The Sacred Mirror of Kofun/Walkthrough

Honolulu
You start on the bridge of the Antares. Go to the EDWARD mainframe and click on the column and he will talk to you. Click on the registration and your card will be ready in a short time. Turn to the door and click on the handle and have a talk with Mr. Cousteau. He will explain your mission on exploring the coral reefs and locating an ideal site for the Poseidon One marine station, he will also show you a video of Steve Grant regarding your mission and the mirror.

Look around a bit and when Edward mentions your card, return to the mainframe and click on the right. Your card will be "synthesized"; take it.

You are interrupted by another video from Steve Grant who will tell about his worries regarding John Braddy. An additional crew member will join you in the last minute to locate Braddy. Go to the automap and click the card on the scanner on the right. You will see another video with Ann Fong arriving to the ship.

You will be prompted now to to insert CD #2.

Now that you are registered, you can access EDWARD. Browse the computer. For now the most interesting thing to do is clicking on D and see your next destination (Palau) and the backgrounds of your shipmates; and E to see the encyclopedia.

You can also go to the Intercom and "meet" your crewmates (4- Sinus, 4 - Fong, 6 - Capucci). You are supposed to talk to each one, and click on each of the 3 rows of replies until they are exhausted. Repeat until you exhaust all three, and then proceed to the next crewmember.

Once you are done, go to the autopilot and locate Palau (click on ABC button for help). Click on the red line and draw your course from the red dot on Hawaii to Palau. Press start. When halfway there, you will see another video from Grant with a tape with a captured Braddy. Its source is unknown but he gives you some coordinates (151-46-30E/7-23-55N), which are installed in Edward's databank.

You actually have a choice to branch between two objectives: continue looking for the Poseidon installation site, or start looking for the mirror and Braddy. In reality both objectives must continue in parallel.

Palau
Go to your automap and resume your course to Palau. Once there zoom in.

Plot a course to each of the three sites. Once you arrive there, use the Angel Shark to perform a dive.

Look out for the LED on the lower right. It means that there is a hotspot somewhere where you must click to take a shot.

ISC 1
ISC 1 has one checkpoint and 5 pictures.

Return to Edward and go to the Database. Select ISC Site 1 and perform a bio-analysis. Drag and drop the icons to their respective holes or on the lower bracket to consult the encyclopedia.

The answer is: Common Cnidaria: 1; Common Fish: 3,4; Remarkable Fish: 5.

Then send them to Dr. Capucci. She will return an interest of 15%. Move on to the next destination.

Return to the thumbnails and perform a simple analysis (not bio-analysis). You will get the keywords "Coral Bleaching" "Moray" and "Reef". Enter the words into the World Web and you will be returned with "Coral Bleaching" and "Reef Ecosystem" which you can store to the encyclopedia and look them up.

ISC 2
Same as above. This time you have to take 9 pictures, 3 of them of the Manta Ray. Once you get the last one, quickly quit or else the manta ray will assault you, destroying the Angel Shark.

The bioanalysis now is: Common Fish: 1, 2, 3; Rare Fish: 7, 8, 9; Remarkable Mollusc: 4; Common Echinodermata: 5; Remarkable Cnidaria: 6.

Export them to Dr. Capucci and you will get a 50% interest.

Once more perform an analysis and you will get the keywords "Manta Ray" and "Remora". Looking them up will return "Manta Ray", "Symbiosis and Mutualism" which you can add to the Encyclopedia.

ISC 3
In this dive you will be prompted to select the route. As a consequence when the dive ends you have to select a previous checkpoint and dive again, choosing the other route this time. You will take 8 pictures.

The bioanalysis is: Rare Mollusc: 1; Remarkable Fish: 2, 3, 4; Common Fish: 5, 6, 7, 8.

Capucci's results are 42%.

Analysis brings "Nautilus", "Barracuda" and "Shark" which in turn return "Barracuda", "Nautilus", "Shark Class" and "Shark Attacks".

If you talk to Edward he will congratulate you. If you talk to Dr. Capucci she will tell you that despite some interesting specimens, the sites are inappropriate for the station.

Having nothing else to do, you can return to Edward. If you talk to him he will congratulate you for your first dives. Go to the Database and analyze Braddy's video. He installs some new coordinates. You get Keywords "Bais", "John Braddy", "Legend", "Palau", "Worldwide Heritage" which return "Bais" and "Message from John Braddy to W.W.H.", Adding them to Datastorage will allow you to see Braddy's text.

Analysing it will prompt you to decipher the enigma. Select the roman characters on the top and then click in the symbols you think they correspond. The answer is:

CGSU(blank)RQHVTAYFPIN(blank)KOJBEDWML

It is revealed that Braddy reached Ishuta's tomb but he found traces of a tomb raider. Analyse the translated text and you will get "48th Naval Guard Force", "Daikisan", "Kofun", "Mirror", "Nara" and "Truk". The search will return: "Daikisan Sailors", "Truk" and "People of Truk". Click on these keywords and update your Encyclopedia/Database with them. Go to your Database and run an analysis on the Daikisan Sailor sketch.

Go to the automap and zoom out. Make sure you click the ABC button to see the labels of the islands. Plot a course to Truk.

Truk
Once there zoom in and you will see the Braddy coordinates marked. Go there and dive.

Braddy site (Shinkoku)
This dive is quite spectacular as it is inside a shipwreck. You can gather 4 photographs. Near the end of the dive you are on one more junction (you might have to return to the surface and replenish your oxygen before returning to the junction). Go to the door to the right and photograph the skull (the 4rth and last photograph). Don't bother going to the left, as a hazard will break your AngelShark, end your dive and give you a warning from Dr. Sinus.

Back in the bridge, go to Edward.

The bioanalysis is: Common Fish: 1; Remarkable Fish: 2; Common Cnidaria: 3.

Capucci's results are only 12%.

Go back and analyze the pictures. The picture of the skull will return the elements "Bombs", "Hailstone", "Truk" and "Wreck". Feed them in the World Net and it will return several entries (Truk, The People of Truk, Wrecks in the Truk Lagoon, Artificial Reef - the Truk Wrecks, Shinkoku, Yamagiri, Rio). Move them all to the Database/Encyclopedia, especially Fujikawa, Nippo, Betty Bomber, and Daily Pacific 09/30/98.

Go to the Database and read the Daily Pacific text. Run an analysis and then check the new keywords (Coral, Ecosystem, 2nd World War, Truk) to the World Net. Move the resuls (Truk, The People of Truk, the Second World War in Micronesia, Operation Hailstone) in your Database.

Go to the Encyclopedia and select the Shipwrecks category, and look up for Fujikawa, Nippo and Betty Bomber. Edward will install coordinates for each one, so plot a course.

Nippo
The Nippo dive is quite short and you get only 3 pictures.

Only one of them is important for Capucci: Common Fish: 2 and returns only 3% interest.

The other two pictures however prove useful and return new keywords (Eten, Truk, Hailstone, Wrecks, Military Installations). Looking for Eten in the World Net returns Eten, Truk, The people of Truk, Military Installation on Truk, Wrecks in the Truk Lagoon, Artificial Reef, the Truk Wrecks, Shinkoku, Fujikawa, Nippo, Yamagiri, Rio, Betty Bomber as a new article which you can transfer to the Database. You see that a new icon appears there (Weaponsry museum of Kaioko-Japan) where you can look up Eten.

Fujikawa
At the Fujikawa dive there are 2 junctions. At the first one you should enter the dark door to the right (there is nothing of interest to the left). This brings you to another junction, with a door leading outside, and a ladder leading to the lower decks; you must follow both of them, and since they are quite long dives, you will have to return to the surface and repeat from those points at least 2 times.

At the lower decks you must take picture of the ladder and the engine. Outside, take pictures of some corals and watch out for the tricky part a few seconds before the end of the dive: be quick enough to take a picture of the ID tag. This dive has 9 pictures.

Common Fish: 3, 6; Common Cnidaria: 4.

Capucci's interest is only 10%.

When you analyse the pictures, Edward will find the numbers 12469 on the ID tag and return 3 keywords (Hailstone, Truk, Wrecks). In the World Net they return several keywords (Truk, The People of Truk, Wrecks in Truk Lagoon, Artificial Reef - the Truk Wrecks, Shinkoku, Fujikawa, Nippo, Yamagiri, Rio).

Betty Bomber
Betty Bomber is a sunk bomber. After you approach it, you are in another junction. You should go to the cockpit to the left (if you go to the tail to the right, you will have a spectacular dive but there are no hotpoints to take pictures of). You must take 5 pictures.

In the bioanalysis you get: Common Fish: 1, 2, 3; Common Echinodermata: 4. Capucci's result is only 10%.

Analyse the pictures with Edward. The bomber picture gives the keywords Betty Bomber, Hailstone, Truk, Wrecks. The World Net search of these keywords return Betty Bomber Message, Betty Bomber, Truk, The People of Truk, Wrecks in Truk Lagoon, Artificial Reef - the Truk Wrecks, Shinkoku, Fujikawa, Nippo, Yamagiri, Rio. Update the Encyclopedia/Database. Go to the Database and analyse the Message.

Now, having analysed the "Daikisan Sailors" sketch back in Truk AND the "Eten" entry in the Encyclopedia, Edward will install the coordinates to Eten. Talk to Edward who will suggest you plot a course there.

Eten
You arrive to Eten island, the first island you will explore in the game. Either go down to the hangar and take the boat, or use the travel screen and click on the island icon to "warp" there right away.

Exploration is similar to other more famous games of the era, such as Myst or Riven, however it is much more poorly implemented here. The sense of location and navigation is not obvious at all, as there are no visual points of reference, or a compass. In some cases (e.g. in buildings) you can turn around easily but in general, there is a feeling of weirdness. Furthermore, the "exits" on the screen are not obvious either: in some screens you have to click far where the path ends to the horizon, elsewhere you just click on the ground before you. You have to find some items but they are hidden at best. All in all you must rely in pixel hunting.

You start your exploration with 9 photo shots and these are all you will have throughout the game, this means you must take pictures ONLY of information that must be shown to Edward back in the ship.

On the shore of Eten, walk forward five times, past the screen with the falling coconut. On the fifth screen, try to locate a leaf where your cursor circle becomes the "forward" cursor, it is to the right-center part of the screen. This means that you can drag and drop the leaf/ves. You find a machete beneath two leaves. Take it and put it down into your inventory with your card (the second inventory item you find). Continue forward; at some point the exit is at the left part of the screen and the cursor angles. Eventually you will reach a vine covered wall and Edward will tell you to chop "it" down.

Do it with your machete (twice) until a doorway appears. Go inside and you find yourself near a building with a door on the left. Enter it. Inside, click to the other exit and go out. Once outside, click on the bottom of the window the turn around, enter the building again to see the part of the interior not visible from where you entered. Notice the board in the corner and move it like the leaves earlier. Take the pickaxe. Now you can't turn around (another oddity of the interface) so go once forward and now turn around to resume your previous course. Once more, exit the building and walk forward once.

You find yourself near a crossroad (call it junction A). The right road takes you to a building with columns, the left road takes you to the "headquarters".

Column building
Note, before you enter the building, just while you are outside, if you move the cursor to the lower edge of the screen you will notice that it blinks. This means that you can turn around, but towards different paths depending on where you click. If you click at the lower right corner of the screen, you turn around towards the southern path leading to Junction A, if you click at the lower center, you turn around towards the northern path.

Enter the building and ascend the stairs. It's a dead end but you can turn to the left. Locae a point at the top of the window where the cursor becomes an "up" arrow. You can see a blurry graffiti where the cursor becomes a "forward" arrow. Click on it to have its closeup. It's a diagram of the paths on the island with locations of interest. It can be helpful but unfortunately it doesn't correspond 100% to the game navigation. Note that the bunker-like structure on the left is not accessible in the game (probably a planned element which was cut from the finished game).

Another thing to notice is that once you enter the building, there is no turn around cursor: you have to go up, and look at the wall in order to descend the stairs.

Cannon
The cannon is not easily accessible. According to the map, you can just follow the forward path from Junction A to look for it however it's not so in practice. Instead, from the Columb Building follow the northern path for 3 screens until the crossroad. Turn to the left for another 3 screens. You will reach a fork: forward it leads back to the "Mine", while the right turn leads to another fork. There, you might see a rodent running to the left side. If you follow the path forward you will reach the Grotto, instead follow the left path (where the rodent went) and go forward to find the cannon.

Headquarters
You should visit this building after obtaining the crowbar from the cannon.

Just as you enter the building, there is a pile of debris on your left, but you can't turn from where you are (another oddity), you have to walk forward, angle to the left and then turn around to approach it. Move it with the crowbar. You find a locked chest. The combination is the number 12469 you saw on the ship's ID plaque (although there is no hint in the game that it would be it). You find a Japanese decoder; press all buttons and take a photograph (1/9).

Now turn around, and walk forward until the wall, in the left "niche". Turn to the right. You see a cement wall and very obscure graffiti on it; you can see that the cursor becomes the "forward" cursor when you move it on them. Click and you will have a closeup of some engraved symbols which Edward identifies as a schedule. Take a picture (2/9).

Have in mind that the building has two exits. One (from which you probably came) leads back to the abandoned mine. The other leads to the Grotto.

Grotto
It's not important to visit the grotto, and you should only if you have the pickaxe from the mine. The easiest way to reach it is to go to the Headquarters, exit through the northern doorway and continue to the north (forward) 4 screens until the crossroad, and 4 more screens. Once you reach a dead end, use your pickaxe three times on the boulders and go further inside. When you can't proceed any more, turn to the left, and click on the graffiti on the wall where the cursor takes the "forward" shape. It's a vague diagram of two buildings on the island, the Column Building and the "bunker" which is not accessible in the game. Turn to the left towards the exit of the cave and walk one screen. There is another diagram on the top-left part of the screen. Unfortunately their meaning is not revealed to be imporant in any puzzle.