Dragon Crystal is a stupid SMS roguelike-RPG with awful engrish and way-too-hard mechanisms. Still it's quite fun. Game is completed in just over a minute.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.5.3
  • Completes the game the fastest way
  • Gets an unglitched ending
  • No items used
  • Takes damage to save time

Comments

Our anonymous hero is trapped in a crystal ball, which is a maze of 30 random-generated floors, followed by Potato-the-Dragon, as it stays in its egg form (everybody tells me it's a potato!) during the entirety of the run (and, well, it doesn't do anything in a normal playthrough either). Here, instead of grinding and finding every item in each floor in order to maybe have a chance of surviving (yes, the difficulty is horrendous), we just run through stages, manipulating RNG to give us close exits, and a close crystal ball on the 30th floor, in order to finish the game. On a speedrunning level, this game is random and stupid, though we tend to do races on it, just for the idiocy of it. On a TAS level, it's still as stupid, but becomes incredibly short. Short enough, in fact, to be interesting (but well, that's my opinion). As we don't have to fight any enemy in order to finish the game, it just becomes a run towards the crystal ball, avoiding everything.
Each floor is generated randomly depending on which frame we get on the exit. So, in order to get a good floor, we just have to try and retry by waiting one more frame each time in front of an exit until we find a good floor with an easy exit. One improvement over the previous run was to wait more on some floors in order to save time in later floors; and it paid off pretty well. Also, the old TAS was made on Dega, and I think updating it and putting it on BizHawk could be a smart idea. Sadly, 30th floor isn't as dramatic as last TAS, as I only play with one dragon, but still, better than not seeing any.
One important improvement was also to only press inputs when needed for movements, instead of keeping directions pressed, even on frames where it didn't matter. It seemed way cleaner this way.

Other comments

This run isn't the most entertaining TAS ever, but it's short enough to be entertaining. Also, as Dragon Crystal got some hype lately (and was even featured in the last AGDQ bonus stream, as Adam_AK and RoboSparkle raced on it), I think keeping it updated and improved is a good idea. Also, if you're interested, I actually streamed the whole making of this TAS on my twitch channel.

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie. In regards to the tier, I'm going against the votes here - I don't see too much difference in entertainment here compared to the previous run, and I'm not convinced this run will really hold up that much better than the previous run in the entertainment ratings. So it'll go to the Vault.
After publication, if the ratings prove sufficient, the run may naturally be moved to Moons.
Ilari: Got a bit questionable dump from feos...


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15594
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4182: Synahel's SMS Dragon Crystal in 01:05.47
Noxxa
They/Them
Moderator, Expert player (4126)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
NitroGenesis
He/Him
Editor, Experienced player (556)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
So... wait, this run was submitted by Rayas, but the nickname is different, and the submission text makes no mention of the last run being made by the same author... ???
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Synahel
She/Her
Former player
Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 260
Location: France
Should make it clear: I'm the author of both TAS. Synahel is the nick I'm switching to, with time.
NitroGenesis
He/Him
Editor, Experienced player (556)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
Oh. Well, uh, don't mind me.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Synahel
She/Her
Former player
Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 260
Location: France
Sorry for not making it clear in the submission text O:
Joined: 5/15/2012
Posts: 3
Being a huge fan of the game, and having raced it many times, I find it very entertaining to watch. Would vote yes, but alas, I haven't gone through the forum ranks yet, haha.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11479
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
It's cool and all, but what's the twitch link?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Synahel
She/Her
Former player
Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 260
Location: France
Oh sorry it's there: http://www.twitch.tv/rayas__/c/3647285 Couldn't put it in the description, 'cause the __ messed up everything
Joined: 2/3/2013
Posts: 320
Location: Germany
Rayas wrote:
Should make it clear: I'm the author of both TAS. Synahel is the nick I'm switching to, with time.
You can just request your account be renamed. Ask Nach or Ilari. Edit: adelikat "doesn't do name changes".
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.
Synahel
She/Her
Former player
Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 260
Location: France
Oh, didn't know that, neat! Thanks for the tip :)
Editor, Expert player (2479)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Rayas wrote:
Oh sorry it's there: http://www.twitch.tv/rayas__/c/3647285 Couldn't put it in the description, 'cause the __ messed up everything
Thank you for the video! I added it to the bottom of the tutorial page. But yeah, the link is messed up: http://tasvideos.org/TASTutorial.html
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11479
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
It would need a link to that post since wiki won't be able to handle such links soon I think.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Synahel
She/Her
Former player
Joined: 1/19/2011
Posts: 260
Location: France
Would http://t.co/uFNAGez83K work? That's the link twitter gives me which redirects directly to the video EDIT: In fact, wouldn't any tinyurl or whatever link work?
Player (13)
Joined: 6/17/2006
Posts: 508
Rather boring to watch so I'm voting No, but improvements are always welcome in my book! :)
Joined: 7/30/2010
Posts: 16
Thumbs up for the Princess! Enjoyed the part of the stream I saw, and ~13 seconds is a huge improvement in a ~1 minute run. The run doesn't overstay its welcome, so I found the brutal luck manipulation entertaining, yes vote. \o/
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15594
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2527] SMS Dragon Crystal by Synahel in 01:05.47