Of course there is. The principle of luck manipulation is making something with low odds of happening guaranteed to happen by finding a sequence of inputs that leads to that result. Like with almost every other game, nothing in PoFV is truly random, and whatever the AI does is seeded from the player input, which makes the built-in replay system work in the first place. Since the actions of the player invariably determine the actions of the AI in the same way every time, it's a question of finding what actions of the player lead to a less favorable position for the AI. And as long as something
can happen earlier, there is a sequence of input that
will make it happen.
Finding that sequence or one close enough is achieved via trying out different actions at different times and going with whichever leads to the result the soonest. We have an
extensive collection of movies that do that to a very significant extent (the Castlevania runs and most fighting/brawling games are great examples). In case with PoFV you can help that happen by setting up the enemy screen in a way that makes collisions more likely and this way reduce the volume of the total testing space you'd need to sift through in order to force the AI into a collision. But perhaps you can actually trick it into colliding with any bullet that passes close to it if that can happen at all.
Make no mistake, I don't expect it to be quick or easy, because I know for sure it won't be, and nobody here would expect you to find a truly optimal sequence for every stage. But in terms of the final result a publishable run must be
much better than what an unassisted player could realistically attain even if they could dodge bullets indefinitely and without regard for their own safety.
If/when you decide to look into it deeper and use a better tool, do post WIPs in this thread so we can track your progress and give feedback. We also have a
Discord if you're interested.
