Submission #8278: GMP's GC Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time "glitchless" in 1:21:05.15

(Link to video)
Nintendo GameCube
glitchless
Dolphin 5.0-16426
291909 (Cycle Count 2364455754981)
60
37745
PowerOn
GMP
Submitted by GMP on 5/15/2023 5:31:31 AM
Submission Comments
This is a No Major Glitches TAS of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, arguably the game that influenced the direction of the franchise the most.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Dolphin 5.0-16426
  • Objective of the run is to reach the credits as fast as possible.
  • The use of major glitches is avoided.

Comments

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a game that needs no introduction. This is a no major glitches TAS of the game, a showcase of how quickly the game can be completed and how much can be skipped just by the means of parkour and intended mechanics.

Tricks used

⏳ Wallrun Stretch

If the wallrun key is released instead of letting the wall flip happen, the prince gets a little bit of extra height before jumping off or grabbing a ledge. Starting the wallrun further back from the wall also helps in getting more height.

⏳ Wrong Jump

The game let's the prince jump only when near an edge. Otherwise, press the jump key will only result in a roll. But we can get a jump to happen away from the edge by holding the appropriate directions.

⏳ Ladder Dismount

At the top of the ladder, its possible to dismount off the ladder to the left or right, grabbing the ledge. This is generally faster than letting the slow animation of the normal dismount to play out.

⏳ Slomo Cancel

When certain actions are performed for the first time, the game performs a slow motion shot. This can be cancelled by entering the landscape camera.

⏳ First Person Cancel

The staggers caused when falling from large heights can be cancelled using the first person camera. It also instantly changes the direction the prince is facing.

⏳ Power Attack

The power attack, which the prince generally performs as a finishing blow, can be forced to happen by tapping the direction towards the enemy 2 times in quick succession following by a sword attack.

⏳ Combat Guide

With the dagger, the fastest way to defeat the enemies is with a torpedo attack off a wall. But if a wall is too far away to rebound from, the power attack is the faster option. The vault combos are also used in some situations. If a double or triple knock down can be setup with a torpedo then that is worth some time spent. The moon tank route is carefully planned in a way that the mega freeze power once obtained can be used with maximum effect.

Commentary

Thank You Note

I want to specially thank toca and Jaka for organizing and doing commentary with me. Shoutouts to solarplex for their inspiring partially completed TAS. I'm grateful to the PoP community for the strategies and support. And thanks to the TASVideos community, especially EZGames69, for their helpful tech tips.

feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Changing the branch label to match what we've done for Ocarina of Time. For this category the definition of a banned glitch is "any glitch that affects gameplay", so it's easy to understand. We can't leave it as "no major glitches" because for other games that means "no major skip glitch" and that is far from the only glitch banned here. The Two Thrones is in a similar situation.
feos: Amazing job as always! 2 other branches would be standard for this game (a run with all glitches and a run only banning zips), so this goes to Alternative. Accepting.

EZGames69: It is Time…….Sands of Time
Darkman425: Input file replaced with one with adjusted settings to avoid a graphical glitch.
Last Edited by Darkman425 on 6/23/2023 12:49 AM
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