Dragon Warrior Monsters 2

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 has water monsters. Why didn't Dragon Warrior Monsters have water monsters? Also, name character length is increased from 4 to a whopping 5!

Debug Mode
A debug mode can be activated in all versions by using the GameShark code. While the code can be activated at any time from boot onward, many options don't actually do anything unless specifically called from ingame. Game Genie code will boot directly into the debug menu.

To properly utilize the menu, the code must be turned on to choose options (cycling through with right and left dpad and selecting with A), and turned back off before returning to the game. Sometimes the menu won't become properly visible after activation unless A or B is pressed a few times. A few options seem to have had their functionality removed, either fully or partially. Many options also glitch the menu and/or map graphics upon exiting the menu, which may or may not clear up when moving between areas or starting battles.

Functionality of some of the menus differ somewhat between the Japanese and English versions.

1:GOTO PROGRAM
This doesn't seem to do anything in the final game. Text for another submenu which belongs here is located in the ROM with the rest of the Debug Mode text, but it doesn't seem to be accessible. ? GOTOPRG ? PRGNO1 PRGNO2 PRGNO3 No more…

This menu doesn't do anything in the Japanese version, either, but it has more internal text there. It seems as if it would have had similar functionality to the GOTO PROGRAM menu in Dragon Warrior Monsters' debug mode, where it was used to test several unrelated functions such as viewing skill animations, watching tutorials, etc. It may have been removed by the time the game was finalized due to redundancy with the main debug menu in some selections, such as viewing the staff roll. ー GOTOPRG ー PRGNO1 PRGNO2 PRGNO3 TITLE ~1 GAME BATTLE EVT DEMO STAFF EFFECT RESULT DEBUG ~2 OBJTEST これいじょうは…

2:EDIT
This lets you change your coordinates ingame, offering a selection of every area map by name and the XY coordinates you want to appear at. There are a lot of map options in here named things like "NO" or "Not yet!", but unavailable locations will print NO DATA if selected, and not allow you to choose them.

3:AUTOMAP CHECK
This is meant to put a Magic Key in your key inventory, presumably to test both the key generation and randomly-generated maps, but it can be somewhat buggy. It may or may not teleport you to the new area you just chose. You choose a key ID (these determine the prefix/suffix of the key you get and seem to be based on your party as the keys would normally be if you obtained them properly ingame) and XY coordinates (your intended location when it teleports you to the new map?) After these are chosen it also jumps to the sound test, possibly to pick music the new area is meant to play but it seems to default back to the normal map music.

4:GRAFHICS
This lets you look at the normal and walking sprites for every species of monster. They're listed by ID numbers through, though there are many filler spots which are all occupied by recolored copies of DrakSlime. The walksprite can be turned from South-East-North-West by pressing A.

5:SOUNDS
A sound test! Of course. Lets you listen to any music or sound effect in the game.

6:BATTLE
This is a very strange option which seems to bug out more often than not. It seems to work best if called from another world, where you can normally get into random battles. The options are number of foes (-, ie 1-3), their species (goes by ID but in a different order than the Grafhics menu uses, from -, and seems to place the native monsters of the map as the first choices), Debug (options are Fixed and Auto, Auto seems to break somewhat less), Skill I (defaults at and doesn't seem to be able to be edited), and the Species/Level for whatever you want your own party to be (the species ID here goes in yet another order, from -). After making your choices and exiting back to the main game, the battle you set up is meant to be triggered by walking around the other world until a random encounter happens, but it sometimes just glitches the map out instead so you can't actually walk anywhere.

Also as a note, choosing all for your own party options (unsure if Debug must be set to Auto for this, but it seems to help) appears to fill your party and farm with completely randomized monsters (species / level / nicknames / wildness), changes your own name to あづしくん (though this is not properly rendered in the English versions), fills your inventory with random items, makes you have 80 TinyMedals deposited with the Medal Man, and gives you 99999 gold! It also appears to delete all obtained Magic Keys (except for the current one) including GreatLog so it's totally possible to trap yourself with this if the debug Edit submenu decides not to cooperate and you don't have any appropriate teleportation items.

7:HAIGOU
This can be used to view the potential results of whatever breeding combinations you can think of, showing such information as spell resistances / immunities of the hypothetical parents and child, dependent on parent levels and plus rank. Unfortunately, no actual egg appears to be generated afterward.

8:STAFF ROLL
Plays the credits sequence, as you'd expect. If the GameShark code is left on, it goes back to the main Debug Mode menu when it's finished, but if the code is turned off after the credits start then NPCs are flagged as if you've beaten it afterward!

9:TOKUGI CHECK
Gives information on every special skill. The depth of the information differs between the Japanese and English versions.

A:ENEMY TBL CHK
When selected in an English version, this option is commented out entirely and just displays "None".

B:MESSAGE CHK
This option is exclusive to the English versions and allows you to choose and print a text string onscreen (seems to need to be called from ingame, as well), presumably to check the translation. It's possible to cause a crash or freeze with this if you choose a message that requires a variable, eg "9's INT rose by -infinite garbage characters-"

? RETURN ?
Meant to return to the main game, although it doesn't do this if the GameShark code is still active. Selecting Return before turning the code off will prevent the common graphical glitches that exiting Debug Mode causes, however.

Unused Super Game Boy Function
PAL_PRI. When bit set to automatically switches to the custom software's palette if any palette or attribute settings are altered. Super Game Boy palettes are disabled, ergo the command is unused. TOSE could have originally intended to simply have the palettes switch back as done with Donkey Kong Land and other games. Game Genie code will enable palette selection.