This month I decided to do something besides my column... a tutorial (of sorts). This is my little guide to the Final Fantasy VII PSX (Playstation) debug mode that I have been playing around with this summer. This article only covers the first room, but I plan to follow up with more in the future.

NOTE: You cannot mess up your PSX, your memory card, or your game CD with this... but you can mess up data on your memory card! Be careful.

    First things first... What the hell is the Final Fantasy VII debug mode? WELL, it is a nifty little feature that the fine folks at Squaresoft threw in, just to prove that they really do have to much free time. It allows you to (through a series VERY cryptic and often annoying) rooms to edit parts of the game. You can make a super character, watch your favorite move, bring Aeris (yes, Aeris, I don't care what the Japanese version calls her!) back to life, have Sephiroth in your party and other cool things.



    Now you are probably saying... how do I get this "debug room". Well first off, you have to have an old style GameShark and an old style PlayStation (sorry PC users). In theory you can use a new PSX and new GameShark, but I haven't been able to get it to work... I HAVE been able to go to all the debug rooms, but I HAVEN'T been able to get back to the regular game with edited data, like with the older equipment. Drag the PSX out of your attic (not much good on the PSX lately, huh?) and boot up Sony's good old gray box o' wonders. Now, with your GameShark, enable this code: 8009A05C 0041 and/or this one: 8009ABF6 0041. The first code is the original, and the second code is a "new and improved version." I have NO IDEA what the difference is... I use the second one only... Use whatever one (or combination) works best for you.



Next, start FF7 and select new game. It is probably a good idea to take out your memory card the first few times you mess around with the debug room as it has a tendency to cause 'undesired' effects. You should be in a room that looks like this:

    The numbers, my Japanese friend told me, are in Kanji. I don't know anything about Japanese, so I will just have to trust him on that :)  Also, since I don't know anything about Kanji, I can't count it, so I am gonna make up my own system. It goes clockwise from 1-8. For thouse of you who are number impaired (I know I am) I provided a map:

You should now remove/turn off the GameShark. If you leave it on, you WON'T be able to leave the room! The way I have this guide set-up, the options are divided into rooms and are followed by a short description of what each option does. Now, on to the rooms!

INTRO ROOM (Yuffie)

See Yuffie?? Well, she has all the options for this room...

YUFFIE'S OPTIONS

NEXT the next page of options.

MENU ON WHOO HOO!!! Now you can use your menu throught the debug world!

BATTLE LOCK Disables random battles (in the game). Useful if you just want to explore

UNLOCK Enables random battles

MOVIE LOCK If you just can't stand to see Aeris die, select this. It will lock every movie in the game...

MOVIE UNLOCK Enables the movies (if you locked them before).

GLOBAL RESET Sets everything back to the way it was when you entered the debug mode.

FULL NAME You would think this would make your characters have names like Cloud Strife, but instead, it just messes their names up.

NEW START Has the exact same effect as selecthing NEW GAME from the Final Fantasy 7 start screen.

EXIT Leaves Yuffie's menu.

BACK Takes you back to the first page of options.

SOUND RESET Turns off any music/sounds that are playing. Really helpfull, when sound loops get stuck in the PSX memory!

FULL MATERIA Get all the games materia! Well, not really... you get some mid-high level materia, and alot of blank materia that does nothing.

BATTLE999 You fight 5 little defenseless pyramid things for a bunch of experience.

EXIT Leaves Yuffie's menu.