Lufia 2 is the sequel of the Lufia 1 game, but actually takes place before that game. Since Lufia 1 was not released in Europe and Australia, Lufia 2 was simply called "Lufia" in those parts. Next to some fresh new graphics and sound, an improved interface and a cheesy storyline, this game introduces the new "IP system". Ikari Points (IP) represent how angry your character is, and allow for some devestating special attacks. These were abused alot in this movie.
The movie was recorded using the USA rom, due to the timing differences between NTSC and PAL. This almost saves half an hour on the total movie length. While the USA rom also introduces an interesting "level 0 glitch", it was not used in this movie.
Recorded using Snes9x 1.43+ improvement9.
Emulator Sync Settings:
- Use WIP1 Timing - ON
- Allow Left+Right / Up+Down - OFF
- Volume Envelope Height Reading - OFF
- Fake Mute desync workaround - OFF
- Sync samples with sound CPU - OFF
Movie Goals:
- Aims for fastest time.
- Abuses programming errors in the game.
- Manipulates luck.
Tricks Used:
Hook Trick:
Shooting the hook while standing against a wall has a really short animation, shorter that most other actions including the walking of monsters. This allows you to walk next to mosters while not getting into battle with them, since they're lagging behind. This is also used as a fast method to manipulate luck.
Avoiding Random Encounters:
I suppose you could guess it from watching the movie, but bringing up the menu resets the 'steps taken' memory address which allows you to completely skip every random encounter on the world map.
Luck Manipulation
I could really write a book about this, but I'll try to keep it short.
To determine randomness, the game used 55 pseudorandom numbers. Every time a random number is used, an internal counter increases. When this counter reaches 54, a new set of random numbers are generated through bitwise XOR operations.
In other words, the randomness is completely deterministic. The only way to manipulate luck is through pulling different amount of numbers from the RNG, which translates in the game to bumbing into a wall, grabbing a chest or using a potion/healing spell. I tried to keep these manipulations as subtle as possible, but especially in the first 30 minutes of the run involve heavy luck manipulation which isn't always as subtle looking as it should be.
Tough parts / Flaws
This movie is not perfect. Especially the luck manipulation parts were really random and could probably be improved with a better understand of the RNG. That said, here are a few parts of the movie that could probably be improved:
- Faster luck manipulation on the Eagle Stone drop in the Lake Cave.
- Skipping the Hi-Potion chest and possibly the Witch Ring.
- Not grabbing the Jute Helm in Camu's Tower. (luck manipulation was used to avoid confusion against Amon and Daos)
- Less healing in the Clown battles, since the next fight against Gades involves the entire party dying anyways.
- Buying less Ice Balls, Fire Balls, Big Boomers in Bound Kingdom.
- Not grabbing the Pumpkin Jewel in the Ancient Tower.
- Better luck manipulation in the three tower near Narvick.
- More efficient equipment and IP managment in general.
Credits
- quietkane for starting his Lufia 2 movie and inspiring me.
- Dragondarch for his route planning on SDA.
- Everyone else who in some way contributed to this movie.
Final notes
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I added some savestates for easier movie browsing here.
- The USA rom introduces a number of glitches, most notably the messed graphics in the Submarine Shrine. Disabling background layer 1 and/or 2 makes the character sprites more visible. Should this movie be published I suppose subtitles should be added for those unfamiliar with the glitches (European, Australian, Japanese players).
- The credits of this game require the emulator option Hi-Res to be enabled.
Bisqwit: Accepting, and processing for publication. Congratulations.