Topic: FF2/4/4A Monster Resistances

[Dragonsbrethren]

FF2us 1.0 doesn't have absorb set, so if it behaves the same way in that then the flag can't be the cause, as much sense as it makes.

FF2us 1.0 does have the absorb flag set. I just stepped through all the differences between the 1.0 and 1.1, and all but four changes are in the 18000-20000 range. I'm not sure why your version didn't have the Grudger absorbing lightning.

I just looked at it in a clean ROM and you're right, I have no idea why it wasn't set in the copy I was looking at it in before.

As for my comment about a built-in resistance, that's the way it seemed to me when I was playing through the PSX version. I guess it's possible they changed something, but I have a feeling it was just the reduced hit rate throwing me off. The monster I was testing against is BladeMan, which definitely isn't taking reduced damage in any of the other versions.

[Phoenix]

Does anyone know if they changed the Grudger/Screamer/Ghost to spirit-type enemies in the Playstation version or FF4A?

Also, I noticed that the Tower of Bab-il document had some misaligned numbers for the BladeMan, who is also spirit-type (which was mentioned here before, but not named). I added it to my original post.

[Phoenix]

I don't recall any non-obvious stuff in the monster data... a bunch of the Tower of Bab-il docs refer with Undead/Mechs as invulnerable to status changes, but that simply is not the case. It just happens that most undead tends to have resistance to poison/death and most mechs have resistances to everything. Those docs are a nice baseline, but it's always worth rechecking what stuff means if there's an inconsistancy.

There's actually a piece of code within the status spell subroutine that does a check for spirits, machines, and undead, and exits the subroutine if that's the case. I was puzzled as to why this wasn't working (the Screamer, for instance, is a machine without status immunities and can be affected by status changes) so I went back and looked at the subroutine again. It turns out it exits if the spell is an instant death spell and the enemy is a spirit/machine/undead. So the Tower of Bab-il documents weren't way off (they obviously had seen that piece of code) they just missed the other piece of the puzzle. Spirits/machines/undead are inherently immune to death spells.

[Deathlike2]

Well, it's simply just death. Odin isn't classified as instant death (it doesn't inflict Death status to be specific), even though the result is that.

That sounds a bit better than the previously documented behavior and oddly sounds like obscure, but sane behavior.

This behavior seems to be applying to FF4A as well.