FAQ - Guide for Sky Gunner

Sky Gunner FAQ v.82 (9/29/01) by Gene
---------------------------------------
Sky Gunner (PS2)
1 Player 
1 Disc (CD-ROM)
Genre: Shooting 
Memory: 280 KBytes

1)  Introduction
2)  Frequently Asked Questions
3)  How to play
     3.1)  At the Main Menu
     3.2)  Screen Layout
     3.3)  Controls
     3.4)  Game System
     3.5)  Scoring
4)  Story Mode
     4.1)  Femme Story
     4.2)  Ciel Story
     4.3)  Copain Story
     4.4)  Rival Story
     4.5)  Hardi Story
5)  Training Mode
6)  Character Info
     6.1)  The Gunners
     6.2)  The Boss Family
7)  Secrets
8)  Miscellaneous / Et Cetera


1) Introduction
---------------
This game is an original flight/shooting game for the Playstation 2.  It came 
out on September 27, 2001 for 5800yen, only in Japan.  It looks like a comic/
aniem between the action sequences.  The style is very cute.  It is based 
off 
of a fantasy world that seems to resemble Europe around the Industrial 
revolution.  Most of the names seem to be based off French, but in Japanese 
it's always hard to really tell!


2) Frequently Asked Questions
-----------------------------
Q) Can I play it without much knowledge of Japanese?
A) Well, it isn't that bad.  There is a lot of text in the game in Japanese.  
   The Story Mode plays like a comic between the action sequences.  So if 
you 
   want to just look at the pictures, you're fine.  The story isn't incredibly 
   interesting, so I don't think that you are missing much.  As for gameplay, 
   you don't need to know any Japanese.  Hopefully by reading this FAQ, you'll 
   be fine.

Q) What is the game like?
A) It is like an arcade flight simulator and shooter.  For example, flight 
is
   fairly easy to control, you don't have to land, etc.  Collision with 
objects
   does not cause damage.  The major task of the game is to shoot enemies 
with 
   your gun, not to control a real plane.  It is not like Panzer Dragoon, 
   because you actually control the movement of the aircraft, it is just much 
   simpler.

Q) Is the game any good?
A) Yes!  It received Silver ranking with reviews of 8,7,7,7 in Japanese 
Famitsu 
   magazine.  Famitsu PS gave it scores of 8,8,7,6.  And finally, Playstation 
   magazine gave it scores of 70,85,85,90.  I think that it is a good game, 
but
   I am really disappointed in the fact that slowdown still occurs!  
   Here are the game's good/bad points:
     + Fully animated intro sequence
     + Interesting characters
     + Battles are fun to play
     + Good scoring system
     + Interesting game mechanics
     + 5 different playable characters
     + Simple controls and arcade feel (not like real flight simulator)
     - Controls can still be very confusing at the start
     - Fairly short and easy to beat
     - Only one view to play from! (I'm dying for a cockpit view)
     - No upgradeable weapons
     - Slowdown occurs when too much happens onscreen!!


3) How to play
--------------
This section deals with how to play and control the game.

3.1) At the Main Menu
---------------------
At the main menu, you have the following options:
Story Mode
Training Mode
??????
??????
High Scores
??????
Options
Data / Load or Save

You will also see the playable characters, the total playing time, ?? at the
top of the screen.
At the bottom, you can see if vibration is on, control settings, volume 
settings, and ???

3.2) Screen Layout
------------------
The screen layout is as follows:
Your aircraft is always in the center of the screen.
You move your attack cursor (a clear square) around the screen.

In the top left, you see your current multiplier and score.
In the top right, you see your target and the other targets in the battle.

On the left side, there are two meters.  The Red one is Heat meter.  
 Beside it is your altimeter.

In the bottom right, there are several two circles.
Below the left circle, there is your Balance meter.
Beside the left circle, there is your aircraft's HPs and damage.
The right circle shows your current Optional Weapon and its ammo.

If you have targetted an enemy, there will be circle around them.
At the bottom of the circle, you will see your enemy's HP and damage.
On the right you will see LOCK ON, if you have your Optional Weapon locked 
on.
At the top, you will see the Optional Weapon you will receive after destroying
 your enemy.


3.3) Controls
-------------
This section deals with the control of the game.

The Basic Controls
------------------ 
The left analog or keypad controller is used for navigation of the aircraft.  
It is used to change the direction of the aircraft and move the attack cursor.
L1 - Change the Optional Weapon
L2 - not used
R1 - EX Action
R2 - Change to a target offscreen (All commands must be set on)
Square - Fire Machine Guns
Circle - Lock-on and Fire Optional Weapon
Triangle - Change Targets (onscreen or emergency)
X - Boost
Select - Skip to Action Sequence
Start - Pause and Save the game

Advanced Controls
-----------------
You can perform a Powerslide by quickly changing to the opposite direction 
quickly from the direction that you are travelling.  This is used for defense.
It is also used to rotate to face an enemy.

EX Action:  Every character has an EX Action by pressing the R1 button.  They
  are different depending on the character.
  Branche/Femme:  Active Turn.  Press the R1 button along with a direction 
to 
                  turn quickly in that direction.
  Avenir/Ciel:  Steam Brakes.  Press the R1 button to quickly brake.  Useful 
                for avoiding enemy missiles.
  Shubri/Copain:  Rolling.  Press the R1 button to roll.  Also useful for 
                  avoiding enemy missiles.
  Fantome/Rival:  ???
  Courage/Hardi:  ???

3.4) Game System
----------------
This section deals with the various mechanics of the game.

Game Over:  You have three continues and may save the game during any mission.
  If you re-load, you will start at the start of the chapter.

Views:  There are two different views, normal and behind view.

Targetting:  You can change targets in different ways.  If you drag your attack 
  cursor over a target and press triangle, you will change targets. If you 
  press the R2 button, you can scroll between all of the available targets 
in 
  the battle, including aerial and land-based ones, bosses and regular 
targets.
  If there is an emergency, you can change to the emergency targets by 
pressing
  the triangle button.  You will hear a siren sound and a dialog box will 
appear
  when there is an emergency.

Lock-On:  You must lock-on your Optional Weapon to fire it.  You must press 
the  
  Circle button and once you have locked-on, you may fire.  It is not an 
  automatic hit, if there is a structure blocking its path, it will not hit 
the
  target.

EX Action:  Every character has an EX Action by pressing the R1 button.  They
  are different depending on the character.
   Branche/Femme:  Active Turn.  Press the R1 button along with a direction 
to 
                   turn quickly in that direction.
   Avenir/Ciel:  Steam Brakes.  Press the R1 button to quickly brake.  Useful 
                 for avoiding enemy missiles.
   Shubri/Copain:  Rolling.  Press the R1 button to roll.  Also useful for 
                   avoiding enemy missiles.
   Fantome/Rival:  ???
   Courage/Hardi:  ???

Optional Weapons:  There are five optional weapons in the game.  They are 
  the weapons used best against bosses.  They inflict more damage than the
  regular machine guns, but you only have a limited number of them and 
increase
  your Heat meter.  You start   with a small amount at the start of each 
  chapter, but you receive more by defeating waves of enemy aircraft.  Each 
  character starts with three optional weapons out of the five: Fireworks, 
  Cross and Groundhog.  Others can be found during the game.

Overheating:  Once you fire an Optional Weapon or use your EX action, your 
Heat 
  meter will rise.  If it rises too high, you cannot fire, boost or use your 
EX 
  action.  You have to wait for it to cool down after a period of time.    

Losing Control:  If you are hit after losing your balance, you could begin 
to 
  crash.  You must press the buttons and move the joypad as quickly as possible 
  to recover.  If you do not recover in time, you will crash.

3.5) Scoring
------------
The scoring system for the game is quite advanced and also important to the 
game.  

Hit Bonus
-If you hit several targets at once, you will receive a bonus=#hits x score
-For example, 5 hits=5(1000x5)

Chain Bonus
-If you hit consecutive targets in a row, you will receive a chain bonus.
-You don't actually have to hit the others, it's like dominoes.
-The chain bonus multiplier increases exponentially.  For example, 
1,2,4,8,16..
-For example, 5 hits=1000x2 + 1000x4 + 1000x8 + 1000x16

Bonus Count 
-If you shoot an enemy, your bonus count increases
-As your bonus count increases, so does your score multiplier
-Your bonus count slowly decreases otherwise, as does your multiplier

Scoring Multiplier
-All your points are multipled by this multiplier

Clearing a Chapter
 There are several bonuses for clearing a chapter.
-Clear Bonus
-Event Bonus
-Enemy Bonus
-Battle Bonus
-There is a pentalty for the number of Optional Weapons used.

Game Clear / Ranking
-You will receive a rank after clearing the game


4) Story Mode
-------------
4.1) Femme Story
Chapter 1
 Boss: Gauche + Droite
 Clear Bonus +50000
 Event Bonus 
  ???  + 100000

Chapter 2
 Boss: Grandir
 Clear Bonus +100000
  ???? -50000
  ???? +400000

After the 2nd chapter, you receive a new engine 
Max speed +10%
Accel +15%
Temp Max +20%

Chapter 3
 Boss: Vanquer Sage
 Clear Bonus +150000
 Event Bonus
  ???? +300000
  ???? +200000
  ???? +1000000

4.2) Ciel Story
Chapter 1
 Boss: Gauche + Droite
 Clear Bonus +50000
 Event Bonus
  ???? +200000

Chapter 2
 Boss: Grandir
 Clear Bonus +100000
 Event Bonus
  ???? -50000
  ???? +400000
  ???? +400000
 
Chapter 3
 Boss: Fantome
 Clear Bonus +150000
 Event Bonus
  ???? +1500000

4.3) Copain Story

4.4) Rival Story

4.5) Hardi Story

5) Training Mode
----------------
This teaches you how to play the game.  It is in Japanese, but the controller
is displayed with the controls, so it is still useful.  You must choose your
character before starting the Training mode. 

Here are the Training Missions:
1) Navigation 
 Here you will learn how to navigate and boost.
 Fly through five rings to clear.

2) Basic shooting
 Here you will learn how to shoot the machine gun.
 Shoot 3 balloons to clear.

3) Losing Control and Powersliding
 Here you will learn to control your balance and powersliding.
 Avoid 4 missiles to clear.

4) Targetting
 Here you will learn to target enemies
 Target three enemies to clear.

5) Optional Weapon / Overheating 
 Here you will learn the controls of the Optional Weapons and Heat basics.
 Destroy 5 targets to clear.

6) Bonus Basics
 Here you will learn the difference between Chain and Hit Bonuses.
 Destroy 6 targets to clear.

7) EX Action 
 Here you will learn how to control your EX action.
 Destroy 4 targets to clear.

8) Final Mission
 Here you will leaern the rest of the game basics.


6) Character Info
-----------------
There are three groups of characters in the game.  There are the gunners, 
the 
Boss family and ?????.

6.1) The Gunners
----------------
There are four members of the Gunners.  They are Copain, Ciel, Femme and Rival.
The main leader of the Gunners is Hardi.  Rival becomes a member of the 
Gunners later on.

Character: Femme
Ship: Branche
Difficulty: Easy
Ex Action: Active Turn 

Character: Ciel
Ship: Avenir
Difficulty: Average
Ex Action: Steam Brakes 

Character: Copain
Ship: Shubri
Difficulty: ???
Ex Action: Rolling 

Character: Rival
Ship: Fantome
Difficulty: ???
Ex Action: ??? 

Character: Hardi
Ship: Courage
Difficulty: ???
Ex Action: ???

6.2) The Boss Family
--------------------
There are many members of the Boss Family.  The main enemy is Ventre.  He
has many henchmen, called Poulet.  


7) Secrets
----------
None yet!


8) Miscellaneous / Et Cetera
----------------------------
Sky Gunner Homepage: www.scei.co.jp/sd2/skygunner/
Sony Homepage: www.scei.co.jp

This FAQ is not associated with Sony, Pixel Arts or any of its products either 
software or hardware.  The respective companies retain all copyrights of 
their 
products mentioned in this FAQ.

There was a demo of the game released to local video game retailers in Japan.
It allowed you to play the first level with two of the gunners.

You could also win the demo of the game of the game's website.

Feel free to email any advice or suggestions!  Due to time constraints, do 
not expect a reply on email.

Other FAQs written by me:
- Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura: Eternal Heart (PS)
- The Typing of the Dead (DC)
- The Great Khan Game (Card game)
- Hundred Swords (DC)
- Advanced World War (DC)
- Gaiamaster (PS)
- Gaiamaster Kessen (DC)
- Dioramos (PS)
- Blood the Last Vampire (PS2)
- One Piece Mansion (PS)
- Magic: The Gathering (DC)
- Culdcept Expansion (PS)
- Culdcept Second (DC)
--  9/29/01 Gene([email protected])