Shantae is a very obscure and very good platformer for the GBC, made by Wayforward, a very obscure and very good company.
100% is defined as all transformations, all items, which includes every collectible in the game. This means GBA mode has to be enabled to get the Tinkerbat transformation.
This run beats the current WR TAS for Shantae 100% (link to that at the end) by five minutes and fifteen seconds, thanks to major optimization and route changes.
- Uses death to save time
- Takes damage to save time
- idk dances a lot
- speed/entertainment tradeoff (gasp)
Tricks and Glitches
Crouch Transition Extra Hit
A bug with the way the game checks Shantae's state. Basically letting go of down while crouch attacking at a specific time will have Shantae stand up, and deal an extra hit. This is used to one cycle Risky's Ship phase 1, as well as once in the Zombie Caravan to hit an eyeball.
Vine/Slope Skipping
While in base form, Shantae can jump up slopes and vines. This can be used to get the Heart Container in Scarecrow Forest early, along with a few other places here and there.
Faster Falling Right
Letting go of the directional buttons right before Shantae goes off a ledge lets her fall 1 frame faster. This and the next two tricks only work when falling right.
Midair Crouch/Jump
Pressing down after doing FFR makes Shantae crouch, which is retained as long as you hold it. You can then jump out of it. This is used occasionally, most notably in two of the genie chambers.
Midair Dancing
Similar to MC/J, only you press select. This is used once when revisiting the first dungeon.
Lag Reduction
Attacking in either normal, Tinkerbat, or Monkey form can eliminate lag. This adds up to about 200-250 frames over the course of the run.
Luck Manipulation
Luck manipulation in Shantae is very unique in that multiple buttons can be used to do it, even when just running around. While this is impossible to do for lag, this can be used to change boss spawn patterns and attacks, and manipulate things like gems from enemies. It is used nearly everywhere.
The Route
Burning Town
I need 145 gems in order to buy exit candies and flash bolts optimally, so I manipulated 80 here.
Risky's fight was improved significantly thanks to lag reduction.
To Water Town
65 more gems were manipulated from some spiders. Friggin' spiders. I also grabbed a Heart Container, and took a detour for a Firefly. That Firefly would normally be taken later, but a route change made me take it now.
I bought 6 Exit Candies and a Flash Bolt (Quantity of 10) in the shop, and saved the game. Saving the game basically acts as a warp location if you lose all your lives.
Dribble Fountain
Not many changes compared to the any%, aside from lag reduction and getting some gems.
The biggest change is fighting the boss, as it's possible to skip all of its damage animations except the first one. Saves a lot of time.
To Oasis Town
The eye door puzzle can be skipped really easily by just faking it out. Elsewise not much of note.
Oasis Town
Gem farming!!!@! I need to do this about 5 times to get all the gems I need for the run. I also set up the warp point for here.
Pyramid
Not that many changes from any% aside from the squids. I hit the Golem boss once per 11 frames to reduce lag to zero.
To Zombie Caravan
I deathwarp to Water Town, but the day/night cycle would mean I'd have to wait 40 seconds to enter the Zombie Caravan. Instead I took a detour to get the Monkey Claw, which saves time overall.
Zombie Caravan
Set the warp point.
Catacombs
Not many changes except for the squids, per the usual. The boss is much faster due to a different strategy.
To Bandit Town
I need to farm more gems from Oasis Town, so I wrap up local things before doing that. Warping to the Zombie Caravan changes its position, so in this case it puts me close to my destination.
Bandit Town
general stuff, plus the Tinkerbat transformation(!!)
Before Twinkle Palace
I picked up a Firefly that would be unavailable afterwards due to the night shift. I need to deathwarp later, along with waiting for night again, so this doesn't make me lose any time.
Twinkle Palace
Tinkerbat transformation means less transformations, elsewise not many differences. I do a small speed/entertainment tradeoff before the boss.
After Twinkle Palace
A large degree of farming for the remaining items, not much to say.
Tinkertank and Risky
Tinkertank is very fast thanks items+ the monkey claw.
Risky is much faster thanks to a trick that lets you hit her twice per jump, aside from her first jump. Saves a large amount of time.
Thanks
Samsara and Spikestuff, for being awesome
KN4life, for his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWSvznOKD0I 100% TAS that made this run possible to route in the first place
Not to mention Exonym, solarplex, and Mothrayas. Because.
If there's any questions or comments about the run, let me know :)
GoddessMaria: Judging.
GoddessMaria: I gotta say that this movie has been well planned out and is very well optimized. Nothing particular stood out as odd and this has been received very positively by the audience as well. Excellent work, arandomgameTASer!
Accepting for Moons!
Spikestuff: Publishing.