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==================================================
1. Introduction...(I1T)
==================================================

A. Table of Contents

1. Introduction...............(I1T)
2. Controls...................(C2L)
3. Gameplay...................(G3P)
     A. Afro's Abilities......(AAB)
     B. Combat Strategies.....(CBS)
4. The Guide..................(T4G)
     A. Daimyo's Story........(DMS)
     B. School Invasion.......(SCI)
     C. Sword Master's Story..(SMS)
     D. Okiku's Story.........(OKS)
     E. Lowdown East Pass.....(LEP)
     F. Doppelganger..........(DPG)
     G. Kuma's Story..........(KMS)
     H. Empty Seven's Story...(ESS)
     I. Ninja Ninja's Story...(NNS)
     J. Justice's Story.......(JSS)
5. Closing/Legal/Contact info.(C5C)
    
====================
B. Introduction
====================
There exist in this world two sacred headbands, the number one and the 
number two. The number one headband bestows the powers of the gods on 
who ever wields it. The wielder of the number two headband is bestowed 
no special powers save one: the ability to challenge the number one. A 
great man once wielded the number one headband, but he was cut down in 
his prime by the villain Justice. Justice made quite the impact on the 
son of the former number one, and told the child to come back when he 
was ready to avenge his father. Twenty-some odd years later, that time 
has come. Afro Samurai has grown up into one of the most feared 
swordsmen in the world, and has finally learned the location of 
Justice. With the number two headband displayed proudly on his head, 
Afro sets off to avenge his father and become the holder of the number 
one headband.

====================
C. About Me
====================
This is my second guide, the first being for the Wii game No More Heroes. As 
it might be evident by the guides I've written, I'm a fan of uber-violent 
action fests. This guide started out as just a memento FAQ and slowly 
started to include boss strategies and general tips. By the time I'd 
completed the game, I had much more of a full FAQ than I had originally 
planned. I decided to finish off the guide and make it a full FAQ. If you 
need to contact me for any reason, be it new strategies or errors in this 
guide, you can contact me at [email protected]

==================================================
2. Controls... (C2L)
==================================================

PS3/Xbox 360

Left Analog Stick: Character movement
Click in Left Analog Stick: Dash
Right Analog Stick: Camera Control 
X/A: Jump
Square/X: Light Attack
Triangle/Y: Heavy Attack
Circle/B: Kick
L1/Left Bumper: Focus Mode
L2/Left Trigger: Over-Focus
R1/Right Bumper: Block
D-Pad Up: Ninja Ninja Compass (tells you where to go)
Start: Pause 
Select/Back: Move List

==================================================
3. Gameplay... (G3P)
==================================================

Afro Samurai is by and large a hack and slash. To progress through the 
game, you'll have to master Afro's combat abilities. This section is 
devoted to learning and understanding Afro's moves, and which ones can 
help you in certain situations.

====================
A. Afro's Abilities...(AAB)
====================

I. Light/Heavy Attacks
These are the bread and butter of combat. It's sort of a misnomer to 
call the light and heavy, as heavy attacks aren't really much slower 
than light attacks. Heavy attacks are more like alternate combo chain. 
Light attacks tend to be simpler sword slashes, with little flashiness 
or movement involved. Heavy attacks tend to be wilder and more varied, 
and a lot of them focus on movement and special attacks. There's no 
real reason to use one over the other except for variety's sake and 
combo potential.

II. Combos
The heart and soul of any action game, Afro has his fair share of 
combos. Combos in Afro Samurai start off as simple 3-4 hit moves at the 
game's start, but as you level up your combo potential will slowly 
increase. Eventually you will have access to crazy 14-15 hit combos, 
and others that will insta-kill enemies if certain strikes hit. Combos 
can be performed with both light attacks and heavy attacks, or you can 
mix them up to create more complex moves.

III. Kicks
Kicks are very weak moves. However, they're incredibly fast and have 
some decent combo potential. Kicks don't combo well with any other 
moves, so you really only need to use them when you're in a tight spot 
and need to get out of there fast.

IV. Focus Mode
Focus mode is the heart and soul of Afro Samurai's combat system. When 
activated, the world will slow down in a bullet time-esque sequence. 
You can perform a number of unique moves by entering this mode, but the 
big guns are perfect slices. There are two versions of perfect slices: 
vertical and horizontal, performed by heavy and light attacks 
respectively. When you start a slash like this, a gleam will travel 
down the blade of Afro's Katana. Upon reaching the end of the sword, 
release the button to perform a slash that will instantly kill any 
normal enemy that it hits. Focus slashed can further be aimed to chop 
off certain body parts from enemies: a white line will appear where you 
are going to slash, this can be aimed with the left stick either 
up/down for a horizontal slash or left/right for a vertical slash.

V. Overfocus
A special version of Focus mode, and Afro's ultimate attack. Time slows 
just like a normal focus attack, and all of Afro's moves are now 
special one hit kills that don't need to be charged at all. After a few 
seconds, the game will revert back to normal. You need to have full 
focus to do this, but it will kill ANY non-boss enemy in a single hit.

VI. Dash Attacks
Performed by attacking while clicking in the left analog stick, dash 
attacks are very fast moves that only hit once. There is a different 
dash attack for each of the different attack buttons: heavy, light, and 
kicks.

VII. Blocking
Blocking in Afro Samurai is fairly simple: just hold the block button. 
Afro can block pretty much indefinitely, but if he's hit too many times 
in a short enough period his guard will be broken and he'll be open for 
attack. 

VIII. Parrying
Parry is a special move that will set enemies off balance and leave 
them open for attacks. To parry, you have to block right when an 
enemy's attack is about to hit. You cannot parry if you simply hold 
down the block button: you'll need to time the strike just right to 
reflect your enemy's move and set him off balance.

IX. Pouncing
The Natural progression of parrying, pouncing allows you to do all 
kinds of nasty things to enemies. To pounce, you need to parry an enemy 
and immediately press the jump button afterwards. Afro will jump on the 
foe's shoulders, and you will have a brief window to input commands for 
what Afro can do. Pressing any of the attack buttons will be an instant 
kill against the enemy, with a different style for each different 
attack. The other option when pouncing is to throw enemies. Instead of 
pressing another button, continue to hold jump and aim with the left 
analog stick to throw the enemy in that direction. This is usually an 
instant kill, and a few environmental puzzles require you to do this to 
continue through the game.

X. Bullet Slicing/Reflecting
Certain enemies in the game use guns and will try to hit you from long 
range. You could just run up and kill them as fast as you can, but this 
is a much more stylish and easier way to go about it. When you fight a 
gun wielding enemy, a part of the screen will show him aiming at you. 
When you see this, enter focus mode and hold there for a moment without 
don't press any buttons. When you here the shot fire from the gun, hold 
the horizontal focus attack button. It should go to a special 
animation: wait for the gleam to travel down the edge of the sword just 
like usual, and then release when it's at the end to reflect the bullet 
back at the enemy and instantly kill him. If you use a vertical attack 
to slice the bullet instead you will merely destroy it and not cause 
any damage to the shooter, except in a few select cases.

====================
B. Combat Strategies...(CBS)
====================
Afro Samurai is a free form action game. The game focuses on fighting 
numerous enemies at the same time, and there are a staggering number of 
battles on the game. As such, I won't be giving specific strategies on 
how to beat every single minor conflict the game throws at you. I will 
provide relevant information that might help you during a fight, or 
strategies for particularly difficult fights. Keep in mind for these 
that this guide was written while playing on hard mode, which is 
unlocked after beating normal mode. These strategies will work for both 
modes of the game, but if you're playing on normal you really don't 
need to be as strict as some of these might seem. Hard mode requires 
you to be much more defensive than normal mode, and these strategies 
reflect that. If this is too much to read, here's a quick summary:

-The best focus attack is a horizontal strike aimed at the legs
-Don't use Overfocus
-Do use Dash attacks
-Collect Mementos
-Vary your Fighting style 

I. Focus 101
Focus is Afro's ace in the hole, and the most important aspect of 
combat in the game is learning how to effectively use it. There are two 
focus attacks: horizontal and vertical. For the most part, there is 
very little reason to ever use vertical focus attacks: they have a much 
smaller window to hit someone and they rarely have a chance to take out 
more than one enemy at a time. They come in useful for a few enemies, 
but I'll mention them when those particular enemies show up. If focus 
slashes hit, they'll kill almost every time no matter what part of the 
body they hit. As such, the most effective part to aim for is the legs 
since they offer the largest area to hit. The only real way for an 
enemy to dodge one of these attacks is to jump to avoid it, and few 
enemies have the ability to do that. Against bosses, the same strategy 
applies except in situations that I mention where certain slashes 
either have to be used or are just plain better.

II. Know Your Health and Focus
This game doesn't have any menus, but there are still ways to tell how 
much damage you've taken and focus you have left. Your health is 
represented by the color of Afro's model: the darker red the model is 
tinted, the more damage you've taken. When you start to get really low 
on health, the sound effects in the game will begin to change to a 
strange pitch that almost sounds like you're underwater. At this point, 
you're very nearly dead and it's probably a good idea to go defensive 
or find a healing item. Your focus meter is actually the small pearl-
like object attached to your sword. Depending on how much focus you 
have, it will glow different colors. The highest is a shining light, 
which means you're full and have enough focus to perform an over focus 
move. When you're absolutely empty, the pearl will have a dull black 
glow to it.

III. Recovering Health and Focus
There are numerous ways to recover your health and focus. The easiest 
way to recover your health is to slash at one of the teddy bears 
scattered around the game's levels, these will restore your health to 
full instantly. Killing enemies will restore your health as well, but 
not nearly as much. On hard mode, you will only receive health from a 
foe if you killed them by decapitation. Finally, you will receive 
health by performing a successful hand in "body-part poker"-more on 
that in a minute. Focus is much simpler to recover. Focus will recover 
both overtime and by hitting enemies with regular moves in combat. 
Focus is generally very easy to keep at a useable level, but it's hard 
to raise it all the way to an over-focus (and not really worth it).

IV. Body Part Poker
Body part poker is a sort of mini-game that will pop-up in certain 
fights. Ninja Ninja, Afro's companion, will appear on the battlefield. 
To start body part poker, touch Ninja Ninja to begin the timer which is 
represented as a cigarette on the bottom of the screen. Your goal in 
body part poker is to make a "hand" of three cards by chopping off 
certain limbs of the game's enemies. The hand is determined by two 
factors: the cards (the parts you cut off), and the suits (the enemies 
you kill.) To give you an example, here's a few hands:

Ronin hand/Ronin legs/Ronin head
This hand wins because each body part that was cut off belonged to a 
Ronin enemy. 

Ronin Head/Ninja Head/Drone Head
This hand wins because each body part cut off was the same.

Ninja Head/Ninja Head/Ninja Head
This obviously wins, but a "three head" flush is the highest hand in 
the game, and there are a few achievements on the 360 version of the 
game based on getting this for different kinds of enemies. Sorry PS3 
crowd, there aren't any trophies for this game.

Ninja Head/Ronin Hand/Ninja Legs
This is an example of a losing hand. All of the body parts that were 
cut off are different, and there are two different suits. A hand will 
only win if all the body parts sliced off or all the enemies killed 
match.

V. Overfocus
Overfocus would be Afro's "ultimate move", if it were any good that is. 
Sadly, overfocus has too many drawbacks to be useful in most 
situations. For one, you need to have full focus to use it. This 
requires extended periods of time in which you don't use your regular 
focus in order to save up the required energy. Secondly, using 
overfocus will drain all of the focus you have. This leaves you 
extremely vulnerable in a situation where you might need it. Finally, 
it's just not the great when compared to regular focus. A well placed 
focus attack can kill three or four enemies in a single hit, and a few 
hits later you will have charged up enough focus to do another focus 
slash. The amount of time and energy you have to put into overfocus 
makes it pointless in the long run. It's not useless-if you happen to 
have enough during a fight then by all means use it- but don't save up 
for one of these.

VI. Use Dash Attacks
Dash Attacks are some of your best moves. They're weak, but they're 
very fast and stun enemies. A stunned enemy is an enemy you can perform 
a combo on or kill with a focus attack. Use dash attacks constantly to 
set up combos and single out members of a group so you can eliminate 
them one by one. Dash attacks work on bosses too, and are a big part of 
learning how to fight well.

VII. Mementos
Mementos are secret collectibles in the game, and generally speaking 
there will be five in every level of the game that isn't just a boss 
fight. "Memento" is a slightly a misnomer, as the actual item itself is 
actually a small group of crows. Whenever you collect all the mementos 
in a level, Afro will gain a new move from the "Father's Legacy" set on 
the moves menu. For the most part, these are upgraded or more advanced 
forms of some of the combos you already have. Some of these moves are 
absolutely awesome to have and make the game quite a bit easier, so 
collect as many of them as you can as the game goes on. I will list 
where the mementos are located in each level.

VII. Jump Attacks
As you might suspect, Afro has a few jump attacks in this game. A 
simple warning: it's almost never a good idea to use them. Afro's jump 
is pretty slow, and performing any of the aerial moves causes you to 
stand still in the air as you fumble around trying desperately to hit 
something. Does being stuck in the air, unable to hit anything or even 
defend yourself sound like a good situation when hordes of heavily 
armed enemies are trying to kill you? The ONLY jump attack that's 
useful is one of the Father's Legacy moves, which lets you perform 
focus attacks in the air. Get the timing right on this, and you can 
leap into crowds with a vertical focus slash and kill enemies before 
the fight's even begun. Other than that, avoid these at all costs.

IX. Fighting Crowds
Combat in Afro Samurai is rarely difficult against a single enemy 
unless they're a boss. The challenge of this game's combat comes from 
trying to fight lots of foes at the same time. Knowing how to fight ten 
enemies at once is important to your survival, and there's a few tricks 
that can help you out. First, know what the hell you're doing. Button 
mashing might work in some of the game's easier portions, but later on 
you'll be dead in no time if you try it. Performing the right combos 
are important too: when fighting lots of enemies, it should be obvious 
to go with attacks that have a wider range and can hit more people at 
once over more damaging attacks that single out a foe.

That being said, the two things you should focus on in combat are your 
own personal defense and the elimination of enemies one by one. It 
doesn't help if the ten enemies you're fighting are all low on health 
and you only have a tiny bit of health left. It's much better to be 
fighting two enemies at full health than it is to be fighting a range 
of weaker foes all at the same time. Use focus slashes to take down as 
many enemies as you can at once, but don't be afraid to target a 
specific foe if they're giving you trouble. 

If all else is failing, you can run away and try some hit and run 
tactics to try and cull the enemy forces. Running in and doing a single 
dash attack followed by a focus slice and then running out of range is 
an effective means of combat if you're in trouble. You can also try 
sticking back and parrying, though this doesn't always seem to work out 
as good as you might think- you're bound to mess up at some point.

==================================================
4. The Guide... (T4G)
==================================================
This guide is set up so that you'll only have to look at the 
information you want. The sections for each level are set up like so: 

(Level Name)
(Memento Locations)
(New Enemies)
(Level Strategy)
(Boss Strategy)

Generally speaking, I'm not going to give that much information for the 
main levels of the game. I will provide tips on how to get through some 
of the tougher battles, but for the most part you should be able to get 
through the non-boss fights fairly easily-providing you've read the 
combat strategy section above. I also won't be providing a strategy for 
the game's tutorial level, as it lasts for about five minutes and 
you're told every single thing you need to do. Anyway, here we go.

====================
A. The Daimyo's Story...(DMS)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. Directly in front of you when you start. Can't miss em'.

2. After opening the main gate of the castle and defeating the enemies, 
go up the stairs. At the door of the castle, turn left and follow the 
path a bit and it will be at the end.

3. After stopping the clock hands, you will fight a large group of 
enemies in the central area of the castle. After that, you will have to 
across the clock hands and then wall run to get to the next area. After 
wall running, there will be a hallway in front of you and a path to 
your right. The memento is in a small room on the right path.

4. This one's a bit tricky. You will come to a giant elevator where you 
will have to fight the near-nude tattooed ninja women and regular 
mooks. After beating them and hitting all four switches, the elevator 
will move up. At the top, there will be some climbable pipes on one 
side of the elevator. Move along these around the top of the room to 
find the memento on a ledge above the elevator

5. After exiting the poison gas tower, you'll have to climb some stairs 
to get to the final area. About halfway up there is a landing, where 
the path splits to go up or down to the left. Go down to left and 
around the building to take you to the final memento.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
I. Ronin
Threat level: low
Able to Pounce: yes
----------
Ronin are the most common enemies in Afro Samurai. They vary in 
appearance from level to level, but you can always spot a Ronin because 
of his ridiculous giant hat. Individually, Ronin are the most pathetic 
enemies imaginable. They're only a threat when facing large groups of 
them, but they're easy prey to well aimed focus slashes and combos. You 
don't really need any special strategies to take on Ronin, and if you 
find yourself consistently being beaten by what is essentially a 
sentient toothpick then this might not be the game for you. (Note: 
whenever I refer to a "basic enemy" in the guide, it's probably these.)

II. Gunner
Threat level: low
Able to Pounce: probably, but what's the point when they die so easy?
----------
Gunners are the game's single ranged enemy. Up close they're incredibly 
weak: breathe too hard and you kill one. These enemies will attempt to 
attack you from a distance though. It would be challenging if you 
couldn't just hit their bullets right back at them with a bullet 
reflect move. These will kill them in one hit, and there are almost 
never other enemies around when you fight them. (You can find how to do 
a bullet reflect in the gameplay section if you don't know how).

III. Samurai
Threat Level: Medium 
Able to Pounce: No, they'll counterattack and damage you.
----------
Samurai can actually be fairly tough foes. They're the most defensive 
enemies in the game, and they'll block most of your attacks and then 
counteract with their own. This makes them very hard to take down when 
they're in a group with other enemies. It's best to kill off all the 
weaker foes and then take on the Samurai one-on-one using dash attacks 
and focus slashes to catch them off balance. For the best results, 
attack low with focus slashes to try and avoid their guards. They seem 
to be more vulnerable around their legs, but they're pretty susceptible 
to well aimed vertical strikes too.

IV. Strippers
Threat level: Medium/Low
Able to Parry: Yes. They even have a special death animation.
----------
Strippers are only fought in the "Daimyo's Story" level, and they get 
replaced later in the game by a different type of enemy. The strippers 
are very fast, but deal relatively little damage. They will mainly jump 
around and try to dodge your attacks instead of outright attacking you. 
Their main strategy is to either rush in and hit you while you're 
fighting someone else, or do a jump kick from far away. The jump kick 
can be deadly: It deals almost no damage, but it will interrupt 
whatever combo you're in and leave you open for other enemies to attack 
you. The best thing to do is be aware of where they are while you fight 
the other enemies. They're much easier to deal with when they're the 
only enemies left in the room and they'll go down pretty quick if you 
just focus on them. 

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
Head forward to find the first memento, and continue along the street 
to fight a few Ronin. Afterwards, you have to open the gate by wall 
running up on the right side. This will put you on a ledge near a 
Gunner. After killing him, go inside and pull the lever by wall running 
up to it. Cross the wooden beam near where the gunner was, and then 
repeat the same process on this side to open the castle's main gate.

After entering the gate, you will be confronted by a large group of 
enemies, and the first Samurai enemy. It might seem like a good idea to 
try and kill him first, but it's best to finish off the weaker enemies 
and then take him on one-on-one. After that fight advance up the castle 
steps. By going on either side, you can find a memento and a healing 
bear respectively.

Upon entering the palace, you'll have to fight some more enemies. After 
killing them, take the door on the left side of the bottom floor around 
to a machinery area. Advance around the room until you hit a switch, 
which will stop the clock hand in the central room of the level. Make 
your way back to the central room to fight a larger wave of enemies, 
and then advance up the clock hands and wall run around to a small 
ledge. Before continuing, make sure you get memento here to the right.

After heading down the hall, you'll fight some strippers. (No, really).  
After that, advance on until you get to another room where you'll have 
to fight a whole bunch of strippers and basic enemies. After doing so, 
you'll have to hit a switch in each corner of the room. This will raise 
the floor up to the next level, but don't forget the memento before you 
continue.

Collect the bear if you need it, then continue forward into the poison 
gas room. The tower will flood with poison gas that will start to drain 
your health: the only way to go is up. The tower is actually pretty 
easy once you realize there are quite a good number of bears on the way 
up to heal. There is one in the first alcove after the single enemy, 
one in the alcove after the double enemies, and one in the corner where 
the gas is coming out after the two enemies. Still, avoid fighting the 
enemies for more than a few seconds each and just avoid them if 
possible. Try to take out two or three of the final group of four with 
a well place focus slash, and then just dash for the exit behind them. 
After the tower, advance up the stairs and grab the memento half way 
up. You'll have to fight some enemies at the top of the stairs, and 
after they're dead you'll fight the Boss.

==========
IV. Boss: Daimyo
==========
Difficulty: 1/5

The Daimyo is basically just a beefy version of the regular samurai 
you've been fighting up to this point. After a few basic strikes, you 
will lock swords and he'll talk about parrying. This becomes the only 
way to beat him after he says this. You must parry his attacks by 
blocking at the correct moment right before he hits you. This will set 
him off balance and you can hit him a few times before he flips away 
and regains his composure. Really, this fight is all about defense. 
Just stand in place and parry his attacks when he comes to you. The 
only move you can't parry is his big overhead strike, but you can block 
it no problem. Just stay on the defensive and you should be fine. If 
you're finding it's too hard to parry him, you can also hit him if he 
misses with his charging attack. Defeat him to collect Afro's rightful 
sword and move on to the school invasion.

====================
B. School Invasion...(SCI)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. After going outside and killing the enemies in the courtyard, the 
Sword master will tell you to ring the alarm bell. Before following the 
cliff path, go to the right of where he's standing down a short path to 
find the first memento.
	
2. Shortly after the first memento, you will come to a large training 
ground area where you will fight some enemies. On the left side of the 
arena there are some targets, and next to those is the second memento.

3. After defeating the club wielding enemy, you will have to outside 
the main gate to kill some enemies. After they're all dead, check the 
left side of the cliff right outside the main gate the find the third 
memento.

4. When you enter the burning building to rescue the third child, the 
memento is to the right in front of some burning timbers right after 
you see the scene showing the third child. You have to get it as soon 
as you enter the building, otherwise a scene will force you to miss it 
if you try and come back after saving the girl.

5. When you start off to rescue the sword master, you will fight a 
small group of enemies on the rocky path. After killing them, jump on 
the rock on the left of the path, then hop along the tops of two more 
rocks to reach the last memento.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
V. Ninja
Threat level: Low/Medium
Able to pounce: If you're really fast
----------
Ninja are the second most common enemy in the game. They come in two 
variations: black/red and black/blue. The differences appear to be just 
cosmetic, as the two different colors fight exactly the same. Ninjas 
are faster and more powerful than Ronin, but they die just as fast as 
Ronin do. The strength of a Ninja is in its speed: this enemy if very 
offensive and has a lot of attacks that can catch you off balance if 
you aren't careful. Of particular note is a dash attack that a Ninja 
will start about ten feet away from Afro. They'll charge at you very 
quickly, and they really like to use this move when you're preoccupied 
with another enemy. Ninja's like to dodge a lot too, but this actually 
work's to your advantage: they'll often "dodge" right into a focus 
slash.

VI. Giant (Clubber)
Threat Level: High
Able to pounce: No
----------
Like the Ninja, this enemy has two models with identical moves: A white 
giant and a black giant. This enemy is a tank: they have incredible 
stamina and huge amounts of damage, but they're slow. Really slow. The 
best strategy to use on these guys is the good ol' hit and run. Use a 
dash attack to hit them once, do a short combo and maybe a focus 
attack, and then back off. These enemies have a lot of health, and 
it'll usually take a good five or six focus slashes to down them. They 
have a nasty range of moves too. The worst is that they have the 
ability to beat you when you're on the ground after you've been knocked 
over, which will all but kill you on hard mode. They also have a sort 
of counter move they'll do if you get them in too long of a combo that 
will knock you backwards. The best way to deal with them is to just 
keep your distance until the big guy tires himself out, and then rush 
in and deal as much damage as possible before he recovers.


==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
Follow the Sword Master as you descend the building, fighting enemies 
along the way. Kill all of the enemies outside, and the Master will 
direct you to sound the alarm bell. Don't forget the memento near him 
before you go. Advance along the cliff path to reach the training 
grounds, where you will have to fight more enemies and you can find a 
new memento. This is also the first time you'll encounter the Ninja 
enemy type, which will become very common as the game progresses. 

After killing all the enemies here, take the wooden path on the far 
side of the training grounds down along the cliff side. Kill any 
enemies you meet along the way. On the other side, you will have to 
navigate some cliffs to get access to where the bell is, but it isn't 
anything confusing. Upon reaching the bell, you will first have to 
fight some enemies before you can ring it. Kill all of them, and then 
kick the bell to ring it and warn the other students. 

After that you will have to defend to main gate. First take out the two 
Ninja, and the giant after them. There's a bear in one corner of the 
area here if you need it. The courtyard will then be flooded with 
enemies, kill them and move outside of the gate to trigger a cutscene. 
Kill all the enemies outside, but don't forget the memento before you 
go back inside of the gates. You now have to close the gates by pulling 
the levers on either side of them. Pull them, and then kill the last 
few enemies to move on to the next part of the level.

In this portion of the level, your goal will be to rescue three 
children that have been trapped various places around the Dojo. Your 
top priority during this section of the level is to defend the kids: 
leave them unattended for too long and the enemies will kill them and 
you will have to start over just like if you had died. The children die 
very quickly on the Number one difficulty, so stay near them and make 
sure all of the enemies are focused on attacking you and not the child. 
In sections where Jinno fights with you he can die as well, so your 
role here is to be more of a babysitter than a warrior. 

The first child is located in the middle of the training grounds. You 
should stay on the central platform the entire time to ensure that the 
child remains safe, but it's fine to leave for a few seconds you have 
to save Jinno. You will then have to take the cliff path to get to the 
central courtyard again. Like with the first child, you should stay 
near the kid at all times to ensure he doesn't get attacked. 

The final child is inside the burning building. Make your way around 
the building, fighting enemies as you go. Upon entering the building, 
grab the memento shown in the cutscene and then make your way around 
the building as fast as you can in order to save the final child. After 
Jinno saves her, you will have to fight a few waves of enemies in the 
central courtyard. There is a bear if you need to heal during the 
fight.

Finally, make your way up the main building to save Jinno. You'll then 
notice that the Sword Master is getting his ass kicked out on the small 
island near you, which will prompt Afro to go off and try to rescue 
him. On the rock path you start on, collect the level's final memento 
and then proceed down the rock path to the island. Upon reaching the 
island, you will go to a new level.

==========
IV. Boss
==========
This level does not have a boss.

====================
C. The Sword Master's Story...(SMS)
====================
This level consists entirely of a boss fight. There are no new enemies, 
mementos, or level to cover.

Boss: The Sword Master
Difficulty: 2/5

The sword master is much like the Daimyo: he doesn't really have any 
flashy or special moves, just powerful combos and single strikes. He's 
really offensive, and won't let up at all throughout the fight. He has 
a few combos that can shave quite a bit of health off, but there are 
two bears in the arena to heal with of you need them. If you caught the 
line from the Daimyo fight, you'll know that the sword master is weak 
to parrying, and that rings true. The best way to take him down is to 
parry his attacks, and then hit him 3-4 times with a focus attack on 
the end. If you're confident in your abilities, he's easy enough that 
you can just go all out on him as well; especially since he's 
vulnerable to well placed focus attacks, which will do tons of damage.

====================
D. Okiku's Story...(OKS)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. Right after the level starts, go outside the house and circle around 
to the other side. The memento is against the far side of the little 
field behind the house.

2. This one's a little tricky. On the first night, you will eventually 
come to a bamboo grove area (you will see Okiku cross a bamboo bridge 
when you reach here.) After the cutscene ends, go the left under a 
different bamboo bridge. After following this path for a ways, you will 
come to a small house; the memento is outside this house. 

3. This is another tricky one. The memento is on the path as you're 
going to the first drone hole in the bamboo grove, but it's kind of 
hard to see. Shortly after leaving Okiku's house, you will have to hop 
across a few rocks over a bottomless pit. The memento is on the path 
under a branch just after getting through this part, but the lighting 
makes is sort of hard to see.

4. When you're back in the village to close the drone hole, stay 
against the right wall and walk as far as possible down the street. 
After the bar from the first level of the game, turn left and head down 
the alleyway to find the memento.

5. Thankfully, this one's easy. It's on a ledge right above the third 
drone tunnel- seriously, it's like five feet away from the tunnel 
entrance. Jump up to claim it.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
VII. Heavy Swordsman
Threat Level: Medium/High
Able to Pounce: Yes
----------
Heavy Swordsmen are probably the most formidable of the game's basic 
enemies. They're powerful, have long range, and are actually pretty 
fast despite their size. If you're not careful these enemies can easily 
kill you if you let them. However, they're really only dangerous in a 
crowd of enemies. One-on-one they can be repeatedly hit and focus 
slashed without fear, as they have no counterattack to speak of. They 
can also be pounced on for a one hit kill, but the timing can be hard 
to get down. In combat you should mostly just try to avoid these guys 
while you take out lesser enemies to the point where you can easily 
focus on fighting just the Heavy Swordsman.
	
VIII. Android (Drone)
Threat level: Low
Able to pounce: Yes
----------
These enemies are pretty sad really. They have all the power of a sad 
little Ronin combined with a Ninja's uncanny ability to jump in front 
of focus slashes. These guys are really the lowest of the low, and 
require no strategy to defeat other than "attack them". Even in numbers 
they present little challenge, so just go crazy on these guys.

IX. Exploding Android (Orange Drone)
Threat level: Medium
Able to pounce: Yes
----------
These enemies are just palette swaps of the regular drones into orange 
jumpsuits. This doesn't make them any more dangerous in combat, but it 
gives them one very clear trait to avoid: when they die, they explode. 
This can cause a lot of damage to a pretty bug area, so it's best to 
kill these and then run away from the dead body.

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
The first memento is right around the side of Okiku's house after you 
start the level. After that, just follow Okiku as and listen to what 
she says. When you reach the waterfall area, you'll fight a new enemy, 
the Heavy Swordsman. After killing him, you'll have to fight a few more 
basic enemies mixed in with a gunner. The best way to proceed here is 
to kill the gunner, then fight the rest of the enemies while standing 
on the platform where he was. You'll only have to fight two or three 
enemies at a time this way. 

Continue following Okiku until you reach the bamboo grove, where you 
can find another memento. Follow her around the path until she leaves. 
You will now have to follow the android as it tries to run away from 
you. This will eventually lead you to the village from the tutorial 
level of the game, where you will have to fight a gang of enemies. Take 
out the gunners first to make it easier on yourself. After killing all 
the enemies, you will move on to the next part of the level.

Make your way back to the waterfall area that you went to the first 
night, whore you fought the Heavy Swordsman. Okiku will be there, and 
this will end the second part of the level. Quick, huh? You don't have 
to fight any enemies, and there aren't any mementos. This will then 
lead to the next night.

Your goal will now be to destroy the Android hive that spawns the robot 
like enemies that you had to chase before. There are four hives that 
you need to destroy. The first is in the well outside of Okiku's house. 
The enemy that comes out is actually different from the one you saw 
before. To destroy the holes, you will have to kill these enemies when 
they are very close to them. These enemies explode when they die, and 
the explosion will destroy the burrows. The easiest way to do this is 
by throwing them at the holes, which is done by parrying and then 
pressing jump to get on the drone's shoulders. Pressing any of the 
normal attack buttons will kill the drone, but holding the jump button 
and a direction will throw the enemy in that direction. You can throw 
the orange drones into the burrows to collapse them.

The second burrow is in the bamboo grove. You can get there by going 
forward after you jump over the rocks outside of Okiku's house instead 
of over the fallen tree. At the intersection, get the memento and then 
head left and up to get to the bamboo grove. The next tunnel is in the 
village, which you can get to via a bridge on the other end of the 
bamboo grove. Make sure to get the memento before you leave the 
village. The final tunnel is near the waterfall, and after closing that 
the drone's main nest will open up near the river area near the middle 
of the level. 

Jumping down into the hole, you'll see a large generator like object. 
This is what's powering the drones, and you came here to destroy it. To 
do so, you'll have to throw three exploding drones at it until it 
breaks down. There are bears around the perimeter of the area of you to 
heal. After destroying the hive, you'll be placed back at Okiku's 
house. The final night some Drones will attack the house. After you 
beat them, the boss shows up.

==========
IV. Boss: Brother Six, with Flamethrower. 
==========
Difficulty: 4/5

In all honesty, this is probably one of the hardest fights in the game. 
None of his attacks are blockable, and most of them do lots of damage. 
His attacks also have great range and cover a wide area, making 
approaching him difficult. However, there's a trick to this fight: the 
dash attack. Whenever you hit the boss with a combo, he'll counter 
after three hits with an unblockable physical attack that will knock 
you down. To avoid this, use repeated dash attacks instead: hit him 
once with a dash attack and then run away just far enough to do another 
dash attack and hit him again. If you get the timing down right, he'll 
be permanently stunned and since you're technically not comboing him 
he'll never retaliate with his unblockable attack. If you're playing 
normal mode, his counter attack will deal virtually no damage. It's 
faster in normal mode to just start a combo with a dash attack and then 
keep hitting him until he knocks you down. You should easily have 
enough time to do another dash attack combo before he has the chance to 
attack you again.

Even with that strategy, he can still be hard. After the first phase, 
he'll start using a shockwave attack. This is mostly easy to avoid, but 
the wave will still do damage even when the flames are so tiny they're 
barely visible so make sue you're jumping over it. The attack will also 
do a ton of damage, even enough to kill you at full health if you get 
hit at the center of it. You could still easily lose this fight even if 
you know what you're doing, so just keep it up and you'll get down the 
rhythm for the dash combo. If you need health, and you probably will, 
there are two bears in the corners on the right hand side of the arena.

====================
E. The Lowdown East Path...(LEP)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. In the first quarry area away from the statue, you will be attacked 
by a sniper on a high ledge. After killing him, search the small area 
to the right of his perch on GROUND level to find the first memento.

2. When you come to the second quarry, you will have to destroy two 
machineguns. After destroying the first, turn around and look at the 
wall you used to climb up to the platform. There will be a ledge you 
can grab on to. Jump over and move up the small wall and then wall run 
to the wooden platform to find the memento.

3. In the third quarry, this one is on the far side of the ground level 
from where you start. It's right in the middle of the path, so it's 
hard to miss.

4. Another easy one, it's right next to one of the ropes you have to 
cut on the fourth and final quarry. Can't miss it really.

5. After the huge fight in the fourth quarry, you will have moved the 
statue's head. The final memento is right next to the moved head on the 
statue's right shoulder, you can even see it in the cutscene.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
X. Kunoichi (The female ninja, or as Ninja Ninja says "The god of Ass")
Threat level: Medium
Able to Pounce: Yes
----------
Remember when I said that the stripper enemies from the first level 
would show up again? It's these girls. They share the same moves as the 
strippers from the Daimyo's Story, except they can now throw Shurikens 
(Ninja Ninja will warn you when they do this) and their attacks do more 
damage than before. Otherwise they're the same: They will mainly jump 
around and try to dodge your attacks instead of outright attacking you. 
Their main strategy is to either rush in and hit you while you're 
fighting someone else, or do a jump kick from far away. The jump kick 
can be deadly: It deals almost no damage, but it will interrupt 
whatever combo you're in and leave you open for other enemies to attack 
you. The best thing to do is be aware of where they are while you fight 
the other enemies. They're much easier to deal with when they're the 
only enemies left in the room and they'll go down pretty quick if you 
just focus on them. 

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
The goal of this level is move the statue's head so you can progress 
through the area. To do this, you'll have to cut ropes that hold parts 
of the statue in place so you can use them to continue through the 
level. As the level begins, kill the Gunner and then cut the rope on 
the ground. To cut the ropes in this level, perform a vertical perfect 
slice on the rope. Make sure it's the rope you're hitting and not the 
chain, some people have had problems with cutting the ropes in this 
level. Advance up the statue and cross the hand, then head through the 
cave to reach the first quarry area. (Beware the boxes here, they're 
explosive. You'll need to use them in a minute for something, but 
they'll damage you if you touch them so don't attack them.)

Kill the sniper and get the memento first, then set about killing all 
of the enemies in here. After that's done, grab the bear in the small 
passage if you need it. Kick the switches at the base of each crane to 
move the blocks into place so you can jump across to where the rope is 
that you need to cut. Before you can cut the rope, a few more ninja 
will show up for you to kill. After killing them and cutting the rope, 
follow the stone path back to the central area. You'll have to fight a 
pretty big wave of enemies here. Just try to take out as many as you 
can with area attacks, and don't stay in the middle of the area to 
leave yourself open. After you kill all the regular enemies, a Giant 
will show up. Take him down and then proceed to the area he came from.

In this area, you'll be faced with two machine gun turrets. You can't 
charge them, so go down to the right. In this area, a bunch of weaker 
enemies will spawn. Remember the exploding boxes from before? Here you 
have to toss enemies into the exploding crate near the construction 
equipment to rise up a block. After that, wall run up the opposite side 
of the canyon to get to the first machine gun nest and destroy it. Get 
the memento by the first turret, and then continue on until you get a 
bridge. Kill the two enemies, then wall run up the planks here and 
cross over the stone bridge to get to the second machine gun and 
destroy it. Then cut the rope, and head back to the central area.

Thankfully, there's no battle in the central area this time around. 
Climb up the statue and run the opposite direction from where you ran 
the last time to enter the third quarry. Grab the memento on the far 
side of the area, and then find a spot to wall jump off onto the 
scaffolding. Make your way around the scaffolding, fighting enemies as 
you go, to wind up in a small crevasse with the rope you need to cut. 
Defeat the Giant and the Ninja that show up, and then cut the rope and 
move to the final quarry by moving behind the statue. 

The final quarry is pretty straight forward. Cut the three ropes here 
out in the open, getting the memento along the way. After doing this, a 
pretty bug fight will ensue with one new enemy added into the mix (sort 
of). The first waves should be easy to take down with well placed focus 
slashed, but you'll have to go on the defensive when the Samurai and 
the new Kunoichi enemies show up. Leave the Heavy Swordsman for last so 
you can focus on him alone. He tends to get caught on pieces of the 
environment so it shouldn't be too hard. There's both a bear and a game 
of Body part poker if you need to heal during the match. After clearing 
that fight, head back to the statue and get the final memento on the 
statue's shoulder before going inside to face the Boss.

==========
IV. Boss: Brother Six with RPG and Brother Two 
==========
Difficulty: 2/5

This is more of a puzzle fight than a real boss, and the puzzle is easy 
to figure out. Brother Six will stand on that rock out in front  and 
fire rockets at you. You have to focus slice them to destroy them and 
damage brother two. The timing is the only thing you might have a hard 
time getting down: enter into focus mode right before you think he's 
going to fire. Don't start your attack until he actually fires the 
rocket: charge a vertical focus attack and Afro should go into a 
special position with his katana sheathed. When the rocket gets close 
enough, unleash your strike. 

Every time you do this, Brother Two will then summon three weak enemies 
for you to kill to get your focus back up. Kill them, but watch out: 
Brother Six will throw grenades at you while you attempt to kill them, 
but they're easy to dodge. This is an easy fight, and after you've 
sliced four rockets you'll be all done.

====================
F. Doppelganger...(DPG)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. When you start the level, follow the path behind you all the way 
down to the broken bridge to find the first memento.

2. After climbing up the first elevator, the memento is on the left 
side opposite the ledge where you jump up. Pretty hard to miss.

3. Almost right after that, you'll fight a gun wielding enemy. After 
killing him, look in one of the corners of the platform he was standing 
on.

4. After fighting the boss, you will fight a few enemies on the other 
side of the broken bridge. After killing them all (the final wave is 
Ninjas), jump up to the cliff to continue and then turn around. There 
is a wooden platform you can jump to, and from there you can jump to 
another wooden platform that has the memento on it.

5. After going up the second elevator, the memento will be right out in 
the open on the platform in front of you.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
XI.: Electric Drone (Blue Drone)
Threat level: Low
Able to pounce: No
----------
Yet another variation on the Drone, these ones are electrified. That 
means they're invulnerable to any attacks in which Afro actually 
touches the Drone: Kicks and Pounces will damage Afro instead of the 
Drone. Other than that, they're identical to the regular grey Drones. 
These enemies are also incredibly rare: there's probably only about 15 
in the entire game.

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
There's actually a pretty tough fight up ahead, but there's a way you 
can make it a lot easier. When you get the first memento a few enemies 
will show up: don't focus attack any of the enemies and just kill them 
with normal moves. There's only four of the weakest type, and there's a 
bear here for any damage you might take. Do that, and you should have 
enough focus ready for an overfocus attack during the next battle. The 
fight consists of around ten ninja enemies intermixed with a Giant and 
a Heavy swordsman, and all of them can be killed in a single overfoucs 
if used correctly-though you might want to go for the big boys first to 
make things easier on yourself.

After you've won the fight, Brother Six will show up with his RPG and 
blow up the bridge. Run towards the camera to escape the explosion, 
otherwise you have to start the whole level over again. After landing 
safely on the other side, kill the weak enemies that show up and move 
up the cliff by cutting the rope on the elevator and then wall jumping 
up the shaft. Get the memento and then head up the path to find a 
gunner. Reflect his shot before you go across the gap, and then get the 
memento near him. Next you'll have to fight some drones, and among them 
is a new enemy. After the fight, make your way out onto the bridge to 
find...

=====
Boss: Doppelganger
=====
Difficulty: 3/5

This fight is very difficult if you don't know the trick to it. It 
might seem like the Afro Droid knows all of your moves, but that isn't 
the case. He doesn't know any of the Father's Legacy moves (that you've 
been getting from the mementos if you've been collecting them, which 
you should really be doing.) There are also a few select moves he just 
doesn't know, and those are the keys to defeating him. The easiest of 
these moves to use is "The Heart Attack" (3x heavy slash then 4x light 
slash). This move works well in that its animation makes Afro all but 
invincible if you just stand in front of the Doppelganger and 
continually use it, which makes the fight extremely easy. If you don't 
have any of those moves, which you should by now since the Heart attack 
is learned relatively early, attack him from behind with hit and run 
tactics. He can be hit like normal from behind, but it makes the fight 
a lot harder to have to do this.
------

After the boss battle, you'll have to repeat the bridge running 
sequence from earlier. On the other side, take out the enemies as you 
progress along the cliff, and make sure to get the memento after 
they're all dead. Continue along the path, traveling up the cliff and 
across a beam to fight some drones. After killing the drones, cut the 
rope to the elevator and climb it just like before. Collect the final 
memento before heading out onto the bridge. On the bridge you'll have 
to fight five Samurai, followed by some ninja. When fighting the five 
Samurai, use hit and run tactics and attempt to get them off balance to 
focus slash them and kill them. After killing all the enemies, you'll 
face another boss:

==========
IV. Boss: Aerial Doppelganger
==========
Difficulty: 2/5

Yes, you are in fact fighting the boss as you fall thousands of feet 
through the sky. This fight is honestly hard to give a decent strategy 
for: all you really need to do is dodge his attacks and get close 
enough to hit him. When the fight begins, spend a few seconds orienting 
yourself and figuring out how the controls work in free fall. Your 
strategy for this fight should be simple: charge towards the 
Doppelganger at full speed until you're in range of him, and then 
attack with a combination of regular moves and focus attacks. He almost 
never hits you at close range, but his projectiles can be hard to dodge 
from range and deal a lot of damage so it's best to just stay close to 
him as much as possible. This fight isn't so much hard as it is 
disorienting; once you've gotten the hang of it it's quite easy.

====================
G. Kuma's Story...(KMS)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. Right at the onset of the level, head right to find the first 
memento.

2. After you've encountered kuma a few times, it will be on the main 
path as you continue to follow him. Really hard to miss.

3. You will fight Kuma in a large snow field shortly after the second 
memento. The memento is on the left side of the field from where you 
entered, but an invisible wall prevents you from accessing it during 
the fight so you can only get to it after you fight Kuma.

4. After you fight Kuma in the shrine, it will be on the far end of the 
shrine out in the open.

5. Right after you get memento four, turn around and look at the 
shrine. The memento is on the right side of the shrine perched on the 
ledge.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
There are no new enemies in this level.

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
There really doesn't need to be a strategy for this level: it's 
essentially one long boss fight. There's only a single enemy in the 
level, but here's a short guide anyway. Whenever you have to fight the 
boss in this level, refer to the boss section below for strategies.

Right when the level starts, head right to pick up the first memento. 
After fighting Kuma a couple times, the second memento will be right on 
the path in front of you. Right after that, you'll fight Kuma in the 
large snow field. After beating him there, collect the third memento 
that was blocked during the fight by an invisible wall. Proceed up the 
Shrine, and inside avoid Kuma's attacks to eventually destabilize the 
shrine enough to go up a floor and fight Kuma again. After this fight, 
collect the two mementos near the top of the shrine, then hop up the 
wooden planks to see a cutscene where the shrine will be destroyed. 
After that you'll wind up in another snow field where you will-take a 
wild guess- fight Kuma one last time before the level ends.

==========
IV. Boss: Kuma
==========
Difficulty: 5/5

I'm betting that about half the people who are looking at this guide 
are doing it for this one fight. Kuma is an absolutely brutal boss. 
He's fast, powerful, and has some really nasty moves that he'll use on 
you as much as you let him. He can seem near impossible at first, 
especially on hard mode where a single one of his combos can kill you 
if he lands the whole thing. Thankfully, there are a few decent 
strategies that can help you with the fight. The first is to simply 
parry like mad. This is probably the safest method of fighting him, 
though it's also the longest and a one or two screw ups could mean you 
death. 

The best way to parry Kuma's attacks is to get extremely close to him, 
almost to the point of touching him. This will prompt him to do a 
combo, which you will have to parry. Note that I did say combo, not 
hit: you will have to parry every single hit to be able to attack him 
fast enough so that he can't block. This becomes progressively harder 
as Kuma will add more attacks to his basic combo throughout the level, 
and this becomes very difficult by the end of the match. After you hit 
Kuma three times, he will hit you almost instantly with a high damage 
multi-sword slash that will do a ton of damage if all of the strikes 
hit, so you'll need to be sure and block immediately after attacking. 
As the fight goes on, he will also add a second heavy attack onto his 
counter attack, so you will need to avoid that as well by either 
blocking or just getting out of the way.

Another tactic that is much more dangerous, but much more damaging, is 
to get Kuma off balance by repeatedly attacking him. After you've 
gotten 2-3 hits on him, he will cross his arms across his chest and 
attempt to do a very fast dashing counter attack. After you hit him a 
few times, go into focus mode and aim a horizontal perfect slash at his 
legs. Timed right, this will hit and stagger him before he has a chance 
to attack and hit you. You can pretty much continually do this if you 
get the timing right, but messing up by even a few tenths of a second 
will completely throw you off balance. However, focus slashes do 
ridiculous amounts of damage to Kuma: six or seven focus slashes is 
enough to finish him off in any of the phases you fight him.

You'll fight him three separate times: once in a snow field at the 
onset of the level, once inside of the shrine, and at the end of the 
level in another snow field. The first two times, it'll essentially be 
the same fight. The final fight is mostly the same, but for the final 
phase Kuma will ditch his second sword and bear head. This gives him 
new moves, and makes him insanely fast. Trying to parry him at this 
point is pointless; you'll have to parry a ridiculous number of 
powerful and fast attacks and he now has unblockable moves to mix into 
his style. Your best bet now is to try and get a hit or two in a long 
combo chain (try the Afronado category 7, which you got from collecting 
the mementos for this level) and then focus slash him.  

This boss might seem insurmountable at first, but once you figure out 
how to take him down in the first phase you should be able to play the 
next fights fairly similarly. 

====================
H. The Empty Seven's Story...(ESS)
====================

I. Mementos
==========
1. After killing the Drones at the beginning of the level, the memento 
is in the upper right corner of the starting room, before taking the 
elevator down.

2. On the left path after climbing the tower, the memento is located to 
right of you behind some gears when you reach the top.

3. On the middle path, you will fight a gunner enemy. After you kill 
him, you move across a couple of platforms to one with a bear on it. 
Look down from where the bear is to find a hidden platform that holds 
the memento.

4. On the right path, some enemies will spawn right after you start 
climbing up the tower. Kill them, and then check the doors they spawned 
from. The one furthest away will have the fourth memento right outside 
of it.

5. On the right path, the memento is located just to the left after 
you've climbed up to where the cube is located.

==========
II. New Enemies
==========
There are no new Enemies in this level.

==========
III. Level Strategy
==========
This level is a loooong one. You'll start out in a square room with 
some drones, there aren't that many and they're pretty easy. There is a 
bear in one of the corners if you need it and the first memento after 
you finish the fight. After you get it, take the elevator downwards to 
fight some more drones, only with some exploding ones this time. Kill 
them to continue into a tunnel with a Clubber, and kill him to continue 
onto the second part of the level.

This is where the difficulty ramps up for this level. You now have to 
fight an absolutely massive wave of enemies: the first six will be six 
to eight ninjas apiece with a heavy swordsman in the final wave, the 
next two will be six kunoichi, and the final four will each be two 
Heavy Swordsmen at once. Ninja Ninja will be there for body part poker, 
and there is a single bear to heal with during the fight.

When fighting the ninjas, focus on taking out two or three before you 
start trying to kill more than one or two at once. The sheer amount of 
them makes it difficult to get a bug focus slash off due to their 
speed. As always, vertical focus attacks work well against ninja 
enemies. I would recommend getting the Body Part Poker during this 
stretch of the match and attempting to get a leg-flush by the time all 
the ninjas are gone to regain any health you may have lost. 

For the kunoichi, don't charge into them. Run to the other side of the 
arena and try to get them to funnel towards you, and then attack the 
group with focus attacks to kill off lots of them at once. (After 
Killing all the kunoichi, make sure you're standing away from the door 
to this area. Enemies will come in that door, and if you're too close 
they'll hit you during the cutscene when you can't defend). For the 
final waves of Heavy Swordsman, you can either use hit and run tactics 
or attempt to parry their strikes. Pounces are one hit kills off of 
these guys, but it's hard to get the timing right and they have quite a 
few attacks. You can also try using the brilliant new move you have 
called "The ring of death", which will instant kill them if you land 
the combo's final hit on them regardless of their health. (It looks 
totally awesome too.)

After that, you'll be faced with a giant cube that you need to climb 
to. Facing away from the door you entered the arena from, take the left 
path first by pulling the now accessible lever to move the rock out. 
The wall climb is simple platforming, and there's a bear towards the 
top if you need it. At the very top, Ninja Ninja will speak to you 
about not going in the cube. This is where you find the second memento 
of the level tucked away to the right side. After entering the cube, 
you will fight a boss:

=====
Boss: Brother Six, Bo Staff
=====
Difficulty: 3/5

A lot of people seem to have problems with this boss, but he's not 
really that bad. This time around he has a staff like in your very 
first encounter all the way back in the tutorial level. His attacks 
consist mostly of basic staff combos, and a few unblockable hits. He 
also has the grenades from your previous fight and will start to use 
them as his health lowers. Brother Six is very defense oriented in this 
boss fight: his attacks do relatively little damage compared to other 
bosses, and he is completely invulnerable unless you attack his back.

The strategy in this fight is actually quite simple. The best way to 
fight him is to run circles just out his staff range while dashing. 
Bait him into attacking, then dash around behind him and him with a 
dash attack and then a single focus attack. Not all of his staff 
attacks will allow him to be hit in this way, but a pretty good portion 
of them allow you to do this and-as always-focus attacks do a lot of 
damage. Get this strategy down and you shouldn't even have to heal 
during the fight.
-----

After that, you'll be on the bottom of the tower again. Pull the 
central switch, and head up that path all the way to the top again. 
Along the way, look out for the third memento. After entering the cube 
for the second time you'll face more ninjas and kunoichis, just what 
you wanted to see. You won't have any healing items, but the enemies 
only come three at a time. This fight should be a piece of cake after 
the giant brawl you just finished downstairs. 

Take the final path to the right this time, which has two mementos 
along the way. One is at the bottom, one is at the top. After getting 
the game's final memento, proceed into the cube to fight the rest of 
the Empty seven.

==========
IV. Boss: The Empty Seven (The ones you haven't killed at least)
==========
Difficulty: 1/5

This is another puzzle boss, and once you know the strategy you 
shouldn't even get hit during the fight. One of the brothers has a gun 
for an arm, and will hop around the arena firing bullets at you. These 
do a lot of damage, but they're also the only way to kill the boss. 
When the boss readies his gun to fire at you, enter focus mode. When 
you hear the gun fire, charge a horizontal focus slash. When the gleam 
on the sword reaches the tip of the blade, let go to reflect the bullet 
back at the shooter. 

This will set the Empty Seven member next to the one with the gun on 
fire, and he will fall down and start chasing you. You can't do any 
damage to him with your attacks here: to kill him, you have to get him 
to run across the circle in the center of the arena so he'll fall in 
and get killed by the grinding gears of the machinery. Repeat this 
pattern three more times to finish off the boss for good. 
-----
After the boss is finished, you'll have to fight against some drones. 
You can't actually win this fight, but stick it out for as long as you 
want to hear what the remaining Brother has to say about their 
organization. 

====================
I. Ninja Ninja's Story...(NNS)
====================
There are no mementos in Ninja Ninja's story, and there's really no 
level either. The entire stage is just a boss fight against...

Boss: Ninja Ninja
Difficulty: 2/5

Ninja Ninja is a bit of a puzzle boss, but for the most part he's just 
like fighting lots and lots of regular Ninja enemies. Ninja Ninja's 
clones can only be killed by hitting them with perfect slices. If you 
hit any one of the clones more than once with a regular attack, they 
will simply regenerate after you "kill" them and come back just as 
strong as before. The only real "strategy" to this fight is to just 
continually use focus slashes against the clones until they're all 
dead. Their fighting style is identical to the regular Ninja enemies of 
the game, so you're really just fighting a bunch on ninjas that can all 
be killed in one hit. Easy as pie.

====================
J. Justice's Story...(JSS)
====================
This is the final level; the showdown between the Number One and the 
Number Two. So you think there's going to be anything other than a 
massive boss fight?

=====
Boss: Justice, The Number One
=====
Difficulty: 5/5

Justice is fought in multiple parts, so I'm splitting up the boss 
strategy into three sections

In this portion of the fight, Justice will fight you with a combination 
of physical attacks and his pistols. You're going to have to get used 
to fighting Justice, as he's a but different from other bosses you've 
faced up to this point. His primary attack is to shoot at you with his 
twin pistols in rapid succession. These shots can all be blocked, but 
blocking too many shots in a row can unbalance you and cause you to get 
hit. He'll also fire a single two shot volley at the beginning and end 
of certain combos. This shot can be blocked, but it can also be 
reflected if you have absolutely incredible timing. Finally, Justice 
has a fairly large pool of physical moves. Most of these are hard to 
dodge, and many of them are unblockable.

You really have to be on your toes for this fight and change around 
your strategies a lot. As a general guideline, you'll want to try and 
stay between the throne in the middle of the map and the spiky tree 
things. This allows you to use the spikes as cover from Justice's shots 
so you can approach him. There's really no "best" way to fight Justice: 
it's possible to damage him with dash attacks, focus attacks, and 
longer combos. Don't let that make you think the fight is easy though, 
as you'll have to use all three to effectively attack Justice.

At the start of the match, take cover behind some nearby spikes and 
wait for Justice to get close before circling around and using a dash 
attack against him. (Side note: whenever you die you'll start way back 
from Justice instead of right next to him. Use the trees to your right 
for cover, then dash up to another tree to use as cover before going in 
to try and hit Justice.) This brings up a special point about this 
fight: there are no bears to heal yourself with. However, whenever you 
damage Justice enough for him to start one of his monologues you will 
be fully healed. 

After any monologue, Justice will appear a few feet behind you. Your 
strategy for this fight is to be as offensive as possible. Justice 
simply has too many unblockable attacks to sit and wait for him to make 
a mistake; you have to continually be on the offensive to prevent him 
from doing his more damaging moves. When justice is any more than ten 
feet from you, hold block. His ranged attacks can all be blocked, and 
you need to try and bait him to get closer to you so you can attack 
him. When he starts to run towards you, drop your guard and start a 
combo before he gets to you. He'll run into your combo, and whole he 
might block a few of the hits he'll probably get hit at least a couple 
times. 

After you've hit him a few times this way, continue the combo in focus 
mode and attempt to slash him. No one focus attack will work here, as 
Justice will start dodging them if use all of one kind, so mix up your 
focus attacks between vertical and horizontal to prevent that. After 
you've hit him like that, keep the hits going as much as possible by 
going strait into another short combo and then attempting to focus 
slash him again. If after any of these attacks Justice is too far away 
to immediately attack, use a dash attack to get closer again and attack 
him some more. If you're too far away so that a dash attack won't work, 
resort to blocking his shots again until he comes close enough to hit.

There's only two different things you should be doing in this fight: 
blocking bullets or furiously attacking Justice. Justice's attacks are 
fast, powerful, and for the most part unblockable. The best way around 
them is to just prevent him from using them by constantly being on the 
offensive and forcing him to try and dodge your attacks instead of the 
other way around. After you deal enough damage to Justice, Afro will 
cut off his arms in a cutscene. Justice then move to the center of the 
area behind a shield, mutating his arms into the strange tentacle 
things in the arena this begins phase two.

=====
Boss: Mutant Justice, The Number One
=====
Difficulty: 2/5

This fight is much easier than the pervious one, primarily because 
Justice only has two attacks. He's in the center of the area behind an 
invisible wall, so you can't get to him to attack him. He will attack 
by shoving his now mutated arms into the ground, which will shoot out 
below you as spikes to try and damage you. This attack is easy to 
avoid, and it's also how you damage Justice. Run in circles around the 
arena. When a spike shoots out of the ground, turn around and perform a 
horizontal focus slash to cut it in half. 

That's really all there is to this fight. After you damage him a bit, 
he'll occasionally use a beefed up version of the attack that's almost 
impossible to dodge but doesn't really seem to do much damage. After 
cutting off quite a few of the tentacle spikes, you'll enter the last 
phase of the fight

=====
Boss: Crazed Justice, The Number One
=====
Difficulty: 3/5

This fight bares a lot of similarity to the first stage, except that 
Justice no longer has his pistols. He instead has his crazy mutant arms 
this time around, and they've become the primary means of his attack. 
First off, don't even bother blocking in this final stretch of the 
match: it's totally pointless. I'm not positive if ALL of Justice's 
attacks in this form are unblockable, but at the very least enough of 
them are to make it functionally pointless.

Justice will most attack by flailing his arms around wildly during this 
fight. He also has a few projectile attacks, as well as the tentacle 
move he had from the previous fight. Fighting Justice in this portion 
of the fight is actually very close to the first stage: dash in to 
attack him, do a combo, and then focus attack him. There are a few 
little tweaks to that formula though. For one, Justice appears to be 
invincible whenever he has the black aura around him so don't even 
bother attacking him then. You also don't have to worry about pistols 
this time around, but he still has a few easy to dodge projectile 
moves. Crazed Justice will also hit you pretty far with his attacks, so 
you really don't have to worry about being repeatedly hit like in the 
first stage. Other than those factors, play the fight just like the 
first stage. Keep up the extreme offense, but back off when he glows 
black or you run out of focus. His attacks in this form are certainly 
flashy, but they don't do as much damage as the one's he's been using 
in the previous stages so you can afford to be a little less cautious 
than you were in the previous fight. 

Take down the final form of Justice to complete the game and view and 
ending that's very different from the show's ending. Congratulations, 
you've just beat Afro Samurai.

==================================================
5. Closing...(C5C)
==================================================

I hope this guide has been helpful and has been enjoyable to read. 
Well, as enjoyable as a guide can be. All the standard Legal rhetoric 
goes here: this guide is my property, and it is only by the grace of my 
goodwill that you allowed to view it. As such, I must insist that you 
not profit from this guide in any way. Currently, the only site allowed 
to this guide is Gamefaqs, but I'm very accommodating if any other 
sites wished to use this guide. If you have any questions, you can 
contact me at [email protected].

This guide is dedicated to cats, because cats are awesome.

Copyright Woody Crobar, February 18, 2009.