Tales of the Abyss - Natalia completely disappears from party!

[vsub]

Ok here is the fix(why is she placed on the unused character slot7 is beyond me...on both of your saves)


//Natalia Fix
patch=1,EE,106D2EC6,extended,00000006

I tried this,played one coliseum battle(lost on purpose)and Natalia didn't disappear

PS.You need to just enable the code once to fix the problem,there is no need to keep it always enabled

[Ryudo]

Yeah was gonna suggest just adding her back that way. It's basically a character modifier, not a real 'fix', but it acts as a fix either way. Seems the game got bugged up somehow I guess. When I had her in the active party during the battle she didn't disappear. (Neither did Anise who was in Slot 6 at that point).

Someone had the same problem before on the forums I believe and I used the same code to add the character back. Although it was Anise that went poof at the time.

[Rastaban]

Thank you both so much for your help!
...But how do I run that line of code?
Not really too experienced with the software =x

[vsub]

Natalia was placed on slot 6 and 7 and since the game don't normally duplicate characters,when it sees that she it at the not reachable slot 7,the game decides that she is actually there and don't add it to slot 6 when you get your characters back

Here is one simple tool
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Quick-pnach-tool

Just start the program while the game is running,paste the code,save,enable the cheats from pcsx2(in System Menu)and restart pcsx2

[rama]

So is this a PCSX2 bug or is it a glitch in the game, or both?

[vsub]

I cleared the game at least 5 times on my PS2 and that never happen.
If @Rastaban never used cheats or widescreen patches on either of his playthroughs,then it could be pcsx2 but I don't see how is that possible(placing the same character on two slots without cheats)

[Ryudo]

Widescreen patches don't cause this, 100% sure.

It never happened to me either in the 3221 times that I played this game on PCSX2. ToA does have weird bugs sometimes though. People reported the Albiore missing for example, etc. Reloading their game fixed the issue again. So if anything I'd say it's just some weird game bug that's super rare maybe.

Unless cheats really were used to change the characters. (7 normally is Asch's character digit, so maybe he tried to add Asch and ended up setting Natalia to Slot 7 instead by accident. ) If that's not the case then just keep it as a game bug imo, and not a PCSX2 bug.

[rama]

Okay, we can say that the original problem is that one character can end up in slot 7 when they shouldn't.
All the effects that later follow are from this initial problem. Is that right?

[Ryudo]

Yeah. Though it is still a mystery as to how it happened in the first place. But yeah like I said... even on the original PS2 there were some weird glitches being reported by people. This is probably just one of the more rarer ones. (Can't forget the notorious world map music glitch too once you leave the Abandoned Factory, which doesn't get fixed until a later moment in the game on its own).

[Rastaban]

Unless cheats really were used to change the characters. (7 normally is Asch's character digit, so maybe he tried to add Asch and ended up setting Natalia to Slot 7 instead by accident. ) If that's not the case then just keep it as a game bug imo, and not a PCSX2 bug.

Even if I wanted to do that, I'd have no idea how to

The one thing that gets me is that this happened on two different files (while one was a New Game + of the other, idk if that would matter) and never on console. If it was a rare bug, I wouldn't expect it to happen twice in a row. I kind of have a theory, not sure how legit it is...

Everything regarding character slots and Natalia worked FINE up until Grand Chokmah. There were plenty of times before that (Akzeriuth, etc) where, like solo battles in the Colosseum, you had a party of 6 that went down to 1, then back to 6 again. 

My guess is that SOMETHING, either a really wonky game bug or a PCSX2 bug (possibly related to the DEFAULT speedhacks I had enabled AT THE TIME but disabled afterwards) somehow messed up Natalia in Grand Chokmah. She never appeared at the docks to be re-recruited (Jade is drinking at the bar and needs to be talked to, Tear comes to cheer you up and is added automatically, Guy is being healed at the inn by Ion with Anise and can't be re-recruited until after speaking to Peony). If memory serves, normally the game PREVENTS you from talking to Peony without re-recruiting Jade and Natalia first (not 100% sure on this). 

So maybe the act of Natalia bugging out and not being at the docks allows the game to progress without her in the active party by putting her in slot 7? Or maybe she was somehow already put into slot 7 beforehand and that's why she wasn't at the docks, but slot 7 is still considered "in the party" for the purposes of talking to Peony? Chicken/egg scenario. But I have a feeling that whatever messed up, messed up there.

I entered the Meggiora Highlands with slot 6 empty and Natalia likely in slot 7. Choosing the two 3 person parties I think brute forces the party creation rather than shuffling around slot numbers, so when the two parties recombine, that caused Natalia to be in both slots as vsub mentioned. What causes Natalia to go from being in both slots 6 and 7 (usable in game), to just slot 7 (unusable in game) is another mystery.

Thanks again for all your input everyone.
Let me know if there's something you'd like me to test to see if we can get to the bottom of this.


Edit: And thank you so much vsub, your fix worked great!