There are two recovery spells.
Healmace is acquired after (1) talking to a resident in Dew to get the Wood Shield (which I don't need) and then (2) talking with the Chief in the same village. I clearly choose to skip that.
Healball is found in a treasure chest one screen North of the Thunder house along the way to Tir Asleen but won't be there once you've at least defeated Eborsisk.
What I can do is try out the Healball spell and see how frequently I would need to use it. I'll be comparing the number of times I take damage and manipulating random encounters. I'll only skip the spell if I really have to gut this game out with the HP willow has left.
Now come to think about it, not only it was for exp. adjustment but also to ensure Willow was strong enough for a more decent battle against Muzh because of 42 available HP.
But your defense was unchanged from the beginning to the end of that. (28)
Yeah, but I wasn't worried about defense. I was worried about surviving! Only the Gold shield would give me a break because if I didn't have it, I would come nowhere near close to taking Muzh out.
And I noticed in your sample movie that you did pick the right coordinates (positioning) to ensure you got the 40 frames saved! I might just halt the 3rd draft project again for a little bit and then revert back toward the Matanda battle (not the very beginning) to give this another try, looking to pull 40. If not, at least 35 but as your sample movie showed, it was positioning that did better than mine.
Hold on a second... 700 + (640 * 2) + 20 = 2000... got it! Okay, no telling how much more I will sacrifice when I adjust Willow's experience but all I need is Matanda himself, two sets of white ghosts, and that stupid giant viper that I couldn't safely get past at the under-island caves, to perfectly equal out 2000 ex. points and face Muzh! From there on, I should have 4000 on a level 6 and I'll be fine with that for majority of the game. Maximum HP on a level 6 is ~132, so as long as I have to go through Thunder mountain and even Eborsisk back at Tir Asleen, it pays not think wasting time. It pays to think survival, knowing you're on a tight limit.
Okay, another update since things continue to puzzle me. I realized that using a healing spell will recover HP and save more frames! Obviously, I will need something to keep Willow in the game if I want to take more damage boosts. And if I ever need more MP, that is when I depend on the Devil Eye sword for striking ghosts. That has now became part of my new strategy. All I can do from here is hope this works just right. ^_^
As many times as I seen runs + improvements of this game, it appears I've seen enough to witness the creation of a weapon that will set the world record forever. From here on, it could take 1000 years to improve again.
Not to bump or anything if I did, but I been freelancing at the American ROM of this game and I am still using the same emulator (NO$GBA).
I started off by choosing Chimchar as my first Pokemon. I was able to fly through 2 gym leaders and barely getting through the 3rd. My in-game time so far is 5 hours. It's too bad that I can't the underground thing to work because it needs "DS communication features" or something. -_-
If you're talking about the bat in the first cave (Matanda), it was part of a short ex. adjustment because it takes 710 ex. to achieve level 4. The bat was worth 10 while Matanda was worth 700. Thought it would make some decent sense.
And can you explain your rationale for killing two sets of those ghosts?
Now come to think about it, not only it was for exp. adjustment but also to ensure Willow was strong enough for a more decent battle against Muzh because of 42 available HP.
You're using autofire to scroll through text. You're losing on average half a frame on each prompt. (total of about a second thus far on the run. They add up.) If you can find a button other than B which makes the text go autofire one on even frames, the other on odd frames.
And yes, I admit that. I thought autofiring would be the same thing as being prompted. If I feel this is backing me up, I'll make sure this gets fixed.
The fight with the first boss *looks* improvable, but I haven't actually tried.
Of course, that is Matanda. And the catch is that I already improved the Matanda confront to go with this 3rd-draft bargain. I don't see any Matanda fight more improvable than this. The one thing that aggravates me is the axe that keeps pushing me back and waste more frames, so manipulation was the key. In the 2nd draft, I chose not to pin Matanda against the left side of that room which was nearby. Here in the 3rd draft, I did. If you can control these bosses and make sure you have them pinned to the nearest wall, of course you're able to score more hits and definitely show more improvement... which is what I did in both battles.
There are some paths that you take which don't make sense to me (but it could be my being slightly unfamiliar with the game.)
I do greatly follow along with the maps posted by Lucid Reverie over at http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/nes/willow/ - so I do picture the path ahead of me everytime I leave one place or get through with a certain event. I've kept track of the pathways I took, though some look perplexing, I always chose the fastest ones that come to mind. I am aware that it is important to conserve time by cutting through most corners/apexes in my route to another area of the game.
Those were a couple of pretty good questions you asked and I thank you for that.
Despite that I saved several thousand frames just by defeating Muzh sooner in the 3rd draft compared to the 2nd draft, I still need to adjust exp. along the way - there are still quite a ton of frames under sacrifice.
WOW! An un-fucking-believable update!
Rolling back the movie as far as I could, Willow had 42 HP to his name and it was indeed limited! Remember the part of OmnipotentEntity's discovery of a clear way to get a damage boost from a huge viper? In the under-island caves, I had no choice but to battle this one. They inflict 20 HP of damage so I needed every HP I had since Willow has no healing spells.
And then I discovered a huge breakthrough in the fight against Muzh, using the Battle sword and the Gold shield, of course. I tried better tactics to pin this monster against the wall, this time I chose the left side. From there on, this fight appears to be 28 frames faster than the 2nd draft (which I test to find out), so that is some serious improvement for ya!
Calculation of Muzh's battles from the frame that the room entrance closes to the last sword poke...
2nd draft: 118860 to 119479 -- 619 frames
3rd draft: 88997 to 89588 -- 591 frames
3rd draft V4
Update:
I have reached the Under-Island caves and currently have 1990 ex so that Willow can move up 2 levels after defeating Muzh (2000, 3950). I did a very brief short-term level grind to 1990 ex by using the same "ghost multiplying" method as the 2nd draft, but this time, I used the same screen twice.
However, I am further managing my HP carefully because I have only 2. I'll probably roll back the movie and try to further manage my HP. I did take a handful of damage boosts but now I am having second thoughts because I have nothing to recover HP. I don't even have the Healmace spell!
Once I have finalized this perplexing situation, another 3rd-draft WIP will be uploaded soon. ^_^
Moderator: Quit messing with my posts especially without reason because I don't go around deleting your posts behind your back. Ker-peesh?! 0_o
The catch here is that when I see movies, I care less if it has to be as specific as just speed or just entertainment. I'm fine either way, but it is all about the quality of the game.
2-player movie, yeah. I wonder if anyone is even doing that project right now? Even if it's 1-player, I am sure the run is well optimized after a lot of hard work. Don't cancel the hard work you put into a game, stay on top of it!
I just came out of Matanda's caves and into Lake Cheef. I still progress from there. As far as the Gold Shield goes, I am not letting go of that. Besides, it appears to be the only shield I use anyway, so the shields are kept very minimal as well.
3rd Draft V3
For a game like this, Willow's ultimate weapon is none other than the Tool-Assisted Sword (TAS)!
Okay, I stopped for a moment because I done some research on what Willow would get from Eborsisk using two different swords at LV 11. There is a big difference between using the Kaiser sword and skipping it!
For LV 11, the Kaiser sword puts Willow's STR at 68. After calculating and using the best positioning+techniques possible, the fight lasted 330 frames.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/961961360/kaiser-sword-vs-eborsisk.fcm
And then the Battle sword put's Willow's STR at 30. Because of reduced STR and the way I had to re-calculate positioning and techniques, this fight lasted 514 frames.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1350516666/battle-sword-vs-eborsisk.fcm
For both sample movies, the first 83 frames shows you what stats Willow would have going into Eborsisk while the fight does start on frame # 84. How many frames have we sacrificed here? 514 - 330 = 184.
However, I chose to level-grind after the Tir Asleen events and before I enter Nockmaar based on my progress in the 3rd draft. So, even more frames can be sacrificed. Only TAS techniques would save me from disaster, but I'm not done researching yet! To be safe, I already backed up all my 3rd-draft save states.
I should still have the 1st draft on Microstorage and on that movie, I know I didn't start level-grinding until after I entered Nockmaar castle for the second time. I can make another sample out of that first draft for a different way of level grinding, hoping it'll take fewer frames.
I will resume progress on my 3rd draft sometime later, for now I'm just collecting new information as I see it.
There was a part where Hero fights a dragon to get its powers. From there on he can transform into "ThrDr" (thunder dragon) and do 120HP attacks. Will that benefit this attempt?
Okay, Michael Jackson has inspired me quite a bit for the Pop genre. He's been around since the Jackson 5 and continued to dominate since then. My 2 favorite videos is Smooth Criminal and Thriller!
And R.I.P. MJ
It is part of the whole system. The catch is that different swords provide different STR values. It seems that (Willow's LV + STR value of the sword he equips = total STR). Such numbers are not randomly placed into the game and cannot be manipulated.
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/nes/willow/weapons.shtml
Okay, now I am back on the hunt! A third draft (hopefully the last one) is on the go!
So far as I started going to see Bogarda, I did some comparison of Willow's STR ability based upon the sword he's holding and the level he was on:
LV 2, Long Sword on hand, Battle Sword (we'll just say "skipped") -- 7
LV 1, Long Sword skipped, Battle Sword on hand -- 207 and 20 is a huge difference when anyone talks about Willow's STR ability, so not only that this conserves more frames, but also gives a decent fighting advantage.
Now, there is a cheap-shot part of the game where Willow's STR does not rise greatly as he levels up. In this first WIP of the 3rd draft I present to you guys, Willow's STR was 20 on LV 1 just by holding the Battle Sword. After defeating Bogarda and shooting up to LV 4 with 710 ex, his STR was 23. Why did the game only give Willow 3 STR points just for being promoted 3 levels?! Come on, CRAPCOM! I give you guys credit for making Rockman a true icon for video gaming, however, even Square Enix can make their RPG characters a lot stronger than you guys would with Willow!?!! =/
3rd draft V1 (to Bogarda's defeat)
I've had users in my recent NES Willow submission that alleged I had too many weapons, and I had to agree. My goal was to try to avoid as many weapon upgrades as possible and keep what I have to a bare minimum.
Not to cut ya down, but you did get a ton of weapons while using Tools and Super Tools to minimize the number of weapons Aya had. What I do know is that when Aya arrives at the History Museum to arrest Dr. Klamp, an explosive weapon upgrade (maybe even a shotgun) that causes HP damage points to surrounding enemies is likely to be found there.
What I would do is move around more when engaging in a battle and not take damage very often because (1) it does not speed up Aya's movement based on damage-boosting and (2) both HP and recovery items are limited.
Weapon-wise, I would grab one gun and stick with it throughout majority of the game until I find an explosive weapon. And if there is not a lot of damage points that Aya inflicts, the hundreds of bullets that Aya collected should make up for it. As far as bonus points go, I would put all that into my weapons to ensure decent attack power.
I finally got your 1st-draft movie to work. Yay!
The run was okay, but if Aya is the star of the show, make sure she acts like one. Hook her up with a script where she has to dance to background music (BGM) in a programmable manner. This brings entertainment into speed and can impress our judges. Other than that, not too bad! Most people say it does look improvable at this point.
This blew my mind. This would allow me to consider you, Dark Fulgore, and VANDAL as the three users that knows how to take a fighting game and kill it!
I cast the 35th Yes vote.