Game Object

  • Emulator used:VBA-rr 24 svn480
  • Starts from SRAM (the same as what cpadolf used)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Aims to defeat all bosses in the game
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses glitches
It has been a long time since we started, and finally it was finished now. This run uses Julius to clear the game, with all bosses including Julius himself beaten. Julius cannot beat Chaos, as when he enters the Chaos boss room nothing will happen.
This run is slower than the current run by McBobX because:
  1. This run used glitch to beat Julius himself, which was not presented in the current run (main reason).
  2. This run played in hard mode rather than normal mode.
  3. The emulator version was v24, which produced more lags.
However, it is only 936 frames (15.6s) slower than the current run. The main improvements were:
  1. New route design
  2. New glitches used
  3. Better optimized movements and boss fights
Considering that reaching the Julius boss room and beating Julius cost far more than 15.6 seconds, this run should beat the current run.

Route Design

All of us agreed that route designing was the most important part. At start we designed 2 completely different routes, which are surprisingly close in terms of time, and we chose the wrong one at first. And when we learnt how the new Catoblepas/Gorgon glitch works, we designed the third route which was presented in this run and started over again. Thanks to this and heavy luck manipulations, the rerecord count reaches more than 300 thousand.

New Glitches

Long Distance Catoblepas/Gorgon Glitch

Also known as “Super Catoblepas/Gorgon Glitch”, this glitch allows Julius to teleport much farther with a Catoblepas/Gorgon. When a Catoblepas/Gorgon is turning around, the game calculates the distance of movement of the character standing on it, by the character’s horizontal displacement from a certain frame during turning to the last frame before the game moves the character. So when Julius moves fast toward the same direction during turning, he could be teleported really far. Furthermore, an enemy will freeze when outside the screen, and using this trick may give Julius more time to move, thus teleport even farther.
This glitch, however, is not a glitch found by us. When Darkman, or 黑暗人, discovered the way for Julius to access Julius room couple of years ago, he was using this glitch. Since that seems to be the only approach for Julius meeting Julius himself, this glitch is necessary there. However, this glitch can also be used to replace any old-fashioned Catoblepas/Gorgon Glitch, and at the other places for warping.
This glitch is also applicable to Soma. If you are trying this glitch, remember the following rule: When the character is inside a wall, if he is at the left border of the screen he can slide towards left and warp to another room; but if he is at the right border of the screen he is unable to warp anyway. If one could warp toward right, there would be a shorter way to access Julius room.

Grand Cross Canceling Glitch

This is a brand-new glitch that we found occasionally when fighting with Headhunter, related to the floating platforms. When Julius jumps onto a floating platform from somewhere below it, using Grand Cross on the frame he lands on the floating platform will make Julius free to move before the Grand Cross finishes. During that period, Julius may do anything normally except for using subweapons, and take damage, while the Grand Cross is still dealing damage.
Another version of this glitch is when Julius begins or ends a teleport between teleport rooms, Grand Cross could be used and when a teleporting animation finishes he can move with the Grand Cross. Darkman and hellagels found this glitch independently, but this glitch is nothing more than entertaining.

Enemy Disappearing Glitch

After beating the Golem and going back, a wooden golem in a long passage with evil butchers disappeared. The cause is totally unknown.

Black Screen Trick

This is technically not a glitch. When the character moves from one room to another room, the time of black screen may vary. Under most time, when the character moves horizontally, lower Y position can lead to fewer black screen time; when moves vertically, not being too near to a wall can lead to fewer black screen time.

Detailed Comment

Before Creaking Skull

The room with skeletons was passed in a different way as in the Any% run because v24 version’s emulator produced more lags. This kind of lag avoidance was presented throughout the run.

Creaking Skull

We manipulated the powerup ball to be left.

Golem

We manipulated hard to make him go right throughout the fight.

After Golem, Before Headhunter

A wooden golem disappeared due to a glitch. Subweapon was used when passing some doors, both for manipulating luck and entertaining.

Headhunter

Grand Cross Canceling glitch was used twice. Beating the first and second form of the boss in the middle of the room could shorten the animation of changing head. The first head’s animation at the beginning, however, was also manipulated and shortened.

After Headhunter, Before Manticore

Catoblepas glitch was used for the first time, showing that old-fashioned glitch could be obsolete, and the current Any% run might be improved.

Manticore

Double Powerup glitch was used, unlike in the McBobX’s run which obtained only 1 powerup ball.

After Manticore, Before Great Armor

In the large room of the Study you may think the movie desyncing. It is actually another Catoblepas glitch, which barely saved any time but mainly for entertaining.

Great Armor

If Julius moved too fast, Great Armor would disappear. We slowed down a bit to avoid this.

After Great Armor, Before Julius

In the Study Catoblepas glitch was used again to warp to Underground Reservoir, which was found and proved faster by Pike. In the Floating Garden Gorgon glitch was used to access Julius room. By revealing the nature of this glitch, the glitch that Darkman found was improved for more than 500 frames.

Julius

Julius was tolerance to holy, so that Cross, Holy Water and Grand Cross could not be used. The way of beating Julius in this run was the fastest way we found, and it was interesting to see enemy Julius slide continuously until he was beaten.

After Julius, Before Balore

The last Gorgon glitch was used to warp to the Arena.

Balore

Balore fight was really a nightmare. We failed to make him transform into the second form after his fists waved twice because of unable to deal enough damage. His attacks were also hard to manipulate. Grand Cross Canceling glitch was available on Balore’s fists, but was not used because it could be slower.

Legion

Legion was beaten on the certain frame to make his core fall instantly. This happened once every 128 frames, thus there was a frame rule and extreme optimization was not needed.

After Legion, Before Death

Grand Cross Glitch was used in the teleport room just for fun.

Graham

The way to beat him was also optimized. Using axe and manipulating Graham’s attack in the first form; using cross in the second form and beating the third form like the way of beating Balore. Perhaps the way to beat the third form can improve current any% run.

Acknowledgment

  • Thanks to Darkman, who found the way for Julius to access Julius boss room (and maybe also the discoverer of Long Distance Catoblepus/Gorgon glitch).
  • Thanks to mtbRc for his Julius any% run.
  • Thanks to Kriole for his Soma 100% soul run.
  • Thanks to McBobX for his Julius all bosses run.

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Great quality run, and very entertaining too. As discussed in the previous submission's judging comment, despite having a longer time than the previous run due to fighting Julius and using Hard mode, I will accept this run as a technical (significant) improvement. As such, accepting as an improvement to the published movie.
sheela901: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
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Post subject: Re: #4729: hellagels & KSeptuple & Pike's GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "Julius mode, all bosses" in 11:52.03
Fortranm
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Joined: 10/19/2013
Posts: 1121
TASVideoAgent wrote:
It has been a long time since we started, and finally it was finished now.
All the waiting is absolutely. Good job on making the run only 15.6s slower than the current run despite including a new boss and being played in hard mode! This run will be my candidate for GBA TAS of the year for sure.
Editor, Skilled player (1439)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2108
Simply outstanding. Everything from the fights to the movement to the crazy zipping to the Julius v. Julius was an absolute treat to watch. Huge yes vote right here.
Samsara
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Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2238)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
Why do I have to be on vacation and unable to watch at this very moment? I'll have to withhold my Yes vote for a few more days...
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
A little disappointing that the Julius fight didn't get boss music, but kind of expected I guess given you can't normally access him. Also a shame you can't actually access chaos to kill him as the final boss instead. Great run, ULE vote.
Editor, Experienced player (885)
Joined: 1/23/2008
Posts: 529
Location: Finland
At least Julius is not alone in his plight; the big monster cows are his friends and help him move around in this castle of dangers. A fast-paced, well performed run. Yes vote.
Editor, Expert player (2479)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
AKheon wrote:
big monster cows
Voting: Yes! Edit: Woah, they actually have cow heads... I never paid much attention to them and thought they were rhinos.
Active player (264)
Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 188
Location: North Kilttown
Until this TAS I never realized that you could (among other things) attack the top lazer-doo thing during the Graham fight. Obvious yes vote.
Somewhat damaged.
Editor, Expert player (2098)
Joined: 8/25/2013
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Star when
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Experienced player (870)
Joined: 11/26/2007
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Location: Sueeden
This was fantastic, a very elegant experience indeed. I'd love to know, comparatively, how much faster this run would be than the current one if the conditions were the same? Though I reckon the current run would also be much faster if it didn't skip the second Manticore orb. I never actually got around to test this in my 100% runs (I only really thought of it after finishing them), but wouldn't it be faster to cancel Headhunter's second form falling animation with one of those platforms?
TehBerral wrote:
Until this TAS I never realized that you could (among other things) attack the top lazer-doo thing during the Graham fight. Obvious yes vote.
I always thought it counted as a separate entity which could be killed to make the fight easier. Maybe this could save time in the 100% run...? Although probably not enough to make me want to redo it.
Joined: 6/27/2008
Posts: 49
Kriole wrote:
I'd love to know, comparatively, how much faster this run would be than the current one if the conditions were the same?
A boss fight comparation video should be fun to watch:) Yes vote by the way
Sir_VG
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Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
This run are sick.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Player (103)
Joined: 7/9/2014
Posts: 6
Kriole wrote:
This was fantastic, a very elegant experience indeed. I'd love to know, comparatively, how much faster this run would be than the current one if the conditions were the same? Though I reckon the current run would also be much faster if it didn't skip the second Manticore orb.
If we removed all the part related to Julius it would save about 1min34s. The rest part is hard to say, but it is estimated by Pike to be 1min45s faster than the current run.
Kriole wrote:
I never actually got around to test this in my 100% runs (I only really thought of it after finishing them), but wouldn't it be faster to cancel Headhunter's second form falling animation with one of those platforms?
It would be slower, because if the boss is not at the middle of the room, the animation of changing head will be much longer.
Kriole wrote:
I always thought it counted as a separate entity which could be killed to make the fight easier. Maybe this could save time in the 100% run...? Although probably not enough to make me want to redo it.
Well, that part has 4000 HP and I think it will take too much time to kill it.
Warepire
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That was awesome. Voted yes.
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
Voted yes. Was quite entertained.
Joined: 2/18/2007
Posts: 63
Location: New York City
Voted no. Slower than the already existing run. (jk)
MikhailP
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Joined: 6/22/2015
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Location: Cookeville, TN
Great run! I enjoyed it, especially the Julius v Julius fight (There can be only one). I would have voted yes. #ulemania
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 57
This run was brought to you by OOLAY! Great improvements. Why does the main hall music play in Death's area? Is that because Julius Mode? It's been a loooong time since I played this normally.
Joined: 11/20/2004
Posts: 236
Location: United States
You know.. there's one thing... one sole thing... that keeps this run from being almost unwatchable. "U-u-u-uy-u-u-uy-uy-u-u-u-uya-u-u-uya-u-u-u-uya" Seriously though. This was expertly done. I didn't see anything even remotely resembling a mistake! Definitely a Yes vote from me, despite the noise pollution. Now if we could just find a way to shove Julius into the Chaos boss rom...
I'm not that hard to find... if you know where to look. -=( http://jolikmc.tumblr.com )=-
Joined: 11/4/2011
Posts: 29
Youtube Encode: Link to video
hellagels
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Location: Guangdong, China
FreezerBurns wrote:
Why does the main hall music play in Death's area? Is that because Julius Mode? It's been a loooong time since I played this normally.
Yes, BGM is different in Julius mode.
Current projects: Castlevania - Order of Ecclesia (NDS)
Samsara
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Finally back home and watching this run was literally the first thing I did. Absolutely outstanding work.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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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. ---- [2876] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "Julius mode, all bosses" by hellagels, KSeptuple & Pike in 11:52.03
Joined: 10/11/2010
Posts: 19
Yes, this one has already been published, but I just wanted to say that I can't stop watching it. It's just too magnificent. As for the bosses, I guess you could say Julius crosses them off his list. runs away
Skilled player (1741)
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That was nice. It was a bit slow at first, but it got better after the Julius fight. Speaking of which, I never played the game before, but what was stopping Julius from fighting himself normally?