On the Party Status screen, hold L and Select and press the confirm button to choose a party member and open the name entry screen
Power-On Button Combos
Powering on while holding only Select and Start opens a save deletion screen. After 2 confirmations, it erases all save data.
Powering on while holding B skips the opening and goes straight to file select
Soft Reset
Pressing L, R, Select, and Start together during the game resets it
Trivia
The Dream 10x Attack
Despite its name, Dragon blade has no bonus against dragon-type enemies, and its attacks have no element
Equipping Dragon ring makes the attack's element exactly dragon, so 2x power applies against dragon-type enemies
A critical hit from Dragon blade (25%) multiplies in another 3x power for a total of 6x, and also ignores enemy defense
If another party member wearing Trick ring also maxes out Trick on the attacker, ATP rises to 1.8x
A critical hit then deals about 10.8x power (1.8 × 2 × 3)
An Easy 8x Attack with Elements
Equipping Undead ring with an elemental weapon gives attacks both the weapon's element and light
If the weapon's critical multiplier is 2x, enemies weak to both the weapon's element and light take 4x on a normal hit and 8x on a critical hit
The Pawn Shop on Forfeit Island
The pawn shop stocks items the protagonist has parted with
Selling an item to a shop, throwing it away, or feeding it to capsule monsters adds to its stock (up to 15 of each item)
Buying from the pawn shop reduces the stock
The price is the item's regular price, the same as at normal shops, and you can buy only as many at once as are in stock
Fruit fed to capsule monsters does not appear in the shop
Engage ring
While Selan is in the party with Engage ring equipped, prices at every shop are halved
The description only says "merchants will charge less", but prices are actually halved
Fractions round up
At the casino too, both the cost of buying coins and the coins needed for prizes are halved
Wearing it both when buying coins and when exchanging them for prizes effectively gets you prizes at 1/4 the cost
Only Selan can equip it
Found only in blue treasure chests in the Ancient Cave
The Bunny sword's ATP Is a Scam
On the equipment screen, Bunny sword looks like a strong weapon with 500 ATP
But "Fight" ignores ATP and always attacks with 120 power
Used as if it were a 500 ATP weapon, its power falls short of even 1/4 of what you would expect
Neither raising STR nor casting Trick increases "Fight" damage
The IP skill Battle fury is unaffected, since its damage depends on the enemy's remaining HP
Fortune whip Critical Hits Cut Power to 1/8
The critical rate is a high 50%, but the critical multiplier is 2/16, so a critical hit cuts power to 1/8
Critical hits ignore defense, so they pay off only when the enemy's defense exceeds about 1.75x the power
Bugs and Unused Content
Earth and Wind Elements Go Unused
Skills of GUSTO and SULLY have the earth and wind elements
But no enemy's weakness, halving, or immunity applies to them
Enemies with a defense that halves any elemental attack (such as Gorem enemies) halve them, while enemies with a defense that halves non-elemental attacks (such as Fiend) do not
Winged Horse's Skills Are Reversed on the Status Screen
The status screen shows Electro bolt as known from the start and Air attack as learned later
Its actual behavior is the reverse: it uses Air attack from the start, then Electro bolt once learned
Descriptions of Defense-Lowering IP Skills Don't Match Their Effects
Meltdown's description says "Reduces enemy attack power by 1/6", but it actually lowers enemy DFP by 40%
Weakener's description says "Reduces enemy attack power by 1/4", but it actually lowers enemy DFP by 50%
Weakpoint's description says "Reduces enemy defense power by 1/8", but the actual reduction is 30%, not 1/8
As their names suggest, all 3 skills lower DFP
Ancient Cave Red Treasure Chest Bug That Breaks Non-Weapon Equipment from B10
Non-weapon equipment in red treasure chests is picked from a candidate list of items priced under 1000 × (floor + 1), sorted by item number
The candidate count can only be read as 0-127, so from B10, where the count exceeds 128, it is read as the count minus 128
On B10, the 129 candidates are read as 1, so only Apron, at the top of the list, appears
From B11 on, only the first 6-57 items on the list are picked, so only low-numbered armor appears. Shields, helmets, rings, and jewels appear only on B1-B9.
40 items priced 10000 or more, such as shields, helmets, rings, and jewels, make the candidate list but never appear
Weapons have at most 88 candidates, so this bug does not affect them
Enemies You Never Fight
Kraken (Lv55, HP550, EXP4450) appears only in an enemy group that nothing uses
King Hidora (Lv48, HP2000, EXP14650) is not in any enemy group
A Gades with HP10000 and EXP50000 exists but appears in no battle. The Gades you actually fight uses separate data with HP7500 and HP3000.
All 3 are fully built, down to their actions and resistances
Narvick has 3 townspeople with dialogue who are never placed in the town
Their dialogue is detailed enough to change with story progress, and it remains in the overseas version, translated into English
Battle Messages That Never Appear
The battle messages "Critical Hit" and "Strengthens defences." are never used by any routine
Both come from the Japanese version and remain in the overseas version in translated form
Differences in the Overseas Version
Changes Made for the Overseas Version
Item, spell, enemy, and IP skill values are identical to the Japanese version, apart from their names
The 5 alcoholic drinks were renamed as ciders (Pear, Sour, Lime, Plum, Apple)
The Japanese Angel key became the Dankirk key, the Sacrifice key became the Narcysus key, Demon became Fiend, and Lucifer became Archfiend
Deadly sword and Deadly sword are the Blood sword and Killer sword in the Japanese version. Counting their cursed versions, 4 items now share the name Deadly sword.
The China dress became Evening gown, but the Bunny series and Seethru series kept their names
In the ending, "ESTPOLIS 1" was rewritten as "LUFIA 1", with its on-screen position adjusted for the shorter text
The overseas staff roll adds lines for the translator and the text supervisor. The staff roll's "Presented by" line still says TAITO.
Mistranslations
The Japanese name of Current means sea dragon. "Current" (as in ocean current) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Apron shield means Apollo shield, so "Apron" appears to be a mistranslation
Pearl armor, Pearl helmet, and Pearl shield, obtained by breaking a seal during the story, are divine armor: their Japanese descriptions say "legendary ... bestowed by the gods". Yet their English names say Pearl.
Pearl brace, a bracelet made from pearls, really is named for pearl
The Japanese name of Perch refers to Futabasuzuki, a plesiosaur. "Perch" (the fish suzuki in Japanese) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Moray Vine means pitcher plant (utsubokazura), a carnivorous plant. "Moray Vine" (utsubo is a moray eel, kazura a vine) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Torrent means treant, a tree monster. "Torrent" (rapids) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Leech means lich, an undead sorcerer. "Leech" (the bloodsucking worm) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Cobalt means kobold, a small demon. "Cobalt" (the metal) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of She Viper means sea viper, a sea snake. "She Viper" (female viper) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Agony helm means helm of Agni, the fire god. "Agony" (suffering) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of Jute helmet means demon-warding helmet. "Jute" (a plant fiber) appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of the enemy skill Magic gale bullet means magic-sealing bullet, so "gale" appears to be a mistranslation
The Japanese name of the capsule monster skill Finale simply means kick. "Finale" appears to come from another sense of the same word, a final settling
The Japanese name of Fry sword ties it to the spell Zap, but its English name uses a different spell, Fry
Development Debug Features Left in the ROM (Unused)
Debug features from development remain in the ROM. They cannot be accessed through normal play.
Use the cheat code "0380C7:D4", then hold Select on controller 2 and press X on controller 1 to enable them
Build Date Stamps Left in the ROM
The bottom line of the development debug screen shows when the ROM was built
The Japanese version reads "ESTPOLIS 1/10 PM 4:00", with no year
The overseas version reads "LUFIA II 95/12/26 23:30"
The Japanese version came out on February 24, 1995, so if the stamp means January 10, 1995, development appears to have ended 45 days before release
The overseas stamp is 23:30 on December 26, 1995, so the team may have been rushing to finish late into the night the day after Christmas
The overseas version came out around September 1996, about 8 months after the stamp
The Phantom Prototype
A prototype ROM of the Japanese version is in circulation, and its ending text closes with "94/7/18 Miyata"
Just before that come the lines "And that is everything" and "Thank you for your hard work", which seem addressed to someone checking the game during development
A development note also remains, saying a hidden event starts about 1 minute after the staff roll
None of this text is in the retail version
The build date line on the retail version's debug screen (ESTPOLIS 1/10 PM 4:00) is not in the prototype
Remarkably, the prototype lets you use the debug features without a cheat code
Debug Features in the Prototype
On the field, press Y, Select, and Start together on controller 1 to enable them, and L and R together to disable them
While they are enabled, Start on controller 1 opens the debug screen
Prototype vs. Retail Version
Items: 359 in the prototype, 467 in the retail version
Prototype-only items: jewels named "... Rock", "... fruit" items, tools such as spanners and pliers, placeholder-named keys 01-10, and more.
Items added in the retail version: Iris Treasures, named keys, elemental swords and axes, Green tea, RAN-RAN step, and more
Enemies: 205 in the prototype, 224 in the retail version