I'd say it's pretty entertaining. I've been lurking a bit, but I'm really digging this. The 2-player is amusing to watch with all the action, and all of the stuff that happens in the dead time is also quite amusing.
Between funny pictures, quick full-level clears, bullet-on-bullet collision negations, incredibly fast tank destruction... Everything in this is looking wonderful so far. If you submitted this run as is, I would definitely vote yes, so keep up the good work and don't get discouraged.
Any preferred image resolution?
Edit: I went with 800 pixels wide and cropped out unnecessary content so it's pretty short.
Looks a lot better now, actually. A lot neater and more professional with all the extra stuff taken out. Given the size of the picture and details, you may not be able to shrink it down that much without killing the visibility, but this size works pretty well for your uses. If you wanted to use a smaller image, I'd say you'd have to pick a different track or use a different angle.
Just an outside perspective, anyway. >_>
I kinda have to say, I'm glad that the last part of the run didn't last any longer. The Time Trial Tournament does take away from a bit of entertainment, with all the dead time between races and the celebration; though, it does end the encode appropriately!
All in all, though, I'm very impressed. I've played this one, and I owned the Game Boy version of Micro Machines. I first noticed how wonky the waypoint abuse was when you went backwards through the track on Text Book Maneuver. Everything after that just made me laugh as you systematically obliterated the game.
Definite yes vote from me. :D
Do we know what sort of flags are required at what times? Having three Dark Knights for the Octomamm fight would be interesting, but what if you used the X-coordinate teleport to jump between parts of the storyline?
If the flagging requirements work out properly, then perhaps you could jump ahead in the story and jump backward to complete a required flag for another event; for example, jumping from the earthquake up to the Dark Elf cave, then back to Fabul, then forward again to Mt. Hobbs. Just as an example, of course; I can't imagine that would work in any real way, unless someone REALLY managed to destroy the game's code.
It starts out a bit... meh. I do have to agree with that; starting off blocking four or five punches before dealing just one seems a bit silly, and it can get a bit repetitive and somewhat boring.
However, once the fight gets into the second round, things do really begin getting interesting. Good one-two combinations, and eventually solid three/four-hit punch combinations. I did find the glitch at the end of round two amusing, along with the near-constant taunting during the very short duration of round three.
I'll vote yes. If, for whatever reason, this doesn't get accepted, I'd say try to take advantage of more glitches, or find the right combination of fighters that would either allow you a faster ramp-up on your attacks... or even a one-round KO.
This :P Haha.. It's a short game so maybe it would only be an April Fool's entry, but if there were sufficient glitches.
I actually did this for april fools but didn't submit it (cause I didn't completely finish it) :p .. I might do it next year for april fools .. And no from what I tried, no ground breaking glitches.. just hilarious ones :p
Wouldn't those be the types of glitches you'd use in an April Fool's run? At least it doesn't color a dinosaur.
Also, (to avoid double posting) I've been playing through the PS1 reboot of Centipede. I have yet to beat the whole thing, but there's a few neat tricks I've noticed, and I feel like with proper angles and good timing (not to mention good luck manipulation), a runner could completely destroy this game, regardless of whether or not they meet the extra objectives. It's also quite colorful, with each enemy having its own unique sound while it's near the Shooter.
Some of the curses could be very, very useful. A wand with Lower Resist on it could help significantly, especially if you're manipulating for maximum spell damage every chance you get.
An off-kilter element for the Sorceress, or perhaps a Blessed Hammer/Bone Spear would help with enemies with significant resistances or immunities in Nightmare or Hell, if we go that far...
Maybe Attract or Grim Ward for lining targets up for more effective killing or entertainment?
Any other thoughts?
What about a charged item? I think a wand/rod/staff in the spare weapon set might provide an extra skill that could help with entertainment or efficiency.
Maybe something with charges of Bone Wall could provide a better enemy lineup or some interesting entertainment? Perhaps curses, or extra elemental attacks?
If you wanted to do an 8-player TAS, you could go for a concept run like 8 paladins... or 7 paladins and a necro. I've played with the concept of an 8 paladin run realtime, and it's quite scary how much damage they can put out.
Remaining Bosses on Disc 1 that can be fought with Selphie:
- President Deling -> Elixir (The End doesn't work against the undead, anyway)
Disc three:
- undead something -> elixir
Any times you run into undead enemies, you can use (with a little luck) a phoenix down. Depends on item availability and usage later. I know for fact GeroGero (Deling's body double) will die to a phoenix down, though last time I fought him, the first one 'missed'.
I don't know if you'd want to save an elixir for later, but I know you can get phoenix downs much easier at item shops. I'm sure it wouldn't take much effort to manipulate a hit with one. It's also considered a life spell, and not 9999 points of healing, so undead with over 10k health should eat it instantly, anyway. (I think)
That bone dragon on the salt flats is annoying as hell, too, if you don't use something to take him out quickly. >_<
Also,
I think gathering at least some of the chalices would make the game much shorter. Some of the weapons may not be necessary, but definitely make the game shorter.
The Witch Talisman (to get the dragon gems) would be absolutely necessary to get for a low% run, unless there's a way to get through/around the flaming gate without the dragon armor. If someone can find a way around that, then that's good news.
As far as the last battle, I was watching a guy play through, and he tried his hardest to keep everyone up to full. He used up less than 6 and a half bottles. Now, that's keeping them all up to full health... I can't tell you what bare minimum would be, but I'd guess probably around 4 or 5?
Perhaps you could try drawing Marx's face, or a little less than the whole thing.
Also, for a few more recommendations, you could draw try doing Ganon or one of the older Final Fantasy characters like Cecil/Terra (unless older FF games are being considered non-Nintendo games).
I think a good picture of Ganon from LttP wouldn't be too hard to replicate, if it fits a number.
In Hard Mode, the emeralds and shards appear in the exact same places every time. They are slightly randomized in lesser difficulties, but they do have various set positions that they will appear in. I can't remember if this means that their positions are in a set of three or all randomized, but I'm sure that wouldn't take but a couple of level entries to test.
The emeralds and shards are also collectible in any order, even if it's not the particular one that the radar is looking for. I'm pretty sure of that, at least; the rest of the crowd seems confident about it, too. However, if we're playing in Hard Mode, it may just prove fruitless to attempt to go at them in a different order than the game presents them in, especially seeing how the designers like the idea of making the player go far out of their way to get the third piece.
The game is already completed in that run. They're using items/abilities that are earned through the course of the game. I can't tell whether or not the run is legit, but it looks fast...
There are still quite a few tricks players can use. The Death Ring and the Judgment Ring together can make for ridiculous Glyph Unions, especially when you manipulate boss weaknesses.
I remember (on the PC version) getting a Renzokuken at full health with no status effects. It's been a while, but I think it should be possible to get one at full health, if you get the RNG right.
I think taking bird form over reptile might be a slowdown because transforming into a bird changes you back into a slow, weak form with 0 EVO points. It allows access to areas players didn't have access to earlier, but if you're going for speed, it's probably faster to just go with reptile or green crystal evolutions.
For anyone who's thinking of doing a Dark Demon run, I just found something I find interesting.
He has 200 total hits. For form 1, use Ultimate w/ Fang for 8 points a shot; for form 2, use Aerial w/ Fang as Ultimate does half the damage against that form. I suppose the developers thought they were being funny by making him weaker to a lesser form or something.
It IS Capcom, you know. I mean... They're the ones that see fit to make final bosses weak against shield weapons, so... Are you really that surprised?
Wasn't 8 the one where enemy levels were based on your own, leading to one of my college friends complaining about Odin powerleveling his party?
That's the one. Drawing system and all. The good news with that is that leveling isn't necessary, and could possibly be preferred. You can get almost every single magic skill in the game through drawing, refining items into magic, and refining magic into their more powerful forms. Some magic can be obtained from more leveled versions of monsters, but item drops and GF abilities would provide full magic for pretty much anyone who needs it.
A lot of the good stuff comes from GF skills, most of which have to be learned by gaining AP in battles. Most monsters don't give crap for AP, but some give ridiculous amounts, like the late-game Cactuars. This might mean that some leveling would be required to get specific abilities, such as magic-refining, card-refining (which is incredibly useful), and handy command abilities (such as Mug).
Several of the limits can be heavily abused, especially since they're extremely random. The chance of a limit being available is inversely proportional to HP percentage, and I'm pretty sure Luck has a bit to do with it; still, I've seen it show up on a character with full HP, so we know it could be manipulated if need be.
Examples:
--Quistis can use an item to teach her Degenerator, which can one-shot most normal monsters (for the necessary battles, or for fun power-leveling of GF abilities late-game), or other fun abilities like Micro Missiles (the item for which has plenty of 'chances' to drop in disc 2).
--Zell with heavily boosted strength can pump out serious damage just doing his Mach Kick and Booya attacks chained together during Duel, which could be pulled off with incredible speed in a TAS.
--Selphie's Slot can pull out doubled or tripled magic, and special limit spells like The End (which can kill bosses, and looks really cool).
--Once Squall gets his ultimate weapon (which is fairly easy to get through card synthesis, but would require a significant amount of effort to acquire the cards for), Lionheart can do simply ludicrous amounts of damage. The Renzokuken by itself can do a rather large amount of damage, too, and Fated Circle (and I think Blasting Zone, too, but I'm not sure) is useful for hitting multiple targets with some large damage.
The biggest thing about FF8 is that it's still a Square RPG, and we all know how much the story plays into it. With TAS precision and speed, there would be more story than action in many cases, until near the end of each disc; more than likely, this would be a project for the fans more than just the average gamer. Believe me, though, when I say that I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm a huge fan of FF8, and I'd work on this myself if I could find the time.
that would be the longest tas ever. at least 8h. ff7 would be almost as long though... at least 7h.
Can't you skip most of the story though? Maybe I'm thinking of X...
On second thought... It might not make a really good TAS, other than manipulating for fun. I don't think you can skip cutscenes, and the game itself is split into four discs, meaning four different movie files. I just want to see it TAS'd; I was one of the freaks who actually liked FF8.
I'd personally like to see...
-Rayman (Much better quality than the GBA version, and I still have trouble finding a working rom or the real CD)
-Tomba!
-Final Fantasy 8
-IQ (already mentioned a couple of times)
-Crash Bandicoot (or any of its sequels)
-Tiny Tank - Up Your Arsenal
