縮小学園 General Advice

This page tries to gather basic information for playing 縮小学園. Rather than describing solutions to specific situations, it points out general aspects and useful gadgets you may miss. For details on specific scenes, please refer to the walkthrough.

Special States Are Your Friend

Special states like poisoned or stunned can make a real difference in this game. Especially in boss fights, if they are not immune to special states, they can allow you to succeed. There is a normal strength poisoning and a stronger one, as well as a digestion state, all of which cause continued damage. Then there are variants of paralysis. And there is sleep. But one of the most handy ones is probably stun, as very few enemies seem to be immune against that. There is also a confusion state, but depending on your luck, it may still cause you trouble.

There are very few weapons which imbue special states, in the early game that being the stun gun (stun) and the onion (confusion).

Japanese Name Translation Effect Special States Information スタン Stun A character who is stunned loses their next turn during combat. Should the character have acted in this round, they will lose their turn next round. 毒 Poisoned A character who is poisoned will lose a small amount of HP at the end of each combat round AND for every step during field movement. 猛毒 Seriously Poisoned A character who is seriously poisoned will lose a large amount of HP at the end of each combat round AND for every step during field movement. 睡眠 Asleep A character who is asleep can't act. Sleep ends at the end of combat or when damage is suffered and may end on its own accord after a while. If a character gets a sleep state during a given combat round, they will definitely lose their turn in that combat round, even if they recover from the sleep state before their turn comes. 混乱 Confused Confused characters may attack friends or enemies alike or simply stand there dumb-founded. If a player-controlled character is confused, the player can not give commands to that character. 麻痺 Paralyzed Paralyzed characters can not act. Paralysis ends at the end of combat or after a certain time. ウイルス Virus Characters infected by a virus will have their combat stats reduced (damage dealt, speed, chance to hit, defense). Virus heals automatically after a number of combat rounds but does not automatically vanish at the end of combat. 暗闇 Darkness Characters struck by darkness have a greatly reduced chance to hit. Darkness ends at the end of combat or after a certain number of rounds. 酔い Drunk Drunken Characters suffer a reduction in some combat values like chance to hit. Drunkenness ends at the end of combat or after a certain number of rounds. デレデレ Charmed (sorry, I currently don't remember the details, please someone else fill this in) 戦闘不能 Unable to Fight This state only exists for characters controlled by the player (at least visibly). It comes around usually when a character hits 0 HP, but it may also be due to an instant slay effect. Characters who are unable to fight can not act in combat and the state persists until healed by item or save point/resting. 即死 Insta kill Not really a state, this is a special effect that, if successful, will kill a character instantly. Thus, player characters will become unable to fight while enemies will be removed from combat.  

Changing on a Whim

As of 1.40, during combat when selecting the action a certain character should take, you can change their weapon and shield. Thus, you can swap to special weapon more efficient against certain enemies when facing them (for instance ranged weapons against flying monsters).

Magic Needs To Be Earned

The main character only has an overdrive special by default (overdrive being that it requires the overdrive bar to be full thanks to taking damage or causing damage during combat). However, he can learn to use magic (spending SP to use those magic skills). In order to do that, he first needs to pay 2,000 Yen to the head of the occult (?) club. After that, he can learn spells by collecting issues of the magazine "Muu" (reference to the Asian counterpart of Atlantis).

Each issue of the magazine contains one skill and the issues are hidden throughout the game.

By equipping the magazine in the bottom slot of his equipment list, the main character gets the ability to use that skill AS LONG AS IT IS EQUIPPED.

Each skill comes with an AP value and the main character initially only has 0 AP in any skill. If the character defeats enemies while having a magazine equipped, he gains one AP per defeated opponent for the skill in that magazine. Once the target value is reached, the character has mastered the skill and can use it even after unequipping the magazine.

One of the possible sidekick characters has a similar system for learning magic, but he doesn't learn from that magazine, but from the Haruhi novels which are also hidden throughout the game.

Note: The magic books can only be picked up if you have had the character who can use it in your group and that character has magic use activated (important for the main hero).

On Moral Grounds

At least in previous versions, some of the content changed slightly based on your moral conduct. There are scenes where you have different options of solving a situation.

Useful Concoctions

In the school, there is also a chemistry club. You should visit them right in the beginning. They will tell you about the possibility to create items by mixing other items. However, besides the ingredients, you also have to find the recipe for the item (the recipe is found and announced, but not an item in your inventory). Recipes can only be found AFTER you have talked to the club member who will actually do the mixing for you. Mixing items is free of charge, but you need the ingredients. There are quite a few useful items you can create (like the very strong poisonous concoction 蟲毒 ) although most recipes are only useable items and not equipment.