Submission #2854: Kriole's GBA Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow "100% souls" in 25:47.05

General Information

This is a 8072 frame improvement, or 2 minutes and 15 seconds, over my first all-souls run. Improvements include better optimization, better luck manipulation, and skipping many of the entertainment tradeoffs in the first run.

Again, it is played on hardest difficulty, which requires me to start the movie from SRAM. Playing from SRAM allows me to skip cutscenes except a select few. I used Cpadolf's Julius run as my save.

Tricks

A few new tricks were found in the making of this run. I'm going to try to explain the noteworthy ones.

Ducking - ducking allows one to keep momentum in one direction and turn to the other direction, without losing time. This was incorporated in a kick pattern I abused alot after Balore and in the clean-up, which adds 3 random numbers/kick instead of the traditional 1.

L and R - Yes, I'm listing a fundamental game mechanic under tricks. Still, I was unaware of this mechanic in the making of my first 100% run. Pressing either L or R during a pause screen skips you to the next page of souls or items, allowing you to save time during the longer pause screens.

Glitched Soul/Level Up screen - triggering a level up during a soul screen will have the level up override the soul screen, saving nearly 60 frames/application. You don't have to press any buttons to confirm the soul screen either.

Boss Doors - Some door transitions or boss doors force Soma into a walking position as soon as he regains control. Usually the fastest way to enter these are with kick from the highest possible position (Graham being the only exception), since kicks don't lock you in a position unlike many other forms of travel.

Corner Boosting - It is possible to corner boost, both upwards and down, but it requires you to be inside the wall. Either very good positioning or a high speed is a good way to corner boost, preferably using Black Panther.

Broken Backdashes - There are a few tricks to backdashing, one is the broken backdash. If you backdash once on the ground and backdash again on the first possible frame after the first one Soma enters some sort of broken backdash. Soma isn't locked in the backdash position, which allows him to do another backdash during the broken backdash.

Castle Corridor

Starting off immediately by using way less spears than in my first run, which saves me a lot of mana for later. Also adding random numbers to make the Baselard drop a little bit earlier. Using broken backdashes in the Skeleton Knight room to speed up going down stairs slightly. Consuming a potion in the Zombie Soldier corridor to gain enough hit points to survive future damage. I also manage to get the Peeping Eye soul without switching to Buer. I'm forced to skip the Tiny Devil soul, but I pick up the Rock armor soul instead.

Entering The Chapel 116 frames ahead of my first run.

The Chapel

More broken backdashes, and not changing to Buer before Manticore. Fightning Manticore optimally, without having to enter the pause-screen. Forced to skip Tiny Devil again.

Entering The Study 517 frames ahead of my first run.

The Study

Avoid having to land on the third platform with very good positioning. Switching to Rock Armor soul for the Bone Pillars and for Great Armor. Skipping Battle Axe since it adds a pause-screen. Getting Ectoplasm was real iffy, since the room changes RNG 4 times/frame. Picking up a Ghost Dancer soul while making my way to the warp room.

Warping back to Castle Corridor and passing through to the Floating Gardens, picking up a Killer Fish soul on the way.

Entering the Floating Gardens 787 frames ahead of my first run.

Floating Gardens

A lot of waiting for elevators makes this place somewhat unimprovable. I still save some time on the Werewolf/Devil/Werewolf segment by having Combat Knife.

Entering the Clock Tower 826 frames ahead of my first run.

Clock Tower

Avoiding a kick early on and skipping on of the cogs with very careful positioning, saving a lot of time due to not entering the falling position. Getting the Medusa Head while waiting for the Gremlin soul. Fightning Death as in my first run, except a little bit better during the first phase. Using Imp to kill the Valkyrie allows me to skip another pause screen.

Warping to Castle Corridor to pass through to the Underground Reservoir.

Entering the Underground Reservoir 1395 frames ahead of myself.

Underground Reservoir

With the hit points I gained from the potion earlier, I will be able to take 1 hit from the Needles, and 2 hits from Legion and having 10 hp left afterwards (thanks to rhebus for pointing this out). Killing the Arc Demon while I'm waiting for the elevators to instead of killing it after entering the warp room to save some time. Apparently, a glitched soul/level-up screen is possible here, unfortunately I was told about it while I was walking on the Chaotic Realm. Glitched soul/level up screen on the Flame Demon to save some time. Legion was a lot faster since I used a better attack pattern. Also managed to add anoter glitched soul/level up screen on the soul he awards. Manipulating the Rippers so that I don't have to kill any of them. Skipping Laevatain since it doesn't really save any time. Not switching to Valkyrie saves another pause screen.

Aquiring souls during Red Door transitions allows 1 free frame of movement. I use this to jump, so that I can enter the kick sequence 2 frames earlier.

Entering the Arena 2730 frames ahead of my first run.

The Arena

Skipping Killer Mantle and Weretiger until after Balore, since it is slightly faster. Glitched soul/level up screen at the Lubicants. Balore is near identical to my any%. Switching to Erynis on the last hit to gain another 3200 additional experience, which saves me a level up screen. Switching to Giant Bat instead of back to Imp saves another pause screen.

Warping to the Clock Tower and passing through to the Top Floor.

Entering the Top Floor 3401 frames ahead of my first run.

Top Floor

Muramasa is slightly faster in the Top Floor than the Final Sword, since many enemies here are vulnerable to curse type damage. This saves me another pause screen. Skipping a Basilisk and a Red Minotaur since I won't need the experience. Graham is near identical to my any%. Switching to Flame Demon and Catoblepas in the beginning of the fight. Pausing 1 frame before the +5 HP from the Succubus registers allows me to avoid this extra HP, making Lubicant still work at its full potential.

Entering the Inner Quarters 4585 frames ahead of my first run.

Inner Quarters

I would have loved to get the Persphone and Curly souls while waiting for the Lilith, but I couldn't even find the soul, which was somewhat unfortunate. They were however picked up later with no delay. Glitched soul/level up screen on the Kyouma Demon. Headhunter was very boring, due to the fact that he is extremely sensitive to movement. Any movement or changes in RNG could waste up to 20 frames/transition. Instead I used the room to manipulate the Durga.

Entering the Dance Hall 4875 frames ahead of my first run.

Dance Hall

Nothing of interest.

Warping to the Underground Reservoir and heading to the Forbidden Area.

Entering the Forbidden Area 5095 frames ahead of my first run.

Forbidden Area

Mudman was fought from the right, since the soul disappeared on the left side.

Skipping Claimh Solais is a little more than 2500 frames faster, since it also avoids a lot of pause screens.

Exiting the Forbidden Area, and warping to Castle Corridor and moving towards the Floating Gardens.

Entering the Floating Gardens 7539 frames ahead of my first run.

Floating Gardens

Having a lot more mana for Julius allows me to use Great Armor on all the hits. Making him throw his Holy Water during the second phase to get a lot of optimal hits off.

Entering the Chaotic Realm 7860 frames ahead of my first run.

Chaotic Realm

Having to delay a few frames for the Lubicants to avoid having them chase me through the entire first room.

Glitched soul/level up screen on the Alastor to save some time. Fighting the Demon Lord from the left to avoid soul travel.

Using Mystletain on the Shadow Knight and Stolas, I have to pause anyways and both Shadow Knight and Stolas are weak to holy.

Some random numbers cause one of the Guardian souls in the animation in the beginning to miss the statue and do a loop. The Chaos fight is near identical to my any%. Chaos was left with -1 hp, which was really sweet.

Finishing the game 8072 frames ahead of my first run.

Special Thanks

As always, big thanks to the people supporting me during the making of this run: ShadowWraith, Scrimpeh, klmz, moozooh, rhebus, Tompa, Tub, Gocha, FreezerBurns, Yrr, miseiler, sameasusual, Derakon and EEssentia.

An extra hug to rhebus for being a bastard.

A sad smiley to NitroGenesis, for suggesting that cake is better than pie.

cpadolf: A very solid improvement to one of the highest rated movies on the site, this is a no-brainer.

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