- Wizard Fire, known in Japan as Dark Seal II (ダークシールII), is a hack 'n slash game developed by Data East and released in 1992 for arcades. It was released digitally on the Nintendo Switch in 2018 by FTE Games as part of their Johnny Turbo's Arcade line, and to the Steam and GOG in 2021 by Ziggurat Interactive as part of their Retro Classix line. (Taken from https://dataeast.fandom.com/wiki/Wizard_Fire)
- This TAS uses the default Dipswitch settings.
- This submission uses a romset with much better sound than the previously cancelled submission.
Gameplay
- There are five different characters to choose from and each differ in their weapons and special abilities. The chosen character is the Dwarf since he has powerful thrown axe attacks, and an extremely powerful Summon spell. The way the magic spells work in the "magic book" is that they cycle through a list. The Dwarf has a shortlist and the Summon appears quite readily which is another benefit. The Dwarf has slow movement speed, but oddly enough it is not that much of an issue in this game. Another positive with the Dwarf is that his attacks are projectile axes that return to him, and that let's him move while attacking too. The projectile axes have a great property since they do constant damage wherever they are. One axe throw can sometimes hit a boss three times in a row in a single use. Wizard Fire has a rather slow moving camera and once the Dwarf has the movement increasing Boots he is often faster than the camera moves with the only limiting factor being the enemies and doorways. Unlike Wizard Fire (Dark Seal 2)'s predecessor this game's camera is rather slow. I suspect the developers wanted to make sure the players had to contend with all the waves of enemies, or perhaps to mitigate the large amount of lag that occurs once too many enemies are on screen.
- The only other character that seems like a good choice for speed is the Bard. His high speed normal attack does good constant damage. His Summon is decent unlike almost all the other characters. The other good aspect is that his speed is pretty good too.
- There are five pieces of equipment. The boots increase speed, the gauntlet increases attack power, the armor negates 3 attacks, the necklace negates 3 fire attacks, the ring negates 2 cold attacks, and the scarabs negates poison (and pig?) attacks. This tas only gets a gauntlet and boots. One thing different from the first game is that the Gauntlet's timer is quite short and since the Dwarf's Summon does a massive amount of work in this tas, normal attacks take a backseat. The Dwarf's normal attack could benefit from the gauntlet which is why I pick up an easy to get one on the first level, but ignore the second gauntlet which is slightly out of the way.
- Items: Potions can remove poison and give one health. The bell gives an extra life (players get three lives per continue), a Bestiary which kills all enemies (not minibosses), and a Magic refill book.
- There is a Magic bar which is filled as enemies are killed. On the side a book of magic spells is displayed and as time passes the book flips through a sequence of spells. Once the bar is filled the spell can be cast, and the spell ends when the magic meter is empty. The spell sequence seems to only depend on which character is chosen. There is some strangeness with how the magic book flips through the pages between transitions. Sometimes it is better to wait a bit so then on the next screen the next page will appear faster. The Magic meter bar also seems buggy on boss kills where sometimes it simply WILL NOT charge. This was rather frustrating on some bosses like the dual Golem bosses and the Spider boss. While a Summon is active it can prevent the Meter charge which is a problem which is often mitigating by including waits.
- Most Magic forms also take damage from enemies. Magic Spells cannot be used on bosses. Casting a spell takes several seconds so most of the time it is faster to not use them. There are a bunch of other spells, but the main takeaway is that almost all of them are terrible. The Dwarf Summon, the Bard Summon, the Rock, Lightning Storm, and the "?" if you can get decent equipment out of it and not get turned into a pig. The others have low damage and even if it does not seem like it should happen they take damage from being hit. Like a spell that turns you into a Lightning Storm takes damage from swords for example. Some Spells like the Rock do not need full Magic meter, but Summons, and the "?" do. The Magic spells the Dwarf uses are as follows.
- Summon - Every character has this, but the Dwarf's looks the best with damage and range. There is a big difference in almost every boss between using this and not. However certain bosses are not worth using it on if they have longer periods of invincibility like the first boss or the witch boss with the orb. This summon can do 5 damage on enemies strong to magic, and up to 20 (!) damage on enemies it is effective against. You can compare this to some of the other character's Summons like the Knight's that do pathetic damage like 1 damage. The second best spell is the Bard's Summon which does 7 on bosses it is effective against.
- Rock - The rock can barely move but its main attack is a full screen attack that does moderate damage. This is used to great effect on the final level where the game fills the screen with enemies. Its full screen attack makes this part faster than attacking through the waves.
- "?" - This spell has two possibilities. The most likely result is turning into a pig. The pig is actually not bad, it has high movement and a small hitbox, but it has no means to attack so cannot break open doors. The second is to turn into a Treasure Chest which spits out items with some items being equipment. These drops seem random, but it is not. The game has some sort of list and every so often the list advances and drops the first item, and puts a new item into the previous last drop. The treasure box can drop several items, but it is dependent on if you can keep your meter from dropping from begin hit. When this spell is used it will only be usable again if a Bell is picked up, or the player uses a Continue after dying.
- A stage usually consists of a stage with normal enemies and obstacles and a miniboss and then a boss. Magic spells are no longer restricted in where they can be used unlike the first game. In the normal enemy section there are chests that can drop predetermined items. After the stage is complete the player gets one extra heart if they are missing any. Note that the player cannot cast the spell then move into the boss area with the spell active. Instead the game just removes the magic spell once the boss area starts.
- If the player is idle too long there is a timeout reaper which appears. Once it touches the player it instantly kills the player.
- This is a game where using Continues would benefit the player greatly. After dying three rare equipment are spawned where the player died like the Boots (Movement Speed Up), the Bell (Refreshes certain spells usages, and increases spell meter massively), or Armor (no damage for three hits). Other less useful equipment can appear too.
- Dwarf 11m 01s by Janet의 고전게임오락실 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tgMvBxXabw
- Bard in 13m 55s by Speedking125 : www.twitch.tv/videos/1162402940?t=0h0m1s&tt_content=twitch_logo&tt_medium=embed
- Bard 13:20 by Janet의 고전게임오락실 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=41MfNMcgpuM
Stage 1
The Dwarf is chosen here since his Summon does incredible damage. He has some other good aspects which I wrote about above, but the Summon saves massive amounts of time on later bosses due to its high damage. On the first stage I pick up the nearby Gauntlets to increase damage. Chests knock out treasures in a semi random fashion here a hit is delayed so the gauntlets drop closer to the Dwarf. After moving up the left "boss-like" enemy just standing there needs to get hit in order to advance. Move up towards the gate, but here I delay a couple frames. The reason for this is that the Magic Book flips to the next spell based on some timer. I do not fully understand how it works, but delaying here actually has the "?" spell appear earlier in the next stage by about 10 frames than normal.
The boss is only vulnerable right on landing and does not take much damage before becoming invincible. He takes the most damage on the first cycle, but then only 15 max on each cycle after. On subsequent cycles one axe throw is enough to do 15 damage. Once dead the Dwarf is positioned as close as possible to the exact position the game wants to get the Stage Clear. Every final section of the stages have this.
Stage 2
Stage 2 has a good amount of enemies at the start and this weak miniboss that floats around. The Dwarf can use a powerful axe throw if enough time has passed. Since the miniboss has a very long period of invincibility between hits it is faster to only use the strong axe throw. The strong axe throw has a fire effect around it. Once dead a little bit I destroy the barrier to the next area and use the "?" magic. This magic can turn you into a pig or a treasure chest that spits out items. This spot is the best spot for this spell since the first drop is the Boots. There is predetermined list of items that drop and they are on a timer. I exit the area on the same frame I grab the boots. Exiting an area also stops the "?" spell which is the only other way to do so besides letting it use up all the meter.
The next area is this cliffside area. The boots let me move pretty fast and here you can see how the camera does not actually move very fast. In fact it restricts movement with the Dwarf right up against it towards the middle and end of this area. One interesting pickup here is the Bestiary book which kills all monsters on screen.
The boss has a nice little safe spot on the lower left side. Even though the tree shoots out little grenade like seeds this spot is completely safe. The Dwarf Summon punches the tree to death and exits stage right.
Stage 3
There is a Gauntlet to the left of the starting area, but it costs about 10 seconds overall so it is skipped. If the Gauntlet lasted about triple its current length it would be worth it, but otherwise it is not. The main strategy here is to keep up against the camera and kill enemies to get meter. Killing enemies is also important to prevent slowdown. There are some traps and such here, but moving quickly and carefully makes it so they are no threat. Towards the end there is an added wait to manipulate the Magic Book. Waiting some frames here allows the Summon magic page to appear faster for the miniboss.
The miniboss is a clone fight. However too bad for the clone it cannot use the Dwarf Summon. The clone normally appears in a random position after the first hit, but here the position is manipulated to appear nearby. After a couple hits the clone is down for the count. One oddity I noticed on this boss is that the other character's spells are really really bad on this miniboss. Sometimes the clone would get hit, but then the damage would often not even register. Also the damage for those other spells was really low.
The next section is notable for the only other Boots drop in the game that I know of. After getting the boots there is a little shortcut through a hidden door above with some traps inside. The entrance door to the boss is a bit crowded with enemies, but taking a hit is worth getting into the door early.
The boss is an undead version of the first boss. Too bad for it, it is super weak to the Summon magic. Position the Summon above and to the right a little of the boss and each hit can do twenty damage once it starts its breath attack.
Stage 4
This first part is a little puzzle. Two items need to be collected and brought to this platform. The first is to the north. On touching the horse head the next area starts to load. In the next area get the second item on the right and head north to the platform to get to the next area.
The miniboss is this witch, two monsters, and an orb. The Orb is only thing that takes damage when it is lit up. The trick with this fight is to keep moving to avoid the homing projectiles and the monsters that lunge at the Dwarf. The Summon is not worth it here since there are long delays between when it is vulnerable and it can only take a small amount of damage each cycle.
The next area is something of a tomb. There are some funny easter egg texts like "Care Bear" and about the Bit Brothers in here as well. However it is mainly filled with enemies that poison and stun the player. Going right then up through a destroyable wall that needs destroying is the fastest way out.
The dual Golem boss fight is where the game gets seriously grindy for the casual player. Almost all attacks do only 1 to 2 damage. They also have the most combined health of all bosses. The Golems also are invincible during their homing missile attacks and their ground pound attack. However they are very slow and do not have much range. The main trick here is to get them to get close enough together to attack them both at once. The flamethrower attack is the ideal time to attack them. There is some delay here since the Golem on the right will use this homing missile technique if it takes too much damage. Near the end there is delay added in order to get meter. For some reason this boss is really inconsistent to even give meter which seems like a bug.
Stage 5
This stage's first bridge part is seriously overcrowded. This section lags severely since the developers flood the area with waves of enemies. Enemies will just come spawning or teleporting in from everywhere at some points. The enemies on this bridge are almost all seriously obnoxious. Elves that teleport and use projectiles, Poison Minotaurs, Flying gargoyles that shoot out a paralyzing shot and poison on contact, and enemies that cause confuse (the Dwarf is immune). There are some standard enemies here that also throw knife projectiles but those are the easiest. The bridge has traps in the form of statues that shoot out lightning and fire too.
The trick here is to use the Dwarf's magic Rock fairly early in the bridge section and then move towards the end. However the meter really needs to be filled before the next area which is a super defensive boss. I do not use the Rock with the meter at its fullest, and also end it near the bridge's end. This is to kill enemies to get that meter filled.
The next section has the miniboss of the final stage which is a Spider boss. The spider boss spawns little spiders that ram into the character. Little spider webs try to trap the player too. The spider also has a nice poison attack which is incurable since it is a boss room. The worst aspect of it though is that the spider has extremely high defense. The Dwarf's Summon is one of the only things in the game that does more than single point of damage. What makes it great is that the Dwarf Summon in fact does five points of damage. With some good positioning the Spider rapidly takes damage. I tried a couple different setups, but weirdly this was the fastest one despite not attacking as fast as possible. This fight is bit buggy since it is strange how most of the time meter is not gained. The main way to do this is to have the summon be destroyed on the same frame as the Spider is punched. This whole section from the Spider to the Last Boss is one continuous segment. I was able to get a slightly faster Spider, but then had to wait anyway for the Summon spell to become available on the Last Boss and the final frame was the exact same too. Any real improvement here would have to be a much faster Spider kill that would have the Summon spell come up earlier.
Following the Spider fight is the only Bell pickup that I know of in the game. This Bell adds enough to the small meter I gained from the boss kill to completely fill the magic meter. There is a little platforming section with a Dragon on the side that slowly moves your character to the side. There are two tricks here. The first is that falling off the bridge early seems to push screen up a bit more than usual as well as allowing the character to keep moving up without being pushed by the wind as much. This saves 14 frames compared to not doing jumping off early. Then after getting on the platform, once it is nearer the top jump off it while moving up. This pushes the camera up more too, but the main thing here is then the Dwarf can walk on air for a small period, and skip half the little platforming section. Normally the player is supposed to switch to the other platform then walk off it later on to advance.
The final room is the last boss. The last boss's first form is quite passive where he hides behind a shield and occasionally casts magic. The second form is moves around a little bit and casts magic, but he also starts summoning strong skeletons. However once the Summon is ready this fight is pretty much done. The Summon is super effective on the last boss and does a whopping 20 damage per hit. This boss has excessively long invincibility after getting hit so the attacks are pretty spread apart. Even though the last boss has the highest HP and normally takes one damage from nearly everything, twenty damage per hit eats through his health pool in no time. Final input for the submitted movie ends on the final hit.
The Extended input movie just moves a little bit left down but still takes the hit from the boss. After the credits initials are entered.
Final Thoughts and Potential Time Saves
The Bard I do not think would be faster than the Dwarf, but curious to see what kind of time a tas would give using him.
As far as RTA for 1cc goes, honestly this tas should not be that far off. While perfect inputs are not possible for a human the Summon strategies and positions here would be mostly usable. A couple more reckless actions like being right on the edge of the screen, or running into hordes of enemies would have to be adjusted. Despite that, I think an optimal RTA speedrun should be within two minutes of this tas.
- Understanding the Magic Book and how it works might have time saving applications.
- Maybe the Armor could come in use?
- If there is perhaps some point where the treasure chest could give the Boots, and then the Bell it might be worth using it elsewhere. This would refresh the "?" spell, give the boots and more magic meter. But this would also have to be done more likely near a section transition.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: This is masterful work! During my initial analysis, I was surprised how quickly to demolish the bosses, over the
WR. This is certainly a run that nothing was overlooked. Very good work on this!
Accepting to "Standard"
