Mega Man X4 "Zero, 100%" by McBobX
MY WAITING IS OVER. I decided to submit no matter what.
Objectives
- Takes damage to save time.
- Uses an optimal character.
- 100% completion using Zero
- Aims for fastest time possible.
- Manipulate Luck.
Comments
This a tool-assisted speedrun of Mega Man X4 playing as the red hunter Zero, in which he tries to collect every collectible item in every stage listed as Heart Tanks, Sub Tanks and EX item that gives an extra two lives. Currently, this is the fastest run for this category, it was done on the USA version of the game, and it is faster than the JPN version, and that is due to the text but that is rare since usually the JPN version is faster by considering the text. The JPN ver was used in a great run played by zeroblaze777 on 2011 in 37:10, however, it is not slower by text only but also in action, someone can do a comparison video to verify. This was done on PCSX 0.1.3 on September 2014 which means before that BizHawk support PSX. It took 2 years to decide it's submission on TASVideos because I wasn't sure about it, I also provided an encode one year ago which can be seen above.
This run is only few seconds slower than the any% one done by Bernka since it doesn't include a single revisit to a certain stage to collect something unlike the X 100% run, or wasting time for getting an item like fighting or so but it includes good tricks like the the Iceless jump that can be seen in Dragoon stage 2nd area for taking the heart or in Walrus to get the EX item. It is called iceless because in Kuwanger in X1, the heart can only be picked up by using Boomerang Cutter or Charged Shot Gun Ice, and thanks to TAS, none of those things are needed anymore, which is same thing here as well as X3 to get the Sub Tank in Buffalo Stage. Most of tricks used was inspired from Bernka's run, the most useful is SDC that allows to kill bosses pretty fast and save a lot of time, watch Dragoon's fight for this.
Note that the time is not the same as in the video because it was converted to match BizHawk fps for PSX to make it accurate, it still the fastest though
Special Thanks
To Bernka, zeroblaze777 for there any% and 100% respectively. And don't forget to enjoy even if you accidentally saw the run.
Nach: Judging.
feos: Updated the movie with a 43 frame improvement.
Nach: I spent quite a bit of time deciding how to handle this run. In the end, I decided the following:
- Most of the negative reviews did find the run entertaining, however they also found it extraneous.
- In aiming for fastest completion, Zero is the optimal character, as he can kill the bosses faster.
- In aiming for most items collected, X is the optimal character, as what Zero can collect in this game is a subset of what X can collect.
- This run is very similar to [2032] PSX Mega Man X4 "Zero" by Bernka in 36:30.10, but this run makes some minor deviations to collect some barely noticeable items which do not otherwise contribute to the completion of the game or the entertainment of the run.
Since this run is not the highest item collection for the game, it is disqualified for vault. For Moon however, it is entertaining enough to be there. Yet in the end, I am going with A run for a proposed new branch for a game should offer compelling differences relative to previously published runs of that game. (Guideline), and since it does not, I am therefore rejecting it.