Phantasy Star Odds & Ends

Child Labor

Normally, after Rhys is sent to the dungeon you'd open up the treasure chests then go to the cell door and find Lena. After talking to her an automatic sequence occurs where Rhys leaves the dungeon via the tech shop stairs. And since he also automatically leaves the shop you cannot get back into the castle or dungeon at all. At least not by normal means

If you use the walk through walls code (Game Genie code code CKZA-AAF6 or PAR code 006ABC:0012) to enter the Landen dungeon via the tech shop stairs that are normally blocked by two NPCs, you'll find that two child NPCs dressed in yellow are standing by the stairs leading to the castle. These child NPCs will only appear when entering via the tech shop. If you use the stairs leading to the castle then come back down they'll be gone. This also occurs if you use the escapipe while in the cell then exit and re-enter the dungeon through the tech shop stairs. But I don't think I ever did that until just now. How did I not notice? Entering the dungeon through the castle stairs after borking your quest with the escapipe will show the normal soldiers.

The tech shop is running a child labor ring!	That's what these guys get for demanding a dental plan.

For added fun, here's a video showing what happens. I have not yet updated the video's title and description with the new info. I'll probably just link to the GameFAQs page and to here.

But anyway, why are they yellow?

At first I thought they were unused NPCs. They are nearly identical to the normal little boy sprite. Although as you can see, there are a few differences, such as the gap between the legs being shorter on the yellow clad sprite, as well as the shading on the head and the shape of the arms being somewhat different. But the clothing palette matches the teenage girl sprite with the yellow dress almost exactly. Although she lacks a red sash.

Here's the palette swap and normal boy NPCs side by side.

Together at last!

On GameFAQs I got the answer to exactly what was going on. You can read the thread here.

huguesjohnson answered my thread. I was tripped up by the fact that the two boy sprites didn't exactly match up. But yeah, it does made sense. Here's the quote:

Short answer: It's the boy sprite with a different palette.

Longer answer: Each location in the game has a list of associated NPC sprite tiles, NPC coordinates, and palettes. The route you took bypassed code that's triggers loading the castle guard sprites. So you're entering the dungeon and the game sees there are two sprites to load. However, the tiles and palettes are the ones from the town and the net result is the child sprite is loaded. The palette is either the "woman in yellow" one or the "red guard" one. Sorry but I didn't debug this to verify which one exactly.

Edit: after debugging it's using the "red guard" palette)

Mystery solved! Since you aren't supposed to enter the dungeon from that staircase until Ayn's quest (where the guards would be long gone) the game doesn't load the correct sprites, just the correct palette. Additionally, when you are taken to the cell the guards go back to their position by the stairs leading to the castle. But they are facing the wall.

Just stand there and think about what you've done!

I used walk through walls to get a pic of both soldiers. While Rhys is still inside the cell, the left soldier is actually visible. I tried the GBA version (actual cart on a DS Lite), but I could just barely make out the end of the guard's shoulder armor. But I believe that's because the screen is pared down a bit on the port. I can't test it on a Genesis because I no longer have one and honestly can't remember if I ever saw the wall facing soldiers. But I assume it's the same as when emulated.

If you use the escapipe/walk through walls after being locked in the dungeon then re-enter it via the castle stairs the guards will be facing the right way. Although it's very interesting that the devs didn't account for the NPCs being correct if you enter the dungeon again from the tech shop stairs after using the escapipe. This is despite the message from the king that you dun goofed and need to reset. But this game is unfinished so it's not surprising that some things were just left hanging.

Although I wonder what would happen if warp codes were available for this game as well. They don't affect the sprites in Phantasy Star 4. But that's a different game.