Info
- BizHawk 1.12.1
- Takes damage to save time
- any% category
Stage by stage notes and improvements
General improvements include more efficient usage of damage boosting, and just cleaner movement in general.
Stage 1
Stage 1 was run by adelikat.
49 frames saved compared to the published run.
Stage 2
Stage 2 was run by adelikat.
312 frames saved compared to the published run.
Stage 3
Stage 3 was run by adelikat.
434 frames saved compared to the published run.
Stage 4
Stage 4 was run by adelikat.
617 frames saved compared to the published run.
Stage 5
Stage 5 was run by Noxxa.
648 frames saved compared to the published run.
Around a second is saved in the stage by generally better movement. The big timesaver in this stage is a new strategy on the bossfight. This boss has 5 HP. arukAdo's run uses the blue character's shield to hit the boss for 1 damage at a time. Here, the blue character's shield is still used for the first hit, but then the red character is swapped in as his sword does 2 damage. This saves two cycles of the boss jumping off screen, saving nearly 10 seconds.
Stage 6
Stage 6 was run by Noxxa.
790 frames saved compared to the published run.
This level is long and maze-y, but the same route still holds. Compared to arukAdo's run, this run destroys a lot more enemies, mainly for lag reduction. Sometimes some hovering actions may look weird; that's also for lag manipulation.
There is a significant timesaver near the end of the stage, where arukAdo's run drops down to get an extra hitpoint, progresses on, and has to climb up by jumping on some dragon enemies. This run still drops down and gets the hitpoint, but then hovers back up to the higher-up platforms in order to avoid the climb later. This saves around 6 seconds.
The boss battle (two dragon heads with 20 HP each) is improved by a modified strategy; arukAdo's run uses the blue character and his shield and jumps up the top to the heads, repeatedly damaging them and destroying them quickly. This run does not bother with the transformation, as it's unnecessary, and just executes an improved and more optimized version of the strategy with the green character instead (also adding in some arrows for extra damage). Damage is focused on the bottom head first, so that it has no chance to drop down before being destroyed. The top head falls very soon after. Most time saved here is from not having to cycle through the transformations, which by itself saves around 3 seconds.
Stage 7
Stage 7 was run by Noxxa.
151 frames saved compared to the published run.
This run takes a much more destructive approach to the hallway of enemies compared to arukAdo's run; besides being much more fun to watch, it also helps with lag reduction.
The final boss has 30 HP. arukAdo's run switches to the red character, who can repeatedly hit it for 2 damage per swing and destroy it pretty quickly, but sticking to the green character is faster anyway, primarily simply because transforming twice to get the red character takes up a few valuable seconds. So instead of getting sworded to death, the final boss is now pelted with arrows instead.
The final boss' attack pattern starts with shooting out a pink spherical blob which spawns an enemy on landing; this is annoying for two reasons. Firstly, the blob lands right where the player would be firing shots at the final boss, so it would kill the player upon landing. Secondly, the blob absorbs arrows if it gets hit by them, resulting in not damaging the boss. To avoid these issues, precise positioning and timing are used so that shots are fired right before and after the blob goes past (this takes only a 2 frame delay; arrows are shot once every 7 frames at the fastest). Once the blob is in the air, the player jumps forward to avoid its landing, and hovers in front of the boss to continue firing at it for the final shots. Input ends as soon as the final arrow shot is input. The end!
Masterjun: Great run! The optimizations in movement really show off what TASing is all about, saving the frames. The previous movie is basically in the grey area between Vault and Moons in terms of entertainment, but the improvements in the boss fights and the clean movement push this one over the border to Moons.
The furigana マドーキング (Madō Kingu) is placed entirely over the kanji 魔動王, so according to Japanese convention, the 魔動王 in the title is supposed to be pronounced Madō Kingu and not anything else.
You can choose whichever title you feel is appropriate for this site. I'm just pointing out that Japanese convention on furigana is weird enough that one can just impose any pronunciation one wants on any written script for stylistic reasons. This happens with a few other Japanese titles out there.
