I made a test run of Astro Boy and uploaded it here. It's a run of the first stage, up until its boss is defeated.
http://ohnolookoutitsaraygun.com/FastAstroBoy.zip
As you can see by the video, this is a rather complicated action game with LOTS of moves, and there are so many combinations of strategies to use that finding the optimal one can be very difficult. I'm hoping someone who has more skill in time attacks will see this and be encouraged to give it a shot. =) I think it'd be a really fun video to see.
The one major problem with making a video of this game, however, is that it does the "Ghosts n' Goblins" thing and makes you play through the game twice to see the "real" ending, with very little variation in the stages. I'd suggest forgetting about the second playthrough entirely, when making a video.
Also, there is a "Hard" mode, but this is one of those cases where I wouldn't recommend it. All it does, in comparison to "Normal", is give the enemies more hit points and make their attacks stronger. It doesn't add more enemies or anything like that. All this would really do is slow the pace of the run, really.
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Mmm, yeah, I guess the game might be pretty repetitive with all the stages being needed to replayed twice, although the second time around would be much faster with the powerups and all, so I think you should give it some thought. Plus the extra stuff that happens in the stages is usually pretty interesting.
As for the run itself, seems pretty kickass to me so far, keep up the good work. I'm not sure if it's smart to kill all enemies you come across though if you don't need to since you can jet through them.
I'm hoping someone who has more skill in time attacks will see this and be encouraged to give it a shot. =) I think it'd be a really fun video to see.
part? =P
I don't think I'll ever finish this run myself. Too much planning and calculating is required for this game, and I'm not that talented a time attacker.
In every situation, you have the punch, kick, punch combo, jets, and three special moves you can do (all of which incorporate a very long delay), and there are so many combinations which could be faster or slower.
Plus, figuring out the best way to power up Astro is a whole job in itself...
But I may try to make a video if no one else does.... To encourage someone to make a better one, if anything. If I ever find a whole lot of free time.
AnotherGamer: Actually, you're required to beat all the enemies in order to move on, with a few exceptions in the shooter stages, though you should defeat those guys too, since it'd speed up the game.
And unfortunately, all the enemies get a power boost the second time through, which pretty much evens out the powering up. =(
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Hard mode would add lots to the 'wow' factor, as it's really freaking hard. And it does add some stuff in the flying-mode areas - mainly bouncy spike balls.
I haven't watched the vid, but I'm almost positive that punching/kicking is the fastest way to kill stuff. At the very least, it's much faster than the easy-mode exploit where you just max out the machine gun and laser and spam one right after the other in an endless loop. It doesn't matter unless you're playing on easy anyways, since otherwise your laser uses are limited to final blows or times when trying a normal attack would get you hit.
Don't ever put points in sensors, btw. You don't need em. You should already know the locations of the guys with stat boosts beforehand, and you can navigate dark/static-y areas without them. And the machine gun is completely worthless too - it barely does any damage at all. The stun factor isn't worth the time it takes.
Remember that dashing resets your combo in the "no finishing move" sense but not the "score multiplier" sense... so three hits + dash + three hits + dash + ....
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster.
I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Yeah... there are a few places in the test video where that technique probably would have sped things up. Kicking really isn't something that should be done unless knocking the enemy back would actually help.
And yeah, the machine gun, while nice to have in the regular game, is useless in a time-attack, so that can be entirely factored out, along with the sensor and the Life upgrade, since I don't think there's ever a moment when taking damage can help save time. I don't think the EX dash is all that useful either, though I admit I never used that move much in regular play.
Incidentally, the test video includes stages 1 and 2 now, mainly 'cause I wanted to try out one of the shooter stages. In it, I get three of the optional Omega upgrades (Alejo, Rainbow Parakeet, and Magma, none of which are significantly out-of-the-way), which I THINK would be worth it in the long run, even though the upgrade process is time-consuming.
Anyway, I still can assure you I'm not likely to make a complete run myself, so I hope someone else will. >=O
Nay, I DEMAND it!
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Great stuff so far, I really wish you'd finish this one way or the other. The fact that you don't need to upgrade any life, sensors or machineguns makes it kickass enough to watch.
I have to agree with Maur, though watching a run on normal is fun. I think hard mode would still be a good ideabecause of how unforgiving it is, and you can't abuse the laser special as heavily.
I thought your run was good, but I noticed three mistakes.
-In the third area of stage 1 (the hallways with big robots) you don't have to kill anything, you can just dash through all the robots.
-Why didn't you fight Big X? Is it faster to defeat him later when you have a bunch of upgrades?
-In your fight against Pook, around frame 34300 couldn't you have either jumped earlier so you could punch the fin, or manipulated the fin to move more slowly so you could hit it?
I thought your run was good, but I noticed three mistakes.
-In the third area of stage 1 (the hallways with big robots) you don't have to kill anything, you can just dash through all the robots.
ORLY?
Good to know. =)
mikwuyma wrote:
-Why didn't you fight Big X? Is it faster to defeat him later when you have a bunch of upgrades?
It's an optional fight, and subsequently an optional Omega upgrade that takes too long to acquire.
mikwuyma wrote:
-In your fight against Pook, around frame 34300 couldn't you have either jumped earlier so you could punch the fin, or manipulated the fin to move more slowly so you could hit it?
Yeayh, actually, the Pook fight has like 5 mistakes, and none of the boss fights have been optimal thus far, except for maybe the big red globe and the Amazing Three.
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
http://ohnolookoutitsaraygun.com/HardAstroBoy.zip for a runthrough of the first stage in Hard Mode.
Can't say my opinion's changed much, to be honest. The strategy had to change slightly here and there, but for the most part it is just slower than Normal mode without being more entertaining, and it'd probably just get worse later on, especially in the shooter stages and the stages with multiple boss fights.
The "wow" factor doesn't do much for me, not to mention the game doesn't get really, REALLY hard until Rebirth, which probably won't be bothered with.
That's my opinion, though. =)
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
http://ohnolookoutitsaraygun.com/FasterAstroBoy.zip
Now with a Booster upgrade and strategic use of the Kick, which turned out to be a more valuable move for speedrunning than I thought.
I made this a little while back, and it'll probably be my last update for a while since I have to cut back on games for an indefinite amount of time. (got Repetitive Stress Disorder in my right arm. =|) I probably will continue this sometime, though. Oy vey!
When I do continue it, I'll be going back and redoing the part starting where I got Magma's Omega Upgrade, choosing "Punch" instead of "Laser". It turned out the Ex Laser actually makes the fight with Pook slower (except for his Bahamute form), and there's a lot of punching to do in stage 3, up until the fight with Atlas, but there are three Omega upgrades in that stage which I can apply toward the laser. They're all optional, so I may not get all three. Tough call.
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Ive been thinking about doing a run of this, but Im not sure how to go throug it since you would have to play the game twice. Any suggestions?
How about unlocking all characters in your Omega Factor? Maybe try and unlock one half in the 'Birth' playthrough and the other half in the 'Rebirth' playthrough.
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
Heh... I actually was was on the verge of creating a finished submission, back in the day: http://tasvideos.org/1036S.html
All I really had to do was make a few more keypresses so that the credits would be included, but I got sidetracked and ended up just dropping the whole thing. In the long run, the submission probably wasn't optimal enough, especially by the current tas standards.
Stillll, I'm kinda interested in seeing my submission again. Would anyone be able to encode it? :x
http://girlyyy.com/
The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Don't ever put points in sensors, btw. You don't need em.
Sensors reduces lag in Stage 3-3. By a lot. And you need Sensor level 2 for that.
Sensor level 3 is required to beat the whole game, too. So getting Sensor soon in the game is a good idea, and Sensor level 3 in Rebirth.
Sorry for bump, by the way.
But I'm planning on doing a TAS and it's official (I hope) that I'll do a TAS of this game seeing that this game is number 2 on my Top billion (or any number higher than 1) favourite game list, of all time.
I love this game so much that I just HAVE to do a TAS. This game is a close second to my favourite game of all time (which is Super Mario World lol).
However, I have a question;
would it be okay if I did a TAS that does a true 100%? What I mean with "true" is this:
Every single person that can possibly be in your Omega Factor needs to be in your Omega Factor one at least on file;
Every... EVERY</u> single Event needs to be unlocked on the Even Test (which requires me to play through the game at least twice. I can only think of few places which would be required to do on first playthrough and then differently on second playthrough.)
Or, in other words, every thing that can be collected must be collected for a true 100%.
Would something like this be allowed? Or should I just do a normal 100%?
It WILL require a lot of optimization for this and I'll try the best I can; though I'm still new to TASing. :P
Again, sorry for bump.
Edit:
Actually, I changed my mind. I'll do a normal 100%, on Hard Mode. What I mentioned would be boring to watch, though I may do what I mentioned one day. But an answer would still be nice and I'll patiently wait for an answer unless it has been 2 months and no one replied.
Edit 2:
Oh, and I found a couple exploits that could be useful for TASing. Two of them is useful for Magnamite (1-5 Boss), the other one is useful for instantly stopping at any time on land while dashing.
The Magnamites ones, you can beat him much faster using the AB+D combination while he does the normal attacks.
The other one, when Magnamite is about to jump up, you do the AB+R combination if he's east of you (right) or the AB+L when he's west of you (left). This will pull you upwards as you damage him use the jet EX power against him, then ones there's no space for you to be up there you'll be pulled below him and your attack ends; you don't receive damage.
Then, you stay in spot and as he is about to jump on you, you jump. You jump below him, and you use the AB+D combination to use the jet EX power below him, and you are going to go below him while damaging him. Once you reach the ground, he goes to the ground and jumped on you, but you don't receive damage. You are still dashing through him right now, and then you defeat him.
That is the quickest way to defeat him in Easy mode, from what I'm aware of.
The other exploit I found is useful in some cases.
While you are dashing to the right, you press D+L+B in order to kick to the left. You will stop your speed. While dashing to the left you would kick to the right instead.
Edit 3:
Also, another exploit.
If you jump when the screen is about to scroll, you use the jet on the first possible frame that will not bump you into the wall. However, instead of doing that, you do something else.
You jump, and while your in the air, you can use the jet 2-5 frames earlier than normal without bumping on the wall, thus saving a couple frames. Though you need at least a level 1 jet, or else you may be wasting time.
I wonder how many things that may be useful I'll be able to find.
Edit 4: removed section of this post, realized that one of them is completely useless and wrong. Sadly.
I vote for a 'normal' 100%. The way to do 100% as you said would be quite boring to watch.
True, I understand why it would be boring.
Also (to everyone who reads this & my previous post), I found out why you can scroll to the right much faster by jumping.
The enemies go off-screen faster thus the screen scrolling will take place sooner.
Heh, that's a pretty neat find. You can skip a lot of time with this and would be extremely useful for RTA, it truly is useful. It can skip at least a minute since it takes seconds for the enemies go off-screen and there are a lot of cases the screen scrolls upwards but not sideways.
