At best, I have to give this video a meh. It's pretty solid and very fast, but it doesn't show off a lot of what the game can do. I know Soul Calibur 2 doesn't have a lot of combos to show off, and extended juggles are risky, but I feel like a 2p playaround for entertainment would be very fun to watch... especially for someone like me who grew up enjoying this game.
The Flavio trick sounds funny but from how you've described it, it's far from being a TAS-only trick, in fact it doesn't require reflexes at all, let alone superhuman ones. People who want to see this can do it easily for themselves by playing TTYD.
I owned this game and had no idea. I think this would be hilarious to see in a published run, the massive amount of cutscenes later in the game would be much funnier to watch with him just standing there like a grinning idiot.
Looks like he removed the video. Either he got too many complaints, he got tired of the dislikes, or somebody got through that thick skull of his. Before he deleted it, he replied to a comment of mine saying "Oh, so you work for this tas company too, I see" in not so few grammatical errors. Dude, if I could work for a company that had me actively working on tool-assisted superplays and speedruns, I would GLADLY drop my life and take that job.
I don't think anyone will miss the video.
Incredibly well-played. I wasn't expecting some of the techniques used there. The fights were interesting, the adventure sections were fast and fun to watch, and even the Icicle Mountain autoscroller was entertaining; I was looking forward to how that worked, but not only did you pull off the level itself with entertainment, you also managed to set up for an easy kill on both the Ice Climbers.
Also, taking advantage of using items in the right situations made everything much more fun. Using the pair of Freezies for the Ice Climbers, the 'lucky' Moltres drop in Pokemon Stadium, the shell on Battlefield... Excellent use of items and resources altogether.
Easy yes vote from me. Even easier when I saw you decide to ace the shooter section of the credits.
I find Sega's aggressive anti-Nintendo marketing quite curious. It just feels, at least nowadays, completely unthinkable that the ads for a product would refer to a competing product even indirectly, much less by name.
I suppose the world was different back then.
...and yet, Sony made fairly direct bashes at Microsoft's policies regarding the Xbox One and their game-sharing policies. Quite amusing how things go full-circle.
Why don't you do something similar to the Chrono Trigger run? I know it was ruled out as a '100%' category for various reasons, but I feel like it pretty well accomplished everything without being absolutely ridiculous. It obtained many, many important items without bothering with every single treasure and item, it obtained all of the unique stat tabs, it completed all the major sidequests...
Instead of every item, why not go through every major treasure? Certain treasures are mutually exclusive (e.g., Ragnarok), but having that one guy at the end with 8 attacks and two Ultima Weapons is always just fun to see, even if only once.
All spells? I think having every spell between all characters should be a thing we could look at. It wouldn't even be that ridiculous, I feel. Also, between Celes and Terra with their natural spell list, that could cut down on the need to grind with some early espers.
All Lores may prove a little difficult, since you may wind up having Strago in your group a lot to avoid switching characters or backtracking lots to get hard-to-find lores. Dances, probably not so much, especially with good luck manipulation.
One thing I feel should be different, I don't think all the major boss battles should be Slot manipulation. As hilariously fast as the game was at the end of that TAS, it was a little boring seeing that go down... Having it happen once or twice was fun, but with all the options we would have available with a high% TAS, the bosses would be a joke, anyway. Especially given that several bosses throughout the game are undead, seeing multiple ways of one-shotting most bosses would be pretty amusing. That and glitches like Vanish-Doom/X-Zone or bugging out Cyan's Retort would be amusing, not to mention messing around with the possibilities of Rippler.
People probably feel like this is encroaching on MLP territory, so they're mainly just being touchy and territorial about it. I don't see this reaching to the same heights as MLP in any sense. I'll give them that the designs and colors are really nice, but watching it, I really thought this was related to MLP in some way; then again, I'm not as tuned into MLP as bronies are, so it's not as easy for me to tell the difference.
Also, if that's a trailer... that trailer looks a little silly. Everyone ramping up to fight off some giant cupcake-stealing monster that was made up because one of the lead characters lied? Not to mention the odd-looking kicking, the teachers using 'common sense' to say "Let's use our magic to blast away the monster!" instead of "Let's find out what really happened"... It really just looks like a chopped-down version of one episode, not the teaser it needs to be to get people excited about the series.
Fans disagreeing is consistent with my hypothesis. To find out if there's something to it, one would have to draw and synchronise the same episode twice, let both versions be watched and the plot be rated individually. See how much of an impact it makes. (Too bad that would be way too expensive) Until then, it's just your guess against mine. I can call your Mary Sue theory bs just as easily, and point out a show where there aren't any Mary Sue characters that however isn't really popular at all. I don't think that's very useful.
Some previous MLP cartoon generations looked similarly cute, such as [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZpurerF2HM]this[/URL], the main difference seems to be that current MLP characters seem a bit older. So maybe that's an important difference? I don't know, there might well be more to it. Although, I seriously doubt the popularity of MLP can be explained by the plot just being that damn great alone. That just doesn't seem realistic to me. Yea, it having turned into an internet fad is a big factor, but then why did it turn into one in the first place?
Most importantly, why don't females like the show just as much? They don't see how great the plot is? Doesn't seem very likely to me. There has to be something that interests/excites males specifically.
Perhaps it's possible that it's not one thing specifically, but instead a number of combined factors. Maybe Hasbro got lucky and just struck gold. Maybe society today is just different than it was back then. It could be anything; who knows?
I'll agree with you that the smooth animation and the bright, constantly varied colors are all very eye-catching and ultimately an excellent polish to the series as a whole, but I guarantee you that no matter how eye-catching the bait is, you still need a solid hook to hold someone on. While all the colors and animation are impressive as an understatement, you still need excellent writing. The plot, the events, the characterization; these all have to be well-done to genuinely hold the audience's attention and keep people coming back for more.
The idea that the artistic style pervading the series as a whole ultimately depicting these ponies as cute and relatively helpless driving more viewers and higher ratings is also a possibility, though this may be due to a number of other separate reasons combined. This draws back to the concept of characterization; many characters are flawed in one way or another, and despite their efforts, they don't have the power to solve every problem without one another.
Some people I know of genuinely feel like they identify with one character or another. All of the main characters and a great number of supporting characters have unique personalities, each with their own flaws and endearing character traits.
You're also right with your concept that some people will subconsciously place the blame for something on something associated. It happens all the time, good and bad. Media, accidents, music, television... The thought that many people say the story is great could be blamed on a myriad of other reasons is a possibility, but you have to take into account that there really are a myriad of other reasons to blame.
I may be quite late to realize this, and it might be completely self-evident to most of you, but somehow it just dawned on me one of the reasons why the MLP:FiM characters are so likeable and have so much depth to their character.
In the vast majority of little kids' (especially little girls') cartoons, most of the good guys are "Mary Sue" characters. This at least in the past (unsurprisingly I have not been watching very many cartoons aimed at little kids in later years, so I have no idea if they have progressed in this regard.)
A Mary Sue character is one that's perfect and flawless, always lawful-good, kind to everybody, unselfish, philanthropist and one who loves everybody and everything, and who are always ready to help and defend their friends and anybody else for that matter. They may not be (and often are not) physically or emotionally strong characters (eg. they might be emotionally impressionable and can eg. get scared and cry relatively easily), but they are always kind and nice and thinking of others, and show little or no flaws (and often even if they show some flaws, they tend to be "cute" and "adorable" flaws, such as being afraid of the dark or something.)
Such characters tend to be flat and two-dimensional because they lack character depth. They tend to be too perfect, and come across as trying to appeal to the viewer for being so nice and cute and friendly and flawless.
In MLP:FiM, however, all the main characters, while being good (of course), are very much flawed and entire episodes are dedicated to these flaws. The closest we could perhaps get to an actual "Mary Sue" character is Fluttershy, but even she is shown several times to have personality flaws (especially in "The Best Night Ever".) All the other characters are also very much shown to have their flaws and sometimes acting in selfish or irrational ways because of those flaws (such as Applejack trying to leave Ponyville for good because she was ashamed of not getting first place on the rodeo competition in "The Last Roundup", or the usually self-confident and brash Rainbow Dash getting extremely nervous and stage fright when her turn comes to show her skills in "Sonic Rainboom", Twilight being extremely obsessed and neurotic in "Lesson Zero", or Pinkie Pie going absolutely and even frighteningly bonkers in "Party of One".)
I think these are characteristics that you seldom see in most other kids' shows. (And even if they try it, often it's only half-hearted and not very engaging and does not help much in establishing personality.)
If there are any Mary Sue characters in the show, those would be princesses Celestia and Cadance. I don't remember seeing a single flaw to their personalities shown. (On the other hand, they have had extremely little screentime overall...)
I think you're right. All of the main characters have a number of quirks and flaws that make them likeable and easy to relate to, and that's part of the reason the show is as popular and loved as it is. There have been complaints as of late regarding how Twilight Sparkle has become more and more of a Mary Sue, more boring and not as easy to relate to; over the course of the series, she has slowly overcome her own fears, problems, and quirks, going from a simple resident of Ponyville to an Alicorn Princess, highly regarded and loved by friends and citizens alike. You can directly link this to how she has grown as a person, seeking to constantly better herself, and ultimately being rewarded with the highest of honors. This is probably why people have been less able to relate to her; some people aren't put through the same life-changing trials Twilight is put through, and some simply don't want to change for the better, so it makes sense that someone they can't relate to would be branded as a boring Mary Sue.
Celestia, on the other hand, is shown as a symbol of perfection. She's loved and respected by everyone. She's innocuous, beautiful, graceful, and wise beyond measure with naught in the way of visible flaws; this is why she is a sort of litmus test for all the other ponies who seek to better themselves. Princess Celestia is a role model Twilight Sparkle looks up to in every way possible, and in seeking to better herself and being crowned as an Alicorn Princess of Equestria, she hopes to one day live up to Celestia's name and reputation.
I'll admit it; I'm not a brony. That doesn't stop me from respecting the show or the people who enjoy it more than I do. It's simply not my cup of tea. The show isn't just for little girls anymore, either; I know that the writers began making content and cameos for their unintended fanbase during and after season 2.
(Also, if any of my facts are wrong, feel free to correct me. >_>)
Which version of the game are you using? I found a ROM for it, but all your files keep desyncing. I'm using the USA version, which one are you running on?
Also, I noticed that some rooms seem to loop forever for some reason, too; I can't seem to get out of certain areas without a lot of effort.
EDIT: Disregard, I figured it out. You're using a version with release ID 0776, I was using the release ID version 0883. Same game, minor differences. Still desyncing, though. Not sure why.
If I can get to the boss fight in Ganon's Tower... Does anyone have a blown-up version of the dungeon map data? It's harder to find than I anticipated, and the only one I've found so far is ridiculously small. :|
Are you trying to find every separate dungeon map, or an entire map of all dungeons?
Because if it's about separate maps, I got one great link for you:
http://mikesrpgcenter.com/zelda3/maps.html
Maybe it'll be of any use to you.
Actually, I was talking about the exploration glitch map, the combined map of all the dungeons. I found one, though.
http://zanapher.free.fr/zelda/images/all.png
It's huge, I warn you now (8224 square pixels. x_x), but it was a great reference. I sometimes have trouble following paths as people do them on videos, especially when there are minor differences like the SNES/GBA versions (the unused blocks of dungeon map data aren't empty, square rooms, they're just completely blank)
To dumb down the laws, the ONLY time that you can legally have a ROM is if it was 1) purposefully released into the public domain by the copyright owner, 2) was given or sold to you by the copyright owner, 3) has had its copyright expire (75 years after publication, i.e. no video games until well into this century), or 4) it is an archival copy that YOU created for backup purposes (it cannot be a downloaded copy.
This last one would mean that you would have to own the game, own a ROM dumper, and have the software to be able to manage and create the ROM itself. Now, the technology is coming up to make this last option somewhat cheap, and this applies mainly to anything cartridge or CD based, but like Patashu said, you can do Windows and DOS games without needing an illegal/cracked image.
Managed to get the levitation trick to work again, and the game still has the same effect. After I defeat Aghanim, I get stuck in the Light World with Dark World sprites until I die, save/quit, or enter some building/cave/dungeon (after a screen transition away from the pyramid of power). Link's sword and shield stay black, regardless, but I can say with certainty that you can get the two heart containers from the boss refights, and the fight with Ganon is now available at any time once I enter the Dark World.
I'm fairly certain this would save time in a 100% run, considering you can bypass the walk to and first leg of Ganon's Tower, and if the decision to skip some heart pieces were made, two full heart containers covers a lot of that. Definitely a lot less travel time, at a minimum.
Alright. So, I decided to actually download and run the most recent version of Bizhawk, and I found something really weird. The Pegasus Boots levitation glitch doesn't work. I'm not sure if it's my version of LTTP or if it was an emulation issue with snes9x 1.51, but Bizhawk 1.5.1 with my version of LTTP does NOT do the Pegasus Boots levitation glitch.
This causes an issue for me, now, since the Moldorm fight in Ganon's Tower assumes you have the hookshot to escape the room, and I can't seem to replicate the bomb boost jlun2 used in his GBA movie file. Either I escape with the two heart containers via save/quit, or I find some other method to cross the gap, but for right now, I'm stuck. If I can get past the gap, I'll test out whether or not the second Aghanim fight does the same things or acts differently somehow.
It could be a combination of things, but when I went to go kill Aghanim at the top of Hyrule Castle (supposed to be the first time), the game thought that was the first time, too. Same text, same fight, same everything except the flying part.
EDIT: So, I got curious and decided to try something stupid. It may just be the difference between versions, but I tried going back to the point after I glitched myself into Ganon's Tower and the 'second' Aghanim fight and went into the hole on top of the pyramid. The boss fight will trigger, and you'll get set against Ganon with your current equipment, but because I didn't have the Master Sword, even a charged spin couldn't touch him, so I couldn't do any damage to him at all. Unless there's some trick I'm unaware of to damage him with what underpowered gear I had, it seems a little useless until I at least get the Master Sword.
I did also go back later when I got the Master Sword, killed the 'first' Aghanim, and got some more dungeons under my belt, and because the hole is still there, we can effectively fight him at any time after that. If I'm reading the situation right, that could mean that using an EG to get into Ganon's Tower early would DEFINITELY save some time, effectively cutting out 8 heart pieces and the trek to/first segment of Ganon's Tower.
Watched it and I am not sure if it desynched or not. Are you supposed to die in the Lanmolas fight?
I think that's a desync. I'm using snes9x v1.51 because my tools are all well out of date, and I might be using a different version of the game than you, so that might explain it.
I really do find it odd that the game puts you in the dark world if you glitch into Ganon's Tower and kill Aghanim again, and I know the game soft-locked on the GBA version, but it was really weird how the game transported me back to the light world just by transitioning the screen.
Any help I can get replaying this game would be... well, embarrassing, but appreciated. I don't want to make too much of a fool of myself, really, especially if I'm trying to help figure out useful glitches for a game that I haven't played in years. My knowledge of the differences of the GBA version is almost nothing, too, so an explanation on that particular change might be handy if that topic comes up again.
If I remember correctly, Source Engine games (DotA2 is one of them) can be used to make "TAS" like playthroughs. Though, DotA2 is more restrictive on things then HL2 is.
DotA2 does have cheats (Which would probably be necessary).
This will be a very helpful thing:
http://wiki.sourceruns.org/wiki/Host_timescale
No, I don't know much about running, just how to find stuff sometimes.
Hey, sometimes it's not what you know, but knowing how to find it. I'd say that's a much more useful skill than knowing everything. I know for fact that Dota 2 has a practice mode that allows you to enable cheats, give everyone specific items... It even allows you to create and completely control bots, both Radiant and Dire.
Alright, so I tested it out, and I found some... interesting effects. First off, I tested it out from the same save file in my previous .smv listed above. Thus, I already killed Lanmolas and got his heart container, his pendant, and the Ether Medallion. Now, everything went the same way as your video with the exception of some of the out of bound exploration zone rooms (the unused areas of the map) looked a tad different. Even the sprites were pretty much identical, from all the glitched ice and treadmill floor sprites to Aghanim's glitched-out looking lightning strikes.
It's important to note that both Lanmolas and Moldorm both dropped heart containers when defeated, even though I already killed Lanmolas and obtained one from him previously. That's definitely a time saver.
Now for the interesting part. Once the game took me to the Dark World, I actually had control. Link's sword and shield sprite looked black, but I was moving and fighting normally. However, once I moved one screen over, the game automatically loaded the Light World. Some blocks and sprites were slightly glitched, but it's definitely the Light World. Upon dying or quitting after, you only have the option of starting at Link's house or the sanctuary, so I have to do some more exploration to see if this has any lasting effects.
Ok well thanks for those answers, i won't do it. I might work on a more "usual" type of game.
Again, thanks for your time ;)
Actually, I really wish there were a solid way to TAS Dota 2 or HoN, because honestly, I feel like HoN or Dota 2 might make an interesting TAS if you could absolutely control all ten heroes at the same time. However, this would require a script and some of the most insane micromanagement you'd ever see. You'd effectively have two players scripting an entire team's movements together as opponents; let's be honest, the bots in either of these games are dumb, and only a human with the right tools can really make the types of plays pros could only dream of.
In all honesty, I feel like the only way to do this would absolutely have to be the highest skill cap heroes with the most absolutely difficult micromanagement kits; Meepo, Visage, Chen, Invoker, Enchantress, Io, Beastmaster... On top of that, you'd have to be stacking your teams to be able to disable frame-perfectly, which would get into extremely ridiculous situations regarding ganks, counter-ganks, picture-perfect crowd control effects, perfect blink timing and armlet toggling...
Looking specifically at micromanagement issues, even heroes such as Phantom Lancer can become significantly more deadly; you can micromanage your illusions to do many horrendous things at the same time. You could take your two (or three) Visage familiars or your three (or four) Meepo clones to scout, farm, gank, harass, or deny across the entire map simultaneously. While having players use wards for various reasons to include vision would still be a necessary evil, more vision than normally possible could be achieved with effective use of micromanagement of summoned units.
On top of that, manipulating RNG to be able to proc random/pseudo-random chances (as cheap and possibly boring as it may be) would definitely work to your advantage when deciding which items to buy or which heroes to pick; again, when a Phantom Lancer hits level 6, you could manipulate him to make his maximum number of illusions inside four seconds every time, and then send his phantoms off to farm in the jungle almost permanently with their near-constant manipulation of illusion spawning. On a lesser note, you could have anyone with natural crit automatically proc it every swing, or have a Sniper decimate someone in a fight by proccing headshot every shot. While I personally think this is a rather silly concept that would be extremely cheap... you might wind up using Chen or Enchantress to take control of one of those PL illusions to turn the tables on their own team; after all, a dominated/persuaded/enchanted PL illusion creates more illusions that are also controlled by the enemy hero as well.
The possibilities are endless, and I feel like the only way to truly do a Dota/HoN TAS justice would be to play as absolutely ridiculous as possible. The only way to make it that would be entertaining would be a full playaround, honestly, because setting some sort of arbitrary goal like victory or high kill count only makes it boring; you can only push so fast and embarrass your opponent so many ways, but both teams playing with absolute inhuman skill is a sight worth seeing.
Also, yes, I know I'm referring a lot to Dota (with Dota hero names and such), but I know that HoN, originally a Dota carbon copy, evolved into its own game with many unique heroes and items of its own. I also know that this kind of concept would be nearly impossible unless someone found a way of emulating HoN to include simultaneously controlling all ten player inputs.
I'm sorry, man. I don't mean any disrespect or anything; I hadn't played the GBA version before, and like I said, it's literally been years since I even played the game through at all. I just sorta jumped into this and remembered some glitches I felt might be useful, so I figured I'd jump in and help.
I was having trouble remembering the names for everything; it took me a few to even remember that I needed the Book of Mudora just to get into the Desert Palace. As for remembering the bosses and dungeons, I only know the names of a few of them, but I can tell you for sure after watching your test run that Moldorm and Lanmolas are definitely in Ganon's Tower in both versions; my memory might fail me, but this dungeon looks extremely familiar on every room and floor.
I think there's some sort of breakdown in communication here; I'm sorry if I missed something here, but let's see if we can get back on the right page. Now, I might be able to follow your route, but it would still help me if I could get my hands on an overall map of all the dungeons in the game data; also, you're using the Up+Down EG to manipulate yourself through the stairs, right? There's not some other glitch that I'm missing, here, too?
Honestly, I have no idea. It's been forever and a day since I played through that game, and I would assume as close of a port as the Link to the Past/Four Swords GBA game is to the original SNES version, it would keep that. I have no idea about anything regarding the GBA version, or which of these glitches would carry over, if any.
I'm not using the GBA version, I'm using the SNES version... I thought that's what this topic was for, not the Four Swords adventure.
Also, I don't think you can re-fight bosses. I couldn't re-fight the boss of the Desert Palace, the crystal simply dropped where it was.
Regardless, my knowledge of the game is very weak anymore. I had to relearn the game just to get to the point on my file... that I didn't post.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/9351479050244024
If I can get to the boss fight in Ganon's Tower... Does anyone have a blown-up version of the dungeon map data? It's harder to find than I anticipated, and the only one I've found so far is ridiculously small. :|
Found the publication screenshot?
