Shenmue
28 Achievements
1,000
15-20h
Sore Knuckles
You Beat the 70 Man Battle
50
10.64%
How to unlock the Sore Knuckles achievement in Shenmue - Definitive Guide
This will unlock after conquering the 70 man battle at the end of the game. You are paired with Gui Zhang and you have to fight through loads of Man Angels members. It is best that you use a quick to execute move that you have built up a little to take them out as they are nearly all very weak.
Head through the alley on the left once you have cleared away the initial few, where you come across a large open area. Keep fighting. Every so often you see bosses enter (they have special introductions) and are harder to beat than the others. Be sure just to tackle this guys on their own, and that you dodge a lot of their powerful moves. If you become low on health, then either run around with for a bit so that you avoid enemies, or just stand still and get the weaker ones approach you. Take your time throughout.
The last guy that enters is a boss, that friend of Terry's. He is very tough to beat, and Gui Zhang doesn't even help! Keep at a reasonable distance so you can notice his attacks early enough to dodge them with + direction, and so that you can attack him at legs length (with leg based moves). Take your time here, there is no rush (and so you can heal slowly too).
Take note, this will make the fight far more boring.
Do *not* leave the starting square.
The game naturally expects you to follow the alley, as the walkthrough and other guide suggests, but ignore that. Just stay in the starting square. The 70 guys will come to you, you do not need to go after them. They will run that whole alley, just one or two at a time. There will be no big crowd to put down. Gui Zhang often takes out several of them as they pass by him, so you won't even need to tackle them all as they trickle towards you. While they are coming for you, you have lots and lots and lots of time to regain health by dodging (Y and a direction) because they're taking so long to reach you.
The hardest part is going to be Stick Man. He's tough, but since you'll have full health when he arrives you'll take him down. I found punches worked best against him because he often blocked my kicks (I used kick on everyone else). Best yet, you'll have lots of time to leisurely regain health after you beat him (this was my real trouble when in the larger area from the other guide)! I was at full health before the next peons even arrived.
The last guy, Village People Man, is pretty tough with a lot of life, but he's not as hard as Stick Man. He's just more time consuming.
Remember, you may want to pause the game if you arm gets sore from mashing the kick button! ;)
For the tougher enemies, use the normal tactics you have used throughout. I use a mix of grapples, kicks and punches. If you get low on health, do your best to dodge with or run away. The more time you spend not being hit, the more health you recover.
Once you beat the last guy, a cutscene occurs and the trophy unlocks.
Firstly use a move you feel comfortable with. For me it was the running roundhouse kick but the game has many moves so any you feel comfortable pulling off would work.
The hard part is staying alive. The only way to recover health is by running around and that's what you'll have to do... a lot. It's really as simple as that. Just keep in mind the bosses pursue you a lot harder which makes it difficult to recover health so if you're fighting lots of the normal bad guys then run around to recover your HP to 100% before engaging a new group.
It's a tough battle but can be done without too much difficulty if you recover your HP by running around.
Story related, can't be missed.
This trophy is unmissable (unless not completed before April 15, 1987 in game). Just progress trough the main storyline to unlock.
xkzonstr offers some tips for this fight: If anyone is having trouble with the 70 man trophy, a good way to cheese your way through is to hotkey Cyclone kick to . This will knock non-boss characters in 1 hit.
The three bosses
Camo guy: Parry and use kicks
Stick guy: Use a combination of Tom's Tornado Kick and parrying. His stick has katana-like length.
Massive dude: He has a lunge attack that can be easily interrupted by a 1-2 combo by either punching or kicking. Just knock him a few time and dash around (hold and move in any direction) until he lunges.