DCFFVII Research Thread

So, "Pullum" is a pun.

The Twilight Mexican said:

So, "Pullum" is a pun.

Click to expand...

... *googles and tries to find out what the pun is*

Pullum. Latin for "chicken". Is that what you're referring to? Those who pay for TSV Pullum to do your work are chickens?

Another source says that pullum is a latin word for "fledgling". ...I am so lost. XD


One pun that I'm seriously wondering if it was intended is the NPC name "Este-D". When I read it out loud I always say it as "STD". Sexually Transmitted Disease.
I mean... Is it possible? Could Square really have been so naughty? They did after all pull that condom reference in Crisis Core once. EDIT: Or maybe it wasn't actually a condom reference, I dunno.

EDIT #2: Okay I think I got the pun now. "Pull your mission", right?

what was the crisis core reference?

Strangelove said:

what was the crisis core reference?

Click to expand...

From this post


It was Doom Bunneh who made the connection that "Magnum" might be a reference to the condom brand. While the condom itself isn't black, the packaging is often black and they are typically very large condoms.

The connection may not be at all intended and perhaps not even close to what the Japanese line says.

"Barret" sounds like Barrett, the gun/manufacturer. Magnum is a gun/manufacturer, and Bullet sounds kinda similar to Barret (... sorta. it's where his Japanese name derives from). So if you put those ideas together you get "Barret".

さすがにミッドガルとコレル村を往復するのは骨が折れることであります！

The dialogue in your English screenshot looks like it's supposed to come after that Japanese dialogue.

Re:"Pullum," I was thinking "pull 'em along."

Now I'm on the lookout for what the other NPC names might mean. If we had their dialogue, we might be able to actually figure out some of them.




For those who missed it, I posted my Dirge of Cerberus collection.



@JBedford

Went ahead and took new screenshots. This NPC dialogue fits into the moments shortly before you leave for Nibelheim.




Far as I know, the NPC dialogue should be the same here between versions since my playstyle was the same in both.

It's hard to make out all of the text within, but this scan from the CC Ultimania shows a screenshot of the Japanese line that references Barret. From what I can make out with confidence, I get マグナムだかブレッドだかのリーダー風吹かせる大男がいちばん -- which is pretty close to what you see in that localized English line (though we've got "Bread" instead of "Bullet" XD). But that's not the whole sentence in Japanese, so I'm not sure what's missing from the remainder.

Look for a line that begins with what I typed out above and we can take it from there.

The Barret reference exists as a third talk-to line, instead of a second one like in the English game.

マグナムだかブレッドだかのリーダー風吹かせる大男がいちばん扱いづらかったと仲間がグチってたであります！

"My comrades complained that the big leader-like guy, Magnum or Bread or whatever, was the hardest to deal with."

The HP values of box crates and exploding drum cans vary. The damage that boxes receive from melee swipes are fixed for each box, regardless of your equipment and level.


Chapter 1 boxes: 90HP, 30HP removed per melee swipe (a dash also counts as a melee swipe).
Chapter 10 box: 60HP, 20HP removed per melee swipe.
Chapter 10 exploding barrel: 60HP

In the Extra Mission "Shieldbreaker", all eleven exploding drum cans have 10HP each. This mission and "Cyclopean Causeway" take place on what the Multiplayer referes to as the "Bridge" map, which is simply the bridge to WRO HQ.

The Multiplayer version of the bridge is different from the Single Player, with more ladders and traversable platforms. From one of the vantage points you can even descend through a shaft down to the underground corridors. Someday I will make a recording where I explore this normally inaccessible area but I'm postponing that to see if I can first find a way to remove the mission timer.

On opposite ends of the bridge there are two boxes. These appear in both "Cyclopean Causeway" and "Shieldbreaker".



Each box has 400HP, with 200HP being removed per melee swipe. The boxes in Shieldbreaker are curious though because even when their HP reaches 0, the boxes refuse to break apart!

This is similar to what happens if I use Cheat Engine to set the HP value of a box or drum can to zero: The object refuses to be destroyed no matter how much I shoot- or melee it.

So far every attempt to destroy these boxes using Cheat Engine has led to the emulator crashing. Ergo I have not been able to confirm if these boxes hold any loot. They probably don't, but it would be nice to confirm.



EDIT: The Extra Mission "DG Unlimited" has some sealed off sections too. It uses the "Outskirts of Deepground" map, similar to the start of Chapter 10 in the Single Player, but its Multiplayer counterpart is slightly different. "DG Unlimited" is the only mission to use this map.

What appears to be a single box crate is standing in your way at the top of some stairs you are normally not allowed to reach. Upon destroying the box, you get a "2 killchain", as though you had just destroyed three targets. Well, that's because you did! The one box is actually three boxes in the exact same location.



Each box starts out with 400HP. One melee attack removes 200HP. By manipulating the HP of each of the three boxes, I can easily destroy one box at a time.

Satisfying to have this mystery solved. The "indestructible" boxes in Shieldbreaker remain mysterious though.

HP values for bosses in the main game ("Single Player"), Ex Hard, International version.


The same address will show each boss's HP in the visual HP gauge, but HP modifiers have their unique address for each boss. The only bosses I have not found HP modifiers for are Arachnero and the Crystal Feelers.


EDIT: Though it appears like you are not inflicting damage on Weiss the Immaculate, judging from his visual HP gauge alone, his HP modifier reveals that you actually are inflicting damage. This is consistent with the fact that numbers appear above Weiss's head when you manage to land shots during this unwinnable battle.

He has 30000HP, almost twice what Weiss Empowered has. If you change his HP to zero, he will simply cease being a targetable object and the fight will continue as usual. Normally Weiss the Immaculate will never reach 0HP though. Once you get him down to 1HP, his value freezes there. He remains a target and numbers show up as you hit him with bullets, but his HP remains fixed at 1.



Some bosses will die instantly when you modify their HP to 0, some will cause the game to freeze because the game is waiting for some other prompt to trigger a proper death animation and the subsequent cutscenes.


Let me just say that defeating all five Pegasus Riders instantly...IS AWESOME! Modifying the HP of each rider to zero, then watching as the screen turns white for over a second, followed by the sight of wonderful carnage. >=D

Progress made in regards to hacking the mission-specific timer.

I can...
- Freeze and unfreeze the timer
- Remove the timer from view
- Shift to other timers and counters ("Targets", "Medals")
- Change the position of the counter on the screen on both the X- and Y axis.
- Change the text size of the counter
- Adjust how many digits that get to follow the Seconds digit. Normally the game shows deciseconds, Minutes : Seconds : 00, sometimes it shows milliseconds, Minutes : Seconds : 000. I can change those last digits to how many I want, but beyond milliseconds all digits will usually only show zeros, without any actual countdown visible.


This successful hacking was first made in Extra Mission #12, "Vincent the Destroyer". If you go below a certain height, a five-second countdown to instant death will begin. Go back to higher ground in order to cancel the countdown. A very good place for finding the timer using Cheat Engine. By freezing the timer I was able to prevent an instant Game Over from happening and could thus freely explore the area at ground level.



The "Vincent the Destroyer" had an alternate timer which was always set to zero and with a red glow to the letters. While the same addresses for manipulating the timer/counter/countdown here works in other parts of the game, only this Extra Mission had the red-glow counter.

My goal is to remove all three aspects of the counter: The name (Targets/Time/Medals), the countdown and the graphic line inbetween. The first two I can change easily, but while the third challenge has been achieved at times I have not been able to replicate the results.




To my surprise I was able to change the writing of the Counter Name. So after making a list of the available standard symbols, I changed the text from "Time" to...



The timer in the snapshot above is unused and I only recall seeing it in snapshots for the Multiplayer in the DC Official Complete Guide. The screenshots in that book represent the Multiplayer after beta testing but still pre-launch. There is also a timer that only shows minutes and seconds.


Japanese symbols can also be unlocked/hacked to the Counter name. Perhaps I could use this newfound knowledge to track letters elsewhere in the game and change them.

You're crazy [awesome], Shad.

And even with all this FFXV happening...this stuff still makes me want to replay Dirge, lol.

Thank you Force, your support means a lot. =)

Knowing the byte values for the symbols, I found something my heart has been aching to see for a long time. Seen in the Memory Viewer of Cheat Engine...



I am so happy right now. Not only to see the "Number 7. Nice to meet you!" line in the actual code, but to confirm that any other variation with Cait Sith saying for example "Number 8" is unlikely to exist. A joyous day this is. Victory themes are called for!

Browsing the text of the game using Cheat Engine implies that I have indeed found all the items in the game. In the list of items and item descriptions, there is no item that I have not already unlocked.

When I'm on the Shera, the Shera script is available for easy view in Cheat Engine. When I'm not on the Shera, that text is gone. In other words, the game's manuscript isn't at all times laid out and readable in the memory. It checks where you are in the game and prints the text accordingly. Because of this I can't be certain yet that no NPC dialogue from the Multiplayer exists in the data.

However, the menu text is always available no matter where you are. One point in the data lists the available speaker names, and Multiplayer NPCs outside of the unlockable cutscenes are not among them. I conclude then that it's increasingly unlikely that we'll find any NPC text from characters like DGSC Hiren or TSV Pullum.


There is unused text referencing some team battle menus, Multiplayer button configurations, PlayOnline menus and the beta version handed out for beta testers.





EDIT:
Among the "Stage Mission" menu text, I spot two unused stage missions! Each has a line of text intended for when the screen announces the mission and one line for when the menu checks your current score in the mission.


"Gather Information on Midgar!" <-- Located between Ch6 and Ch8-1
"Information Gathered"

"Collect Death Penalty ammunition!"
"Bullets Obtained"


The Stage Results ranking "Limit Breaks" also exists in translated form, despite never being used post-JORG.

There is also a reference to the "Defeat Omega Weiss!" Stage Mission which is never announced with this line of text, but you can read about it in the menu.

Shademp said:

Thank you Force, your support means a lot. =)

Knowing the byte values for the symbols, I found something my heart has been aching to see for a long time. Seen in the Memory Viewer of Cheat Engine...

Spoiler: Number 7. Nice to meet you!

I am so happy right now. Not only to see the "Number 7. Nice to meet you!" line in the actual code, but to confirm that any other variation with Cait Sith saying for example "Number 8" is unlikely to exist. A joyous day this is. Victory themes are called for!

Click to expand...

o

Vindication at last! They said I was mad! Mad! But Shad showed them! He showed them all! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(I continue to be impressed by just how much you're mining from this game. And now we have proof I'm not lying or delusional. Yay!)

How rather curious. I investigated some of the unused items in JORG and found differences with their post-JORG counterparts.


Online Mode Items

X-Potion
JORG: Restores 500HP.
Post-JORG: Restores 150HP.


OI3
JORG: Elixir effect.
Post-JORG: Restores 150HP.


Phoenix Pinion
JORG: Same effect as "Single Player" Phoenix Pinion. Vincent is revived upon KO, but only with 20% of his max HP.
Post-JORG: Restores 150HP.

The bigger discrepancy here is that in the initial release, Phoenix Pinion spawns an icon in the bottom left corner like that from the Phoenix Down, except without a halo. In post-JORG, the Phoenix Pinion spawns a skull.

Icon for Phoenix Pinion effect in JORG:



Icon for Phoenix Pinion effect post-JORG:



Icon for Phoenix Down effect:



If you have used a Phoenix Pinion, no matter which version, and then proceed to use a Phoenix Down then the icon for the latter will replace the former.



The item description for the Phoenix Pinion is that you only have a 50% chance of revival, despite that the actual effect is a 100% ensured revival but with only 20% of your total HP restored.

I previously made sense out of the skull icon by linking it with the potential doom highlighted in the item description, but I'm leaning more now towards the idea that this icon represents an unused Poison or Doom effect. Hopefully I'll find more solid data on this eventually, like for example unlocking an actual unused status effect.



OI6
JORG: Same effect as Hero Tonic, which grants invincibility for 10 seconds.
Post-JORG: Restores 50MP.


OI7
JORG: Same effect as Hero Tonic Gold, which grants invincibility for 20 seconds.
Post-JORG: Same effect as Limit Breaker.

The item OI7 was my initial motivation today for revisiting these items. I wanted to see if the OI7 "Limit Breaker" worked on Vincent in JORG, but instead it only works as a Hero Tonic Gold. The "Single Player" Limit Breaker item doesn't exist in JORG. Its equivalent item ID in JORG is the unused item "SI27" which can't be used for anything.

Ergo, I have no way of testing out a "Limit Breaker" on Vincent in JORG.


OI8
JORG: Can't be consumed. You will not even get an "ERROR" sfx from trying to use it.
Post-JORG: Vincent is turned into a living grenade! Upon use, Vincent gets stuck in whatever animation he is currently performing. After five seconds, Vincent flies into the air as though something exploded, causing damage to both Vincent and his surroundings.


OI9
JORG: Same non-effect as OI8.
Post-JORG: Vincent freezes in place and will typically only be released if he is melee'd by enemies. I speculate that this is a remnant of the "S-Mine" item since it locks Vincent in place, but without having an explosive effect intact.


OI10, OI11 and OI12 act the same as OI8 and OI9 in JORG.

Post-JORG, OI10 restores 150HP, just like a Potion in the online mode. OI11 and OI12 are represented by gold/gil icons, while their JORG equivalents have the standard "usable item" icon.

Bridge map exploration now in video form.




While I failed to find a simple, consistent On/Off switch for the Counter stuff, I did find the addresses to change where on the screen that the aforementioned lines are placed.


As it turns out, there are four objects you have to move. The long, horizontal line, and then the three angled lines.


Once I got the counter numbers, text and lines out of the way, I could create a Bridge map exploration video without any of that junk cluttering the screen. ...Hmm, would be interesting to move your health and weapon stuffs (top left and bottom left) out of view.



Oh, I also got to see Vincent's teeth from behind and inside him!

Found the address for changing Vincent's "status". The status can be...
- Nothing/Normal
- Invincible
- Phoenix Pinion
- Phoenix Down

In the address I found, there is no sign of a Poison or Doom status effect. This, and further research into the game's icons, makes me withdraw my confidence on the post-JORG skull being intended for a Poison or Doom effect. The skull could be anything.

Locking your status at Invincible is way better than locking the HP value, because the status makes it so that Vincent is never stunned or knocked back. Melee attacks just phase through him and shots won't slow him down. Explosions won't even knock him back! Man I love this status effect. I still need to find a new address for every game zone though.


While investigating status effects, I found a way to change the icon that appears for the status. The icons borrowed appear to be from a general menu gfx table, as a wide variety of menu-related gfx could appear.



Many icons would appear compressed and with a color scheme tinted towards the red, different from what they are "supposed" to be. I also can't be sure that I've unlocked every aspect of the menu graphics tables. Still, these treasures are lovely.


Debug/Test menu colors. Most of the icons unlocked are actually different color gradients for the menus.








Emote Menu icons. There is a window used to make the online character do poses or say certain lines. I believe you could customize this window heavily. Here is what the window looks like in a recording versus how it is represented in the Official DC Complete guide.





The icons shown in the guide can be unlocked in the game.









Cursor: Vincent's claw. Yup, they both remain in the post-JORG data. I'm not sure if the second pointer is ever used outside of the Multiplayer.




Mission Cleared. Just replace the red tint with blue and you will have the symbol placed next to a cleared mission in the Multiplayer. For the Extra Missions, the "Mission Cleared" symbol has the same outline but it is purely white there.



Notification Icons: Top right of screen.

- Mail
- Chat Message
- Beta Symbol from Beta Version
- Network Connection: Letter S
- Network Connection: Letter A

- Seen in online mode recordings when the game is loading.
- I have not spotted the "arrow down" version in any recordings yet.

- Unknown. Mail being sent? Download occurring?


Huge White Arrows



JORG exclusive
- PlayOnline symbol?
- PlayOnline symbol?
- Indicator that a Mission or Battle requires a password in order to enter.
- Clock
- Phoenix Pinion Effect
- Arrow left and arrow right. Context unknown.


Post-JORG exclusive
- Skull
- Flag


Other
- Compressed exclamation mark/point. I know "!" were used in communication somehow, but I don't know the exact context.
- PlayOnline reports refer to these "GM", which appear to be "Group Messaging". Group Chats, essentially.
- Player avatar. Used in the context of entering missions and battles, perhaps only reserved for a "leader" character.
- Team Base Battle
- Unknown.


The complete lack of the skull icon in JORG is quite curious, as is the lack of the flag. The halo-less wings of JORG can't be found post-JORG.

In page 240 from the DC Complete guide you can see some of the symbols listed above. In there you will also see the "Crossed Swords" icon which is outlined the same as the emote icon.

I never realized the cursor was supposed to be Vin's claw.

I learned to teleport today. Using the zonelist to find the address for zones/maps was easier than expected. I've been jumping about and discovering so much stuff that I'd make Nightcrawler from the X-Men feel inadequate.

There is naturally the issue that in many cases I teleport to complete darkness, because the zone doesn't have it preset to start out Vincent in the proper coordinates, or to even activate Vincent at all.

Here is a quick summary of the goodies I found.


- I unlocked THE ENDING CREDITS to the online mode!



With the English console setting the credits were placed slightly too far to the right, with letters sometimes reaching out of view. It looks both like a result of the English font being wider and the entire column being moved to the right. Will compare with Japanese console setting. Also the music ends before the credits finish.


- A "dummy/test" map, used for various zones, which look like an early version of the Train Graveyard.



The camera is frozen and so is Vincent, so I could not explore the map. The snapshot is the only perspective I have so far.


- Test zones for bosses and basic battles were explored as well. Simple debugging areas.



Though I wasn't always able to teleport to a specific map, I was able to unlock their map menus. Some zones had menu maps, some did not. Ignore the map names in the snapshots as those did not change when I unlocked other menu maps.

I found complete maps for...
- Valley, the Multiplayer-exclusive map observed in Scene 7.
- The Throne Room, Multiplayer version.
- ALL DEEPGROUND LOBBY MENU MAPS. Yes. All of them. All four cardinal lobbies, all of their basements, PLUS the terminal inbetween missions AND a primitive-looking menu map.





In the cardinal lobbies all the terminals are pointed out. Shops, ranking terminals, unit management and even the Beginner's Machine. This is nowhere near the incomplete, broken map of the "Deepground" Extra Mission that I had already explored.

Menu maps from "z217", which is called "Multi - Visual Lobby 2" in the zonelist. There is no equivalent zone called "Visual Lobby 1" or just "Visual Lobby".



My only guess for what the mysterious, primitively designed map might be is the room where you created/picked your Player Character. In screenshots of this map I have not been able to match it with any other parts of Deepground. It makes sense that this map would be used for an area where the player is never granted menu access.



Makes you wonder where the Terminal and the Player Character Map exists spatially in relation to the rest of the lobby. Wherever they exist, breaking the boundaries of the lobby have so far not made these two areas render anywhere for me.

The complete Valley menu map was found in z232. While we can't confirm yet if the zone actually contains the full area, we know that Scene 7 uses it in z246. Just like with z232, teleporting to z246 will yield only a black, frozen screen. Our only way to view z246 is via the cutscene.




Area z238 held a full menu map for the Throne Room as it appears in the Multiplayer. The amount of ground you can tread is far greater than in the Single Player, and you see hints of these additional patches of ground in the Restrictor battle video.




The Multiplayer cutscenes occupy zones 240-249, which aren't used in any other contexts. The ending credits to the online mode is in z249 and you only need to do the most basic form of teleportation in order for the ending credits to roll. Apart from the International version, you can also trigger these ending credits in the PAL version.

I watched the credits with the Japanese console setting. Apart from one or two kanji symbols that don't want to show up properly (and are instead replaced by blackness) the credits looked perfectly okay with the Japanese setting. The music was timed correctly upon my first watch, but trying to record the staff roll leads to a strain on the emulator which makes the music time out worse again. Odds look slim that I'll be able to get a recording of the ending credits where the music is timed and where the scrolling text doesn't slow down.


No luck in finding menu maps for the Multiplayer-exclusive areas "Roof", "Fort", "Snowy Mountain" and "City", despite them having corresponding zones in the zonelist.

Quite by accident I discovered an address with which I could remove the wall collision from that particular area in the game. Then by yet another happy accident I discovered a way to find this collision-remover for every zone of the game, despite the address being different in every game zone.

With this I could even turn off the collision in one of the "Early Train Graveyard" maps...but this is of course useless, because I still can't move around Vincent or the camera in that map. On that topic I did discover an address elsewhere in the game that can lock Vincent's movements, similar to what has happened to him in the unused/test map, but I have no way of finding the corresponding address in the Early Train Graveyard zone(s).


Plenty of cool exploration has been done through the lack of collision. Here is stuff from the "Chapter 6" WRO HQ map. Technically from zone011, which is a debug version of that area. Like with all the debug rooms I have roamed successfully, they concern debugging for Extra Missions.