Bunji Kugashira FAQ For the game: G U N G R A V E By: The Nightmare Alpha v1.0 11/12/04: It's pretty much complete. ----------------- Table of Contents ----------------- 1) Contacting Me 2) Why Bunji? 3) Bunji Kugashira a) The Story Behind Him b) Analysis c) The Boss Fight 4) Credits/Thanks 5) Copyright and Legal Rights ---------------- 1) Contacting Me ---------------- It's been a while, but hey, it's better than nothing. I no longer use AIM for FAQ purposes so feel free to e-mail me at tnaforever0@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns over the guide. I guess it's obvious, don't send spam or anything offensive/rude for any reason. I'll listen to you if do it in a mature way. Also, title the e-mail something so that I know it's for FAQ. If I see a random "Hi." I will just delete it. That said, let's get started. ------------- 2) Why Bunji? ------------- It's simple, because for the most part you will have the most trouble on him than anyone else. Because the sheer fact that he is a clone of you will make it a tough fight. The fact that he can take you from FULL Armor and Vitality to nothing in about the first 30 seconds of the battle can make him, in my opinion, the hardest boss in Gungrave. When I played the game over, I had a hard time beating him and I'm probably not alone; most people don't expect a hard boss like this after facing numerous guys that are so-so. Even after beating him on Normal, he can be a huge pain in Kick Ass and Hard. This guide will simplify the pain you have to endure with a complete anaylsis on Bunji and how the battle works on Normal through Kick Ass. Enjoy! ----------------- 3)Bunji Kugashira ----------------- a)The Story Behind Him ---------------------- You first meet Bunji on the Blimp with his fellow Syndicate members. You can tell from the start that he is a badass. He stands there, lying against the railing payng attention closely but rather distant until Grave tries to pull a move, his reaction is quick to defend the higher members. Once he blows up the building and you arrive at the chapel, you find out he was your student, a protege of Grave. After your death and resurrection, he worked under the Syndicate, just like you did. He meets you with one purpose, to murder you. Why? To show that in fact he can be better than Grave. In the end, he fails and he's glad that he won't be around to shame Grave and embarrass himself by trying to kill Grave (How that is shameful is beyond me) And that, is Bunji. b)Analysis ---------- Bunji has many advantages in this battle, many. The sheer fact that he uses all of these advantages to his fullest can be overwhelming, but don't forget that you are still stronger than him in both artilery and brute force. Use your abilities as well as he does his. Still, without knowing those advatages, you'll be at a loss. Here is the list below: Enviroment: Bunji has a different battle enviroment compared to the other Syndicate members. Unlike their wide open areas, he has a clutter of broken pillars at the center of the chapel. Now, opposed to the others, he loves to use these as cover when he recovers Vitality. It's VERY annoying when he starts to do this 3 or 4 times on succession. Keep in mind when your facing Bunji to keep him clear away from structures because he uses them like crazy. Power: DO NOT underrestimate the power Bunji possesses. He is just as strong as Grave or in the case of Kick Ass/Hard, even stronger. His combat skills are incredibly strong and his guns pack a whallop against your armor. In fact, his guns are surprisingly equal to yours in strength. Several direct shots can penetrate your armor easily depending on how they're fired. Don't forget his melee/special moves. They can also drain vitality more easily than the guns he posesses. Accuracy and Range: Bunji's Accuracy ties in with his Power. Even though his power is par with yours, his accuracy is a bit sloppy. If you notice at times, his accuracy is that of a dartboard, at times he hits a bullseye, and at times he misses completly. As you increase the distance between each other, he will miss more often. The closer you are, the more Armor and Vitality he will take off you. As for his Range and Accuracy for his moves, it all really varies. His moves give him a wide variety. His guns, for example, are surprisingly medium/far ranged so you'd be safer at a distance for not only gun moves, but for most of his moves to prepare and dodge/execute a counter. Speed: I have to admit that Bunji is faster than you. His speed isn't to par with someone like Lee, but it is sufficient enough for Bunji. It's not only in speed as physically, but in move exectution as well. If you look at most of his moves, he doesn't take too long to execute them. His only problem is recovery; most of his moves take a bit to recover from allowing you to easily take care of him. His execution and movement are excellent, his recovery lags a bit. Vitality: This is where Bunji can excell at, if given the chance. His life bar compared to Grave's including the Armor, is larger. He is weak against your guns and does take a significant amount of damage but once his health hits about the 1/2 way point, he will try and recover health. Despite the fact that he is weak in some way, his Vitality exceeds yours. Intellegence: Well, this covers the final aspect of the Bunji battle. Unlike the other bosses, Bunji's battle plans are very random and fast. He knows exactly when to retreat and what to do if your at a distance. In some ways, if you play with him, he will play right back at you. He chooses moves wisely as well and often recognizes when he's in trouble and speeds away. Don't go easy on Bunji. c)The Boss Fight ---------------- Bunji Kugashira =============== Ground Blaze (Normal)Range: Medium-Far Damage: Low>>>Medium (Hard)Range: Same Damage: Low>>>Medium/Heavy (Kick Ass): Range: Same Damage: Low>>>Heavy/Critical Bunji pulls this move off if your at a far enough distance or after he is finished recovering his health. He'll point his guns towards the floor and fire a succession of bullets across the floor in a straight path. He will continually switch between arms as he does this. Ground Blaze tends to eat armor away pretty quickly and the closer you get, the more the bullets connect and the more damage you will take. This especially become evident in Hard and Kick Ass. First off, walking with a lock-on or running with a lock-on will NOT get you past that move, remember he's telegraphing the bullets often but instead, dive to the sides until he stops. Bullet Blaze (Normal)Range: Medium-Far Damage: Low>>>Medium (Hard)Range: Same Damage: Low>>>Heavy (Kick Ass)Range: Same Damage: Low>>>Heavy/Critical There are two occasions when he will do this. 1) When his health reaches about the 1/2 way point. 2) When you stand far away to where his moves can't hit you or you constantly hide. In the case of number 2, he'll start advancing towards you and shooting rather rapidly. At first, the bullets won't connect but after a while, he'll start hitting you more often but he'll stop and do another move once he's at a suitable range. Don't worry about this one, number 1 is the problem. In the case of number 1, this is where you will most likely be damaged. His damage will reach the half way point and he'll retreat, backing towards the nearest pillar and continually shooting you. This eats both Armor and Vitality pretty quickly. Keep a reasonable distance between you two and dive to the sides or you have the option of leveling Bunji with the Raging Inferno to give you a breather. Either way works fine. Spinning Roundhouse Kick (Normal)Range: Close Damage: Heavy (Hard)Range: Same Damage: Heavy (Kick Ass) Range: Same Damage: Heavy Often times when you get caught in Bullet Stream, or you get too close for Bunji's, comfort, he'll greet you with a Spinning Kick that does heavy damage and knocks you down temporarily. IF you do get caught in Bullet Stream and fail to retreat from Bunji, he'll level you with a kick. Stay away from Bunji or retreat to a distance if you take the Grave Shot. Bullet Stream (Grave Shot) (Normal)Range: Close>>>Far Damage: Heavy (Hard)Range: Same Damage: Heavy/Critical (Kick Ass)Range: Same Damage: Instant Death This is what seperates Bunji from all the other Syndicate memebers. He is just like Grave and so therefore, he also has a Grave Shot. His setup is very similar to that of Lee and Bear's special move. He'll bend at the knees, motion his arms around, and charge at a high speed. Before he does charge, he will say "Yu Ka Sai" or "Here goes" as a heads up that he's doing his Grave Shot giving you more time to prepare and dodge/counter. If he does touch you at ANY body part he'll send you to the Grave; he'll kick you in the air, fire a stream of direct bullet shots, and taunt as you fall and explode. This is the heaviest single move you can find in the game and in Kick Ass, it's an instant death no matter how much Armor and Vitality you have. Not only is it powerful, but it is incredibly versitle. He can charge directly at you and curve his trajectory as well as charge backward, sideways, and diagonally in any direction he chooses. It's a mode of transporting himself in all directions not only as an attack, but a retreat method. Dodging the move can be simple though. Once you see his arms motion, keep a distance between you and Bunji. Once he charges watch his trajectory and QUICKLY dive accordingly. Why watch his trajectory? Because at times he will completly dive in the opposite direction and use it as a retreat method. But, if he does charge at you, keep an eye on him and dodge accordingly. Vitality Regain (Normal)Range: Any Damage: None (Hard)Range: Same Damage: None (Kick Ass)Range: Same Damage: None This is the difference maker in this battle. This is what will determine if it will be a long fight, or a short one. After 1/2 of his Vitality is gone, he will use Bullet Blaze and retreat to the closest pillar available to him. After he loses sight of you, he'll stop shooting and he'll cross his arms over his chest and chant. Blue sparks will surround him and he'll absorb them as his Vitality starts regenerating till it's about full. After he's done, he'll cartwheel away from the pillar and do Bullet Stream or he'll do Ground Blaze if he is in sight. The thing is, if he does not finish the chant, he will continue to evade you until he is near full and everytime when you do find him and fire, he'll do Bullet Blaze and keep evading you. I found that there is two ways to get him down. Method One: Equip Raging Inferno and as soon as he starts to retreat, get in as close as you can (You might have to sacrafice some Armor and Vitality) and use the Demolition Shot. If your close enough, the second round of bullets in that Grave fires in the air will do more damage. If you have a lot of the Demolition Shots, use another one until Bunji is at the point where you can use your Grave shot. Method Two: This allows Bunji to retreat to the pillar. As soon as you can't see him, you chase after him. He might start to regain Vitality but you must cut in and fire a couple shots to get him moving. After that, he'll circle the pillar until your gone, but you won't. Instead keep a lock-on and chase after him staying rather close to the pillar. Obviously you will be going around in circles trading bullet shots. You might hit him, he might hit you, but you will regain your Armor by that time and you'll keep Bunji from using Vitality Regain. If you fail to do either or even stop him from doing it, you'll be in for a long battle. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Normal/Hard At the start of the battle, he'll be on the opposite side, near the pillars and Grave will be positioned near the Chapel Door. At the start, don't waste time and lock-on to him; start shooting like mad and watch his first move. If he does Bullet Stream, your at a safe distance to dodge it easily. If you do dodge it, make sure to keep your lock-on or else it will be hard and keep firing. If he starts with Ground Blaze, you can dodge that accordingly and fire shots at him. He'll quickly stop doing that and do Bullet Stream, you know how to dodge that so do so and regain lock-on. Now that we're met up, remember how I told you about how much Bunji's recovery lags? This is crucial moment. He takes quite a bit in recovering after the Grave shot, which means you can take quite a bit of health from him as he recovers. After he does fully recover, he'll turn around and either do another Bullet Stream attempt, Ground Blaze, or Bullet Blaze. If he does Bullet Blaze, don't worry too much as he will quickly follow through with Ground Blaze. If he does a Bullet Stream attempt, dodge and follow through. He will follow the same random move patter until you get him down to about 1/2 his Vitality. He'll start to retreat and use Bullet Blaze. This is anothe crucial moment to finish Bunji off. They are as follows (Note: These are the same methods used to keep him from using Vitality Regain but, this is where you should try and finish him.) Method One: Equip Raging Inferno and as soon as he starts to retreat, get in as close as you can (You might have to sacrafice some Armor and Vitality) and use the Demolition Shot. If your close enough, the second round of bullets in that Grave fires in the air will do more damage. If you have a lot of the Demolition Shots, use another one until Bunji is at the point where you can use your Grave Shot. Method Two: This allows Bunji to retreat to the pillar. As soon as you can't see him, you chase after him. He might start to regain Vitality but you must cut in and fire a couple shots to get him moving. After that, he'll circle the pillar until your gone, but you won't. Instead keep a lock-on and chase after him staying rather close to the pillar. Obviously you will be going around in circles trading bullet shots. You might hit him, he might hit you, but you will regain your Armor by that time and you'll keep Bunji from using Vitality Regain. This might take a while but it's a sure fire way to keep Bunji from damaging you much. Once you got him down to the point where Grave can use his Grave shot, IMMMEDIATLY use it as Bunji might use the closest opportunity to recover Vitality and make the bout longer. If you fail to stop him and he returns to full vitality, it's pretty much the same as the beginning of the battle but if you like, you can push him to the Alter of the Chapel so you have more space and liberty for the battle. Just make sure you have sufficent Armor, Vitality, and Demolition Shots (If you plan to use Method One and for your Grave Shot). If you don't think you can possibly finish the bout without losing, then you can restart the Stage and start fresh with Bunji, but that would be a sacrafice of Demolition Shots, I believe. Try and get him the 1st or 2nd interval between his healing, if you don't feel confident in finishing, restart the Stage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kick Ass The same strategy applies above the only real difference is the amount of damage which triples Normal's damage ratio and the amount of times he does Bullet Stream. On several occasions he will do it multiple times which means he has a better chance of delivering a one hit kill and possibly frustrating the crap out of you. If your good, dodge it as much as you can. If you get overwhelmed, I suggest you use Raging Inferno and have the max Demolition Shots. If you have unlocked it, try and have Infinate Demolition Shots to help you if you get overwhelmed at Bunji's Grave Shot assult. Other than that. Same things apply as Normal/Hard. ----------------- 4) Credits/Thanks ----------------- Credit goes to the following: CJayC: For creating the GameFAQ's community. Ranmafan's FAQ: For providing on some stuff on Bunji. Thanks. My cousin: For introducing me to the game. My PS2 and Computer: For never failing me. =) ----------------------------- 5) Copyright and Legal Rights ----------------------------- This guide was solely written for GameFAQ's but if you want to use it on your site, CONTACT ME before doing anything. This FAQ/Guide cannot be copied or distrubuted without my permission and if I allow whoever to use it on their site you MAY NOT edit it at all. Copyright 2004 The Nightmare Alpha