The Faery Tale Adventure is an action RPG first released for Amiga in 1986 and ported to Sega Genesis in 1991. The plot revolves around three brothers who go on a quest to defeat an evil Necromancer and retrieve a Talisman from him. The game world is gigantic and normally requires hours of adventuring around to collect five Golden Statues to access a hidden city to find a magical flower, which allows walking on lava. There is also a witch, a sorcerer, a giant turtle, a dragon, a king, a princess, a golden swan... Oh well, most of this stuff is not seen in the TAS anyway.
Once again the in-human precision of controller input made a huge shortcut possible. This route would be insanely difficult to use on a console speedrun. In fact, it is not a trivial stunt even with all the emulator tools available. After all, the Citadel of Doom is protected by a lava pool and a force field barrier. In addition, the Necromancer who resides behind those obstacles can be harmed only with a rare Magic Wand.
By a lucky coincidence, the lava causes only 5 points of damage per step. Glass Vials (healing potions), which heal a random amount of 4-11 points, can be used every second step. So with lots of healing potions and luck manipulation it is possible to get across the lava without the heat protection! Ha!
Ok, the Magic Wand is the only weapon that can harm the Necromancer. There exists three Magic Wands in the game. Two of them are located far away in a dragon cave, but by another lucky coincidence, the third wand is in the hand of the Necromancer himself! By using a Gold Ring (a common time stop spell), it is possible to steal the wand from the Necromancer. No magic item is supposed to work near the Necromancer, but the spell effect lasts just long enough, so that it can be used before entering the area that restricts spells. So, I activate the Necromancer spawn trigger, then take one step back and use the Gold Ring, then run to the stopped guy and steal his wand.
Whew, this route works only barely!
The only obstacle I was unable to skip was the force field barrier in the Citadel of Doom, so I needed to get the Crystal Shard to get past it. An undead spirit who lives in a crypt has the Crystal Shard, but he appears only late in the evening (he spawns at clock 22440) and wants a Bone from the Tombs of Hemsath. Luckily, there is enough time to fetch the Bone before the clock reaches 22440. In addition, I managed to collect all the required Glass Vials while waiting, which means that the movie should be very close to perfect at that point, unless there is a way to make the in-game time go faster.
Sleeping can be used to speed up the in-game time temporarily, but it is not possible to sleep until the clock hits 14307. Also, the player character only sleeps a fixed amount of time. Sleeping saved many minutes anyway.
In addition to the Glass Vials (for the lava), the Crystal Shard (for the force field) and the Gold Ring (for the final boss), I needed 3 red keys for the secret doors in the Tombs of Hemsath and one grey key for the crypt door. All of the items used in the run (except Crystal Shard and Magic Wand) were manipulated as item-drops from enemies.
Food is bought once to avoid starving. Starving would cause 2 points of damage every now and then. It would also make the walking dizzy (with random directional changes).
VGMaps has a map of the game, which might help understanding the route.
The movie can be followed easily by dividing it into 3 acts:
Act 1: The hero steals the Bone and other items while waiting for the spirit to appear in a crypt. Then he gives the Bone to the spirit and gets the Crystal Shard in exchange. The first act lasts exactly 14 minutes.
Act 2: Nearly 7 minutes of walking from the crypt to the Citadel of Doom! Walking, exclusively!
Act 3: The hero uses Glass Vials to get past the lava pool. He enters the Citadel of Doom and uses the Crystal Shard to get past the force field. Then he steals the Magic Wand from the Necromancer and defeats him with it.
The game displays messages written in past tense. The messages describe the game events as if everything was happening within a book. (The intro sequence also shows a book.) So if you don't need visual information to enjoy a story, you don't need to watch the TAS, because it can be read as a book here:
Once upon a time, there lived three brothers in a small village in the land of Holm.
"Rescue the Talisman!" was the Mayor's plea. "Only the Talisman can protect our village from the evil forces of the night."
And so Julian set out on his quest to recover it.
Julian started the journey in his home village of Tambry.
It was morning.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Red Key.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Red Key.
2 foes were defeated.
2 foes fled.
Julian searched the body and found a Sword and a Red Key.
2 foes fled.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Glass Vial.
Julian came to the Tombs of Hemsath.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
Julian traveled along a stone corridor.
1 foe was defeated.
1 foe was defeated.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Grey Key.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Gold Ring.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
1 foe was defeated.
1 foe fled.
Julian searched the body and found a Sword and a Glass Vial.
1 foe was defeated.
Julian searched the body and found a Sword and a Glass Vial.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
1 foe was defeated.
2 foes fled.
Julian came to a stone maze.
It opened.
It opened.
It opened.
Julian traveled along a stone corridor.
Julian came to a large room.
Julian traveled along a stone corridor.
It was midday.
Julian was getting rather hungry.
Julian found a Bone.
Julian searched the body and found a Sword and a Glass Vial.
1 foe was defeated.
Julian searched the body and found a Sword and a Glass Vial.
Julian came to a large room.
Julian traveled along a stone corridor.
Julian came to a stone maze.
It's locked.
2 foes fled.
Julian traveled along a stone corridor.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Glass Vial.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
Julian searched the body and found a Dirk and a Glass Vial.
1 foe was defeated.
2 foes fled.
Julian was getting very hungry.
Julian searched the body and found a Mace and a Glass Vial.
Julian returned to the village of Tambry.
It opened.
He entered the tavern.
Julian bought some food and ate it.
Yum!
Julian was getting tired.
It opened.
He entered the building.
Julian was tired, so he decided to lie down and sleep.
Evening was drawing near.
Julian found a chest containing 3 Glass Vials.
Julian came to the Graveyard.
1 foe was defeated.
2 foes fled.
It opened.
He entered to the crypt.
Julian gave him the ancient bones.
"Good! That spirit now rests quietly in my halls. Take this crystal shard."
Julian found a Shard.
It's locked.
Julian was getting rather hungry.
It was midnight.
Julian reached the Plain of Grief.
Julian was getting very hungry.
Julian found the Citadel of Doom.
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
1 foe was defeated.
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
That feels a lot better!
He entered the castle.
Julian searched the body and found a Magic Wand.
"So this is the so-called Hero who has been sent to hinder my plans. Simply Pathetic. Well, try this, young Fool!"
Julian gasped. The Necromancer had been transformed into a normal man. All his evil was gone.
Julian found a Talisman.
Having defeated the villainous Necromancer and recovered the Talisman, Julian returned to Marheim where he wed the princess...
And they lived...
...Happily Ever After!
The End
- The in-game clock halts during item collection, so 12 frames might be saved by not picking up one Glass Vial (I had one too many).
- There could be some way to speed up the in-game clock to make the crypt guy appear earlier.
- Maybe it is possible to make random enemy spawn loading times shorter?
- Maybe better walking precision somewhere? (Due to the waiting time, this kind of improvement is useful only after getting the Crystal Shard.)
- The Magic Wand delivers a random amount (1-11 points) of damage, so the final battle might be improvable with better luck.
- When the game begins, the in-game clock shows 8000 (8am). The clock is 4701 when the game ends, which means it took the hero 20 hours and 42 minutes to retrieve the Talisman. He slept about 4,5 hours during the adventure.
- Too bad it is night when the Citadel of Doom is reached, which makes it harder to see how the Tool-Assisted Hero walks through lava.
- Two skeletons run into lava for fun.
- Body count: 28 (some of them happen off-screen)
Recorded with Gens11a, so big thanks to the Gens coders: adelikat, nitsuja, upthorn...
The movie attributes are:
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Manipulates luck
- Genre: RPG
Enjoy!?
mmbossman: Julian walks... and walks... and walks some more. This is one of those games that has a very interesting and cool premise, but unfortunately it makes for a very dull movie. Julian is rejected.
adelikat: Unrejecting this submission for consideration into the
Vault tier
RED...
