Time Diver: Eon Man is a prototype that was never released commercially, but it's prototype has made it's way online and is a mostly complete game. That said, I find the controls rather annoying, but the music and graphics aren't really all that bad for an NES game.
I originally thought this was going to be a much simpler game to work on but I should have learned by now it's never as easy as it looks. Essentially the game operates at 30FPS, as your input is only read every other frame, but it still accepts your inputs on the odd frame, it just occurs a frame later when the game reads it.
Admittedly the game has very little in terms of glitches that I could find, but that's not to say it doesn't have optimizations, mostly resource and lag management.
Tricks, Tech, and Info
Arts
In this game, you have special attacks called Arts, each of which takes a certain number of points from the counter in the bottom right of your screen. Amount of max arts increases for each level in succession. It's pretty important to max out your arts before reaching a boss, especially in the earlier stages because your Wave attack (first Arts in the list) can damage bosses without taking into account that boss's invulnerability period. Wave requires 2 Points to cast, and does 2 damage each. So your damage total from arts is basically directly proportional to the amount of points you have.
-Wave: 2 PWR. Fires a wave of energy forward until it goes off screen. Can exist off screen for a bit before it despawns.
-Dig: 4 PWR. This is only really used in a couple of stages that have dirt. Press U+B while having it selected will tunnel you into the ground. You move through the ground at intervals of each section of ground, meaning once you start moving in a direction you can't move again until you reach the next tile of dirt. It's pretty slow but luckily using this Art while not directly above these dirt tiles still gives us the animation which we can use to bypass enemies and obstacles.
-Time Stop: 8 PWR. Does exactly what it says, I guess. It halts all enemies in place for the duration. Does not affect moving platforms, but does halt conveyor belts. It even halts areas that act as conveyors such as the water and the wind effect in the spaceship level. However, it requires 8 points to cast so it's never really useful. Also, you cannot cast any other Arts while this is active so that further cements it's uselessness.
-Lightning: 10 PWR. This art kills all enemies on screen. However it also freezes the game for an absurdly long time. Tested on bosses it only deals 5 damage. 10 PWR for 5 damage and an annoyingly long time to cast, you can throw any hopes of using this out the window.
-Final Flash: 20 PWR. I don't know what the actual terms for these arts are because I never bothered to check. This art only appears on the final boss and is actually a great movie ender. It costs 20 points to cast, but also does 20 damage, so you're not losing any value out of using it. It's used for the final hit because it does so much damage with one button, despite it taking forever to actually cast.
-Wave: 2 PWR. Fires a wave of energy forward until it goes off screen. Can exist off screen for a bit before it despawns.
-Dig: 4 PWR. This is only really used in a couple of stages that have dirt. Press U+B while having it selected will tunnel you into the ground. You move through the ground at intervals of each section of ground, meaning once you start moving in a direction you can't move again until you reach the next tile of dirt. It's pretty slow but luckily using this Art while not directly above these dirt tiles still gives us the animation which we can use to bypass enemies and obstacles.
-Time Stop: 8 PWR. Does exactly what it says, I guess. It halts all enemies in place for the duration. Does not affect moving platforms, but does halt conveyor belts. It even halts areas that act as conveyors such as the water and the wind effect in the spaceship level. However, it requires 8 points to cast so it's never really useful. Also, you cannot cast any other Arts while this is active so that further cements it's uselessness.
-Lightning: 10 PWR. This art kills all enemies on screen. However it also freezes the game for an absurdly long time. Tested on bosses it only deals 5 damage. 10 PWR for 5 damage and an annoyingly long time to cast, you can throw any hopes of using this out the window.
-Final Flash: 20 PWR. I don't know what the actual terms for these arts are because I never bothered to check. This art only appears on the final boss and is actually a great movie ender. It costs 20 points to cast, but also does 20 damage, so you're not losing any value out of using it. It's used for the final hit because it does so much damage with one button, despite it taking forever to actually cast.
Health Counter
Health is actually important resource to manage, in terms of both damage boosting and saving frames from the counter after defeating bosses. Once a boss is defeated any missing hp will cost 8 frames per square to refill before the next stage loads. It's important to have as much health when reaching bosses, as long as it doesn't cost more than you would save by collecting the powerups or damage boosting. Which leads to:
Powerups
There are only 2 powerups that drop from enemies and luckily they are guaranteed drops, with only one exception. Health powerups refill 4 units, so this saves 32 frames after the defeating the boss. The only exception to this rule is the final dog in the stage with electricity and moving platforms. This enemy for whatever reason will only drop his health powerup if you are below 8 units of health. Next are the PWR icons that drop, which refill the points of your Arts gauge. Each one collected will give you 6 points, so even using a Wave attack still profits by 4, and is useful to kill enemies early enough to not have to slow down to grab the powerups.
Attacking Powerups
The punch and kick animations have pretty large horizontal hitboxes that luckily can grab powerups. This is useful in a couple of areas grabbing a powerup while minimizing slowdown by waiting for them to spawn. For example, while waiting for one to spawn after killing an enemy I can now walk well past the enemy and then turn around the instant the powerup spawns and grab it with an attack. Saves a handful of frames each time it's applicable.
Off-Screen Item Farming
The Wave attack (one of your long range Arts) actually still exists for a while off screen, so you can use this to hit enemies before they're even loaded into view. Doing so at just the right time can cause the enemy to respawn as soon as the camera catches up to it. This is important for enemies that drop PWR pickups especially, as you can sometimes collect 2 of them without having to wait.
i-frames
All of your attacks, basic punch, kick, and special attack have i-frames that exist during the entire animation of your attack. This is very useful for bypassing enemies or obstacles without taking damage, as you'll see through-out the game. The special attack is particularly useful, especially when you acquire dig because it doesn't use any points to cast it and still gives the i-frame animation. However, this can only be abused on the outermost of enemy/obstacle hitboxes. If enough of your hitbox overlaps the enemy's you'll still take damage regardless of i-frame animations.
Terrible Controls
This gets it's own segment because it's the cause of a lot of awkward sections.
-Jumping: Despite the game not looking or sounding terrible, you only have a single jump height, and it's a pretty sizeable jump. This is of course a hindrance to progressing through sections fast, especially vertical portions. The only way to cut your jump short is to take damage. You can also do a wall kick but it's the same height as your jump so you're not really cutting your jump any shorter.
-Wall kicking: Wall kicks have an insane amount of time which you cannot control your character afterwards. Again the only way to cut these short is to take damage, or land on a platform. You're stuck in that wall kick jump for an insane amount of time. You can jump just before a ceiling with a wall above you and turn around and wall kick at a lower point, and is faster than running all the way right and then jumping into it, and is seen through-out the run.
-Jump direction: We're not even done talking about jumping! When you jump with a direction held you're stuck going that direction for a considerable amount of time as well, though not nearly as long as the wall kicks. This also applies if you just jump straight up without holding a direction, there's still a period where you cannot move right or left. This makes maneuvering so much more annoying than it needs to be.
-Ledges: Falling off ledges by running off of them will also remove your control for a similar amount of time as jumping. That's why it's important to jump over most of them when you can, but sometimes it's not faster due to the massive single jump height. Dropping down semi-solid ledges has the same effect.
-Jumping: Despite the game not looking or sounding terrible, you only have a single jump height, and it's a pretty sizeable jump. This is of course a hindrance to progressing through sections fast, especially vertical portions. The only way to cut your jump short is to take damage. You can also do a wall kick but it's the same height as your jump so you're not really cutting your jump any shorter.
-Wall kicking: Wall kicks have an insane amount of time which you cannot control your character afterwards. Again the only way to cut these short is to take damage, or land on a platform. You're stuck in that wall kick jump for an insane amount of time. You can jump just before a ceiling with a wall above you and turn around and wall kick at a lower point, and is faster than running all the way right and then jumping into it, and is seen through-out the run.
-Jump direction: We're not even done talking about jumping! When you jump with a direction held you're stuck going that direction for a considerable amount of time as well, though not nearly as long as the wall kicks. This also applies if you just jump straight up without holding a direction, there's still a period where you cannot move right or left. This makes maneuvering so much more annoying than it needs to be.
-Ledges: Falling off ledges by running off of them will also remove your control for a similar amount of time as jumping. That's why it's important to jump over most of them when you can, but sometimes it's not faster due to the massive single jump height. Dropping down semi-solid ledges has the same effect.
Taking Damage
Since health management is a key part of the run, knowing how much damage each thing does to you is important.
2 damage: Most enemies'
4 damage: Fire and spikes
3 damage: certain green flying enemies such as on the vertical screen of stage 1
Also it's important to note that your invincibility after receiving damage varies by what you take damage on. Taking damage on enemies or anything that does 2 damage to you has a very short invincibility duration. Taking damage on spikes or flames gives you a lot longer timer.
Lag Management
This is a huge part of the game, as having a lot of enemies on screen can lag the game. If you have ample time before loading them all to hit one with a wave, it will mostly have some form of lag reduction. This is why I often kill enemies early, with only a few exceptions where it actually generates more lag to have the wave on screen. Projectiles fired by enemies also generate a ton of lag, luckily most of them can be eliminated with a punch or kick. The only exception is the lasers, they can't be destroyed.
Stage Comments
Note: after the first stage, there is a randomization aspect to which order you can get the remaining stages. It might seem important because of the max amount of PWR you can acquire but really it's not that big of a deal as most of your Arts are useless. The only real thing is how full you can get your PWR before bosses (each wave shot saves 40 frames)
Peaceful Present Age 1993
Screen 1
The game starts off with a small screen but bombards you with enemies, generating a ton of lag. Unfortunately taking the time to kill these isn't worth it because so many sprites with the wave on screen will generate more lag. Killed the first enemy off screen because it generates less lag before the other enemies show up and it drops a PWR to replenish the arts points.
Screen 2
I take damage in the fire to avoid waiting on the moving platform to carry you far enough for the jump. This is only possible because an enemy just off to the right drops health. Fire (and spikes) does 4 units of damage, while most enemies do 2 (exception of a certain flying enemy that does 3).
Use the invincibility from the kick to avoid flames, since we don't have the dig art yet to abuse. Take damage on the laser to avoid taking 4 damage in the fire. The hit is delayed by using invincibility from the kick to extend further into the laser's vertical hitbox meaning I'm far enough right to be able to avoid taking damage in the fire. I intentionally take damage from the flame near the end of the stage so that I land on a positive moving conveyor belt.
Screen 3
Doing a left wallkick at the start is faster than going the lower route because you'll bonk on the wall due to jump height or either be slowed down by falling off the ledge. Nothing much else to say, killing enemies for lag when it's convenient.
Screen 4
The first vertical stage of the game and it's annoying. There are moving platforms later in the stage that are started on a cycle as soon as the level loads. Despite finding a faster way to climb the earlier portions, there still isn't enough time to make the cycle of these platforms. There are oddities where the platforms can sometimes be halted while the player is not, due to lag. I don't think there's any reliable way to use that but if you could find a way to get up there fast enough to damage boost off the spikes and land on the platform it would save a significant amount of time. Most of the faster ways of moving are damage boosting to cut jumps short. One enemy I take damage on near the middle does 3 damage leaving the health bar on an odd -1 cycle. It generated a bit less lag, and it can be mitigated by taking the health powerup at the end of the room.
Boss 1
All bosses besides the final boss have 40 hp. I need to save 2 arts for a wave attack early in the next stage. So, I use 18 arts to deal 18 damage and then regular attacks for the remaining 22 damage (11 hits).
The game starts off with a small screen but bombards you with enemies, generating a ton of lag. Unfortunately taking the time to kill these isn't worth it because so many sprites with the wave on screen will generate more lag. Killed the first enemy off screen because it generates less lag before the other enemies show up and it drops a PWR to replenish the arts points.
Screen 2
I take damage in the fire to avoid waiting on the moving platform to carry you far enough for the jump. This is only possible because an enemy just off to the right drops health. Fire (and spikes) does 4 units of damage, while most enemies do 2 (exception of a certain flying enemy that does 3).
Use the invincibility from the kick to avoid flames, since we don't have the dig art yet to abuse. Take damage on the laser to avoid taking 4 damage in the fire. The hit is delayed by using invincibility from the kick to extend further into the laser's vertical hitbox meaning I'm far enough right to be able to avoid taking damage in the fire. I intentionally take damage from the flame near the end of the stage so that I land on a positive moving conveyor belt.
Screen 3
Doing a left wallkick at the start is faster than going the lower route because you'll bonk on the wall due to jump height or either be slowed down by falling off the ledge. Nothing much else to say, killing enemies for lag when it's convenient.
Screen 4
The first vertical stage of the game and it's annoying. There are moving platforms later in the stage that are started on a cycle as soon as the level loads. Despite finding a faster way to climb the earlier portions, there still isn't enough time to make the cycle of these platforms. There are oddities where the platforms can sometimes be halted while the player is not, due to lag. I don't think there's any reliable way to use that but if you could find a way to get up there fast enough to damage boost off the spikes and land on the platform it would save a significant amount of time. Most of the faster ways of moving are damage boosting to cut jumps short. One enemy I take damage on near the middle does 3 damage leaving the health bar on an odd -1 cycle. It generated a bit less lag, and it can be mitigated by taking the health powerup at the end of the room.
Boss 1
All bosses besides the final boss have 40 hp. I need to save 2 arts for a wave attack early in the next stage. So, I use 18 arts to deal 18 damage and then regular attacks for the remaining 22 damage (11 hits).
Devastated Future Year 2052
Screen 1
I use the 2 PWR saved from the previous boss to shoot the first enemy early, they require 2 hits to kill. It actually saves 6 frames over using the hit on the boss. This room is laggy, hitting enemies is ideal, especially to prevent them from firing projectiles, when possible. It might not seem useful to shoot that laser enemy but if you don't it will fire a laser to the right when you go past it that will stay with you for a long time, generating lag.
Screen 2
This train has a large hitbox. I thought I would be able to abuse the invincibility and have the train push you, but any contact with the front is immediate death. Originally I had abused a death here, as that resets your PWR to 20 by default when you resurrect. It's like 60 frames faster to just farm the PWR in the previous room, death animation takes too long. You can actually land in the back of the train and I though I could ride it, but even ducking you can't sneak under the ceilings, unfortunately. Near the middle of the stage I take a detour to farm some more PWR since I have to wait on the train anyway. The end section there's just enough time to sneak past the final train and make it to the ledge above to the exit.
Screen 3
Another vertical stage, but this time going down. Right at the start it's slightly faster to wall kick onto the ledge than wait for the platform to lower you enough to make the jump. This room forces you to use the dig Art, which is pretty unremarkable ability. It just allows you to travel through the dirt tiles, I could not find any shenanigans or ways to speed this up. There are too many sections that I have to fall over the ledge, despite the ledge stopping because, again, jumping is too high and takes too long.
Screen 4
This stage requires a ton of damage boosting because waiting on the moving platforms would take forever. The robot dogs here are positional based, and move by some weird frame rule. Sometimes changing your jump timing previously affects where they will go. The final dog will only drop a health pickup if you're below 8 hp, for some reason. Unfortunately there's no real way to end this stage with full hp without taking a massive amount of time. You can off-screen item farm on both of the health pickup enemies, but doing so for the first one is useless as it gives 8 hp, but I'd only be missing 6 at the time, and it also wastes an extra Arts power each time, which we need for the boss. Killing some of the dogs along the way reduces lag.
Boss 2
This boss is unique in that you have to do a bit of climbing first. The actual boss has 40 hp again, and taking damage on him is the only way to get up into a position to hit him consistently. The boss only does 2 damage to you, and it saves more than 16 frames by taking damage. Saved 2 PWR for the next stage.
I use the 2 PWR saved from the previous boss to shoot the first enemy early, they require 2 hits to kill. It actually saves 6 frames over using the hit on the boss. This room is laggy, hitting enemies is ideal, especially to prevent them from firing projectiles, when possible. It might not seem useful to shoot that laser enemy but if you don't it will fire a laser to the right when you go past it that will stay with you for a long time, generating lag.
Screen 2
This train has a large hitbox. I thought I would be able to abuse the invincibility and have the train push you, but any contact with the front is immediate death. Originally I had abused a death here, as that resets your PWR to 20 by default when you resurrect. It's like 60 frames faster to just farm the PWR in the previous room, death animation takes too long. You can actually land in the back of the train and I though I could ride it, but even ducking you can't sneak under the ceilings, unfortunately. Near the middle of the stage I take a detour to farm some more PWR since I have to wait on the train anyway. The end section there's just enough time to sneak past the final train and make it to the ledge above to the exit.
Screen 3
Another vertical stage, but this time going down. Right at the start it's slightly faster to wall kick onto the ledge than wait for the platform to lower you enough to make the jump. This room forces you to use the dig Art, which is pretty unremarkable ability. It just allows you to travel through the dirt tiles, I could not find any shenanigans or ways to speed this up. There are too many sections that I have to fall over the ledge, despite the ledge stopping because, again, jumping is too high and takes too long.
Screen 4
This stage requires a ton of damage boosting because waiting on the moving platforms would take forever. The robot dogs here are positional based, and move by some weird frame rule. Sometimes changing your jump timing previously affects where they will go. The final dog will only drop a health pickup if you're below 8 hp, for some reason. Unfortunately there's no real way to end this stage with full hp without taking a massive amount of time. You can off-screen item farm on both of the health pickup enemies, but doing so for the first one is useless as it gives 8 hp, but I'd only be missing 6 at the time, and it also wastes an extra Arts power each time, which we need for the boss. Killing some of the dogs along the way reduces lag.
Boss 2
This boss is unique in that you have to do a bit of climbing first. The actual boss has 40 hp again, and taking damage on him is the only way to get up into a position to hit him consistently. The boss only does 2 damage to you, and it saves more than 16 frames by taking damage. Saved 2 PWR for the next stage.
Past Year 1882
Screen 1
You can technically do an off-screen item farm at the start of this room, but the bird is not far enough away to do it without slowing down. The slowdown is slower than actually farming them elsewhere, and there simply aren't enough targets for any extra PWR to make it worth while reducing lag. I already shoot as many enemies as possible, except for the barrels (which don't generate that much lag). I use the Dig ARTS to i-frame my way through them on the ground. Using items or punching on the ground halts you in place but sets me up to be in a better position for the climb and killing the next enemy. Some enemies are too low to the ground and can't be hit by ground punches.
Screen 2
Another vertical stage in which you're going down. It's not possible to make the jump over the ledge at the start unfortunately, meaning I have to fall off the ledge. I decided to save a Wave shot on the following bats, it literally only saved 1 frame and the shots are needed elsewhere. It's actually faster to run past one of these enemies near the ledge and turn around and grab it, even though I would have to manually fall off the ledge instead of jumping over it, simply because of how far right I am when grabbing the powerup. Not much else to say in this stage, the Dig Art is pretty annoying because of how slow it is, and there's nothing cool you can do during it: feels like it's just a time and resource waster really. Refilled health at the end instead of in the rooms prior because it can be killed early with a wave.
Screen 3
Another room similar to the train room but this time it's a cart that comes barreling from the left side of the screen. It's not nearly as long and can mostly be avoided. Again, took a detour up top to grab some extra PWR because I can get the boost back from landing on the cart anyway. Having 40 PWR at the boss is necessary. Nothing else to say, you can avoid the cart for the rest of the stage after that point.
Screen 4
Our second vertical stage where we must ascend. All of these alternating platforms are on a timer when the level is loaded. This is good though as it means the stage usually resyncs during any previous improvements. There are some small shortcuts I can take and beat out some of these timers, which allows me enough time to grab an extra PWR here. It doesn't cost any time because there's a platform at the end of the stage you have to wait on regardless. I stopped briefly before loading the platform onto the screen to reduce a few lag frames. Boss 3
This boss is incredibly easy to kill. Again, it has 40 hp and by timing a punch to hit him, I can then chain 19 Wave hits for 38 damage. This leaves 2 PWR for the next stage and costs no frames to do so.
You can technically do an off-screen item farm at the start of this room, but the bird is not far enough away to do it without slowing down. The slowdown is slower than actually farming them elsewhere, and there simply aren't enough targets for any extra PWR to make it worth while reducing lag. I already shoot as many enemies as possible, except for the barrels (which don't generate that much lag). I use the Dig ARTS to i-frame my way through them on the ground. Using items or punching on the ground halts you in place but sets me up to be in a better position for the climb and killing the next enemy. Some enemies are too low to the ground and can't be hit by ground punches.
Screen 2
Another vertical stage in which you're going down. It's not possible to make the jump over the ledge at the start unfortunately, meaning I have to fall off the ledge. I decided to save a Wave shot on the following bats, it literally only saved 1 frame and the shots are needed elsewhere. It's actually faster to run past one of these enemies near the ledge and turn around and grab it, even though I would have to manually fall off the ledge instead of jumping over it, simply because of how far right I am when grabbing the powerup. Not much else to say in this stage, the Dig Art is pretty annoying because of how slow it is, and there's nothing cool you can do during it: feels like it's just a time and resource waster really. Refilled health at the end instead of in the rooms prior because it can be killed early with a wave.
Screen 3
Another room similar to the train room but this time it's a cart that comes barreling from the left side of the screen. It's not nearly as long and can mostly be avoided. Again, took a detour up top to grab some extra PWR because I can get the boost back from landing on the cart anyway. Having 40 PWR at the boss is necessary. Nothing else to say, you can avoid the cart for the rest of the stage after that point.
Screen 4
Our second vertical stage where we must ascend. All of these alternating platforms are on a timer when the level is loaded. This is good though as it means the stage usually resyncs during any previous improvements. There are some small shortcuts I can take and beat out some of these timers, which allows me enough time to grab an extra PWR here. It doesn't cost any time because there's a platform at the end of the stage you have to wait on regardless. I stopped briefly before loading the platform onto the screen to reduce a few lag frames. Boss 3
This boss is incredibly easy to kill. Again, it has 40 hp and by timing a punch to hit him, I can then chain 19 Wave hits for 38 damage. This leaves 2 PWR for the next stage and costs no frames to do so.
Devastated Present Age Year 1993
Screen 1
This screen has tons of annoying flying enemies. Luckily they're mostly able to be manipulated but if your improvements beforehand come at a large enough frame rule they can sometimes behave differently. Destroying as many projectiles that these guys fire is necessary to prevent lag. I used the Wave shot to hit a laggy enemy off screen which saved 10 frames, since it can't be used to kill the enemy right afterwards that drops the PWR anyway.
Screen 2
Yet another vertical stage where we are descending. Right at the start it's slightly faster to wall kick onto the ledge than wait for the platform to lower you enough to make the jump. Avoided an annoyingly placed laser hit by using our i-frames trick from the Dig Art. There's one enemy that I kill on the way down that drops a PWR but it costs 22 frames to grab it because there's a wall after you have to jump over. Even with 3 extra Wave shots there are not enough places to use it that would save 22 total frames. There are 2 places that save 5, so I would need a 3rd place that saves at least 12 to make it worth grabbing. Killed an extra enemy near the bottom to reduce a few lag frames, slight delay to pickup the PWR on the same frame as exiting the room.
Screen 3
This water in this entire room acts as a conveyor belt, meaning you have to constantly jump out of it. Interestingly, the time stop Art works here to halt the conveyor, but it's 8 PWR cost is so ridiculous it's not even worth it. Every jump only loses about 1 frame anyway, and like mentioned in the Arts section, you can't use other Arts during it. Other than that, just killing enemies and eliminating lag within the PWR budget.
Screen 4
Another vertical ascension stage. Similar to the last one it also has alternating platforms on a timer when the level starts. There are a few fast shortcuts to get up fast enough to be able to kill one of these laser enemies before he fires off his laser, saving a few lag frames. Interestingly there's an enemy that spawns around midway into the level that fires projectiles. I take a slight detour to jump up near him so that he fires the projectiles which I can then use to damage boost my way onto a ledge above. This saves a lot of time as I don't have to wait on long platform cycles. I grab an extra PWR pickup afterwards as I have to wait on the next platforms to spawn anyway. Killed a few extra enemies to reduce lag, and then waiting on the final platforms to spawn to jump to the exit.
Screen 5
Another fire stage similar to the second room in the game. This one features a lot more flying enemies that are sometimes in different spots depending on how you jump. There aren't enough free PWR resources to be able to kill all the enemies here, but there is a place to use the off-screen item farm to get an extra PWR pickup. Used a wall kick after the fast conveyor to put myself in a better position and to avoid damage from the flames by jumping over it. The next health pickup costs 0 frames to grab as I can use the kick animation to grab it through the wall. There are a ton of enemies right near the exit, but surprisingly it only saves like 1 or 2 frames to shoot one early, which is not worth losing 2 PWR over.
Boss 4
This guy has 40 hp, what a surprise. Entered with 42 arts, leaving 2 remaining to start the next stage. No regular hits were used since this boss spawns far away and doing so would cost time.
This screen has tons of annoying flying enemies. Luckily they're mostly able to be manipulated but if your improvements beforehand come at a large enough frame rule they can sometimes behave differently. Destroying as many projectiles that these guys fire is necessary to prevent lag. I used the Wave shot to hit a laggy enemy off screen which saved 10 frames, since it can't be used to kill the enemy right afterwards that drops the PWR anyway.
Screen 2
Yet another vertical stage where we are descending. Right at the start it's slightly faster to wall kick onto the ledge than wait for the platform to lower you enough to make the jump. Avoided an annoyingly placed laser hit by using our i-frames trick from the Dig Art. There's one enemy that I kill on the way down that drops a PWR but it costs 22 frames to grab it because there's a wall after you have to jump over. Even with 3 extra Wave shots there are not enough places to use it that would save 22 total frames. There are 2 places that save 5, so I would need a 3rd place that saves at least 12 to make it worth grabbing. Killed an extra enemy near the bottom to reduce a few lag frames, slight delay to pickup the PWR on the same frame as exiting the room.
Screen 3
This water in this entire room acts as a conveyor belt, meaning you have to constantly jump out of it. Interestingly, the time stop Art works here to halt the conveyor, but it's 8 PWR cost is so ridiculous it's not even worth it. Every jump only loses about 1 frame anyway, and like mentioned in the Arts section, you can't use other Arts during it. Other than that, just killing enemies and eliminating lag within the PWR budget.
Screen 4
Another vertical ascension stage. Similar to the last one it also has alternating platforms on a timer when the level starts. There are a few fast shortcuts to get up fast enough to be able to kill one of these laser enemies before he fires off his laser, saving a few lag frames. Interestingly there's an enemy that spawns around midway into the level that fires projectiles. I take a slight detour to jump up near him so that he fires the projectiles which I can then use to damage boost my way onto a ledge above. This saves a lot of time as I don't have to wait on long platform cycles. I grab an extra PWR pickup afterwards as I have to wait on the next platforms to spawn anyway. Killed a few extra enemies to reduce lag, and then waiting on the final platforms to spawn to jump to the exit.
Screen 5
Another fire stage similar to the second room in the game. This one features a lot more flying enemies that are sometimes in different spots depending on how you jump. There aren't enough free PWR resources to be able to kill all the enemies here, but there is a place to use the off-screen item farm to get an extra PWR pickup. Used a wall kick after the fast conveyor to put myself in a better position and to avoid damage from the flames by jumping over it. The next health pickup costs 0 frames to grab as I can use the kick animation to grab it through the wall. There are a ton of enemies right near the exit, but surprisingly it only saves like 1 or 2 frames to shoot one early, which is not worth losing 2 PWR over.
Boss 4
This guy has 40 hp, what a surprise. Entered with 42 arts, leaving 2 remaining to start the next stage. No regular hits were used since this boss spawns far away and doing so would cost time.
Peaceful Future Year 2052
Screen 1
Immediate Wave cast at the start kills 2 enemies at the same time. I didn't realize this was possible until this point but areas where 2 enemies exist at the same point are rare. The Orb enemies are laggy in general, surprisingly laggier than the fan enemies. Therefore I kill them whenever it's convenient to. Luckily this entire world has a lot of places to farm PWR pickups. Nothing else to say, killing enemies for lag and managing my time on the conveyors.
Screen 2
Yet another vertical stage where you're going upwards, this time the stage is constantly moving downwards if you're not fast enough you'll die in the green sludge. Surprisingly there is only one point where shooting an extra enemy actually saved lag frames. You would think killing those massive red robots would save time, but your Wave generates extra lag for whatever reason. Used a couple extra Wave shots to kill some of these enemies instead of damage boosting through them, since there's more PWR pickups than convenient health pickups in this world. Damage boosted over the final ledge to save a few frames.
Screen 3
This spaceship level works similarly to the water stage in that touching the ship anywhere will slow you down. The only exception to this is when you reach the lower section of the ship, suddenly the conveyor mechanic is off. I guess they wanted some kind of wind effect and figured the cab of the ship would be wind protected. Regardless it made that section much easier to manage. For the most part you can avoid damage from the meteors using i-frames, however I did have to take a couple of hits on meteors here to avoid walking a bit on the conveyors.
Screen 4
At the start of this room it's possible to use off-screen item farming, but it would require you to slow down so that you can still spawn the second enemy before the camera reaches it. There are a couple of better places to farm PWR pickups anyway, so this was avoided here. Killing the very first fan in the game gives a health pickup which negates the damage taken on the large meteor in the previous room. It also means I can avoid slowdown to i-frame through it, as well as a few less lag frames. The next section has a ton of Orb enemies, all of which drop PWR pickups. There's even a place to use off-screen item farm here and it doesn't require a slowdown, which is why the previous one was avoided. The dog over the spike pit was manipulated to move upwards so that I could get a damage boost off of it. Normally you're supposed to use the fan all the way at the start of the stage to blow a column of air that you ride over there. This is way faster. In a previous version of the TAS the dog right after was in a better position to kill and acquire it's PWR pickup without losing time. This was before killing the first fan, which for some reason causes him to be way lower on the screen. It didn't turn out to be quite as important as it seemed since new PWR pickups were discovered later that didn't cost time. Killed the fan above the dog though to reduce lag. Damage boosted through the spikes in order to make a platform cycle.
Screen 5
Another vertical stage, there's not really much optimizing you can do on this one. It's pretty much just waiting on platforms to come down to ride. Luckily there's a respawnable dog here that I can farm a few PWR pickups from while waiting.
Screen 6
The final screen of the game that isn't a boss fight. There's an off-screen item farm early on which costs no time to grab. Ensuring that I have at least 54 PWR when going into this stage means I can max out on PWR at 60. There's still a lot of level left but it makes it easier to manage knowing how much PWR I can afford to use. I tested and surprisingly killing the first fan did not remove any lag for whatever reason. You'd think something that massive would be causing the lag but apparently not. There's a few Dig section where we have to use the stupid Dig Art ability. Luckily the spinning from it can destroy enemies as well. The next fan is killed in order to respawn it faster. You need to reach x position of 98 in the room to respawn the fan, so you can ride the air column. There's no way to damage boost over this one. Then I dropped out of the air column early by using an attack, which lowers you every time you do. Lowering myself while over top of the ledge lets me jump from it. i-frames are used to avoid the column of air similar to how it's used to avoid damage. I also killed the next fan which I thought would save time as well, but it was actually slower for some reason. However, I learned that off-screen item farm could be used here too, and combined with this it was exactly the same time as the previous method. I left it in, since I think killing enemies is more interesting and it was the exact same time anyway. By the way that's a fake exit in the next gap, don't fall for it! Killed the next fan while over the conveyors because it drops a PWR pickup and I need to avoid taking another hit in the electricity below. There's barely enough time to make the platform cycle at the end, and I use i-frames to avoid colliding with the final fan, which is perched right where the trigger for the level exit is.
Final Boss
Entering the final boss with max PWR of 60, and here we learn we have our new and final Art which I called Final Flash. It seemed useless as it took forever to cast, but it does 20 damage and costs 20 pwr so it's in line with using 10 wave shots anyway. Then I thought hmm if it's only one button press which is the same as 10 wave button presses it might be a good stage finisher. This only works in a TAS setting of course, where final input is key. The first phase of this boss will jump back and forth from the right side to the left side of the screen. It's really hard to get max hits in while he's doing this so he needs to be killed early enough to prevent it. I need to keep 20 PWR for the actual final boss to use the Final Flash I just mentioned. When the second phase of the final boss starts, he uses these massive sword and fist attacks which are hard to tell where the hitboxes are. Luckily I can i-frame through them and still get max hits on him. As soon as his hp hits 20 I can use final flash and end input.
Immediate Wave cast at the start kills 2 enemies at the same time. I didn't realize this was possible until this point but areas where 2 enemies exist at the same point are rare. The Orb enemies are laggy in general, surprisingly laggier than the fan enemies. Therefore I kill them whenever it's convenient to. Luckily this entire world has a lot of places to farm PWR pickups. Nothing else to say, killing enemies for lag and managing my time on the conveyors.
Screen 2
Yet another vertical stage where you're going upwards, this time the stage is constantly moving downwards if you're not fast enough you'll die in the green sludge. Surprisingly there is only one point where shooting an extra enemy actually saved lag frames. You would think killing those massive red robots would save time, but your Wave generates extra lag for whatever reason. Used a couple extra Wave shots to kill some of these enemies instead of damage boosting through them, since there's more PWR pickups than convenient health pickups in this world. Damage boosted over the final ledge to save a few frames.
Screen 3
This spaceship level works similarly to the water stage in that touching the ship anywhere will slow you down. The only exception to this is when you reach the lower section of the ship, suddenly the conveyor mechanic is off. I guess they wanted some kind of wind effect and figured the cab of the ship would be wind protected. Regardless it made that section much easier to manage. For the most part you can avoid damage from the meteors using i-frames, however I did have to take a couple of hits on meteors here to avoid walking a bit on the conveyors.
Screen 4
At the start of this room it's possible to use off-screen item farming, but it would require you to slow down so that you can still spawn the second enemy before the camera reaches it. There are a couple of better places to farm PWR pickups anyway, so this was avoided here. Killing the very first fan in the game gives a health pickup which negates the damage taken on the large meteor in the previous room. It also means I can avoid slowdown to i-frame through it, as well as a few less lag frames. The next section has a ton of Orb enemies, all of which drop PWR pickups. There's even a place to use off-screen item farm here and it doesn't require a slowdown, which is why the previous one was avoided. The dog over the spike pit was manipulated to move upwards so that I could get a damage boost off of it. Normally you're supposed to use the fan all the way at the start of the stage to blow a column of air that you ride over there. This is way faster. In a previous version of the TAS the dog right after was in a better position to kill and acquire it's PWR pickup without losing time. This was before killing the first fan, which for some reason causes him to be way lower on the screen. It didn't turn out to be quite as important as it seemed since new PWR pickups were discovered later that didn't cost time. Killed the fan above the dog though to reduce lag. Damage boosted through the spikes in order to make a platform cycle.
Screen 5
Another vertical stage, there's not really much optimizing you can do on this one. It's pretty much just waiting on platforms to come down to ride. Luckily there's a respawnable dog here that I can farm a few PWR pickups from while waiting.
Screen 6
The final screen of the game that isn't a boss fight. There's an off-screen item farm early on which costs no time to grab. Ensuring that I have at least 54 PWR when going into this stage means I can max out on PWR at 60. There's still a lot of level left but it makes it easier to manage knowing how much PWR I can afford to use. I tested and surprisingly killing the first fan did not remove any lag for whatever reason. You'd think something that massive would be causing the lag but apparently not. There's a few Dig section where we have to use the stupid Dig Art ability. Luckily the spinning from it can destroy enemies as well. The next fan is killed in order to respawn it faster. You need to reach x position of 98 in the room to respawn the fan, so you can ride the air column. There's no way to damage boost over this one. Then I dropped out of the air column early by using an attack, which lowers you every time you do. Lowering myself while over top of the ledge lets me jump from it. i-frames are used to avoid the column of air similar to how it's used to avoid damage. I also killed the next fan which I thought would save time as well, but it was actually slower for some reason. However, I learned that off-screen item farm could be used here too, and combined with this it was exactly the same time as the previous method. I left it in, since I think killing enemies is more interesting and it was the exact same time anyway. By the way that's a fake exit in the next gap, don't fall for it! Killed the next fan while over the conveyors because it drops a PWR pickup and I need to avoid taking another hit in the electricity below. There's barely enough time to make the platform cycle at the end, and I use i-frames to avoid colliding with the final fan, which is perched right where the trigger for the level exit is.
Final Boss
Entering the final boss with max PWR of 60, and here we learn we have our new and final Art which I called Final Flash. It seemed useless as it took forever to cast, but it does 20 damage and costs 20 pwr so it's in line with using 10 wave shots anyway. Then I thought hmm if it's only one button press which is the same as 10 wave button presses it might be a good stage finisher. This only works in a TAS setting of course, where final input is key. The first phase of this boss will jump back and forth from the right side to the left side of the screen. It's really hard to get max hits in while he's doing this so he needs to be killed early enough to prevent it. I need to keep 20 PWR for the actual final boss to use the Final Flash I just mentioned. When the second phase of the final boss starts, he uses these massive sword and fist attacks which are hard to tell where the hitboxes are. Luckily I can i-frame through them and still get max hits on him. As soon as his hp hits 20 I can use final flash and end input.
Final thoughts and possible improvement
Despite the terrible controls the game turned out to not be as bad to work on. Being able to mostly resync the game, despite some plus or minus lag frames helped keep motivation up for completing it. I thought there might have been some glitches with the game similar to Tom and Jerry, where swapping Arts after using them but I wasn't able to find anything. There is one oddity where sometimes if you kill an enemy and are still holding up to use your special you'll sometimes cast multiple Waves in a row, despite only pressing B once.
As far as possible improvements: if anything it would definitely be lag management. The game loves to arbitrarily reward you with more or less lag frames from seemingly unrelated inputs. However managing it alongside resources makes it more challenging. Sometimes an improvement in a previous room would randomly cause new lag frames in the next. If someone finds some other trick it would be cool to improve the movie, it's not too hard to resync the game with improvements.
As far as possible improvements: if anything it would definitely be lag management. The game loves to arbitrarily reward you with more or less lag frames from seemingly unrelated inputs. However managing it alongside resources makes it more challenging. Sometimes an improvement in a previous room would randomly cause new lag frames in the next. If someone finds some other trick it would be cool to improve the movie, it's not too hard to resync the game with improvements.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Replacing with a 10 frame improvement, by the author.
nymx: It didn't take long for me to realize that this effort was right on! A comparison, against the WR, showed constant "pulling ahead". Of all the strategies you have mentioned in your article, I really can appreciate the use of damage...especially when used to alter your route. In addition, lag management has always been a favorite of mine, as it seems to be the last thing on a lot of TASers mind. It is the hidden gem of optimization. Really great work here, as you have cut around 1 minute and 25 seconds over the RTA timing.
I want to also mention, since no movie verification was performed, that I confirm that this movie syncs.
Accepting to standard.
despoa: Processing...