Breath of Fire

2011-04-24 12:52:27 am

D:

I thought about continuing the segment, but I was able to rationalize my decision to save where I did. Though he doesn't do it often, Pincher can use L.Storm, which would add a few seconds to the fight if nothing else. Also, having the save point lets me get through the segment on only 2 Mrbl3s. For whatever reason, I had planned to use 3, so I'm gonna look like a jerk when I get to the end of the game and I have an extra Mrbl3 in my inventory, but since I can't go back to the segment when I bought it, I might as well save another couple seconds.

__sdfg

2011-04-24 09:14:09 pm

D:

This seems about right for the trip through the volcano.

See everyone next year!

japanzaman

2011-04-25 05:11:51 am

Man this is going to take a while. I was at around 900 something attempts when I got it, probably even more as I started to get lazy counting towards the end. I guess do about 20~30 a day and you should have it by the end of summer (maybe). As soon as you get that, you might as well break out the High Life as you'll cruise through pretty much the rest of the game with perhaps the exception of the Mote sequence.

__sdfg

2011-04-25 10:42:49 pm

D:

Happy New Year.

49 attempts. I was surprised.

DoubleThink

Edit history:

DoubleThink: 2011-04-26 12:30:22 am

2011-04-26 12:27:54 am

There's a word for that

I think this is an ideal spot to put my 500th post Smiley

Well done. I look forward to seeing the Dark Doctor in action Cheesy

Incidentally, do have any idea of what the final time will be yet? The only specific mention of it I remember seeing is that the run should beat the 5 hour mark.

japanzaman

2011-04-26 07:14:18 am

Oh wow.

No really, I'm actually stunned. Given how straight forward the rest of this game will be, it may not be impossible to see you finish this up by the end of summer depending on how much time you can put into it. Considering all the time you have put into this run, you definitely deserved this bit of luck. Great job keeping it together and finishing that sequence perfectly under pressure!

__sdfg

2011-04-26 07:13:33 pm

D:

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I am trying to devote more time to this than I had been and I'm really happy that it's paying off.

The 5-hour figure was something that I pulled out of my butt after watching Janus's WIP TAS and not realizing how much time I'd lose to non-frame-perfect menu navigation. I can try to make a better estimate by comparing against Janus's final TAS, though. Assuming that each segment ends when the Dragon Lord goes away (how I time, as I think I've mentioned before) and subtracting 20s per segment to make up for time between saves & loads, I'm currently at 2:41:43. Janus first walks past the save point in Gust at 2:20:51 and the length of his total video is 4:22:00. Assuming the length of my run to be proportional to that of his, mine should end sometime around... 5:00:12. Cool.

The video that I submit will of course be longer than that because of the load screens and stuff, but the SDA timing should hopefully be shorter since I haven't bothered to cut out the intro/ending time. I'd say I'm on target.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.  I am trying to devote more time to this than I had been and I'm really happy that it's paying off.

The 5-hour figure was something that I pulled out of my butt after watching Janus's WIP TAS and not realizing how much time I'd lose to non-frame-perfect menu navigation.  I can try to make a better estimate by comparing against Janus's final TAS, though.  Assuming that each segment ends when the Dragon Lord goes away (how I time, as I think I've mentioned before) and subtracting 20s per segment to make up for time between saves & loads, I'm currently at 2:41:43.  Janus first walks past the save point in Gust at 2:20:51 and the length of his total video is 4:22:00.  Assuming the length of my run to be proportional to that of his, mine should end sometime around...  5:00:12.  Cool.

The video that I submit will of course be longer than that because of the load screens and stuff, but the SDA timing should hopefully be shorter since I haven't bothered to cut out the intro/ending time.  I'd say I'm on target.

Dragondarch

2011-04-27 02:49:06 am

Pudding%

Just to note: the end time for each segment by SDA timing will probably be the moment the cursor disappears after confirming a save, as that's the exact moment you lose control. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that's how it'll be done.

Also, I have nothing pertinent to say about the run except that I'm looking forward to seeing it thumbsup

__sdfg

2011-05-02 11:25:05 pm

D:

Boner.

In the end, nothing may be set back other than my pocketbook, but I am still unhappy about it. I've had my SNES for over 17 years now. Sad

japanzaman

2011-05-03 06:59:25 am

Bound to happen sooner or later. Nobody around you has an old snes laying around?

__sdfg

2011-05-03 07:25:25 am

D:

Nah. I know people around me who don't have an SNES, and people who have an SNES but aren't around me. The intersection is the empty set. I'm an obsessive enough collector that I can tolerate paying ridiculous used game store prices for a replacement, but I really wish it were garage sale season right now...

Anyway, I've hard more "fun" with the K.Roach fight than expected and I should be able to experiment with that even on the broken console, so this shouldn't affect the run other than perhaps making me slightly pissed off while I record the finished version of the segment.

Axel Ryman

2011-05-04 03:38:24 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

I'd lend mine but considering where it was during the fire I don't even know if you'd want it or even if it works. I don't have the power cord or a/v cables for it either so I wouldn't be able to test. If you're still interested I might be able to send it out.

__sdfg

2011-05-04 07:42:25 pm

D:

I think I'll just go troll the used game stores in the area this weekend. I was mainly upset about finally having a console (partially) die on me, and I'm mostly over that now. Thanks for the offer, though.

__sdfg

2011-05-21 01:19:10 am

D:

I found a replacement SNES. Also here's a new segment. The end of the RugaX fight hurt, and I ran out of menu gas as the segment went on, but the K.Roach fight went sufficiently quickly that this segment still outpaced my other attempts. I think this is close to as fast as I'm likely to get. Also, I really hate fighting the K.Roaches now and I don't want to do it anymore.

I don't think it will surprise anyone that I rewrote my run plan to put the lab and the G.Fly fight in the same segment. Walking from the town entrance to the shrine just takes way too long.

PJ

2011-05-21 12:34:54 pm

Is PJ

Great news about the SNES! Glad to see some more progress on this run. It looks amazing so far!

__sdfg

2011-05-21 09:03:17 pm

D:

Thanks, PJ.

The next segment is among the easier ones. In fact, while I am going to make some more attempts to see if I can save a few more seconds, I think this one already looks pretty good.

And then I have to fight HornToad. Sad

japanzaman

2011-05-23 05:07:28 pm

Good to hear your back at it. After Horntoad, the only exciting thing left will be Mote, or perhaps Mothra if you want to see how many slams you can get in on him. The segments look good!

__sdfg

2011-05-24 11:55:02 pm

D:

I'm actually most concerned about walking through the invisible mazes without looking like a doofus. As you may have noticed, I struggle with walking even when the walls are visible.

I made the Gust segment slightly faster and now consider myself done with it. The improvement isn't as significant as it may seem at first because I deferred the level-up text for Ryu into a later segment. It's still an improvement, though.

Also, I didn't mind letting Ryu die because I don't think he'll have much impact on how fast the HornToad fight goes unless he sprouts a second DarkDR somehow.

japanzaman

2011-05-25 01:57:12 am

Just out of curiosity, are you going to AB Horntoad or just pound him down with Shin and Mrbl1?

__sdfg

2011-05-25 05:54:28 pm

D:

I'm just about out of Mrbl1s, so I will have to AB him. When I was testing stuff way back long ago in an emulator, I decided that there were better places to use the Mrbl1s before Tunlan than HornToad. I dunno if that's still true given that I've done a few things differently since that test, but it's too late to go back and double-check now.

I actually did beat him on the console a few weeks ago while I was verifying that my strategies weren't completely insane. I'm sure I can make it happen again. I just have to get Shin to go all FlowerX...

japanzaman

2011-05-26 02:47:10 am

I'll be anxious to see that fight for sure. Good luck.

__sdfg

2011-05-27 11:28:37 pm

D:

I'll be out of town this weekend, but I did manage to record this before I go. As usual, I want to play with luck/verify that I didn't do anything stupid that I haven't noticed yet before committing to it.

Some notes on my strategy, since I'm now basically ignoring the one that I published last year:

I put my party members in the order in which I want them to die, with Karn ideally not dying.
Having Ryu die here is optimal because it makes death abuse in Mogu's dream trivial.
I did some testing in an emulator and determined that with Ryu at level 20, I could reduce my healing item budget by 1 and my Mrbl1 budget by 2 if I use FirDgn on Avian rather than BltDgn, and they take about the same amount of time because I skip a Cure. Therefore, I was able to afford a Cure to go with my Mrbl1s, which reduced the amount of future inventory-messing that I'll have to do versus picking up a Melon.
Ryu has way more experience than I expected and should easily reach level 20 before Avian.
I saved in Gramor because I didn't trust myself not to waste time running into walls/swamp gas if I'd extended the segment even more.

I'll be out of town this weekend, but I did manage to record [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BscYoEn5xtY]this[/url] before I go.  As usual, I want to play with luck/verify that I didn't do anything stupid that I haven't noticed yet before committing to it.

Some notes on my strategy, since I'm now basically ignoring the one that I published last year:
[list]
[li]I put my party members in the order in which I want them to die, with Karn ideally not dying.[/li]
[li]Having Ryu die here is optimal because it makes death abuse in Mogu's dream trivial.[/li]
[li]I did some testing in an emulator and determined that with Ryu at level 20, I could reduce my healing item budget by 1 and my Mrbl1 budget by 2 if I use FirDgn on Avian rather than BltDgn, and they take about the same amount of time because I skip a Cure.  Therefore, I was able to afford a Cure to go with my Mrbl1s, which reduced the amount of future inventory-messing that I'll have to do versus picking up a Melon.[/li]
[li]Ryu has way more experience than I expected and should easily reach level 20 before Avian.[/li]
[li]I saved in Gramor because I didn't trust myself not to waste time running into walls/swamp gas if I'd extended the segment even more.[/li]
[/list]

DoubleThink

2011-05-28 03:13:24 am

There's a word for that

LET'S FIGHT!

That HornToad battle was about perfect. Almost at the home stretch now! Cheesy

japanzaman

2011-05-28 04:03:36 am

Wow, you're really starting to pound this out now! That Mothra segment will be frustrating, I assure you... You definitely needed to save before attempting that segment. That Avian battle should also be fun. Just hope he doesn't slam!

__sdfg

Edit history:

__sdfg: 2011-06-05 02:26:15 pm

2011-06-02 08:43:11 pm

D:

Hmm, I did make a stupid mistake in the last segment, but I've already saved over my pre-HornToad, so I can't go back.

I should have subbed in Bleu during the fight with HornToad so that I'd have four dead characters for death abuse in the swamp. Instead, I have to wait for Karn to die. In the segment I recorded earlier tonight, that cost me about 6-7 seconds (minus the 1-2 I saved in the previous segment by not switching in Bleu).

Significant? No. Annoying? ...hmm, Taiga Forum doesn't have a head-bashing smiley...

EDIT: ...and I'm going with this.