Blade&Sword
User’s
Manual
www.whiptailinteractive.com
Story Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
1-1 How to Install
1-2 Start the Game
1-3 Meeting the First Challenge
1-4 The First Battle
1-5 Saving the Game and Loading Saved Games
CHAPTER TWO
2-1 Characters Guide
2-2 Battle Skills Guide
2-3 Monsters Guide
CHAPTER THREE
3-1 Equipment Guide
3-2 Gems Guide
3-3 Projectile Weapons Guide
3-4 Storyline Equipment and Important Characters
CHAPTER FOUR
4-1 Creating and Using Combo-Techniques
4-2 Using Combo-Techniques
4-3 Embedding and Crafting Gems
CHAPTER FIVE
5-1 Technical Support
5-2 Frequently Asked Questions
5-3 Related Websites
5-4 Keyboard Commands Quick Reference Table
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Introduction
The creation of "Blade and Sword" may be traced to the summer of 2001. At that time, core members of Pixel Studio were nearing the final stage of developing another game; driven by their passion for adventure role playing games (ARPGs), core members decided to leave their jobs, form a new team, and begin developing an ideal Chinese action RPG. This game is the "Blade and Sword" you see today.
In the spring of 2002, Pixel Studio began corresponding with partners of Centent Interactive, and fervently discussed this game’s course of design and market trends. Members of Centent Interactive had tremendous passion and interest in developing this RPG. They began recruiting many more experienced game developers, and joined in the design and planning of this game. Therefore, in the course of developing "Blade and Sword", two companies separately employed design and development personnel from China, Taiwan and the U.S.A. Not only is this a bold undertaking for Pixel Studio, considering the game development environment in the greater China region, this is also the channel through which Centent Interactive intends to enter the international market.
Through this collaborative effort, we hope "Blade and Sword" will not only present the martial styles and game designs favored by the East, but could also enable Western players to understand the unique design characteristics of Eastern games.
We feel "Blade and Sword" is a game with unique characteristics; in its artistic style, soundtrack, and game design, we tried our utmost to make it uniquely different and suitable to the general gaming audience.
Lastly, thank you for purchasing this game. We are grateful for your support, and will strive to express our sincere thanks with even better gaming products in the future.
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Story
Approximately three thousand years ago (BC 1044), when Emperor Zhou-Wu attacked Emperor Jo and destroyed the country Shan, Emperor Jo set himself alight in the Reaching Star Building. Before Emperor Jo died, country Shan’s grand wizard Wen exerted all of his arcane might to garner and teleport the hate-filled dying thoughts of Emperor Jo out of the Human Realm, awaiting the day when Emperor Jo could return to the Human Realm to reclaim his throne.
The incredible might of Emperor Jo’s dying thoughts, amplified by Wizard Wen’s spells, punctured and created an accessible rift amongst three of the six parallel universes -Human Realm, Beast Realm, and Demon Realm. In the resulting time-space disruptions, many people from different times were swept into a physical world, and monsters from the previously parallel universes now roamed freely through the rift. Because this rift was created through Wizard Wen’s manipulation of Emperor Jo’s vengeful thoughts, monsters and demons that entered the Human Realm through the rift were easily enslaved by Wizard Wen. Wizard Wen organized these enslaved creatures into a powerful army of monsters and demons that traversed between the Human Realm and the Demon Realms, creating unspeakable havoc in its wake.
There was no shortage of would-be heroes, willing to slay monsters and demons to save the hapless populace. But as these creatures all had an intensely malevolent nature, the aspiring heroes needed to have powerful self-control, as otherwise they could turn evil themselves, through the bad blood that fell upon their weapon when slaying monsters. At the same time, determined heroes found that only through proper application of certain virtues unique to Humankind one could resist the demonic nature of one’s weapon, whose power continually increases each time it slays an evil creature; and only through mastery of one’s increasingly demonic weapon could one combat creatures of greater evil.
Players experience three realms in this game, they are the Human Realm (the Middle Plane), the Beast Realm (the Tundra), and the Demon Realm (Hell). The player’s main mission in the Human Realm is to improve his battle skills, while getting an overview of the entire situation. The player also has to go through the first trial by the "Seven Holy-Spirits". Only by passing the test will he become qualified to enter the Beast Realm and combat stronger creatures. In the Beast Realm, the player will find many exemplary virtues of human nature; these virtues are the protective wards the player needs to enter the Demon Realm. Once the player has successfully entered the Demon Realm, he will meet some corpses, and find out about the strange things that have happened to them. In actual fact, these are all aspects of humankind’s evil nature; once the player has gained understanding of both the good and evil in people’s hearts, he will no longer fear to be control by the demonic nature of his weapons, but will be able to command Demonic Emperor Jo and Wizard Wen.
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Chapter One
HOW TO INSTALL
It is very easy to install "Blade and Sword". You only need to put "CD 1" in the CD Drive, and click on Setup.exe to activate the installation program. The installation process is completely automated. After installation has been completed, you will only need to re-install Microsoft DirectX 8.1 to play this game.
START THE GAME
In a hurry to try your hand at this game? If you’re a seasoned gamer, feel free to skip this section. However, if you take a few minutes to read these instructions, perhaps you will enjoy this game even more!
After installing this game, the "Blade and Sword" icon appears on your Desktop. Doubleclick this icon to start the game. (The first time you play, the game will try to detect your video card, and the screen will be black for several seconds. This is normal.)
After the game starts, you will see the following menus. The main menu provides the following functions:
New Game: Start a completely new game.
Load Game: Continue a previously saved game.
Settings: Adjust volumes for music and sound effects; Adjust screen brightness; Select graphics definition as either 640 X 480 or 800 X 600; Activate or disable "Auto-Zoom" function.
Programmers: Here you can see all the members of this game’s design team.
Exit: Leave the game, return to Windows Desktop.
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If this is the first time you play this game, naturally you should select "New Game". Please click on the "New Game" button. You will then see the following Character Selection screen:
When you move the cursor near a character’s icon, that character will be highlighted; left-click to select this character for the game. No matter which character you prefer, all three are unique and challenging, please try them all!)
Once you have selected a character, the screen will ask you to name the character:
In this picture, you will see two selections, User Name and Difficulties.
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YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE
Ok, after viewing the opening animation and the story introduction, are you ready to slay monsters and demons?
While viewing the story introduction, you can hit the Space Bar to accelerate the scrolling speed; while speaking with other characters in the game, the Space Bar may also be used to accelerate the conversation’s scrolling speed. If you would rather skip the text, aside from accelerating the scrolling, you may also hit the ESC key to abort the story introduction or text conversation. However, characters in the game often reveal important information needed to pass stages in the game through conversations, so it would be best if you read them carefully.
The first scene upon entering the game
In this picture, you will see two options, User Name and Difficulties. User Names help you select existing characters and their saved progress when you want to load a game. Difficulty lets you select the difficulty level. The default setting for the game is "Medium". If you are a peace-loving hero, we suggest you start the game with difficulty level "Easy". If you do not want to use this character, click the "Cancel" button and you will return to the "Character Selection" screen. Click the "Confirm" button to enter the game.
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Hit the Tab key, open the small map
Hit the TAB key to open the small map, or click on the map button at the lower right hand corner to open the small map.
The marks on the small map
The green dot on the small map represents your position; the blue dot represents friendly NPC.
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Entering the first conversation
Move to the upper right corner of the screen from the starting position, and you will see the first NPC "Shopkeeper Guo", the speech bubble above his head indicates he has something to say to you.
Receiving the first mission
After Shopkeeper Guo finishes speaking to you, you will have received your first mission: rescue Doctor Chin.
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Opening the Journal notes to review missions
You could click the "Journal Notes" button or hit the N key to open the notes window, and review your mission messages and progress.
Purchasing from Shopkeeper Guo
Before leaving Shopkeeper Guo, you ought to buy some potions from him, so you have enough healing potions to heal yourself during battles. Click on Shopkeeper Guo, select "Purchase Goods".
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Buy four healing potions
In the lower left hand purchasing window, select a small vase sealed with red cloth, click on it, and select "Confirm". Now you will see a healing potion in "Items" window in the lower right hand corner, your money has decreased by 60 units.
Repeat this process until you have four healing potions in your "Items" window.
Speak
When you leave Shopkeeper Guo and head down, you will see another character - Kung Shu Ban. Speak with Kung Shu Ban, receive the second mission: "Find the Wooden Eagle".
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Leave the village, meet the first challenge
Leave Kong Shu Ban, head towards the upper right hand corner, and you will see the village gates. At the gates, you see four soldiers. Click on the village gates, head out of the village until the cursor turns into what you see in Picture 1-3-14; click once, and you will enter the first stage: "Sunset Trail".
Ok, by now you have learned basic game commands such as how to talk, buy things, and view the mission log and progress. Next, we will take you into the first battle.
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THE FIRST BATTLE
After entering the first stage ("Sunset Trail"), what should you do? You know you have two missions to complete: (1) Rescue Doctor Chin; (2) Find the wooden eagle for Kung Shu Ban. In the game, taking on missions is a very important process; if you do not accomplish the required missions, you will not be able to successfully complete the game. "Find the wooden eagle" is the first branch mission in this game; regardless of whether or not you complete it, the progress of the game will not be affected; but generally speaking, the character who issued the mission will give you some reward upon completion of branch missions.
In order to complete the mission, you must find hints and methods in various scenarios. You will see a wide variety of hideous monsters in different scenarios. Do not even try to negotiate with these annoying monsters, or interrogate them for hints. The weapon in your hand is the only language they understand.
Therefore, before you can become a widely respected hero, let’s first examine various fundamental techniques used in battle!
First, you must familiarize yourself with all the command interfaces. This way you can control all the basic functions offered by this game.
Understanding the control interface
•Hit Points: Represents your character’s current life value; when it drops to zero, your character will die. Chi: "Chi" is the source of your battle techniques,
when there isn’t a sufficient amount of "chi", some battle techniques can not be used. Fury: "Fury Points" are the source of your super technique. Until you have learned a super technique, no "Fury Points" will not be accumulated.
•Left technique: The technique executed by hitting the left mouse button.
•Stamina: Running and blocking uses up stamina; when the stamina level reaches zero, your character will not be able to run or block.
•Left belt: Can hold six vials of healing or chi restoration potions. If the item window displays the same kinds of potions, they will automatically be moved to the corresponding location in the left belt. To use them, hit keys 1 to 6 on the keyboard.
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•Experience: Your character’s current accumulated experience; when the experience bar is full, the character will automatically gain a level.
•Right belt: Can hold up to six projectile weapons or projectile items; each block holds up to nine identical items. To use them, hit F1 - F6 on the keyboard.
•Journal notes button: Clicking on it once will open the "Journal" window.
•Attributes button: Opens "Attributes" window, review your character’s current attributes.
•Inventory button: Open the "Inventory" window to review your current equipment or inventory.
•Map button: Open or close the small map in the upper right hand corner. The small map will display the positions of your character, other characters, and the enemy boss, as well as money, equipment or items that have fallen on the ground.
•Skills button: Opens the "Skills" window. Each time you gain a level, you will receive skill points; with them you could select battle skills you wish to learn, or work on your combotechniques.
•System button: Opens the "System" window. You could change game settings, or exit (and automatically save) the game.
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Locate the enemy, attack and defend
The first enemy you will meet on the Sunset Trail is "Carrion Corpse". When a red circle appears beneath its feet, it means it has been locked on as a target for attack. (Your character will automatically search for enemies; you can also use the cursor to select targets for your attacks.) Click the left mouse button to execute the left attack technique. Press the Alt key to start to block and resist an enemy attack. (Please note that defending will decrease your character’s stamina.)
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Dodging and leaping
Apart from your defense moves, you can also press the keyboard space bar to suddenly dodge behind the enemy and carry out a surprise attack before the enemy attacks you. When you are surrounded by enemies, you can press the right mouse button to leap out of the encircling mob (leaping will expend your chi).
Please note: because the right technique may be freely used in various martial arts, if the current right technique setting is not "leap", you may use the mouse to click on the right technique icon, or press the Q button to "quick-change" the right technique to "leap".
Recover hit points or chi
When your life is in jeopardy, you may press key 1 or 2 on the keyboard to quickly replenish the hit points; when your chi is low, you may press key 3 or 4 on the keyboard to quickly replenish the
chi. 5, 6: These two slots will automatically hold Rejuvenation Potions (which will simultaneously replenish HP and chi), but you may also freely place various potions here.
Discharging projectile weapons
You may also choose to discharge projectile weapons to attack the enemy. It is very easy to discharge projectile weapons. Press the F1 key on the keyboard (a stone is displayed in the picture), the right
technique will automatically display the "Throw" icon; click the right mouse button and you will launch the projectile weapon.
Please note! Projectile weapons may be placed in any slot on the right belt; the F1 key isn’t always a stone.
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Homing pearl (quick return to the village)
When you are in danger, e.g. when you have used all your potions but are still surrounded and fiercely attacked by enemies, you may press the F2 key (the homing pearl will be displayed), and click on empty ground with the right mouse button. A teleport gate back to the village will appear next to you.
Enter the teleport gate, and you will immediately leave the battlefield and return to the village. If you wish to return to the battlefield again, enter the teleport gate and you will be returned to the location on the battlefield where the teleport gate was initially summoned.
Because the Homing Pearl is very useful, it is advisable to prepare four, five, or more, in case they are needed.
Please note! Projectile weapons may be placed in any slots on the right belt; the F2 key is not always a Homing Pearl.
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