Unused Hahn graphic in PSIV...

[Doctor Hooves]

Today, I just found out there is an unused graphic for Hahn.

It's a spell-cast graphic in battle. The techs Hahn has only use one-hand, while his skills use no hands. This graphic shows him using two hands, similar to Gryz casting War-Cry, or Raja casting Miracle or Ataraxia, infact, I was using the disassembly to give him. Ataraxia.

Speaking of which, most characters seem to have a secondary spell-cast graphic, for Alys, it's holding her slicer upfront, for Rune, he holds back his arm little bit more, for Chaz, he does nothing, like how Hahn does for Vision, thus mean Chaz also has a somewhat unused spell-cast graphic, and this also means Hahn has a total of three spell-cast graphics.

I'm not the first person to see this, as in the purgatory mode hack, Hahn does have Ataraxia, so most people who played this hack likely saw this, including the hack maker. I guess they never realised the graphic was unused.

I'm not sure if any other characters have unused spell-cast graphics, but it's [i]possible[i]. I'll keep an eye out for anything else like this in the disassembly.

Thanks for reading!!

[Doctor Hooves]

Here's what it looks like, by the way:

https://imgur.com/a/TDq6s

[The PS Logo]

Hahn's sprite is symmetrical. Wouldn't it just be flipped to save precious memory?

[etony33]

In this particular case, he's not using one hand or the other hand, but both. In the case of Gryz's one handed animation (which actually is used in the vanilla game despite him not being able to equip knives, because it's used for Sweeping), it's just flipped if you edit the ROM to give him the ability to equip knives.

[etony33]

Now I want to give Seth Ataraxia to see what happens

[MrStarbird]

While researching for my creation of the Phantasy Star IV Randomizer, I found that only certain characters can use certain skills without crashing the game. Seth with Ataraxia is one of those things. Most are still limited to the original character (like Chaz with any of his swordskills and Rika with her clawskills), but some skills can be used by everybody with no graphical or crash issues (mostly the default android skills and all of Seth's skills).

Even so, I never noticed the two-hand Hahn animation. Maybe I just haven't caught it yet. The only other hidden animation I've seen was a Gryz dagger animation (though it is used as his Sweeping animation), but when adding dagger support for Gryz in the Randomizer, it works just fine.

[etony33]

^Same goes for Anna and guns. Her gun animation exists, she just can't use them.

[Zucca]

While researching for my creation of the Phantasy Star IV Randomizer

Oh yes! Do you have the project on github?

[MrStarbird]

if allowed to post it on the forums, I will. I know some places forbid linking so I'll keep that as it is for now.

[Zucca]

if allowed to post it on the forums, I will. I know some places forbid linking so I'll keep that as it is for now.

I don't think I would break any rules. Why would it?
Although I haven't read them for a while...

Also... If you're into randomizers... Have you played Shining in the Darkness..?

[MrStarbird]

https://github.com/MrStarbird/PStar4-Randomizer

I need to do an update on the PS4 Randomizer because some people caught a bug where some Robes are unequippable when the Open Armor option is selected.

And yes, I have played Shining in the Darkness.

[Zucca]

And yes, I have played Shining in the Darkness.

That game could be easily randomized completely. I mean all those dungeons too...

[Zucca]

Hahn's sprite is symmetrical. Wouldn't it just be flipped to save precious memory?

Sometimes the space saving goes a bit further. Although Kosinski compression wasn't used in PSII but Amy's and Shir's graphics are mostly the same. The game seems to just use different color palettes for them.

Also I think in most Classic PS games the "idle" battle graphic is symmetrical in Y-axis. I don't know if there's only half of the graphic in the ROM, but space wise that would make sense to just mirror the rest graphic using software in "real time".

[cala]

The only other hidden animation I've seen was a Gryz dagger animation (though it is used as his Sweeping animation), but when adding dagger support for Gryz in the Randomizer, it works just fine.

If I remember rightly, that one's actually addressed directly in the little comic in the PSIV gallery section on the Sega Saturn Phantasy Star Collection. It's been a while since I read it, but I think the director said that he decided quite late in development that he wanted Gryz to be able to use daggers as well, and specifically asked the programmer to make it happen, but then they realised after the programmer went to all of the hassle implementing it that Gryz's Crash skill used an animation of him swinging an axe, and that they'd need to add a unique animation for Crash with a dagger. The director didn't have the nerve to ask the programmer to fix things again, so he decided to not mention it, and just quietly cut the ability for Gryz to use daggers. :P