Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos, 64 frames faster.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.3
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors in the game
Rule 1: Ryu's x subpixel & y subpixel will retain when changing the scene.
Rule 2: Landing/Jumping can reset hit-recovery.
Glitch 1: Moving-Backwards can make enemy appear earlier than it normally.
Glitch 2: Sword-Hit-Delay, which can make Ryu invincible in 2 frames.
Glitch 3: Quick-Pause, which can make Ryu invincible.
1-1:This is a very lucky coincidence. We neglect the fourth enemy (Frame440) unconsciously, it caused me to get a good RNG in Frame810.
Act 1: -4.
Total: -4.
2-2-2: Normally player has to waste unnecessary time to wait nasty wind. As you can see, there's a good way to avoid this waste. 19 frames faster thanks to taking damage.
2-2-3: A new route is opened up, it help me saving 11 frames. Keyframe is 7169.
2-BOSS: We lost one frame at the beginning since last damage. Then we lost second frame since even-numbers-rule. Fortunately, we save another 2 frames with better fight. Loss and saving offset each other.
Act 2: -30.
Total: -34.
3-2-5: Saving 2 frames with better details.
3-BOSS: 2 frames faster thanks to one excess hit.
Act 3: -4.
Total: -38.
4-1-1: Glitch 1 help me saving 1 frame.
4-2-3: Glitch 1 help me saving 3 frames.
Act 4: -4.
Total: -42.
Act 5&6: There is no improvement.
7-1-2: 2 frames faster thanks to better zip.
7-2-1: Glitch 3 help me saving 20 frames.
Act 7: -22.
Total: -64.
13 years later, it's finally here! My biggest contribution to this run is simply inspiring xipo to pick it up, though input-wise I contributed the post-boss playarounds, part of the routing improvements in 2-2, and the application of the quick pause glitch in 7-2 (though xipo improved that improvement, and discovered the glitch in the first place). Note that because the published run is 13 years old, it uses 60FPS as the framerate. The actual time of the published run is
09:13.41 using the correct NES framerate.
Normally I'd have a big submission text full of jokes, but I'm honestly so excited to have this run out there that I have to leave it at just this. Also, this entire run was pretty much just xipo, I don't feel right commenting on it.
Working with xipo was an absolute pleasure. Everything went quickly, smoothly, and we ended up with a much larger improvement than I was expecting when I initially took up the run on my own. I can honestly say I've learned a lot from this, I feel like I've improved as a TASer, and I'm honored just being able to have worked on something like this in any fashion.
Thank you to GoddessMaria for being the best girlfriend of all time. You keep me motivated, you make me happy, you've improved my life so much in such a short time, and I can't wait for the amazing future we're going to have together. Love you! <3
And of course, thank you to Scumtron for the published run and for pushing the boundaries of Ninja Gaiden TASing so long ago. It's insane we were only able to get a second's worth of improvement in such a complex game after 13 years.
Suggested Screenshot
Frame 7213:
Update
Scumtron is now added as a co-author. While he had no active involvement with the creation of this run, Xipo and I both feel his contributions to previous runs warrant co-authorship. My original omission of his name was a mistake, and I apologize.
ThunderAxe31: In cases like these, there is little for me to say. I can only confirm that this is a solid improvement despite saving only 64 against a 13 years old movie.
Also, movie contents are visually similar, if not slightly more entertaining than the current publication. As such, it should inherit the Stars tier.
