Post subject: Shining Soul II
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
First: http://tartarus.rpgclassics.com/staff/ss2/index.shtml For in-depth information. Second: If I ever get off my ass and do a second TAS, it'll be to this game. Shining Soul 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Third: We've got some crunching to do here before I even think about a serious attempt at running the game. What stuff? Well... 1) First and foremost, which character would work best for a TAS? 2) What weapons/armor should I use? 3) What items should I take along? 4) What kind of things should I manipulate for (by way of enemy drops)? 5) What soul(s) would be best to use in any given situation? 6) Should I do Advance Mode, too? It'd be impressive to low-level it. And tons of other things. For instance: Should I do Grandma Colita's Well for my first summon, or should I go to the Collosseum and get Oblivion? Obviously, Oblivion is faster (and cooler) - but the Well would give me EXP that I'm going to definitely need. RPG Classics lists the "needs to kill" monster in each board, which definitely helps. Go to that monster, kill it, and the path to the next area opens. Simple and clean. It also lists drop items and crap for monsters. I know certain monsters drop Summons - theoretically, it's possible to get a Level V summon before the end of the game, but the question is - would the time wasted by collecting and fusing be made up in fast boss destruction and such? Strong summons can make a load of difference, especially early on. In addition to all this, what ores should be manipulated to get dropped and what schwag should be aimed for via forging? Manipulating the smithy is easy enough. Manipulating for the ore itself, on the other hand, is not. So... if anyone else knows the game fairly well, join in. The quicker I get info collected, the sooner I can make some attempts. [Edit: Okay, it's been decided. Without a doubt, the Ninja would be the fastest to use. Why? Two main reasons (taken from GameFAQs): Speed: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Optional. It lasts about 1 minute at all charge levels. Your movement speed increases with each additional charge level. This spell does not affect attack rate. Backstab: Passive. This skill increases your final damage by 1/3 of your base damage per skill level when you strike an enemy from behind. Maxed out, you do ~3.33 times your normal damage when striking from behind. There's a simple trick to take advantage of this skill in solo, simply charge up the sword attack, and then face away from the enemies before using it. As you back into them, they will technically be facing 'away' from you, even though they are actually behind you. This tricks the game into giving you the damage bonus. The sword's attack doesn't have as much range in the back, so this is a tricky method, but the damage bonus works against any enemy. That speed boost is definitely the way to go. In fact, pretty much all level-up upgrades should probably be split between Sword and Speed, with the occasional bone thrown to Backstab. Backstab was included because it'd make boss fights faster. In theory, anyway. And, depending on whether the naming codes in the (U) version are allowed (http://tartarus.rpgclassics.com/staff/ss2/secrets.shtml) I'll be getting the Dream Hat. This gives a Walking Speed +20 and SP Recovery Rate +1 bonus. Needless to say, this would be a pretty huge boon to the cause, since not only would you be moving faster than normal between Speed charges, your SP would also recover faster, which is DEFINITELY a good thing, since Speed burns through a massive CHUNK of it. Slight update: Bis thinks the naming thing is alright, but suggested that I ask other folks who know the game better on what degree of cheating this kind of thing is. So... I'm asking. What do you lot think? Should the naming code be allowed or not?]
Post subject: Shining Soul 2
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
If there was a topic, I missed it. So, what do you goons think? I think it could be an amazingly fast movie if you did things right. Clearly, one of the warrior types would make for the best choice of characters. Probably the generic fighter since he's faster than the dragon is. The main problem is leveling and damage control. You kinda NEED to kill stuff so you can beef up your dude, else you won't be doing damage for crap. It'd be the toughest part of the run, I think. Manipulating for certain drops could be rough, too. I'm only just getting back into the game, so I've forgotten a lot of the stuff I used to know about the game. Anyone else well-versed in the game, or am I gonna need to take this one on solo?
Joined: 4/12/2007
Posts: 78
Location: Atlanta, GA
I don't know if it's best to be using a fighter. Most of the bosses don't let you get too close to them, and it might be easier for a spell caster to drive-by some enemies for easy exp? Manipulating good weapons in the beginning works wonders in either case. This is just from a few hours testing, so I don't know anything on how the characters do towards the end.
Joined: 12/15/2005
Posts: 38
I'd guess good potential for a Knife Wolf. His spin special is pretty well broken, even on a normal playthrough. Eq wise...I'd be pretty confident that luck manipulation on the forge could really break the game considering all the TAS magic out there.
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
I'm going to push this nearly 4 year old topic! *push* haha done. I currently play this game and thought: hmm there must be a TAS to such an awesome game... But there isn't >.< That's why i was going to push this thread. Hope to get this topic rolling ;)
Skilled player (1651)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
It's got shining in the title, and lua is in VBA, so I'm pretty much forced to do this run. ;) Some experimentation shows that the randomness is purely frame-based. If you delay your swipe, it changes the value of the hit. Additionally, I wrote a lua script that delays the swipe to open a chest. I couldn't change the order of items received by running around first and then starting the script. This makes for less awesome luck manipulation, but makes the TAS easier. This game is more interesting than the prequel. However, the prequel may be worth doing, because it has bosses from Shining Force 1,2, and 3. The weapons you can get in the first level pretty well suck. A really powerful weapon should require a high critical rate or increased attack speed. These simply can't drop in the first level. No optional quests will be done. Swipping away at the boss, with an extremely high ATK/decent DEX will be faster than any special attack, charged, etc. Also, each level for sword adds 10% to the attack of the sword. Not quite as good as backstab, but backstab requires too much setup to beat the bosses, whereas fast swipping with decent manipulation should be. Also, I don't know that putting any levels into speed beyond the first is worth it. I made a WIP, but I used the wrong ROM. It must be some (E) rom, and not a (U) rom, as it has a language selection for European countries. I may finish the run as a test-run.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
Wahu very nice to pick this project :) I look forward for any progress made ;)
Skilled player (1651)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Here is a WIP to whet your appetite. Let me know what you think. Each hit has to be manipulated separately, which makes it slow going. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1834695782/Shining%20Soul%20II%20%28U%29.vbm
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Joined: 8/23/2008
Posts: 2
Location: Brasil
Wouldn't a Knife Brawler with a starting Dream Hat(counting that we could use name codes, which should be way) be a good choice? The +SP recovery has synergy with the Brawler's stupid knife charge attack, that already has high crit. rate plus his +crit. skill plus manipulation, that could hack through any key monster or boss in one or two charges. In an ideal setup, if 10SP is not enough, some item manipulation for a Star or Psychic Pendant(or any other Int item, that could also come with some nice bonuses to Atk and whatnot if your damage isn't going well) could handle the SP issue. Just speculating this because of the low level scaling, and possible troubles with killing monsters just by fast-attacking(especially some bosses) on later levels. Or maybe some bizarre counter manipulation.
Joined: 8/27/2009
Posts: 159
Location: California
Encode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBLNwnMdEY Link to part 2 is in the description. Never played this but I plan to after watching your run. This game looks like a lot of fun.
Skilled player (1325)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
I dont want to be an ass, but its not a WIP. Just an FYI.