- Uses VBA19
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors
- Takes damage
- Shit like that
This TAS is a tribute to everyone who has done anything for speedrunning and tool-assisted speedrunning of Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, such as myself (Pride + 500 this way), zggzdydp, Zurreco, Kaz, moozooh, Radix, OgreSlayeR, Wayne 'soteos' Frank, klmz. More names to follow. Maybe.
It is 627 frames faster than
the old run, and it is basically a product of a lot of 1 frame saved-tricks properly abused.
Don't even suggest it:
- No I can't get Potions from the 2 first Skeleton Bombers in the room where I get the other Potions due to something known as "lag".
- No it is not possible to equip the Cotton Robe and Magic Gauntlet at Cerberus. If I don't equip the items and use the Mind Restore almost instantly, I'll run out of MP (I have 28 MP at Cerberus, the Mind Restore restores 30% of my max MP. 30% of 100 = 30 MP. 28 - 30 = -2 = fail).
- It is also not practical to kill Cerberus with the Diana + Griffin-DSS. While the Wind Blade kills Cerberus instantly, using a DSS which drains 128 MP when I only have 100 MP really fucks things up, and the only way to restore that MP is to visit a Save Point. Items or simply waiting does not help. Besides, I would not have enough MP to make it to the Save Point either way.
- No it would not have been faster to take less damage before and after Necromancer to be able to take more damage in the Zombie Thief-Corridor.
The One Block-jump:
It seems that the fastest thing to do is jump for 1 frame, wait for 2 frames, then double jump for 2 frames when going up "normal" blocks. If done at the correct distant, Nathan lands very early on the platform, gaining him about one extra frame on the ground. This is abused a lot in the Underground Waterway.
Roc Jumping:
During the first half of a Roc Jump, Nathan keeps DSS run speed. This is abused here and there.
Sprinting:
Basically, pressing Right and Left at the same time when starting a dash to the right gains a bit.
Early Change of DSS-Cards:
Here is the deal with me changing cards waaaay before the actual boss a few times: At Necromancer, Adramalech etc, I make sure that I end the Dash-DSS myself, because the game spends 3 frames to end it (One for pausing, one for deactivating, and then waiting for one frame), so doing that saved me time, EXCEPT for at Dracula. For some reason our favorite vampire decided that this should not work there. Hope this clears some confusion.
In depth-improvement list:
Catacombs
During the Catacombs, the most noticeable difference would be the earlier triggering of the Dash DSS.
- The first two rooms got improved during the latest glitched TAS of this game, by a blazing 3 + 4 frames, and the same thing is applied here.
- Thanks to the Magic Gauntlet, almost 20 frames are gained (20 are physically gained, but 2 or so are lost while equipping it later on) in the room with the Dash Boots.
- A different way of jumping gained 5 frames in the same room.
- The climb room was 1 frame slower because of different leave, but the room after was 2 frames faster due to that.
- The room with the Cotton Robe and Mind Restore was improved by 7 frames thanks to taking damage from the Mudman (Wait, wasn't this room supposed to be slower due to the Magic Gauntlet? No, because I found that you can scroll through item menus using R and L which saved a few frames I was supposed to lose).
Abyss Stairways
Not much to say. More optimized jumping for the win I guess.
- The tower climb in the Abyss Stairways was improved by 8 frames thanks to some kind of broken One Block-jumping.
- The room before the Save Point was 3 frames faster.
- The first Save Room I visit was improved by 1 frame due to turning before pressing Up.
- The Zig-Zag room was improved by 9 frames.
Audience Room
No Axe this time is the noticeable difference.
- The Axe Room was improved by 24 frames thanks to skipping the Axe.
- The room after the Axe improved by 1 frame thanks to sliding instead of running to fall off the short ledge.
Outer Walls
I kill one extra Skeleton during the lower route. Amusingly enough, I can't seem to catch his item. Oh well!
- Jumping onto Outer Walls was improved by 4 frames (This is technically not an Outer Walls improvement but meh).
- Outer Walls 1 was improved by 3 frames thanks to the new route.
Audience Room revisited
Avoiding different enemies and different Necromancer-approach will most likely be what catches your attention.
- The massive jump on the skeleton infested runway was improved by 2 frames.
- The room before Necromancer was improved by amazing 13 frames, a lot thanks to zipping across the blocks.
- Necromancer improved by 7 frames (See above, Significant Changes)
- Entering the card menu directly after Necromancer died saves a frame of lag. Also notice how I keep Skeleton and regain MP while having different cards equipped. Multi tasking for the win.
- Room before teleporter improved by 20 frames thanks to not messing around with extra jumps.
- Teleporter improved by 1 frame (And that is funny cause it's true).
Machine Tower
Picking up the Stop Watch is what's new and for those of you who really knows the old run, the jump from the up-down platform after the Save Point is new as well.
- I entered the Machine Tower 5 frames faster.
- First room of Machine Tower is now 1 frame slower due to not setting off platform movements while getting the Stop Watch.
- Next room improved by 4 frames, before the save point.
- Room after save point improved by 5 frames.
- Room with Heat Shades and stuff improved by 5 frames.
- Earth Armor Corridor one frame faster.
- Room before Iron Golem 2 frame faster thanks to sliding off the short ledge and improved sprinting.
- Iron Golem was killed 1 frame faster.
- Between Iron Golem and the Save Point was improved by 1 frame.
- Hyena Corridor improved by 2 frames.
- The next descend improved by 1 frame thanks to starting off by sliding. Note that walking off ledges mostly is faster in this room, therefore I do it.
Audience Room revisited
Better disposal of the second Skeleton keeps the flow way better this time around.
- The room with the Axe Men improved by 1 frame thanks to landing higher on the (first set of) stairs to be able to start the run earlier.
- I improved the room with the two Potions by 15 frames thanks to falling off the ledge after killing the second Skeleton and doing other major optimizations with the first Kick Boots-jump.
Chapel Tower
Yes, I do skip another Save Point. And yes, it is a lot faster. Booya!
- The first room of the Chapel Tower was improved by 2 frame, my best guess is from the first long jump.
- The first shortcut was improved by 2 frames.
- Since I skip the first Save Point, I gain like eight million frames, which were gradually lost, and in the end, 58 of them remained, so 58 gained overall on the way to the second Save Point. Some of them, however, were gained from optimized movements. If I visited the first Save Point, I gained about 6 frames on the way to the second one, but now I gained almost a full second. Okay maybe not. (Generally, I would rather take damage than not, but here in the Chapel Tower, there's not that many enemies so constant jumping luckily doesn't break the flow. Also no damage is in most case much slower, but not here it seems. Also I must add that during this sequence I do a lot of high, long jumps, but those are faster than doing two short Double Jumps despite looking retarded)
- Before during and after Adramalech improved by 24 frames thanks to early de-triggering of DSS, sliding up to Adramalech (Thanks ziggy) etc.
- The room with Marionettes and Bloody Swords was improved by 3 frame, lag reduction.
- After that room, I do a lot of different jumping during the rest of the Chapel Tower so frames are lost, and gained, and lost again. In the end, 7 more frames was gained.
Audicene Room and Abyss Stairways revisited
Nothing even looks remotely new here.
- The room after the teleporter was improved by 1 frame thanks to taking a long jump over the switch.
- The Axe Man-room was improved by 1 frame thanks to the sliding, which I did not miss again.´
- The final Potion Harvest was improved by 17 frames thanks to taking more damage and overall being closer to the edge when killing the Skeletons.
Underground Laggerway
Lag is reduced a whole bunch, making this area less painful to watch, not to mention TAS.
- The first room was improved by 1+ frame thanks to sliding and staying in the water longer time.
- The second room was improved by 17 frames thanks to better box jumping mostly.
- The room with the Frozen Shades was improved by 12 frames thanks to stopping time, which made the last Shade behave a lot better.
- The Witch Room was improved by 66 frames thanks to the Stop Watch. Yes, that was 66 frames of lag going away there.
- The room where I restore my HP was improved by 19 frames due to better box jumping, and having one Potion less and other stuff.
- Awesomer jumping made the room with Lizardmen 8 frames faster.
- Camilla was slain 3 frame faster thanks to the earlier card switching.
- Grabbing the Roc Wing and running out of Camilla's chamber was improved by 6 frames.
- Entering the Save Point was improved by 19 frames thanks to the change of the Roc Jump.
- The Save Point was improved by 1 frame.
- The exit of the Underground Waterway was improved by 2 frames.
Into the Tower
Overall I gain 38 frames on the way to the Observation Tower, I don't exactly know how and where but I do. I know that at least 24 are gained in the room before the Observation Tower itself.
Observation Tower
Wow this place has awesome music. Seriously.
- 2 frames gained in the first room thanks to a better landing while entering.
- Improved the jump after second Roc Jump in the second room by holding A for more frames while passing by the Evil Face, then passed by the upper Evil Face 1 frame faster.
- Another frame was mysteriously gained in that room as well.
- The room with the Shades was improved by 30 frames thanks to making one less Roc Jump.
- 1 frame gained in the room(s) before Hugh.
- 15 frames gained before Hugh by not sliding to get to him (Roc Jumping and Tackling was equally fast, but Roc Jumping looked a bit more... interesting).
- 11 frames more gained in the battle thanks to faster card switching etc.
- 7 more random frames gained on the way to the teleporter
- The teleporter itself was improved by a frame
The End Of This Chapter
- 4 frames gained upon entering Dracula's Chamber.
- 1 frame was insanely mysteriously gained between the first and final hit on first Dracula.
- 2 frames were gained when entering the light.
- 55 frames were gained in the battle against Dracula thanks to lag reduction and more attacks.
Conclusion
All this adds up to 627 frames gained over the previous run.
I know that the first use of the Stop Watch looked retarded like hell and back, but there was no useful area to trigger it other than in the Witch Room (Which was the reason why I picked it up to begin with). Doing so mostly led to "Woha 2 frames gained here! And 4 lost in the next room due to enemies standing still".
SPECIAL THANKS:
- zggzdydp for being part of the severly improved final Dracula during the first glitched run, which helped improve this Dracula and for the after-Adramalech-strategy.
- ChanServ for always being around on IRC on rainy nights.
- JXQ, adelikat and Deign for not hating me for whining over every single thing that went wrong with this run.
- Non-forum people. You know. IRL-friends.
- JXQ for calling me "clever bastard".
- The usual suspects, DK64_MASTER, Fabian, jimsfriend, the Gregs, Brushy, kwinse, Upthorn, Ricecake etc. No I'm not gonna mention everybody by name because then I'll forget someone and s/he will cry in a corner. If I leave out more, it'll look like I have no idea whom to remember, and such is the case.
Bisqwit: Author sent an updated movie. Apparently 25 frames faster and includes a new glitch that does not change the outcome of the battle where it appears.
Soulrivers: It's my third submitted version, but my eight tool-assisted run of the game. The others failed or died at different spots. Like at final Dracula.
EDIT:
Bisqwit <3
