Tenchi Muyo in Pocket

Dash Game: ( ) - Press 'A' to decide which direction you think Ryo-Ohki is going to run next. Press 'B' to confirm, and she will dash across the screen. A carrot will be displayed every time you guess correctly, and an empty hole in the ground when you do not. If you guess right three or more times out of five, you win the game.

Note: on some early models, there was a bug in the ROM that meant the text for the slot-machine read 'Dash' (DASSHU) and the text for the dash game read 'Slot' (SUROTTO). This does not affect the games, especially if you don't read Japanese, but it's an interesting point nonetheless. The versions with this error include a little error slip along with the instruction sheet.

If you win, Ryo-Ohki's stress levels decrease and her vitality increases. If you lose, her stress levels increase.

Status Icons:

The friendship icon is one of the games most important features, as it shows how well you are playing and how close you are to your goal. When you choose this icon, you are presented with two options.

The top option ( - henshin, or 'metamorphosis' ), is used to display Ryo-Ohki's current status. When you select it, a tune will play, and a series of screens will pop up showing the portraits of the friends Ryo-Ohki has made, followed by a percentage rating. Your ultimate aim is to make this rating reach 100% before the 9 days are up. You will need to keep checking the friendship rating regularly, so you can see how Ryo-Ohki is progressing, and how different treatments affect your score.

The bottom option ( - kioku, or 'memory' ), is only of use if you have played previously, as this shows your best previous score. When you select it, a number is displayed, which is the highest number of friends made in previous games. This is followed by portraits of the characters you befriended then. Advance to the next picture by pressing 'B'.

The most important icon in the day-to-day care of your Ryo-Ohki is the status icon. When selected, it will show screens that depict Ryo-Ohki's mood and temperament. Advance through the screens by pressing 'B'.

The first screen ( - seiryoku), shows Ryo-Ohki's energy, or vitality, represented as carrots (up to five). Her vitality is increased by feeding or winning games, and decreased by any other effort, such as weight-training or helping out.

The second screen ( - stress ), shows her stress levels, represented as skulls (up to five). Stress can be decreased by feeding her or winning games, and it will increase during stressful activity (training, helping, etc.) or if you leave her unattended for too long.

The third screen shows her current mood or temperament, displayed in hiragana.

The fourth and final screen shows her current mood as a picture, usually eliminating the need to understand the Japanese on the third screen. This is an ideal guide as to how you should progress with her training - if she is timid, for example, getting her to help with chores and play games will help improve her temperament, and consequently her friendship rating. Below is a guide showing all the moods and their translations that I have discovered so far.

Good moods;		Bad moods;
Display; Status;  Neutral  Obedient  Intelligent		Display; Status;  Stupid  Tired/Weak  Disobedient  Unhappy  Selfish

Growing Pains

Throughout Ryo-Ohki's upbringing, she may, depending on how well she is cared for, go through a number of behavioural changes or phases that must be dealt with. Some will almost always occur at some point, whilst others will only happen if you neglect her.

Sleeping & Snoozing: From hatching, Ryo-Ohki has a fixed time at which she awakes in a morning and goes to sleep again at night. These times are 8:00 am and 10:00 pm respectively. When she is asleep, she will not respond to any commands, though the status icons will still work. An interesting note is that if you disturb her within a few minutes of going to sleep by giving her a command, she will wake again for another hour. Don't keep her awake too long, or her stress levels will increase and her vitality will drop.

Snoozing often occurs when she is very stressed or hungry, and can happen at any time during her waking hours. Again, she will not respond to commands, and she will continue to doze for up to a few hours. When she awakes again, her stress levels will have fallen.

Disobedient: Disobedience often comes from lack of discipline, over-education, or high levels of stress. When Ryo-Ohki is being disobedient, she will not listen to your commands, other than when you offer to play a game or feed her a carrot. Ideally, once you have gained her favour by winning some games or giving her a carrot, she will need a bit of discipline to stop her from misbehaving again.

Runaway: This should never happen if you care for Ryo-Ohki properly. When her stress levels are very high, her vitality very low, or you have neglected her, she will leave home, during which time the screen will remain blank and no commands will work. After a while, the screen will display three katakana which read "MYAA!". She will return after a few hours, and her stress levels should have reduced.

Back to top

Hints, Tips & Tricks

If you think your cabbit-raising skills aren't up-to-scratch, take a look at this guide, which provides hints, tips and nifty tricks to help you rear a pedigree cabbit, by fair means or foul!

Basic Game Mechanics:

Whilst this is by no means a definitive guide, I have managed to work out some of the basic rules behind Ryo-Ohki's AI, particularly with regards to the progression of the friendship meter.

The friendship rating has, at any fixed time, a 'ceiling' value; a maximum rating above which it is impossible for you to go. This ceiling is set by a number of factors, the most influential of which is Ryo-Ohki's current personality. If she is showing any of the negative personality traits, as shown earlier, work must be done to correct this situation. Below is a table of suggested remedial actions that will help get Ryo-Ohki out of her particular bad mood.

The ceiling value is also affected by when Ryo-Ohki is fed. Assuming her personality is in a positive state, feeding her a carrot will cause the ceiling to leap by 10%. This does not, however, automatically force the friendship value up as well (though it can do if it has reached a higher level at some point previously). Playing with her and getting her to help with chores will raise her friendship rating until it reaches the ceiling. It will not be able to climb any higher until you are able to give her another carrot.

The friendship rating is also controlled by time. Leaving her unattended for any longer than a couple of hours will not only cause the rating to drop, but the ceiling will follow as well. The ceiling and overall rating will also drop overnight - sadly, there is little that can be done about this.

Balancing Act:

When training your Ryo-Ohki, it is important to keep her personality as agreeable as possible. Educate her too much and she will become overconfident and disobedient; too little and she becomes slow-witted. Either of these will impede her maximum possible friendship rating.

Keeping Ryo-Ohki's personality stable is a tricky balancing act, but can be assisted by following a few simple rules. These are really only 'rules of thumb', and will certainly vary according to her current mood, status, etc., and how well she has been treated in the past.

• For every two sessions of education, give her one session of discipline.
• When you use weight-training, get her to help with the chores as well.
• Try feeding her immediately after training, helping, or losing a few games - this will keep her stress levels down.
• Likewise, feed her as soon as she wakes up, and soon before she goes to sleep.
• Keep feeding times regular - once an hour if possible.

By watching what happens to her status before and after playing, training, helping, education and discipline, you will soon be able to judge what is best for Ryo-Ohki's continued development and progress.

Foul Play

If, despite all your efforts, despite losing your job, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and your sanity trying to raise a perfect cabbit, the 100% friendship rating still eludes you, there is only one honourable thing to do - cheat!

Loaded dice:

Playing gameswith Ryo-Ohki is a hit-and-miss affair; lose a few times in a row, and Ryo-Ohki's stress levels rise, she stops listening to your commands, the friendship rating plummets, and you're in trouble. There is, however, a way to ensure that you win all games, or at least ones that you lose don't count against you.

In the dash game, you are by-and-large at the whim of fate, as it's an entirely random process. However, since it is possible to cancel a game in the middle of play by pressing the 'C' button, you can stop a game if you have already made 3 wrong guesses (making it impossible to win). If you reach a situation where you are on your last go, with two correct and two incorrect guesses, make your choice, then watch carefully as she runs across the screen. If you know your guess is wrong, then you can press 'C' before she reaches the other side of the screen, cancelling the game so the loss does not count.

The slot game, you would assume, is a more random affair. However, there is a pattern to the results of the game. When you start the reels spinning, watch carefully what the first two symbols displayed are. If they do not match, let the reels run to a stop on their own (don't press 'B' again), and you are guaranteed a win. If the first two symbols do match, try to stop the reels with the 'B' button - you won't be assured of victory, but there is a chance. If you still don't get a match, it is possible, if you are fast enough, to cancel the game with the 'C' button before the loss fanfare starts playing, thus eliminating the loss.

Peace & quiet:

There will, inevitably, be times when you don't want Ryo-Ohki baying for your attention every few minutes. If your boss fumes whilst you're feeding her during board meetings, or your nearest and dearest would prefer more attention than your virtual pet is getting, then there is a thoroughly devious way of putting Ryo-Ohki in suspended animation for a while.

Bring the clock screen up with a press of the 'B' button, then press 'A' and 'B' together (the same way you set the clock or alarm), the clock will enter its time set mode. In this mode, Ryo-Ohki will not progress at all; you can now leave her for any number of hours or even days without worrying that you are neglecting her. There is one drawback to this trick; once you restart the clock (remembering to set the correct time), you will still be at the same game status before you entered the set clock mode, so you can't use this trick to give her loads of extra carrots. Bah!

Back to top

Tenchi Muyo in Pocket RRP: ¥ 2,980 (plus sales tax) LR44 battery included

Back to Article Index