Shin Megami Tensei-Persona 3 (US) - RIP Tutorial
Welcome to my Content Ripping Guide for this wonderful RPG named...
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(ASCII art by Ascii Art Generator)
Table of Contents
- Terms of use
- System Requirements
- Exploring the game DVD
- Rip in peace
- Author's Input
- Conclusion
I now have an email address specifically for my faqs:
x_revenge@operamail.com
What to ask me, NOT:
- Where you can find the software mentioned, read my Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 guide or simply search Google, duh!
- Where a certain piece of voice/text/whatever is located, the files are there, search through them.
- If I found a way to open .XYZ file, Trust me, if I did, I wouldn't keep it a secret (perhaps).
- How old I am, if I have a pet, who the hell I am and anything non-related to guide. All you need to know is that I am eternal, my pet pisses on my carpet and that I'm still on my way to becoming Greece's next top gamer.
- Request guide for PAL version/another game/Persona 3 FES, if I want to and if I have time...I probably won't anyway.
- You downloaded this game illegaly and there were some files missing and you want me to upload them or something like that.
- You're an idiot for telling me you illegaly downloaded this game.
- I won't join you in breaking the law.
- There is no third reason (I think).
- Asking me if its ok to upload some of the game content you ripped and saying that you really have to and that you'd appreciate if I gave you permission to and that if you don't your life will end because the shadows have it in for you. I didn't make this game, of course, so why are you bothering me?
- Y0U S0N 0F 4 @*%$^ WHy D1dN't Y0u 1NcLuD3 [whatever] 1N y0Ur @#$^&*! Gu1d3? U $uc|<!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. That is what I call spam (in the meaning of the word), no: swearing, 1337 $p33k, abreviations, horrible grammar (the kind of "hey what do you learned these staff from?").
- Why doesn't the XYZ software work on your computer, its a bug on your computer that makes it work like that. I can't guarantee that the software work in all versions of windows (they have to be 32-bit, though) or other systems. Bug the creators of the software about it.
E-mails with one or more of the above things will be frowned upon and the sender will be shot to the head with an Evoker, persona users or Shadows will be Armageddoned instead [insert evil laugh here].
Now, happily, lets start the walkthrough (be prepared for a brutal assault of media reference after media reference)
First of all, the legal stuff, just to get this out of the way...
Terms of Use
Copyright George Siotos, 2008
This FAQ can only be published on the internet in web page data format, feel free to post this guide wherever you want if it matches these conditions:
You do not earn money in any way from this guide (which includes selling it, posting it in a pay-to-access site or displaying ads when or adding adware tracking cookies or anything of the sort in the page the guide is displayed).
You do not alter the contents of this guide AT ALL!!!
You give proper credit to me, x_revenge, for making it even if I have no account in your site.
THIS FAQ IS INTENDED FOR HOME USE ONLY!
You cannot use it for personal gain or edit any of the contents and publishing somewhere on the internet or anywhere else. The contents inside the game are strictly for home use, uploading them on the net goes beyond a simple Walkthrough copyright infridgement.
All trademarks and copyrights go to their respective holders.
Thanks go to:
- ME!
- YOU!
- My family and my dog.
- The creators of all the software mentioned.
- The internet host you're reading this guide from (Gamefaqs and Neoseeker are the only sites I'll personally upload this guide to).
System Requirements
Below are the requirements:
A driver that reads DVDs.
Some Gigabytes of free HDD space.
Microsoft Windows as your in-use operating system at the time you're doing this. Other OS users I'm really sorry but I don't know if there's a way to do it in your OS, Linux users may be able to use Wine though...I have no idea how things work because I only have experience in Windows so I don't know how Wine works but if it can convert an application written with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (90% sure) then you might have a chance. That applies to any other OS too, if there is a way to get windows programs to work with their OS nature.
Note: From now on I'll refer to the readers as windows OS users.
ADX2WAV
Note: I know about the in_cube WinAmp plugin that lets you play .adx files but it never works for me.
ISOBuster or MagicISO or any tool that extracts files from images. I like these two personally and I use them (their free versions work just fine for what we want).
PSS Demux
AFS Explorer
Exploring the Game DVD
After you've got the software needed put your game disc in your drive that reads DVDs.
Note: This walkthrough is based on my imported NTSC version of the game disc. Do not ask me what to do if something is wrong/different in the Japaneze or European versions because I DON'T KNOW!
Here, we will look at the game files, no action(s) will be done now, this section is just for recognising the files. You can't just blindly charge into a battle, its the same here, life's a battlefield anyway.
So get your evoker and sing the "Mass Destruction" battle theme.
Game files:
(Main Folder)
APAD (Folder)
LIB31 (Folder)
BGM.CVM
BTL.CVM
DATA.CVM
SLUS_215.69 (this one changes with the game's region 100%)
SYSTEM.CNF (Extension hidden)
ZZZZZZ.BIN (APAD)
A200M1.DAT
A200M2.DAT
A200M3.DAT (LIB31)
Folder contains game modules. They are in .IRX files which is like a .dll, .ocx, .exe, you name it. They contain nothing of use to us.
The files we're interested in are the .cvm files, the others may be dummy files but in any case I don't know if they have anything.
Rip in peace
Sleep, persona, lie in peace.
Sleep, persona, lie in peace.
Let's do some rips! Open your image management software and open one of the .cvm files in it [.cvm is most likely just a renamed .iso or other simple image format, many games rename the container files (called GRAFs) to protect the contents inside, however if it is some other format and your software doesn't open it then use one of the two I mentioned before, ISO Buster or MagicISO, they work fine). When in the file selection screen select to view all files, not just the ones supported by the software and open one of the .cvm files. Now just extract everything inside, do that with all the .cvm files. It will take around 3 GB perhaps more, I never wondered how much space they take.
But enough with the dilly-dallying, it's time to Duel! I mean rip, Its time to Rip!
BGM.CVM
-------
01.ADX
02.ADX
03.ADX
... (more files)
94.ADX
95.ADX
96.ADX
ENV_001.ADX
ENV_002.ADX
ENV_003.ADX
... (more files)
ENV_009.ADX
ENV_010.ADX
ENV_011.ADX
ENV_050.ADX
ENV_051.ADX
ENV_052.ADX
... (more files)
ENV_063.ADX
ENV_064.ADX
ENV_065.ADX
THEME.ADX [The following are based on the Windows XP OS]
Paste the adx2wav executable to the folder all these are in. Next press "Start" and then "Run..."
In the command box write "cmd" and press Enter.
Look at the DOS window that came up, if the folder opened by default isn't the one you extracted the files in get them to that folder along with adx2wav and then type the name name of the adx2wav executable and this: *.adx
This command lets adx2wav know that it must convert all .adx files in the folder to .wav files. You just got all the background music in the game along with an instrumental "Burn my Dread" (THEME.ADX).
Note: Look at the [SOUND] folder in DATA.CVM for an alternative method.
BTL.CVM
-------
This one has lots of files so I'll only point out some interesting ones.
[\BATTLE]
MSG.TBL
-------
Contains text. It has the names of the arcana, the names of all the persona in the game, the names of all the skills and all the in-battle dialogs. If you want to mod this game this is the file to change for the battles. I didn't just say that. You may try to do an action on this file called "ASCII Rip" to rip all the (human) text from this file. ASCII Rips can be done with many software, I'd recommend Jaeder Naub.
[BATTLE\SHUFFLE]
SFL_BASE.BIN
------------
Has text about pretty much everything that has to do with the cards that appear after you win a battle text-wise. You can do another ASCII Rip here too.
Note: I'll stop mentioning ASCII RIPing from here on, when you see a text file, do an ASCII RIP if you're interested.
SFL_TUTORIAL.BIN
----------------
The text of the tutorial that occurs the first time the cards appear.
[BATTLE\RESULT]
BR_LEVEL.BIN\BRP_BASE.BIN
-------------------------
Text about your characters and persona (things like messages when your stats increase or you level up and stuff like that.
[BATTLE\PANEL]
BP_TUTORIAL.BIN
---------------
Text of every in-battle tutorial in the game (including Orgia Mode's).
[BATTLE\EFFECT]
All the files contain battle functions and aren't interesting unless you're a programmer or have knowledge of the stuff.
[BATTLE\CUTIN]
I'm not really sure what the files in the folder and the subfolders are, maybe the .bins are the files that indicate persona behaviour/stats, maybe...
[SKILL]
The folder contains script about game skills (?) and their sound effects (in .se files, I don't know how to play/convert them).
[SND_BENC]
BSV401.BVP/BSV402.BVP
--------------------
Has all of Fuuka's lines about your enemies (including those about Nyx).
[SND_BENC\PANEL]
Has a .bin which purpose is unkown to me.
[SND_BENC\BOSS]
Has .pak files that apparently have to do something about bosses...
whatever.
[MODEL]
The subfolders contain the game's models (and textures?) about different things in .rmd format, there are also some .pac files. I couldn't open but I wasn't interested anyway.
DATA.CVM
--------
[BUSTUP]
Folder has lots of .bin files and a .txt. I don't know their purpose.
[CAMP]
The DATCOMUHELP.BMD file inside the COMU subfolder is the only one I'm aware of its purpose, it has the text of the desciption of the people inside your S. Links.
[CARD]
Contains pictures of arcana cards in the game. About the small arcana, about the persona and others all in .tmx format, I don't know how to open it.
[CUTIN]
Has only a SHAPE subfolder with some .cpk files in it. In theory the files are SEGA movies made by the FILM codec. Total video converter says it can read them but I'm not going to install software to see if it can open some files which I'm not sure they are movies 100% anyway.
[EFFECT]
Has a .tmx and a .bin. Nothing interesting...
[EVENT]
Folder and subfolder contain the script for the events of the game including the Social Links. The SYS sufolder contains the text about arguments and the other non-pleasant stuff about the Social Links.
[FACILITY]
FCL_ELEVATORGIRL.PAK
--------------------
This has Elizabeth's lines as well as the information about persona you can access once you record them to your compedium.
FCL_ACCESORY.PAK/FCL_ANTIQUE.PAK
--------------------------------
They have text having to do with items.
[FIELD]
The SCRIPT subfolder contains miscellaneous game script about characters or items you examine. The lines of characters during events are in the EVENT folder.
Phew...my hand got tired typing...and we're still far from over...you better like this guide...or else...
[FONT]
Font stuff, forget it.
[FTP_IRX]
More game modules...about ps2 connection to other ps2s or pcs or something...
[HELP]
DATMYTH.BMD
-----------
The myths about the persona again...
DATMSG.PAK
----------
The item descriptions of all the items in the game.
[ICON]
Something to do with game icons...the files are in .epl format, anyway.
[IRX_NEW]
These are the modules you saw back on the LIB31 folder...again. They are supposed to be new now, get it?
[LMAP]
Has a .dat file whose destiny (purpose) shall remain a mystery for all etternity.
[OPED]
ED_SR.BIN
---------
The text of the credit roll, in other words, the names of the guys who created the game (now I only need to see their faces so I can kill them with my Death Note for having to write all this).
[SCRIPT]
Has only an EVENT subfolder which has some files which have something in them which is of no interest to you and which should be ignored. I've already said two times where the real files are so I'm not gonna say it again.
[SFD]
YES! At long freakin' last we came to this folder. This is my favourite folder, the folder of all the anime cut-scenes! Hehe. Here's when you're gonna need PSS Demux. Simply start PSS Demux and drag-&-drop the .sfd files on it, it works, just like that. You'll get two files, the video in .m2v (mpeg 2) format and the audio in .wav (automatically converted from .adx).
[SMAP]
More .tmx files, this is getting old...
[SOUND]
And here you have it, the third most likely thing you came here looking for. This folder contains some files and subfolders and an .adx here or there but forget all that, what you're looking for are the .afs files. Open AFS Explorer and choose "Import AFS". Pick your .afs file and open it and you'll see lots of .adx files which you can play inside AFS Explorer so you don't have to extract them, guess what they contain...you guessed it, the sound. To be more precise, they have the dialogues. You may get a note from AFS Explorer about the .afs files, just click Yes and when you're in the .afs file right click an .adx and select "Open file with..." and then "Sound Player". You can use the sound player to play an external .adx file too so if you want you can play the bgm without converting them to .wav with adx2wav. Which means more free space since .adx is a compressed audio format.
The .adx files outside the .afs contain other sounds and also some parts of the original japaneze voices (anti-dub fans here's your chance!).
Also the last .afs files contain other misc sounds (Fuuka's advice, party member responses, etc.)
[SOUND2]
These are the sound effects...all in .adx format.
[STRATUM]
More "blah blah blah" files. Honestly if this wasn't the last folder I would have used Stress Reducer on this folder...If you have no idea what Stress Reducer is then you probably didn't get what I just said.
Author's Input
If you want to do something to make me happier then please go here and click the link to the bottom of the page to sign the pledge to be fur-free:
http://www.peta.org/feat/ChineseFurFarms/index.asp
I advise you to not watch the video, the contents inside are too gory.
I, myself, could not bare to watch the whole video and I stoped it almost instantly so unless you don't mind, don't watch it. You can also go around signing petitons protecting the right of people and animals, if you do that then you'll make me happier than you would if you sent me money.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this Guide. Without the readers, there wouldn't be writers. Now DIE so I won't have to write any more...just kidding, you don't have to die, I'll kill you myself instead!
