(Link to video)
Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos, 10 frames faster...?

The improvements

Most of this movie is the same as [4353] NES Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos by Xipo, Scumtron & Samsara in 09:12.34. Please read the submission text of that run for more details on the majority of this run.
Two bosses (the stage 2 boss and the second phase of the final boss) were improved, by 4 frames and 6 frames respectively. Some of the entertainment throughout was also redone.
The updated strat on Jaquio (2) is actually the RTA strat, which is functionally identical to the strat used in the published run except the first fire wheel is performed facing left. This still hits Jaquio and allows the subsequent fire wheels to be performed 2 frames earlier. Because we face left on the first cast, the fourth cast has the fire wheel from the second shadow performed to the left as well, meaning it leaves the screen earlier, allowing the final cast to be done 5 frames sooner. One frame needed to be added to resync the third phase, bringing the total improvement to 6 frames.

Some thoughts

The existence of the Jaquio strat was brought up in the YouTube comments of the published run about a month ago, but it took me (Samsara) until earlier today to see it and investigate it. Thankfully it was the second to last boss of the game so it was really easy to implement and resync, though I still don't feel quite right implementing a "cheap" improvement like this without touching the rest of the movie. Either way, given the history of this game and the insane level of optimization on it, knocking out another 6 frames still feels pretty good. And then xipo comes along with another new improvement, so we're up to a solid 10 total frames, which feels even better.

Special thanks

  • xipo, of course, for making pretty much the entirety of the published run and the stage 2 boss improvement
  • GoddessMaria, who is no longer streaming at the time of editing this submission, and who is cute <3
  • This YouTube comment for alerting me to the existence of a faster strat on this fight

Suggested screenshot

man i dunno ask me later

Update

Scumtron is now added as a co-author. While he had no active involvement with the creation of this run, Xipo and I both feel his contributions to previous runs warrant co-authorship. My original omission of his name was a mistake, and I apologize.

GoddessMaria: Judging.
GoddessMaria: Setting to Delayed per the author's request~
Samsara: Replacing my own dang submission file with a further 4 frame improvement, courtesy of xipo.
GoddessMaria: Excellent work on optimizing this even further, xipo & Samsara! Another improvement to a tough game without sacrificing entertainment and the audience agrees.
Accepting as an improvement to the previous movie.
EZGames69: processing!

TASVideoAgent
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EZGames69
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Claiming this one for encoding
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
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Console verification: Link to video
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Post subject: Nice to spot little improvements on a run this competitive
mklip2001
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Apologies if I'm linking an image wrongly.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
J.Y
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Great improvement. There's nothing to say. YES!
Samsara
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Requesting a delay on the submission while xipo and I re-investigate the movie for further improvements. There will be a new full encode when we're finished. EDIT: Submission, text, and encode updated with the new file.
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Bigbass
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I've re-verified this using the updated movie (can never be sure even small changes won't cause problems): Link to video
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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. ---- [4451] NES Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos by Xipo, Scumtron & Samsara in 09:12.17
Samsara
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If possible, I'd like to request that Scumtron be added as a co-author to both this movie and [4353] NES Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos by Xipo, Scumtron & Samsara in 09:12.34, ideally as "xipo, Scumtron & Samsara". Having Scumtron as a co-author was Xipo's intent, which I agree with, and a miscommunication prevented that from happening. EDIT: Thank you, Spike. I've updated the submissions as well.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.