Well, the first kick in the teeth - SE's documentation is plain wrong. The stuff marked "Spell list in battle" is not the spell list in battle, it's the spell list in the main menu (the epiphany moment was remembering partially-learned spells don't display in battle, so why would the coding for the battle menu talk about spell progress?). I did a file comparison between patched and unpatched roms, found some pointers in the C2/E bank changed, matched them, and voila. Yay, Spells are working.
Spent my time after troubleshooting, and failing, a new problem. I mostly got my new Esper names working - the "mostly" is that, as best I can tell, something in the game seems to think it still uses 8-letter names instead of 12. I say this because Ifrit (second name in code) displays the last four letters, including the empty spaces, of Ramuh's name, and then Shiva displays the last eight of Ifrit, and so on as it builds up. I've double and triple checked my code, used the file comparison to check for any "08" bytes I may have missed, looked at C3 bank dumps for any hints and compared them to both the patched rom and my work-in-progress, nothing. The names display properly in battle and everything else in the new Esper menu works fine, it's just the names. I really did try myself on this one, spent several hours, but no success.
Here's SE's coding for the Esper names. Whatever the "0A0A0A -> 20D0F0" is, both of them make my game crash, so I've left those as-is.
Code:
Esper Names:
Original Code (discontinuous)
C1/5FF3*: A908 LDA #$08 ; 8 = Esper name length
C1/6007*: BFE1F6E6 LDA $E6F6E1,X ; Load Esper name X
C1/65D0: A908 LDA #$08 ; 8 = Esper name length
C1/65DB: BFE1F6E6 LDA $E6F6E1,X ; Load Esper name X
C1/6688: A908
C1/668D: A908 LDA #$08 ; from C1/6686)(Sets name length?
C1/6698: BFE1F6E6 LDA $E6F6E1,X ; Loads Esper name X
C2/E091: 04 03 TSB $03 ; Change the 04 bit
C3/34F0: 0A ASL A
C3/34F1: 0A ASL A
C3/34F2: 0A ASL A
C3/34F4: A00800 LDY #$0008 ; Esper name length
C3/34F7: BFE1F6E6 LDA $E6F6E1,X ; Load Esper name
C3/3508: A00800 LDY #$0008
C3/4F12: 37 42 ; Level position, sub menu
C3/54E6: A20300 LDX #$0003 ; X position of left half of espers
C3/54F1: A21100 LDX #$0011 ; X position of right half of espers
C3/54FA: A00800 LDY #$0008 ; Esper name length
C3/54FF: A0E1F6 LDY #$F6E1 ; Esper name address
C3/5504: A9E6 LDA #$E6 ; Esper name bank
C3/5539: A2939E LDX #$9E93
C3/553F: A9C7 LDA #$C7 ; The '...' character in the font)
C3/5539: A2939E LDX #$9E93
C3/555D: A00C00 LDY #$000C ; Esper name is 8 letters, +1 for space, +3 for MP cost
C3/5991: 10 70 ; finger at esper name
C3/5993: 18 7C ; finger at spell name
C3/5995: 18 88 ; finger at spell name
C3/5997: 18 94 ; finger at spell name
C3/5999: 18 A0 ; finger at spell name
C3/599B: 18 AC ; finger at spell name
C3/59BD: 0A ASL A
C3/59BE: 0A ASL A
C3/59BF: 0A ASL A
C3/59C1: A00800 LDY #$0008 ; Indirectly says below is 8 chars long
C3/59C4: BFE1F6E6 LDA $E6F6E1,X ; Load Esper X's name
C3/5CC2: 2D 42 8B 95 00 ; Position of and word "LV"
C3/5CEA: 23 44 8B 9E 9A AB A7 C5 91 9A AD 9E 00 ; Position of and words "Learn rate"
C3/6055: A0B139 LDY #$39B1 ; Position of Esper name status menu
C3/7993: A05B3B LDY #$3B5B ; Position of Esper name airship menu
Modified Code (discontinuous)
C1/5FF3*: A90C LDA #$0C ; 12 = Esper name length
C1/6007*: BFE601F2 LDA $F201E6,X ; Load Esper name X
C1/65D0: A90C LDA #$0C ; 12 = Esper name length
C1/65DB: BFE601F2 LDA $F201E6,X ; Load Esper name X
C1/6688: A90C
C1/668D: A90C LDA #$0C ; from C1/6686 (Sets name length?)
C1/6698: BFE601F2 LDA $F201E6,X ; Loads Esper name X
C2/E091: 02 03 ; Change the 04 bit
C3/34F0: 20D0F0 JSR $F0D0
C3/34F4: A00C00 LDY #$000C ; Esper name length
C3/34F7: BFE601F2 LDA $F201E6,X ; Load Esper name
C3/3508: A00C00 LDY #$000C
C3/4F12: 41 42 ; Level position, sub menu
C3/54E6: A20300 LDX #$0003 ; X position of left half of espers (NOT CHANGED)
C3/54F1: A21100 LDX #$0011 ; X position of right half of espers (NOT CHANGED)
C3/54FA: A00C00 LDY #$000C ; Esper name length
C3/54FF: A0E601 LDY #$01E6 ; Esper name address
C3/5504: A9F2 LDA #$F2 ; Esper name bank
C3/5539: A29A9E LDX #$9E9A
C3/553F: A9FF LDA #$FF ; The '...' character in the font)
C3/5539: A29A9E LDX #$9E9A
C3/555D: A01000 LDY #$0010 ; Esper name is 12 letters, +1 for space, +3 for MP cost
C3/5991: 08 70 ; finger at esper name
C3/5993: 10 7C ; finger at spell name
C3/5995: 10 88 ; finger at spell name
C3/5997: 10 94 ; finger at spell name
C3/5999: 10 A0 ; finger at spell name
C3/599B: 10 AC ; finger at spell name
C3/59B4: A00F44 LDY #$440F
C3/59BD: 20D0F0 JSR $F0D0
C3/59C1: A00C00 LDY #$000C ; Indirectly says below is 12 chars long
C3/59C4: BFE601F2 LDA $F201E6,X ; Load Esper X's name
C3/5CC2: 37 42 8B 95 00 ; Position of and word "LV"
C3/5CEA: 1F 44 FF FF FF FF FF 91 9A AD 9E FF 00 ; Position of and word "Rate"
C3/6055: A0AD39 LDY #$39AD ; Position of Esper name status menu
C3/7993: A0513B LDY #$3B51 ; Position of Esper name airship menu
![[Image: B2S5jFB.png]](https://i.imgur.com/B2S5jFB.png)
