Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II
Developer: Atlus Publisher: Namco Platform: NES Released in JP: April 6, 1990 This game has unused code. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has debugging material. This game has a notes page

The first game in the Megami Tensei series to not be based on a novel, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II is set 35 years after the nuclear-tipped end of civilization as we know it, when Pazuzu inexplicably declares a pair of nerds playing JRPGs in their bunker the saviors of mankind, gives them the ability to chat up demons and sends them out into the Capitol Wasteland to salvage what's left of mankind.

Hidden Text

A message from the game's programmer is copied to RAM and used to check for a soft reset.

DDSII PRESENTED BY ATLUS & PROGRAMING BY COZY

"COZY" refers to the series producer Koji Okada.

Startup Check

Each time the game is started, it checks for the presence of a certain value in SRAM memory. When uninitialized (ie. the cartridge is started for the very first time, or the back-up battery is changed), an animated "DDSII" logo is shown before the normal intro. This logo won't be shown if the SRAM is already initialized.

In addition, the game checks for the presence of a specific peripheral in the Famicom's expansion port. This peripheral is expected to wait for one bit written to the expansion port and return it into the data bit of the expansion port inverted. Test routine is sending data of itself, just using the one lowest bit of the each opcode byte. If all $46 bits are read correctly, then the routine goes to the SRAM test routines. It's just like a self-test cheat, but using a special device instead of button codes.

The SRAM test routine first checks if SRAM contain a specific data pattern (A[i] = (A[i-1] * 5) & 0xff, A[0] = 0xAA) throughout the whole SRAM area. If the data pattern is exactly the same, screen color will change to blue. If the test routine detects that there is no default pattern in SRAM, it rewrites it, then checks it again, so as to verify the SRAM consistency. If the SRAM is OK, then the screen color will change to pink. If these two tests fail, then the color will changed to red. The test routine always kills the SRAM data, so this can be used for test purposes only.

Independent of the test results, the test routine will always goes into the infinite loop with the one single sound tone, while the color is representing test results. You can exit this test only if you remove the special peripheral from the expansion port and then reset the console again. These routines were probably used in the duplication plant before releasing the cartridges, as a quick test for SRAM consistency. Obviously, if you run these tests and kill all the SRAM data, the DDSII logo will appear again before SRAM reinitialization.

Enemies Watch

After the game's ending sequence (which shows you all of the bosses/places you've encountered during the game), the "END" screen will appear and loop. But if you press and hold Up + Left + A + B or Up + Right + A + B on the second controller and Up + Left + A + B + Select + Start or Up + Right + A + B + Select + Start on the first controller at the same time, the "END" screen will disappear and you will see all the enemies/bosses/monsters and demons with their names, levels and HP/MP stats. All monsters are sorted by classes and by the levels from higher to lower ones.

After all monsters are displayed, a "DDSII" logo will continuously flash on the screen, each roll changing colors from the whole color palette.

Remaining Debug Functions?

Holding the B button on controller 2 can do many things at certain points of the game, as a sort of debug toggle. A lot of it seems to have been cut but there is still quite a few things it reacts to.
A majority of these are in the game's intro, but other menus suggest that extended functionality existed at other points.

• Holding B will cause the text on the "Caution for Devil Busters" screen to appear faster.


• Holding B as you select the "Start" option on the title screen will cause the text on the "Caution for Devil Busters" screen to appear instantly.


• It will make all options act like "end" (???) on the name entry screen.


• It will auto-assign stats in an even manner on the stat screen. This only works on a new game; it will not work on a level up.


• Oddly, it will prevent certain events (such the chest with 1000 Macca in Devil Busters' Mikon Town or the Sword Knight event) from having a palette fully assigned until the button is released.
  
  
  
  • It will cancel when viewing status in a shop or fusion screen.
  
  
  • It will automatically fuse any monster you select (if your level allows for it), ignoring the prompt.
  
  
  
  


• It will skip the crowd cheering in the Colosseum mode, which is normally not possible.


• It will instantly display/speed up the best ending's text after the pan to the sky.

Debugging Error Feature

If you step on certain tiles out of bounds in mazes or on overworlds, this thing appears.

First row first number: Y coord (maze) ($042F)

First row second number: X coord (maze) ($0430)

Second row first number: Y coord ($0431)

Second row second number: X coord ($0432)

Third row: Current tile type ($040C)

Unused Enemies

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: this enemy could possibly just be an extremely rare encounter like Jashin Set, but rare encounters in DDS2 are just as ridiculously rare as the Majin encounters in SMT1 and i don't have the patience to find out.

Jashin Chronos

Jaki Azezal

Because Dark Hero is unused, so is this unique boss enemy. To fight him, use $0782:$4F. To put him in your party, either use $072F:$4F and fuse any monster or use $05B6:$4F to replace the first minion on your team.

Kyoujin Doctor Bakuta

In a normal game, this crazed cybernetic scientist can be found underneath Kouraquen. However, in the final he is always a good guy despite his threats; at no point can you actually fight him no matter what you say to him. However, he does have a monster entry and you can even fight him if hacked into a battle. His combat capability is pretty simple, though.

To fight him, use $0782:$6B. To put him in your party, use $072F:$6B and fuse any monster or use $05B6:$6B to replace the first minion on your team.

Unused Overworld Tile Effects

Sleep

This effect can be seen by changing the address $040C:$0A and walking around. When walking some of your party members will eventually fall asleep; this coding appears incomplete as it will always report the status of the last monster on the character list (enabled or not) falling asleep, regardless of who actually falls asleep.

The effect was probably going to be used for the field of flowers in the "Forest of Confusion" area in Makai, which has flowers that put your group to sleep in a cutscene.

Strong Damage

Can be seen by changing the address $040C:$0B and walking around. The effect is identical to the strong damage tiles seen in some late-game dungeons.

Unused Events

Mesian Woman

This Mesian (?) woman has no dialogue whatsoever and no flags are ever checked within her scene, which immediately exits as soon as it is displayed.. She is entirely unused, and whatever she was supposed to be used for is unknown. Her scene uses song 20 (index $14) in the NSF, which is the standard song for the Healer.

It should be noted that the graphics used in this scene are entirely unique to this room and event, so whatever she was planned for must have been important.

To see this event, freeze RAM address $0402 to $36 and enter any indoor building (I.E. one that isn't a maze entrance).

Dark Hero

This is the Dark Hero who left you earlier in the game to ally with Pazuzu. His dialogue explains that Satan revived him in order to stop you. He then sends Jaki Azezal, Kaijuu Tiamat, and Jashin Belphegor before fighting you himself as <blank> Dark Hero. Stats are high, equivalent to the end of the game, and the fact Satan is referred to strictly places this at the game's final dungeon.

The problem with this scene is, Dark Hero dies after fighting Bael earlier in the game and redeems himself, telling the player you were right in your beliefs about Pazuzu etc. In addition, this happens regardless of the minor ways you can alter the storyline. This would seem to make this cutscene a completely scrapped scenario from earlier in development!

To fight Dark Hero directly, modify and freeze $0782 to $00. To see his event, enter a maze, then modify and freeze $0402 to $2A and face something that would normally use an event tile (such as a Shop Sign) while in a maze.

You can not under any "legitimate" cheating circumstances actually have the game put Dark Hero in your party; some special control bit attached to his index number will make him cancel out of fusion using $072F, and recruiting him using monster address index trickery also doesn't work. To actually put him in your party, you must cut out the middleman and modify $05B6 to $2A.

Dialogue Translation

Placeholder Room

Whatever this is, it's found three times between legitimate values. Enter $0402:$CB and enter a non-maze building to see. There is no dialogue.

Early Suzuki Co. Ltd. Guardman Sequence

Used	Early

The event for the Guardman which allows you to make it inside of the Suzuki Co. Building, the last dungeon in the game, actually has an alternate, early "dungeon" version of the event! It's fully complete and mostly identical to the final, but is fairly glitched out; the Guardman takes the Business Card as usual, but instead of warping you to x:33, y:06 as in the final, he warps you to x:33, y:05 (one north of the usual location). The Guardman sprite will also accompany you here and will not disappear until you move. He can be very bugged and stubborn when returning after the dungeon, and will often refuse to transform into Belphegor after you've recruited Ahura Mazda, instead sending you into the dungeon again (checks flag $7C08). Additionally, the Guardman's existence inside the dungeon makes the Maou Satan battle glitched as well; since part of Satan's sprite is used as the background, and the background darkens to begin the fight, only the sprite portion of the Satan sprite remains:

This is most likely the real reason this version of the event was not used.

This unused event also reveals an additional unused event spot at the Guardman's warp destination inside Suzuki Company (at; this spot loads and stores $01 from the A register to flags $7C1E; more research is needed here.

To see this event, alter $0402 to $3B in any dungeon.

Izanami's Early Makai Message

While (probably) not unused, this requires great effort to see. If $0402:$26 is used on any Dungeon event in a New Game, the following dialogue appears:

Presumably to get this to appear you'd have to skip Bael's Castle entirely after Zalatan (in which Moura places you right next to the castle; you'd have to deliberately avoid it), grind levels and defeat Tiamat to access Ground Zero, and go to Makai and fight your way close to Asmodai in the Valley of Sorrow.

Stand and Stare Events

Two identical placeholder events in dungeons, accessible with $0402:$1F and $0402:$30, feature a wasteland man who says nothing.

Another used digit is $0402:$21, which is the gnome guy who lets you escape from Zalatan. But if you access this event early, he will also stand and say nothing, which is not normally possible (nor what usually happens when you access events early).

Unused Graphics

Being the first "proper" game in the overarching MegaTen franchise, the game has a large amount of unused graphics.

Old Lady

An entire unused character exists in a graphics bank. This old lady was found in a bank containing miscellaneous graphics. Unlike the Mesian Woman, she has no associated event. Since she appears to have no body to match and the closest match by a mile is the Healer's sprite, it's most likely she was supposed to fit there (and scrapped due to how incredibly awkward she looks). She doesn't fit entirely with the healer, though, and appears to be missing pieces that have probably been overwritten.

It's possible she was intended to be used in the Devil Busters area as the healer (as Devil Busters' healer room also uses a different music track), but in the final the old man sprite is used in both Devil Busters and the real game world.

Orbs

Hidden within the YHVH bank are two orbs, a large orb and a smaller orb with a blinking animation. The larger orb was probably supposed to be used when you receive one after defeating certain Maou enemies. The smaller one may have been used when the orbs are given to Izanami at Lucifer's Temple.

YHVH Sprite Error

Original	Fixed

A tiling error causes YHVH to lose a part of his lower mouth. The tile that replaces it, tile 98 when loaded in the PPU, is actually a piece of the left side of his mouth and cheek.

The correct tile is tile $9B. This appears to be a fairly obvious human error.

Pazuzu's Cutscene

This 8x8 ball thing is found in the Tokyo landscape graphics while Pazuzu explains the situation during his cutscene. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be used in the cutscene or anywhere else.

Ending Sprites

Just a couple strange font graphics stored with the nighttime sky used in the good ending. It seems to be set up to animate for whatever reason.

Unused Town Sprites, Tokyo

Graphics for a big hole, some gravestones and something overwritten can be found in the Tokyo prefecture tileset. All underground passages use the Subway tile in the final.

This gravestone (?) is just never used.

There's also whatever this is which seems to be overwritten, or in any case doesn't appear to show in any Tokyo town scene.

Unlike the unused Makai town sprites, there appears to be no mapping data associated with the unused sprites. More investigation is needed here but it's unlikely there is any remaining data.

Unused Town Sprites, Makai

Makai also has a couple unused town sprites.

Normal	Simpler Bridge (Mockup)	Double Bridge (Mockup)

This is a piece similar to the top of the bridge graphic on the bridge map you cross during one of the Anger dungeon segments. It seems to match with the bottom of the bridge, but there are a couple different configurations that would work here, possibly even more. Lot of work done making these tiles interchangable for a sequence that only happens once and takes five seconds to cross at maximum.

A well. Yet another graphic that is just never used. Doesn't appear to have associated mapping data.

Weird "thorns". No idea; it appears to be a partially-overwritten ground tile since it doesn't really tile very well.

Placeholder Sprite

This appears in several tilesets and appears to be a filler/placeholder for free space.

Baal Eye Animation

Despite never being in a position to be animated (cannot appear in battle or be fused), Baal has an eye animation. Technically not unused since the sprite will briefly animate during the ending if you have Baal in your party when you beat the game (and during the hidden post-ending enemy result sequence above), but probably one of the hardest animations to see because of Baal's event demon status.

Unused Items

Missile Launcher

An unused Missile Launcher consumable item is in the game. It does weak damage on a single enemy, and sells for 40 Macca. It would have sold for around 150 Macca if it were buyable. Given the estimated price and general uselessness of it, it was probably supposed to have been sold at Haneda or Shinagawa, neither of which have item shops.

Change any $00 value in addresses $0480 through $048F to $8A to see this item.

Miaraka no Yubiwa

The Miaraka no Yubiwa is a key item used late in the game to ensure entry to Lucifer's Castle. A duplicate of the item exists at $A3, among the "consumable" key items. At no point can you have this key item in your immediate item list. While many duplicates of other items exist as filler, this is notable due to existing in a clearly intentional position.

Change any $00 value in addresses $0480 through $048F to $A3 to see this item.