Special thanks to Barticle for his contribution to translating missing game options and all of the static and customisable mahjong rules in the game! He has a separate faq/guide for Mahjong Taikai IV on the PS3 at GameFAQs that’s worth checking out as well.
Contents
Initial Screen
Top Choice is to create a New Save profile
Bottom Choice is to load an existing profile
“Street” View
Press up/down/left/right on the d-pad to choose which parlour to play in.
Two choices are initially available: a starting parlour and the tournament. Additional parlours can be unlocked through reducing ranked non-player characters to negative pride during parlour matches.
1. Return to “street view”
2. View ranked player stats (only those unlocked appear)
3. View “collection” (subchoices to view “coins” and medals won for winning tournaments and beating ranked players)
4. Free Play (a one-off game where you can set the rules and choose opponents)
5. Game Options
6. Save/Load (option 1 saves; option 2 loads)
7. Exit to Title Screen
Press A to start a game
1. Start
2. View Rules
3. Exit to “street view”
Before play (applies to parlour only — after choosing Start, above)
1. Continue to game
2. Exit to Title Screen
Before first hand (applies to parlour only)
1. Place Pride Side Bet with another player (Pride is the “currency” of the game; it determines standing and is used to buy entry to tournaments)
2. No Side Bet
After a hand is finished
View stats by pressing up/down to go through the options in the top left:
1. View scores of all players
2. View “Top” (score leader) and points of others relative to Top.
3. View human player and scores for others relative to human player
A = continue to next hand/round
– = Bring up submenu with following options:
Return to scores
View Rules
Game Options
Quit game
+ = Return to scores
1 = View Rules
Game Options
(these can be changed by selecting “street view” menu option 5 or in-game from the – menu between hands or before your play mid-hand):
1. Choice of sound between stereo/mono
2. Change music Volume
3. Change sound effects Volume
4. Change Character Voice Volume
5. Rumble On/Off (if “on” remote will vibrate when selecting a dora tile, red five tile or when any player wins)
6. Toggle Discard Speed (3 levels)
7. Character Speech On/Off (text still displays)
8. Character Text On/Off (audio still plays)
9. Display Final Tiles Remaining On/Off (when choosing between tiles to discard when declaring Riichi you will be shown how many of that tile remain unplayed)
10. Automatic Discard Following Riichi (On/Off)
11. Motion Control (On/Off) (declaring Pon, Kan, Chi, Riichi, Ron and Tsumo can be done with a remote wave or button press by default)
12. Discard Tile Identification (makes tiles you’ve drawn and promptly discarded darker) On/Off
13. Win Effect (special effect for Ron/Tsumo display) Normal/Simple
14. Swap A/B functions
15. Display colour test pattern
16. Revert to Defaults
After a game is finished you will get a prompt to play another game (any players who go into negative PRIDE will be out of the game and replaced) or exit back to street view where you can save your progress. If you win multiple successive games you’ll be automatically prompted to enter a tournament. Note there is no autosave function, though when playing a tournament you will be prompted to save between games.
Custom Rules
(accessed via menu options indicated above):
1. Kuitan (on/off) — All simples hand
2. Tsumo Pinfu (on/off) — Tsumo with no-points hand
3. Ippatsu (on/off) — Extra fan for going out within four turns of declaring Riichi
4. Dora (all/extra dora for kan or riichi /extra dora for kan/extra dora for riichi/normal dora only/two-tile mekuri – two dora tiles?) — Rules for dora tile reveals. The default is “all,” meaning all rules are in effect: starting dora and extra tiles for declaring kan or riichi). I’m not certain what two-tile mekuri could mean — two starting tiles only?
5. No-ten Payment (on/off) — Extra payment of 3000 points to players who are “tenpai” (one tile from a complete hand) by players who aren’t (“no-ten”) in the event the wall is depleted.
6. Continuances (nanba/houra/tsune ni/tenpai) — Conditions under which a player remains the dealer for the next hand; the default is nanba (dealer stays if East hand is tenpai; otherwise if he wins/draws the South hand)
7. Bankruptcy (on/off) — Default is “on.” The game ends if anyone’s score drops below zero.
8. Starting Points (25k/27k/30k) — The default is 30000. If a lower number is chosen the balance goes into a pot that is awarded to the winner at the end of the game.
9. Number of Rounds (ton-nan/ton-puu) — Default is two rounds (ton-nan) being East and South; the other option is East round only.
10. Conditional West Round (off/30k/30100/33000/35000) — If set it provides for rounds beyond the South, if the target score hasn’t been reached by any player. Default is 30100. This option is disabled in the event option 9 has been set to one round.
11. Scoring Adjustment (off/0-5/0-10/0-20/0-30/5-10/10-20/10-30/20-30) — default is 5-10. This setting determines the number of points (in thousands) paid by the player in 3rd place to the player in 2nd (the first number) and the player in 4th place to the player in 1st (the second number).
12. Winning Termination (on/off) — On by default, this gives the dealer the option to end the game if they’re in the lead after winning the final hand of the round (if this is you, then you’ll have an on-screen prompt).
13. Abortive Draws (replay/next hand – seats move/next hand – seats don’t move) — Action taken after any condition which would cause play to stop: four revealed kan, any player having nine or more terminals and honour tiles after their first draw (assuming they elect to abort play), all four players discarding the same wind on their first turn, all four players declaring riichi in the same hand, three players calling ron on the same discard. Default is to keep the same winds and deal the next hand.
14. Conditional Two Fan Minimum (on/off) — On by default. Normally a yaku worth one fan is required to go out; with this rule in effect two fan are required to go out if the dealer has won/drawn five times during the round.
15. Split(on/off) — Default is off. If this option is enabled the player upon whose side the wall is broken gets a blue marker and pays/receives double points (if also dealer, bonuses are cumulative) which are applied after calculating the rest of the score.
16. 8-hand limit (on/off) — Enabled by default, this option scores a yakuman for the dealer if they stay on for 8 consecutive hands.
17. Nagashi Mangan (on/off) — Enabled by default. If a hand ends in an exhaustive draw (all wall tiles drawn) and all your discards are terminals and honours — with none having been taken by other players — you score bonus Mangan points (8000 non-dealer; 12000 dealer).
18. Tokushu Yakuman (on/off) — Enabled by default. Controls whether or not the Tokushu Yakuman hands are allowed: Renhou (Blessing of Man) and Shiisanpuutaa (Thirteen Unrelated Tiles).
19. Double Yakuman (on/off) — Enabled by default. Controls whether or not special double-point versions of these traditional hands are allowed (conditions are based around completing them bar specific pairs, the full rules of which are beyond the scope of this guide): Thirteen Orphans, Nine Gates, Four Concealed Pon, Big Four Winds.
20. Double Ron Win (on/off) — On by default, this allows two players to go ron off the same tile, though if one declared riichi they alone benefit from ura and kan dora tiles. If disabled then the one closest to the discarder (going anti-clockwise around the table) wins.
21. Yakitori (on/off) — Every player gets a special marker which sits next to them on the table. When they win a hand the token is removed/inverted. Anyone who hasn’t won a hand by the end of the game pays a penalty.
22. Akadora (off/2 tiles/4 tiles/6 tiles) — Enables “red fives” which give an extra fan if part of a hand. 2 tiles are both five dots, four tiles consist of two five dots and one in each of the other suits, six tiles is two per suit.
Finally, be sure to check out Koei’s official site.