There are a couple of things going on at once now, so I'll go for what seems solvable first.
TOWER:
I had a better look at the script commands, and can confirm that 09-11 only goes up to F5 and loads 09-13 from there, and so on. The file switch may be solely for the purpose of changing the encounter-enemies, as described in detail by JiN88.
I found the place where the boss is set, but don't know how to deactivate it because it is linked to flags. It should be noted that the boss does not reappear when you go back down the stairs once it has been defeated.
It seemed like a good idea to simply replace each boss with the first one that works, and it went OK for 09-13 and 09-14, but somehow I'm stuck on 09-15. I need to look into this more.
Pyriel, do you have any info on how the bosses get referened in the game, or in what order the boss files are lined up in the game? It seems like they are loaded with "1F xx 0F xx":
Code: Select all
boss calls in JA version:
09-11: "1F 00 0F 42 25 01"
09-13: "1F 01 0F 43 25 01"
09-14: "1F 00 0F 44 25 01"
09-15: "1F 01 0F 45 25 01"
09-16: "1F 00 0F 46 25 01"
09-17: "1F 01 0F 47 25 04"
in EN version:
09-11: "1F 00 0F 41 25 01"
09-13: "1F 01 0F 12 25 01"
09-14: "1F 00 0F 44 25 01"
09-15: "1F 01 0F 45 25 01"
09-16: "1F 00 0F 46 25 01"
09-17: "1F 01 0F 47 25 04"
It can be seen that there was another boss planned for 09-17, and when I look for its location, it's at the door. You'd probably have to open and go through the door to meet it.
I noticed in the BOSS folder that there seem to be exactly 6 instances where there is a "_K" copy of a boss file, and in JA version all having the same last-update-date, on "Oct 21, 1998", approx. 3 weeks before all the others' last-update-date.
DOR_K.BIN = Bone Dragon
GOL_K.BIN = Stone Golem
NIK_K.BIN = Abomination
RYO_K.BIN = Double Head
RAT_K.BIN = Pest Rat
HAP_K.BIN = Harpy
If it could be shown that the crash-bound tower scripts call these 6 boss files, it could possibly be said that they really ran out of time at the end. Problem of course is, Poison Moth is not among them. But maybe there is an explanation for that.
It is funny they actually made some changes between the JA and EN versions. Maybe they played with the idea of implementing this new game + back in EN version? Just a thought.
While trying to replace all bosses with the Poison Moth, I noticed that in 09-13, when I should have moved on to 09-14, I was returned to 09-11 at B1 when I didn't collect the orbs. I only tried this once, so I might be wrong, but they might have put a check to see if you collected all the orbs to move ahead.
>JiN88
>Is there any way to turn of the game graphics and assets for a while?
When ripping graphics, I had read a bit about PSX GPU, and as far as I understood, it's not like the old snes stuff where you have five layers or so of sprites that can be turned off. The 2D in PSX seems to be really 3D with texture, but flat. So instead of polygons you have flat rectangles where the sprite sheets get pasted as texture. I can't think of any easy way of turning off graphics that doesn't involve taking stuff out of the game.
>Pyriel
You can see 0xD a lot in action when you follow the Genkaku Story, in case you want to look into it. Sounds like "no-pre-caching escape hatch" might be right on, though.
WHITE SAJAH
I can confirm JiN88's observation from script commands' point of view. The problem of white Sajah is probably that the masking layer is not being lifted on the Sajah side. Both in 09-11 and 09-17 the warp to Sajah involves the following script:
"45 03" puts the white layer, "0B 04 02 78" processes the temporary whitening of the screen, the warping after that is either processed with 0xD in 09-17, or with the 0x1F-0x20 combo in 09-11. I suppose they didn't make any receiving script on Sajah side to clear this mask.
(Note: changing "45 03" to "45 02" -> the screen whitens, but at the end you are left with a black screen. )
NEW GAME? FLASH FORWARD?
I should say that as far as the script commands go, these are really trial-and-error stuff, too! You put things in, out, change, and see what happens. For example, swapping the rune-warp's 0x0B+{3 data bytes} with the Sajah-warp script confirms that these handle darkening or whitening of the screen.
Anyway, though, it is true that deleting stuff from the script may change things too much, it is best if these things could be left untouched. Setting the interpreter to slow is an interesting idea that doesn't mess with the coding. Some of the strange result might be due to having deleted the "1E 02 00" part. If this is indeed a quick flash forward, it would be kind of cool being placed in the middle of the scene facing Luca in the beginning, instead of replaying the whole scene from the start.
千ユウトン扡 should probably be チュウトン地 which is 駐屯地 in Kanji. And it means garrison, as Pyriel pointed out, or it could be just "brigade camp" in this particular case.
It seems difficult to get consistent results here; there must be a lot of flags involved. Comparing the JA and EN versions of 09-17, though, they seem to have corrected a lot of things like pointers, etc, it may be possible that the EN version actually got futher than JA version. They really might have considered putting it back into the game for the EN release. Again, just a thought.
One thing I know is this picture:
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=273
You can see this pic in the game when you go to Kyaro town at the end alone (idk about McDohl) and check the tree in Dojo's backyard, where Mukumuku joins you at the beginning of the game. It might thus be a simple flag issue not getting cleared, but again, it could hold meaning, too.