Lufia II completed in 2:49 using a glitch to warp to the credits

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: lsnes rr2-β22
  • Aim for credits
  • Aim for fastest time
  • Abuse glitches

Comments

This run abuses the level 0 glitch to complete the game as fast as possible. I realized that it was possible to corrupt the name of any character using the level 0 glitch. Doing so, I'm able to get a ton of triggers I can select each time someone says that character's name.
With a lot of trial and error, I found a way to the end game credits.
This beats the last TAS by about 1:22 using a new route and a better rng manipulation to get to level 2. By the way a huge thanks to Ventuz and his TAS work. He had the last record using a slower route I made. I helped him with it so it's all cool, but this time I decided to learn how to do it myself heheh.

Glitches

Config glitch / level 0 glitch

This glitch is so easy to trigger that most people who played this game after it got released found it. You need to go in the menu, then in config, put your cursor on music, press left and leave the menu. It's that easy!
Depending of the current hp (not max) of the last member of the party, it will glitch his name and turn his level to 0. By itself it doesn't do much, but if you save then reload after a reset, your glitched character will have "random" stats. For my run, I need it to get high enough hp for the next glitch. By the way, the order the game considers the last position is in this order, depending of how many characters you have: 1-top left; 2-top right; 3-bottom left and 4-bottom right.

Corrupted name glitch

This is the glitch this run is based on. I found it a long time ago, but I only found about a year ago that it could be used to get an end game trigger. And I only thought it was good to crash your game heheh.
How to trigger it: First, your second byte of hp has to be between 128 and 255. Therefore any value between 128-255, 384-511, 640-767, etc. Then you need to do the level 0 glitch again, but only the config part. No need to save or reset this time. The really confusing part though, is that the config glitch doesn't work with every possible hp, which is why we need to get to level 2 in the first part, because it doesn't work from 0 to 20. In this run, I do it with 240 hp. I know 216 and 242 work too and many other that are hard to get with potions and charred newts.
What it does: If I understand it correctly, it inserts the second byte of your hp value in your name. Since the game can only read ASCII from 0-127, anything higher will heavily corrupt it.

The triggers glitch aka "bevebu "erl ave" s bmyself[ aka rafts.

This is the part where it gets really complicated. To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure myself how it works. The only things I know are that whenever someone says your corrupted name, you are offered 128 triggers. They are not random and are dependent to which map you are in and how far you are in the game. It also changes if you open the menu or someone's status. Other than that, no matter what items or characters I have, it's always the same triggers.

Other comments

The inputs end before getting to the credit, since it's the goal of this run. There are some extra stuffs after the The End message that you need to take control of the emulator to see.
For your information, the in-game timer is 00:10 at the end.
Suggested screenshot at frame 8811.

Nach: Very nice improvement. Accepting.
Spikestuff: Subs? Mine. Publishing.


TASVideoAgent
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ventuz
He/Him
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Joined: 10/4/2004
Posts: 940
hah wow. congrats.
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Edit: First post edit. Since my video as been published, I might not be as often here. If you have any question about the run send it on twitch. It's pretty sure I see it on the same day or the next one. http://www.twitch.tv/jeedunit Thank you very much. Hmm since I'm new on TASVideos, I'm not exactly sure how everything works. I think you can add commentary to my run which is pretty cool so I made some. I added them to my youtube video and I used the format they suggested me. I'm kinda confused about how I should add them to my submission so I'll put them here. Let me know if I need to change anything. The format is .srt
1
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:50,000
First of all we need to get to level 2. We buy a boomerang to make the fight as short as possible.

2
00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:03,000
Entering the cave changes the next battle according to our rng value. For the fastest level up, I manipulated it to get 2 moths.

3
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:30,000
We need to heal our character at max hp. Then do the config glitch pressing left on the music option. After we save and reload

4
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:48,000
The level 0 glitch gives us insane stats which we need for the next glitch. It also makes the loading extremely long. Sorry!

5
00:01:52,000 --> 00:02:00,000
Now that we have high max hp, we heal to 240. Which for some reason makes the config glitch corrupt our name.

6
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:10,000
A corrupt name let us access many triggers. Some warp us, some activate events, some give us items and many crash the game!

7
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:20,000
At this point it's pretty hard to explain what's going on. Basically, I'm working my way to an end game trigger.

8
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:28,000
For that, we need a mimic and a clone!

9
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:46,000
Since we can't have more than 99 of an item and the glitch gave us way more, we need to drop the extra.

10
00:02:52,000 --> 00:03:00,000
There we go! This trigger automatically sends us to the credits if we let it go.

11
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:15,000
Thank you so much for watching! I hope you enjoyed the run and the commentary :)
Editor, Experienced player (569)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4034
Nice improvement with some good RNG manipulation and glitch execution. Thank you for the clear explanation of what happened in the submission text too. Yes vote! And don't worry, your subtitles will be added to the official encode when your movie gets published.
ALAKTORN
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I presume calling yourself Jeed cost you some frames? What’s the ruling on naming in TASes, actually? I suppose you could be allowed to name yourself whatever you want, even though it’s not a speed-entertainment tradeoff.
Player (13)
Joined: 6/17/2006
Posts: 506
Love the new route, congrats! <3
ALAKTORN wrote:
I presume calling yourself Jeed cost you some frames? What’s the ruling on naming in TASes, actually? I suppose you could be allowed to name yourself whatever you want, even though it’s not a speed-entertainment tradeoff.
The rules states: "A speed-oriented movie must beat all existing records" Also, the guidelines states: "Unless you are desperate for frame optimizations, give a proper name in name entry screens. Then again, there is no reason to wait for a name entry screen before you do that. Sneak it in anywhere you can." So it's basically a gray area, since the rules seem pretty clear about the absolute of speed, while the guidelines seem to contradict this absolute. Personally, I'm strongly against entering a custom name if it causes any time loss, but I believe the staff has a different opinion on the matter (unfortunately).
ars4326
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I'm impressed that you were able to tighten this glitch down even further. Congrats, and welcome to TASVideos! As for my opinion on giving a custom name, I'm fine with it as I've done it on a few of my past runs, myself. I take it as an author's way of personalizing their work. Great job, JeedUnit!
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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Location: Canada, Quebec
ars4326 wrote:
As for my opinion on giving a custom name, I'm fine with it as I've done it on a few of my past runs, myself. I take it as an author's way of personalizing their work.
Exactly my thought there. I do it in my RTAs too. I'm glad it seems to be encouraged in the guidelines.
ALAKTORN wrote:
I presume calling yourself Jeed cost you some frames? What’s the ruling on naming in TASes, actually? I suppose you could be allowed to name yourself whatever you want, even though it’s not a speed-entertainment tradeoff.
I lost about 25 frames before starting the game and I think exactly 30 during the game. I also lost 3 that I got back for rng manipulation. Anyway, thanks for the comments and to those who took the time to watch and vote. It's greatly appreciated!
d-feather
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Joined: 2/12/2015
Posts: 152
Location: Everett, WA
I legitimately wasn't expecting an improvement to this category. Yes vote.
:shrug: I'm more active on Twitter nowadays: @HunterCoates5
Samsara
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Posts: 2821
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JeedUnit wrote:
ALAKTORN wrote:
I presume calling yourself Jeed cost you some frames? What’s the ruling on naming in TASes, actually? I suppose you could be allowed to name yourself whatever you want, even though it’s not a speed-entertainment tradeoff.
I lost about 25 frames before starting the game and I think exactly 30 during the game. I also lost 3 that I got back for rng manipulation.
Naming is a non-issue. If someone ends up submitting an improvement that does nothing but use a shorter name, it'll be rejected. Also, yes vote.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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Joined: 8/1/2004
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Voting No on that distracting overlay on the side of the encode. Just terrible. The run, however, was pretty good.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
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Zurreco wrote:
Voting No on that distracting overlay on the side of the encode. Just terrible. The run, however, was pretty good.
Sorry if my stream's layout annoys you, but I guess it's better that I have a video than none at all, huh? Anyway, the submission doesn't have them, if it's that terrible. Thanks for the vote.
Samsara wrote:
Naming is a non-issue. If someone ends up submitting an improvement that does nothing but use a shorter name, it'll be rejected.
That's what I thought, thanks for the confirmation!
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Joined: 2/5/2012
Posts: 1772
Location: Brasil
what does the savefile look after beating the game? or does it not save like in zelda games(mostly nothing happens in the old games)
TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
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Had to double check lol. I guess you're not familiar with Lufia 2 but when you clear "new game" you unlock "retry" where you get x4 exp and gold. With the glitch, it clears the game normally and unlock "retry" like it should. It doesn't affect your save in any way though. This is also pretty cool, because when you beat "retry" you unlock "gift". Without going in full details, people speedruns that mode and the only quick way to unlock it is with game genie. If you don't have a game genie, the glitch let you unlock that mode much more quickly, saving at least 7h of gameplay.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2857] SNES Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals "game end glitch" by JeedUnit in 02:48.97
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Aaaaw yeah. Thank you very much for the publication <3
JeedUnit also improves the previous run by almost a minute and a half through a new glitch – the corrupted name glitch, and improved RNG manipulation.
Just for the record, this isn't a new glitch. It's just a more optimal route. They both used the same corrupted name glitch. While we're there, I could add the history of this glitch for those interested. 1st route (41:42.61) 2nd route (my favorite) (7:28.49) 3rd route (5:23.18) 4th and current route (3:30.21) The current TAS use the 4th route with a small change at the end while the previous run by ventuz used the 3rd one. Also, is it possible to add the subs to the youtube video? I'd suppose that most people won't download the encode and will simply watch it on youtube so it would be really kind. It also got requested by someone in the comments. Thank you very much.
Joined: 2/21/2008
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Any chance of a no warp/no end glitch run using the level 0 glitch? Also, can you use this to "win" Gift mode?
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
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xnamkcor wrote:
Any chance of a no warp/no end glitch run using the level 0 glitch? Also, can you use this to "win" Gift mode?
It used to be a thing but my run kinda killed it -.- The fastest RTA using only the level 0 glitch is this run with a 3:14 time (any% glitchless is 3:42 by the same guy) http://www.twitch.tv/elmagus/c/3898464 For your second question, I've personally done no test but I've heard it wouldn't work for the very simple reason that no one ever say a name. I'm pretty sure that even the level 0 glitch wouldn't work because when you enter the only dungeon of the mode, your characters switch to temporary level 1 copies and there is no way to save in the dungeon, making it impossible as far as I know. This run has another problem though, which is rng manipulation easy enough to do in a RTA. It also killed the run haha (13:20 compared to 53:56 that had INSANE luck) http://www.twitch.tv/yogidamonk/c/6101260 By the way, source: http://www.speedrun.com/lufia2
Joined: 2/21/2008
Posts: 255
JeedUnit wrote:
xnamkcor wrote:
Any chance of a no warp/no end glitch run using the level 0 glitch? Also, can you use this to "win" Gift mode?
It used to be a thing but my run kinda killed it -.- The fastest RTA using only the level 0 glitch is this run with a 3:14 time (any% glitchless is 3:42 by the same guy) http://www.twitch.tv/elmagus/c/3898464 For your second question, I've personally done no test but I've heard it wouldn't work for the very simple reason that no one ever say a name. I'm pretty sure that even the level 0 glitch wouldn't work because when you enter the only dungeon of the mode, your characters switch to temporary level 1 copies and there is no way to save in the dungeon, making it impossible as far as I know. This run has another problem though, which is rng manipulation easy enough to do in a RTA. It also killed the run haha (13:20 compared to 53:56 that had INSANE luck) http://www.twitch.tv/yogidamonk/c/6101260 By the way, source: http://www.speedrun.com/lufia2
For the sake of science Maybe I should see what does happen if you "win" in gift mode.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
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For the sake of science Maybe I should see what does happen if you "win" in gift mode.
I bet that would be possible using game genie.... Actually did anyone ever try leaving the island with game genie? I really wonder how the game would react. I can't be the only who thought about it. Youtube gives me nothing though -.-
Joined: 2/21/2008
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JeedUnit wrote:
For the sake of science Maybe I should see what does happen if you "win" in gift mode.
I bet that would be possible using game genie.... Actually did anyone ever try leaving the island with game genie? I really wonder how the game would react. I can't be the only who thought about it. Youtube gives me nothing though -.-
Can't be any more complicated than the time I played Lufia I with Maxim's party.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
Joined: 2/21/2008
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Ok, Debug mode let me escape Gruberik, but now I just have to find a way to trigger the ending. I guess setting certain flags and doing the three towers would work. That or find a way to force the trigger the TAS uses, but the author notes don't mention a RAM address.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
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I'm really sorry for that but I'm a total noob about what this glitch does to the RAM. I found all the stuffs by trial and error. I invite anyone with the knowledge to download the submission and look it up. Beside, I just found a new glitch today. It's basically the same as the level 0 glitch but instead I manage to get to level 74 which gives me enough hp to do the corrupt name glitch but also prevent the extremely long loading. I don't think I'll submit this again since it's only a minor improvement and it really isn't interesting enough to make people rewatch it. I will try see if there is any other way to improve the run before uploading it. But FYI the run is now 9508 frames instead of 10155 frames
Joined: 2/21/2008
Posts: 255
JeedUnit wrote:
I'm really sorry for that but I'm a total noob about what this glitch does to the RAM. I found all the stuffs by trial and error. I invite anyone with the knowledge to download the submission and look it up. Beside, I just found a new glitch today. It's basically the same as the level 0 glitch but instead I manage to get to level 74 which gives me enough hp to do the corrupt name glitch but also prevent the extremely long loading. I don't think I'll submit this again since it's only a minor improvement and it really isn't interesting enough to make people rewatch it. I will try see if there is any other way to improve the run before uploading it. But FYI the run is now 9508 frames instead of 10155 frames
That's fine. I made a map select code and warped myself to the Doom Island final scene. I didn't notice anything obviously new.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
JeedUnit wrote:
I'm really sorry for that but I'm a total noob about what this glitch does to the RAM. I found all the stuffs by trial and error. I invite anyone with the knowledge to download the submission and look it up. Beside, I just found a new glitch today. It's basically the same as the level 0 glitch but instead I manage to get to level 74 which gives me enough hp to do the corrupt name glitch but also prevent the extremely long loading. I don't think I'll submit this again since it's only a minor improvement and it really isn't interesting enough to make people rewatch it. I will try see if there is any other way to improve the run before uploading it. But FYI the run is now 9508 frames instead of 10155 frames
You should submit it anyway. People have certainly submitted improvements of far, far less.