Posts for Risato

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Joined: 6/18/2012
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Masterjun wrote:
Risato wrote:
I just think it really skips some of the best parts of the game.
To be fair, this run only skips Gravitron (and some dialogues and the trinkets and some rooms at the start but they are not that "best part of the game"-ish)
Gravitron. Best part. Seriously though, I do appreciate what went into this and how well it plays out. The biggest reason I advocate Gravitron is not even one of version but one of appearing superhuman as possible. Even the best No Death Mode runs end in the graveyard that is the Gravitron. Still, speed is speed after all. As for my distinguishing between no death and No Death Mode, that was worded pretty poorly. A regular no death run without No Death Mode would naturally require missing Prize For the Reckless, while a regular one-death run would be able to get all 100% permitting that single act. No Death Mode means 100% is quite possible with exactly no deaths due to the trinket relocation. It's more a question of whether the entertainment of Prize For the Reckless is worth it. I'd personally lean towards the one death run, but either path would be an excellent show.
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Perhaps I'm the odd one out this time around, but I'm feeling pretty "meh" about this run. I think the sequence break in this situation actually cuts entertainment value despite saving a lot of time. It's fine for raw speed, but I'd say a 100% no death run would be far more interesting. The only thing that run would miss is that Prize for the Reckless is a fun one to watch people get, but No Death mode makes it far easier to get since obtaining it normally actually requires one death. It's not a bad run. I just think it really skips some of the best parts of the game.
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This is like opening Christmas gifts with a battleaxe. Swift, technically effective, yet it misses the point and is so wrong that it's almost funny but not quite.
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Joined: 6/18/2012
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The reduction of game lag in level 4-2 alone sells me on this run. As for weapon choice, Marx said it. The magic use for the sword weapon is at least twice as much as with the spear if not more. I am a bit curious about the magic use in Tower. Most of the other bosses seem to have exploitable patterns, but one in there has an irritating delay between hits. Does the griffin fly out of reach often enough to make it a slow fight otherwise? Still, the weapon choice makes sense when magic use is taken into account. Everything else comes together as an improvement. Yes vote from me.
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Goonies never say die, and neither did McBobX. This is a good one. Adding another yes onto the pile.
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This is a technically well done and thought out TAS, but I simply do not see this as a good game for TAS. The contrast between minimal gameplay time and extensive non-play time from the end of level score recap to the cutscenes takes away from the technical display.
STBM wrote:
Do any of you feel that a cutsceneless encode would be better ? As a player who really enjoys this game, I feel that doing this would make those of you who are a little bit lost completely lost, because you would not only miss out on the technics but also on the story and this would ultimately be boring (and too quick :p)
I'd be more interested in seeing how this flows without cutscenes, yes. However, if the technical display is not worth showing off and the entertainment value without cutscenes is minimal, then what can this run do that a well planned manual speed run wouldn't do better? This is a great game that might benefit from a slower "glitchfest" or "playaround" style TAS, but raw speed just doesn't do it even with clever solutions to puzzles. Voting no.
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Game choice is fine. Platform games are very well suited for TAS unless they have serious bugs or are so bad that they're punchlines. It's been said above though, this is a decent run with room for improvements. Voting a weak yes for now.
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I feel that Kaizo Mario World is one of the best hacks to impose the "kusoge" feeling of games on Super Mario World. One of the kusoge definitions is a game which is comparable to excrement due to unplayable difficulty, whether by poor control, poor design, or simply developers who enjoy watching their audience squirm. This one nails that third kind. See http://www.japangameloser.com/2009/01/22/japanese-for-gamers-101-kusoge/ for a definition and a few examples. Essentially, Kaizo Mario World is the distilled frustration of our youth. To our younger and lesser skilled selves playing Mario for the first time, some levels may as well have been this intentionally sadistic as we were grounded for hurling the Nintendium alloy controller through a thin layer of drywall. To give it a less romanticized view, it's a bit of mockery and a bit of celebration over the hellishly hard games of the past which were certainly not designed with the intention that everyone should be able to beat it before giving up. It also gives a bit of nostalgia such as how Yoshi must be sacrificed to the lava pits in order to survive, that ultimate act of betrayal on Mario's part after Yoshi was the only reason he could pass a significant part of the level earlier. I'll give that the hack appears rather lazy and often really is. I'd say that being clever and being lazy are not mutually exclusive. The idea of an invisible Bowser is hilarious. The difficulty is entirely artificial, yet it fits perfectly with the kusoge theme in that it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be grossly unfair and infuriating, but someone, somewhere can beat it so that means you can't give up just yet. I may be seeing art where others see crap, but I think this particular hack isn't unfair in a way where they want it to be impossible, but rather designed specifically to demoralize the player as much as possible while the design shows it is entirely possible to beat the level if it is done perfectly. While a standard player with save states would create something that looks vaguely similar, the ease and flair on display manage to mock even expected solutions. I'll admit to having a soft spot for this kind of thing done well, and this is a shining example of what a kusoge hack is all about. I agree that hacks should be carefully examined and that most "hell mode" difficulty hacks are horribly unwatchable. I also think that this hack along with a few original SMB hacks really show off what the kusoge idea is all about in caricature. Yes vote, very pleased to see this one up for consideration at the least.
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I'm going to support Submission #3556: Brandon Evans's NES Super Mario Bros "minimum buttons pressed (142)" in 05:48.04 and Submission #3586: Brandon Evans's NES Super Mario Bros. 3 "minimum buttons pressed (235)" in 12:42.13 for Gruefood Delight. They're both great examples of something a lot of people enjoyed, there was real merit to them in both entertainment and technicality, but it just didn't mesh with the rest of the site so well. The goal is arbitrary, but it really made me think about some of the things that are easy to overlook in a game. We push buttons a lot more than we realize in video games sometimes. The efficiency on display is just plain fun to watch.
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Okay, so the game is pretty bad and a bit awkward, but it's pretty clear what's going on and just playing NES games in general with poor hit detection testifies to how frustrating the reality of this game would be. I had no urge to skip through any of the run. The game itself is a bit dull, but the avoidance, timed hits with what is obviously a frustrating close range attack, and admittedly the brevity of the game add up to make it reasonable enough to enjoy. Even if I won't watch it again like I do some runs. Had to ponder it for a few minutes, but I came down on the side of yes vote.
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Terrible game, terrible sound, but it's so much more sensible and understandable as a TAS than the NES version. The game objectives make sense and I feel a sense of gratitude for you TASing this game so I never need to play it nor watch a longer run. Yes vote on the basis of technically sound, game works with TASing, and amusing like a virtual train wreck.
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I've had the misfortune of playing this game. Controls are bad, they aren't even trying with the sound, and the difficulty comes from sluggish movement and reaction. I managed to watch the entire run, but that was a bit of a chore. This game makes even the best run look clumsy and imperfect simply because the game is itself so awkward. Also, beat-em-ups are a bit tough to enjoy because so many end up using only one attack or string of attacks. I lean a bit towards archival completion in my preferences, so I don't want to dismiss the game too easily. This is definitely a game that would benefit from extensive LUA enhancement and commentary to show hitboxes and why you need to swing as you to in order to hit certain enemies. I just keep getting this feeling that the run could see significant improvement, but I wouldn't doubt that it's a side effect of the game simply being that awkward in mechanics. As it stands, a weak "Meh" vote, leaning no. I think the bar is very high on the technical end just to extract a decent TAS from this game.
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Tristal wrote:
Inindo seems certainly suitable given: -SNES RPG runs can be 3-4+ hours already -Holding R button makes you dash faster than any DQ-style RPG I've ever seen But I'm not sure there's enough sequence breaking to be viable, and to my knowledge the bosses ramp up in difficulty so much at the end you'd need to spend an unfortunate amount of time levelling. (I think Dizzy only gets you so far, even against the final boss.)
That's one of the few Koei games I never really got into. The grind was horrible, something that is rather odd for their usual offerings. "Breaking" a Koei game system is half the fun, but I could never spot a break that wasn't tedious and utterly unsuited for speed. I may go back to play through it again, but that's an intimidating one to take on for speed. I ponder whether a few PTO scenarios are viable. While the game flows a bit slowly, the battle at Midway or the Yamato's final run are both skirmishes with nearly instant action. Then again, that may be a pretty narrow interest run, and the initial setup is slow enough that it may be a drag for anyone not specifically a fan of the game.
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I'm curious whether any of the Koei SNES games are viable for TAS. I know a few like Genghis Khan 2 and Aerobiz don't work so well, but something like Uncharted Waters 2 might have potential with a few of the scenarios, although a few others not so much. Perhaps not the most high profile of games, but really quite an enjoyable one. I do see there's a WIP of Brandish, so that may pop up in time.
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I'm not too keen on the idea of a pacifist run. Then again, I don't think Gun.Smoke lends itself too well to any kind of TAS. It's one of those things where I'd be interested in seeing it if it existed, but I'm not sure if it would be all that fun to watch even if it were technically impressive. I'd say skip this one unless you're willing to set a very high bar for yourself and still know you'd probably face disappointment.
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Bravo! This was a fun one to watch. The boots trick really lets this run flow smoother than the current run.
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Bullet hell shooter TAS videos are under a huge imperative to show off since a real time play perfect run is usually an amazing sight on its own. The first one doesn't disappoint, although a few in that next link aren't as ambitious. Then again, some stages are much better than others for showing off, especially the extra stages.
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The game is hilariously bad, but the biggest problem with that is how the progression seems to be arbitrary at best, dipping into the surreal at times. I think it would be quite fair to compare this to E.T. on the Atari 2600. That kills entertainment value, but worse yet it hides technical merit. Commentary is great for pointing out triggering of invisible flags, but it falls flat when even the flag locations make no sense. Compare it to a game such as Kid Niki where one stage requires two failed efforts before a third jump makes it up a steep climb for no obvious reason. Even if it's frame-perfect, nonsensical hurdles make a video look clumsy. With that in mind, one part was rather amusing. The warp which was an egotistical tribute to a programmer who was for some reason proud enough to put his pixel face in the game. I'm not eligible to vote yet, but the "no" camp is large as it is. Nice improvement, but this game is just naturally a black hole of anti-entertainment.