• Made with VBA v1.7.2 re-recording v17.1
  • Uses SRAM to enable a new game on Hard Node
  • Uses glitches to warp to distant areas
  • Hardest difficulty
  • Takes damage. Once to reach an inaccessible platform and in other places just to save some time.
  • Never uses recovery items
  • Never uses save rooms to restore health
  • Never uses teleport rooms
Hmm... what to say about the game...? Aria of Sorrow is (in my opinion) the best of the 3 Castlevania episodes released for the GBA. It seems to be the real successor of Symphony of The Night. The character design is excellent and the animation is very smooth. You have tons of different weapons, such as knifes, swords, axes, spears, fist attachments and even some guns! And besides that, there are more than 100 enemy souls to collect, and each one has it's unique effect. To finish this game description, the game has (like SoTN) some glitches that allow the player to warp to faraway places and surpass the normal map completion limit.
About the making of the movie... It's really hard to make the enemies drop the items and souls you need sometimes, because the random number generator works only when the game thinks it's needed, so, in certain places, no matter how many times you use frame search you'll always have the same result. In these occasions, you must force the number generation. There are many ways to do that, like backdashing, attacking, hitting something, using morph souls, destroying something, leveling up and others... But I repeat: it's HARD! You can see that when you look at my re-record count... I have tried to make an entertaining run, that's why it's in Hard mode. It's fast, of course, but my main goal was diversion, not speed. A keen viewer might notice some minor mistakes in the first minutes of the run, but they'd not significantly reduce the total time, so I thought it was better just let them be...
  • edit
I forgot the most important part! Duh! My thank yous goes to Atma, for the great hints about TAS and always blunt critics, and to Bag of Magic Food, for his endless nonsense.

Truncated: After having discussed what to do with this submission in the #nesvideos channel, I decided on the following:
  1. To accept this submission, and have it obsolete Atma's any% run
  2. To allow a Normal difficulty run to obsolete this movie
  3. To NOT obsolete this movie if a 100% movie is made, but instead make a new category for that
The most important point is however that this submission is accepted.

Truncated: Four months later... the #1 point in the judgement wasn't like very well, so this is now it's own category. Instead any new submission WILL obsolete one of the existing movies, there will NOT be 4 categories.


Post subject: Tub, look here!
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
…Either the arbitrary "we can't have more than three runs of the same game, unless it's NES Metroid" rule should be reworked. …Either the Julius run should have been put in the concept demos category.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Agree..
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Player (31)
Joined: 9/23/2006
Posts: 207
Location: Moreno Valley, California
Telepoooorto! voted yes ;)
"The way to move out of judgment is to move into gratitude." — Neale Donald Walsch DannyLilithborne on IRC
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (980)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3109
Location: Sweden
>I still don't understand why this beats Atma's any% run. This movie uses glitches much like the warpful run of Circle of the Moon. Either Atma's run should stay up, or the Circle of the Moon non-warp run should be taken down. Since I made that call I guess I should answer with my reasoning: Both Atma's run and this are effectively any% runs, and they both used glitches to skip parts of the game. If Atma had known about the warp glitch there's no reason to think he wouldn't have used it. Additionally PS said he would like his future 100% run to obsolete this run, which felt completely backwards, that should be a new category. And having all of - any%, normal, glitches but no warp glitch - any%, hard, warp glitch - Julius run - possible future 100%, warp glitch seemed excessive, so the best option seemed to be to merge the two first categories and allow future runs to use normal difficulty. For the record I don't think having 4 Metroid runs is a good idea either, but I don't get to make that decision. ----- EDIT: I just saw the discussion in the GBA topic, which brought some new information. I'll be on IRC in a few hours, I hope interested parties can join too and we can try to solve this mess to everyone's liking.
Joined: 6/17/2006
Posts: 3
Location: Sweden
o.m.g. This movie is just awsome. I've played this game "quite alot" and beaten it the hard way, by finding every item and soul the "supposed" way. Even all the boss run wpns. I actually accidentally skipped some of the story the first time i played the game, by backslide/jumping to the platform where u'r supposed to double jump. I was quite surprised when i meet Julius for the first time (i think it was julius), and he was talking about stuff i had no idea about. ;) So I can for sure say that this is one of my fav. games 4 sure. I also learned to do the multi hit thing when i played, by jump-slash, land-slash, backslide-slashing. I thought that was quite cool. And now i see this movie... And like i said: o.m.g. This is just something else. :) The 2 last boss-battles are just awsome. The only thing i didnt like in this movie, as said by an user befor me, is the anticlimactic (is that even a word, or am i making it up myself? :) feeling when u just get the chaotic realm all of a sudden. 'Oh, its over already?' is what i thought. :P So im really looking forward 2 ur complete run of this game. And big THX for this movie, its a top10 fav. run for me when it comes to entertainment. And ive watched quite alot of them. :) Good luck with future movies.
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Truncated wrote:
Both Atma's run and this are effectively any% runs, and they both used glitches to skip parts of the game.
What glitches does Atma use? If you meant early access to the Floating Garden, that is just a frame perfect jump, just like entering the Castle without Flying Armor.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
The trick isn't have to be frame perfect per se, it can be done in realtime with some practice.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
moozooh wrote:
The trick isn't have to be frame perfect per se, it can be done in realtime with some practice.
Well.. yeah, I was mainly trying to say that it isn't a glitch. Atma's run has no glitches, whereas pirate_sephiroth's is glitchful.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
WOW, I loved this movie! Great glitch exploitation and I was frequently surprised by your item collection and usage. I don't think I ever got to use whatever it is you collected from that Final Guard, but that kicks serious ass.
Do Not Talk About Feitclub http://www.feitclub.com
Joined: 10/10/2006
Posts: 10
Location: StarDust SpeedWay - Rio De Janeiro
Very Nice Movie! Glitches are always fun to see! Go go go PS! "Sangue de Player Brasileiro!" Good luck with the 100% version!
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (980)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3109
Location: Sweden
>What glitches does Atma use? Both his submission and the published movie states that he uses glitches to skip a decently-sized portion of the castle. To me it felt like pirate_sepiroth did exactly the same thing, only better. We didn't get a conclusion yesterday, so I'll talk it over with Bisqwit asap, as suggested.
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Personally, I say publish them both and either get rid of the julius movie, or put it in concept demos.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Truncated wrote:
...he uses glitches to skip a decently-sized portion of the castle...
Well, I don't see the word glitch anywhere in there, but let me clarify: there was no act of glitch abuse in Atma's run. The skip that is being referenced here is due to a well placed jump, not a glitch. Each ledge in this game has a few pixels at the end where the platform is actually located a pixel or two lower than where it seems. There is a platform that is placed so that an 'optimal' double jump will allow you to just barely reach it. Atma did this jump so that he could skip an otherwise useless soul in the game. e: I should mention that this neat little trick is easily reproduceable in real time, and is cleverly shown in Dragondarch's speedrun over at SDA. He also uses the Flying Armor skip, which essentially also abuses the 'platform' aspect of ledges. pirate_sephiroth, on the other hand, left the game's boundaries using boundary glitches and exclusion warping. This is a definite use of glitches.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Joined: 10/10/2006
Posts: 10
Location: StarDust SpeedWay - Rio De Janeiro
I may be wrong, but both don't fall in the category of "any%" run? In that case, the Pirate Sephiroth's run obsolets the Atma's previous run, don't? But looking in another way, the CotM have TWO glitched runs (one less glitched then other, if i'm not wrong), what made the PS run a different category of Atma's run... And in that point i agree with OgreSlayeR to publish both and let the Julius movie in other place.
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Metal Sonic wrote:
I may be wrong, but both don't fall in the category of "any%" run? In that case, the Pirate Sephiroth's run obsolets the Atma's previous run, don't?
Well, it's relative. While both movies are versions of any% runs, pirate_sephiroth's movie uses huge glitching to skip past a lot of stuff. Atma's movie does not use glitchwarps, and so many of us feel that they should be in separate categories.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Joined: 10/10/2006
Posts: 10
Location: StarDust SpeedWay - Rio De Janeiro
Zurreco wrote:
Well, it's relative. While both movies are versions of any% runs, pirate_sephiroth's movie uses huge glitching to skip past a lot of stuff. Atma's movie does not use glitchwarps, and so many of us feel that they should be in separate categories.
I feel the same, because if i'm not wrong, the CotM both runs use various glitches too... And each one has been published separately. But i like to understand what other people fell and the arguments the will use... And the argument of "both are any% run" is very reasonable too. Still, IMO both have to be published separately.
Joined: 6/4/2005
Posts: 130
Location: Ontario, Canada
The extra glitches make this run a lot more enjoyable. A lot of the strategies in general just make it fun to watch. An excellent run for castlevania, glitch, and speedrun fans alike.