The ZotGuide Series: Custom Sex Doll [PC] by the Zotmeister (Adam R. Wood, ztm@cox.net) Version 2 [July 7, 2002] Disclaimer: This document contains words and terms not commonly seen in pre-high-school vocabulary lists (including, but not limited to, 'truncate', 'somatotype', 'pseudonym', and 'masturbation'). It's rather unavoidable if I'm to present a seriously thorough guide to this game, as perhaps its title implies. If you don't know what any of those words mean, chances are your municipality would prefer you didn't have anything to do with this document, much less the game it details, at least until you're old enough to say 'masturbation' with a straight face. So if you read this, then ask your mommy what it means, I am not responsible for how she punishes you. In short, if you're under 18, please go read some other game guide. For some other game, if you could. Thanks, I appreciate it. Claimer: This document is very much "for real". It is a serious, earnest guide to exploring this game fully. Go ahead, read it, you'll see. Any comments regarding improvements and/or additions are welcomed at the email address above. I would also like to point out that I have strived to make this guide as tasteful as possible given the subject matter. GameFAQs posted the first version of this without a disclaimer, so I assume that any mature adults reading this should not be offended. If you are reading this, and you are offended, I think you will find that stopping reading will make you feel better; do not feel compelled to share the experience with me. In short, this is a legitimate game guide, not a joke, and I should not be subject to the rantings of those with no interest in the game. Thanks, I appreciate it. Update History: Version 2: - Added a Disclaimer and a Claimer (not that I needed to; I just felt like it, and it seemed like a good idea at the time). - Fixed the training phrase description (she says it to you, not you to her). - Fixed the progression description (250 is much too small - 300 is better). - Moved the "less strenuous" parenthetical expression to a more appropriate section and expounded on it a bit (with somewhat amusing results). - Added a Miscellaneous chapter, with a few new questions that didn't really fit elsewhere. - Explained the character-input error messages where appropriate. - Added a note about the persistence of the player and school names. - Vented a comment on the voice option in Edit Mode. - Various little alterations not worth individual mention. Index: I - General Information II - How to Install III - Basic Play Walkthrough IV - In-Depth Exploration A - Title Screen B - Starting the Game C - Edit Mode D - Basic Navigation and Menu Options E - Parameter Window F - The Countdown and Calendar Events G - Training H - Progression I - Battle Mode J - Endings K - Outside the Game V - Techniques VI - Mysteries VII - Miscellaneous VIII - About the Author Chapter I - General Information Q: So just what is this game? The title intrigues me... A: As well it perhaps should. Custom Sex Doll is a Japanese "bishoujo" (pretty girl) or "hentai" (pervert) game, where the player (which you name!) is hired as an... instructor for a girl's boarding school (which you name!). Instructor for what, you ask? Look at the title of the game and make an educated guess. The "Custom" part, however, is just that - you get to detail what your dolls look and sound like. (And yes, you name them!) According to advertising, there are 2,845,298,483 possible dolls to create! In training them, you determine their strengths and specialties. And when it's all said and done, it's time to test out your doll. No, not that way - that's what you've been doing training her. :) Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch, but it's time to test her out in BATTLE against other dolls! Use the points you've earned to determine her combat abilities and watch her smack other dolls silly. Then get your fellow perverts to email you their dolls and smack them silly! That's right, your dolls can fight the dolls of others. You'll play through Custom Sex Doll once to see what you can see, but then you'll play through it AGAIN and AGAIN to try to make the perfect doll... Q: Wow! Can I play? Huh? Can I? What are its system requirements? A: Supposedly any version of Microsoft Windows from 95 on is fine... IF it's JAPANESE Windows. HOWEVER, I can confirm that the game will run just fine on U.S. Windows XP - well, Professional, at least. (I don't have a Home edition of XP to experiment with.) The only thing keeping it from running on U.S. Windows is a directory the game creates that has Japanese characters in its name; XP has a very simple way around this (details in Chapter 2). You will need some way to type Japanese characters; go to Microsoft Windows Update and download the Japanese Input Method Editor if you don't already have it (or some other method). If you're all set on the OS, chances are you'll meet the rest: MMX-capable Pentium processor, 200MHz or better 640x480 high-color display 64 megabytes memory 4x-speed CD-Rom drive Q: Is knowledge of Japanese necessary to play? A: Absolutely not. Of course, you will miss out on a lot of the dialogue, which I'm sure would be entertaining and all, but the graphics (and the intonation of the characters' voices) pretty much say it all. You will need to know what certain buttons do, but that's what this FAQ is for! I've done all the translating you'll need to play. (If you can translate Japanese and would like to add to this FAQ, email me! I'd especially like help - and lots of it - for Princess Knights...) Q: So where can I buy this game? A: I bought my copy from shop.himeya.com; you'll find it by clicking on Adult on the left-hand-side navigation bar, then ENTER, then Windows JP:etc. This page is alphabetized by company for some reason; look under Light. Q: Light, huh? Never heard of them. They on the web? A: But of course. Their site is http://www.light.gr.jp/index2.htm; lots of cool stuff there. Use Altavista's Babelfish to snoop around in English. Chapter II - How to Install Q: I've got the game RIGHT HERE in my grubby little hands. How do I get it up and running? A: If you have Japanese Windows, skip this paragraph. If you have any other language version of Windows older than XP, I can't help you. (I warned you in Chapter 1.) If you have XP Professional, here's what to do: Open the Control Panel titled "Regional and Language Options", and click on the Advanced tab. The very top option - "Language for non-Unicode programs" - is the one you want. Select Japanese from the menu list. You may or may not need to provide your XP install CD for this. You will need to restart your computer no matter what. When it comes back up, for all intents and purposes you have Japanese Windows. Neat, huh? Most things will run just fine like this; you'll notice that backslashes are now yen symbols, but that's about it. (You are forcing the system to use a Japanese-capable font for system purposes. You may notice its influence in other areas.) Custom Sex Doll can be installed and run just fine in this mode. To switch back to your native language (should you ever find a need to), just go back to that same option in that same Control Panel and follow the same process, just selecting the language you had before. Switch around as much as you like - won't hurt a thing. NOW then: You have two CDs before you, clearly labelled in English as "Install Disk" and "Game Disk". Put the Install Disk in your drive (if you have Autoplay disabled, run csd_launcher.exe). You'll get a window with the box art and five buttons. From the top down, these buttons are: Play the game - can't do that yet. Install the game - that's what you want. Uninstall the game - if you ever choose this, the unInstallShield will not remove any of the dolls, unlocked pictures, saved games, fight records, or backup directories you may have created (see Chapter 5). It'll also leave a flag.dat file for you. Save all those files and just copy them back in after a reinstall (or install the game to wherever you stashed them), and you won't have lost a thing. Install DirectX7.0a - install this first if you need it. To find out if you need it, visit Microsoft Windows Update and see if it lets you install the latest version of DirectX from there. If it does, do so (I suggest from there, not from the Custom Sex Doll CD). If not, you're set. You should never need to click this button. Exit - this closes the installer window. When you click on Install, the good-ol' InstallShield comes up. In the first dialogue box, click on the (N) button at the bottom (this is the same "please close other applications" message you ignore in English). Then click on (N) again - that window tells you where to get Japanese help, which you can't read if you're reading this chapter. Then comes the installation directory. You can click on (N) here, but if you want to install the game into a different directory than C:\Program Files\light\KaSuToMuSEXDOLL (and who doesn't?), click on (R) and a familiar directory browser will appear - you'll know what to do there. Click on (N) afterwards to confirm. Then comes the big decision: What install size do you want? I recommend the full 1GB installation - YOU WON'T NEED EITHER CD IN THE DRIVE TO PLAY. I assume the 400MB installation needs the Game Disk to be in the drive to play. The full install installs EVERYTHING, music and all - you neither gain nor lose anything from whether or not the CD is in the drive. Click (N) and off it goes, installing. It will stop at 55% and present a dialogue box; eject the Install Disk, insert the Game Disk, click OK, and it will finish. (If you have Autoplay active, it'll also reopen the launcher. Just click Exit.) The final window will have one active button on it (it says Exit); click it. Now guess what - you're not done yet. This game has a patch. Go to http://www.dark.co.jp/light/faq/faq_sexdoll01.htm and click on the top link to download the 1.92MB DOLLUP.exe patch. After downloading it, run it. Oh, look, a Next button, in English no less. Click it and it will create some temporary files, then open InstallShield again. Click (N) and it'll patch the game for you automatically. Then click Exit. NOW you're done. Phew! Chapter III - Basic Play Walkthrough Q: So how do I get started here? No useless crap, now... I hate FAQ writers that get all in-depth and crap when all I want is to look at a nak- A: This is the chapter for you. (The chapter for everyone else - such as humans - is the next one.) Okay, the absolute bare essentials to start navigating the game (see the following chapter for anything actually useful, like customizing anything): When you run the game, you'll get a menu in English; select Start. You'll be presented with a window with three white spots. Turn your Japanese IME on and type a full-size character into each (I'll tell you what these are in the next chapter). Then click Ok. You'll see an office, a menu bar in the bottom left corner (in English), and a text box at the bottom. Click on that a lot to advance the dialog (or click on Skip to toggle high-speed mode, but that way you miss all the character's voices). Eventually, you'll get a window with two buttons labelled Database Mode and Edit Mode. Click on Edit Mode and you'll see a potential doll. Type a full-size character into each of the two boxes under Name, then click Next and, on the following screen, Ok. Click away on the text box and you will introduce yourself to the doll. :) Forgive the mosaic - Japanese have laws about that sort of thing. Q: I said no useless crap! A: Calm down! Sorry. Ahem. Ultimately, you'll see a box labelled PARAMATER in the top right, a box in the top left with the number 25 in it, and two buttons on the center left. Click the top one. Always click the top one when the screen looks like this. You and the doll go to the basement, and you'll get five buttons on the left. Click one, any one. Then click the top button of the two it gives you. You will teach the doll something as you click away on the text box. When you get back to the five buttons, the bottom one will exit the basement and end the day of training. The other four are still available. They all do something different, so experiment. Watch the very top number in the PARAMATER window. Every time you train her, that number goes down. If it hits zero, the day ends and your doll weakens. When you do end the day, the next day will have a 24 in the top corner. It's a countdown - you have 15 days in the basement to train with. Q: Why do I get only 15 days when the counter says 24? A: That's "useless crap" for the next chapter. For now, you'll see some days aren't spent in the basement. Just click on the top button whenever you're in the hall with the doll like I told you and you'll cruise on through. When the doll gets good enough at something (it takes several days), she can do more things of the same type, which will appear as new buttons. Click them and see what they do. Train her in what you like. Once that counter hits 1, the training is over - it's battle time. After the battle, watch the ending you've earned. Chapter IV - In-Depth Exploration Q: I'm a real human being with emotions and sensitivity and I'd like to appreciate this game to its fullest. Tell me everything I can do! A: Here's everything, item by item, screen by screen: A - Title Screen First off, for starters, this game is fully Alt-Enter, Alt-Tab capable. So, anytime you want, hold in Alt and press Enter to play full-screen. Do that again to go back to a window. And feel free to switch applications at will. Custom Sex Doll is very friendly that way. [And in many others. :)] Now then, the title screen presents the following menu, in English: Start - begins a new game, prompting for your name and school. Continue - brings up a menu where you can load a saved game. Special Mode - only useful after a doll is completed. It brings up a list of all the dolls that have been trained. Click on one, then Ok, then Yes to take the doll to the basement. The countdown will read day zero. Do whatever you like. This is essentially a free-play mode; although the doll's parameters will change, they'll reset to whatever they were before when you leave. Battle Mode - only useful after two dolls are completed. This has it's own subchapter in this FAQ. Album Mode - this gives you two buttons (right-click to go back to the title menu): CG Mode - this lets you reappreciate special pictures you've seen. Although there are 20 spaces, I've only found 4 pictures. If you find more... Music Mode - this lets you play the game's music tracks. Config - this opens a dialogue box with the following options: BGM - the slider changes the volume of the background music; the On and Off buttons toggle it completely on or off. Voices - same controls as BGM, but for the voice acting in the game. Sound Effects - same controls as BGM, but for sound effects. Message Speed - controls the speed the text boxes churn out text. Window Transparency - controls how solid the text box appears. End - brings up a window confirming your wanting to exit the game. In the above, by "a doll is completed" I mean the game has been beaten on Edit Mode (creating a new doll you just trained) or a doll file has been downloaded and installed (giving your game access to someone else's completed doll). But don't play Special Mode with someone else's doll. That's just disgusting. :P B - Starting the Game Upon clicking Start on the main menu, you're given a screen with three white areas. Clicking on these lets you type text into these. Here's what they are for: Your last name Your first name Name of the school You CAN use Roman-alphabet characters for these (you know, the characters this FAQ is written in), or Japanese hiragana, katakana, or Kanji. You must use full-size characters; half-angle characters will make the game bitch - so even if you plan on using English here, you still need that Japanese IME. [Figuring out how to use it is up to you - one FAQ at a time for me, thanks - but if someone gives me simple, concise directions, I'll put them here.] "Your last name" and "Your first name" are each limited to six characters; "Name of the school" is limited to eight. If you type in something longer than those limits, the game will truncate it. You must type at least one character into each field; otherwise, you get an error message when you click on Ok, telling you to fill in an empty field (which will be selected for you). Note that this screen is the only place you can change this. Note also that the school and player name you choose here isn't saved with any dolls; if you train one doll under one alias for yourself and a second doll under another, and then enter Special mode, it will simply use your most recent alias no matter what doll you're using. In this sense, your name - and the name of the school - persists until you After the opening, you'll get two big buttons: Database Mode - this lets you select a completed doll and retrain her from scratch. Note that this eliminates the completed doll you had before; the results of your retraining will overwrite her old stats. Back up your orinigal doll if you don't want to lose her (Chapter 5). Database Mode is for trying to perfect a doll or for bypassing the whole Edit affair if you want to make a new doll identical in appearance to one you already have. This doesn't let you change anything about the doll that was decided in Edit Mode. Edit Mode - make yourself a brand new doll to play with, thusly: C - Edit Mode Here's where the REAL fun starts. On the first screen: Name - the top box is for the doll's LAST name, the bottom her FIRST name. (The Japanese put family names before personal ones.) You'll need to type in at least one character in each box to progress, but you may as well pick a decent name while you're here (see Chapter 5 for an idea). As before, you'll need to use full-size characters. Although the fields hold five characters each, the last name is limited to 3 characters and the first name to four. If you get an error message when you click on Ok, and that error message contains the digit 3 or 4 in it, this is the reason; you'll need to shorten the name you typed in. Somatotype (look it up, I did) - the option right below Name determines the body shape of your doll. There are three types - pick one and the doll on the screen will change to match it. From top to bottom, they are the same choices Arnold was given in Total Recall: slim, athletic, voluptuous. :) Hairstyle - under Somatotype, there are four hairstyle options. Picking one will display it on the doll. The options are short, shoulder-length, long enough for her to sit on the ends, and one that's dependent on the somatotype: Slim gets dumb-looking bobs, Athletic gets a ponytail, Voluptuous gets long wavy hair. Hair Color - the top option on the right will present sliders for altering the doll's hair color. From top to bottom: Hue: the actual tint. Chroma: how vivid that tint appears. Brightness: how light or dark the color is. Contrast: how the color is focused. Fiddling with the sliders is the best way to see how they work. You may want to write down the numbers for color combinations you like when you find them. Eye Color - under Hair Color, similar controls for the eyes. Lastly, the radio buttons determine whether or not she wears glasses. Click Next on this screen, and you'll see the doll in her training gear, and a new set of options: Demeanor - top left, three attitude adjustments: her face will say it all. Voice style - under Demeanor, three options dependent upon Demeanor. I'll let the reader play around with this and find what they like. Unfortunately, there is no way to test what the voices sound like on this screen; you'll need to start the game in order to hear them. This is why I suggest writing down the colors you like, so you can pick them again if you want to restart the game should you dislike the voice! Class Standing - The Japanese use a 3-6 system in their schools. If you know what that means, you'll probably know what you want to set these to. If you don't, forget about them - they don't affect a thing. Birthday - the bottom pair of options on the left, the upper is the doll's month of birth (1 is January, 2 is February, etc.); the bottom is the date. This also has no effect on the doll, but if you want to share her birthday with yours, or have her birthday be a holiday, here you are. Outfit Color - sliders just like hair and eyes. The box on the right is for typing in a description of your doll, should you be so inclined (yes, you need to use full-angle characters again). Click Ok, then Yes to confirm, and off you go. D - Basic Navigation and Menu Options Here's how to operate the main screen: Text Box - shows dialogue and narration. All voices other than yours have accompanying voice acting (although when the text has them speaking your name, the voice actor doesn't follow suit). Clicking on the text box - or anywhere else on the screen that isn't a button, for that matter - will advance the dialogue. Arrows - scroll through previous messages. Skip - when this button is in, the game enters turbo mode, blazing through all dialogue at lightning pace with no clicking on your part. With this toggled on, you can completely train a doll from scratch in 15 minutes. Save - brings up a list of ten slots; click one to save your game in it. Load - click on a slot with a saved game in it to restore that game. Menu - brings up a list of the following options, in order from top down: Save - same as the Save button. Load - same as the Load button. Config - same as Config on the title menu. Toggle Window Mode - same as Alt-Enter. Back to Title - returns you to the title menu (if confirmed). Exit - quits the game program entirely (if confirmed). Note that neither method of saving nor loading works if there's a button bar showing in the left-center of the screen. If you play with Skip in a lot, you'll need to turn it off to save, otherwise the game will fly from one button bar to the next. Thankfully, you can turn off Skip when the bar is showing (although you'll have to pick something from that bar before saving). E - Parameter Window The window titled PARAMATER [sic] in the upper-right corner of the screen most of the time details the statistics of your doll. From the top down: Physical Strength - the energy your doll has with which to perform. Every time she is taught something, this decreases. This ranges from 100 - fully rested - to 0, which will make her collapse, end the day of training, and penalize all her other stats. This is usually a bad thing. This stat is your greatest opponent to making the perfect doll; how efficiently you budget her strength is the deciding factor in making a good doll. Mental Strength - This also ranges from 100 - ready for anything - to 0, which will also end the day of training but not penalize her in any other way. Usually physical strength will drain away much faster than mental, and that's much more important, so this stat can essentially be ignored. Nonetheless, it drops with every lesson. Reason - I believe this is her willingness to learn. It also tends to decrease with every lesson, and probably has some subtle effect on how well she learns. This tops out at 100, but I've never seen it drop even close to 0. This is one of those subtle things the game doesn't explain. If anyone has the skinny on this, let me know. Pleasure - the doll's pleasure rating; how knowledgeable and effective she is at responding to pleasuring stimuli. This starts at 2 after the intro and goes up whenever you give her pleasure training. It goes down only if she faints (physical strength hits zero). Although the red bar maxes out at 100, the stat itself has no upper limit. Service - the doll's service rating; how knowledgeable and effective she is at CAUSING pleasuring stimuli. :) This starts at zero, goes up with service training, goes down with fainting, and has no upper limit. Disgrace - the doll's disgrace rating; how composed and effective she is at submitting herself to embarrassment. This starts at zero, goes up with disgrace training, goes down with fainting, and has no upper limit. Abuse - the doll's abuse rating; how composed and effective she is at submitting herself to physical pain. This starts at zero, goes up with abuse training, goes down with fainting, and has no upper limit. Anal - the doll's anal rating. That pretty much speaks for itself. Zero to start, goes up with anal training (ick), goes down with fainting, and for those so inclined (which I'm not, thank you), limitless. DOLL - this the doll's overall effectiveness. This creeps up with any manner of training and goes down with fainting. It has no upper limit. Loyalty - how loyal the doll is to you. This ranges from 0 to 100. I'm unsure of its effect and what makes it change. Reliance - how dependent the doll is on you. This ranges from 0 to 100. I have no clues on this, either. F - The Countdown and Calendar Events The gray window in the top-left corner of most screens shows the doll's name at the top and a number in the bottom (I'm not sure what the center line is). That number is all-important to you: it's the countdown. The intro takes place on "day 1", which is a Monday. After the intro, the red 2 that flies in and out of the screen denotes that it is now day 2, a Tuesday, and the countdown shows 25. The calendar date and the countdown number will always sum to 27. Since the countdown number is easiest to check, here is a small calendar in reverse: Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Every Monday (including the start of the game) you'll report to Aya. She's the clerk, and your only contact with the school staff. You don't actually need to do anything special here - it's just dialogue, I assume a status report. There is no doll training on weekends. Fridays are special - you can't take the doll to the basement. Instead, you can give her what I call "special training" or you can take her for a stroll in a nearby park (either that or the school grounds are incredibly beautiful). The special training varies by week: - 22: Aya will give a lesson to your doll. You can watch. 8) - 15: You will give a lesson to the doll WITHOUT going to the basement. - 8: You will role-play with the doll. Each of these is influenced by the somatotype of your doll; for example, the type of lesson on 15 varies. Regardless of what day it is or the somatotype of your doll, the result is the same - a small increase to all stats. If you opt for the walks in the park, you'll be given dialogue choices. Just click on whichever one suits your fancy. The first time you take her, you get these three options: - This is inevitability. - I think you're important. - You're my plaything. The second time: - Rest is a necessary part of training. - These trips to the park are part of your duty. - Don't you find this relaxing? If you take her to the park three times, you'll get a little heartwarming scene and a silhouette kiss. At any rate, taking her to the park seems to increase her loyalty and reliance. Countdown 2 (not 1) is the last day of training; the final Friday is the Sex Blood Festival, at which point you must lead your doll into combat... The countdown only reads zero in Special Mode (see subchapter A). G - Training The button bars that appear on the left-center are how you choose what your doll will do - or have done to her - at any given moment. When in the hall with your doll (as opposed to in the basement), you typically have two buttons to press: Train - the top button takes the doll to the basement; Don't Train - the bottom button gives the doll the day off. She will recover 30 physical strength each day whether she trains or not, so this is only useful if you want to give her a buffer to work with (perhaps to set her up so she ends a Thursday with 1 left - see Chapter 5). On Fridays, a third button appears in-between these two: Rest - the middle button will take the doll for a walk in the park. The top button will engage special training on Fridays. Needless to say, you'll usually use the top button. :) Down in the basement, you'll get another button bar. I don't need to tell you what these buttons mean, because I already have - compare them to the parameter window and you'll see they match up. These buttons are for giving the doll lessons in those five categories. At first, these are the only buttons that appear, but two others can show up: (the only one-character button) - this produces a text box into which you can type whatever phrase you like. Once you do, every time you bring the doll down to the dungeon, she will say that phrase to your character before the training starts. It doesn't seem to have any game effect; I guess that it's here solely for fetish purposes, so if any words turn you on, let her say them to you. You can change this phrase by hitting the button again. As always, only full-size characters can be used. Oh, and in the interest of completeness, no, you won't get a voice-over of your phrase, only text. But you probably figured that. Exit - this appears after performing one lesson. It ends the day of training. The doll will recover 30 physical strength overnight. When clicking on a button for one of the five types of training, another bar immediately appears, with 2 to 5 buttons. The bottom button is always Back, to return you to the first button bar; the rest are different things you can give your doll a lesson in. The higher a doll's stat in the category you chose, the more options you will have. These are in four tiers, ranging from easiest (least strenuous, least educational) at tier 1 to hardest (most exhausting, most rewarding) at tier 4: Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4 Pleasure Breast rub Vibrator Sex Hard sex Service Hand job Fellatio Pie slipping the "Liquid Service" Disgrace Masturbation Urination Enema Pet role-play Abuse Spanking Whipping Hot wax Chain torture Anal Fingering Vibrator Anal sex Hard anal sex If you don't know what any of those mean, well, just play the game and watch. You cannot duplicate a lesson in a day - it will disappear from the menu. When an entire category is cleared out, its button cannot be selected for the remainder of that day. Complete all available lessons and the day ends automatically. Every lesson you give reduces physical and mental strength, increases the stat for the appropriate category, and may affect reason, loyalty, and/or reliance. It also increases the overall doll rating. Note that the amount of physical and mental strength lost with each lesson decreases with future repetition of the lesson on later days, but only to a point, and the increases to the category stat and doll rating remain relatively constant. For example, if you have your doll masturbate more than once, she will find the second time less strenuous than the first and lose less physical and mental strength, but her stat gains will be roughly the same they were the first time. The third time will compare to the second in the same way, only with smaller decreases. Eventually the strength losses will peter out, and masturbation will pretty much become a constant. Wow - taken out of context, that last sentence is a riot. H - Progression Physical strength recovers 30 between days; it recovers fully over weekends. The challenge is to get as much training done as possible without having your doll faint. As the doll's abilities increase, there are two levels of progression it can go through: - The first time the doll "levels up", you'll stay late in the basement, giving her a breast rub that apparently she REQUESTED. Beyond this, she will seem to take pleasure in performing the tier 1 lessons and be more tolerant of the higher tiers. In addition, the intro-phrase button will appear. This seems to happen once the overall doll rating reaches about 30. - The second time the doll levels up will be right around the time the fourth-tier options appear... and the first- and second- tier options CAN NO LONGER BE SELECTED. At this time, any stat for which you haven't reached third-tier can no longer be selected. This seems to happen once the total of the doll's pleasure, service, disgrace, abuse, and anal ratings is about 300. I - Battle Mode Once the countdown hits one - or you've entered Battle Mode from the title menu - it's time for a showdown. Either way you got there, here's what you will see: Doll List - in the top left is the list of dolls you have to select from. In the standard game, this list has just one doll, the one you just trained. In Battle Mode, it's all the dolls you've trained or installed. Pick your champion. Battle Style - thankfully written in English, you'll see: 1st Style, 2nd Style - the lessons she will base her attacks off of. Defence (British spelling, not a typo) - her damage resistance. Agility - not sure; probably attack priority and success rate. Speed - not sure; probably movement priority and distance. Edit - click here to change all the Battle Style stuff for the doll. 1st Style - this is the type of attack the doll will attempt to use by default. 2nd Style - this is the type of attack the doll will use if unable to use its 1st Style attack when an opportunity to attack otherwise arises. Distance - this is the most effective range (distance from the opponent) of the character in battle - this is determined by your Style selections. Bonas [sic] Point - if you haven't messed with anything yet, this is ten less than the doll's overall doll rating. These points are allocated as detailed below. Agility - ranges from 0 to 9. Speed - ranges from 0 to 9. Defence - ranges from 0 to 10. All the stuff on the right is just informational in nature. Click on Edit to go to the Battle Style Edit screen - this is where you prep the doll for battle. Here's how this works: - First off, the doll got a one-point bonus in Agility or Speed depending on its somatotype. - Secondly, the doll got a three-point bonus in Agility or Speed depending on how you trained it. (Supposedly there is a way to train it to get a Defence bonus, but I haven't figured this out. If you have, this is what I'm most interested in finding out. Reportedly it's FIVE Defence!) - Finally, the overall doll rating is converted to bonus points. These points are to be allocated thusly: - The two styles of attack each have a cost. The higher the cost, the more effective (in general) the attack is. This cost is levied against your bonus point total. - It takes 4 points to raise Agility or Speed by 1. - It takes 6 points to raise Defence by 1. Bonus points do nothing for you if not allocated to something else, so spend them all (or as close as you can get). Click Ok to save the changes, then Next when you're ready. If this is Battle Mode, a second screen will come up for selecting and prepping the opponent. If this is the standard game, the computer will select one of four dolls for yours to fight against. They vary in abilities and techniques, but all are generally weak. Then again, based on your choice of battle options, you can still lose to the computer doll. Then again AGAIN, I've trained a null doll (I gave her EVERY day off) and still won, so you never know... Once the battle actually starts, everything is out of your hands. But here's what to look for when you watch: - The red bars are hitpoint meters. All dolls have exactly 100 hitpoints to start. When a doll is damaged, she loses hitpoints equal to however much the attack she was hit with does minus an amount based on her Defence. When a doll reaches 0 hitpoints, she loses the battle. - The big number in the middle in white to the left of the ".00" is the distance between the characters. This starts at 4. Between attacks, the dolls try to reach their optimum attack range (Distance from the Battle Style Edit screen). - When you see a lesson graphic on the screen, that's the displayed doll launching an attack. Check the text box once that graphic disappears; if it succeeded in doing damage, the number of hitpoints it dealt (after Defence is factored in) will be shown. If you don't see the number, it missed. The battle rages on until one doll runs out of hitpoints. The winning doll will be displayed alone, followed by a graphic of her most effective attack that battle. In Battle Mode, this is followed by a dialogue box; clicking Yes will save a text file (in Japanese) detailing the bout to the Japanese- named subdirectory under the game directory. In the standard game, this is followed by the ending. J - Endings I've found four endings so far, which I list here from worst to best: - Your doll loses the Sex Blood Festival battle: This is the Game Over of Custom Sex Doll. Aya taunts you with her body. You will see End flash in the corner of the screen before the credits roll. When you get this ending, the picture of Aya taunting you is saved to CG Mode. - Your doll is terrible but still manages to win: Aya shows you a picture of the doll's chest with a price stamped on it. Nothing gets saved to CG Mode. This ending is boring and weak and pointless. Let the credits roll and try again. - Your doll is average and successful: Aya rewards and inspires you with her body. This generates two pictures saved to CG Mode. Good job, but you can do even better. After the credits, go for a kick-ass doll. - You got a kick-ass doll, and it did: You see the doll in the hall wearing a wedding dress with a collar and holding a rose bouquet. Not sure just what happens, but the last line she says before the credits roll is plain and simple: "I'm a Sex Doll!" A photo is saved to CG Mode after this ending. No matter what ending you get - even the You Lose ending - after the credits roll, you'll be back in Aya's office, where (with a different dialogue than the opening intro) you'll go back to the Database Mode/Edit Mode buttons, where you can train a new doll. Note that any doll you trained this run of the program won't appear in Database Mode until you exit the program and run it again, so if you want to retrain the doll you just trained, save after the credits roll, exit the program, back up the doll if desired (see Chapter 5), run the game, load your save, and click on Database Mode. She'll be there. K - Outside the Game Here's all the stuff I can give details about regarding the game's files - that is, all the stuff you can play with when the game ISN'T running: .csd files - these are the dolls themselves. You'll find them in two folders, the one named just "csd" and the one whose name starts with "csd" and is followed by Japanese characters. The former is the contents of Database Mode, containing all the dolls trained on your computer. The latter is the Battle Mode roster, containing all the completed dolls you have regardless of who trained them. To send your doll to someone else, copy the .csd file that bears her name from this csd-plus folder and put it on a floppy, or attach it to an email, or whatever. To install a doll someone sends you, just copy it to the csd-plus folder. The Light company website has all the top finishers of two online contests available for download if you think your doll is good enough to take them on! Pretty pictures - there are a crapload of images under the "doll" subdirectory, and they are all in .png format. Most are just menu graphics and the like, but the cg\thumbnl directory has miniatures of the four ending pics I mentioned earlier as well as several others. In the image\_bg folder, you'll find full-size images of those along with the credits graphics and some other things (such as large YOU WIN! and YOU LOSE! banners); in image\_mask, you'll find the maps for the game's transitional effects. HTML Manual - The manual folder holds webpages - in Japanese - with game directions. Of particular note is battle.htm, which has a chart detailing the damage, range, and hit percentage of each of the different attacks. Saves - The save folder has all the saved games and the system data (options and CG Mode) in it should you ever want to houseclean. Battle logs - The directory whose name is entirely composed of Japanese characters is where the text files fom Battle Mode detailing each bout are saved when you choose Yes to create them. Chapter V - Techniques Q: Got any tricks up your sleeve? A: A few... The Perfect Doll - No, I don't know the algorithm for making the perfect doll. I do know a few things, though: - First, the obvious - your doll's physical strength should be as close to zero as possible without actually hitting it at the end of every Thursday (countdown 23, 16, 9, and 2). Friday special training doesn't affect this, and it jumps right back to 100 for Monday. - All five types of training are equally effective. Whatever you do, it doesn't matter what combination of training types you employ - EXCEPT when it comes to Pleasure... because you get a 2-point head start in it! That little extra is enough for a doll to access the third tier in Pleasure a day ahead of any other category, so take advantage of that and make Pleasure one of your training foci. The others are interchangeable - use what you like. - Pass the level-up "thresholds" as quickly as you can. Every day you can spend at a higher level is a higher doll rating. Do this by concentrating on certain categories to unlock their higher tiers. - It is not necessary to train in all five categories. In fact, all the top dolls in the tournaments have only three types of training employed. The other two are completely ignored. The highest doll rating there is 148(!), so it's hard to argue with that tactic. - Special training seems superior to walks in the park, but I can't help but think that there's a trick to this... - If you want to maximize doll rating for battle and don't care about what her other stats are, go ahead and let her faint once the fourth-tier options are available to her. You gain more doll rating than you lose with the fourth-tier lessons. - If you want to maximize a particular stat, remember that levelling her up is more important in general. Once you get to the fourth-tier, THEN you can run one stat up as high as you'd like. My record in my favorite category - service - is a rating of 302. (I haven't been able to duplicate this, but if I were to have concentrated on pleasure instead, that could have been even higher.) If you can beat that and detail how you did it, I'm all ears. (Note that you won't get a perfect battle doll out of this, since you can't let her faint as above.) Battle tactics - I'm not even going to pretend I know the first thing about what the optimal set of options for combat is. I suggest examining the results of the two official tournies on the company website. The best way to get a good battle doll is to perfect your training. Feel free to send me your killer battle tactics anyway should you find a way to "break the system". Exiting in a hurry - Alt-F4 works almost anywhere; you can also select Close from the left-corner window menu in window mode. If playing full-screen, moving the mouse pointer to the top of the screen produces a File Menu with one option, Exit. No matter how you try to exit, the game will give you a confirmation dialogue. Backups - You can create a subdirectory in the game directory without any problems. I suggest making a directory called "backup" where you can copy all of your completed dolls. If a run through Database Mode turns sour, you can then get your old doll back. Character Names - In Japan, all names mean something (whether it's intentional or not). When written formally in Japanese, all names are composed of kanji, characters that mean full words all by themselves. Case in point: Use Babelfish to visit a Japanese website about the Variable Geo games. See the phrase "superior fragrance" everywhere? That's just the protagonist's name: Yuka Takeuchi. (Babelfish doesn't know NOT to translate it - they look like any other words to someone not looking for that name in particular.) So, why not name your doll something appropriate? Use a kanji guide to come up with a clever inside joke for your doll's name. My 302-service doll is named Naemi Ooki; I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure it out. Chapter VI - Mysteries Q: I'm a kind and caring soul who likes to help flush out FAQs. Do YOU have any questions you'd like answered? A: Yes, and how. - What IS the algorithm for maximizing overall doll rating? - What is the algorithm for maximizing one particular stat on a doll? - What precisely is the effect of Loyalty and Reliance? - Are there any other endings? - Are there any other pictures for unlocking in CG Mode? If so, how? - What are the huge YOU WIN! and YOU LOSE! banners used for, if anything? - What is the method for training a doll to get a defense bonus, and is it really +5 (or just +2 as I'd suspect, bringing it in line with the others)? - Is there something special to be had from walks in the park? Does your choice of dialogue have anything to do with it? - What is the translation of ANY of the game's dialogue? - And the big one: in the HTML manual there is a picture of a battle attack showing Aya! Is this a mock-up or a pre-production picture, or is there a way to learn an Aya attack? For that matter, is there any way to do anything else with Aya? Anyone who can answer any of these and can prove it in a way I can duplicate myself will have their info added to the FAQ and their name (or pseudonym) placed by it for all to see. Chapter VII - Miscellaneous Q: When I checked the Light website, I saw a doll with cat ears! Howcumzit? A: That's not something you can do in Edit Mode, nor is it something you can see as you play through the game. The Battle Mode alone permits the display of special character graphics for the dolls, both the full-screen images before and after the fight and the tiny fighters during it (the attack graphics are unchanged). Essentially, you can draw your own graphics for Battle Mode and the game will display them. As for how to actually do this yourself, I admit it is something that should be described in this guide, but for now I am deferring it because I have no motivation to do this myself and as of yet no one has asked me to. If you prowl the Light website with Babelfish, the instructions are there somewhere. If you create your own Battle Mode custom images and can give me complete and detailed instructions on how to use such custom images, I'll add that information and your name (or the pseudonym of your choice) to this guide. Q: Can you give me more information on these kinds of games in general? A: Yes, but others could do that better than I could. Suffice it to say that the vast majority of hentai games are of the so-called "adventure" variety, the kind LucasArts is famous for. Most have no inventory, instead relying on "what order is right", "find the plot", and "exhaust all options" mechanisms to advance the game. If you ask me, they are NOT games at all; such programs have walkthroughs, not guides like this one. That's what makes Custom Sex Doll refreshing among its ilk - it actually IS a game. Q: So are all these non-game hentai... uh... programs bad? A: As long as you aren't expecting a game, some of them are very good (semi-) interactive fiction. Desire and Runaway City have excellent plots and currently rank as my favorites; Season of the Sakura is very tasteful and pleasant. Any others I could mention are clearly inferior to those three (although Divi-Dead is very good if you're in a horror mood). All of these are available in English. Oh, and stay away from Water Closet; it may sound like a laugh riot, but there's nothing amusing in it. Q: Are there any hentai programs out there other than Custom Sex Doll that qualify as "games"? or Q: I've played Custom Sex Doll to death, or at least need to play something else for awhile - anything else out there like this? A: Glad you asked - why yes, there are a few, and some are even good! The closest to Custom Sex Doll I've experienced is The Maid's Story, which is available in English. You set a training schedule for three maids during the day and give them lessons on you-know-what at night; it's not a bad game. I also have to mention two others that are even more of a game than these two are: Kotobuki and Princess Knights. Kotobuki is an action game that reminds me of Bomberman, although it plays nothing like it; it involves setting up billiard balls and carving pockets to defeat enemies and rack up high scores. It's a very clever game. Princess Knights is a beautiful combination of a dating sim and a tactical RPG - think Thousand Arms meets Final Fantasy Tactics. The only problem with Princess Knights is that it's only Japanese, but right now that problem alone is a killer for me. I'm working on it, but it's going PAINFULLY slow. I also discovered recently that Custom Sex Doll has a direct competitor, in the form of a (new?) game called Make Love!: Slave Love. I will acquire this game as soon as possible and let you know all about it. Given enough time and/or money, I would be happy to create a game guide for every game I just listed in this answer. And for Mordor. That game DESPARATELY needs a good guide. :) Chapter VIII - About the Author Q: Who are you? A: Name's at the top - Adam R. Wood. Video game historian and expert player. I'm talking Twin Galaxies material - as of this writing I hold the officially recognized world record for Sega's 1986 Quartet. I'm a fiction author and game designer in my spare time. If you have use of such a person in your employment, it's probably better than what I'm doing now - email me. Q: Is that your real name? If so, aren't you worried about being labelled as a pervert writing a FAQ for an adult game? A: First question: Yes. Second question: Not in the slightest. If you want to see perverted, rent a porno or watch The Jerry Springer Show. I'm a 26-year-old virgin who doesn't drink alcohol or smoke ANYTHING and has never been in prison or court - people don't come much cleaner than me. The guide is nearly two months old at this point and I've had no hate mail yet. (I HAVE had two requests from site administrators to post my guide!) Q: Is this your first FAQ? A: No - I wrote the Clayfighter and Double Dragon V guides years ago. I did label this part of "The ZotGuide Series", after all. Q: That's an awful long time between FAQs. So why this one? A: People were curious about the game. GameFAQs had a message board but no FAQ, so here it is. Besides, I've been somewhat active as a kind and caring soul who likes to help flush out other's FAQs. :) This is unfortunately even more thankless than writing them yourself. To this day I remain misquoted in one popular Final Fantasy "2" FAQ (every other FAQ you read will get it right - you attack the Defender first, THEN THE CPU, and save the Attacker for last), and I was downright insulted by a Super Smash Bros. FAQ writer after giving him enough information to rewrite half his FAQ. He used a small fraction of it and threw my name in the thanks section to add injury to insult. I'd write my own guide for the game if it weren't for GameFAQs saying they don't want any more FAQs for it. But I digress. Q: What is your current contact information? A: Email anything regarding this guide to ztm@cox.net. (As I no longer own either of the games I've previously written FAQs for, no questions regarding either of those, please. They are done.) I have a PayPal account for that address; donations are gratefully accepted. I wish. :) Q: Any plans for future FAQs? A: See the final question of the previous chapter. I COULD write dozens of guides given the time - I certainly have the knowledge and the game library. I could even take requests. Q: Well, there's this Japanese game I'd LOVE to get translated... A: I probably can't help you. My knowledge of Japanese is pitiful. I'm a master at deciphering katakana, but beyond that I translate the hard way - digging through books and software dictionaries. (Babelfish helps if I can actually duplicate a kanji properly.) That's why I don't have a Princess Knights play guide already. Q: What are the distribution rules for this FAQ? A: This guide (yes, I am insistent upon that term) is copyrighted 2002 by ZotWorks (Adam R. Wood and his mental creations). Anyone may duplicate this guide in any medium for any purpose as long as it remains intact. (This means gleaning info from it for another guide or a FAQ is a no-no.) Like I said, writing these guides is thankless; steal from us writers and we get PISSED. The latest version of this guide should always be available from GameFAQs.com. Q: Any "special thanks" to dole out? A: Not yet. This version of the guide was entirely a solo project. You can have "your name here" if you give me a contribution for my PayPal account. No, my guide, I mean. A contribution for my guide. Adam R. Wood the Zotmeister