Simon takes another shot at this castle, but he felt horrible for all the destruction he caused last time. So now he tries to be nice to Dracula and leave the place untouched (even if his intention is to kill the count...). This ends up being quite a stealthy run without subweapons and only using the leather whip.

Goals of this run:

  • don't break the furniture. Candles and walls are left intact.
  • don't kill or even whip any enemy. But go mad in boss battles, they deserve to die.
  • aims for fastest time
  • don't pick up items. They can indeed still drop from projectiles for example.

The other things I do:

  • take damage to save time
  • die to save time

Tricks

The biggest glitch used here is the "critical hit" on bosses. In certain conditions, attacking while taking damage causes Simon to strike behind him and greatly damage an enemy. Also known as "damage transfer" (or something like that).
Damage boost is a huge time saver too. It's just the fact of being hit by an enemy/projectile in the air to gain extra height or extend a jump horizontally.
There was a lot of enemy manipulation too, and some epic fights against lag.

What was hard?

After realizing that bats and ravens die when Simon just touches them, I had to rethink the approach in some places. It meant no more damage boosts in stage 2, 6 and 10; and stage 7-8-9 became harder with the ravens swarming me. But it all ended well.

Emulator used:

FCEUX 2.1.5

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: It appears Castlevania is well suited for a pacifist run like this, as the end result is a quite entertaining run. The run is a clear display of superhuman ability in avoiding enemies and passing by them without needing to whip anything. Viewer response was very well as a result. Accepting for publication.
feos: Processing!


mklip2001
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Radiant wrote:
Mitjitsu wrote:
Pacifist goals are great for unassisted runs, but rarely translate well into TASes
Huh? I was under the impression that this site had a whole category for pacifist runs.
The issue isn't whether the site can accept pacifist runs at all. The issue is: does a pacifist run look impressive enough and different enough to merit publication alongside a regular speedrun? For instance, the Contra pacifist runs are usually considered impressive enough because of how many enemies and bullets need to be dodged. Furthermore, the pacifist run usually has to pick up weaker weapons, making the run even more challenging. Mitjitsu doesn't think this run shows off enough new strategies, compared to the currently published run. That's a fine opinion, though I disagree with it. I think the bat dodging and some of the boss fights are fresh enough to make this interesting and publication-worthy, especially the Death fight. To each his own.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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Location: Chicago, IL
I have to admit, I was iffy about the goal before I saw the vid. But after watching, I can say that I was thoroughly entertained by the routes took to avoid/play around with enemies. This is a well-made TAS. Yes vote PS I especially like that you don't take damage from the crows which would end up killing them!
If at first you don't succeed, load your savestate and try again
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TrenchAce wrote:
I have to admit, I was iffy about the goal before I saw the vid. But after watching, I can say that I was thoroughly entertained by the routes took to avoid/play around with enemies. This is a well-made TAS. Yes vote PS I especially like that you don't take damage from the crows which would end up killing them!
Thanks :) I spent a long time trying to pass the crows without hitting them (I saw it coming and wondered if it was possible at first ^^), and even more time to improve it after I found a way to go past them without a kill. If I was to try it in an unassisted speedrun, I think I would give up at stage 7 :p
Former player
Joined: 8/31/2009
Posts: 236
Great run, voted yes! My only criticism is that you destroy one of the scythes when fighting the Grim Reaper.
BigBoct
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I have to agree that this run does enough differently from the published any% to warrant acceptance. It's clearly good technically, and entertaining too.
Previous Name: boct1584
Mitjitsu
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Radiant wrote:
Mitjitsu wrote:
Pacifist goals are great for unassisted runs, but rarely translate well into TASes
Huh? I was under the impression that this site had a whole category for pacifist runs.
There is only a handful of games on this site that have categories for pacifist runs. Thats because only Rambo and Top Gun style games are generally suited to such an ironic category.
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I loved it, especially the boss fights, and I found interesting the fact that you didn't break any candle... Yes vote :)
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yes
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Mitjitsu wrote:
Radiant wrote:
Mitjitsu wrote:
Pacifist goals are great for unassisted runs, but rarely translate well into TASes
Huh? I was under the impression that this site had a whole category for pacifist runs.
There is only a handful of games on this site that have categories for pacifist runs. Thats because only Rambo and Top Gun style games are generally suited to such an ironic category.
I would say that any game in which the enemies are the primary obstacle (as opposed to the level layout, etc.) is a potential candidate for a pacifist run. Castlevania is absolutely a candidate in that respect. Clearly you don't agree, but I do wonder -- between this run and the currently published Castlevania run, which do you prefer? The only practical difference between them is that the current one kills a lot (all?) of the enemies in the levels, while this one kills none of them.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Active player (407)
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Yes vote. The category did seem iffy but it allowed for some pretty cool moments, like dodging the crows and being chased by the fleamen. Good job. :)
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
This is absolutely worth publishing. While he makes a lot of it look easy, it really is not, and that's what TASing is all about. showing superhuman skill. (well that and glitching.) And some levels are hard even with tool assistance for this goal.
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zaphod77 wrote:
This is absolutely worth publishing. While he makes a lot of it look easy, it really is not, and that's what TASing is all about. showing superhuman skill. (well that and glitching.) And some levels are hard even with tool assistance for this goal.
TASes make the games look easy, for sure ^^ There is a place where I tried to add entertainment because of that. It's the first part of the last level, with the giant bats. Normally, if you just walk and jump when necessary across the gaps in the bridge, most of the bats don't pose a threat at all... So I manipulated them to try to attack me as much as I could ^^ (without losing time, of course, it was just about jumping at certain frames)
Personman
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Joined: 4/20/2008
Posts: 465
Great run! Really enjoyed the movement through the dense enemy segments. It's awesome to see how far you've come from your first post in the Newbie Corner not so long ago! Congrats on the probable acceptance of your first run! (And a yes vote, of course)
A warb degombs the brangy. Your gitch zanks and leils the warb.
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Personman wrote:
Great run! Really enjoyed the movement through the dense enemy segments. It's awesome to see how far you've come from your first post in the Newbie Corner not so long ago! Congrats on the probable acceptance of your first run! (And a yes vote, of course)
Thanks (I tend to say that a lot on this site :P). When I first posted in the newbie corner, the test run was already quite far in the game, and I knew most of the tricks used in this version at that time. That's why it didn't take too long; the game is short, too.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2104] NES Castlevania "pacifist, minimalist" by Grincevent in 12:53.41
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
Now. question. Can this even be done a) without taking damage, and b) without hitting igor? I'm not sure that's even possible.
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zaphod77 wrote:
Now. question. Can this even be done a) without taking damage, and b) without hitting igor? I'm not sure that's even possible.
Without taking damage: nope. Just because of stage 15, for example. There is that bone pillar on top of the stairs. Critical hits are not essential either, but I don't think this run would have been published without them (if they didn't exist, I mean). Without hitting Igor: why not? I'm pretty sure it's possible, and not too hard in a TAS. By the way, there is also a scythe that is hit against Death, and a snake apparently dies in the Medusa fight (hard to see).