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Joined: 2/28/2012
Posts: 160
Location: Philadelphia
Looks great! Thanks for posting.
Alyosha
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Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3822)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2832
Location: US
This is a very impressive TAS! Glad you had the will to restart after the desync and new tricks being found.
Zarmakuizz
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Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
Meanwhile, Sonic is still at the octorok screen. Nicely done! I love all the tricks you used. Thank you for that, and for the analysis also :)
Joined: 11/26/2010
Posts: 454
Location: New York, US
Thanks Yadra121, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this TAS!!! Loving these videos looking forward to the next one and also loving the breakdown you provide as well, keep up the good work!!!
My name is Forensics.
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
One Hyphen Two Link to video When I started with 1-1, I was expecting to have an easy 1-2, just implementing the RTA small key skip that was found this year, and be done with it. However, things turned out quite differently. TAS takes an insane route, starting off with a crazy clip leading to an unexpected screen transition, skipping 2.5 rooms, the necessary lamp and 430 gems (as chance has it, there's a lamp a few rooms later...). Then, TAS also skips another chest, which makes this a total of 630 gems skipped over the old TAS at this point. Now, where will the gems come from you might wonder. The answer is simple. There's a screen where I trigger two gem fountains, and by manipulating them, you can make them spawn 1000 gems optimally. I aim for a bit less than that since I need to incorporate movement to not spend an entire day in that room. For comparison, old TAS enters with 657 gems, while the new TAS enters with 5. Then, there's also more FMC to clip through blocks and the maze skip after the keese room. Pause There's not much to do with Shadow Link, and the dialogue does not slow anything down at all. Overall improvement over old TAS: Roughly 49 seconds. Merry Christmas!
Joined: 2/28/2012
Posts: 160
Location: Philadelphia
Looks great! Crazy improvements.
Tompa
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Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1941
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
This TAS gets even crazier... Love your work, Yadra!
Zarmakuizz
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Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
Oh, My, this is amazing!
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
Done with World 1! Link to video 1-3 has gotten a drastic route change, both RTA and TAS. The TAS route in particular is quite stunning. Let me explain everything in detail: The first screen starts off with an infamous Owl Skip (FSA has many of them, in fact, you can skip every single one except for the dialogue in 1-1, which doesn't count :P) Only an active Link can activate the trigger, so I place Green next to the wall and consecutively use and cancel the C-right formation each roll period to make the other Links move upwards. This works for RTA too, but requires some practice. 0:04 This screen has a neat route that is TAS only. Instead of making my way to the left block which hides a staircase, followed up by 2 GBA screens and 2 switches to get up the castle wall, I choose the right path. To get up, the by now usual FMC concept applies. I position Green below the trees, then perform a Jump Slash with Purple, switch to Green and reunite, starting an FMC to clip Purple into the block. This works because these 2x2 blocks are actors. The 1x1 blocks on the wall aren't, for example. Then, once Purple is far enough into the block, he gets pulled into tiles using C-right formation's acceleration. From there I stop his momentum using X and reuniting the very next frame, while Green starts a roll. This leads to Green being inside solid tiles and rolling, which allows FMC through the tiles with controlled movement, identical to the beginning of 1-2. I make my way up, then jump out of the wall thanks to the weird window tile mechanics. Now up the wall, the switch can be hit which opens the gate. Additionally, this triggers a couple special freeze frames which are intended by the game. During this small time window, Links are not supposed to move. However, a C-formation's acceleration is able to make them move. In this state, they can traverse solid tiles, so I put Red just into the right spot to have him behind the gate, which skips waiting for it to open completely. Plus, it looks really cool. 0:16 This fight took me way too long, probably around six hours. The result is great though, because I get a ton of red gems in addition to the 150. As always, Gem RNG is extremely delicate, but this is superb. Also waiting for a combo 20 to drop before I continue. 0:24 Pulling this lever will cause freeze frames again, allowing the Links to clip into the wall using the C-right formation. However, they would instantly clip out again, but I clip them into a hidden ledge, which comes with special properties and makes them oscillate. Using rolls and FMC allows clipping up the wall. This skips not only two GBA screens on this screen, but also the entire screen located to the right which contains a small key. This also skips bombs, which makes the upcoming soldier fight a bit more challenging, but TAS got this. 0:31 This screen is somewhat annoying. Instead of fighting the big soldier mass in separated slots, I lure them all out and then release devastating C-left spin attacks. Once the combo counter reaches 50, I reset it by getting hit. This is important for the gem route, since there are no more gem rewards for 60 and onwards. (Note: For JP anyway. NTSC and PAL have different rewards. Notable is PAL, with dropping 100s for 70 and 80, and 1000 (!) for 90 and onwards). 0:53 The Barrier Screen This is the quickest method to get past this screen, since it also skips the four switches which are meant to clear the path and let you continue. FMC clipping applies again, since the barrier is an actor. Same concept as 1-2 and at the beginning of 1-3. I am sure you are tired of reading it over and over by now. Pressing buttons, going fast. 0:59 Obliterating these soldiers to open the door and to get the gem combo counter exactly back to 50! I need to wait a little bit for the last combo gem to spawn. Inside the GBA screen I store the jump of the non-green Links, allowing me to release it on the TV screen, which makes them jump into the upper left corner. 1:21 The Phantom Ganon fight. Or not. As coincidence has it, the barrier screen is actually to the left of this one, which allows this skip. 1:22 The barrier screen. I use FMC rolls to get out of the wall, then reunite to pull the others out as well and finish 1-3. Improvement: about 2:13
Zarmakuizz
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Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
Half less time for 4 times more wtf moments - I buy this. Thank you for this awesome video, great work!
Joined: 2/28/2012
Posts: 160
Location: Philadelphia
Wow, that's a lot of time saved! Great job.
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
Oh goodness, this game is so broken now. Loving every second.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
It's been a while. There's quite a gap between 1-3 and 2-1, which was mainly caused by real life issues (as so often). I don't want to go into details, it's mostly due to my hands easily starting to hurt. This means the future progression will be slowed down as well, but hopefully not as much. Just need to take it easy. Anyways, 2-1. Link to video There are no super drastic changes like in 1-3, but still a lot of new things to discover! First off, we will ditch bombs at the beginning and get the slingshot instead. This allows the Like-like-clip, which shortens the first Novabomb screen (aside from looking really cool). Also, more FMCs have been added to save time here and there along with small optimizations. 1st: FMC through the block to avoid waiting to jump down the ledge. 2nd: Just getting the slingshot. 3rd: Since we no longer have bombs this early, we cannot access the lower cave entrance. Thus, I simply use the House entrance instead and do a super short FMC to get to the other side. This respawns Red and Blue at the entrance, making it possible to catch the other 100, which normally is out of range. 4th: Rolling 5th: Thanks to the slingshot, an one cycle Zora Fight is much easier, and probably faster too. 6th: Killing everything while dashing through the masses. For the Like-like-clip, I want the Like-like to eat Green, then stun it with the others. This is possible by holding the C-stick as Green gets sucked in. In this special state Green can traverse any tile by moving the others against a wall or object. Green's movement works inversely to the other's, so I move them down-left. To free Green, you simply need to spin the control stick. Then, the Links can transition the screen from this unintended place, ending up inside a wall on the next screen. 7th: Before the cutscene starts, Green rolls to the left to clip out once the cutscene has finished. He jumps "out" of the ledge, which is handled as a normal downwards jump, making him reach the next free tile. Switching on one certain frame allows me to make him jump while controlling the next Link. I clip out Purple, then enter the GBA screen to obtain bombs. They are necessary on the next GBA screen to blow up a wall. Initially, I wanted to skip bombs entirely, but it's impossible from my understanding. Note how Red picks up the 100 gem in the GBA section without stopping at all. Godly gras cutting and OoB at the end to skip the canon room. 8th: More godly gras cutting. On the first GBA screen, I use FMC again to clip through the 4x4 block, then do some insane micro management to make the others pick up bombs while still have the formation speed up advantage. I use the bombs on the next GBA screen, to kill two soldiers and to obtain the gems. Even more godly gras cutting. It may not look like it, but these gras parts require a lot of time and effort to optimize. Overall, I've probably spent 4 hours on gras sections alone. The last GBA screen has another FMC to create a small shortcut, delaying the spawning blocks. 9th: Octos get devastated. I purposely exit the screen with 1349 gems. 10th: The 1 gem. 11th: The Lobster. I store a roll before the 2000 Gems CS starts, which is only possible on one frame. Also, 2000 gems. 12th: The most difficult part of any stage: The Barrier. Overall improvements: Roughly 25 seconds
Joined: 11/26/2010
Posts: 454
Location: New York, US
Damn Yadra121, you're amazing!!! Loving the breakdown as well, which I will read later. BTW your submission text is gonna be enormous. Lots of great info and its definitely one of the most anticipated TAS' that I'm looking forward to seeing, keep up the great work!!!
My name is Forensics.
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
Thank you! The submission text will probably end up as a novel or something, there's still enough material to write about, haha.
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
2-2 greatly takes advantage of FMC again. Not only does it allow to skip the Magic Book (which is the level's goal to finish it, pretty much), but it also skips the Shadow Link fight near the end. This means that all that's left is to get force gems. For that, the Bow Mini Game comes in handy again. It greatly differs from the old TAS though. Link to video 1st: The old man will give you a moon pearl, but you need to feel the "strange sensation" first, so I go up. 2nd: I just push the Links into the trigger and leave. 3rd: Making Green immobile by using the sword, then reuniting one frame later to start a roll with the other Links. Talking to the old man now will spawn the moonpearl. I need to wait for one frame before I exit the screen or else I despawn the pearl. 4th: Just getting through the GBA section, making my way to the left where the Bow Mini Game is located. 5th: The Bow Mini Game (BMG) screen. I enter the house and talk to the NPC, but I wait one frame to manipulate a specific gem pattern. The initial pattern changes every frame. Now, you are not supposed to exit the house during the BMG. There's actually an invisible wall blocking the exit once you trigger the BMG. However, using a super precise (yet simple) clip, it is possible to leave. When you enter the house, Link's coordiantes are 128.000000 | 116.000000 While walking in a straight direction, Link's position changes by 1.500000 units/frame. If you simply hold down, Link will reach 121.000000, which is what we need. But any less, like 120.975639 for example, won't work, so I must walk carefully to not change the coordinates in a bad way. This is because when you are close to a wall, you cannot just walk down to reach 121.000000. If you are on some uneven ordinate like 120.975639, it will stay this way and you cannot reach 121.000000. Doing a jump slash in front of the door while standing right next to the wall (ordinate = 121.000000) will make Link clip a slight bit into the wall, making it possible to reach the exit trigger and thus leave the building. This is useful because I can combine this with getting OoB and then doing FMC to clip into the gem area. This way I can hit gems on the earliest frame possible (only the last one really matters) and can position a Link right next to the screen transition while still waiting for gems. Performing FMCs costs frames because you freeze the game every 2nd frame, but this is still 2 seconds faster than the old TAS, plus I can leave the screen immediately after instead having to exit the house and walk all the way back then. 6th: Rolling. 7th: The great sequence break. If you've ever played this game casually, you know how many things you need to do to finally obtain the book and then spawn the house to leave. If not, here's an idea: You need to talk to four agents in this village, their boss and other various NPCs. To do so, you'll need several items, like Bombs, Pegasus Boots, the Firerod, the shovel, three moon pearls, a letter and probably other things I forgot. RTA runs skip all of this too, but still have to get the book. TAS uses the house's entrance and simply performes FMC to reach the other side of the fence. While we are at it, we simply get up the wall too, which will allow Shadow Link fight skip. 8th: As you might have noticed, I've only collected 1900 gems so far. The last 100 will be this floating one. Firstly, I need to squeeze in a Link into the upmost tile row, because you cannot access it by merely walking. Using the C-formation and a roll does the trick though. Now, to get the 100, I make Green walk down diagonally, then grab the wall and press X 3 frames later. This pushes him down and makes him jump in this special case. He's not supposed to be able to jump down here though, since there's a full column of tiles below, so there's no landing space in bounds. Thus, he will respawn, but grab the gem during the process. I delay Purple's roll and store it through the 2000 gems cutscene to be able to roll immediately once it finishes because there's a small frame window after the CS where you cannot perform special inputs like rolling. 9th: The Shadow Link fight screen. 10th: Being close enough to accessible tiles, using the C-right formation will clip the others out. Improvement: About 78 seconds.
Joined: 11/26/2010
Posts: 454
Location: New York, US
Wow Yadra121 you got through that really fast!!! I saw you streaming earlier. I was gonna watch but, I had things to do. BTW after reading your notes you realize how complex the game really is. It has everything that makes a TAS so great. Thanks for the video and the notes/novel Yadra121!!!
My name is Forensics.
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
It was nice knowing you, 2-2.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Player (79)
Joined: 7/7/2008
Posts: 873
Location: Utah
This is nuts. You're not even halfway through, and this is already one of the craziest TASes I've ever seen!
Joined: 11/26/2010
Posts: 454
Location: New York, US
IMO this is definitely gonna be one of the best TAS' on the site once its finished!!!
My name is Forensics.
Zarmakuizz
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Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
I am just watching this back from Austria and wow, I missed some amazing things here! That sounds like you got a big issue with your hands, I hope you could get it sorted.
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
Again, I am glad I am done with this stage. Link to video 1st: FMC into the loading zone to avoid waiting for the door to open. 2nd: Purple micro management. 3rd: These enemies are annoying as they jump away from your active Link if you stand near them when you try to attack them, so I run through the room and have the other Links kill them. 4rd: Red slashes the pot and then gets pulled back without triggering the CS. Then, I do FMC to roll through the trigger. Hitting these enemies is tricky because depending on the frame you slash them, their death animation can take an incredible amount of time, so I manipulate short ones. 5th: FMC to perform Deathless Lamp Skip. This skips both the left and right wing of this dungeon, or 8 TV screens that involve a lot of back tracking. Saves about 55 seconds over the old method. 6th: Vocal performance. I reset the combo counter once it reaches 50. 7th: Too much unavoidable lag. Well, I decreased it a little bit. 8th: This room is RNG hell. Rat movement is extremely sensitive and changes on a super small frame level depending on Link's actions. They are the true boss of this game. The wizzrobes' spawn locations also easily change, which makes this room in addition with the gem rain a true RNG manipulation challenge. 9th: Boss. I try to constantly make use of all Links, either utilizing their boomerang or sword while being very close to the boss to reduce waiting time for the boomerangs to return. Tunrs out I got too many gems again, but it's not easy to calculate in this stage. For the second phase, somewhat precise spin attacks finish it off in one cycle. 10th: Barrier and Maiden CS. Boring stuff nobody watches. Improvement: ~65 seconds
Zarmakuizz wrote:
That sounds like you got a big issue with your hands, I hope you could get it sorted.
I might have located the issue, which would not be very amusing. Oh well.
Joined: 10/23/2009
Posts: 545
Location: Where?
Amazing work!
Zarmakuizz
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Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
Nicely done, congrats!
Yadra121
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Joined: 1/24/2015
Posts: 61
Location: Germany
3-1 has gotten a significant change, skipping the Hammer and obtaining the Boomerang instead. There's no major break like in 2-2 or 2-3 though. Link to video First: No changes Second: Using the C-left spin attack while moving with Green speeds him up as the other Links touch collision. While running through the screen to eliminate all enemies, I obtain the Boomerang in the right house. Third: Boomerang action. Fourth: Again, the bow is skipped. However, this time by using OoB + FMC to skip the cave area. Fifth: Using a rather precise enemy clip, stunning and reuniting on a specific frame will make Purple clip, allowing to start another FMC to ignore the previously used medallion and the GBA section. Sixth: Another enemy clip to access the area that normally requires the Hammer. Seventh: Pretty much the only reason why the Boomerang is necessary. Without the Hammer, doing the OoB + FMC trick again is required to get past the obstacle. To access the cave however a bomb must explode to burn the gras and the tree stump. This can only be realized by either the Hammer (which is skipped) or the Boomerang. Eight: Killing the ogre and manipulating a 150. Ninth: Very precise attacks, more Boomerang utilization. Tenth: OoB to access the upper area, then walking against that ledge will perform the Super Yump :) Eleventh: Super boring screen, nothing to speed it up. Twelfth: SICK Gem Disco (A joke made from the first TAS's footage: Link to video ) Improvement: ~30 seconds
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