Talk:Characters (CTP)

General Information[edit]

Dispelling Rumors[edit]

In the history of Prerelease research, many have assumed that there have been extra playable characters. Their proof of this is a Game Genie code -- 1981-E46F -- that supposedly unlocks two extra character slots on the menu. After this had been found, the rumor that Schala was one of the intended characters spread like wildfire, though the second intended was left to one's imagination; analysts held that the game contained extra sprites for Schala that depicted her running and making other movements that only playable characters would emulate.

While the Game Genie code does work, the conclusions drawn from it are incorrect. Chickenlump, one of the foremost ROM hackers, and even I myself have checked through the sprite data and have not found any extra sprites for Schala. Furthermore, another one of the top ROM hackers has disproven the results drawn from the Game Genie code.

Evil Peer: I assume this is the code that allows two "extra" slots to appear for the reserve party. Those slots are for when you have only one character. For example, for Lucca's "Recriminations" side quest where she goes back in time to save her mother, one could potentially have all seven characters. But since only Lucca is playable for this particular point in the story, the other six characters have to go somewhere other than the active party. And if you have not already figured it out, six is more than four.

It should also be noted that, normally, at no time in the game can you add or subtract members from your active party. You can only replace. This is why blank slots are unselectable.

Unless, of course, you fool around with the programming. Like this code does.

Overworld Sprite[edit]

Startingly enough, examination of the Overworld sprites reveals an extra character below the main seven; his slot was replaced with extra idle animations in the final:

This prompted RyogaMasaki to investigate the possibility that an eighth character slot was somewhat functional (a moderate claim compared to the fake code above that provides nine fake slots). Below, he provides a proof and analysis. His conclusion discounts Schala as a candidate completely.

The Empty Slot[edit]

Open up ZSNES or your favorite PAR-code-supporting SNES emulator. Load up the US Final version of the game, and enter this code at the title screen (before the save select):

C0376A65

Hit Start and:

You get a party select screen maxed out with nine character slots. What could THIS mean? Read on.

Now, have a savestate somewhere farther along in the game, so you're able to use the party member setup. Before loading this savestate, enter the following code:

7E298107

What this code does is replace members in your party with ones you specify; the last two digits are the character ID, while the third to last is the party position. After you've activated the code, bring up the savestate and go to the menu. Your second characters name should be Crono's, as well as his portrait. Now for the fun part. Go to the party switch screen.

See that second space, where Chrono's sprite is? Move on to it, then select it, and keep an eye on Gaspar in the corner:

Before doing anything else, switch OFF the code. Then switch him into your party somewhere:

Well, well. Look who's joined you. Go ahead, walk around on screen with him:

Or attempt to battle with him:

What makes this interesting is the fact that, code-wise, an eigth character slot exists, and is (mostly) functional, albeit defunct from missing graphics. The only clue we have is that Gaspar magically jumps into this slot on the character select screen. Many would call this a simple bug, that the code is just pulling a a sprite into an area that needs one. But read on...

The Case for Gaspar[edit]

There are some things you'll need to note about the final version and this eigth slot. First of all, it uses Chrono's name and picture, althought not his stats. He also lacks any techs or any visible attack types. For all purposes, this eigth slot is useless play-wise. Which brings us to the prototype.

The proto offers some key differences from the final in how it handles this extra slot and, on a larger scale, how it handles the character system in general. The code from before (7E298yxx) works on all versions of the game, and can be applied to the proto. As before, have a savestate that farther along in the game, and enter the code as before (7E298107). Switch to your party select screen:

Gaspar is already there, instead of in his corner. (Don't forget to switch off the code before doing anything else!) As in the final, selecting him and moving him about changes his frames, almost as if he were coded to bein such a screen.

Also note that his name, although it is obviously garbage, is not Crono's. He also has his own stats, and in battle has a couple of techs. These are all garbage being pulled from somewhere in tha game, but this char slot is at least trying to access different data, instead of just defaulting to Chrono's stuff as a failsafe in the final.

Put him in your party and head out to the over world (not that, as in the final, you he won't follow you around inside area maps):

Now, depending on the time period you're in, your new character will probably appear as a solid black silhouette. For reasons I'll delve into later, his pallette isn't loaded correctly anywhere except for 65m BC. Head there.

Here is where it starts to get even more intriguing. On the overworld, we now have an unidentifed brown sprite, with three frames of animation: horizontal walking and one down frame.

So, given this, does

=  ?

Gaspar himself hints at joining your party at one point as well:

There are always doubts, however.

The Case Against Gaspar[edit]

If you really take the time to think about it, even Gaspar is a bit of a stretch. For all the evidence suggsting him, there is just as much suggesting it's not him. First of all, the fact that Gaspar jumps into the blank sprite slot on the party select screen does indeed seem to be nothing more than the code resolving its lack of sprite graphic by pulling this extra one appearing on screen. There is a way to prove this in the pre (although not in the final, since character/party control code was greatly improved). With the 8th character in your party, go to your tech screen:

Once again, where this character's sprite should be there is nothing. Select one of your other two characters to bring up their techs, then cancel back out:

It now has the sprite of the character you chose. Reload your savestate, and put the 8th char back in your party, and go to the party formation screen:

Once again, no sprite. Try to move your cursor; the game will lock up. Why? It's not finding an extra sprite. Now, if you combine the first part (the tech screen) with this second part (the party formation), it works fine:

It has the sprite loaded from the previous screen. This lends to the fact that on the original party select screen with Gaspar, it is simply pulling his sprite from the RAM. It is suspicious, however, that Gaspar does have the 'correct' frames for selecting him on that screen, but I personally attribute this to coincidence, or perhaps a template used for all sprites in which the frames for surprised and such are in the same area.

Another thing that you'll notice is just how much the unknown overworld sprite simply does NOT look like gaspar; in fact, the only things really linking them are the brown pallette and the seemingly round hat. The one defining factor that sets them apart is that the overworld sprite has short sleeves and bare arms, while Gaspar most definately wears a long coat.

 !=

In fact, it has been suggested that the overworld sprite bears a striking resemblance to the brown imperial guards from Final Fantasy 6.

I have not played FF6 all the way through; in fact, I've not played for more than an hour (although I intend to someday, since I'm told it's quite good =P ), so I can't comment much on the soldier graphics used in FF6. If anyone can point out any poin in the game where such soldiers appear on an overworld map, I'd be greatly appreciative.

But wait, with FF6 coming into the fray... now what does this mean? It's no secret that there are references to FF6 in CT, albeit small ones:

Imperial guards named Vicks and Wedge, just like the beginning of FF6. So was this mysterious 8th character or just some joke in the Square dev offices at the time? Or was it something a little deeper, like, perhaps...

(oh god, you know I'm gonna say it)

... Chrono was built off of an early FF6. Or perhaps built off of old FF6 graphics as placeholders. If that's so, then this extra character slot may very well be just leftovers from early in development, and not something actually planned then scrapped.

If you're curious about other character slots beyond this 8th one, don't bother trying. Anything above 07 automatically locks up the game, in both the proto and the final, meaning that only 8 character slots were allotted, either in planning as Chrono or as my far-fetched proposal of CT's relationship to FF6.

Whatever the reason for that, it should be noted that there IS an extra, working character slot that is simply missing its graphics, and there is ARE leftover graphics from this character slot in the sample ROM. I've provided my thought on this here; any further proof in any direction is greatly welcome.

Conclusion: Schala Dies[edit]

At the beginning, I said the horrible truth: that Schala is not a playable character. After reading all above, I think it's pretty safe to assume that all the characters that were meant to be in the game ARE in the game, but I would like to solidify the argument against Schala, because many sites like to claim things like Schala having extra, unneccesary frames when, in fact, she doesn't. Any chance of these extra frames existing in the proto are also nil, since she has the same amount of frames in both the final and proto, with only minute changes between them:

Beyond that, any game that requires lots readily-available graphics that need to be animated quickly cannot have these graphics compressed, or else the game sufferes severe lag as the CPU must decompress the graphics on the fly. This is why the sprite sets for Crono, Marle, Lucca, and the rest of the PCs are stored raw in the ROM and not compressed. Schala's graphics, however, are compressed and therefore wouldn't be suitableas a playable character.

Perhaps Schala was planned to be playable at one time. Perhaps it was a rumor started in Famitsu, a misconstrued comment in an interview with the producers, who knows. But if Schala was ever planned to be playable, the idea was scrapped pretty early on.

There's always that extra character slot. Maybe if enough talented ROM hackers and sprite artists get together, they could put together the greatest fan hack in history: putting Schala into Chrono Trigger. Until then, we'll have to make do with the few frames that Toriyama drew for us.

From: Characters (CTP)

--ZeaLitY 13:05, 12 Aug 2004 (CDT)