Alright everyone, welcome to the Last Bronx Sega Saturn Secrets Solution Section!

Or, y'know, just a guide to unlocking all the secrets in the Sega Saturn port of Last Bronx

While this doesn't have nearly as many secrets as Fighting Vipers, it still has a fair few unlockables that'll take a fair bit of effort to get, plus more interestingly, the methods for unlocking this stuff is completely different between the versions! This is mostly due to the second Specal Disc included with the Japanese release that, because of the sheer amount of voiced dialogue needing to be translated, was omitted from the Western releases. This disc was the way you unlocked pretty much all the extra features in the game, and so all this had to be shuffled about and changed for the US and Europe (and even then, some of those are different between the US and European versions!). Perhaps to make up for it, these versions have an exclusive set of unlockables not available in the Japanese version.

So, our starting points for this one are the old standards GameFAQS, vintage Saturn website Dave's Sega Saturn Page, Japanese cheats site Wazap and our own testing just to make sure everything worked. Matters are complicated somewhat by the US and European version also having different unlock methods due to the Arcade difficulty being removed from the EU game, and these differences are almost completely undocumented on the wider internet. If Gaming Hell was staffed entirely by cowards, I could just leave them out, but PAL-Land is my home and I will not forsake it. So, we'll list the Japanese version requirements, then the US version, then the EU version, then summarise what the unlockable does and any other notes.

Thus, we present to you the definitive guide to unlocking everything in the Sega Saturn port of Last Bronx. Enjoy.




Before we do anything, let's quickly talk about the Japan-only Special Disc.

Essentially a disc dedicated to learning how to play the game from absolute beginner stuff to more advanced techniques, the title screen menu has three main modes and an options screen, and if you want to unlock everything in the Japanese version, you'll need to perform tasks in all three of those modes. Below is the menu screen for the three of them, and then brief explanations of what the different modes do.



The first mode is LasBro Classroom ~Lecture~, a section that goes over the basics of the game with a series of topics to choose. Pick the character you plan to control, pick a second character as your opponent and then select a topic (or pick the top option to go through all the lectures in order- make a note of this, you'll need it for later) to have both characters have a bit of banter as they explain to the viewer how to play Last Bronx.



The second mode is LasBro Classroom ~Practical~, the game's training mode. Here you have a few options- you can go through your character's standard move list move-by-move, practice some combos, get advanced and practice some aerial combos and just have a free training session. The first three options allow you to see the move or combo in-action before you practice it yourself which is quite helpful for studying how the combos work. However, as the game warns you, some character combos may not work on the whole cast, so pick your training partner carefully.



The third mode is Character Self-Introduction, where a single character introduces themselves, their weapon and fighting style, complete with a friend / rival / ex-lover (delete as appropriate) to provide biting commentary.



The fourth mode here is just the options menu that's more basic than the one on the Arcade Disc (just controller config, stereo / mono and sound tests) so you don't need to worry about this menu too much. What it does do that might be worth looking at is keep track of how many times you've done the full course in LasBro Classroom ~Lecture~ ('The Number of Times I've Taken the Course') and how many times you've managed to get an OK mark on any move or combo in LasBro Classroom ~Practical~ ('The Number of Times I've Passed'). If you lose track while trying to unlock things, be sure to check this screen and see how much you've got left to do.

Character / In-Game Effects


Alternate Costumes
All Versions:
Select your character with A or Start for their P1 costume, C for their P2 costume

Alright, this one's a bit obvious, but it's nice to know, right? Some games make you hold the Start button, but not here. Moving on!


Joke Weapons
Japanese Version:
On the Special Disc, view all lectures in LasBro Classroom ~Lecture~ eight times (character combination doesn't matter)
US Version:
Complete Arcade Mode on Arcade difficulty without losing a match after unlocking Red Eye, unlocking one at a time per character
EU Version:
Complete Arcade Mode on Hard difficulty without losing a match after unlocking Red Eye, unlocking one at a time per character
In all versions, hold Left on Yusaku, Nagi, Zaimoku or Lisa or hold Right on Joe, Tommy, Yoko or Kurosawa (either direction for Red Eye) then press A or C to select these weapons

Ah, this is cute. A few years before the SoulCalibur series did it, every character has a comical 'joke' weapon that behaves exactly the same as their normal gear but is just silly or goofy. Want to knock seven bells out of Kurosawa with a giant tuna, or arm Yusaku with a miniaturised Shinkansen train? Now you can! They really don't change anything else so they won't give you an advantage or disadvantage, they're just for lightening the mood. Can't always be surly and grumpy on the streets of the Tokyo wasteland, you know?

Regarding the requirements, the Japanese one is pretty simple. In the first option on the Special Disc, you'll want to pick the first topic on the list which plays through all the lectures in order. Do this eight times with any combination of characters and you'll get the joke weapons for everyone, no bother.

Western versions have it tougher- to go over the requirements, you must basically get a perfect game in Arcade Mode on Arcade difficulty (US) / Hard difficulty (EU), meaning you lose no rounds at any point, use no continues (even if you continue and then get a no-rounds-lost clear, you won't get anything) and defeat your metallic clone in the bonus Brilliant Room stage, also without losing a round. If done correctly, after the Game Over screen you'll see an image of your character's weapon, and from then you can enter the code for that character (and that character only!) to use their joke weapon.

Yes, that means that not only is the method for unlocking these different between the Japanese and Western versions, but the distribution of them is different too- meet the requirements in the Japanese version and you get them all at once, but you only unlock the joke weapon for the character you met the requirements with in the Western versions. You've got your work cut out in the US and EU versions, huh?

Anyway, below is a table showing the joke weapons- hover your mouse over to see the normal weapon to compare!

Some of these joke weapons were identified on the Sega Retro page for Last Bronx so they deserve the credit there.


YUSAKU KUDO
Weapon: Sansetsukon
Joke Weapon: Mini-Shinkansen

JOE INAGAKI
Weapon: Nunchaku
Joke Weapon: Ears of Corn

LISA KUSANAMI
Weapon: Double metal sticks
Joke Weapon: Ladle and spatula


HIROSHI "TOMMY" TOMIIE
Weapon: Bō Staff
Joke Weapon: Broom

YOKO KONO
Weapon: Tonfa
Joke Weapon: Umbrellas

KUROSAWA TORU
Weapon: Bokutō
Joke Weapon: Folding fan


NAGI HOJO
Weapon: Sai
Joke Weapon: Fork and spoon

ZAIMOKU SABURO
Weapon: Hammer
Joke Weapon: Frozen tuna

RED EYE
Weapon: Tonfa
Joke Weapon: Chopsticks and sauries



Arranged Music
All Versions:
In the Cross Street (Tommy), Midnight Garden (Lisa) or Radical Parking Lot (Kurosawa) stages, hold A + R until you see the text 'FIGHT'

If you go into the Options menu and take a look at the BGM selection, you might notice some extra songs at the end labelled AR. That means Arranged, these are remixes! There's only three for the stages mention above, but if you want, you can listen to them in matches too. Just hold A + R (that's the right shoulder button, not the direction, and this isn't affected by your control settings) until you see the 'FIGHT' text appear and they'll play. Some sites say you have to do it as these stages are loading but that's a little inaccurate- if you let go too early, you'll just get the normal music, so hold them until the very last moment!


Character Gets Increasingly and Uncomfortably Close to the Camera
All Versions:
With Character Select set to Normal, every consecutive win against a human player zooms in a tiny bit on your character's face on the Character Select screen.
This will not stop, and will continue until it breaks and the character model disappears entirely.

This might be my favourite discovery, honestly. Mentioned in Han's Last Bronx guide for the arcade version on GameFAQs and other places on the internet is a secret that your character will get a large head on the character select screen if you get 30 consecutive wins. It's actually a little different from how it's commonly described, but it works the same in both the arcade and Saturn versons- rather than suddenly making your character's head bigger, every consecutive win you get zooms in on your character's head in the upper-left (P1 side) or upper-right (P2 side) of the Character Select screen. It's barely noticable at first but it will make itself apparent in due time.

The thing is, it never actually stops- you can break the win counter (charmingly, it keeps track of the number of people you've 'WASTED', hell yes) at 99 and it'll still keep zooming in. Testing it with Yoko, it started to break at 109 and 115 wins, and at 116 the character model disappeared completely. By that point, either you're scoring wins against an absent player or your fighting partner should just hang up their gloves, but be sure to commend them for their tenacity- they never gave up, and they must take pride in that. Anyway, this has lead to one of my favourite GIFs, so please enjoy this image of Yoko slowly getting closer and closer to the camera until it breaks.


Options


Defense, Berserk & Judo Difficulties
Japanese Version:
On the Special Disc, get 256 OKs on practiced moves in LasBro Classroom ~Practical~ (the moves and character choice don't matter)
Western Versions:
Start up the game 15 times

This is something you don't see too often, fighting game difficulty settings that alter the game's AI in a more specific way than just making them more difficult. While the methods between versions here have a big difference in how much work you need to put in (you can just practise the same move over and over again in the Japanese verison if you want, but that's boring), the results are some bonus difficulties for fighting against the CPU- Defense has opponents more frequently block, duck and evade your attacks so be aggressive with throws; Berserk has opponents constantly attacking with very little rest so defend until you get an opportunity; and Judo (exclusive to the Japanese and US versions) has opponents go for a throw every time you get close to them, so use strikes and throw escapes (where possible) to stop them in their tracks.


Characters


Red Eye
Japanese Version:
On the Special Disc, view the Character Self-Introduction for every character after unlocking Joke Weapons and Extra Difficulties
Western Versions:
Complete Saturn Mode with every character (settings don't matter)
In all versions, press Up on Yusaku or Joe or press Down on Lisa or Kurosawa to select him

Normally we'd start a secrets guide like this characters, but because of the way you unlock him in the Japanese version, it made more sense to leave it until a little later. Anyway. with a twisted laugh and his metal tonfas itching for battle, Red Eye is the final boss of the Arcade Mode for every character and Yoko's final boss in Saturn Mode, representing the REDRUM gang. In truth, his real name is Ken Kono, Yoko's brother, who was terribly burned and injured after refusing to enter the fighting tournament organised by REDRUM. They then kidnapped him and forced him to work for them, leading to a tragic encounter between him and Yoko at the end of her story...

Anyway, the arcade version needed a cheat code as well as beating the game with everyone on the same board to play as Red Eye, but once you meet the requirements here, just move the cursor off the top or bottom of the Character Select screen and he'll show up. Regarding the Japanese version, the requirements for getting Red Eye involve unlocking the other two major secret options before viewing all the Character Self-Introductions, so don't skip 'em! As for the Western versions, it's very simple and should be easy- put the settings at whatever you want to beat Saturn Mode with everyone, easy!


Portrait Gallery


Portrait Viewer
Japanese Version:
NO METHOD
US Version:
Each character has three Portrait images to unlock, all require beating Arcade Mode with default settings without losing a round or continuing on different difficulties:
Image #1: Normal difficulty
Image #2: Hard difficulty / Arcade difficulty before unlocking Red Eye
Image #3: Arcade difficulty after unlocking Red Eye
EU Version:
As above but the Arcade difficulty has been removed, so things have shifted like so:
Image #1: Normal difficulty
Image #2: Hard difficulty before unlocking Red Eye
Image #3: Hard difficulty after unlocking Red Eye

OK, this is literally the reason I put this page together, because it was driving me completely bonkers. Everywhere you look for this info, be it contemporary magazine tips listings or modern sites like GameFAQs, the answer is always the same- beat Arcade Mode without losing a round or continuing on the specified difficulty to unlock one of three images. Simple. Except that third image, the one you get for beating the game on Arcade difficulty, would never work for me. The usual trick here is to look up Japanese sites and blogs for more info, but this is a Western-exclusive feature, so no dice. Well, it turns out that most sources technically have the method right, it's just a vital step is missing, possibly because they only tried this after doing that step anyway and no-one bothered to, you know, check.

So, let's start with the US version. Upon starting with a new save file, you can unlock the first and second images (both of your chosen character) by clearing Arcade Mode with default settings without losing a single round or continuing on Normal and Hard respectively, but doing the same on Arcade difficulty at this point will only unlock the second image. Instead, you need to first unlock Red Eye by beating Saturn Mode with everyone with any settings, then beat Arcade Mode on Arcade difficulty with default settings without losing a single round or continuing. Simple. Whether you want to unlock the second images via Arcade difficulty before Hard is up to you- from what I can tell, Arcade starts off a lot easier and gradually gets difficult whereas Hard starts difficult and stays difficult, but opponents have a tendency to read your inputs a lot more on Arcade, so it's up to you.

The European version complicates matters. The Arcade difficulty has been removed (as well as the unlockable Judo one) so things get shuffled around in a way that, at least according to my extensive testing, means you have to unlock the second image for every character before you unlock Red Eye, as beating the game on Hard after unlocking him will only get you the third image (and that character's joke weapon). As a result, it would appear it's impossible to unlock Red Eye's second image because you need to unlock him to clear Arcade Mode with him, but by then you're locked into unlocking only the third image. I'm unsure if there's any kind of workaround for this, so... Oops? But hey, at least they kept the nunchaku in, a rarity in the UK back then!

Anyway, before we show off these images, you might be curious- where did they come from? I was curious too! I noticed that there wasn't much in the way of promotional material on the Japanese side that used anything other than the in-game models and traditional 2D artwork. Naively, I assumed that perhaps they were created specifically for Western markets, seeing as some of them were used on the US and European boxarts. As ever, I was wrong- pretty much all of these appeared in Last Bronx Official Art Works, an art book released less than a month before the US version of the Saturn port. There's actually a lot of interesting stuff in there (including Nagi and Lisa in yukatas!) so it's definitely worth a look. This also helped confirm the correct aspect ratio for these images, so they've been adjusted to 320 x 240, thus completely vindicating all those times I've resized images to try and make them look closer to how they'd appear on real hardware, I was right this whole time! Ahem. Still, these images don't appear to be in the Japanese version at all- they're not hiding in an OMAKE folder on either disc, the Portrait Viewer option just isn't available at all (even if you have no images unlocked, it appears in the Western versions) and meeting the requirements does nothing. If you have any more information, please email me at themetalslug at gmail dot come so we can solve this mystery together!


#1
#2
#3

YUSAKU

JOE

NAGI

TOMMY

ZAIMOKU

LISA

YOKO

KUROSAWA


RED EYE

That should cover everything, I think! Most of this should also apply to the PC version, good luck getting it running...

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