8th Playable Character Possible?! (Updating!)

[magustrigger]

Neato, I finally did it.  You have to open the save state on a ZSNES and then start a new game + file and you begin the game as a level ** Epoch with maxed out stats, zero speed, 999 HP, 55 MP, and no techs.  Marle also joins as a Level ** Epoch with the same stats, except she only has 1 Hit point and maxed out speed (I'm guessing that's because 99+2=101 and that is too high of a value for the game to show... and max speed + 1 = 0 speed for some reason...)

I'm going to try them in battle.

[magustrigger]

Epoch Crono just killed Gato in one hit doing 1057 damage after his stop wore off.  He came back having a ? status, while Epoch Marle was chaotic and too busy giggling to attack.

While these characters have Epoch's name, weapon of choice (a helmet) and maxed out stats, they still retain all of their attack animations and equips so I'm thinking that they might not be exactly what you're looking for...  They don't gain experience or tech points and have no techs, and both have 133 attack and 107 defense so they're fairly worthless.  Playing an entire game with these characters would be a tad on the dull side and Spekkio would be impossible to tackle since no one would have any magic to attack him with...

I figured out it is solely the save state that causes this glitch and it will either cause Level 96 characters with their 2nd and 3rd techs available on a SNES9x or Level ** Epochs with no techs on a ZSNES.

[Mauron]

You might have something in that jumble of patches.

Please, make an IPS patch of what you put together so we can play with it.

[magustrigger]

It had nothing to do with the patches, it's just this save state:

http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/archive/chrono-6.zip

The trick is to load it right when you open the rom and quickly choose New Game +.  But before you do that, make sure you have the option of picking New Game and The Fated Hour save file otherwise it will just start a new game.  And this pretty much always happens when you have the .srm file around, so if you have one of those, delete it and you're golden.

As aforementioned, ZSNES will get turn everyone into Level ** Epochs with 999 HP, 55 MP, maxed out stats, and no techs, while SNES9x will get you Level 96 characters with 96 for every stat except speed which is maxed out, 999 HP, 96 MP, the illusion of having Aura, Flame Toss, Rocket Punch, and Lightning 2, but in reality only having Slash and Lightning for Crono, Provoke and Aura for Marle, and the Ice Sword techs for the both of them put together.

Personally, the SNES9x is more interesting but still they're both fairly dull as you have a limited supply of techs despite your huge stats.  Also, to the best of my knowledge, neither emulator made battles give experience or tech points meaning you're stuck with either no techs and maxed stats or a few techs and nearly maxed stats.

[magustrigger]

Oh, I should also mention that it is impossible to play The Fated Hour save file that is on that save state, it will just give you a crimson colored screen with a gold square int he middle of it.  I have no idea why this is... try it if you wish but I couldn't get anywhere with it.

[magustrigger]

One more fun fact about the Epochs, they're permaquipped with their character's starting equipment and cannot change to anything else, though they may be able to equip something later on, I only have access to Karate Gis and Bronze Helmets...

[Mauron]

It's behaving normally for me. Could you provide a statesave after it screws up?

[magustrigger]

How do I post save states?

And after playing with Level ** Epoch on Prophet's Guile for a while, he has managed to recover from all of his statuses (I don't know if its the amulet Magus is equipped with or what) and now has access to all 8 of his techs, which is odd because Prophet's Guile is only supposed to have Magus's first three techs available... In battle, his HP/MP keeps blinking like he is about to die, and he will be crouched like he is in critical condition as well.

[Mauron]

Zip it and attach that.

[magustrigger]

Oh you can attach files directly to the message board?  Neat.

This now will display Epoch and Epoch on either emulator... I went and checked.

Would you like the SNES9x Level 96 with an obscure array of techs save state also?  Because I can make one and post it now that I know how to do that...

[attachment deleted by admin]

[justin3009]

If you try to leave the menu, it'll give the orange screen of death ;_;

[justin3009]

Double post.  I see what's going on.  I think all it's doing is setting Crono/marle's portrait and what not to that of Epoch's, but it stil keeps the regular data with a few alterations.

[magustrigger]

I didn't think it was exactly what you were looking for.  They're still the same characters, but they have multiple status afflictions, can equip nothing, and appear to be equipping helmets.  And they have Epoch's portrait and stats.

The other data might be more useful in deciphering how techs are chosen, because each character has access to their 2nd and 3rd single and dual techs and presumably no triple tech since there is only one, but I would have to play through to the Cathedral to confirm this.

[magustrigger]

Ha ha, I just noticed Epoch's element is the alphabet backwards and upside down from e-p... weird.

[dankun]

I didn't think it was exactly what you were looking for.  They're still the same characters, but they have multiple status afflictions, can equip nothing, and appear to be equipping helmets.  And they have Epoch's portrait and stats.

Hmmm... this is interesting. I got curious and downloaded the save state to check it out to see what this was all about. It turns out that in the first fight (with Gato) they both had 'Stop' and 'Poison' and later on, after being either hit by or had evaded an attack, they only had either the 'Lock' or 'Confused' ailment. After Crono won the fight (he wasn't confused), I went to Crono's house and decided to take a nap at his bed and restore their health (as they barely won that fight from the poison, which for some odd resaon had like a 45% decrease rate).

Then I decided to check out Guardia Forest and see if they really always had the status afflictions. But to my surprise they were all gone! So, my question is: Has any of this happened to any of you guys already? I mean, were you able to get similar results?
Oh and by the way, they were both able to damage the Hetakes in Guardia Forest. Crono was doing regular ** attacks of 700+hps and 1400+ critical ones, while Marle was stuck with ridiculous 5hps normal and 10hps critical hits (I think this is because her hit stat was only 1. Oh, and Crono's speed stat was the one stuck with 0).

Edit: Wow! This is really cool! I played around it with it some more... it turns out that they both have access to all of their techs! But they only appear in the battle menu. I tried using Luminaire with Crono, and Haste with Marle. 9999 on all enemies, of course! Oh, and all of their double techs are still there, as well.

Also, I forgot to mention what their max MP value was: 55 MP for both of them. The odd thing about that is that, in battle it only says that they have 5 MP (using any tech really messes this up as it can actually display Crono's sword icon). I can't equip anything on them either (its almost as if the menu coding of the game just isn't working right), although they do both have helmets as their weapon (not in their equipment). I can, however, use items (like Tonics) through the menu, so obviously some parts are still working. Regarding the battles, they yield neither experience nor tech points, but they still offer items for spoils. Well, I hope that was everything this time. This really makes me wonder as to what Lucca's messed up stat value is going to be (probably the hit stat, just like marle).