About the Game

Spiritual Warfare is a Christian game, although any good Christian will tell you about how Christianity is not about duality, as this game seems to imply. Spiritual Warfare is part of the Wisdom Tree series of games, which were basically a bunch of subpar NES games released in fancy black cartridges designed, I can only assume, to further the faith of children. Spiritual Warfare is by far superior to all of them.
In this game, you play the role of a strapping young lad striving to beat up a demon in order to "[free] the city from his evil influence!" (taken from the credit, no plural). You basically wander around the map, trying to find various items like a Jawbone (i.e. Boomerang), a cool Sword of the Spirit (i.e. Magical Sword), a breastplate (i.e. Blue Ring), a belt (i.e. Power Bracelet), a raft (i.e. Raft), and other items which help you on your quest, and come straight from The Legend of Zelda. I skip most of them, only getting the Belt of Truth (which allows me to leave the Park), the Breastplate of Righteousness (which allows me to enter the Airport), the Boots of Something Forgettable (which allow me to enter the Prison), and the Grapes of Love, which I use to free "the city from his evil influence!"
Despite its flaws and/or blatant plagiarism, in no other game can you kill people with fruit (or at least send them to eternal salvation). Well, Spanky's Quest for the SNES comes close, which allows to kill stuff with basketballs.
  • Movie plays back on FCEUX 2.2.0.
  • Originally recorded with FCEU 0.98.16
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Ignores semi-important goals in the game
  • Uses a restart sequence

Notable Stuff

Anytime you see me stop or walk too far, I'm trying to manipulate luck. Probably 1100 of the 1300 rerecords were due to me trying to manipulate luck. The rest were me shooting misguided pears and/or grapes.
The Helmet of Salvation (which I don't retrieve) allows you to suffer through explosions without getting hurt. Since there are several places where I have to suffer through an explosion, I needed a way to survive with only three hearts. At first I didn't think it was possible, and thought I would be forced to go out of my way to retrieve some heart containers, which would be quite lame. However, since the game gives you a way to restore your health (through prayer), I discovered that praying would be much faster than obtaining three more heart containers. This meant that I would have to kill more enemies to get "Spirit Points" (which didn't turn out to be as big a problem as I thought).
The explosion in question, right before I enter the Demon's Lair, is the place where I thought I might need more heart containers. Since there are five TNT bundles surrounding me, that means that five hits would register (five full hearts taken off). Since I only had three hearts, I needed a way around that. I found that if you shoot the TNT bundle to the right and immediately move to the right, it is possible to only be hit by three of the TNT bundles. Still not very acceptable considering I only have three hearts. However, a well timed (only a one frame window) prayer meeting solved everything, and I was able to make it to the Demon's Lair without getting any extra heart containers.
That's pretty much the only notable thing about the run; everything else worth saying can be learned from watching.
  • 337 savestates were harmed in the making of this movie.
Enjoy.

Truncated: Up for judging shortly.

Truncated: It seems this game does have its fans. It's well played and shorter than what you would expect if you know the game.
Still, I think we have enough good and outstanding movies to warrant excluding the mediocre ones. It's the game that kills this one, the stupid concept and the everlooping music in particular.
While I was torn, I have discussed it with another judge and the verdict is reject.

adelikat: Accepting for publication to the Vault

Brandon: Publication underway.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1300: tmont's NES Spiritual Warfare in 16:47.54
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Voted Yes. Pretty cute game and optimized run.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Active player (437)
Joined: 7/23/2006
Posts: 389
Location: Washington
lol, what a god awful game. Superb run though. Looked very well thought out and executed. Voted yes.
I'm sciencing as fast as I can ! ______________________________________ <adelikat> once more balls enter the picture, everything gets a lot more entertraining <adelikat> mmmmm yummy penises
Experienced player (614)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 612
This game takes some many game title's elements and throws them all together to make an interesting TAS. It looked very well executed and that is why it deserves a yes vote.
Joined: 5/29/2006
Posts: 138
Overworld got a little boring towards the end, but besides that it was an excellent and entertaining run. Grapes... that the best they could come up with?
Player (81)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I like this, but I wonder if item drops could be manipulated better. The only place a 10-point drop appeared was fairly late in the game after you needed it. I did see more 5-point drops than I remember when I used to play, so maybe that was the best you could do without an unacceptable delay. Other than that, this was very entertaining for someone who spent many hours playing in his younger years. Demon manipulation to increase movement speed was very good (especially in that one gun room) and getting through the Demon Stronghold with half a heart was a nice touch.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
Player (52)
Joined: 10/6/2005
Posts: 138
Location: Oregon
Since my crappy geocities account seemed to blow up, if anyone wants to see the maps I made, you can view them here: http://www.wou.edu/~tmontg1/pics/spiritual-warfare-demonslair.png and here: http://www.wou.edu/~tmontg1/pics/spiritual-warfare-overworld.png IdeaMagnate: The drops are fairly optimal. I spent many rerecords manipulating all the enemies to drop 5, as they hardly ever do so, except in rare cases. Manipulating a 10 out of certain enemies is impossible (or at least, extraordinarily improbable), as I had enough trouble manipulating 5s out of the enemies. Some enemies are more prone to drop a 5 or a 10, like the demolition guys in Downtown who always drop 5. Enemies in the Demon Stronghold are a lot more likely to drop a 5 or a 10. To do any better than I did would probably require a robot, which I am too stupid to figure out how to use. One thing that is improvable on this run is that when you need to get a drop, it's faster to get it from a demon than to watch the guy pray as he dies. I didn't realize that until I was pretty much done getting all the Spirit Points I needed, so I didn't really utilize this discovery. It wouldn't save that much the time, but it would be less time standing there waiting for the little doves to appear.
Joined: 11/30/2004
Posts: 83
Location: Basement
anubis wrote:
Grapes... that the best they could come up with?
"Along with The Olive Tree and The Fig Tree, grape vines were often used as symbols of the fertility of the Promised Land of Israel." -[URL=http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010403.htm]Reference[/URL] A quick [URL=http://www.biiible.com/cgi-bin/search.pl?begin=0&instring=grapes&ver=NIV&lookin=]search[/URL] reveals quite a few mentions of grapes in the Bible. Though they're not generally referred to as weapons... Anyway, this was mildly amusing. Aside from repetitive BG music. Some day I'll have to try it out myself.
Joined: 5/29/2006
Posts: 138
AceOfShades wrote:
anubis wrote:
Grapes... that the best they could come up with?
"Along with The Olive Tree and The Fig Tree, grape vines were often used as symbols of the fertility of the Promised Land of Israel." -[URL=http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010403.htm]Reference[/URL] A quick [URL=http://www.biiible.com/cgi-bin/search.pl?begin=0&instring=grapes&ver=NIV&lookin=]search[/URL] reveals quite a few mentions of grapes in the Bible. Though they're not generally referred to as weapons... Anyway, this was mildly amusing. Aside from repetitive BG music. Some day I'll have to try it out myself.
I did know that :p - just could've picked something more interesting...
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Dude, is your guy Alex Kidd? Now I can't rightly decide whether this game is a better Legend of Zelda rip-off than Robomaze 3.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Player (81)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
tmont wrote:
IdeaMagnate: The drops are fairly optimal. I spent many rerecords manipulating all the enemies to drop 5, as they hardly ever do so, except in rare cases. Manipulating a 10 out of certain enemies is impossible (or at least, extraordinarily improbable), as I had enough trouble manipulating 5s out of the enemies. Some enemies are more prone to drop a 5 or a 10, like the demolition guys in Downtown who always drop 5. Enemies in the Demon Stronghold are a lot more likely to drop a 5 or a 10. To do any better than I did would probably require a robot, which I am too stupid to figure out how to use. One thing that is improvable on this run is that when you need to get a drop, it's faster to get it from a demon than to watch the guy pray as he dies. I didn't realize that until I was pretty much done getting all the Spirit Points I needed, so I didn't really utilize this discovery. It wouldn't save that much the time, but it would be less time standing there waiting for the little doves to appear.
Fair enough. It looks like there's a little room for improvement with a bot, but it's small enough that it doesn't kill the movie for me. I'd like to see a bot-assisted run, but until then I'll give this a "yes".
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
Joined: 6/5/2005
Posts: 64
This game is written by horrible people! We all know the crap about the media, how the games are causing kids to do things because they could in the games. Let's think for a moment if they were doing the things that this game here told them to do. "My older brother was mean to me, I'm gonna throw fruit at him." "Let's visit the prison yard and throw fruit at them. Oh no, here come some guards, I'll throw fruit at them too." The list just goes on and on... All that luggage in the airport terminal? Now I know where all the world's baggage has disappeared to! Ok, all this horribleness aside... This is a very good TAS based on what you had to work with. I do agree that the drops could of been a tad bit more optimized, but you have to be a stinking perfectionist to do things like that. I vote yes for this well-played, well done TAS on a game of pure rubbish.
Phear my uber gimpyness!
Active player (407)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
DefEdge wrote:
This game is written by horrible people! We all know the crap about the media, how the games are causing kids to do things because they could in the games. Let's think for a moment if they were doing the things that this game here told them to do. "My older brother was mean to me, I'm gonna throw fruit at him." "Let's visit the prison yard and throw fruit at them. Oh no, here come some guards, I'll throw fruit at them too."
I hope you're joking. :p You remind me of this Mega64 sketch where a concerned parent says that his kids were encouraged to beat up a car and destroy expensive wine barrels by playing the bonus rounds in Street Fighter II. Also, inspired by Donkey Kong Country, they stole a rhino from the zoo and tried to ride it though water, but it drowned. Then they picked up a garbage can and threw it at other zoo animals, killing them.
adelikat
He/Him
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I voted meh. I saw nothing noteworthy about this run.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
I also voted meh. Couldn't sit through it.
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
I watched this when it was submitted, didn't vote though.
Dromiceius wrote:
Couldn't sit through it.
Me neither. I didn't see anything entertaining in this, so I vote no.
Joe
Joined: 6/10/2006
Posts: 152
Location: Wisconsin
Its a good speedrun of the game, but for me, once the novelty of what the game is portraying runs out (about midway), I was left waiting for the end credits. It didn't really pick up for me until the duel with Satan, which looked extremely difficult. Voted Meh
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
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I just liked that the last part looked like a dungeon from Final Fantasy.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Player (31)
Joined: 9/23/2006
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Location: Moreno Valley, California
Worth watching just to see all the saved heathens ^_^
"The way to move out of judgment is to move into gratitude." — Neale Donald Walsch DannyLilithborne on IRC
Player (52)
Joined: 10/6/2005
Posts: 138
Location: Oregon
Heh, this is what I was expecting the voting to be like. I was kind of surprised that it got 100% yes votes, as it is kind of boring to watch if you haven't played it. I think the novelty of this run comes from the fact that you need to collect so little and complete such a small percentage of the game to beat it. Even the few people who were interested in it before (like the guy who started the thread in the NES forum), thought you would need to collect 10 keys, get the Raft, the Sword and the Jawbone just to complete it. My route probably finishes the game in about 1/3 of the time that his would have. It's also on the List of Ideas, so I figured there would be at least some interest in it. It was also a lot of fun making the maps. :)
Joe wrote:
It didn't really pick up for me until the duel with Satan, which looked extremely difficult.
This is actually the only difficult part of the game (before I did this run, I played through the whole game for the first time in a day in real-time). The rest is a big long exploration, defeating mind-numbingly easy bosses to obtain the Armor of God. Then you get to the 6-floor last dungeon, which is ridiculously difficult. It actually did remind of the last dungeon in Final Fantasy, like how there's a million floors, and if you die, you get spit out at the very beginning. Also, the final boss is also ridiculously difficult in real-time. I had to look at a guide online just to figure out how to hurt him.
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
tmont wrote:
. It's also on the List of Ideas, so I figured there would be at least some interest in it. It was also a lot of fun making the maps. :)
List of ideas is a list of the games that seem to be interesting, but no one has made it sure that they are interesting. It's better to post WIPs first when doing runs of those games, because lately many have done runs of those games and they're boring.
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 563
Location: Toronto, Ontario
The run does seem optimized, but voting meh ... it's a bit repetetive and the music just keeps looping. As an aside, I don't think getting hit in the face with fruit would make me repent :P
adelikat
He/Him
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This was on the list of ideas? that is reason enough to not assume that a run on this list will get accepted. After a second look, I'd like to change my vote no. The game itself makes me laught, but a playthough of this game is not interesting. I just don't think it makes a good contribution to the site.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Player (52)
Joined: 10/6/2005
Posts: 138
Location: Oregon
Okay, just so there's no confusion, I didn't do a run of this game because it was on the list of ideas and I thought everyone would really, really like it. The truth is, I think the game is rather boring, too (to be honest, The Legend of Zelda would be rather boring to someone who's not familiar with it). I did a run of this game because I thought it would be fun to optimize. Also, I like making maps. I didn't even realize it was on the list of ideas until a couple weeks ago. It wouldn't particularly break my heart if the run got rejected, because I already got my satisfaction out of it. I just thought I'd give it a chance to see if it was worth publishing. It is a fun little game, though, and it's surprising how fast it can be beaten, which is why I think it's mildly entertaining to watch.
JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
tmont wrote:
I did a run of this game because I thought it would be fun to optimize. Also, I like making maps. I didn't even realize it was on the list of ideas until a couple weeks ago. It wouldn't particularly break my heart if the run got rejected, because I already got my satisfaction out of it. I just thought I'd give it a chance to see if it was worth publishing.
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<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)