The run improves pirate_sephiroth's warp glitch run. I don't want to compare the two runs, because they are played in different mode. Bosses are stronger in hard mode, need more time to fight them, but dialogues can't be skipped in normal mode, so it spends more time too. I think that starting from power-on is better for an any% run. Thanks all previous authors of cvaos movies for their contributions at first.
Main improvement: faster movement, this is obvious; warped to other area by nearer shortcut; skipped some needless souls.
I took damage intentionally in order to make Lubicant's soul more powerful, I know it was not a good idea, but it didn't lose time anyway.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots
of this movie and placed them here.
Oh! I also corrected the ROM name.
You indicated Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (U).gba
I updated it to Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (U) [!].gba
adelikat: Accepting for publication to obsolete the published movie.
This run surprised me in two completely different ways.
First, the amount of clever shortcuts you found with the floor-sinking and whatnot. Warping straight to Final Guard was pretty amazing, I should tell.
Second, I'm surprised that, even though both you and pirate_sephiroth ended the movie at the same spot, and his is very outdated, you've only managed to save barely more than 10 seconds on normal mode. I think this is enough of a proof that hard mode DOES speed the run up, contrary to what many people have said in the past.
Also, this gets my honest yes vote. Great job!
I was very entertained by this. I like how you managed to lose life so efficiently and of course the movement was very well done. Yes vote of course. :)
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Yes vote for great new paths and tactics alone. Using normal mode brings an additional smile to my face.
Was it really worth skipping the Skeleton Knight soul in the beginning? Was it also worth killing all four of Chaos' eyes?
All murder, all guts, all fun. That's how I'd describe this run (happens to be a Samhain tune...). And as Soma would yell every so often, I give this a "JYEAH!" vote.
-Edit-
To weigh in with my opinion on "hard mode", I think that it was a mistake to use in the first place, even if it ends up being faster due to skipped conversations.
It could be argued that I am obsessing over a technicality, but I feel this is a good technicality that gives an even measuring point to start from for this game.
I also find normal mode slightly more entertaining than hard mode for this game, because the concept of hard mode was so lazily done.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Thanks.
I'm surprised too, I was thinking the run will be longer than pirate's.
About Skeleton Knight, maybe we don't know until someone try that. It worth killing 4 eyes, it's slower if don't kill (need MUCH MORE time) or kill 2 eyes.
Impressive run, some of the new warps where really unexpected and entertaining. The fact that it still is no more than ~10 seconds faster compared to the old warp run makes me think that hardmode may save time though.
Easy yes vote.
Not just may, will! Using the techniques seen in this run, pirate's run could be improved by more than 15, maybe even 20+ seconds if done on hard mode.
I'd rather see hard mode used in all-souls run, though, since this is the kind of a category that can benefit from it the most.
JXQ stated the reason rather well. I doubt I have much to add to it.
However, I do not share this point of view. I find hard mode to be more entertaining, especially since I hate seeing unskippable cutscenes in runs like this, and prefer seeing longer boss fights (especially considering they are barely longer in a TAS, even on hard mode). The game is just too easy on normal mode, there's no such thing as being underleveled in it, and it drops its entertainment value. Basically, the player picks the best weapons that lie directly on his path, and yet basically everything dies just from touching him — unless you purposefully ignore certain weapons or souls. In a run as short as this, it's not very noticeable, since zggzdydp picks up the last weapon "upgrade" just before the final boss fight. In a run as long as all-souls, I can imagine it getting on my nerves far sooner than the run ends.
It's hard to please everyone, eh? :)
You dude forget to thank me for my help this time...just kidding. Yes.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
I liked the run and will vote yes.
Still, I consider longer boss fights more interesting than fast forwarding dialogs, so I'd vote for an improved hard mode run to obsolete this anytime.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I think I have now seen at least one movie for all the GBA Castlevania games, and I give this one a yes also. I'm rather split on the hard vs. normal issue though. I think I would have preferred having longer bosses as opposed to mountains of text, but I also like the idea of starting with a clean SRAM more. Eh, guess we'll cross that bridge if it comes.
I was also very entertained that from frame 30,000 onward you seemed to be killing everyone with a giant crayon. :-D