Rolanmen1's Megaman Zero "Warpless" TAS in 34:11
For those who are interested, the In-Game time at the end is 16:40
Recorded using: VisualBoy Advance 1.7.2 v22
Aims
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Manipulates luck (not too much)
- Warpless
- Genre: Platform
About the game
This is the beginning of a new saga of Megaman, this time, the main character is The Maverick Hunter Zero, after being awakened form his hibernation to delete the Willy Virus, decided to help Ciel and his resistance fellows against Copy-X, a simple copy of The Maverick Hunter X. Copy-X accuses the resistance group of being Mavericks, thus, sending the X Guardians and their subordinates to delete them.
This game is very different than it's sequels (Megaman X6), introducing a Ranking System, Weapon Level System and Cyber-Elf System.
Ranking System: This new feature gives a detailled summary of Zero's doing at the end of each mission giving him points and a rank name. This points are calculated through: Mission Succes, Clear Time, Enemy Killed, Damage Taken, Retries Taken and Cyber-Elves used.
After summing all the points, the game itself calculates an avergae, then Zero get's a Rank and a Rank Name. This calculation is the summing of all the points Zero have gotten so far divided by the number of missions done. The Rank determines if most of the bosses will use their special move against Zero. This is avoided because they make Zero lose time.
Weapon Level System: Since Zero was asleep for a great quantity of years, he haven't fight all that time, wich is probably the reason this system was added, Zero can't use all the attacks he could do in the X Saga, thus getting a little buster that can't charge to it's maximun, he can't even combo with his Saber unless he practices, but, some new attacks were added, like the Charged Saber, such kind of attack was never showed in the X Saga. Zero also gets 2 new weapons maded by Cerveau (Resistance Engineer), those weapons are the Triple Rod and the Shield Boomerang.
The Triple Rod is a spear-like weapon, after leveling it, he manages to combo with it (somehow), and later to charge it, Zero can also Pogo-Jump with it, this move consist on using the rod to stab an enemy from above, allowing Zero to get some height. The Shield Boomerang is a shield weapon that can reflect normal bullets, after charging it, it acts like a Boomerang, it can cut and returns to Zero, after leveling it up, he can throw it more far than normal. Unfortunately, these weapons aren't used in this TAS.
Cyber-Elf System: Cyber-Elves are little beings that can be used/fused with it's owner, though, they dissapear after, these can be equipped using a Trans Server, also, some of them needs E-Crystals to be used, using Cyber-Elves decreases Zero's points, thus, decreasing his Rank.
About the run
This run doesn't cancel missions, wich means it's "warpless", so this TAS beats every stage 'till the end as fast as possible, this is the route used:
- Intro Stage (Golem)
- Disposal Center (Aztec Falcon)
- Retrieve Data (Maha Ganeshariff)
- Destroy Train (Train Engine Core)
- Occupy Factory (Hydra Mechaniloid)
- Protect Factory (Phantom)
- Defend the Base (Heavy Mechaniloid)
- Rescue Colbor (Harpuia)
- Find Shuttle (Anubis Necromancess III)
- Find Hidden Base (Blizzack Staggroff)
- Duel in Desert (Fefnir)
- Stop the Hacking (Leviathan)
- Defend the Base (2) (Hanumachine)
- Neo Arcadia Shrine (Herculious Anchortus)
- Neo Arcadia Tower (Rainbow Devil)
- Neo Arcadia Core (Copy-X)
About the route
The main purpourse of the route is simple, get the Charged Saber as soon as possible, this is the reason why I picked those missions in said orther. All missions have a purpourse, but some of them can be "skipped" in a point of view, if you do this your mission score decreases.
Also, I always made sure to get E-B Rank, because some bosses are forced to do an special attack if you are in A-S Rank, such attacks make the battle longer, wich is the main reason I always avoided to be in such ranks.
- Intro Stage: Very straightforward stage. You are followed by Ciel, who needs to get to the Trans Server and hopes Zero helps her, as you could see Zero didn't gave a damn and he got to the Trans Server alone, while she followed very harmed, then Ciel gets attacked by a Golem, then Zero decide to "suicide" so X gives him his Z-Saber to finish the Golem, as well slashing Ciel.
- At this point, Zero is only able to use the Z-Buster and can't even charg it until he gets his beloved Z-Saber, I had to make sure he gets enough damage so he gets the Z-Saber automatically after taking enough damage on the Golem fight.
- Disposal Center: Another Straighforward stage, I made sure to make the Weather Robot to make the wind to push Zero to his advantage, doing this Zero gets full speed, it's so fast that he gets out of screen. I also made sure to get the 2nd Slash after slashing Aztec Falcon for the first time. Also, I got a bird elf, and I also equipped it, it will be of use later.
- Retrieve Data: This stage was picked to make advantage of those invincible enemies, I can constantly slash them to get loads of Saber EXP, abusing them I got Air Rolling Slash wich saves time for some bosses, also using this I can get Charged Slash before the Defend the Base mission. Then I arrived to the boss, Maha Ganeshariff, an elephant that only has one weak point, his head, making it a perfect pray for Zero's Air Rolling Slash, also giving more Saber EXP. Then Zero must quickly return to the Trans Server before the whole place collaps.
- Destroy Train: As you could see, I avoided killing too many enemies on the first part, since I don't want to be A-S Rank, arrived to the midboss and instantly killed it by doing Air Slash abuse, the train part has strong enemies, wich dies in 3 slashes, even if killing them makes the game a little laggy, it's worth, since they gave me good Saber EXP, then abused the boss with Air Rolling Slash abuse.
- Occupy Factory: Ok, so Zero now have to take the Factory so Ciel get's enough energy, unfortunately, half of the stage is skipped by using the bird elf. Procceded to the boss and got abused by Air Rolling Slash for more Saber EXP.
- Protect Factory: So, after getting the Factory, it gets attacked :S, so Phantom appears, this boss is special, since fighting him in his stage makes him have a fixed attack pattern, and he always starts with his illusion attack, if you hit a false illusion, makes him appear above Zero to stab him, this is a good choice, since it makes him appear, making him vulnerable, after Zero beats him, Phantom says that the whole Factory has 8 Bombs, so Zero have to slash them and pick them up before 3 Minutes, but he managed to pick them before 1 Minute. Zero also got his Z-Saber to be chargeable at the end of the mission.
- Defend the Base: After 4 missions are done (not counting the mandatory ones), the base gets attacked by a HUGE Mechaniloid, despite his size, Zero could easily abuse it with a combination of Charged Saber and Z-Buster. I also equipped the Fire Chip and disabled a weapon option that didn't allowed me to charge a weapon and use the other at the same time.
- Rescue Colbor: A little weakling called Colbor noticed how Zero was hitting on Ciel, knowing this, Colbor went to fight one of the X Guardians to impress her, unfortunately, he had no chance, then Zero had to go and save his ass, then Ciel got more impressed on Zero, then Colbor resigned on Ciel.
- Find Shuttle: This is probably the most annoying stage to TAS, Zero must find a shuttle wich may have any survivor who has information about Neo Arcadia's plans, in the way, Zero finds Anubis, a desert lord who is weak to fire (Irony), after Zero sabered him, he finds the shuttle and he found one survivor, but he is very damaged, Zero now have to escort him back to the base, wich is a looooong way, Zero also tried to make this long walkathon funny and interesting by doing stupid movements to make the audience not fall asleep wich probably he got an E Rank on it. This boss was another reason to get Charged Saber soon.
- Find Hidden Base: The survivor told Ciel and Zero that there is a hidden base beneath the desert, Zero quickly goes to investigate it, inside he founded some Resistance minions being prisioned, after Zero frees them he goes to deal with the boss, Blizzack Staggroff, an Ice boss who is not worthy enough to kill him using his disadvantage.
- Duel in Desert: One of the X Guardians, Fefnir, heard that the Resistance had someone very powerfull, so he couldn't resist to threw an exagerated number of robots against the Resistance, just to deal with the Z, fortunately, in his way to the boss, Zero barely found some enemies and even didn't killed most of them, instead, Zero decided to shoot the floor instead of them, then they both fought, but Fefnir realized he was manipulated by Zero because he shoot the floor :P, being an easy enemy for Zero.
- Stop the Hacking: After Ciel realizes she can't uses her internet because she got hacked, she sends Zero to the enemy base beneath the desert to destroy the computers, in his way he found 2 submarines and noticed how the frozen lake defrosted, then he must go beneath the submarines then on top of them to find the computers, after destroying them, he finds Leviathan, another boss with a fixed attack pattern, sadly enough, Zero couldn't finish her with a cool combo so he had to jump and gave her a finishing blow in the air, after, Zero decides to suicide but he got interrumped by the blackout :P
- Defend the Base (2): After Ciel gets her internet back, the base gets attacked again, this time by a monkey with a fire tail, maybe Profressor Oak fused Monkey with Charmander, but Zero didn't gave a damn so he runs to rescue Cerveau to gain control of the elevator, then runs to kill the fused Pokemon to get his food (E-Crystals).
- Neo Arcadia Shrine: So, Zero got tired of stupid missions and getting attacked and he decides to attack Neo Arcadia himself, luckily X enabled the transportaion through a Trans Server, in his way, he found 3 bosses, one of them being a pair of flying robots who gets abused by the Charged Saber, then Zero founds Ashura, a weird robot with 4 arms, holding 3 sword and a shield, he got abused by the Saber Cancelling trick, afterwards he finds Herculious, Zero manipulated him to to fly in circles while he slashes.
- Neo Arcadia Tower: Now, Zero must climb the tower, he found an elevator, but he noticed it was very slow so he decided to climb the tower by kicking the walls, after kicking the whole tower he found an Oversized Slug, then Zero reduced it to dust by savagely sabering it.
- Neo Arcadia Core: Everybody knows what comes here, yep, boss re-fights, nearly every boss went like the old fights except Herculious, Leviathan and Phantom, it's faster to finish Herculious in this way since you don't need to pick his Cyber-Elf, Leviathan dialog was extended so she gets in the best position to get sabered, Phantom didn't had fixed pattern now, so he was manipulated to not do the illusion attack. At the end, Zero founds Copy-X, an incredibly retarted robot that thinks he can surpass the original X, after Zero demonstrate the opposite, Copy-X got angered and transformed into Seraph X, Zero continued to rape him with Air Rolling Slash, then Zero decided to dissapear.
Weapons
The only weapons used in the whole TAS are the Z-Saber and the Z-Buster, both were leveled up to get their charged attacks, also got the Air Rolling Slash for the Z-Saber wich is realy usefull for some bosses.
About manipulation
Manipulation in this game is about bullet shooting, each bullet you shoot makes enemy drops and bosses attack pattern to change, they change RNG as soon as they get out of screen or hit something, I also found a way to manipulate between bosses in the re-fights, normally you can't enter a door while Zero holds his Z-Buster, but I found a way to change that, you can shoot and then use the Saber to cancel the Buster animation, doing this you can enter a door without loosing frames, you can only shoot 2 bullets without loosing frames, but something is something.
Other comments
Thanks to Computerbird, Mike Uyama, Eplis-TK31, the TASVideos crew and the guys at #Tasvideos for constantly supporting me.
Some Pictures
Where is Zero?
Nach: Nice fast entertaining run, accepting.