Introduction
You know how it says above to vote after watching? Well, with this TAS, if you're gonna watch it, it's REALLY REALLY recommended to watch it all the way through. You just won't see the awesomeness of this game's exploitability without watching it fully.
This TAS is finally done after all these months, and let me tell you, I am WAY more than proud of the result! All this hard work really paid off with what I think to be an awesome TAS. I haven't yet TASed a game that was more glitchy than this game is. I beat the existing non-TAS world record (36:16, not counting all the time not spent by different timing rules for RTA) by over 12 minutes! You can see and compare that record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B4M2ulH7DY here.
I've had this game for a long time (since around 2008), but hadn't even considered TASing or speedrunning it until late 2016, and started around January 2017.
- Time: 24:04.71
- Frames: 86289
- Rerecords: 15391
Goals
- Aims for fastest time
- any% completion
- Heavy glitch abuse
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death to save time
- Genre: Platform
- Genre: What are any other genres for this game?
Ending
The movie ends on the last frame of skipping the ending text, which transitions to the credits.
About the game
In the game's plot, several dramatic things happen with Hilda and Zelda (characters that never show up in gameplay) messing up their spells and making some sort of catastrophe that Sabrina has to fix, each catastrophe defining one of the worlds. There are four worlds in the game, each containing 4 levels and 1 potion minigame at the end. You have to go into each world and collect 4 ingredients to later mix up (in the potion minigame) so that you can cure Hilda or Zelda's mistaken spell and set everything right again. Along the way, you unlock spells (there are 6 total) that help you in future parts of your journey. Salem, a sarcastic talking cat character, is there to help explain things to you along the way. There are animate objects (enemies), which should (according to the plot) be inanimate but aren't because of the erroneous spells you're trying to ultimately fix, along the way that can hurt you if you touch them, but there are obviously ways around that.
There are 3 types of levels in this game. There are 2 regular levels to which I have nothing to say here. There is one autoscroller level.
The fourth level in each world is ALWAYS the handicap level. They give you some handicap, to which you have to find (a) certain key(s) to unlock that handicap and complete the level.
Health and death
For the purposes of this run, I have 3 hearts only. If enough minigames are beaten, however, health can increase, and you can end up having up to 5 hearts AFAIK.
There is no death count in this game. When you "die", you really just teleport back to the beginning of that room, restoring all health and crystal balls. IMO, in casual play, dying is even better than not dying in some cases. There are 2 instances in this game where we use death to save time; once in School 1, and the next in Slicery 4.
Spells
Spells are what were perhaps intended to be the main attraction of kids to this game. Each spell has a unique capability, and they each take up a certain amount of your crystal balls (shown in the HUD in the top center of the screen). In the run, we start out with 10 crystal balls, and we get up to 25 at the end of the run (10, 15, 20, and 25 respectively). The completion of minigames "increases your power", which really means that they let you have more crystal balls. In-level minigames are never completed in the run because they would waste a significant amount of time, but the potion minigames give you 5 extra crystal balls each in the HUD. You can collect crystal balls in the levels if you're running low (which sometimes I had to route for).
Spells can only be used with their respective activators, which are certain objects in the game. If you use a spell without its activator, it's a dud; you get a pineapple instead of a spell. So in that sense, spells are extremely limited.
There are a total of 6 spells in this game, gradually unlocked throughout the game. Each spell is defined by its number, and that number represents how many crystal balls you will use each time you use the spell. What they are and what they do are listed here:
- 3 - Unlocked in House 1 (first level) - What I sometimes call "the sleep spell", because Salem describes it as putting an object to sleep. Really what it does is make enemies disappear. They only disappear until you leave the room though; if you come back to that room, they'll reappear.
- 4 - Unlocked in House 3 (third level) - The "vine spell". When you use it with a pot, it grows a vine, which you need to use to bounce up to higher locations.
- 5 - Unlocked in School 1 (fifth level) - The "wall spell". You enter a white, beat-up wall, you can use the spell to make it go away and let you through it.
- 6 - Unlocked in School 3 (seventh level) - The "berry spell". It's a batch of berries. You use them as elevators to get to platforms that are otherwise unreachable.
- 7 - Unlocked in Tree 1 (ninth level) - The "broom spell"; even though you're not actually using a broom. It's only used to fly (VERY SLOWLY) through some maze-like areas in the game that you simply wouldn't be able to get through otherwise. It is activated only at a spotlight, and you are also forced to fly the entire time until you hit another spotlight.
- 8 - Unlocked in Tree 3 (eleventh level) - The "spring spell". It creates a spring that elevates you up to higher locations.
General tricks and glitches
So that I don't have to keep repeating myself throughout the stage-by-stage commentary, here is a glossary of some general explanations of common tricks and glitches used throughout the TAS.
Activating elevators earlier
If you jump on top of an elevator while it's not moving for its normal period of about 2 seconds, it will immediately start moving again. A similar thing can happen if you jump near the top of the elevator.
You might see that the forcefield in the autoscrollers that moves towards you acts as a wall; most of the time. However, when the character is pushed through the forcefield by the wall, this causes them to likely die (start over at the beginning of that room).
The character ONLY dies though if they touch the complete side of the screen even beyond the forcefield. Therefore, a TASer can abuse the forcefield by walking inside of it for entertainment.
Ceiling jump glitch
This is actually a major glitch, because the use of this glitch saves massive tons of time in several parts of the run, and skips major portions of levels that the developers clearly didn't want you to skip at all. Keep in mind that there are not a whole lot of platforms with ceilings in the game. In fact, most floored platforms do not have adjacent ceilings. Do not get confused by this when watching.
So how does it work? Why does it happen? Well, whenever you start falling from the edge of something, there are 3 frames when you're still running, even though you're getting off that platform, before you actually start falling. Because you're still running while you're falling during these 3 frames, you can therefore jump during that fall.
So what does this have to do with ceilings? Well, every time you hit a ceiling from below (and are moving; it USUALLY doesn't work when you hit it while still), you start this SAME falling sequence, which allows you to use those 3-ish frames to jump while under the ceiling.
Now that alone allows you to jump while UNDER the ceiling, which I do in the run sometimes too, but what about when I use the ceiling to jump again beside it, making me able to jump twice the normal height because of it? Well, that's simple. You just jump away from the corner.
Why the game developers allowed any of this to happen I don't know, but THANK you developers for this glitch which in all saves a massive amount of time for a TAS.
Jumping for final items
I never really figured out why, but just running up to a final item and activating the animation is slower than jumping at certain times before collecting it. I suppose this may be that the jumps after collecting items are slightly faster than running? I'm not even sure. I couldn't tell any difference, but the frames speak for themselves.
Please note that jumping for final items, in many cases, believe it or not, can also be used as landing skips (see below) beyond just their general speed timesave. They can also be used to jump in a manner that avoids extremely awkward jumps and falls through stuff, such as how I did it in House 2 (that was also a landing skip).
Jumping rather than falling
HORIZONTALLY, falling is much slower than just jumping off of a ledge, so most of the time I will jump instead of fall, unless the horizontal speed doesn't matter but rather the vertical speed.
Ladder jumping for vertical speed
This does seem a little obvious, but continuously jumping up a ladder is a LOT faster than just climbing it normally (that normal climbing is SUPER slow). Usually for very tall ladders, it takes a little bit of routing to get just the right jump string.
Ladder usage to save time
Sometimes it may be unclear to the viewer why I go out of my way to grab ladders in some cases. This is because grabbing a ladder and immediately jumping from it in a direction, in TASing terms, is slightly faster than just jumping and skipping past the ladder. This is because you teleport from the side to the center when getting on the ladder for that frame.
Landing skip
Every time you land from any jump or fall it wastes a few frames. There are several ways to avoid time wastes from landing in only certain situations, which, in each case, can save just a few frames.
One common way I do this is, if there are two enemies needed to be jumped that are very close to one another, I jump one enemy and use the 3 spell after landing from that first jump to save 1 frame, rather than having to do the second jump and have another landing. Other common ways to skip landings include hitting Salem's text before landing, activating any spell you would not need to move for before landing, or going into a door before the landing animation.
Certain landing skips are so insignificant (the 1-frame ones especially) that sometimes they don't EVEN save time. If you look hard enough you'll notice that in some parts of the run I don't even use them, because in those instances that frame may not count for anything overall for whatever reason. However, sometimes I even go as far as to take damage just to save 1 frame. Pffft, I love that!
Taking damage
In general, if taking damage is necessary (which it is in a lot of the run), you'll notice that I jump or am in midair every time such damage is taken. This is because if you take damage while on the ground, there is a REALLY long knockdown sequence that occurs, which you never see in the run, but I'm just telling you; it's there!
Turbo B glitch/extended run-fall glitch
This is a MAJOR GLITCH too in that it allows you to extend the amount of time you run/walk while falling, thus allowing you to jump in midair while falling for any amount of frames. This glitch isn't really all that useful throughout most levels of the game, other than for entertainment, EXCEPT for in Slicery 4 (the last level). It's kind of surprising to me that such a major glitch really only has usage potential in one level, but it's better than nothing I guess. :P Slicery 4 is so badly broken; it's a perfect ending to this game! I found this glitch after just turboing the B button when bored, and was like HOLY SHIT when I saw what it could do.
So how does it work? Why does it happen? Well, whenever you start falling from the edge of something, there are 3 frames when you're still running, even though you're getting off that platform, before you actually start falling. Because you're still running while you're falling during these 3 frames, you can therefore jump during that fall.
To extend on that, if you're running in midair before falling, when you let go of B (thus start walking), then hold B again to start running, the 3 frames reset themselves because you started walking. Because of this, in Slicery 4, I tend to run for 3 frames then walk for 1 frame, since that's the fastest method of doing it. In other situations when the horizontal speed doesn't really matter, I just turboed the B button.
Victory animation skip
This is a minor glitch that can be done in many different ways depending on the situation (the specific methods will be mentioned in the stage-by-stage commentary). When either the last paper for a spell or the ingredient is collected, then a victory animation USUALLY plays, which saves some time if that animation is skipped in most cases. All animation skips involve for the player to be in midair while collecting the item; when the player hits the ground (assuming it can't be skipped), the animation plays. The animation will definitely play if you just walk up to it, which I don't ever do in this TAS as it wastes time (see Jumping for final items).
Please note that, due to a recent conversion from the VBA-Next core to the mGBA core in Bizhawk for this movie, some of the frames mentioned MAY seem off slightly, but just use them as general estimates since that's pretty much what they were meant to be anyway. If a mentioned frame doesn't seem to make sense because of this, and you want to see what I'm talking about for that part of the movie, just go back in the movie a few frames before that, before being like "Da hell you talkin bout?!".
Text and menuing
All of the text in the game can literally just be A-turboed; skipped every other frame. There's really not that much to say about text. Salem's level text usually scrolls forward or away at the beginning or the end of his text series, so pressing A there can skip that too since it wastes time. Most of the splash screens and stuff can just be skipped by pressing A through the lag frames.
As for the languages, there are 3 in this game (as you can see above, and there are even more for the E version); English, French, and Spanish. I've tested each of these languages, and concluded that English is actually faster because it indeed contains the least amount of text blocks over any other language. It doesn't help that you waste a frame too by selecting another language at the very beginning of the game.
There is a password feature, but we don't use it, obviously, because that'd just be cheating (in terms of a complete TAS)!
House
House 1
As you can see, this is the tutorial level. Salem is talking to you about a lot of stuff about basic gameplay, most of which I talk about above. Often in this level I jump right before Salem's text too, for entertainment only, since it doesn't waste any time. This level is where Spell 3 is unlocked.
- Frame 2090: I did a landing skip by entering Salem's text before landing here.
- Frame 3386: Trust me; you can't skip hitting this minigame! However, I jump as if I was about to skip it for entertainment. You can't skip hitting the minigame, but you can definitely skip doing the minigame. That's what was done.
- Frame 4490: This is a victory animation skip. I do this by jumping to Salem's text before landing and activating the animation.
- Frame 5875: This is NOT necessarily a glitch. I know it looks odd, but that's mainly because the developers were very sloppy with their door hitboxes, apparently. Every door has a different spot that Sabrina can walk into; sometimes they're far away from the edge, and sometimes really close. It just depends on the door. But yes, I agree, this is the weirdest door in the game.
House 2
- Frame 6150: Using that spell instead of jumping here is a landing skip. It has to do with the fact that I can use the spell right at the start of the level, so therefore I only need to speed up for a run once. Saves 1 frame.
House 3
This is the first autoscroller. Spell 4 is unlocked here.
- Frame 11585: (entertainment only) This is a ceiling turbo jump glitch, but the peculiar thing about this one is that it shows that the above floor is actually NOT a floor as it may look. (if it was we'd be stuck there, but yeah) That "floor" is a delusion.
- Frame 11788: So why did I go through the forcefield here? Because there is an invisible small spot on that door-hinge that corners me. I do it a lot in this run.
- Frame 13405: I actually use the vine spell BEFORE talking to Salem here, which saves a bit of time.
House 4
This level contains a major skip glitch (within the level, not of the game). You are given the handicap of the inability to use the 3 spell. Also, you obviously have to collect the potion to open the door. You need to get both the key to unlock the 3 spell AND get the potion. Both of these things are in separate rooms. The idea of this level is to get the key (and the potion) to unlock the 3 spell, THEN go BACK up to the top of the level, and use the 3 spell to get rid of one of those TVs to get you down to the victory door.
ALL of that is skipped because I use the ceiling jump glitch to get up to the door without even getting the potion. This is also a glitch because there are 4 ingredients that show up in the potion minigame, but we only collected 3. So I even tremendously broke the game's plot.......
School
School 1
Spell 5 is unlocked here.
- Frame 19305: This entire room is all the sum of a carefully plotted route. So what I did here was I went on the elevator, and from there used the ceiling jump glitch to get to the ingredient faster, then from THERE I jumped with the ingredient down there. I changed direction while falling so that I'd hit the basketball, killing myself, while falling towards the page. So this sequence saved time in 3 ways: 1.) It skipped the victory animation from the ingredient, because death cancels it. 2) It saves me from having to go out of my way while waiting for the second vine in the room to get the paper, whereas I could get this one in less time. 3) The death makes it so I don't have to awkwardly fall/bounce back to the door, and it saves time regardless of that too.
- Frame 20565: Saved time by saving a jump and using the landing skip with the spell.
- Frame 21005: No, that wasn't a mistake. Though I stop at that wall, there actually isn't any faster way to get through there.
- Frame 22225: I did a landing skip with Salem's text here again.
School 2
- Frame 22925: Why did I take damage right here you ask? It actually is a landing skip, because the position of the autoscroller activator cannot be reached in one jump otherwise.
- Frame 24015: That's another area where there weirdly is no floor.
School 3
Spell 6 is unlocked here.
- Frame 28980: I use the ceiling jump glitch here to save time; it skips having to use the elevator.
- Frame 29130: This is a shortcut that apparently no one else knew about. You can still grab the ladder by jumping from there. This saves a few seconds actually.
- Frame 29365: So I used the spell here because I didn't want to get hurt again. It would've been bad for the route.
- Frame 29935: Getting to a position where I wouldn't get hit by that book and die was actually very difficult; a lot more difficult than it looks. So no, I couldn't have used the ladder again to save time, because it wouldn't have in this case.
- Frame 30800: This is a glitch that I do for entertainment here. It’s associated with both the movement of the escalator and jumping right before getting the paper.
- Frame 30940: This is another MAJOR skip glitch! We skip the gate again. We also skip having to go up and get the potion AND talk to Salem and all that. Now, I COULD have skipped getting the papers too, but that wouldn’t have allowed me to get much farther in the game. Most of the game after that requires the 6 spell. The gate is actually a ceiling as well as a wall, which I take advantage of here.
School 4
This level's handicap is the A button. Most of this level is similar to Super Mario 64's "A button challenge" for 0x A presses. The A key needs to be unlocked in order to get to the ingredient and the end of the level.
Note that the "wow wow wow wow" sound when I'm not dudding a spell is me pressing A while it's locked.
- Frame 34506: This is a landing skip in which I use the entrance to the door.
Tree
Tree 1
Spell 7 is unlocked here.
- Frame 36915: Here I skip the other 2 elevators and get across anyway. I like that.
- Frame 37110: And speaking of elevator skipping, I used the ceiling jump glitch here to skip using the elevators to get up this high. That saves a bit of time.
- Frame 37760: So why don't I use the trick mentioned above in general tricks for activating elevators early here? Because, for some reason, CERTAIN elevators in the game that work in a single pattern, like this one, won't activate early from the same logic. This is probably because the developers very specifically wanted those patterns to stay there. If the patterns broke in this case, a glitch would happen where the player may never get back up if they accidentally fell down from the elevators after that. The absence of this trick is a rare case, though, so I thought I should mention it.
- Frame 38000: You might notice I stop for 1 frame right here. Don't freak out; that wasn't accidental. I actually did that on purpose, because I only needed to wait 1 frame for that spider to move up so I didn't hit it, and the landing sequence is even slower than just stopping for just that one frame (plus that would've ruined the jumping route too).
- Frame 38070: I kind of cut corners here...
- Frame 39265: This is definitely cutting corners. The developers wanted you to use the mushroom to jump up here, but I didn't. Shortcut.
- Frame 39545: I used the ceiling glitch to save a bit of time waiting on that berry elevator.
- Frame 40245: Okay, so not that this is a trick or anything, but the routing for which damage to take and which hearts to get during this slow flying session took quite a while. Just saying.
Tree 2
- Frame 49285: This whole like 6 seconds is a major entertainment-fest. First, I use the ladder jump sequence. Then I go from there to use MULTIPLE ceiling jumps to skip quite a bit of gameplay.
- Frame 43370: I cut corners again, KIND of. Not really though.
- Frame 44405: It saves a lot of time to go ahead and activate the vine spell before getting the ingredient.
Tree 3
Spell 8, the last spell is unlocked here. Spell 8 is only used once in the TAS, by the way. Fun fact. So nearly useless.
- Frame 51898: I skipped having to use Spell 8 (after it was literally just unlocked) with the ceiling jump glitch!
Tree 4
This level's handicap is of both Spell 5 and Spell 6. This level took a ton of routing. Why? Because there are actually two separate routes to get from the ingredient back up to the final door. One way is to the left, with the spell 6 activator. The other is to the right, which I use in the TAS because it is faster by at least 1 second.
- Frame 52810: Two things happened here. 1) I SKIPPED getting the key for Spell 6. I went that direction only to get the crystal balls. Why I skipped Spell 6? You'll see in a minute. 2) I did a shortcut with the ceiling jump glitch, but I didn't need to use it right away, so I used it more than once for entertainment!
- Frame 53212: I determined that using the mushroom is much faster than using the second leaf.
- Frame 53794: THIS is a BIG reason why I don't need Spell 6! I used the ceiling jump glitch to get to the key for Spell 5, which we absolutely do need. (The other reason I don't need Spell 6 is because I take the route to the right from the ingredient, which doesn't require Spell 6 to be used.)
- Frame 55075: This isn't a trick, but just a milestone. This is the ONLY time that Spell 8 is ever used in this TAS, as opposed to the rest, which are all used several times. Really, if I took the left route, I wouldn't need to ever use Spell 8 to beat the game, but that's slower so nope.
- Frame 55245: Ceiling jump to get up there, which skips the first elevator.
- Frame 55405: So why did I just jump around here instead of quickly going up to the second elevator? Well, the second elevator was activated right as I was coming up to that vine, so I don't need to rush, since it's already been activated (though that IS hard for the viewers to see).
Slicery
Slicery 1
- Frame 58975: Here I actually skip having to use the second elevator to get across.
- Frame 59400: So I activate the elevator, then I jump on top of the elevator, THEN to the ceiling glitch to get up to the ingredient much faster. Within that second, I also do a victory animation skip by jumping onto the muffin after collecting the ingredient. So why did I use the strawberry instead of just jumping up there? It seems far enough up, and the second platform allows it. Well that's just it. For some reason it SEEMS and LOOKS like it's far up enough, so it SHOULD be far up enough, but it isn't... For some reason, that ceiling is slightly higher than it looks. This was obviously laziness by the developers.
- Frame 60425: I don't even use this elevator for anything other than landing on it!
- Frame 61260: I take damage here at the cable, and I jump so early so I can use the ladder to save time. By doing this, I also go through one enemy.
- Frame 61415: Why did I take damage right here? Because I used that jump to do a landing skip which saved one SINGLE frame, despite taking damage!
- Frame 61720: So why don't I use the ladder to speed up here? Because if I did that, I'd hit the muffin way too late!
Slicery 2
- Frame 63130: I think the developers actually intended for you to use the muffin to get up there.
- Frame 66933: I actually go through the forcefield while on the ladder without dying.
Slicery 3
- Frame 68456: I use the ceiling jump glitch to get up there much faster. And trust me, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ShyHPQHdM this glitch, as opposed to the one used in this TAS, is NOT faster, though that is cool too.
- Frame 68525: So... this route I used for the crystal balls saves a lot of time for many reasons, and it took a lot of work. What I do is I collect 4 crystal balls that are out of the way, but they save time overall. 3 of them are used so I don't have to go back to the left really far at around frame 71200 and collect those 3 frames which are WAY out of the way. I rerouted from that to make this, and it saves about 3 seconds! Overall, the route I used made it so I could do this level in one turn; I didn't have to go back in the level like the 36:16 speedrunner did.
- Frame 71851: So there's a reason that I jumped here besides just entertainment. I did that to manipulate the dough platform so it would become a platform much sooner.
- Frame 72423: So why did I wait to jump right here? I was waiting on the dough platform above.
- Frame 72620: I find it peculiar that I can just walk onto the elevator from the dough.
- Frame 73368: Collecting that crystal ball above actually literally wastes 0 frames if done like I did it. Why? Because we need vertical speed ultimately, to get inside that maze to the left, and we're still able to get that speed when we get that crystal ball.
Slicery 4
This level's handicap is of ALL the spells. This level, like a few others, is LITERALLY broken. There are so many major skips done in this level it's ridiculous! To give you an idea, there are 6 spells that Sabrina has by this time, and only 2 of them are unlocked and used! Spells 3, 6, 7, and 8 are never unlocked, even though they're damned supposed to be. The glitch routes I use in this level probably constitute less than half of the time it would take to complete this level without them in a TAS.
- Frame 75698: Minor skip, jumping from ladder to ladder instead of ladder to platform to ladder.
- Frame 76051: So why do I wait so long for that ladder to move? Because it's an ass and it can't move until the time it does.
- Frame 76305:
I do a glitch here that is REALLY hard to see with the naked eye, but if you know the glitch you know it is just completely absurd. So I get on the second ladder at just the right frame that it pushes me off, so I end up running below the ladder for a few frames, allowing me to jump below that above platform and land on the salt and pepper shakers. When you look at it at regular speed, it just looks like I jumped off that ladder normally, but in slow motion you'd see that is not the case.
This glitch is...well...pretty glitchy if you will. For the purposes of this run, I do not exploit the glitch anymore than I need to to get where I need to go, as it is a speedrun and time is of the essence. But if you want to see what else this glitch can do, I recommend you watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FalVGJYttR0 this video.
Oh...right... about what I skipped. I skipped having to get Spell 8 which therefore skipped Spell 6. That's ONE major skip. Two keys were skipped. Now let's move on, shall we?
- Frame 76866: MAJOR skip number 2. I get to that door FAR sooner than intended. So what happened? I got up to that penny elevator, and used the turbo B glitch to get to that ceiling, then used the ceiling glitch to jump up to the door. What did it skip? It skipped me having to actually go to that other room to get Spell 7, which I'd have to get with Spell 6, which we already skipped before, remember. :D
- Frame 77851: I jump up to that penny normally, which only works actually on two frames. It's REALLY hard to do normally!!! The developers intended for you to use the muffin to bounce up there, but it's certainly possible to just jump. That didn't necessarily save or waste time, but since it's so difficult I thought I should do it.
- Frame 78530: So rather than falling down this platform and waiting for the dough below in order to get up to the next door, I just use turbo B glitch again to go down, then I jump to that ceiling and do the ceiling jump down there to get to the next door. This saves a lot of time!
- Frame 79015: Here I skip using the second piece of dough to get to the muffin early.
- Frame 80406: Peculiarly, using the ceiling jump glitch here doesn't save or waste any time at all compared to using the regular method, so I just used the glitch instead since it's more entertaining.
- Frame 81280: The exact same thing as what I said about 76866. I did the same major skip TWICE.
- Frame 82000: I use the ceiling jump glitch to get up that second platform much faster, then I jump through the salt and pepper shaker to take damage to save time.
- Frame 82528: So remember how I took damage twice before? That was good actually! Because now I can use a death to save time here. I did the turbo B glitch again to get down to the salt and pepper shakers and then I jumped at the last frame before death, so that I could die on top of the platform I was just on.
- Frame 83043: I take damage here on purpose, so that I can do a landing skip at the door.
Potion minigames
So the potion minigames are just rhythm basically. They give you a series of buttons to press in order to finish making the potion. They all work the same way basically, except each of the four minigames are slightly faster than one another (2 is faster than 1, 3 than 2, 4 than 3). There is an RNG factor that decides WHICH series of buttons to press, but its decision never affects the amount of time it takes to complete it. These were exceedingly easy to TAS.
No, missing does not save any time; it wastes a hell of a lot of time. Every time you miss, you not only have to wait for the slow missing animation, but you have to actually repeat that same move again!
Conclusion
I know that the submission text is extremely long, but it comes with such a comparatively complex game. I really, REALLY hope you enjoyed the TAS, and don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. There are a lot more TASes on my to-do list to finish.
For this game, it may be reasonable to include an "all minigames" TAS category. Every time you complete a minigame, it disappears forever, and sometimes the tricks to get to these mini-games can be pretty cool. The problem is that the entirety of minigames in Sabrina is pretty mysterious to me at this point, and I haven't messed with it too much. Anyway, if I can find all the minigames, I'd consider that a 100% category for this game.
If you have ANY questions; any at all; don't hesitate to ask! I have this game drilled in my head, so I'll know how to answer any questions.
External links
Fog: Replacing movie file with file that syncs with mGBA core instead of VBA-Next.
feos: The run is well planned and executed, it features some nice skips and variety, yet for some reason it got pretty average feedback. I'd call it a perfect example of a borderline case between Vault and Moons: there's no certainty either way. The downsides of this run are: obscurity of the game, lots of autoscrollers, moderate pace, no battle action, overall the gameplay just gets old after a while, and you can't see the forest for the trees anymore. Probably it also has to do with the theme of the game. In the end, it's easy to miss the glitches and all the complexity that this run has. I have to admit that I liked the submission text more than the run itself.
So this doesn't look like a clear Moon, and with a slim chance that the publication votes deliver it to Moons, I'm accepting this to Vault.
