Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura: Eternal Heart FAQ v1.18 (06/20/01) By Gene This FAQ is for the Playstation game Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura: Eternal Heart, by Arika. It was released in Japan for 5800yen on 8/10/00. There are no immediate plans for a release in any markets outside of Japan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura: Eternal Heart (SLPS-0286) Players: 1-2 Memory Card: 1 block Analog Controller Support available -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Note: for some strange reason, people using this game on an American Playstation with a mod-chip can't play it. I have no idea why. If anyone has any idea, especially how to get around it, I would gladly appreciate knowing about it. Thanks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQ Contents: 1) Quick Overview 2) Controls 3) Game Modes 4) Strategy 5) Special Abilities and Characters 6) Secrets 7) Et Cetera -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Quick Overview: ------------------- This game is an authentic Tetris game! It also has some newer features added (like special attacks, etc.) like most modern puzzle games. There are two basic game modes (story and battle) and some nice Omake (extra pictures) of the characters that are unlocked during the game. 1b) What is Tetris? -------------------- Tetris is a revolutionary puzzle game by Alexey Pajitnov, that became popular in 1987 and afterwards. It began a long chain of puzzle games and started their popularity. There have been many clones (good and bad), and puzzle games have emerged on every system, including the arcades. For more information, please see a complete Tetris FAQ. 1c) What is Cardcaptor Sakura? ------------------------------- Cardcaptor Sakura is an animated program that started in Japan in 1998 on NHK Television. It spanned seventy episodes and two movies, and spawned a successful Manga and merchandising business. The main character is Sakura Kinomoto, a young junior high school student. One day, she ventures into her basement and finds a mysterious book. Once she opens it, the cards contained therein are scattered, wreaking havoc on the land in their spell form. She meets Cerebus (Kero-chan) and begins her journey as Cardcaptor Sakura, to re-capture the cards. 1d) What is TLS and MaMaCon? ----------------------------- These are additions to the original Tetris game by Arika. TLS shows where your piece will land in the playing field with a silhouette of the current piece. I find it rather annoying. You can turn it off in the pause menu.MaMaCon is an option to play the game with two joypads intsead of one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Controls: ------------- 2a) Menus: The joypad navigates the menus, with circle confirming and selecting and X aborting. 2b) In-Game: The joypad moves the piece left and right. Down pulls it down into the playing field. Up forces the piece to the bottom quickly. The four buttons each rotate the piece from its current position (I find it easier just to concentrate on two buttons rather than all four). The start button pauses and brings up a pause menu. Here you can turn off TLS! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Game modes: --------------- At the introduction scene, you will see Sakura and hear the opening music from the second season, press the Start button. You will be given the following options to choose from. Story Mode (1 player) Battle Mode (1 or 2 players) Graphic Gallery Settings Memory Card (Load / Save) If you wait, there will be a short demo on how to play. It will be narrated by different characters. 3a) Story Mode (1 player) -------------------------- There are three options when starting Story Mode: Begin, Continue and Load from Memory Card. After you will be given a choice between Easy and Normal mode. Then, you will be given a choice between Original or Different Tetramino (Tetris pieces). The difference is the pieces that you receive during the game. In Original, every time you play, you will receive the same pieces. In Different, random pieces will be given to you every time. In easy mode, you are given a set time limit for each stage. In normal mode, you are given twenty minutes in total to do all of the stages. If you do not do well on a stage, you can always go back and improve your time on that stage, giving you more for the later stage. After beating Easy mode, all of the characters are available, except Yukito. The Story begins with Sakura dreaming about Eriol, Ruby Moon and Spinal. She must change all of her cards to Sakura Cards. Each stage is a card. Once completed, Sakura will change her regular card into a Sakura card. This is the story of the final season of Cardcaptor Sakura Anime. The Stages (Sakura Cards received after each stage) Firey Sword Jump Fly Mirror Windy Flower Erase Earthy Shadow Maze Illusion Wood Thunder Glow Shield Watery Light and Dark 3b) Battle Mode (1 or 2 players) --------------------------------- This mode is a direct two player battle (either versus a human opponent or the computer). The screen is divided in half vertically, and at the bottom of the each half there is a special bar. Once the special bar reaches its maximum, the next piece will have be a star inside it. Every time a row with a special piece is destroyed, a special attack or defense will be activated (depending on its color). You can also attack the other player by destroying multiple rows at a time, which sends them onto the other player's field (from the bottom). The loser is the player that allows their field to be filled first. There is a five minute time limit (default). If the time limit is reached, the player with the highest number of lines destroyed wins. First players choose their characters from the list. (duplicates are not allowed!) The next menu offers the choice of Normal or Survival Mode. Survival mode slowly pushes up the fields of the players, usually resulting in quicker games. If you are playing the computer, you can choose the level of difficulty from Easy, Normal and Hard. If you are playing a human opponent, you choose the level of handicap. (speed that your pieces fall) 3c) Graphic Gallery -------------------- From here you may view all of the pictures that you received from the story mode. Plus, other pictures are unlocked by playing the game. These include all of the cards, Sakura's battle costumes and character animation and events from the game. The graphics are mostly obtained by playing the story mode, and after by playing the various characters in the Battle Mode. 3d) Settings ------------- Sound (Stereo / Mono) Vibration (On / Off) MaMaCon (Off / On / Setsumei) - the third option gives you a short demo(in Japanese) Battle Time Limit (3, 5, 10 minutes) Navigation System (Off / L1 / L2) - The Navigation System is where the computer will show you where to put the piece. There are two levels. 3e) Memory Card (Load / Save) ------------------------------ This allows the player to load and save data from the memory card. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Strategy ----------- This section will assume a basic knowledge of Tetris strategy. I will refer to game strategy in Story mode instead. The easy stage is relatively easy, you should not have any difficulty with it. The problem occurs in normal mode. The stages are identical, except for the time limit. So, I think that it is best to familiarize yourself with the stages in easy mode and then try normal mode. It will help you out later. Remember that you can always go back and improve your time on a stage. You cannot make it worse, only better, so it never hurts trying. Learn to navigate the pieces better. Try pushing up so that the piece hits the bottom and then navigating it into corners for maximum efficiency. Don't forget that time is the most important thing. If you only need one piece, you can try piling up the other pieces on the edges until you get your piece. It doesn't matter how messy it is, only speed. If you run out of time in Normal mode, you are kicked all the way back to the title screen. Instead, learn to press start and restart the stage again if you make a mistake. It will save you a lot of time and frustration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Special abilities and Characters ------------------------------------ 5a) The following is a short description of each character with their special abilities. Here are the abbreviations: S/A - Special Abilities (Attacks or Defenses) R - Red blocks O - Orange blocks Y - Yellow blocks G - Green blocks B - Blue blocks (light blue or turquoise) I - Indigo blocks (purple) V - Violet blocks (dark blue) Here is a listing of the character's special abilities (with a short description): Attack: ------- Decay (your opponent's field decays with gaps) Flip Attack (flips opponent's field from top to bottom) Lightning (lightning strikes through your opponent's field) Mind Block (your opponent cannot see their next piece) Mutant Piece (your opponent's next piece changes randomly during play) Rain (blocks randomly rain on your opponent's field) Roulette Attack (your opponent's field slides vertically and stops when they press a button) Field Warp (your opponent's field warps randomly) Defense: -------- Defense Drill (when your next piece touches the blocks, every piece below it disappears) Every other Defense (every other row of your field disappears) Flower Heal (heals the gaps in your field) Level Defense (when your next piece touches, everything that level and higher disappears) Luck (your next three pieces are long thin red ones) Push Defense (pushes all of your pieces to the right or left) Surrounding Defense (all of the pieces surrounding your next piece disappear) Upper Defense (the top half of your field disappears) Lower Defense (the lower half of your field disappears) Speedy Special (your special gauge charges at double rate) 5b) The Characters ------------------- All of the extra characters are unlocked after beating Easy Mode, except Yukito and Meiling. Yukito was unlocked after playing Battle Mode for a while with various characters. Meiling is unlocked by secret methods (see Secrets section) Sakura ------ - In both love and card collecting, she is the best S/A R - Push Defense O - Lightning Y - Flip Attack G - Flower Heal B - Upper Half Defense I - Mind Block V - Mutant Piece Syaoran ------- - Syaoran is also a Cardcaptor. He is Sakura's admirer. S/A R - Push Defense O - Lightning Y - Flip Attack G - Defense Drill B - Lower Defense I - Surrounding Defense V - Roulette Attack Tomoyo ------ - Sakura's best friend who always records her adventures. S/A R - Level Defense O - Mutant Piece Y - Roulette Attack G - Mutant Piece B - Decay I - Every Other Defense V - Flower Heal Kero-chan --------- - Cerberus (Kero-chan) is the guardian of the Clow book. S/A R - Mutant Piece O - Roulette Attack Y - Luck G - Drill Defense B - Lower Defense I - Mind Block V - Roulette Attack Yue --- - Yue is Yuki's alter-ego. S/A R - Speedy Special O - Flower Heal Y - Rain G - Lightning B - Flip I - Surrounding Defense V - Decay Eriol ----- - Eriol is Sakura's rival. S/A R - Push Defense O - Upper Defense Y - Level Defense G - Flower Heal B - Every Other Defense I - Decay V - Warp Field Spinal ------ - Spinal (Soupie) is Eriol's familiar. He is the rival of Cerebus. S/A R - Upper Defense O - Roulette Attack Y - Flip Attack G - Mind Block B - Every other Defense I - Rain V - Speedy Special Ruby Moon --------- - Ruby Moon is the alter ego of Eriol's older sister. S/A R - Flip Attack O - Luck Y - Mind Block G - Every Other Defense B - Flower Heal I - Lightning V - Rain Touya ----- - Touya is Sakura's older brother. S/A R - Drill Defense O - Mutant Piece Y - Mind Block G - Rain B - Lightning I - Surrounding Defense V - Flip Attack Yukito ------ - Yukito (Yuki) is Touya's classmate and best friend. S/A R - Flower Heal O - Every Other Defense Y - Upper Defense G - Drill Defense B - Level Defense I - Roulette Attack V - Push Defense Sakura (Carrying Scepter) ------------------------- S/A R - Level Defense O - Mutant Piece Y - Speedy Special G - Upper Defense B - Flip Attack I - Flower Heal V - Drill Defense Sakura (Red Star costume) ------------------------- S/A R - Rain O - Lightning Y - Mutant Piece G - Roulette Attack B - Flower Heal I - Roulette Attack V - Upper Defense Meiling - Meiling is Syaoran's cousin and his admirer. She is Sakura's rival. S/A R - Rain O - Mutant Piece Y - Lightning G - Flip Attack B - Level Defense I - Surrounding Defense V - Decay -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Secrets ----------- All of the extra characters are unlocked after beating Easy Mode, except Yukito and Meiling. Yukito was unlocked after playing Battle Mode for a while with various characters. Meiling! Yes! She is indeed in the game! You can play her in Battle mode. Play the story mode and enter sakuranotomodachi in Hiragana as your name. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Et Cetera ------------- Thanks to the following: To Clamp and NHK for making such a wonderful Anime! To Arika for making this puzzle game. To Mr. Pajitnov for creating Tetris and eventually changing gaming history. Anjali for playtesting and her patience. Curses to the following: To Arika for not putting Mizuki Sensei in this game! (pity) Sorry if the names for the attacks and defenses sound weird. I tried to make them easier to remember more than anything. This game is copyrighted by many individuals and corporations (look at the title screen!) I don't intend to infringe on any copyrights, just to provide assistance where it may be needed. More Information: There are some good English sites for Cardcaptor Sakura information, even in English. Please seek those sites out for more information regarding Cardcaptor Sakura anything! I don't have enough time to check the web much anymore, so I can't publish the sites. If you have a good one, let me know, and I'll put the link here. Check Gamefaqs for a good Tetris FAQ for more strategy information and history. If you want to use this FAQ on your website, please drop me a line first. Other FAQs written by me: - The Typing of the Dead (DC) - Hundred Swords (DC) - The Great Khan Game (Card game) - Gaiamaster (DC) - Culdcept Expansion (PS) - Advanced World War (DC) - Dioramos (PS) - Blood the Last Vampire (PS2) - One Piece Mansion (PS) Please feel free to e-mail me regarding errors, omissions or comments. -- Gene (intv@canada.com)