Shenmue - How to mod Guizhang's fighting style on Ryo (DC only)

Related video: "Shenmue - Ryo masters Guizhang's Swallow Diving Style?! | MOD/FAN EDIT by Richard Payne" [https://youtu.be/yxyLtfTjbGg ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-3sWPQmvI0]

Here's a guide explaining how to hack Guizhang's fighting style on Ryo for the 70 Man Battle in Shenmue I for Dreamcast.

First, you need access to a ripped image of the Shenmue disc you want to mod. To do that, you'll first need Dreamcast gdi images of Disc 1, 2, and 3 of Shenmue. In case you don’t have them, I recommend the “Shenmue Definitive Edition” by Phantom River Stone & Shenmue Master, which is basically a complete undub version of Shenmue I on Dreamcast (Japanese dub, English subtitles). It doesn’t matter which version you have though, what matters is that the images are in “gdi” format.

Once you’ve got the game on your PC, you can start ripping the files out of the gdi image files. If you wish to mod Guizhang’s style on Ryo for the 70 Man Battle event, you’ll need to extract the files from the “Disc 3” gdi file. In order to do that, you’ll need a program called “GD-ROM Explorer”.

*****You can find all the download links at the end of this post.*****

Open “GD-ROM Explorer”, then click “File”, “Open”, then select the Disc 3 gdi file. Extract “IP.BIN” and “DREAMCAST” to a new folder (right click on them and select the “extract” option). Once you’re done, you now have a “ripped” version of that Shenmue disc, meaning you can access all the data related to it.

To change fighting style, you need to locate and replace the “EN.RYOU.BIN” (Ryo’s fighting style) file in the map(s) where you’d like to use a different moveset. Beware there’s no way to change it for all maps in one go, so you need to do it manually for every single map (and it's not always guaranteed to work either, game may hang in some maps).

*Important*: Don’t forget to make a backup of the files before making changes, in case something goes wrong, or you just want to revert the changes you made.

To use Guizhang’s style in the 70 Man Battle map (called “MFBT”), all you have to do is go to the “MFBT” folder (found in “Scene/03/MFBT”), which contains all the stuff used in the 70 Man Battle story segment/time trial map.
From there, delete EN.RYOU.BIN, copy either EN.KISYO.BIN, EN.KISY2.BIN, or EN.KISY3.BIN (all identical Guizhang styles), then paste it in that same MFBT folder and rename it “EN.RYOU.BIN”. That’s all there’s to it, Ryo will now use Guizhang’s style in the 70 Man Battle map!

Once you’re done with the changes, you now have to make a working build of the game. To accomplish that, you’ll need two softwares: “binhack32” and “bootmake”. Follow the YouTube video guide made by Shenmue modder James Reiner, where he explains all the steps to making a bootable cdi build [LINK -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBMVvjIS1G8 ].
Assuming everything works out, you now have a modded cdi build of Disc 3, which you can boot on your preferred emulator (Flycast and Redream are the most recommended).

Start the game on the emulator and either load a save before the 70 Man Battle or select the 70 Man Battle time attack mode to finally play using the Swallow Diving Style! Move inputs require improvisation, it may take some time before you figure them all out.

Well, that's it from me. I hope I didn't miss anything crucial. If you can't get this to work, please let me know and I'll try and help you out however I can.

Have fun!

USEFUL LINKS:

- Shenmue Undub: Definitive Edition article on Phantom River Stone: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2020/09/shenmue-undub-definitive-edition-video.html

- Shenmue Undub: Definitive Edition download (gdi files): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SYl9LQFG46-fhpIHGStpLWjOcOvLCd6S/edit

- GD-ROM Explorer by “Japanese_cake”: https://shenmuesubs.sourceforge.net/download/ [Scroll down to find it in the list of “Additional Tools”]

- Binhack 32bits Clone by “FamilyGuy”: https://shenmuesubs.sourceforge.net/download/ [Scroll down to find it in the list of “Additional Tools”]

- Bootmake by “SiZiOUS”: https://github.com/sizious/bootmake/releases/tag/v1.2

- IMG4DC by “SiZiOUS”: https://github.com/sizious/img4dc/releases/tag/v20120512 [you need to copy “cdi4dc.exe” from it and paste it in the “Tools” folder found in Bootmake, otherwise Bootmake won’t work]

- James Reiner’s guide on how to build CDI files with Bootmake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBMVvjIS1G8