Anyone have a guide for RSR?

[sv0]

During battles, I basically just wait for my gauge to fill up and do an attack. Is there a way to increase evasion or have my allies do an attack of my choice?

[Rai]

Can't control the allies, unfortunately. What I do to make things go faster is use RegEdit to get all my characters to level 10, and that tends to take care of most monsters and some bosses in one hit before they even get a chance to attack.

You could always get Elan up to Level 10 the natural way (takes 580 battles) but other characters only level up as part of the storyline and I don't think there's any natural way to get them over level 7, and Jota's permanently stuck at Level 2.

[sv0]

Can't control the allies, unfortunately. What I do to make things go faster is use RegEdit to get all my characters to level 10, and that tends to take care of most monsters and some bosses in one hit before they even get a chance to attack.

You could always get Elan up to Level 10 the natural way (takes 580 battles) but other characters only level up as part of the storyline and I don't think there's any natural way to get them over level 7, and Jota's permanently stuck at Level 2.

Sorry but I'm a bit clueless. By RegEdit, do you mean a save file/registration entry? Can I start a new game with their levels maxed out with that?

[dontpanic]

You CAN though it's not really necessary.  losing is very difficult, though sometimes you have to do it to get some of the scenes.  Viper's not really something you have to cheat at.

[Rai]

Yeah, don't have to, but why not do it anyway? I played through RSR normally the first time, but the second time I wanted to see how I could make it a little more fun. To me, it is kind of fun to watch four Jotas pelt Veloce with arrows so fast he doesn't have time to react.

I get the impression nobody else really cares about my RSR save editing methods, but might as well get it out there already in case someone wants to play around with it.

Regedit.exe is a program found in the Windows folder of most Windows systems, it allows you to edit registry values around the system, and since most Viper games save to the registry, it's the main tool for hacking saves.

Once in Regedit, use Ctrl+F to find the RSR folder. Search for "Sogna", "Viper", or "RSR". I don't know how similar it would be, but mine is in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SOGNA\RSR-DVD. In the RSR-DVD folder there's values for various settings as well as the save file slots.

When you double click on one of the saves (SaveData0, for instance) a window pops up with all the hex data for the save. If you highlight one of those values you can type in your own value then hit OK to save the changes. The only tirck is knowing which values to edit, because change the wrong number and who knows how it could get fucked up.

The addresses I found will likely be the same for any RSR DVD copy. I'm not so sure about the original RSR version. If these don't work, you could probably find your corresponding addresses in a few minutes like I did, just save, Print Screen the value data, get into a battle, save again, Print Screen the new value data, then line 'em up in Paint to see what changed. A little logic and process of elimination leads you to the right numbers pretty quick.

So here's how it works in my game. The main battle counter is the first column in row 0040. When it hits certain values, Elan gets a Level Up. There's another number that determines his level directly, but the game puts it back where it's supposed to be between Chapters and some other scenes. Elan's level can be kept up permanently by setting the counter to one battle before his next level up, loading the save, getting in one battle, saving again, then repeat. So you get to Level 10 in eight battles instead of 580.

Though now I should add that for some reason the game kinda blocks out Level 4 and on in Chapter 1. No matter how many battles you fight Elan will never get past Level 3, and if you fight too much you can even miss Level Ups this way, making you weaker in the long run. All characters hacked to higher levels in Chapter 1 still do their higher level stuff, but the Level 4+ spells are done without any sound effects. Anyway, things become normal in Chapter 2, but since you don't get Elan back until Chapter 3, that's when all this Levelling can actually some into effect.

Start at Level 2
Level 3 after 20 battles. (13)
Level 4 after 40 battles Chapter 3 onwards. (27)
Level 5 after 80 battles. (4F)
Level 6 after 140 battles. (8B)
Level 7 after 220 battles. (DB)
Level 8 after 320 battles. (3F 01)
Level 9 after 440 battles. (B7 01)
Level 10 after 580 battles. (43 02)

The number in parentheses is the Hex value that corresponds to the battle right before the scheduled Level Up ("13" is 19 in Hex). The last three go over 255, so the column just to the right is where they keep track of "hundreds". So that number will be 00 at first, and if you change it to 01, it means you've done 256 battles or more.

A bit of a simpler way is to just keep setting the battle counter to 13 and doing the first Level Up over and over again. I don't think this works in the long run though, the game either resets the level to where it's supposed to be, or you level up naturally beyond 10 and Elan freezes in battle and his status bar looks all screwed up.

That's the most complicated process. Editing level and character presence directly is way easier, you just have to do it multiple times since the game eventually catches on and corrects the mistakes every time you switch Chapters.

Characters are represented in the data by simple numbers. 01=Elan, 02=Alfa, 03=Jota, 04=Cala. 00 means nobody, any other number makes the battle screen look all wonky.

The first character in battle (usually Elan's position) is identified by the fifth column of row 0040. This affects whose picture you see and whose voice you hear when fighting with that first position character. The spell list you see seems to be determined by where you are in the game i.e. it will usually be Elan's spell list regardless of who's in that position. In Chapter 2 it's Alfa's list, and in Chapter 4 it's Cala's. No way around that with these tools. So if you're in Chapter 1 and you go to 0040, fifth value and change the 01 to a 04, you can reload with Cala in the lead position in battle (even if she's already occupying another position) You can then command her to cast Fire, and she'll instead cast Shock (what you see vs. what you hear).

The level of the first position character is the 3rd column of 0048. It can be any value from 01 to 0A without causing that character to freeze in battle. Level 0 looks normal but the time gauge doesn't move. Level 11 and up looks crazy and the time gauge doesn't move. Levels 1 to 10 the time gauge moves steadily faster and an additional spell is added with each level.

You can determine the identity and levels of other position characters similarly. The addresses are:
1st Character = 0040 - 5th / Level = 0048 - 3rd
2nd Character = 0058 - 1st / Level = 0058 - 7th
3rd Character = 0068 - 5th / Level = 0070 - 3rd
4th Character = 0080 - 1st / Level = 0080 - 7th

So when all character positions are identified as "03" and all levels are identified as "0A", you get the party of four Jotas with lightning fast arrow rain, like I described above.

There are other things you can do that I haven't bothered to experiment with as much. But with this stuff you can already do some interesing things. Have Cala with you while she's simultaneously being buggered by Veloce and his minions, have Cala fight against Cala at the beginning, etc. Okay, so not that interesting, but still...

[sv0]

You CAN though it's not really necessary.  losing is very difficult, though sometimes you have to do it to get some of the scenes.  Viper's not really something you have to cheat at.

Hmm that's also one of my problems. I have no idea when I need to lose. I pretty lost to Cala in the beginning but I assume that it's part of the story. I have a tendency to reload stuff when I get heavily damaged in an rpg and grind away at leveling in preparation for the same fight. I'm concerned on losing out on certain scenes even though I got a save file for the scene selection (well I'm not only playing it just to see Cala getting it).

rai , your method sounds fun. Might just give it a try after a normal playthrough since 500+ battles to lvl up is too much even for me. A Cala vs. Cala fight appeals to me.

[dontpanic]

It's been a while since I played the game really but as a general rule save before a boss battle, and then lose once and win once and that'll mostly cover your bases.  Think about the gifs (assuming you've seen them) - lose to Veloce to have Cala do Elan.  Lose to the squiddy thing so it will rape Jota.  Lose the last battle to watch the scene with Jota and Cala.  I can't remember if there are any others you need to lose.

But yeah, the original fight against Cala isn't one you can win.

[Rai]

Ah, yeah those are important things to know. I guess an actual guide could help after all. I usually think of the simpler one-or-two ending Vipers when thinking about strategy, but RSR, and certainly the DVD edition give you plenty to experiment around for.

I'm pretty sure there's just two battles in the game you cannot win: Elan vs. Cala, and Cala vs. Veloce. There's also Elan vs. the firey bulldog, sorta. Elan's spells just don't work on that monster, so during the first fight where it's a boss and Elan's alone, Alfa automatically shows up at the last minute.

Other battles worth losing to get extra endings:
Cala vs. Tokage-Ron for some Jota rape.
Party vs. Ikadevil for some more Jota rape.
Party vs. Veloce for Cala's goodbye present to Elan.
and the for the final battle you both have to lose AND pick the second option "beg" to get the monster rape ending. First option "fight" is just a quick, boring death.
There's also one other extra little ending for losing to Mechaboss, but it's just Cala momentarily snapping out of her traumatized stupor to look out the window and shed a tear. Nothing sexy.

At least the Veloce and Diablo extra endings are exclusive to the DVD version. I'm not sure about the others.