Submission #7777: Wobmiar's Linux FEZ in 19:20.20

FEZ is a platforming/puzzle game where the main unique mechanic is the ability to rotate camera perspective on 3D environment that look like 2D. In this game, the player collects keys, mysterious maps, bits, and cubes to progress. Multiple types of puzzles can be found, including secret codes, to discover extra items and bonuses.

To play the movie: write in command-line options "--gotta-gomez-fast" which unlocks speedrun mode on FEZ 1.12. The screen resolution is 1280x720

The main video encode proposes the main ending for RTA, here is the file used for that one: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637934914188628792. This TAS (main file) has a different ending that is actually faster, but not done in RTA because of rulesets. I use it because it's very cool to see, I'll give more info in this submission text. Here's the encode of the submitted ending:

This TAS is inspired by the category Any% on speedrun.com (https://www.speedrun.com/fez?h=Any&x=q25o9mjk) where the current wr is 25:26 in game time (main timing method, same as load removed time). There is some slight differences in this TAS because I felt like offering a more entertaining experience to the viewers:

The main thing that is banned is major dupes, which I could describe as picking up more than 1 extra cube from a single source. Some glitches can absolutely be argued as minor dupes, where I pick up only 1 extra cube from a single source, but they are allowed, both RTA and TAS

To finish the game, you need to enter the final area, which requires 32 cubes total to reach, which can include normal cubes (golden) and anti-cubes (blue). 8 bits can create a cube. The main character's named Gomez btw

Gomez climbs 2D village, gets the FEZ, and enters 3D village with the power to change perspective. There is 8 bits in that village in total, which are used to do a newly discovered glitch called 8BAC (8 bits anti-cube), where you collect an item, followed by an anti-cube, at the same time while having 8 bits ready to transform into a gold cube. This gives Gomez an extra anti-cube. You can store the 8 bits by doing frame perfect jumps, and just like that, 2 different 8BACs can be done. Part of the setup is opening doors beforehands, otherwise Gomez would not be able to not collect the 8 bits cube. With some perspective tricks, Gomez can keep the storage up until in front of the door, so the cube collecting animation happens at the same time as he needs to wait for the door to open anyways.

In the climb after village, Gomez passes by 3 bits without collecting them, because he will need them later. There is a small perspective teleport glitch that is used to be able to collect and jump behind the structure, which is faster.

The first room Gomez goes in the Nature area is Waterfall. Bits are collected, perspectives are changed to reposition him in that big room, corner kicks are used to get max speed instantly. It is to be noted that Gomez accelerates faster on the ground, but has a higher max speed when airborne, so a lot of frame perfect jumps are used when at max speed. The direction of a jump from a corner is decided by the direction of the joypad/keypad in the next 4 frames after jumping.

In Infinity room, a 8BAC is setup, then taken. Gomez warps out, and wakes up by collecting the bits cube, then collect a bit and enter Tree. Many cubes appear with secret codes, some of them can consume time, especially with rotations inputs, so it's important to enter those codes very fast when it would lose little to no time. After a big perspective teleport (rotating twice when stuck in a wall) and a detour for bits in Cemetary, Gomez collects a map that offers him a free code for later. In the room with the gigantic throne, instead of collecting the items in it, he just passes by and rushes entering Zu.

In the first room of Zu, Gomez picks up an anti-cube that is actually a replicate of an earlier cube in village by entering, exiting, and entering again. He then does an 8BAC in throne room with the collected map code he collected earlier. Observatory segment is entered, and climbed. An important mechanic here is black holes, that can appear when Gomez enters the same room a second time onward. It will trigger Dot (companion) to talk, thus slwing the movement. It is random, so rng is manipulated for the first black holes to appear in the big throne room that is reentered. Usually, opening a shortcut would make Gomez collect the bits cube, but making Dot talk essentially skips that problem. All that detour is a setup to an 8BAC in Telescope, only possible by entering the codes for the heart piece and the anti-cube fast enough together. The rest of that segment is straightforward.

The black holes room beneficiate from Dot not having much more else to say. Clock room is entered, and this is where system time is modified to spawn the 4 different anti-cubes at different system dates. A dupe is used on one of those cubes, but not all of them, as it would be less fun for the TAS. Time to warp out of Zu.

Gomez enters Bell tower, collects 2 bits, and spawns the anti-cube, before exiting almost right away. Some perspective teleport used like in climb. He then comes back to the climb section, collects the last 3 bits, and collects the 8 bits cube in front of the door of old Zu. With 32 cubes equipped, he can enter Moon. But right when he enters the portal...

I reset the game. Now, a new speedrun starts, a new run, but it starts in Moon. While normally Gomez can't move when entering move during the cutscene, I now have early control. Gomez then climbs off screen, then the camera is confused. The hitboxes/perspectives follow the camera, making it all janky, but Gomez reaches the top in a record time. According to the game, he has 0 cubes, but that doesn't matter, he saved the world! Timing ends when exiting his room for the last time.

This TAS offers a lot of neat techniques, some of them TAS only, including exploring a room RTA doesn't explore, and glitches, 1 being brand new, being used extensively. A lot of detours are made to setup 8BACs, and, in my opinion, it makes it even more entertaining (with being fast). This is not a pure any%, I could do more dupes and major dupes, but it's less interesting for this category. Both keyboard and controller are used, saving some frames, nothing major.

I don't quite know any real timesave routing wise, maybe changing Bell room by another room, but for now this is the fastest. I put a lot of efforts in optimizing this TAS, so not a lot of timesave optimization wise.

Suggested screenshot (of my favorite trick): 39240

https://i.ibb.co/F8tyZ3V/Screenshot-2022-11-04-172906.png

This submission text might receive updates in the future for more details :)

slamo: Claiming for judging.

Info Teddy: Sorry about the sudden drop, I'll be taking over.

Info Teddy: Cleared the branch label, for "any%" runs we simply don't have a label at all.

Info Teddy: This is a very good run for one of the most legendary indie games of all time, I'm glad it was finally TASed.

That said, I do have to address the restrictions. There's a glitch that lets you dupe all 32 required cubes at once. It's very repetitive and not entertaining, so it makes sense to ban it somehow. This run does it by banning major dupes, which are defined as picking up more than 1 extra cube from a single source. It may seem arbitrary, but this run uses several minor dupes (picking up only 1 extra cube at a time from a given source) and it was still entertaining to me, so the restriction does its job of cutting out repetitive gameplay from the run. For future reference, any run submitted without the restriction would still be accepted, it'd just be done under a branch label like "dupe glitch" or something, similar to VVVVVV's baseline banning save+quit but the fastest possible run going under the "game end glitch" branch.

As for the other restrictions from the RTA any% ruleset (banning Clock Tower, system time manipulation, and restarting), we aren't RTA so those don't really apply, and I can't think of any reason why they should since banning them doesn't make the run more entertaining. With all of the above considered, accepting to Standard.

EZGames69: Processing...