Phantasy Star Cave Message Board

My attempted solo Lena vs. Dark Force got me thinking...

Lena can equip things, such as the Royal Emel, that she would never be able to access normally. In fact, Sari can't access it either. So, that has me thinking...did they, due to space concerns, essentially make Lena/Sari, Lyle/Ryan, and Thea/Kara the same character, just with different stats and levelups? That would seem to make sense, because otherwise, it's really odd that Lena can equip those things (just as Rhys can equip the Nei Sword)

Is Tryphon still around? If anyone would know about this, he would.

I don't think it is so much for space concerns, as it takes just as much space to put a check for something as it does to uncheck it. For example, in hex someone who could equip an item would be marked as a 01 whereas if they couldn't equip it, the same byte would be marked as a 00. Space really has nothing to do with it as the game keeps a table of items and checks to see who can equip it.

I know in PS2, each piece of equipment has a value that indicates who can equip it. I can look through my notes to see exactly what is what, but it can be something like "only Rolf, all women except Nei, Rolf and Kain, et cetera).

Now I'm curious about something and will end up checking today. If Nei is in your party during and after the Army Eye battle, the game forces Prison Clothes onto her just as it does with everyone else, but I'm unsure whether she can equip them or not. Nei obviously would never be in your party at that stage in a normal playthrough.

Nei can wear the Prison Clothes iirc, but then again I have never bothered to look in any of my speedruns to check (probably because it would take time that I need to save). Next time I play through it, if I am not making a good time, I will check.

As far as the equipment containing values to determine who can equip the item, I believe that to be true in PS3 as well (I know it to be true in PS4 as I have coded into the randomizer that exact thing in order to let Demi use Wren's weapons). For example (value aren't correct, I am just saying hypothetically), a value of 01 would mean Rolf could equip it, 02 would mean that Rudo could equip it, 03 would mean that both Rolf and Rudo could equip it, 04 would mean Amy could equip it, 05 would mean Amy and Rolf, and so on, and so on.

As far as anything related to data, Lorenzo would probably be the guy you'd want to ask. His disassemblies have been a huge help for my Randomizer.