Submission #6728: janus's Genesis Phantasy Star IV "all sidequests, Blast from the Past" in 1:56:50.98

Sega Genesis
all sidequests, Blast from the Past
Gens 11a
420117
59.922751013550524
72633
Unknown
Phantasy Star IV (4) [!].bin
Submitted by janus on 4/20/2020 11:36:59 PM
Submission Comments
  • Entertainment trade-offs
  • Use of programming errors
  • Manipulation of luck
In this final installment of the famous Phantasy Star series, the protagonist, while out on a routine assignment, uncovers evidence pointing to a sinister threat to the entire solar system. One thing leads to another and he and the rest of his party eventually find themselves fighting the root of all evil. No reason to rush things though, right? In addition to completing all sidequests, the author also uncovers every single reference to Phantasy Star I, II and III in the game.
Hello gamers! Since I had improved the original run so much, I thought I could improve this run too - it was using the old, obsolete methods of fighting like using a macro against Igglanova.
If you haven't see the original run, know that it includes every single sidequests (explanation here), but also every possible reference to the Phantasy Star Universe (explanation here.)
Here are the highlights
  • Igglanova: once paralyzed with Earth, you can escape! -1897 frames
However, I needed to catch up Chaz' level to compensate, so I fought slugs in the cave to Kadary. But I was still -619 frames ahead when entering Zio's fort. Then...
  • Juza: Rika uses her 2x slash AND can survive the force slash. -2343 frames
  • Gy-Laguiah: Rune can survive an attack thanks to the frade mantle and the laser barrier. -2386 frames
  • Zio: I got luckier for this one. -2528 frames
  • Chaos Sorcerer: pressing start when docking the space ship is a frame saver. -2680 frames
  • Dark Force I: Even less docking. -2819 frames
  • Dezolis Climate Tower: Space docking again. -2944 frames
  • Xe-a-thul: Since I needed more people to die, I was able to do the impossible: have them ONLY attack (and therefore skip casting protective magic). -5527 frames
  • Lashiec: I was able to reduce waiting between his attacks. -5752 frames
  • Dark Force II: Slightly better manipulation. -5792 frames
  • Sandworm: Slight slow down from equipping Rune with the psychowand. -5775 frames
  • Fract Ooze: I was able to skip dialogue with the ranch owner and avoided the ooze's attack-all, er, attack. -6118 frames
  • King Rappy: I skipped even more dialogues, and improved the fight. -7157 frames
  • Servants: I avoided their attack. -7211 frames
  • Dominator: they only attacked once! -7566 frames
  • Dark Force III: more dialogue skipping and better manipulation. -8536 frames
  • Tower of Strength: Hardest battle to manipulate, full stop. But I still improved it. -8775 frames
  • Tower of Courage: Much better manipulation. -9046 frames
  • Propallus: The fight was shorter by about 100 frames. -8632 frames (I forgot PS reference at Esper Mansion earlier on)
  • Alys: Less space docking. -8760 frames
  • Profound Darkness I: -8874 frames when starting the fight
  • Profound Darkness II: Saner gave me an important edge. -8861 frames at the start of the phase
  • Profound Darkness III: It was quite uncooperative at times. Final saving: -8806 frames when it starts exploding (frames 420118)
Possible improvement: more luck, especially against de-vars and Profound Darkness.
Suggested frame: 8320, Lubetz' bust

Memory: Judging
Memory: Unclaiming for now
Memory: Reclaiming
Memory: Optimization seems good.
This goal is quite unusual for TASVideos. The all sidequests objective is obviously not too out of the ordinary but viewing all references to previous Phantasy Star games is quite out there. Most goals I have seen are more related to gameplay objectives of some sort. This represents more of a tour of sort of trivia pieces more than anything else. It was also found out that "all references" was actually more specific than initially implied. It strictly excludes fighting enemies that appeared in previous Phantasy Star games and is said to focus more on "cultural references".
This could still be acceptable but raises the issue that actually verifying that all (cultural) references were viewed could be quite difficult. The best approach is to simply treat it as a sort of speed/entertainment tradeoff as it was treated in the past.
This run had good reception but if a more traditional sort of full completion were to receive better reception, we'd obsolete this run with that.
feos: Pub.
Last Edited by on 1/1/2022 6:13 PM
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