It took us 3 months to finish this crazy movie. Its length is 18:40, not so long, We manipulate luck heavily so that the re-record count is over 400,000. Following is the introduction of this movie.

Game Object

•Emulator used : VBA-rr 24 svn422

•Starts from SRAM (the same as what Kriole used)

•Uses hard mode

•Aims to collect all souls

•Manipulates luck

•Takes damage to save time

•Abuses glitches

There is no doubt that the most vital part of this movie is designing routes. In this part, we have 3 goals. 1.Try not to go to the rooms Soma had ever been to again so that Soma can cover the least distance. 2.Get Giant Bat, Malphas and Kicker Skeleton as quickly as possible so that Soma can move much faster. Black panther is of no use because we use Giant Bat all the time. 3.Get more mana potions so that Soma can use Giant bat more often. We using warps, the new strategy, this movie is quite different from the published all souls’movie made by Kriole(called current movie below). So I do not want to compare the two movies.

Route Details

At first I want to say that if you would like more fun, you had better watch this movie first before reading the passage otherwise you would know where Soma would go, which decreases entertainment of this movie.

Entrance

Game starts. Nothing needs explaining.

Castle Corridor (first entering)

Soma is weak and has few ways to change PRNG or use warps. So it looks similar with current movie. In order to get Giant Bat earlier, we use 0HP glitch to get Underground Reservoir. Also, we need to save the game before.

The Arena

Since enemies are very strong, Soma seems much weaker. Because of that, we choose not to kill any enemies before Soma gets Lubicant’s soul and muramasa. We also abandon Blocking Armor. To get Final sword, we use warp to get Top Floor.

Top Floor (first entering)

Get Final Sword. Then Soma is strong enough to kill enemies much quickly. Our following goal is to get Malphas and Kicker Skeleton. Actually, we did not find a perfect route allowing Soma to get them right away. We go to Clock Tower to collect souls instead. If we go to Study or Floating Garden first, we shall go to Clock Tower later. But at that time, getting to Clock Tower is more difficult than now.

Clock Tower

Try to collect more souls. An interesting thing is that we get Death’s Robe, while Kriole does not. It can help increase Soma’s ATT a little. LCK is also increased but we think it is useless for collecting souls.

Floating Garden

Collect as many souls as possible. Soma won't get here again. We have got Kicker Skeleton so we desire Malphas!

Castle Corridor (second entering)

After getting necessary souls, let’s go to Study to get Malphas at once!

Study

Get Malphas. Goal 2 is accomplished. Now what we only need to do is to collect more souls. We use warp to arrive at Manticore room much quickly.

Chapel

Enemies that only appear in Chapel are few. So the time we spent on Chapel is very short.

Underground Reservoir (second entering)

Soma does not have enough health point to take damage. So we get a High Potion before fighting against Legion. However, 400 HP decrease Soma’s ability because of Lubicant’s soul. We have to seek the opportunity allowing Soma to spend little time taking damage.

Castle Corridor (third entering)

Just to get to Dance Hall.

Dance Hall

It is a mysterious place because it is difficult or maybe impossible to get here by warps in other areas. Soma comes here to collect more souls.

Inner Quarters

Candelabrums drop big hearts that restore much more MP than small hearts. Obviously, we spend extra time in getting them. Even if like this, we still lack MP. Fortunately, there is a High Mind up on the way.

Top Floor(second entering)

Collect more souls and get Mana Frism. Also it is the access to Fobidden Area. It is not necessary to drink milk at once because increased ATT still cannot help to save even one round.

Fobidden Area

Mud man only appears in this area. Soma has to get there. Soma can also take this chance to get some souls that difficult to get in other areas.

Underground Reservoir (third entering)

Access to Chaos Realm. Before getting there, we have to collect the souls Soma cannot get in Chaos.

Chaos Realm

It is difficult to design the route in Chaos Realm. Enemies dropping the rest souls Soma needs to collect exist at many scattered places. Besides, we are not famillar with warps in this area. They are both problems. Anyhow we finished at last. Different from the current movie, we get Chaos Ring that makes the final fight more efficient, which is also interesting enough.

How to get souls

Actually we do not know how the program works. What we do is using PRNG to check when the enemies will drop souls. However, not all enemies are within our control. We classify enemies into two kinds. One is that their actions affect PRNG. The other is not. For the second kind, it is easy to control their souls because at the specific PRNG the enemies will always drop their souls, while the first kind is not. We just need to find that specific PRNG and change soma's actions to get the value. And so we get a soul. But for the first kind, at the same PRNG enemies will drop different items, which annoys us a lot. Luckily, those enemies are few. Our solution is to try and try. It works certainly, but the result is not perfect since we always waste several frames. The most terrible moment is when we tried to get Final Sword from Final Guard. At that time, we spent about extra 100 frames in getting it. Only if we had a better solution! We do hope to get some useful experience though it is late now. Is there anyone who can help us?

Bosses

Creaking Skull

We did not kill it as quickly as possible because Soma needed to take more damage so that he could use 0 HP glitch.

Balore

It is really difficult to design the battle with him. What we need to consider is too much. Obviously we need to manipulate his fists. The ideal situation is that can allow Soma to attack him more times, is not it? Not always! On the one hand, Soma needs more time in the air so fists moving slower is better. On the other hand, fists should move faster to arrive at the specific place earlier to make Balore transform into the second form. It is hard to balance them. In addition, how to allot MP also needs considering. Using Creaking Skull is more efficient but more MP should remain to make Soma use glitches. So, I am not sure whether what we did is the best.

Death

At the beginning, use killer Mantle to kill him earlier.

Great Armor

Got his soul early to avoid more lags. 650=130×5. You can see that Death Robe did work.

Manticore

Nothing needs to be explained.

Legion

Since 128-frame rule exists, this battle is not so hard. However, handling lags is very annoying. At last Soma arrived at a high place where Legion was out of screen to avoid lags.

Big Golem

Took damage to get his soul instantly and make Lubicant's soul more efficient.

Head Hunter

We did not have Blocking Armor so Soma could not be very close to him. And because of it, we spent extra several frames killing him at the first form. However, he moving towards left can shorten the animation of changing heads. It is difficult to say whether what we did is worse than the current movie.

Graham

All extra time we spent on this boss concerned lacking Blocking Armor.

Chaos

We got chaos ring this time. So our goal was to use red Minotaur as much as possible.

Tricks

1.Swift cancel

When Soma is on the ground, press ↓+R can cancel Giant Bat instantly instead of keeping Bat form for several frames, the result if only press R. Ground can be classified into two kinds. One is that can allow Soma to do any actions after the swift cancel. However, this kind of ground is little. More ground is the kind that cannot allow Soma to walk along like the ground in Death room, where Soma can do moonwalk.

2.Handle black screen time

This trick was introduced in current Julius all bosses run. I do not repeat. Julius all bosses run

3.Avoid level up time

There are two ways. One is to get a soul and level up at the same time that Kriole did very well. Another is to get level up when Soma is about to enter another room. We used it twice.

4.Something about menu

Normally in the menu player cannot press the same keys in the continuous two frames. But pressing useless keys can do it. e.g. ↓,↓+Select can make player press ↓ twice in the continuous two frames. In item menu A and B can be pressed in the same frame. When switch souls, different routes may produce different lags. We have to find the best one.

Suggestions for those who want to obsolete this movie

1.In fact, we might look down on the Blocking Armor. Try getting it. 2.To find a better route allowing Soma to get Malphas and Kicker Skeleton earlier. 3.Allot MP appropriately. We wasted a lot. 4.Get Final Sword quickly. 5.Get Medusa Head's soul earlier. We wasted a lot of time because of landform. And do not want to get it in chaos. If so, you will also waste time in waiting for soul guide.

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Kriole for his Soma 100% soul run.

Thanks to rhebus for his theory.

Thanks to everyone’s expectation and support.

At last, hope you will enjoy this crazy movie!


Samsara: Judging! Yes! Absolutely!
Samsara: First off, I'm going to just drop my usual calm, composed attitude while judging and gush about how awesome this movie is. I kinda love Aria of Sorrow a lot, I know a fair amount about the game and how broken it is, and I've been following the TASes since Atma's initial any% run. To say that this run exceeded my expectations would be the understatement of the century: I spent the entire run in awe, something that hasn't happened since Kriole's first all souls run. Nearly every single room after getting Giant Bat had my mouth open in shock at what was happening, as Soma effortlessly zipped around from room to room with reckless abandon, popping out to kill an enemy and grab its soul every now and then.
I had extremely high expectations for this run since it was announced, fittingly enough, on my birthday this year, knowing how broken Giant Bat is in regards to pushing yourself into walls and allowing you basically free reign. I've done a lot of experimenting with the glitch and I thought I knew nearly every place where it could be used, even some TAS-only ones that require constantly switching in and out of Bat form to use, but I was proven beautifully wrong. The routing was mind-blowing... Absolutely astonishing, really. I don't even really have the words to describe it. Really, all I can say is thank you, all of you, for making this run. It was art from beginning to end.
Naturally, I'm accepting it. But there's a problem here: Categorization.
This run has been at the gooey, caramel-coated center of a lot of debate over whether or not this should obsolete Kriole's published all souls run. Some believe that the run has different enough goals over the published run to warrant a separate category, others don't want the categories to get out of control like Super Metroid, and the rest were kind enough to not give any opinion at all on the matter. The less I have to stress out over making the right decision, the better.
Going back again to the day the run was started, I didn't think the two runs could exist side-by-side, and I still don't think it's particularly a good idea. No harm is done, but I'm of the belief that it sets a bad precedent for the site to create a new category for the run, and I know there are people who feel the same way. In a way, it feels almost hypocritical to create a new category for this run after we rejected runs such as Super Metroid "100% Map" and Ocarina of Time "No Doors" for being too arbitrary to warrant a new category on the site. I know, it isn't a perfect comparison, but bear with me here. It sends a conflicting message: We have a zero-tolerance policy for arbitrary categories about half the time. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
I still feel like this shows off more than the published run in terms of things the site's never seen before, and with the other 4 published runs added, nearly everything the warpless all souls run does is shown off in great detail. I've always believed that content is what deems new categories in the first place: We should always have a selection of movies that, when combined, show off everything the game has to offer. Each run should have something that greatly sets it apart from the others. Personal bias toward certain Super Metroids shouldn't apply. But of course, that would require restructuring the site and the rules, and things like that take time.
So, yes, I'm quite obviously leaning toward obsoletion, but at the same time, I see the points from the other side of the debate, people that have as much of a love for the published run as I do and want to see it continue to live as a published run, people who believe there should be no limit to the number of categories on the site and people who believe that the two runs both have enough to show to warrant being separate. I understand all of that, believe me, and that's what makes this decision such a stressful one to me.
It was brought up on IRC that, technically, less people would be upset over making this a new category, since it keeps the published run, adds a brilliant new run to the site, and it'll still have less categories than Super Metroid. That's tempting, yes, but it's clear from the thread that there are people who would complain about the extra category and site clutter and all that... Honestly, I'd be one of those people if someone else were making the decision. I swear I've done it before, even. While extra categories may not harm the site, it opens a floodgate ever so slightly.
"We have two Aria of Sorrow 100% runs, but we couldn't have Super Metroid 100% and 100% map?" Hypothetical, yes, but my gut instinct tells me that there's going to be a debate along those lines, and it's going to make my headache even bigger. If my last decision prompted a discussion thread over something I thought was "safe" to do, then I can only imagine what kinds of things would pop up over this one. What I'm saying is, this is the Hydlide of category decisions. It may even lead to a ridiculously long discussion thread about how we need to reexamine the way the site works in regards to categories and clutter.
That sounds like an awful lot of responsibility for me, who's only been judging for 3 weeks. So I'm came up with a compromise: I'm clearly biased in what choice I would make, so I'm going to throw out my opinion altogether. I read all the posts in the thread, and based this decision off of what the majority wants for this submission. At this very moment of judgement, 6 (arguably 7) people in the thread stated they would like to see this run as a separate category, while 10 (technically 11 but I'm not counting myself) people in the thread stated they would like to see this run obsolete the published run. Perhaps my numbers are slightly off, but it's still clear that the majority sees this as an improvement, not a separate category. It may not be an overwhelming majority, but it is still a majority.
With a heavy heart and the thread's opinions guiding me, I apologize profusely for accepting this run as an improvement to the warpless all souls run. I've updated the branch name accordingly to reflect this. Whoever publishes this, I implore you to leave a note in the description that links to the warpless run, as it still deserves visibility on the site.
scrimpy will be holding a candlelight vigil later this afternoon for its passing.
Screenshot suggestion brought up in the thread: Frame 33292 [dead link removed]
My suggestion: Frame 67057 [dead link removed]
fsvgm777: Amen.
Noxxa: Setting intended tier to Stars.

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I think it would be better if you could use Great Armor soul to increase attack power when fighting bosses. Though most MP was used for bat zipping, Great Armor soul does not consume lot MP if you use it on the frame Soma deals attack, just like all the previous Soma runs. It seems to be useful in Legion fight & Graham fight to save time. Despite that, it is definitely a good run anyway, as watching Soma zipping wildly around the castle is really interesting. Yes vote.
Invariel
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That would require entering the menu and switching to Great Armor every boss fight though, which would likely take more time than what's presented here.
I am still the wizard that did it. "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata <scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is Samsara last edited by Invariel on 2015-07-26 02:08:14
Sir_VG
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I think all 100% Souls runs of Dawn/Aria of Sorrow should have to get the Chaos Ring as proof to the viewer from now on. Big ass YES vote from me. That was an awesome watch.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
EgixBacon
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"Soma! Batto! Soma! Batto!..." ... Well, that's what he would be saying if this were Portrait of Ruin. This movie just gets better and better as it progresses! There's no way I could not vote Yes. I'd also like to add that I'm in favour of this obsoleting 1759M. I don't see why Glitchy 100% should be treated any differently from Not-So-Glitchy 100%.
Archanfel wrote:
Excellent movie!! It deserve all existing regalias - star tier, newcomer's box and not forget to add notable improvement tag too.
Seconded, seconded, and seconded.
FanFiction|Youtube Still on Win7! Take that, Microsoft!
Pike
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zhangsongcui wrote:
No Blocking Armor? Oh no... To be honest, this run doesn't entertain me like the existing all souls run by Kriole, since no new glitches / tricks are found / used. In addtion, I don't know whether it's technological possible, but not getting Black Panther early in the game truly disappoint me. But this run is still worth publishing because of, though I knew before, the speed of bat zipping and... you guys get Chaos Ring! Small yes vote from me. GET THE BLOCKING ARMOR PLEASE!
It is a pity to abandon Blocking Armor. But it is difficult to say whether we should spend much time getting it. Although it does save time, getting it will take a lot of time. At the beginning, Soma is too weak to beat Dead Crusades quickly. However, we did not calculate accurately. In our suggestions we mentioned that we might look down on Blocking Armor. Despite of time, getting it just for entertainment is also worthwhile. Let's expect the next version together.
Luck manipulation is too difficult.
Invariel
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Spikestuff wrote:
lxx4xNx6xxl wrote:
In my opinion anything with Major Glitches deserves it own category.
Seconding this. Some Examples: [1523] PSX Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! "14 talismans" by lapogne36 in 28:11.70 [2603] PSX Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! by lapogne36 & Crash41596 in 07:32.47 [1457] PSX Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back by Mukki in 47:37.62 [1506] PSX Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back "item glitch" by pirohiko in 11:34.85 [1920] NES Battletoads "warps, 2 players" by feos & MESHUGGAH in 11:04.72 [2403] NES Battletoads "game end glitch" by MESHUGGAH, feos in 00:56.76 [701] NES Kirby's Adventure by JXQ in 36:45.50 [2406] NES Kirby's Adventure "game end glitch" by MESHUGGAH, CoolKirby, Masterjun, MUGG, TASeditor & illayaya in 00:35.91 [2827] SNES Super Mario World "warps" by bahamete, Masterjun, PangaeaPanga in 09:59.85 [2926] SNES Super Mario World "game end glitch" by BrunoVisnadi, Amaraticando, Masterjun in 00:41.81 Also, legit, could be worse, could be Super Metroid's 50 million (more like 7) categories.
Three of those examples are credit warp glitches, which don't demonstrate as much of the actual gameplay as the full-length runs. I'm unfamiliar with the other two (four) runs, so I can't comment on the PSX titles, but there's also a significant savings between the longform run and the glitch-enhanced version. I feel that those are different than this run, which still exhibits the gameplay of Kriole's excellent run, while condensing that gameplay to its most critical parts -- collecting each of the souls and defeating the bosses. That is why I am arguing that this should obsolete the other run instead of being another branch. I get that everyone loves that run, but this run does what that run does, only faster, and with the sorts of glitchy walls that we have come to expect from handheld CastleVania games. (I am deliberately not commenting on the SM stuff, because that's a debate that should be taken elsewhere.)
I am still the wizard that did it. "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata <scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is Samsara last edited by Invariel on 2015-07-26 02:08:14
XYZ
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Let's see why I think this movie can't obsolete current "all souls" run. Kriole's TAS have star and good for newcomers tiers. This submission can get much better technical and even entertainment rating, but I don't think beginners, especially those unfamiliar with AoS, but only with the Castlevania series, will have more interest to see fast and mapcutted run.
Invariel
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Nobody is suggesting that Kriole's movie lose its star (at the moment), nor is there anyone saying that it should lose its newcomer mark. The current question is, "should this run obsolete Kriole's run, or should it be its own category?" People are suggesting that this run become starred, but I think that the sheer amount of glitching through the terrain would disqualify (or at least discourage) granting it the newcomer mark. But, again, that isn't the obsolescence discussion.
I am still the wizard that did it. "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata <scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is Samsara last edited by Invariel on 2015-07-26 02:08:14
XYZ
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Invariel If I undestand first two sentance in your post. My opinion. This submission shouldn't obsolete Kriole's run. Only new category.
Invariel
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But the reasons you gave against obsoleting the run are that it is starred and newcomer-friendly. Those things aren't in contention with regards to obsoletion.
I am still the wizard that did it. "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata <scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is Samsara last edited by Invariel on 2015-07-26 02:08:14
XYZ
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Ok. I only regret about loss of a good run, which will certainly happen by obsoletion. If it may say so.
Pike
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Actually I don't know the rules. But I didn't mean to obsolete Kriole's run. His run is very interesting as well.
Luck manipulation is too difficult.
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Pike wrote:
At the beginning, Soma is too weak to beat Dead Crusades quickly.
How many frames will cost to fight Dead Crusades?
Let's expect the next version together.
That means: this run will be updated? Another question: Julius battle can be totally ignored, why Graham can't?
Pike
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zhangsongcui wrote:
Pike wrote:
At the beginning, Soma is too weak to beat Dead Crusades quickly.
How many frames will cost to fight Dead Crusades?
Let's expect the next version together.
That means: this run will be updated? Another question: Julius battle can be totally ignored, why Graham can't?
1.We didn't have a try. But you can imagine that Dead Crusades can make block and Soma only deals a liitle damage every round. Besides, Soma has to dodge Skull Millione's attack. 2.As for update, we just start a precedent. So I guess there will be a better one in the future. 3.Soma killed Graham just to get Black Panther, which is in a room we didn't find a way to zip to. If exists, it will be a great improvement.
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GUYS I KNOW HOW TO SETTLE THIS JUST OBSOLETE AND MAKE NEW CATEGORY EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY ...HELP, MY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK ...it's a joke, by the way.
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Obsoleting would be dumb, they're too different - my old run goes out of its way to avoid any glitches while does the opposite. I havent watched it in full yet, will do that later today. I noticed however that broken backdashes were used on the those short stairs, if I recall correctly that's slower than just backdashing down and jumping for 1 frame.
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Wow, evidently walls are merely a suggestion to the reincarnation of Dracula. Nice work, all of you! ...and I'm staying the hell away from the obsoletion/category discussion. Y'all have fun now.
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Like I said before, there's no reason for this to not obsolete the previous run. First off, let's dissect Spikestuff's examples.
Spikestuff wrote:
Seconding this. Some Examples: [1523] PSX Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! "14 talismans" by lapogne36 in 28:11.70 [2603] PSX Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! by lapogne36 & Crash41596 in 07:32.47 [1457] PSX Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back by Mukki in 47:37.62 [1506] PSX Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back "item glitch" by pirohiko in 11:34.85 [1920] NES Battletoads "warps, 2 players" by feos & MESHUGGAH in 11:04.72 [2403] NES Battletoads "game end glitch" by MESHUGGAH, feos in 00:56.76 [701] NES Kirby's Adventure by JXQ in 36:45.50 [2406] NES Kirby's Adventure "game end glitch" by MESHUGGAH, CoolKirby, Masterjun, MUGG, TASeditor & illayaya in 00:35.91 [2827] SNES Super Mario World "warps" by bahamete, Masterjun, PangaeaPanga in 09:59.85 [2926] SNES Super Mario World "game end glitch" by BrunoVisnadi, Amaraticando, Masterjun in 00:41.81
The Ripto's Rage one makes sense, since it shaves off 3/4 of the game via a new glitch and has radically different goals as a result. The Crash 2 box glitch category also makes sense, since it shaves off all the levels except the bosses. All the other ones are entirely different from this situation, as they all use a game end glitch to beat the game. This run beats the game with 100% souls still, only using bat zipping to get around faster. Let me give examples where a movie obsoletes a previous movie via new glitches that were discovered, but still retain most of the gameplay. [2655] NES Deadly Towers (Japan) "inventory glitch" by ars4326 in 08:09.53 [503] NES Deadly Towers (USA) by Luke in 15:20.27 [2592] SNES Chrono Trigger by keylie in 2:17:08.86 [450] SNES Chrono Trigger by hero of the day in 4:21:11.83 [889] GBA Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance by zggzdydp in 15:44.15 [728] GBA Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance by JXQ in 30:43.92 So what makes this run so different? From what I understand, 2 things. 1. It's a starred 'recommended for newcomers' run. This means that it's held to a higher standard then most runs, and thus people feel the need to defend it. 2. It's a well known movie Kriole's old movie is nearly 5 years old. I honestly don't see any reason to NOT obsolete Kriole's old run, other then nostalgia. This run is faster. This is TASvideos, not 'let's make a branch because I don't want to obsolete a run I really like" videos.
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Voted yes. The zips where an interesting touch. Another problematic game where game breaking glitches for 100% could be used is Zelda II, the movie would be completely different and I'm sure both version would be interesting. So is this run. However I think limiting glitches for 100% runs only applies when ACE is involved. Obsolete the old one.
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After a lengthy and heated conversation on IRC, Samsara has asked me to elaborate on the differences between this run and the glitchless that might warrant preserving the glitchless all-souls category alongside glitched one, so I'm posting it here for future reference. I think this glitched run should absolutely be represented on the site, just not at the expense of the glitchless all-souls, and here's why. 1. Soul usage variety. Since the glitchless run can't conveniently warp right next to certain enemies or get powerful items too quickly, it has to rely on using different offensive souls to get the kills sooner and/or without interrupting movement, or increase its sustained DPS. They include Rock Armor, Bone Pillar, Ghost, and Nightmare. The glitched run doesn't use any of these souls, and it doesn't show off any souls that the glitchless run hasn't. The glitchless any% doesn't have any reason for this either. 2. Character progression/powerup dynamics. The glitchless run has a smoother, steadier powerup curve. General movement speed is improved throughout the run in increments: Grave Keeper → Catoblepas → Malphas → Kicker Skeleton → Giant Bat → Hippogryph → Black Panther. All of these increase the character's mobility in a noticeable and appreciable fashion up to 2/3 into the movie, at which point it plateaus. A similar sense of progression is retained in weapons (Baselard → Combat Knife → Mystletain/Samurai Armor/Black Belt → Muramasa → Final Sword → Dracula's Tunic) and strength-increasing souls (Skeleton Knight → Minotaur → Great Armor → Triton → Lubicant). Glitched run skips everything to Muramasa + Lubicant, gets Final Sword very shortly afterwards, and its movement speed all but peaks barely 6 minutes in. In other words, it goes from nothing to everything in the span of roughly three minutes, at 1/3 into the movie. It then plateaus until Malphas (less than halfways into the movie, and the jump in mobility isn't remotely as significant as one from the Giant Bat) and plateaus again up until its end. 3. Different room strategies and the ease of following the route. In a game where route dictates gameplay choices, a glitched run for a category like this is much like Reverse-Boss-Order for Super Metroid: it forces the player to travel many areas backwards compared to the more conventional routes, and rely on different abilities while doing so. Whereas the glitchless run relies on Malphas and Kicker Skeleton in the first half of the movie, glitched run mostly uses Giant Bat and Hippogryph instead. In doing so, and mostly thanks to abundant zipping, it makes the glitched run very difficult to follow for anyone who isn't intimately familiar with AoS's map layout, and poses more questions that it answers. This alone makes it not remotely as newbie-friendly as the glitchless run. 4. Different boss (and large enemy) fights. The glitched run can roughly be divided into two parts: "before Final Sword" and "after Final Sword". What this entails, basically, is that pretty much all boss fights either take very long (Balore) or become completely trivial (Death, Great Armor, Manticore, Legion). The glitchless run, on the other hand, at no point feels slow, and shreds through the bosses with clever tactics, action canceling, and positioning despite having less powerful items up to Graham (and souls, up to Balore), which showcases the advantages of tool-assistance better than killing bosses in several hits using the best weapon available. There is only one boss fight that is equally trivialized in both runs: Big Golem, but that is unavoidable because the souls in that area are useless and far out of the way. Finally, the glitched run entirely skips Julius, which is, in my opinion, the best fight in the game by far. 5. Showcase of tool-assisted precision and potential for entertainment. Aside from the aforementioned boss battles, one thing that stands out in particular is that zipping makes a glitched run into more of a one-trick pony. There are several rooms where we don't see Soma passing through them at all, and the novelty of using zips fades when you consider that the only way to improve a zip is to use another zip at a more opportune place. This stifles both the microoptimization potential and the visual appeal, because the depth of movement tricks in this game is almost unparalleled, and is easy to see and appreciate. By shutting down a glitchless all-souls category you shut the door for potential future runs that capitalize on this game's unique and perhaps most enjoyable feature in terms of TASing. No other category that I'm aware of can take advantage of non-zip movement as well as this (at least without coming up with oddball goal choices like "glitchless 100% map", which wouldn't be quite as spectacular due to its length). Pros and cons of having the two categories coexist: + more variety for the audience, since the two categories cater to different tastes in TASes and knowledge levels (with regards to this game in particular); + more variety for future TASers; + the more newcomer-friendly category stays and carries its role as a recommended movie into the site's future about as perfectly as a TAS can; = the authors didn't intend their run to obsolete the glitchless run, and they didn't seem too happy the discussion went that way; a vocal minority may be upset that this game gets "special treatment" (even though it already does, and is not the only one to get it) rather than the games they like; a vocal minority may be upset that there are too many categories (even though this is arbitrary and there are other games with 6+ categories). (As usual, the silent majority won't care about either.) As I have said earlier, there is no pressing need to maintain or decrease the amount of established categories. That was something that the site had for many years, and the notion was absurd and archaic, and a lot of people weren't happy about it back then. If the only convincing argument (besides "I don't like it for personal reasons", obv.) for obsoleting a branch of a hotly contested game with a branch with different goal choices that result in a vastly different gameplay these days is "reducing movie list clutter for people who can't Ctrl+F", then maybe we should be focusing on solving that problem, especially considering that working solutions have been suggested almost a decade ago (that's longer than most of you have been a part of this site, btw). Let's not sidestep logistical issues with content cuts; that's a shoddy solution to anything. For that matter, it's well-known that the site needs a facelift, especially when it comes to browsing via mobile devices. Removing categories doesn't help there. This will be my final word on the matter.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 2/19/2007
Posts: 424
Location: UK
This was a fun TAS to watch. I voted yes. I'm troubled by the recent trend to let movies with different goals obsolete each other. It seems like people are trying to bypass the more liberal category requirements that the tier system introduced by abusing obsoletion to keep the number of categories down. After watching this TAS, one may still wonder how fast it could be done without all the OOB teleportation. The unglitched 100% answers that question, and that alone is a good enough reason to keep both. Letting one obsolete the other makes it much harder to get that answer. As an additional bonus, the two runs show off different strategies and techniques.
Joined: 6/27/2008
Posts: 49
I noticed that you didn't get Black Belt, though 3 Werewolves were beaten. Why? You may equip it together with Death's Robe, which should be helpful in the last half part of the movie. Note: Black Belt gives you ATT+5 & STR+5, even better than Death's Robe ( which only gives ATT+4 & STR+4 ) Another suggestion: Can we zip into the Claimh Solais's room somehow? It should be useful to fight those dark enemies in Chaos (and we all love it just like the Chaos Ring ^_^)
Fz-Last
He/Him
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Joined: 6/25/2015
Posts: 3
moozooh wrote:
scrimpeh wrote:
This was very interesting. The constant zips and glitch warps made the game look more like Harmony of Dissonance than Aria of Sorrow. The resulting route is very interesting, and very unexpected. You never know where the TAS goes next. The execution is spot on, too, resulting in a very, very entertaining TAS overall. Easy yes vote.
What scrimpeh said. Route planning is top-notch in this movie. Yes vote and a separate category please! It's my birthday today, and this run is perhaps the best present I could have received from TASVideos today. Many thanks!
Happy brithday !
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Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5769
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Thank you!
zhangsongcui wrote:
Another suggestion: Can we zip into the Claimh Solais's room somehow?
I was actually wondering about that myself. It's a cool weapon that isn't used in any run.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.