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SS run with warps
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations/Condolences to Brian ‘Brossentia’ Cook!
SS run with warps
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Solid run, actually. Nothing really went wrong, good boss fights. Video looks kinda bad but that's just the game itself. Same with the audio but it's even worse. Accept, though I vote we never formally post the run. Just let it show up on the list so nobody accidentally watches it.
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A/V: HORRIBLE! Which means I am definitely watching and unfortunately listening to an Athena run.
Cheating: Well Brossentia frequently cheated death during this run, but that happens at least five times during any Athena run that beats the game.
I had to force myself to watch this run. It was really slow and boring and tortuous. The run was so powerful I could feel the pain of playing Athena just by watching the gameplay. Memories of savestate...
Anyway, this is quite a good run. There are a lot of mistakes in the latter half, but the game has incredibly stupid jumping mechanics, and it loves killing you for no real reason at all, so just getting through the game is an accomplishment.
I would say that the final boss battle was really slow, but it's such a dumb and random boss battle that it's impossible to be consistent fighting the boss.
The fact the runner beat this game without dying is a huge accomplishment, and as slow the run looks, it's actually quite fast for Athena. I'll accept this run, but I don't think I'll watch it again.
I timed the run at 0:22:35 (yeah this is Uyama if you couldn't tell already). I started timing when Athena lands on the ground (start of control) and ended timing after the game has a seizure and transitions you to the ending screen (end of control).
P.S. Brossentia, you should run the arcade version of Athena, it's soooooooooooo much better than this version.
Cheating: Well Brossentia frequently cheated death during this run, but that happens at least five times during any Athena run that beats the game.
I had to force myself to watch this run. It was really slow and boring and tortuous. The run was so powerful I could feel the pain of playing Athena just by watching the gameplay. Memories of savestate...
Anyway, this is quite a good run. There are a lot of mistakes in the latter half, but the game has incredibly stupid jumping mechanics, and it loves killing you for no real reason at all, so just getting through the game is an accomplishment.
I would say that the final boss battle was really slow, but it's such a dumb and random boss battle that it's impossible to be consistent fighting the boss.
The fact the runner beat this game without dying is a huge accomplishment, and as slow the run looks, it's actually quite fast for Athena. I'll accept this run, but I don't think I'll watch it again.
I timed the run at 0:22:35 (yeah this is Uyama if you couldn't tell already). I started timing when Athena lands on the ground (start of control) and ended timing after the game has a seizure and transitions you to the ending screen (end of control).
P.S. Brossentia, you should run the arcade version of Athena, it's soooooooooooo much better than this version.
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Audio/Video: Looked fine, if by fine we mean that terrible graphics and ear piercing sound sound good
Cheating: He didn't die at all, so maybe he cheated?
First off, I'll say that this is Dragondarch, aka the only other guy besides Brossentia who is more knowledgeable about speedrunning this game than the game actually deserves. I guarantee I'm going to be more nitpicky than the other 2 verifiers, but that's only because Brossentia and I were sharing strats pretty much the whole time he was attempting this game (well, at least after SGDQ we were, anyway...).
World of Forest:
Looked good. Some slight bad luck with enemy placement, but nothing reset worthy. Only real improvement here would be to do a short jump before dropping back to the lower level for the 2nd time, since you avoid the enemy and a full-animation swing by staying on top of the platform.
World of Cavern:
Everything looked good here, but I'm still in disagreement about taking the bottom route and killing the enemies at the end. You can get a full suit armor upgrade in one of the blocks on top, and I've never had issues with lag right there. Then again, Brossentia and I have pretty much to the agreement that every cart of Athena works differently, and my cart may just not lag as much period.
World of Sea:
Easily one of the best runs of this world I've ever seen. I had doubts about Brossentia's strat to take damage during the stage to lose Mermaid, but this run did it flawlessly with no time lost. Some of that was pure luck though.
World of Sky:
That archer not dying in one hit was pure bullshit. Also, I'm surprised Brossentia didn't take the top route after the lamp, since it reduces lag by a lot. I know he was low on Life, but there's another small heart flower on the platform just before the exit (it had one of the club-wielding enemies on it), and that one would have had considerably less lag. I won't comment on when the optimal point to get the wings is since I'm thin king both mine and his strat are about equal in terms of time.
World of Ice:
Archer trolled him pretty hard, but actually helped since it downgraded his weapon. Nothing else really of note here.
World of Hell:
He went for the Red Sword, which I know he's more comfortable with. Personally, I prefer the Ball & Chain here, and some creative screen scrolling to keep enemies at bay. I think he lost a little time both in getting the sword, and in some block breaking in the dark areas. Not much time lost though, and at least he waited until after the first section to get the sword, since getting it right at the start costs a lot of time due to that first wall of blocks. Also, some trolling from enemies, etc.
Boss Rush:
Skipped both heart flowers in the Forest section, even though he needed the Life. I think the 2nd one doesn't appear if you don't open the first one (maybe?). Seemed to disorient him when the 2nd one didn't appear when it should have.
Big reason for keeping Ball & Chain through World of Hell is for Green Giant in Cavern section, since it's sooooooooo easy to OHKO him with it.
Got trolled in Sea section, and I think that first heart flower ended up not gaining him any life at all.
Good, he took the vine exit in the Sky section. That alone saved him about 15 seconds over his last run.
Almost forgot Pandora's Box in Ice section. That would have been an instant reset. Big Heart flower trolled him a little.
Well, now we know that the Fire Arrow is necessary to kill centaurs in one hit, as the Blue Arrow was still taking two. Rest of Hell section went pretty much swimmingly.
World of Labyrinth:
He still gets the Wings in the same spot he did before, even though he had pretty much agreed that the ones I got a bit farther in may have been faster. Also, Ball & Chain or Fire Sword here is pretty much a must. World of Hell I can understand having Red Sword since after the first area, there's not many blocks to deal with, but World of Labyrinth has a TON of block to break, and Red Sword is slow on that front. I think Fire Sword would be best if we could find one, since that can break block below you (Which the Ball & Chain cannot), and would make the Harp section MUCH faster.
Dante's World:
Got the Fire Sword for block breaking, which we actually have Uyama to thank for finding (by complete accident). Surprised he didn't just keep swinging it to lose it instead of getting the Claw, since that would have allowed him to stay at S12 over dropping to S08, as there's at least 2 heart dropping enemies right before Dante that he could have used to refill his Life. dante, as expected, was a complete troll, especially that last head. Can't fault Brossentia for that at all since a run of this game can literally be decided by how good or bad your luck is against Dante.
Overall:
I see some improvements here and there, mostly small ones. The only major ones I can see would require some research to see if they're even feasible. That said, I give this a emphatic ACCEPT. I'll just go with Uyama's timing of it because I'm lazy
PS: I can't believe that www.speeddemosarchive.com/Athena is actually going to exist. I'm not sure if this is a day we will rejoice or lament
Cheating: He didn't die at all, so maybe he cheated?
First off, I'll say that this is Dragondarch, aka the only other guy besides Brossentia who is more knowledgeable about speedrunning this game than the game actually deserves. I guarantee I'm going to be more nitpicky than the other 2 verifiers, but that's only because Brossentia and I were sharing strats pretty much the whole time he was attempting this game (well, at least after SGDQ we were, anyway...).
World of Forest:
Looked good. Some slight bad luck with enemy placement, but nothing reset worthy. Only real improvement here would be to do a short jump before dropping back to the lower level for the 2nd time, since you avoid the enemy and a full-animation swing by staying on top of the platform.
World of Cavern:
Everything looked good here, but I'm still in disagreement about taking the bottom route and killing the enemies at the end. You can get a full suit armor upgrade in one of the blocks on top, and I've never had issues with lag right there. Then again, Brossentia and I have pretty much to the agreement that every cart of Athena works differently, and my cart may just not lag as much period.
World of Sea:
Easily one of the best runs of this world I've ever seen. I had doubts about Brossentia's strat to take damage during the stage to lose Mermaid, but this run did it flawlessly with no time lost. Some of that was pure luck though.
World of Sky:
That archer not dying in one hit was pure bullshit. Also, I'm surprised Brossentia didn't take the top route after the lamp, since it reduces lag by a lot. I know he was low on Life, but there's another small heart flower on the platform just before the exit (it had one of the club-wielding enemies on it), and that one would have had considerably less lag. I won't comment on when the optimal point to get the wings is since I'm thin king both mine and his strat are about equal in terms of time.
World of Ice:
Archer trolled him pretty hard, but actually helped since it downgraded his weapon. Nothing else really of note here.
World of Hell:
He went for the Red Sword, which I know he's more comfortable with. Personally, I prefer the Ball & Chain here, and some creative screen scrolling to keep enemies at bay. I think he lost a little time both in getting the sword, and in some block breaking in the dark areas. Not much time lost though, and at least he waited until after the first section to get the sword, since getting it right at the start costs a lot of time due to that first wall of blocks. Also, some trolling from enemies, etc.
Boss Rush:
Skipped both heart flowers in the Forest section, even though he needed the Life. I think the 2nd one doesn't appear if you don't open the first one (maybe?). Seemed to disorient him when the 2nd one didn't appear when it should have.
Big reason for keeping Ball & Chain through World of Hell is for Green Giant in Cavern section, since it's sooooooooo easy to OHKO him with it.
Got trolled in Sea section, and I think that first heart flower ended up not gaining him any life at all.
Good, he took the vine exit in the Sky section. That alone saved him about 15 seconds over his last run.
Almost forgot Pandora's Box in Ice section. That would have been an instant reset. Big Heart flower trolled him a little.
Well, now we know that the Fire Arrow is necessary to kill centaurs in one hit, as the Blue Arrow was still taking two. Rest of Hell section went pretty much swimmingly.
World of Labyrinth:
He still gets the Wings in the same spot he did before, even though he had pretty much agreed that the ones I got a bit farther in may have been faster. Also, Ball & Chain or Fire Sword here is pretty much a must. World of Hell I can understand having Red Sword since after the first area, there's not many blocks to deal with, but World of Labyrinth has a TON of block to break, and Red Sword is slow on that front. I think Fire Sword would be best if we could find one, since that can break block below you (Which the Ball & Chain cannot), and would make the Harp section MUCH faster.
Dante's World:
Got the Fire Sword for block breaking, which we actually have Uyama to thank for finding (by complete accident). Surprised he didn't just keep swinging it to lose it instead of getting the Claw, since that would have allowed him to stay at S12 over dropping to S08, as there's at least 2 heart dropping enemies right before Dante that he could have used to refill his Life. dante, as expected, was a complete troll, especially that last head. Can't fault Brossentia for that at all since a run of this game can literally be decided by how good or bad your luck is against Dante.
Overall:
I see some improvements here and there, mostly small ones. The only major ones I can see would require some research to see if they're even feasible. That said, I give this a emphatic ACCEPT. I'll just go with Uyama's timing of it because I'm lazy
PS: I can't believe that www.speeddemosarchive.com/Athena is actually going to exist. I'm not sure if this is a day we will rejoice or lament
Decision: Accept
Congratulations/Condolences to Brian ‘Brossentia’ Cook!
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