- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1 (MAME)
- Neo Geo BIOS: Asia NEO-MVH MV1C
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes intentional damage when bosses can't be hit for funsies
- Uses hardest difficulty
- Musashi lets it slide slightly faster this time
- Now with even faster boss fights
Introduction
Ganryu (Japanese name: Musashi Ganryuki) is a hack-and-slash action platformer released in 1999 by Visco for the Neo Geo MVS.
This is a 1164 frame improvement over
my own improvement to X2poet's TAS from 2011, thanks to the use of a charged attack which deals more damage to bosses faster (provided they're on the ground, this attack can't be used while airborne.)
First off, let's get the timesaves out of the way...
| Segment | Frames saved |
|---|
| Game Start | 185 |
| Stage 1 | 103 |
| Boss 1 | 231 |
| Stage 2 | 6 |
| Boss 2 | 225 |
| Stage 3 | 48 |
| Boss 3 | 303 |
| Stage 4 | 6 |
| Boss 4 | 4 |
| Stage 5 | 48 |
| Boss 5 | 0 |
Why did I save three seconds on just starting the game?
Well, besides setting the difficulty to Level-8 like before, I also disabled the "How To Play" section and flashes in the soft DIP settings. With flashes turned on by default, you have to wait for Musashi's (or Suzume's, whoever you choose) portrait on the character select screen to stop flashing before you can press a button to skip to the tutorial / first stage.
The remaining 16 seconds are from further optimisation during the actual gameplay and not just for the sake of TAS time.
- Stage 1 - Avenger
A second and a half is saved towards the end of Stage 1 from swinging across the poles earlier, allowing me to reach the other end of the bridge at a height where I don't have to continuously wall kick to get to the top.
Charged attacks (done by holding down the attack button and then releasing) make quite a difference during boss fights. Well, at least on the first three. I had to stay crouched to get Yasha-hime to do a small jump so she could initiate her second phase slightly quicker upon taking enough damage. About four seconds are saved on this fight thanks to the implementation of charged attacks.
- Stage 2 - Assassin
Further timesave on this stage was quite minimal at six frames.
Three and a half seconds are saved on Kikunojo from the usual charged attacks and jumping back to manipulate him into doing a different attack as opposed to running away to the other side of the screen.
- Stage 3 - Ambition
Nearly a second is saved on this stage from taking lower routes at the beginning, as well as walking forward slightly so that I wouldn't have to do any extra slides to get further down, cutting down on a few more frames.
Five seconds are saved on this boss, but I am fully convinced that the larvae just hate me. The first batch spawn so early for me and I have no idea why. Either way, I was able to adapt to the timings I got.
- Stage 4 - Evilgod
Nothing has changed about this stage or the boss. The Wrong Warp is still performed the same way, and you can't do charged attacks while in the air. Ten frames saved.
- Stage 5 - Ganryujima War
48 frames are saved from taking a different route on which floating rocks to climb.
Chaos is pretty much the only boss where I'd say you can't actually save time by using charged attacks. In fact, my few attempts with them actually lost some frames, so regular attacks are still the way to go.
Thanks To...
- X2poet again, for their OG TAS
- mtvf1, for letting me know about Xipo's TAS on Youku, which helped give me an idea on what the old improvement could've been
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Nothing much to say...except that an improvement is an improvement. Good work on the cuts.
