LEGENDARY AXE II v 1.1 8-15-99 author: Dimetric Houston e-mail: dhousto6@bellsouth.net CONTENTS: Introduction Updates Story Controls Screen Description Enemies Weapons PowerUps Stage Strategies Tips, Tricks and Secrets Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: Hello all. This FAQ covers the game Legendary Axe 2. Legendary Axe 2 is a game made for the Turbografx-16 and the sequel to Legendary Axe. It is a good old-school action game that is more difficult and challenging than the original. I am not going to bother with the copyright stuff. If you are low enough to try to bank a profit off of this, or you decide to plagiarize it, that's your wretched morality. Comment on the game: Legendary Axe 2 sports crispier graphics than its predecessor. The music is lower pitched and not as jungle-oriented as the first game. It does seem a bit slurred though. Characters are smaller too, except for bosses. The difficulty of the game is definitely a good two notches higher only in the sense that there is more platform jumping in the sequel, plus the addition of a timer makes mistakes rather costly when you miss a jump and fall WAY back down again. IMPORTANT NOTE: Unlike my other FAQs, this one is written without the help of the manual, so there will unfortunately be much less detail in this FAQ than would be if I had the manual. Still, this FAQ should prove at least somewhat helpful for anyone playing the game. Many names are made up or come from sources that had any info on the game. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES: v 1.0 8-15-99 -First edition. -Strategies for each stage up to stage 4 present. v 1.1 8-15-99 -Corrected some previous strategies -Updated Enemies section -Stage Strategies up to stage 7 present. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY (quoted directly from source) "Our hero, Prince Sirius, must defeat the evil prince Zach and his followers using 4 weapons." Tremendously skimpy, but that's all I could find. The person who defeats you in the intro is most surely Prince Zach. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS D-pad: Moves Sirius. Down is crouch. Can also direct certain weapon attacks. Button 1: Jump (tap for small jump. Press for large jump) Button 2: Attack Select: Pause Run: Smart Bomb --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN DESCRIPTION A description of the items at the top of the screen follows. At the top left is your score. Below that is your life meter. To the right of your score is a timer. If it hits zero, you lose a life. To the right of the timer is an orange oval with a number beside it. This is the number of smart bombs you have. To the right of this is a small red face with a number beside it. This is the number of lives you have. Below the smart bomb and life indicators is your weapon power meter, preceded by the word LEVEL. This indicates the power level of your weapons. As you gain weapon powerups, this meter fills with flashing orange rectangles. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENEMIES These are some of the enemies you will see in Legendary Axe 2. More to come if I complete the game. I am making up the names here. Clawsters: Humanoid enemies that wear a mask and have claw weapons on their hands. They come in several varieties (like the nomads of the first game), the power of which is indicated by their skin color: Normal--these are roughly the same color as your character. They just come at you and strike. Brown--these jump at you constantly. Easily disposed of but can be an annoyance if they land on top of you. Green--these are fast and do small backflips as you approach. At some point they then come at you really fast. Again, easily disposed of, just keep your weapon swinging. Bombers--can't really tell the color here. These look like Normal clawsters, but appear to be bigger in size. These are a REAL annoyance because they possess the same smart bombs that you do. Get to them fast before they throw them or else use your bomb before they do. The bombs seem to be their only weapon. Orange--these throw boomerang axes. They throw them low and the axe will return at a high level. Jump the thrown axe and then crouch when it returns. Slimes--gray slimes. These can't hurt you but if you get caught in them, they will slow you down a lot, plus you can't jump as high while caught in them. If you are caught, just keep jumping until you get away. Skeletons--these look like dinosaurs on two legs. They carry swords and a shield. They come in two types indicated by. . .uh. . .bone color: Brown: The normal type. Nothing special here. Green: These have the TREMENDOUSLY annoying tendency to block your hits. The problem is that when they do block, you will be pushed back quite a ways, often into other enemies or off a ledge. The best way to handle them is to crouch and strike or use a smart bomb. Watch for nearby enemies. Flying Demon--little fat demons. They may be on the ground or in the air. When on the ground, they move back and forth. When they start flashing, they are about to throw an electric ball at you. They only use this attack on the ground. In the air, they just come at you to try to hit you. Flying Woman--two types. The pink-haired one just tries to hit you by swooping at you from the air. The blue one with bat wings blows wind that will slow you and push you back slightly. Mummy--They require two hits to kill normally. Your first strike will destroy part of them depending on where you hit--strike high and you destroy the head. Strike low and you destroy the legs. Destroying the legs leaves the moving torso, which fires shots and jumps at you. They come in two colors, green and gray. The gray mummies move faster and can do a slow jump. If they hit the ceiling they explode into parts. The parts can hurt you. Ostrich--a yellow ostrich-type monster. Can shoot bouncing fireballs and can take quite a pounding. Funny-looking fellow though. Centipede--centipede-type monsters with human faces on both ends. They travel along ceilings and floors. When traveling along ceilings, they can drop down to the floor. Bone parts--these are dinosaur body parts. They burst out of walls in an attempt to hit you. The parts are arm, leg, and head. The head will fire four shots if left alone too long. The leg is the most dangerous part as you will probably be hit by it the most due to its speed and place of appearing. Fly--these are blue creatures that crawl along ceilings. In time, they swoop down and travel horizontally a ways before going back to the ceiling. Large fly--these look like really big houseflies (red eyes and all). Usually they remain stationary until you hit them or get really close. Then they fly around just trying to hit you. They don't move fast. Black Robots--ANNOYING opponents these are! They fire missiles which loop to your rear. They also toss bombs. Hit them with a non-killing hit and they start flying around tossing bombs. When they flash, they are about to explode so get away. Gold Robots--large robots. They have twin guns on each arm. They fire electric balls from the guns. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEAPONS Unlike Legendary Axe 1, you have four weapons to choose from in Legendary Axe 2. Like in Ninja Spirit, the strategy comes in deciding which weapon to use in which situations, as some weapons work better in some situations than in others. The weapons are indicated by their respective symbol in the powerup. Get the powerup and you get the particular weapon. You can only change weapons by getting another. Your weapons powerup as you gain weapon powerups. Getting a powerup will increase your powerup bar by one rectangle. The max number of rectangles on your weapon powerup bar is five. You start with a sword at level 1. An interesting note is that ALL weapons gained will increase your powerup bar. Thus, if you have a sword at level 2 and get the axe, the axe will be at level 3. Getting the sword again gives you a sword at level 4. Increasing your weapon powerup level makes your weapons stronger, many times causing some visible changes to the weapon. Here are the weapons: Sword--you start with this. Powering this up makes the sword longer and puts an energy arc in front of it when you swing it. Axe--powerful weapon but has the shortest range of all of them. Don't use this in a place where you need range (which is quite a few places), but this is good for taking out those enemies requiring multiple hits (like the mummies) in one strike. The axe symbol looks like this: |\ /| | \ / | | /|\ | |/ | \| | Chain Spear--didn't know what to call this thing. Basically a chain with a large pointed tip. Powering this up makes it longer. This has the most range of all the weapons, an excellent choice of weaponry in many cases. If you hold up while attacking, you will strike at an angle. The chain spear symbol looks something like this: __ __ / \/ \ \__/\__/ Smart Bomb--not exactly a true weapon of choice IMO, but this is the only other weapon you have, so it no doubt the fourth weapon. Good screen-clearing weapon, it can also destroy those require-multiple-hits-to-kill foes. Use strategically. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POWERUPS Legendary Axe has a few powerups to help Sirius. They are described below. Note: All powerups appear randomly from destroying foes. Weapon Powerups--looks like the respective weapon. See Weapons section above. Crescent Moon--looks like a crescent moon. This powerup restores 1 life point. Star--adds an extra life point to your bar. Sun (8-point star)--looks like a small circle with points in all eight directions. It fully recovers your life points. I symbol--looks like a capital "I". Quite important. These give you an extra life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE STRATEGIES This section will offer various strategies on each stage and the bosses of each. I will also tell which weapon would be most useful IMO in each stage. ZONE 1 Suggested Weapons--chain spear You'll run into normal and brown clawsters here, as well as mummies. Near the end of the stage you'll encounter the pink flying women. Standard fare here. However, watch for the clawsters and mummies as you jump up the elevations. The foe's positioning can make hitting them a bit difficult. BOSS--black and red creature. The boss here is a red and black creature. Use the chain spear here. The creature will move across the screen toward you. If it gets close it will kick at you. When you hit it, many times it will jump toward you. Move under it so it lands on the other side, then hit it again. Repeat this pattern until it's dead. ZONE 2 Suggested Weapons--sword and chain spear Travel to the right here. The sword or chain spear will work for this level, but you'll probably want the chain spear by the end, so it would be best to hang on to it if you get it, as you don't know when or if it may appear again. Green mummies will be on ledges. Attack them if you want. When you reach a pit here, either jump across or fall down it. It doesn't matter, as your goal is to get all the way to the right. Continue right. At some point the screen will shake. Keep going until you reach a large opening. This will be a pit if you went right by jumping over other pits, else this will be the end of the stretch you are on if you fell down a pit. Blocks will start falling down the waterfall. Jump on these blocks and go up as much as you can. When you reach the top and can go up no further, then go left. Note: As you go up the blocks, you will see openings in the right wall. There is nothing important in these openings, just enemies. As you go left, you'll encounter more flies, mummies, and clawsters. Don't fall down any pits as you will have to climb all the way back up. Continue left until you reach the boss. BOSS--bouncing head No, this isn't Evil Otto of Berserk fame :) This boss will bounce toward you. Watch your positioning so it doesn't land on you. When it bounces offscreen it will slide toward you. Jump over it and continue hitting it. The chain spear is best here so you can keep a safe range. If the boss sits still it will toss purple shots at you. ZONE 3 Suggested Weapon--chain spear all the way here! Proceed left. You'll encounter slimes and green clawsters. After about the third set of clawsters, you'll run into the bone parts. This part is tricky somewhat. To be safe, proceed slow, but not so slow that your time runs out. Here are the bone parts to expect: leg-leg-leg-arm-arm-leg-arm-head-arm-leg-head-arm-(arm-leg-head)-head-arm-leg -arm The () means these appear in the same area. Use the chain spear for reach, plus its upward attack will get the bone hands without you having to move from where you are. Keep going left until you reach the wall. Now go up. Bombers will appear, so move and strike fast or use smart bombs. Keep going up until you can't, then go right again. Orange clawsters appear (axe throwers). Watch for the blue flying women. One will appear while you are trying to platform jump. When you reach elevations that have you falling into the unknown, be warned that slimes are below. It's best to fall as close to the wall as possible. If you land on a slime, keep jumping to get out and kill those slimes. Later on, skeletons appear. Watch out for those annoying green ones. The axe w weapon will make its first appearance here. Absolutely DO NOT get it!! The boss will finish you nasty painfully if you do. Keep the chain spear and go on. If the axe is in the way of a jump, go until the axe goes offscreen, then return. It will be gone. If not, do it again but go further this time. On the horizontal stretch, if a green skeleton appears, move in the other direction to see if skeleton is behind you. Fighting green skeletons will result in getting pushed back--flat into a brown skeleton if you don't get rid of them early. So watch your back. Proceed on to reach the boss BOSS--ball swinger and bounching ball. Two-part boss here. First will be a little fellow dragging a large ball on a chain. If you have the chain spear at a decent level (three is enough), this is crazy easy. Just crouch and let the fellow have it. He won't be able to get close enough to do anything. After he's dead, the ball will start bouncing around the screen. It bounces low and high randomly. When it bounches high, you can go under it to get on the other side. Keep striking the ball until the explodes. ZONE 4 Suggested weapon--sword The first really frustrating jumping level. First go right until you see the skull ledges. The skull ledges consist of many "skull" faces. You must jump on the ledges and go up until you reach the boss. The problem here is that MANY of the ledges fall if you stand on them too long. The ledges look like a (non-human) skull face. If you stand on a particular face too long, the eyes will appear and the face will fall. This will make for a long level as may fall continuously trying to get to other ledges. Of note here is a special jump you can make. I call it the accelerated jump. There are skull platforms (made of two skull faces) throughout the level. The platforms move left and right. When you are on one of these platforms, if you hold the D-pad in the same direction that the platform is moving and then jump, you will jump farther and faster than you normally would. This can help you reach some ledges and other places. Enemies here consist of mummies, flying women, brown, orange, and bomber clawsters, as well as flying demons. Keep going up. When you reach the brown ledge, get on it and go right. The boss will appear. BOSS--duplicating woman This boss is a small woman that spins across the top of the screen. As she moves back and forth, she will make duplicates of herself. The duplicates will swoop at you from the sky. If you hit a duplicate, it will crash to the ground and explode into other monsters. Things get pretty crowded here, so use of the smart bomb is recommended. The chain spear is pretty useful here, but the sword will work as well if your chain spear is not powered up. Keep hitting the real one until it dies. ZONE 5 Looks like the inside of an organism a bit here. Proceed right. You will encounter a lot of green mummies. I suggest you kill what's in front of you and go on. Don't worry about the ones behind you. Stopping to kill them will result in you getting ganged up on by mummies from both sides. You will make several long drops on this zone. On the third level down you will run into the ostrich. Also you will see these floating red things. Do NOT touch them as they hurt you. On the fourth level down, you will be in a tricky spot. Centipedes appear here, plus you will have to jump over the red floating things. Spicing up the action are mummies also. It's tricky trying to jump over the red things and take care of the enemies. Jump and attack simultaneously. When you jump, get to swinging that weapon. It will stun or kill enemies and give you time to get positioning. Keep going and dropping (about six to eight drops total) until you reach the boss. BOSS--large two-headed snake The boss will first enter from the left side, then will come from the right. Get all the way to the left when while it goes to the left side. When it comes from the right it will stop and sit up. Now is when you attack. You have to hit it in its head (the one facing you--the other is on the tail and serves no purpose). The boss fires green shots out of its mouth (in threes) and snaps at you with its mouth. The snaps are what you worry about. You can NOT avoid them--you WILL get hit, so you have to strike FAST! Get as many hits as possible to kill this fellow before he kills you. Try not to hit the body while doing this as this takes more precious life from you. Kill the boss and watch Sirius jump back out of the pit :) Makes you wonder why did he have to go in the first place, doesn't it? ZONE 6 Suggested weapon--chain spear or sword Proceed left. The early platforms you come to won't take you anywhere good, so avoid them. Keep going. Lightening will start striking the ground in time. The strikes can hurt you and they are so fast you can't avoid them. You can only hope you are not hit when they come. The game makes a rumbling sound before a strike so you know that one is coming--just not WHERE it will hit. After the lightening strikes you will see more platforms. Now you can get on. Hop the platforms and keep going up. At one point you will be on a platform and see a platform above you out of reach. You will be in front of a white column. In the black area of this column (which you may take for shading) are black spaces. These spaces are platforms. Hop up them to get to the other platform. When you reach the top and are on the long horizontal stretch, go left. Lightening will plague you again, as well as flying demons and flying women. At around the third jump is one nasty area. At this jump there is a green skeleton which you won't see until you already in the air. This skeleton will deflect you and knock you into the hole you jumped over. You should land on another stretch of land. Go right until you are able to jump on the upper stretch. Keep doing long jumps to see if you can make it. To beat this skeleton you must use smart bombs. It's the only way I have found to get past this point. After this point you will soon meet the boss. BOSS--Gold Knight The chain spear or sword is what you want here. A powered sword is better I believe. The boss will fire these small balls at you which hit the ground and travel to the other side of the screen. It will also fire a blast out of its chest as well as kick at you while running. There's a passive and aggressive way to handle this fellow. Aggressive: This approach uses the chain spear. Bounce off the boss' head and hit it when you come down. Try to duck as soon as you hit the ground as the boss will fire a chest blast. Bounce off the balls and hit the boss, duck any chest blast and take to the air and bounce off its head again. The gist of this approach is to bounce off the boss' head and hit it on the way down or when you come completely down. The biggest problem here is that when you bounce off the boss' head, the chest blast will most surely hit you. It is possible to avoid it, but it's quite difficult to do. It's a slow approach and a bit tedious, but the pattern will come to you. Passive: Requires a powered sword (level 2 or 3 will do) and is quite easy to do. When the boss tosses the balls, crouch and swing continuously to destroy them. Continue swinging and the boss will run into your hit. It will be pushed back and either toss the balls again or run at you. Just get your position right and continue this pattern. You will never have to get on the other side of the boss with this method. ZONE 7 Suggested weapon--chain spear for range, axe for power What's this? Zach must be a time traveler to get a layout this modern. This is a maze level. The robots appear here. The black ones will be an utter pain on this level. I still haven't found the correct path to take. You will be moving around and jumping a lot on this level. An environmental hazard here are the tractor beams. The ones in the ground will keep you in place, unable to move (you still can attack). Avoid this as much as possible if there are enemies around. If the darn black robots are annoying you, get the axe. It will down them in one strike. Still get away before they explode. Also, the Stage 6 boss appears as a normal opponent here, but only in one section as I have seen it. If you can make the first jump, I think you can save yourself a lot of trouble. That's all for now. More to come in the next update! (if there is one) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS Note: 1 and 2 are Buttons 1 and 2 respectively. More continues--you can find this trick at GameSages(sages.ign.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS God--for the strength, life, and intellect to do this FAQ GameSages--the continues trick Club Turbo Catalog of Games 1992--the story. I hope you have enjoyed this FAQ. If there are any corrections, additions, etc. that you see that need to be put here, please e-mail me and let me know. Thanks for reading. dhousto6@bellsouth.net Dimetric Houston The End