KonotoriThe content of this FAQ came originally from two popular FAQs posted in the rec.video.games.3do newsgroup:
Most of the screenshots have been sent to me by Bill Garrett <garrett@carafe.gte.com>. Thanks a lot Bill!
Here's a sampler of Way's specials moves:
The arena is HUGE both horizontally and vertically. Thanks to the zooming, you can literally go just about anywhere. This means that you can jump pretty high, and thus you stay airborne longer than most fighting games.
Perhaps the best way to convey my feeling of fast gameplay in concrete terms is to say that you can execute more moves of any type per unit time than any other fighting game. You can jump, then WHILE IN THE AIR, jab kick and punch an airborne opponent (three moves in the air!) then catch him as he tries to stomp on you and backbreak him. This all takes about one second.
Although there are roughly 250 frames of animation per character (which indeed is a great deal for a 256 color character in a fighting game), there are WAY [pun] WAY WAY more moves in WOTW than in say MK/SFII/SSho per character. Knowing that the 3DO's RAM size is finite, even under Andy's skilled hands, WOTW crams two sets of 250 frames plus background and program into a limited amount of memory (some access tricks are used which really makes the amount of data available more like [my guess] 10 megaBYTES). BUT since there are say 60ish moves total per character (or more), this doesn't leave many frames per move as one would find in a game where there are say 30 moves total per character. So even though WOTW has more jelly, the piece of bread it covers is also larger than normal.
Also, since the WOTW characters are very large, the distance covered between frames is greater. For example, if I have a small character doing a kick, having 5 frames on that kick will look smoother than if the character is twice as large since the leg moves twice the distance in the same time in the latter case.
MK and MKII use lots of shortcuts in its fighting engine which make it possible to get away with a smaller, well-defined set of needed character animations. For example, all characters are the same height. Your character can stand ONLY on one of 30 discrete standing points on the arena; if you try to stand in between these points, the result is that your character gets forced to the nearest point. These facts make the set of possible things you can do very discrete and limited; if you are X distance points away from enemy and do a jump kick then it will hit at the same place always. It's a clever way to handle things, and allows for a smaller number of possible moves to have to be drawn. However, you lose having complete freedom and flexibility of movement (not to mention variety of character size and moves). I believe this is the reason behind many player's complaints that MKII has lousy gameplay.
KonotoriRescued and adopted by a local Japanese farmer, Jeremy began his formative years as the only gaijin (foreigner) in the town of Kyosaka where he was raised. In order to help him, the farmer began to teach Jeremy the martial arts. Rapidly overtaking his master, Jeremy quickly developed his own individual techniques, taking advantage of his seemingly supernatural light weight to allow him to extend his talents past that of other martial artists.
Soon after his 16th birthday, Jeremy returned to witness the death of his adopted father at the hands of the Ninja. Hired by a wealthy land owner, the Ninja had been sent to "convince" Jeremy's father to sell his family's land to the local baron. Swearing to average his father, Jeremy disappeared into the underworld of Tokyo to hone his skills.
Reemerging as Konotori, the Stork, with his father's death to avenge, Jeremy has entered the tournament for revenge and not glory.
The NinjaThe Ninja has many enemies -- Konotori and the Dragon are but two. His only "friends" are the members of his clan and a select group of outsiders whom he has met on one or more of his missions. It is known that one of these people is Major Gaines, who the Ninja has found himself fighting alongside in more than one private war. It is also known that if the price were right, his friendship would be put aside and the Ninja would fight anyone.
Little is known of the Ninja. Beware.
DragonAfter graduating at 16, the Dragon toured the world competing and teaching for three years, then began a promising career as a movie star. The Dragon has starred in "A Kick Before Dying", "Naked Punch", "Close Encounters of a Violent Kind", and some of the "BloodFisted Kickboxer" series (I, II, III, V, and VIII).
Recently, during the shooting of "A Kick Before Dying II: Kick Me If You Can!", the Dragon barely survived an attack by the Ninja, who had been hired by the Yazuka, the Japanese mafia, to settle a royalty dispute pertaining to the Japanese release of "Close Encounters of a Violent Kind".
Although above revenge, the Dragon would not mind a fair fight with the Ninja in order to "show him the error of his ways".
NobunagaSwearing off all but swordplay, Nobunaga rarely speaks, rarely eats, and rarely sleeps. His technique has been called superhuman, and surely some of his moves can be classified as supernatural.
Recently, Nobunaga's concentration was broken for the first time. Seeking out foreign techniques to further his skills, he was introduced to Nikki Chan in China after watching a performance of Chinese opera. Upon first sight of Nikki Chan, Nobunaga felt insecure in a way he had never felt before, and has been unable to concentrate ever since.
Although he had shown no interest in entering the tournament when its existence was first revealed to him, he has now realized that it represents what may be his only hope of either winning Nikki Chan's heart, or ridding his heart for her forever. Ironically, he does not know that her heart and her soul belong to another far more powerful than he.
Major GainesGaines moved up quickly in the SAS, and eventually he became leader of the Iron Hawks, a quick attack unit that the SAS used in dire situations. Often sent on suicide missions, an Iron Hawk has a life expectancy of 1.7 missions. Gaines had survived 16 missions before he was sent on the mission code-named "Jungle Death".
Sent to South America to retrieve a kidnapped British Minister from Carlos Bano, the second biggest drug lord in the world, Gaines lost all but one of his men fighting to enter the highest room in Bano's hacienda. There the drug lord, gun to the Minister's head, offered Gaines five million dollars and the position of Major of his commandos if Gaines would only spare his life. Gaines accepted Bano's offer by placing a bullet squarely between the eyes of the British Minister and the last member of his own troop. During his stint as head of Bano's bodyguards, Gaines received an experimental steroid injection implant from the drug lord's chief chemist. Activated on demand, the implant temporarily boasts Gaines' size and strength, although use of the steroids slowly wears at his body and makes him more susceptible to damage during boost periods.
Five years later, after accepting ten million dollars from Bano's rival drug lords to assassinate him, Major Gaines is available to those who can afford him.
WHILE BOOSTED:
FoxOne night, while "wilding" in the streets, Malcolm's gang came upon and quickly began mugging a wealthy Thai businessman. Watching in awe as Malcolm single-handedly dispensed his three internationally renowed bodyguards and fearing that he was next, the businessman made Malcolm a deal that he couldn't refuse. Without pause, Malcolm turned on his gang, and minutes later, with their bodies littering the alleyway, he swore an oath and began his life as a bodyguard.
While in Thailand with the businessman, Malcolm spent his free time studying Muy Thai. He has integrated these techniques with his street fighting and has now become one of the most sought after bodyguards in the world.
Working for thousands of dollars an evening and following his employers to high society functions all around the planet, Malcolm has also, ironically, acquired all the manners and sophistication that he disliked in his father.
Shaky JakeOn his seventeenth birthday Jake's parents decided it was time for him to find a wife. His parents gave him some money (which took some explaining) and pointed Jake toward Melbourne. Twenty-two hours later, slightly tired but full of anticipation, Jake and his handy staff entered the first brightly lit building that he had ever seen.
Jake stood awestruck in the entrance of The Rowdyhouse bar and grill for nearly thirty seconds before the local toughs tried to relieve him of his money. Not thirty seconds later the proprietor was offering Jake a shot as he swept out the half dozen toughs who now littered the floor. Jake took the shot of whiskey, gulped it down, and mysteriously blew his first fireball.
He never went home.
Nikki ChanFurious that a mere god would try to steal away his property, the king used his powers to warp the soul of the young girl, binding her to the Wheel of Great Transmigrations in such a way as to insure that she would be reincarnated time after time with no hope of release to heaven and in such a form that even her divine lover could not find her. Even to this day the legacy of this great evil mars the celestial harmony of heaven, causing an unidentifiable agony among the gods.
Nikki Chan is the latest reincarnation of this tortured girl's soul, and although she does not know why, the soul of that ancient girl has driven her on a path that will make her known to heaven, and therefore to her long lost lover. She has applied herself with manic devotion to the creation of her own acrobatic style of Kung Fu which she intends to use to vanquish all of her opponents in the great contest. The Book of Warriors is of such renown in heaven that should she win the contest her name will become known in that greater plane and her soul be released from its bondage to the Wheel of Great Transmigrations, allowing her to join her lover once again.
Crimson GloryDeciding that she was not going to change her ways for anyone, Crimson surmised that the best way to gain the guys' respect was to beat the living hell out of them. By 22, she had done just that, one, two and often dozens at a time, in just about every sleazy bar west of the Mississippi River.
Crimson sees the competition as just another bar filled with men, and although seeing her in action has often been called "the show of a lifetime", the truly wise have always fled the bars that Crimson Glory enters.
The stage will be availible from the arena menu. (Was this the date of the release of the Black Sabbath album of that title???)
Thanks to Akil Harris.
You can also enter both names, move the box right again to move from High Abbot to Kull (or vice versa).
Thanks VERY MUCH to Don Edwards (CoolDon@AOL.COM) for posting the Kull code. A bit of trial and error found High Abbot after that, lucky his birthday wasn't in December. :)
I know people have said there are other ways but the above works every time.
First, select "The Pit" as the room you want to fight in and the choose "Verses Mode". One player MUST select either "Dragon", "Nobu or "Crimson Glory", but the other player can select any character he wants. Once the fight starts, one player should win the first rou with a flawless victory. A fatality it NOT needed. For the second the other player should win with a flawless victory. Again, a fatal not needed. Then for third round, the player who selected either "Dragon", "Nobunaga", or "Crimson Glory" must win with a flawless vi AND the room's fatality. The easiest way to accomplish this is for opposing player to immediately commit suicide by falling into the la pit.
After everying above has been executed, you'll notice a change i "victory close-up pose". Dragon will now be wearing dark sun-glasse will have a big smile on his face. Nobunaga will also be smiling, b will be wearing mirrored sun-glasses. And Crimson Glory will be sti out her tounge (no glasses for her). All three will also have a new "one-liner" to go along with their new pose.
The CPU doesnt really cheat with magic points. Here's how it works:
When you lose a MATCH, your magic pts get halved.
When the CPU loses, you fight a NEW CPU character (so CPU's magic should of course be different). We tries to find a fair way to allot CPU magic, so it is a semi-random function which awards more magic to the CPU as you get higher in the ladder. This is to balance your magic pts, which should be climbing steadily as you progress (once you are good enough to notlose more than twice at each step of the ladder).
If you are really quick, you can STOMP on a fallen opponent with Down + C. Takes off big damage, and you get that satisfying "oof" with blood... :)
Another strategy I use: reposition yourself behind your opponent in hopes of getting him to block backwards (with his back facing you). Since you cannot turn around while blocking, the result can be a free hit (or at least confusion).
This unfortunate rumor that you can cheese humans and CPU using the Darren manuever (Dragon's turbo punch) has led me to show people exactly how you can punish anyone who tries this. We have put in a HUGE number of safeguards to prevent any cheapness in the game, ESPECIALLY inthe 2P mode (which is why I argued strongly against claims that you could cheese a human to death using the turbo punch-- since it isn't true).
Blocking in Way is easy. Press B, and your character will block from the time an offensive move starts to the time it is complete. The turbo punch counts (for blocking purposes) as ONE move. So if you press block at any time during your opponent's turbo punch, you will block until you:
DURING THIS TIME (the "anti-cheese window"), you can attack with impunity. That;'s right, just walk up to the loser and hit him or throw his sorry rear end.
This safeguard was put in because I thoght it was unfair to force someone to retreat simply because his opponent was going turbo punch banannas. When i first got Way for testing, you could win any match by getting in one hit, then blocking or turbo punching forever a blocking opponent. Unblockable throws solved the first problem. This window solves the second. The CPU is pretty good at using this window to beat you to a pulp should you try to cheap it with turbo moves.
A: (from david Liu) Yes, this is unblockable. Why? Konotori has no uppercut, or throws, so to balance him out I suggested they give him this unblockable mov e. EVERY character has at least one unblockable, to avoid being cheaped by a cowardly but good blocking opponent.
A: (from David Liu) If he touches the lightning, he gets zapped. If he falls in the beam, he gets zapped but it looks like the lgithning is going through his body.
The reason it's tough for me to memorize all the fatals is because :
michel.buffa@cmu.edu