Arcana: Arcana - Seal of Rimsala

Seal of Rimsala is a labor of love, and designed as the definitive version of Arcana. Also known as Card Master, Arcana is Hal Labs' forgotten JRPG, a first-person dungeon crawler with a card theme and killer music. (Hal is now famous for Kirby and the Smash Bros. series.) Please enjoy this modernized take on an underrated title!

Features

Arcana: Seal of Rimsala - README


TABLE OF CONTENTS

0. Foreward
1. Game Rating
2. Installation
3. Discord
4. Strategy Tips
5. Bugs and Known Issues
6. Version History
7. Credits



===========

0. FOREWARD

===========

Arcana (Card Master in Japan) was the game that got me into Japanese role-playing games as a kid.
It really meant a lot to me, so one day I decided to look at the game in a hex editor. I immediately
tracked down and fixed the spelling error "a bold of lightning", and from there I looked for more.

A GameFAQs walkthrough by Boco the Chokobo berated the English translation and offered the BEST name changes
available by Babelfish. (I'm teasing, Babelfish is what we used before Google Translate). Actually the guide
pointed out things I never would've thought of, like Gurgeon -> Chimera, Ariel -> Alan/Aaron, and Ramia -> Lamia.
Anyway, there were some weird statements like "spirits are now just resurrectable party members instead
of distant elementals" ...even though they're also resurrectable in Card Master? I checked.
Stuff like that pushed me to investigate myself and dig deeper into what's really what.

I guess I got carried away, because in the process I taught myself 65c816 assembly language and
reverse engineered a majority of the game's code. Now there's a whole channel for SOR on
FFIV Ultima's discord and on NGPlus discord, and a research thread on the GameFAQs message board.
And a larger The Cutting Room Floor entry, and a Data Crystal page, and a Github for the disassembly
and for the mod project... Well, it's fun to get carried away.

Seal of Rimsala's namesake is the Japanese subtitle (Card Master: Rimusaria no Fuuin / Rimsala's Seal).
In this way, I'm announcing my mod as a love letter to the Japanese version. From a more accurate story,
to a faster level-up screen, to displaying the character job titles, I want to show off an authentic
improvement that's just really fun.

Thanks for giving it a shot.
-Sarah, Autumn, and Scylla Shinespark



==============

1. GAME RATING

==============

Arcana released before the ESRB/Ratings Board existed, so it doesn't have an official rating.
Therefore, I have given Seal of Rimsala a content rating of "Everyone 10+".
There's mild language, fantasy violence, and a bar where you can order beer.

Players under 10 might have trouble following the story, or might get lost in the mazes.
So, there are maps included in case players get stuck or don't want to play blind.
Back in the day, there were player's guides with information like this, and I still
believe in providing accessibility for those who need it.



===============

2. INSTALLATION

===============

Seal of Rimsala comes in an .IPS patch, to avoid distributing the original game.
This patch is for the English ROM of Arcana, which should be .smc or .sfc format.

SNES ROMs come in headered and un-headered; there's a slight difference in
file size (un-headered Arcana is 1048576 bytes and headered is 1049088 bytes).
This patch only works on the un-headered version.

You can remove the ROM header with the free program SnesRomUtil or similar tools.

Once you've got your un-headered ROM, use the free file patcher Lunar IPS to apply
the patch. This will convert the original game into Arcana: Seal of Rimsala, so
make a backup just in case. Romhacking.net also has an option "Patch Online NOW"
on the download page for Seal of Rimsala (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4505/).

If patched correctly, the in-game Color menu will show the version number.
If you get a black screen or gibberish, you might have patched a headered ROM
or one that was already patched with something.




==========

3. DISCORD

==========

https://discord.gg/GXrdd9Ar25
Join the discussion on Discord! We're on the #arcana-seal-of-rimsala channel on FFIV Ultima discord.
It's a quick way to get help or ask questions, and there's in-jokes and memes! Nowadays it's probably
the easiest way to reach me, too.

https://discord.gg/bsuKp5A
The NGPlus discord has a smaller SOR community, but it's also home to FFVI: Brave New World which
is the inspiration behind Seal of Rimsala. This game really wouldn't be what it is without
being around the crazy attention to detail, creativity, and organization of BNW's community.



================

4. STRATEGY TIPS

================
Here are some tips on how the game mechanics work.


===================
THE FOUR ATTRIBUTES
===================
Every attribute, "element", has a strength and a weakness.
Wind (yellow) beats Earth (green), beats Water (blue), beats Fire (red), beats Wind again.
Opposite elements (Wind<-->Water, Earth<-->Fire) do about neutral damage to each other,
and each element slightly resists itself.
(Fire attribute takes slightly less Fire damage, and Wind takes about the same Water damage
as a human would.)

People have the None attribute ("Man" in vanilla), represented by gray.
They take slightly less damage from all elements, but don't resist or beat any.

Rooks can learn to change attributes using his spirit cards; this effect lasts until
the end of battle. These spells (Barrier of Wind etc; "Change Attr. to Wind" in vanilla)
will make the party deal elemental damage, and take damage as that element.
For instance, changing the party to Wind (yellow) they will deal much higher damage
to Earth (green) enemies and take much lower damage from them, but they'll really
struggle against Fire (red) enemies.


=================
THE STATUS SCREEN
=================
LV- Your current Experience Level. On a Level Up, all of your stats will improve,
and you'll naturally learn new spells. Rooks' spirits share his LV,
as he is able to command them better.
Also, Level affects your chances of running from battle.
EXP- Your experience points to reach the next Experience Level.
As is standard fare nowadays, defeat enemies to gain experience.
HP- How much damage you can take.
If any one person runs out of HP, it's GAME OVER.
If a spirit dies, its card is torn and it must be revived at the Spirit Healer tent.
MP- How much magic you can use. Spells cost MP, but Rooks can cast some spells with his cards for free.
Str- Strength; affects your physical damage and boosts your Base Attack.
Endur- Endurance; affects your physical damage taken and boosts your Base Defense.
Int- Intelligence; high levels affect magic damage, magic damage taken, and spell accuracy/evasion.
Alert- Alertness; every 8 points affect your accuracy, evasion, and chance to critical hit.

Equipment window:
This shows your equipped weapon, armor, amulet and ring.
On the right are four stats (up from 2 in vanilla):

Sword- Base Attack: your weapon plus strength modifier plus attack buff.
Shield- Base Defense: your armor plus amulet, plus endurance modifier plus defense buff.
Shield*- Magic Defense: determined by your amulet (shields and bracelets).
(Magic defense is kinda important later.)
x2: Critical Hit Rate: Your weapon's % chance to strike about double damage.

The other attributes and bonuses are covered in the "Elemental Equipment" and "Enemy Races" sections.


========
DUNGEONS
========
Random encounters are rolled per-step in Arcana. This means, any move or turn
can trigger a fight. The encounter rate was lowered (1/12 -> 1/20) but there's
still a chance to get multiple fights in a row if you're unlucky.
Some extremely rare areas have very high encounter rates (1/4); these can be
used for grinding at best, and an early grave at worst. If you feel unprepared,
there are several options for escaping battle and returning to town.

Rooks' Fog Cards, and the Escape spell can run from random encounters.
Return Rings and the Gate spell can return you safely to town in an instant.

Every square on the map is a "tile". And event tiles, like treasure chests or
completed boss fights, are no-encounter zones where you can spin with impunity.
This is a great way to heal spirits, who regenerate slowly and can't be healed with items.


===========
BOSS FIGHTS
===========
While exploring dungeons, beware of boss encounters! There are no warnings,
save a feeling that "it must be here, as this is the only way forward".
Bosses are unrunnable encounters, and they're immune to death spells and
all status effects like Sleep. However, debuff spells like Attack Down and
Defense Down -do- work on bosses. Soften them up before the long fight!


============
STATUS BUFFS
============
The four buffable stats are Attack, Defense, Accuracy and Evasion.
As with everything else, there's one for each of the four elements.
Attack is Fire, Defense is Earth, Accuracy is Water and Evasion is Wind.

There are three states for each buff:
Attack Down -> Neutral -> Attack Up
Defense Down -> Neutral -> Defense Up
Accuracy Down -> Neutral -> Accuracy Up
Evasion Down -> Neutral -> Evasion Up

So if your Attack is decreased, you can return it to Neutral with an Attack Up.
And if your Attack is increased, an enemy can return it to Neutral with an Attack Down.

Stat changes last the entire battle, so they're invaluable in long fights.


=======
ENEMIES
=======
Enemies will simply attack at random. If the enemy knows a spell, there's a 50% chance
they'll cast it instead of attacking. Beware that if they're reduced to half health,
this casting chance will increase to 75%. So don't use area-of-effect spells on a
large group of mages unless you're sure it'll kill them.

Again, beware large groups of spellcasters.


==============
STATUS EFFECTS
==============
Sleep: The target is unable to act for several turns.
Physical attacks will NOT wake them.
Confuse: The target swings wildly, targeting a random friend or foe.
Physical attacks again, won't snap them out of it.
In Seal of Rimsala, Confuse was buffed so enemies can no longer cast spells.
If there are many enemies, there's a good chance Confused enemies will hit each other.
Paralyze: The target is unable to act... forever. Lasts after battle.
Petrify: Also permanently prevents action and lasts after battle.
On enemies, this also reduces their HP to 1.
On allies, they will take 10% max HP damage every turn.

The Spirits aren't targeted by status effects, so they may have to finish the battle sometimes.
Sleep and Confuse are removed after battle, while Paralyze and Petrify can be lifted
with certain items like a Tent; a night at the Inn; or with certain spells.
Incidentally, you can still cast Unpetrify or Unparalyze on yourself outside of battle.


===================
ELEMENTAL EQUIPMENT
===================
Some weapons and armor have an attribute, like the Ice Blade.
This can be checked on the Status screen in Seal of Rimsala.

Weapons with an element will ALWAYS DEAL that element, even if you change attributes.

Armor with an element will affect the elemental damage you take, but you can change
attributes for defense. For instance, the Mythril Mail is Wind attribute, so you're
weak to Fire while wearing it. But if you use Water Wall to become Water attribute,
you'll resist Fire for that battle.

This kind of equipment is niche, and best used if you know what you'll be fighting.


===========
ENEMY RACES
===========
Some enemies are much tougher, and resist physical attacks.
To beat these, you should hit their weakness with an Anti weapon.
This can also be checked on the Status screen in Seal of Rimsala.

Undead race: Ghosts, zombies and skeletons.
Dragon race: Uh... Dragons.
Medusa race: Enemies with snake hair.
Giant race: Cyclops, Trolls, and Giants.

So if you're fighting lots of undead, get an Anti-Undead weapon for extra damage
and an Anti-Undead amulet to resist them. Mythril is a good bet for that.
If you're fighting lots of giants, try getting your hands on a Morning Star.
And if you're fighting dragons, the Dragon Blade and Dragon Shield are your best friends.



========================

5. BUGS AND KNOWN ISSUES

========================


Unfixed bugs from vanilla
=========================

-If you open a treasure chest without having fought a single monster that chapter,
and then use the Gate (Home) spell to warp back to town, the game will freeze.
Return Rings are fine, though.
(Probably only worth remembering in Bizance Castle, where there's no-encounter rooms.)

-The Trade glitch is still in the game. It's not something you could find casually anyway,
but a speedrunner or TAS runner might risk making use of it for extra money.

-If you start the final fight with no spirit summoned, your spirits will be set to 0 HP.
The game might freeze, too.




==================

6. VERSION HISTORY

==================

v3.0
- Complete script retranslation; a clearer and more descriptive story
closer in line with the Japanese version. Emphasis was made on clear
and less-awkward text while keeping the spirit (or patterned spell names).
- The game was overhauled from v2.1.15, and many experimental changes were
reverted to vanilla to give the game a more polished and professional quality.
- New dialogue tricks from JP like variable text speed, a dramatic portrait change,
and characters don't move their mouths during ellipses.
- The level-up screen now states your new LVL, and the text is right-aligned (prettier).
- An extremely useful, improved dungeon map that shows treasure chests, exits, events
and where bosses were fought.
- Spell expand patch, shows spell power and accuracy along with room for larger descriptions.
- A buff to the Confuse status effect; it now also prevents enemy spellcasting, which makes it
far more likely for casters to attack each other.
- Avoided an annoying trailing-space bug ("Rooks' attribute was changed to Wind .")
- Shop overhaul, now there's more interesting and powerful items to save up gold for.
- Treasure overhaul, money is more plentiful and going out of the way is rewarded.
This is the "Brick Road" philosophy to dungeons, if y'all have played Earthbound.
- Treasure chests now alert you if you're at maximum GP.
- Some powerful items are now gated behind bosses so the shop gear isn't immediately obsoleted.
- Added a missing staff member to the credits, a Message Coordinator named Abeshin.
- The documentation has improved to using ASM patches with Asar, and modifying
or debugging the game is much easier and more modular.



==========

7. CREDITS

==========

From RHDN forums
----------------
rainponcho, for the decreased encounter rate, the original FastROM patch, and the Multi-levelup patch.
And for teaching me how to use Geiger's Debugger, helping me get better at ASM,
and working with me a bunch on reverse engineering.
sluffy, for bugfixing the old FastROM patch and reducing RAM transfer size.
torha, for making the dungeon map editable, working on the old FastROM patch,
fixing the title screen subtitle, bugfixing the Multi-Levelup patch, and for
the Title Register Reset patch (which fixes graphics errors after losing the final battle).
stratoform, for fixing a bug in Title Register Reset, and giving graphics tips.
rookwield, for teaching me about DMA transfers and debugging the old FastROM patch.
TheSiege, for translations and the Endless Tower suggestion, and valuable testing.
RetGal, for the credits hack and teaching me to edit the font. And being cool.
Cureless, Zoinkity, Dzumeister, PersianImmortal, Manamiko, Phaxuji, IrohDW and others for testing~
And for the wonderful mods, for being super knowledgeable about ROM hacking.


From Discord
------------
To the community at FFIV Ultima, for accepting me with open arms. There's even more to thanks, but:
Lily for the awesome discord.
Ace Aileron for the invite and being awesome.
nobunaga1582 for the new translation.
kandowontu for the new FastROM patch.
Ruby Eye Shabranigdu and many others for testing and shooting the shit.
Jacks, for encouraging me to explain romhacking to others.

On NG Plus Discord:
Serity, for organizing the script dumps with her incomprehensible swiss army knife programs. (Thank you!)
Sardek, Feanor, Sir Newton Fig for bouncing ideas off of.
BTB for giving me my own channel, and for being a total Chad.
Melanie and Aaron, for being an online family for me.
And everyone else, for making this place somewhere I can call home.

Finally to my family and friends, for supporting me these 9 years.





====================

8. WAS THERE AN 8??? ~~ SPOILERS ~~ SPOILERS ~~ SPOILERS ~~

====================

If you're still here, maybe you're looking for an extra challenge after beating the game.
Well the level select code from vanilla still works here, with a few twists.

To start a new game from later in the story, input the following code on the title screen.
+Down, Select Select, X Y, Select Select, L R, Select Select, +Left +Right +Up...
CH2: A (Rooks Lv10, Sarah Lv7)
CH3: B (Rooks Lv20)
CH4: X (Rooks Lv30, Axs Lv30)
CH5: Y (Rooks Lv40, Sarah Lv37, Axs Lv40)

1) Your party will already be equipped, so you can set right out.
2) Check your inventory for a surprise! Wearing this item, you can challenge the final
boss with different teams. There are 2 optional challenges this way, one for picking
Chapter 2-4 and one for picking Chapter 5.
3) Chapter 5 now has Sarah/Axs, so you can use the item for their final fight too.
It's very challenging, so good luck!


(The Sound Test, L+R+B, is also still a thing btw.)

-FIN-

Database match: Arcana (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20180813-062835)
File/ROM SHA-1: 35D04611F815672D02104E174624F9610994B0B5
File/ROM CRC32: C891B297