Thank you for invitation. Of course I do see and understood beforehand your point regarding RNG and manipulating game mechanics. I have much interest and spent a lot of time on gaming ideas, not just strictly for Windows, also various emulated systems. Further more I'm familiar with Hourglass and used in past, if only briefly.
However with all this said the initial reason for my post was merely sharing what I consider an interesting and entertaining play. I'm perfectly aware it could be grinded by some % and also where this could be done but given nothing comparable at the time being (and for a year since I saved it in fact) I spontaneously decided to post it half or even entirely anonymously.
Maybe it'll end up interesting enough for someone to pick up the idea of breaking it down one by one, I'd be very interested in it myself but it wasn't my interest here to begin with nor am I fond of referring to saved states, it is a too boring process for me to consider.
you'll have to remake it using Hourglass/libTAS (if you can get either to work) so you can take advantage of the rest of the TASing tools. Slowdown alone won't do.
One last thing I'd like share about that after long AI observation: stating won't be of any advantage for the process apart from ensuring safety in run in case of mistake. The way it unfolds there's no practical way to manipulate the attacks, hit odds remain approximately the same and low enough to simply result in save/loading for several hours without particularly different result.
If I remember the mechanics correctly, the ideal strategy for a TAS would be spamming level 2 spells (a risky thing to do in unassisted play) to have them reflected by the enemy onto your screen, reflect them back again via well-timed fairy and bullet chaining, and finishing off with a level 3/4 spell when the screen becomes sufficiently cluttered from the back-and-forth.
This is indeed what's going on for the 60min, except going for lv3 is extremely rare due to the necessity of keeping a bar and not get caught off guard. Overall I would have to precisely double check on that but I think the chain was lost only 2 times (as the side aim, just after no hit survival priority). Score was therefore in mind, especially still breaking 1 billion.
With that said thanks for clarifying few things about guidelines, software and requirements here.
Also, in order to submit the file here (as in make a publishable submission) you will need to use Hourglass or libTAS and provide a movie made via one of them. And it will have to be done on an unpatched copy of the game because it's a submission requirement. One of the reasons is that everyone with the copy of a game and the emulator/TAS environment should be able to reproduce your replay without having to look for extra files which may have changed since the making of the movie and would hence require tracking down the specific versions.
Yes, last to answer this part: too bad, I considered it might be the case. On side note Hourglass suffers quite some compatibility issues, I didn't have a look what's the state of libTAS development. But the patch issue is more clear than using utilities for sure, I should've decide to play this one game of clean last game version but remembering what led me to doing otherwise I'm not really bothered about that. Possibly I will continue to play exactly as that for future ideas with the game.
Just no-miss by itself isn't impossible. (...) PoFV is a PvP game so you have plenty of opportunity to turn it into a speedrun.
(...)
It's a TAS, why go lower than Lunatic?
(...)
unassisted speedruns on any difficulty take only 8–10 minutes
I'll quote like this to mark the points I'll try to tackle, however to really know what's meant here and what's going on in this game: you must have a look by yourself and know detailed mechanics. Otherwise the questions are both hard to answer and understand.
NoMiss on Normal is virtually impossible with a number of characters, again you'd need to have a look, the main point is that there are over a dozen of available character choices to play with and the difficulty ends up completely different for some of them. The same goes for speedruns you refer to, these are only valid for 2~3 of available character and thus are a totally different category.
Why not Lunatic goes down to details also and I know it may be counter intuitive but going strictly for that (no hit, i.e. "wall vs. wall") Normal is in fact the hardest. It comes from the fact that on Hard/Lunatic attacks start on higher level and overall game becomes more intense.
This goes for both sides however, and in the end the odds to score a hit against AI also seem slightly higher (Last stage duration on Hard about 40min, Lunatic 30min), where from performance and actually difficulty in terms of TAS it will remain roughly same. (edit: consequently breaking 1B points on Hard/Lunatic as here becomes out of reach as well, this posted game is highest score for a Arcade/Story run I know of).
If the translation patch impacts the replay files, then that's an issue with the translation patch.
Yes it is and it comes from the fact that some dialogues ended up with more lines ("pop up dialogue boxes") in En than Jp, so we take more frames/input to skip dialogue, the gameplay itself is certainly not affected.
There was some decision making about that, shortly after posting I vaguely remembered reading about that and for sure I myself made the decision to play this from En patch knowing it can happen. Only now I forgot about it briefly, I actually played this a year ago.
Hilarious how I can't even upload this on certain dedicated TH replay servers for size restriction (over 256kb). I'll just make it the easy way to at least post something since I've already started topic:
https://easyupload.io/nlft1k
Up to 30 days valid, for anyone unfamiliar with this game note this an in-game replay to be run from game itself. It's easy enough to figure and if anyone could then spare a moment to record it of to video format, wow great, It'll make TASvid headlines.
If not maybe at least someone will have a laugh, I actually get tired just from watching... just joking, it's so good I watch it every day for breakfast.
Oh, and one more thing came up on top of all inconveniences: apparently the English patch needs to be used in order to play it out correctly, info here:
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Phantasmagoria_of_Flower_View#English_patches
and the patch as there:
https://mega.nz/folder/DdUlBJxC#n-_nJnYlZTzozfq9DspAGQ
I invite anyone unfamiliar to have a look either way, not just for the sake of this posted playthrough. The game is interesting and high quality in its own right.
Thanks for answers, I've learned about OBS in past and run into some compatibility issues with quick access. Theoretically could move stuff to other PC (two rooms away) and do there but... I'm on a tight schedule lately, it would be a hassle (no denying I'm a bit on lazy side but not much, all healthy attitude I say).
For Userfiles here: won't accept format (it is game specific format), could work around that fact and upload file elsewhere, I'll see what I can do.
Sorry for double post for the moment but I'll like to ask and explain this a bit better. This is in fact done by now but I face a few technical problems.
First since I knew it'll end up a chore I didn't bother with any external recording of it at play or follow any guidelines doing it. So what's there is merely the replay game itself saves. Second the whole thing goes over 78min total. I never recorded any game videos but I learned that software choice and whole process isn't obvious at all. I didn't see any anything "clear and simple", that's for sure.
The actual questions go down to whether or not it's worth bothering about uploading it and if so, I would need some tips to do it, is there really no simple free "record video" utility without a water mark?
First off hi and so. I'm considering something and wanted to ask if it's worth the trouble in terms of an interesting playthrough, otherwise human impossible.
As in topic, anyone knowing this game should get the idea, the final stage on any difficulty imposes losing a round before going down a gear and giving a realistic chance to finish it (with minor exception for 3 characters which AI script is flawed against, Marisa is not one of them).
The goal is finishing a full run on Normal difficulty without losing the round and without taking any hit at all. The time is secondary and will drag out actually, given that CPU is set to "godlike" mode.