Jo is your average American teenager with a love for kendo. How lucky she is to be sent to Japan for the summer to attend Honest Osaki's Kendo School and Used Car Sales!
It's the first day of school, and it's a five hour commute (or would be, anyway; I managed it in a little over an hour). Osaki (AKA Bob) appears and tells her the situation. The path to school will take her under a lake, over a snow covered field, and through what can only be assumed to be the local terrorist group's toy factory, bringing her face to face with a giant robot, a chibi doppleganger, and a feathery regeneration of the Doctor. To help her, Bob hands Jo a small golden elephant that will turn Jo into a Magical Girl(tm)! Her first lesson? Don't be late to school!
Really, how this game got outside of Japan is a mystery that will die with the ones who let it.
The reason I picked this game was because I thought it was an obvious shoe-in for a movie, and was getting irritated that no one else did one. So, I took matters into my own hands, and here's the results:
- I pick the green orb for my weapon because at a full charge it's four times as strong. This can save me up to 75 frames on bosses (except for those where I have to wait for the charge, grrr...).
- There's a bit of bunny hopping to maintain the speeds I get from downhills.
- Going through the level intermissions too fast will result in a screwed up pallette for the next level. Usually the change looks so natural that only those familiar with the levels will notice, and even then. It's easily noticeable in levels 3 and 5 where it looks like I have a slightly bad dump. You can witness the pallette correct itself in levels: 4, as I'm entering the building; 5, after I beat the boss; 6, as I'm leaving the subway. It fixes itself in level 7, but the transition is smoother.
Glitches
- First level ;P
- Bypasses some points that forces Jo to stop, allowing me to attack bosses early and maintain momentum after a scene change
- Jumps higher than usual
- Found a way around the fact that touching the ground in level three will slow your swimming down
- Does some left+right stuff for a couple of instant turn-arounds
Damage
A little different here. I take one hit from an enemy to help propel me through a current, but I had a yellow orb so no damage was taken; yet, I end each level in the critical zone because the rush attack eats health. I guess "Takes no direct damage" would be a good description.
Played at hardest difficulty; no luck manipulation.
Cliffhanger
- Sometimes if you strike an enemy soon enough, they will die but their sprite will persist. That explains the loose ghost I pass right through.
Snow Queen
- Even though the snow slows me down, I walk through it to help build momentum.
The Pond
- The very beginning here is automated, preventing me from moving until Jo reaches solid ground.
- There's a loose attack to regain control after bumping my head.
Technodyne
- Jumping off the ledge after the teleporter instead of walking is faster by some frames, but it messes up my positioning, thus being slower by a few frames.
The Commute
- I would have jumped off the cable car to reach the stairs faster, but there's some invisible ground outside of it; see my glitch pack at the bottom for details.
Triathalon
- Ducking is the only way to dodge that group of enemies without attacking.
- Initially it looks like a desynch, but I backtrack on the stairs to get a "chibi run".
- There's a couple of false attacks to dodge a rogue soccerball.
School Daze
- I realized in the final battle that I could have died to get full health for more rushes and save some time, but I thought, "I made it this far without getting hit, why start now?" ;P
- That pause in the third part of the final boss was there because he would have blocked my hit anyway.
Note: Bob has a short message after the credits that you can speed up like ordinary dialogue, but I ignored it because it would have tacked on an additional 4-5 minutes without adding much of anything.
Additional Glitches
Download
here.
- The first demonstrates the invisible ground outside the cable car. You can stand on it for one frame, enough time not only to break your fall (and negate any attempt at jumping out), but also to jump in mid-air. :D
- The second demonstrates a game breaking glitch related to one I used in level 5.
- Unfortunately, my file host died, so these are no longer available.
Thanks be to Bisqwit for handling a small issue with the movie file.
Truncated: Because of good feedback and because I think it looks interesting, accepting for publication.
To whoever is encoding: the (U) rom gives a checksum mismatch, but plays the movie fine, so I put USA in Game version instead of unknown.
