This topic is for the purpose of discussing #276: Zurreco's SNES Castlevania: Dracula X in 19:35.63

I voted no. There are many things I saw wrong. Jumping is obviously faster than walking. Why not use this a lot more? The Item Crash places you higher than a jump. Why not see if you can use shortcuts from this? (Go through the floor above you, etc.) You can skip a lot of enemies by jumping over them and hitting their right side, thus boosting you a tiny bit also, as seen in the CastleVania IV movie. It would be save a bit of time not having to fight enemies. Why not do this also? If I can muster up the motivation tonight, I will improve on this movie.

jumping is not 100% faster than walking. its an issue of frames and, in the long run, not worth the effort to see how much time it saves. item crashes dont provide any real shortcuts. trust me. anything that can be ascended with the use of an item crash can be done without an item crash in the same amount of time (and doesnt require an hearts). also, the only enemies that you can jump over and be launched FORWARD are the mermen and the bats. all bats are either avoidable or destroyable without losing any time. mermen, for the most part, can simply be jumped over or killed without saving time. of course, you can feel free to compete.

I dont know what I should wote. So I'll wait and see. Great work on the movie Zurreco. Castlevania Dracula X is a very good game and I think this movie could be improved highly. :) Im not perfectly myself, but thats is what I think. Jumping are alot faster then walking and I think you could e.g take some damage to get to higher platforms and so on. I have played the game myself, but that was a long time ago... but.. what did the Maids do in the game, better ending? I think you can skip them. >:)

maidens are acquired for best ending. they take an extra 15 seconds, so its not a big problem. there are no spots in the game where you can take hits to achieve higher ground or save ground UNLESS it is by pikemen. however, this situation only occurs once on the upper path. otherwise, being hit is only useful to pass through obstacles or get more hits in. in the pillar room at the end of stage 3, taking hits causes you to 'fall' over to the next pillar on occasion, but it is really only helpful after the second bone totem (and i use this in my movie) as for jumping: jumping versus walking is only a difference of very few frames. if you did jump the whole game, you would need to get the frames down to a science for each jump. in total, you might save a few seconds, but it would be much of a hassle. still, being the perfectionist that i am, i will be redoing this run trying to cut out as much time as possible. i will try a run with no running (no pun intended), but this is still a submission. edit: dan has informed me that his run uses backflips, not jumping, to cover ground quickly. i hadnt realised that backflips, if timed well, are obviously faster in certain areas (and lacking in others). i would prefer walking or normal jumping in order to control the killing of enemies and the gathering of items. more on this when more occurs

I vote Yes even though there is room for improvement. Maybe I'm just being kind because I love Castlevania or maybe I'm just acknowledging the work you put into this first draft. I would like to see the boss fights go faster if at all possible. Also, take great care in how many hearts you need versus how many you actually collect. On the last stage you actually went out of your way to grab an extra heart yet finished the stage with two hearts to spare. Don't forget, when tallying your score extra hearts means extra time wasted.

dan is already beating my movie time wise. i wont cancel my submission, because i think my movie sacrifices a bit of time in order to take many less hits and show more mobility. i can tell you now that his movie will fade mine time wise, though.

as for jumping: jumping versus walking is only a difference of very few frames. if you did jump the whole game, you would need to get the frames down to a science for each jump.

This is EXACTLY what I did for Sword Master. Granted, that's an extremely short game, but that doesn't mean it can't be done here as well. -Josh

Yes, but the point of the movies on this site is to show the fastest theoretical time, not the fastest time that's not too inconvenient.

No, they are made for entertainment. Read the Why/How page. And entertainment shouldn't be sacrificed for speed. Remember the original Super Contra run which used constant tubo (even when nothing was on the screen) to save a few seconds in the overall run? Yes, it was faster, but it was unwatchable. I don't know anything about this game or this run but if it is like the other Castlevania games then I wouldn't want to see constant jumping, especially if it only saves a couple of seconds. If it saves twenty seconds then that's a different story. But I still wouldn't watch it.

Err, yeah, that's mostly what it is, but in almost all cases, the most entertaining is ones that are the fastest and have the fewest or no errors. This doesn't have those qualities.

Remember the original Super Contra run which used constant tubo (even when nothing was on the screen) to save a few seconds in the overall run? Yes, it was faster, but it was unwatchable.

I thought the one currently on the site was the fastest. I don't see how the constant turbo fire one would be faster.

No, they are made for entertainment. Read the Why/How page. And entertainment shouldn't be sacrificed for speed.

this is the main reason i havent cancelled my submission. although dan has a faster run, it seems sloppy at many points. he does, however, do a few areas much more efficiently than i had. i was quite impressed with his two boss fights. he was also able to make the footman launch him from standstill (something i coudnt seem to make them ever do, no matter how many times i tried). this will make me redo my run with a few optimisations, but i wont be doing it for a little while. also, constant jumping throughout the whole game will not save more than 15 seconds for the whole run. i can tell you that it is faster, but not by much of a margin. a few seconds per level at max.

I don't know anything about this game or this run but if it is like the other Castlevania games then I wouldn't want to see constant jumping, especially if it only saves a couple of seconds. If it saves twenty seconds then that's a different story. But I still wouldn't watch it.

Meh, I'd find a ton of jumping to be more entertaining than only jumping when it's needed. Especially when it's faster. Don't know if you watched the Gremlins 2 run, but that movie looked like it wouldn't have been nearly as fun to watch if it didn't do that jumping.

Entertainment is much harder to judge than speed, especially since it's very subjective.