"You still have more Waffle than Stare and me combined."
-Flare Pris, also from that one fan animation that lives rent-free in my head
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1 (Nymashock)
- BIOS: SCPH5500.bin
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Doggo speedruns kitten-catching in his mech
- Alicia still says "WAFFURU NO BAKA"
Introduction
Tail Concerto is Mega Man Legends for furries with a dash of Ape Escape a 3D action-adventure platformer developed by CyberConnect (currently known as CyberConnect2) and published by Bandai for the original PlayStation.
It is the first installment in the Little Tail Bronx series, which takes place in a steampunk fantasy world of floating islands populated by anthropomorphic dogs and cats called "Caninu" and "Felineko" (or "Dog-People" and "Cat-People" in the US version, Atlus USA's translation was too direct/literal there).
Tail Concerto's story revolves around a Caninu police officer named Waffle Ryebread and his encounters with the Black Cats Gang, a group of Felineko sky pirates who aim to steal magic crystals.
Despite Bandai considering the game a commercial failure in Japan with only around 97,000 units sold, Tail Concerto managed to gain a small but passionate cult following, as well as a spiritual sequel called Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for the Nintendo DS, and a series of more readily available spiritual prequels called Fuga: Melodies of Steel for PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X, and Nintendo Switch.
This updated TAS of
Tail Concerto beats
my previous attempt by two minutes, finishing the game just shy of under one hour from Power-On.
General Improvements
| Segment | Frames saved | Delta |
|---|
| New Game | 76 | 76 |
| Resaca | 539 | 615 |
| Ferzen | 851 | 1466 |
| Airleaf | 70 | 1536 |
| Archeonis | 437 | 1973 |
| Grimto | 482 | 2455 |
| Abandoned Factory | 1092 | 3547 |
| Secret Base | 230 | 3777 |
| Coolant | 271 | 4048 |
| Moving Fortress 1 | 1132 | 5180 |
| Moving Fortress 2 | 1075 | 6255 |
| Iron Giant's Resurrection | 101 | 6356 |
| Iron Giant | 861 | 7217 |
Resaca
- Three seconds saved in the Harbour's tutorial section from better movement and efficiency in kitten-catching, both of which generally become running themes in the amount of timesave.
- One and a half seconds saved on the two waves of kittens in the Plaza.
- Saved a second on the Black Cat Balloon fight by rushing it down more efficiently.
- Saved about half a second going back to Porto.
- Saved two seconds from the three Porto townspeople spawning in better positions.
Ferzen
- Four seconds were saved across Mines 2, 3 and 6 thanks to better optimization (getting Waffle to be at the peak of his jump as the minecarts reach the end of the tracks, more efficient kitten-catching).
- Thanks to a new strategy on the Black Cat Mecha-II, I was able to save six and a half seconds there.
Archeonis
- Intentionally taking damage from a hot pipe saved about half a second getting inside the Archeonis.
- Saved three seconds on the three running kittens and three kittens in hot air balloons in the Main Hall.
- Saved a second on the Left Side and in the Captain's Room each.
Grimto
- Saved four and a half seconds inside the forest from better optimization.
- Saved two and a half seconds on the Black Cat Tank. Sadly, you can't really get double-hits on the tank no matter where you hit it from.
Abandoned Factory
- Six seconds saved in the first room of kittens. A more efficient method of shooting the bombs that the tanks fire at Waffle just as they appear is used to destroy them faster.
- Saved a second climbing up the pipes outside the first kitten room.
- Saved two seconds in the second room of kittens.
- Saved three and a half seconds by not jumping across the top of the pipes outside the following room.
- Saved five seconds in the third and final room of kittens.
Secret Base
- By taking advantage of a quirk where Waffle is able to regain momentum with the D-Pad when he touches hot surfaces (in this case, the floor), I was able to save two seconds in the Heat Room.
- Saved a second during the escape, making it out alive with 3:57 left.
Coolant
- Saved two seconds on the first wave of kittens outside.
- Saved one and a half seconds on the kittens inside the mountain.
- Saved a second on the second wave of kittens outside.
Moving Fortress 1
- Four and a half seconds saved on the seven kittens in planes. The last three don't spawn until twenty-five seconds after gaining control of Waffle again have passed.
- Destroyed a purple tank blocking the door with two bubble shots and a bomb, thus saving half a second by negating the need to enter it from an angle.
- Eleven seconds were saved in the infamous room with six tanks. The difference between this and the previous TAS is pretty much night and day.
- Saved two seconds during everything else that followed.
Moving Fortress 2
- Saved five and a half seconds on Flare and Stare, thanks to getting more double-hits in.
- Saved twelve seconds on Alicia, also thanks to way more double-hits.
Iron Giant
- Saved a second jumping across the blue platforms.
- Saved seven seconds by taking a different route across the red platforms.
- Saved five and a half seconds on the final battle with the Guardian.
Q&A
Q: Aren't you upset that the TAS didn't end up being a sub one-hour run?
A: Not really. If you take out the first 24 seconds taken to start a New Game from Power-On, it technically counts as a sub one-hour by RTA rules. I'm also fairly certain that there's still more time to save, but it's gonna be really hard to make further improvements at this point.
Q: What's next? All Photo Pieces? Running the US version on Hard difficulty?
A: Maybe not for a while. I feel pretty burnt out on Tail Concerto TASing after this.
Q: Flare, would you like a Waffle?
A: There is no more Waffle! I has them all.
Suggested Screenshot
- Frame 52189 (Is Stare having fun yet?)
Special Thanks To...
- The RTA runners for discovering and coming up with a lot of the strats used in the Tail Concerto speedrun throughout the years
- My small little community for showing strong interest in my work with this game
- Samsara and CoolHandMike for their feedback on the initial TAS
- CyberConnect2 for making such an awesome first game (and being a GOATed company for making the Little Tail Bronx series their passion project outside of licensed anime games)
feos: Claiming for judging.
