TASVideos

Posted: 7/16/2015 11:38 PM

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moozooh

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Ah, Tim Follin of Solstice/Plok/Silver Surfer fame. I never heard this little gem before—that title theme is way too good for the hardware it played on (not to mention the game).

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/16/2015 4:11 PM

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moozooh

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Warp wrote:

Thanks for the head's up. The reason I want a Japanese Xbox is for other games I have that happen to be region-locked to NTSC-J; if I pick up Lost Odyssey it will be a local PAL version (so the fix you posted may end up warranted).

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/16/2015 11:53 AM

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moozooh

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got4n wrote:

Actually, no they aren't. As per the usual deprecation procedure, this thread is here partly to give players (who have long-term projects that are too far in to be restarted) continuances as needed. But I think they'll be fine, there's 1.5 years ahead still.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/15/2015 9:41 PM

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moozooh

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It's probably not that bleak; it's just that the mainstream focus shifts from one thing to another (understandable) but small/indie developers have kept pumping out great titles regardless of what major studios do, and that's what is important. Shmups and versus fighters have enjoyed a very significant renaissance in 2000s with all the most prominent developers releasing some of their best works in that decade, and looking back at the genre those releases were nothing short of amazing, consistently topping the best-of lists. Indie devs have considerably upped their standards in this time as well, producing notable commercial hits (Crimzon Clover is a good example that started as a one-man doujin project that ended up in arcades a few years later and receiving worldwide acclaim among genre enthusiasts). Love towards 2D platformers, a genre that was almost completely forsaken from about mid-90s to mid-00s outside of a few titles belonging to long-established franchises, was reinvigorated with the advent of various digital download platforms, tools such as GameMaker, and a few inspiring independent releases such as Cave Story. Long story short, if we're looking for quality games of unpopular genres, we shouldn't look up to large companies at this point. They are, for the most part, extremely conservative and unwilling to take on stuff that wouldn't sell, so you should rather expect to receive a flavor-of-the-month title or a rehash more often than not. Instead, the attention is probably best taken on independent and crowd-funded projects as they have consistently proven that high budget ≠ high quality, and high quality ≠ high budget.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/15/2015 7:50 PM

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moozooh

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I actually remember hearing lots of good stuff about Lost Odyssey, but unfortunately right now I have nothing to play it on: my NTSC-J x360 bit the dust a year ago, but as I'm planning to visit Japan later this year, I might pick a new one up and give the game a shot. I'll definitely keep it in mind! Eternal Sonata looks interesting style- and mechanics-wise, but most everything I see about its story appears to be the stuff that I so dislike in JRPGs. Persona 4 has (unfortunately) already been spoiled to me by a friend (also, isn't it, like, super long and/or repetitive? Or am I confusing it with some Shin Megami Tensei game?). Much thanks for the suggestions, guys, I definitely got something useful out of this thread. You can get back to lamenting Square/Enix's creative decline now. :P

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/15/2015 7:06 PM

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moozooh

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I agree that Gun.Nac isn't very TAS-friendly (nice game for its time though). If you feel the game doesn't provide you enough freedom of expression to differentiate your TAS from a well-done unassisted run, but you like the genre, you can always look for another, perhaps a more modern/faster-paced game that haven't been done yet—and believe me, there are lots left. Like, for instance, one of the most badass and TAS-friendly shmups on the NES is Recca. We haven't had any submissions for it yet, but there's definitely an audience interested in it, as well as a thread with WIPs and other info. If you don't mind other platforms, some of the Parodius games (all having very decent SNES and PS1 ports) can become crazy hectic, allow great movement speed, and combined with the bell juggle mechanic so loved by Konami that allows for some breathtaking choreography.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/15/2015 5:53 PM

Post subject: Re: Square Enix, why have you forsaken us?

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moozooh

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Warp wrote:

Square Enix happened. FFX had its load of drawbacks, but it had some interesting twists and innovative mechanics there as well. After the merger, however, virtually the entire output of the combined company has comprised of remakes, rehashes, rereleases, and other forgettable drivel. As you pointed out, the very best SE releases (as far as I'm concerned, at least) weren't even developed by SE to begin with, so it's not like it takes someone's weak concept and slaps on some awesome mechanics; the other way around is infinitely more plausible.

Warp wrote:

I feel this trend started in the PS1/N64 era and has been getting worse every generation since (don't play MGS4, seriously) as a way to artificially pad playing time in the absence of truly engaging gameplay. Making cutscenes on game's own engine is super cheap and super easy compared to designing a clever battle, a complex area, or an innovative mechanic. (That being said, can anyone point me to a JRPG that has both a mature, non-entirely-predictable, well-told story and an engaging, non-grindy, non-overly-padded gameplay? FF6 was good, but I really want characters and story that aren't a bunch of cliches put together and dumbed down to a level of a 8 year old. As much as I love Square's early output, this ain't it. I don't need anything realistic, just internally consistent and non-stupid.)

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/14/2015 6:58 PM

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moozooh

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Hikaruon wrote:

I think Truncated actually wanted to ask what exactly you mean by beating this game "glitched". Do you know of any specific way to "glitch" this game? Are there any videos?

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/11/2015 11:06 AM

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moozooh

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I added you. Are you playing Warbands or Tempest? I'm currently in Act 3 Cruel on Tempest, likely gonna get to Merc later today.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/10/2015 1:43 PM

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moozooh

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Warp wrote:

Haha. Path to Exile is what happens when you play videogames too much. :) But joking aside, GGG's core members are all hardcore MtG players, and they've been designing their game with some of the MtG-inspired sensibilities in mind (the Timmy/Johnny/Spike content typology, the colored elements, etc.). However, I believe in this case the card came way after the game's name.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/10/2015 1:25 PM

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moozooh

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This thread is on the verge of being closed if this keeps up. Just saying.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/10/2015 1:16 PM
(Edited: 7/10/2015 1:50 PM)

Post subject: So, who else is coming back to Wraeclast later today?

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moozooh

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For those out of context, in roughly 6 hours from now Path of Exile, an action RPG that Does Things Right™, is about to be expanded with a huge new act, a ton of smaller-scale content additions, a plethora of fixes and balance adjustments, and of course the new ladder season (the patch notes span over 12500 words). Having played the closed beta for the expansion, I can vouch that it completely changes a lot of the game mechanics, most importantly netcode that lead to frequent and annoying, sometimes deadly, desyncs. The expansion uses deterministic lockstep if your latency is sufficiently low, which turns fights based on probability and preemption into those based skill and reaction, which makes a lot of things viable that were previously shunned. The new final boss wouldn't have been possible to beat on Hardcore mode without this improvement. I will be playing the Tempest (temporary Hardcore) league at launch; I believe Kriole, rogueyoshi, and some other people from these forums will join in as well. For those completely unfamiliar with the game, Path of Exile is an ARPG from 2013, initially conceived as a spiritual successor to Diablo 2 back when Diablo 3 was still in the works. The core focus of the game is build diversity, custom endgame (craftable map system), and exploration of gear/skill/passive tree synergies, of which there are nearly infinite amounts. It's created and maintained by an independent New Zealand studio Grinding Gear Games. The game is entirely free to play, does not force you into supporting it in any way, and is supported by ethical microtransactions that don't influence gameplay nor provide any significant advantages. Much like Diablo 3, PoE requires constant server connection since the server doesn't trust client with anything important in order to prevent cheating. This seems appropriate as the game has ladders, regular speedrun-like racing events, and other progression-based competitions with prizes (physical goods and in-game cosmetics/items). It's also really well-designed, with later areas appearing truly grotesque and unnerving (rated R™, and for a reason). Lastly, the developers have been open, active, and eager to communicate with the community, and the community pays back by creating third-party convenience tools and buying expensive supporter packs. Some of the iconic packs have included an ability to design new items and immortalize oneself in the game in different means.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 7/5/2015 1:52 PM

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moozooh

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I don't care about Lufia, but I'm very delighted at this being a Genisto submission. Good to have you back, man.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/30/2015 7:23 AM

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moozooh

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Warepire wrote:

This sounds more like the effect rather than the cause to me. Surely the popularity doesn't just occur spontaneously? For instance, PS1 definitely didn't see a lack of people trying; there were at least four stable emulators that I could recount off the top of my head by 2010 or so, and one of them, bleem!, I first saw mentioned in Russian PC magazines before I even had any means of internet access (1999 or so?). In comparison, Sega Saturn was the red-headed stepchild of that generation when it came to emulation (and development), because of its horrible architectural decisions resulting in previously unseen complexity. To this date there is only one Saturn emulator I would consider good. PSP is another Sony platform that has enjoyed some popularity among emulator developers, and they have made better progress (imo) on that front compared to PS2 which is actually similar to it in terms of overall performance.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/29/2015 7:30 PM

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moozooh

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Pokota wrote:

Pretty much this and the platform popularity. There are, of course, exceptions: for instance, Gamecube emulation was the first to arrive at an acceptable state, despite the platform being less popular and more powerful than its contemporary, PS2.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/26/2015 3:16 PM

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moozooh

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I know I'm over a year late to the party, but having watched these two back to back with some of the better unassisted runs still fresh in my memories, I can't help feeling like there's a lot of potential left to uncover here with something like a no-skip max score or no-skip max banana TAS. Any% speedruns have been optimized so well that the vast majority of the levels could only be improved by a few frames, if any, and it's no surprise given that the general strat is to go the straightest path from point A to point B and hope it works out. Expanding routes to hit extra targets would allow more freedom for tools to shine and thus far greater improvements compared to unassisted players, and result in a more engaging TAS in my opinion. That being said, it's great that we have these runs, and I thank those who have participated in their creation.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/26/2015 3:48 AM

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moozooh

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To underline this point, Xenia is making better progress than all of Playstation 1/2/3 (or any other newer console) emulators have, and is already close to the state Mupen, Dolphin, and DeSmuME were in when we started accepting the first submissions for those. If Xenia devs keep up the pace (and better yet, if anyone from TASVideos joins in) we'll see dozens, potentially hundreds of decent TASable titles by the end of the year. I mean, considering the massive size and quality of XBLA/XBLIG libraries... this is quickly shaping up to be the event to look forward to in 2015. (Well, unless there are some mad desync issues, of course.)

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/22/2015 7:54 PM

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moozooh

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Haha, just wanted to create this thread myself. Xenia is a relatively recent emulator (the initial commit to GitHub was made in January '13), and it's been enjoying some bursts of meaningful activity lately, bringing many games to playable state. Here are some more links: https://github.com/benvanik/xenia https://github.com/xenia-project/game-compatibility/labels/state-playable I haven't made any contact with any of the devs to see if they welcome RR additions, but so far I don't see why they wouldn't.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 1/29/2015 3:45 PM

Post subject: Re: moozooh <3

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moozooh

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AngerFist wrote:

Man, I wish I could help you, but it doesn't seem like there's anything recent in the same/similar style (i.e. swordfighting + period Japan + ultra violent). The only thing that comes close is Beyond the Heavens/Souten Kourou (2009, 26 eps) (and mind you: I haven't seen it, just going by description here; it does seem good though). As for the old ones, I believe you got all of the best ones that I'm aware of. Shingeki no Kyojin has swordfighting as well, but it's more steampunk-ish and has quite a different feel compared to period shows (well, it's to be expected since it's fantasy). There's also loosely related ninja/samurai-ish stuff that I haven't watched: Katanagatari, Time of Shura/Shura no Toki, House of Five Leaves/Saraiya Goyou, Kage OVA (sex and violence, lol). Most of those seem to have good ratings, but proceed at your own risk.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 1/24/2015 3:14 PM

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moozooh

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I actually meant exactly that! Pity to see him go, but then again I like it more when great artists leave on a high note rather than gradually decay into obscurity.

Warp wrote:

Posted: 1/24/2015 11:49 AM

Post subject: HEY ANGERFIST BUDDY NAMEFLASH

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moozooh

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AngerFist, have you watched/read Shingeki no Kyojin yet? You probably shouldn't, because the anime's first season is barely 1/3 through the story, and it's good enough to be depressed at how long they take to continue. Some recent stuff I watched... Kill la Kill: Very much a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Think of it as of Gurenn Lagann of magical girl genre: super fast-paced, decidedly over the top, and full of references and subverted tropes. If you manage to finish the first episode without a feel of disgust or anything of that sort, you'll be very impressed by how clever, nuanced, and generally well-done this show is on so many levels. 9/10. Puella Magi Madoka Magica (the movie trilogy, I skipped the TV series to save time™): While we're on the subject of magical girls, this is more like the Evangelion of the genre; a work that tackles some of the questions and undertones interesting to the mature audience, and presents it in a very solid, satisfying way. 8/10. Steins;Gate: There's been a lot of hype surrounding this show, allegedly based on the thundering success of the visual novel it was based upon, so I decided to check it out. This show left me with mixed feelings, mainly because of how I wanted to like it and how it tried to be likable, but it didn't quite work out. The premise is pretty fun, and characters are somewhat likable, even though they behave very cliche a lot of times (I swear, at least three of them acted out the typical tsundere "it-it's not like I care about you!.." bs a good deal of the time). The pacing, for one, is amazingly bad: over the course of the first nine or so episodes, virtually nothing happens. When you put shows like the aforementioned SnK, KLK, or Madoka in comparison, they manage to tell a helluva lot of story during this timeframe. The story and how it develops is barely held together, but when it works, it does. There's a LOT of genre cliche and various forms of fanservice that is mostly played straight, sometimes to an aggravating degree. The sweetness factor and that some of the characters actually made me care somewhat saved it in my eyes, but I really see this as little more of a lowest common denominator show which has something for everyone but ultimately excels at nothing. 7.5/10. The Lives of Highschool Boys (Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou): Actually this was the second time I watched it (first time was somewhere in 2009 or so) because I remembered just how good it was and decided to watch again. Laughed all the way through, just like the first time. 9/10. Sakasama no Patema: The studio that did a short called Pale Cocoon back in the day tries its hand at a child-friendly Ghibli-like tale and one-ups Ghibli at it. Who would've thought! Then again, with Makoto Shinkai and Katsuhiro Otomo each managing to successfully do it earlier, this is hardly surprising. This movie's premise also connected with me in a very surprising way: when I was a kid, I would sometimes hang from metal bars and other similar playground objects upside down, straightened my feet in the air, looked at the endless space below them and thought how crappy it would be to "fall" there. Many years later somebody made a movie about that exact thing. 8.5/10. The Wind Rises: Miyazaki one-ups himself (lol) in his latest feature. Easily my favorite Ghibli movie since Howl's Walking Castle, and perhaps my favorite original (if you can call a semi-biography original, that is) story since I don't remember when. 8.5/10. Shingeki no Kyojin: Yep, really good, and closely follows the manga which is top-tier. 8/10. Spikestuff, Durarara is rated R now? It's tame as hell (hell, Soul Eater can be more disturbing at times).

Warp wrote:

Posted: 6/28/2014 3:23 PM

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moozooh

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This is ultimately what ACE does to TASes: end them before anything interesting happens. It was still good in the GT run, here you only need to watch the last 5 seconds if you've ever watched any SM TAS before. This shows nothing of entertainment value to me I'm afraid. But it still needs to be published for obvious reasons. Truly great research though! I hope it won't end up with something as destructive the next time. :)

Warp wrote:

Posted: 3/31/2014 5:38 PM

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moozooh

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Acheron86 wrote:

It's the obvious part, i.e. "is TASing like cheating". A typical cheat code, or Gameshark, or anything else silly like that offends the most in this respect by the simple virtue of being 1) widely known, 2) easily accessible, and 3) not requiring any TAS-exclusive features. The less obvious part is that, regardless of rules and methods involved, abusing a feature that provides the player character with unlimited or otherwise endgame-worthy resources at a subjectively early point where for us the viewers it would interfere with the progression of the game—the character's visible effort of dealing with its obstacles. Just like with real movies, we actually get a lot more entertainment out of seeing how the character is developing and being pushed to their limits than seeing how there is neither development nor actual limits. It's the limits that give shape to everything in the first place! They make us emotionally connect to the onscreen action, and where there is no limits, there can be no such connection. Unlike a cheat code, stuff like ACE, memory corruption, and accessing hidden game-breaking debug features—i.e. completely ignoring in-game limits—at least get geek points for being ingenious and unexpected, but entertainment-wise they roughly amount to Luke Skywalker asking Obi-Wan to teach him how to use the Force, and then promptly killing Darth Vader with a lightsaber in the next ten minutes of the original Star Wars. Cheapening the experience is what it's called. I, for one, enjoy it a lot more when I see the awesomeness of an in-game character develop, not come "for free". This run's main (and only?) saving grace is that it ends at pretty much the same moment the "free" power comes, and before that comes some pretty hardcore "development".

Warp wrote:

Posted: 3/22/2014 12:11 PM

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moozooh

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AngerFist wrote:

<3 Chances are I'll return to IRC sometime in early April or so!

Warp wrote:

Posted: 3/22/2014 9:30 AM

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moozooh

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Why must it so often be Super Metroid for submissions that challenge the status quo, ugh. Anyway, this is a very interesting case. People may oppose the particular techniques used in this run (any of them or all at once), but like Tub said, it is the unique combination where every dubious, unconventional, controversial technique works to the run entertainment's immediate favor. To summarize: 1) it deserves recognition for ending a very well-explored game in a (yet another) groundbreaking way that coincides with the current trend that definitely sets it apart from non-tool-assisted completions; 2) the way it is completed is the fastest known and the fastest possible from power-on; 3) it uses ACD which is a very polarizing technique for viewers and players alike; 4) it uses a leftover debug code and, furthermore, accesses it the conventional way, thus technically cheating; 5) it abuses pause screen, yet another shunned technique, in an efficient and non-offensive way; 6) for what it is, it remains entertaining through and through, never showing any boring parts except those in the beginning (i.e. technically unskippable); 7) a "more legitimate" version that finishes the game in the same way would be both longer than the current any% and have little to no unique content relative to the other runs, sans the actual ending trigger. I think it should be published. But, due to this run only making maximum sense the way it is, it should also be published the way it is. At the same time, I don't think it should obsolete any of the current categories, at least directly, as it's not directly comparable with any of them. In fact it's as different from them as currently possible without turning to arbitrary goals. And for the record, I dislike all the controversial techniques used in this run, yet I do enjoy the result. It's not the most entertaining SM run for me, but it's way more entertaining than the X-Ray any% for sure. I voted yes without hesitation. Also, I don't believe in precedent rules, and I think every run should be adequately and fairly judged on its own merits.

Warp wrote:

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