Submission #8707: Degreezy's Genesis Shining Force II in 2:07:24.21

Frames from POWER ON to the final input of the Princess Kiss = 458,028

Without DarkKobold, I wouldn't have ever been able to accomplish this TAS. Not only did he help explain how to properly go about tool-assisting a Shining Force II run, he also provided me with useful lua scripts that I tried to utilize as much as I possibly could. A special mention & thanks to the entire Shining Force Speedrunning community for introducing me to Shining Force speedruns that have provided me countless hours of entertainment, helpful support and friendship. Check out the official Shining Force Speedrun site hosted by Nakuri that launched late September 2023 and will eventually be updated with resources/guides/information/etc.. for Shining Force II.

Shining Force II is a tactical RPG for the Mega Drive/Genesis, developed by Camelot Software Planning in 1994 and published by Sega. Gameplay consists of two elements: exploration and battles. Exploration is essentially open world during the late game, allowing you to return back to previous maps to pick up missed treasure, recruit extra characters, and re-fight some battles. Battles take place on a square grid, and each unit occupies a single square. They consist of up to 12 player-controlled characters going against a group of CPU controlled monsters. The characters gain their own experience and levels. A battle ends when your leader is defeated or all enemies/boss enemy is dead.

A benevolent thief named Slade steals two jewels from an ancient shrine, unbeknownst to him that doing so will result in the resurrection of a powerful Devil King: Zeon. The game opens in a kingdom called Granseal where the main protagonist, Bowie, wakes up in the morning after a stormy night to attend school. During his attendance his teacher, Sir Astral, is summoned to King Granseal's bedside after he has fallen ill. Bowie and his friends sneak into the castle to follow their teacher where they learn a door to an ancient tower has been mysteriously opened. Astral invites Bowie and his force to investigate with him where the party is then ambushed by evil spirits (Gizmos). After disposing all but one Gizmo, it slips by and rushes towards King Granseal in an attempt to possess him but Sir Astral is able to thwart the attempt in the nick of time. The Gizmo escapes to the neighbouring Kingdom of Galam and successfully possesses their king. Under the influence of the devil Zeon, King Galam declares war on Granseal. During Galam's invasion of Granseal, the princess is kidnapped. Bowie and his Shining Force embark on a journey to stop Zeon's devil army, reclaim the jewels, save the princess, and obtain the legendary Holy Sword in order to defeat and reseal Zeon.

If you are very familiar with Shining Force 2 or perhaps watched DarkKobold's original TAS run, you'll be aware of the movement glitch that is present in this game. A very technical explanation of this glitch can be found here provided by Wiz.

The basic movement glitch: If you have an ally at the end of your character's movement range in battle, you can Press C as you enter the tile they occupy to slide over them into the next tile in that direction. This only works to the right and down.

The half-step movement glitch: Kilieni does a great job explaining this here.

Slingshot: Sometime in late 2017 the speedrunner NoWorries showcased a different variation of movement glitch. An explanation of the slingshot, along with more extended versions of the half-step glitch and how to combine them, can be found here.

Out of Bounds: NoWorries was also the first to accidentally document what is now infamously known as the "Out of Bounds" glitch. His genuine reaction to it can be seen in this video. I was eventually able to replicate the glitch and discovered massive game-breaking movement capabilities with it. This explanation is quite dated, but this article/video should be adequate information to explain it and also provide details on how to execute it yourself.

Land Effect: In battle, certain tiles have a "land effect" of either 0%, 15% or 30%. These correspond with the percentage of damage mitigation the defender will receive if they are physically attacked while standing on these tiles.

Turn Order: During battles, the game will establish a randomized turn order that is heavily influenced by the ally/enemy's AGI stat. When the last character on this established turn order ends their turn, it then randomizes again for a new turn cycle. This mechanic is heavily manipulated in this TAS.

Difficulty: Super difficulty provides the monsters with a bonus of 125% to their normal attack power and is regarded as the most difficult setting. In regards to monster's AI, the targeting scripts used for Normal difficulty are different from Super. Normal has an element of randomization for target prioritizing while Super difficulty does not. Monsters on Super / Ouch will tend to relentlessly focus on weaker targets or continuously focus an ally that they have attacked their previous turn. Shout out to SirHedge aka pyrohedge for his extensive research on enemy AI.

Secret Configuration Menu: Inputting "Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, B" during the Sega logo will give you access to additional configuration settings after selecting your character's name by holding the Start button. The only option enabled is "Turbo" which speeds up the cursor movement during battles.

Spoilers ahead as I briefly attempt to explain what I do during them, and why I do it.

Flawless victory! Utilizing the movement glitch and some intense RNG manipulation to guarantee the perfect turn orders, the enemies don't get an opportunity to attack. Each battlescene is about 250 frames (4 seconds) so avoiding unnecessary enemy attacks is always crucial for saving time.

Yet again, the battle is wiped clean without the enemies getting an opportunity to attack. Afterwards, I travel down to the shrine to pick up a Power Water and use it on Bowie so he can receive an additional +4 to his Attack stat.

Chester was purposely leveled up to LV2 in the previous battle specifically so he could kill the first Ooze with a double attack. Another variation of movement glitch is used on his next turn by "half-stepping" between two tiles and moving him to the edge of his movement range so he could be pushed down an extra tile to lure the Huge Bat to a convenient spot and also have Chester killed off. Jaha and Sarah are kept alive only so Bowie can movement glitch off them and quickly reach the last two enemies.

There is no significance of winning/losing this battle so the object here is to have Bowie defeated as fast as possible. A movement glitch is used to place Bowie onto a 15% land effect tile rather than a 30% so he can't mitigate as much damage from the enemies. It was surprisingly faster to have the Galam Soldier hit Bowie with a single heavy critical attack and let the Huge Bat finish him off, rather than manipulate the Galam Soldier to attack and kill him with a double. This is because it would have required a fairly high double attack roll and the only one capable of killing Bowie was several hundred frames away. Playing on Super difficulty was beneficial for this battle.

Technically Bowie could have handled the Galam Knight himself, but it was crucial to utilize Kazin for two reasons: 1. To dish out some damage to the Knight so Bowie didn't require a double attack to defeat it. Bowie needed to gain +2 ATT during his level up and it was practically impossible to manipulate that stat gain if Bowie performed a double attack. 2. Kazin needed to gain some XP for the next battle so he can level up after two kills.

Kazin gets his two kills, levels up and learns Blaze2 which requires 5MP per use. Blaze2 has a radius effect and can target multiple enemies that are standing in close proximity to each other. Before the battle ends, Bowie is moved to a position that would not normally be accessible without the use of movement glitches. This is known as an "Early Roft" sequence break.

From my knowledge, this was originally documented by speedrunner Kilieni. This gives you access to the town Roft that would normally only be accessible during the very late game. There isn't much to do here besides snag a one-time use, in-battle item called "Blizzard" that will cast a Freeze spell capable of doing up to 41 damage to a single enemy (less if they have ice resist; more with ice weakness.) More powerful weapons could be bought here from the weapon shop, but they are incredibly expensive at this point in the game and you can't equip them with your unpromoted characters anyways. I'll have access to these weapons at a much more convenient time, so I grab the Blizzard, leave Roft, and Egress back to Galam Castle to continue the story.

Nothing special here besides more spectacular abuse of the movement glitch. Chester is killed off early because he's absolutely useless. At one point I transfer the Blizzard that Sarah is holding to Kazin since it's faster to do something like that in-battle rather than go through the menu outside a battle. Bowie and Slade primarily mop up the enemies quickly. After the battle, we escape Grans Island on a ship, but not before grabbing the item "Quick Chicken" which I won't use until the end game.

This was a particularly difficult and frustrating battle to TAS because it was crucial that the (closest) Witch, Green Ooze, and Goblin lined up together without Kazin outturning either of them, and also manipulate a general turn order from the enemies that would minimize cursor scrolling. I also had to manipulate Kazin's stat gains so he wouldn't receive +2 AGI when he leveled up because he'd have to do this same maneuver again in the next battle. Kazin is used to simply nuke down those 3 enemies and the rest is left to Bowie to maximize his XP gain. Everyone else is killed off to save time. Unfortunately, I had to lure the last enemy to a 15% Land Effect tile so Bowie could finish it off and gain another +2 ATT level up which burnt some time. I suspect I could improve this fight with some very aggressive scripting and better strategy.

This battle is re-triggered once more to perform a massive sequence break that will allow me to skip nearly an entire quarter of the game. It was again imperative that Bowie's XP gain is maximized so he can get to level 14. There are many situations where I purposely burn time and kill enemies with double attacks rather than outright kill them in a single blow because it provides more XP. Bowie is moved outside the map and this sequence break is normally called "Early North Parmecia"

I enter the town of Ketto and save at the priest which overwrites my Egress point to that town and I'll be egressing back to him at some point later.

Finally get to utilize that nifty Blizzard I picked up in Roft! Bowie is movement glitched back into South Parmecia so I can do a few important things before writing off the entire South Parmecia portion of the game. The wizard snipes the lizard with a blizzard.

Enter Polca Village strictly to get Bowie an upgraded Sword and then leave. I walk backwards through the Hobgoblin Cave (which doesn't trigger that battle!) so I can reach the battle where I'll be able to retrieve a Power Ring from a Witch. This is probably considered the most important item in the game, especially for speedruns. Equipping it will give you an extra +5 ATT, but using it as an item will allow you to temporarily buff a single ally's base ATT by +37% that will slowly diminish each turn until the effect wears off.

Higins is movement glitched across the map to retrieve the Power Ring from the Witch. Our business in South Parm is finished so Bowie casts Egress back to North Parm.

Kazin softens up the Lizardman so Bowie can finish it off and gain some XP.

The object is to kill the Wizard to end the fight, but I burn some time to get Bowie an extra level here before glitching down and ending the battle. Afterwards, I enter the town of Tristan and pick up an upgraded sword for Bowie once he hits level 20 and is promoted from SDMN to HERO.

Unfortunately, I have no other options at this point but to finally spend some time grinding Bowie to 20 and this battle was the ideal one to do that. Although I could technically handle the next major boss battle with Bowie/Higins at their current level, I'd run into an impossible roadblock at Cameela. Once Bowie is a single kill away from level 20, I end the fight by sniping the Dark Knight with a movement glitch.

Simple enough. Buff Bowie with the Power Ring and glitch up the map to Zalbard, equip his new Sword (which I'll literally be replacing immediately after this fight), and take him out with a high roll double attack that requires a few seconds of wait time to reach. Afterwards, I pick up the Critical Sword which is going to increase Bowie's Critical hit damage output from +25% to +50% and also increase his chance to crit from 1/16 to 1/8.

Bowie is such a beast with the Critical Sword that I don't even need to buff him for this fight. Glitch down the map and take out the Devil Soldier. The next battle is skipped by casting Egress back to Tristan to avoid the trigger zone.

Another first-turn snipe.

Gyan snipes the Shaman for the "Wish Staff" weapon and I give credit to CloudCarry and Draciel for reminding me it can be obtained in this battle. The Wish Staff can be used by Frayja (or any other VICR class) and it functions exactly like the Power Ring by providing a +37% buff to an ally's base ATT that diminishes per turn until the effect wears off. Bowie is ATT buffed and Cameela gets flattened with a double attack.

After a very lengthy cutscene, I enter the Dojo to grab a Brave Apple that will provide an instant level up on use. Travel through the maze of trees to recruit the character Sheela. She has a nifty spell called "Boost" that will provide allies with a temporary buff to their DEF and AGI. She is an important ally to this TAS run because we'll be using that boost spell to outturn bosses.

Gyan transfers over the Wish Staff to Frayja in-battle. Bow Rider is sniped by Bowie to end the battle. Zynk is recruited afterwards and he will help carry the rest of the run.

Prior to the battle, Zynk was given the Brave Apple for a level up and equipped with the Power Ring which gives him the exact amount of ATT he needs to handle this next snipe without needing to be attack buffed.

This is the first and only battle where the out-of-bound movement glitch has limitations. I could not reach Red Baron on the first turn, unfortunately. Instead, Zynk outturns Sheela and he's movement glitched down to a closer position. Sheela is movement glitched down next to him and provides him with a Power Ring buff. Next turn; Sheela outturns Zynk and boosts him with her spell to increase his AGI. Zynk attacks Red Baron via a movement glitch and on the third and final turn cycle; Zynk's higher AGI allows him to outturn and deliver the final blow to Red Baron. I purposely manipulate Zynk's AGI stat to only gain +1 rather than +2 so he doesn't skyrocket past Frayja/Sheela since Zynk will be dropping bosses and leveling up from this point on.

Prior to the battle, I finally get access to the Caravan so I can purge Kazin/Peter/Higins out of the active party. Frayja was given the Quick Chicken that I picked up at the start of the game for a +4 to his AGI so he can stay in closer range of Zynk's AGI. It is very important for Frayja/Sheela to outturn Zynk in this battle so he can be ATT buffed with Frayja's staff and AGI buffed with Sheela's boost on the very first turn.

Nothing special. Buff Zynk; slap the Hydra.

Unfortunately, an immediate Zynk outturn was about 500+ frames away when I ended Bowie's turn, so Odd Eye gets an opportunity to zap Zynk with his own laser before Zynk takes him out.

Lemon's got great AGI to outturn enemies and his Dark Sword can be used as a battle-item to cast the spell "Desoul" which has a randomized chance to instantly kill most enemies that aren't categorized as bosses. So Lemon swoops in to quickly end this battle.

Zynk doesn't quite have enough ATT after a buff to take out Galam in two turns so the solution was to simply give Zynk the Power Ring, Frayja ATT buffs him and Sheela AGI buffs him--as is tradition. Zynk barely pummels King Galam, inflicting 57 dmg to his remaining 56 health.

Now that Zynk has the Power Ring he buffs up Lemon, Frayja buffs Zynk. After Zynk/Lemon's first attack, Sheela joins them and is placed between Zynk/Lemon for an AGI/DEF buff so Lemon can survive Zeon's attack and also provide Zynk/Lemon with enough AGI to outturn all the enemies on their second turn. Zeon has a total of 500 HP which is massive compared to previous bosses. To deal enough damage, I had to wait on the menu for some of the biggest damage rolls I could find on Zynk/Lemon's first attacks.. specifically doubles where both strikes are critical hits. Here is a list of the damage rolls:

Zynk: 69 , 78

Lemon: 66, 67

Lemon's Counter: 30

Zynk: 61, 48

Lemon: 36, 45

nymx: Claiming for judging.

nymx: Replacing movie with a trimmed version of almost 20000 frames.

nymx: It appears that I have missed out on owning a Genesis, in my younger years. This TAS is enticing me to experiencing the game for myself. :)

In regards to optimization, I can't really argue with an improvement that is an hour and 5 minutes faster. Wow! Great job with this!

Accepting.

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