* Aims for the Fastest Time
* Manipulates Luck
* Plans to Manipulate A Glitch or Two
* Uses a Cheat (Special Turbo)
I've decided to take up this project alongside the Wiz 'n' Liz project i'm doing right now. There's a good chance that there're alot of people out there (besides all the people on this site) that would enjoy seeing a Shining Force 2 run. I've been in the planning stages for a week now, experimenting with the randomness of the system.
It took me a while to figure it out, but if I save state BEFORE the cursor lands on a member of the Force, I can load state until I get the desired results. Misses? A thing of the past. On Test A (below), I didn't use the save states until /AFTER/ the cursor had landed on said member of the Force, and their stats (HP/MP) were pulled up. You'll see one or two misses, but nothing huge on a casual run.
In Test B, I used Special Turbo (you'll notice the differences immediately). Special Turbo was a feature implemented by the game-developers to mess around with if you knew the code, in this case, Up Down Up Down Left Right Left Right Up Right Down Left Up and holding down Start until you selected your specific game. This gave you four options: Special Turbo is one of them, which is the only one selected. When Special Turbo is activated, Dialogue passes by a few frames quicker than normal. The cursor (in battle) also moves MUCH quicker than normal. While these seem to be subtle changes, in a game as big as this one, every second I can prevent the viewer from passing out is a second i'm willing to take. :)
Test B differs greatly from Test A, simply because I use them both to experiment: while they both go from power-on to the screen blacking after the first battle, there's an obvious difference in time from Test A and Test B.
But the real test here comes from you guys. I ask that you watch Test A, then Test B. Feel free to critique (you guys should know by now that I love critique!), and point out things/ask questions. Also, in your explinations, PLEASE include what you'd rather see in the final project: the game at normal speed, or with Special Turbo.
However, since it's the keys, and the game auto-saves it at the beginning of the game, where the player can make the first movements, once Test A is over, you'll actually need to go into Shining Force 2 and manually delete the save for !. Then, you can proceed to Test B. If you don't delete the save file in Shining Force 2 manually, the game can and DOES desync, and you'll wind up wondering what the hell is going on.
Anyways, once i've collected all the data I need for this from you guys, i'll proceed to begin this as my side-project. I suspect it'll take anywhere from a month to a month and a half to complete perfectly.. and that's if i'm really lucky. :)
Thanks, guys!
Here's the Links:
Shining Force 2 Test A
Shining Force 2 Test B
Edit: Or, you can just watch Test B. Picky. e_e
From here, you can hit left one frame, up the next frame, and C the following frame to select the default name (faster than "A," in fact, and more aesthetically pleasing to see a real name there).
Also, you can choose the difficulty in six frames: right, nothing, right, nothing, right, C. Note the cursor looks like it's highlighting "hard" when you do this, but you really do select Ouch!
In your vid you take at least five times as long to do these things.
As for the first fight, I think it's possible do it without healing, by not spreading out the Force so much that anyone gets surrounded.
