This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4284: arandomgameTASer's Windows Ikachan in 03:31.56

Here's the RTA WR for comparison. http://www.twitch.tv/lurkchan/c/3994606 (Though at 13 minutes of length, if this TAS's 3 minute length is correct, it is 'blown out of the water' so to speak)

-The Japanese version is used because the text is slightly faster. There are no other differences.

good luck

We have precedence saying that it is fine to pick a different version based on the language as long as any differences due to this are ignored when comparing times.

Encode? Kinda hard to pass judgement when you aren't capable of watching the run (I get a vibe from Hourglass that it only actually works on WinXP, and I'm on Win8 64-bit...)

I should be able to get an encode up in a few hours, once I get home. To clarify, this game was never officially translated to English (Same deal with Cave Story). I figured I'd run it on the official version so to avoid problems with a fan translation.

That's a good choice, since the guidelines says to do exactly that.

To clarify, this game was never officially translated to English (Same deal with Cave Story). I figured I'd run it on the official version so to avoid problems with a fan translation.

There is an official English translation, it's just not for the PC. It's for the 3DS.

Quick encode (removed because arandomgameTASer has provided his own)

Looks good to me. Voted Yes.

I became aware of Ikachan through Cave Story, but never got too far in the game. Nice TAS, I liked the movement, there seems to be a lot of finesse in it. Voting Yes.

I have no idea what's going on, but the music was nice, so meh vote.

Thanks for the encode, scahfy! I went ahead and made my own with some commentary. (Just turn on the annotations.)

Finally watched. I had no idea such a glitch existed in this game, nice job :)

Nice find with the Attack Star exploit! Like Patashu mentioned, saving 10 minutes of time off of the RTA WR is impressive. 'Yes' vote.

I would like the author to comment on movement optimisation, as the movement seems really complex from a TASing point of view.

<Brushy> The movement seems to be really hard to optimise and it just somehow doesn't seem to as quick as possible.
<Brushy> I'm not sure how the movement works in that game though, so it might all be just in my mind.
<Brushy> And by being not sure, I mean that I don't know a single thing about that game.
<KennyManZZZ> Movement in Ikachan is very atypical
<KennyManZZZ> You use a total of three buttons for movement
<KennyManZZZ> Left, right and Z, which is the "swim" busson
<KennyManZZZ> *button
<KennyManZZZ> Each press of Z propels you slightly in the direction you're pointing
<KennyManZZZ> So each time you see a bubble emerge from the sprite, that's one press of Z
<KennyManZZZ> It's practically impossible to do precise movements
<Brushy> That much I figured out.
<KennyManZZZ> And if you go fast in one direction you'll have a ton of momentum when you want to move in another direction
<Brushy> Yeah.
<Brushy> So it seems that it is really difficult to optimise your movements.
<KennyManZZZ> Yes.
Brushy> I don't think 2871 rerecords are enough to optimise a game like that, unless you know exactly what you are doing all the time.

I'll refrain from voting until the author gives a little insight to how the movement works when TASing and if he was able to fully optimise it.

It should also be mentioned that propelling yourself to the sides also propels you up. That alone makes movement a lot more awkward.

Try playing this game sometimes. It's incredibly hard to move in a 'beautiful' way, and usually impossible.

the strategy looks wrong in at least 2 places… and in places it doesn’t look optimized, but without trying myself I can’t be sure… I don’t think 2.8k rerecords are enough to optimize this game #1: I’m sure you can save a lot of time if you take all 3 fish in an upwards motion. Alternatively, you could avoid the bottom one if it requires descending for so long to take, and take the one you skip here instead #2: instead of waiting for your buddy, can’t you go ahead, break the blocks blocking the path, and let your buddy go straightforward instead of taking the (slower?) bottom path? edit: just noticed Brushy thought the same

This run is hilarious.

I'll refrain from voting until the author gives a little insight to how the movement works when TASing and if he was able to fully optimise it.

I feel like I did for the most part. The real issue with this game is decelerating enough so Ikachan falls fast, which is incredibly hard to do quickly. I tried pretty hard, but I'm sure it's totally possible to optimize his movements more.

I’m sure you can save a lot of time if you take all 3 fish in an upwards motion Alternatively, you could avoid the bottom one if it requires descending for so long to take,and take the one you skip here instead.

Just compared. Yeah, the upwards motion is a bit faster. Good thing this run is short, so it's easy to point out ways to do things quicker. Getting the fish later requires decelerating to go back for it, and carefully pivoting Ikachan back around again. So no it's not worth it.

instead of waiting for your buddy, can’t you go ahead, break the blocks blocking the path, and let your buddy go straightforward instead of taking the (slower?) bottom path?

That may not be possible, since the Attack Star follows your position. Including height. So if I didn't wait for him, I would have to go back and get him unstuck from the block.

instead of waiting for your buddy, can’t you go ahead, break the blocks blocking the path, and let your buddy go straightforward instead of taking the (slower?) bottom path?

That may not be possible, since the Attack Star follows your position. Including height. So if I didn't wait for him, I would have to go back and get him unstuck from the block.

I think there should be enough movement leeway to make it possible

I think there should be enough movement leeway to make it possible

I will certainly try. By the way, if I make a minor improvement before this is accepted should I just cancel the submission? Or can I just replace the current run?

Well this game got destroyed. There's quite a bit of stuff you need to do in the game to get to the ending, and you just bypassed most of it. Yes vote!

At the very beginning, at 0:15, wouldn't it be faster to slow down instead of hitting the wall, and then clear the obstacle at maximum velocity both upwards and to the left? Or is the problem that slowing down (by moving right) also moves you upwards, which is counterproductive? Around 0:40, the two first steps down are done differently than the last. Why? Also, I'm worried that the star shepherding is suboptimal. the star tries to follow you, so to avoid having it run into corners, can't one do better than just running ahead of it and waiting for it? For example, around 2:50 the star runs into the wall and loses its forward velocity because it is trying to move towards ikachan, and ikachan is ahead of it. Wouldn't it be faster to position ikachan above the star at that location, making it slow down a bit and accelerate upwards in order to clear the ledge, and only then run ahead with ikachan again? And around 3:04 it looks like you wait slightly longer than necessary for the star, as it clears the ledge with a good margin. And just after, at 3:05, wouldn't it be better to led ikachan fall along the left wall, so that the star ends up further left. That would give it room for a running start for entering the passage just after. But I haven't actually played the game, so take my comments with a grain of salt.