- Goes for lowest in-game time
- Plays on hard difficulty
- Takes no damage
- Manipulates luck
- Abuses glitch
- Requires memcard data to unlock the desired mode and character
Bushido Blade is a series of fighting games with a gimmick: everyone can die in one hit. This kind of gameplay lends itself well to timeattack and TASing.
Slash Mode is an unlockable feature where the challenge is to kill 100 bad guys/victims as fast as possible. BB1 is overall a better game for reasons that are irrelevant to this TAS, but BB2 has a better Slash Mode, with an on-screen timer and more variety in enemies and environments. Slash Mode is also a good choice for a TAS because there is only one loading wait.
Tony was chosen
for stylistic reasons, but he is also one of the top picks for timeattack because of his speed.
The fastest ways to take out targets are:
- Running side slash (79 counts)
- This is used when you can't control the position of the next opponent, which happens when there's a new room. It takes an extra frame if you can't control your initial direction (kill 1) or the opponent has front stance (kill 81).
- Running overhead (71 counts)
- This is faster than the side slash because it covers more distance and takes so long to come out that it can be started before the next enemy spawn. This is used when the opponent has front stance, which some of the later enemies use. It's also required for the 2nd kill, since there's not enough time to switch to high stance and set up a spinslash.
- Spinslash (62-64 counts)
- This is a special move that only a few characters have. Tony must be in high stance to perform it. It's the fastest kill method because there's a glitch that sometimes causes the enemy to spawn abnormally close (1000 instead of the usual 4000) while executing it. Since this is a TAS, sometimes means always. If both the distance and position are perfect, the enemy spawns right on your sword and dies immediately. This won't work against front stance because the opponent's sword gets in the way.
The performance here cannot be replicated unassisted because of the luck manipulation. For every kill except after the room changes, the attack has to be initiated before the position of the next enemy is even determined. The spawns pop up in random positions and attempting the spin-slash glitch puts them very far away half the time. Furthermore, frame precision is required to prevent the enemies, especially the later ones, from blocking or getting neutral blade contact.
On top of that, you have to manage your movement to avoid walls. Enemies will not spawn too close to walls. The spinslash moves forward and to the left, and takes so long that there's not much time to both reposition and manipulate the next spawn. The sequence can take the least amount of space by stepping to the player's right between iterations, forming a tight circle. It's most difficult in the first room (skinny hallway) and after kills 31 and 51 (facing the wall).
I made a
Lua script to display the position and distance of the actors and the time of each kill.
When an enemy gets a fatal blow, the next always spawns after 60 counts. (1 count = 1 controllable frame = 2 frames on the framecount = 1/30 second) The total time is
this, or 6443 counts according to the internal timer at 0xA32B8. For reference, my old unassisted record is
this.
Watching an encode is recommended for better sound: The TAS was recorded with the TAS sound plugin to maintain sync, but this plugin mutilates the sound effects. The encode was prepared by dumping with Eternal SPU and merging the pieces between desyncs. I made
this Lua script to automate the process.
Thanks to mz and error1 for support.
Thanks to Aktan and BadPotato for prior research on PCSX audio.
mmbossman: Despite the large amount of luck manipulation present, the result is unfortunately very repetitive. A playaround in the same mode may be more suited for publication, but I just can't see this one making it. Rejecting.
adelikat: Unrejecting for consideration of publication to the
Vault
Noxxa: Accepting for the Vault.
Download MKV with chapters (32 MB):
