Ikachan FAQ/Walkthrough

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Introduction

Welcome to another of my 3DS FAQs. This particular one covers the indie game Ikachan. Ikachan is a good - if but very brief - action-RPG centered around the squid Ikachan, sent as the savior to a trapped underwater civilization. I have to admit I like pretty much everything about this game - the balanced gameplay, the interesting storyline, the nostalgic 8-bit-like graphics - except for the one problem: it's just too short. =/ Still, that's not the first time I've felt that way about a video game: ever play the Soul Blazer trilogy?

In any case, this game - now over a year old - still has yet to get an FAQ up for it. That's a surprise to me, given the high quality of one of Nicalis's other games, VVVVVV - seems like that would draw to this game as well. Well, whatever the reason, I'm here.

Swim, Ikachan!

Walkthrough

Underwater Arrival

When you begin the game, you will awaken deep underwater. You will control the little squid - kinda reminiscient of the Blooper from the Mario series. Acquaint yourself with the game's controls in the Home Menu e-manual for how to actually do so. In any case, begin by swimming to the left. You'll soon find some spikes across the roof and sea floor: these will take away a whole one of your hearts if you touch them. (That's 25% of your initial Level 0 hearts.) You can increase the number of hearts by leveling up, which is caused by gaining EXP. from enemies and random field pickups. For now, simply try to stay away from the spikes and dodge around them.

Continue along the path and you'll begin to go up a vertical column. As you do so, you'll see blue crystals off to the sides. Each lone crystal is worth 1 EXP. - collecting the four as you go to the top of the column will fill up your EXP. meter halfway! At the top, head to the right for a while, dodging some more spikes as you go, and you'll soon find six more EXP. crystals - this should induce your first level-up! The fish nearby won't do anything to you, so ignore them and continue on.

Past the upward-bound water current, you'll see a sea urchin. Approach it to speak with it and it will mention that it is hiding due to the lack of a Pearl. Outsiders in this area will not have Pearls, and are typically attacked on sight - this includes you! This fact aside, nearby is a clam shell - if you approach it, you can heal fully and save. It's good to do this whenever you find one.

From here, go to the right and along the narrow path, carefully dodging around the spikes as well as you can. This narrow path opens up into a stony room further along, in which you can grab some EXP. crystals. Continue along the path down the column and left. You'll soon reach another stony area there, in the bottom-left of which you can get two more EXP. crystals. As you head left, look out for the yellow fish: they will leap up as you get near and attack you if you touch them. In the next room, you'll come in from above. As you descend, first get on the overhang nearby as you will likely be attacked by a fish from below. As said fish descends, go right and across the gap, then down and left past the fish.

Continue along this path and you'll soon find the Pointy Hat! The Pointy Hat is an item that is always active: its gives Ikachan a more "filled-in" look to his head. Plus, you can swim upwards to attack enemies and destroy brown blocks. Just to the right of where you grab the item is where you can break a few blocks, so do so (unless you want to go around the long way to fight those fish). When you return from the water current, you'll be near that sea urchin and clam shell again. Save and heal, then break through the brown rocks above.

In this area, look out in general for the enemy fish - pretty much everyone here is an enemy, so either attack from below to earn EXP. or dodge aside. However, don't attack while these red fish are flashing, since they will hurt you! Once up there, go to the right along the ground and you can get two EXP. crystals in the small cavity there. You can get more plot info from the nearby sea urchin, too. If you go speak with the Pearl Carrier up there, he will mention bringing him a bribe so you can get a Pearl - which would be quite useful in our case! For now, though, just go left along the roof and shatter through the brown blocks.

To Help Tobias

Get the three EXP. crystals nearby, then speak with the sea urchin, too. Go to the right some more from here. As you do, beware of the lobsters: while you may be tempted to attack them, you cannot since your Level is too low. For now, just dodge by them. You'll soon see a sea urchin in a cavity to the right - it will talk further on the whole "you are too weak" deal. In the next two rooms to the right, you can find a total of eight EXP. crystals. Leave the dwelling - as I suppose it also is - and go left and up to the next level.

As you look to the left, you'll see a bunch of EXP. crystals in that area. DO NOT GO IN THERE! Going in there will force you to die, since it closes up as you enter: you will need to suicide your way out, which undoes your level since you reload a previous save. We can go in later, though. >:)

To the right, you can see a wide current heading down. If you press the A Button rapidly enough as you swim up it, you can get into that alcove to the left for two EXP. crystals and to speak with the sea urchin, who will hand over a Pearl Handbook. Go back down and to the right to the Food Storage area (as you can tell by getting near the sign). Speak with the sea urchin underneath and tell him you are not a Pearl Carrier. Tobias - the urchin - will then ask a favor of you; accept it and Tobias will ask you to find his Pearl. He gives you the Mysterious Juice as a sign of goodwill. It's the only time you'll get it, so hold onto it!

Now backtrack to the place where the Pearl Carrier - the big, fat, green fish - was. As you do, you may want to consider fighting those lobsters: you should now be Level 2 and they yield 3 EXP. each. While you can't do anything with the Pearl Carrier, it's a nice landmark for me to reference. >_> In any case, go left and up from there through the untouched bricks into a new area. Continue up and destroy the bricks so you can get the EXP. crystals from the alcove, then head left, dodging or defeating enemies on the way. Near the end of the path, grab two more EXP. crystals. Go left and through the hole in the wall and approach the sea urchin. First get the three EXP. crystals behind it, then speak with it if you want. This whole thing was, for now, optional as there's nothing to do here. You could have done it earlier, but the lobsters would have been unbeatable.

Backtrack to the start of this part of the area, then go into the other area where the Food Storage is. As you bypass the place where the bricks were, go straight up and speak with the sea urchin. Suddenly, an earthquake occurs and some of the rock is destroyed! Get the five EXP. crystals above, then go along the newly unlocked path to the left, defeating or dodging by the enemies on the way. (Be sure to get those seven EXP. crystals on the second mid-air (or is it mid-water?) rock!) Continue left and you will find a wall of brown blocks. Use the column to get under neath and break all of the rocks, then get the EXP. crystals from the alcoves.

Go past the wall's previous location now and break up some of the bricks past there to get two more EXP. crystals. Get around or kill the nearby lobster and go along the path for a bit, carefully maneuvering around the spikes on the way. You'll soon have to break down some more bricks, past which you can find five EXP. crystals and a lobster. Go down the column to the left and defeat/avoid the fish and lobster there, then grab the five EXP. crystals. Go up the next column - there, you probably ought to defeat those fish to avoid being pushed around.

At the very top, you can get into a clam shell to heal and save - do so, for a boss is ahead! Go to the right and at the far end of the room you can speak with an elderly (I assume) sea urchin. His senility gets the better of him, triggering a fight!

In any case, after the battle, the sea urchin realizes his wrong, failing to reflect over the deaths of his fellows or his pets, whatever the heck they are. The cavity below him will be opened, initially yielding 16 EXP. crystals. Continue along the path to the right to find a clam shell below - you can go through porous rock, you know - to heal and save in.

Break through the rocks above and you will get a Sand Dollar - we can use this to bribe the Pearl Carrier!

Rescuing Pinky

Continue to the right from where you found the Sand Dollar and you'll find a wall of destroyable blocks on ground level. First, enter the current and destroy them all that you can. (Those six crystals can't be obtained until later.) Once a full column is clear, swim to the top and do nothing - you'll fall past the current below, allowing you to reach seven EXP. crystals. Go up and right along the untraveled path now.

Defeat the water droplets as you continue to the right and down a column, then go left and nito the familiar water current: this will deposit you near the Food Storage area. Head along to the Pearl Carrier now. As a result, you'll get a Pearl. Return to the Food Storage and speak with Tobias to receive the Shrimp Tempura; give that to the Pearl Carrier and go back for some Crab Cakes; give that to the Pearl Carrier and go back for some Blowfish Sashimi -- well, try, anyways. Tobias snatches up his Pearl from your many clutches, leaving you without any Sashimi. (What troubles me - other than that Tobias doesn't take much push to decide to basically empty out the food supply over a relatively minor matter - is that these guys are eating other sea creatures, basically. Food for thought. As it were.)

So, what now? First, go into the alcove just under the Food Storage - this is where Tobias's wife is. As you try speaking with her, an earthquake suddenly happens! Now let's go back along that extra path we took earlier. Go left along the ground and outside of the Food Storage's general area. Just to the left of there along the roof is the other area to access - those following the walkthrough thus far already have explored it. At the end, you'll find Pinky - the sea urchin from before - trapped in that alcove because of the earthquake! As you prepare to wrap your many arms around her and lift her out - "Oh carp!" - the ceiling above closes up for some arbitrary reason! ... What now?

Well, you can't break that wall to the right, go go along the path to the left - who knows, it might yield something. Heal and save in the clam shell you soon find, then go down. You'll soon reach some porous rock. Get the two EXP. crystals to the left as you head down, then go up, right, and down for six more. Go left, down, left, up, and right for four more. Next, go down, far left, and up. As you leave the porous rock, you can defeat some green fish and grab some EXP. crystals. At the top, go right and get the far-off EXP. crystal, then go up the current to grab some more. Be sure to shift left when you can to avoid the spikes!

At that point, go right and along the oblique column into another area. Carefully avoid the spikes to the right and power through the current, then go up into a long, powerful one. Try to avoid the spikes as you go - so long as you have three or so hearts, you'll be more than fine regardless. At the end, you can go into the small room nearby for an item, a Compressor! By holding A or B and Left/Right on the D-Pad/Circle Pad, you can then let go after a brief time to shoot sideways, allowing you to damage enemies and break through walls.

Break through the wall to the right that encloses you, then grab the six EXP. crystals beyond. Go down and left along the path, breaking through the walls to reach the area where you initially found the Sand Dollar. Go below and use the clam shell to heal and save, then go to the right along ground level. You will see those six trapped crystals from before. Destroy all of the blocks that you can nearby, then float up at the crystals' level, then hold A/B and Right and quickly release to shoot through the wall to the six EXP. crystals!

Go right, down, and left along the path to the current returning you to the Food Storage.

A Meeting with Ironhead

After rescuing Pinky, she'll automatically return to her house, underneath the Food Storage. Go now to the Food Storage, then to the alcove beneath it. If you speak with Pinky, you'll obtain the Blowfish Sashimi you need to give to the Pearl Carrier. Speak with Pinky's mother and father if desired, but you have to now go on. Do you remember where you started this game at? If you backtrack to the clam shell near there, then backtrack along the path to the left of there, you'll get to an area where you will meet a starfish - you just need to use the Compressor to get through the wall near him. Once you've gotten Ben, go left and up through the roof, then right to meet up with a familiar clam shell. Save and heal there, then go up and right as usual to the Pearl Carrier.

Once you give him the Blowfish Sashimi, you can proceed on past - turns out the Sashimi was poisoned. =P That's the risk you run with that. In the room past, you will begin a fight with Ironhead.

The Great Escape

After the battle, Ironhead apologizes and explains some stuff, effectively leaving you as leader. In any case, backtrack to the home of Tobias and Pinky. It's not really important, but it does demonstrate the pessimistic hopeless these people have. *sigh* In any case, head into the Food Storage now. There are 17 EXP. crystals there to grab. Also there is some kind of weird capsule with Sally in it. You need Ben to be able to use the capsule - Ben is found, as far as the walkthrough is concerned, in the A Meeting with Ironhead section's start.

Once inside the ship - counted as finding Sally, The Ship in the items menu - we're on a rescue mission - we need to collect pretty much any one who is not an enemy - do so by simply running into them. Here's the order I recommend:

• Random Sea Urchin: Go to the left and above the Food Storage, in the current.

• Pinky's Family: Simply go into the hollow below the Food Storage and pick them all up. ("Oh my Cod!" Heh. Another funny pun.)

• Random Sea Urchin: This one is found in the hollow below Pinky's home.

• Random Sea Urchin: From there, go left along ground level for a while and you'll find him.

• Random Sea Urchin: Go straight up and you'll find him where the first earthquake happened earlier.

• Elderly Sea Urchin: Continue up and then left along the current path. The path from here is linear as before - you traveled it earlier when going to your first boss, remember? At the end where the boss fight occurred, run into the urchin to rescue him.

• Random Sea Urchin: After that, go to the far right, past the water-droplet enemies, and down and left into the current near the Food Storage. Go further down and left and nito the next hole you find. Descend via it and go right into the lower alcove to find this guy.

• Random Sea Urchin: We'll need to leave Ironhead and the Pearl Carrier alone for now. Continue left along ground level, near the area where the game began and where your first clam shell was. The sea urchin in question is next to it.

• Pearl Carrier: Go into the alcove above the one you just left when finding the sea urchin prior to this one (or otherwise go off of memory: he hasn't moved) and head to the right for the big green fish. Yes, you have to rescue him, too.

• Ironhead: Continue further right into Ironhead's room and run into him to get him aboard. Don't ask me how he fits... In any case, if he refuses to go in, you haven't found everyone - you need to find everyone.

Appendices

Enemy Bestiary

Items Listings

Level-Up Stats

As a note, you probably won't get above Level 4 or 5 in a single playthrough of this game, and the difference in EXP. between Level 5 and 6 is so great as to make it negligible.

Credits

In no particular order...

• GameFAQs, Neoseeker, and Supercheats:
  • For being the most amazing FAQ-hosting sites I know.

• CJayC, SBAllen, and Devin Morgan:
  • General sucking up to the GameFAQs admins. =P

• Me (KeyBlade999):
  • For making this FAQ. =P

• You, the reader:
  • For hopefully enjoying this FAQ.

Version History

• Final:
  • First and foreseeably only version of this FAQ.
  • Time: 12:21 AM 12/8/2013.

Legalities

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All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

ｩ 2013 Daniel Chaviers (a.k.a. KeyBlade999).

If you would wish to contact me concerning this or my other FAQs, use this e-mail: keyblade999.faqs@gmail.com, or PM (Private Message) me on the GameFAQs message boards.

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