In spite of its length, the Chrono Trigger movie is great. I think you could cut down on battles and powering up (especially at the end), and display most of the text bars a little longer. That might not be the accepted norm, but it'd make the movie even more watchable.
I read reports (courtesy of SDA) that a Japanese player has beaten the present TAS time.
http://ultimagarden.net/report/inichi_chrot_ta.txt
THE END 03:49
The file is totally in Japanese though, so anybody who wants to figure out what's going on, hope you know your Kanji.
0o_o0, OMG!!
In realtime, without tools???
I can't read japanese, but I really wished to in this case. :,-(
Is there a video of this run available somewhere? This is just shocking!
I'll see your OMG and raise you a WTFBBQ!?
<- Magus is also shocked.
I tried the text file that SirVG linked, but it was blank.
http://ultimagarden.net/report/inichi_chrot_ta.txt
Is this linking to a blank page for anyone else? I'd like to at least try to read it.
It's not blank when watching through FireFox. But you just can't see any letters. It looks like:
"�|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|��
�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�N���m�g���K�[�^�C���A�^�b�N���|�[�g�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@�@
�|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|���|��"
for the first 3 lines.
Damn, he must have used some special route and strategy to get that time. I just can't see how Hero's TAS time can be beaten any other way.
Thanks, the first 3 lines look like this now:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
クロノトリガータイムアタックレポート
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I can now see parts of the text like heros CT TAS in 4:21 and other english letters, but the japanese text is mostly written in "???? ???????" form. I guess there is no other way around for us to read that without somebody actually translating it at least roughly. Bisqwit is familiar with this game and can read a bit japanese (I think), so maybe he would be interested to do it for himself and for us?
I'm planning to buy this game on my SNES now that I got the AD-29 upgrade adaptor allowing me to play USA-games. Next thing I wander to this thread and what do I find:
A japanese player beating TAS time without tools?!? What the fuck? I thought Hotarubi pushed it to the limits when talking about SM but this is just nuts... Beating tool-assisted speedrun without abusing any tools? There's just one thing to say...
...where can I watch this run. (i see it's not on SDA yet)
EDIT:
If someone manages to translate that text with pages Bisqwit posted would it be possible to copy it into this thread? I sure couldn't translate that..
<Deign> .dice 1d1999191023443691
<BisqBot> Deign rolls a blackhole and destroys the planet.
Success! Thanks.
...Uh. Okay. I've gone through the abstract, the ToC and first section, and I get the gist of almost all of it so far, though I haven't gone into it deeply (ie, using reference material beyond my dictionary.) I can paste my translation if anyone wants it, but it's probably not much better than what you'd get with babelfish, if at all. I stopped at section two (on the acquisition of experience/tech points) because I'm in way over my head at this point.
It doesn't look like there's any one trick that got him through the game, and this thing's a damn textbook. Probably worth reading, if anyone intends to do a new TAS.
Edit: Excite isn't working. It either can't find the page, or my browser is being a jerk again. Same with babelfish. Hopefully someone else will have better luck...
However he did it, it obviously wasn't because of increased precision, but rather improved strategy (-ies), so there's nothing surprising about it. Many TASes (or at least certain segments of them), especially old ones, were slower than unassisted runs at one point or another, including Solstice, Sonic 2, SMB, Dark Castle, and others (and Super Metroid is not an exception as you yourself pointed out). ;)
I can only copypaste small parts of the text in the excite translator. Translating the entire URL doesn't work here as well.
Dromiceius:
If you have a complete translation (even sloppy), can you post a txt file of it somewhere, please?
Yeah, but come to think about it it's still a TAS time. The keyword is tool-assisted speedrunning where abusing savestates you can try the same spot for a hour. On the other hand we got a player playing without tools having to execute every single trick perfectly.
Well, japanese players are crazy. :) I wonder how many segments this run has. Only if someone could translate that text...
<Deign> .dice 1d1999191023443691
<BisqBot> Deign rolls a blackhole and destroys the planet.
Fixed. :)
Anyway, since I figured this stuff out from the forum post before the report, here are the listings for final equipment and what seems to be overall item usage (possibly just in the final battles):
Crono: Swallow, Vigil Hat, Aeon Suit, Green Dream, and 15 speed.
Ayla: Fist, Vigil Hat, Lumin Robe, Silver Earring, and 13 speed.
Marle: Lode Bow, Hide Cap, Hide Tunic, Speed Belt, and 12 speed.
Items used: 1 Potion, 1 High Potion, 4 Mid Ethers, 5 High Ethers, 2 Elixirs, 7 Revives, 2 Barriers.
It seems his Lavos 1 strategy was basically: "Give Lucca +10 magic defense with the Wall Ring and Taban <whatever>. Have her survive the first attack and revive people." Sounds like a nice way to torture yourself, doesn't it?
Also, he used three powerlevel areas: Tyrano Castle (something about slapping a button for fights), Enhasa (Nu group once, for tech points), and some other location that Google screwed up the table for.
Section 5 explains the route and 6 explains how to beat each boss.. so I imagine reading those over will tell you what's different and how to make up that time.
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster.
I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
I'll give a shot at the relevant sections, and release them as I go... assuming no-one more knowledgeable beats me to the punch.
I'll translate and upload section 2 (xp/tech earning) by morning, at any rate.
Edit:
I'm starting to feel a little more confident. :D
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1058
Location: United States
Ok, I am dumbfounded right now. I have my doubts about the validity of this run (how did he know what the in-game timer was after lavos died?). A full translation would be very much appreciated Dromiceius.
Edit: So he revived Chrono? How in the hell is this possible, that side quest alone would tack on 20 minutes. He also got the green dream, another huge side quest! Even with the faster scrolling Japanese text, his time should not have been anywhere near mine, let alone beat it by 12 minutes.
Well, don't I feel stupid. Most of section 2 (which I have entirely translated) details the three prime spots for xp/tp grinding. He discusses the pros and cons of each... and then gives a [expletive deleted] table with all the MASSIVE PROFANITY information right BLINGWAD there!
So, here it is. The table at the end of section 2, which tells you exactly how to do all your levelling. The dokkan/dinosaur men are in tyrano lair (i assume) and the 6 nus are in enhasa. Just to be clear.
His end goal seems to be getting everyone to level 34, hence the 'required' field at the bottom of the table.
Monsters of battle | XP | TP
2 dokkan + 2 dinosaur men (47 times) 26790/846
2 dokkan + 2 dinosaur men (30 times) 20880/660
Nizbel-R 880/15
Azala, Black Tyrano 1800/25
6 Nus 744/90
Underground desert's monster (7 pairs) 8028/315
Merufikku 2600/100 [I have no idea what that is.]
Total: 61722/2051
Required: 61241/2046
I'll get back to y'all after I get to the bottom of whether he revived Crono or not- I know he mentioned "Crono's turnover" which might have meant death or revival. It's not exactly clear.
Also, he did the greendream sidequest because the monsters down there give good xp/tp... apparently.
Oh, and he used a stopwatch after the last save point.
Edit: isn't it odd that he listed the same encounter twice? He mentioned that spot right before nizbel2, and that there was a separate encounter to the right of that... is that what he meant in the repeated second field?
Edit again: Here are his "lap times". Maybe these will shed some light on his seemingly insane strategy....
yakra battle: 00:13
dragon tank 00:25
factory [...tracks? Sorry.] 00:42
heckran battle 00:53
guran and rion battle... masa+mune? 01:06
Nizbel 01:23
Magus' keep 01:36
Magus himself 01:55
Tyrano Lair 02:09
Nizbel-R battle 02:41
desert in the depths of the earth 03:04
The End of Time 3:16
Inside Lavos (final save) 3:31
The End 3:49