Legendary Axe 2 (e)

Cover
                              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

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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.


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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.

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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.


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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


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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.


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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.

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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.

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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.


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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)

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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)

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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