Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Battle Previewer

This is a sub-page of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.

The "Battle Previewer" (バトルプレビューア) menu is basically a model viewer that lets you test and mess around with battle models, animations and effects, featuring a cute faux-Windows interface. Unlike the regular debug menu, none of it was translated from Japanese at all, and a fair few of its functions seem to be broken.

Enter the appropriate Action Replay code for your version to replace the "Connect GBA" option in the Extras menu with a "Debug" option that opens the Battle Previewer:

Version	Encrypted	Decrypted
PAL	Q007-D604-Y4DH7 7M08-QBG2-BCT23 4UZU-TDPN-6FM3H	08023A01 18000000 041DAC38 4BECF415 0455AE9C 80274E2A
NTSC-U	PA82-ZVPV-Y4QH0 D6RW-4A16-71JTT QQRN-W26P-YRY0R	06E8393D 08000000 041D7C08 4BED212D 0451BACC 8026C01A
NTSC-J	YXDV-TCZN-CQXPE 86RP-NYMG-KXQWC P7PD-NTH4-T2YHP	022E0CB5 28000000 041D5AF0 4BED2595 0451400C 80265E01

(Source: Fire Emblem Wars of Dragons (European version code))

Controls

• D-Pad: Navigates menu options.
• Analog stick:
  • Up: Zooms in.
  • Down: Zooms out.
  • Left/Right: Moves the camera horizontally without rotating.
• C-Stick: Rotates the camera horizontally and vertically.
• A: Confirms highlighted selection.
• B: Backs out of the current menu.
• L: Moves the camera up without rotating.
• R: Moves the camera down without rotating.
• Y: Locks the camera to focus on the model, making a few changes to the control scheme:
  • L, R, and the analog stick do nothing.
  • Up and Down on the D-Pad zoom in and out... but it also still controls the menus, making things very awkward.
  • The C-Stick rotates the camera around the model.
• X: Unlocks the camera from model focus.
• Z: Switches the control focus between open menu windows.
• Start/Pause: On the "animation list" window, it switches between regular play and looping of animations. Other than that, it doesn't do anything.

Model (モデル)

Class List (クラス一覧)

Brought up when you select the Model option and presents a list of every class model in the game (male, female, and the occasional character specific variant). Select one to bring up the Animation List.

There's also a drop box at the bottom that contains the command "Light OFF" (ライトＯＦＦ), but it doesn't seem to be selectable at all anymore.

Animation List (アニメ一覧)

Opens a dialog box that lists all possible animations that could occur in a battle scene. Press Start/Pause to switch between just playing the chosen animation once (再生) and looping it indefinitely (ループ). Naturally, attacking animations require a compatible weapon to play properly, otherwise the model goes into a T-pose.

• Standby (待機): Default standing pose.
• Ready (構え): Default standing pose.
• Attack1 (攻撃１): Animation for the first attack.
• Attack2 (攻撃２): Animation for a second attack immediately following the first (e.g. enemy does not counter, no brave weapon).
• Critical1 (必殺１): Animation for critical hits that the enemy survives.
• Critical2 (必殺２): Animation for critical hits that kill the enemy.
• Occult (奥義): Animation for executing mastery skills.
• Throw (投げ): Animations for using javelins, hand axes and similar weapons.
• CritThrow (必殺投げ): Critical hit animation for javelins and hand axes.
• OccultThrow (奥義投げ): Mastery skill animation for javelins and hand axes.
• Damage (ダメージ): Animation for recoiling from damage.
• Death (死亡): Animation for dying.
• Avoid (回避): Animation for dodging enemy attacks.
• Run (走り): Running animation for approaching the enemy at the start of battle.
• Shuffle (摺足): Walking animation for approaching the enemy at short distances.

There are also a lot of combined animation commands listed (e.g. 攻撃１＿奥義, a first attack followed up by triggering a mastery skill), but none of these seem to work anymore and just put the model in T-pose.

Opening this window also opens the Animation Information window along the bottom.

Animation Information (情報)

Has a progress bar tracking the length of the animation in frames and the current position in playback, plus options to manipulate playback.

• Play (再生): Plays the animation, if a) it has stopped and b) there are frames left to play from the current point (either by rewinding or looping).
• Pause (停止): Pauses the animation.
• Forward (進める): Advances the animation by 1 frame.
• Back (戻る): Rewinds the animation by 1 frame.
• Tag Settings (タグ設定): Opens the Tag List window.

Tag List (タグ一覧)

Lists two options: Impact and Damage. The window doesn't seem to respond to inputs anymore, though, so you can't choose between them or reach the Select (決定) to execute their function.

Weapon (武器)

Opens a dialog box that lists weapon models, which are added to the unit model when selected. Every weapon in the game is listed (except for the devil axe, given its lack of a model). Oddly, all the tomes and laguz weapons are listed here too even though none of them actually involve putting a model on the wielder, but adding these to magic users and laguz classes is still required to test their attacking animations.

Amusingly, when you're just adding the weapons at this stage, you don't even have to worry about compatibility with the model class for most of them as long as an animation is not currently playing. It'll just put, say, a lance in Ike's hand, or a sword where an archer's arrow would be. The only exception is bows, which if given to a class that can't use them will behave very strangely, often becoming grotesquely oversized or twisted. If you try to play any animations with an incompatible weapon, however, the game will crash.

Incidentally, three of the S-rank tomes are referred to by completely different names in this list: Rexflame is "Forblaze" (フォルブレイズ), Rexbolt is "Mjolnir" (ミョルニル), and Rexcalibur is "Fimbul" (フィンブル). These early names (two of which previously appeared as powerful tomes in earlier Fire Emblem games) can also be seen in the weapons' file names.

Effect (エフェクト)

Opens a dialog box that lists visual effects seen in battle scenes. Covers almost everything: tomes, skills, footsteps in water, sand and snow, dying, changing class, and even parts of the HUD! The elemental tomes' effects aren't labeled by their actual names, but rather by generic numbered labels - e.g. Elfire is "Fire2" (ファイア２), Bolganone is "Fire3" (ファイア３), and Rexflame is "Fire4" (ファイア４).

There are six options which will crash the game if selected:

• Now under construction A (現在制作中Ａ)
• Now under construction B (現在制作中Ｂ)
• Now under construction C (現在制作中Ｃ)
• Now under construction D (現在制作中Ｄ)
• Now under construction E (現在制作中Ｅ)
• For claws dummy (爪用ダミー)

Texture (テクスチャ)

This was presumably an option for selecting which set of textures the model should wear, out of the three army affiliations:

• Your Army (Blue) (自軍　（青）)
• Enemy Army (Red) (敵軍　（赤）)
• Neutral Army (Green) (中立軍　（緑）)

However, in the game's current state selecting any of these does nothing at all, and may even crash the game.

Background (背景)

Opens a dialog box that allows you to set up the background scenery to test your model in.

• Terrain Model (地形モデル): Choose a background model. You can choose from every background model seen in the main game, as well as the tutorial background. Any lighting and weather effects that the model has will also be applied.
• Sky Model (空モデル): Choose which of the six skyboxes to display. They don't override any weather effects that a terrain model has.
  • Sunny (晴れ)
  • Cloudy (曇り)
  • Night (夜)
  • Sunset (夕日)
  • Mountain (山): Identical to the sunny skybox.
  • Desert (砂漠): Identical to the sunny skybox.
• Arrangement Model (配置物): Doesn't seem to ever have any options in it or do anything.

Select Load (読み込む) and the game will reload the scene into your chosen configuration.

Start Battle (バトル開始)

To do: Verify if this works on an actual console. Wars of Dragons' writeup suggests it's still functional, but...

Opens a large dialog box that's supposed to simulate battle scenes according to chosen variables, similar to the one found in Monshou no Nazo. However, selecting the Begin button (開始) will always crash the game on an emulator, at least.

• Class (クラス): Choose the classes for three participating units, from left to right: Left, Right, Support.
• Flag (フラグ): There aren't any options at all under this header, oddly enough, not even an empty drop-down box. What this was is anyone's guess.
• Texture (テクスチャ): Choose between player, enemy and NPC textures for each unit's model.
• Weapon (武器): Choose the weapons that each unit will wield.
• Background (背景): Select terrain and skybox models, like in the Background dialog box.
• BGM: Choose background music for the scene. Only battle themes and the class change theme can be chosen.
• Action (アクション): Using four drop-down boxes, assemble what goes on in one action that will be undertaken in the simulated scene, then add that action to the queue below.
  • The first drop-down box determines which of the units participating will be making this attack.
  • The second box determines its outcome: hit, critical, evade, kill, stop, or trigger a mastery.
  • The third and fourth boxes optionally let you add up to two extra effects to the action. This includes all skills, as well as the effects for devil axe backfire, Nosferatu healing, brave weapon double-striking, and poisoning.

• The Add (追加) button on top of the queue adds the current contents of the Action boxes to the queue, the Delete (削除) button removes the currently highlighted queue action (change the highlighted one by moving the cursor to the scroll bar, then hold A and press Up/Down), and Clear (クリア) removes all actions from the queue.
• There are five drop-down boxes next to the queue. From top to bottom:
  • Box 1 toggles lighting on and off.
  • Box 2 toggles the battle scene's range mode between short distance (近距離) and long distance (遠距離).
  • Box 3 toggles shaking on (揺れあり) and off (揺れなし).
  • Box 4 toggles between 3 options: regular (通常), horizontal camera (真横カメラ), and class-changing (クラスチェンジ).
  • Box 5 toggles between three options: automatic return (自動復帰), manual return (手動復帰), and looping (繰り返し).

Exit

Closes the menu and returns you to the title screen.