Final Zone II v 1.0 8-10-00 author: Dimetric Houston e-mail: dhousto6@bellsouth.net CONTENTS: Introduction Updates Story Controls Missions TOP Members Power-Ups Walkthrough Tips, Tricks and Secrets Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: Hello all. This FAQ covers the game Final Zone 2 for the Turbografx-16 CD system. It's a cool action shooting game. 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. The newest version of this FAQ can be found at the following sites: GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES: v 1.0 8-10-00 -Preliminary edition. -All information present. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY You are Captain (Colonel) Haward Bowie, elite soldier of TOP--the Federation's top fighting unit. You are on a mission to stop ZOD, a secret military organization. You must lead your troops equipped with NAPS (New Age Power Suits) stolen from ZOD and go and defeat the man in charge of ZOD, Alif Ruman. Aside: Lots of inconsistencies in military ranks are in this game. Bowie is listed as a Captain in the manual, yet is called Colonel in the game. Who says video games aren't good for you--by golly, if I could get promoted just by being in a game, I'd play them all the time ^_^ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS D-Pad: Moves character. Button 1: Fires secondary weapon Button 2: Fires primary weapon Select: None Start: Pause Note: Primary Weapons have unlimited ammo. Secondary weapons have limited ammo which is shown at the upper right of the screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MISSIONS (information taken from the manual) There are 7 stages in this game. In missions 1 through 3, you will have use of only one TOP member (a different one for each mission). In stages 4 through 7, you will be able to choose from two or more members. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TOP Members There are five members of TOP. Each member has a NAPS which possesses both a primary and a secondary weapon (names are from the manual). In cases where you can choose which member to use, choose carefully so you can fully exploit the uses of each member. I am commenting on each member to help in your decisions about which member you would like to use. Haward Bowie ------------ Primary Weapon: Vulcan Phalanx Secondary Weapon: Bazooka Comment: Bowie's NAP is pretty standard. The Vulcan has nice range and the Bazooka has great power. However, like most NAPS, close combat will be a problem, so try to keep enemies at a distance. Destroy groups of enemies with the Bazooka. The Bazooka doesn't have a large range though, so you'll have to get in on the enemies a bit to use it effectively. Hanna Franks ------------ Primary Weapon: Vulcan Phalanx Secondary Weapon: Laser Beam Launcher Comment: She has the same primary weapon as Bowie, so she is also somewhat standary. However, the Laser Beam Laucher has very long range (longer than the Bazooka), so she is good for nailing foes at a long distance away. It's weaker than the Bazooka though. Izak Velder (he is called Verda in the game) ----------- Primary Weapon: Saber Secondary Weapon: Laser Beam Rifle Comment: His NAP is designed for close combat--which is ludicrous as every enemy in the game has a long range weapon. However, the Saber is EXTREMELY powerful and can destroy enemies very quickly. In some later stages where enemies require many multiple hits to kill, Izak is great to have. However, because of the terrible range of the Saber, you really have to be quick on the fingers to maneuver close enough to enemies without getting hit. His secondary weapon is like Hanna's, and compensates for the Saber's range. However, since his secondary weapon has limited ammo, you must learn to use the Saber effectively. Note: In Stage 3, Velder rides a helicopter. You don't actually get to use his NAP until a later stage. The helicopter's weapons are: Primary: Vulcan Secondary: Missile Randy Hanson ------------ Primary Weapon: Laser Beam "Turrent" (called 3-way in the game) Secondary Weapon: Missile Launcher Comment: The 3-way is short range (only a little longer than the Saber), but is actually pretty powerful. The spread of the 3-way makes it good for area coverage, but its full effectiveness is severely hampered by the short range. You will still have to get pretty close to use the 3-way effectively. The Missile Launcher is semi-homing. It will curve toward an enemy, but won't just seek them out if they aren't in its path of travel. Randy is good for a group of enemies bunched together, but they don't have to be right next to each other. Momoco Ring ----------- Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle Secondary Weapon: Grenade Launcher Comment: Possessing the primary weapon with the longest range, Momoco is a sort of faster Bowie. The Grenade Launcher is like Bowie's Bazooka but has a kind of arc to it. It will still act like the Bazooka though, so use it that way. To use the rifle effectively, set the turbo switch all the way up, else you will have to press the button continuously for continuous fire. Odd that she is the only person like this. Her long range makes her a very effective fighter and a definite contender for choice for the last stage. Note: Bowie's, Hanna's, Velder's, and Momoco's primary weapon is located on their left side, so your fire stream will be to the left of your character's center. Randy's primary weapon fires from his center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POWER UPS There are a few power ups to help your group in their mission. They are indicated by lettered icons that appear when you destroy some enemies. They are described below. B--replenishes ammunition for special weapons. P--lengthens your life meter. H--restores a small amount of life on your life meter (about 4 units) S--restores ALL health on life meter. Note: Concerning your life meter, the green part is your actual health. The blue part is what you can get by getting P's. You would have to get 3 P's to fill the whole meter. That isn't possible as the game setup won't let a single character be in missions enough to get that many P's, so don't worry. Two P's will be good enough, as you will be left with only one blue life unit anyway. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALKTHROUGH This walkthrough is designed to help you through the stages of Final Zone 2. I am mentioning the available characters you can pick in each stage. Where applicable, I will also suggest characters to use for particular stages. I will give comments on the stage and strategies for the bosses of the stages. Boss names are my own. Stage 1: -------- Available character: Bowie First stage, nothing major. Destroy the troops as you go. Watch for the bazooka troops. Once you reach the grey tower a tank appears. It has two multi-directional turrents that fire in 3,4 or 5 directions. The patterns of firing that I have seen are: pattern 1: --- --- / \ / \ / \ pattern 2: /|\ / | \ / | \ To take out this tank easily, position Bowie so that his primary weapon (which fires from his left hand) is slightly to the right of the turrents. Positioned properly, you will be able to hit the turrents without being hit yourself. Later on you will come to two warehouses that soldiers pour out of. Things can get hectic here as soldiers will come from the sides and bottom, plus you don't have a lot of room to move. Destroy the two bazooka troops quiclky to end this and open up a path in the forest behind them. BOSS: Troops and Commander Here you will many soldiers and their commander (that's what I call him anyway). The commander is the yellow soldier. He takes more punishment than the green troops. Use your Bazooka to kill him and end the stage. Watch for an occasional grenade from a soldier. Stage 2: -------- Available character: Hanna This stage can be pretty difficult, only because Hanna doesn't have much health to work with, and there are two parts here that can swipe your life meter pretty fast. You need good life for the boss. When you reach the first set of tire treads, a mid-boss tank appears. This is just like the one with Bowie, so take care of it the same way. Later on when you reach a clear patch of land, get to the upper right side of the screen. A second tank appears. This one is harder than the first, as it has a bomb launcher. The launcher drops bombs in groups of six. The bombs curve as they fall, plus some of them will swoop back to hit you once they reach the screen edge. Use your beam launcher to take out the bomb launcher. Get at a diagonal to hit it quickly before it gets you into range. When you get to a row of trees (three bazooka troops will be around this area), get ready for two fireballs to appear. Sets of three fireballs will continously be thrown at you as you continue up. Go from side to side as you go up to avoid being hit. To first understand the pattern, when you dodge a group of fireballs, wait until the next group is thrown. You'll see the timing necessary to get by. BOSS: Large tank This thing is mean. It possesses four normal multi-directional turrents and a large fireball-throwing turrent in its center. The turrent will throw up to four fireballs at you. The turrents do their normal multi-directional firing. To take this thing out, first use your secondary weapon to take out the turrents. Position Hanna under a vertical pair of turrents and fire continuously. The beam launcher should strike both turrents. Continue until they are destroyed, then do the same for the other side. Once the four normal turrents are destroyed, you can hit the main turrent. Notice the timing for dodging the fireballs and use your weapons to destroy the boss. Stage 3: -------- Available character: Velder (helicopter) In this stage, you are in control of a helicopter piloted by Velder. Your enemies are helicopters, jets, and battleships. The enemy choppers will appear on the screen, take three shots at you and then float around the screen trying to go away. Because of the enemy congestion, look at what choppers shoot at you so you know who you should bother avoiding until you can get into proper range. The jets are a real pain, doing lots of damage fast. They swoop onto the screen and drop three bombs at you. The bombs will do multiple hits. With three planes dropping three bombs each, that will wipe out much of your life very quickly. Early in the stage, they will come in groups of three. Stay in the middle of the screen near the screen bottom so you can have time to respond. After the big aircraft carrier, the jets will come in either a group of three or solo. You can stay near a side to avoid getting hit. Keep a keen eye. BOSS: Big plane The plane makes circles around the screen and drops bombs at you. It is so large that it covers the upper and upper middle screen areas. Use your missiles and vulcan to down this thing. It start at the upper right screen area. When you hear the boss music, position your chopper at the right side of the screen and fire. When you see it, start pumping the missiles out. Stay under the middle of the plane to avoid the bombs. Stage 4: -------- Available character: Momoco, Randy Suggested character: either Hey, an actual choice of characters! We are moving up in the world, aren't we? ^_^ I've found that either Momoco or Randy will work decently for this stage. Randy's spread area with the 3-way will take out the troops quite effectively, and the Missile Launder will help get those trickily placed foes. Momoco's range with the Assault Rife speaks volumes of good cheer and you will find that range to be a Godsend, especially because. . . . . .later in the stage you will face enemy troops in their own NAPS. From now on all your normal enemies will be in suits and thus take much more punishment than before. The grey soldiers act like the green troops faced in stages before (firing three shots). The yellow soldiers are very dangerous as they possess laser rifles. These rifles are very fast in firing and have long range. Get their timing down to the number to effectively take them out. A note on the grey soldiers. You will notice that when they get vertically even with you, they will dash toward you. Be ready for this. The good news is that they don't fire when they do this dash, so continous fire will dash them on to heaven (well, the other place since they're the bad guys ^_^ ). BOSS: Troops. Just a bunch of grey and yellow soldiers here. Although you have the whole screen to move in, avoiding the fire of the soldiers to get into range can make this hazardous and thus corner you. I will offer two strategies to use which will depend on who you chose to tackle this mission: Randy: If you have Randy, use the Missile Launcher to clear some space, especially aim for those yellow soldiers. Use the 3-way to kill the grey soldiers, and yellow soldiers if you can get to them in time. Momoco: You don't have Randy's 3-way here, so you will have to do a LOT of moving to get in line with enemy soldiers. Use the Grenade Launcher to do major damage to the troops. Try not to get too close to foes. Exploit Momoco's range. Stage 5: -------- Available character: Bowie, Hanna Suggested character: Hanna You will be flying up a waterfall here. Your enemies are still the grey and yellow soldiers, but you will also encounter green flying soldiers. These soldiers are also in NAPS. They fire like the green human troops of stages yore. The grey soldiers have a new firing pattern. They fire four times in various directions (usually in three directions going your way). The grey and yellow soldiers will be on land, thus they will be either on the edges of the screen, or on sporatic land patches in the middle of the screen. Hanna is good here because of her long-range Laser Beam Rifle. Use it to get those troops on land that are too much hassle to get close to. Also use it on the green troops if they are cornering you. Further up, you will come to land that you can finally walk on. The entrance to that land is a little area at the right of the screen. BOSS: Armored Troops Green armored bazooka troops are your foes here. There are six of them and they come in two waves. Risings in the land act as obstacles that restrict movement. When you destroy the first wave, a powerup will appear, but so will the second wave of troops, so be ready. If you have the ammo, make liberal use of the Laser Beam Launcher until you can get some space to use your primary weapon. Stage 6: -------- Available character: Bowie, Hanna, Velder Suggested character: Velder or Bowie It's suicidal to use Velder if your reflex skills aren't good. If you don't believe you are good with dodging and getting in on foes quickly, don't use Velder. Use Bowie instead. His Bazooka will prove handy. Use Velder's Saber to take out the troops (see how powerful that thing is?) You will face several tanks in this stage. The early ones will be like in Bowie's stage. A later one (or two) will be like Hanna's. To face the tanks with Velder, just use his Laser Beam Rifle. I don't suggest even trying to use the Saber on the tanks. If you are out of rifle ammo, do hit and run tactics on the tanks to destroy their turrents, then the tank itself. BOSS: Laser troops This is nasty. You don't have a lot of room to move in at all, and the boss has TWO laser rifles that fire simultaneously. If you have Velder, do a blitzkrieg, bum-rush, in-the-face attack on the yellow troops. Get in there and Saber away. You should be able to wipe 90% of them off before you lose too much life. Use your Laser Beam Rifle to take pot shots at the boss. If you can manage it, get close for a moment and Saber him, then RUN away fast!! Stage 7: -------- Available character: Bowie, Hanna, Velder, Randy, Momoco Suggested character: Momoco The gang's all here. I beat this with Momoco the first time, so that's why she is mentioned. Hindsight analysis shows that Bowie and Hanna would be good too, but Momoco's God-sent range is really helpful here. Well, after Randy's SCARY revelation (". . .but, there are more than bio- monsters. . ." Ooh, if only there was a drumbeat or something), it's off to the last stage. Monsters are your enemies here. Things from red fire-breathing monsters, to harpies, to spiders appear. Blast away. You will face electric barriers here that block your shots. I presume they sap your life too, so don't be in between them when they activate. Later in the stage, you will have a choice of four corridors. It doesn't matter which you choose, but keep firing, as the mech spiders appear and toss lasers. Because they are so fast and appear in fours, this area is a real hazard. Just blast away in your corridor to clear the spider(s) out of it while staying far up enough to avoid the lasers of the others. Once you reach the joining point of the corridors, you can blast the other spiders with little trouble. The door ahead will open when you are near it, but a monster is inside (you will see it). Move up enough to get the monster to come out, kill it, then go into the doors. Come out in the new area and go up. At a point of going through doors, you will be in a darker area. Spiders will come from the sides. Get in a crevice between the white structures and try to fire at an angle. The area you are in will keep the lasers from hitting you for a while, but hurry as the spiders will move into range enough to hit you. Harpies appear later on. Use your Grenade Launcher to clean up so you can take time to work on the spiders. BOSS: Monster Well, the first BIG opponent you've faced in the game. The boss comes in three phases. In this phase, the boss fires several shots at you. The best way to take care of this part is to get to the upper right or left side of the screen and blast at the head. The shots won't be able to hit you at all. You may get hit switching sides though, but all in all, you shouldn't have much of a problem with this part. Do enough damage and the boss explodes and goes into phase 2. Phase 2: Now you are facing just the arms and the skull face, all floating around the screen. The arms throw electric bolts, while the skull face throws a single fireball. The bolts don't travel any, they just comes out of the hand and go a certain distance. The thing is that it is continuous for a while. Grenade the arms to quickly destroy them and make some room. When you destroy one arm, the skull starts throwing four fireballs at once. Destroy both arms and phase 3 begins. Phase 3: Now you are left facing just the skull. It throws one fireball, then four fireballs. Get the pattern down to get your timing. The dodging is easy once you get this. The hard part is killing the thing. The skull can only be damaged when its mouth opens--that is, when it throws a fireball. You would do best to stay under the skull, as it's constant moving would be fatal to you if you tried to get beside it. Now you see the difficulty here. But what have I constantly said about Momoco? Right, her God-sent range. If there's one thing about stuff sent from God, it's that it's always good. Momoco's primary weapon has enough range that you can keep a good distance from the skull and still hit it. The distance you keep will give you some time to see the fireballs coming and dodge them. It will take some time and a lot of moving, but eventually you will win. Kill the skull and you win! Sit back and watch the rather short ending. Aside: Man, what a rip-off. You don't even get any credits, although the moment between Bowie and Ruman was just a bit tense (wow, we might actually lose the hero folks. . .not) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS The enemy troops constantly move. Many times you can sit in a certain spot out of the 8 compass directions, and the troops will eventually move to one of those directions so they can shoot you. So keep firing and when they move into range, they will get hit instead. Although it makes for a slow and choppy game, move up the screen in bits. Don't try to walk the whole distance or the troops will really gang up on you. Move up a bit, wait for the screen to catch up, see and deal with the foes that appear, and repeat. You will face less troops at once this way and thus lessen your chances of being hit by a screen full of enemy fire. Your NAPS can take about two to three normal enemy shots before you lose a life unit, but since enemies fire in sets anyway, this really doesn't mean much. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS God--for the strength, life, and intellect to do this FAQ 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