Live A Live: Inheritance

This chapter is one of my favourites, though it might not be anymore once I'm done writing this. I have to play through it three separate times. Luckily you don't! Aren't you lucky! Unlike the other chapters, when the game prompts you to input a name it isn't for your character but the style of kung fu that will play a central role in the story. The default is Xin Shan Quan which is more that twice the amount of characters we are allowed to enter if we wish to have our own name for it. After taking forever to think about it I finally decided on XuanWu.

Immediately when you begin, check the drawers in the corner of the house to get the Kung Fu Shoes and the Kirin Shoes. In the back room, check the jars for a Sweet Bun and two Meat Buns. Check the drawers for two Kung Fu Suits. Exit the house and inspect the two patches of grass to get two Clovers. Head down the first set of steps and go left for a Bird's Eye. From here continue south onto the next screen, then keep going south. You'll reach a split in the path eventually, We want to go left here.

Keep going left past some steps and you will come to a sign noting the entrance to the bamboo forest. Enter here. Inspect the small plant right where you enter to get Healing Plant. The next one to the north is only grass, but the one left of that is another Healing Plant. To the left is a Clover and then southwest of there are a Bird's Eye and another Healing Plant. North from here in a little niche to the right is some more plain grass and yet another Healing Plant and yes, we do need all of them.

Go left from here and you will get jumped by a female bandit. Use LaoHuZhiWu twice and the battle is done, and Li will become your pupil! Hooray! Li is the only female lead character you have available to you, out of only two who are playable in the entire game. Plus she's only the lead if you play the chapter in a certain way. It's a little sad, but ah well. Head left from here and north to get our millionth (fifth) Healing Plant and also a Shepherd's Purse. Also, you want to avoid the tigers here once you have Li with you, there's a specific way you're supposed to level up your characters in this chapter.

Head all the way back now and exit the forest the way you came in. Go a short distance east and when you reach some steps take them south and into Wong Town. Talk to the people laying down here to interact with them and give them each a healing plant. The old man on the right will give you a Sweet Bun. You'll have to go behind the fence to reach the next person who will give you a Chinese Pot. Heal the woman a short ways down for a split-second event where you get robbed. Heal the next guy down to get a Meat Bun, then another woman for a Catfsh Whisker. The next woman down wants food instead of a healing herb, and won't give you anything in return.

Speak to the man at the south end of town and select "Pardon me..." when prompted for a bit of awesomeness, and then this battle will start. A single Squirrel Kick will take care of each of the guys in blue pants and LaoHuZhiWu will dispose of their leader. After the battle the boy will ask to be your pupil, and even if you refuse him he will join you later. So we might as well take him with us from the start. With this done leave the town, head back up the first steps and go east and down. Follow the path around and north to Yuan Hua Street.

As you head north you will encounter a scene. What the game probably wants you to do is to graciously offer to pay for the boy's meal, but you can also opt to just kick him in the teeth. Either way Sammo will become your final pupil. If you talk to the old man by the apple cart after he'll give you a Sweet Bun. Talk to an old woman further north and get a Meat Bun, then another old man north of her to get a Porcelain Bowl. That's all for now, so head back to the master's house.

You then proceed to pound in the faces of all three of your pupils. Way to go, oldguy. After this you will start training. The process is a bit different for each of the three pupils, but one thing that won't change is that you'll want to take everybody's equipment off. Also, you will want to make sure you pick one and only train them. Here's the deal; you will fight them and the aim is to knock them out, but they are the ones who will gain experience. When they level up they will learn the last move you used on them. If they already know that one, then they will learn the next move that you otherwise used the most in the fight. If they also know that one they will learn another move that you used that they have not yet learned. However it has to be used in that particular round, so make sure you use at least one technique they don't know in each fight.

Note that all characters stop learning moves at level 16, so if you miss teaching them a move more than once the characters will never learn some of their own special moves. Your chosen pupil will receive 5 Vitality after every fight on top of the mountain, 5 speed after every fight in the forest, and 5 power after every fight in the master's house.

Yuan starts at level 1, and he is the only one to whom you can teach all 6 abilities during training. He will even level up twice more in the chapter, also learning FuShaNoSha (which you cannot teach him because it only counters projectiles) and the first of his own unique moves, DongShouDao. He will eventually be the most powerful overall but has low hp.
Recommended moves: All

Li starts at level 3, and you can teach her up to 4 moves during training. If you don't let her get knocked out in any battles through the remainder of the chapter she will level up to level 9, learning the two remaining techniques. She eventually learns 4 unique skills meaning you can only miss teaching her a technique once until she misses out on one forever. She is the most balanced all around.
Recommended skills:  LaoHuZhiWu, Squirrel Kick, Lion Hand

Sammo starts at level 5 and can only be taught three techniques, and also joins you the latest for the final part of the chapter, so equip him with your best stuff before the last round of training. He only has the chance to learn 1 other move before the chapter concludes. He eventually learns 2 more unique moves, meaning you can only miss teaching him a technique once. He has the highest hp and power.
Recommended moves: Squirrel Kick, Lion Fist

After the training you'll get a scene and you'll need to head back to Yuan Hua Street, where we recruited Sammo.Everyone here will say the exact same thing so just go up north and speak to the Tiger King to start the fight. It's exactly the same as before.

Speak to the restaurant owner to get a Fukahire Bun, then speak to the red-haired girl to your left to get a Peach Bun. Speak to the brown-haired girl to get a Panda and the purple-haired girl to get a Chow Chow. Go south and speak to the man behind the basket of yellow fruit to get a Meat Bun then the old man across from him to get a Martial Arts Tome. Speak to the other merchant below to get a Laojiu and the other old man for a Pot Lid. Speak to the next merchant down to get a Peking Pot and then the next one down from there for a Sweet Bun. Speak to the old woman at the entrance to get two Tiger Gauntlets and the old man for Tiger Clothes. Return to the house now.

The two pupils who you did not train will leave you permanently here. Li excels in speed but is generally well-rounded, Sammo has the highest hp and I believe defense, though he is slower. Overall Yuan eventually becomes the strongest. Anyway, make your way to the bamboo forest and head all the way through to the north exit. When you are joined up by your pupil give them all your best stuff and hand whatever is left to Master Ro. Note however they will each join you at different points.

These guys really aren't a match for you at all, so just dispose of them with LaoHuZhiWu in combination with whichever of the pupil's attacks you prefer. If you have Yuan as your remaining pupil he will take out four of the guys before the fight starts, and if Sammo is the one who remains you will fight all nine alone. Also note that if you go back to the forest from this point onward there will be tigers you can fight for extra experience.

You'll fight a few more along with some white tigers as you head north. I find that Lion Fist works well against the tigers. Inside the building are a couple more men, and three jars on the left containing a Sweet Bun, Fukei's Feather and a pair of Kung Fu Shoes. From here follow the path through a couple hallways into a room with two more jars. One is empty, the other has a Peach Bun. There is also a pair of Kirin Shoes in the cabinet in the corner. North are three more jars, again one is empty and the other two have Peach Buns. Inspect the table here also for a Fukahire Bun. There's also more evil kung fu guys running around.

North from here is a group of the stronger Yo Po Men fighters, though with the ton of buns we're lugging around it still shouldn't be too stressful, just use your strongest attacks and hope they might gather together so you can hit many of them with LaoHuZhiWu at once. Further on from here you will be attacked by a group of guys in black clothing with spiky hair. This is where Sammo will join you if he was your choice. The fight is a bit annoying because there is a massive table in the way and your characters tend to target that as opposed to the actual enemies. They have a strong ranged attack, but just run up beside them and pound on them each in turn and eat a bun or two if you need it. In the jars to the north there is a Meat Bun and a Gourd.

Odi says that you will fight all these disciples one by one, but you will actually face them in sets. You can talk to them manually or you can just go up and interact with their leader and they will rush over to you. The fights are all pretty standard fare, just keep doing what you've been doing thus far. Attacking from a distance is a good strategy in all the fights. If you have Li, use her ShuiNiaoJiao as often as possible. It has a somewhat odd range, but it will take most of these opponents down in a single hit. Yuan's DongShouDao also works well, and for Sammo I found the most effective technique to be Lion Hand and Squirrel Kick.

The second round of sumo-like enemies has a chance of giving you a Dragon Gauntlet, so save and re-load to redo the battle for it if you want it. It doesn't offer a power boost like the Tiger Gauntlet but it offers more defense and some IQ. In the fight with the three girls, don't get in close the girl with the two hammers for obvious reasons. They drop the Dragon Clothes which are the same deal as the Gauntlet.

In the last fight against the old man, stay out of his diagonal range at all costs. He has an attack that will turn you to stone. This happened to Li very early on for me, so I was stuck with the master for the whole fight with his hands bound using Squirrel Kick. I had to heal about five times, and that's not fun. In any case when you are done with this nonsense talk to the leader.

Chapter Boss: Odi Wang Lee  [688 HP]

Start off by using Long Hu Liang Po Wan a couple times to bring his stats down. Your character should have learned it by level up by this point. You can use the Fukei's Feather as well, though the Gourd is entirely useless. You also have a one-time use of Xuan Ya Lian Shan Quan in this fight, so use that whenever you feel the time is best. Standing far and diagonal is a bad idea, though up close he'll still be taking off a whole bunch of hp. With the amount of healing items we got in this chapter it's not really a great big challenge as long as you keep an eye on things. Fighting him with Sammo will probably give you your biggest challenge since (in my opinion) he really doesn't have very good abilities.

After viewing what is probably my favourite of all the chapter endings, we are done Inheritance!

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