Ys VIII Unpacking / Packing tools

Unpacking & Packing tools for Ys VIII assets

How to translate Ys VIII with it ?

Follow the guide here.

WARNING : This guide is mostly informative may not contain some complex or more recent steps

Eboot patcher

Usage : python3 patchEboot.py <eboot>

This python script enables you to apply eboot specific patches. For mai dumps, run it on both the base eboot.bin & mai_moe/eboot_origin.bin. This patch allows you to get the savedata level text to display as "Lv 17" instead of "Lv17" for instance, just like the US/EU game does.

XAST

Unpacker

Usage : unxai <input> <output>

Extracts all files from an input XAST archive into the given output directory.

Packer

Usage : xai <folder> <output> (<original>)

Packs a whole folder as a XAST output archive.

If the original .xai archive is given as third argument, it will use the same header structure to avoid game compatibility issues (recommanded).

WARNING : When specifying the original .xai, DO NOT add new files (not supported yet).

Patcher

Usage : xaiPatch <inputXai> <inputFile> <filename>

Replaces a specific file from the input XAST archive with a new one. You must provide the correct filepath from the XAST archive as filename (example : flash/pl_const.plt)

WARNING : both files must be the same size

DAT

Unpacker

Usage : undat <input> <output>

Extracts all files from an input DAT archive into the given output directory.

Packer

Usage : dat <folder> <output>

Packs a whole folder as a DAT output archive.

WARNING : filenames must not be more than 15 characters, also no folder structure should be used in theory.

PLT

Unpacker

Usage : unplt <input> <output>

Extracts all strings from an input PLT archive into the given output text file.

Packer

Usage : plt <input> <output>

Packs all strings from an input text file into the given output PLT archive.

TBB

Requires Node.js 6+ (8.5 recommended)

Unpacker

Usage : node tbbconv/tbbconv.js unpack <inputTBB> <outputCSV>

Converts a TBB input file into a CSV output file.

Packer

Usage : node tbbconv/tbbconv.js pack <inputCSV> <outputTBB> (--enc shift-jis)

Converts a CSV input file into a TBB output file.

When workingon the Japanese game, add the --enc shift-jis argument to repack into shift-jis.

Scripting

Disassembler

Usage : bin2script <byteScript>

Converts a bytecode script into text. Credits to weaknespase for the file format reverse

Assembler

Usage : script2bin <script> <output> (--enc-shift-jis) (--dec-shift-jis) (--preserve-string-sizes)

Converts a script back into bytecode.

• Add --enc-shift-jis to convert game text strings from utf8 back into shift-jis.
• Add --dec-shift-jis to convert game text strings from shift-jis into utf8 (experiemental)
• If you specify --preserve-string-sizes, --enc-shift-jis & --dec-shift-jis options will attempt to preserve the original string sizes after conversion (by adding spaces or removing last characters)

RPN arithmetics

More information about the RPN arithmetic arguments used in conditions & calculations can be found here : https://gist.github.com/weaknespase/d0a26fbc21a77616199969fe08cd48c2#vcalc-operators

You can also find here my first write-up about it : https://gist.github.com/yosh778/141f78102cbcb15673b2375002e52a76

Credits

• Tony Blue for helping get the game on 3.60
• weaknespase for the XAST checksum, TBB tools, script reversing, ... our trump card :)
• vampirexxxx who is a big help in hacking the assets !