Prototype Information


Serenes Forest > Blazing Sword > General > Prototype Information

(Revised: 27th August 2009)

Introduction

title0205

This page contains information about the two known prototype/beta versions of the game, which were made publicly available by Eirika and Tanks. The game was officially released in April 2003 (in Japan), and these prototype versions were created around 2 months beforehand. As such, they are unfinished and also contain a number of changes from the retail version.

Download Patches

(The versions differ only slightly. The major differences are listed towards the end.)

These patches are for the North American version of the ROM. Instructions for patching can be found here

Note: These patches are not for playing purposes. Also the prototype versions are in Japanese.

Beta CGs

Desertfun

A fun little extra is that most of the CGs don’t have the grainy sepia layer (like in the retail version) and are, instead, in full colour. Some of the CGs (mostly the later ones) are just black and white sketches though.

Debug Menus

Start-Up

startup

Options:

  • Release Entry – Start the game from the opening demo
  • Free Continue – Restart the game from the currently suspended file
  • Manual Continue – Restart the game from a manually suspended file (seems to function similarly to Free Continue)
  • Initialise File – Prompts option to delete all save data
  • Map Select – Press left and right to select a map/chapter to load

Map Menu

mapmenu

Options:

  • Danger – Shows attack range of all enemies. Press A to toggle between attack range and staff range. Press B to exit
  • Unit – Same as in the normal game
  • Status – Same as in the normal game
  • Options – Same as in the normal game, but with some additional options (which are only in 0206)
  • Suspend – Same as in the normal game
  • Charge – Allows you to define who to control (i.e be in charge of) the Red and Green armies. Options are Computer, Player and Nobody
  • Debug – Opens Map debug menu (see below)
  • Save – Options are Permanent Save (warning: gets a bit buggy if you select this), Manual Suspend and Manual Continue
  • End – Same as in the normal game

Map Debug Menu

mapdebug

Options:

  • Map – Press left and right to select a map/chapter to load
  • Debug Info – Toggles debug display
  • Weather – Press left and right to change the weather
  • Fog – Press left or right to toggle Fog of War off
  • Playthrough Number – Press left and right to select the current playthrough number. Maximum value is 13.
  • Clear – Press the glowing “Understood” text to change the current file into an Epilogue file
  • Tactician Data – Press L and R to toggle the tactician on or off. Press left and right to adjust the number of Tactician points (Max 210, i.e 7 stars)
  • Good Night – Activates Sleep Mode. Hold L and R to exit.
  • M – Press left and right to select the music. Crashes if you try to go beyond the last track

Quick Map Debug Menu

Debug2

To access this menu, hold Select and press Start twice on an empty space.

Options:

  • Turn – Set the turn count
  • 2nd Army CP – Toggle the enemy CPU
  • 3rd Army CP – Toggle the neutral CPU

Battle Debug Menu

battle

This menu is only available in the 0206 build. To access it, hold L and R and then press B.

Options:

  • Name – Which character will fight
  • Class – Unpromoted or promoted (if a character is promoted to start with, changing this does nothing)
  • Army – Alters the character’s colour, eg. player, enemy, NPC
  • Weapon – Weapon type
  • Action – What the character will do in battle (both sides must agree)

To change settings, press A, B, L or R. If all the selected options are possible, press Start to view the battle.

Character Debug Menu

Debug1

To access this menu, hold Select and press Start twice on a character.

Options:

  • Max out the character
  • Set HP
  • Attack AI
  • Movement AI
  • Recovery – Unsure what this does
  • Condition

Additional Menus

Hold B, R and Right to toggle a black and white debug display.

Hold Select and press R on a character to display a debug version of the status screen.

Differences Between Prototype and Retail

Most of the major differences anyway:

  • Some of Eliwood, Lyn and Hector’s alternate face sprites are slightly different (eg. Eliwood sad).
  • Raven has grey hair and Heath has red hair.
  • Some bosses have different portraits and/or are of a different class (eg. Aion has Kenneth’s portrait).
  • Many bosses have Sword of Seals characters for their mini portrait. Some characters don’t have a mini portrait at all.
  • Many characters use the default blue palette for their battle sprites.
  • The Knight Lord’s Durandal battle animation is slightly different, especially the critical attack (link to movie).

Shortdurandal1

  • The Blade Lord has an unique battle animation with Durandal (see above movie).
  • In the class roll, the HP bars can go beyond 30.
  • There are extra shops and houses in certain maps.
  • Many enemy units are in different (and, often, completely wrong) places.
  • The Test map has a very different enemy roster if the opening event is skipped (generic enemies instead of bosses).
  • Many items have different stats.
  • Vaida’s Spear, Earth Seal, Emblem Seal and Wind Sword are missing. Replacements for them include the Battle Robe and Battle Call items.
  • The Dancer rings (eg. Ninis’s Grace) have ribbon icons. Also they can only be used from the Items menu.

Ninidance

  • Magical damage uses the user’s Magic x 0.5 (instead of Magic x 1) in the battle formulae.
  • CGs don’t have a grainy sepia layer.
  • Ranking and Tactician stars have completely different graphics.
  • There was a maximum of ~250 support points that could be obtained per chapter (similar to in Sword of Seals).
  • Completing chapters earned a varying number of hidden points (which corresponded to the stars in the Fortune-Tactician window).

Differences Between 0206 and 0219

Again, most of the major differences:

  • The title screen is slightly different (most notably the box around the text Rekka no Ken)
  • The blade in the Knight Lord’s Durandal animation is much shorter in 0206.
  • Class roll, Battle History, Link Arena and Sword of Seals Link Up are unavailable in 0206.
  • The Final Chapter has a different tileset and (at least in Part 1) fog of war enabled in 0206.
  • The Sound Room in 0206 is similar to the one in Sword of Seals.
  • Many missing symbols in 0206, which are labeled with a love heart.
  • 0206 has additional options in the Configuration menu.
  • Less music tracks in 0206 (around 44).
  • In the Test map (opening event skipped), Fargus is a General in 0206, but a Berserker in 0219.