GBA Castlevania HOD: Revenge of the Findesiecle Japan to USA Port

[sorrow]

This project is now released and can be found here:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5848/

Hello everyone.  I've mostly been messing around with Music Hacking for Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance for a while now, but I know that one of it's most popular hacks is Castlevania HOD: Revenge of the Findesiecle.

*Full credit for this AMAZING hack goes to PUNKEMNX & TonyJih*

The Revenge of the Findesiecle hack is only compatible with the Japanese Castlevania: Byakuya no Concerto.  I unfortunately only know English, but have always wanted to be able to play this hack on the USA version so that I could understand it.

Alas, I am also very much a newb in the realm of rom hacking.  HOWEVER, messing around with Music Hacking has helped me learn about pointers and so I couple of weeks ago I wondered if maybe, rather than try to translate the hack, would it be possible to transfer the relavanet new data over to the USA Version and change some pointers around?

*PREFACE - I did all of the below ONLY with a HEX Editor, I have absolutely ZERO knowledge of Assembly or .asm programming or how to use no$gba to debug, but would very much love to eventually learn all of the above as I continue in my Computer Science program.*

So, using comparisons and HxD, I started to transfer data over a little bit at a time, and do some loading to see if the game still worked.  After a few changes, the game started to break, and I got discouraged, but still pressed forward.

Suffice to say, after A LOT of comparison, and changing pointers, I have been very CLOSE to successful!

But there are some caveats.  In the transfer, I have been able to get ALL of the added characters to load, but there are just a few things preventing it from being a full on USA version of the hack.

Examples of early issues that have since been fixed:

*Transferring data originally led to the Nintendo Screen and USA Title Screen having a broken version of the Japanese screen, but this was corrected by utilizing the USA data for that section instead.

Initially Broken:


Fixed:


*Pausing the game was broken after loading extra characters.  Pressing Start would just simply reset the game:



*The Julius extra character was not able to hit anything with his whip. 


This was fixed when I realized that some of the data that I believed to be "Pointers" were actually not pointers, and thus changed back to how the data was in the Japanese Version.


These are the current known issues I am having:

*The Title Screen Logo obviously has a different image than the Japanese Version, and so the palette changes to the log were applied differently, and thus the Logo looks off:
This has now been fixed.

Japan Version


USA Version


This should be an easy palette fix.
Done!

USA Version FIXED


*In the Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle, when pressing start during gameplay for all of the extra characters (EXCEPT Julius), the game simply pauses (similar to Boss Rush Mode).  In my testing of the USA port, pressing start will actually bring up the normal Juste gameplay Menu.
This has now been fixed.

Broken Pause Screen:


Pause Screen Fixed:


*And lastly, sort of a two-fer:
   
   1.    When playing as the Julius extra character, pressing start during gameplay brings up a menu, but it is again, the Juste gameplay menu, rather than the custom Julius gameplay menu created by PUNKEMNX & TonyJih.
   This has now been fixed.

Japan Version


USA Version Broken


USA Version Now Fixed


   2.   For Julius mode only, the Entrance song in the Japanese Version, plays a custom track for Julius in that area, but in the USA Version, it plays the stock Juste Theme. (I assume fixing 1. would fix 2.)
   This has now been fixed, and it was indeed a result of getting the Menu Stuff fixed.

*Speaking of Menu things, when fixing the Julius menu, originally, our hero's name was Julius BelmoT?!

Julius Belmot 


Fixed, now he is Julius Belmont once again 


Wishful Thinking (Not as big a deal): 

*Update the current use of ROCKMAN Name Entry to load Megaman to be MEGAMAN instead.
This has now been fixed thanks to the insight of both raygun and verme.

ROCKMAN


MEGAMAN


This is where I am at, currently, and hopefully, with some insight, and possibly the help of the community, I can get this port finished for fans of this game.

Following the potential success of a USA port, I don't see anything that would prevent applying the same methods to the European Version, so that those fans can participate on the fun as well.

Post Release Fixes (Will submit update soon):

Item Room Collection Descriptions:


SoundMode Music Name Fixes:

[Morinis]

Very nice!   

[Masked Dedede]

Would it be possible to add Simon's jump kick, slide, and back dash animations from Harmony of Despair to this project?

[sorrow]

Hey Masked Dedede!

Unfortunately, that is not the scope of this project.  The goal is to successfully get Japan Findesiecle to work properly on the USA Version of Harmony of Dissonance, and then possibly the European Version.

Unless they were already in the Japan Findesiecle, its safe to assume that the USA version of SIMONX (I'm assuming, as from my testing he's the version that gets a double jump, kick and slide) will not have that.  I did notice, I've never played through with him, but in my test when you try to do a "jump kick" does he actually hit anything?  In my test he shoots down to the enemy, but gets hit instead.

[MathUser2929]

In the megaman one, could you make his gun to go across the screen. Also make it so youcan shoot more than 1. When you change the pause menu pic it would be good to see custom pictures.
March 02, 2021, 08:58:10 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Also, when Simon sleds the animation is wrong. In HOD Despair the theres a sprite of simon sliding.

[sorrow]

Hey MathUser2929, that's how Megaman (well, I guess "Rockman") behaves in the Japanese Findesiecle, so that is how he is in the current state of the USA version.

Again, all I'm trying to do here is port that Hack over to be compatible with the USA version, so the goal is the make the USA version behave just as it would when you play the Japan Findesiecle hack.

The menu screens are currently one of the issues.  In the Japan Findesiecle, the game does not actually load the menu screen for the following:  Maxim, Devil Juste, Simon, Devil Simon, Mario, or Rockman/Megaman.

Instead, it just "pauses" until you hit start and it will un-pause to continue gameplay.

Julius has a custom Menu when you press start for him, as well as custom music, but it's not working correctly at the moment.

[Masked Dedede]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/805444997272043560/816672373872918578/CV_RotF_New_Enhanced_Simon_Sprites1.png

Simon's new sprites from HD re-colored with Enhanced Simon's palette, added a new front dash sprite. Maybe you could add the dashes for Enhanced Simon as a separate patch?

Also perhaps have a patch to swap Heart of Fire (prolouge theme) and Don't Wait Until Night (Julius' entrance theme) so that they fit better

[sorrow]

Music changes should be straightforward, but right now, I need help on figuring out how to go about fixing the stuff that is currently listed as broken.
March 04, 2021, 10:59:40 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Tiny update, playing around with a new Simon Sprite for this port.  When it resets in the middle of the GIF, it's to show SIMONX.

I put in the SSBU Simon Sprite from Spriters-Resource, and  I fixed the whip so that it doesn't share colors with Simon.  Now it looks like a proper chain whip...
 

[verme]

First, congratulations on the project and thank you very much for sharing.

Here is my small contribution:

I found a way to change ROCKMAN to MEGAMAN.
just look for 1310040C0E020F and replace the first 4 bytes (1310040C) with 0E060802.

[sorrow]

Haha, I was actually about to make an edit with this very change.  You had the same knowledge as the person who helped me figure it out, still very awesome!  Thank you much!
March 09, 2021, 01:21:26 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Hey everyone, discovered a neat little trick yesterday that allows the extra characters to act as the main during Juste story mode.

With some creativity, it can allow for some fan story mods of Harmony of Dissonance.

Here's a preview (sorry, it's a long gif):



I'll add some info to the original post later to explain how this was done.

[Aceearly1993]

I think Juste X is already okay with story mode since he's just Juste himself before taken a whole lot of drug.

One thing I notice was the afterimage; in the Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle, Julius and Juste X were given transparent afterimage when they were dashing/running. On your gifs they became blue again like in original game. Did something broken during conversion, or you'd be okay with the blue afterimage?

[sorrow]

I think Juste X is already okay with story mode since he's just Juste himself before taken a whole lot of drug.

One thing I notice was the afterimage; in the Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle, Julius and Juste X were given transparent afterimage when they were dashing/running. On your gifs they became blue again like in original game. Did something broken during conversion, or you'd be okay with the blue afterimage?

Hey there Aceearly1993!  You are correct, that was a trouble shooting issue, and I've figured out the fix.  I just have to take the time to update the post showing the correction.

Now, in the "Julius story mode" the shadows are again blue, but it's more to do with when loading story mode, it thinks it's Juste, so a simple custom palette change with DSVania should fix the shadow thing. 

Of course the Julius story mode thing was a bit of fun, and I am honestly still surprised in myself that I figured out which pointers made that change.

Now if I could only get the "Maxim" abilites to load in Story mode instead of Juste's, that would be something, but really, leaving it as Juste's spell move set gives way more moves for gameplay, so it's a win either way.

[Aceearly1993]

Hey there Aceearly1993!  You are correct, that was a trouble shooting issue, and I've figured out the fix.  I just have to take the time to update the post showing the correction.

Now, in the "Julius story mode" the shadows are again blue, but it's more to do with when loading story mode, it thinks it's Juste, so a simple custom palette change with DSVania should fix the shadow thing. 

Of course the Julius story mode thing was a bit of fun, and I am honestly still surprised in myself that I figured out which pointers made that change.

Now if I could only get the "Maxim" abilites to load in Story mode instead of Juste's, that would be something, but really, leaving it as Juste's spell move set gives way more moves for gameplay, so it's a win either way.

Great to know you're making rapid progress in the conversion, sorrow! So Julius has transparant afterimage now?
Also is the pause menu an exclusive thing bounded with "the game thinks the character is Juste/Julius" value?
If there's enough trouble with Julius in Story mode, leave Julius mode alone in the original status of Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle would be OK, and keep equipment menu available with other characters.

[sorrow]

Great to know you're making rapid progress in the conversion, sorrow! So Julius has transparant afterimage now?
Also is the pause menu an exclusive thing bounded with "the game thinks the character is Juste/Julius" value?
If there's enough trouble with Julius in Story mode, leave Julius mode alone in the original status of Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle would be OK, and keep equipment menu available with other characters.

I actually don't know how to get the menus to load for the other characters, only the original hackers know what they did for that. 

But don't worry, I plan on releasing this as just that, a USA Release of Findesiecle that can be played in English. 

The other stuff, like having Julius as the main character will be like an add on patch for those who want to dabble in creating a story for him.

It's basically removes Juste as the main character, it's not a thing where you can select which one loads.

[Aceearly1993]

I actually don't know how to get the menus to load for the other characters, only the original hackers know what they did for that. 

But don't worry, I plan on releasing this as just that, a USA Release of Findesiecle that can be played in English. 

The other stuff, like having Julius as the main character will be like an add on patch for those who want to dabble in creating a story for him.

It's basically removes Juste as the main character, it's not a thing where you can select which one loads.

That sounds a bit complex. So will the equipment menu for other characters available in your release of USA conversion in the future? Or it would be a separate patch or sort?

[sorrow]

That sounds a bit complex. So will the equipment menu for other characters available in your release of USA conversion in the future? Or it would be a separate patch or sort?

No, the only extra character with an equipment menu is Julius, thats how it is in the Japan release. 

HOWEVER, I do plan on making separate patches that change the main Julius character to load one of the extra characters instead, and THOSE do have menu access (because remember, all that happens is that they load instead of Juste).

Think of it as just playing the Juste story with Megaman going through the castle and such.

[Aceearly1993]

No, the only extra character with an equipment menu is Julius, thats how it is in the Japan release. 

HOWEVER, I do plan on making separate patches that change the main Julius character to load one of the extra characters instead, and THOSE do have menu access (because remember, all that happens is that they load instead of Juste).

Think of it as just playing the Juste story with Megaman going through the castle and such.

*In the Japanese Revenge of the Findesiecle, when pressing start during gameplay for all of the extra characters (EXCEPT Julius), the game simply pauses (similar to Boss Rush Mode).  In my testing of the USA port, pressing start will actually bring up the normal Juste gameplay Menu.

Well, I mean would this be applied in the converted release? This enhancement/optimization caught my interest.

[sorrow]

Well, I mean would this be applied in the converted release? This enhancement/optimization caught my interest.

Hey Aceearly1993, sorry if I'm being confusing.  The release will be exactly how the Japanese one is, so no menu loading for the extra characters EXCEPT Julius, to mirror exactly how the Japanese one is.

That gif was showcasing a glitch in the port that has since been fixed.

And again, if you're interested in a menu loading for a character the only way I know how to make it work, is to replace Juste in story mode with one of the other characters, but again, they would replace Juste completely, but load an equipment menu and if I get a chance, at least replace the portrait.

That's just bonus stuff I was thinking about trying to add as optional add ons.

The main goal for this is to port the Japan Findesiecle's features as is to the USA rom so it can be enjoyed in English.

[Aceearly1993]

Hey Aceearly1993, sorry if I'm being confusing.  The release will be exactly how the Japanese one is, so no menu loading for the extra characters EXCEPT Julius, to mirror exactly how the Japanese one is.

That gif was showcasing a glitch in the port that has since been fixed.

And again, if you're interested in a menu loading for a character the only way I know how to make it work, is to replace Juste in story mode with one of the other characters, but again, they would replace Juste completely, but load an equipment menu and if I get a chance, at least replace the portrait.

That's just bonus stuff I was thinking about trying to add as optional add ons.

The main goal for this is to port the Japan Findesiecle's features as is to the USA rom so it can be enjoyed in English.

Emmm, okay, got it. Will patiently wait for the optional add ons.

[sorrow]

Original post has been updated with new fixes folks!  I'll be getting everything together for a release soon.