“Ben Jordan (5)” Walkthrough

(Land of the Rising Dead)

Len Green 2nd April 2006 lengreen@hotmail.com

F O R E W O R D :-

The following is a “No Frills” walkthrough of this freeware game, with minimum (vital) description and verbiage. Only a relative few NON-ESSENTIAL ACTIONS are included … but to properly enjoy the game, everything possible should be performed!

After each ESSENTIAL action, the number of points is included {in curly red brackets}. No cumulative score is given since many actions can be done in different orders yielding different numbers of accumulated points. My ‘order’ of actions is certainly not the only one and most likely not the very best one! Nevertheless, as outlined here, the total score for each one of the 5 days IS included.

However, If you DO follow the order in which I happened to play the game (as described below) and perform ALL the essential actions outlined there, you will obtain the full maximum 108 points.

***************************************

THE ‘TEAM’

** Ben Jordan … paranormal investigator

** Simon Booth … professional ghost hunter

** Alice Wilkins … major in parapsychology (Sacramento)

****** Every time you enter a location, examine everything that is highlighted, and talk to everybody you possibly can. This is not mentioned throughout the walkthrough, since it will be taken for granted!

****** When you leave every ‘basic’ location, you are presented with a map from which to choose your next location. This is not mentioned throughout the walkthrough, since it will also be taken for granted!

****** Important note (sometimes overlooked):- In your task bar, and also available by rotational right mouse clickings, you have both a conversational (small talk) icon and also a more important interrogational (questioning) icon.

The former appears onscreen as “!”.

The latter appears as “?”, and in this walkthrough it is this which is meant by the phrase “Talk to”!

****** ALWAYS run through ALL of the dialog options available until they are exhausted (or repetitive).

****** In the non-interactive introduction, Ben and Simon travel to Osaka (Japan) with Alice following the next day after she’s finished up a few things.

The interactive game starts with Ben and Simon in their somewhat sparse room in a very modest hotel in Osaka.

****** You start with two important items in your inventory:-

(1) Ben’s notebook and pen.

N.B. This is also in your task bar (menu) … and from time to time, Ben has written notes there which may serve as hints!

(2) The business card of the English professor of criminology, Percival Quentin Jones (His card is ‘left over’ from a previous game of the series, i.e. “Ben Jordan (3) … The Sorceress of Smailholm”.

W A L K T H R O U G H :-

DAY~1 (October 24th)

**** Enter the bathroom

**** Look at the daily newspaper … notice the picture of inspector Yoshi {1}

**** Take Simon’s large black robe from the hook {2}

**** Exit the bathroom

**** Exit the hotel room and the hotel itself

**** Go to the Osaka Police Department (the OPD)

**** Talk to the desk sergeant … inspector Yoshi won’t see Ben without an appointment {1}

**** Give the sergeant the card belonging to Percival Quentin Jones (the English professor of criminology)

**** The sergeant leaves, talks to Yoshi, and returns

**** Yoshi will see Ben now {2}

**** Go through door (at the right)

**** Look at the sign above the door to the right of the screen … “Hamato Yoshi”

**** Knock on the door to inspector Yoshi’s office, enter, and sit down

**** Talk to inspector Yoshi {1}

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** Look at the plaque to the left of the opposite door … “Evidence lockup and Crime Lab”

**** Enter the crime lab

**** Talk to the evidence lockup attendant

**** Ask to see some “Evidence retrieval”

**** The attendant can’t allow that without an ‘evidence requisition form’ signed by the lead inspector on the case

**** He gives Ben one of the blank forms {1}

**** Talk to the lab technician {1}

**** Exit the lab

**** Enter Yoshi’s office again

**** Ask him to sign the form in order to obtain the names of the victims … he can’t allow that! It’s only available to official police personnel

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** In the lobby, look at the notes on the notice board

**** Take one of these notes … the one signed by inspector Yoshi {1}

**** In inventory, trace over Yoshi’s signature onto the evidence requisition form {2}

**** Re-enter the lab

**** Return to the evidence lockup attendant, and hand him the ‘signed’ evidence requisition form

**** Ask for, and receive the list of the names of the 4 murder victims {1}

**** Take the list … Ben is not allowed to do this! It can be viewed but not removed in any way

**** From inventory, copy these names into Ben’s notepad and tear the sheet out (From Ben’s notebook in the game’s taskbar you can read the 4 names, which are:- Hideo Tanaka; Sadako Matsumoto; Kenji Soyama; and Ryoko Matsuri) {2}

**** Exit the lab

**** Exit the OPD

**** Return to the hotel

**** Talk to Simon

**** Give the list to Simon who feeds the names into his laptop

**** He comes up with an additional 2 names “Yamamoto Inc.” and “ShinobiCorp” {3}

**** Exit the hotel

**** Go to Yamamoto Inc.

**** Talk to the desk clerk … Mr. Hiroshi Yamamoto won’t be back from a business trip until tomorrow {1}

**** Exit Yamamoto Inc.

**** Go to the Shinobi lobby … it is empty

**** By consulting the directory Ben finds out where Shinobi’s office is

**** Look at the sign to the right of the double doors … “Shinobi”

**** Knock on Shinobi’s door and enter

**** Talk to Mr. Shinobi {3}

**** Exit the office

**** Press the call button for the elevator and exit ShinobiCorp

**** Return to Simon and talk to him

**** Time to finish work for the day and have dinner!

Total points for day~1 = 22

DAY~2 (October 25th)

**** Simon is about to leave for the airport to pick up Alice … he has left Ben a crime scene kit

**** Take the crime scene kit from the dresser {1}

**** In inventory, open it and obtain in inventory the finger print kit and the small syringe {2}

**** Enter the bathroom

**** Look at the daily newspaper

**** See a photo of Mr. Shinobi on the page … “Maybe I should visit him today!” {1}

**** Exit the bathroom

**** Exit the hotel room and the hotel itself

**** Go to ShinobiCorp

**** Inspector Yoshi is there … something is wrong

**** Mr. Shinobi has been murdered with a katana (Samurai sword) protruding from his back

**** Talk to inspector Yoshi {2}

**** From inventory, obtain a fingerprint from the katana {1}

**** Press the call button for the elevator and exit ShinobiCorp

**** Go to Yamamoto Inc

**** Press the call button for the elevator … but Ben doesn’t even know what floor Yamamoto’s on

**** Talk to the desk clerk again … Mr. Yamamoto is in his office on the 22nd floor {1}

**** Again press the call button for the elevator and enter Mr. Yamamoto’s luxurious office

**** Talk to Yamamoto … inform him of Shinobi’s murder and warn him to take care! {2}

**** Press the call button for the elevator and leave Yamamoto Inc

**** Cutscene:- Ben is accosted by some TV show host. He wants Ben (the Paranormal Investigator) to appear on his TV ‘Show’

**** Return to the hotel

**** Meet up with Alice … she is fluent in the Japanese language!

**** Hear about a series of strange unexplained deaths in a nearby village called Asuka, about 1/2 hour from Osaka

**** Ben and Alice are transported automatically to Asuka … ( N.B. The access to Asuka is marked on the map with a large curved red arrow at the top left corner! )

**** Alice talks to a mournful teenager called Noburu.

N.B. Alice does all the talking here, since she knows Japanese and Ben doesn’t {3}

**** Alice and Ben walk to the left, through the portal, and enter Asuka village

**** Arrive at a house with a door made of wood and paper … there is a large lit decorative stone lantern outside the house

**** Knock on the door

**** Talk to the widow about ‘purification ritual/ceremony’, ‘Zen Buddhist priests’, etc. {2}

**** Continue walking to the left and come to a graveyard

**** Steal a basket of flowers from one of the graves {1}

**** In inventory remove the flowers {1}

**** In inventory combine the empty woven basket with the bathrobe creating a makeshift priest costume {2}

**** Return (bottom of the screen) and stand outside the widow’s house

**** From inventory, use the priest’s disguise on Ben. He automatically knocks on the door and he and Alice enter {2}

**** Alice is entertained with tea by the widow, whilst Ben (aka a Zen Buddhist priest) is left in the hallway

**** Ben enters the door near the left screen and observes the husband’s corpse in a coffin

**** From inventory, use the syringe to take a blood sample from the corpse {2}

**** Exit the funereal room

**** Alice, the widow, and Ben meet up in the hallway (Ben-priest can’t talk … he’s ‘observing a vow of silence’!)

**** Exit the widow’s house. Automatically Ben dumps the priest’s disguise and apparently returns to sleep at the hotel.

He again has unhappy dreams featuring Mary (presumably Mary Blaine … who also featured in “Ben Jordan (3) … The Sorceress of Smailholm”.)

Total points for day~2 = 23

DAY~3 (October 26th)

**** Enter the bathroom

**** Look at the daily newspaper … Alice has scanned the newspaper and made some annotations and translations from the Japanese {1}

**** Exit the bathroom

**** Exit the hotel room and the hotel itself

**** Go to the OPD

**** Enter and go to inspector Yoshi’s office

**** Talk to Yoshi {1}

**** From Ben’s notebook in the game’s taskbar you can read that Ben needs to find a connection between Osaka and Asuka

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** Enter the lab

**** Give the lab technician the fingerprint {1}

**** Give the lab technician the syringe of blood … the results will only be ready tomorrow {2}

**** Exit the lab

**** Exit the OPD

**** Go to Mr. Yamamoto’s office

**** Talk to Yamamoto … he recommends relaxing at a Sushi bar {2}

**** ( From Ben’s notebook in the game’s taskbar you can read that Ben needs to obtain a sushi )

**** Exit Yamamoto’s office

**** Exit Yamamoto Inc.

**** Cutscene:- Ben (the Paranormal Investigator) is again accosted by the TV show host. He very reluctantly agrees to go on his TV ‘Show’ tomorrow … simply in order to shut the guy up

**** Go to the Sushi bar

**** Talk to the Sushi chef {1}

**** From the menu, order ‘Today’s Special’. It’s eels … but there’s a hook left in an eel, and Ben takes it (before eating!!) {1}

**** Order Fugu (highly toxic puffer fish). The chef apologizes since no puffer fish are left. He will have a fresh supply tomorrow {1}

**** Go through the large white curtain to the restrooms

**** Enter the men’s restroom

**** Look at the trash can and decide that the bathroom needs a little ‘Feng Shui’

**** Move the trash can to the opposite wall {1}

**** Stand on the trash can

**** Look through the vent into the adjoining room

**** There’s nothing that Ben can do there so stop looking through the vent

**** Push away from the wall

**** Get down from the trash can

**** Exit the men’s restroom

**** Walk to the left and exit the curtain

**** Exit the Sushi bar

**** Go to Asuka (If necessary, see info on this in Day-2)

**** Enter the widow’s house dressed as a Zen Buddhist priest (If necessary, see info on this in Day-2)

**** Alice is there having an intensive conversation with the widow

**** Look at the empty shelf … “One of the swords is missing. Odd.”

**** Look at the empty shelf … one sword is missing

**** From inventory, take the fingerprint kit and take a fingerprint from any one of the remaining other swords {1}

**** Exit the house

**** Exit Asuka

**** Go to the OPD

**** Enter the lab

**** Go to the technician and give him the fingerprint from the (Asuka) sword

**** Ask him to match the fingerprint with the previous one you gave him (from the katana which impaled Shinobi)

**** Receive the evidence form of a match between the two fingerprints {2}

**** Exit the lab

**** Enter Yoshi’s office

**** Talk to Inspector Yoshi and, from inventory, show him the matching-form {3}

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** Exit the OPD

**** Return to the hotel

**** Meet up with Alice and Simon in the hotel room. Ben informs them regretfully that he has most reluctantly agreed to appear on the TV ‘Happy Magic Fun Show’ tomorrow

**** They are famished and want to eat Sushi. Not surprisingly, Ben vetoes the idea and the leave for the local McDonalds!

Total points for day~3 = 17

DAY~4 (October 27th)

**** Enter the bathroom

**** Look at the daily newspaper … Alice has again “gone to the trouble of translating the relevant bits” from Japanese. Hiroshi Yamamoto has disappeared suddenly. The police have not yet found a body and are not connecting this to the Ghost Murders … yet. {1}

**** Exit the bathroom

**** Exit the hotel room and the hotel itself

**** Go to the OPD

**** Enter and go to Inspector Yoshi’s office

**** Talk to Yoshi about Yamamoto’s disappearance {1}

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** The technician had left a message for Ben to visit him. So enter the lab and talk to him

**** Apparently there’s some sort of poison in the blood sample you submitted to him, but not enough to determine WHAT poison! “Get a sample to match the toxin in the dead man’s blood.” (From Ben’s notebook in the game’s taskbar you can read the aforementioned hint!)

**** Exit the lab

**** Exit the OPD

**** Go to the Sushi bar

**** Get the menu from the Sushi Chef and order Fugu … it tingles a bit due to the deadly poison in the fish {2}

**** Exit the Sushi bar

**** As promised to the Show Host for today, Ben goes to the TV Studio

**** Talk to the receptionist (Yamamoto’s ex- desk clerk) {1}

**** Cutscene:- Get taken into the studio and “participate” in the quiz

**** Cutscene:- Simon and Alice watch Ben’s performance on their TV in the hotel room

**** Cutscene:- Continue with the ‘Happy Magic Fun Show’

**** If you need to, see the QUIZ ANSWERS at the end of this walkthrough for the 8 correct answers. You obtain 2 points for having participated in the quiz/game, plus

1 point for every one of your correct answers. So, if you get ALL the answers correct, the number of points you obtain is {10}

**** You also receive 2 prizes:-

One of the chains they used on Ben during that crazy Japanese gameshow

An Instamatic-Flash automatic camera

**** And if you’ve done well enough to avoid a dunking in the (NON) boiling water, you also receive one additional item (not needed in order to finish the game with full points!):-

Trophy from the ‘Happy Magic Fun Show’ … “Hey, they misspelled your name!”

**** Go to the Sushi bar

**** Go through the large white curtain to the restrooms

**** Enter the men’s restroom

**** Stand on the trash can and look through the vent into the adjoining room (If necessary, see info on this in Day-3)

**** Observe the large trash can in that room

**** In (or above) the large trash can notice the remnants of the Fugu you didn’t eat … “The chefs threw away the remnants of your Fugu.” and in particular “the parts full of all the deadly poison.”

**** In inventory, fix the hook onto one end of the chain (or vice versa) … making a sort of fishing rope thingy {2}

**** From inventory, use the fishing rope on the Fugu remnants … and pull out “the parts of the fish too poisonous too poisonous to eat.” {3}

**** Push away from the wall

**** Get down from the trash can

**** Exit the men’s restroom

**** Walk to the left and exit the curtain

**** Exit the Sushi bar

**** Enter the OPD

**** Enter the lab

**** From inventory, give the Fugu to the lab technician

**** He diagnoses the poison as Tetrodotoxin {4}

**** Exit the lab

**** Enter Inspector Yoshi’s office

**** Talk to Yoshi about the Tetrodotoxin and its role in creating the apparent zombies … “We still need to find out who exactly is doing the poisoning?” {1}

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** Get as close as possible to the exit the OPD without exiting YET:-

IT’S WORTH SAVING HERE !!

**** Exit the OPD

**** Go to the hotel

**** Cutscene:- It is night. Ben is diverted into a dark alley on his way back to the hotel. He is accosted by a zombie who is out to kill him. If you don’t stop him fairly quickly Ben is killed and you are forced to return to your abovementioned save.

**** Elude the zombie, and then “chase after it and see where it leads you.” … but it gets away! {3}

**** If you have difficulties with escaping from the zombie, see EVADING THE ZOMBIE at the end of this walkthrough

**** Cutscene:- Return to the hotel room. Alice has been poisoned … but not fatally

**** Cutscene:- Ben has his final ‘conversation’ with Mary Blaine

Total points for day~4 = 28

DAY-5 (October 28th ~ Last day!)

**** Cutscene:- Simon and Ben visit Alice lying in a semi-coma in her hospital bed … she’s very weak but she will recover. Simon returns to the hotel.

**** Ben returns to the hotel room

**** Talk to Simon

**** From inventory, give the photos to Simon. He feeds them into his laptop. There is a closeup of the car number plate which Simon scans and then enhances. He hacks into the Japanese vehicle registry database. The vehicle is “a company car belonging to Yamamoto Inc.” {3}

**** Exit the hotel

**** Go to the OPD

**** Knock on the door of Inspector Yoshi … “There’s no answer.”

**** Go to the sergeant at the front desk

**** Talk to the sergeant … Yoshi entered his office with the lunch that Ben sent him

**** Ask the desk sergeant about Inspector Yoshi … “I think he’s in trouble.” {1}

**** The sergeant gives Ben a spare key to Yoshi’s office

**** From inventory, use the key to enter Inspector Yoshi’s office … He is “definitely dead.” {1}

**** Exit Yoshi’s office

**** Exit the OPD

**** Return to the hotel

**** The game now branches into 2 paths here … which join up again at the end. Each path yields the identical maximum 108 points!

IT’S WORTH SAVING HERE !!

**** Talk to Simon

**** You are presented with 2 choices:-

~~~ You will start Path #1 if/when you choose “Simon will accompany Ben”

~~~ You will start Path #2 if/when you choose “Ben will go it alone”

**** Whichever path you choose (i.e. in both cases), Simon gives Ben a device he has invented … “The DoorSucker 2000”

PATH #1

**** Choose the first option

**** Both Ben and Simon are automatically transported to outside the Yamamoto Inc building {1}

**** Look at the vent

**** Try to enter it … “You can’t reach the vent on your own.”

**** Discuss the situation with Simon

**** Cutscene:- Ben stands on Simon’s shoulders and enters through the vent … Simon joins him afterwards

**** Look at the air conditioning unit

**** Open the small metal A/C maintenance hatch … “This door seems kind of loose”

**** Open the hatch again, and then a third time … “The door breaks off its hinges” … take it {1}

**** Look at the brown door which “leads back into the hallway.”

**** Go through the door

**** Simon walks forward and stands in front of another brown door … this one with no handle

**** Look at the door

**** Look at the keypad alongside the door … “it probably leads somewhere important”!

**** Activate the keypad next to the door. That doesn’t work

**** Talk to Simon … “all I need is a wire and some metal” to short circuit the keypad {1}

**** Look at the notebook in the task bar “Get wire and metal for Simon”

**** From inventory, give the metal door to Simon {1}

**** Ben walks along the corridor (i.e. ‘off the bottom of your screen’ and continues)

**** Enter the brown door of the room at the left of the screen

**** Examine one of the two computers … the one near the door

**** “Notice a loose wire hanging from the back of the monitor” … take it {1}

**** Exit the room

**** Return to Simon

**** Give Simon the wire. It works … Cheers! The door opens and Ben enters the ‘important’ room {1}

**** Cutscene:- Confrontation with the villain who STARTS to eliminate Ben!

IT’S WORTH SAVING HERE (Immediately you re-obtain interactive control) !!

**** If Ben doesn’t do something, he’ll die (You have 30 seconds just to perform one fairly obvious and uncomplicated action … so there should be no problem!)

**** From inventory, “In a fit of desperation, you put the DoorSucker 2000 up to the vent, and are surprised to see that it fits.” ( Automatically “You quickly press the button on the remote labelled ‘pull’” )

**** The villain is defeated through his own device {7}

**** Cutscenes:- THE END … until the next (sixth) episode of Ben Jordan entitled “Scourge of the Sea People”.

Total points for day~5 = 18

TOTAL POINTS FOR THE WHOLE GAME = 22+23+17+28+18 = 108 out of 108

PATH #2

**** Return to the last save

**** Choose the second option

**** Ben alone is automatically transported to outside the Yamamoto Inc building {1}

**** Enter the manhole … since there is no ladder, Ben falls down with a bump (but apparently without injury!)

**** Ben is in a sewer

**** Get him to turn right round and walk

**** Around the corner is a staircase … walk up it

**** Ben arrives through a door into a hallway

**** Walk forward (i.e. along the corridor, ‘off the bottom of your screen’ and continue)

**** Enter the brown door of the room at the right of the screen

**** Take note of the puffer fish there

**** Exit the room

**** Look carefully at the picture on the wall to the right of the abovementioned door

**** Enter the brown door of the room at the left of the screen

**** Look at the large metal filing cases “lined up against the wall”

**** Open the filing cabinet and look at a folder labelled ‘Corporate Takeovers. However, all it has in it is “a paper with the words ‘Fugu, Sumo, Dinner’ written on it” … Ben jots down those 3 words. From Ben’s notebook in the game’s taskbar you can read those 3 words again {1}

IN YOUR NOTEBOOK

**** Have a good look at the painting on the wall

**** Exit the room

**** Walk towards the bottom of the screen and onwards

**** Look at the keypad alongside the door … “it probably leads somewhere important”!

**** Type in the access code. This is probably the most difficult puzzle in the whole game … see the ACCESS CODE PUZZLE at the end of this walkthrough {4}

**** The access code is correct! The door opens and Ben enters the ‘important’ room

**** Cutscene:- Confrontation with the villain who STARTS to eliminate Ben!

IT’S WORTH SAVING HERE (Immediately you re-obtain interactive control) !!

**** If Ben doesn’t do something, he’ll die (You have 30 seconds just to perform one fairly obvious and uncomplicated action … so there should be no problem!)

**** The villain is defeated through his own device {7}

**** Cutscenes:- THE END … until the next (sixth) episode of Ben Jordan entitled “Scourge of the Sea People”.

Total points for day~5 = 18

TOTAL POINTS FOR THE WHOLE GAME = 22+23+17+28+18 = 108 out of 108

QUIZ ANSWERS

(1) Ankylosing Spondylitis

(2) Harry Haller

(3) A Daughter

(4) Ehrich Weiss

(5) Cats

(6) Venus

(7) Tiddlywinks

(8) The Human Brain

EVADING THE ZOMBIE

**** From inventory, quickly use the camera’s flash on the zombie … this blinds it, and it “shuffles back out of the alley.”… there is enough time for you to do this!

**** However, if you have still have difficulties due to the somewhat rapid actions necessary, the following will make it very much easier:-

[A] Immediately before leaving the OPD, go to inventory and ‘obtain’ the camera … it will now replace your ordinary cursor.

[B] When the zombie approaches you and as soon as you have interactive control, make 4 mouse right button clicks … this will ‘rotate’ the icons so that the camera icon is the active one. This should only take a VERY few seconds giving you plenty of time to move this onto the zombie and click the mouse left button once to evade it!

ACCESS CODE PUZZLE

Graduated Hints:-

**** One of the keys to this puzzle is the phrase “Fugu, Sumo, Dinner”

**** But it is not the words themselves which are important

**** The words are only indicative of numbers

**** Their order is also important

**** First word “Fugu”

**** Fugu is a food made from puffer fish

**** How many puffer fish did you see in the room with the brown door?

**** 3

**** Second word “Sumo”

**** Where did you see a reference to Sumo wrestlers?

**** In the picture outside and to the right of the room containing the puffer fish

**** How many Sumo wrestlers were on that picture?

**** 11

**** Third word “Dinner”

**** Where did you see something very recently in Yamamoto’s concerning dinner?

**** In the room containing the large metal filing cases

**** There was a painting on the wall there

**** How many women were eating in that painting?

**** 5

**** So the three relevant numbers are 3, 11, and 5

**** The only remaining question is in what order.

**** Evidently the order of “Fugu, Sumo, Dinner”

**** So the access code is …….. 3115