Recorded with FCE Ultra 0.98.15 rerecording.
Demon Sword completed quickly. Because I never collect an extra life bar, several enemies and all bosses kill me in one hit, so taking no damage was a must. Only enemies that get in my way are killed.
The game is a about a man named Victar who would make the Prince of Persia quake in fear. He can jump high and run quickly, which is why (I think) the game is ideal for TASing. There are a number of items and powerups that could be collected, but that requires killing enemies, so I'd rather just keep moving. Jumping and running carry the same amount of horizontal speed, so as long as Victar keeps moving forward in some way everything will turn out good. As such, I aimed to entertain the viewer with some acrobatic tree-to-tree jumping.
The only problem with the game is that the jumping physics aren't smooth. There's a limited number of arcs he can make. Early on in stage 1-1, I have to jump across some gaps, and I'm forced to "overjump" the gaps because that's the smallest jump Victar is capable of. I guess it's a small price to pay for the highest jump he's capable of.
One of the first things you may notice is that there's some hesitation in the boss battles. This is for luck manipulation to try to keep them in the same place, but sometimes it's nigh impossible (you'll notice I have to jump at a few points in some of the battles to catch them). Some "wasted" attacks are used for the same purpose.
Only a couple glitches are used in this run. The first allows the character to jump the opposite direction at full momentum if you press both buttons in the same frame; you'll see this several times in level 2-1. Another glitch I discovered while fighting the final boss allows you to hit him twice in one spot, but this can't be done most of the time because the boss has to be in line to be struck by Victar's shuriken, which is hard to aim.
In level 1-1, I hit a cliff a couple times, thus losing my momentum. This was necessary as it's faster than hitting the bamboo (which forces me into the climbing position) or stopping in midair, both of which rob me of my momentum anyway. I strike a cliff in 1-2 and 3-1 once each as well; both of these occurances were unavoidable to maintain the fastest route. Striking the cliff while moving forward ensures that I regain momentum faster, so jumping straight up wouldn't have been faster
The only iffy part in the movie that I can think of is the final fight. The final boss, as you probably notice, is a teleporter. His teleportation ability is only bounded to the limits of the room, so he can teleport anywhere, offscreen, in midair, attacking, behind you, inside of you (which means instant death at one life bar), wherever. Frames are wasted and worthless attacks are made to manipulate him into convenient locations. It's still quite entertaining, but only if you've played the game and know how frustrating the guy is.
...I'm still impressed at how high this guy can jump.
adelikat: Congratulations on having your first submission accepted :)
