Live A Live: Secret Orders (Part 2)

*Note: This chapter also has two optional bosses to fight, though I strongly advise against doing so until the very end of the chapter.

From the room that you got the storehouse key from, head north back into the room with the wheels and conveyors we used to drop down into the prison


As you go left ignore the first lever you see. I'm not exactly sure which gears/conveyors it affects to be honest, but I made it all the way through the room without it. Keep going left until you hit the far wall, then go up and across two wooden wheels leading north. From here go straight right and across a conveyor, then north and right across another very short track. Flip the lever right below you then take a wheel up and then five more down to end up back at the start. Head all the way left again and go up, but don't cross the wheel this time. Take ONLY the first conveyor right and then go down and flip the other switch. Take the conveyor above you to the left and now go up and across the wheel like before. Keep going up across a couple more and open a chest for the Grappling Hook. Flip the switch here and go down across two wheels. Go right here, across the track and then take the single wheel down right after. Go left and flip the switch here.

Take the left set of wheels back up and keep going across another set. You'll see a ladder, but first head up and take a small track east for a chest containing a Fujin's Scroll. You'll have to go down and come all the way back around, but once you're back at the ladder take it downward. Stick around this room for a minute (I'm not sure whether you have to remain still or not but I did) and eventually a pair of hands will appear on the top of the wall. Inspect the area to fight a ninja, then go up to the next trap room. I hope you are a patient person, because this next part is about to fuck you up real bad.


Go up the stairs and climb up another ladder to reach this room. The pits in the floor will appear and disappear at fixed intervals (different for each section of the room). I personally find this room incredibly annoying, and the most difficult item to get isn't even worth getting (there's a Shinobi Gauntlet in the bottom left corner). To get through, go right from the ladder and go down across a single pit to a chest with a Fuda-Myoo's Fuda item, then go back to the position just above this screen shot. Go down across the pit when it fills in, then left across another and down to the next room. The pit is right underneath the doorway, so just sit under the beam and get a sense of the timing. Collect the Fuma Shuriken on your way, we'll be needing it somewhat soon. Go down, and then through another room which a much more difficult rhythm and descend the ladder.


The next room is fairly simple, except that it is filled with these moving traps. They will scuttle around the room at random and if they touch you they will pick you up and toss you into the pit in the center. The key to avoiding them is pressing Y to hide under your cloak as you move up along the right wall and then left to the ladder. Alternatively, you can just step off the ladder to the north and use the grappling hook to get across. Either way ignore the chests, we can come back for those once the traps are deactivated which will be soon. 

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This room actually isn't quite so bad because you can at least fight the traps here. For the red ones, you simply want to run through the traps as fast as possible and take out the Trap Master with a Shinobi Slash. For the blue ones further right you will be boxed in by a few different kinds of traps, simply use the Fuma Shuriken we got on the last floor to take out the trap master hiding in the corner (if you know Shuriken Storm, this move will NOT work. It will hit the trap, causing it to explode and kill you).

Go down to the blue Buddha statues. For this fight simply hit the gray one with a Shinobi Slash and you're done. For the red Buddha statues, move down so you are in the middle of their formation and use Cross Slice. You will get countered by a Flame Arts attack if you don't kill them all at once, but you should survive to make another attack and take out any that remain. Go through two more sets of Buddha statues to the left and get the Genji Armor from the chest, which will raise your defense to 34, which is awesome. Head back and take the ladder down.

In the next room go up to the door and speak to it continuously. After he says he disabled the trap and says "Come, come! Sit down..." save your game, then speak to him again. When the game gives you a prompt, opt not to trust the disembodied voice and you will end up in this boss battle. Right off the bat use your Fujin's Scroll to take out all of the electrodes, then run up right beside Gennai. You'll probably get hit by his Electric Discharge on the way, but just use a Tenmusu or Castella to heal and then start hacking away at him with Shuriken Storm and Polaris Single-Blade. You must stay right beside him so that he'll use Mechanical Piece instead of Electric Discharge, and eventually he will go down.

Unfortunately, the Clockwork Gennai possesses the Zenmai item, and if you do not get it from the fight you will have to try again or you won't be able to get your final party member. Luckily it's not a very long fight. With the battle done and the item in your possession, head through the door to the north.

Inspect the small slit in the wall on the right and insert Money three times, and the room will rumble a bit and make a big fuss. Head south and inspect the doll from the front and use the Zenmai, and you will end up battling O-Robo. Once defeated he will join your party. A couple notes; if he falls down a pit, he will break. If he is exposed to water for a long period, he will break. If he touches a mouse he will freak out and attack you. Once he's busted, he's gone forever. It might be a good idea to save continuously as you go onward. Go back up and insert the last Money you have into the wall slit to return the room to normal.

If you want, you can go back through the attic trap rooms to get whatever items you miss. The room with he moving trap dolls has a Genji Helm and a Grappling Hook, and a Shinobi Gauntlet in the pit room as I pointed out earlier. Either way, head north from the room behind where you fought the Gennai and take the stairs down. Go south into another room, and we are practically at the final boss. However we can explore the lower levels of this building, which will also help rack up some experience.  For now head through a door here and fight four ninjas.

Answer "my pleasure" to fight Yodogimi. Try to keep a row or two of tiles between you and her and use Shuriken Storm/Quickdraw Wolf Fang. Just have O-robo hide behind the others and heal then with Tenmusu when necessary. When she dies O-Robo should level up. Go south here for another ninja, then go up the stairs in the corner. Kill another guy here and then take some more stairs down at the left end. Go into the very first room here to get a Fujin's Scroll and a Fuda-Myoo's Fuda. Save your game here.

When you exit and head left a bit the geisha will summon four samurai, however you will be interrupted. You must run over to them as quickly as possible and take them out or the guy in the middle will kill them all, and it's very important that O-Robo get the experience. You may have to do it in a certain order, I had the most success taking out the one on the left first, then bottom, right, and the one on the top last. When you are done talk to the guy in the middle.

Have your main character start the fight with Strength of Ninja and then have O-Robo use the Ode Shuriken we picked up a while back, and that will end the battle. Go into the room where the demon came out and speak to the man here for another battle. Just keep your distance and pelt the monk and the tiger with shuriken storm, Ryoma and O-Robo don't really need to do anything. Exit and go north to find a samurai to slay. Go through the door and down the stairs and kill another enemy.

Exit the room and go south through a ridiculous number of doors to emerge in a hallway where there are two more enemies to kill. Go in the first room here to get two Fuma Shuriken and the Castle Gate Key. In the next room over is a demon, simply have your main character use Chill Wind on it twice to win the battle. The last door leads to another hallway with a whole bunch of doors, follow it to the end. You'll see a little pathway off to the left, this just leads to the attic trap areas.

Enter the doorway on your right and ignore the woman, she will attack you if you speak to her. Get a Tenmusu from the pot, an Ode Shuriken from the chest and a Kanesada off the wall. From here you can go down the stairs, right, and down to exit the building and train O-Robo in the warehouse with the lost souls. You will be able to come back through the doors now that you have the castle gate key. We are also near to both of this chapter's optional bosses, which are detailed in their own section. You can also go back down into the prison and take wander around the moat to fight three ninjas in here. However O-Robo will break down after about 30 seconds in here, so make sure you fight the optional bosses first. If you have beaten them and he does break down don't worry too much because we were going to lose him soon anyway.

Go aaaall the way back up to the room where we fought Yodogimi and go up two steps of stairs. As you head south on the top floor our robot pal will see a mouse, freak out and explode. Poor guy :( You actually can have him for the final battle if you had defeated these three enemies before going and recruiting him, but we don't really need the boss to be any easier than it already will be if you have done the side events. Still a shame to see him blow up, though. Enter this room and you will fight eight simple enemies. I took all of them out at once with Phoenix Fire (level 12).

Next on our kill list is this guy. I took him out in two turns with Blade of Wind, so use that if you have it. He did counter my first attack with a pretty strong move, but he shouldn't really last long enough to put you in real danger. Diagonal spaces seem to be safer than horizontal, though. From here follow Ode through the hidden doorway and up the stairs. If you hadn't defeated Yodogimi before she will appear here. In the next hallway ignore the doorway to the south and try to go north. A voice will come in asking you to wait.

This Geisha will only appear if you have not killed a single female in the castle. She will give you the Maid's Obi but if you stand still and wait for a few seconds after she leaves, she will come back and give you the much better Medicine Box. Equip both of these on your main character right away. Head through the door to the north now and fight Ode Iou. This is a fake fight, so just use Chill Wind to take him out. Go south through the two doors and you will automatically climb up onto the roof to start the showdown for real.

Chapter Boss: Frogsnake Demon   [640 HP]
Pretty lil thing, idn't 'e? He'll start off with an attack that will flood the field with poison tiles. Get Ryoma in right below him as fast as possible so that he'll resort to his two incredibly weak abilities Croak and Drink Blood. Have your character use Chill Wind, and Ryoma doesn't really need to do anything. Have him use up your scroll and shuriken items if you want, we can't carry those into the end game so you might as well do something with them. He has about 600 hp I think, so he won't last all that long at all.

With that you are done the Bakumatsu chapter! And good grief, am I glad. This is probably my favourite chapter overall but holy crap was it frustrating writing the walkthrough for it. I re-started the chapter at least five times, so I hope I didn't miss anything.

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