Tales of Phantasia SNES (Enhancement) (Slow WIP)

[justin3009]

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=13201.msg421016#msg421016 - See here for chronological timeline of all changes in the 2018+ edition.

[Mauron]

Nice. Maybe this will inspire me to play the game again.

[Kiyoshi Aman]

Please don't work off of the GBA version; it's rather inferior compared to the PSX version in many ways, and I rather doubt the PSX version changed that much compared to the SNES version, graphics and content aside.

[justin3009]

I'm mainly aiming from the GBA version as that's the official US script that was used.  I'd feel rather ridiculous if I hacked off the script from someone elses hard work.

Other than that aside, I could probably work on the script myself a little and recruit help for it much later on down the road.  Nothing is quite set in stone so there's plenty of room for change

[FlamePurge]

I'm here to help again if you need it, Justin!

[Bregalad]

Looks nice but I'd suggest not changing the sprites. I really prefer the original sprites over the GBA ones.
Other than that if I remember well there were cool portraits in the GBA version in the menu.

[Nightcrawler]

I'm mainly aiming from the GBA version as that's the official US script that was used.  I'd feel rather ridiculous if I hacked off the script from someone elses hard work.

I don't understand this comment or what you're doing. Aren't you working off DeJap's SNES English translation?

[justin3009]

I'm working off DeJap's SNES English translation but I'm also thinking of modifying the dialogue to match more closely to the official translation.

Note: It's just a thought but I'm not sure if I want to do that or not.  I might just cut that out and only add new dialogue where it's needed so it's more of an updated DeJap translation.

Edit: And I'm basing some of this off the GBA version because the GBA/PSX version look closely alike in many aspects, though I'm also looking at the PSX version to get a better idea as well.  So it's a combination of both.

[SpiffSpoo]

If you can get in Chester's new skills in that would make him a much better character, though I don't know what you are going to do with Rambard.

[Bregalad]

Is it normal that I played through the whole game, and don't remember any character of the name Rambard ?

[Gemini]

Well, technically his name is Brambard/Brambald.

[justin3009]

Yeah, Rambard is to Brambard is to Brambald.  All the same character, just the localized name.  He was strictly an NPC that joined your party later on in the game, much like Lia was.  Though, he was supposed to be playable but got cut.

@Spiffspoo: Oh that's what I'm also aiming at.  That's how I originally found the skill list in the menu because I was aiming to give Chester skills first.

Progress
--------------
Currently, I've got the item menu basically setup for 1 column, except the biggest issue is the shadow of an item if it's not the right item type.  I'm having blatantly so many issues trying to figure out why it's not working correctly.  It's probably an extremely simple thing and I'm bypassing it every time.  I've got all the code singled out and mostly labeled, just not sure why it's freaking out.

I've also been studying on how the skills in battle are loaded.  I've figured out how to load the manual skill list for each character, but there's apparently a third one that each character has that's hard coded to them (I believe so anyway).  My belief on this is because I have Rambard loading up Arche's skill list, yet he still loads up Klarth's skillset if he's auto casting.   So I've got to fix that and just make it strictly load from the memory value, not a hardcoded PC value.

Also, there's two or three spots for names throughout the game.  I know there's one in the menu and then there's one in battle.  They load the exact same thing but they're stored to separate areas.  Honestly, no idea why that's done cause you can just change the battle pointer to load the menu's name and all works well and it's actually easier.

Edit: And I figured I was right on rom expanding.  SNES9X can run it fine, but ZSNES doesn't want to run it at all.  Since ZSNES is my main point of emulation, I won't be able to expand it any further.  I don't know if it'd run on BSNES since BSNES is never my primary source (Though I do know it's the closest to an actual console).

[Bregalad]

Yeah, Rambard is to Brambard is to Brambald.  All the same character, just the localized name.  He was strictly an NPC that joined your party later on in the game, much like Lia was.  Though, he was supposed to be playable but got cut.

It's fun I don't remember him at all, nor do I remember Lia. Does he appear in the party but not in battles ? Looking at him make me thing he's an elf (and man he looks damn cool), so I guess you meet him in Treant Forest ?

Maybe it's time for a second Playthrough.

[justin3009]

Lia you get earlier on the game, just before you got Arche.  They appear in the main menu as "NPC" in the GBA but as "N.P.C." in the DeJap translation.  They never appear in battles, thus they're NPC's.

And yep, you get Rambard in the Treant Forest when you go to repair the pact rings.


More progress
--------------------------
1. Fixed the shadow item issue.
2. Fixed another issue in the menu where it'd load the wrong item name once you leave and return to it.
3. Fixed Item Color bug.

Issues
--------------------------
1. Pressing L/R results in deleting some item names.
2. If you scroll down far enough, item names will repeat.
3. X/Y coordinates of hand once you select an item then stop the selection is horribly bugged.

[KingMike]

I think Lia was called Rhea in the GBA version. I believe you found her in Hamel(?) after it gets destroyed. I think she was an alter-ego of Arche, IIRC.

[justin3009]

Yeah.  I don't remember the actual location or much of what happened, I'll have to replay this game over once more to remember everything.

Lia/Rhea, I think from what I remember, was a friend of Arche's that worked in Midgard (? - Possibly wrong location).  But she was killed and Arche allowed her spirit to take over her body so she could seek revenge on the ones who killed her.

[Bregalad]

Wow I really need to play this game a second time.
I'm pretty sure my playthrough was very sparce, I finished this game 4 years ago but maybe started it 7 years ago, this was a game I liked to play once in a while and not more frequently, even though I loved it.
I guess the reason I played it so infrequently was the annoying labyriths in most dungeons which made me need a whole afternoon of free time to play this game from save point to save point.

I clearly remember the town being destroyed and a girl being crying in there but I don't remember her joining you.
Now that you guys mention it I'm pretty sure Rambard comes in the party because no human is allowed to enter the Treant Forest without being accompagned by an elf, and also, half-elves are banned, even with the accompaniment of a full elf. However I remember clearly that Arche bypasses this rule once.

Well, all this to say after so many years you remember very clearly some parts of the story, and completely forget others. I completely forgot about those NPCs even though I remember a good part of the game very clearly.

[justin3009]

I'll have to replay this game as well or at least read the script so I can get a better understanding.  Honestly, I haven't played this game in at least 8 or 9 years so my memory of exactly what happens is extremely vague.

Semi more progress
----------------------------------
1. Cless is now interchangeable in the menu.  It looks like the game specifically loaded Cless's value to be 55 so you would never be able to swap him out even if you removed the check.  So for a cheap method, I bumped the code to empty space, had it checked if the value was 04 (Because it subtracts 51), if so, load 00 so you can swap Cless.

2. Fixed the * locations in the menu.  Forgot they existed, so now they appear under the PC's graphic in the status menu.

3. Found more data on how skills are loaded in the main menu.  Give or take a day or two when I have free time, I'll be able to allow any character to equip their skills as long as their in PC Slot 1.

4. Officially completely fixed all the item shadowing issues in the item menu.  The biggest issue right now is that the item names repeat after 3 blank item slots even though there's no item in the slot.  Fix that, then fix L/R movement and the item organization is done.  After, I'll fix the New/Alphabetical etc... buttons so that they work correctly.

5. Strayed off and found the check for the Combo Counter.  Removed the check, removed the Combo Counter option in general and have it always enabled.  Reason being, I think I'm going to try and add in a formula for experience that checks the number of hits you've done in a combo and then add more experience to the total.  For this, I'm going to have to change the combo counter slightly so it has a specific amount of time before it sets the counter back to 00, but store the max value somewhere else and check it after battle once it adds the experience.  Shouldn't be TOO difficult.

[mrspoon]

If you're considering importing the PSX sprites, why not go for the gold and import the PSP sprites?

[Gemini]

Because they're totally inconsistent and their styles clash each other like a punch in the eyes.