http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1333580515/Terranigma(E)[!].smv
I feel obligated to have some sort of WIP up. It's really short, but it's enough to show off the most important trick, something I like to call the Diagonal-boost, or
D-boost.
From what I understand, it works the exact same way as arm-pumping in Super Metroid, or the wobble trick in A Link to the Past. Whenever Ark moves diagonally, he's shifted forward a bit. Alternating between pressing down and pressing either down+left or down+right will cause him to move down at a faster speed than if you were to just hold down. Same with all the other directions. It saves a frame per use, I believe, and with all the dungeon and town crawling you do in this game...
And before you ask, alternating diagonals every frame doesn't make any difference (again, like in SM).
Comparing this to nitsuja's WIP, I saved
145 frames (2.9 seconds) total. I lost 7 at the beginning from renaming Ark to A (the naming screen is awfully slow), so I'm only 138 frames (2.76 seconds?) ahead at the end of this WIP. It took about 2 hours.
EDIT: The rest of the time saved comes from the dialogue. Holding A during dialogue allows it to advance as soon as possible, as long as you release A and hold it again for every line that comes up. Shortening Ark's name also saved a couple frames.
I could save a couple more frames from perfecting the routes, so I think I'll pull my first of several hundred restarts when I get some free time today.
