User Files for Power Rangers Time Force

has a lot of areas that can be improved, working on second draft

So Technickle suggested a small optimization I could implement to my now finished TAS of this game. I tend to wing it when it comes to TASing games (probably going to be my downfall), with only whatever street smarts I developed for a game at that point. I had never known that, apparently, you can actually skip the last part of the level title cards. So that would be about a second improvement, which, on paper, sounds great! I've heard, well, iirc anyways, that implementing stuff like this retroactively tends to be on the simple, kinda easy, somewhat easy-medium, regular mediu--

This game is not one of those times. In fact, ignoring routing, glitches, techniques, etc, if raw execution was the end-all-be-all of TASing... this would be one of the most ANNOYING GAMES I'D EVER TAS! Compared to every other Game Boy Color game made by Natsume, this practically runs like something hackneyed together by the hacks over at Tiertex. This game doesn't seem to actually run at 59.whatever Hz like your normal GBC game, or even at a consistent 29.whatever Hz. Instead, this game is infested with dropped frames, lag frames, in uncomfortably abundant amounts, and entirely spontaneous. And with lag frames comes dropped inputs. I lost count of how many times I had to work my way around that one frame that I need to do something important... that happened to be a lag frame. And that was when I was actually recording this game. It gets worse... which brings me to why I'm not actually going to impliment Technickle's suggestion.

With how abundant and random lag frames are in this game, TASes for it become extremely sensitive to timing. I'm no TAS expert, but compared to other games, you'll hit the butterfly effect much harder with this game if you try to retroactively patch your TAS with new stuff. One small tweak could easily wreck the entire thing. I tried to put in the title card skip in Level 1, and it broke the sequence of actions I had set up. One major example was the hallway before the turret room. After trying to fix up the level so far, the energy meter required to turbo boost was now not full and ready to use when I needed it too. Apparently, the rate the special meter fills up seems to also be random/time-sensitive. Which meant one thing led to another, and, well whatever I had to improvise with to fix this ended up just being slower than if I didn't even bother with this suggestion. As for my attempt with Level 2, it actually worked a lot better, with the only major hiccup being that the boss now tried to teleport, so I had to tweak it a bit. Level 3 broke as to be expected, including the part where that boss now ended up teleporting the complete wrong way from where I needed it to be. I decided to scrap it there too. Unfortunately, I couldn't just leave it there and just have Level 2 tweaked. As you can see in the user file, Level 3 ended up broken anyways after I patched Level 2. I don't really know the case with other games regarding trying to do something like this, but I'll tell you one thing, this game will likely require a full redo of the TAS to implement such a small optimization. Maybe when I find something else major to use, I'll probably keep this in mind to do some updated TAS. But for now, I'll pass.

Ransik, the final boss, is first encountered in an unwinnable encounter. Instead of learning how to use RAMSearch to track his health, I just wasted an hour recording this TAS to make absolute sure. Now I'm absolutely sure.

The third revision of my WIP TAS for Power Rangers Time Force (GBC) includes a playthrough that actually makes it to the credits! The first half is unchanged, as this revision was about dealing with the second half of the game. Throughout that portion, I found even more things about the game that will prove useful for the final TAS.

Yet another move was discovered, basically the knee of justice. Instead of pressing down and A for the slide-kick, it's executed with up and A. While it doesn't let the ranger squeeze underneath things, it instead makes her nudge forward faster than the slide. I will likely experiment with it a bit to see how well it fairs in energy efficiency as well as damage. One thing is for sure: I'll definitely make more use of it in later revisions.

Sometimes, I have no choice but to punch in order to progress, which is terrible, considering, I can't stress this enough, the universe will have gone through entropy by the time it's actually thrown and dealt a blow. However, I have discovered that, for some reason, it's faster when crouching than it is standing up, as long as you came in pre-crouched (cause actually getting on your knees has a delay all on its own.)

Something I noticed last time, but seems more relevant than ever: the game is very lenient in terms of jumping over ground attacks in megazord fights. You'll see me basically landing ontop of the attack with the megazord's toes, basically, and it'll still count as me dodging it. Subsequently, the megazord's punching hitbox lasts for an incredibly long time, for a punch, anyways.

The Armor Ghost has an introduction so long, I was able to run all the way across the map to get the Super-Energy.

Ransik is even worse than I thought... He singlehandedly makes full playthroughs very unlikely for me, for how comically cheap he is, but trying to record this TAS made it especially apparent. There were parts where I was straight-up trapped, with no way to avoid his impending slide attack, which has an annoyingly large hitbox and alarmingly fast trigger. You'll see me make a giant leap over him at one point. That was what I ended up with after a lot of fidgeting around trying to dodge the inevitable. I do wonder though, if it's even slightly possible to defeat him at the beginning of the level, or if it's basically a forced event. The final level is, if I'm correct, a huge circle, and I'm not sure if I took the most optimal route. It was this level, btw, where I discovered the knee of justice. I wonder how much more I'll learn if I read the manual... better see if someone had digitized it by now...

This is, for now, the last draft before I make the final, ready-to-publish version of the TAS. If anyone has any tips for optimizing the TAS for this game, I'm all ears. You'll have at minimum by April before I start working on it.

This is an updated version of my TAS WIP for Time Force on the GBC. I would write down a detailed list of patch notes for this revision, but Microsoft Edge tricked me into closing the page by accident, halfway through writing it, so thanks a lot, Immersive Reader... Just wanted to know whether wailing was the right word for "pummeling someone repeatedly", and... boy you sure helped with that.

Here's a general summary of what improved:

Apparently, this game has a Crash-style slide kick you can preform, and I discovered it completely by accident while recording the first level. There is a small delay when crouching, because pressing A during the short time before your ranger actually gets down to avoid, say, Nadira's fireball, will allow the ranger to slide across the ground to deal damage. However, you can't do it while crouching, which sucks for actually trying to slip past enemies in crawl spaces, but you can see me use it instead for taking out certain walls, which, in the yellow ranger's case, is actually faster than just running up to it and punching. Fun Fact, that's Kaite. I like Kaite. But I don't like her very delayed punches.

In the first draft, I defeated Gluto at the end of the third level, which put me in the past version of the fourth level where you track down Nadira. However, that version of the level has an unskippable, likely unavoidable cutscene that takes several seconds. Instead, I defeat Nadira instead to enter the future version instead, which doesn't have said cutscene.

All of the techs I discovered as I recorded the first draft are now known from the get-go, and thus used more often. Combined with many general optimizations (which lightning bolts to collect, when to use speed boosts, positioning, routing, etc.), this saved me about 2000-ish frames, roughly half a minute.

The first half of a rough draft for my TAS of Time Force, the GBC game by Natsume. This uses TAS's extreme precision to wrangle the shockingly messy controls, let alone preform a few cool tricks to shave off time (Don't you dare...). Important things of note when speedrunning this game: Managing the energy meter is important, as you need a full bar to use the "select button" turbo boost. This boost may be better used later than now, to clear major jumps that are otherwise too long to get over. Each ranger has a special attack executed with a double-tap and the B button. This also uses energy, so entering the boss with at least some may be a good plan. Depending on the ranger, it can be risky to attempt, as missing it will instead make the ranger punch. And boy do they punch... some of the most delayed punching can be found in this game, especially the yellow ranger. However, these special attacks are, most importantly, the strongest moves in the game (yeah, fun fact, the chrono-saber more-or-less only increases your range afaik) Speed only affects attack speed, not movement speed, so I considered the yellow ranger over the blue ranger due to her maxed out damage.

Having just winged it, I kinda refined my technique as I went. For example: First level - Whether used on the way down, or on the way up, jump-kicking enemies is a lot easier in TAS, cutting out the time wasted by punching. Simply walking off the ledge of platforms gives a small boost as you slip off of it, for some reason. Lightning bolts are used to particularly excessive great effect here, as I tried to collect all of them for as much speed boost as possible. I also switch to the vortex blaster to deal with one wall, since I couldn't jump-melee it. Unfortunately, I couldn't avoid having to punch a few walls, including two particularly high-quality ones. Fortunately, there is a glitch that, with frame-perfect B button presses, allows me to destroy the reinforced walls completely, with only one punch, man. The first boss is the only one fought twice, getting shredded by the yellow ranger's double punch special, but not before having to recover energy with what I call the "Super-Energy" power up. For a limited time, it gives the ranger infinite energy, meaning infinite specials and speed boosts. This can be seen in the following chase, as I engage maximum overdrive at least 3 times before the Super-Energy can deplete. I also get to damage boost off of the last enemy before the rematch.

Second level - It is a very dull level. Most of it is walking right, using speed boosts asap, and making small jumps over very repetitive obstacles. A few times, you have to jump-attack an enemy to get through untouched. And yes, it's faster to try to do so over damage-boosting. You also get to see some of those special jumps where having the boost active is helpful. I managed to get down to the last hit before the boss started teleporting. Fortunately, he didn't flee too far.

Third level - I took the bottom section at the start of the second section because I felt trying to jump up costed a bit more time. ...Than having to repeatedly make small hops and losing time to hitting your head. (By the way, hitting your head in this game normally stops you for a bit, like your helmet had glue atop it. Cool, huh?) At one point, I find out a much better form of jump-attacking for most situations: tapping A then B over the course of two frames. Not holding down instead makes the ranger do an air punch (cause that works out sooo well in most games). However, the hitbox actually triggers prematurely, allowing the ranger to hit the enemy. As a bonus, an enemy can't hurt you while they're in pain, probably for the sake of certain special attacks. This also makes having to jump right where an enemy is much easier, as you'll see at some point. Accidentally used up my speed boost too fast, so I had to hit the mid-boss with some normal punches. Thank goodness I didn't make that mistake agai-- oh. The fight against Gluto has me occasionally abuse the previously learned jump punch technique, which for some reason seems to leave him with a shorter hitstun. Or am I just imagining things? I mean, I did completely wiff a double-punch and only noticed later, so maybe I'm just stupid. But even an idiot knows this is where the game branches out. This is actually a fight against Gluto and Nadira. Nadira is situated on the top of the arena, but I just ignored her. However, the catch is once you defeat one of them, the other escapes without fail. So she escapes. The boss you choose to defeat affects which version of the fourth level you play. But that's for later; Gluto grows gigantic, and we have the first megazord fight. Red Mode is chosen for its supposed increased power, and also defeating the boss in Blue Mode extends the ending cutscene. I kinda fiddled side-to-side, intimidating Gluto with a game of footsies, but the jist for (at least for the first two) megazord fights is that you get the boss into the corner and start mercilessly wailing on them. I end up doing that, and finish off with the select button, defeating Gluto with the level 1 special attack.

Fourth level - Nadira escapes to the past version of Level 4 (although I wonder if the future version is actually faster for TAS). I take the high road at the start this time to avoid a bee swarm that iirc I couldn't avoid. Then, after some speed boosts, I let the ground collapse under me so I can drop back down to the bottom route. I had to deal with a strangly agressive spider, which involved jump-kicking it and damage boosting forward. Here, I realize that you can actually hit the ceiling juuust right to slip out the corner for a small boost. After activating the door, I had to deal with the spider again. No matter how I dropped down, the spider was in the way, and I couldn't make the game knock me to the right when I get hurt by it. So I damage boosted off the snake above to try to get past with invincibility frames. This didn't work, but it somehow made the spider tuck itself into the passage by the time I came face to face with it. Or rather, feet to FACE WITH IT! BOOM! Take that, Marvel! The enemy right after? Not so much... there was two of them, one of which being another bee swarm, halfway in the ground. Nope, I can't jump-kick it from here... Instead, I pause the game to switch to the chrono-saber to deal with them. Then I slip down to trigger an unskippable cutscene where the ground crumbles under me. (Oh god, maybe I should've gone to the future instead...) Right before I land, I switch back to punching, jump-punch the enemy, damage boost off the poison cloud, and one wall jump and expert ladder jump later, and I make it to Nadira (I think. I don't quite remember if there was any other obstacles first.) Nadira LOVES to teleport everywhere and has no hesitation to do so. Fortunately, TAS allows me to hit her as soon as possible, and in huge motherloads. Also, that one spider from before was apparently radioactive, because the yellow ranger has spider-sense to track Nadira's spawn points to reach her as soon as possible. The megazord fight went about as well as Gluto's, plus with the advantage of some optimization.