Walkthrough: Bakumatsu Chapter

The Optimal Way

Are you one of those people who wants the very best results possible, no matter what you have to do? Then this battle plan is for you. Be forewarned that if you choose this path, you will have to do a lot of levelling. If that doesn't bother you, then let's begin! This scenario is a lot like the Violent Way, so if you read that already you'll notice a lot of similarities.

When you're dropped just outside the castle, first go down and walk merrily past the Guards. They'll notice you and attack. These are your basic grunts, not much of a threat. Definately not anymore once your reach level 3. But you're only level 2 now, so don't get too careless. When you defeat them, you'll remind yourself you have now killed 2 people. The next two are right up there barring your entrance to the building ahead. Kill these Guards like you did the last two.

Entering the building, which I will refer to as "Building 1" from now on, you'll see a large gathering of Samurai, from whom you'll learn the password: The challenge phrase "Mountain" should be answered with "River". Remember that for the time being. Also pay attention to the bell, which rings periodically. When it does, the password will switch from River to Origin. When it rings again, it switches back to River, and so forth.

For now, go into the room on the far right and kill the Guard there. You'll reach level 3. Open the chest in the corner to find a ChainMail, and equip it. Exit the room and take the door straight ahead from the entrance. You saw a Samurai go in there before, so go kill him now. Samurai are a bit tougher than the Guards you fought so far, but not all that much. You should be able to handle him with little trouble.

Exit the Samurai's room and head through the hallway on the left. Passing through a couple of doors, you will find a Ronin walking around there. This is where it gets a little annoying. Even though Ronin can take about the same punishment a Samurai can, their FeintCut attack does considerable damage. If you quickly run up to the guy and keep slashing him with Shinobikiri, you should be able to take him down before he kills you, barely. You'd do well to save before trying though, just in case.

After taking out the Ronin, take the door leading south. There will be a Guard and a Geisha walking around there. Kill the Guard, but let the Geisha live. You shouldn't kill any women, otherwise you'll miss a useful item near the end of the scenario.

Exit the room and proceed through the door up ahead. You'll end up in the castle courtyard. To be on the safe side, hide from the Ronin walking around there using your Cloak of Invisibility (Y button), and run (B button) past them when you get the chance. You'll find the entrance to the next building blocked by two Guards, who'll ask you for the password. You know the correct password, but should give them the wrong one, so you can kill them for a little extra experience. So just say "Potato", and kill the two Guards in the battle that ensues.

After killing the Guards, don't go inside just yet. Walk to the left side of the building, and check near the walls with the A button. There's a Shopkeeper hiding there. When you get the option, choose to kill him. He's pretty much defenseless, so that shouldn't be too hard. You'll reach level 4 at this point. You'll gain the Hiton skill, a flame attack with which you'll be able to kill the Ronin safely and easily from a distance, so go back and kill the two that are walking around outside, being careful not to walk into a square right next to them, just to be safe.

Enter the building the Guards were blocking before, which I'll call "Building 2", and kill the Ronin walking around in the hallway. Then, walk all the way to the left, continue north through the hallway and find the Ronin blocking the door. He'll ask you for the password. Say "Potato", then kill him. There's no need to enter the room he was guarding. Instead, walk back all the way to the right and proceed through the north door.

When you end up in another hallway with three doors leading south, enter the right-most one. Grab the two chests for two Kasuteira (it's a kind of cake, which serves as a healing item), then kill the Shopkeeper and the Samurai. Exit the room and proceed north. You'll end up outside again. Kill the Ronin walking around there, and the two Guards up ahead. You can't go on to "Building 3" for now, so go back inside and retrace your steps to the entrance of that building. From there, take the right-most door this time. You'll see a Ninja pass through a secret door hidden behind the wall. Kill the Shopkeeper in the room.

Go through the secret passage the Ninja went through, and save the game before talking to him. He'll ask you for the password. However, he won't accept "Potato" or "Below", so if you want to fight him (and I recommend you do, it's good practice) you have to give him the wrong one of the two possible passwords. If you've been paying attention to the bell like I told you to, you should know which that is. After answering wrong, the Ninja will attack. If you just go in close and use your Shinobikiri attack, he shouldn't be hard to beat, as long as you don't stand diagonally from him (to prevent getting hit with a deadly RyuShuriken). Climb the rope ladder after you defeat him. You won't need to pay attention to the bell anymore now.

You'll come across two thieves trying to steal some treasures, but their plans will be foiled. These two, a father and son, both called Watanabe, are part of a slightly morbid running gag that spans the different scenarios - the father always ends up killed somehow. Anyway, grab the treasure boxes they were going for, to find that they were pretty much wasting their time. All you'll find in there is a single Koban (coin). There's another chest in the attic that holds a Kasuteira, and there's another past a rope ladder. You get that one simply by going down the ladder, going back up, and then moving towards it. Equip the MerfolkSocks you find in there.

Still in the attic, go for the exit on the left-hand side. A Ninja will come out and spot you. Let him come to you and kill him in the same way you did the other before exiting. You'll reach level 5 at this point. Once outside, prepare for the classic "walk and jump over rooftops" bit you see in all the Ninja movies. Go south, and there'll see a building there. Even though it's not visible, there's an entrance at the side, so walk into the left side of the building until you find the entrance. Save before proceeding!

Inside, when you try to grab the chests, no less than five Ninjas will pop out and attack! However, only one of them is real, the one way in the back. Kill him, and the others will vanish. I find that the easiest way to do that is kill the GoNinja directly above you, then walk straight to the guy in the back. Using just your regular Shinobikiri attack (or Hiton if you can't reach him), you should be able to take him out before they take you out. The chests contain another Koban and a GenjiGlove, which gives you more defense at the cost of speed. Which I think is an okay sacrifice.

Proceed over the rooftops, until you enter the building directly over the entrance to the castle. Do not go directly through the center of the room, or you'll fall through a pit and end up at the castle's entrance again. Exit the room at the other end, and keep going over the rooftops, automatically jumping to the next when you reach the edge of the one you're on. In the end, you'll end up on the top floor of one of the buildings you couldn't enter before. There's some chests in there. One's empty, one holds a Kasuteira, and the last contains the WarehouseKey. Don't go on, but make your way back to the building directly over the entrance of the castle, and do go through the center this time, letting yourself fall through the pit.

Pass through Building 1, but don't enter Building 2 just yet. The building in the lower-left corner of the castle has another hidden entrance at the north side. Find it, and use the WarehouseKey to unlock it. Save the game before going for the chest you find there. When you try to open the chest, a Ninja will drop down from the ceiling and attack. Kill him, and two more will drop down. Kill them too to reach level 6, and four more Ninjas will come at you. Four at the same time could be deadly, so watch yourself. I find it works well to use Hiton over and over, making sure to hit all four at once every time if at all possible. After beating them, grab the BasementKey from the chest and exit.

Pass through Building 2 now, and when you get outside again, enter the little building on the right using the WarehouseKey. Inside, kill the two Hitodama (disembodied souls) floating around, which shouldn't be too hard, since they don't do much of anything, really. Next, open all the pots and chests in the room. You'll find 2 SteamedRice, a Koban, a SakabaSword, an IzanagiScrol, a Topknot and a GenjiSocks. Equip the latter two, assuming that you didn't already get a Topknot from a defeated enemy earlier. Leave the girl in the corner alone, because the Hitodama will keep respawning in this room as long as she's there, and you'll need that to do some levelling later on.

After that, head back to Building 2 and make your way up to the rooftops again. After passing through the building over the entrance to the castle (watching out for that hidden pit in the center again), keep going until you see a tree directly below you. Press the A button when facing it, and you'll climb down. Next, on the little plateau you end up on, stand in front of the statue there, and press A again. You'll push it aside, revealing a secret passage. Follow that passage, and you'll end up in the moat.

There's a total of three Ninjas also swimming around in the moat. Kill them all and proceed through the moat. Watch out for an underwater shadow here. If you touch it, you'll end up in a battle with a huge fish, Iwama. This is a battle you can't possibly win at this point, so don't even try.

Enter the door at the other end of the moat and follow the path to end up in the dungeon. Kill the Samurai who comes after you, then use the BasementKey to unlock the left-most cell. Walk up to the prisoner, and you'll fall into a trap.

You'll end up in a room full of Hitodama. If you try to leave, AmakusaShiro will appear and block your way. You can try to kill him, but even if you succeed, he'll absorb the Hitodama in the room and come back to life. What you need to do is destroy all the Hitodama before attacking Shiro. There's eight of them in all, and you need to destroy them and get to Shiro very quickly, or they'll all reappear. Defeat the remaining Hitodama quickly by running up to them using the B button, or you probably won't be fast enough to kill them before they all regenerate. After that, quickly run to the exit, and face Shiro. You should notice he's a bit less confident this time around, but he'll still attack if you persist in fighting. If you stay close and keep using your Shinobikiri attack, you should be able to defeat him without even using a healing item. You'll overpower him easily at this level, even if he does keep draining your life and knocking you back. You'll get a MariaVeil for defeating him.

After you beat Shiro, the prisoner will fall down from above. It doesn't matter how you answer his question; he'll join your party at level 9. Now, equip the MariaVeil on yourself, and equip your old Tekkou, Chainmail and MerfolkSocks (and if you have an extra Topknot, that too) on the Prisoner, which is the only name you'll know him as until you finish the scenario. Even though he tells you to "lead him out of here", he won't actually let you leave until you go "have a talk with the Lord of the castle". But at least you can leave this room now. The Hitodama won't be reappearing anymore now that Shiro is gone.

Go upstairs and challenge the Samurai walking around there. This is no ordinary Samurai, no... this is an Elite Samurai, who are a lot tougher than their palette-swapped brethren. They have the FeintCut attack, and can put more attack power behind it than Ronin can, which makes them very dangerous in close combat. That is... they would be dangerous if you didn't have the Prisoner with you. His Okushinishi not only does a lot more damage than you can do yourself, it may also paralyse the opponent. But no matter if that happens or not, you should be able to win two-on-one battles with Elite Samurai quite easily. You'll be level 7 after this battle. You'll also get another BasementKey, which you really don't need, but eh.

Unlock the other cells in the prison with one of your BasementKeys. Two are empty, there's a couple of weirdos named Very and Nice in another (just kill them), and the last contains a Shopkeeper, who'll ask you for food if you talk to him. I really don't know what to do with this guy, but maybe he can help you in some way. (See Unanswered Questions in the intro.) If you don't want to worry about that, just ignore him (or kill him), make your way to the left side and go upstairs, proceeding until you reach a room with a man in it. He has a treasure chest beside him, containing a better weapon for you, a Kotetsu. After equipping it, talk to the man, and he'll sic two Ninja's on you. Kill all of them.

Exit this room through the lower exit. In the next hallway, there's a semi-hidden door in the lower-right corner. Go through it, and get the IzanagiScrol from the chest. Exit the room and go back into the hallway, taking the other exit that leads south.

You'll now be at the entrance of Building 3. The hallway is crawling with Samurai, and there's one Elite among them, too. Kill all four of them. Don't exit the building, because you won't be able to re-enter if you do; you'd have to go all the way around again. Proceed though the door on the far right. You'll end up in a hallway with three doors. A Ronin is guarding one. Tell him the password is Potato, then kill him. Enter the door he was guarding, where you can open the chests to find another Koban and a Torimochi. I wonder what the heck that's supposed to be though, since I thought Torimochi meant "entertainment". Ah well.

After looting the room, exit, and take the right-most of the three doors leading north. When you enter this room, something that kinda looks like an old lady quick exits. Don't step on the cushion she was sitting on, or you'll have to deal with a trap. It's not too dangerous, just a waste of time. Proceed to the room on the left, then go upstairs. On the second floor, enter the small room on the right side. In this room you can grab a SakabaSword, SteamedRice, and a Kanesada from the wall. Why the heck you would need another Kanesada is beyond me, but there's one here nonetheless. Don't bother with the pot next to the woman, you can't grab that one without killing her, and you don't want to do that. Now, exit the room and go back south, through all the doors in the hallway.

There will be an Elite Samurai walking around in the next hallway. Kill him, just to get him out of the way. If you want you can enter the first door for an optional battle, or the next door for three treasure chests which you'll find you can't get right now. The door way on the right is guarded by another Elite Samurai. Get the password wrong again and kill him. Proceed through the many doors (talk about redundancy) and kill another Elite Samurai at the end. Take the stairs to the third floor.

There's only one way to go for now, so you can't go wrong. Beat a Ronin on the way, and keep on going until a Geisha spots you. She'll summon a group of Elite Samurai to deal with you. However, before they can attack, they'll be interrupted by Han, a Ronin who's turned into a demon. Let him take care of the Samurai for you, and don't talk to him or go into the room he came out of. Instead, go into the room next to the stairs to pick up a TokenOfAcala and a WindGodScrol.

When you come out of the room, Han will be gone. Proceed up the stairs to the fourth floor. Take the right door here. You'll encounter an Elite Samurai guarding the next door. You know the drill: Potato, kill.

Go down the stairs in the room he was guarding, and kill the Ninja waiting for you at the bottom. Proceed through the door, and you'll see a woman being accosted by four Ninjas. Save her by killing them all. The "Princess" will ask you to stay with her. Decline her offer by saying "No way!" twice. You'll find it'll be impossible to leave. Talk to the woman again, and she'll ask if you do find her attractive. Give her a rather harsh negative answer, by killing her. Yes, I know I said not to kill any females, but this particular female is okay to kill.

Continue on, and you'll find another flight of stairs, leading back to the fourth floor. You'll find the stairway will be blocked if you try to proceed directly to the fifth floor, so take the door leading south instead. Keep going south, and you'll get to a rope ladder. However, it will be raised up if you try to grab it. Frustrating, isn't it? Be sure to save the game at this point. Retrace your steps, and you'll hear a voice coming from behind the secret panel you passed through earlier. You'll be invited to sit down. Don't do it, just keep talking to the guy behind the panel, even when he claims to have turned off the trap. When he asks if you don't trust him, answer "Not at all", and he'll come out to try and force you to sit down the hard way.

This battle can be deadly if you don't get out of the Electrodes' range fast. First, take one step right, then run all the way up, then take one step left. You'll be safe at this spot. The Prisoner's likely to get blown away by the Electrodes' Discharges, but don't worry about that. Just have him use Ookaikaba on one of the Electrodes if his turn ever comes around and don't worry about him getting knocked out. If you got hit yourself, use a SteamedRice to heal yourself. Now, from your current position, start tossing Shuriken at the Electrode directly beneath you. Two should be enough to destroy it. Then take a step right, and use Shuriken to kill the next two in line. Finally, another step left to kill the last three Electrodes in the same way. You'll undoubtedly get hit by GennaiTrap's Discharge a few times. Whenever he hits you with that attack, use a SteamedRice to heal yourself. If you end up next to him, he'll use GomaTrap to push you away. Just walk right back to the spot you were in before and keep up the Shuriken-throwing.

When the Electrodes are gone, stand right next to GennaiTrap and start throwing Shuriken at him. As before, use SteamedRice if he hits you with Discharge, but as long as you stay next to him he'll mainly use GomaTrap. You should defeat him fairly quickly. He doesn't count as a kill, I suppose because he's more machine than man. After this battle, all the traps in the mansion will be deactivated, making things a lot more easy for you to make your way back down. Because yes, that's what you're going to need to do now. But first, make sure you got an item called Zenmai (spring) after you defeated GennaiTrap. If you didn't, you're going to have to load your game and try again. (You will never get this item if you defeat GennaiTrap without destroying his Electrodes first.)

Now, go back to the rope ladder that was raised up before. You can reach it now. Proceed to the left and open the chest for the GenjiArmor. Equip it, and give the MariaVeil to the Prisoner. Now go up and find the other rope ladder here. Take this one, and go down the stairs in the small hallway you end up in. You'll see another rope ladder there. Use it to go up, and grab the chest in the lower-left corner. It contains the GenjiHelm. Equip it, and pass your Topknot on to the Prisoner if he doesn't have one already. Afterward, make your way to the other rope ladder here and go down.

Go downstairs, then up the rope ladder there. This place used to have annoying traps that opened and closed, but not anymore. You can now easily collect the treasure chests here, which contain a Tekkou(which you don't really need), a TokenOfAcala, and a FuujinDart. Of course you should still be careful you don't fall into any of the pits that are still open.

Except for one. The pit directly north of the chest containing the Tekkou (in the bottom-left corner). Jump down that one, and you'll reach a small secret room with a treasure chest. Don't go straight down, first move left or right, and approach the chest from the side. You'll find a SurprisedGuy in here. I don't know what it's supposed to be, but it's the best leg armor in the scenario, so equip it on yourself and give the GenjiSocks to the Prisoner. To get out of here, go directly north from the treasure chest, and you'll fall down another hole into the dungeon. If you didn't open the door yet, use the BasementKey to free yourself.

I trust you can make your way back to where you beat GennaiTrap? ...I suppose I can't make that assumption, so here are the directions yet again.

From the jail, go upstairs and follow the path left back to the entrance of building 3. Proceed though the door on the far right. You'll end up in a hallway with three doors. Take the right-most door. Proceed to the room on the left, then go upstairs. Exit to the south, then in the hallway with the many doors, take the passage on the left. You'll end up in a room with stairs going down and a rope ladder going up. Take the rope ladder.

Watch out you don't fall into any of the open pits in this area, and make your way to the rope ladder on the bottom-right corner and go down again. Go up the regular stairs, they lead to another rope ladder. Take it, then go to the top-left part of the room, and go down the rope ladder there. Once again, you have to go up the regular stairs, then take the rope ladder they lead to. Go over to the rope ladder in the bottom-right corner and go down. You'll end up back where you defeated GennaiTrap.

Pass through the panel GennaiTrap used to be behind. In this small room, you'll notice there's now a small slot in the top-right corner. If you press A in front of it, you'll be prompted for an item. Put a Koban in the slot. Nothing happens. Try again. Still nothing? Insert a third Koban. This time, you'll hear a noise, and the room will shake. The north exit will be sealed off now, and whatever you do, don't step on the cushion, or you'll fall into the dungeon again.

Instead, go back down south, and you'll end up in a secret room, with what looks like a puppet on the floor. Approach it from the front and talk to it. You'll notice there room for a missing part. Insert the Zenmai, and... the doll will turn into a copy of you! Your clone, CircleTrap, will attack you using your own abilities against you, but thankfully he only has low-level attacks. Just use whatever attacks you want and you'll defeat it quickly. After you defeat it, it will follow you around.

Go back through the north exit, being careful NOT to step on the floor where CircleTrap used to be. If you do, you'll fall into the dungeon again, and what's worse, this will cause CircleTrap to break, which will make things unnecessarily hard for you. For the same reason, avoid the cushion in the next room again. Instead, put another Koban in the slot, and the room will return to its original position.

Now you have to go all the way down again! Go south to the rope ladder and go up. Proceed to the top-left rope ladder, use it to go down, then go down the stairs in the small hallway you end up in. Go up the rope ladder here, make your way to the other rope ladder there and go down.

Go through the secret passage in the northwest corner of this room and pass through the small hallway. The Elder in this room will tell you how many people you'll killed so far, and you can kill him too, if you want. Exit this room, and follow the hallway to the northwest until you get to the stairs. Go down. Keep going south, through the hallway with many doors. In the next hallway, enter the first door you see. You can now collect the treasures which you couldn't get before: Two FuujinDarts and the GateKey.

After getting the treasures, exit the room and go through the door all the way on the left. Pass through all the doors in the next hallway, and go downstairs. Follow the path, and in the hallway with three doors leading north and one south, take the south exit. You'll end up at the entrance of Building 3. Exit through the south door.

Outside, go into the little warehouse to the right of Building 3. The two Hitodama will be there again. Here's where the tedious levelling part comes in. After beating the two Hitodama, exit the house, and re-enter. Beat them again, and so forth. Once again, leave the girl alone or the Hitodama will stop respawning. You'll have to keep leveling up until both you and Circle are at least level 16. Told you it'd be tedious. :P

It would be wise to use the formation option in the menu to have CircleTrap and the Prisoner switch places, so that Circle's turn will come earlier in the coming battles. When you're done, enter Building 3 again by using the GateKey on the door. Inside, go left, and keep following the path until you're back where you rescued the Prisoner before. There's a Ninja still locked up. Unlock his cell with the BasementKey and talk to him. It's Mystical Ninja Goemon! ...okay, so he's not the Goemon, just a Goemon. Choose to let him go, and he'll say he'll repay you someday before leaving.

Exit using the stairs you came from, and follow the path left back to the entrance of building 3. Proceed though the door on the far right. You'll end up in a hallway with three doors. Take the right-most door. Proceed to the room on the left, then go upstairs. Exit to the south, then in the hallway with the many doors, take the passage on the left. You'll end up in a room with stairs going down and a rope ladder going up. Take the rope ladder, make your way to the other rope ladder on the bottom-right corner and go down again.

Go up the regular stairs, they lead to another rope ladder. Take it, and you'll end up back in the place where you got the GenjiHelm. Go back to the southwest corner of the room to find that the treasure chest is closed again. Open it, and you'll find another GenjiHelm! A message on the side lets you know that refilling it was Goemon's doing, so let's all say "Thank you, Goemon!" Equip the Helm on Circle, then go to the top-left part of the room, and go down the rope ladder there.

Once again, you have to go up the regular stairs, then take the rope ladder they lead to. You're back where you got the GenjiArmor. The chest that contained it has also been refilled by Goemon; grab it again to get another one, and equip it on Circle.

Now you have to retrace your steps all the way back to the entrance of Building 3. I trust you know the way by now. If not, just follow the previous directions in reverse.

Go out of Building 3, and re-enter the warehouse building on the right of the building one more time to get another pair of GenjiSocks. Equip them on Circle. You can also get another Koban here, but it's quite useless to you now.

Next, enter Building 2 from the north. In the hallway, take the left-most door leading south. When the road splits, go left and enter the first door you see. Pass through the secret passage in the northeast corner of this room and go up the rope ladder. Now, you're going to have to watch out here. If you touch any of the mice, Circle will go berserk and attack you! If this happens, you'll need to knock him out to get him to calm down. Use Kamaitachi to accomplish this quickly. Anyway, make your way to the exit on the left, back to the rooftops.

Go south over the rooftop and enter the building from the hidden entrance in its left side. You can pick up another Koban here, but of course what you're really after is the refilled chest containing the GenjiGlove. Equip it on Circle, and you'll have two complete sets of Genji equipment. Now you're as ready as you're going to get for the following two extremely hard battles.

Exit the building and proceed right over the rooftops, through the building over the entrance to the castle. Again, watch out for the hidden pit in the center, and also be careful not to touch the mouse this time to avoid upsetting CircleTrap. Continue on to the tree, use it to climb down, push away the statue, and enter the secret passage.

As you proceed, you'll notice a diamond-like thing on a wall you pass by. When you see it, walk back up into the hallway, until the diamond just leaves the screen, then walk up one more square. Now walk all the way down again, and you should end up at a jar. I have no idea what this jar does (see Unanswered Questions in the intro). From the jar, go back all the way up. You'll end up in a room with a sword on the wall. Try to take it, and Ryuunosuke will appear, saying that you can't have the sword. If you talk to him again, he will attack you.

Now, this guy's power is just insane, much higher than the scenario's final boss. He's unbelievably hard to beat, even if you are at level 16. All I can suggest is save (duh) and take a couple of trial runs to observe all his different attacks. Don't bother using Circle's ultimate attack, it takes way too long, and he'll be interrupted long before it goes off. Use his EvilWindDart instead, it has the potential to deal loads of damage to Ryuunosuke. Also use Oboro's ultimate attack, Yakurumakuchi, whenever you can. The Prisoner can't do too much, just have him stand there and get pounded on while having the Shinobi Twins stand far back to use their attacks. Standing directly left or right from Ryuunosuke at any distance is a bad idea. Not much else to say but hope for the best. Good luck, you'll need it!

If you manage to win you'll be able to take the Muramasa. You'd even have been able to get two, if you didn't free Goemon until after you get it. Having a second won't benefit you much, though. You could give it to Circle for the final battle, but since he won't be using his sword anyway, it doesn't matter. Equip the Muramasa yourself and give your Kotetsu to Circle.

To get out of the hidden area, go back to the jar and walk up until it leaves the screen. Take three more steps up, then go back down. You'll be back where you were before you entered this very well hidden area. Save the game again before proceeding further south, into the moat. Look for a shadow in the water. This is Iwama, a huge fish, and another opponent who's harder to beat than the final boss. Oh, and don't take too long reaching him, since CircleTrap isn't waterproof; he'll break down and sink to the bottom if he remains in the water for too long.

Iwama has a bunch of powerful attacks, including one that paralyzes, which he can use when you're standing right next to him. Go as far down as possible with Oboro and Circle, and have them use the same attacks you used against Ryuunosuke: Yakurumakuchi and EvilWindDart. Again, the Prisoner should just stand there and get his butt kicked to keep Iwama distracted. You should be able to beat Iwama without all that much trouble. For your efforts, you'll gain the MerfolkScale. Equipped as an Accessory, it gives you a bonus to your IQ rating. But its real power lies in what it can do when you use it as an Item: You'll perform SirenCall, a powerful Water-based attack with excellent range. That could come in very handy for the Final Chapter, so equip it as an Accessory on Oboro. That way you'll be able to take it with you when you finish this chapter.

Immediately after beating Iwama, switch over CircleTrap's Genji equipment to the Prisoner. He won't need it anymore. If he breaks down in the water, don't worry about it, you would have lost him soon anyway. Make your way to the other end of the moat, and you'll once again end up in the dungeon, in Building 3's basement.

Now you'll have to make your way back to where you fought GennaiTrap again. Follow the directions I gave you earlier for that once more.

Pass through the panel GennaiTrap used to be behind, and proceed through the door in the next room. You'll end up in a hallway with two flights of stairs, one going up and one going down. Take the stairs going up, and walk through the door ahead. If you still have CircleTrap in the party at this point, a mouse will pop out, and he'll go berserk. After running around randomly for a while, he'll run into the Monks guarding a door up ahead and explode, killing them all. If you lost CircleTrap in the water earlier, you'll have to beat the Monks instead, which should be no problem at all at this level. No matter how you got rid of the Monks, proceed through the door they were guarding, and...

There he is, Lord Ode himself! ...and his 8 Akira's. They're utter weaklings, so no matter if you have to beat them all at once, it should be a cakewalk. After that massacre, Ode will promptly flee, but not before releasing the undead spirit of the legendary swordman MiyamotoMusashi to take care of you. But at the level you're at, there's not much he can do to hurt you. A couple of Kamaitachi attacks will finish him off quite quickly.

After beating the legendary swordman, open up the secret passage Ode fled through using the A button and continue on. When you try to go up the stairs to the sixth and final floor, the Princess, whom you killed earlier, will appear again. She'll make you feel all guilty about killing her, but the Prisoner will remind you that Ode doesn't have any daughters. Now the Princess will reveal who she really is, the demoness Yodo-kun. Just like Musashi, she's easily taken care of with Kamaitachi.

After substracting one from the list of humans you killed, you can proceed upstairs. When you're about to enter the door to the north, a Geisha will approach you, who thanks you for "rescuing her". I personally think this is a mistranslation. Since she doesn't show up if you've killed any female humans (not counting Yodo-kun's human form) up to this point, I believe she's actually thanking you for sparing the women. Anyway, she says she has a gift for you. Choose to accept it, and you'll get a Maid'sObi. As you'll see when you equip it, it doesn't do you a heck of a lot of good. But if you stand still and don't move for ten seconds after the Geisha leaves, she'll come back with what she really wanted to give you, an Inrou (medicine case). Equipping it boosts your IQ by a whopping 30!

Now you've gotten every worthwhile item to take with you to the Final Chapter. All that's left is the final boss. When you enter the final room, OdeIou will be there waiting for you. An extremely pathetic fight follows. Ode will escape to the rooftop after you beat him, inviting you to join him. Accept his invitation by exiting the room and taking the south door, which leads to the balcony. You'll automatically climb up to the rooftop, which is where you'll find Ode. He'll assume the form of a demon, and the final battle begins.

...what, you really need a strategy for this? You're so strong now, Gamahebi can hardly even hurt you! Just use whatever attacks you feel like against him. The only way you're going to lose this battle is if you were intentionally trying to lose. :P

After you win, you'll have finished the scenario having gained all of Oboro's techs, superb stats, and the best equipment possible. Congratulations, and have fun with your mega-Shinobi in the final chapter! ^_^