(Link to video)
Volgarr the Viking is a platformer game released in 2013, inspired by old arcade games like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite having a rigid gameplay, this TAS takes advantage of canceling techniques and micro-optimization to shave of almost 2 minutes from unassisted speedruns.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: libTAS v1.3.1
  • Aims at fastest real time
  • Completes Ending A (best ending)
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Genre: Platform

Main tricks

Landing cancel

Völgarr has a 10-frames landing animation, but by doing a precise slash in the air so that the slash ends just before landing, the slash can be canceled by either a roll, spear or slash, which cancels the landing animation. The most useful application is to cancel to a roll, but if you need to jump again, you can cancel to a slash and then jump when the slash has started. This method does not work for long falls (when the ground is shaking).
Another method to cancel the landing animation is by falling. During the landing animation you can still slowly move forward. If you land very close to an edge, you can move forward and leave the ground, which will cancel the landing animation.

Double jump cancel

Doing a backward spear cancels the double jump, which is useful to avoid hitting enemies (causing freeze frames) and to slash sooner for the landing cancel

Downstab chain

The downstab (pressing down or roll in the air) can be stopped by pressing up after damage, and another downstab can be initiated again. This is very efficient for bosses.

Early rope catch

Approaching a rope from its bottom makes you catch it from much further (see 8:17)

Boss chest manipulation

I manipulated a bit the randomness of chest drops by doing some movements, as the stage ends after you collect all drops

Stage by stage comments

World 1

Taking or not the Mjölnir resulted in the exact same time, so I decided not to take it

World 2

It was faster to not take the second Mjölnir for the boss, and the one from World 3 is a bit faster to take

World 3

Rolling through the giant enemies was really tricky to do, because I had to throw many spears to delay its attack for enough time so that I can get close to him. I was lucky to barely get past the cycle at the middle of the second screen without waiting

World 4

I had to wait a tiny bit on the fireballs at the second screen. Also, it looks like I don't hit the boss as much as I could, but I needed him to do its charge attack as soon as possible because the falling rock does a lot of damage. Doing an extra attack would delay the charge and thus ending up loosing time.

World 5

I needed the Mjölnir for the second part of this stage, and I assumed this one was faster to take than the one from W4 first screen. I could get past the red bird by knocking him at the right time which temporarily disabled its hitbox. The second screen was governed by fan cycles :( I already had to wait on the first two vertical fans. Near the end I traded by Mjölnir to gave me enough time to take the other Mjölnir and reach the last fan in time. In the end I saved two fan cycles compared to the unassisted speedrun.

World 6

I didn't have time to take the Mjölnir here because I would loose one fan cycle. Thus I saved two fan cycles compared to the unassisted speedrun.

World 7

Hitting the glowing balls at the right spot gives you a good horizontal boost despite the freeze frames. The damage boost to reach a platform was unexpected for me, because loosing your helm makes your animations slower and is generally not interesting, but there was a chest just after, so I saved about 30 frames here.
Suggested screenshots: 8290, 20444, 34729

feos: Judging...
feos: The goal of this branch is explained here, added the due label.
feos: Nice run and feedback, accepting to Moons.
fsvgm777: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6103: keylie's Linux Völgarr the Viking "best ending" in 14:33.80
Memory
She/Her
Site Admin, Skilled player (1514)
Joined: 3/20/2014
Posts: 1762
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Nice work! Loved the bits where you rode the enemies.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Synahel
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Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 259
Location: France
This is so satisfying to watch
fsvgm777
She/Her
Player, Senior Publisher (221)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1180
Location: Luxembourg
Thanks for the highly detailed instructions on getting it to sync, because I'm going to encode and publish this TAS once it gets accepted.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Very much worth a yes vote!
Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 893
whoa, didn't expect linux tasing out of nowhere.. impressive run, easy yes
fsvgm777
She/Her
Player, Senior Publisher (221)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1180
Location: Luxembourg
I can safely confirm it syncs on my 32-bit Kubuntu VM with the latest Linux kernel (4.15.0-34-generic as of this writing) with the instructions provided in the movie annotations.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
He falls down here for me. https://i.imgur.com/AXeLVip.png Lubuntu 18.04 i686 Linux 4.15.0-36-generic Game config as provided by the author Fixed by setting VM screen to 2560x1600. Game window needs to fully fit into the screen to work. https://i.imgur.com/UMtS9aV.png Disabling SW rendering also lets the game run at full speed on my garbage host (3-4fps with it enabled).
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Can someone elaborate on the differences between paths and endings? I'm trying to watch and read different resources, and it's still not clear. EDIT: I figured out some of it. Level 1 is common, and then levels 2-6 have alternate paths where the difficulty is generally higher due to limited continues and more focus on environmental challenges than on fighting. As the author says, the alt path's difficulty curve is flat, while for the main path it's constantly rising to compensate for infinite retries and gaining more skill as you play. Alt paths seem to contain special items that unlock level 7. Completing it gives you ending A and reveals the end of the game story. Completing level 6 using the alt path gives you ending B, and completing it the usual way gives you ending C. B seems to be the fastest ending. Did I get everything right?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
keylie
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (2822)
Joined: 3/17/2013
Posts: 391
Each level except the first one has two different versions: Crystal and Valkyrie path. On the hub between levels (where you see a pile of treasures), taking the upper path sends you to the Valkyrie path version and the lower one to the Crystal path version. The conditions to determine which version you can access are: - You can always access the Crystal path version - If you have at least one Warrior Spirit collected, you can access the Valkyrie path version Warrior Spirits can be collected by two means: - Open three chests in a row while having the full equipment set, the third one will contain a Spirit. In a row means that you cannot loose your equipment in between. This must be done in the same stage. - If you have at least one Spirit, you gain one by defeating a boss Warrior Spirits are like lives. When you die, you loose a Warrior Spirit. If you are on a Valkyrie path stage and die without any Spirit left, you are immediately sent back to the Crystal path version of the same stage. The different Endings are: - Ending C is when you complete stage 6 of the Crystal Path. You are allowed to skip stages (going to the left at the beginning of a stage sends you to the next stage if you already completed it in a previous playthrough) - Ending C+ is when you complete all stages in the Crystal Path (except stage 1) without skipping any stage - Ending B is when you complete stage 6 of the Valkyrie path, without fulfilling all conditions of the Ending A below (you can skip stages) - Ending A is when you complete all stages in the Valkyrie path (except stage 1). You cannot skip stages. After completing stage 6, a path to a secret stage 7 opens. Completing this secret stage gives you Ending A.
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. ---- [3808] Linux Völgarr the Viking "best ending" by keylie in 14:33.80