About the game

Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden, aka. Castlevania Legacy of Dardness, the second CV game on N64.

About the run

In the run I choose Henry, he is not the first character. For U version you must have a save to use him, but for J version it needs not, so I used J version for the run because Mupen can't record movie from reset. Henry's objective, he must rescue 6 children found in 6 stages within specified time.
The second stage Castle wall, actually I can leave the area just after rescue the child, but I went to the top of it for a moon card because I'll use it later. There is a coffin at the end of Villa stage, it could warp to three different areas in different periods, the cards could change current time, this is why I collected them before here. I also found some shortcuts in some areas such as the child rescuing in Outer wall, which saved lots of time.
Thanks to Sir VG for his help.

mmbossman: I apologize for taking so long to judge this submission, I've had a lot going on recently, and adelikat said it desynched for him.
As for the run, it feels like one long fetch quest, and in the worst of ways. The technical aspect looks to be of as high of quality as previous zggzdydp runs (that is to say, fairly high), but the entertainment aspect is sorely lacking. Two very similar boss fights were the most exciting part of this run, but the rest wasn't enough to make up for it, and it appears much of the audience agrees. Sorry, but I'm rejecting this.

mmbossman: This submission has been given another chance at publication. If you feel it should be published, instead of returning to the grue, please post WHY in the thread. Similarly, if you do NOT think this movie should be published, post WHY.

mmbossman: I still find this to be a bad goal choice for a run. People seem to like it by proxy, in the hopes that a full run using Cornel will eventually come along, and that this run is good enough for the time being. With that in mind, I'm going to accept this, with the likelihood that it will be obsoleted if/when a good quality Cornel run is submitted.

ShinyDoofy: Considering publication until further notice...

sp00ky: Assisting with encode, estimate completion on monday.

adelikat: Apparently Sp00ky neglected to mention which year that monday would fall in. This is obviously not "underway", resetting to accepted status. I'd like to see some level of urgency from a publisher on this one.
ShinyDoofy: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
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Sir_VG
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For those who aren't aware of how the coffin time system works on Henry's run: 12a to 8a - Tunnel 8a to 4p - Underground Waterway 4p to 12a - Outerwall So given that the run was through the Waterway at about 1:15p and it takes 10 seconds about per 15 "minutes" of game time, that means it would have nearly been a 2 minute wait for the clock to get around, so obviously going up for the 2nd moon card is a major time saver. It's either that or wait even longer to hit 6PM in the Tunnel for the door the last child is behind (since it was only about 12:30p when he got to that door, meaning a 5h 3m wait). The Outer Wall was absolutely sick. That child is an absolute pain in the ass to get to normally. Also, I'm gonna kick your butt for screwing with me so badly when transitioning from I and II in the tunnel. You suck. :P As for the kids' dialogue, translation: "Thank you Henry. But your vampire is in another castle." Sadly though, the movie cuts off for me just before you open the last moon door and thus doesn't complete the game. :(
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2 things: -when jumping onto an elevator, you'll want to make sure to touch it on the first frame possible. I noticed one elevator that goes up, inside some cave level just before frame 40300 ish, you could have jumped onto it earlier I think. -If there are moving conveyor belts, run on top of them if they're moving the direction you're going. You missed 2 that were moving the same way you were; missed little time saver there. Besides that, looks good. I like the J selection granting Henry; good way to get around mupen;s lack of starting from SRAM. So there's medieval weapons, armor, clothing, buildings, yet guns and motorcycles? How does that work? I think this game is, eh. I'm glad it's done in 14 minutes; makes it better for the site than, say longer castlevania 64 runs. 6.2/7.5
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J version is a good choise for Henry. I watched, not bad, just a little low entertainment. 7/8
Rongorongo
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I find this game to be really boring. It really feels like it's missing something (music? *shrugs shoulders*). I wonder if hard mode has more enemies or does it just make enemies take longer to die? If it did have more, it might actually help spruce up the run, entertainment-wise. I liked seeing the precision with the fired shots and the movement as well as creative choices with the camera (as creative as they can be; it's subtle; I don't know where I'm going with this). That familiar tune whenever a child was saved made no sense but was cool to hear (wasn't it the Theme of Simon? What's it doing here?). I'm not so sure these games make for good TASes as they do more for precise walkthroughs or something like that, or the whole idea of the game being completed. 6\8 because the game is only so interesting but your playing, as it looks, is pretty precise.
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Grueful encode coming soon (glN64 doesn't do well with this one, it seems).
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Sir VG wrote:
the movie cuts off for me
Sad to hear that. The file is just wired, no idea why a 14 minutes movie file is more than 1000KB...
Comicalflop wrote:
elevator...
Honestly I'm sure I touch on it as early as possible, but I don't know why it doesn't look like that.
Comicalflop wrote:
conveyor belts...
I tested that jumping is still faster than walking on it.
VANDAL wrote:
I wonder if hard mode has more enemies or does it just make enemies take longer to die?
You must have a save data to unlock hard mode.
ShinyDoofy wrote:
glN64 doesn't do well with this one
Jabo's Direct3D works fine.
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Direct3D is not really available under Linux ;)
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It felt a little too short for me, mainly because of the uneventful nature of the run, especially since the ending felt so abrubt. After all you usually fight Dracula at the end of a Castlevania game. One thing I will say is that N64 Castlevania games have more than enough justification for being on the site, even if they don't have the same critical acclaim as their 2D counterparts. 6.1 for entertainment 7.5 for technical
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zggzdydp wrote:
Sir VG wrote:
the movie cuts off for me
Sad to hear that. The file is just wired, no idea why a 14 minutes movie file is more than 1000KB... Look at it in a hex editor. I can kinda see how the input works, but at 34024(hex) it just starts looking like complete garbage. The hex file ends at 11FFFF(hex), so that's a LOT of garbage, unless there's an explanation.
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ShinyDoofy wrote:
Grueful encode coming soon (glN64 doesn't do well with this one, it seems).
Let's say I, er... "forgot" it. Anyway, here goes: http://shynee.ath.cx/~doofy/castlevanialegacyofdarkness-tas-zggzdydp.mkv
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Watched it and liked it. Plenty of nostalgia, even though I've never actually played the game, I only have the first CV for the N64, but this just seems to be a slight remake of that with added characters, so most of the areas are just as I remember them :) I really think there should be a run using a character that completes the whole game though, as this one misses ~half the game (probably the most interesting half, too), and doesn't have any bosses except for the skeleton in the beginning. 7/7.5
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The run seems optimized and is played cleanly, but I gotta agree with Vandal. This game is a bit boring. The quest itself is meh enough (more like hide n seek, not save the children), but the utter lack of action (barely any enemies, long stretches of just jumping from this place to that, etc etc) doesn't help. If you've played this game before and loved it, this run is for you. If you haven't played it then you're not missing much. The outer wall section definitely was nicely done. I recently saw a non-tas run of this on SDA, and even so I was blown away at how quickly the child was found. overall I'm giving it a 6 for entertainment, and 7.6 for tech. If you love this game, add 2 more points to my scores an there ya go.
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I think the best thing about this run isn't so much the run itself as the WTF nature of the game. You're playing as a knight in plate armor, armed with a pistol, hopping about a castle being chased by skeletons on motorcycles, playing hide and seek with children.
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thanks for the encode i watched most of it and it seemed fairly well optimized to someone who only did the henry quest once and did it eight years ago i have to go with the general opinion that the henry quest is ultimately significantly less entertaining than a cornell run, but here is hoping this is just a warmup to an optimized cornell run (as the last submitted cornell run turned out to be rather flawed) anyway, good job and good luck with this submission oh and just noticed
Cpadolf wrote:
as this one misses ~half the game (probably the most interesting half, too)
actually this one misses something like 75-80% of cornell's quest although no specific character completes every level in the game (cornell himself only does 15 levels i think and skips out on both the sewers and medusa's cave; also his version of the castle level with the explosive potion is different i believe if he even does that one also) and you are right on the more interesting part; the only slow level in cornell's path is the villa and MAN is that boring but if you can make it through that there is a light at the end of the tunnel
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So this is the fabled Henry I've heard about. When I first heard about "A guy with a gun" in this game, for whatever reason I imagined it would be someone with a leather trenchcoat and a shotgun. Why the developers thought this mode was necessary, I'll never understand... Either why, I approve, and look forward to the other characters!
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this is me wrote:
actually this one misses something like 75-80% of cornell's quest although no specific character completes every level in the game (cornell himself only does 15 levels i think and skips out on both the sewers and medusa's cave; also his version of the castle level with the explosive potion is different i believe if he even does that one also)
No, Cornell doesn't have the Castle Center, which that level involved the nitro quest. That's the 3rd level (and I believe last, to my memory) that the other characters do by Cornell doesn't.
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Entertainment: 6 Tech: 8 This game really looks boring. Not really meant for me at least. Not sure that the entertainment value can be increased?
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i'd like to watch cv64 speedrun, although its not very interesting. 7/8 for this run
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As you can see, this movie has been returned from the grue for another shot at publication. Please post what you think about the movie, and why it should be published, or why it should remain rejected. Poll votes will not be considered, only responses in the thread. This submission will remain on the workbench for one month to gather further opinions, then a second judging decision will be made.
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I vote Yes. The platforming looked tight, and the camera work was good. I even laughed once or twice during the on-a-rail section. Though the game curiously lacks much of a climactic finish, its music and graphics make for interesting viewing, IMO. Also, no prancing werewolf in this run. Much thanks to ShinyDoofy for re-uploading his encode.
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It's fast and it's well performed. Plus a guy with a six shooter? Oh hell yeah. I couldn't get it to finish before, but it certainly could have been me. If it works for others, then it's a definite yes in my book.
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there's an encode. you might want to check it out. Edit: Question for those who have played the game. At times, the detail will randomly get worse on everything. Does this happen on the cart, or is it Yet Another Nintendo 64 Emulation Issue? Edit: The run seems well done, but the game gets boring after a while... Probably due to the massive amounts of skipping. Edit2: Because of how well down the run was, plus the first 10 minutes being fun to watch, I'm giving this a weak yes vote.
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Watched this long ago Castlevania ? Yes vote mandatory... given its optimized and fast route then anyway a no/meh would make no sence Its not the most entertaining castlevania ever... i can agree largely... i hate it actually... but that mainly because i hate how they made money selling twice the same cartdrige with a new set of texture and 2 bugs fix... so it has nothing to do realy with the game but rather with konami marketing district Now that been sayd, you cant refuse a castlevania with the entertainement argument, imo, that realy ... bad argument Castlevania2 sux in all ways you can look at it, still its a good TAS, regardless warps ect... technicaly its realy inferior game to the first Castlevania4 for many people sux too (but i think none of em buyed it back in 91 lol) When it come to castlevania, i think the entertainement argument should be took appart, like for mario or zelda, those games was hit back then and still have large audiance of fans, so its kinda not enought for me to reject it entertainement wise Alltought, why not ungrue the cornel run? They both deserve it edit: is theres even a cornel run actually? cant find it :/ If someone get to the hassle to finish U version with cornel, then whe can do henry and obsolete this one, doesnt sound troublesome to me to accept this now and obsolete later because this is J