1-Up!
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet
Segmented NG w/ DLC
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe!
Segmented NG w/ DLC
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Other than the very heavy use of DLC and basically the same creatures used over and over, this is a very good run. That being said, I do think it is a rather boring run. Seeing the same creatures used time after time kind of bored me. Still, it is a very well planned and well executed run. I say it should be accepted.
Quote:
Audio & Video: No problems found (well, other than the usual gripe about verification video quality being pretty bad, making it hard to read some of the text sometimes).
Cheating: None.
The runner was nice enough to end every segment by going back to the main menu and showing the save timestamp so that it's easy to compare between the segments. (They can probably be left out of the final versions, I suppose, since it adds quite of time to every video.)
Comments: Ah, My Life as a Darklord. A surprisingly deep and addicting game. An "interesting" choice to speedrun...
This is because the genius of the run will probably be lost on most casual viewers. Namely, this is a run that's much more planning than execution, since there's almost no randomness in this game; all the enemies come out at specific times over the course of the level (since by pressing the "A" button as soon as a wave of heroes is in the tower, it forces the next group to appear), and all heroes/monsters will always deal a set amount of damage. In other words, if you deploy your floors + monsters in exactly the same way (along with some good "A" button mashing), you'll get the same final time every time - well, excluding lag, of course!. The exception to this is certain enemies (like Red Mages and Wizards) that randomly choose which monster to hit, which actually just requires luck manipulation since there's not much else you can do about that.
So basically, the only real things you can do to "speedrun" the game is:
1) Mash the "A" button for pretty much the whole run, save for a few situations where you should actually delay the next group so that things go faster overall.
2) Minimize the time you spend on menus (since it stops the game flow completely). This also includes trying never to use the spells, since they kill a LOT of time.
3) As soon as the LAST hero steps into the tower, end the level as soon as possible (since you literally cannot beat the level until this happens - and this always happens after a certain time has elapsed since the start of the level (again, excluding lag), no matter how fast you've been killing heroes before this).
4) Minimize lag (although there's not much you can do here; the game lags like crazy in the later levels even if you're not directly looking at the action). Yet another reason why avoiding spells is a huge deal.
This is how I THINK it works, anyway. Since this is a WiiWare game, there's actually not much info on it out there, so I couldn't really confirm this anywhere else. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
Of course, by putting it this way, I don't mean to trivialize the effort of the runner. In reality, it's not anywhere near as easy as I'm making it sound. Namely, some of the levels are very difficult, and you only have so much NP you can use, so finding out how to "beat the level as soon as the last hero appears" is definitely not trivial. So, again, the real genius here is finding out how to position your floors and monsters to not only survive the general onslaught with minimal use of the menus, but also leave yourself in a position to finish off the last few heroes without having to scramble with all this last-minute setup. The fact that you're constantly pushing "A" to call all the heroes as fast as possible doesn't help (it's kind of like playing Tetris while constantly holding "down"). This is complicated even further by the fact that sometimes you DON'T want to mash "A" - sometimes, as the runner shows, it's faster to delay JUST a bit so that the heroes line up a little better.
It's much easier for me to sit here and talk about these things than it was for the runner to actually spend the time and figure these strategies out, so major kudos there. All in all, I was left quite impressed - the runner addressed the 4 points above quite well, spending minimal time in the menus and overall showing that quite a bit of time was spent studying alternatives to figure out what was best.
Now, the in-depth comments, which is more like commentary since most of the segments are pretty much optimal, so there's no point in saying "yet another optimal segment" over and over again.
=== CHAPTER 1 = Segments 1 - 4
On Segment 1, a lot of time is spent skipping all those DLC-specific intros, haha (hmm... I wonder if this means that we should mandate that, if you make a run with DLC, you should have ALL the DLC for comparisons's sake? But I digress...). Equipping the Cat Dress (or the Dark Dress) is definitely the best option - the spells waste way too much time, and any extra NP definitely helps.
Segment 4 shows a great example of when delaying the "A" press is better, with Chime. Thanks to her Slow spell limiting the amount of times the monsters can attack her before she goes on, you NEED two floors - and it's much better to delay her a bit than to spend all that time setting up a third floor.
There's not much else to say since I definitely can't think of a faster way to do the levels.
=== CHAPTER 2 = Segments 5 - 13
Upgrading Death Knight is put to good use early on.
Segment 7 was particularly well orchestrated. The Ogres make a different against those Bandits. Of course, the save time of 13:37 only adds to the awesomeness.
Segment 9 sees the entrance of Ahrimans, which are among the best choice for taking down those pesky Magic users.
Some more beautiful orchestration in Segment 10. Those Ranged heroes don't know what hit them!
The rest of the Chapter 2 segments are pretty much for showing off how badass the Ogres are. That and how much the game lags like crazy...
The final segment (13) shows off some more great usage of the "A" button timing to space out the heroes just right, which is necessary on these final "boss" levels since they're always packed with enemies. To do the whole thing in 4 floors was pretty awesome. My favorite segment so far.
=== CHAPTER 3 = Segments 14 - 22
Segment 16 sees the entrance of the annoying White Mages. A good time for Level 3 Death Knight to make an appearance!
Segment 17 and 18 have a great use of Scorpions, who can give you that extra oomph when the Ahrimans just can't do enough damage.
Segment 19 and 20 introduce Behemoth and Gigas. For when those White Mage bastards just HAVE to die.
Segment 20 is a fun one, with Gigas and Behemoth just whooping the complete snot out of a bunch of slow, defensive heroes (plus a random Red Mage). Definitely a good choice of monsters for this level. Although I think some time was wasted at the end there by placing an unecessary third Behemoth on the final floor.
Segment 21 starts having more of those Red Mages, which can really screw you over if you're not ready for them. The runner uses the right strategy - since you only really get to hit them once per floor, hit 'em as hard as you can.
And then we get to Segment 22. Again, the fact that the runner was able to beat this with just 5 floors shows how well planned this run is. Hero after hero gets destroyed by the very well-placed floors. Excellent work.
=== CHAPTER 4 = Segments 23 - 31
Segment 23 is one where the runner's research and planning truly shines, being able to deal with all the different types of adventurers. AND there's a fair amount of luck manipluation needed thanks to those bastard Red Mages.
On Segment 24, some more time was wasted placing an unecessary 5th floor. I'm guessing it was for extra insurance against the Red Mages? Anyway, the last Red Mage died right after it was placed, and then no hero ever ventures up there, so... yeah, kind of a waste.
Wow... Death Knights + Bravery Stoves work really freaking well against Illusionists and White Mages and... pretty much everything, actually. The runner is able to make use of this combo to sweep pretty much the rest of the chapter.
Quite an intense amount of luck manipulation in Segment 31! It's like every other hero is a freaking Red Mage. Then then Hunters show up and mess up some floors. Then Hugh Yurg shows up and messes up even more floors! He takes quite a while to take down, but I definitely don't know of a way to kill him any faster since he's extremely annoying and you don't exactly have a lot of NP at that point.
=== CHAPTER 5 = Segments 32 - 38
Segment 32 features Wizards, which somehow manage to be even MORE annoying than Red Mages. Alas, the runner is able to effectively use Void Fountains to deal with their insta-Sleep attack.
Segment 33 finally shows the runner using a Healer monster! I can see how normally wasting NP on defensive monsters and floors would just slow you down, but Spheres are useful here for multiple reasons: (a) Chapter 5 starts hitting you with so many strong enemies that it sometimes becomes more cost-effective to keep your monsters alive rather than build new ones, (b) Spheres can cure Sleep as well, so it removes the need for Void Fountains, and (c) probably most importantly, the extra monsters gives Wizards a chance to NOT hit the Death Knight, which is absolutely essential. Also, looks like could have been a few seconds saved by having better luck with the Wizards at the end there (optimally the last Thief should be the last to die), but it was just a few seconds and the runner actually caught quite a lucky break at the end there, so I can't say I fault him.
Wow, Segments 34 and 35 went really well. The right amount of luck manipuation on those Red Mages really limits their ability to screw everything up. Oh, and the runner wastes a bit more time on another useless on Segment 35, but as usual, no biggie.
Very well placed Void Fountains + "A" button delay on Segment 36. Nice job. And pretty epic finish, placing the 6th floor right as the 1st one dies (thanks to the 5 floor limit) and then having that floor finish the fight.
Segment 37 features a brutal level that once again requires the help of Spheres. This segment is notable in that it features the first use of a spell. Normally I would object since they waste SO much time, but it's pretty well justified here given that (a) it beat 3 heroes, and (b) there's definitely no clear way that I can see to otherwise clear them out.
And then comes the final segment. The runner FINALLY upgrades the tower to 10 floors max, haha. While it would have cool to be able to finish the run with just 5 floors throughout, those Purgatory Presses really help out (makes me wonder if there's other places throughout the run where this could have been used... hmmm). Also, man, these heroes really start to eat up those floors! Another spell has to be used to take some of them out - again, understandable, given that it's the final level. And spectacular job on taking out the awesomely-named final boss.
Verdict: All in all, I was left quite impressed, and the run was actually much more entertaining than I was expecting. The runner clearly showed that lots of research and practice went into this run, and while there might exist more optimal strategies for some of the levels, they definitely wouldn't be obvious. That said, there were a number of mistakes (mostly placing extra useless floors here and there, which I'm guesing were to account for bad luck), but these mistakes all in all only cost seconds and not minutes, which is fine on a 2+ hour run. So, in the end, my verdict is a clear ACCEPT.
Cheating: None.
The runner was nice enough to end every segment by going back to the main menu and showing the save timestamp so that it's easy to compare between the segments. (They can probably be left out of the final versions, I suppose, since it adds quite of time to every video.)
Comments: Ah, My Life as a Darklord. A surprisingly deep and addicting game. An "interesting" choice to speedrun...
This is because the genius of the run will probably be lost on most casual viewers. Namely, this is a run that's much more planning than execution, since there's almost no randomness in this game; all the enemies come out at specific times over the course of the level (since by pressing the "A" button as soon as a wave of heroes is in the tower, it forces the next group to appear), and all heroes/monsters will always deal a set amount of damage. In other words, if you deploy your floors + monsters in exactly the same way (along with some good "A" button mashing), you'll get the same final time every time - well, excluding lag, of course!. The exception to this is certain enemies (like Red Mages and Wizards) that randomly choose which monster to hit, which actually just requires luck manipulation since there's not much else you can do about that.
So basically, the only real things you can do to "speedrun" the game is:
1) Mash the "A" button for pretty much the whole run, save for a few situations where you should actually delay the next group so that things go faster overall.
2) Minimize the time you spend on menus (since it stops the game flow completely). This also includes trying never to use the spells, since they kill a LOT of time.
3) As soon as the LAST hero steps into the tower, end the level as soon as possible (since you literally cannot beat the level until this happens - and this always happens after a certain time has elapsed since the start of the level (again, excluding lag), no matter how fast you've been killing heroes before this).
4) Minimize lag (although there's not much you can do here; the game lags like crazy in the later levels even if you're not directly looking at the action). Yet another reason why avoiding spells is a huge deal.
This is how I THINK it works, anyway.
Of course, by putting it this way, I don't mean to trivialize the effort of the runner.
It's much easier for me to sit here and talk about these things than it was for the runner to actually spend the time and figure these strategies out, so major kudos there. All in all, I was left quite impressed - the runner addressed the 4 points above quite well, spending minimal time in the menus and overall showing that quite a bit of time was spent studying alternatives to figure out what was best.
Now, the in-depth comments, which is more like commentary since most of the segments are pretty much optimal, so there's no point in saying "yet another optimal segment" over and over again.
=== CHAPTER 1 = Segments 1 - 4
On Segment 1, a lot of time is spent skipping all those DLC-specific intros, haha (hmm... I wonder if this means that we should mandate that, if you make a run with DLC, you should have ALL the DLC for comparisons's sake? But I digress...). Equipping the Cat Dress (or the Dark Dress) is definitely the best option - the spells waste way too much time, and any extra NP definitely helps.
Segment 4 shows a great example of when delaying the "A" press is better, with Chime. Thanks to her Slow spell limiting the amount of times the monsters can attack her before she goes on, you NEED two floors - and it's much better to delay her a bit than to spend all that time setting up a third floor.
There's not much else to say since I definitely can't think of a faster way to do the levels.
=== CHAPTER 2 = Segments 5 - 13
Upgrading Death Knight is put to good use early on.
Segment 7 was particularly well orchestrated. The Ogres make a different against those Bandits. Of course, the save time of 13:37 only adds to the awesomeness.
Segment 9 sees the entrance of Ahrimans, which are among the best choice for taking down those pesky Magic users.
Some more beautiful orchestration in Segment 10. Those Ranged heroes don't know what hit them!
The rest of the Chapter 2 segments are pretty much for showing off how badass the Ogres are. That and how much the game lags like crazy...
The final segment (13) shows off some more great usage of the "A" button timing to space out the heroes just right, which is necessary on these final "boss" levels since they're always packed with enemies. To do the whole thing in 4 floors was pretty awesome. My favorite segment so far.
=== CHAPTER 3 = Segments 14 - 22
Segment 16 sees the entrance of the annoying White Mages. A good time for Level 3 Death Knight to make an appearance!
Segment 17 and 18 have a great use of Scorpions, who can give you that extra oomph when the Ahrimans just can't do enough damage.
Segment 19 and 20 introduce Behemoth and Gigas. For when those White Mage bastards just HAVE to die.
Segment 20 is a fun one, with Gigas and Behemoth just whooping the complete snot out of a bunch of slow, defensive heroes (plus a random Red Mage). Definitely a good choice of monsters for this level. Although I think some time was wasted at the end there by placing an unecessary third Behemoth on the final floor.
Segment 21 starts having more of those Red Mages, which can really screw you over if you're not ready for them. The runner uses the right strategy - since you only really get to hit them once per floor, hit 'em as hard as you can.
And then we get to Segment 22. Again, the fact that the runner was able to beat this with just 5 floors shows how well planned this run is. Hero after hero gets destroyed by the very well-placed floors. Excellent work.
=== CHAPTER 4 = Segments 23 - 31
Segment 23 is one where the runner's research and planning truly shines, being able to deal with all the different types of adventurers. AND there's a fair amount of luck manipluation needed thanks to those bastard Red Mages.
On Segment 24, some more time was wasted placing an unecessary 5th floor. I'm guessing it was for extra insurance against the Red Mages? Anyway, the last Red Mage died right after it was placed, and then no hero ever ventures up there, so... yeah, kind of a waste.
Wow... Death Knights + Bravery Stoves work really freaking well against Illusionists and White Mages and... pretty much everything, actually. The runner is able to make use of this combo to sweep pretty much the rest of the chapter.
Quite an intense amount of luck manipulation in Segment 31! It's like every other hero is a freaking Red Mage. Then then Hunters show up and mess up some floors. Then Hugh Yurg shows up and messes up even more floors! He takes quite a while to take down, but I definitely don't know of a way to kill him any faster since he's extremely annoying and you don't exactly have a lot of NP at that point.
=== CHAPTER 5 = Segments 32 - 38
Segment 32 features Wizards, which somehow manage to be even MORE annoying than Red Mages. Alas, the runner is able to effectively use Void Fountains to deal with their insta-Sleep attack.
Segment 33 finally shows the runner using a Healer monster! I can see how normally wasting NP on defensive monsters and floors would just slow you down, but Spheres are useful here for multiple reasons: (a) Chapter 5 starts hitting you with so many strong enemies that it sometimes becomes more cost-effective to keep your monsters alive rather than build new ones, (b) Spheres can cure Sleep as well, so it removes the need for Void Fountains, and (c) probably most importantly, the extra monsters gives Wizards a chance to NOT hit the Death Knight, which is absolutely essential. Also, looks like could have been a few seconds saved by having better luck with the Wizards at the end there (optimally the last Thief should be the last to die), but it was just a few seconds and the runner actually caught quite a lucky break at the end there, so I can't say I fault him.
Wow, Segments 34 and 35 went really well. The right amount of luck manipuation on those Red Mages really limits their ability to screw everything up. Oh, and the runner wastes a bit more time on another useless on Segment 35, but as usual, no biggie.
Very well placed Void Fountains + "A" button delay on Segment 36. Nice job. And pretty epic finish, placing the 6th floor right as the 1st one dies (thanks to the 5 floor limit) and then having that floor finish the fight.
Segment 37 features a brutal level that once again requires the help of Spheres. This segment is notable in that it features the first use of a spell. Normally I would object since they waste SO much time, but it's pretty well justified here given that (a) it beat 3 heroes, and (b) there's definitely no clear way that I can see to otherwise clear them out.
And then comes the final segment. The runner FINALLY upgrades the tower to 10 floors max, haha. While it would have cool to be able to finish the run with just 5 floors throughout, those Purgatory Presses really help out (makes me wonder if there's other places throughout the run where this could have been used... hmmm). Also, man, these heroes really start to eat up those floors! Another spell has to be used to take some of them out - again, understandable, given that it's the final level. And spectacular job on taking out the awesomely-named final boss.
Verdict: All in all, I was left quite impressed, and the run was actually much more entertaining than I was expecting.
Quote:
Audio & Video - Everything looks good here. Nothing to complain about
Cheating - None
The sheer amount of planning I would expect a run like this to take is shown through the save files. Seeing as this was a year in the making, I am damn impressed at how little was actually needed for some of the levels. The fact that the runner didn't upgrade to 10 floors until the final segment was quite impressive. The lack of a variety of creatures chosen does make the run a slight bit boring at times, but the planning was excellent and made it a totally worthwhile run to watch.
Verdict - Accept
Cheating - None
The sheer amount of planning I would expect a run like this to take is shown through the save files. Seeing as this was a year in the making, I am damn impressed at how little was actually needed for some of the levels. The fact that the runner didn't upgrade to 10 floors until the final segment was quite impressive. The lack of a variety of creatures chosen does make the run a slight bit boring at times, but the planning was excellent and made it a totally worthwhile run to watch.
Verdict - Accept
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe!
Thread title: