Pokemon Sapphire is a pokemon game from the third generation, along with Ruby and Emerald. The reason I chose Sapphire is that Ruby has a Groudon instead of a Kyogre, which isn't quite as useful, and Emerald is slightly longer. Mudkip is picked as the starter because it learns a lot of HMs and is good against many of the gyms. Although Blaziken is very useful for battling the Elite Four, I have Kyogre by then and have completely abandoned my starter. Of course, almost every hit in this movie is a critical hit, as they do about twice as much damage.
Settings (According to FractalFusion):
Visual Boy Advance 1.7.2.560
Sync Emulation Speed
Lag Reduction Speed (automatic)
Save Type Automatic Flash 128K
Note: Turn off Real Time Clock
Without following these settings exactly, you will probably get a desynch.
Points of intrest or confusion
In the first battle, just after getting my starter, I didn't seem to be able to get a critical hit. Maybe they aren't allowed in the first battle?
Most of the time, walking up to a trainer and talking to them is faster than just walking in front of them, because you don't have to wait for the exclamation mark above their head.
The Zigzagoon I catch is to teach Rock Smash and Cut to. Also, it conviently picks up a King's Rock for me.
The Quick Claw gives you a chance to sometimes (Read: Always) attack before your opponent, even if they are faster than you.
If my starter gets below 1/3 of his max health, his water attacks get stronger. So, I guess there is a bit of taking damage to save time in this run.
The attack 'Bide' revolves around taking damage, so I don't learn it.
King's Rock makes the opponent sometimes flinch, which makes them not attack that turn. It only works on things slower than you, so its usefulness degrades after the second gym.
Mud Slap does damage and decreases the opponents accuracy, so it really helps avoid damage.
I use a few potions to heal, because when you die you go back to the last pokemon centre you visited, and I want to use this to my advantage.
Golbat can't be hit by Mud Slap, so he will always hit me once. I use a TM and a potion to defeat him.
I die to warp back to my house, which happens to be right near the fifth gym.
The sixth gym presents problems, my starter dies and I beat the gym with the Castform the weatherman gave me. This includes healing at the only pokemon centre I use in the run.
I have to defeat my rival to get into the shop and buy Blizzard and Thunder TMs.
I catch a Wingull for using Fly to get back to Slateport.
The seventh gym is a double battle, and Blizzard hits both pokemon, so they both get frozen.
Explooring the undersea base turns my starter into an HM slave, but it doesn't matter because I soon get Kyogre.
Kyogre gets Thunder to kill the last gym, and then I head to the Elite Four.
Victory Road is dark because I don't have flash, so it's hard to tell what is happening.
Kyogre needs Waterfall and Surf to have enough PP for the Elite Four.
During the credits, it shows all the pokemon that you caught. I only got seven, so the pictures repeat again and again.
Thanks to Blackshellbowser for his first TAS of the game, Kitsune for advice, and FractalFusion for being the only one who could watch my WIPs and for a constant supply of new ideas.
I think it would have been interesting if you picked Torchic instead of Mudkip, since it's the closest thing to picking hard more in the game. Plus, from checking screens and such, the Torchic's third form looks the coolest.
Yeah, but if a Castlevania: Bloodlines run was rejected for not being the hardest difficulty when it mostly only affects the second-to-last boss fight length, then why shouldn't prospective Pokemon masters prove their bad-ass-itude by picking the most difficult starter pokemon, even if it means having to catch another pokemon?
Because the starter pokemon isn't necessarily tied to difficulty level? I played this game through with Torchic and his later "upgrades", and it wasn't hard at all.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Well, if we were to really play at highest difficulty, then we would catch a Magikarp ASAP and beat the game with that. There are limits to hardest difficulty.
So the game is easy. If playing with Torchic is harder than playing with Mudkip even in the slightest, then why not go with Torchic?
Chamale: That's not what I meant.. I'm just saying that picking the starter pokemon is the closest thing this game has to picking a difficulty in other.
So the game is easy. If playing with Torchic is harder than playing with Mudkip even in the slightest, then why not go with Torchic?
Because it won't even be "harder" in a TAS? Following your logic, the best choice for this game would be to catch the weakest pokemon and beat the game with him exclusively for the sake of difficulty.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Yeah, but if a Castlevania: Bloodlines run was rejected for not being the hardest difficulty when it mostly only affects the second-to-last boss fight length...
There's also tons of added enemies in Expert over Normal, and I believe your attacks do less damage and enemies deal more damage to you.
But that run was rejected HOW long ago?
How many enemies does it add though? The only added enemies I noticed was bats in one room that didn't have bats before in the 4th level IIRC, and the person got through that part before they could even pose as an obstacle. As for damage, it seemed to be the same as when I played myself in easy, though maybe the fact that the player knew what he was doing made it seem that way.
Mechuyael seems to think that the choice of starter Pokemon is equivalent to a difficulty selection screen. I don't think it's a very valid comparison, because you pick the Pokemon after you've already "started" the game, the game doesn't explicitly say one is easier or harder than another to use, all the Pokemon have their own strengths and weaknesses that make the relative "ease" of using them debatable, and you can always catch more Pokemon anyway.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Bag of Magic Food seems to be the closest to understanding what I've meant to say. Since I have a history of misunderstandings when trying to speak/write in English, it seems to me that this is the case here as well.
Not that I'm assuming that people would agree if they did understand me.
Sorry, I must have missed that Wingull. Either that or Water Gun actually did more damage.
At that point, you didn't have Rock Tomb, because you didn't use it right away.
kirbymuncher wrote:
As for a screenshot, how about one of the battles with my rival, after it says "Grovyle used Leaf Blade", but before it says it missed.
I'm not sure. It seems natural to take a screenshot of the player's Pokemon attacking, not the other way around. And to those who don't realize that Marshtomp is Water/Ground and that Leaf Blade must miss for Marshtomp to survive, it would have no effect on them.
I am just after the Seventh gym now...I don't know if this is mentioned in the thread of not but I have spotted a part which could save a couple of second of time overall.
If you switch the pokemon which are in the second/third slots you have a level 25 pokemon instead of a level 7. because of the EXP difference between the levels it won't level up as much (maybe twice I think.) in that gym leader match.
Edit: just thought another way to speed it up...but this one will make is "less impressive". it basically is going to the pokemon centre in the town where the 5th gym is, so that when you die you don't have to backtrack through two roads.
Plus, from checking screens and such, the Torchic's third form looks the coolest.
From your post, it seems that you only know what Blaziken looks like because of a screenshot. Before you post ideas of how you think the game could be harder if you do an alternate route, you should PLAY the game first.
If I ever find the jerk who invented the "low health warning" sound I'm going to lock him in a room where the only sound is a constant beeping.
And will people please stop saying "if this applied to game X why doesn't it apply to game Y?" Simple: game X and game Y are different games which must be considered distinctly.
We understand what you're saying Mechuyael, but it's irrelevant in this game.
Edit: just thought another way to speed it up...but this one will make is "less impressive". it basically is going to the pokemon centre in the town where the 5th gym is, so that when you die you don't have to backtrack through two roads.
Okay, if I understood this right, you want me to heal in the fifth town so that I don't faint in the sixth? Since I have to go to that town with the shop anyways to create it as a Fly destination, there is nothing wrong with going there before Mt. Pyre. It may even be faster. Also, when I have 1/3 or less health, my water attacks are stronger.
