Having completed a 100% clear and an NGDJ run in realtime, and failing horribly at making one lowp+speedboots speedrun, I'm interested in TASing this game.
(warning - some moderate spoilers below are untagged)
However, I wonder what modes of this game would be good choices for TASing, though. I'm most certain that any% and 100% are good choices, but what about low%?
There's an achievement for completing the game with under 15% items. Since each item in the game weights 2%, you can take 7 items. (Or, due to a bug, if you complete the game without ever saving, the game considers you finished with 0% items...).
Now, you're only required to take 6 items - 3 Keys, 2 Time powerups (for the 1sec time door in Fool's Trash Dump), and your choice between the 4th key or the wallkick boots (to access the final boss) -- note the lack of the gears (the item that lets you turn around left/right).
A lowest% would only take these 6 items, and I REALLY doubt any of these are skippable, since if by any means you clip through a wall, the game simply kills you. But if we define low% as sub 15%, then we can take one extra item - namely the dashboots, which would possibly make the run much more enjoying, specially since we're skipping the gears, which means we can only move fast backwards to where Bunny the Honeywhite is facing... since we can't backdash forward.
(This would also be the first "low%-entertainment tradeoff" lol).
The other thing is about the
NGDJ challenge. This was a run published by DrGodPants on Youtube, where you skip the key movement items (Gears, Dashboots and Walljump booots), but collect all the other items you can reach.
This includes exactly enough time powerups to get the "Alternative" time power, and
we'll probably need a verified save with it. Although the 100% run could provide it, this could be quicker.
It includes some points of interest, for example the fact that it skips the walljump boots (as opposed to the lowest% which gets it) means we get to see the Septentorium fully navigated in a low% scenario. We also get to see that knightmare of a room in the Evil King's Lair in its full difficulty (with the dashboots you can just jump across the islands normally, with the walljump boots you can just guard-block the spikes and climb the last wall. Without neither your only way of crossing the chasms is by manipulating the enemies' homing shots as stepping stones - in my NGDJ realtime run this is where 3/4 of my "reload" counts were spent).
The problem of this is that it's an user-made goal, and would require an exception to the rule that prohibits them.
So, what are your thoughts on all these routes?