An evil Darkness had befallen the land, giving rise to sinister vampire legends. Let's see how quick Richter Belmont can save his loved ones and send Dracula to eternal damnation once and for all!
Game Objectives
- Emulator used: Snes9x 1.43 v17 svn146
- Takes Damage to Save Time
- Manipulates Luck
- Best Ending
Dooty's Comments
Some games seems to be the pinnacle of any TASer's career, and at least to me, Castlevania is one of those games. Symphony of the Night is my favourite, but since my platform of choice to TAS is the SNES, I decided to try an improvement on its prequel; Dracula X.
Old Tricks
Yep, there's no new tricks on the new run, sorry. I spent, I don't know how many days trying to find the "godmodeknockback" that supposedly would save time, but it was fruitless, so I'll explain some of the old tricks, that when used on new places, saved time.
Delayed Backflip
Press the jump button twice and Richter will do a backflip, the second press can be delayed to gain more height to reach a higher platform or to go a little further, it was abused throughout the run.
Slide Cancel
Richter will slide backwards for a few frames after a backflip, it can be cancelled using his whip. Useful when you don't need to go that far or the slide will end with Richter falling off of a ledge.
Damage Taken
There's a bonus tally screen at the end of each stage and it take one frame to count one HP, so the health management was improved a little, specially during the boss fights.
Stage by Stage
Burning Town
The backflip is still the fastest way to travel in this game. by the by, using the backflip on the first ladder of the tall tower saved quite some time on this stage, changing the spots to use the whip also did.
Boss: Cerberus
Same strategy on this boss fight; two item crashes is all I need to take care of that puppy, but it took some retries to collect the crystal orb on the first possible frame.
Castle Gates
At the end of the first section a drawbridge will open and Richter will automatically walk into the next section, a delayed backflip cut down a little of his walking animation.
Boss: Phantom Bat
This boss fight is really hard to improve; you can only defeat its big form, kill the small bats too fast and you have to wait for it to reunite. Take damage was the only way to save time here.
Castle Center
I only took the necessary damage on this stage to change the strategy on the boss fight, also, the first skeleton causes a lot of lag when killed so it was just avoided.
Boss: Dyruahan
The item crash of the key is kinda useless against this boss, so I must keep whipping him as long as I can. It may be possible to save time if you manage to make the boss use his rock attack instead of the icicle, I couldn't.
Mine
It will be difficult to see any difference between the two runs on this stage, but be assured that there are. This quote seems to fit; "Thank you Richter, but your sister is in another castle..."
Underground Lake
Another stage with small differences, but I got better luck with the mermen, I also took more damage and it saved quite some time on this stage.
Boss: Water Dragon
Something weird happened when I was trying to manipulate the boss to have better luck; even if you enter on the same frame, the luck changes if you enter the stage facing backwards.
Clocktower
The new strategy for the boss of this stage forced me to collect two extra big hearts, but only the first one slowed me down, collecting the other one is even faster than slide on the cog.
Boss: Grim Reaper
The most complex boss of the game to manipulate, it is so hard that good part of the fight was recreated the way it is on the published run to avoid worse luck, but those ten extra hearts made the difference.
Castle Keep
Better manipulation on the moving platforms and a different way to collect the hearts needed to defeat Dracula and this stage is a little faster now, the rest was already perfect, so it is still the same.
Boss: Dracula
The final fight is where I managed to save more time on the entire run; Dracula can be hit four times each time he appears on the first phase of the fight, and since the axe do more damage than the whip, well you got it.
| Stage | Frames Saved |
|---|---|
| Burning Town | 26 |
| Castle Gates | 44 |
| Castle Center | 106 |
| Mine | 25 |
| Underground Lake | 86 |
| Clocktower | 70 |
| Castle Keep | 332 |
| Total | 689 |
Suggested Screenshot
Frame 43389
Mukki: Judging...
Mukki: Wonderful. Accepting as an improvement to the currently published run.
Nahoc: Processing...