Decided to just start over from the beginning. 2nd try's Link (NTSC and Doze core)
Found quite a few optimizations this time through and saved a whopping ~2100 frames!
- Optimized all door entries, as I figured out you could enter the door while 1/2 way over it
- Streamlined the fight with blue
- Streamlined blues path through the forest stage
- Decided to use the path around the back of the temple and saved some valuable time there, as I could then land on the top of the podium on the right side.
- Added the first jump attack during the fight with green and stopped 1 attack phase
- Streamlined Greens romp through traffic. I made sure to jump before throwing shurikans at all times as to not slow him down.
- Found I could actually nick that extra ninjitsu on the first part of yellow's stage
- More pathing optimizations with green on the way to yellow, didn't switch to pink this time and it worked out better for me
- Took no damage during the yellow bossfight and completed it faster
- Able to use blue's ninjitsu through both platform stages, and even optimized an optimal route up the right side of blue's platform stage.
- Better use of blue's ninjitsu on the last 2 areas where I needed it
- Optimized the fight with the black ninja slightly. (saved about 100 frames)
Overall, quite happy with the 2nd pass. The only way I could get the game to record from a fresh power-on at frame 1 was to have "Record from Restart" checked, then go into frame advance, then punch the restart button. Any other method caused desynch for whatever reason.
If it's not acceptable then at least there's a template available and whoever's willing can take it up as a project...(I cba to do it again though) So long as it goes up I'll be happy, as this is such a great game!
Just a note: this run syncs on Doze core Dega, but not MAME core.
EDIT: just watched the run, some things I noticed:
* In Yellow's stage, can't you skip just about the entire indoor section by climbing on the ceiling to the left with Pink? I can't remember, maybe that gap's too small.
* Using ninja art with Blue in Pink's stage seemed slower than just climbing up with Green to me... which brings me to...
* There's one room in Neo City where you're climbing up and there's platforms and hooks that appear and disappear. I would think you'd be better off saving an art or two for this room rather than going up it slowly, the aforementioned one in Pink's stage is one that I would cut.
* Also, you never have to go inside the building during Green's stage, you can fly around it with blue arts. I thought there were two around the outside so you didn't lose any by doing it this way.
* During the Green boss refight, wouldn't using Pink be faster because it does more damage?
I think it's good, but you might want to spend more than one night on it before submitting - TASvideos has very strict quality standards.
Good questions! I can actually address these. Although I haven't done any TAS's before, this is one of my favorite games, and I've done many normal speedruns on this before.
* In yellow's stage, the gap is too small to squeeze through. If there was a way to glitch through it, that might indeed save some time, but I was unable to find any, as the game seems quite bug-free from what I can tell in the code.
*In pinks skyrise climb, the first jump is impossible to do with green, as the ledge is too high. To go around would eat up an extra 300-500 frames.
*I had to make a choice in the dissappearing platform room. I decided to use the art earlier in yellows water jump room (that I just barely squeaked out with a green double jump => Switch with blue) You also have to remember that using blues art costs a ton of frames, as it has to play through the ninjitsu, and then he has to spin up. I saved nearly 300 frames by using it earlier in the water jet section. Also if you notice, I skipped about 1/2 the platforms by catching a hard to get platform on the right side, and then by using green to make the last double jump.
*As to the green skyrise bit. I think there is an extra ninjitsu I can pick up in the trees on the way in. This might be the only significant savings I overlooked. However, I didn't lose much time by going in the building, as again, blues art eats up a ton of frames from start to finish. This is the one thing I may go back and try to optimize if I was to do it again.
-Edit- Getting this ninjitsu is significantly more out of the way than it's worth. No notable savings would be made from getting it.
*Good question. The reason to use blue is that his grapling hook will go through all of the ninjas, while pinks bombs typically can only hit 1-2 of them. Also, pink has a limit on how many bombs she can throw out per 15-20 frames, while blue can consecutively whip out his grapling hook upon successful hit of an enemy.
-Edit- Tried it with pink for giggles using optimal bombing. It's *faster* except for the fact that I need to switch to pink and it takes up extra frames. Ended the fight with pink at 25294 and with blue at 25285. Noting this though, I did switch to red for a certain part where I needn't have, and I'll have to go back through and fix that. Where I might get extra savings is on the first fight with green, by having blue jump in the beginning. I simply didn't think about it due to the way I did my normal speedruns. (it was less safe)
Cheers for your advice m8! Now if only someone could help me redo the beginning and sync up all of my hard work :(
hm. How do I get it to record from the first frame? Reading through the rules it says that I can't select "record from reset".
Basically I hit reset, paused on the first frame and started recording there...
Is there a way to redo the start and synch up all of my work?
Hi, first time TASer here. Figured I'd sink my teeth into a game I didn't see in the movie section. (shame too!) The game was moderately intensive imo, and still required some thought and massive re-record on my part.
I did this in one sitting (tonight) and my fingers are tired and my brain gone retarded which is probably why I couldn't figure out how to make the "submission" hyperlink work...Oh well, will post here and get some feedback before submitting!
GG Shinobi has rainbow ninjas and awesome music...what more could you want?!
*Goals*
- Fastest completion time
- Takes damage to save time
A subgoal was going to be no damage taken on boss fights...but I blew it in the fight with yellow and decided to keep going...it was essential to keep pink on the upper arm, and was just 1 bar anyway. Tbh, it probably shaved a few frames via the final score keeping in line with my 2nd goal.
*Notes*
A skilled more patient TAS'er than I could probably squeek another 500-1000 frames out of this for sure. Safe to say though, I compared my TAS run to the best unassisted speedrun I could find using Google and I kicked his butt!
.mmv Link!
cheers!