Destiny of an Emperor 2 Shu
When you do, Yang Huai comes to see you and praises you for your efforts in taking down Zhang Lu. Then he suggests (or rather insists as you cannot say no) that you attack Fu Shui castle. You have to agree so just do it and then go there and see what happens. Strangely enough it will be Yang Huai there waiting for you, saying he tricked you and that Liu Zhang is away in Cheng Du. He brings Wu Lan and Gao Pei with, and while Wu Lan and Yang Huai (Gao Pei is a class b jobber) are decent fighters they can get Da Re-ed until the end of time. Do so and get the vibe in Fu Shui castle. Also get Wu Lan, who is waiting out front. Now don’t use him of course. Surely he is better than Chen Deng and Zhou Cang, but that’s about it. You will hear topics regarding a water gate and a key for it that Pang Yi had (who consequently was banished by your enemy Liu Zhang).
Head to the northern village and have a talk with Pang Yi who will give you the Bronze Key if you agree to help him. Grab the key and head north. The watergate battle is so easy I cannot fathom that anyone would die here with a decent army and a decent brain. Ling Bao (LENG BAO) comes with Deng Xian and Zhang Su. Deng Xian is a tactician specialist with an intelligence of 135 and that pretty much sums up your competition here. Take them out and use the key on the gate and then check it and say yes to turn it.
Continue your journey west now as you have somewhere to go finally. Without going to far however, disaster strikes. Liu Zhang’s army (specifically Zhang Ren) falls upon them, and without too much fighting Pang Tong gets struck down by an arrow. How unfortunate, Zhang Fei laments and retreats back to Fu Shui, only to be late as Zhang Ren is there with 3 new generals!
Obviously your party is in some trouble. Fear not as Zhuge Liang comes with reinforcements, and fire also. Zhang Ren and his army is driven away and you are in Fu Shui, where Jing Zhou is reported as safe and Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, and Zhuge Liang all join you. Now you may want Zhuge in your party and with these three (who ALL should be in the active party) you will have to take some characters out. Really it is a tough call and you can go either way. Ma Dai and Wei Yan are two that are tricky. Ma Dai is arguably a better general than Ma Chao (statistically they are near equal overall but I’d rather have Da’s 170 intelligence and 120 agility than Ma Chao’s 130 intelligence and 175 agility). Zhang Fei would be considered dump-worthy, maybe, but you can’t get rid of him anyway so keep him in the active lineup. Zhao Yun is the best character in the game so he must be in there, Guan Yu too. Now you have some tactical firepower so maybe you can sit Zhuge Liang and not have him in battles, instead keeping another general (Ma Dai/Chao) that might have been chopped otherwise. And oh, if you have Zhang Lu through all this, he’s better than all the aforementioned characters at this point probably, so that’ll mess your roster up even more.
Check it out, you have a huge army with several capable generals, make your choices based on your preferences in battle (ie are you tactical based or more defensive/strength based)? Personally my party is Ma Chao, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun with Zhuge Liang as tactician.
Outside of Fu Shui, get on the boat and you will sail towards Ba castle. Now, you can also go to the bottom left and go to a gate, but go straight to Ba castle now to take on Liu Jun. Interestingly enough he has a general similar in age to Huang Zhong in Yan Yan, who is also the most dangerous general in this battle. Still nothing to make you sweat, but after the battle he will join you if you wish. Not worth adding but a solid character to have on your side. The weapon store has some nice new items (like the Flame Armor and the Ice Spears). After all of this you will hear of Ba citadel and the wood that is there.
Obviously, something is to be done there, so rest up and go! With your new ice spears (assuming you have a party simliar to mine) you should be able to destroy these folks. But Liu Ba retreats. When you go in the citadel later, he will set it on fire as you leave. Now if you waited, a soldier will rush in and ask you your thoughts, so say you fight for justice and he’ll tell you the citadel is supposed to burn down. Obviously, leave it, and Liu Ba is no match for you without his gimmick (or with it for that matter). One last comment about this region; you can ignore Ba Castle and go straight for the Ba Citadel if you’d like, but you’ll miss out on everything above if you do.
Heading south you will see you have some options. Go to the village first to hear them, as you can either seize the food from north mountain or attack Jian Ning straight on. Arrow barrages will block you if you attempt to attack the castle. Now I must say, as I was using the speedup function on the emulator, I was able to override the “Arrow barrage” message and get to Lei Tong. Obviously this isn’t what you should do, so just go to the mountain.
When you enter head straight north for 592 gold pieces. Then head left for a Silver Potion. Head to the upper left area and go down the stairs for a Powerpil and head up on the plateau for a Flame Armor. Heading east and then south a little is another gold piece chest worth 600 or so. Also to the very lower left (only accessible when taking an immediate left when entering the mountain area) is a Flame Shield, probably the best item here. The final item in the upper right is a Silver Potion, and leave via the north exit once you are done. The gate up north houses Wang Kang and the feeble Lu Kai. Rout them and go in, as they vow to get you back. Whatever, go on and rest and then attack Jian Ning. It’s the same two generals from the last battle, with Lei Tong and Deng Xian. Lei Tong is good but again the theory stays the same; all these castles send out one good general and that’s all, so gang up on them and rout the rest. Recruit Lei Tong and hear about Jiang Wan, and then leave north.
Jiang Wan’s house is up there, but he can’t help. Go to the cave to the west first. Take the northwestern path for 600 gold coins or so. Finally take the lower left staircase to advance. Now take the lower path and go a long way for a Powerpil. Then return and take a right at your next fork to get a Silver Potion. Take the staircase to the left and then take a right for an Ice Spear, and left to leave the cave. Inside the house, Gao Pei will be waiting there. You fought him in the Yang Huai battle at Fu Shui a while back, and he is no harder than he was back then. Destroy him and return Jiang Wan’s mom to his side and he will join. Again he isn’t worth putting in your party but you advanced the story. But do what he says and put him in the front line, as you can’t beat the next castle without doing so. He will then enter the castle, lying about whose troops you are. Fortunately you can then fight them on more favorable conditions and despite them having Wu Yi, another recruitable general, this batch isn’t not very tough either.
Now head north, but you can’t attack that gate right away. So go in the cave like you were told to do, and head to the right and then all the way up for a Steel Helmet and 232 gold, now work your way down. The bottom left is 197 gold pieces. Enter the staircase and go all the way down for another Steel Helmet. To the right at the four way is another fork, which has a Fire Scroll to the south and a Qing Long Saber to the north. The top left area is a Silver Potion and the left area at the four way is the TNT! Now head up and go up at the beginning of the cave to meet Zi Xu, who tells you to use it on the wood stack in the western gate! So go north and you’ll enter the back way of the gate. Don’t talk to the soldiers, or you can, you’ll just get in a fight with rebel forces over and over and over (great way to level up). Anyway when you are ready use the TNT on the wood stack. A Zhang Ren battle will ensue but the flames will easily devour him in a matter of rounds. Zhuge orders you to follow him to Long You!
When you get there, Zhang Ren is ready and you have no fire gimmick. However, your party is still stronger than his, so overwhelm him with your fire spells and his party should be gone. Rest or do whatever, and continue on and Zhang Ren will be waiting at a bridge before Cheng Du. Your lead general will duel him, and chances are you’ll win. If not, build up your level or get some new equipment. If you have Zhang Lu I wouldn’t worry.
The battle to decide Shu awaits to the south! Cheng Du, obviously, is guarded by Liu Zheng, who fortunately is a joke of a general. His associates are not much of a help either. Liu Xun is a decent fighter but is easily taken out with a Huo Shen. The other four are decent tacticians at best so keep your hit points up and make sure they don’t Li Jian your characters. Really, it’s an easy battle though.
The pretender is now out of Shu! Inside, the weapon store has some nice new items again, so buy them. Rest, and Liu Bei will then send you off to Han Zhong as Cao Cao has retaken it. On you go, but at least this time Liu Bei has a land of his own!