0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | | | OZ ENDINGS GUIDE | | | 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 Version 2.0 Written by Kouryuu (test@_robbieisdamnscary_kou-net.org) OZ is (c)2005 Konami ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0 ----------------- 0 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | 0 ----------------- 0 1) REVISIONS --------- Exactly what the heading says. 2) IMPORTANT INFO -------------- Read read read! Any questions/comments that spawn from this file that are already answered in this section will be ignored! This also explains how to properly e-mail me. :P 3) ENDINGS ------- This is the meat of the file. :3 4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ---------------- Crediting my sources. ^-^ 5) ABOUT THE AUTHOR ---------------- I just felt like adding pointless section about me just so you know what sort of strange person wrote this text file. ============================================================================== 1) REVISIONS ============================================================================== 0 --------------------------------- 0 | Version 2.0 (December 6, 2005) | 0 --------------------------------- 0 Big update warrants a completely new version number! XD I finally got the bad ending so I added info on that plus lots of changes here and there, most notably under the normal ending where I fixed a bit of the summary. I also added an ABOUT THE AUTHOR section just because. 0 --------------------------------- 0 | Version 1.1 (November 26, 2005) | 0 --------------------------------- 0 Sigh. Started a fresh new game and played under Normal and I got 5 A's, 3 B's, 9 C's, and 1 D. That got me the normal ending again. >:( I must try harder to do horrible at this game. Anyway, I just added some bits about not upgrading the strength of the charas and such as a means to get the bad and normal endings. Also changed the retry stages suggestion to simply retrying boss battles as stages don't let you stack the amount of times you and allies die. I also added some extra words about the final fight under the summary of the normal ending. Now back to getting those C's and D's. :P 0 --------------------------------- 0 | Version 1.0 (November 24, 2005) | 0 --------------------------------- 0 Finished the initial version of the guide~~~ 0 --------------------------------- 0 | Version 0.0 (November 19, 2005) | 0 --------------------------------- 0 Still freshly obsessed with game, I got the urge to write about the various endings and how to obtain them. :D ============================================================================== 2) IMPORTANT INFO ============================================================================== There are just several things I want to note about this guide: 1) To see the gibberish, you'll have to switch your browser's character encoding to Japanese Shift-JIS. 2) I am NOT affiliated with Konami. I am merely a fan of their game, OZ, and as such, it should be noted that this guide is a non-profit, fan-made piece of work. It is all right to post this at your site, distribute freely, but it is NOT all right to modify it in any way or sell it (by itself or on some compilation CD with other walkthroughs/guides, etc.). 3) This file does NOT contain a walkthrough for the game. It is solely focused on the multiple endings it has such as how to get them and synopses of what happens for each. 4) I also assume the reader knows the game mechanics and the plot of the game as I do not expand on techniques and plot points that are mentioned in this guide. 5) I am not fluent in Japanese so there may be some errors here and there in terms of my summaries. I do my best to be as accurate as I can. 6) To e-mail me, remove the _robbieisdamnscary_ part in my e-mail address. :P Corrections, additions, critiques, and compliments are welcomed. ============================================================================== 3) ENDINGS ============================================================================== The main variations of the endings are the cutscenes you get after you initially reach the summit, the boss you fight, the credit roll, and the tune that accompanies the credits. There is also no restriction on which diffi- culty mode to use to obtain these endings so if you ever need to switch modes cuz you want a better challenge or an easier time, feel free to do so. What matters is your overall ranking of all the stages up to stage 19 (and for stage 20, stage 19 would also be included in the overall ranking business). I know this isn't rocket science but I think I should put in this reminder anyway: Always remember that your performance in stages is offset by the difficulty mode so Normal (A rank) and Hard (S rank) modes can land you a decent grade even if you performed poorly. Anyway, here are the endings, from worst to best, complete with spoiler-filled summaries that will probably only make sense to those that know everything that has happened before reaching the end, as well as the credit roll and credits music that accompany them. Oh, and I included my stage rankings too. XD (Yes, I'm a freak and I logged them. I also logged the dialogue choices I picked for each stage. XP) 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 BAD ENDING -- STAGE 19: SONG OF RUIN (滅びの歌) 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | | | OVERALL RANK PREREQUISITE: C or D | | OTHER PREREQUISITES: DO NOT GET ANYTHING OTHER THAN C OR D | | FOR STAGE RANKS. | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: --------- I actually played a fresh game from start till finish THREE DIFFERENT TIMES in order to get this infernal ending. >:E The problem was that I didn't have straight C's or D's all the way through. Blargh. The irony of all this was that the final boss fight was so ... pathetic. I put all this effort to get this ending and all I got was a boring, no brainer button-mashing-fest as my reward. Thanks Konami. Suggestions on how to get this ending: -------------------------------------- - Do not upgrade anyone's strength. You might want to do it for health to ensure you make it to a boss battle though. :P - Play on Normal since playing Easy will cause you to go comatose with boredom as you purposely extend stage time and wait for your characters to die. Translation: the amount of time and deaths required to get a C under Normal is lower than Easy. Of course, the yellow eteria count will be higher though. General rule of thumb on Normal is to die at least 20 times and make sure a stage goes beyond 30 minutes. - Just don't participate in any chaining to ensure a low rank for yellow eteria collected. Simply tell your companions to kill all the enemies by issuing attack orders like mad. - Leave the stage running while you go and do some non-OZ stuff, such as grabbing something to eat, taking a shower, etc. (This is just a means to extend the stage clear time.) - Make the effort to die as many times as you can. A sure way of dying a lot in a stage is to do the following: When you're recovering, chase after enemies or bosses so you'll get hit again before your health is restored. XD This is best done on Easy or Normal where the enemies aren't crazy aggressive. I mean, the chances of the entire party dying can be pretty high on Hard once the player character is down and replaying an entire stage isn't fun. - Die and retry boss battles (since the clock continues from where it left off when you died in the fight). This is the only way to stock up on deaths. BUt you know, I think the game penalizes you by ADDING more time when you choose to retry a boss battle. o.o~ Pay attention to the clock when the fight starts up again ... - Avoid getting A or S ranks for *anything* and the overall stage result CANNOT be a B, A, or S; every single stage up to 19 HAS to be C or D. I tested this out by sneaking in a B for stage 18 and I got the normal ending instead. >_> Summary: -------- Feel and company finally make it to the place where the ruler of all gods (or supreme god) is. Its appearance triggers Dorothy to transform into her "god form" (or however you want to refer to it as) as it uses her as its vehicle. Feel is shocked to the point that he's oblivious to an impending attack (or what seems to be ._.;) from his sister. Leon leaps into action to stop Dorothy while Almira rushes to her friend to get him out of harm's way. A short conversation occurs between the trio where Leon and Almira basically tell the poor boy that there was no way to save his sister. :/ I think Leon says something to the effect that that they should hurry and release Dorothy from the god's control (re: kill her). With a nice loud cry of Dorothy's name from Feel, the tragic fight begins! I'm not certain if Dorothy retained a bit of her consciousness in the fight or not but she *DOES NOT ATTACK* (under Normal mode). I haven't tried it on Hard mode so I wouldn't know if the case is the same. The only attack that occurs is an instant kill attack but I think it only happens if you just idle. Anyway, once she's defeated, Dorothy reverts back to her human form and slumps to the ground. Feel goes up to her, falls onto his knees, and cradles his sister's body in his arms. As he weeps away, he continually utters "I won't forgive this ..." and then his voice starts to change. o.o! (The voice is kind of like what you hear when he's in full Rex armor.) Leon and Almira take notice of this startling vocal change but don't say anything. :\ Black energy/eteria? start coming out of Feel's Rex and he brings his armored hand up and looks at it. Seconds later, he's screaming and clutching his head in pain. :P The entire area becomes enveloped in strange darkness. Leon wonders what the heck was going on and Almira just cries out Feel's name. All that's shown after this is Feel transforming into some demon and then a close-up of him giving a looking-back-over-the-shoulder + sinister-grin-on- face look. Suddenly, a "LOL! Bad End Try Again!" screen flashes onto the screen. Well, okei, the LOL! isn't there but you can be sure that screen is mocking you! D: Hypothesis of what occurred at the end: --------------------------------------- The following contains ideas from a post by peksi at the GameFAQs OZ message board. The original message is not posted here since he wanted it to be paraphrased instead. I added a bunch of my own thoughts in it as well but really, the credit belongs to him since he's the one that explained what went on. ** Warning! Spoilers from a sidequest and other ending are included too! ** In the bad ending, what happens to Feel is probably similar to what happened to the stage 17 boss, Nigredo. The name Nigredo is most likely not something that Konami pulled out of thin air as it more or less describes what happened to the boss. Xenosaga fans will remember this meaningful name as well. :3 The definition, taken from Wikipedia*, is this: "Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philo- sopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter [1]. Chaos precedes enlightenment. In psychology Carl Jung (a student of alchemy) forwarded the notion of nigre- do as the moment of maximum despair as a prerequisite to enlightenment." So, essentially, Feel was a victim of the nigredo effect in the sense that he was enveloped by darkness/blackness and that he more or less reached that sense of, uh, maximum despair (dunno about the enlightenment part). In short, he was ripe for possession by a being that shared his hatred of the gods. :3 A major plot point in Dorothy's Big Adventure also alludes to this ending in that the evil god (who players that have seen the happy ending will know as Atheus) mentions that he needed a body with a pure mind to resurrect. Poor Feel was forcefully selected as the candidate. :P What happens to him and the evil god? Well, it's for you to find out for yourself! XD * Yes, I know that Wikipedia is not exactly the most objective and accurate source in the world but it was the most dictionary-like result that popped up on the first page of results on Google. :E Credit roll: ------------ The credits are actually part of the movie cutscene which begins when the area becomes blanketed with darkness. There's no background music of any sort. My Stage Rankings: ------------------ Guh, I played 2 stages on Easy and the rest on Normal. I know I did stage 17 on Easy for certain but I can't recall the other one. Stage 1 - C Stage 11 - C Stage 2 - D Stage 12 - C Stage 3 - D Stage 13 - C Stage 4 - C Stage 14 - C Stage 5 - D Stage 15 - C Stage 6 - C Stage 16 - C Stage 7 - D Stage 17 - D Stage 8 - C Stage 18 - C Stage 9 - C Stage 19 - A Stage 10 - C 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 NORMAL ENDING -- STAGE 19: THE LAST WISH (最期の願い) 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | | | OVERALL RANK PREREQUISITE: B or C | | OTHER PREREQUISITES: Try to avoid A and S ranks for each stage | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: --------- You know, after suffering through my quest to get the bad ending, I have discovered that this is a really easy ending to get. What makes it easy to achieve is the fact that you can mix and match stage rankings of all letters. See My Stage Rankings below for examples. Anyway, I hated this ending. It was way too bittersweet for my liking, especially after being subjected to the true ending twice and happy ending once. When I play a game with the same characters through the entire thing, I get somewhat attached to them so when this ending played, I was not all too happy to see the treatment they got. >:O I dunno. I was disappointed to find out that THIS was the "normal" ending. If I had my way, I'd rename it "Bad Ending" and the Bad Ending would be something like "Wholly Undesirable Ending". >:E The title image was misleading too!!!! Suggestions on how to get this ending: -------------------------------------- - Do not upgrade anyone's strength. You might want to do it for health to ensure you make it to a boss battle though. - Play as haphazard as you would with aiming for the bad ending but pay more attention in getting yellow eteria (i.e. do SOME chaining and deathblows) and staying alive. I mean, all we're looking for is to maintain a B or C overall average. - Clear time is about the only thing you can really manipulate on purpose for this; that is, if you've been doing well in keeping alive and gaining lots of yellow eteria, then you may have to deliberately drive the clear time down to try for a B or C rank. To do this, just head to an area with no monsters and leave the stage running (no pausing) while you go off and do some other stuff. :D - Actually, I lied. You can also purposely bring down the death total by constantly dying in boss battles. On Normal difficulty, 20 deaths and over will usually give you a C in that category. - Avoid getting S ranks for *anything*. Summary: -------- Feel and company finally make it to the place where the ruler of all gods (or supreme god), Praestigiatores, is. Its appearance triggers Dorothy to transform into her "god form" (or however you want to refer to it as) as it tries to use her as its vehicle. Of course, Feel can't accept this but he's too dumbstruck to do anything. However, with "encouragement" from Leon and Almira (... it was more like "What the hell are you doing, Feel? Hurry up and talk to her already!" :P ...), he rushes up to her and tries to get her to revert back to the Dorothy he knows. At first, it seems like everything Feel is saying to her is in vain as she doesn't react at all and continues to resonate some sort of, uh, barrier? that prevents anyone from getting near her. Finally, Feel thrusts his axe-like sword into the ground and ... I dunno what he does exactly here as he just sort of lets out a cry of sorts (sort of like what you see in anime and stuff when characters are charging to do some major/ultimate attack thing) but he does cause her to regain consciousness. So you get Dorothy back. Hooray. But Leon and Almira sort of collapse while the siblings were embracing. :P However, with the help of Eteria and an encouraging nod from Dorothy, they get back on their feet and the fight against the evil god (in full Rex too! Whoo!!). Of course, it's defeated. Thing is, you lose Leon and Almira in return. Basically, it turns out they were more or less dead by the time the final battle began but Dorothy wished the Eteria to give them one last bit of strength to push on. Most of this cutscene after the fight consists of flashback sequences (re: various cutscenes throughout the game) with Almira and Leon reminiscing about their time together with Feel. Yeah, they're doing this while they're lying on the ground dying away. :P The final moments are something that many of us are all too familiar with where the dying individuals thank their friend and how wonderful it is having known him and then, they die. To further the cliche, Feel, who was on his knees all this time, lets out a nice big cry of grief at the end. :P Credit roll: ------------ Little windows of various cutscenes from the game play out. The windows flank the credits which are scrolling by horizontally from right to left. If I remember correctly, the background track that plays is Longing for Sentimentality and Hope (感傷と希望への憧憬). My Stage Rankings: ------------------ Played mostly under Normal difficulty with clear game data/characters with max stats: Stage 1 - C Stage 11 - A Stage 2 - B Stage 12 - C Stage 3 - C Stage 13 - B Stage 4 - B Stage 14 - B Stage 5 - C Stage 15 - B Stage 6 - C Stage 16 - B Stage 7 - B Stage 17 - A Stage 8 - C Stage 18 - C Stage 9 - A Stage 19 - ? Stage 10 - B Here's one where I tried to get the bad ending but got the normal one! :( Stage 1 - C Stage 11 - B Stage 2 - C Stage 12 - B Stage 3 - D Stage 13 - D Stage 4 - B Stage 14 - C Stage 5 - C Stage 15 - C Stage 6 - C Stage 16 - C Stage 7 - C Stage 17 - B Stage 8 - C Stage 18 - B Stage 9 - B Stage 19 - ? Stage 10 - C 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 TRUE ENDING -- STAGE 19: DOROTHY (ドロシー) 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | | | OVERALL RANK PREREQUISITE: B or higher | | OTHER PREREQUISITES: NO Rex Armor and/or Deathblows in god battles | | Try to steer clear of C or D stage ranks. | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: --------- I got this one twice -- once was deliberate and the other time was during my quest to get the happy ending. But, for the latter, I failed on upholding a condition on one stage so getting the bestest ending the whole wide was not possible. :(((( Now, there are 3 ways to go about this particular, second best ending: 1) Get an overall B average with special care not to sneak in a bunch of C's. Or! 2) Get an overall A average. Or! 3) Get an overall S average. I know 1) and 2) will definitely get this ending since those were my overall averages when I got this and I am quite positive 3) will land it as well because the happy or best ending has additional requirements. :/ In fact, here's the difference: DO NOT GET REX ARMOR FOR THE GOD BATTLES. It's okay to deathblow and Over Zenith them to death but seriously, make sure your OZ gauge is not at max. Having full Rex for stages 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19 can blow your chances in getting the true ending, especially if you're cruising through the game with mostly A's. Anyway, it's an all right ending. Definitely better than the normal ending but it's still bittersweet. :/ Damn writers. Suggestions on how to get this ending: -------------------------------------- - Do your best! ^_^ Go for the gold! Go nuts on chaining! Don't die a lot! Try not to replay stages or boss battles! Clear stages as quickly as you can! - Special attention: DO NOT FILL UP YOUR OZ GAUGE TO MAX!!!! And if you insist on it, then don't use any deathblows to kill any of the gods. Summary: -------- The FMV that you watch upon reaching the final destination is the same as the normal ending. However, things become different after Dorothy does her metamorphosis and Feel's initial disbelief at what transpired: Filled with determination to bring his sister back to her senses, Feel begins to walk up to Dorothy with Toto, now changed back into his cat form, on his shoulder. Almira calls to him, stating that it's too dangerous, and tries to run after him to stop him. However, Leon tells Almira to wait and to have some faith in Feel and Dorothy. Almira, with some hesitation, says that she will give them the benefit of the doubt since they are Cain's children. Feel proceeds to ask Dorothy to come down/return and after a few moments, Dorothy changes back into a human and floats into her brother's arms. She sobs and sobs until the supreme god shows up. Feel tells his sister to wait a bit as there's some unfinished business he has to attend to. (This makes me wonder where the heck she is during the battle since she's technically still within the battlegrounds. :P) So yay, Feel, Almira, and Leon make their stand to break the curse of the gods and upon their victory, the annoying spider aliens come in and devour the fallen god. o_O; Through their consumption, they transform into one big spider creature. The trio wonder what the heck was standing before them. It's here that Dorothy explains that the spiders and the gods are from another world. :3 From my understanding, these spiders were being used by these so-called gods and similar to what Feel and co. were doing through the course of the game, the spiders went against the gods and sought to take them down. The gods fled that world and arrived on Feel's world and proceeded to enslave the inhabitants, both katena and humans. However, I guess with the katena, because of their special abilities, they were chosen to do the dirty work of the gods. Now, back to the problem at hand -- it doesn't seem like killing the ruler of the gods was enough for them. :P Leon gets the bright idea of using his Rex on it but to his surprise, the Rex doesn't react. I think it's Almira that explains that Rex is a part of the gods and because the gods are now dead, they can't utilize their powers. Seeing that there's no way to defeat the monster, Dorothy decides to take control of the situation by stating that she will take the creature away from the world. Of course, Feel protests but I think Toto tells him that he should give in to Dorothy's resolution. Well, the brother doesn't really give in but the sister tells him that everything was going to be all right and that all the fond memories of their time together will always be remembered. As Dorothy prepares to take the giant spider away, Leon and Almira look away ... I guess they don't want to see the heartbreaking scene between the siblings? ^^ It's either that or they knew that Dorothy was going to blind them with intensely bright light as she teleported away with the enemy. :P Before she disappears though, Dorothy thanks Feel and Toto. This ending finishes with Dorothy dematerializing and Feel screaming for his sister. XP Oh wait, I forgot about Theologia exploding after that. Actually, the sight of that place blowing up makes me wonder if everyone (namely the three characters) died on it or not. ^^ Credit roll: ------------ Black and white drawings of the characters scrolling by right to left with credits in between them (for the most part). It ends with a B&W drawing of Dorothy from the stage 19 title image. The tune that plays is Longing for Sentimentality and Hope (感傷と希望への憧憬). My Stage Rankings: ------------------ I'll list both my 1st play and clear game data plays. The first letter represents the 1st play. Everthing on Easy. Duh, I forgot to log stages 7 and 8 for the first play. Stage 1 - C/C Stage 11 - B/A Stage 2 - A/A Stage 12 - B/A Stage 3 - B/A Stage 13 - B/A Stage 4 - B/A Stage 14 - B/A Stage 5 - B/A Stage 15 - A/A Stage 6 - B/A Stage 16 - A/A Stage 7 - ?/A Stage 17 - A/A Stage 8 - ?/A Stage 18 - B/A Stage 9 - A/A Stage 19 - A/A Stage 10 - A/A As you can see, the 2nd playthrough got me an A overall BUT I still got this ending (due to not having Rex armor in one of the stages). 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 HAPPY ENDING -- STAGE 20: SHINING WIND (輝く風) 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | | | OVERALL RANK PREREQUISITE: A or higher | | OTHER PREREQUISITES: MUST HAVE Rex Armor and do Deathblows in god | | battles | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: --------- You actually play the Dorothy stage prior to this one so much of what occurs here is similar to the true ending. Of course, there IS a turning point which makes it the happy ending. :P Anyway, to get this one, you need to have an overall average of A for all 19 stages. Note that getting a B or C here or there doesn't matter as long as the average is an A. But! There is another condition: In order to succeed in getting this stage, you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE REX ARMOR FOR THE GOD BATTLES AND KILL THEM WITH DEATHBLOWS. I've read in a lot of places that it's recommended that you use either a level 2 or 3 deathblow when you finish them off. I've yet to confirm if level 1 deathblows will net you this ending as well so I'll go along with them and suggest that you build up to level 2 or Over Zenith for the kill. Now, for me, the ending wasn't that bad. I guess I wanted a bit more/a better reward though seeing that the second form fight was annoying as hell. Suggestions on how to get this ending: -------------------------------------- - Just do well everywhere. - Build up your OZ gauge on stages 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19 so that you'll go into the boss battles with armor. I'd list the types of gods and their names but seriously, it's much easier to simply remember that stage numbers (and that they're even numbers). - If the boss battles under Normal are giving you a hard time (like it takes forever to start a chain), switch to Easy. XD Easy mode usually dumps enemies all over the place for you to chain. This is especially useful in stage 14 with the Earth God. IIRC, under Normal, there are no additional enemies so you can't really use deathblows on the boss to force it to break apart. Conversely, the stage 12 one gives you more enemies than Easy mode. o_O; - The finishing attack on the gods HAS to be a deathblow! Summary: -------- Everything is the same as the true ending up to the point where everyone wonders what to do with the monster spider alien. But this time, Dorothy invokes some power into the trio's Rex. However, as she's talking away about understanding what has to be done, spider aliens appear behind her! But hey! Everything's all right cuz Vitis and friends show up to dispose of them! As the attention is turned back to the alien, Feel ponders aloud if they are any different than the spiders that sought revenge on the gods. His sister immediately tells him that there is a difference -- he's fighting to protect the world and everyone in it! Further words of encouragement and such are thrown at Feel and his party from their former enemies and Dorothy bestows her powers on them which enable them to battle Atheus with their Rex. Unfortunately, I guess she didn't have enough power to force the armor to manifest for them. :P Oh, Dorothy remains with the other OZ group. After the trio defeats Atheus' giant creature form, it changes into a demonic humanoid form but, as every good ending goes, the heroes give the final boss a smackdown and the world is once again at peace. Actually, Theologia blows up and you don't know what happens to the characters. Well, not until after the credits. :P Credit roll: ------------ Various cutscenes are shown with the overlaying credits scrolling up vertically. At the end, you see Feel, Almira, Leon, and Toto on a cliff looking out into the world (possibly where Theologia once stood). You'll notice that everyone no longer has any Rex on them. Almira puts her hand on Feel's shoulder -- I guess in the "Let's go home" sort of way -- and all four of them turn around and start walking. At this point, the camera's overhead and you can see Vitis, Juju, and Galumn waiting for them. Since I'm writing this from looking at my screenshots, I have no idea if Dorothy is ever shown anywhere. ^^; The tune that plays during this particular credit roll is Polovtsian Dances ~Trance ver. OZ mix~. My Stage Rankings: ------------------ Played on Easy with clear game data. I'll list the deathblows used in the key stages under the rankings. Stage 1 - B Stage 11 - A Stage 2 - A Stage 12 - A Stage 3 - A Stage 13 - A Stage 4 - A Stage 14 - A Stage 5 - A Stage 15 - A Stage 6 - A Stage 16 - A Stage 7 - A Stage 17 - A Stage 8 - A Stage 18 - A Stage 9 - A Stage 19 - A Stage 10 - A Stage 20 - ? Stage 12 -- Armor + Level 3/Over Zenith Stage 14 -- Armor + Level 2 Stage 16 -- Armor + Level 3/Over Zenith Stage 18 -- Armor + Level 2 Stage 19 -- Armor + Level 2 ============================================================================== 4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ============================================================================== * All the folks at the GameFAQs boards for their translations, namely Bebpro2 & peksi for that awesome story spoilers thread. * Thanks again to peksi for his info on what transpired at the final moments of the bad ending as well as pointing out that second site listed below which has charts for each stage that outline the approximate amount of yellow eteria, time, and amount of deaths needed to get a certain ranking. * OZ - Kouryaku Jouhou (ＯＺ-オズ攻略情報) http://www.geocities.co.jp/Bookend/2172/oz/index.html * OZ-オズ-　Kouryaku Matome+Log Souko@2ch (攻略まとめ＋ログ倉庫＠2ch) http://oz2ch.michikusa.jp/index.html ============================================================================== 5) ABOUT THE AUTHOR ============================================================================== I am a lover of RPGs and action games and of the PlayStation 2. In fact, I own the original model (a.k.a. mama PS2) as well as the slim version (a.k.a. baby PS2). XD But that's only because my old one is modded and hated Grow- lanser Generations. >_> (Yes, you can say that I bought the new version for that game.) I tend to write walkthroughs and guides for games that I become obsessed with. However, I really prefer to just pump out a general or topic-specific guide since it takes a lot less time than a full-blown walkthrough. Also, I've only done guides for Japanese games and the one Korean game and not all of them have been "officially released". Please see http://kou-net.org/archive.htm for some of them. In terms of OZ, I first became interested in it when I came across it while looking at Suikoden stuff at the official Japanese Konami site. After that, I downloaded the Tokyo Game Show trailer and some other videos and after getting impressions from those, I decided that this game was something I should look into. I'm really glad I did because I enjoyed it immensely. I replayed it 7 times so far (including restarts with clear game data) which I did solely to get all endings and unlock everything. :P I don't remember myself giving any game this sort of attention before. Then again, until recently, I was mostly playing RPGs and even one play of those buggers eats a lot of time out of my life. For evidence of my OZ obsession, see the screenshots gallery!!: http://www.kou-net.org/archive/gallery/ozzz/ Oh wait, I lied. I replayed the Japanese version of Chaos Legion to death. Indeed, despite what people say about that game, I like it. :E Of course, there are so many things that could have been better about it but it's mind- less hack-and-slash fun, dammit! What's sad is that that game was music composer Hideyuki Fukasawa's solo debut. The soundtrack to the game is good stuff. But because most people thought the game overall was ho-hum, he's not getting the recognition he deserves. :/