I finally managed to get this done. Atlast!
This is still a highly underestimated game. You play as the hero (of course) who returns to his town to find it almost deserted. It turns out to be the evil dwarfs who is behind this. So off he goes.
This improved version is MUCH faster than my old. This is because of several things.
First of all, I changed tactic when killing enemies. When you are about to hit something and standing on the ground the hero will stop and swing his sword. This can be prevented if you jump at the same time, but if you hit an enemy while in air you will stop in midair and lose your speed. So I tried to solve this by jumping at enemies and strike them at the moment my sword "goes back" to the hero. This results in more movement forward instead of stop and kill all the enemies. I don't know how much this saved me overall but it's pretty much. Say 20-30 seconds.
Second. I decided to skip Tilte, the strongest magic in the game! This resulted in most time saving overall. First, Tilte takes 30 (!) seconds to buy. Second, because of this I didn't had to collect 15 000 gold which saved me a sick amount of time. And as a result of this I could use my second pair of wing boots better. I found a shortcut with them that saved me lots of time.
Also, after suggestions based on my previous run, I missed two jumps. One in the misty world and one in the branch world where the poison is. The misty world jump is NOT possible without boost from an enemy, so I had to "stop" to collect some energy but this saved me time anyways.
I also found a nice glitch when you use the wing boots. When about to climb a ladder you can reset the heroes status so the game thinks it's solid ground and thus I can jump upwards ladders. This only works with wingboots though.
And lastly, I complete the game with a different title in this version. As "adept". I got this when I talked to the guru so I could use death as a shortcut to avoid some heavy backtracking.
I think I got the main improvements covered..
Also, this game is very hard to plan because you have to concider where you can take damage and/or use magic and how much money you need. Fortunately I didn't have to do the money collecting part after I got the King Keys because I skipped Tilte.
So here it is! A bit over 6 minutes faster!
  • Manipulates luck (enemy pattern)
  • Uses death as a shorcut
  • Takes damage to save time
  • As fast as possible
  • Emulator: FCEu
And that's it I think.
Enjoy it!
/Walker Boh

Bisqwit: THAN. Faster THAN your old. THEN is related to consequence. Anyway, publishing this movie.
Walker_Boh: Fixed the typo. Thanks for telling.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #477: Walker Boh's NES Faxanadu in 31:00.75
Emulator Coder
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 453
Location: Norway
hahaha, final boss owned :P
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 359
Location: Borlänge - Sweden
Awesome.. :)
Wheeeehaaa.. Yaaayy..
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Thanks ;)
/Walker Boh
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Good job! A yes vote from my side.
Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 706
Location: Elyria/Oberlin, OH
Excellent work I must say. Getting rid of that one "Golds"-collecting scene was a major plus for me as a viewer. -Josh
but then you take my 75 perchance chance of winning, if we was to go one-on-one, and then add 66 and two-thirds ch...percents...i got a 141 and two-thirds chance of winning at sacrifice
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Thank you! Yeah, when I decided to skip Tilte it saved me a lot of headache, and time ;)
/Walker Boh
Joined: 8/10/2004
Posts: 173
Location: Bethel, VT
Delicious!
Fihlvein
He/Him
Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 135
Location: Finland Realms
It sure is fast! Great movie, indeed the collecting gold parts which is now skipped makes the movie even more enjoyable to watch. Yes vote of course.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 380
Location: Finland
Nice work optimizing this one. Easy yes.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home." ( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [269] NES Faxanadu by Walker Boh in 31:00.75
Joined: 12/5/2004
Posts: 60
Um, you should probably know that the link marked "comments" actually links to comments for a Bigfoot video. O.o
Emptyeye.com- Come for the music, stay for the blog.
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Emptyeye wrote:
Um, you should probably know that the link marked "comments" actually links to comments for a Bigfoot video. O.o
Thanks.
Joined: 8/10/2004
Posts: 173
Location: Bethel, VT
When you are killing the first boss, if I recall, you loose half the money to the wall; wouldn't it be faster to wait for him to come away from the wall and get twice the money then to fight him twice?
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I have to kill the first boss a couple of time to get all the money I need to buy wing boots, a queen key and a better sword. Every time I hit the boss he will be pushed backwards, so if I were to wait for him to not be in the corner the fights would be longer. And since I still have to fight him a couple of times I don't think it's worth the waiting.
/Walker Boh
Joined: 8/10/2004
Posts: 173
Location: Bethel, VT
I mean, what if you get him down to 1 hit left, then wait for him to come out?
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Yes that would be possible. But that could take some time.. Maybe 1-10 seconds depending on how the boss behaves. I think it would be a bad idea to waste maybe 5 seconds each time to get another piece of gold when I just can beat him up really fast. Nice idea but I don't think I can win any time with it.
/Walker Boh
Joined: 1/1/2022
Posts: 1716
Hey, walkerboh, that was a great speed run, I've always loved faxanadu. I am going to start working on a speed run on the nes, not using death as a shortcut. You obviously have lots of knowledge about the game, what do you think a speed run on the nes without using death as a shortcut would time out at, approximately? I just wanna know to gauge my progress on the speed run. I'm sure I'll have to be under an hour, I'm gonna aim for 45 minutes and see what happens. I will be watching your speed run a couple of more times to help with some of my strategy.
Joined: 2/25/2006
Posts: 70
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
thanks for this video, it really helped me out a lot :)