shifting_mazes_manual.txt

          BASIC INSTRUCTIONS
Shifting Mazes is an RPG.  It's a dungeon explorer and meant to be extremely
customizable.  You begin by creating a character, and you should usually
create a second character as well.  The game consists of 10 dungeon levels,
which are chosen randomly from a bunch of pre-made mazes.  In each one, you
must find a key, then find the exit to move on to the next level.  You'll
randomly meet enemies along the way.  The basic idea behind the ability
system in battle is that each weapon you equip will give you a different
set of abilities.  Also, your character's job will give you more abilities,
which are learned as you gain levels.  Your job is chosen when you create
the character.

              DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
Difficulty levels and monsters: When you start a new game, you'll be asked
to choose from Novice, Easy, Medium, or Hard difficulty.  Novice is for
people who like normal RPGs.  Each enemy is always the same strength,
you can keep trying a part in the game until you beat it, and you can
pretty much last forever in a dungeon level building up your characters.
Since novice is so easy, however, you can't get on the Hi Score list when
playing it.

Easy, Medium and Hard is what Shifting Mazes was meant to be.  On these
difficuly levels, the monsters gain levels like you, so they're usually on
a fraction of your level.  However, they also have a minumum level, which
also varies by difficulty, to encourage you to gain levels.  The only
exception to this is bosses; their toughness only varies by difficulty
level.  Also, when you get Game Over, you get on the Hi Score list (if you
did well enough), and you'll find that your file is gone!  Don't try to get
around this by turning the computer off when you're about to die, either,
because your file will still be gone.  The point of doing this is to make
the game like those old NES games, which you had to beat in one try, except
now you can save your game and contiue playing later.

Besides the enemy levels and boss stats, the difficulty levels are slightly
different when it comes to artificial intelligence.  In other words,
monsters will be smarter on higher difficulty levels.

Creating a character: When you start a new game, you must create a character
(usually 2).  After entering your name, you must select a job.  Depending on
the job you select, your character will get different abilities, have a
different speed rating, and get more or less HP and MP on a level up than
normal.

Next, you must choose what stats your character will have.  Stats will grow
faster if you make them higher, but the total of all your initial stats
can't exceed 30.

This is what the stats do:
    Strength(Str): power of physical attacks
    Defense(Def): resistance to physical attacks
    Magic(Mag): strength of magical attacks
    Spirit(Spr): resistance to magical attacks
    Hit: success of attacks
    Evade(Eva): skill at dodging attacks

The only reason you might not want a second character is because you can
gain levels twice as fast with only one.
Saving : To save and quit, simply push F1 on the main game screen.  You
will then be asked to enter a # for your file from 1-9 so you can tell it
apart from other files.  A list of all existing files will be printed.  To
load a saved file, select Continue on the title screen and select the file
in the same way.  If you want to save or load a file on a floppy disk, (for
portableness), push SPACE on the file selection screen to change the list
to files on the A:\.  In fact, it's strongly recomended that you keep a
disk for Shifting Mazes files, because it's good for VS mode, and when you
create your own mazes, they must be saved to a disk anyway.  It's just like
having a memory card!

A better way of saving is to use the Quick Save option.  Simply push F3 on
the maze screen and your file is saved on the file you continued on.
However, this option is not available when playing through the game the
first time on Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty, because your file has to be
erased.

Deleting a file: Select Delete from the Title Screen and select the file you
want to delete.

The Mazes: The first dungeon level is small, but the rest are much bigger
and are all 81 spaces.  You mainly look at the overhead map of the dungeon
level, which is in the middle of the screen.  To the left of the map is a
close up of the space you're on, showing you which directions you can move
in.  The close up often doesn't look the same as the space shown on the map,
and you'll probably understand why this is later.

You'll occasionally meet the Maze Master, who will shift the maze for you in
certain ways.  He'll either move all the spaces in your current row or
column up, down, left or right, or he'll rotate these spaces 90 degrees
clockwise or counterclockwise.  You'll probably have to do this a few times
to get through the maze.  Also, just to screw you up, the maze will randomly
shift once in a while, and these shifts aren't restricted to your row or
column.  If you're stuck, you can also push the Spacebar to randomly shift
the maze yourself, but this is risky because you can get stuck, so only use
it if you have nowhere to go.  If you get completely trapped in the maze,
you get game over, so you'll have to use your brain to make sure you can
always go somewhere.

Menus: To select an option from a menu in this game, you can either use the
arrow keys and Enter, or you can push the 1st capital letter in the option
of your choice (the hotkey).  The ESC key usually gets you out of the menu,
and SPACE usually has a special function.

Subscreen: Push ESC to access the Subscreen.  Unlike the subscreens of most
RPGs, in this subscreen, you first select a character (by pushing left or
right), then you select something to do to the character.  The options are
Equip (equip weapons), Item (use or view your items), Element (equip
crystals, discussed later), and AutoBattle (set an auto battle ability,
discussed later).  If you push SPACE on the main menu, it will change your
character's position in battle.  There are 3 rows, (front, middle, back),
and the farther up your character's are, the more physical damage they'll
do, but they'll also recieve more.

Battle Screen: The battle screen in Shifting Mazes might be a bit confusing
to some people.  At the top of the screen are your stats and the enemies
you're fighting.  The little dash separates the 2 parties.  CT stands for
charge time, and it's there because Shifting Mazes uses a Charge Time Battle
(CTB) system.  This means that each character's CT value keeps increasing,
and when someone's reaches 100, the game stops and that character gets a
turn.  The rate at which CT increases is determined by the character's speed.
When the CT value turns blue, it means the character is charging an ability,
such as a spell.

To the left of the character's stats is a spot for damage from attacks to be
displayed.  To the right of their stats is where it tells you what status
changes the character has on them.  The status changes are abbreviated, and
their full name and what they do are discussed below.

Colors play a major role in the battle screen, since the battles have no
graphics.  When a characters stats are highlighted in white, it means it's
that character's turn.  When a character's name is in red, it means they're
dead.  Green damage values mean healing, while red damage values mean the
attack killed the character.  Green status changes mean the status change
was just removed, and red ones mean the status change was just inflicted.
Below the character status is where menus appear for you to choose an
ability.  On the right is useful information about the battle, such as the
character's secondary weapon (discussed later), their Auto-Battle ability
(discussed later), and the player whose turn it is in 2 player battles
(discussed later).  Finally, at the bottom of the screen a text box displays
the ability being used and any extra effects of it.

Status Changes: Here is a list of the status changes in Shifting Mazes and
what effects they have on your character:
Psn(Poison): Lose 10% of your maximum HP each turn.
Slp(Sleep): Can't act until healed or attacked.
Cfs(Confuse): Act randomly until healed or attacked.
Bld(Blind): Miss more often.
Dsb(Disable): Can't use weapon, job or combo abilities.
Slw(Slow): CT charges slower.
Bsk(Berserk): Continuously attack with more power.
Und(Undead): Changes the effects of cure and death abilities.
Sil(Silence): MP doesn't charge up
Rgn(Regan): Regain 10% of your maximum HP each turn.
Prt(Protect): Physical damage is halved.
Bar(Barrier): Magical damage is halved.
Rse(Reraise): If you die, you'll be revived automatically.
Hst(Haste): CT charges faster.
Sld(Shield): Reflects damage back at user until next turn.
QMp(Quick MP): MP charges up twice as fast.
StB(Status Block): Protects against negative status changes.

You can remove negative status changes with a "Heal" item or certain
abilities.  You can remove positive status changes mainly with the "Dispel"
ability.

Note that with enemies, status changes wear off after a while.  With bosses,
they wear off even faster, and the rate varies with each boss.  With your
characters, however, status changes will remain until the end of the battle
or until you remove it from the character.  Positive status changes don't
wear off anyone, however.

NPCs: As you walk around, you'll occasionally meet NPCs.  There's one on a
random space in each dungeon level, (but there's none in level 1 or 10).  In
even numbered dungeon levels (except 10), you'll have the option of taking
part in their scenario or quest.  If you do well in it, you'll be able to
fight the NPC in the next dungeon level.  Each of them has a hostility
level, and if you lower it enough in the quest or by using the right moves
in battle, they'll offer to join you at the end of the dungeon level where
you fought them.  You should usually say yes, but you can only have up to 4
characters in your party at a time, so you may have to dismiss someone.
Just remember, experience points are divided among the party.  In an NPC
fight, they will always be on your level and you'll have to fight them with
just your main character.  To make the battles a bit more fair, (to the
NPCs), you can't use items in these battles. Two NPCs also have jobs that
you can't get normally.

Weapons: In Shifting Mazes, weapons play a much larger role than simply
increasing your attack power.  Most weapons will give you extra abilities
in battle.  You use these abilities by selecting the weapon's name on the
main battle menu.

There are 3 main ways you can get weapons.  You can win them from bosses,
from NPCs, or you can poach enemys.  To do the latter, you must get knives
(you get a few when you beat each dungeon level), then use them on the enemy
you want to poach (as an Item).  You can increase the success rate by
lowering the enemy's HP; in fact, if they have more than 1/2 their HP left,
the poach will always fail.

Weapon abilities also combine with your job abilities to give you combos.
However, to get combos, you must have the type of weapon equipped that goes
with your job, ex. a sword on a knight or a staff on a mage.  You also must
have learned the job ability that combines with the weapon ability.  You
learn job abilities by gaining levels.

You can also equip a secondary weapon in addition to the weapon you're
using.  This just provides you with some additional security and more
strategy.  To switch to your secondary weapon in battle, select Switch.
However, this uses up your turn.

To equip a weapon, go to the subscreen and select equip.  Push SPACE to
switch between your primary and secondary weapon.  Note that when you
select a weapon, it tells you that weapon's abilities and power in the
bottom right of the screen.

Each weapon also has a secret ability.  To unlock this ability, you must
get a good score on a certain dungeon level (scoring is discussed later).
Each dungeon level gives you the secret ability for a certain weapon,
(except in dungeon level 1, which gives you the secret ability for your
job's Basic Weapon).

Note that a Fighter's fists work different than other weapons.  They can't
be equipped by other jobs, and fighters can't equip anything but fists.

MP system: MP works a bit different in this game than in most RPGs.  At the
start of the battle, all your characters will have 0 MP.  Each time they get
a turn, a percentage of their max MP is restored.  Of course, you can charge
up your MP really fast by using an Ether, which brings a character's MP to
maximum.

ADVANCED FEATURES
Elemental System: There are five elements in Shifting Mazes - Water, Fire,
Lightning, Wind, and Earth.  Besides the usual elemental weaknesses of
enemies, you can now put elements on your characters.  You do this by
collecting Crystals.  If you defend and an enemy with an element attacks
you, you'll "Draw out" the crystal for that element.  Once you have a
crystal, you can equip it on as many characters as you want. Do this by
selecting Element on the Subscreen.  Each crystal makes you absorb and use
it's element and cancels another element, but it also makes you weak against
a certain element, so be careful what you equip.

Defending:  Besides using Defend to draw out crystals, it reduces all damage
by half until your next turn.  Shifting Mazes also uses the Defend-Attack
system (which was in the 7th Saga for the Super NES).  If you defend and
then attack on your next turn, you'll hit for 1.5 times as much.

Hi-Scores: Shifting Mazes has two types of scoring systems.  You get a
score for each dungeon level and for your whole game.  The main purpose
of the dungeon level score is to give you secret abilities.  To get a
secret ability, you must explore every space in the dungeon level, have one
of all the secret poachable weapons that are available in that dungeon
level, do the NPC thing right, and get enough experience points.

The final score gives you a lot more information than the dungeon level
score.  However, your place on the Hi Scores list is determined solely by
how many experience points you got, but this score will be increased if you
choose a higher difficulty level to discourage always choosing "Very Easy"
just to get a high score.  You can view the top ten scores by selecting
"Hi Scores" from the Title Screen.  Note that usually, your final score
doesn't matter that much as far as making the game any easier; it's just
there because Hi Scores lists are cool.  However, if you get a perfect
score in many of the categories, you just might unlock a hidden secret...

Auto-Battling: To aid in level gaining and for user-friendliness, Shifting
Mazes has an auto-battle system.  You can set one ability on each character,
and also select a target for the ability.  After setting up the ability, you
can use it quickly in battle by simply pushing the spacebar on the main
battle menu.  To set an ability, select AutoBattle on the subscreen.  A
list of all the character's abilities, (except items, run, and switch, which
you can't set), will be displayed.  Select an ability, then select a target.
To undo a move, select Remove instead.  Note that even if you set a weapon
ability to your auto-battle ability, using it by pushing SPACE will not
affect the weapon's compatability.

One trick you can do with the Auto Battle option is if you think your
party is really tough, you can set an ability for each character, then
hold the spacebar in battle to always use that ability.  The battle should
be over in less than a second, and you can still view the end of battle
screen because you must push ESC to get out of it.

VS: One of the best part of Shifting Mazes is the VS mode, which allows 2
players to take their saved files and fight each other.  To have a 2 player
battle, select VS on the Title Screen, then select the file for each player.
You will also have the option of making all characters on the level of the
strongest character, just to make things fair.  In battle, the player whose
turn it is will be printed at the right side of the screen.  To make things
easier, one person could use the arrows and enter key on the number keypad,
(you'll have to turn off Num Lock for this to work).  However, then that
player wouldn't be able to use hotkeys.

Maze Creation: Once you've beaten the game, you'll be able play the 2nd
quest.  One feature of this quest is that you can create your own mazes
and play them instead of the game's pre-made dungeon levels.  To do this,
you must first use Maze Editor to create a maze.  Select 'Maze Edit' on
the title screen and follow the instructions to create the maze (it's
really easy), then save it to a floppy disk.  It's important to use a
disk to save the maze, and you can't move the file around once it's done;
the game will only read mazes from disks that aren't in any folders.
Remember, the maze you create can only have 1 exit, key, and NPC, and
exactly 4 Maze Masters.

CREDITS: Shifting Mazes was created by Adam Richard
Original music by Larry Holder

Enjoy the game!