Update!
The third WIP is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYgniDILyeE
I'm pretty happy with this one. I managed to get my theoretical route to work, by skipping the herb in Rockbird and manipulating the Level 9 to come up exactly where I needed it in Durean.
Taking the armor off does save time in Blester because the monster lair gives 3HP, and the two menus to remove and put the armor back on cost less than the time needed to lose that much HP for the deathwarp. I am less certain about the Rockbird deathwarp but I eventually took off the armor there as well: the recent Level 8 gave me so much HP to deplete, and losing all HP one by one was certainly too slow (even if I could do it in such a short time, it would have saved at most 14 frames over the two extra menus, but I don't think I could have anyway).
Man, that Critical Sword is badass. It does not work on bosses, but melting all enemies in front of me is so satisfying. I hope it will save tons of time in the rest of the game!
Act 4 done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjWTqk_Onog
That one was quite a challenge. Lots of complex routes and unexpected ways to save time. I'm pretty happy to be done with all the testing, especially the room with he Lucky Blade (arguably the least obvious room strat in the whole game).
I didn't skip the herb this time, because it's almost certain that it will be required in Leo's Lab and/or World of Evil (probably both).
Congrats on the progress!
Link to video
It seems someone on Nicovideo is working on an improvement too.
BTW, what's the reason that there are separate categories for J and U versions of the game on https://www.speedrun.com/Soul_Blazer ?
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this video too. It seems to miss a lot on the recent optimizations though... Unfortunately I don't think it currently is much faster than Kaz's original TAS.
The differences between J and U version are:
- Text. It's printed out three times as fast in J, making it a lot faster overall.
- Bosses. They all have a more or less subtle difference between the two versions, but the J bosses are easier and faster for the most part.
Dealing with much faster text is the main reason why I chose the J version. It's also my favourite version of the two to speedrun RTA.
What exactly makes the bosses easier in the (J) version? If you're intending to submit the run once you finish, specifics on that will be helpful for the judge. If the differences result in significantly different fights on (J) compared to (U), that might make both worth publishing.
Additionally, do be aware that the "faster text" from using the (J) version is not considered to be an "improvement" by TASVideos standards.
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2178
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
Great WIP once again.
One question though: Did you ever switch to the lucky blade? It seemed like you stopped trying to one-hit kill everything after a while, but I can't find a change in blades.
I didn't equip the Lucky Blade at all. Manipulating RNG provides me enough gems already, and the advantage of the Critical Sword is too good.
The reason why I don't always crit enemies (even if I could) is because it's not always the fastest way. Depending on when the 16th frame happens (the crit frame), it may or may not be faster to kill an enemy with magic, which takes only 9 frames (1f first hit + 8f invincibility frames) for most enemies. So if the crit frame happens more than 9 frames after the enemy becomes vulnerable, then it's faster to defeat it with magic.
That choice can be also influenced by how many gems you want to keep for the rest of the run. Tough decisions!
What exactly makes the bosses easier in the (J) version? If you're intending to submit the run once you finish, specifics on that will be helpful for the judge. If the differences result in significantly different fights on (J) compared to (U), that might make both worth publishing.
Additionally, do be aware that the "faster text" from using the (J) version is not considered to be an "improvement" by TASVideos standards.
"Faster text" is obviously not an improvement, it just helps with the flow of working on the game, and reduces downtime, making the whole run eventually more entertaining (in my opinion).
Here are the details on the known differences between J and U:
- The title screen is skippable immediately in J, which is not the case in U (you have to wait a little while after the title has appeared).
- Text is drawn out one character per frame in J, versus one character every three frames in U, which is quite significant.
- The only actual gameplay difference is bosses. Here is the complete breakdown:
1. The first boss is MUCH MUCH easier in J. If you have level 3, the herb and full health, you can simply go towards him and poke him to death. There is no conveyor belt on the middle part. In U, there is a conveyor belt in the middle (going down), and the ones on the sides go up. The strategy is to go to one side, tap down to stay at the same altitude to make sure you hit the boss constantly and don't get hit by his body. It's much more difficult in real-time.
2. The three statues: the first two are identical, but the third one has different AI between J and U. I find it harder in J personally, but that depends mostly on what your strategy is. It doesn't really matter for the TAS.
3. the Skull has less HP in J, allowing for a 2-cycle kill, while 3 cycles are required in U.
4. The J boss is Medusa, but she was censored into Poseidon in the U version. 3-cycle kill in J, versus 4-cycle in U due to different HP amount. The J version requires you to move more to dodge her spear. But you have a bit more room to work with on the sides.
5. Tin Doll: in U, he fires missiles immediately, but in J he fires missiles after a little while. It is debatable which one is the easiest. I don't think it makes any time difference.
6. The bird has less HP in J, allowing for a 1-cycle kill, versus 2 cycles in U.
7. When Deathtoll casts his three fireballs, they are more split apart in U than in J. I don't think that makes the boss easier or harder.
If it helps, the time difference between the two versions is roughly 9 minutes, based on RTA runs. They are considered separate categories in RTA, but I don't know if the differences would warrant for a separate category in TAS. I'll let the judges decide on that. :)
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2178
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
LeHulk wrote:
I didn't equip the Lucky Blade at all. Manipulating RNG provides me enough gems already, and the advantage of the Critical Sword is too good.
The reason why I don't always crit enemies (even if I could) is because it's not always the fastest way. Depending on when the 16th frame happens (the crit frame), it may or may not be faster to kill an enemy with magic, which takes only 9 frames (1f first hit + 8f invincibility frames) for most enemies. So if the crit frame happens more than 9 frames after the enemy becomes vulnerable, then it's faster to defeat it with magic.
That choice can be also influenced by how many gems you want to keep for the rest of the run. Tough decisions!
Thank you for the explanation!
Looking forward to Leo's Laboratory.
Just a quick reminder: You can swing using a sword you're not a high enough level for. Just switch swords in mid-swing! Not useful for Zantetsu Sword, due to enemy defense being high enough that you're still only doing token damage, but the Spirit Sword should benefit when you start Magridd Castle. Won't cast Pheonix, so we still need that final level grind.
Largely that I remember having formed this page, so...
http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/SoulBlazer.html
Thought I'd bring it up now, since there was no need of this trick in the earlier worlds, and so it would be easy to forget the trick exists when its use is coming up. If you can find use with this trick and the Zantetsu Sword, even better!
I'm still loving those crazy steps. Amusing how an otherwise straight line can still be done with different animations without loss of time.
Like the simultaneity when multiple lairs are involved. The strategies are nice to see, and the timing of Level 8 -> 9 to replace an herb was just grand. Although I expected the Critical Sword abuse, it's still a treat to actually see.
Mostly posting for the trick reminder up there, just in case. But I thought I'd add in some encouragement while I'm here. So, I order you to be encouraged!
Thanks a lot for the encouragements FatRatKnigts!
Don't worry, I'm well aware of the sword switch glitch. It's already used to defeat Magridd Castle ghosts more quickly in RTA runs, and the TAS will probably do the same.
Act 5 complete!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1AImD4xmU
Damage management and ML multi-tasking were quite challenging once again. I had good enough gem drops in the model towns, so I didn't need to re-equip the Magic Armor. I re-equipped it at the last part, along with equipping the Zantetsu Sword, saving one menu.
I recently finished Act 6! The TAS is progressing well and should be finished in August. I won't release another WIP though, to keep some surprises.
Surpsisingly, the sword switch glitch only saved time on the last ghost lair. It turned out to be slower on the first two ghost lairs because the Monster Lair's internal timer doesn't run during menuing. Another good news: I only had to delay one single frame to get the good bird boss pattern. I guess I'm lucky :)
TAS is finished!
Here's the highlight of me streaming it and commentating on it.
https://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/83411987
Before submitting the TAS to tasvideos I first want to make a version with subtitles in order to explain things during the run, since there's a lot of speed tricks and optimizations which aren't obvious and need clarification. Although, I noticed that when making subtitles in BizHawk, you can assign them (x,y) coordinates, so the position of the subtitles will depend on how the game is scaled. But I don't know if I can assume how the game will be scaled when my submission gets reviewed.
So what do you think: should I just submit the TAS without subtitles, or is it OK if I submit a bk2 movie with subtitles, even if those subtitles won't scale when changing the size of the BizHawk window?
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6452
Location: The land down under.
LeHulk wrote:
So what do you think: should I just submit the TAS without subtitles, or is it OK if I submit a bk2 movie with subtitles, even if those subtitles won't scale when changing the size of the BizHawk window?
We publishers deal with the subtitles in the end and make it actually work with the video.
As technically the subtitles are meant to be displayed in the x1 resolution on BizHawk and what you're aiming for to be watchable on x2/x3.
You can see here on what it would look on BizHawk vs how it would be managed at publication.
Edit: Forgot, to mention. This varies depending on the publisher.
As well as Make sure you explain with a single sentence. It becomes a bit problematic if you do multiple sentences during the same time frame.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account.Something better for yourself and also others.
