Submission #8900: SuperSqank's GBA Enchanted: Once Upon Andalasia in 17:02.04

General notes

• Uses Bizhawk 2.9.1
• Rerecord count - 7096
• Takes damage to save time
• Uses glitches and exploits to save time

Introduction

Main Tricks

• You can fall much further without taking fall damage.
• You can fall down much further without triggering the birds to slow down your fall.

Level Comments

• Chapter 1 starts off quite simply. While I do some unnecessary play around like getting menu storage or moving around crazily when I need to wait, there isn't much going on in section 1.
• In section 2, we need to use Pip to push a rock onto a troll. The fastest way to move objects as Pip is to get far away from them and pull them towards you. Objects teleport towards Pip if he is pulling them from far away enough. I essentially got Pip in front of the rock and he is constantly pulling and letting go of the rock in midair. As janky as it looks, it is fast. Not much else to say about this section
• In section 3, we do a damage boost off the rock troll by getting hit by the rock. This is faster than dodging the rock. We then have to climb a tree and save the bird. Once the bird is saved, I drop under the platform (certain platforms can be dropped under), get menu storage and then proceed forwards. Menu storage saves over a second here and it is by far the biggest individual timesave it brings. After taking a hit from fall damage, we get an extra note and we make it over the platform without grabbing the edge. We then Pip drop down the last drop, which is much faster than dropping off normally and it saves us a note. As a sidenote, skipping the birds is not possible. We cannot make the long jump without the birds and even if we could, when we save the hedgehog in level 2, it would give us the bird and not the hedgehog, essentially making the rest of the game unbeatable.
• In section 4, we do a sing drop to avoid falling down slowly but there isn't a ton going on outside of that.

• In section 1, there is a section where we are supposed to use Pip to climb up a wall and push a rock off. We can skip this however by damage boosting off the rock troll, saving a few seconds.
• In section 2, menu storage is used to switch to the hedgehog. As you have to wait for the troll anyway, it is faster.
• In section 3, a long jump is used to skip having to deal with a troll and to skip some climbing. Later on we reach a section where Pip has to push out a key. Pip dropping here puts Giselle in a much better spot to pick up the key and it makes the enemy cycles in the next part far more favourable.

• In section 1, you are supposed to take out the troll by dropping the rock through the trap door but we can skip that with a damage boost. Later on, we take another damage boost. We would normally get all the notes in this section to fall down with the birds but it is faster to just skip getting the bird, especially since the notes will be useful later.
• In section 2, the birds have massive hitboxes. I do a very specific jump against the 4th bird which is overall faster. While it doesn't look like it, I go under the bird on the first possible frame. If I moved forward just a frame earlier, the bird would have hit me. Later on, I do a sing drop which allows me to drop down quickly, it saves me a note and it allows me to do the next troll area much faster. You normally have to wait a lot longer to take out the trolls but I tackle the area in a certain way to take them out much faster. You also get 2 notes at this point rather than 1.
• In section 3, after taking out the troll, I jump down to the next area. This ends up in a death and when you first die in this game, you get a weird cutscene. We have to wait a certain amount of time to skip his cutscene and when we can optimally skip it, we have to press start and then B to get back to gameplay. If we skip the cutscene too early, we actually lose a chunk of time. This is the only cutscene like this, it is extremely strange. We can then do the Pip area where Giselle takes damage from the bird and Pip exclusively climbs up the left side of the area, skipping a bunch of platforming. Pip's double jump is always stored until it is used and it only refreshes when he lands on the ground. We can choose to use it either immediately or we can wait to use it on a wall.

• Chapter 4 is our first Edward level. The Edward levels are basically short "auto-scrollers" where you have to chase an enemy. Edward can move up and down and he can additionally jump, crouch and dash. The former two are unimportant, we only need to dash so we spend pretty much the entire level dashing. You can input a dash every 76 frames and there is a delay at the beginning of the level before you can dash. The obstacles in this level are entirely consistent so we can easily take certain routes to avoid damage. I barely avoid certain hits for style but these levels are extremely straight forward otherwise.
• The glitch with the giant Edward is caused by skipping the cutscene on a certain frame. You can also get a giant Nathaniel if you skip the cutscene one frame later. It doesn't save time but it doesn't lose time and it looks funny.

• In section 1, I use the enemy respawn glitch to get past the last troll. You would normally use a hedgehog to take out the troll and I dropped Pip off at the door as you have to wait for it to open anyway. This isn't that much faster than using the hedgehog but it is still faster. I use menu storage to get the hedgehog as you do need the hedgehog later on in the level.
• In section 2, I walk to the far right with Giselle and I drop Pip off at the wall. You can then double jump with Pip to make it over the wall This is considerably faster than dropping Pip off at the top of the buildings which is what you are supposed to do. Later on, I do a sing drop through a trap door. We absolutely do not want a music note in the next section so a sing drop is used here.
• In section 3, I jump off the big building as it is much faster than using the birds to fall down (this is why a sing drop was used in the last section) and it is faster than setting up a Pip drop. The doors are deceptively massive so we can essentially enter them from the side. We are supposed to use Pip to distract the troll but we can easily just get past him without Pip.
• In section 4, I take out the troll with a hedgehog rather than a trap door as it is faster.

• In section 1, you are supposed to take a rock, take it to a trap door and then open the trap door to take out the troll. We can skip all of that with a damage boost. We also get introduced to the invincibility powerup... halfway through the game...
• In section 2, all I really do is traverse the buildings in a certain way to get through them as fast as possible.
• In section 3, we Pip drop after collecting the key, which is the fastest way to get to the door. We need Pip for later. After saving the dear, I switch to the dear almost immediately. Getting menu storage is slower in this one area so it is faster to get the dear out quickly. We also turn the camera so only the left side troll is affected by the dear's power. You normally charm both trolls but with that setup, if both trolls throw rocks at the same height, they will cancel each other out and that was happening with the cycles I got in this TAS so, I opted to only charming the left troll instead.
• In the last area, you are supposed to use Pip to push a rock onto the troll which takes a considerable amount of time. We can skip this however. If we damage boost off a rock, get close enough to the troll and then sing (with the hedgehog) and Switch to Pip on the same frame, we can do the enemy respawn glitch to have the hedgehog take out the troll. You normally don't have enough iframes to do this as Giselle but by using the enemy respawn glitch, you can make it work. When combined with the Pip drop from earlier (which is useless without this skip), this saves around 5 seconds. I didn't actually discover this glitch until I was nearly finished with the TAS so I had to go back, adjust the beginning section as before, I took 2 hits, add the Pip drop in and add this skip in. This was the biggest change I made in the TAS cleanup period by far.

• In section 1, you are supposed to go around the building to get to the key platform but you can simply just jump up to the key platform. Later on, we damage boost through the rock troll. I use a specific setup to make sure I only go through the troll with one hit. This isn't a lot faster than taking out the troll normally but it is the fastest "secondary damage boost" in this level to my knowledge. This level has multiple potential areas to damage boost but this is the fastest one outside of the major damage boost
• In section 2, we get introduced to the Otter. In order to use the otter optimally, we have to activate him at a certain distance from the door. You need frame perfect timing for the fastest possible outcome. I drop down Pip while I wait for the otter to set up an enemy respawn later on. The enemy respawn in this section is the essential damage boost in the level. It saves multiple seconds as you preserve a note, which prevents you from needing to go out of your way to get another note in the next section.
• In section 3, we start off by having to get past a troll and a swinging rock, you normally have to wait for the troll to go back and forward which takes forever but if you ledge jump onto the platform, crouch under the troll's attack/the swinging rock, you can skip having to wait. Crouching makes your hurtbox much smaller and you can't get past the rock/troll without crouching. As mentioned before, you have maxed out notes so you don't need to go out of your way to collect more.

• Another Edward level. Because of the perfect execution we can perform in a TAS, we can continuously dash for the entire level which currently has not been done in an RTA run.

• In section 1, we are introduced to the purple trolls. These trolls can only be taken out with honey. Around halfway through this section, we have to get a key to open a door which is guarded by a purple troll. We normally have to go out of our way to get honey to take out the troll but we can skip this by simply collecting the key without getting hit by the troll. This saves a considerable amount of time compared to collecting the honey as you normally have to wait for some rather long cycles. You can entirely skip waiting however by not collecting the honey. This is known as "Honey skip" and it is one of the hardest skips in an RTA run but in a TAS, we can easily get the honey.
• In section 2, we use Pip to collect the music note in the second area as it is faster than collecting the note with Giselle and it also conveniently sets up a big skip later on in the level. Normally, you have to collect a key and go really far out of your way to collect honey to take out a purple troll guarding the end of the section. However, we can simply go up to the troll and perform an enemy respawn to go right through the troll, skipping the entire detour to get the key/honey. This is one of the biggest skips in this run by a long shot, saving somewhere in the 25 second range. It is a huge skip for this game.
• In section 3, there is a long corridor with 3 trolls you have to take out with the hedgehog. You get 3 notes in this area. We can avoid the last troll by simply waiting for him and dropping down which is faster than using a hedgehog and it saves a note. Later on, there is a section where you have to drop honey down a trap door for a purple troll. You normally put the honey on the door, open the door and then circle back around to progress. However, we can instead put Pip on the trap door, pick up the honey and then drop through the trap door, giving the troll the honey once we've dropped through. This skips having to go all the way back. And then after this, we have one more troll. You normally have to get the troll to chase you to end of the section where you then take him out with swinging rocks, which you then have to crawl through. We can skip this however by getting the troll to try and attack us and then we can use a hedgehog to take him out, skipping the detour.
• I got 69 flowers in this level. It wasn't intentional at all but it ended up happening. Nice.

• In section 1, we use Pip to activate the button for the second gate. This is overall faster than hitting the button as Giselle and this is the one time where we actually bring Pip back to Giselle. We normally avoid doing this as it is slow but we need Pip later. Later on, we have an area with a purple troll. Normally, you have to open the trap door to take out the rock troll, go back to get the honey and then go and take out the purple troll . That is too slow so what we do is that we simply get hit by a rock to damage boost through the purple troll.
• At the end of section 1, I avoid picking up a note. It is very important that I do not pick up that note as I need to have 9 notes in my reserve for the rest of the level. We do a Pip drop to drop down much faster. I turn Pip around so he damage boosts into a note We get introduced to the spider who can make certain platforms for us. You have to wait a while when the spider makes a platform so you can freestyle while you wait. I jump at the end of the level which makes Pip collect a note. I need to have maxed out notes for the next section so this is very important.
• In section 2, there is an unavoidable note. This is why it is essential that you have 3 big notes and 9 small notes at this point as if you don't have 3 big notes, your small note count will reset back to 0, which will create problems in section 3. I drop down Pip in a certain spot so I can set up an enemy respawn. I need to use a couple of notes in this section but I use Pip to get the notes back (and to perform the enemy respawn glitch). In the ladder section, I have to grab on to the ladder before landing back on the ground to prevent the birds from taking a note from my inventory as I need maxed out notes for the next section.
• In section 3, you normally have to go far out of your way out of your way to collect notes, you need a lot of notes in this section (and this section only has small notes). But because I maxed out my note count when reaching this section, I only need to collect a single note, eliminating the need to make a single detour. This saves a lot of time as the detours needed to collect notes take quite a while. This is why I very meticulously collected/maintained notes in the rest of the level.

• In section 1, I drop Pip down on a big note, I later quickly switch to Pip to give myself 2 extra notes for later. This section introduces us to the Skunk which can be exploited in this level. There is a purple troll whom you are supposed to take out by charming him with the deer, collecting a key, getting some honey and then feeding him the honey. What we can do however is that we can go under/in front of the troll on a lower platform and then we can use the skunk while looking up to make sure the troll is on screen. This will make the troll walk off a ledge, allowing us to easily pass him.
• In section 2, there is a purple troll who is supposed to be taken out by doing a detour with Pip. We can skip this however by using the skunk as soon as the troll is on screen. This will amusingly make the troll immediately pick up the honey which is super high above him, allowing us to get past him. Later on, there is another purple troll. We normally have to go out of our way to collect some notes but because we have more notes than we should have, we don't need to take a detour. We also take a damage boost on one of the swinging rocks to speed up the swinging rocks section.
• In section 3, we have another purple troll. You are supposed to do this lengthy conveyer belt section to get some honey down for the troll. But because we have a note on deck (you are normally not supposed to have a note), we can just use the skunk to get the troll to walk off the platform, where we can then jump past him. We then immediately have a section where a troll is chasing you. Normally, you have to go in a door to get the two trolls to fight, allowing you to safely get past them but we can skip that by taking a damage boost from a hedgehog. The rest of the level is fairly straightforward.

• To end of the run, we have one last Edward level. I narrowly avoid damage in a few areas but there isn't much to say otherwise. You get taken back to the main menu after the level. I opted to end the run by entering the credits in the main menu. I switched the language to French before entering the credits as it didn't lose any time and just because I could.

Closing statement