In the genesis version, we can remove all items from a character and then still be able to use the item command in a battle. This deletes an item from our inventory that has 0 items and subsequently underflows it and crashes the game. However, while exploring the gba version on a whim, I've found that this is no longer the case, and we do in fact have access to an expanded inventory.

I've done a bit of preliminary tests with only Mieu and Rhys, and it seems that if you use the first Dimate in whichever inventory is underflowed, you can once again give items to the other person. I've also taken a bunch of force staffs and a laser shot or two, which actually changed Rhys' stats - much like the Pron glitch - as well as giving around 60k meseta within 5 minutes or so.

This is probably something that could be huge, and I hope we can get some more insight into it.

Yes, this is a huge development, one that breaks the game wide open and can make the lyle fight an absolute joke. Can't wait to dig into this myself

This seems like as good a place as any to discover finding relating to this.

The following is done with a full, first gen party:

1. Trying to equip the person you performed the glitch on will crash the game. So it is probably best not to attempt this glitch until you get Lyle as he will just leave the party anyway.
2. Using the glitch on Rhys will erase the fist page of Mieu's inventory and fill it with Monomates (if she had an empty inventory as well, she will get 14 Monomates and a Dimate). Wren's remaining inventory space will be filled with Monomates, Lyle and Lena's inventory will be glitched.
3. Using the glitch on Mieu will fill Wren's Inventory with Monomates, he will be equipped with Lena's Equipment, and will glitch Lyle and Lena's Inventory (Rhys' Inventory will still be fine). Getting rid of the Monomates will bring Lyle's Inventory in Wren's, still technically equipped to Lyle. Bringing all of Lyle's Inventory to Wren this way will in turn Fix Lyle and Lena's Inventory, but leave them both empty. Trying to enter the Equip menu with an empty inventory will crash the game as well.
4. Using the glitch on Wren will glitch his, Lyle's and Lena's Inventory but will leave Rhys and Mieu's perfectly fine.
5. Using the glitch on Lyle will glitch his and Lena's Inventory.
6. Using the glitch on Lena will glitch only her inventory.

Out of everything so far, the most interesting case is glitching Rhys and Mieu's inventory. I will post more once I figure out more.

Using the glitch effectively "hide" everyone's inventory behind the glitched user UNLESS the item in the first slot of a character's inventory is unequipped (white text). This explains why I was always able to see Wren's as I never had him equipped with anything. Clearing out inventory space from characters in the front will fix glitched inventories of later characters, but will leave them emptied. Also in doing so will shift the inventory upwards so you will effectively keep getting items that were originally in the inventory but no longer show on the character's inventory screen.

What I am trying to replicate is how the stats play into this unless it has to do with equipment itself. The stat address are very far away from inventory addresses so there wouldn't be any direct way to pull from those stats. I'll continue to look into it some more. I have a feeling this will have more to do with the inventory space byte more than anything.

EDIT: Silly me, I have been comparing the data addresses in the GBA version thinking the Genesis version would have the same addresses or even the same address pattern. When comparing the two versions of the game, what items show up do not make any sense other than consistent Monomates. I don't believe this game is coded in the same fashion as the original, as even triggers to get Mieu are different. I am still thinking this will save time in the first Generation but be very uneventful in the 2nd Generation, especially if Mieu's inventory is glitched throughout (it would make the final boss a bit longer as Mieu would only be able to use Techs). But... one step at a time. The only way with just Rhys and Mieu I am seeing to get consistent Laser Shots right now is to go up about 15 values in the glitched inventory.

Did a bit more testing, wanted to see how the game handled generation transitions and from what I could see nothing really changed. I did all my testing with having Mieu be the one doing the glitch at the start of the game, but I think since the other main characters have seperate inventories from Rhys we could hypothetically remove the glitch permanently for 2nd and 3rd gen by having Rhys do it. I got up to 3rd gen with no problems, but I'm a bit worried on whether or not it'll crash once we get to the Nei items, considering the glitched inventory has no shortage of Orakio Swords in it.

Anyways, some of my findings:

• If you perform the glitch on any character and have them level up to level 2 you have easy access to two(!) Planar Swords right off the bat. In all my testing it always killed Lyle in 1 hit and not to mention they're worth 32000 meseta a pop - which sets us up with the possibility of grabbing the royal needlers if we were so inclined.

• The glitched characters CAN equip items, but they'll be the ones of the person who is below them in the character list. For example, if Mieu is glitched and I give Wren a laser shot and equip it, Mieu will now shoot a laser shot as well. If you wipe out the inventory and equip Lyle with staves, she will skip past wren's (non existent) items and use Lyle's staves.

• You can stack attack infinitely on a character. Simply have someone equip an item, wipe the inventory by using a monomate, restore it, then equip again and the attack value will only increase. This is only potentially useful for Mieu if we glitch out Rhys, as all of Wren's items have set damage ranges.

• Glitching out the inventory in the 3rd generation is seemingly impossible to recover from. I'll need to do more tests with Laya in the party, but doing it before she joins makes it impossible to bring Kara back in line.

• Tech underflows are possible. Every monomate we use pushes the techs up one on the menu. If there's an empty spot on the battle techs (tsu doesn't appear for example) and we can use it in battle, it will count as a 256 level tech. I've seen these techs do anywhere from mid 6000s to tens of thousands of damage. These also count for the other techs, but I doubt a 1000 heal Gires is of much use. An underflowed Fanbi could be interesting, but I haven't tried it out.

-Techs shift from generation to generation, as with new characters being put in the party slots with new techs will shift the table a bit.

• Consistency in amount of times we use the glitched inventory and how it affects later generations is going to be key. How many times do we use monomates in order for us to have glitched techs available for each generation while still maintaining a working inventory is going to be the most important aspect of figuring this stuff out, as I dont think taking the force staves/planar swords affects techs.

If the Techs do that much damage, screw Fanbi and see if we can buff up Wren's Foi to one-shot Dark Force. And the fact that the Planar Sword will one-shot Lyle will make that fight very trivial. This will save up a ton of time.

I'd have to see exactly how the technique underflow works. If it does that much damage, just have Wren cast Gra and every fight is free. With this, the game could possibly be pushed below the 3 hour mark. In all honesty, this would be the only thing you would really need to break the game open. 6000 damage will destroy every enemy in the game minus the Body of Dark Force.

What slot in whose Inventory did you pull the Planar Sword out of? Just having that alone will be enough to go through Gen 1 without any problems. It also means you don't need to do the Escape Glitch at the beginning of the game or try to get any of the Trimates.

Okay, so I gave your method a test out. Here is what I did and what I came up with:

After I got back to Yaata after getting Mieu, I sold her gear and bought Rhys his Hunting Knives, and spent the rest on Antidotes and Monomates, setting up Mieu for the glitch. I went to Island Cave, activate the Inventory Glitch on Mieu. After I reached Level 2, I was able to go into Mieu's Inventory and go UP 39 times to get a single Planar Sword (enough for Rhys). I also started removing Monomates (3 or 4 iirc) until Mieu had Foi in her Techs, but not Gra. She would then be able to use Gra in battle and take out the entire mob.

Gen 1 is still dangerous just in encounters, and even though you have technically an unlimited supply of Monomates, you don't want to use them after your setup. Buying plenty of Antidotes and Monomates during Gen 1 to keep Mieu alive is key here. After the Lyle Fight, you can sell the Planar Sword for a few Moon Dews (in case Mieu should die) which should be given to Wren (though during battle he did have healing techs and is guaranteed to hit with Anti and Rever, but casting GiRes actually HURT the party). The rest of Gen 1 is basically just hitting things with Gra, but perhaps getting a Ceramic Shot isn't a bad idea either so that Mieu can save up her TP for the Cille Fight.

When Gen 2 begins, Nial starts with his own equipment while Wren gets equipped with Laya's starting gear... odd. It also glitches up his own inventory.

Gen 3 is where things change up a bit. Mieu may not have access to a fully powered Gra anymore, but that's okay if it happens. Give Aron any Escapipes you may have on Wren then start removing Monomates from Mieu's inventory until Aron has the fully powered Gra. Since his TP pool is so high and he is pretty tanky, he should be the one casting Gra and the one you have to try to keep alive. Buying Force Shields for him in Aerone may help after you get the Aero Parts, but pretty much after that is just keep Aron alive and revive the other characters with Rever (which you may have somebody have that fully powered as well). The game moves along much faster. I have heard rumors that Lachute opens after obtaining the word of power, not after getting the weapons powered. I will test this. If it is indeed true, you can skip going to Skyhaven after Sage Isle, cut across Draconia, then go straight for Lachute.

Sub 3 hours should be able to happen in my opinion. The only sad part is that it would make the GBA version the optimal version to play.

Well, I'm nearly finished the route. Here are what the differences in the route will be vs. the Genesis version.

GBA: All positives time-wise +Inventory Glitch to pull out Planar Sword +Inventory Glitch to set someone to have Gra fully powered +Easy Lyle Fight +Easy every fight, lasting 1 turn (it could go two turns if Gra does too MUCH damage, which can overflow to 0) +Emphasis on keeping one+ character alive (any who have Gra, 3rd Gen it would probably be Aron and Laya) -Emphasis on having to Run from battles only to be caught -Having to Grind for Money -Having to get the Trimates early -Having to use Escapipe Glitch to exit Landen Dungeon -Having to buy Equipment (except maybe armor for Wren in Mystoke... optional) -Having to take a trip or two to New Mota

All good stuff here, I want to check one or two more things out but that sounds about right. I'd probably get the other Planar Sword as well in order to buy some stuff to make Cille castle go a bit smoother. The Pron glitch always happens on Mieu so theres no avoiding it here. You can also avoid messing with Aron/Mieu/Wren's techs by taking the monomates/items in the slot immediately above the inventory in Laya's inventory for 3rd gen, this allows a little more freedom in positioning Kara and Laya's techs to what we need.

Lastly, for the purposes of leaderboards, I'll be making the GBA version a separate category, as this glitch (much like the glitched characters in PS2JP) is a huge change up in terms of how the game is run compared to the genesis version, not simply faster text or whatever minor things that wouldn't warrant a separation.

yeah, that's fine. It was something I was considering doing myself if I was able to see a run completed one way or another. If the Genesis version did the same thing then I'd probably not bother, but this being exclusive, then yeah, separate categories would be required.