Strategy Guide

A general strategy guide.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my first Steam Guide.

This Guide will be about info and strategies for the Japanese indie game Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae.

Mitsurugi is a Hack 'n Slash inspired by games like Devil May Cry. You play as Misa, a Blade Templar, who is trying to stop her friend Suzuka from being possessed by the Demon Blade (an sentient evil Artifact Of Death, that slowly drains the life force of its wielder).

The game is divided in 5 stages, each taking place in an specific arena where you will fight waves of enemies and a boss at the end of the stage. You will also have to upgrade your moves and your gauges with the Skill Points enemies and bosses drop.

Controls

Since this game is much more enjoyable with a controller, I'll show you the controls with a Xbox 360 Controller.
Image made using Xpadder.

Game Mechanics

The HUD

The HUD is a very important part of the gameplay. It allows you to get info about your current status.
(Image taken from the manual, I was to lazy to make one myself.)
It is made of 6 elements, which are as follows:

1) Health Gauge. If it drops to zero, you die.
2) Katana Gauge. If it is empty, you cannot perform Zangeki attacks.
3) Zeal. Will be explained in its own section.
4) Bloodspirits. Will be explained in its own section.
5) Combo meter. It increases for each hit landed, and is reset if you take a hit.
6) Skill Points. You gain them by killing enemies. Spend them in the upgrade screen.

Zeal

Zeal increases when you hit enemies, and decreases when you take damage. The higher your zeal, the more damage Zanshin does to bleeding enemies, and the more Skill Points you gain. There are five Zeal levels. Reaching the "Mitsurugi" level (the highest) gives you an achievement.

Bloodspirits

Damaging enemies will cause red rings to appear around your katana's hilt. The more rings, the more the Health and Katana Gauges will be refilled when using Zanshin.

Personally, I've never seen more than one ring around the hilt, though Ω MrWrong™ said that a maximum of 7 can be reached.
EDIT: Rig404 got a screenshot that proves it: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=360506213

Bleeding Status

Landing sword attacks will cause enemies to flash red, meaning they are bleeding. Enemies in this state are weaker and take more damage. Using Zanshin will damage and stun all bleeding enemies. Bosses can remove Bleeding Status.

Zanshin

Using Zanshin has the following effects:

• Health recovery
  
• Katana Gauge recovery
  
• Damage Bleeding enemies

The rate at which your Health and Katana Gauges regenerate depends on the Bloodspirits around your sword. Bloodspirits are obtained by attacking enemies. The damage you deal to bleeding enemies depends on your level of Zeal. A maximum Zeal level will kil mooks and severely hurt bosses.

Enemies

You will meet multiple types of enemies. Since I don't know their official names, I will use the nicknames I gave them.

Cyborgs

Those humanoid enemies are the first kind you will meet, and are one of the easiest to fight. They exist in three varieties, each armed with a sword:

• Black Cyborgs: The first one you will meet. They attack with normal sword slashes, or a lunge. Combo them with Zangeki (Y, Y, Y with a controller) until they Bleed, dash to a safe place and Zanshin them (RT with a controller) until they die. Their swords glow before they attack. They first appear at the beginning of the game.
  
• Red Cyborgs: The second one you will meet. They can use use a "tornado attack" (not unlike Link's Spin Attack from the Legend of Zelda games) and their black cousins' attacks. Use the same strategy for them, except that they can dodge your attacks. They first appear around Wave 3/4 in Stage 1
  
• Blue Cyborgs: The third one you will meet. They can use the lunge and combo attacks from their cousins, as well as a shockwave attack (that look similar to Dante's Drive from Devil May Cry 4). Again, use the same strategy as before, but they don't dodge as much as Red Cyborgs. They first appear in Stage 3.

Mechas

They are the second kind of foes you will meet in your quest, and exist in two varieties:

• Grey Mechas: The first Mecha you will meet. They attack by jumping and trying to Goomba Stomp you, which is mostly useless since you will be dashing in order to avoid them.They can also use punches. Attack them after they land and dash away. They appear after the Red Cyborgs.
  
• Gold Mechas: The second one you'll meet. They are similar to their grey cousins, but try to ram you as well as stomp you. Same strategy as the Greys. They appear in Stage 2

Brutes

You will meet them from the third stage onwards. They will slash you if you get too close, or ram you. The ram is easy to avoid. The reason ? They put their weapon horizontally in front of them, pause for a second, then run forward. At the end of their run, they will slash. Thankfully, they barely change direction once they start running. Strategy: attack them after their charge.

Knights

The hardest enemies of the game, these golden knights can attack with a variety of sword combos and can counter your attacks. Strategy: Attack them, using Iai Strike (if you have it) or Zangeki attacks, when they recover. The late waves of Stage 4 is when these elite mooks appear.

Bosses

Kaina (Stage 1)

Kaina carries a Big Freakin' Sword. Luckily, he is slow and seems to have trouble swinging that weapon around. He can slash you if you're close to him and in his line of sight. Since he is slow, he can stick his sword in the ground and make it come out where you stand (or stood, depending on if you are moving or standing) four times. My personal strategy is the following:

1) Lure him into attacking
2) Evade
3) Attack him until he Bleeds
4) Zanshin him
5) Rinse
6) Repeat until he dies

Kaiser (Stage 2)

Kaiser is a pain in the butt (even on easy), for three reasons:

• He doesn't attack often, even if you try to lure him into hitting you.
  
• He have little to none recovery time after his jump attack
  
• His dash attack. His. Freaking. Dash. Attack. Evading each of the three dashes is Nintendo Hard.

I can't give you a specific strategy, besides attacking him after his attacks. Fighting him is a luck-based mission, exept on a New Game Plus (obvious, since you will have more powerful attacks to use on him).

Additional info from Erik von Darkmoor: "Also, Kaiser has a 3hit combo that is far stronger than his dash attack.
It's practically instant, and sets you up for taking 2 more hits unless you dodge exactly backwards. If you go diagonally, you'll get hit again, and I found it nearly impossible to parry the 2nd hit if you didn't parry the first.
The 3rd can be parried, and I'd recommend it over trying to dodge if you're good at it.

(I started playing on medium, not easy, so maybe the dash attack scales differently or something, but it's really easy to dodge, just make sure you dodge at a 90 degree angle. His timing is always the same, so it comes down to muscle memory more than anything. Just watdch him use it 2-3 times, and then dodge exactly when he starts charging."

Ω MrWrong™ added that Kaiser had a laser attack on Easy (very rare) and Normal (rare), So watch out on harder difficulties.

Suzuka (Stage 3)

Misa's friend is possessed by the Demon Blade, but it looks like she's hesitating to attack. She can use a jumping slash, or a lunge attack that's similar to the Sonic Slash you can buy, as well as a sword combo or an energy wave (similar to Dante's "Drive-One-Two" (can't find another name) from DMC4). Iai Strike (if you bought it) or Zangeki will make her bleed, followed by Zanshin if you have a high Zeal (else you will need to attack her until your Zeal is at level 3).

Fun Fact: If you have a level 5 Zeal and Suzuka's health is around two thirds full, you can one-hit-kill her when you use Zanshin. It happened to me on my first playthrough. I laughed for fifteen minutes.

Magatsu Kaina (Stage 4)

Kaina is back, and he is not happy, following his defeat in Stage 1. He also has an extra sword. He has mostly the same attacks as before, except that he can now do a sword combo that end up with his swords stuck in the ground for 2-3 seconds. Same strategy as the first fight with him

Magatsu Suzuka (Stage 5, Wave 1)

When a boss fight happens in a place which look like Hell, expect it to be the Final Boss fight, the fight against Good and Evil. Unlike the fight in Stage 3, expect this one to be much harder (even on easy).

Suzuka will have more attacks, like a combo that is hard to counter if you get close. She has enhanced her jumping attack from the first fight, and can use it three times in a row. When her health gets low (around one third remaining), she will start to dash and follow you if you get close to her. Don't stop if that happens, except if you have a frame-perfect reaction time, because you WILL be hurt by the following combo.

Strategy: Lure Suzuka into using her jump attack, because it is easy to dodge. then use Iai Strike (which you should have bought by now), followed by Zanshin if she Bleeds. When you get her down to 1/3rd health remaining, beware, since (as said earlier) she can put you into a world of pain.

Once you beat her, you will fight the second phase:

Magatsu Hino Tsurugi (Stage 5, Wave 2)

The Demon Blade has succeeded in fully possessing Suzuka, and has transformed her into a Demon. Suzuka now floats around the arena, making her faster. She has the following attacks:

• A 5-hit sword combo that isn't hard to evade if you lure her into performing it. She has a bit of recovery after that.
  
• She will summon a half circle of floating swords around her, before launching them. Put yourself between two swords and attack her.
  
• She will summon swords from under you. Dash to evade. She doesnt move during this attack, which make her vulnerable.
  
• A powerful sweep attack. Jump to evade. (Possible on Easy, thanks to Erik von Darkmoor)
  
• A powerful downward slash, with quite a bit of wind up. (Possible on Easy, thanks to pilori)

Strategy: Stay out of her attack range if she decides to combo you, allowing you to close in after the fifth slash. The half-circle of swords is not that easy to dodge, except if you use the tip above. When she summon swords to skewer you from below, move towards her and attack her once the swords stop appearing. Zanshin her when she Bleeds.

Once you beat Magatsu Hino Tsurugi, you will see the ending of the game. Save once you have the opportunity, else you will not be able to play a New Game Plus.

Moves and Upgrades

To access the upgrade menu, pause the game or complete a stage and select Upgrade in the menu. Then, select an upgrade and press A (Xbox Controller) or Enter (Keyboard) to buy it.

Zangeki Upgrades

Zangeki: This item allows you to upgrade the regular Zangeki attacks. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Press Y, Y, Y when standing
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Attack Range Up 1
  
• Lv3: Katana Gauge Consumption Down 1
  
• Lv4: Attack Up 2

My opinion: Useful to upgrade, at least before you get Iai Strike.

Sonic Slash: This attack makes Misa slash enemies while moving towards them. Sonic Slash can knock down some enemies. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Sonic Slash. Press Y when moving
  
• Lv1: Sonic Slash Ni. Y, Y when moving
  
• Lv2: Sonic Slash San. Y, Y, Y when moving
  
• Lv3: Range Up 1
  
• Lv4: Attack Up 1

My opinion: Buy it only for completion, since you need to be completely motionless to use other attacks.

Iai Strike: A powerful combo that can be done on the ground and in the air. Iai Strike drains a fair bit of the Katana Gauge. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Iai Strike. RB+Y when standing
  
• Lv1: Iai Strike Ni. RB+Y, RB+Y when standing
  
• Lv2: Iai Strike San. RB+Y, RB+Y, RB+Y when standing
  
• Lv3: Katana Gauge Consumption Down 1
  
• Lv4: Attack Up 1

My opinion: One powerful attack, try to buy Iai Strike San

Aerial Zangeki: Allows you to attack with Zangeki while airborne. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Y while airborne
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Aerial Zangeki Sora. Y, Y while airborne
  
• Lv3: Range Up 1

My opinion: I personally never used it. The only mooks that can be hit by this attack are large enemies and ones you launched using Flash Kick.

Hand-to-Hand Upgrades
Those are the upgrades that enhance your hand-to-hand attacks.

Hand-to-Hand Combat: This is the basic Hand-to-Hand combo. Hitting an enemy with this will refill a part of your Katana Gauge. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Y, Y, Y, Y while standing
  
• Lv1: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 1
  
• Lv2: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 2
  
• Lv3: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 3
  
• Lv4: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 4
  
• Lv5: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 5

My opinion: One or two upgrades are good to have.

Flash Kick: Allows you to launch an enemy in the air. Some enemies can only be launched when in a Bleeding (flashing red) state. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Flash Kick. X when moving.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Attack Range Up 1
  
• Lv3: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 1

My opinion: See below

Comet Kick: Allows you to use a divekick on an enemy while airborne. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Comet Kick. X when airborne
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Hitcount Up 1
  
• Lv3: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 1

My opinion: Those two attacks are useful when chained together (Flash -> Comet).Don't buy one without the other.

Sweep: A low sweep attack. It can be used while taking damage, though you will inflict less damage on enemies. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Press RB+X when standing.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Katana Gauge Recovery Up 1
  
• Lv3: Guardbreaker
  
• Lv4: Attack Range Up 1

My opinion: Never used it, except on Cyborgs. Lv3 and Lv4 are nice upgrades to have

Holy Techniques

The Holy Techniques are very powerful attacks but they take quite some time to charge. You can shorten the charge duration if you press the Release button during the process, though doing so will greatly consume the Katana Gauge.

Celestial Slash: Charge energy to unleash a powerful attack. You are vulnerable during the charging process. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Hold B to charge, RB to shorten the charge duration.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Consumption Rate Down
  
• Lv3: Learn Celestial Slash > Tsumugi. After Celestial Slash, press RB+B. Tap B for additional hits.
  
• Lv4: Hitcount Up
  
• Lv5: Divine Wind Combo. After Celestial Slash > Tsumugi, press RB+B

My opinion: See below

Divine Wind: Charge more energy to unleash a flurry of slashes. You are vulnerable during the charging process. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Hold B to charge, RB to shorten the charge duration.
  
• Lv1: Consumption Rate Down
  
• Lv2: Hitcount Up
  
• Lv3: Learn Divine Wind > Tsumugi. After Divine Wind, press RB+B.
  
• Lv4: Attack Range Up 1
  
• Lv5: Attack Up 1

My opinion: Very stylish when fully upgraded, though they both consume a lot of Katana Gauge in the process.

Countering/Zanshin Upgrades

Those upgrades improve your countering and Zanshin abilities.

Counter: After a successful Just Guard (press the Guard button at the right time when standing), press the Zangeki button to counterattack. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Counter. Press Y after a successful Just Guard.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Attack Range Up 1
  
• Lv3: Attack Range Up 2

My opinion: Very useful if you can get the timing right.

Flourish: Just before being hit, press the Holy Technique button to counterattack. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: Flourish. Press B to counterattack.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Attack Range Up 1
  
• Lv3: Attack Range Up 2

My opinion: Even harder to time, but it's very powerful.

Zanshin Attack: Pressing the Zanshin button when one or more enemies is in a Bleeding state (flashing red) will inflict damage and restore a part of your Health and Katana Gauges. It has the following upgrades:

• Lv0: You start with it. Press RT.
  
• Lv1: Attack Up 1
  
• Lv2: Attack Up 2
  
• Lv3: Attack Up 3
  
• Lv4: Attack Up 4

My opinion: Useful. Nuff said.

Gauges Upgrades
These upgrades enhance the size and recovery of your Health and Katana Gauges.

• Maximum Health (5 levels): Make your Health Gauge longer.
  
• Health recovery (5 levels): Upgrades the amount of Health recovered when using Zanshin.
  
• Katana Gauge maximum (9 levels): Each upgrade add a diamond (an extra Gauge) to the hilt of the Katana Gauge.
  
• Katana Gauge recovery (5 levels): Enhances the amount of Katana Gauge recovered when using Zanshin.

My opinion: Max Health and Health Recovery are both useful if you want to have an easier time surviving, and the Max Katana Gauge upgrade is nice if you use the Divine Wind -> Celestial Slash combo.

Unlockables

New Game Plus

Save the game after defeating the Final Boss to play the game again with all your upgrades and Skill Points. To do so, on the main menu, select Continue, then your cleared saved game. Select "Game Restart", followed by the difficulty you want to play on. Confirm, and you're all set.

Miko costume

You unlock it by beating the game once.

Screenshot below:

Hakama costume

Buy it in the Upgrades menu for 100 000 Skill Points.

Screenshot below:

Sailor Uniform costume

Buy it in the Upgrades menu for 100 000 Skill Points.

Screenshot below:

Suzuka costume

You obtain it by beating Hard Mode.
Sorry, no screenshot yet. I have to beat Hard Mode first.
Screenshot by Rig404: http://steamcommunity.com/id/rigsteel/screenshot/548642727276671964

Changelog

Steam 1.0: This version of the guide is based on my GameFAQs 1.1 version.
Steam 1.1: Changed Kaina strategy and added my opinion for each of the upgrades.
Steam 1.1.1: Minor revision. Corrected a typo in Bosses section.
Steam 1.2: Added info to Game Mechanics and Bosses sections (thanks to Ω MrWrong™)
Steam 1.2.1: Added link to screenshot from Rig404 (http://steamcommunity.com/id/rigsteel)

Closing notes

This guide was written by me (William JCM on Steam).

Copyright 2014 Guillaume Jacquemin (William JCM)

This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any website exept Steam or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

By the way, you can find an outdated version of my guide on GameFAQs[www.gamefaqs.com].

Sorry if I made mistakes while writing this guide, I'm French.

[Pedro]

Very good, thanks!

[mars]

GOOD

[boxxybabee]

thank you

[William JCM]

For the player character, if I remember correctly, it's a sprint. However, it's been a looong time since I last played the game, so I can't confirm.

[Ontrax]

What is "Dash" i dont know i need help :c

[Jalter Neko]

Really useful guide thanks!

[优莉·弗罗斯特尔]

CNGFGXNJFX

[William JCM]

@Azrael: BTW, I think that Jestream Sam's fight against the Senator is the hardest. (Sorry for being off-topic.)

[William JCM]

Thanks for your feedback, Azrael.

I'm sorry to say it, but I can't find the courage to reinstall and replay this game, especially because I get a nasty bug where the game now runs at 40 FPS on my machine, instead of the usual 60 I got around the time I wrote the guide (this problem also plagues my copy of BlazBlue Calamity Trigger).

I am also busy with other games, such as the recently released Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition and Way Of The Samurai 4.

And on top of that, I'm working on a game using RPG Maker VX Ace.

As a conclusion: Everyone who has submitted feedback after v1.2.1 of this guide, I'm sorry for not being able to replay the game and confirm what you've submitted.

[Azrael]

But standingt STILL in a medium distance will often trigger his standard swing-groundsmash combo.
The first ist very wide but if you run still good to outmaneuver, the second easy, so you get a nice opening to hit three times. Rinse and repeat !

Just don´t get too cocky when he is stunend from bleeding state, I once got killed by the blast of his CC-breaker Oo

Also, I just met the final form of Suzuka and it seems the swords are lightsahfts falling from the sky now (new patch or something ?).
Doesn´t make much of a difference, but I just wanetd to note it.