Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
I'm curious how different the other versions are from the Genesis version, especially in terms of damage, since the Genesis version won't hit you for more than 20hp and water/lava only does 1hp a tick (meaning you can skip the mermaid and one tedious platforming section)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
Impressions through stage 3: Oh, it's the 1P max run, only there are two of them now. Yawn.
Stage 4: Oh, I see, insta-gib glitch. Huh.
Stage 7: I hereby christen thee "Handshake of DOOOM"
Stage 8: Throwing the boss over and over again? Uh, no.
(edit) In conclusion: Needs less Max. Current run feels like a 1P Max run with a second Max spliced in to make big crowd fights marginally faster, but less interesting.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
First, copying my edit from the previous submission:
Saw the full run, wacky physics hijinks definitely don't get underway until the Pyramids, which is like the one level I recognize from the Sega CD version that isn't among the first five levels. Some levels, like the one where you methodically and carefully place four balls on four levers, seem like an obvious place where you should be able to simply throw the balls and will them into place (through, if nothing else, "Guess and check").
Also, did you check if using the secret exit/bonus level on level 4 for earlier shoes is worth it?
Second, some commentary about the first four levels, which I'm most familiar with since they're the same as the Sega CD levels:
Level 1: You have a fair amount of control over your jump height: you don't need to use full-height jumps to climb the rocks.
Level 2-3: You can use the object you're holding to hoist yourself up; I know this is faster in level 3 and might be faster in level 2 as well.
Level 4: It is, in fact, possible to jump over the enemy, even without any waiting, instead of running off to grab a barrel to (slowly) kill it with.
While later levels do playful things with the physics and generally look good, the early levels feel unoptimal and overly careful. Voted meh.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
sgrunt wrote:
First off, I have to question the validity of disabling SRAM.
IIRC, the game doesn't use SRAM. It checks to see if the emulator does, and if so, assumes it's a pirate copy and won't let you past level 5.
That said, the run desynced for me on level 14, and I'm not sure what I was watching up to that point is up to our usual standards of optimization. Holding off on voting for now.
(edit): Saw the full run, wacky physics hijinks definitely don't get underway until the Pyramids, which is like the one level I recognize from the Sega CD version that isn't among the first five levels. Some levels, like the one where you methodically and carefully place four balls on four levels, seem like an obvious place where you should be able to simply throw the balls and will them into place (through, if nothing else, "Guess and check").
Also, did you check if using the secret exit/bonus level on level 4 for earlier shoes is worth it?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
Flashback needs an SNES run. It's almost entirely planning, since your movement options are precanned so all you really have to worry about is rolling on the first possible frame.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
As I recall, there's a "no cross-class" requirement that makes Calculators the hardest class to SCC, since you have no spells to use Math skill with.
Then again, watching Ramza poke things with a stick for hours on end might not be the most interesting thing in the world.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
Take more damage, miss less shots, jump more, play on professional difficulty...
And you *can* get the magic armor on the first time around; I'm very surprised you don't. (edit:) If you're going to use the knife anyway, magic armor basically doubles your firepower.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
Wow, the improvements are definitely awesome. Keeping your speed with Red Stealth is something I would never even think to do, and the levitating trick is a lot more useful than I originally thought it would be.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
Boy, did I hate this game as a kid. Couldn't beat it even with infinite health cheats.
Voted yes because it's a Psygnosis game getting utterly demolished.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 375
One of the things that's nice about two-player, though, is that presents are shared. This effectively gives something like rocket skates double the usual coverage.
I also believe the un-fall present is replaced by "Togetherness", which is about a thousand times more useful in TAS, since the only practical way to use it in single-player is to fall on top of a out-of-the-way ship piece.