Use nitsuja's build of snes9x found here: Forum/Topics/1816
The one substantial difference from the previous run is that only mandatory battles are fought -- there is not one battle engaged in which is not required to complete the game. This strikes out the Shyster battles in Mushroom Kingdom (which saved approximately 5 minutes), and the Culex fight (which saved about 7 minutes). Consequentially, I was forced to restrategize the Mack fight (it is noticeably longer than before) and all fights after Nimbus Castle -- this is due to the lower levels and the absence of the Quartz Charm and Lazy Shell, both of which helped immensely in the previous run. Many of the lost time in these battles was cumulative in the end, probably losing me about 2 minutes total when compared to the published run.
A most noteworthy change from this run is the employment of the Power Blast item, bought with 5 Frog Coins from Tadpole Pond. Because of the deficit of Frog Coins come Exp.Booster time, I was forced to hold out until after Yaridovich before I could buy it (no huge loss there anyways). The Croco (both times), Punchinello, Johnny, Birdo, and Valentina fights are all faster (and maybe even Domino/Cloaker, but I didn't check).
The biggest loss of time was in the Smithy Factory fights, particularly the final area. I just couldn't find any better strategies what without the Quartz Charm and the strong Lazy Shell weapon. Thankfully the Power Blast kept me from wasting too much time otherwise. The 2nd Smithy Battle turned out well, since he held out rather long before even transforming the 1st. He also gratuitously transformed into Magic Head (unlike last time, where he remained Tank Head until Treasure Head) allowing me to deliver fast powerful hits (Magic Head has very bad physical defense) several times before changing into Treasure Head.
I'm a little disappointed, since I was hoping to break the 2:40 mark, and the Factory battles are a little unpleasant to watch compared to before. Still, I think the game can probably be beaten in under this time and unless there is some glitch no one is aware of, impossible to complete under 2:35 (just pulling it out of thin air...)


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #792: spezzafer's SNES Super Mario RPG in 2:40:26.17
Experienced player (545)
Joined: 5/12/2005
Posts: 707
Good Job.. Spezzafer.. :)
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Goes to show how useful the RSS feed is. :) I picked this link up from my Google start page, which allows you to aggregate data from feeds. I have to reinstall Snes9x due to repartitioning, so I'll watch it later. Seems interesting, though. Good job. :)
Joined: 12/13/2004
Posts: 103
I watched it (in a little higher frame rate) and thought it was very good. The only reactions is to why you don't skip the monsters in the sand whirls? (hope you understand my point) Anyways: YES vote!
Player (71)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
I just finished watching this baby! Some questions though: In the Mack fight you are about to hit with Mallow, but you stop for a brief second. I also noticed this when you defend in the same battle. Is this to manipulate luck in order to receive less damage (well.. 0 damage infact) and to be able to land your punch? Same thing happends in the volcano, against the dragon, you wait alot before hitting with Geno. In the Bowyer fight you seem to defend rather much. Why is this? And as MovieWatcher said - Why don't you avoid the sand monsters in lands end? It's easy even on console! This would probably save alot of seconds! I can see that you level up some defeating them, but in the long run, do you really save time doing this? I'd be glad if you answered. But I will throw in the YES vote right now anyways! I mean.. 17min improvement is not bad man! Very good job!
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Avin wrote:
I've tried that many times myself without success as well. I HAVE noticed however that after beating them once, I am able to evade them the next time I go through that area. If you're sure that you can evade them the first time through Land's End, could one of you make a video demonstrating?
marshmallow wrote:
You have to fight the shoguns the first time through unless there's some exotic glitch involved. I tried to find a way to avoid them in my run but I didn't find anything that worked (on an actual SNES, anyway).
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Yep, it's impossible to avoid them the first time around. I myself had tried many ways around it, tool assisted, but to no avail. The waits in the Mack and Czar Dragon fights were to manipulate luck. The thing was, for Mack I needed to manipulate both the Shyster AND Mack to do exactly what they did (Mack attacks, Shyster does nothing) which took a lot of rerecords. If you'll notice what happens right after Geno's attack on Czar Dragon you'll understand (Boulder was manipulated into missing both Bowser and Geno, both of whom would've died had they been hit and I absolutely needed both of them alive for the next couple of rounds). I didn't mention this in the description, but because of this collection of monster battlescripts I was able to determine exactly what they would've done (Zombone always uses Boulder first off no matter what) and it helped in decreasing the amount of work I might have went through trying to interpret things. On Bowyer: according to his battlescript, every time he is attacked a variable increases by +4, using a special increases it +2, and item (i.e. damage item, which I never use) +1. These are cumulative to determine every two rounds what button he will lock. The defending was to keep him locking Y every time, and using the much faster arrow shot. If he locks the A button (which I use most of the time) he will always follow with a spell. Plus, the Geno beam is a rather long animation but I use it in the beginning because I needed to deal as much damage as possible with specials before he locked them. FYI this Bowyer fight was nearly a minute faster than the published run's. Thanks for the comments so far, if you have any more questions please ask!
Joined: 6/4/2005
Posts: 130
Location: Ontario, Canada
I asked these questions over in the other smrpg published movie thread, but I figured I'd ask them here so that they'd be more likely to be answered. Keep in mind, they may only pertain to the previous movie:
Got a few questions I wrote down... and of course now I can't completely interpret them completely, but here they are: 1- Before the Mack the knife fight I notice you didn't timed-hit Mallow's lightening and you used Mario's hammer. Why? 2- Why listen to the starfish's lullaby melody in monstro town; I thought that only helped with Toadofsky, who you didn't even visit.
Former player
Joined: 2/2/2005
Posts: 198
I'm pretty sure listening to the starfish's song in Monstro Town is a mandatory event, if you don't do it prior or after talking to Monstermama, she just keeps telling you to go see the star upstairs.
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Yes vote from me, very well done and I was impressed by the constant abusing of freebies. I do have one question, though, which I briefly mentioned on the forums. We know that Bowser and Geno's ultimate weapons are behind the two Battle doors in Bowser's Castle. They, obviously, take some time to do. But I'm wondering, given how fast you typically go through battles, would one of those battle doors be faster than the first Quiz door? That one in particular took quite a while to get through, due to all the dialogue, and mandatory waiting in the counting game. It may not be, as I can't remember which enemies you wind up fighting in the Battle Doors. Do you have a rough idea of how long the Battle Doors take, compared to the first Quiz door? Plus, using one of the better weapons may, or may not, save time in the final battles, it's hard to say. It'd only be a small improvement at best, if any at all. But aside from that one question, I'm quite satisfied with this run.
Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
I've never been sure about how much time the battle doors would take. Choosing them over another door would certainly benefit later, with the potential level-ups and accumulation of the two ultimate weapons. I've also never been sure about Booster's Curtain game, whether it would have been faster to fight Booster (which would have been easy with the Rock Candy) rather than play through avoiding the Snifits behind the curtains. The untimed Thunderbolt with Mack was to save the extra frames. I didn't need to time it, since I had to keep only one Bodyguard alive to keep them from regenerating and to keep Mack from jumping out of battle (he will jump out if two or more Bodyguards are alive). Even timed it wouldn't have killed all four of them, but the last move is a second untimed Thunderbolt which kills both Mack and the Bodyguard. Errors in this run: FP increments are unnecessary following the Belome fight (this excludes the flower in Rose Way and the three flowers in Rose Town) and, in fact, I may have been able to skip one or two before. Booster Hill provides all the flowers I'll ever need for the rest of the game (which is very little anyways). Lucky Jewel should have been used in more battles following its purchase. Bundt, King Calamari, Bandana Red, and Yaridovich should have had a use. Most of the fights afterwards, with the exception of a couple, hardly give rightly due experience (especially the Axem Rangers) so it's probably futile to try and save it for later, and I need to gain levels as fast as possible and as soon as possible. Considerations: Skip the Exp.Booster altogether. It doesn't seem to do much good in the long run and gathering Frog Coins is too much trouble. It also takes up an accessory slot which could be used for something more effective in battle. If anyone didn't notice, 90% of the time after Seaside Town Geno had the Exp.Booster on. Test the Booster fight to compare the number of frames saved/lost to the Curtain Game. Test the Battle Doors to the Quiz Room (and one of the action rooms, with the slow moving revolving platforms, is quite slow too). I might append to this if anyone suggests better strategies. Thanks for the questions so far; keep asking!
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
As usual, a good TA from you... :)
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Thanks! TEST: The battle rooms are terribly slow, and I didn't even make it to the third room without falling behind the time of the longest room I had done up to that point (the puzzle room with the barrel-counting). I didn't calculate the exact difference but I imagine it would probably be about 1 minute slower. Also, through another test I found that fighting Booster is 18 seconds faster than the curtain game. I wouldn't get the amulet, but I decided later on that it didn't affect any battle strategies anyways, and to add to the discrepancies it lowers speed by 5.
Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2631
Bowyer fight last round, you attack with Mario for 18, then with Mallow for 18, Mallow did 36 in that fight before, why not just attack with Mallow? Knife Guy and Grate Guy, you used a Power Boost, but you didn't once do a physical attack. Booster Hill Course, you seem to miss Booster by so little so many times, the barrels and understandably unavoidable, but perhaps if you waited longer to jump on the snifits.... Why didn't you Lucky Jewel the Cake? Why did you Power Boost on the Squid? You didn't use any physical attacks. Why didn't you Lucky Jewel the Squid? Why didn't you use Lucky Jewel on Yaridovich? How did you get the Lucky from the Shogun that quickly? Does an Ultra Jump do more attack power? On Machine Made Yaridovich, why did you stop the Ultra Jump? Why the Defense in the first Hammar Battle? Couldn't you have finished the Manager off with the first Rock Candy if you let Mario jump a bit longer? (Would it have been faster?) Same with the Director... You seem to be able to load the damage on best when he's a Treasure chest, any way to manipulate this more often?
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
You're right about Bowyer. I could've saved a turn, but I guess I wasn't thinking there. Power Boost also raises Rock Candy/Bomb damage by 50% (300 damage for Rock Candies). I believe 16 flowers is the maximum number you can achieve in Booster Hill, and I tried different timing with the Snifits/Barrels but couldn't reach it. It worked a few times, but I couldn't ever get above 16 flowers. First time through I only got 15, so I had to do the whole thing over. I've already mentioned my poor strategy regarding the Lucky Jewel usage in my earlier post. I should've used it at every opportunity (save for the lower XP fights). Regarding the Shogun question: are you referring to the Lucky Hammer I equipped? Not sure I get what you're asking here. MM Yaridovich has a very strong Magic Defense, so the Ultra Jump hardly did enough cumulative damage to save as much time as just doing enough damage to add to the 500 damage from the next two Rock Candies. Same goes for the Director and Manager. I defended in the Hammer battle because Bowser could use the Ice Bomb (which is a second faster than the Rock Candy) and kill them. Bowser had the Troopa Pin so the Ice Bomb would kill them straight off (Mario using it would have not dealt enough damage to kill).
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [402] SNES Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars by spezzafer in 2:40:26.17
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Joined: 6/8/2005
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Location: Madison, Wisconsin
When you're in the desert and you uncover one of the Shogun thingies with spears... during that battle, I noticed that you had hit one of the enemies with Mario and all of a sudden, he was interrupted and "LUCKY!" was displayed above his head. How'd you manage that one? (it happened multiple times.) Great run so far, I will come up with more as I see more of it. I'm very impressed at the manipulation of luck and the fact that you took NO damage up until the Cake in Merrymore. Excellent. EDIT 1: Fixed various typos.
Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
The Lucky Hammer was bought in Seaside Town and used only in the Shogun fights. Afterwards I switched back to the Masher. The Lucky Hammer just appears as 'Hammer' in the inventory but the description calls it a 'lucky hammer'. When timed it activates luck in the same fashion as the jewel and flowers. This was to save uses of the Lucky Jewel for later battles, which is sort of redundant in this run due to my poor strategy with the jewel (I actually had one or two uses left at the end). I'm sure the next revision will fix this and the Lucky Hammer usage will be more justified. Thanks for the comments!
Former player
Joined: 2/2/2005
Posts: 198
Huh, I didn't even know the Lucky Jewel had a set amount of uses, how many is it?
Joined: 8/24/2005
Posts: 4
I'll be sure to watch this if I have time. :) Watched the last one (ate a lot of a boring Sunday afternoon too).
Joined: 6/4/2005
Posts: 130
Location: Ontario, Canada
Should the Culex Fight really still be the screenshot used if it's not included in the movie? :P
Emulator Coder
Joined: 6/8/2005
Posts: 236
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
I had to watch this one again! :D Great hidden frog coin discoveries.. and I thought *I* knew where every one was.. (actually the second viewing was cause the WoW servers were down for maintainence... but it was still quite entertaining ^^) So once again.. Spezzafer, all your runs are amazing. This is no exception. Do some more fast games :)
Joined: 2/20/2006
Posts: 14
where did you get all the red essence and rock candy from!?
Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2631
Get a freebie! (If you press X with perfect timing as you use an item it uses the item without using it up.)
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Joined: 2/20/2006
Posts: 14
ok, i didnt know about that. :) so where did he get the first one from?