Azure Dreams speed run! (PSX)

Ryuken

Edit history:

Ryuken: 2009-04-20 02:12:58 pm

2009-04-20 01:32:21 pm

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

I've just recently discovered SDA and have spent the last few days just looking around and watching some of the speed runs of some of the greats from my childhood.

However, I have disappointingly come to find, that there is no speed run for my all-time favorite game Azure Dreams.

Now, I know most people don't even know of this games existence but nonetheless I've decided to create a speed run topic dedicated to the greatest game of all time!
From what I can think of I can only really see two types of speed runs for this game:

1. Any% Speed run (wasnt sure what else to call it)- Realistically this will turn into a quickest floor 40 run as taking more than one trip to finish the story in a speed run would be unacceptable.

2. 100% Run- Now here is where things would become debatable. I feel that all girls and buildings are an obvious must, what is up for debate is whether all monster book entries need to be filled and whether all familiars need to be owned in the hut. If the all familiars owned addition is made, further description is necessary as to whether the evolved form is counted as both base and evolved or if you need to have one of the base form and one of the evolved form (absolute overkill in my opinion)

Now both runs can be both single and segmented runs, I personally don't feel that the Any% should be segmented as all that would boil down to would be luck manipulation of the elevators, but all that manipulation would be a feat in itself.

Now I wouldn't be starting this topic if I wasn't planning on trying these runs out myself as well, so as of today I think I'll start with my Any% seeing as how I haven't played the game in about a year or so.
Although now that i think about it, I don't really know what kind of advice can be given on speed running this game due to the overall progression system of it. But I've never speed ran a game before nor watched the progression of one so this may be far more helpful than I think.

And without further adieu, here I go!

EDIT: After a few runs all ending pretty horribly (I'm far more rusty than I thought) I'm beginning to think that a Any% is fairly pointless for this game. It will pretty much come down to 90% luck for item/monster/elevator locations. Even the 100% run (when its finally decided on its requirements) wouldn't be the most interesting of speed runs, however until it is shot down by the higher ups I'm sticking to it!

Let's see if I can get a first trip that makes it past 25F!

Thread title:

I've just recently discovered SDA and have spent the last few days just looking around and watching some of the speed runs of some of the greats from my childhood.

However, I have disappointingly come to find, that there is no speed run for my all-time favorite game Azure Dreams.

Now, I know most people don't even know of this games existence but nonetheless I've decided to create a speed run topic dedicated to the greatest game of all time!
From what I can think of I can only really see two types of speed runs for this game:

1. Any% Speed run (wasnt sure what else to call it)- Realistically this will turn into a quickest floor 40 run as taking more than one trip to finish the story in a speed run would be unacceptable.

2. 100% Run- Now here is where things would become debatable. I feel that all girls and buildings are an obvious must, what is up for debate is whether all monster book entries need to be filled and whether all familiars need to be owned in the hut. If the all familiars owned addition is made, further description is necessary as to whether the evolved form is counted as both base and evolved or if you need to have one of the base form and one of the evolved form (absolute overkill in my opinion)

Now both runs can be both single and segmented runs, I personally don't feel that the Any% should be segmented as all that would boil down to would be luck manipulation of the elevators, but all that manipulation would be a feat in itself.

Now I wouldn't be starting this topic if I wasn't planning on trying these runs out myself as well, so as of today I think I'll start with my Any% seeing as how I haven't played the game in about a year or so.
Although now that i think about it, I don't really know what kind of advice can be given on speed running this game due to the overall progression system of it. But I've never speed ran a game before nor watched the progression of one so this may be far more helpful than I think.

And without further adieu, here I go!

EDIT: After a few runs all ending pretty horribly (I'm far more rusty than I thought) I'm beginning to think that a Any% is fairly pointless for this game. It will pretty much come down to 90% luck for item/monster/elevator locations. Even the 100% run (when its finally decided on its requirements) wouldn't be the most interesting of speed runs, however until it is shot down by the higher ups I'm sticking to it!

Let's see if I can get a first trip that makes it past 25F!

ZenicReverie

2009-04-20 03:19:15 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

I know this game. I remember it taking a while though, so good luck. If you can get it under 7 hours, that will be a feat unto itself given the leveling system.

For those that don't know this game, it's a monster taming game, think pokemon lite. You can level your main character in the tower, but you lose all levels once you exit. You get to keep items though and your monsters retain their levels. You collect eggs to hatch tame monsters. The main draw of the game is to rebuild the desert oasis town that surrounds the tower. You get to unlock a bunch of mini-games that can earn you money to fix up more of the town or buy items in addition to winning the attention of various love interests.

I haven't finished the game, and I don't think I got very far, but I know played well over 20 hours and didn't make it past the 30th level without dying horribly.

Ryuken

2009-04-20 03:55:14 pm

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

Yea, the game does have an intensely sharp difficulty curve, but coming from someone who has spent more than 200+ hours in this game with almost 800 total trips to the tower, I know
that it's possible to get a first trip floor 40 run done in about two hours or so. So the Any% run would be fairly quick, but the luck involved in getting there would take ages.......even after my 20 recent attempts at a floor 40 run, the best I've made it is to 28F.

However if we are talking 100%, unless it is segmented you will be looking at AGES to complete with randomized egg drops for the monster book completion being the biggest time wasters of all.

With segmented however, I haven't done too much looking into how many trips need to be done to finish all buildings and get all the girls, but I assume it to be done at around 10 total trips.
Assuming each run needs to make it to around floor 20-30 to make good cash you can assume about 6-8 hours just from the tower alone and not counting the in-town sub-plots.

Then again, money in the tower becomes irrelevant once you build the casino, because due to the predictable pattern of the slot machines it's possible to reach in the Millions of Gs within an hour.

As of right now though, I'm only working on the Any% run. Though when I get sick of doing the initial adventure over and over again I'll start to work out a path to take for the 100% run

Yea, the game does have an intensely sharp difficulty curve, but coming from someone who has spent more than 200+ hours in this game with almost 800 total trips to the tower, I know
that it's possible to get a first trip floor 40 run done in about two hours or so. So the Any% run would be fairly quick, but the luck involved in getting there would take ages.......even after my 20 recent attempts at a floor 40 run, the best I've made it is to 28F.

However if we are talking 100%, unless it is segmented you will be looking at AGES to complete with randomized egg drops for the monster book completion being the biggest time wasters of all.

With segmented however, I haven't done too much looking into how many trips need to be done to finish all buildings and get all the girls, but I assume it to be done at around 10 total trips.
Assuming each run needs to make it to around floor 20-30 to make good cash you can assume about 6-8 hours just from the tower alone and not counting the in-town sub-plots.

Then again, money in the tower becomes irrelevant once you build the casino, because due to the predictable pattern of the slot machines it's possible to reach in the Millions of Gs within an hour.

As of right now though, I'm only working on the Any% run. Though when I get sick of doing the initial adventure over and over again I'll start to work out a path to take for the 100% run

getter77

2009-04-20 06:48:39 pm

100% runs=great to watch

I also know of this game, and bid your fair fortune and planning as both are pretty well needed in anything at least semi-Roguelike as this is.

I kinda doubt a 100% would include evolving everything and stuff...I'd see it more as completing all "quests/clearly defined tasks" so to speak versus getting every item or some such.

I.S.T.

2009-04-20 07:44:15 pm

I've played a fair bit of this game, and watched my mother and father play hundreds of hours of it(Yes, it's a favorite in my household, what of it? ;)). Looking forward to the run.

Ryuken

2009-04-20 08:27:08 pm

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

Glad to see that I'm not the only one to love this game!

As of right now, my first trip runs are getting a little better, after 15 tries I'm averaging between floors 20-28 every time. I'm re-learning a ton of strategies I made back about five or so
years ago. Hopefully I'll make my first 40 by the end of the week......due to my 40 hour job involving me sitting in front of my laptop with Azure Dreams emulated on it.

As of now I don't really know of any easy way to capture footage on my laptop, and on top of that my ISO is buggy creating problems like text overlapping and (by far a HUGE problem) no map.
If anyone has any ideas or links that they can share to help with these issues feel free Smiley

I.S.T.

2009-04-20 08:39:40 pm

You need to record the run on an actual console, Ryuken. They don't allow emulator runs here. Sorry.

Ryuken

2009-04-20 08:54:12 pm

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

Oh I know, but I just want to be able to post some trial runs, I fully intend to use my PS2 with the actual copy of the game to do my actual runs.

I just want to put something up for people to be able to see to not only show progress, but also to potentially get some feedback as well.

Ryuken

Edit history:

Ryuken: 2009-04-21 11:55:05 pm

2009-04-21 06:33:08 pm

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

Here are some notes I made of the run I am currently undertaking and seems very promising so far, though as
I well know, no matter how promising a run may be it can end instantly under any circumstances. I've put them in
a spoiler so as not to clutter this whole topic.

Floor 1- Tutorial, nothing special

Floor 2- Started out in a room with one troll and one Pulunpa, Leveled Kewne and I to 2.
FOUND GOLD SWORD!!!!!!!! (Score!.........oh wait.....this is my one trip run? Well then that
doesnt help at all........lame) Also found a Holy Scroll, this will probably be a life saver later.
Fought a few more monsters, am halfway to level 3

Floor 3- Found an odd glitch or programming error here, when I walked into the first room
I saw a troll over in the corner. As I approached I attempted to put myself into prime
postitioning to give me the first strike. However as I tried this, the troll only moved
every other turn staying just outside of my reach. So assuming he had stepped on a slow trap
I move in a turn right after the troll moves thinking I'd get a second turn. WRONG! The
troll just slaps me silly with his spiked club........This is the first time I've run
into a monster that didn't just try to get to me as fast as possible.....weird.

Anyway, after that whole fiasco I immediately find a red sand! I begin to debate
whether to upgrade the copper sword, gold sword or wait to find a better one.
Well I then proceed to step on a rust trap, with my copper now at -1 I equip the gold sword
(not cursed thank god) and use the red sand on it. Things seem to be going pretty well so far.......

....................until I take one more step and hit a poison trap, falling to 1 health.
And before I am able to recover it, a cyclone shows up.....and I am forced to use one
use out of my fire ball. Damn, well I guess I should know by now to accept the bad with the
good.

Rest of floor is uneventful.......

Floor 4- Very Uneventful, only thing of note is I became cornered by two cyclones
and was forced to have Kewne use a brid......more MP consumption than I would have
liked.....also increased to level 4 and found an Ice Rock ball.
Oh! And I also found a wind crystal......oh wait....this is still my first adventure run?
Damn..........

Floor 5- This is where runs can get destroyed, and this is perfectly proven by the fact
that it puts me in a room with two manoevas to start with.......thank god for my
Ice Rock ball.....I make it out with only being hit once and have another level up
to show for it. The rest of the floor consists of me finding yet another wind crystal
(come on now......water or fire please!) and finding the elevator......which had a bomb
trap one step before it which I of course stepped on Angry

Floor 6- A very hair pulling floor, I start once again with two manoevas. Time for the
Ice Rock once again....only to have a third one enter. Although a quick wind seed on
it made it much more manageable. After that harder than usual first room I was quickly
rewarded with a Pillar ball and another Pita fruit, very nice. I feed the Pita fruit to
Kewne as his MP was at around 40 or so at that point. I attempt to explore the rest of the floor
but with Manoevas seeming to be the only monster that the floor decided to spawn, I make
a quick retreat to the elevator.

Floor 7- Very short floor, I start this floor with about 4hp which makes the manoeva in
the first room very scary.....it is asleep however and is only one space away. I debate
whether or not to go and kill it, I decide for the safe approach and just leave the room.
Good idea, because after I took one step the Manoeva immediately woke up, as I was outside
the boundary of the room however, the manoeva decided to go the opposite direction.
I immediately start looking for the elevator and find it in the third room I visit.
I leave the floor with 23hp (not bad)

Floor 8- Here is where the next set of run killers come into play.....Blumes and (dear god no!)
U-Boats. Now I'm really starting to believe some higher power is against me doing well
this run, my spawn room has THREE BLUMES IN IT!!!!!!!!!! I use two Ice Rock blasts to wall
myself in while only allowing one space for a blume to come in at a time.
I kill all three with 10hp left. I begin to leave through the north exit only to see
another blume (damn it!) and a U-boat (come on now! Really?!?!?!) I immediately change
directions and head west. Not much to say after this, I run into a Clown who succesfully
LoDowns me (of course) so now Kewne and my levels are no longer identical (just kind of a
appearances thing for me). I kill two more Blumes and another Manoeva and find the elevator.

Floor 9- Now the game introduces one of the greatest and worst monsters at the same time,
the Dreamin. With their wind genus and low attack stat they are great for some experience
on the next few floors. However, as with all things in this game, a bad comes with the good.
They have the single most frustratingly run ending ablilities next to a Zu, they have
hypnosis. I can't tell you how many runs I have had destroyed because Kewne was asleep and
couldnt help me, or I feel asleep and Kewne couldnt handle the high leveled monsters.

I find the elevator right away and debate on whether or not to explore the floor more,
I end up trying to explore and move one room to the right in which I find a holy bell.
Feeling that this was enough good luck and wanting to leave before the bad set in I
decided to head back to the elevator. Short and sweet.

Floor 10- Finally! I spawn in a room with no monsters!!!! This gives me the much needed
time to organize my inventory as I have too much junk at this point and am at my 20 item
limit. This is made even better by the water crystal also in this room. Let the good
times roll! The elevator is also in this room as well, but I'm was feeling pretty good about
this floor so I decide to explore a bit.

And it pays off handsomely. I find a truth glass, a Mazarr seed and an exit loupe.
Knowing my luck will run out soon I then head back for the elevator. After a couple of clowns
and a volcano I also am level 8 (kewne is 9).

I don't really know if anyone cares, but I am taking this time to show my items currently
held after the first ten floors. Just as a reference point.

Kewne Gold+1 Wood shield Fire ball Ice Rock ball
Pillar Ball Mazarr Mazarr Pita Fruit Med. Herb
Holy Bell Holy Scroll Malicious Scroll Wind Crystal Water Crystal
Monster Lp. Monster Lp. Exit Lp. Truth Glass Pulunpa Egg (Dk. Gray)

So there ya go. Onto the Next 10!

Floor 11- My awesome luck from floor 10 decided not to carry over here, as I spawn
in a room with a dreamin (not bad) and a Griffon (.......shit). Deciding my best
course of action was to run, and seeing that Kewne was perfectly in range of the
Griffon, I pick Kewne up and proceed to try and leave the room.

Only to have the Griffon cast Rise at me after taking only one step. Causing 25 of my 48hp
I was getting a little worried. I pick Kewne back up and make it to the elevator two rooms
away without incident though.

Floor 12- This floor always sucks for two reasons:
1) Kraken, enough said
2) I need to get the blue collar. Most people think that this is pointless on a
first trip only playthrough, but I highly disagree. Not only does this allow you
to fuse Kewne with any eggs you may find allowing you to pass on potential helpful
traits along the way i.e. Double magic, double attack, double def etc. but anytime
you fuse two monsters together the fused monster is also given a full MP recovery! Very,
very helpful in my opinion.

However this time, things are very promising. I spawn not only in the room with the elevator
but also with my first egg of the run in it as well! The egg turns out to be a U-boat,
not awful but could definatly be better. I take this time to hatch it, as there are no
monsters around to impede the warming process. I then take time to hatch my pulunpa
as well so I can unlock DeRock for my U-boat so I can have a decent fire mix magic to
use.

NOTE: If you are ever warming an egg and can't fight the monsters on that floor, warm
the egg at the very edge of the room right at the wall barrier. The game won't count you
as being in the room at that point, and monsters who walk through the room may not even take
notice of you and will leave through a different exit. This only works however in rooms with
three or more exits.

Other than encountering 6 volcanoes (most of which I just threw) on my way through
looking for the blue collar nothing really happened on this floor. Found the collar
fused the two, and moved on to 13.

Floor 13- Spawned in the elevator room, went up, didn't feel like dealing with Krakens.

Floor 14- Spawned in a room with a Nyuel, and tried out my DeRock mix for the first time.

And realized why trial runs are so important....1 damage for a whopping 30MP! Needless
to say he was immediatly put back in the bag and Kewne came out to finish him off.
Other than that, just found the elevator and was on my way.

Floor 15- This is where doing a one run only playthrough is actually beneficial.
Guru's oil pot is located on this floor and is a quest item needed for a town quest
early on. Since I am doing a one run only play however, I don't need to waste time
looking for it.

This is the first time in the run I actually start to sweat a little. I spawn in a room
with a Nyuel and two Sword trolls. I make it out no problem as they are too far away
to cause any trouble. As I am making my way from one room to the next I see another
nyuel a few spaces ahead, now this wouldn't be a problem exept for the fact that I have
a sword troll a few spaces behind me as well. After doing some quick thinking I decide
the best course of action is to use a Pillar ball and then follow up with a quick mix magic
to kill the Nyuel and continue on my way letting the troll gain about two spaces on me
(I'm ahead of him by about four at this point).

I start with the Pillar ball, all goes well. I have to let him take the next step or
I will give him the first attack. So I wait, the troll is now only two spaces behind me.
I attack the nyuel and see a bright red MISS! Shit! The Nyuel hits for about 13 damage
or so (can't really remember too well), troll is still one space away from attacking however.
Next turn, mix magic one more time......MISS! SON OF A *!&^#!!!!!!!! Hit again by the Nyuel,
troll is now right on my ass. Once again, I had to do some planning. I decided the safest
course of action would be to use my holy scroll on myself and kill both the Nyuel and the troll. This plan
however made certain that my Kewne would die. And seeing as how he is fairly vital as
a potential distraction on the later floors I decided that letting him die right here
was not the best choice, especially with this being a trial run and all. So I decide
to pick Kewne up, maneuver around the Nyuel being hit twice (the second hit leaving me
with 2hp) and just book it away from that hellish place.

Even with another Nyuel and a Garuda joining the chase I still manage to find the elevator.

Floor 16- Here is where I have a big problem on deciding what to do, whether or not to
try to find a barong or just book it to the elevator. Usually what makes this decision
for me is how safe it looks when I find the elevator for the first time. If it looks
good I'll either search a room or two or wait on the elevator to see if one comes running
by. This one ended up being the latter.

The only real thing of note on this floor was the finding of a Scarlet Wand. This sole
weapon increases my survival chances drastically by effectively doubling my mixture
magic damage with Kewne. Now I don't have to run as much or take as many hits when
I do need to fight. Very nice pickup!

I found the elevator and was fairly safe so I waited for a Barong to show, nothing
but a manoeva which made me leave no questions about it!

Floor 17- Very small floor, got caught going to a room that was a dead end and when I
doubled back I had not one but TWO manoevas there to greet me. But with two fire ball
uses and two mix magic uses I made it out of there only being hit once.

Other than that nothing of note, found the elevator, gave Kewne a Mazarr seed and leveled
up on top of that. So now at level 12.

Floor 18- Very short floor, spawned in the room with the elevator.....along with an
arachine. End of floor.

Floor 19- Spawn in a room with a Fire ball which is nice. Found a few Weadogs but they weren't
too bad as long as I didnt find too many in a row, I can two shot them with my scarlet
wand Kewne combo. Leveled up again, Kewne and I are now at 13. Found the elevator and
immediately went up. Next floor please.

Floor 20- Spawned in the room with the elevator once more. Easy floor.

I'm going to stop my comments here for now as these ended up being far more indepth
than I planned. I'll finish the rest of the run and post the rest of the notes when
I am done.

Let me know what you think, I know some of the Azure Dreams vets will have a good idea of what I am talking
about, and for those who don't know so much I'm hoping to post a trial run on youtube fairly soon. I do need
some decent capturing software though as I previously stated if anyone has any ideas.

EDIT: I have captured the rest of the run (I'm not telling whether I made it or not, you'll just have to watch it yourself and see) and am in the Process
of uploading it to youtube as we speak. I'll post the link when it's up!

Here are some notes I made of the run I am currently undertaking and seems very promising so far, though as
I well know, no matter how promising a run may be it can end instantly under any circumstances. I've put them in 
a spoiler so as not to clutter this whole topic.

[spoiler]Floor 1- Tutorial, nothing special

Floor 2- Started out in a room with one troll and one Pulunpa, Leveled Kewne and I to 2.
FOUND GOLD SWORD!!!!!!!! (Score!.........oh wait.....this is my one trip run? Well then that 
doesnt help at all........lame) Also found a Holy Scroll, this will probably be a life saver later.
Fought a few more monsters, am halfway to level 3

Floor 3- Found an odd glitch or programming error here, when I walked into the first room
I saw a troll over in the corner. As I approached I attempted to put myself into prime
postitioning to give me the first strike. However as I tried this, the troll only moved
every other turn staying just outside of my reach. So assuming he had stepped on a slow trap
I move in a turn right after the troll moves thinking I'd get a second turn. WRONG! The 
troll just slaps me silly with his spiked club........This is the first time I've run
into a monster that didn't just try to get to me as fast as possible.....weird.

Anyway, after that whole fiasco I immediately find a red sand! I begin to debate
whether to upgrade the copper sword, gold sword or wait to find a better one.
Well I then proceed to step on a rust trap, with my copper now at -1 I equip the gold sword
(not cursed thank god) and use the red sand on it. Things seem to be going pretty well so far.......

....................until I take one more step and hit a poison trap, falling to 1 health.
And before I am able to recover it, a cyclone shows up.....and I am forced to use one
use out of my fire ball. Damn, well I guess I should know by now to accept the bad with the
good.

Rest of floor is uneventful.......

Floor 4- Very Uneventful, only thing of note is I became cornered by two cyclones
and was forced to have Kewne use a brid......more MP consumption than I would have
liked.....also increased to level 4 and found an Ice Rock ball. 
Oh! And I also found a wind crystal......oh wait....this is still my first adventure run? 
Damn..........

Floor 5- This is where runs can get destroyed, and this is perfectly proven by the fact
that it puts me in a room with two manoevas to start with.......thank god for my
Ice Rock ball.....I make it out with only being hit once and have another level up
to show for it. The rest of the floor consists of me finding yet another wind crystal
(come on now......water or fire please!) and finding the elevator......which had a bomb
trap one step before it which I of course stepped on >:(

Floor 6- A very hair pulling floor, I start once again with two manoevas. Time for the 
Ice Rock once again....only to have a third one enter. Although a quick wind seed on
it made it much more manageable. After that harder than usual first room I was quickly
rewarded with a Pillar ball and another Pita fruit, very nice. I feed the Pita fruit to
Kewne as his MP was at around 40 or so at that point. I attempt to explore the rest of the floor
but with Manoevas seeming to be the only monster that the floor decided to spawn, I make
a quick retreat to the elevator.

Floor 7- Very short floor, I start this floor with about 4hp which makes the manoeva in
the first room very scary.....it is asleep however and is only one space away. I debate
whether or not to go and kill it, I decide for the safe approach and just leave the room. 
Good idea, because after I took one step the Manoeva immediately woke up, as I was outside
the boundary of the room however, the manoeva decided to go the opposite direction.
I immediately start looking for the elevator and find it in the third room I visit.
I leave the floor with 23hp (not bad)

Floor 8- Here is where the next set of run killers come into play.....Blumes and (dear god no!)
U-Boats. Now I'm really starting to believe some higher power is against me doing well
this run, my spawn room has THREE BLUMES IN IT!!!!!!!!!! I use two Ice Rock blasts to wall
myself in while only allowing one space for a blume to come in at a time.
I kill all three with 10hp left. I begin to leave through the north exit only to see
another blume (damn it!) and a U-boat (come on now! Really?!?!?!) I immediately change
directions and head west. Not much to say after this, I run into a Clown who succesfully
LoDowns me (of course) so now Kewne and my levels are no longer identical (just kind of a
appearances thing for me). I kill two more Blumes and another Manoeva and find the elevator.

Floor 9- Now the game introduces one of the greatest and worst monsters at the same time, 
the Dreamin. With their wind genus and low attack stat they are great for some experience
on the next few floors. However, as with all things in this game, a bad comes with the good.
They have the single most frustratingly run ending ablilities next to a Zu, they have
hypnosis. I can't tell you how many runs I have had destroyed because Kewne was asleep and
couldnt help me, or I feel asleep and Kewne couldnt handle the high leveled monsters.

I find the elevator right away and debate on whether or not to explore the floor more, 
I end up trying to explore and move one room to the right in which I find a holy bell.
Feeling that this was enough good luck and wanting to leave before the bad set in I 
decided to head back to the elevator. Short and sweet.

Floor 10- Finally! I spawn in a room with no monsters!!!! This gives me the much needed
time to organize my inventory as I have too much junk at this point and am at my 20 item
limit. This is made even better by the water crystal also in this room. Let the good
times roll! The elevator is also in this room as well, but I'm was feeling pretty good about
this floor so I decide to explore a bit.

And it pays off handsomely. I find a truth glass, a Mazarr seed and an exit loupe.
Knowing my luck will run out soon I then head back for the elevator. After a couple of clowns
and a volcano I also am level 8 (kewne is 9).

I don't really know if anyone cares, but I am taking this time to show my items currently
held after the first ten floors. Just as a reference point.

Kewne         Gold+1	    Wood shield        Fire ball      Ice Rock ball   
Pillar Ball   Mazarr        Mazarr             Pita Fruit     Med. Herb
Holy Bell     Holy Scroll   Malicious Scroll   Wind Crystal   Water Crystal
Monster Lp.   Monster Lp.   Exit Lp.           Truth Glass    Pulunpa Egg (Dk. Gray)

So there ya go. Onto the Next 10!

Floor 11- My awesome luck from floor 10 decided not to carry over here, as I spawn
in a room with a dreamin (not bad) and a Griffon (.......shit). Deciding my best
course of action was to run, and seeing that Kewne was perfectly in range of the
Griffon, I pick Kewne up and proceed to try and leave the room.

Only to have the Griffon cast Rise at me after taking only one step. Causing 25 of my 48hp
I was getting a little worried. I pick Kewne back up and make it to the elevator two rooms
away without incident though.

Floor 12- This floor always sucks for two reasons: 
1) Kraken, enough said
2) I need to get the blue collar. Most people think that this is pointless on a 
first trip only playthrough, but I highly disagree. Not only does this allow you
to fuse Kewne with any eggs you may find allowing you to pass on potential helpful
traits along the way i.e. Double magic, double attack, double def etc. but anytime
you fuse two monsters together the fused monster is also given a full MP recovery! Very,
very helpful in my opinion.

However this time, things are very promising. I spawn not only in the room with the elevator
but also with my first egg of the run in it as well! The egg turns out to be a U-boat, 
not awful but could definatly be better. I take this time to hatch it, as there are no
monsters around to impede the warming process. I then take time to hatch my pulunpa
as well so I can unlock DeRock for my U-boat so I can have a decent fire mix magic to
use.

NOTE: If you are ever warming an egg and can't fight the monsters on that floor, warm
the egg at the very edge of the room right at the wall barrier. The game won't count you
as being in the room at that point, and monsters who walk through the room may not even take
notice of you and will leave through a different exit. This only works however in rooms with
three or more exits.

Other than encountering 6 volcanoes (most of which I just threw) on my way through 
looking for the blue collar nothing really happened on this floor. Found the collar
fused the two, and moved on to 13.

Floor 13- Spawned in the elevator room, went up, didn't feel like dealing with Krakens.

Floor 14- Spawned in a room with a Nyuel, and tried out my DeRock mix for the first time.

And realized why trial runs are so important....1 damage for a whopping 30MP! Needless
to say he was immediatly put back in the bag and Kewne came out to finish him off.
Other than that, just found the elevator and was on my way.

Floor 15- This is where doing a one run only playthrough is actually beneficial.
Guru's oil pot is located on this floor and is a quest item needed for a town quest
early on. Since I am doing a one run only play however, I don't need to waste time 
looking for it.

This is the first time in the run I actually start to sweat a little. I spawn in a room
with a Nyuel and two Sword trolls. I make it out no problem as they are too far away
to cause any trouble. As I am making my way from one room to the next I see another
nyuel a few spaces ahead, now this wouldn't be a problem exept for the fact that I have
a sword troll a few spaces behind me as well. After doing some quick thinking I decide
the best course of action is to use a Pillar ball and then follow up with a quick mix magic
to kill the Nyuel and continue on my way letting the troll gain about two spaces on me
(I'm ahead of him by about four at this point).

I start with the Pillar ball, all goes well. I have to let him take the next step or 
I will give him the first attack. So I wait, the troll is now only two spaces behind me. 
I attack the nyuel and see a bright red MISS! Shit! The Nyuel hits for about 13 damage 
or so (can't really remember too well), troll is still one space away from attacking however. 
Next turn, mix magic one more time......MISS! SON OF A *!&^#!!!!!!!! Hit again by the Nyuel, 
troll is now right on my ass. Once again, I had to do some planning. I decided the safest 
course of action would be to use my holy scroll on myself and kill both the Nyuel and the troll. This plan
however made certain that my Kewne would die. And seeing as how he is fairly vital as
a potential distraction on the later floors I decided that letting him die right here
was not the best choice, especially with this being a trial run and all. So I decide
to pick Kewne up, maneuver around the Nyuel being hit twice (the second hit leaving me
with 2hp) and just book it away from that hellish place.

Even with another Nyuel and a Garuda joining the chase I still manage to find the elevator.

Floor 16- Here is where I have a big problem on deciding what to do, whether or not to
try to find a barong or just book it to the elevator. Usually what makes this decision
for me is how safe it looks when I find the elevator for the first time. If it looks
good I'll either search a room or two or wait on the elevator to see if one comes running
by. This one ended up being the latter.

The only real thing of note on this floor was the finding of a Scarlet Wand. This sole
weapon increases my survival chances drastically by effectively doubling my mixture
magic damage with Kewne. Now I don't have to run as much or take as many hits when
I do need to fight. Very nice pickup!

I found the elevator and was fairly safe so I waited for a Barong to show, nothing
but a manoeva which made me leave no questions about it!

Floor 17- Very small floor, got caught going to a room that was a dead end and when I
doubled back I had not one but TWO manoevas there to greet me. But with two fire ball
uses and two mix magic uses I made it out of there only being hit once.

Other than that nothing of note, found the elevator, gave Kewne a Mazarr seed and leveled
up on top of that. So now at level 12.

Floor 18- Very short floor, spawned in the room with the elevator.....along with an
arachine. End of floor.

Floor 19- Spawn in a room with a Fire ball which is nice. Found a few Weadogs but they weren't
too bad as long as I didnt find too many in a row, I can two shot them with my scarlet
wand Kewne combo. Leveled up again, Kewne and I are now at 13. Found the elevator and
immediately went up. Next floor please.

Floor 20- Spawned in the room with the elevator once more. Easy floor.

I'm going to stop my comments here for now as these ended up being far more indepth
than I planned. I'll finish the rest of the run and post the rest of the notes when
I am done.[/spoiler]

Let me know what you think, I know some of the Azure Dreams vets will have a good idea of what I am talking
about, and for those who don't know so much I'm hoping to post a trial run on youtube fairly soon. I do need
some decent capturing software though as I previously stated if anyone has any ideas.

EDIT: I have captured the rest of the run (I'm not telling whether I made it or not, you'll just have to watch it yourself and see) and am in the Process
of uploading it to youtube as we speak. I'll post the link when it's up!

Ryuken

Edit history:

Ryuken: 2009-04-22 09:12:58 am

2009-04-22 02:40:18 am

I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said

Ok so I was an idiot and forgot about the whole ten minute limit on youtube videos......so you won't be able to see the rest of the run.

Needless to say, I was fairly proud of it, however it ended with a very gruesome death at the hands of two dragons on floor 35.

Now that I am re-aware of the ten minute limit, I am starting yet another trip into the fray with all of it captured and uploaded.
It should be done in about four hours or so, and once again I'll post the link when I'm done, or at least have most of it uploaded.

EDIT: Unfortunately the upload of the run will take a little longer than planned. My job actually decided to make me do work today (who'd of thought?)
But rest assured for those of you who can't wait for an uploaded run (all one of you...........and that one is probably me........) I will make sure
to have one up by the end of the night.

However I will not upload a run that does not make it past the 25th floor, gotta make sure its at least a little entertaining and helpful, doesn't help
to much for me to die on the second floor Tongue

Ok so I was an idiot and forgot about the whole ten minute limit on youtube videos......so you won't be able to see the rest of the run.

Needless to say, I was fairly proud of it, however it ended with a very gruesome death at the hands of two dragons on floor 35.

Now that I am re-aware of the ten minute limit, I am starting yet another trip into the fray with all of it captured and uploaded.
It should be done in about four hours or so, and once again I'll post the link when I'm done, or at least have most of it uploaded.

EDIT: Unfortunately the upload of the run will take a little longer than planned. My job actually decided to make me do work today (who'd of thought?)
But rest assured for those of you who can't wait for an uploaded run (all one of you...........and that one is probably me........) I will make sure
to have one up by the end of the night.

However I will not upload a run that does not make it past the 25th floor, gotta make sure its at least a little entertaining and helpful, doesn't help
to much for me to die on the second floor :P