacles are fragiles and heavys, and awkward patterns. You get a fair amount of room to work with, but expect lots of gaps from all the crumbling blocks. The goal is 150 steps. TOP TIME [JP, PSN] - 04:04 - MeRcY2010 =============================================== E1b. Menhir [BGM - Shoji Meguro, Up Up Up!] =============================================== To unlock Menhir, get three Gold Awards in story mode. Menhir is a lot tougher than Babel. The tower is extremely small, often only three blocks wide, and it adds spikes into the mix. If you can think fast and keep moving, it's not that difficult, but the luck of the draw is a huge factor. The goal is 186 steps. TOP TIME [JP, PSN] - 5:40 - sanisai ====================================== E1c. Obelisk [BGM - Shoji Meguro, Stage] ====================================== To unlock Obelisk, get five Gold Awards. Obelisk can either be the easiest, or your worst nightmare. The first third of the stage is the same as Altar and Menhir, but with more craziness. A wider base, but expect everything from spikes to randoms to ice and detonators will be messing you up. If you get past this, you'll notice the tower widens out to encompass almost the entire screen, and then some. This isn't as easy as it looks. Half the blocks here are randoms, with a lot of movers. You have a lot of room for improv, but a lot of room to mess up, too. The final stretch consists of a branching two-tower path, which practically forces you to move back and forth between them to keep climbing. Expect to retry Obelisk a lot of times before clearing it; a mammoth achievement. The goal is 214 blocks. Good luck. The best advice I can offer? Avoid bombs at all costs. They will ruin you in Obelisk. TOP TIME [JP, PSN] - 8:28 - ALC_CHR ====================================== E1d. Axis Mundi [BGM - Shoji Meguro, Pandemonium] ====================================== To unlock Axis Mundi, you must get a Gold Award on all nine stages. Axis Mundi is hell, plain and simple. Creepy music, creepy atmosphere. Most of the map consists of checkerboard patterns, and now there's vortex blocks. Lots of them. Axis Mundi is a trial by fire. If that wasn't bad enough, the stage falls extremely fast, so you better be on the move at all times. The goal is 279 blocks, a monumental obstacle indeed. Clear this, and you've pretty much mastered Catherine. See if you can clear it before I do. Godspeed. Also, you may find a special reward waiting for you... The goddess of fertility shines on those who aspire to reach the top. TOP TIME [JP, PSN] - 11:35 - ALC_CHR ====================================== E2. Colosseum ====================================== Colosseum is two-player fun, offline only. Each player controls a sheep; orange and blue respectively. (Apologies to Valve and GLaDOS.) These use the stages from the main game, with co-op/versus variants, though they use what you expect as obstacles; ice from the Quadrangle, Vortexes from the Cathedral, etc. (Empireo has been banned from tournaments due to the randoms and monster blocks, which, let's face it, is reasonable.) Since the awesome dudes at NORCAL INSTALL(www.twitch.tv/finestko) have made Catherine get crazy hype as the best competitive game EVER, I'll soon be working on a special FAQ for you awesome versus players, with the best sheep-slaying strategies you could ever want. See you at EVO! ====================================== E3. Rapunzel ====================================== -Rapunzel, Rapunzel; in the night, why do you weep? -My dear prince, it is because I dream of naught but sheep. Rapunzel is the arcade game playable in the Stray Sheep bar; take on the role of a daring Prince with blind devotion to saving his beloved from the witch's tower. Rapunzel consists of 64 stages of strict puzzle-solving madness. There are no enemies or falling blocks. Just solve the puzzles, reach the goal, and rescue Rapunzel from her tower. This mini-game includes a rewind feature, accessible by pressing Select, up to nine times, regardless of difficulty. You'll need it. The other catch is that the Prince has limited 'power'; he can only make so many moves before he gives up, causing a game over. This also resets your points, so be careful if you plan on beating the high score. At 75,000 points, that's no easy feat. There might even be incentive for rescuing this damsel in distress. Once you clear the 64, more truths about the main story are unveiled, as well as even more nightmarish puzzles to solve becoming unlocked, bringing the total to 128 stages of pain. Considering the depth and breadth to Rapunzel, I will create a separate guide for this in the future, unless someone beats me to it. I wish them luck. I've made it as far as 51 thus far. Rapunzel is not for the feint of heart. [Scoring Items] Bow - 300 points Bouquet - 600 points Wreath - 1000 points ====================================== E4. Jukebox Content ====================================== All songs composed by Shoji Meguro, except where noted. Following the song title is the game the song originated from. Props to XGsFei for contributing the full list. He got the Platinum, so you know he earned them. Stalked In The Dark - Catherine It's A Golden Show - Catherine Stray Sheep - Catherine R30's Melancholy - Catherine Also Sprach Brooks - Catherine Piano Sonata No. 2, Funeral March, 3rd Movement [Chopin] - Catherine Hitsujigamine [Sheep on the Mountain's Peak] - Catherine Jouji Washington - Catherine Good Morning, New Day - Catherine Lamb Game Between Male and Female - Catherine YO - Catherine Roux - Catherine An Die Freude - Catherine Rapunzel - Catherine Your Affection - Persona 4 Heaven - Persona 4 Alone - Persona 4 Backside of the TV - Persona 4 Signs of Love - Persona 4 SMILE - Persona 4 Soul Phrase - Persona 3 Portable Songs of Life - Persona 3 Portable A Way Of Life - Persona 3 Portable Sun - Persona 3 Portable Wiping All Out - Persona 3 Portable Persona 3 FES OP - Persona 3 FES Brand New Days - Persona 3 Blind Alley - Persona 3 Heartful Cry - Persona 3 Burn My Dread - Persona 3 Iwatodai Dorm - Persona 3 Paulownia Mall - Persona 3 Memories of the City - Persona 3 This Strange Sensation - Persona 3 Om Mani Padme Hm - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Amarvati - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Inherent Will - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Battle For Survival - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Muladhara - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Svadisthana - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Mad Mart - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Hunting - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner River of Samsara - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Configuration - Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner World Map - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne World Map ~Real World~ - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Reincarnation - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Title Loop - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Staff Roll - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne ====================================== E5. Alignment Questions ====================================== ====================================== E5a. Confessional Q&A ====================================== After each level, the person in the confession booth will ask a question. The answers aren't always cut and dry; some that seem like Chaos answers might be Law, and vice versa. The questions here are always randomly generated, but the results of the answers remain the same. These will be updated regularly, as there are a LOT of them. The ones I've discovered so far follow, with each choice and the alignment shift it leads to. Is marriage the beginning or end of life? -Beginning (Law) -End (Chaos) Are romance and marriage just annoyances? -I hate it (Chaos) -I wuv it! (Law) What do you think of actors in sex scenes? -Lucky! (Chaos) -It's just a job (Law) Are all men stupid? -Yes (Chaos) -Not ALL men (Law) You wake up in the morning as the opposite gender. What's the first thing you do? -Head to the hospital (Law) -Head to the shower room (Chaos) Do you buy according to fads? -Yes (Chaos) -No (Law) Your lover's into baby play. What would you do? -I'll try anything once (Law) -That's a dealbreaker (Chaos) If you were to propose to your loved one, how would you do it? -Just let it happen (Chaos) -It has to be special (Law) How do you make a decision? -From your gut. (Chaos) -With logic. (Law) If you had a child, would you want them to be like you? -As much as possible (Law) -One of me is enough (Chaos) Will you use any means, no matter how dirty, to get through a tight situation? -Of course (Chaos) -That's not truly winning (Law) Which style of underwear makes a man more attractive? -Briefs (Law) -Boxers (Chaos) Is it easier to love, or be loved? -To love (Chaos) -To be loved (Law) Would you date someone who's already married? -All's fair in love and war (Chaos) -I don't cheat (Law) =============================================== E5b. Story Alignment Questions =============================================== These questions are posed by NPCs in the story. Some occur at the bar, others in the nightmare, some even through texts sent by Catherine&Katherine. The text responses aren't easily measured in terms of their outcome, as they consist of several possible of dialogue, so try to make your overall response more in one direction than another if you want that particular result. The NPC who initiates the conversation/text is shown, followed by choices that lead to a result. Keep in mind that NPC conversations can be easily missed if you let them leave the bar befor talking to them, so always talk to every NPC every day, in order of appearance in the bar. The ones who arrive first leave first. Vincent's friends should take priority. Also, occasionally Vincent will receive phone calls from the K/Catherines, depending on the texts sent out. If a text makes one of the girls particularly happy, he may get a call at the bar which leads to further dialogue and possibly more alignment shift chances. If marked with a ***, this is crucial for saving an NPC who might otherwise die. The NPCs you have to save are Morgan(Police Sheep), Archie(Long-haired Sheep), Justin (Glasses Sheep), Todd(Regent-Haired Sheep), and Daniel(Sunglasses Sheep). Both daytime and nighttime conversations are required to persuade them to not give up. If they turn up on the news in the bar, it's too late for them; the nightmare claimed another victim. You must save them all for their respective achievements/trophies, and the 'solve everyone's problem' reward. NOTE: This is a work in progress. Nighttime section is complete. When in doubt, try to tell the NPC what would encourage them the most. But sometimes, just what that is can be hard to tell.. ====================================== Day 2 ====================================== (Orlando) -It wasn't like that! - Law -If she doesn't find out... - Chaos (Justin) -Maybe... -Neutral*** -I don't know... -Neutral (Todd/Archie) -Maybe... -Neutral*** -I don't think so... -Neutral (Boss) -Nothing intentional... -Law -I can't remember... - Chaos ====================================== Night 2 ====================================== [2-1] (Sheep) Ahhhh! I don't want to die! -Calm down! -Law *** -Shut up! -Chaos (Regent Sheep) You want me to teach you the technique I found? -Yes! Tell me! -Neutral*** -No, thanks. -Neutral [Answer A leads to] How was that? Betcha didn't know. -I knew... -Neutral -I didn't know... -Neutral*** [2-2] (Sheep) I need to make sure I survive! -I understand, but... -Chaos -That's not right! -Law*** (Regent Sheep) You survived because of the teachings I found, huh? -Teach me something else! -Neutral*** -See you later! -Neutral [Answer A leads to] You knew that!? -Yeah! -Neutral -No... -Neutral*** ====================================== Day 3 ====================================== (Orlando) -I know, but... -Law -Wait a minute... -Chaos (Katherine) Our life's not where we thought it'd be. -I guess... -Chaos -I need some sort of direction. -Law (Catherine) You should listen to it. -That's true... -Chaos -That's not what grown-ups do. -Law (Jonny) -That's true... -Chaos -I need some sort of direction. -Law (Justin) -Men, of course. -Neutral*** -Women, I think... -Neutral (Todd/Archie) -Lots of money. -Neutral*** -Power. -Law -A harem? -Chaos (Daniel/Anna) -I think so too... -Neutral*** -Sorry, I don't remember. -Neutral (Lindsay/Martha) -I write it down. -Law -I remember it. -Chaos ====================================== Night 3 ====================================== [3-1] (Sheep) I can't take it anymore! -I know, but... (Chaos) -Get ahold of yourself! (Law) (Sheep w/ Glasses) It's the truth. -I'll join you. -Neutral*** -I'm in a hurry... -Neutral (Regent Sheep) I've a technique for you. -Please tell me. -Neutral*** -Sorry, I'm in a hurry. -Neutral (Sunglasses Sheep) Just get me out of here! -I'm clueless, too! -Neutral*** -I'm looking out for myself! -Chaos [3-2] (Sheep) I don't want to go any higher! -What do you mean, "terrible"? -Neutral*** -Just keep moving. -Neutral (Sheep w/ Glasses) Want to trade techniques? I'll join you. -Neutral*** I'm in a hurry... --Neutral ====================================== Day 4 ====================================== (Archie) Do I look like a good person? -Of course. -Neutral*** -Sorry, but no. -Neutral So you'd pull back if the woman of your dreams hit on you? -Of course. -Law*** -I think I failed... -Chaos (Daniel) -Forget about it. -Law*** -It was never a competition.-Chaos (Lindsay/Martha) -Definitely golf. -Chaos -I'd say baseball. -Law ====================================== Night 4 ====================================== (Police Sheep) Do I know you from somewhere? -I think so... -Neutral*** -You look like a sheep... -Neutral (Sheep) I'M SORRY! -Come on, get a hold of yourself! -Law -I get it... I get it... -Chaos (Long-Haired Sheep) -Join the conversation -Neutral*** -Don't join -Neutral ====================================== Day 5 ====================================== (Jonny) Why are you even doubting her? -I believe in her... -Law -Who knows what's actually happening? -Chaos Isn't everyone like that? -I never give up. -Law -I always quit in the middle. -Chaos (Justin) It's the truth. -What's done is done. -Law*** -It's not your fault. -Chaos*** (Morgan) -If I have to choose, yes. -Law -No. -Chaos (Lindsay/Martha) Do you see yourself as a cat? -Woof. -Law -Meow. -Chaos ====================================== Night 5 ====================================== [5-1] (Sheep w/ Glasses) There might be special techniques. -Teach me a technique! -Neutral*** -Be careful! -Neutral (Regent Sheep) She wants revenge... -Who's the witch? -Neutral -The pregnancy was a lie? -Neutral*** (Sunglasses Sheep) I won't join them. -By the way, there's this technique... -Neutral*** -Good luck by yourself, then! -Neutral [5-2] (Regent Sheep) I guess I can't help if I'm worthless... -That's your dad's fault! -Law*** -...That's part of the past. (Sunglasses Sheep) Even if it makes you unhappy? -As long as it makes her happy. -Law (Police Sheep) Well, you got any new techniques to give me? -Let's work together. -Neutral*** -Sorry. -Neutral ====================================== Day 6 ====================================== (Justin Dialogue) She's not going to tell him that he isn't... it's the truth. -That's terrible. -Chaos -Is there a reason? -Law*** (Lindsay/Martha) -I hate politics. -Law -I hate economics. -Chaos (Anna) [All responses neutral] ====================================== Night 6 ====================================== [6-1] (Sheep) How have you been answering them? -I'd been answering honestly. -Chaos*** -I pick what sounds right. -Law (Sheep w/ Glasses) We've all got to keep climbing. -Let's do it. -Neutral*** -Sorry, I'm in a hurry. -Neutral [6-2] (Police Sheep) You can only fall to the level of your training. -What kind of training? -Neutral*** -I'll be going ahead! -Neutral (Sheep w/ Glasses) It's the truth. -That's a lot! -Law*** -Only that many? -Chaos [6-3] (Long-Haired Sheep) Maybe it's better just to die here... -Maybe you're right... -Neutral -Come on, don't think like that! -Neutral*** (Sunglasses Sheep) Why don't we exchange some information? -Join the meeting -Neutral*** -Don't join -Neutral (Police Sheep) Then I don't mind... -Maybe you're right... -Neutral -Are you really going to give up here? -Neutral*** ====================================== Day 7 ====================================== (Katherine Text, Inquiry) -[Be reassuring] (Law) -[Blow her off] (Chaos) (Catherine Text, Movie Date) -[Not interested] (Law) -[Curious] (Chaos) (Leads to Catherine Phone Call) ====================================== Night 7 ====================================== (Sheep w/ Glasses) Let's talk about techniques. -Let's work together. -Neutral*** -I'm in a hurry. -Neutral (Sheep w/ Sunglasses) I don't want true freedom... -Just keep climbing and hope. -Neutral -Don't give up! Follow me! -Neutral*** =============================================== E5c. The Road to Freedom =============================================== These are the questions posed in Empireo. The questions asked here don't affect alignment, they determine which ending you get. There are three possible paths, depending on which alignment you have at this point. Full/High Chaos (Left): Catherine Path Neutrality(Middle Zone): Freedom Path Full/High Law (Right): Katherine Path Once set on a path(good luck maintaining neutrality for Freedom), the questions will determine what ending you get on that path. The questions are basically designed to see how devoted you are to your choices. If you prove you really want what you've worked for, you'll get the best ending. A lack of conviction will lead to lesser endings. There are eight total. Chaos: True, Good, Bad Neutrality: True, Good Law: True, Good, Bad Without going into spoilers, the True will offer the most enjoyable resolution. Especially for Catherine. You won't be disappointed. If you want all eight achievements/endings, what I recommend doing is keeping a save at the end of Day 8, or at the first landing of Day 9. With one save for each alignment(C/N/L), you just need to reload them, and only play through Empireo eight(!) times to see all the endings, using the different possible paths to see the different results. To stray away from True in that path, just go against the principles that you've stayed with until then. A slight misstep will mean the 'Good' ending for L/C, and total deviation will mean Bad for them. There's only two possibilities for Neutral, so just screw up the second run totally for the bad version. Be warned: if you're heavily left or right, and stray wildly from both paths, you'll likely get sacked with a Freedom ending. Without further adieu, the questions, and what they lead to: QUESTION 1: Are you prepared to risk your life to get back with a former lover? YES / NO (It's been said this does not affect the endings, but if you want the K/C endings, how could you NOT say Yes?) QUESTION 2: Do you wish for a peaceful life? YES - points for Katherine True NO - points for Catherine True, Neutral QUESTION 3: Do you wish for the excitement of chaos? YES - points for Catherine True NO - points for Katherine True, Neutral QUESTION 4: Are you prepared to live the rest of your life in the (*) that you wished for? [*The answer changes based on your answers to 2&3.) Stay devoted to what you chose, and you'll get the best ending for that path. Stray for the lesser result. ====================================== F. Trophies / Achievements ====================================== To marry is to half your rights and double your duties. -Arthur Schoenhauer Note that key Trophies unlock new songs in the Stray Sheep Jukebox. I'll update as I learn which trophies unlock which songs. THESE INCLUDE ENDING DETAILS. You have been warned. Special thanks to XGsFei from GameFAQs for translations and the 360 points! Platinum Trophy / 100 Pts. -Cheers to you!- : Acquire all Trophies/Achievements Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -The Nightmares Have Just Begun- : Clear Stage 1 Bronze Trophy / 5 Pts. -The Great Escape- : Clear Stage 2 Bronze Trophy / 5 Pts. -Let My Sheep Go- : Clear Stage 3 Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -No One Expects The...- : Clear Stage 4 Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Crossing The Courtyard- : Clear Stage 5 Bronze Trophy / 15 Pts. -What Time Is It?- : Clear Stage 6 Bronze Trophy / 15 Pts. -Path to the Altar- : Clear Stage 7 Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. -Making Legends- : Clear Stage 8 Silver Trophy / 20 Pts. -True Freedom- : Clear Stage 9 Bronze Trophy / 30 Pts. -Good Night Baby- : Get the Lovers bad ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Invincible Man- : Get the Affair bad ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Just Like Old Times- : Get the Lovers good ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Sleepless Night- : Get the Affair good ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Starting a New Life- : Get the Lovers True Ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Lord of the Night- : Get the Affair True Ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Do as you Please- : Get the Freedom normal ending Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -End of your Travels- : Get the Freedom True Ending Gold Trophy / 100 Pts. -Dreams Come True- : View all endings Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Read All About It!- : Solve Justin's problem Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -A New Look- : Solve Todd's problem Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Mother Inferior- : Solve Archie's problem Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind- : Solve Daniel's problem Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -One Last Case- : Solve Morgan's problem Silver Trophy / 50 Pts. -Everyday Hero- : Solve everyone's problem Bronze Trophy / 5 Pts. -Play It Again, Vince...- : Change the song in the jukebox Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. -Text Junkie- : Send 20 text messages Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Welcome to the Colosseum- : Beat the game Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Push It To The Limit- : Move five blocks at once Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Have An Ice Day- : Push an ice block over five blocks Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. -Bomberlamb- : Detonate five blocks at once Silver Trophy / 30 Pts. -I can fly!- : Use a spring 3 consecutive times Silver Trophy / 30 Pts. -Take Your Time- : Move a solid block 10 consecutive times Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Sake Sensei- : Hear all the trivia about Sake Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Beer Baron- : Hear all the trivia about Beer Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Cocktail Connoisseur- : Hear all the trivia about Cocktails Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Whiskey Wiseman- : Hear all the trivia about Whiskey Bronze Trophy / 5 Pts. -You Don't Have To Go Home...- : Continue to stay at the bar(Begin Stage 9). Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Babel's Calling- : Earn 1 gold prize on Normal Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Conquered Altar!- : Clear the Altar Bonus Stage Bronze Trophy / 15 Pts. -3 Star Man- : Earn 3 gold prizes on Normal Bronze Trophy / 15 Pts. -Conquered Menhir!- : Clear the Menhir bonus stage Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. -5 Star Man- : Earn 5 gold prizes on Normal Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. -Conquered Obelisk!- : Clear the Obelisk bonus stage Silver Trophy / 30 Pts. -Taking On The Gods- : All gold prizes on Normal Gold Trophy / 100 Pts. -Birth of a new God- : Clear the Axis Mundi bonus stage Gold Trophy / 100 Pts. -Brilliant Gold Man- : Earn all gold prizes on Hard Bronze Trophy / 10 Pts. -Past a Heap of Puzzles- : Clear 64 stages in Rapunzel Bronze Trophy / 20 Pts. - Riddle within a Riddle- : Discover the hidden Rapunzel Silver Trophy / 50 Pts. - Legendary Prince- : Discover the truth about Rapunzel The Three Gold Award Trophy unlocks Backside of the TV from Persona 4. The Clear Babel Trophy unlocks Sun from Persona 3 Portable. The Five Gold Award Trophy unlocks Hunting from Digital Devil Saga and World Map ~Before Transformation~ from SMT Nocturne. The Nine Gold Award Trophy unlocks Burn My Dread from Persona 3. Conquering Menhir unlocks Mass Destruction from Persona 3. Conquering Obelisk unlocks Battle For Survival from Digital Devil Saga 2. ====================================== G. Acknowledgements ====================================== And you don't seem the lying kind. A shame that I can read your mind. -Boa, Duvet -Thanks to GameFAQs for hosting. -The various GameFAQs forumers who contributed, namely MasterLL and XGsFei. -All the Catherine, Atlus, and SMT fans worldwide. -Atlus USA staff for taking a chance on the strangest Atlus JP project yet. -NorCal Install. [www.twitch.tv/finestko] BEST PILLOW FIGHTS EVER. Mufasa has to fall for Simba to rise! -The Catherine wikia, catherinethegame.wikia.com/wiki/Catherine_Wiki. You think this guide is exhaustive? That place is scary. If you can clear Rapunzel without going there, YOU ARE A GOD(/dess). -Troy Baker is an inspiration. It takes one awesome actor to be Snow, Eikichi, Vincent, and Kanji fricking Tatsumi. Keep on renovating! -Kotono Mitsuishi(Katherine), always Sailor Moon to me. Tsukini kawatte! -Michelle Ruff, because those are hard shoes to fill. -Laura Bailey gets props for being Gemini Sunrise. -Katsura Hashino, Shigenori Soejima, Shoji Meguro and Atlus for spearheading another crazy, amazing, one-of-a-kind product. Any new information, corrections, etc. can be mailed to me- [email protected] . Thanks to whoever sent in fixes, you know who you are. I'll update when possible/not lazy. Can't wait for Persona 5! Until next time.