Been a while, any more progress janus? Looks like things were clicking along there pretty good.
Main reason for posting, though, is I'm looking for some help. Friend of mine and I recently played through this game and were going through it again using the super strength trick. Doing the trick was no problem, but questions came up regarding some of the limitations and "what if we...?" We weren't able to really find any documentation other than how to do the trick itself. So, we started testing a few things. No RAM watching or anything fancy, just trial and error and seeing what the results were. You can see some of our results here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/586515-sword-of-vermilion/72071087 G_T has since found that equipping a better sword after doing the trick with the silver sword dropped her strength to 150 or so, which is below what it would normally be (she was level 18 or 19 when she tried the Mirage Sword). So, we're hoping some of the folks here that get into the nuts and bolts of games can help with figuring out what makes the trick tick, why the Bronze Sword will lock your strength in at 1500, but a better sword will keep your strength at 2700+ and go up at level ups, that sort of thing. I'll also mention, though it's prolly already known: when you're poisoned and it kills you/your HP drops below 0, briefly you can see your hit points read 5800+. A second later, you're back at the church missing half your gold. Obviously, this is the same thing that happens with the super strength/ultra strength/ultra AC tricks, just without the effect sticking around. Anybody looked into a way to keep the extra HP, exploiting this bug? Obviously, in a TAS, you're avoiding enemies, avoiding most damage, so hit points aren't a real concern, but looking into it might lead to other discoveries. Anyway, any thoughts or help would be appreciated. Thank you.