Submission #4656: FatRatKnight's SNES Brandish in 38:42.41

Um, sorry about the wait for my submission of this TAS, uh... At least there's subtitles!

You control Varik, who fell down into the ruins when Alexis chased him down and accidentally blew a hole in the ground. Now it's up to you to get Varik back out, with no shortage of monsters along the way. You're not alone -- There are many others who have also fallen, and are willing to sell items that may help you.

The game is in a top-down view, monsters move about in real time, and the game certainly has RPG elements in that you level up from defeating these monsters. You have three stats that increase separately from level, gaining strength by physically attacking, knowledge by hitting with attack spells, and magic endurance by being hit with magic. The controls are difficult to figure out, with one aspect being the same button that brings up your shield will also attack if you're standing in front of a monster, but once you figure it out, it's not that bad. To reach the end, you travel through over 40 zones, each bearing their various challenges with monsters or traps, and the occasional puzzle.

I've completed this TAS over a year ago, but I'm only now submitting it when I regained interest in finally finishing my subtitles. Enjoy them, I say, while I hide my embarrassment for taking so long! Still, I had the file available in the userfile storage here at TASVideos, but this submission has subtitles.

Unfortunately, since it's been a long time between completion and submission, there's a lot of details that inevitably slip. Most of what I know are in the subtitles, so I'll suggest reading that as the bulk of my submission text. I suppose that makes this submission text smaller than my usual fare.

For some reason, I recall thinking the lobsters had 200 defense, when my later RAM reading reveals 90 instead. Maybe I was looking at the wrong number, or my memory is faulty. Ah, whatever...

Better luck manipulation than what I've done is probably a standard area to look at. Bezal Hydra was my lazy spot in particular.

I hate how I ran out of M.Potions for the ninja battle. The one I spent in Ruins Area 6 might be better spent on the ninja. It might be worth actually giving a few punches and make the later Arm Strength training less potent, as I actually was still going through growth when I met the lobsters.

The main change, however, would be making a route that aims for increasing levels to pick up and actually use Double Magic. Most of this is probably best done after the ninja, since that's where the high EXP monsters are, and we have high powered Fire Magic to use, too. I recall counting the monsters and finding out that, skipping the lobsters and their absurd defense, there are exactly enough monsters to get the required level 27 to cast Double Magic.

Noxxa: Adequately positive feedback. The subtitles help a lot for understanding of the run. Accepting for Moons.

feos: Pub.