Well, the swooping birds are giving me a lot more trouble than anticipated, and I'm a bit burned out on the game at the moment, so here's what I've got so far:
https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637903496149885188?handler=Download
After Dulan, I was only 4 frames ahead of my resync attempt; if not for some additional boss kill lag (presumably due to more objects being on-screen), it would've been 21 frames. There may still be room for improvement if an alternate pattern can be found that doesn't involve projectiles on-screen when he dies. Possibly more timesave if you can avoid taking damage at all from him (it's hard to evade him when he warps while still dealing damage, but I've been able to do so on very rare occasions). I will also say there was one instance where I entered the fight and he was already mid-warp, but the pattern seemed unfavorable, and it was only once I noticed something like that, so I'm not sure what happened there. Anyway, more than likely improvable, but I'm just grateful for any timesave at all given my ordeal trying to manipulate him.
I was able to get an additional hit on the gargoyle at the beginning of the fight, allowing me to end the fight earlier, and without taking damage. If another hit can be snuck in somewhere, it should skip the lightning animation appearing on-screen at all, which I suspect would eliminate some boss kill lag. As it is, the fight already seems pretty tight to me.
Regarding the swooping birds, I was able to manipulate their starting positions on the first screen by the way I jumped on my way to Elena and Dogi (near as I can tell, at least). On the bird screens themselves, enemy spawns were sometimes further manipulated by how long jumps lasted / when they started. Extremely finicky, but I'm quite pleased with the amount of EXP it yielded on the first screen. There was one bird near the end of the first screen I simply couldn't hit, which may or may not mean even more EXP can be obtained there. Not killing an enemy can also influence how the next ones appear, so I'm not 100% convinced EXP was lost.
Anyway, the problem now comes from the second bird screen. The initial position of the birds can't be changed, at least not without changing the pattern before entering the ruins (or so I assume). While I can somewhat manipulate the following birds via the way I jump, I'm currently having a hard time getting them in favorable positions while also killing the second whip enemy in an optimal manner. I'm confident there's a cleaner way to do so than what's currently shown, but it's eluding me.
IIRC, holding a direction key or maybe pressing it at a particular frame or frames between a screen transition pushes you one pixel. That is what I found when I made a run.
I'm too lazy to recheck it. Sorry, if I was wrong.
As far as I can tell, looks like this happens just by holding the button, which is what I've been doing anyway. This did remind me that it's possible to carry upwards momentum from a jump over to the next screen if you keep the button held down (it doesn't seem to work if the jump's descent has already started). Same sort of thing seems to apply if you're in the middle of a sword swing while transitioning. Not sure how useful any of this will be, but I appreciate the info.
I guess I'll post some things I've discovered so far. First thing is it's faster to avoid jumping when possible, as it slows your movement by 2 frames. Typically, you want to jump from higher ground rather than just walk down from it, as it will otherwise slow you down by 2 frames (though there are exceptions that won't slow you down, such as the doorsteps in the town). Since jumping costs 2 frames, you want to clear as much bumps / ledges (anything that you can fall down from) as possible with a single jump.
In the event you need to fall downward (such as the pits in the mine), it is faster to jump off the ledge rather than glide off (gliding is basically a 1 frame jump at the edge of a ledge, but you don't descend as quickly). I think this only matters on screens that scroll downwards, and it also won't be helpful if you can just use stairs to reach lower ground without a need to jump, unless of course you need to head opposite where the stairs lead.
Next is attack cancelling, which can be done by pressing jump in the middle of a sword swing. Depending on the frame you start the swing, this can happen automatically without the need to jump. Anyway, even if an enemy takes 2 hits to kill, I've found that you'll need to swing your sword at least 3 times (possibly more), as the 2nd swing for some reason won't connect, even if you wait for the enemies' invulnerability frames to wear off from the first hit. Therefore, attack cancelling is useful to interrupt the useless swing and allow the next one to start earlier. For bosses, this ideally means you can land your hits every 20 frames (sometimes it's 22, though, and I'm not sure why - perhaps due to projectiles or other objects being present on-screen?) rather than every 30. As far as I've tested, cancelling the animation can only be done by pressing the jump button, which as I mentioned before, costs 2 frames. So, depending on the movement needed to get through a screen, and the size of an enemy's hitbox, it may be faster to swing the sword uninterrupted 3 times, rather than perform an attack cancel. Optimizing this can be rather finicky, particularly with normal enemies. It's one of the reasons I'm not very confident in my ability to do the firebird grind well.
The final thing off the top of my head deals with my feeble attempts at RNG manipulation. As near as I can tell, one of the ways to alter it might depend on how / when the screen scrolls. What led me to this conclusion is doing unoptimized tests through the slime screen after collecting the Warehouse Key, one of which seemed to produce a good pattern for Dulan, but cleaning up the movement led to a different pattern. Standing idle and killing frames didn't seem to alter Dulan's pattern whatsoever, but I found that getting hung up in the mine's "ceilings" for a couple frames did lead to the pattern I observed earlier. Screen transitions seem to alter things as well (though this doesn't seem to include going to the equipment subscreen), but obviously the fewer screen transitions the better.
Anyway, hopefully, I'll have something updated to show fairly soon. Currently in the Ilvern Ruins on the bird screens trying to get some extra EXP.
Here's the progress I had made in Snes9x 1.52, if anyone's interested:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/228321657/Ys3FirebirdGrinding.smv
There's definite improvements here. Notably, (1) Dulan could be manipulated better (still not really clear how, but at least I think I've found a pattern I can work with for the Bizhawk improvement).
(2) The Amulet shouldn't have been bought yet, if at all. So far, it doesn't seem to be a timesave for the bosses I've tested (up through the ruins), and at this point my guess is that it'd only be useful for Galbalan, but we'll see. If bought, it should probably be done the same trip as the next ring refill, which isn't needed for the ruins (the firebird grind means plenty of enemy kills to refill it manually).
(3) Tighter ring usage in the mine will allow for a few extra enemy kills; the remaining ring power will be used to kill most of the enemies on the first 2 screens of the ruins, which will make it so we have 1,000 total EXP when traversing the following screens with the swooping birds. This will allow the swooping birds to be killed in 2 hits without the Power Ring (which should be depleted by then), rather than 3, which will allow more kills. In contrast, the above movie doesn't hit 1,000 EXP until the firebird grinding begins, but the resync I had worked on a few years ago improved quite a bit on this, managing to accumulate 1.000 EXP just after the first bird screen. Hitting that amount before then should provide a nice EXP boost when it's time to start the firebird grinding again.
You could try replacing parts like the memory and GPU until you've found what's faulty. Alternatively, you can remove the hard drive and plug it in to your current PC with a hard drive enclosure, or the cord that comes with an external HDD if you have one.
I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with the power supply. It'll power on for a few seconds, shut off, then try again repeatedly. I'll try taking the PC to my dad's, see if it gives the same behavior there. Even if I can't retrieve the movie, I don't think it's especially important, as I think it'd mostly just serve as a point of reference (I know there's room for improvement).
CoolKirby wrote:
What if I could help you with the hard parts? I won't have time anytime soon, but maybe late summer or fall of this year?
Any help you or anyone else can provide would be much appreciated. I still have a few things I want to test before finalizing the route, but it's stuff that can be postponed until further progress is made (whether or not the Amulet is worth buying, whether or not grinding an additional level would be worth it).
CoolKirby wrote:
Also have you seen the Genesis version TAS by The8bitbeast? I don't know Ys III or if there are comparable strategies to this version, though I did some planning for a full-game run of Ys I for SMS.
I did watch it, but I don't think it'll be of too much help for this version. As I understand it, the Genesis version is basically an easier version compared to the SNES version - this version is kind of notorious for being pretty difficult, mostly due to some wonky hit detection. There's a reason that, even among speedrunners, you don't see this version completed below max level, even though you can do it a level or two lower, which I think is what a TAS should aim for. Anyway, I did try out the Amulet glitch performed in that TAS, but it doesn't seem to work in the SNES version. Too bad, that would've been quite helpful.
No worries about not posting it. I remember watching it on Nicovideo a while back and coming to the same conclusion as you that it wasn't particularly helpful due to covering a lot less of the game.
Unfortunately, not much new from me regarding the work I had done on this game. I had managed to resync the Snes9x progress into Bizhawk up through the first outdoor Ilvern Ruins area with enemies (so not much further than I had publically shown before). But at some point, I realized that I could tank a hit from the very first enemies in the mine without losing time (initially, I had subtly delayed 10 frames or so to avoid them), and still have enough HP to take a hit from the first boss. Sadly, getting a favorable RNG pattern with Dulan like I did before is proving tough to manipulate. Basically, I've found I can alter it when first equipping the Short Sword / Power Ring, but it's still a pain. Even without that, I think the firebird grinding would've done me in. If I can get my old PC to boot up, I can upload the outdated Snes9x 1.52 progress I made which had just started the firebird grinding, to give an idea how that'd go (it's a hassle, that's for sure).
Speaking of grinding, there's a possibility that the small fly enemies in the mountain caves could be a better grinding spot, but they seem to appear infrequently - I can't tell if it's RNG or not, but I believe they come from the bigger flies. Unless there's a way to manipulate the small flies to appear quickly, I still think the firebirds are the fastest way to grind.
Anyway, the short version is that I likely won't see a TAS of this game through to completion, though I'd very much like to. There's probably too much grinding and too much RNG for me to feel comfortable dealing with in an optimized manner.
I've been following this topic for a little while now, but first and foremost, let me just say that you have my sympathies for the stuff you're going through. I've dealt with bouts of depression myself from time to time, but not to the extreme that you seem to be dealing with (for me, the cause is usually my apparent inability to score with girls, but also occasionally feeling directionless about my future). My personality tends to be on the side of a people pleaser, and the reason I bring this up is because one of the things I've learned in feeling better about my situation is to not care so much about what other people may think of me.
Reading through your posts, I get the sense that you're much the same way. Obviously, you need to take stock of things that you're told, especially if multiple people are bringing up the issue, but if you know you've done the best you can in a given situation, that should be enough. Put the issue behind you and move on. If the situation had an unfavorable outcome, ask yourself if there's anything you could've done differently. Any type of relationship is a two-way street, so it's entirely possible the problem lies solely with the other party (still, it's best not to immediately assume this). Either way, it's best not to give too much thought to what other people think, unless it's a recurring issue. I know this is easier said than done, however.
MUGG wrote:
The situation in my school is getting really stressful and heated.
Teachers don't care when I'm sick or can't finish an assignment on time. I got told something along the lines of "we see you will be heading towards big trouble in the future". Just because I handed in an assignment a day late. That one girl and me had yet another thing to work on and we couldn't come to an agreement who is responsible for what part of it. I SMS'd her and she explained she didn't care about those messages, she was angry at me for not messaging earlier, and she doesn't want to look at messages on the weekend. The teachers then looked at me as if I was to blame. And they didn't care when I explained I was in love with her and got turned down, and I kept messaging her in the Christmas holidays with no success. Basicly the teachers have full understanding of her migraine problem (she misses 70% of classes) but they have zero understanding for any of my problems. Understandably so, considering the job I'm aiming for, I have to be stable. But I cannot be stable all of the time and I have to call in sick some times.
After this meeting (which was 3 days ago on Monday), we continued to work on the project and she agreed to meet today after school, but she then said nope, I got no time and that she didn't agree on anything. I then told the teacher about this, who doesn't give a shit, I'm supposed to communicate with that girl myself.
Sounds like a sucky situation, and obviously we don't have full knowledge of what's going on here, however I do have a couple observations. First, what's the point in telling the teacher about your crush? I don't see how that info specifically pertains to your class assignments, other than you're working with said girl. To me, it sounds solely like a personal issue, and it's not the teacher's place to get involved in such things.
On a slightly related note, I do think you should be more careful about calling your feelings towards the girl "love". Obviously you have (had?) a crush on her, but to me, the word "love" should only be used towards those that you know intimately well (family and friends, for example), and it sounds like you probably don't know this girl nearly well enough for that to be the case. Maybe I'm wrong on that last point, just my two cents. Mostly I bring this up because it indicates you perhaps may be coming on too strong in your romantic endeavors. (But what do I know about such things? =p)
Regarding you and the girl being unable to properly set aside time for your project, it's a crappy situation, but it's not the teacher's responsibility to make you two work together (not unless time in class is set aside to allow you to work on the project). While I do think you're correct in bringing this matter to the teacher, it seems to me like something you should do closer to the project's deadline, and if you and your partner truly can't set aside time, then to do the best you can on your own (probably best to show your teacher the work you could get done, in that case).
This school is a huge clusterfuck of subjects that are shifted back and forth without notice, no matter what you do, you are to blame, everyone else's opinion is correct and yours is false. We had a meeting yesterday and one of those "your opinion is false" girls talked about me and started crying, in front of the class and the teacher. It felt like I was to blame.
She apologized to me later and we are on good terms, but I don't know if everyone else saw that part of the story. In the mind of the teachers maybe I'm a huge disruptive factor/disturbance.
This relates to what I was saying earlier about not caring too much about others' opinions. Stick up for yourself, obviously. Ultimately, people will think whatever they want about you, and probably have (in their minds) fair justification for thinking that way. Still, if it were me, I'd probably find it hard to be on good terms with the one girl again. I'd most likely take everything she said from then on with a huge grain of salt, having as little to do with her as possible, but still being respectful and probably somewhat curt. Of course, that's just me, I can't tell you what to do or think.
In any event, hang in there. Things will get better, but you also need to put in the work to make it happen (I'm not saying you're not doing this).
Voted meh. I found most of the movie reasonably entertaining, but I definitely agree with Orange Claw Hammer's sentiment about some of the tricks / glitches used, specifically this:
Orange Claw Hammer wrote:
I came into this video expecting a playthrough of Super Metroid with "no major glitches". I did not enjoy seeing Samus warp near-instantly to the end of rooms, walk seemingly out of bounds even though she might have "technically" still been in-bounds according to memory values, and kill Draygon by shooting a single shot and then flashing an X-ray for a couple seconds.
As was already stated, I too feel like that stuff goes against the guidelines set forth for this movie, even if there's an explanation for why that stuff "doesn't count" or whatever.
Hmm, I played around with the game, and it looks like it differs a bit from the PC version I played. Seems like there's very little in the way of alternate solutions for this version. So most of my suggestions don't work, the only one that does would be giving a treasure to the rat, which I don't know is worth it.
Anyway, reviewing the route, I noted that perhaps there's 1 transition to be saved by collecting the dagger and bucket first, killing the dragon, then using the condor to drop you near the mushroom. From there, you'd get the other items much the same as you did here (though you could get the chest after the shield, if that'd be faster). The only drawback is the scene where you're carried off by the bird, so if it saves any time at all, it won't be very much.
Yes vote, but mostly on account of being familiar with the PC version of the game; never played this version before.
Anyway, couple questions. From what I can tell from previous submissions, the reason you don't go down the hole by the mushroom is to avoid the rat. Aside from cheese, you can also give him a minor treasure (diamonds, golden walnut, golden egg, ring) to get by. Would this be faster than coming back to the cave at a later time? You'd still need the fiddle or clover when doing this, of course.
Why get the bucket to deal with the dragon when you can simply throw the dagger (or even use the invisibility ring, if picking that up would be faster)?
Could the fairy's protection spell be used to deal with the leprechauns? A guide for one of the PC versions says it's programmed to de-activate near the rat, but what happens if you go through the cave backwards as you currently do? If it works, it'd eliminate the need for the bowl / fiddle. As a bonus, it should also work for the dragon, if you can manage to make it last long enough for both encounters.
I tried things like that, but it didn't seem to alter the pattern in any way. As far as the NES version, I've no plans to work on that, as this is the only version of Ys III I've played (well, discounting Oath in Felghana). Though I definitely wouldn't mind seeing a run of that version.
To be honest, I wouldn't mind some help with this version. The grinding in particular will likely take a while, and from the progress I did make before, that section in particular is a pain to optimize.
Anyway, I managed to save 102 frames over my previous attempts (which are removed):
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/download/35818225111414378
Reviewing Fladdermus' movie again, I saw that I had overlooked a stairs glitch that saved some time, which also altered the boss pattern again, this time quite favorably. I also utilized some of the extra ring power to kill a few slugs. To be honest, I could've killed 2 more on the return trip and I think barely still have enough ring power for both bosses, but it unfavorably altered Dulan's pattern again. Getting the extra 2 kills would've made it so I hit 1,000 EXP exactly right before the firebirds (means 2 hits, instead of 3). However, an aspect of the firebird grinding is scrolling the screen far enough to get the next ones to appear ASAP, so I think that would be a superficial improvement (and besides, it's only 1 firebird killed in 3 hits).
Regarding the stairs glitch, it seems to invisibly extend the stairs in the same direction until you reach a solid obstacle. Unfortunately, I believe it works only when the screen is still scrolling upwards (which isn't very many screens at all, let alone ones with stairs on them). Someone please correct me if that's wrong. If the starting stairs in the top left of the waterfall area were just a tad lower, I think it'd be possible to use it on that staircase as well, and from there possibly reach the Power Ring a little quicker by jumping at the top of the screen, causing Adol to appear at the visible bottom (or something like that).
Wondering if someone could help me to figure out how to manipulate Dulan (first boss). I'm trying to re-sync the progress I had made working on this game in Snes9x 1.52 (started grinding on the firebirds), but decided it'd be better to switch over to Bizhawk. It's kind of a pain, but re-syncing hasn't been too troublesome yet.
Re-doing some of the input has been necessary, so I went back for a couple small errors to save 10 frames up to that point, but his warping pattern is different / shorter, and I can't figure out why. I think it may have to do with the Chester scenes where you get the Warehouse Key, perhaps also with the amount of HP you have going into the fight, but I'm still at a loss. It seems like delays on the screen before have no effect - the warps happen at the same frame intervals once the fight starts.
If nothing else, I can take the frame loss and move on, but I suspect the fire dragon's movement may also be possible to manipulate, so I'd like to try and figure this out now. Especially since I plan to grind most of the needed EXP on the firebirds, and having to change things before that screen (if needed) will undoubtedly de-sync the movie. I'm pretty sure the grinding I already did will need re-doing, so it's not a big deal, and I think I can do what I already did a bit better.
That aside, here's my plans for the rest of the run:
- Kill the gargoyle with the levels from Dulan, then proceed to buy the Amulet before heading to the Ruins (not quite sure if this should be used for the lava area bosses or not - Galbalan, if nothing else). I'm skipping a ring recharge, as grinding in the lava area will fill that up. Related to this, I realized there's not a need to closely monitor the ring usage to have enough for the gargoyle, but not enough to avoid removing the ring between fights.
- Grind on the firebirds* (the room before the fire dragon, as the other rooms have falling debris to avoid / cause lag) for most of the necessary EXP, with the remainder coming from bosses / normal enemies in the way, provided they don't take more than 2-3 hits to kill. My notes say at least have 12,331 EXP entering the fire dragon fight, but this needs to be re-confirmed.
- Calculate how long it'd take to gather an additional 10,000 EXP from the firebirds, then do preliminary TASes for the remaining bosses to see if the additional level is worth it.
- Do my best to stretch out the ring usage in the Castle to avoid needing Brocia's Secret Medicine. Not 100% certain, but judging by Fladdermus' movie, I believe this is doable.
*The birds in the ruins are a possible alternative, but I fear it's beyond my ability to optimize decently well. As they'll take two hits to kill (even with the Power Ring, I think), you'd ideally want to do a jumping attack as high as possible to the group of 6 to get them to do their second swoop faster. The trouble is hitting more than 2-3 with one swing, as well as not taking damage yourself. The firebirds were chosen since it's sometimes possible to have an additional ground enemy respawn while killing firebirds; technically, this is also the case with the birds, but not in an area where you're close to the room "ceiling". I think the firebirds are slightly faster regardless, but I'm not 100% certain of this.
I've been following the videos posted to the game topic, definitely a yes vote.
There's one thing I was wondering about, though it's probably been addressed elsewhere. In the Twitch video, you mentioned a weapon switch glitch to be able to swing a sword before you had the proper level to do so. Is it not possible to do something similar to avoid being level 24 to use the Phoenix magic? Or is it just not worth it (Deathtoll needing 100 hits and all)?
EDIT: Never mind the second part, I'm dumb and didn't fully read the description. =p
Yes vote.
I too have mixed feelings about the use of the amulet glitch. It does eliminate the most tedious part about this game (well, I haven't played this version, but I imagine it's more or less the same as the SNES version - curious if the glitch works there or not), but it also seems to take away the suspense when going through the areas. This is even further demonstrated with how quickly the bosses are killed. Then again, even the final boss went by much quicker here than it would in the SNES version, and you're expected to be near or at max level for him.
Still, it seems like a decent enough run overall, though I couldn't help feeling maybe it's a tad unoptimized in some spots. For instance, in the SNES version, when descending staircases, you can press jump to fall right through them, eliminating the need to manually walk all the way down (in most cases).
Sorry, but I had to vote meh. Don't get me wrong, it's quite interesting from a technical point of view. But entertainment-wise, it's very boring, IMO.
I had the same thought earlier about money chests from Rabites/Lullabuds, but the money amount actually doesn't show for those chests. This is just a guess, but I think the money amount only appears from the chests that are pre-placed (like the 50 GP chest in Potos). Not that I have much technical understanding about this game or anything. =p
About a shop in Pandora, it might work, except there's a guard blocking entry into town this early on, so it'd probably be slower even if it would otherwise work.
Thanks for posting these, it's been a good watch so far. I do wonder if all the random encounters are saving time over using Holy Bottles, but it at least keeps the action fairly constant.
Anyway, the disc 2 part 4 above has sound issues all throughout, so the person did a re-upload with things sounding much better (I don't think anything changed in terms of gameplay):
Link to video
Also, disc 2 part 5 (Balir Castle) is up:
Link to video
Hmm, well, thanks for taking a look at it.
Any idea why the games are ignoring the fast-forward command in Hourglass? That's something I can live with, but it's still a bit annoying.
I experience the exact same thing with another game, Ys II Complete. Even if I attempt to create the movie file with a different starting system timer value (usually, I just go with the default 6000), it desyncs very quickly. As Bernka noted, it's not always at the same spot; quite the opposite in fact, and so it's pretty much impossible to play back the movie correctly.
Incidentally, this is not an issue in the prior release of the game, Ys II Eternal, even though the two versions appear to be almost 100% identical to one another gameplay-wise, excepting a couple bug fixes and other small updates. Even so, both versions appear to have another bug in Hourglass, in that neither of them will allow the game to be sped up whatsoever (none of these issues are present in Ys I, but then again, it is my understanding that Ys I is very different code-wise from Ys II). So, I've got logs for both the Eternal and Complete versions, if you need to compare them. Hourglass settings are at the default values for r81, and the OS is Windows XP, SP3:
Complete - https://www.mediafire.com/?ocwdndvcodq0bk8
Eternal - https://www.mediafire.com/?9vfdxqd57ghuya9
Thanks for the input. If Snes9x 1.52 isn't likely to be deprecated anytime soon, I may go ahead with that, but I'll need to think on it more. How motivated I'll be to put that level of dedication to this is my #1 concern (I expect I probably won't do much else - if anything - with the game for at least a month or two).
Anyway, I decided to throw together a quick encode of the testrun, nothing fancy. I believe there is a slight audio desync (which I tried to correct, but it may still be noticeable), plus Youtube seems to be displaying it at 30 FPS, even though it was captured at 60 FPS:
Link to video
I realize that's the rule for the time being, but the way it's worded makes it seem like they'll want to stop accepting Snes9x movies completely sometime in the future. Given how long this run took to make, I'd hate to potentially find out halfway through a new run that the emulator I'm using is no longer acceptable. So I'd rather just not have that be an issue at all, and switch to a new emulator (only problem is, the newer ones seem less user-friendly).
Testrun finally completed (as mentioned above, uses Japanese ROM and Snes9x 1.52):
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/download/7990870584143003
In addition to the improvements in the post above, more time can be saved via better optimization when grinding in the Tower of Iris (especially before Bami - you can see I changed methods a couple times throughout). For Bami, when I tried her at level 26, it was actually about 200 frames faster than at level 27, but that extra 4,000 EXP more than makes up for it, I think (unsure if it'd be even better to face her at level 28 - I'm guessing not, as the grinding after Bami is faster, and before starting the level 28 battle, I was already very close or past the previous frame numbers where the level 26/27 battles ended). For Guruda, I also tried him at level 29, which was only 30 frames slower than in the movie; if more enemies can be manipulated during the grinding session after Bami, it'd almost certainly be worth it, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that in an optimal manner (would likely have to go farther right, but even then, the other enemies don't seem to enter the passage I'm in too often). Also, I'm not sure if there's a way to keep hitting his first form non-stop without needing to temporarily dodge projectiles, but if so, that'd be another small timesaver. As for Eldeel, level 28 was slower, but I haven't bothered finishing the final phase once I saw it wasn't worth it (would probably be around 1,500 - 2,000 extra frames, I believe).
Regarding the misalignment glitch, it was necessary to use it both horizontally and vertically to skip the five disciples cutscene. It also skipped a small scene after the Guruda battle; for this reason it'd likely be better to kill him on the right side of the screen, if it's possible to manipulate him in that direction (going left doesn't scroll the screen any further). In addition, the glitch was used to attack enemies off-center in a spot that otherwise didn't seem possible (at least, not without a bunch of waiting). At one point, a normal failed Wing message (use it indoors) was used to manipulate an enemy to change directions, as it'd otherwise clog a corridor a bit longer than desired. Ideally, neither of those two uses would be necessary, but nothing else seemed to work well, so it's what I went with. Also, I mentioned earlier using the glitch to initiate the Eldeel battle further up, and have more time to attack him using the Mirror Necklace glitch. Unfortunately, utilizing this still wasn't enough to immediately kill him at level 28, so it's not worth it.
Anyway, not sure if I want to do a fully optimized run or not. I kind of do, but I'm not too fond of the idea of switching emulators. Plus, there's still some things to look into that I really don't want to test (Lemnos, Gadis, and Bami at higher levels, whether or not the Thunder Sword is worth it, perhaps also not equipping the Ice Sword). Either way, as this took quite a while to complete, I'm in no hurry to start a fresh run anytime soon.
Wow, this is really shaping up to be a good run. The boss fights were especially nice; almost no multi-hit spells used on the party until Nazeby (maybe the Oil Dragon, was a bit pre-occupied during that), at which point it can't really be helped.
Keep up the good work!
I was wondering, is it possible to instantly kill certain bosses/minibosses as their health bar fills up, like in MM7? One particular instance I'm curious about is the transition to Sigma's second form ("normal" looking Sigma). If you killed his first form at one end of the screen, and used Zero's Giga Attack at the other end, it seems like there might be enough time to make the attack hit him right as his second form's life bar is filling up.
Would something like this work, or no?