Sweet Success!
A quick note about that hex editor picture, the right-most byte, 0x08, is NOT part of the 4 bytes that define the current money in the game. Since the game is a 32-bit executable, the current supply of yen is contained in the first four bytes of data. Also note that the number, being little-endian per the operating conventions of Windows and x86/64 CPUs, the number begins from the leftmost byte to the rightmost. Honestly, I cannot recommend putting your money up even as high as I did. Just gaze upon the screenshot at the top and you’ll see that I’ve nearly overflowed the money counter, at least positionally speaking. I also dunno if the 32-bit integer representing the money is signed or unsigned.
One interesting note about the 0x08 byte is that it seems to represent the position from which one begins when loading the game. It’s the byte that, when changed to 0x00, sent me from the load screen directly inside of a wall somewhere late in the game. I haven’t played with values for it, but it might be interesting to chart where various values send you. I imagine the position byte is probably also a multi-byte value.
It turns out there are only 99 HP Boosters and MP Boosters each available from the guy in the Battleship, so that really throws off my estimates of how much time it would have taken to grind out 999 of HP and MP.
It would actually take a lot less time because the MP Boost really provides a larger boost in MP than the HP booster does (that appears to go 2 at a time, but maybe not).
Anyway, I’ll upload my save file when I can get a steady URL for it, which is pretty much right at the start but with some tedium subtracted from the ensuing gameplay.
Now that I’m all Hacked up, I’m ready to play this thing. I’d still like to stream a good, English-language walkthrough for it though. I need to see if Twitch can provide me with some sort of means of recording my screen.