Through glitches and things, I always win, 'Cause I am the wind

Summary

  • Collect All Relics (28)
  • Best Ending (1847 Rooms)
  • Abuses Programming Errors
  • Corrupt Map Save Data
  • Uses Game Reset Sequence
  • Takes Damage To Save Time
  • Manipulates Luck
  • Colors Dracula and Animate Load Screens
  • UnOfficial Encodes [1]
  • Download Package [2]
  • Emulator used: PCSX-RR (1.2)
  • RealTime:57:20 GameTime:54:43(last input) Frames:206436 Re-records:84859


Movie Goal's


The 2 main objectives of this movie are to obtain the best ending, and collect all relics (items).
It took me a while to decide myself on the goals of the movie, the main reason i sticked to those is i wanted to use as many glitches as possible.

There is no souls, dds or glyphs in sotn, instead there is 28 relics granting various abilities to alucard (note there is 30 on jap version, but those 2 extra are recycled familliar cards)
Collecting all relics is pretty much the same than collecting all items in super metroid, i think its a classic goal among tases now and should not be a problem.
There is also HP/Heart max up, those function alike the missile tank, im not sure of the exact number of those "upgrade" in the game.
The reason i did not try to acquire all max up is because of a glitch that would let respawn them as many time as you want (can go up to 9999HP), i didnt saw the interrest to farm those just to get the same ammount you could acquire in the castles.
Like for metroid half the items are not used in the run, alltho the others are essential for either glitching or simply move swiftly.

The best ending requires you to explore 1847 rooms (196%) at least, this is determined by the room counter directly.
Like for others castlevania and unlike metroid, the game reffer to % for the map completion and not items, the official maximum is 1890 rooms (200.6%), to calculate % divide rooms by 9,52.
The map screen show the official rooms (squares) in blue, grey mean unexplored (after you buy the extra map at librarian), and white rooms are the glitched/oob rooms.
The only exception are the 2 blue rooms and save point in entrance, those are not official but still can be explored by glitching, and show up as regular rooms on the map, this increase the max map to 201.2% (without white rooms).
Many places in the game have "outside" boundarys way larger than inside walls, the most noticable exemple is the staircase in chapel, layer design are square or rectangle, but not shaped like a staircase, as such it mean the real size of the room is twice or three time more than what it look like on map, exiting the wall boundary and fully exploring this place is rewarding many extra rooms.
The game doesnt care what kind of rooms you explored when you enter the final boss, whether they was only blue or mixed with some white ones, you just need to have 1847+ on the counter for the best ending to occur.

I think those 2 goals have a good synergy, if i want just to get the best ending, ill end up crossing all rooms where there are relics, and if i just want all relics, i will still explore a good chunk of the castle.
Having all relics doesnt influct on the ending, but i felt only the best ending would not fit well as a primary goal, for a "100%" kind of movie.
Arguably i could have just go for all relics, even if the ending differences are very small, i did choosed to go also for the best ending.
My main intention was to make the exploration entertaining by using various glitches to exit boundarys, and quickly gain rooms.
By corrupting the map, i was also able to make any backtrack rewarding more rooms, as just the map does reset and not the room counter.
The direct result is that going twice in the same place register twice the rooms, in a "normal" exploration, many place on the map are redundant, you need to use often the teleporter to go back and forth, and end up crossing several times the same room without the counter increasing.

A last word for dirty sram, i took it from Richter TAS who made it from zggzdydp's any%, im doing that for having a savegame with "clear" status on it.
If i dont have that memory card, the librarian will not sell mana prisms, making the run considerably slower/sloppier overall (this was tested).
The reason im not using the current any% to build the memcard is that its too tedious to get to dracula in that movie (you need to interrupt, save, then kill boss).


Improvements


On the route matter, the obvious improvement would be to be able to corrupt the room count, i was able to get all stats, the kill counter ect... to their max, but the room counter did resist me.
Once we find how to corrupt the room count, then we can simply go for relics, and use the last save room near dracula to "boost" the counter and activate the good ending.
This would shorten the run by half or more, most probably, some lua guru around could maybe help the matter, to test all corruption possibilities (its determistic behavior).

For the technical level of the movie, well, its not exactly perfect, here are some flaw i can list:
  • In the early begin at alchemy laboratory, i farm some extra rooms, they may be not so revelant after all, given the higher speed rate you get later on.
  • It may be possible to obtain mana refill from the stop screen while i use shield rod in the chapel to get accross the statue (then get sword card without waiting for mana).
  • Obtaining 6 fire boomrangs on the way to chapel, and using high jump for reaching sword card wasnt faster, due to the candle you can bounce on (giving good height), but jumping before using boomrangs may be faster.(see next)
  • While using fire boomrangs to make a high jump at central clock room, im not jumping first, klmz founded its possible to do so, this would chope some frames with the bat flying upward since i would end up in higher position.
  • After olrox, to get inside shiftline (todo:link to tricks page) after ET, i use the wolf then revert back to alucard, later on in the run (keep) i found out you can move forward and push backward+jump to enter the shiftline, approx 100-150 frames to save here by not turning into wolf.
  • still more to explain, give it some time :p
Recap Map



Download Package[2]

A Download Package for this movie is available, it contain:
  • This submission input file, and ram watch in pcsx format.
  • A lua script, featuring various ram values overlay (mp, speeds ect...) .

Official Encodes[1]

Closing

This movie is not perfect, and could be better, yet i hope youll enjoy it, and for a first step for the 100% category i believe it could have been worse.
I also want to thanks everybody that helped to contribute to this movie, directly or not, feedback for wip ect... (too many to be cited directly) and i hope youll enjoy! :p
PS: this page is best viewed on the site rather than forum

adelikat: The goal choice was potentially bad but it was handled in unexpected and surprising ways. Viewer response to the movie was very solid. I'll accept it for publication as a "Best ending movie. (It is my understanding that all relics are necessary for best ending, thus "All & Relects & Best Ending" is redundant. Am I right on this?)
Aktan: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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NitroGenesis
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Editor, Experienced player (557)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
Hi. I like this run. Bye.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Skilled player (1328)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
Glitchy TAS of 2010. Nuff said.
Active player (294)
Joined: 12/16/2008
Posts: 458
Location: Houston
Hard to follow, but it Abuses Programming Errors indeed. voted yes
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 940
Location: Castle Keep
Im very sorry for the obvious lack of informations at the moment, its kinda late here and im realy not motived to fill the 300 pages i need to write down to explain all glitches, goals, and annoying little details i need to cover. I did started good the text and stupid computer freezed, didnt saved and lost it. Ill try tomorow to make something decent. Quick reference for first timers: you need to have 1847 rooms to unlock the best ending, i abuse a glitch with saving to erase my map, and making the backtracking reward more rooms (this reduce drasticaly time spent exploring compared to a regular room acquisition; often needing to backtrack with no room gain at all)
sgrunt
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Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
This run is completely impossible to follow. Which makes it hilarious. Yes vote.
Joined: 8/7/2006
Posts: 344
This TAS made my brain hurt. Voting yes.
Joined: 7/31/2007
Posts: 32
Location: Central Florida
What the hell did you do to this game? Yes vote.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 150
Is there a reason you don't start with a blank memory card?
Joined: 7/10/2007
Posts: 280
Can't vote. Brain exploded.
Active player (294)
Joined: 12/16/2008
Posts: 458
Location: Houston
ObadiahtheSlim wrote:
Is there a reason you don't start with a blank memory card?
It's so he can skip the cutscenes, and possibly use the luck code/buy the duplicator.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 150
Yes, but don't the rules say that you must start from a clean starting point? Exceptions are only made when it's a mode of play that requires a complected save (Like Richter mode)
PCachu
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Joined: 10/1/2009
Posts: 166
What the hell did you do to this game? The better question would be, what didn't he do to it. (The answer would be a lot shorter, at least.) I've never seen what it looked like when a Playstation game begged for mercy ... until now.
Joined: 9/30/2007
Posts: 22
Location: Alberta, Canada
Yes yes yes. One of the most entertaining speedruns I have watched in quite a while Didn't understand all of it, but that added to the "WTF" factor.
fruitbane
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Joined: 3/28/2005
Posts: 216
OK, what this run really needs is an alternate encode (not to replace the primary encode) that includes a faint superimposed map that shows the path our twitchy Alucard blazes through the castle.
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
fruitbane wrote:
OK, what this run really needs is an alternate encode (not to replace the primary encode) that includes a faint superimposed map that shows the path our twitchy Alucard blazes through the castle.
Man that be hard to do, me thinks.
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
O.O;; Yes vote.. no doubts.. wow.. Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
arukAdo disagrees with NAVGTR's review of this game! (from an IRC conversation yesterday...)
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 1/10/2010
Posts: 59
A typical Saturday night in the Tepes household (in no particular order): - Alucard decides his name is really X-X!V''Q. - He eats "poisonous" mushrooms roughly once every five minutes. - He wanders around erratically, including going back through doors he just came through. - He tries to moonwalk everywhere, but only manages to jerk backwards awkwardly. - He falls down several flights of stairs, out a couple windows, and almost drowns in the basement. - He thinks he fell through the floor. Repeatedly. - He gets thrown around like a rag doll by almost everything he touches - He forgets about places he's just been. - He thinks he is being followed by floating talking swords, fairies, and demons. - He sees scantly clad or naked women in the middle of the night. Some have wings. - He keeps seeing the moon change phase at random. - He suddenly starts seeing the whole world as a blocky, oddly-colored mess. - He runs around the house at full speed thinking he is a wolf or a bat. - He suddenly starts seeing everything upside down. - He yells "What!?" a lot. - He beats up his father for no explained reason and then starts whining about his dead mother. Congratulations! You made SOTN into the only entertaining Stoner Comedy in existence. Easy yes vote. (And remember kiddies: Just say no to drugs!)
Active player (294)
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Posts: 458
Location: Houston
ObadiahtheSlim wrote:
Yes, but don't the rules say that you must start from a clean starting point?
You shouldn't do it unless there is a good reason but like all rules they can be broken for the sake of entertainment. If arukAdo decides the run is better without a clean memory card I'm inclined to agree with him.
Onyx3173
She/Her
Joined: 5/30/2010
Posts: 76
Location: Oregon, USA
That was kinda hard to follow, especially while being half asleep. Yes vote from me.
I am a figment of my imagination.
Editor, Skilled player (1442)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2113
Wow, you even managed sub 1-hour? Watching now, voting then. From the WIPs I had seen, this is a definite yes anyway. /and I was not disappointed in the slightest. Yes vote for sure
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 940
Location: Castle Keep
Thx all for the feedback! The point of the dirty sram is quite simple, without that i cant buy mana prisms at the librarian, wich would make the run considerably slower. You could still glitch out the money, but you wont do anything interresting with it, as the basic librarian sell list is extremly shorter. @fruitbane, i was planning to take screenshoots of the map in the run, just before i reset the map, even if its not in the encode, so that people can see the logic of the room farming. @spweasel, i realy laughted while reading your post, thx :D
Joined: 12/30/2008
Posts: 45
Location: Bubbling nearby...
I think there's a mistake in the title. That wasn't Symphony of the Night, it was too broken to be! In other words, yes vote. :p On a sidenote, I thought it felt a bit repetitive at times, but it didn't detract too much from the entertainment.
I lurk, okay?
Joined: 5/11/2006
Posts: 71
Excitedly waiting for an encode. Sounds amazing though!
Samus taught us that a girl doesn't need brains to be successful. Brains are giant, evil, and vulnerable to missiles.