User blog:Liam48D/To access Grandia III's debug mode...

This doesn't really fit a wiki page, but it's still useful information, so as a blog post...

Enabling Grandia III's debug mode on PCSX2
I assume you are already emulating Grandia III, and are using PCSX2 to do so. This section of my guide is not, for the most part, going to be helpful to you if you aren't.

Inside your PCSX2 folder (the one with "memcards" and such), create a folder called "cheats". Inside it, create a file called "5B657DAD.pnach"; this is the file that contains the actual cheat code. Paste this into the file:

gametitle=Grandia III comment=Debug mode for Grandia III patch=1,EE,202186A8,extended,00000001

Credits to PCSX2 forum user dhillel for posting this code.

(A quick explanation of that file:  is the CRC code of Grandia 3 - basically a unique code that refers to Grandia 3 and Grandia 3 alone. Note that both discs have this same code, so the cheat should work whether you're running Disc 1 or 2. The   and   parts are both decorative things; they don't actually make the cheat do anything.   is the important part; it contains the specific code that enables debug mode. Again, thanks to dhillel for contributing that code.)

The cheat file won't do anything until you enable cheats, though. Open the System menu in the toolbar, then make sure "Enable Cheats" is toggled on.

Once you've enabled the cheat, I recommend rebooting the game; I have no idea how reliably it'll work if you don't reboot.

Besides actually testing the cheat (which I'll cover in a moment!), you can verify that the cheat is loaded by checking the console ("Misc" menu -> "Show Console"); once you've (re)booted the game, "Found Cheats file: '5B657DAD.pnach'" and "comment: Debug mode for Grandia III" should appear in the there.

Using debug mode
I don't intend to write a full guide to debug mode here and now, but I'll cover some pointer tips to get you started..

Debug mode requires a second controller
If you're using PCSX2, it's not terribly difficult to set up the second controller. (I had to use a Windows computer - i.e. the LilyPad plugin instead of OnePad - before the second controller would work. Wine works too.) To configure the second controller, choose "Pad 2" instead of "Pad 1" in the controller plugin settings. My configuration was based on using the number key-pad as the second controller, which I'll list below:


 * I bound 2, 4, 6, and 8 to the D-pad. The D-pad is extensively used in debug mode. The joysticks are not used.
 * I bound slash, asterisk, and minus to cross, circle, and square, respectively. These three buttons are used a lot.
 * I bound plus to triangle. This is definitely not necessary; the only use I found for the triangle button was hiding (but keeping the state of) the battle debug menu.
 * I bound period/dot/delete to the start button, and 0/insert to the select key. (I would have bound return to start key, of course, but I couldn't get PCSX2 to distinguish between the numpad-return and the main keyboard-return, which I was already using for the first controller's start button, of course.)
 * I bound the left- and right- square bracket keys to L1 and R1. As far as I've found, these are only used in the battle debug screen for navigating between pages of character data.

As far as I've seen, these are the only buttons used for navigating debug mode.

Don't break your game!
I'm not kidding! Make a backup of your memory card - seriously. (It's in your PCSX2's memcards folder, right alongside the cheats folder you made earlier.) Use save states frequently, especially before warping to different maps or using the flight-from-anywhere tool; if you warp somewhere you aren't supposed to be while half-way through a cutscene, there's a fair chance you will mess things up. This is only bad if you don't have a save state or file to return to.

The field debug mode menu is a handy tool for anyone


If you aren't especially interested in messing around with the rather technical debug mode, here's a brief guide to enabling field debug mode, which gives access to a very useful menu:

1. Once you've loaded a save, open the debug screen by pressing start on the second controller.

2. Use the D-pad on the second controller to navigate to "Field" ("+05 0x2f3d80 Field").

3. Press square to select it. (I know, it's ridiculous. Worse, cross means back. You'd think they would have used the in-game UI controls for debug mode! Oh well.)

4. You should be greeted with a screen titled "Field Sub Menu". You'll already have "Debug Mode OFF" selected. Press right on the D-pad; it should change to "Debug Mode ON".

5. Press cross twice to exit the menu.

Now that you've got debug mode enabled, you can press select on the first, ordinary controller to open a handy debug menu. This lets you sell items, set your party up, extract magic and skills, fuse mana eggs, access the plane's "flight" menu, and so on, from anywhere in the game. Neat!

You do need to reload field debug mode whenever you reboot the game.

Battle debug mode lets you view and modify enemy and player stats
By using the battle system's dedicated debug mode, you can view and modify the stats of both players and enemies. This is particularly fun for customizing battles to be more interesting - do you find Xorn too easy to defeat? Try increasing his attack power! Want to make Kornell scarier? Boost his ACT! (ACT is equivalent to INI, and increasing it means the character will progress the IP gauge faster.)

As far as I've tested, battle debug mode only works if you've also got field debug mode enabled. So make sure you've followed the steps in the last section, if you haven't already.

Once you've gotten into a battle, press select on the second controller to open the battle debug menu. Controls in the battle debug menu work the same as in the main debug menu used earlier, but with circle as the "select" button instead of square. You can immediately change things such as the system speed, or view character data: navigate to "Char" (the first option), press square to select it, then select and press "Param".

Once you select "Param", you'll be greeted with a colossal list of stats; likely you'll have Yuki selected. To view a different character's stats, select "Char No." and use the left and right D-pad buttons to pick the one you want; numbers zero through three are your party members, and four and beyond are actual character data. (Since you can't see the name of the character you have selected in the debug screen, I like to briefly change the Icon; this updates that character's picture on the IP gauge, making it easy to see who I have selected.)

Once you've got a character selected, you can navigate to any of the other options to change them; if you want to boost the attack of a Baabaa, this is the screen to do it on. You can use the L1 and R1 buttons to navigate between pages; the various pages contain the selected character's status (poison, sleep, etc), resistances ("Fire 1.50" means the character takes 150% damage from fire moves), and other miscellaneous stats. (Funnily enough, I couldn't find the amount of gold an enemy drops anywhere.)

Some brief notes on the stats:  is called INI in the game, and it's the speed a character moves along the IP gauge. and  probably refer to magic power and resistance, or MAG and RES, respectively, but I haven't actually tested them. Sway WT refers to the chance a character has at dodging; the Excise Sigma, for example, has a Sway WT of 0.30, which means a 30% chance at dodging attacks coming at it. Enemies apparently also have Lv values, which clearly refer to level, but I don't think these values actually have any effect in the game. Oh well; saying "Lv. 18 Excise Sigma" sounds cooler than just "Excise Sigma" anyhow.

I've been putting together a bestiary of this available data; maybe at some point, if it's ever completed, I'll work on adding it here to the wiki. We've already got impressive bestiaries for Grandia I and II!