Glitchless Zelda II, Improved by exactly 45 seconds.
Bullet Shit
ROM USED: Zelda II- The Adventure of Link (U).nes
EMULATOR: FCEU 0.98.15, Allow Up+Down, Left+Right, whatever the settings are in the movie file anyway. Though the file IS FMV, replay it in FCEU. If the emulator wont accept it try sticking NESmock in the same folder as the movie file. Then, it will work.
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes no damage
- Uses a Game Restart Sequence
- Abuses some programming errors
- Manipulates Luck
Introduction
JacK and Inz made this movie because Zelda 2 is totally sweet.
Techniques
- Whirlwind Attack- By alternating between left and right every other frame, Link can connect up to three times with a single sword attack.
- Jackhammer Attack- Alternating down every other frame allows Link to damage enemies up to 30 times a second with downstabbing. Only used on bosses in this run, as holding for two frames instead of one allows Link to keep his momentum.
- Whirlwind bounce- After acquiring downstab, holding down for the last one or two frames of a whirlwind attack can allow Link to bounce from a normal sword attack. This is used a bit of everywhere, to keep momentum, and to stay airborne longer against bosses, allowing crazier combos to kill them very fast
- A+B Jump- Used on Magicians or re-entering rooms to kill Link's forward momentum instantly, allowing much faster turn-arounds.
- Multiple Elevator Bouncing- Whirlwinding twice on an elevator allows Link to be a few pixels ahead when dismounting an elevator downwards, saving 3 or 4 frames each use.
Improvements
No time is actually saved until the Hammer Cave in Death Mountain. 26 frames were saved here overall, most on the room below the elevator, from MEB, and killing the red daira more optimally.
Palace Two is 59 frames faster up to the boss. Apart from MEB, time was mainly saved from getting the 50 point bag from a different enemy (20 frames), and optimizing the red jar drop (15 frames). A slightly modified strategy is used for Helmethead, saving a little over a second.
Palace one gets a red jar drop instead of a p-bag and declines a magic levelup. This saves 27 frames from having to decline one less life level throughout the run. Horsehead is killed 8 frames faster due to a different strategy.
The 1st Magic Container can be gotten a frame faster with the fairie spell.
Because the levels Link gains was shifted around a little bit, to save time overall, palace 3 was difficult to compare to the published run. A lot of the frame counts didn't make sense to me as I was playing.The level was improved mostly with the elevator quirk. However, there were also small optimizations throughout the level, the key grab for example. The boss was 25 frames faster thanks to a slight change in strategy.
From the end of palace three to the end of palace four, a major route change was made saving very near 35 seconds. By not restarting after 3, having two extra enemies killed can rig a red jar drop in palace four, eliminating that side room (6 seconds). The lack of a restart loses 314 frames getting to the dock but this and much more is gained back from the new strategy for palace four.
The overworld around the town with Reflect went amazingly smoothly, and almost all time lost walking through the graveyard from palace 3 was gained back here.
Instead of going for the boots first, killing Carock first then re-entering for the boots, and restarting there, skips 8 rooms of walking and saves over 67 seconds of play. Much of this is lost from a longer walk to palace five, the net gain, as said before, was 35 seconds.
60 frames are saved in palace 5. 10 frames are saved from using the downstab trick to get a red jar. The rest is all from elevators and other minor optimizations.A slightly different strategy was used for Gooma, saving 11 frames. The overworld after palace five went much smoother in this run, about 34 frames were saved.
A small amount of time was saved in palace six in both hole rooms. The first one looks odd, but I assure you it is optimal. The IronKnuckle miniboss is killed faster with a different strategy, instead of using one long combo to kill him, each hit is instead delivered as soon as possible, making for a somewhat sloppier looking fight but much faster win. Barba is killed with a combination of bouncing on his head, and two whirlwind bounces, saving 7 frames over the previous run.
Walking through the overworld to palace 7 was pretty awful. 58 frames were lost verses the published run. This is the one area of the game where things went worse than expected. Unfortunately, the overworld is time-sensitive. Luck manipulation can take a while as a result.
Time is saved in the great palace in the first breakable brick room by casting Reflect, about twenty frames. All three falls are optimized, and while the third looks rather sketchy, it's 3 frames faster than simply falling through the collapseable block above the small hole. The Dragonhead room, where Jump must be cast, is 23 frames faster than before from turning the enemy around in the optimal swooping path sooner.
Both bosses are a few frames faster, Thunderbird from starting the combo sooner than the last run, and Shadow Link from ending the input as soon as possible.
Suggested Description and Screenshots
"Nobody Cares about Zelda 2 except weirdos. Go watch Mario 3."
NOTE: The file is FMV format because the site wouldn't accept it as FCM. It works just as fine either way.
adelikat: Accepting as improvemet to an existing run. Encoders who are too lazy to get the .fmv to play can use the .fcm that JXQ posted in the discussion thread.
Bisqwit: Submission file replaced with the one linked by JXQ.
