Submission #3074: Nitrodon's GBA Fire Emblem "best TAS ever" in 00:31.62

Back in 2006, I joined the TASing community by attempting to TAS this game. I managed a full test run, but after completing the first 10 chapters of an actual run, I realized I'd have to go back to the beginning yet again to make full use of a movement glitch. However, I never got around to restarting it, so FE7 TASing has remained completely stagnant for about four and a half years. This changed a couple weeks ago, and that may or may not have resulted in this submission.

In parts of Lyn's normal mode, you are forced to take certain actions. The game enforces this by disabling the B button after you select your character. However, the game doesn't want to disable soft resets, so the button combination A+B+select+start still works. If you're holding a direction button at this time, the soft reset won't activate, but B is still counted as pressed. This can be used to cancel the movement entirely, with sometimes unusual effects. The B button is also used to move the cursor fast, which gives this glitch a more mundane use as well.

Thanks to VincentASM for bringing this glitch to my attention in 2006.

The arrow-drawing routine in this game is always one frame behind the cursor. While the cursor position is used to determine whether a unit is allowed to move to the selected tile, the arrow is used to determine the route the unit takes, and hence his or her destination. With frame-perfect timing, you can therefore move to a space you are not normally allowed to go, as long as you can draw an arrow to it. This glitch is generally used to move two units onto the same tile, but I only have one unit, so I needed to find some more creative uses.

The game wants Lyn to move 5 spaces to the left, but I move 3 left and 2 up instead. This makes the enemy brigand move to a different space than he would otherwise, allowing the rest of the chapter to go as planned.

The game wants me to move next to and attack the enemy this turn. Attempting to do anything else would leave the game frozen on an empty menu, so that's exactly what I do. Strangely enough, the game highlights the spaces next to the enemy brigand's actual location, but only allows movement to the 4 spaces next to where he should be. The space I want to move to is not next to his normal location, so I have to trick the game again. Note that the results of both rounds of combat are completely fixed, so there's no way to die this turn.

Here, Lyn is supposed to move to the indicated space and use a vulnerary. I can't trick the game into letting me go far enough with that intended destination, so I cancel out and select Lyn again. This causes the game to direct me to turn 4's destination instead. The space Lyn is supposed to move on turn 3 isn't next to an enemy, so the game didn't bother to disable the attack command. This allows me to attack Batta, and some minor luck manipulation makes him fatally hit Lyn with his counter.

DarkKobold: Claimed

DarkKobold: It is pretty cool you managed to break the tutorial. I enjoyed it, but it isn't really a publication-worthy goal.