Proto:Tear Ring Saga

This page details one or more prototype versions of Tear Ring Saga.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Pretty much everything non-graphical that could be hiding in the demo. It is apparently possible to play past map 3 and progress into the rest of the game in the demo. Investigate game differences/how far you can go past the demo content. The death spell has different map animations, see BEFF019.AR, maybe take ingame screens instead of sheets for these. File differences/variants at a glance: BEFF027.AR, BEFF079.AR, BEFF084.AR/BEFF085.AR(seem to have swapped colors), BEFF092.AR, EBG16.TM(demo)/TAISEN.AR(final), .

Tear Ring Saga Prelude is a trial edition of Tear Ring Saga that was distributed in Japan as a pre-order incentive. The demo allows a small taste of the game's story and has some preset versus mode teams. It also features graphics of some early designs that differ from the final release. Another demo was also distributed as a supplement in an issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine.

Gameplay

To do: Are character growth rates different? Are there any unused items/weapons in the demo appearing in the final game, and do they have different stats?

The Prelude demo is playable up to Map 3. Most of the game is identical to the retail release, with characters having identical stats. Saving is disabled for the demo, which renders the Save Staff unusable. Some weapons have different stats compared to the final release.

The demo opens with the following disclaimer not present in the final release.

Image	Transcription	Translation
	このソフトは、現在開發中のため正常に動作しないなど 予期できない不具合が発見される場合が考えられます。 万一、誤動作等起きた場合でもディスクの お取り替えはできませんので、ご了承ください。	This software is currently under development, so bear in mind that you may encounter unexpected flaws in ordinary behaviors, etc. as a result. Please understand that, should a malfunction, etc. occur, this disk cannot be exchanged.

The introduction sequence is identical to the final version, though the title screen has additional graphics, adding the Prelude subtitle to the logo and the kanji for trial version (体験版, taikenban) above the title. The extra title screen graphics remain in the final release, but they're unused.

Demo	Final

Upon starting the game, the player is greeted with story sequences virtually identical to the final release. The dialogue appears to be identical to the final's, though the demo's dialogue makes more liberal uses of line breaks and has less punctuation than the final game's dialogue.

Upon finishing the last map of the demo, a splash screen appears with the game's release date. A similar graphic to this exists in the final, though interestingly, the screen in the final release still uses the older Emblem Saga title.

Demo	Final (Unused)

If the tutorial is bypassed, the rest of the game can be played. From this point onward, the game is less complete, and contains several differences from the final version:

• Raquel, Zieg, Narcus, Sharon, Billford, Maerchen, San, Bud, Rishel, Lina, and Sierra are unrecruitable in this version. Narcus, Maerchen, and Sierra are the only ones who still appear.
• There are five recruitable characters who were cut from the final version. They are Albert (a Sergeant, joined when Sharon and Billford join in the final version, some connection to Leteena), Teo (a Hero, joins in Map 19 along with Frau, uses Raffin's portrait), Jacob (a Chief, joins in map 27b, is Maerchen's brother and seems to be basically the same unit), Lesfeen (a Dancer, joins after Map 30 (?), replaced by Renee, awful stats and movement), and Daniel (a Dark Priest, joins in Map 31, claims his name is Rishel in his joining cutscene).

Name	Class
Albert	Sergeant
Teo	Hero
Jacob	Chief
Lesfeen	Dancer
Daniel	Dark Priest

To do: Add stats for these characters

• Some units have different stats or skills. Norton cannot promote and lacks Life and Death, and Roger has 1 less strength and skill and 2 less speed.

To do: Document more of these stat changes

To do: Add more types of content to this list

Weapon Stats

Some weapons appearing in the demo have different stats than their appearances in the final game.

Versus Mode

To do: Document the teams, make a name list, portraits.

In addition to the three playable maps, the game has some preset versus teams in the game's two-player versus mode. The final game has no preset teams like this. These demo preset teams are particularly interesting in that they feature characters, with names and portraits, not used in the final game.

The teams are as follows:

Runan's Army:

• Runan, Level 2 Knight Lord, carrying Rapier
• Plum, Level 1 Priest, carrying Healing staff
• Mahter, Level 3 Pegasus Knight, carrying Pilum and Estoc
• Arkis, Level 2 Rook Knight, carrying Iron Spear and Iron Sword
• Kreiss, Level 2 Rook Knight, carrying Hand Spear and Iron Sword
• Kate, Level 2 Lady Knight, carrying Estoc, Bowgun, and Wood Shield, skills Adept and Urbanite
• 2 Level 5 Archers, carrying Bowguns
• 4 Level 5 Soldiers, carrying Steel Spears
• Teppster, Level 3 Spear Knight, carrying Steel Spear, skills Pavise and Urbanite
• Julia, Level 1 Myrmidon, carrying Killing Edge
• Bartz, Level 3 Fighter, carrying Poleaxe and Shield Axe, skills Mountaineer
• Maruju, Level 1 Mage, carrying Wundergust

Tia's Army:

Name	Portrait	Class	Level	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Weapon Level	Defense	Movement	War Potential	Skills	Items	Notes
Tia		Sister	10	18	1	11	6	10	9	9	1	4	86	Sol, Draco	Healing, Estoc, Saint's Proof	Can use her Saint's Proof to promote into a Leda Princess
Havel		Armor Knight	6	34	7	0	6	5	7	8	11	3	79	None	Iron Sword	None
Altran		Commander Knight	12	33	11	2	10	9	5	11	9	7	114	Canto	Iron Sword, Hand Spear	None
Morton		Spear Knight	7	28	9	0	7	9	6	9	7	4	88	Lethality, Urbanite	Iron Spear	None
Erin		Lady Knight	5	23	6	2	8	9	10	8	4	4	101	Adept, Urbanite	Estoc, Bowgun	None
Ash		Mercenary	7	27	8	0	9	10	3	7	4	5	91	Forester	Scimitar	None
Signes		Rook Knight	10	28	10	0	7	7	5	7	8	7	111	Urbanite	Steel Spear, Estoc	None
Carl		Rook Knight	10	27	8	0	8	9	6	9	7	7	110	Grassrunner	Steel Spear, Armorslayer	None
Edvan		Bow Knight	10	26	9	0	9	8	3	11	6	4	132	Mountaineer, Urbanite	Gatling Bow	Weirdly powerful equipment compared to everyone else
Richard		Gold Knight	18	40	16	3	17	15	7	15	14	8	179	Pavise, Adept	Pilum, Shield Sword	Different class than in the main story

Tia's army also has some generics, but they're the same as in Runan's.

To do: Add stats, portraits, and the other teams

Graphics

The demo doesn't seem to have any new character portraits, though it is missing several recolors of generic villagers that appear in the final. It is also missing alternate expressions for some characters, though these characters don't appear in the demo so it doesn't really matter.

Most of the item artwork for the inventory screen exists, despite the vast majority of the items being unobtainable in the demo. The artwork for the Dragon Flute item seems to be missing, however.

Dark Dragon, Naga Dragon, and Mist Dragon

To do: Battle graphics?

Map sprites for the Dark Dragon (Gerxel's class), the Naga Dragon (Miradona's class), and the Mist Dragon (Muse's class) reflect earlier designs. At some point in development, after the demo was released, the designs appear to have been recolored and switched around. This does explain an oddity in the final release where the classes portraits for these dragons reflect the older designs.

The map sprite sets are not entirely complete. They are all missing attacking animations, and the Dark and Naga Dragons are missing movement animations. In the final release, the Dark and Naga Dragons have unused movement frames, but reuse and recolor movement frames from the Fire Dragon.

Class	Demo	Final
Dark Dragon
Naga Dragon
Mist Dragon

Cutscene graphics for Gerxel also reflect his earlier design in the demo.

Demo	Final

Unknown Class

To do: Is there a name in the game's data? Are there battle graphics for this? Stats?

In the demo graphics there are map icons and class artwork for a rather evil looking knight class. These graphics appear to have been replaced with graphics for a different class in the final release, and don't seem to appear in the final release, unused or otherwise, at all.

Judging by the map sprites and class artwork, this would have been a mounted class that used lances and axes, and could dismount from its horse.

Miradona Artwork

A picture of Miradona exists within the demo that does not exist in the final. This picture may have been planned to be used for the game's ending sequence in an earlier version. The final game gives her an animated portrait instead of using a still picture like this.

Other Map Sprites

To do: Comparison pictures (There are A LOT).

Character Palettes

A fair amount of the playable character has a different palette for their map sprites than in the final.

WIP Sprites

Many of the unused map sprites in the demo appear to be work in progress versions, some with different animations and some with less refined shading.

Demo	Final

The Diabolist (U112S.AR and related files) seems to share an animation base-using the same poses and movements-with the other dark magic classes in the demo. The final game gives him more customized movements with more frames. These animation changes also carry over to the unused staff animations (not pictured). Despite the significant number of animation directions, most of these map animations go unused as Guenchaos only attacks during cutscenes from specific directions.

Miscellaneous

Demo	Final

The class artwork for the Dark Mage was recolored for the final release. The demo gives his robes a blueish hue, while the final release depicts him with reddish robes.

A class icon not appearing in the final game.

Demo	Final

The vast majority of, if not all, the battle background pictures are cropped slightly differently between the demo and final release. This example is from the images found at MBG40.TIM in both the demo and final.