Equinox Instruction Manual
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Equinox
Code:- EQUINOX - (snes) CONTENTS The Way of the Son............................4 Starting the Game...........................N/A The Kingdoms of the World.....................7 The Map.......................................7 Controls.....................................10 Life and Magic...............................11 Saving Games.................................13 Know Thine Enemies, and How to Defeat Them...13 The Mystery of the Stone Crosses.............14 The Dungeons of Death........................15 Controls.....................................16 The Select Screen............................17 Rooms, Doors, and Bricks.....................18 The Tools at Hand............................20 Apples and Potions...........................20 Keys and Tokens..............................21 Weapons......................................22 Spells.......................................23 Demons in the Dark...........................25 Guardians of Fate............................26 Song of the Harp.............................29 Sony Imagesoft, Inc. Warranty.............. N/A -[4]- THE WAY OF THE SON My Dear Son, In magic as in the seasons of the sun, balance is everything. From solstice to equinox, equinox to solistice, the balance of darkness and light turns and turns again, round and round through the circles of eternity. Even so must we who command magic hold in delicate balance the good and evil inherent in our power. It is many years since I, Shadax your father, survived the trials of Solstice. And they have been years of great peace and prosperity throughout our kingdom of Galadonia. But now - as surely, much to your horror, you already know - that age of light has been shattered and scattered, driven to the four winds like splinters of a gentle dream by the gruesome nightmare of... Sonia. She sought me out to be her teacher. But she was my enemy. She pledged herself as my follower. Now she is my captor. She promised to place her powers in the service of the world. But her only ambition was, is, and ever will be to be its evil empress - to crush it, and me, and you, O my son. -[5]- Now the way of the son - your way - is clear. It is back, back to the light from this darkness. To deliver your father, your land, and all the peoples of the world from a dateles night of pestilence, plague, terror, and despair. Make no mistake. The way of the son is long and arduous. It leads through the gloom of the deep, deadly dungeons that underlie the seven kingdoms of creation. And all - both the far reaches of the visible world and the vast caverns of the dungeon world below - all is overrun with Sonia's venomous demons. But my power, and my life - and time itself - ebb fast away, even as I call you to your mission. Begin. Shadax -[7]- THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD The world of Equinox hold seven kingdoms, from Galadonia to Death Island, home of the savage Sonia. They are -- __________________ / DEATH \ \ ISLAND / \________________/ ____________ ___________________ | \ / _/ |GALADONIA -/-------------------DEESO / |__________/ \________________) ____|____ () | \ |/ | \ X | TORI /---------X____________ __/ ATLENA |________/ / ---------------\ | O |QUAGMIRE /---O o o o _ _______/\-------- 4 |_____________/ |X| //\/\/\ \ ~~~ /-------------------------------/ /\ /\/\_/ / / /\ /\ /\ /\_/ \ AFRALONA / /\ /\ /\/\ / \_____________________/____________/ -[8]- GALADONIA Your home, located in the northwest corner of the map. There are three villages here. The underground dungeon is small, as dungeons go. TORI The forest kingdom to the south of Galadonia. Four villages lead down into a rough network of dungeon caverns. DEESO This barren desert kingdom lies east of Galadonia. Its eerie dungeon is littered - and haunted? - with the remains of an ancient civilization. Atlena This is land that man made, for Atlena is nothing more than a handful of villages supported by wooden platforms built by the inhabitants. It all floats, just south of Deeso, above the murky dungeon world of a sunken castle. Quagmire A swampy, fetid place worthy of its name. Difficult to navigate, and the dump dungeon below - entered through five villages - is just as treacherous. South or Tori. Afralona This large kingdom lies far to the south, engulfed by tropical seas, and hides a sprawling, tomb-like dungeon. Afralona's eastern frontier bristles with an impassable mountain range, but the seaport at the southeastern corner of this ocean kingdom is your gateway to Death Island. -[9]- Death Island This frozen isle lies amid the bleak northern seas. Its desolate landscape affords only one entrance to the giant dungeon below: the Ice Palace, stronghold of Sonia, your father's prison... and your utilmate destination. You start the game in Galadonia. But eventually you must travel through all the kingdoms, braving the horde of trolls and werebats let loose upon the world by the evil sorceress. And in every kingdom, you must descend into the dungeons below and unlock doors, find and use objects and weapons, cast spells - whatever it takes to vanquish Sonia's horrid minions as you fight your way, tooth and nail, toward your father's rescue. Galadonia and its four neighboring kingdoms are joined by wooden bridges, many guarded by the spirit of the Guardian of the dungeon below. So you'll have to destroy the Guardian before you can pass over the bridge and continue on your journey. You can reach Sonia's Ice Palace, on Death Island, only by sea. But there are no seaports on Galadonia or its immediate neighbors, and the port in Afralona, to the south, is too far away for you to reach on foot. So you'll have to find some other means of transport to Afralona before you can set sail for Death Island. -[10]- CONTROLS Use the buttons on your controller as shown when navigating the surface world of the kingdoms: Control Pad Move in the direction of each arrow B Button (Yellow) Jump Y Button (Green) Play the harp X Button (Blue) Rotate the map to orient north at the top of the screen L Button Rotate the map 45 degrees to the left R Button Rotate the map 45 degrees to the right START Button Pause to view large scale map, press again to resume play -[11]- You can walk over land and wood but not over water, though you can jump over small pools and narrow streams as well as small objects on the ground. By pressing and releasing the L and R buttons, you can rotate the map around you 45 degrees at a time, so you can go in eight different directions in all. If you get disoriented, press the blue X button to "reset" the map with north at the top of the screen. To get a better sense of your bearings, press START to see a large-scale map of the kingdom you're exploring. Press START again to resume play. LIFE and MAGIC The two-line display on the screen shows the following: LIFE Life energy MAGIC Magic power -[12]- At the start of a game, you have two full red portions of life energy and two hollow green portions of magic energy. Portions of energy are used up in half units. So, for example, the first time you lose a life, your life energy will be reduced to one and a half full portions (you'll also have to start over in the room you're exploring at that time). When no remaining life energy is displyed, the next time you lose a life the game will be over. You can restore your life energy to varying degrees by picking up and eating apples. Magic energy is required to cast spells. Each spell requires a particular amount of energy. If you don't have enough energy for a given spell, you simply won't be able to cast it. To increase your magic energy, you must pick up and drink potions. You can't store more than two full portions of life or magic energy, no matter how many apples or potions you consume. When you have the maximum amount of either kind of energy, you can plan ahead and leave the apples and potions you find until later. However, if you don't clear a room of all the apples, potions, keys and tokens after you defeat all the demon creatures, they'll reappear the next time you enter the room. You can increase the maximum capacity of your life energy by successfully using a new-found wepon against the first enemy creature you encounter, and by defeating a dugeon Guardian. In a similar fashion, you can increase the maximum capacity of your magic energy by learning a new spell or by defeating a Guardian. -[13]- SAVING GAMES You can save up to four games on the batter-backed Equinox game pak, then select any saved game to resume play via the menu on the title screen. A game is automatically saved every time you leave a dungeon and return to the map. And, as you'll find out, there's a spell you can use to save your current position in a dungeon. When you lose all your lives, you have the option of continuing from the last point oat which the game was saved. If, instead, you choose GAME OVER, the game is saved from that some point for you to resume at a later time. KNOW THINE ENEMIES, AND HOW TO DEFEAT THEM Sonia's trolls and werebats swarm through the seven kingdoms, though the further they are from ther stronghold, the weaker they are. Werebats live in holes in the ground, and come flying out to attack as you approach. When they're killed, they usually leave behind a potion that will increase your magical power, as shown in the Magic counter on the screen. -[14]- Trolls drop down from the clouds and chase you. When ther're killed, they pass on their life force to you, increasing the number of lives you hace as shown in the LIFE counter on the screen. When you begin a game, you have no weapon-you must descend into the dungeon beneath Gladonia before you'll find your first weapon. If your're attacked by a troll or werebat before you've armed yourself, the only sensible thing to do is run away. But this won't work once you leave Galadonia; in the other kingdoms, where the landscape is less open, you'll have to fight to the death with anything that attacks you. When you do get a new weapon, the first troll you meet will be flashing, which means that it's especially tough-it will give you a chance to give your new weapon a real workout. If you defeat the troll, you'll receive a permanent extra life. THE MYSTERY OF THE STONE CROSSES The stone crosses you'll see in each kingdom are part of an ancient magical transport system. Unfortunately, the secret of how to master and use this system has been lost. -[15]- THE DUNGEONS OF DEATH The dungeons of Equinox, mostly underground caverns, are reached through the villages of teh kingdoms, which appear as brown huts with smoking chimneys. When you leave a dungeon through a different village from the one you entered, you'll find yourself in the same kingdom but in a different place. The dungeons contain several rooms. As you progress through the kingdoms, you'll find that each dungeon is bigger than the last. But in each one, you'll find many useful objects to collect, weapons to use, and doors to unlock. And you'll encounter many savage creatures, each of which you must destroy before you can go on with your quest. -[16]- CONTROLS In the dungeons, you use the buttons on your controller as shown- Control pad Move in the direction for each arrow, and push B Button (yellow) Jump Y Button (green) Fire current weapon X Button (blue) Cast current spell Select Call up select screen Start Pause or resume play -[17]- You can move and jump, just as in the surface world. You can walk on most objects that you encounter, such as bricks, tables, stumps, and cages. But spikes are always deadly-fall on one, jump on one, or even touch one, and you'll lose a life. You can jump about one and a half bricks high. Usually, you'll come just barely short if you try to jump the width of two bricks between two bricks of equal height. You can fall any distance without getting hurt, unless of course you land on a spike. You can also turn and change direction in midair while jumping. THE SELECT SCREEN You use the Select Screen to assess your inventory, and select a weapon or spell. You can call up this screen at any time when you're in a dungeon. The game is paused while the Select Screen is displayed. The Select Screen shows the name of the current dungeon and room number, your inventory of keys and tokens, a list of the weapons and spells you've picked up, and which weapon and spell are currently selected. Select **EXIT** to return to game play. -[18]- ROOMS, DOORS, AND BRICKS ROOMS Every dungoeon is split into rooms, each one usually about twice the size of the screen. Each dungeon has more rooms than the one before it. The first dungeon has only 16 rooms, the Ice Palace over 100. Everyroom has a number, which is displayed on the Select Screen. You must clear a room to permanently destroy all the enemy creatures in it-which means you must defeat every creature, collect every item, and leave the room without losing a life. If you defeat only half the enemies or leave an object uncollected, the next time you enter the room the creatures will have multiplied to full strength again. You have to carry keys, tokens, and weapons out of the room where you find them in order to add them to your inventory. If you lose a life just after collecting an item, you must begin all over to clear the room-although you will not lose any food, potions, or spells you've already collected. DOORS Most doors appear in two forms. When on the far wall of a room, they appear as doorways leading into darkness. When on the front wall, doors appear as arrows on the floor, so as not to obstruct your view of the room. There are also some secret doors, not indicated by doorways or arrows. It's up to you to find them. -[19]- Most doors are open, but some are locked. Colored locked doors-green, blue, red, and white-can be opened with a key of the same color. Flashing locked doors stay locked until the room is cleared-that is, all enemies destroyed and all items collected. BRICKS The dungeons closer to your goal contain many bricks with unusual or magical properties that may hinder or help your progress. The simplest of these are the pushable bricks. They look exactly like other bricks, but they can be pushed around-although some are so heavy that you may have to push for a few seconds before that you may have to push for a few seconds before they start ot budge. If you find yourself apparently stuck in a room, try pushing every brick for a way out. Some bricks work like conveyor belts. They look like ordinary bricks, but they'll push you (or a pushable brick) in a certain directon. These conveyor bricks don't affect enemy creatures. Other kinds of special bricks include sliding bricks, floating bricks, invisible bricks, and exploding bricks. You'll have to discover these on your own. As you'll see, the Reveal spell will highlight all the special bricks in a room except conveyor bricks -[20]- THE TOOLS AT HAND There are two kinds of items to be found in the dungeons of Equinox, those that affect your energy and those that you can and to your inventory and use. Apples and Potions Apples increase your life energy and potions increase your magic energy, up to your maximum capacity. Potions come in four colors, from least to greatest strength: green, blue, red and white. You'll find apples and potions dotted around the rooms of every dungeon. Like other objects, they may have been left behind by defeated enemies. -[21]- KEYS AND TOKENS Keys come in several colors, and each one opens a door of its own hue. A key can be used only once, and then disappears. So if, for example, there are four locked blued doors, you'll need four blue keys to open them. You can't take keys from one dungeon and use them in another dungeon. Keep in mind, too, that each dungeon contains the same number of keys as locked doors. So if you have any spare keys when you're ready to leave a dungeon, more of the dungeon remains to be explored. Every dungeon contains 12 tokens. They may be lying on the floor or hidden in a room or even carried by a demon creature, in which case you won't find the token until all the enemies in the room have beeen destroyed. You must have all 12 tokens to summon the Guardian at the end of the dungeon. When you have all 12, simply walk into the Guardian's room to summon it. The tokens will tehn disappear, but the Guardian, of course, will remain-to take you on in mortal combat. -[22]- WEAPONS Every dungeon contains one hidden weapon. The first weapon you pick up becomes your selected weapon. As you add more weapons to your inventory, you must choose the one you want to use through the select screen. You can complete the game with only one weapon, but each weapon collected will make the game a little easier to play. All weapons are projectile weapons-you throw all of them. But they vary in strength, speed, and the number that can be thrown at once. Name Number of Speed Strength Projectiles Dagger 1 fast 1 Shuriken 2 slow 2 Axe 3 fast 3 TwinDagger 3 fast 4 Sword 2 very fast 5 Scimitar 3 slow 6 Mace 3 slow 7 Twin Sword 3 very fast 8 -[23]- Spells As with weapons, you'll find one spell in each dungeon, and as you build up your inventory of spells, you use the Select Screen to choose the one you want to use. Unlike weapons, some spells are essential to completing the game. You need magic energy to put spells to good use - unless you have the energy needed when you use a selected spell, nothing will happen. Most spells affect either you or the room you're in when you use the spell, and they last only for a while. When you cast these spells, the screen blurs in and out of focus, and a magical bell sounds until the spell runs its course. The spells are as follows: HEAL. This spell reduces you magic energy and increases your life energy, both by one half portion, each time you press the blue (X) button. SLOW. This spell slows down all the demons in the room for 10 seconds without affecting you. It requires one full portion of magic energy. DAMAGE. This knocks off half the energy of every enemy creature in the room, at a cost of one and a half portions of magic energy. -[24]- FREEZE. For two full portions of magic, this spell freezes every demon in the room for 10 seconds. ZAP. Destroy every bad guy in the room - but it will cost you two and half portions of magic energy. SAVE. For three portions, you can save your current position in the dungeon on the battery-backed Equinox Game Pak. But this spell does not work in the room through which you enter a dungeon. REVEAL. Highlights all bricks in the room that are pushable or otherwise magical. Cost: three and a half portions of magic energy. UNLOCK. This spell unlocks all the remaining unlocked doors in a room without the need for keys, but it takes four full portions of magic to cast. -[25]- DEMONS IN THE DARK Most of the enemies that lurk in the dungeons of Equinox come in green, blue, red, or white. The green guys are the easiest to knock off; the white demons are the hardest to destroy. Sometimes, when you destroy the last nasty in a room, a bonus item - say, an apple or a potion, or perhaps a key or a token - will be left behind. Most demons kill you simply by touching you. GHOSTS bounce around the room at different speeds, but they're quite easy to destroy. KNIGHTS are slow, plodding, stupid demons, but they're sturdy, with strong armor that protects them from attack. To get to them, look for the small chink in the side of their armor. PORTCULLISES simply wind up and fall down at varying speeds. They can block your way, but they're deadly only on their way down, so just be sure you're not standing under them as they come down. SPINNING DEVILS chase you around the room. Invulnerable and elusive as whirlwinds, they can be attacked only when they stop to catch their breath. BLOBS are extremely intelligent, and their bouncing movements are very hard to predict. The best trick with Blobs is to keep moving. -[26]- THE GUARDIANS OF DEATH At the end of every dungeon, you must defeat a giant Guardian before you can go on the next dungeon. You can summon the Guardian of a dungeon only when you've collected all 12 tokens from the dungeon - if you enter the Guardian's room without all 12 tokens in your possession, nothing will happen. Once the Guard has been summoned, you can't leave the room until either you've defeated the Guardian or lost all your lives. It's do or die with the likes of these, listed here in the order you'll encounter them - BONEHEAD. This giant skull doesn't take kindly to being shot at, and he likes to throw ghosts at you. SUNG SUNG. Maybe he's got a complex about his name, but this guy hides out in the soil a lot, coming up every now and then to chuck rocks at you. Quetzalcoatl. This enormous living statue is too massive to be destroyed in one round. And watch out for the surprise he has in store for you at the end. -[27]- PINCHA. This crab's claws protect his vulnerable eyes, so get your shots in when he takes his swinging swipes at you. DOLLOP. He's just one big ball of slime, and after every jump, he spews smaller blobs of slime in your direction. EYESIS. The tough thing about a gigantic spinning pyramid is that its only soft spot is way up there at the top. BILLY BONES. The maniacal captian of the ghostly galleon never stops shooting those exploding cannonballs - until he's stone cold dead. -[28]- SONIA. The Evil Sorceress herself. She can teleport at will, and those floating magical balls she fires are fatal. With most Guardians, you can harm them only by shooting them in the face or in the eye. After a few such hits, they'll change colour, turning a shade closer to red. When they turn bright red, it's a sign that they're close to their demise. When you destroy a Guardian, you'll be rewarded with increases in your life and magic energy, and the Guardian's spirit will disappear from the surface world. In additon, as you defeat each of the first five Guardians, you'll collect a string for your harp. -[29]- SONG OF THE HARP You'll find that you can play the harp as soon as you try, but it won't sound very good. Adding strings to the harp will improve its song. But like the mystery of the stone crosses, the secret of the song of the harp has been long lost. The last magician who made it really sing disappeared instantly - transported, perhaps, to other places... to other times... even, perhaps, to mighty new regions of magic... who knows?
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