Keio Flying Squadron 2 (KFS2) is a multi-genre game for the Sega Saturn. It follows Rami's quest to collect the chaos orbs. This submission aims to beat the game as fast as possible using optimized movement, damage boosts and enemy spawn
Game objectives
- Beat the game as fast as possible
- (Optional) Question my game choices during the extremely long final boss section
Comments
KFS2's levels come in two flavors of platforming and shoot 'em up side-scrollers. Some of the fundamentals will be covered here:
Note: All velocity values are presented as displacement units/frame.
- Easy Mode?
Difficulty in this game mainly affects enemy and other miscellaneous object spawns. We are more interested in the latter: A certain object type (Kappa) can be used as portable springs, granting us opportunities to perform platforming skips. In higher difficulty settings, game eliminates most of the optional Kappa spawns, meaning Rami is confined to intended platforming. Therefore this TAS is performed in Easy (monkey) difficulty.
- Platforming Mechanics
Rami's walking speed is 2 units and she can accelerate upto 3.5 units when running. In the air, her horizontal movement is capped to 2 units if she walks off a ledge or jumps from a standstill. For this reason, this TAS almost exclusively performs short hops off ledges or builds up speed prior to jumping. Running into walls doesn't incur a speed penalty.
Landing on an enemy or a ground surface results in one-frame stutter where Rami doesn't move at all. In order to optimize movement, jumping on enemies is avoided in most platforming sections.
Rami can pick up objects and weapons, all of which can be used, dropped or thrown. Rami stops moving while picking up an item, so this action is almost always proceeded by a jump to cancel her pick-up animation in platforming levels. Similarly, weapon swings are always preceded by a jump to avoid getting grounded during the entire attack animation.
It's also worth mentioning that there is no HP bar: taking damage without any items/weapons will result in losing a life. If an item is held, Rami will drop it instead, not too unlike a certain blue hedgehog and his rings. Taking damage close to certain platforms can result in Rami being incorrectly placed on that platform, effectively functioning as a clip.
- Running
The game offers 3 control schemes for running: Double tapping a direction, holding down a direction, or holding trigger buttons along with a direction. The last of these options is used in this TAS as it's the quickest method to reach the speed limit in platforming stages.
- Shoot'em up Mechanics
Spot (the dragon) can move at 3 separate speed levels, which can be selected by using the X,Y,Z buttons.
Spot can obtain pick ups to upgrade his main projectile or pick up a second projectile. The second projectile can be either homing baby dragons or exploding mines. The latter will confusingly fire in the opposite direction of the last direction pressed by the player.
Game objectives
- Beat the game as fast as possible
- (Optional) Question my choice in games during the lengthy shoot'em up stages
Stage by stage comments
Look Ma, There's Sumo Stadium
Settings menu
Following settings are configured prior to starting a new game:
- Difficulty: Easy (Monkey)
- Running Mode: L/R
The Forest
The first level is very straight forward and most of the level is spent holding right. We encounter our first instance of unintended Kappa use here, where a Kappa picked up earlier in the stage is used to skip some ladders. Otherwise, the only other noteworthy trick here is at the end of the level, around 1:13 mark:
The gate that's just past the lion statue marks a cut-scene trigger which will make Rami gradually slow down until she reaches a certain coordinate. By carefully jumping on the tanuki enemies, Rami's speed can be preserved by keeping her mid-air as long as possible. Variations of this trick are used in almost every platforming level to minimize the slow downs caused by outro sections.
Edo River
This is the first auto-scroller level. There isn't much to talk about besides an intentional death taken around 5:10. This death results in the game killing off all the enemies in this small "survival" section, continuing the level as quickly as possible.
Sumo Stadium
The first boss stage has Rami fighting a Sumo/Daruma doll that can transform into a spin-top by perching on a pencil. Sure.
This fight doesn't have any noteworthy strats; each hit is dealt on the earliest possible frame to quickly move on to the next chapter.
The Lost Underground Kingdom
Rodent Kingdom
This level is part auto-scroller and part platformer: The former is supposed to take place in the form of a train ride, twice throughout the level. But that's slow; instead footing platforms of the railway bridges are used to skip these sections. 8:29 is the first instance of spawn manipulation where a rat worker is killed to ensure another enemy in the platform above is spawned. This enemy is then used to damage boost to the platform it is standing on, skipping a fair bit of platforming.
Gaudy Space Junk
This is one of the more interesting platformer levels that contains various optimization in the form of damage boosts and Kappa boosts. 10:30 marks the first and only instance of damage boosting with a bomb. This type of boost notably doesn't result in Rami dropping her weapon. Around 10:45, a box is stacked above an item chest to perform a small sequence break.
Besides the platforming tricks, this is one of the only two levels in the game where cut-scene dialogues can be skipped by pausing (11:45).
Recreational Facilities Out of Control
Amusement Park
Another vehicle-based level, but this time there is a means to save time: Welcome to Rami's bunny hop training!
Let's go over the basics:
The coaster cart can move at a maximum speed of 6.0 units. The easiest way to hit the speed cap is to jump off a downward incline. This speed can be preserved by performing frame-perfect jumps just as the cart is about to land back on the tracks. If the cart lands on a straight section or downward slope, it is possible to jump again with no speed loss. If the cart lands on an upward slope on the track, then frame perfect jumps will result in a loss of ~0.15 units.
As astute readers may have noted, the biggest time save in this level comes from executing well-timed jumps. This becomes more challenging as the level introduces pitfalls and enemies. It's preferable to land on top of enemies as opposed to rear ending them, which results in a dramatic speed loss.
Aquarium
Finally, the token underwater stage: Now the horizontal speed is capped to 2 units, and the descent speed is capped to a very slow 1 unit. This level's unique geometry allows getting speed boosts by clipping into corners. This strat is used heavily to optimize horizontal and vertical (often downward) movement.
Chaos at the Martial Arts Tournament
Outer Space
This lengthy auto-scroller hosts a myriad of enemies, including Disc World(???)
This level also happens to feature a mini boss fight right at the end. Upgrading the main projectile and using it in conjunction with the bomb power up is the key to clearing this fight as quickly as possible. It's worth noting that homing dragon projectile does not deal damage to this boss.
Martial Arts Tournament
This level consists of two boss fights. The first opponent is randomly picked between two contestants: Benkei and Xavier. The former is a quicker fight and the game happened to pick him as Rami's opponent in this recording, meaning I didn't have to look into RNG manipulation.
The second fight is always against Himiko. This fight can be a little tricky as dealing hits on her while she's stunned will prolong her stun duration without dealing actual damage. The three orbs on the floor are tossed at her, followed by a flurry of hammer swings to take her down quickly.
Himiko is scripted to pick up the 3rd orb using her robot's fan, but using jump cancels during orb pick ups provide just enough time to snatch that final orb in time.
Once the fight is over, more dialogue is skipped by pausing. Here is a fun trivia: it's seemingly possible to soft lock the game by pausing just on the right frame, which will cause a line of dialogue to stutter indefinitely.
Inside the Belly
The final boss fight comes in the form of an extremely long platformer level. Rami has to climb higher up ????'s stomach, using what's possibly the screams of digested enemies. Not much else to say besides that the most significant time save comes from the final platforming section of the level.
Other comments
- Much of the routing and strats used in this TAS are built upon those used in the current RTA WR run by Rancore.
Technical Information:
- Emulator Used: Bizhawk 2.11
- ROM Checksums:
8d9ee0164582ed43bc90c7255bb6822b Keiou Yuugekitai - Katsugeki-hen (Japan).cue