This is a walkthrough and photoshop patch file for the "Mad Paradox" (PARADOX) adult anime game from Queen Soft. The original version is in Japanese, but "Samurai Anime" is selling an English version on CD-ROM. I found a French walkthrough for the game, but I can't tell if the game is also in French, since it uses the same names for everything including "Wise One" instead of something like "Vieux Conseilleur". I included some information from that walkthrough, but my French isn't the best, and the altavista translator is almost as bad... The French file is no longer in the place I originally found it, but it wasn't that much help. Because I had to replace my copy of Mad Paradox, I think I found out the hard way why there was a French walkthrough: Samurai Anime released the English game in French packaging! The front and back covers were in French, so was the instructions folder. But the game was still in English! The Japanese version of the game is distributed as three ARJ files. The English version is sold on a CD-ROM, but it's only about 5.5 MB. It's almost the same size when installed, possibly a little larger for up to 10 save game files and a 64K PARADOX.DEF file (more on that later). I usually encourage people who can't read Japanese, but can read English, to support companies that translate Japanese games to English, but in this case only a minimal job of translation was done. I'm rather disappointed, but the game is playable, and maybe Samurai Anime will do better next time. Li Sun said: A guy went out to get revenge on the warlock that killed his father. With him is a girl in the same situation. In between quests and fighting, he has some fun with the free/paid girls that cheers him on. Samurai Anime says: STORY: YOU ARE "MASH", THE COURAGEOUS AND WOMANIZING HERO OF THE GAME. YOU MUST FIGHT YOUR WAY THROUGH A DOZEN OF HOSTILE REALMS IN ORDER TO KILL THE EVIL "GORGUS" AND AVENGE THE MURDER OF YOUR PARENTS. ALL THROUGH THE GAME, YOU ACQUIRE EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS IN THE ART OF SEDUCTION. AFTER EACH BATTLE, YOU'LL FIND REST IN MEDIEVAL INNS INHABITED BY THE CREATURES OF YOUR FANTASIES. EARN MAGIC, WEAPONS AND SPELLS... AND ABOVE ALL: STAY "HARD" LIKE A HERO !!! Run the PARADOX.EXE file (Japanese version) or START.BAT (English version) to play the game. The Japanese version can be put anywhere, but the English version installs itself (with INSTALL.BAT) to C:\QUEEN. You don't need DOS/V, DOSJ, or any EMS to play the game. Sound and music support is automatic. Graphics are 640*480 16-color VGA. Keyboard and mouse supported. Use the space bar or key to speed up text display, sometimes a mouse click works too. There is also a system option to change message display speed, in my case (Windows 95 on Cyrix 6x86 P166+) it actually displayed fastest at the "slow" setting. Music messed up in Japanese version - sounds like it's going at warp speed, probably W95 & my SB 32 PnP acting up again. This has happened to me in several other DOS-based games that use PMDIBM, but not all of them. Try it in MS-DOS mode (system reboots to DOS), or shut off your speakers if this bothers you. Music works correctly for me in the English version, but "suggest MS-DOS mode" is the only way to get a W95 shortcut to work, and you get that annoying dialogue box each time it starts. The PARADOX.DEF file controls the photoshop. If the first byte is $00, then the photoshop menu option appears (4th one down from top of main menu). The value at the start of the game is $FF. I'm not sure if all of the possible pictures are displayed by default in the photoshop, but it looks that way. After you see the happy ending once (kill Gorgus), then the PARADOX.DEF file suddenly jumps up to 64K in size, rather than 180 bytes. It appears that the first byte and maybe the size are the only significant things about the PARADOX.DEF file. I've tried with 64K of zeroes, and the photoshop still works. However, you can't load saved games anymore... I'm convinced there has to be more to the photoshop, because of the pictures I've seen on the www.samurai-anime.com site which come from this game. Either the photoshop shows only a few of the H pictures in the game, or the default pictures are only some of them. But if you save games where I tell you to in the walkthrough (coming up), you can easily jump to all the "naughty bits" left out of the photoshop. How to play, based on the English version documentation: Main menu options are (top to bottom): Show Introduction, New Game, Load Saved Game, Music Jukebox, Photoshop, Exit Game. The Introduction/Opening is nice graphics, but the text is in Japanese, even in the English version. When it's done, it puts you at the same place as if you had selected "New Game." There are 3 possible characters to play with during the game: Mash, Elle, and Fugg. Mash is the male main character, and is in the whole game. Elle is a female character who shows up in the second town, and is around at the end of the game too, but she leaves for a short while. Fugg is another male character who shows up in Fireopolis, but he isn't around at the end of the game. In combat, your character(s) have 4 options (top to bottom): Attack, Magic, Items, Flee. Only "Healing" items can be used in combat. Left-click or to do something, right-click or to cancel, but some actions won't cancel! Acquire spells by gaining levels. Mash gains fewer spells than Elle. Fugg has only 1 spell (when he's around). You must find certain special items during play, and redeem them to get others or through barriers. The usual... Blue-colored items are used automatically by the story. Blue-colored equipment can't be used by that character, try another. Blue-colored spells can only be used in combat. A red-colored spell means that character doesn't have enough MP to cast it. Note that even though you are supposed to be using special items to do things, they never disappear from inventory. Just move through the story, and don't worry about having to use things - either you have it or you don't. Access information or system options by pressing or a right-click at any time except during combat. Status information is available for characters, items, and spells. System options include Save, Load, and Exit. Right-click or press to back out. There are 10 save game slots available, but no information goes along with these so you just have to remember the numbers. The only way to get to the main menu while playing is to exit the game and start again. Mash starts out alone. When other characters join him, their statistics appear with Mash's on the left side of the screen. Mash walks around the large area on the right side of the screen, which scrolls as he nears an edge. If Mash meets or is run into by a monster (white ball thing), combat mode begins. When Mash talks to a person, either by running into them, or walking up to a counter which they are behind, messages appear in the lower right part of the screen. The English on some of these needs a lot of work. Regain hits (HP) by casting a Healing spell, using a Healing item, or "resting" at a designated rest place or an inn. Regain magic points (MP) only by "resting". To walk around, move and click the mouse or (my preference) use the arrow keys. Walk off the edge of a map to go elsewhere. I never found any hidden items, but I suggest you try talking to everybody, although most people act like you aren't there, and the few walking around don't have much useful to say. Have Mash go through the starting town (Dorah). See old man Samos before you go too far. Your goal is to go get the Long Sword from the Castle. The place where Mash says "Let's call it a day" is the place to go rest in the starting town. It's a house with something black near the stone. To go to the Castle, take the door in the wall that's the furthest to the west (just next to the house with the young girl). The Long Sword you are looking for is in the NE corner of the second level of the Castle maze. After you get the Long Sword, have Mash equip it (it's 5 better than his starting weapon). Before you go to visit that green-haired girl in the NW corner of the starting town, once you have the Long Sword, SAVE THE GAME. You will see 3 sexy pictures, but only one of them is in the photoshop. Go back and see Samos. Time to leave this town. Now send Mash across the NE bridge through the Valley of Death. When you get through to the (second) town (Garah) on the other side, SAVE THE GAME before you talk to the girl in the alcove on the north side. You get a scrolling sexy picture the first time, and two more if you talk to her again, and all 3 repeat if you try a third time or more. You can't go back to the starting town once you get to Garah, unless you count the endgame. There is a shop and an Inn in Garah. Buy the best stuff you can afford when you enter a new town. More expensive is better in this game, e.g. Leather Mail is better than Bronze Armor because it costs more. While you can buy as many as you can afford of any weapon, armor, or shield, there is no point to having more than 1 of something yet. The limit on a miscellaneous item, like "Healing1", is 20. Talk to Rene, Elle's mom, through the left door in the same building as the shop in Garah. Talk to the Blacksmith, then one of the people outside will mention both the Blacksmith and Bartender. Go back to the bar, and into the hole behind the counter. Looks like the Bartender is gone for good. There are no monsters in this small maze. Go through the blue blocks. At the end, SAVE THE GAME before you talk to the girl Mary. She gives you a key and the game shows 3 sexy pictures, but all of them are in the photoshop this time. Go back to Lizza, the girl in the N alcove, and you automatically make her disappear from the map (she shows up again at Miller's), and the barrier preventing you from leaving town to the West disappears. There was one picture I liked, which again isn't in the photoshop, so I SAVED THE GAME here as well, before talking to Lizza. Fight your way W through zombies to the NW - the entry to Miller's house where Lizza and Grandma are. You'll have to make several trips back and forth between the town and here, talking to people. Eventually you get the Statue from Grandma, then the Mirror from the Merchant, go back to Lizza. Miller orders Lizza to show you her mark - guess where she got branded? You'll use the Mirror to capture an image of that symbol, now go to the Blacksmith. To get the Emblem, go to Elle's house - she's there now, then back to the Blacksmith. Now go to the two guards at the NW exit, and SAVE THE GAME before you talk to them. There's a nice scrolling picture of Elle, and she joins Mash. In my case, Elle was level 8 but Mash was at 12, so I beat up zombies for a while before going further with the story. You should also get Elle the best equipment, which means another Bronze Shield for now. Start exploring the hallways past the two guards. You will find blue boxes with an Iron Sword and Tower Shield. The castle is a maze with 2 levels - the monsters on the second level are worse than those on the first. Eventually, you get through to an orange hallway with the Bartender and Gidd. You fight Gidd after some talk that mentions Gorgus. After that, go through the opening in the upper right to appear in another town. This town is apparently named "Krapp"! Again, you can't go back now that you're in this town. Buy better equipment, especially for Mash. Talk to the blonde girl Lita at the bar, then Gelt, then Lita again. When you do, Elle leaves so Mash can enter the cave in the Lita/Geiko building alone. The English version documentation encourages you to stay at inns, promising "you can always count on a massage at one of the local inns" and "where you rejuvenate your wounds with the girls". This only happens at the Krapp Inn (the one with 3 doors at top of screen), when Mash is without Elle. Then, you get a choice of 3 rooms to stay in when Mash is alone. SAVE THE GAME before you pay for a room. Each girl has a nice scrolling picture before the ones that are in the photoshop. Even the priest wants you to go to the girls! After you get the Plaque from the "cave" through Geiko's, talk to Lita again, and you can then go past the left guard to Aquapolis. That town has two sections, the first is "safe", with an Inn (30 gold, no girls) and a store (more goodies! expensive too!). The next one west is "unsafe", but you need to go in there to get to the "Wise One" on the south side, and the waterfall on the north side. SAVE THE GAME before you go to the 2 girls, because there is a scrolling picture not in the photoshop. Elle then rejoins you. No, I don't know what the "Charm" does, its probably just a flag item, since it definitely doesn't do anything about "ghouls" bothering you. The French walkthrough complained about "visual bugs" in this area, so if you start seeing "static" or other obviously wrong things on the screen, SAVE GAME or you may lose all your progress unexpectedly if the game crashes! BUG: There is a small bug when you exit the "cave" where you find the Plaque. If there are 2 or 3 in the party, you always get the same message from Geiko, and Lita isn't there. Exit the building by the south and re-enter to fix it. If you go back to the Krapp Inn (with the 3 rooms), you pay 30 and get to see some pictures of Elle. This seems repeatable. I'd SAVE THE GAME before one of these so you can get back to it. After talking to Gelt and Geiko again, go through the right opening on the north side to Fireopolis, a town with even more expensive equipment for sale! Go to Seila's Bar and talk to her, then to a house on the west side to see (SAVE THE GAME first) Sherry (you never learned how to knock before entering?) and eventually get Fugg in the party. Fugg is level 18, and only knows the Healing1 spell. He's nice to have along, but Fugg will leave later, and won't be around for the end of the game. Now go through the north exit, and enter each of the 3 buildings when you can (notice the monsters guarding the girls?). SAVE THE GAME when you enter the third building, because there is a scrolling shot of demons licking Lora which isn't in the photoshop. After you kill the guard monster, you get two more shots of Lora that aren't in the photoshop either. When you return to Fireopolis, Lora is standing next to Sherry. Fugg stays with you for now. By the way, if you've been saving the game when I said to, you've just run out of slots! The way to get more is to create a subdirectory of C:\QUEEN, like SAVES1, and copy the SAVE00??.DAT files into it. Then you can re-use the 10 saved game slots. You'll only need to do this once, since you are actually quite near the end of the game, at least in terms of sexy pictures. Although one of the 3 rescued girls says something about invisible walls or secret doors, the only thing I was able to find on the way to Geir was a few locations where you could walk "behind" a floor tile. Work your way through the caves and bridges to Geir, kill him/it. Walk back out, and you will lose Fugg when you talk to Seila at her bar. Unfortunately, you have to lose Fugg before the "Wise One" back in "bad" Aquapolis will talk to you again. You will find the second crystal at the dock on the west side of "bad" Aquapolis; it wasn't there before. Talk to the Wise One again, then go to the waterfall on the north side. Elle calls her friend. She says she's a water elemental, and opens a passage so the waterfall becomes a gate. Now you can go through the waterfall to "Heaven." You will find two buildings with girls inside. SAVE THE GAME before you get close to each of the 2. Each one has a scrolling picture that isn't in the photoshop. There is a town here with more expensive stuff in the store, an Inn for 10. Once you've freed both girls, you can enter the dungeon to look for Goses. You'll find the Magic Mail and Saint Armor in boxes in the dungeon, and eventually you kill Goses. Make your way back to the Wise One, and then check with the Priest in the Church in Krapp. Go to the north-west corner of "good" Aquapolis, then back to the Priest, and finally to that corner again. Now you can trudge through 3 screens of encounters with nasties to finally meet Gorgus! Or maybe not... Back off and fight your way out. You may have to go see the priest again... Geiko and Lita aren't much help, but talk to them anyway. Try Fugg (at Seila's Bar), and then the Wise One again. Back to Geiko, and find out that Lita's gone. There may be a bug here: Lita may be there before you talk to some of the people listed above, then she's gone. But if you come back after visiting a maze, she may be back again! Anyway, go to that strange hill area west of Krapp, which was mentioned a very long time ago as a place where lightning strikes. SAVE THE GAME before getting close to Lita at the top of the hill. This picture is in the photoshop. You get the Saint Sword; don't forget to equip it! Now you go back in after Gorgus again. SAVE THE GAME before walking up to fight Gorgus, because he is very tough, plus the endgame runs right after you win, with no opportunity to save. My suggestion for combat with Gorgus is that Mash keep swinging, while Elle heals whoever just got hit, using Healing3 items while they last (you did remember to stock up, didn't you?). You see a bunch of pictures in the endgame which would have been nice to put in the photoshop. Oh well... The maximum level of the characters is 40, with "preset" values for character statistics at each level. There is a possible bug with the 40th level, because experience wraps around above 65000 and starts over again from 0. I didn't try wrapping around a second time to see if that's the way to get 999 HP, which I saw in a saved game distributed with the Japanese version. Doesn't matter... You don't need 999 HP to win the game, 500 is enough if you keep throwing Healing3. Because there is no random component to character statistics, or what is found in "treasure boxes", you are encouraged to beat up monsters to excess. There is no time limit either. The damage that monsters do in combat depends on character statistics and equipment, so you can have characters take 60 or so damage each hit when they first encounter some monster, and only 1 when the overall DEFENCE value is high enough. So, boring as it seems, get used to beating up "easy" monsters (which only do 1 damage at most per hit) to get more money to buy the best equipment for the characters, and take time out to rest up in an Inn to restore full HP and MP. If a character dies when there are 2 or 3 in the party, then the party can't move until the dead (at 0 HP) character is healed above 0. If Mash dies while alone, the game menu items change, and you basically have the choice of loading a saved game or exit. The number of hits (damage done) it takes to kill a monster depends solely on the monster type. After a while, you may figure out exactly what that value is for a type. I didn't bother putting that information in here, because the important thing is to get powerful enough to be able to kill a monster with a single attack. When you can't do this, I suggest using the "Hellfire" or "Dragon" spells to soften up large groups, or the other spells for individual monsters. The bosses aren't that tough, just keep plugging away and use magic or healing items. Note that monster attacks can sometimes be dodged, but character attacks always do damage. In the following equipment and spell tables, "who" may contain "M" for Mash, "E" for Elle, "F" for "Fugg", or "-" if the character can't use that one, or "?" in the case of Fugg when he isn't around any more. Names of towns are used to indicate that the item is for sale in the store there. ITEMS -name- -cost- -effect- -where- Healing1 20 heal 50 HP Garah, Krapp, Aquapolis Healing2 80 heal 150 HP Aquapolis, Fireopolis, Heaven Healing3 140 heal 300 HP Heaven Equipment: WEAPON (bonus to ATTACK) -name- -bonus- -who- -cost- -where- Small Sword 0 MEF - Mash at game start Long Sword 5 MEF - box in Castle Broad Sword 10 M-F 300 Garah Iron Sword 15 M-F - box in Gidd's Fort Buster Sword 25 M-F 900 Krapp Star Sword 40 M-F 1200 Krapp Pegasus Sword 55 MEF 2000 Aquapolis Kaiser Sword 75 M-F 3000 Fireopolis Gradius 90 M-? 5000 Heaven Stone Mace 8 -E- - Elle starts with Msgic Staff ? in database, but not a real item ? Iron Mace 35 -E- 1000 Aquapolis Devil Staff 73 -E- 2400 Fireopolis Saint Sword 945 M-? - Lita at top of hill ARMOR (bonus to DEFENCE) -name- -bonus- -who- -cost- -where- Ring Mail 0 MEF - Mash at game start Bronze Armor 6 MEF 250 Garah, Elle starts with Leather Mail 13 M-F 500 Garah Chain Mail 18 ME- 1000 Krapp Iron Mail 23 MEF 2300 Krapp Silver Armor 31 M-F 3000 Aquapolis, Fugg starts with Kaiser Mail 37 M-F 5000 Aquapolis Devil Armor 43 -E- 7000 Fireopolis Diamond Armor 50 M-F 9000 Fireopolis Buster Mail 58 M-F 13000 Fireopolis Dragon Mail 63 ME? 15000 Heaven Great Mail 70 M-? 18000 Heaven Magic Mail 76 -E? - box in Gose's dungeon Saint Armor 88 M-? - box in Gose's dungeon SHIELD (bonus to DEFENCE) -name- -bonus- -who- -cost- -where- Knight Shield 0 MEF - Mash & Elle start with Bronze Shield 3 MEF 240 Garah Tower Shield 9 M-F - box in Gidd's Fort Silver Shield 12 M-F 800 Krapp Life Shield 16 MEF 1000 Krapp Devil Shield 23 -E- 1400 Aquapolis Diamond Shield 27 M-F 2000 Aquapolis Apollon Shield 31 MEF 3000 Fireopolis Battle Shield 35 M-F 4500 Fireopolis Magic Shield 39 -E- 6800 Fireopolis Brave Shield 47 M-? 9000 Heaven Cross Shield 51 M-? 14000 Heaven Crystal Shield 56 -E? 18000 Heaven Saint Shield ? in database, but not a real item ? SPELLS -name- -MP- -who@level- -effect- Healing1 5 M@3, E+F@start heal 50 HP Healing2 14 M+E@14 heal 150 HP Healing3 28 E@30 heal 300 HP Fire 2 M@6, E@start damage 1 enemy Thunder 4 M@8, E@start damage 1 enemy Hellfire 6 E@11 damage all enemies Poison 8 E@16 "Cobra poison to spit in the eye of one very bad guy" Ice 9 M+E@19 damage 1 enemy Wave 11 M+E=23 damage 1 enemy Gale 15 E=26 damage 1 enemy Bird 20 E=29 damage 1 enemy Dragon 23 M+E=33 damage all enemies The *.TLK files in the English version contain the game's story and message text, the PARADOX.EXE file contains some text as well. If somebody picks up where "Samurai Anime" left off, and fixes some of the errors here, let me know. I don't want to bother... Overall, this game should have been released before Cobra Mission, and the care taken with the translation shows it. If you have anything to add to this file, let me know. Pete Karsanow - bishoujo.helper[AT}sbcglobal{DOT)net http://www.geocities.com/hentaihelper/