Hello 2024!
This is the third and final TAS of this game, I managed to save over a minute (I feel obligated to say that this TAS only works on the 1.1 version despite the ROM filename saying otherwise).
I'm only going to explain some significant time saves, since most time that was cutoff was just because of more polished movement:
- Serris
- By shooting two Super Missiles in a specific way, you can make it so that both projectiles hit Serris on the same frame. This is important because when Serris is hit, it enters a dashing animation and becomes invincible for a bit, by doing this twice you can make it so that this only occurs once (not counting the introduction), if you didn't do this, you would have to sit through two extra animations, which would lose a significant amount of time (which is what happens in my previous TASes of this game).
- Power Bomb route change
- In Lower Litore (the completely submerged area), there are two Power Bomb packs (the one I'm discussing is the second one I collect). Normally, you pass through the area where this Power Bomb is twice in the run, by carrying a Shinespark on the first visit, and only collecting it on the second visit saves roughly 200 frames, or 3 seconds, this is because if you use your Shinespark on the room, the total time you spend on it will be lower.
- Ridley
- It's impossible to save a significant amount of time in the Ridley fight, but I can confirm that it's the first time where I can say that it was perfect, no delayed shots or normal beam shots, the only possible time saves would be making it so that the last Super Missile hits Ridley as soon as possible and erasing the two lag frames that appeared. Still, that is only about 5 frames that could be saved.
- Unused trick
- By going on a subpixel-perfect position, you can clip onto a slope for a single frame, where you can then input a Shinespark and run down the slope. This could've been used in Mons Fire (the fire area) and in Arx (the purple area). It's hard to save how much time this would save, but I'd estimate that it could save about 3 seconds. The worst part is that I actually tried doing this trick, but I spent about two hours trying to do it and I couldn't recreate it. You can see a clip of the glitch here.
Time save table
| Area | Frames spent on area in this TAS | Frames spent on area in the previous TAS | Total frames saved |
|---|
| Solum 1 | 6459 | 6678 | -219 |
| Silva 1 | 7245 | 7570 | -325 |
| Solum 2 | 4737 | 4806 | -69 |
| Mons Fire | 9149 | 9644 | -495 |
| Solum 3 | 3432 | 3520 | -88 |
| Arx | 21877 | 22680 | -803 |
| Solum 4 | 2816 | 2918 | -102 |
| Mons Ice | 10474 | 10795 | -321 |
| Solum 5 | 6919 | 7049 | -130 |
| Litore 1 | 6133 | 6285 | -152 |
| Lower Litore | 6694 | 8022 | -1328 |
| Litore 2 | 985 | 1015 | -30 |
| Solum 6 | 2237 | 2330 | -93 |
| Silva 2 | 3417 | 3493 | -76 |
| Solum 7 | 2468 | 2518 | -50 |
| Turrim 1 | 9533 | 9680 | -147 |
| Umbra 1 | 1485 | 1526 | -41 |
| Turrim 2 | 7071 | 6788 | +283 |
| Umbra 2 | 2076 | 2101 | -31 |
| Ridley | 945 | 1020 | -75 |
| Total | 117585 | 121828 | -4243 |
If you're wondering why I did Turrim 2 283 frames slower, it's because of the boss RNG, I tried manipulating it but it wouldn't appear earlier, I got very lucky in the previous TAS regarding this boss.
- Lower rerecord count
- If you check the rerecord count between this TAS and the previous TAS, you may notice how it's larger in the old TAS (29562 compared to 30517). That is actually because both the old TAS and the first ever TAS were done on the same .tasproj file, which means this TAS has almost the same amount of rerecords as the two older TASes combined!
- Suggested Screenshot
- Frame 25075
Also, this is probably going to be my final Metroid Zero Mission ROM hack TAS, I'm going to branch out to other games, so keep a lookout for that!
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Nice improvement of 4243 frames! This improvement series reminded me of how Super Metroid went through a number of improvements, in the very beginning. Congratulations on your work.
