Gargoyle's Quest (GB) Tool-Assisted Speedrun

(When I say "time-saving glitches" I mean a maneuver that allows you to pass through the walls, through heavily-glitched versions of the levels. I chose not to use this because it's not much fun to look at.)

This is my first TASVideos submission, an improvement upon MattyXB's initial run. I'll list all of the significant tricks and strategies I used, in the order that they first appear:

-When flying, the most efficient way to conserve wing power is to periodically stop flying, fall for exactly three frames, and then start flying again. If you do this the right number of times, you will travel farther than you would by letting your wing power run out normally. This is used multiple times throughout the run to cross large gaps and get Firebrand to affix himself higher up on walls than he would have normally. -If you try jumping off a wall while holding in the direction of the wall, you temporarily lose control of Firebrand while he jumps up. If, however, you jump off a wall without holding the D-Pad, or while holding the opposite direction of the wall, you never lose control of Firebrand and can immediately pull him back towards the wall. This allows you to climb up walls MUCH more efficiently. By my own research, the most efficient climb pattern is to keep rapidly jumping off, getting back on, jumping off... (once every 9 frames.) -Firebrand seems to walk more slowly on ramps, so I save some frames by jumping off at the first possible instant. -If you fly up to just the right height beneath some platforms, like the tree branches, and then let go of the jump button, Firebrand will pop to the top of the platform faster than you would have normally. -As in many other platform games, jumping before falling down a pit gets you to the bottom faster than simply dropping down it. -At around frame 2950, allowing myself to get hit by the enemy here causes me to be pushed through the branch and to the right. -The boss fight is the best improvement to this stage. For most bosses, the best strategy is to get as close as possible and rapid fire.

-The overworld has random enemy encounters, but as in the published run, I manipulate the RNG to avoid them by simply waiting an extra frame prior to where there would be a random encounter. -In many of the overworld fights, including this one I saved time by allowing myself to take damage in order to defeat the enemies quicker. -The first huge improvement of the TAS is that, amazingly, it's not necessary to get the Specter's Fingernail, which the game seemingly requires you to obtain to cross the bridge. BRIDGE 1 -Again, it's possible to cross this initial obstacle without increasing your jump height, by getting on JUST the right height pixel and then jumping off. -However, as a result of your weaker jump, you do have to wait a little bit for the columns of fire to pass, and you end up taking a bit of damage from the spikes at the level's end.

-This level gets trickier without the Fingernail, but it's worth the time saved. -The floating vase-shaped platforms are tricky, because their movement is very touchy. Depending on where they are relative to Firebrand on a particular , they can move in the direction you want, or the opposite. Here, I wait for the right frame before hopping up, so the vase goes right instead of left. -At certain points, I'm able to actually pass through the platforms by jumping off of them, then immediately pulling back towards them. This doesn't always work. -This boss fight could definitely be improved. Try as I might to manipulate its direction, I couldn't seem to avoid getting hit by the enemy's attack without taking significant time to avoid it. As a result, I think I did worse than the published run here. -At the very end, when the level exit opens up, I save a little bit of time by being in midair beforehand.

-It's faster to simply walk back the path you took to the tower instead of going north and having to fight enemies. Nothing else to mention about revisiting the bridge and going back to town

-More time saved climbing up the wall

-Here is the single greatest time saver of the run. It turns out that it's not necessary to increase your wing power, either! Using the flapping trick described above, you can cross the gap here without any stat-boosting items.

-Not too much new to mention, other than, like the last stage, Firebrand has a harder time than normal as a result of his weaker wings. -After this level, your stats are boosted to what they would be normally, despite ignoring the two previous items.

-The boss fight is made faster by attacking him from the bottom of the screen rather than jumping onto the platform.

-Again, the minibosses you have to fight here are killed a bit faster if you rush in for the last attack and allow yourself to get hit. -The minibosses in the cave must be attacked from behind to be killed. To defeat them quickly, I get hurt on purpose, pass through their bodies, then quickly shoot a projectile to the left when I'm in position to kill them.

-I kill one of the enemies at the beginning to help with lag.

-I found some significantly better wall-climbing routes.

-I take lots of damage here to save time. The sharp objects that pop out of the wall cause a lot of damage so I spent some time waiting for them to pass to avoid dying.

-Lots of damage taken here, too. Note that the spikes cause less damage than the lava, so in cases where I jump off of lava to save time, I intentionally hurt myself with a spike to conserve my health.

Possible improvements: -Stage 2 boss -Lag Management -Going over the game with a fine-tooth comb to make sure I spent the exact optimal amount of frames for things like wall-climbing -More possible tricks/glitches involving the game's tendency to "push" Firebrand a certain direction when he comes close enough in contact with a certain surface

Thanks to: MattyXB (for of course using his run as the inspiration for mine) bullethead2202 who, amazingly close to the publication of this run, happened to post on YouTube his own run: [dead link removed] . This made me realize the walls could be climbed quicker. The publisher of this glitched run on NicoNicoDouga which first showed me that it was possible to cross the large gap without items (among other tricks): http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11744808

Nach: Very nice improvement. Accepting.

Guga: Processing...