Hi! I just wrote the first comprehensive scoring guide for Kyuutenkai after hosting a friendly scoring challenge for it on the MiSTer FPGA discord. I'll post that guide here also so we can hopefully get the first person to max out the score board on a single credit!
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Kyuutenkai Fantasic Pinball - Scoring Guide by M.Walrus
Saturn & PlayStation
-=:Introduction:=-
Hello! I've been a longtime fan of Kyuutenkai ever since importing it for my Saturn some years ago, though I never understood the game or knew how scoring worked. I help to moderate the MiSTer FPGA Discord and also hold bi-weekly score challenges there, and selected Kyuutenkai for a challenge a few weeks ago. I decided to finally figure the game out & this guide is the result of my observations during that time.
This guide is specifically for folks attempting high scores at the game with a single credit. The companion video referenced at various points in the guide is located here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzudU52_qtI
There is surprisingly little documentation about this game online, and my hopes are that someone reading this will become the first person to max out the scoreboard on a single credit without using the save system or passwords.
-=:Characters:=-
I like to use Yuki because her ball upgrade is much less distracting than the other characters and easier to track on the table. The other characters seem more suited for destroying targets quickly and playing the boss room games to try and unlock the ending fight.
-=:Boss Rooms:=-
Unlock these by getting two of the same characters on the randomized bumpers in the middle. Getting all three the same will unlock all boss rooms and randomize them. If you are going for a single credit high score run, the best strategy is to try and completely avoid these rooms, since they remove the Underworld blocks, leaving you instantly vulnerable to a quick death as soon as you exit the boss room. However, if you haven't set up the blocks yet and a boss room is available, you should always go for the chance at an additional 10-15 million. All boss rooms seem to score the same- 10 million reward, time bonus of up to 4 million, and bonus points (e.g. 100k for each goal on Satan.)
Satan/Soccer: Satan's mouth when the buttons on his shirt are lit in the Underworld.
Harpy/Wreck Bedroom: Harpy in the upper-right of the Underworld.
Wind/Flying Targets: Wind bag guy (Aeolus?) that pushes you up from the middle field, lower-left in Heaven.
Snake/Bunny-troll Climbers: Derpy looking snake's mouth in the upper-right in the middle field.
Boss strategies:
All of these boss rooms have objects blocking directly in front of the flippers. Because of this you will need to use some abstract techiques to tackle them instead of shooting straight on, often times. For the wind and vine climbing bosses, start out by holding the ball on the flipper and then sending it backwards, and then immediately start spamming both flippers to reduce the risk of the ball quickly tanking, when there are enemies directly in front of the flipper that the ball is at. For the harpy room try and shoot the first shot all the way to the left side, and avoid shooting straight forward at all costs, spamming the flippers if you see that it's going down the middle into the pillow or bear, which will often shoot the ball straight down the gutter.
The only nuanced and somewhat-skillful boss rooms (i.e. don't seem to be determined by luck) are Satan and the Wind boss. The soccer game in particular is quite fun once you get the hang of it- passing the ball between flippers like they're players on a pitch and landing the winning goal. I find myself talking smack and yelling "F-You Satan!" when I slip a goal past him and it never gets old. It's a fun boss room to get pumped up for, and I've found that staying in this mindset makes me generally do better at it.
There is a final boss room that only unlocks once you defeat all of the initial boss rooms once, which I would say is impossible without using the save/password system in the game. The harpy and vine climbing rooms are just too random for this to ever happen in a single game. For example, I've played the game close to 100 times and never once completed the vine climbers boss room. Only once have I completed the Harpy, and included a clip of that at the end of my high score video. You can keep track of which boss rooms are completed with the gems next to the spinning character wheel in the top-right of the UI. These will become large and highlighted for each completed room.
-=:Extra lives:=-
1.) Make all 3 middle bumpers crabs. It seems that at least one crab must be defeated and transformed into a bumper to get the 1up when the third crab appears.
2.) Clear the waterfall by hitting the upper-right character in the top section, then launch a ball in the pot that the waterfall was coming out of. Keep in mind that the starting plunger hole will be opened when this waterfall disappears as well, and will remove all blocks and opened elements on the stage just like finishing a boss room.
-=:Bonus points:=-
55 Million: Get all three middle bumpers to show the dollar sign.
Geisha Doll Bonus: Taking out the black dancing circle of geisha dolls in the top area will net you a bonus of 2-36 million, or possibly more. I don't know what modifies this, but I was able to get the 36 million bonus at 9:55 in my video. There is no fanfare or indication you have done anything special- it took reviewing the video to even know this occurred. Perhaps the combination of the waterfall being disabled and the red dancer with flamenco music increases this bonus?
Bell Bonus: Match 3 white bells in Heaven to get a bonus of 10 million. Example at 2:33 in my video.
Bonus points:
Yuki gets a +1 to the bonus point number for most things she hits, besides:
Multiplier 1 (max of 100):
Individual Geisha Dolls
Crab enemies
Bunny-troll climbing the snake
Harpy's feathers
Green Slimes
Multiplier 2 (max of 9):
Full group of Geisha Dolls
Full group of Skeleton Mariachi
Breaking the coffins above the green slimes in the Underworld.
Bonus Cash-In:
Hit the boss rooms when they're not active. Hitting that boss enough times seems to open these up eventually, though it is unknown exactly how this works or what targets you need to focus near the "boss" characters.
-=:Misc Tips:=-
Underworld Blocks: Try and get these up quickly! Spin the bat and then hit it in the crotch when it has the confused face to block the drain. Hit the green slimes to rejuvinate the blue slimes that block the gutters.
A good way to establish the blockades at the bottom, is to let it drop from the middle when its going VERY slow dropping from the flippers, this will usually just make drop alongside & spin the bat. Then you can hold the corresponding side flipper as the ball descends and make the shot.
Ball physics are overall excellent, but become decidedly more unpredictable when your character powers up and the ball changes color. When stalling on the bottom to nail the blockade shot, make sure to wait until the powerup wears off before taking the shot!
Layer transitions: Transferring reliably between layers can be tricky, especially in the lower underworld section when you're trying to avoid death. Often, the best option is to hold a specific flipper up when making upward shots, and utilizing 'secondary table effects' to have an increased chance of success. For example, when you shoot to the top-left in the underworld area, sometimes the mummy will push you up to the next layer & other times you wont quite make it up there. You can often rely on the spinning bat in the middle to hit your ball upwards again after it falls there, and be able to raise up a level by holding up the left flipper when doing this. Holding up the correct flipper depending on your shot is key here. It's all probability & remembering common angles for the situation you're in.
Middle bumper configurations to get to the top at launch:
Two bottom, one top (Default): Full-power plunger with right flipper held.
Two left, one right: Full-power will launch into the angel's hand teleporting to the top, if her hand is open at the time. The hand opens by moving the angels above the bumpers.
Table Modifications:
Some areas of the table can be modified, but they all return to their normal state after you exit a boss room, die or drop down the plunger hole. The only exception is the Moon, which will stay defeated.
Skeleton Mariachi (Underworld):
If you take out the skeleton mariachi band in the top-left of the Underworld section and break the door behind them, that corridor provides a teleport all the way to the top. This corridor is extremely hard to hit and risks sending you into that left gutter if you go for it. Not worth it.
Moon and Sun (Heaven):
Spinning the ball around the sun in the top once you break the moon, will randomly give you a boss up there, but I'm not sure they're defeatable. Every hit on them gives you +1 to the bonus score, and taking out the dancing dolls on the platform will give you +1 to the multiplier for each one. The black dolls give a bonus when defeated from 2-36 million depending on unknown conditions. A 36 million bonus for this is shown in my video at 9:55.
Those bosses up top can be frustrating because the dancing dolls around them slow your ball when you hit them, limiting how many hits you get on the boss. Aim for the area above the boss where the rainbow lettering shows up, to rapidly ricochet the ball off the top of the boss and maximize score there. Easiest way to do this is to back-paddle the flippers so that you push the ball away from the middle, up towards the waterfall lady or sun. Not easy, but you can boost your bonus score a lot up there, more than anywhere else I've found. The Underworld is also great for bonus points, but you risk dying by staying around too long, so best to try and stay up top.
Temple (Heaven):
Hitting the temple to the left-middle of the top section will eventually break it open revealing a face that progressively gets more upset as you hit it. The only effect seems to be an additional way to get bonus points from hitting the character in the temple. It's unknown if this eventually does something else with more hits.
Waterfall (Heaven):
Hitting the waterfall lady enough times will stop the flow of water for a while and open up the right side for an Extra Ball skill shot, and an unfortunate drop down the plunger hole that resets the board. Practicing this skill shot is important though, so I recommend going for it whenever possible. The shot is not too difficult and can frequently net you the 1up, given enough practice.
-=:Tilt:=-
Tilt is very crude in this game, essentially just shaking the screen two different directions and having the ball react to the tremors. Proper usage of it involves holding the appropriate tilt button down when your ball is on a surface, and it will go the opposite direction of the tilt direction you are holding as it descends. There is no effect on the ball when it is freely traveling across the board. The most useful application I've found so far is if you hit the ball up the left side ramp in the middle towards the wind bag dude, and if it doesnt go all the way up if you hold left tilt the ball will fall further to the right when it descends, if you hold right tilt, it will drop to the left, closer to the wall. This is handy for hitting those bumpers to try and get back up to the top.
Guide by MiSTer Walrus a.k.a M.Walrus. I share gameplay videos and scoring runs on my YouTube channel, including the guide video referenced here for Kyuutenkai.
https://www.youtube.com/MiSTerWalrusFPGA
Occasional livestreams on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/WalrusFPGA
Twitter:
https://x.com/WalrusFPGA
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