This guide will walk you through the process of replacing Mecha-King Ghidorah (or potentially Jet Jaguar, if you wish - untested) in the PS2 version of Godzilla: Save The Earth.
NOTE: This guide will only cover the modification of the game's files. I cannot help you with creating a new ISO nor can I help you with getting the game working on a modded PS2 console. I am here to teach you how to restore Biollante, not to teach you how to use various different programs. If you need a guide for anything besides the actual editing of the game's files, Google is your friend.
Pre-requisites:
- A modded PS2, or the PCSX2 emulator (or any other PS2 emulator that can run Godzilla: Save The Earth at an acceptable performance).
- A hex editor, and preferably some basic knowledge on how to use one (though the operations performed in this guide are simple enough for a first-time user to pull off without any prior experience).
- QuickBMS, and preferably some basic knowledge on how to use it (though it is simple to use as long as you have basic reading comprehension skills).
- The .VOL archive QuickBMS script.
- The willingness to lose either Mecha-King Ghidorah or Jet Jaguar.
Guide:
- Dump your copy of Godzilla: Save The Earth to your PC. If it is dumped into a single ISO archive, you will need to extract the game's files from that ISO so that you can see the "GODZILLA.VOL" file.
- Once "GODZILLA.VOL" is visible, extract the archive using the QuickBMS script.
- Locate the file "ControlRoom.bdp" and open it with your preferred hex editor.
- Using your hex editor's "Find and Replace" feature, replace every reference to either "mghidorah" or "jetjaguar" with "biollante". This should result in either six "mghidorah" references being replaced or 25 "jetjaguar" references.
- Once that is finished, save the file.
- Use QuickBMS's reimport feature to replace the original "ControlRoom.bdp" file contained in "GODZILLA.VOL" with your modified one.
- Compile the ISO and play.
When you launch the game, Mecha-King Ghidorah's/Jet Jaguar's icon should still appear in the character select menu, but the stats, name, and splash image should all be Biollante's. Congratulations. You have just successfully restored Biollante as a playable character at the cost of an existing character.
To use her, you may need to either use the "Unlock Everything" code (246518) or purchase her from the game's store for zero points.
You may notice, however, that the AI is absolutely clueless on how to use Biollante. Read below to see how to potentially fix the issue.
NOTE: This was only briefly tested, but I do believe it worked well enough in all modes.
- Open the "ConventionalGame.bsf" file with your preferred hex editor.
- Replace all references to either "mghidorah" or "jetjaguar" with "biollante".
- Save the file and reimport it into "GODZILLA.VOL".
- Recompile the ISO.
This should, in theory, fix the AI issues.
I did all the steps above, but when loading the newly burned ISO, it loads the first two screens, but then crashes upon loading the "PS2" text screen. It just hangs. Any thoughts? THanks
Is there a way to replace the godzilla 2000 3d model with a 2014 model?
How on Earth would you ever be able to do that??!
Unless, like Biollante, the code was still trapped there in the game, which would be impossible given that the game came out a decade before the film did. The only way would be to go into the actual code once you break it open and construct G14 yourself.
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i also did notice instead of melee in menu,its now xmelee in menu,is that normal?
Yes, that is normal. However, I just updated the guide with an improved method that should fix that issue and make Biollante much more stable overall (e.g. no more crashes in Arcade mode) as the old guide was extremely outdated and prone to crashes.
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