In this final chapter of the Phantasy Star Saga, you finally get to destroy the root of all evil. Thanks to the absence of random battle, heavy luck manipulation and the use of a roll over bug, this game is completed in less than 1,5h!!

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Gens 11a
  • Aim for the fastest completion
  • Manipulation of luck
  • Take damage to save time
This TAS is my second one. Although it is much shorther than BOF 2, PS4 was actually harder. In effect, the AI for this game is utterly unpredictable. During battle, pressing A at the same frame can yield difference results. The number of times I had to restart to find what I was looking for...
Anyway, here are general tricks to save time
  • •Random fights can be totally avoided
  • •Macros can be used to pre-determine actions. However, they are only useful if they can be used more than once (except for making combination attacks or specific orders, like the psyco-wand macro against Zio). Many people have claimed that targets can be pre-determined when using a macro; I have yet to find evidence for that.
  • •When useful, combination attacks use less frames than two individual attacks
  • •With luck manipulation, there is no need to hunt for treasures. Chaz uses only 2 swords during the whole game; I also shop only twice
  • •The target in front is most likely to get hit; it can save a few frames
  • •Having turbo A and B pressed is a (real)-time saver and an in-game saver. Since my characters leve-up during boss fights, they can gain quite a few levels at the time
  • Thanks to Fresh Feeling, I found a way to make boss fights after Juza much quicker. In effect, in Zio's tower, an ennemy drops a shadowblade. It does reduce stats like dexterity and mental power... but it can't be negative. Instead, it goes back to 255. So, Although Chaz can only cast tsu 3 times, the damage it causes shortens the battles by quite a bit. Also, with 254 dexterity, he never misses his target AND hits critically 100% of the time.
And now, for the bosses...
  • !!Iglannova 1 and 2 : no change
  • !!Juza : Tsu takes care of things. Also, since Rika gained a doubleslash, it makes things even quicker
  • !!Zio 1 : I never realized I could try to escape instead of making a defense macro
  • !!Gy-Laguish : I take full advantage of tsu. Also, I can manipulate him so he kills people with his attack rather than his fire breath
  • !!Zio 2 : One of the only fight that required healing AND resurection. This way, Rune and Rika and Demi can take Zio down without dying prematurely.
  • !!Chaos wizard : no change.
  • !!Darf Force I : Tsu made all the difference. At over 650 damage per hit, he goes down quickly.
  • !!Xe-la-Thoul : with a dopped up Chaz, the fight gets so much easier. It could be quicker if I could have casted blizzard, but no such luck in this fight...
  • !!Lashiec : the trickiest fight. Although Kyra has higher defense (thanks to the plasma shield), she still has to survive until the very end without healing. And when Chaz gets resucitated, his tsu is useful again.
  • !!Dark Force II : 3 rounds of tsu are still useful. Otherwise, shift to Rika gives a good boost
  • Dark Force III : healing takes too much time, so I tried sleeping instead. I saved 10% of the frames from the original publication
  • !! De-Vars : he is tricky. Not only is Chaz's dexterity very low (he gets the plasma sword; shadowblade only does 1 damage, but he is very quicl. Rika still gets shift, but saner is also necessary so Rune can get healed
  • !! Sa-Lews : much easier than de-vars. He responds well to tsu, and a shifted RIka does more damage.
  • Profound Darkness : Demi's attack are quite consitent, so it's always 150 damage. When Chaz can hit, his attack can near 250-300 damage. Against PD 3, Demi's medical power resurects every human in one hit. And since I didn't use deban, only Wren can get hit and withstand it. Finally, because the attacks are so consistent, I only need 4 macros.

adelikat: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie


Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
On a wild guess I'd say whoever picked the screenshot didn't listen to my commentary track. :) I'll try recording it again sometime, although I don't know what the issue was. I was using Audacity, and really don't know how that "lag" could have come into play.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
I decided to rewatch this with the commentary. I would in fact enjoy a screenshot of Dark Force 3 getting a slashed crotch too ;-) But thank you, FreshFeeling, for a good amount of background with the game. To get the commentary audible with the game, I had to lower Gens's volume and raise Winamp's volume, but that was fine. It was fun, and I do suggest you grab Dega and check out the Phantasy Star I run if you haven't already.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
BigBoct
He/Him
Editor, Former player
Joined: 8/9/2007
Posts: 1692
Location: Tiffin/Republic, OH
I liked the commentary as well. First time I've watched one of janus's PSIV runs without fast-fowarding at all. And he seriously just brute-forced all the luck manipulation? Now I'm really impressed.
Previous Name: boct1584
Joined: 5/26/2010
Posts: 1
Congratulations janus - this is an excellent speedrun! I found it really entertaining, especially since the conversations between characters are still just about slow enough to follow the story. I'd also like to compliment FreshFeeling on the very interesting commentary - it really adds an extra dimension to the run. One particular part of the commentary stood out to me though - during the final battle, "Chaz is doing the most damage output ... at level 4". Given that the Shadowblade glitch is no longer available at this point, is there a reason why Chaz is still at such a low level? Simply keeping Chaz alive to the end of the fight with Sa-Lews allows him to reach a level between 11 and 17 (depending on who else survives the fight) - would the final battle be any quicker if Chaz was at one of these higher levels?
Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
Thanks for listening, and that's a very good question - one that I'm pretty sure was at least mentioned earlier in this topic, although I forget the justification for the decision. Without overthinking it or looking up the numbers, the difference in Chaz's damage output with Elsydeon between level 4 and 11 would be on the order of ~10 points per round because his strength doesn't actually go up that much per level. Getting a higher end level like 17 is unlikely because one would actually have to defeat Sa-Lews with a level 4 Chaz - it's probably very hard to make this happen without some serious help from other party members. The difference in damage would be much higher when one factors in Crosscut, but he only has a few uses of Crosscut at level 11. 2 or 3, I think. There's additional time to gain the levels, to make Sa-Lews die with an advantageous party, and to either select Crosscut or create multiple new (and effective) macros. Although I very much see your logic in suggesting it (obviously, since I suggested it before) there are good arguments against it. Personally, I'm not certain which would actually be faster.