This is a "fastest time possible" run of Super Valis IV, played on the highest difficulty setting. Uses certain exploits to aid in completing the run in a faster time than usual.
Game objectives
- Movie created with Snes9X v1.51
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Manipulates luck
- Plays at hardest level
- Genre: Action
Super Valis IV is the latest entry in the fast-paced Valis hack & slash action game series, with gameplay much in the style of Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania. This has game play mechanics that make it a natural for TAS attempts, such as an end-of-level boss HP meter that gradually increases as a player travels through the level, until fighting that boss.
This TAS run was created with Snes9X v1.51 (using default audio/video settings), and is actually my third TAS attempt at this game. The first 2 were made with ZSNES and gave me desync playback nightmares, although that might have been a blessing in disguise since I was able to optimize things even more so on this third attempt.
I used the USA version of this game, since the rules indicate so. However, there's some interesting gameplay differences between the USA and JP versions, most notably the player's sword in the JP version is twice as powerful. I'm quite positive that a TAS run of under 14 minutes is possible in that version.
The designers of Super Valis IV were kind enough to implement and leave in certain gameplay oddities and exploits (I don't want to call them glitches, because from the level design, it seems that the designers knew about these things and decided to just leave them in the game).
- When the player's sword connects with an enemy (and the enemy hasn't been defeated), that enemy becomes stunned for 16 frames. During this 'stunned' phase, the player can pass through affected enemies and not take damage or get knocked backwards. I call this the "Hit stun pass" exploit below.
- At the very start of each level, the game considers the player to be standing on something (for the first couple of frames), regardless of on-screen player position. So the player can start every level with a jump, even if the player starts in mid-air. Act 6 starts that way, and interestingly enough, some special weapons are there which can only be collected through use of this mid-air jump!
- When running off the edge of a platform, the player can still jump up even if starting to fall (but only on that first frame).
- When performing a running mid-air weapon attack close to the ground, the player will lose all running speed velocity when landing, and resume at walking speed (Requiring another double-forward tap to start running again). But, jump again immediately after landing, and the player can land and run at full speed, without the need to double tap forward again. This tends to give my movie a Super Mario "jump on enemies" appearance.
Here's a run-down of the important things I did in each level:
Title Screen
I used frame advance to quickly set desired options. I sfkipped by the intro, entered the options screen to set the difficulty to 'hard', and modified key configuration so the special weapon button is set to 'A' (instead of the default 'X').
Act 1
Part 1: The game starts with a 1000 frame unskippable opening sequence (which is odd considering the intro sequence can be skipped). Right from the beginning, I started running, stopped for nothing, collected all items and defeated all enemies within.
Part 2: There's 2 routes to take here. The long upper route and the fast lower route. Again I started running and didn't stop. I took that fast lower route, but also defeated some enemies existing on that upper route just because I could.
Boss: I just opened fire with the strongest projectile weapon, battle over in 5 seconds.
Act 2
Part 1: A long and rather sparsely populated area, with an entire floor containing only 1 enemy. I tried to make the best of the situation though.
Part 2: Another in the "start running, defeat all enemies and don't stop until the end" series. I used the special weapon to quickly destroy the enemies here (the sword isn't powerful enough to defeat the soldiers in one hit), and get the "Max HP" boost at 10000 points. That boost causes a slight delay, but considering the amount of points the boss defeats give, I wanted to get these Max HP boost delays out of the way sooner rather than later.
Boss: A freakishly annoying boss that loves to play keep-away, ruining my "up close and personal" attack strategies. I used almost 1000 re-record counts to fight this boss.
Act 3
Part 1: The run starts to get interesting here I think. There are several serpent statues throughout this level, which require several hits to destroy, and are positioned so that they can't be jumped over without taking damage. I make liberal use of "hit stun pass" to pass right through the statues and other enemies in this level.
Part 2: Same as above, but there's some slight slowdown due to enemy population. Defeating any of them would result in a longer run time (The sword isn't powerful enough in the USA version, and I needed to save special weapons for quickly defeating the boss), so I decided it was best to just keep running until the end.
Part 3: Similar to Act 3, part 1. An interesting thing... The enemy stampede that occurs near the end of this level only happens in the USA version of this game (The JP version results in those enemies being defeated in 1 hit).
Boss: Special weapons can't damage the boss's first form, so I just sword-attacked it. The sword also attacks at a faster rate against its second form (compared to special weapons). The third form is tricky since it doesn't jump out of the water very often, and only the homing special weapon can hit it while it's swimming underwater.
Act 4
Part 1: Tricky platform jumping with occasional use of the "hit stun pass" exploit.
Part 2: Ample use of "hit stun pass", with enemies occupying the entire area of super small platforms.
Part 3: I was forced to equip armor here to pass through unavoidable enemies (Each armor equip offers 4 free hits). Despite that, I was able to keep full momentum, with frame advance used in the turns to keep the running speed going.
Boss: This boss flies across the screen in a pre-determined pattern based on the game clock, so I took advantage of knowing exactly when and where the boss would appear. There's plenty slowdown here due to the 3-way special weapon I used, but doing so actually saved time compared to attacking with anything else.
Act 5
Part 1: Act 5 tries to be the anti-speed run level, with its shielded enemies, moving floors, and narrow passageways with even more large enemies. I find a way around things though. There is one place where I get an unavoidable hit (I jump up to be against the wall to avoid getting pushed back by the enemy), I then stop to recharge the armor and continue on.
Part 2: The icicles in this and the previous part tend to fall at the most inopportune times. Time a jump wrong, and get frozen. I was able to speed through this level until a point where the moving floor is far too high to reach. I pass the time until it's reachable.
Boss: Tossing special weapons with my back turned! Actually that seemed to be the fastest way to hit this boss, considering the homing weapon is more powerful than the default shot. That and most forward-facing shots tend to get blocked by the boss's guardian or the walls.
Act 6
Part 1: Level begins with a mid-air jump! I was forced to take a hit in this area because no weapons could reach the enemy in time (I tried all available options many times). However, I had the armor activated so I was able to pass through and not lose running momentum.
Part 2: The floating orbs in this level are placed in a predetermined position without regard to vertical screen scroll, so correct jumping can bypass the seemingly "impossible to not take a hit" spots. Also the serpent statues here will blow the player back a distance if too close, so I destroy them while they're still off screen.
Boss: This is a rather long battle due to the boss's armor reflecting away all special weapon attacks, so again I make use of "hit stun pass" to speed things up a little.
Act 7
A repeat of the Act 2+4+6 bosses, with similar strategies for each, and an unskippable 2300 frame cut-scene before the final boss.
Boss: Another super-annoying boss. He normally starts sitting in the distance, unhittable, throwing HP drain orbs (which increase the boss's HP!) at the player for some time before fighting. But I make use of the screen-clearing armor bomb which hits him and begins the real fight earlier than normal. This boss's attack patterns are determined by the game clock or player distance, and only his jumping attack is useful in a TAS run (The rest cause him to be either unhittable for a long period of time or in a hard to reach position). I kept saving, re-playing and re-recording the movie until every one of his attacks was that jumping attack. I wasn't able to hit the boss as often for this reason (however this did offer an incredible reduction in run time)
Ending
I chose to end this movie when the last hit connects with the boss. The long ending sequence plays automatically, and then the last ending screen will be displayed indefinitely.
However... Pushing the 'Start' button while on that ending screen results in the ranking screen being displayed, and from there it loops back to the opening sequence. I wasn't sure if the large increase in movie frame count would be worth it to view this screen, but I can always re-do the movie to include it if it's necessary.
Other comments
A normal run of this game without using save states or exploits seems to take well over 40 minutes. At least it did for me (and that was with setting difficulty to Normal!)
There's most definitely room for a TAS time improvement in this game, either by using the JP version's easier HARD mode (its stupidly powerful sword renders special weapons worthless), getting luckier with boss attack patterns, or other things.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots
of this movie and placed them here.
Oh! I also corrected the ROM name.
- You indicated
Super Valis IV (USA).sfc - I updated it to
Super Valis IV (U).smc
