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Custom Robo V2 FAQ/Walkthrough v0.02
Updated December 16th, 2000
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Nintendo 64
Designed by Noise (Marigul)
Published by Nintendo
Released November 10th, 2000 in Japan

FAQ/Walkthrough written by 
   Scott Lewis (slewis@cc.gatech.edu) and
   Todd Lewis  (joinordie@hotmail.com)

=================
Table of Contents
=================

1  Overview
   1.1  Importing Questions
   1.2  General Guidelines
2  Controls
3  Options
   3.1  Main Game Options
        3.1.1  Single Player Adventure
        3.1.2  1 vs 1 Multiplayer
        3.1.3  2 vs 2 Multiplayer
        3.1.4  Training Mode
        3.1.5  Options
   3.2  General Menus
        3.2.1  Level Selection Menu
        3.2.2  Robot Customization Menu
4  Task list
   4.1  Stuff we can do
   4.2  Stuff we'd love to have help with
5  Thanks!
6  Version information
7  Update plans

===========
1  Overview
===========

Custom Robo V2 is a Japanese Nintendo 64 game that plays like a cross between 
the Pokemon Trading Card Game and Virtual On.  The player competes in robot 
battles in training areas in 3D robot fights against others robots.  If the 
player wins the battle, they often win new robot forms or weapons for the 
robot.  

Goals of this FAQ, in order, are:
1. Provide English descriptions of the game controls so that players that cannot 
   read Japanese can enjoy the game.
2. Describe most of the weapons and items to remove the guesswork of choosing 
   the mech parts
3. Provide a simple walkthrough for the game
4. Drum up interest so that this game gets imported to the US!  It's a great 
   game!

The game is in Japanese and neither Todd nor I speak Japanese or currently 
have a Japanese dictionary.  The game contains a great deal of Japanese, but 
the actual robot battles can be enjoyed without knowing the language.  

If someone is willing to help us translate some of the menus and other items in 
the game, it would be a great help to us and the community and would mention 
you in high regard in our "thanks!" section.

------------------------
1.1  Importing Questions
------------------------

Custom Robo V2 is overall a very import friendly game.  It does feature a
large amount of text in adventure mode and in the multiplayer menus, but 
it is easy to try out each of the options to understand what they do.

Fortunately for importers, Custom Robo V2 is a very standard RPG style game, 
and anyone who is familiar with video games should understand a number of the 
dialogs.  For example, when a dialog appears on the screen with two options, 
it is often a "yes" or "no" dialog.  Yes is always on top and no is always on 
bottom.  Yes also has fewer characters than no.

Knowing when to choose which one is very context dependent.  We will outline 
the dialog choices in the main menu system to prevent players from accidentally
erasing their progress, but we will not be able to cover every dialog in the game.  
Fortunately, the single player game dialogs never do anything destructive (to our
knowledge) and even if you answer incorrectly, they often give you a second chance 
to answer again.

-----------------------
1.2  General Guidelines
-----------------------

Always remember that a game dialog will never default to a destructive action, 
like erasing your game.  Otherwise people who accidentally tap the button may 
lose their information.  So when in doubt, go with the option that they 
initially chose.  One exception is that characters will ask you if you 
understood what they said, and if you choose the default, they will repeat 
themselves.  If you notice characters repeating the same stuff again in a dialog 
situation, choose the other answer to get out of the loop.

================
2  Game Controls
================

These are the controls for the actual robots during combat.  Any questions about
the menus before and after combat should look into the game menus section.

Analog stick      Moves your character around the play area
A button          Fires the primary gun
B button          Fires the secondary missle weapon
                  If you hold the B button down, you will see a red target on the 
                    ground that you can move around with the analog stick.  
                    Releasing the button will fire the bomb at that location.
C left button     Melee attack (on ground only)
C right button    "
C down button     "
C up button       Switches robots (2 vs 2 Multiplayer mode only)
L shoulder button "
R shoulder button Jumps, pressing again after the jump may result in a dash
                   depending on the character chosen
Start button      Pauses the game and brings up pause menu

=============
3  Game Menus
=============

-------------------
3.1  Main Game Menu
-------------------

This is the menu that appears after pressing start on the title screen.
The five choices in order are:

- Single Player Adventure
- 1 vs 1 Battle
- 2 vs 2 Battle
- Training Mode
- Options

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3.1.1  Single Player Adventure
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is the main adventure of the game, where the main character, a young boy
who just got his first fighting robot, fights a bunch of other robots.  You
can earn new battle arenas, robot bodies, and robot parts by playing this mode.

After you choose Single Player Adventure from the menu, you will be given an 
option to choose a save slot to use for your single player game.

If you choose a vacant save slot, you will create a new game.  Creating a 
new game will prompt you to add your name.  You can press the R shoulder button
to select different Japanese characters as well as English characters.  I would
suggest writing your name in English so that you know when you are being 
talked about during the adventure.  (Not that you will know what they are
saying, but it does help comprehension by being able to recognize your name, 
honest!)

Then the game prompts you to choose between two choices.  These are two game 
modes - the first is the story mode where you have an adventure with your 
character and the other is a tournament mode where you compete for new 
parts in duels.  The tournament mode is only available after you complete the 
single player mode.  Choosing either will start those game modes.

- - - - - - - - - -
3.1.2  1 vs 1 Battle
- - - - - - - - - -

This mode allows two players to play matches against each other.

The first menu features these options:
- 3  rounds
- 5  rounds
- 10 rounds
- ??? (translation?)

Next you choose a level on the level selection screen.  (Section X.X.X)

Then both players set their robots on the Robot Customization screen. 
(Section X.X.X)

After the board has been chosen and the robots customized, the battle begins.  A 
player wins a round by either knocking their opponent's robot health to zero or, 
if there is a time limit for the level, by having the higher health value at the 
end of the time limit.  The first player to win the amount of rounds set 
initially wins the match.

- - - - - - - - - -
3.1.3  2 vs 2 Battle
- - - - - - - - - -

This mode allows from two to four players to play matches against each other.
The battles only feature two robots in the arena at a time, but the robots
can be switched by pressing the top C button on the controller.  Robots 
that are not on the battlefield heal over time.

/More info to come/

- - - - - - - - - -
3.1.4  Training Mode
- - - - - - - - - -

This allows the player to test their weapons against an opponent.  The second
player can choose to control the training robot.

/More info to come/

- - - - - - -
3.1.5  Options
- - - - - - -

The options menu screen has 5 choices.  

They are in order:
  - ??? (two choices, default left)
  - ??? (two choices, default right)
  - ??? (two choices, default left)
  - ??? (two choices, default right)
  - Erase Game

Choosing Erase Game will create a dialog asking if you are sure that you want
to erase your game.  The default is no, so you have to choose yes.  It will 
prompt you again to make sure, so choose yes if you are sure.  (We learned this
the hard way!)

------------------
3.2  General Menus
------------------

These are menus that appear a number of times in the game and follow almost 
all the same rules.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3.2.1  Level Selection Menu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The player chooses what level they want to battle on for this menu.  The player
can unlock more maps to play on by playing through the single player adventure 
game.  Often when a map is featured in the single player mode, it is unlocked
in this menu.

Controls

Analog stick       Navigating the menus and highlighting the appropriate map
A button           Selects
B button           Cancels
C buttons          Brings up a help menu listing the controls
L shoulder button  Nothing
R shoulder button  Toggles random secret mode.  Once random secret mode is
                     activated, when the player presses the A button to 
                     select a map, one is chosen at random and the map 
                     display window displays snow.
Z trigger          Provides description on how to perform random level select
Z + A              Randomly selects a map to play, but the results are visible,
                     unlike using random secret mode.

Once a map has been chosen from the menu, the map will zoom in for a closer view
and provide the player an option of chosing the time limit.  The options are 
between 120 seconds and infinite time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3.2.2  Robot Customization Menu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This screen allows the player to optimize their battle robot with parts such as
body, gun, missle, pod, and footwear.  New parts can be earned by defeating 
opponents in single player mode.

The menu options

Body      Choose the body for the robot.  The body effects the movement speed, 
            dash style, and amount of damage that can be taken before the robot 
            falls down.
Gun       Choose the primary gun for the robot, which is fired by the A button. 
Bomb      Choose the bomb for the robot, which is a secondary indirect attack 
            activated by the B button.  Usually only one bomb can be fired at a 
            time.
Pod       Choose the robot's pod which is backpack can be used by the Z button 
            to drop or fire items at the enemy.  Often these items track the 
            opponent and explode when nearby to inflict damage.
Footwear  Choose the robots boots.  This effects the robot's jumping height and 
            dashing styles.
Handicap  Choose the health percentage of the player  (Not available in 
            single player mode)

The controls for this menu are:

Analog stick      Highlights menu items
A button           Selects
B button           Cancels
C buttons          Show information on the highlighted item
R shoulder button  Toggle secret mode to hide selections from your opponent
L shoulder button  ??
Z trigger button   ??
Start              Submits changes to robot
Z + A              Randomly assigns the robots attributes

============
4  Task list
============

--------------------
4.1  Stuff we can do
--------------------

What does the L shoulder button do in robot selection mode?
What does the Z trigger button do in robot selection mode?
Find out what the last option is on the 1 vs 1 player mode
See how the percentages for the handicap in 1 vs 1 player mode work
2 vs 2 mode?
Training mode?
Walkthrough
Guide to all the items

----------------------------
4.2  Stuff we need help with
----------------------------

Since we don't know Japanese, any translation help would be awesome.   
The items we need translated in order are:
- Options menu choices
- Any very basic info that we have missed (ie controls, basic options, etc.)
- The body statistics on the Robot Selection Screen - we know there are four, 
    but what are they?
- The weapon statistics on the Robot Selection Screen - ditto above.
- Anything at all about the plot - names, locations, etc.
- Translations for robot part names

==========
5  Thanks!
==========

- Mad props to Noise for making this game.  It's great fun.
- Props to Nintendo for releasing it.  Any chance for a US release?  What about
    the GameCube sequel, eh?
- CJayC for hosting this FAQ at www.gamefaqs.com

======================
6  Version Information
======================

0.02 (Dec 16th, 2000) - Added bomb targetting to controls
                        Created level selection menu and robot customization menu 
                           areas describing the features available.
                        Flushed out 1 vs 1 battle mode more.
0.01 (Dec 15th, 2000) - First version of the FAQ