Saint Seiya is a Japanese manga first aired as anime in 1986. The anime was an unlikely success outside Japan, in many countries in Europe, but especially Latin America, where it became a cult series. Saint Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Kanketsu Hen is the second official Saint Seiya game for the Famicom, which represents the Sanctuary saga -- arguably the best part of the entire series. The game, like the series, follows the Damsel in Distress trope where you have to rescue Athena, your goddess, from different predicaments. In this case, she is in the brink of death after having been pierced by a golden arrow to her heart. You have 12 hours to traverse the 12 Gold Saint temples and reach the Pope -- the only person who can remove the arrow.
This movie improves eien86's previous TAS of Saint Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Kanketsu Hen by approximately 108 seconds through improved routing, more precise movement and camera control, optimized glitch execution, better Cosmo management, and faster boss strategies.
The largest individual improvement comes from the Gemini Temple, where a new route through Another Dimension and clearing the stage through the story event instead of defeating the boss save a substantial amount of time. Several later boss fights are also improved by manipulating Life to avoid dialogue triggers and by choosing attacks with shorter animations and faster battle resolution.
Improvement summary
The following table summarizes the time gained or lost compared to eien86's movie. Positive values indicate frames saved, while negative values indicate time lost.
| Stage | Area / Boss | Main improvement | Frame difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opening stage | A + Down during dialogue | +2 |
| 2 | Taurus Temple | No character switch; optimized 2L/1R movement | +234 |
| 3 | Gemini Temple | 8-jump Another Dimension route; story clear instead of boss kill | +1520 |
| 4 | Yomotsu Hirasaka | Better X-position and camera control; enters the next screen without jumping | +139 |
| 5 | Aiolia | Faster glitch setup and attack choice, but four battle rounds are required | -190 |
| 6 | Virgo Temple | Faster third jump; dialogue skip; faster attack choice | +396 |
| 7 | Rescuing Hyoga | Improved third jump during the glitch setup | +127 |
| 8 | Scorpio Temple | Better Cosmo management and faster attack combination | +446 |
| 9 | Sagittarius Temple | Additional Cosmo given to Shun for a later no-damage strategy | -469 |
| 10 | Shura | Dialogue skip and improved setup from earlier intentional damage | +711 |
| 11 | Camus | Dialogue skip and faster attack sequence | +1536 |
| 12 | Aphrodite | Dialogue skip | +1536 |
| 13 | Palace Roses | Pegasus Suisei Ken clears the roses faster | +76 |
| Final | Saga | Optimized Ikki sacrifice and Seiya finishing strategy | +494 |
| Total | 108 seconds saved |
Stage-by-stage improvements
Stage 1
During the dialogue sequence, A + Down can be pressed simultaneously, saving 2 frames.
Stage 2 - Taurus Temple
Seiya is used directly for the boss fight, avoiding an unnecessary character switch.
While dodging the boss's attacks, I use a movement pattern of 2 frames Left followed by 1 frame Right**. This allows Seiya to return to the center position more quickly.
- Improvement: 234 frames.
Stage 3 - Gemini Temple
Hyoga is used for the Another Dimension section.
By precisely controlling both the X and Y axes, the entire section can be completed with only 8 jumps before entering the boss area.
Instead of defeating the boss, I trigger the stage-clear story event. This is considerably faster than completing the boss fight normally.
- Improvement: 1520 frames.
Stage 4 - Yomotsu Hirasaka
The existing glitch is optimized with more precise X-position and camera control.
With the improved setup, it is possible to enter the next screen without jumping, saving additional time.
- Improvement: 139 frames.
Stage 5 - Aiolia
During the glitch setup, the third jump is replaced with a short wall-collision jump, which saves time.
However, because Seiya does not defeat the boss in the Gemini Temple, he does not receive the level gain that would normally come from that fight. As a result, Aiolia requires four battle rounds to defeat.
When Seiya's Life is above 109, one boss dialogue sequence can be avoided. Pegasus Suisei Ken is used for the finishing attack because its animation and post-attack resolution are faster.
Despite these optimizations, the altered leveling route makes this stage slower overall.
- Time loss: 190 frames.
Stage 6 - Virgo Temple
The third jump during the glitch setup again uses the faster short wall-collision jump.
Keeping Life above 109 prevents the boss dialogue from triggering. Pegasus Suisei Ken is also used because of its shorter animation and faster battle resolution.
- Improvement: 396 frames.
Stage 7 - Rescuing Hyoga
For the third jump of the glitch setup, I jump from the lower position instead, resulting in a faster transition.
At this stage, take 12 deliberate hits to gain an advantage for Stage 10 in advance.
- Improvement: 127 frames.
Stage 8 - Scorpio Temple
This stage uses improved Cosmo management.
Keeping Life above 109 prevents the boss dialogue from triggering. The boss is defeated using a combination of Pegasus Suisei Ken and Hyoga's Diamond Dust, chosen for their shorter animations and faster battle resolution.
- Improvement: 446 frames.
Stage 9 - Sagittarius Temple
Additional Cosmo is given to Shun in advance in order to guarantee a no-damage strategy later in the run.
This requires a small amount of extra time here, so this stage is slightly slower than eien86's movie.
- Time loss: 469 frames.
Stage 10 - Shura
Keeping Life above 109 prevents the boss dialogue from triggering.
During Stage 7, Shiryu intentionally takes damage 12 times. This earlier setup creates a more favorable situation for the Shura fight and produces a sizable time save here.
- Improvement: 711 frames.
Stage 11 - Camus
Keeping Life above 109 once again prevents the boss dialogue from triggering.
Hyoga's Cosmo is increased further, allowing the fight to be completed with the following attack sequence:
- 2x Hyoketsu Ring
- 1x Absolute Zero
This combination is faster because the attack animations and subsequent battle resolution take less time.
- Improvement: 1536 frames.
Stage 12 - Aphrodite
Keeping Life above 109 prevents the boss dialogue from triggering.
- Improvement: 1536 frames.
Stage 13 - Palace Roses
Pegasus Suisei Ken is used to destroy the roses more quickly.
- Improvement: 76 frames.
Final Stage - Saga
If Ikki uses his second technique, Saga does not immediately defeat him, making the sequence slower.
Therefore, Ikki still uses his first technique and is intentionally sacrificed. Afterward, Seiya's Cosmo is increased and Saga is defeated with Pegasus Suisei Ken.
Despite retaining the Ikki sacrifice strategy, the optimized sequence still saves time.
- Improvement: 494 frames.
Final remarks
The largest improvement is in the Gemini Temple, with 1520 frames saved through the optimized Another Dimension movement and the use of the story event to clear the stage instead of defeating the boss.
Additional time is saved throughout the run through:
- More precise glitch execution
- Improved X-position and camera manipulation
- Better Cosmo distribution
- Keeping Life above 109 to avoid boss dialogue
- Avoiding unnecessary character switches
- Choosing attacks based on both damage and total animation / battle-resolution time
Some stages intentionally lose time in order to improve later sections. The most important example is the Gemini Temple route: skipping Seiya's boss kill sacrifices a level gain and costs time against Aiolia, but the overall route is still substantially faster.
Overall, this movie finishes approximately 108 seconds faster than eien86's previous TAS.
Challenger: Claiming for judging.
Challenger: What a big timesaver to this game! Better movement, camera control, more glitch execution, avoid beating one boss, faster battles and even you learned about Cosmo distribution system :)
Great effort! Accepting as an improvement to [5438] NES Saint Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Kanketsu Hen by eien86 in 23:53.81.
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