Uncharted Waters: New Horizons 2

(Daikoukai jidai gaiden)

The Japanese title of this game is Daikoukai Jidai Gaiden, which would make it a ‘supplemental story’ or an expansion to New Horizons. This game was never released in English, and was only available for the PS1 and the Sega Saturn. It’s illegal to try and download one of those files from the internet, so I don’t condone trying to do that...

Now that you’ve imported your copy of the game, let’s talk about what it is and isn’t. What it isn’t is a proper sequel in the sense that it introduces a lot of new gameplay or content. Basically, it’s two new characters for New Horizons. I didn’t play through the girl’s scenario yet, but the second character is Salvador Leis, the adopted son of the famous pirate Idin Leis from the original. In a moment, I’ll give you a quick overview of his quest in terms of where to go to trigger events so you can play through his scenario without having to learn Japanese.

The game engine is exactly the same as that of the SNES version. The graphics are slightly improved in a few meaningful ways, though: characters are now two blocks tall (Lufia-style instead of FFIV-style) and sailing mode now has Mode 7-style graphics. The menus are all exactly the same, so even if you don’t speak or read Japanese, but you’ve spent hundreds of hours on the original game, it shouldn’t be a super-difficult transition. There are a few new items your characters can acquire (so far I’ve only gotten them in the course of the character’s actual quest--I haven’t found them for sale) and dueling mode has been tweaked with one small adjustment. After a few rounds, your character may receive a ‘finishing cartain kill’ card which is an unblockable attack which seems to always hit for at least 100 points--and the reverse of this card is a ‘complete defense’ card which will block every attack for the turn in which it is used. Fair warning: your opponent also has a shot at receiving these cards.

Here’s a summary of Salvador’s quest:

You speak to your adopted pirate father and he casts you off into the pirating world. Some sketchy representatives from the ‘pirate mafia’ lend you a few ingots to get you on your feet. And then you go pirate around the Mediterranean for a while to try and scare up some cash.

At some point, you’ll meet a little redheaded kid who will join your crew, and he loves going to Ceuta to visit the waitress there. Once you’re relatively successful, your pirate loan sharks will show up and take half of your ingots as ‘interest’ on your loan, trying to make you feel good about being extorted by telling you that you’ve ‘gained a rank’. Interestingly, the only benefit to your new rank will be the lightness of step gained by having emptier pockets.

You will then have to fight Jacob Walweik (I believe he was a crummy Portuguese merchant in New Horizons). When I fought him, he was a joke, coming at me with a fleet of 10 carracks. Your reward for defeating him will be his ‘Gaudy Sword’ and his ‘Gaudy Armor’, useless golden D-level accessories you can sell for a tidy profit of 2.5 ingots apiece. Why sell these unique items? You only have 20 slots and you need to keep a few spaces open for pirate loot, not to mention a crap-ton of balms.

Next, your annoying sidekicks will force you to go back to Algiers to meet with the pirate mafia, where you’ll learn about a contest with another pirate (I think his name is Jacques) wherein the winner will be the one who gains the most pirate fame within two months. Yay.

During this time, you’ll still be extorted every third or fourth time you try to leave from a port, so keep the bulk of your money safely hidden in the bank--this will limit you to 100 ingots, but there’s really no point in stockpiling more if half of it’s just going to get randomly confiscated. You might try to spend it as you make it, investing in Antwerp to get full-rigged ships.

If you’re able to slaughter six or seven fleets within the two months, you should win the contest, but you can’t rest easy yet. You learn that in 2 more months, Ulgu Ali (remember him?) will depart from the Baltic Sea to come crush you.

So go hang out near Copenhagen and wait for him. Don’t expect a fleet of frigates, though. He came at me with a bunch of crummy mid-level ships. Also, a girl named Rebecca will join the battle. The game tries to present her as an ally helping you, but you may just find that 30 ships on the screen makes an already tedious battle system unwieldy. Nothing in this game is more upsetting than getting stuck because your flagship is surrounded by intractable ships.

After you wipe the floor with Ali, your little redheaded kid will want to go back to Ceuta, where you’ll run across Rebecca again, who is angry because she missed out on the bounty for Ali when you decimated him.

If you go back to Algiers and speak with the pirate mafia, your father will gift you the Schweitzer, a Swiss thrusting sword with star-level attack. I’m not sure how the game’s engine ranks it against the Crusader’s Sword, but I know that the Schweitzer only sells for 8000 gold pieces, so I imagine it’s weaker.

Bounce around for a bit until you’re told to go back to the hideout in Algiers. When you enter the hideout, it will be empty and you’ll overhear the pirate bosses talking about Jacques and Wolfe in Hamburg and the Turkish fleet in Nicosia. You’ll then be caught eavesdropping and prevented from leaving. Stay at the inn and sneak out of town between 2 and 4am.

Go to Nicosia, attempt to fight Sharook, and a cutscene will prevent you from fighting an awesome battle against six fleets...bummer. Unable to return to the hideout, your next stop is Hamburg. Talk to Dr. Wolfe, and he’ll tell you he can’t help you unless you get some ‘high quality gunpowder’. Your redheaded sidekick will make you take him to Ceuta, unsurprisingly, and she’ll tell you that the word on the streets is that the mysterious object is in the east, past Africa, past India--the Far East.

Your advisors will bug you at the docks to get a better ship for this kind of traveling.

It was at this point that the entire British fleet attacked me. I was able to pick off three or four of them before Otto intervened and got them to leave.

So, your next task will be to make your way to China. Eventually, you’ll get to Zaiton (east of Hanoi) and people will start mistaking you for Gaspar. A woman will show up as you try to leave and she will mention that her son knows about the gunpowder. Head to Sakai, and there you will find Jacques and the Chinese woman’s son.

Next, head down the Yangtze river to the first port you find. Sneak in at night, and when you try to go into the bar a local gang boss will attempt to extort 100 gold bars from you. As you attempt to flee, your new pirate friends will aid in your escape.

Outside the port, you’ll have to fight a battle against the gang boss’ fleet of junks. You won’t be able to duel him, so sink his flagship or slaughter his men. After the battle, there will be a short cutscene and you’ll end up with the gunpowder and a Blue Crescent for your efforts.

Sail back to Hamburg and talk to Wolfe, and he will spend a few months working on his special project. When it’s finished, you will get...NEW CANNONS! The mega-cannons (which use the picture of the carronades from NH) will be available at the Hamburg shipyard, so be sure to hook up your fleet. Unfortunately, I believe the 50-point damage limit still holds, so don’t be disappointed when you try to sink a galeass with your Full-rigged ship tricked out with 150 super-cannons. Yes, it would have been easier to invest the port to 1000 and keep trying your luck to get that ‘we have a great selection today’ message, but it’s still neat to have a guaranteed way to get these cool guns.

You won’t be able to advance to the next cutscene until you’re at the rank of ‘valiente’, so keep pirating and selling ships and getting cash and having it confiscated until you reach the necessary rank. If you’re not sure if you’re there yet, check back at the hideout at Algiers. Once you’re allowed to enter, you’re ready. The pirate lords will talk about the big battle at Nicosia with Sharook, and you will go and lead the charge, with Jacques and the others coming to help.

Once you get to Nicosia, go into the bar, then to the shipyard to meet Horace--he won’t be there. Look for him at the marketplace and you’ll find four pirates waiting to ambush you. You’ll have a swordfight with one, then Sharook will show up with a tied-up Horace in tow. Rebecca will show up and clear your escape path.

Outside the port, fight Sharook, who will inform you that your friends aren’t coming. Defeat him (he’s got a ‘Damascus Blade’--awesome! But you don’t get it if you win...) and he will tell you you’re adopted. Make your way back to the hideout.

Once you enter, Jacques will ambush you and you’ll wake up tied up on a ship. Duel a guy and swim to Rebecca’s ship, and she will take you back to Algiers. Enter the hideout, it will be empty, and when you try to leave, you’ll have to duel yet another guy.

Now if you go back to the hideout yet again, you’ll find it still empty and one of your mates will ask if you think Rebecca’s safe in Naples. Off you go to Naples to meet with the eccentric discovery collector Juliano. He says she’s following a map to an artifact, but won’t give you the map unless you discover a rare animal for him--you must follow along with the game’s rules here, because just going off and discovering any ol’ animal won’t cut it.

As always, head to Ceuta to hear the latest gossip. The waitress will tell you that the rare animal is near Sofala. Buy five or six balms and make your way to the far end of Madagascar, find the village there, and entertain the village until their level is around 80. Search and you’ll find--the legendary dodo.

Make your way back to Naples and share this discovery with Juliano, who will give you a map. When you leave town, you’ll have to battle your adoptive father, Idin Leis. If you duel him, you’ll notice that he has a giant sword and that his sprite is almost creepily detailed compared to the anime style of all the other dueling sprites.

The map actually shows the city of Bergen. Go there and talk to the bartender and the innkeeper, neither of whom will give you any info at first. Eventually, after talking to everyone in town, the innkeeper will give in and give you the cursed jewel box.

Take the cursed jewel box back to Juliano, and he’ll tell you that Professor Mordes in Bordeaux knows about the teardrop jewel. When you see Mordes, he’ll tell you that Gilbert has the teardrop. Easily enough, Gilbert will try to hunt you down. Make sure you’re prepared.

Fight him and get the teardrop and head back to Bordeaux to see Mordes. You’ll end up with a new map.

As you try to leave Bordeaux, someone will swipe your jewel box and teardrop jewel. Run to the bar, where you’ll find Rebecca, who will try to capture you. When you duel her, try to defeat her in one move to teach her a woman’s place.

Next, head to Algiers. There won’t be much to do in town, but when you try to leave, *surprise!* the entire English fleet led by Otto Baynes will be waiting to spoil your day. Don’t feel bad about sinking your opponent without a duel, as it’s just a flunky and not Otto himself.

Your map leads to Stockholm. There you’ll fight the redheaded kid, Liono, who turns out not only to not be dead but to be a traitor. Trounce him, and you’ll get Loki’s Armor. Your next stop is Hamburg, where after some searching you’ll encounter Khyar Ad-din (your real father!) and, once again, check out his awesome dueling sprite. Defeating him will net you the Gram, the ancient sword from Norse mythology. Selling at 30 ingots, this would be the only 60-ingot sword if you could purchase it and therefore the best (to be fair, I don’t know that for sure. It’s another star-level weapon).

Go to Algiers, the hideout will be empty, and when you leave, the guy at the docks will mention Lisbon.  Snoop around Lisbon and Ceuta until you have another cutscene. Your next destination will be Ceyanne (on the NE coast of South America). There you’ll find Wolfe, who has been kidnapped.

Take him back to Hamburg, and he’ll give you some money to buy his newest weapon--the carronades. This is an even better gun than the mega-cannon, and uses a completely new picture (though the name is the same as the English version of NH, this is a new gun).

Now comes the hard part...

Jacques will be waiting for you in the mouth of the Amazon river, but this will NOT be a typical battle. Rather than a flagship, he has a floating fortress, and your having one strong ship and sailing up and trying to duel him in one turn won’t cut it.

You will need to build a fleet of tough ships. Myself, I had a full-rigged ship as a flagship and the rest of my fleet was galeasses (too lazy to build a fleet of new boats.) All of my ships were maxed for sailors and guns, and I filled all the ships to capacity with super guns. Rather than recruit a bunch of guys in Europe and have them die on the way over, once I had my ships modified I put sixty or seventy guys on each boat and sailed to Ceyanne, where I invested to get the port strong before recruiting thousands of guys. Pro tip: go to the inn and check out at 11pm, recruit at the bar, come back after midnight, and do it again. You don’t need to be able to go far; your target is very close.

To initiate the final battle (no return after this--be careful how you save your game if you’re using an emulator) start sailing down the Amazon and the battle will begin automatically (you don’t actually see the enemy fleet, it just starts).

Jacques has three galleons pulling his floating fortress. The formation is already determined, so the direction you face at the start of battle makes no difference.  His three galleons will be facing your fleet head-on. His fortress is a round, floating behemoth occupying seven spaces, six outer spaces with 200 men and super-powerful guns and 70 durability points, and the center space with 300 men (I don’t know its durability rating; I was not able to fire on it). Once you sail next to the bottommost space, his base guns shouldn’t shoot at you, but other ships will if they’re still alive. Once you kill all the men in this space, you need to sail upward one space so that you will be next to two outer spaces and the ‘flagship’ space. Keep killing the men in the outer spaces until Jacques initiates a duel.  To live long enough to fight him, you’ll probably want a full-rigged ship with 500 men and a virgin 100 durability rating (with bad luck, the boats and fort guns can knock you out in less than two full turns...).

Jacques comes at you with a Falchion sword and Misagria armor. This is the hardest duel in either NH game, but luckily you’ll already have the Gram and Loki’s Armor. Pirates and warriors usually strike, and merchants love to lash, but Jacques’ attacks seemed pretty random to me.

It may take six or seven attempts to defeat him, but once you do, you’ll get to see your end credits. The END!

New items:

Gram - star-level sword, retails for 60 ingots

Schweitzer - star-level sword, retails for 1.8 ingots

Loki’s Armor - star-level armor, retails for 60 ingots

Falchion - opponent’ sword

Misaguria - opponent’s armor

Damascus blade - opponent’s sword

Gaudy armor - D-level golden armor, retails for 5 ingots

Gaudy sword - D-level golden sword, retails for 5 ingots

Cursed jewel box - hidden treasure, cannot sell

Teardrop - hidden treasure, cannot sell

Other stuff

There are probably a lot of things to add/correct in this walkthrough. Rebecca looks like Miranda, so I probably mixed them up a few times, and I really didn’t want to spend six months translating text, so I pretty much just button-mashed through every cutscene. To be honest, I’ve always felt the storylines of these games to be incredibly weak compared to just sailing around making money and discovering stuff and crushing other captains.

Ahem, back to my point--if there is something else you’d like to contribute to this walkthrough, or if you have a question, send it to jbaugher@rocketmail.com

Cheers,

Jordan Baugher