Silhouette Mirage takes place in a world where due to an accident it is now inhabited by two genetically mutated classes, the Silhouette and the Mirage. Our hero Shyna Nera Shyna who was created to be the messenger of justice seeks to find Edo, a computer system responsible for the accident, and restore the world back to order.
Emulator used: BizHawk 2.2
BIOS used: Bios v1.01 (J)
Comments
Shyna posses the power of both classes which allows her to inflict damage to both enemies, the red for silhoutte and blue for mirage. Throughout the game you are presented with enemies and bosses which are either one or neutral. Usually you have to make sure you're in the right position to deal damage, but if you fire a shot and the next frame turn to the other side you're able to aviod having to maneuver around to attack them. This is only useful while mid air, since you turn quicker.
The game has a run/dash which is used by double tapping a directional button, but it also has a charge attack which is chained together to move faster than the regular dash.
The weapon used for the duration of the run is the level 6 Surosa, which is a better version of the defualt weapon at the beginning. To obtain this weapon it costs 900 coins. There is another weapon that costs 900 which you can get early on, a level 6 Priday, which is a boomerang that was used in the RTA speedrun for the Saturn version. I tested which would be better and despite fighting extra enemies getting the Surosa turned out being 1.5 seconds faster, plus the Priday fires every 9/10 frames whereas the Surosa fires every 2, or 2 shots every 3 frames.
With certain fights getting the quickest kill isn't always the fastest since there are animations after which move the characters into a fixed postion. So in some instances I either move to enemy into postion or make sure the kill leads to the text box appearing quickly.
You might notice in some fights that there are stray bullets missing an enemy, this is done usually at the start of a fight to adjust the aim and get a faster hit on them.
If this were to use SDA timing like the RTA speedruns do it would be a 26:15.
Area Comments
Area 1
During this section I'm trying manipulate when the enemies spawn. I grab and puch them to get 30 coins which is the max you can get out of them, and then make sure that the drop from them dying is another 10 coins. This method of getting coins is used for the next 3 sections of enemies which provides exactly the required amount of coins to obtain the level 6 Surosa.
Now the grinding is done with and we can defeat enemies in a swift manner. The next section involves shooting the enemies off screen which either despawns them or shoots them of the ceiling and falling to their death. After the mini boss I move to the left, this starts the fight slower but allows me shoot them off the cliff resulting in a faster explosion.
Now we fight our first boss Bug. The idea for this fight is to keep him to the ground and reduce the distance/time it takes him to recover after the fight.
Area 2
During this section it's faster to to spawn the enemies at the end and deal with them there. With the last two enemy sections its faster to take them out from the middle and then the end as opposed to getting to the last guy and taking them all out.
In the next fight towards the end I grab him before the final shot to cancel an attack and to just jump into position. Our next boss is Zohar who also posses the powers of both silhouette and mirage, but for this fight we have to use mirage. In order to start dealing damage we jump right at them and keep them on that side.
After defeating the next batch of enemies I force the mech silhouette to the right which pushes them off the edge which is actually slower than if I were to defeat it facing the other way, but since it's off screen the top half which explodes after the body despawns which allows us to progress to the next part quicker.
At the start of the canon fight I manipulate it so it spawns at least 3 flathead guys which normally deal 32 damage, but with a certain angle you can deal double that with 64 damage.
Area 3
Once the sixth enemy is defeated I move over to the left so that after the eighth guy is done with I can quickly head over to the next section. Once up here I fire some shots to get them in a better postion for the fight.
The stop before the guy is to lure him out, otherwise he will cower behind the wall.
During the boss battle the side you attack the face results in the oppisite power needed for the next phase. Silhouette was used for the second phase since it spawns it at the bottom. Also I deflect a ball which deals an additional 20 damage.
Area 4
The first phase of this boss fight I'm able to deal additional damage, usually the health will stop at a certain amount, but it's possible to get in some extra shots. Doing this skips the second phase straight into the third. During the fourth phase I make sure that the boss doesn't start an attack so that it transitions into the final phase much faster.
The enemies on the ceiling are targeted because after they are defeated a second wave appears whereas the bottom guys remain throuhgout. So I take out the first wave and while waiting for the second wave I take out the silhouette guys.
Taking the middle lane is the fastest way the the boss. Here we see another example of it being quicker to get the boss into a better position for the text box to appear.
For the battle with the soup the idea is to make sure that the boss inhales blue bubbles, in order to do this you throw in a buch of enemies. Throughout the entire fight I'm manipulating when he inhales the bubbles by how I throw enemies in and where I spawn them.
Area 5
Taking the left is one frame faster and a few more when reaching the next enemy. By grabbing them I ensure that after they attack me they shoot their web which I trap them into dealing enough damage by the time I get to the end of the screen.
For the next boss I fire to make them jump down and make sure to clear out the two enemies in the way. By deflecting their shots at a certain frame you can make them continue shooting.
Our next opponent is Megido whom we saw earlier. After the first throw I make sure to keep grabbing him to keep him in position.
I take out the guys on the turret first allowing the mech to make its way to the left. I make sure the second mech lands on the higher platform so it isn't in the way while I get the other in position to deflect its attack and land on the same platform, then take out the final mech.
During the next boss fight I simply am trying to get the boss to grab the enemies and swallow them, four enemies for each phase.
It's Zohar again. When I grab them I use the punch as it allows me to start firing earlier than if I were to throw them into the ground. Once defeated Zohar turns into Cypher Za-Zohar and during this fight I make to keep on the right side so that when they come back again they're infront of me instead of behind me.
Once we are done with Zohar we speak to Hal and decide the fate of the world. For the sake of speed we decide to abandon Edo which leads to a faster final boss fight.
Our final opponent is Megido. His first phase is fairly simple, taking damage at the end is a frame quicker than just standing while attcking. The second phase I delay the first shot since he is protected by a shiled and results in him using a desirable attack.
ThunderAxe31: While this run aims to fastest completion, it must be noted that the best ending can be achieved by fighting Edo, which is slower.
The run itself is very optimized and was appreciated by the audience. Accepting for Moons.
