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.