Megaman Zero 4 TAS 15578 frames, or 259.63 seconds faster than the published run by Xaphan. By the last score screen, it is 11821 frames, or 197.02 seconds faster.[1] The dialogues and some non-action scenes in the USA version are far over 30 seconds longer than those in the JAP version. For whoever is interested, the in-game time at the end is 00:19'34.
There are many humourous delights hidden in the movie by the author. See if you can spot them all!
Table of contents
Game objectives
- Emulator used: VBA 1.72 + Rerecording v19.3/v19.4/v19.5/v21.0-interim
- Aims for fastest real-time
- Trades time for entertainment
- Manipulates luck
- Takes damage to save time
- And so on
Comments
About movie end point
This movie ends skipping the ending scene and staff scroll. If you think they should be shown, I may upload such one.
About entertainment/speed tradeoffs
Extra parts dropped from enemies were manipulated, like this:
It's a pity that I couldn't reproduce what had happened in my old WIP without desynching the movie, which is shown below:
Luck manipulation
The Pseudo Random Number Generator, or PRNG for short, plays a very important role in this game. Item drops, boss movements and some visual effects are all affected by it. Zero can only affect it in limmited ways:
- Clinging to a wall to desend
- Kill an enemy
- Do nothing but wait
Boss manipulation
Bosses may seem to have some frame rules on their patterns of action. This is because every time a boss fight start, the PRNG that is used by the boss to decide its movements, is restarted with the current value of the level timer. As result, a boss's first few possible attacks are limmited, if not decided.
Most of the time, since it's quite time-attack-unfriendly for Zero to cling to a wall during a boss fight, the only way to manipulate a boss is to wait and spare some frames before engaging it.
At times, there is a one-frame window on the first controllable frame when you can affect the boss's action, by going towards it, or simply not.
Some bosses's attacks have some prerequisites that may be:
- A or higher rank of Zero
- Certain distance between Zero and the boss
- Low HP of the boss
- Weather condition(?)
Health Management
Every damage-taking in this movie was intentional and faster than not to do so.
Taking damage gives Zero temporary invincibility that enables touching spikes without dying, or simply prevents from taking more damage in 1.5 seconds. It also interrupts Zero's movement like attack recovery. As a result, it saves time during both level attacks and boss fights.
Recovering health pauses all in-game actions for a short while,
whose length depends on the amount of the recovered health. Generally, this is avoided in the movie, while it is used unavoidably in rare cases.
Double Jump Chip
I hadn't planned to make and use the double-jump chip before I found it did save time in Ragnarok Control Room. Then, I went back to Particle Beam stage and re-manipulated luck there to obtain the required parts and made it along with the Junk Armor.
However, making it any earlier for use before Settlement under Attack would require an extra trip to and fro the lab, which would be just too long to save any frames, but become slower than the current stategy in the end.
Junk Armor
As long as Zero is equiped with the full set of Junk Armor with the Cyber-Elf disabled, all received and delivered damage (except for grabbed/discarded weapons, Skull Crush, Ice Blade wave and Sky Chaser rocks) is doubled.
The route used in this run is overall based on producing and utilizing the Junk Armor as soon as possible.
Stage by stage comments
Time sheet
The stage orders in this submission were different from that in the published movie (reordered in the sheet).
| Published | movie | This | submission | Improvement | |
| Check Point | Frame | Length | Frame | Length | Frames Saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title Screen | 72 | 72 | 225 | 225 | -153 |
| Game Start | 81 | 9 | 225 | 0 | 9 |
| Truck Chase Start | 287 | 206 | 426 | 201 | 5 |
| Event Skip | 1718 | 1431 | 1741 | 1315 | 116 |
| Sub-Desert Start | 1754 | 36 | 1777 | 36 | 0 |
| Event Skip | 2000 | 246 | 2022 | 245 | 1 |
| Sub-Desert Core | 2330 | 330 | 2352 | 330 | 0 |
| Desert Score | 3474 | 1144 | 3439 | 1087 | 57 |
| Event Skip | 3648 | 174 | 3612 | 173 | 1 |
| To the Lab | 4159 | 511 | 4203 | 591 | -80 |
| Back to Mission | 4911 | 752 | 5017 | 814 | -62 |
| Area Zero Start | 6535 | 1624 | 6762 | 1745 | -121 |
| Carnage 0 | 9419 | 2884 | 9429 | 2667 | 217 |
| A.Z. Score | 10880 | 1461 | 10730 | 1301 | 160 |
| A.Z. End Event | 11292 | 412 | 11113 | 383 | 29 |
| To Alouette's | 12203 | 911 | 12084 | 971 | -60 |
| Event Skip | 12899 | 696 | 12708 | 624 | 72 |
| Dialog End | 13478 | 579 | 13341 | 633 | -54 |
| Level Selection | 30453 | - | 13341 | - | - |
| Particle Beam Start | 31339 | 886 | 14293 | 952 | -66 |
| Spy Larue F | 32513 | 1174 | 15401 | 1108 | 66 |
| P.B. Halfway | 33369 | 856 | 15904 | 503 | 353 |
| Heat Genblem | 35962 | 2593 | 18422 | 2518 | 75 |
| P.B. Score | 37510 | 1548 | 19639 | 1217 | 331 |
| Dialog End | 38194 | 684 | 20323 | 684 | 0 |
| Level Selection | 38194 | - | 20323 | - | - |
| Hibernation Chamber Start | 39084 | 890 | 21239 | 916 | -26 |
| Gear Bank | 40889 | 1805 | 22794 | 1555 | 250 |
| H.C. Halfway | 41792 | 903 | 23267 | 473 | 430 |
| Fenri Lunaedge | 44824 | 3032 | 25885 | 2618 | 414 |
| H.C. Score | 45902 | 1078 | 26927 | 1042 | 36 |
| Dialog End | 46572 | 670 | 27580 | 653 | 17 |
| Level Selection | 71523 | - | 27580 | - | - |
| Artificial Sun Start | 72408 | 885 | 28538 | 958 | -73 |
| Tyrine | 73843 | 1435 | 29730 | 1192 | 243 |
| A.S. Halfway | 74588 | 745 | 30071 | 341 | 404 |
| Sol Titanion | 76394 | 1806 | 31538 | 1467 | 339 |
| A.S. Score | 77855 | 1461 | 32755 | 1217 | 244 |
| Dialog End | 78559 | 704 | 33438 | 683 | 21 |
| Level Selection | 21348 | - | 33438 | - | - |
| Living City Start | 22241 | 893 | 34361 | 923 | -30 |
| Ribops | 24843 | 2602 | 36674 | 2313 | 289 |
| L.C. Halfway | 25736 | 893 | 37418 | 744 | 149 |
| Popula Cocapetri | 28624 | 2888 | 40279 | 2861 | 27 |
| L.C. Score | 29766 | 1142 | 41333 | 1054 | 88 |
| Dialog End | 30453 | 687 | 42020 | 687 | 0 |
| Invasion | 46572 | - | 42020 | - | - |
| Settlement Start | 47745 | 1173 | 43234 | 1214 | -41 |
| Conversation | 51642 | 3897 | 47018 | 3784 | 113 |
| Craft (1st time) | 52196 | 554 | 47592 | 574 | -20 |
| Settlement Score | 53278 | 1082 | 48599 | 1007 | 75 |
| Event Skip | 53393 | 115 | 48712 | 113 | 2 |
| Dialog End | 54006 | 613 | 49317 | 605 | 8 |
| To the Lab | 78559 | - | 49317 | - | - |
| Back with Junk Armor | 79530 | 971 | 50069 | 752 | 219 |
| Level Selection | 54006 | - | 50069 | - | - |
| Prison Start | 55739 | 1733 | 51918 | 1849 | -116 |
| The Giant | 57545 | 1806 | 53814 | 1896 | -90 |
| Event Skip | 59118 | 1573 | 55058 | 1244 | 329 |
| Prison Escape | 59291 | 173 | 55231 | 173 | 0 |
| Prison End | 62062 | 2771 | 57884 | 2653 | 118 |
| Prison Score | 62748 | 686 | 58577 | 693 | -7 |
| Dialog End | 63645 | 897 | 59476 | 899 | -2 |
| Level Selection | 13478 | - | 59476 | - | - |
| Underground Forest Start | 14405 | 927 | 60388 | 912 | 15 |
| U.F. Entrance | 14752 | 347 | 60731 | 343 | 4 |
| Fire Renant | 16344 | 1592 | 62108 | 1377 | 215 |
| U.F. Halfway | 16839 | 495 | 62459 | 351 | 144 |
| Noble Mandrago | 19218 | 2379 | 64756 | 2297 | 82 |
| U.F. Score | 20647 | 1429 | 65577 | 821 | 608 |
| Dialog End | 21348 | 701 | 66306 | 729 | -28 |
| Level Selection | 63645 | - | 66306 | - | - |
| Deep Sea Start | 64529 | 884 | 67257 | 951 | -67 |
| D.S. Drill Entrance | 65696 | 1167 | 68428 | 1171 | -4 |
| Spy Larue I | 66074 | 378 | 68804 | 376 | 2 |
| D.S. Halfway | 66912 | 838 | 69115 | 311 | 527 |
| Tech Kraken | 69749 | 2837 | 71223 | 2108 | 729 |
| D.S. Score | 70846 | 1097 | 72018 | 795 | 302 |
| Dialog End | 71523 | 677 | 72698 | 680 | -3 |
| Level Selection | 79530 | - | 72698 | - | - |
| Hanging Gardens Start | 80423 | 893 | 73629 | 931 | -38 |
| Spy Larue E | 82468 | 2045 | 75589 | 1960 | 85 |
| P.B. Halfway | 82988 | 520 | 75900 | 311 | 209 |
| Pegasolta Eclair | 85280 | 2292 | 78050 | 2150 | 142 |
| P.B. Score | 86299 | 1019 | 78839 | 789 | 230 |
| Dialog End | 86960 | 661 | 79494 | 655 | 6 |
| Level Selection | 86960 | - | 79494 | - | - |
| Magnetic Zone Start | 87887 | 927 | 80428 | 934 | -7 |
| Clabanger NS | 90420 | 2533 | 82858 | 2430 | 103 |
| M.Z. Halfway | 91004 | 584 | 83261 | 403 | 181 |
| Mino Magnus | 93401 | 2397 | 85504 | 2243 | 154 |
| M.Z. Score | 94312 | 911 | 86293 | 789 | 122 |
| Dialog End | 94966 | 654 | 86958 | 665 | -11 |
| 8 Initial Stages Cleared | 94966 | - | 86958 | - | - |
| Ragnarok Control Room Start | 97724 | 2758 | 89959 | 3001 | -243 |
| R.C.R. Halfway | 99025 | 1301 | 91234 | 1275 | 26 |
| Craft (2nd time) | 101432 | 2407 | 92986 | 1752 | 655 |
| R.C.R. Score | 102353 | 921 | 93805 | 819 | 102 |
| Event Skip | 102439 | 86 | 93890 | 85 | 1 |
| Teleport Base Start | 106150 | 3711 | 97735 | 3845 | -134 |
| Random Bandam | 117050 | 10900 | 108041 | 10306 | 594 |
| T.B. Score | 118112 | 1062 | 108933 | 892 | 170 |
| Dialog End | 118770 | 658 | 109601 | 668 | -10 |
| Teleport Circuit Start | 119825 | 1055 | 110723 | 1122 | -67 |
| T.C. Halfway | 121547 | 1722 | 112371 | 1648 | 74 |
| Cyball | 123150 | 1603 | 113967 | 1596 | 7 |
| T.C. Score | 124317 | 1167 | 114902 | 935 | 232 |
| Dialog End | 125012 | 695 | 115593 | 691 | 4 |
| Ragnarok Core Start | 126073 | 1061 | 116675 | 1082 | -21 |
| 8 Boss Rematches | 127807 | 1734 | 118221 | 1546 | 188 |
| R.C. Halfway | 139145 | 11338 | 128664 | 10443 | 895 |
| Weil (Form 1) | 141790 | 2645 | 130979 | 2315 | 330 |
| Weil (Form 2) | 142560 | 770 | 131602 | 623 | 147 |
| R.C. Score | 145061 | 2501 | 133240 | 1638 | 863 |
| Input End | 149227 | 4166 | 133649 | 409 | 3757 |
| Frames saved in total: 15578 |
So it's very clear that the dialogues in the USA version are much longer.
Some per-stage comments
Area Zero
- I delayed the last final slash on the boss for a few frames for the boss's missile to hit Zero at the same time. Taking this damage interrupted Zero's standing slashing animation and repelled Zero down to the ground during the boss's death animation, in which the game would prohibit any user control. This trick averted the need to manually jump down the platform after the score screen, saving much more frames than the delay cost.
Further comments to be added....
Credits
Thanks to Inti-Creates and Capcom for producing and publishing this game.
Thanks to all the VBA and VBA-variant developers for making such a brilliant rerecording emulator of GBA.
Thanks to gocha for making VBA Watch. It didn't work with VBA-rr v21.0 due to some CR+LF problems, though. Now it's solved.
Thanks to Maximus for making TAS Movie Editor.
Thanks to (in alphabetical order) Bag of Magic Food, BoltR, computerbird, jaysmad, KaitouKid, McBAIN, mikwuyma, moozooh, mukka, NrgSpoon, OgreSlayeR, shikarii, Too_Bored, Truncated, Wren, Xaphan, zefiris, zhangsongcui and Zurreco for various route and strategy suggestions as well as other constructive comments.
Thanks to (in alphabetical order) Iriasu, McBAIN, Vector188, Xaphan, zefiris specially for their excellent speedruns.
Thanks to computerbird specially for making various tests.
Thanks to every whoever hosting, administrating, contributing to and/or visting this site.
Random Screenshots
Footnotes
[1] This submission has been updated once with a 41 frames faster movie than the old one. Only the improvement from the last boss fight is visually different. Previous savestates are likely to fail again. I'm sorry for the convenience.
adelikat: Replaced submission file with a new one by the author. This new one is 41 frames due to some minor improvements.
also, accepting as an improvement to the published movie.
ShinyDoofy: Processing...
klmz: Wow ShinyDoofy you are still here with us!