Shadow's Shadow Fix

Shadow's Shadow Fix
version 1.1
released on 03/18/2017 (GBA patch last updated on 04/30/2025)
Apply to FF3us, FF6A (JUE)
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Quoting Novalia Spirit:

"As everybody knows, the first time you step foot into South Figaro, you normally see Shadow walk towards the Cafe. As expected, in the case you follow him into the building, he'll be there. It is once Vargas is killed that Shadow disappears from the Cafe.

Now here's the bug: ignore South Figaro till you beat Vargas. Retrace your steps to South Figaro, and you will, here again, see Shadow walk towards the Cafe. BUT, he won't be in it. And there's even worse: if you ignore the scene until you play Locke's scenario, Shadow'll be stuck behind the guard and the M-TekArmor sprites by the town's entrance. Note that going into a building will destroy your chances of seeing the bug occur, so you MUST beat the HeavyArmor as you make your way to Shadow."

Novalia Spirit's post (see bug #5)

To fix the bug, an additional check is made in South Figaro entrance event. If Vargas is beaten or you saw Shadow walk in town, Shadow NPC is not created and its movement queue not executed.

Another approach would be to set the "saw Shadow in South Figaro" bit ($00A) after beating Vargas. Probably this solution does less code reorganization but still take 7 bytes of free space with the command B2 and its return.

The GBA patch was updated in 2025 with some event code modification that was missing, directly copied from the SNES fix. The GBA patch is untested.


Code changes (SNES)

Code:

CA/EBA1: C0    If ($1E80($1B6) [$1EB6, bit 6] is set), branch to $CA5EB3 (simply returns)
CA/EBA7: C1    If ($1E80($00A) [$1E81, bit 2] is set or $1E80($010) [$1E82, bit 0] is set), branch to $CAEBC1
CA/ECAF: B2    Call subroutine $D1F9F8
CA/EBB3: 45    Refresh objects
CA/EBB4: 15    Begin action queue for character $15 (NPC $15), 11 bytes long
CA/EBB6: 8E        Move vehicle/entity down 4 tiles
CA/EBB7: 99        Move vehicle/entity right 7 tiles
CA/EBB8: A1        Move vehicle/entity right/down 1x1 tiles
CA/EBB9: A1        Move vehicle/entity right/down 1x1 tiles
CA/EBBA: 86        Move vehicle/entity down 2 tiles
CA/EBBB: 95        Move vehicle/entity right 6 tiles
CA/EBBC: 92        Move vehicle/entity down 5 tiles
CA/EBBD: 89        Move vehicle/entity right 3 tiles
CA/EBBE: 80        Move vehicle/entity up 1 tile
CA/EBBF: D1        Make vehicle/entity disappear
CA/EBC0: FF        End queue

D1/F9F8: D0    Set event bit $1E80($00A) [$1E81, bit 2]
D1/F9FA: 3D    Create object $15
D1/F9FC: 41    Show object $15
D1/F9FE: FE    Return

GBA code equivalent is at $7AEA53 and extra 7 bytes at $7FFBF2.

Now I always wondered what Shadow would say if you spoke to him whilst walking toward the café, my guess is probably nothing or "Stay away from me"

Now I always wondered what Shadow would say if you spoke to him whilst walking toward the café, my guess is probably nothing or "Stay away from me"

His NPC walking toward the cafe and the one inside are not the same I think, he probably have no event attached to his outside NPC hence probably nothing if you talk to him.

he says nothing(auto exit event)

Necro-post with shame to announce the GBA patch was missing some entrance event code to enable the fix. I just remade yesterday the GBA patch. While the GBA patch is still untested, I was very meticulous in putting the same event code (with GBA adaptations) than the working SNES fix. I'd like to thank KinCryos for noticing me in 2025 about the omission!