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The All-Mighty Excalipur...? Wha...?

Posted: 20th August 2005 15:56

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I've picked up FFV again where I left off just before Atmos and whatnot and have since progressed to the point of getting into X-Death's castle and defeating... defeating... Damnit, I forget his name now... Bloody heck... Anyhow, the guy just before X-Death who has the Excalipur and does a whopping 1 damage with it. So, he gets thrown into the dreaded 'N-Zone' (*snicker* N-Zone) and you win, recieving the Excalipur. However, in spite of the fact it blosters my Red Mage's power massively, it only does an all-mighty 1 damage for me too. Is there some sort of 'ON' switch I'm missing here? Anything'd be appreciated.

P.S. I hate X-Death and his plethora of spells after that battle.

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Posted: 20th August 2005 16:01

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Having not played much FF5, I could be off on the details here. But Exalipur and Excalibur are two different things in FF5. Excalipur is the jokey one that does 1 damage, and it's meant as a silly counterpoint to Excalibur.

Check it out, yo.

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Posted: 20th August 2005 16:42

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R51, you are 100% correct. Excalipur is just there to tempt you. No matter who you equip it on, it will still only do 1 damage. Now, if you could use Magic Sword on it (you can't), it would take away that special property and do a massive amount of damage.

Of course, since you can't you need not worry about that. The only thing the Excalipur is good for is throwing, since throw is bsaed only on battle power.

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Posted: 20th August 2005 20:47

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I actually remember reading that Excalipur shows an attack power of about 100 on the menu, but actually registers (when an attack is made using it) an attack power of 1. Can anyone verify this with evidence of code, or at least find out how it really works?

The weird thing is, though, when you throw it, it seems to use the displayed attack power rather than the 'hidden' attack power. Now, I can't remember where I saw that.

However, CoN's information (or at least theory) seems much more in line with the evidence. Although I don't quite know how they code "minimal damage"...merely "set damage=1"?

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Posted: 20th August 2005 21:03

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Quote
The weird thing is, though, when you throw it, it seems to use the displayed attack power rather than the 'hidden' attack power. Now, I can't remember where I saw that.


Maybe from my earlier post:

Quote
Of course, since you can't you need not worry about that. The only thing the Excalipur is good for is throwing, since throw is bsaed only on battle power.


As for what in the game codes it, I have a feeling there is a bit that can be set in the weapon data for each weapon. The game simply would say "if weapon x has bit y set, then set damage to 1". I could look furthur into this if anybody would be interested.

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Posted: 20th August 2005 21:12

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 20th August 2005 15:47)
Although I don't quite know how they code "minimal damage"...merely "set damage=1"?

It would probably be some sort of "check if property xyz is set on the current weapon. If so, set damage caused to 1" check at the end of the attack routine. Something to the ends of...

(Warning. Some nasty 65816 assembly coming up.)

Code
 LDA 0x??  ; Where ?? is the bit set for this sort of thing.
 BIT $????,X; Where ???? is the address of the current weapon
         ; X or Y, depending on how they index it...
 BEQ 1; Actually, would be an address.
 LDA 0x01
 STA $????,X; Where ???? is whatever holds the damage done
         ; Again, X or Y, depending on how they index it...
1 ... (rest of code)

I don't know about FFV, but FFVI does stuff like that.

Code
(Bank C2)
0B9D LDA $3EE4,Y  ; Get the status bit that contains, among others, "Petrify"
0BA0 ASL      ; Shift left. Basically this checks if bit 0x80 is set (Petrify)
0BA1 BMI $0BFA   ; If so, it jumps down to...
...
0BFA STZ $F0   ; This, which sets $F0 and $F1 (the damage caused)
0BFC STZ $F1   ; to 0x00.
0BFE BRA $0C1E  ; And then it slips back into the code.

That it would have a completely unique case like Excalipur is 100% possible. (Pardon the icky code dumps...)

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Posted: 21st August 2005 05:45

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Wait...so it basically checks, every time an attack is executed, whether the weapon equipped is the Excalipur, and if it is, sets damage = 1 ?

If that's so, is there a more efficient way of encoding this?

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Posted: 21st August 2005 05:57

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Ha! Nice.

All right, then, much thanks for the aid, team.

And yes, I suppose I could look at the guides, but the social aspect and the conversations that generally start from asking on the forums is greatness.

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Posted: 21st August 2005 14:33

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You still can give an extra use for Excalipur, equip a Kornago Gourd ( the item that lets you Catch a monster easily, you know), and then you can catch a Crystelle, which have 3 HP, well hit it with Excalipur 2 times, and catch it. When you release the monster, it cast Guardian spell on your party.

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Posted: 21st August 2005 17:27

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 21st August 2005 00:45)
Wait...so it basically checks, every time an attack is executed, whether the weapon equipped is the Excalipur, and if it is, sets damage = 1 ?

If that's so, is there a more efficient way of encoding this?

That's about as efficient as you can do it. wink.gif Such a check only takes a few dozen cycles per attack, and avoids the messy issue of reloading stats in the event of a weapon change or dealing with special precompiled tables that would require even more disgusting checks to know wether to use the real value or not.

Considering the fact that (FF6 at least) checks all stats and every required information to setup an attack before doing it (such as status ailments, or things like Forcefield nulling some elements), putting an "excalipur" check in the same block of code would be pretty reasonable. Might as well have all none-precalculatable material be in the same space.

That's a bit off-topic though. wink.gif

I've always just kept Excalipur as a trophy. You can't sell it (IIRC), doing 1 damage is practically never useful, and it makes your inventory feel more... complete. tongue.gif

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Posted: 23rd August 2005 19:30

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I think the Excalipur is a big joke the game creators threw in about the Excalibur's etymology.
Most people think the sword Arthur pulled from the stone was Excalibur, but the Excalibur was given to him by the Lady of the Lake after the one he pulled from the stone broke in battle. The Excalipur was thrown in to be equated to the Excalibur, and look to be the powerful, mighty sword, when it really isn't.

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Posted: 23rd August 2005 22:33

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All very true. Some more trivia info:

- Excalipur also made an appearance in FF VIII, where it was one of the four swords Gilgamesh could use. It does 1 damage to all enemies.

- Excalipur simply HAS the 100 Bat. Pwr it displays, its special effects just screws you out of the damage deal. The only two ways to take advantage of its 'real' power is having the Ninja !Throw it or have the Excalipur equipee use Gob Punch, a Blue magic attack which is based on Bat. Pwr.

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Posted: 24th August 2005 08:39

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Bassically.

The main use for Excalipur is intended to be thrown during that battle right after you receive it with X-Death.

There's ALOT of back story behind where it came from.

Supposedly during the whole "King Arthur" thing.

It's said the sword he pulled from the stone had broken.

And he received another from the Lady of the Lake.

Well, discerning that, historians actually were the first to make a joke about the sword.

That "Doesn't seem like the first was an Excalibur to me. More like an Excalipoor".

Reason being that it's spelled correctly in the MUCH less Engrished Final Fantasy VIII.

But besides all that.

The only use for the thing is to throw it during that battle.

Even though, if you trained alot, you wouldn't need to throw it like I did. >>;;

So I guess it might also be there if you try for a "Perfect" game with having all Items and Equipment.

:3

Enjoy the rest of the game.

heart.gif

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Posted: 3rd September 2005 14:10

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I just find the excalipur annoying. Optimum quite honestly bugs me in this game, since its a type of game you'd wish to change your character classes while in a dungeon, but this game makes it difficult to do just that. For one, it doesn't switch over the percentage of HP, just the base of HP. So if you have 1000 HP, and you switch to a class thats max is 1500, you get stuck with 1000, even though you deserve 1500. So it makes your party able to switch to a low HP class and use a potion to be economically efficient - that's called using your brain. So you can use an ether on, say, a Knight instead of a White Mage to be economically efficient, you SHOULD be able to do things like that in this particular game.

Anyway - enough babbling, Excalipur annoys us all. happy.gif

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Posted: 3rd September 2005 16:41

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Quote
The only use for the thing is to throw it during that battle.


You shoulda' read the post above you. ^^`` Skilsl other than Attack work okay with the thing if based on bat power...is true.

Quote
So I guess it might also be there if you try for a "Perfect" game with having all Items and Equipment.


You can't though...like VII there are certain choices that have to be made. You can't have both the Brave Sword and the Chicken Knife. In fact, you shouldn't 'really' be able to get all the sealed weapons, it's only thanks to a coding error thatcha' can.

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Posted: 3rd September 2005 18:40
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The only reason why I pick up the Excailbur/Excalipur is because I want to see
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
the end of Gilgamesh so he could kill NecroPhobia for me *devil grin*
. Oh, by the way, not just FFVIII, but they also had Excalipar in Final Fantasy Tactics. It was a treasure key item that you get if you go on a mission on a certain bar..

Yeah, FFT has places familiar to older ffs and treasures aswell.. Excalipur in FFT was said to be a copy of Excalibur (i think probably for those adventuring little kids who wants to be the "strongest" to use that fake sword.)
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Posted: 21st September 2005 06:56

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I thought Excalipur was a nice touch. Sure it was annoying and with it saying 100 bat. power you put it on and the fight after that is difficult. It was the makers own little practical joke in my opinion.
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Posted: 21st September 2005 08:42

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Quote
In fact, you shouldn't 'really' be able to get all the sealed weapons, it's only thanks to a coding error thatcha' can.


This is news to me. How so?

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Posted: 21st September 2005 19:59

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Right here: The Meaning of Life

Easy enough to miss, since it only had a life-span of 2 days. Seems it was all a big misunderstanding. happy.gif

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Posted: 22nd September 2005 11:19

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The game was especally mean to me. My translated SNES ROM has Excalipur listed as Excalibur. This simple typo made me very annoyed with the game. I wondered why their would be two Excalibur's and one of them would be crappy, until I came to this site's guide and saw why.

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Posted: 22nd September 2005 13:49

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Quote (Barrylocke @ 22nd September 2005 21:19)
The game was especally mean to me. My translated SNES ROM has Excalipur listed as Excalibur. This simple typo made me very annoyed with the game. I wondered why their would be two Excalibur's and one of them would be crappy, until I came to this site's guide and saw why.

Are you sure the weak one was also called Excalibur, and not Excailbur? Because my translation has that. Really confused me.

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Posted: 6th October 2005 15:40

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Quote (Rune Knight @ 22nd September 2005 08:49)
Quote (Barrylocke @ 22nd September 2005 21:19)
The game was especally mean to me. My translated SNES ROM has Excalipur listed as Excalibur. This simple typo made me very annoyed with the game. I wondered why their would be two Excalibur's and one of them would be crappy, until I came to this site's guide and saw why.

Are you sure the weak one was also called Excalibur, and not Excailbur? Because my translation has that. Really confused me.

I'm pretty sure they have the exact same spelling, I haven't played for a while, though I just started a new game.

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Posted: 8th October 2005 08:11

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Quote (Djibriel @ 23rd August 2005 18:33)
have the Excalipur equipee use Gob Punch, a Blue magic attack which is based on Bat. Pwr.

No shit? I never even thought of doing that. Can a Blue Mage even equip it?
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Posted: 10th October 2005 13:37

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Its a sword, and that's what blue mage's equip, so I would have to say yes

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Posted: 20th October 2005 12:20

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Quote (Barrylocke @ 10th October 2005 08:37)
Its a sword, and that's what blue mage's equip, so I would have to say yes

And if not, you can always just equip the "equip sword" ability. But in response to Rune Knight, my translation had the Excailbur spelling too.

On a similar note, does anyone know why it might have been translated as Excailbur? Was it just an intentional typo to show that it was a fake, or is there some deeper meaning to it?

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Posted: 20th October 2005 17:27

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Quote (Random Person)
On a similar note, does anyone know why it might have been translated as Excailbur? Was it just an intentional typo to show that it was a fake, or is there some deeper meaning to it?


I believe 'slight misspelling' was the intention with "Excailbur" as well as with "Excalipur". It's just that the "ailb" misspelling is more subtle than the "alip" misspelling.

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Posted: 18th March 2006 05:06

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I just feel sorry for poor Gilgamesh sad.gif.

He was all- I HAVE THE GREATEST SWORD EVAR!!!11!

Then he was tossed into a cleft between Dimensions. Poor dude. See? Everyone finds the Excalipur stuff hilarious until they realize the victim had the greatest battle music ever.

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Posted: 18th March 2006 06:45

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I think my translation had it as Excalibur too. Probably to throw you off more I guess. (I never thought of catching Crystelles with it..hm...well, I never use the Trainer anyway. )

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Posted: 18th March 2006 16:18

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Quote (Djibriel @ 21st September 2005 03:42)
Quote
In fact, you shouldn't 'really' be able to get all the sealed weapons, it's only thanks to a coding error thatcha' can.


This is news to me. How so?

This is news to me too. Does anyone have any info on this? Im just curious?

There doesn't seem to be any real reason to prevent access to the legendary weapons, since you can can get better ones for pretty much all of them.

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Posted: 18th March 2006 17:18
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Quote (Zeromus_X @ 18th March 2006 01:45)
I think my translation had it as Excalibur too. Probably to throw you off more I guess. (I never thought of catching Crystelles with it..hm...well, I never use the Trainer anyway. )

What translation patch did you use?

I used RPGe's 96% completed english patch and it said Excailbur! What a difference!
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