NPC data system · Tongari Boushi Archive

Speaker ID ranges

The dialog system identifies every speaker by a numeric ID. The ID determines whether the game renders a full 3D character model or displays text without a portrait.

Range	Type	Count	Rendering
1000--1251	Named villager NPCs	252	Full 3D scene (face mesh + texture + body)
2000+	System speakers	~42 in DB	No portrait (narrator, crowd, announcements)

NPC data files

All NPC data lives under data/npc/ (29 files total). The files below are the ones most relevant to modding and translation.

NpcData.lzs

The master NPC database. LZS-compressed, contains NPC names as binary strings. This is where the translation patch writes English NPC names. The ROM ships with Japanese names; the patch overwrites them in the decompressed binary.

NpcDataOfs.ofs

252 SZL-packed personality records, one per named NPC (IDs 1000--1251). Each record decompresses to 88--200 bytes.

Offset	Type	Field
`+0x00`	u8	constant `0x00`
`+0x01`	u8	`personality_template` (0--10, 11 distinct types)
`+0x02`	u16	`face_or_age` (0--30, 31 distinct values; not a direct index into the face texture file)
`+0x04`--`+0x07`	4 x u8	body parameters (height, build, etc.)
`+0x08`--`+0x0b`	4 x u8	clothing-layer IDs
`+0x0c` onward	UTF-16 LE	JP NPC name (null-terminated)
after null	UTF-16 LE	greeting / quote

Other NPC files

File	Role
`NpcCstm.ofs`	140 customization parameter sets (1:1 with face textures). Controls per-NPC visual variations.
`NpcFas.npfs`	NPC fashion / clothing data.
`NpcClothInfo.nci`	NPC clothing info table.
`NpcSchedule.init`	NPC daily schedule data.

Personality types

The personality_template byte at offset +0x01 in each NpcDataOfs record determines an NPC's behavioral archetype. There are 11 distinct personality types (values 0--10). The personality type controls:

Which dialog files the NPC draws from (msg20--msg31 each correspond to a personality grouping).
Whether the NPC's dialog renders as a bubble or a window (the personality type feeds into the bubble_sel selector in the dialog renderer).
Talk topic preferences and conversation style.

The personality system is what gives each NPC their characteristic way of speaking, even though many NPCs share the same underlying dialog templates.

Face textures and visual identity

Named NPCs are rendered in full 3D. There are no 2D portrait sprites. The face rendering pipeline uses three texture files:

Path	Contents
`model/npc/tex/face/tfnpc.ofs`	140 face textures (base face meshes). 252 NPCs share 140 faces; individual identity comes from body parameters, clothing layers, and hair.
`model/npc/tex/face/tfnpccmn.ofs`	33 common face overlay textures (eyes, mouth positions, blush states). Composited at runtime to create expressions.
`model/npc/tex/face/tfnpcguest.ofs`	13 guest NPC face textures for special or temporary characters.

The NpcCstm.ofs customization records (140 entries, 1:1 with tfnpc.ofs) hold the per-NPC parameters that differentiate NPCs who share the same base face.

NPC stamps

data/npcstamp/npcstamp.ofs contains 140 SZL-packed RGCN entries. Despite the name, these are not NPC portrait images. They are small personality stamp icons used on the rumor board and trend ranking system. The shared palette and cell layout come from the sibling file npcstpcmn.lzs, an RESC container with NCER at offset 0xa0 and NCLR at offset 0x110.

Special character paths

Not all characters go through the villager personality system. Special characters like the principal, teachers, and shopkeepers use separate dialog paths that bypass the personality-based bubble/window selector. Their dialog routing is hardcoded in the ARM9 binary rather than driven by the NpcDataOfs personality_template byte.

NPC names in the translation

The translation patch updates NPC names in two places:

NpcData.lzs -- the master binary that the game reads at runtime for display names.
The npc_names table in the translation database -- the source of truth for canonical English names, which feeds the NpcData.lzs binary writer during ROM rebuild.

82 rows still have drift between the database canonical name and the binary. This is tracked internally but has not been fully reconciled.

Source

data/npc/ -- 29 NPC data files in the ROM filesystem
data/npcstamp/ -- stamp icon container
model/npc/tex/face/ -- face texture containers
NpcDataOfs record layout from binary analysis of decompressed SZL records