Has anyone ever tried to get the maximum possible stats? Leveling up is a real hell, you have to reload a million times, if you want the max number of stats to be gained, plus them be distributed the way you actually need... This single feature has to be the one and only DRAWBACK of this game, the negative, the con...

I have stopped my progress in reverse castle, because there you earn heaps of XP by killing even a single enemy and i have to get close to a save point, then reload to get the perfect stats allocation!

Damn, has anyone else bothered to go after perfect stats in this game? Why couldn't it be like Diablo, to get certain points and you manually distribute them upon stats yourself?

But there is worse. I am playing Luck Mode, ergo i start with a fixed amount of set stats in the beginning. Imagine having to beat the game fully once, then needing to kill first boss in under 1 minute and without special weapons, in order to get the really MAX stats possible, then it is pure insanity...

Opinions?

You are insane.

I say go for it.

Oh, and after that, try to max Dawn of Sorrow if you like pain.

I think it would be easier and faster to work out how to use a combination of save corruption and Arbitrary Code Execution to max your stats.

It is possible to corrupt your save just by turning the game off in the middle of saving. It turns out that the game doesn't actually check to make sure a save isn't corrupted before loading it, so it will happily load the corrupted save.

Once you've done that, it is apparently possible to trick the game into executing arbitrary code. A speedrun route uses this to trigger the ending early, but it should be possible to get the game to execute code that maxes out all of your stats. It should even be possible to get 9999 (or perhaps more) HP, where the most available without ACE appears to be "only" about 5887.

I meant legit max stats!... :O

Define "legit". Some players would not consider stats gained by constant reloading to be legit, while others (like me) might even consider stats gained through methods like ACE to be legit (in the sense that no cheating devices or intentional cheat features are needed to acquire them).

At least this time round i found out how to fill the pokedex; whoops, enemy-dex, i meant. Some enemies need only elemental attacks to die and i used hellfire quite a lot! This time i will catch, er, kill them all!

Glitching is far more fun than cheating, it feels like you are exploring a flawed part of the game but it's still part of the game (unlike cheating, that is pure debugging). That said, I don't think I would want to waste time for a number. Much more fun would be to try and reach places you are not supposed at that level and see if you get stuck or better, find a room that technically isn't part of the map or will reveal anymore but might reflect on how the game developers make games (leaving a hidden easter egg, it was a start of a new part of the game but it scratched etc..).

Glitching for more map exploration doesn't work on Saturn and Japanese versions, this was for the PS1 release in English (something with Sword Brothers).

Most easter eggs are items themselves, though, like many Tolkien inspired weapons, especially swords.

Not true - I have the newer Japanese PS1 version (with Nocturne song working without codes) with English fan translation running on ePSXe emulator. Both glitches (map exploration with Double Heart Refresh and Infinite Money with Sword Brothers) are working fine. I haven't tried other Sword Brothers glitches.

BTW, here is my "almost max stats" recipe. Keep in mind it can be done only on emulator with save states.

Make a save state when you're close to next experience level, then level up. Check you stats - if you get +1 to all of your four basic stats and +5 MP, then save again and do the same with the next level. Otherwise reload and try again. Leveling up like this will require several tries, but it will work.

I do something simpler. I find a save room, farm until i need one more kill to ding, then save normally. If i get the perfect level up i save again and move to another area, if not i use reset.

I don't use save states in tasks that involve using the main menu, because for some reason, on Saturn emulation, if you open the menu after LOADING state, game freezes/stacks. A little bit more time consuming, but we are doing the same thing.

Also, i started from Luck mode from the very beginning, so i only need +1 to 3 stats, all ones MINUS luck (because it is already 99). I thought it would be easier, but now i am 37 level and i am bored to death by rolling +1 to everything, it is a tedious and unnerving task. Oh, how i wish it was like Unepic, get those points fixed sum and distribute yourself... Perfect leveling in Sotn is such a PAIN!

Well, by doing this my way, I was able to reach around level 70, then I stopped, because almost everyone started giving me only 1 XP per kill. Also, I finished the main story, got all possible items and explored 201,2% of the map.

BTW, I'm always starting the game with this equipment and stats (pictures attached). I never tried "under a minute" run.

Neither the Luck mode, i see... BTW luck mode is a great challenge, too, especially if you don't cheat death to keep your items. You start with 1str, 0 con, 0 int, 99 luck, the starting gear plus a lapis lazuli (30 luck + ),

But anyway, max stats are 99. With perfect levelling in luck mode, the best you can get is 99 str, 98 con, 98 int and 99 luck.

By the way, is the entire castle accessible by Richter? A question i always had but always forgot to ask, at the same time... (in saturn it is 210.6 % the legit max you can explore).

It's not worth it. If you equip the Shield Rod with the Alucard Shield, and do the combination power, you can kill Dracula in less than 5 seconds. Maxing out your character serves no practical purpose in the game.

And Galamoth. I swear that the reason this thing exists, must be to beat those two... But i am going after the Mablung sword, i prefer it over shield rod, it is the second strongest (one hand) sword, Alucard's aside (of those that don't upgrade).

I still cannot decide between God's Garb and Walk Armor, and between Wizard's Hat and Dragon's Helm, though...

Nope, certain rooms cannot be reached. This map (based on the PS1 version) shows the unreachable rooms (green). Shaft's room is an exception, however there is no way to permanently record it on the map.
With a little bit more time, Crissaegrim will do the same thing.