Breath of Fire

2011-06-16 11:43:16 pm

D:

Bumpity bump.

This one really is a speedrun test because I don't want that character select breakdown in the final run. I posted it because I haven't released anything in a couple weeks and I'd prefer to have any strategy issues spotted now rather than after I've fought Mothro some more (though I'm not sure how much strategy there is in walking).

I haven't run this segment enough yet to know if the Mothro fight was exceptionally fast or merely fast. I guess I'll find out.

ZenicReverie

2011-06-17 12:00:48 am

Waiting hurts my soul...

MVP for the run, Shin (played by Karn, Gobe, and Bo). How does Mothro dodge a 'Slam'? Looking good.

japanzaman

2011-06-17 03:48:54 am

I'd say this is passable. There were some little mistakes and the Mothra fight was fast, but not exceptionally fast. I remember hitting 1:20 in a fight during testing on an emulator, but I'm not sure how many people you wanted alive for the Mote fight so that may be kind of tough to pull off. I guess you could keep going until you get a better time and also manage to do some of the other technical things a little more smoothly. If you do another 100 runs and can't manage to improve the overall segment then I wouldn't really care if this ended up being the final attempt. Goodness knows the next segment is going to be all kinds of fun.

__sdfg

2011-06-17 10:43:53 pm

D:

1:20, huh? Now I have something to shoot for. Tongue

japanzaman

2011-06-18 08:41:41 pm

I'm pretty sure you'd need to have both Mogu and Ox go down fairly early to hit that time, as well as a slam or two from Shin. If you actually got that time, you could afford some sloppiness in the menu segment i my opinion thumbsup

__sdfg

2011-06-19 10:09:02 pm

D:

...yeah, after another 70-ish attempts, I think I'm topping out at 1:26 or so, depending on how you time it. You remain the undisputed champion of Mothra, japanzaman.

Other than that, I still suffered from a case of the wallbumps, but I at least won the menu mini-game. I used the spring at the end because I need as many meatshields for Mote as I can get and I can't spare any Life2s due to having convinced myself back in Tunlan that I wouldn't need any of the Melons. :/

Speaking of Mote, that segment will be interesting because my strategy will depend on how much using ATK-Up on Shin speeds up the Cerl fight. If it makes a big difference, I either need to keep Nina alive against Mote or not use the Life2 that I'd allocated for Karn during the fight. I don't think any of my savestates adequately represent the current makeup of my party, so the only way to determine the value of ATK-Up is to work through the Mote segment, test fighting Cerl, and then go back and do the Mote segment for real. I guess what I'm saying is that it might be a few weeks before I record anything presentable.

...yeah, after another 70-ish attempts, I think I'm topping out at [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdFA_FhlbC0]1:26 or so[/url], depending on how you time it.  You remain the undisputed champion of Mothra, japanzaman.

Other than that, I still suffered from a case of the wallbumps, but I at least won the menu mini-game.  I used the spring at the end because I need as many meatshields for Mote as I can get and I can't spare any Life2s due to having convinced myself back in Tunlan that I wouldn't need any of the Melons. :/

Speaking of Mote, that segment will be interesting because my strategy will depend on how much using ATK-Up on Shin speeds up the Cerl fight.  If it makes a big difference, I either need to keep Nina alive against Mote or not use the Life2 that I'd allocated for Karn during the fight.  I don't think any of my savestates adequately represent the current makeup of my party, so the only way to determine the value of ATK-Up is to work through the Mote segment, test fighting Cerl, and then go back and do the Mote segment for real.  I guess what I'm saying is that it might be a few weeks before I record anything presentable.

japanzaman

2011-06-19 11:28:00 pm

I think 1:26 is definitely fast enough. The 1:20 I threw out there was what I "remember" getting one time, but that was a while back so there is definitely a chance you are the real champ ___sdfg;D

As I'm sure you know, this is pretty much the crucible of the entire challenge- getting this battle done with Nina alive is going to be tricky. You'll really need him to use his regular attack often. Honestly, just beating him with your setup is going to be hard enough. If you are planning to AB Cerl then I wouldn't worry about having Nina alive as your time will depend largely on slams and how quickly you can get the other party members to go down.

Either way it should be pretty entertaining.

japanzaman

2011-06-19 11:30:13 pm

I just remembered... is there not a healing fountain on the way to Cerl? Or is the 5 seconds too much to sacrifice?

__sdfg

2011-06-20 09:01:33 pm

D:

There is a fountain in Tock, but it's not on the route that I usually take. It's on another path that looks more direct, but that my notes indicate is 5 seconds slower because of all the teleporter tiles. That adds up to 10 extra seconds, which seems like enough of a difference to justify a little (?) extra work in the preceding segment.

japanzaman

2011-06-21 06:37:50 am

I think that really all depends on how quickly you can beat Mote AND keep Nina alive. Obviously if you could get your best time against Mote and keep Nina alive then you'd be set...

__sdfg

2011-06-24 10:59:32 pm

D:

Mote is easier than I remembered.

I haven't done many attempts yet, so I think I'm gonna work on this one for a few more days. There are at least 10 seconds left to be shaved out of that fight, depending on how long I can sustain my good luck.

PJ

2011-06-24 11:31:27 pm

Is PJ

The end of that segment reminded me how much I hate the Cerl/Alan section of the game. I hope that segment is easy for you so you don't have to try it many times. I watched that part of the game once in the past year and even that was too many times. Sad

Nice segment, though! It's nice seeing Mote go down so easily. Tongue

DoubleThink

2011-06-25 02:41:01 am

There's a word for that

Shin is a beast. Good luck improving that fight, it's already pretty darned impressive.

japanzaman

2011-06-26 06:00:02 am

Hard to imagining getting a better Mote fight. He never once hit you with that nasty spread attack and killed off the useless party members quite quickly. You could keep going until you get a better time, and keep from any wall bumps, but considering all the little micro managing this segment requires outside of the Mote fight I think one half second mistake can easily be over looked. All in all pretty nice stuff. Can we start getting in line to verify this baby pretty soon? Wink

__sdfg

2011-06-26 10:29:40 pm

D:

Given the length, that was one of my best recordings, wall-bump-wise. Tongue

Anyway, I did another 50 fights and did not improve upon the posted segment. It stands.

Also, I know the verification comment was a joke, but for the record, I'm shooting for submission in early September. If the next few segments take less time than expected, I'll spend some extra time optimizing the last one. If they take longer than expected... Sad

mikwuyma

2011-06-26 11:10:14 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Watching these segments make me wonder how and why I beat the game without a guide as a kid. Sad

Axel Ryman

2011-06-26 11:17:32 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

Quote from mikwuyma:

Watching these segments make me wonder how and why I beat the game without a guide as a kid. Sad

You rented the game that had a save file at the very end of the game?

It's how I did it Tongue

I was always stuck on the stupid tonic part cause I didn't know where to get 2 ingredients.

ZenicReverie

2011-06-26 11:31:06 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Quote from Axel Ryman:

Quote from mikwuyma:

Watching these segments make me wonder how and why I beat the game without a guide as a kid. Sad

You rented the game that had a save file at the very end of the game?

It's how I did it Tongue

I was always stuck on the stupid tonic part cause I didn't know where to get 2 ingredients.

I don't remember beating this game (probably didn't on my own), but I do remember playing it. My brother and I used to tag team games and we'd fill each other in on the story or previous levels when we switched. I'm pretty sure he beat it.

I think I'll play this again soon so I can enjoy the run.

PJ

2011-06-27 02:54:48 am

Is PJ

I could never get very far but I loved this game as a kid. My dad used to play this for me so I could see more of it. ^_^ I still have his completed file on my cart. Never would have known where to go without seeing him do it first.

japanzaman

2011-06-27 03:36:21 am

Quote from __sdfg:

If the next few segments take less time than expected, I'll spend some extra time optimizing the last one. If they take longer than expected... Sad

You could always just combine the final hour of the game into a single uber segment. That would definitely spice things up.

mikwuyma

2011-06-27 12:04:27 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

I actually bought the game brand-new, and I don't recall using a guide to beating the game. Anyway, this run is looking really good so far, lots of interesting strategies I wouldn't think about using (like the party-switching).

__sdfg

2011-06-27 10:07:52 pm

D:

Quote from mikwuyma:

Watching these segments make me wonder how and why I beat the game without a guide as a kid. Sad

That's a good question. Like I said at the beginning of the thread, it took me two years and eventually GameFAQs to beat it the first time.

...seems prophetic now. :/

Quote from japanzaman:

You could always just combine the final hour of the game into a single uber segment. That would definitely spice things up.

ahhhhhhhh *cry*

__sdfg

2011-07-05 08:28:04 pm

D:

This recording was noisier than usual. I suspended my capture dongle off the floor after recording it and it seems to have helped. I don't think it's too bad, though, and I'm happy with the fight, so... meh.

And yes, I know YouTube makes it basically impossible to judge video quality. Sad

japanzaman

2011-07-06 06:00:10 am

You might want to be really really sure that the quality is up to snuff before commiting to the segment if you think there could be a problem with it. I'm in no position to judge these sorts of things, but I'd really hate to see a run this well executed get tossed because of one little section. Other than that, good stuff. You managed to keep the Hero alive somehow!

__sdfg

2011-07-08 11:52:06 pm

D:

I don't know if this went any better, noise-wise, but I did save about four seconds, so thanks for encouraging me to keep trying.

Also, after looking at my various encodes more closely, I think x264 naturally low-passes out most of the noise when I convert the video to MP4, so I don't think the noise will be a distraction in what I eventually submit.