Proto:Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness/paladin.7z Leaks/Prototype Differences

This page or section details content from the September 2020 Nintendo Leak. Check the September 2020 Nintendo Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

This is a sub-page of Proto:Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness/paladin.7z Leaks.

To do: It's possible Build163 has more changes hidden away.

This page covers the following ROMs found in the September 30, 2020 "Paladin.7z" Gigaleak:

pkd2_build157_toki_final.srl

pkd2_build157_yami_final.srl

pkd2_build163_toki_debug.srl

pkd2_build163_yami_debug.srl

The Build 157 ROMs are extremely late prototypes, being built on August 8th, 2007, only about a week before build 163. As such, the differences are very minimal when compared to the retail release, but there still are some interesting finds.

The Build 163 ROMs are more extremely late prototypes built on August 14th, 2007. This one is even closer to the retail release, only containing one known change that is unrelated to the debug features. This build only comes in a "Debug" variant and does not have a "final" version.

This page only covers differences that are unrelated to the debugging features; for information on the debug features present in the ROMs labeled "debug", see here.

Portrait Differences

To do: What are the byte differences in some of Chatot's portraits all about?

A few portraits in the game were modified. In build 157, these portraits have pixels that are seemingly bugged or transparent; in-game, they'll be a dark green color, while extraction software will often see them as pure black. Build 163 onwards fixed most of these issues. The changes are extremely subtle and the images may need to be examined to spot them.

Build 157

Build 163-Final Time/Darkness

Comparison photo (all the different pixels are re-colored green)

The changes include:

• 2 pixels in Marill's ear in its "SIGH" portrait.
• 2 Pixels on the flipped Unown B portrait, near the nose-looking part.
• Several pixels on the rightmost line on Unown N's flipped portrait.
• Several pixels on Torchic's neck-feathers in its "STUNNED" portrait.
• A single pixel on the rightmost part of Chatot's neck-feathers in its "ANGRY" portrait.
• 3 pixels on the bottom-right of Chatot's neck-feathers in its JOYOUS portrait. These pixels are actually still incorrect, and are seen as a bright green by extraction software.
• Several pixels all around Chatot's ACTION3 portrait.

In addition, A few of Chatot's portraits are visibly identical, but have subtle byte changes within the files. These include its STANDARD, GRIN, SIGH, and STUNNED portraits.

Interestingly, all of the changes in these portraits were reverted in Explorers of Sky, indicating that Sky was actually built off of this prototype!

FTC differences

To do: Look into these changes more. Code isn't really my forte.

The following files in the FTC folder have been edited, indicating changes in the code.

• arm9.bin
• fat.bin
• overlay9_0
• overlay9_1
• overlay9_2
• overlay9_3
• overlay9_4
• overlay9_5
• overlay9_6
• overlay9_7
• y9.bin

Text Changes

Shadow Ball

An interesting quirk in the Japanese games is that Shadow Ball has a chance of lowering the target's Defense, despite the fact that Shadow Ball has always lowered their Special Defense in the main games. In Build 157, the Move and TM descriptions for Shadow Ball reflect this, claiming that their Special Defense is lowered. While this was likely the intended behavior, the description is incorrect, since this is not its actual behavior in practice.

Build 157
Japanese	Translation
はなれたポケモンに ダメージをあたえる しかも いっていのかくりつで とくぼうを １だんかいさげる	Inflicts damage on the target, even at a distance. It may also reduce the target's Special Defense by 1 level.

Build 163 specifically "fixes" the descriptions, instead claiming to lower their Defense. While this may not have been intended, this is more congruent with the game's actual behavior.

Build 163
Japanese	Translation
はなれたポケモンに ダメージをあたえる しかも いっていのかくりつで ぼうぎょを １だんかいさげる	Inflicts damage on the target, even at a distance. It may also reduce the target's Defense by 1 level.

The final retail release reverts this change, so the descriptions once again state that their Special Defense is lowered. The in-game functionality never actually changes, so it seems that the developers noticed the inconsistent description while somehow overlooking the move's incorrect behavior. How confusing...

s21p1101

The s21p1101 cutscene within D39P41A has been modified. This is the cutscene that plays when you battle Palkia. A single byte was changed, fixing a typo in the text.

Build 157	Build 163 Onwards
[partner]「く くるそ! [hero]!	[partner]「く くるぞ! [hero]!