Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-11-22 04:05:41 pm

2009-11-20 05:08:44 pm

Quits halfway

Well, finished up a couple hours of attempts and wasn't able to get any good runs (pretty sure I didn't even beat boss rush either). I had two which were close, the best was 1:01 after Rahab, but got a horrible Gergoth pattern. The other was 1:50 after Bat Company, but didn't kill Paranoia in one cycle and died on Abaddon. For comparsion, the 5:14 was 1:10 after Rahab and 2:16 after Bat company.

So, sub-4:30 is the goal.

Here's the new tricks/strats.

Balore can be killed after 1 attack, but it's really difficult. I probably won't require me doing this.
Dario can be killed before he does a Hellfire, but it requires him to just walk toward you at the beginning (not likely).
After hitting Dario with the ice, tapping R 3 times lets you cast another ice faster, it saves a little over a second (over the whole fight).
Gergoth gets 2 Yoko lightnings, then I switch to Alucard and shorthop attacks. If he backs up, I go stand near his legs. I get hit a bit, but it's way faster.
When Zephyr does his counter, attack until just before he does it, then cast a hellfire and activate the counter with a regular slash. He'll get hit by all three fireballs. Because of MP concerns, I only use this once.
Bat Company gets 1 shorthop slash as soon as I walk in, then I spam Hellfire, it kills him really fast.
Paranoia CAN be killed in 1 round with Alucard, which is super amazing.
Yoko is great on Death, gameFAQS guy was onto something.

I did an unrecorded 4:50.8x while messing around with Paranoia. I didn't kill him in one round, if I had that would have been a 4:40.

So yeah, more attempts later tonight or tomorrow.

Well, finished up a couple hours of attempts and wasn't able to get any good runs (pretty sure I didn't even beat boss rush either). I had two which were close, the best was 1:01 after Rahab, but got a horrible Gergoth pattern. The other was 1:50 after Bat Company, but didn't kill Paranoia in one cycle and died on Abaddon. For comparsion, the 5:14 was 1:10 after Rahab and 2:16 after Bat company.

So, sub-4:30 is the goal.

Here's the new tricks/strats.

Balore can be killed after 1 attack, but it's really difficult. I probably won't require me doing this.
Dario can be killed before he does a Hellfire, but it requires him to just walk toward you at the beginning (not likely).
After hitting Dario with the ice, tapping R 3 times lets you cast another ice faster, it saves a little over a second (over the whole fight).
Gergoth gets 2 Yoko lightnings, then I switch to Alucard and shorthop attacks. If he backs up, I go stand near his legs. I get hit a bit, but it's way faster.
When Zephyr does his counter, attack until just before he does it, then cast a hellfire and activate the counter with a regular slash. He'll get hit by all three fireballs. Because of MP concerns, I only use this once.
Bat Company gets 1 shorthop slash as soon as I walk in, then I spam Hellfire, it kills him really fast.
Paranoia CAN be killed in 1 round with Alucard, which is super amazing.
Yoko is great on Death, gameFAQS guy was onto something.

I did an unrecorded 4:50.8x while messing around with Paranoia. I didn't kill him in one round, if I had that would have been a 4:40.

So yeah, more attempts later tonight or tomorrow.

Persona

2009-11-20 09:13:41 pm

Castlevania?

At what second can you kill Balore at? I tried Yoko on Balore and it seems I can get about 15 seconds if done well. Maybe 14.

I don't have much problems doing backdash hops with Yoko but how do you do those superfast low jump attacks with Alucard? o.o

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-11-20 09:50:33 pm

2009-11-20 09:15:33 pm

Quits halfway

~~Lowest I've seen was like 14.5~~, but I can only get 14s maybe 1/20 tries.

Fast Balore, fail on everything else

Looked through a couple of clips and I'm pretty sure this is the fastest one I've seen. Going frame-by-frame the counter came up either right at 14.00 or just before it, hard to tell since there's a huge laser. And yeah, I said it was a bad Gergoth pattern, but turns out it was just me not knowing how to play the game. This was also before I had the simple Bat Company strategy. I used to just try to time a fireball to hit as he was coming down (which I failed there), do 4 total, and then a regular slash. Also, laugh at my Paranoia failings, I even try to bat and still die lol

Hmm, looks like I need to retape my DS.

For the Alucard attacks, I turn my hand 90 degress around the DS so it's lined up on BY like it would normally be for XY. Then I just slide it over the two pretty much as fast as I can. This is also probably why it's shaking more than normal and why my thumb is showing up so much.

One thing I was experimenting with was just hitting both buttons "at once" with the whole thumb. Since the knuckle would be over B, it'd get hit first, then Y the frame after, which would give you the fast attack, then it's just a matter of vibrating your hand at the correct speed. I wasn't able to get it very well but it might be something to try.

[s]Lowest I've seen was like 14.5[/s], but I can only get 14s maybe 1/20 tries.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCK15wiQOaw]Fast Balore, fail on everything else[/url]

Looked through a couple of clips and I'm pretty sure this is the fastest one I've seen. Going frame-by-frame the counter came up either right at 14.00 or just before it, hard to tell since there's a huge laser. And yeah, I said it was a bad Gergoth pattern, but turns out it was just me not knowing how to play the game. This was also before I had the simple Bat Company strategy. I used to just try to time a fireball to hit as he was coming down (which I failed there), do 4 total, and then a regular slash. Also, laugh at my Paranoia failings, I even try to bat and still die lol

Hmm, looks like I need to retape my DS.

For the Alucard attacks, I turn my hand 90 degress around the DS so it's lined up on BY like it would normally be for XY. Then I just slide it over the two pretty much as fast as I can. This is also probably why it's shaking more than normal and why my thumb is showing up so much.

One thing I was experimenting with was just hitting both buttons "at once" with the whole thumb. Since the knuckle would be over B, it'd get hit first, then Y the frame after, which would give you the fast attack, then it's just a matter of vibrating your hand at the correct speed. I wasn't able to get it very well but it might be something to try.

Satoryu

2009-11-20 11:34:09 pm

Visually Appealing

Sounds like Shield Dashing. Which I don't think would work too well on a DS.

Aftermath

2009-11-22 06:00:46 pm

Quits halfway

Another test, 4:34.94

All of the strategies I listed above were used here, so you can see approximately how fast they are. More tips appreciated, I think ~4:25 is going to be the final time.

In_Pieces

2009-11-22 07:00:07 pm

...?

Wow, awesome. Keep it up Wink

Persona

2009-11-22 07:25:44 pm

Castlevania?

Would starting off the Paranoia fight with a lightning attack from Yoko be faster? Then switch to Alucard.

Also does the normal hitting for Dario make any difference? As in does it allow us to lessen one ice attack?

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-11-22 08:16:21 pm

2009-11-22 07:48:48 pm

Quits halfway

I'll have to try the Paranoia thing, should work.

Dario does need a certain number of club hits along with ice. It's basically one club hit with each ice hit, except the first ice hit. I should go ahead and just figure out what his HP is and then calculate it, so I'll probably edit this post later once I do that. In that video I just messed up doing ice, which was pretty retarded of me. But yeah, clubbing will reduce the number of ice hits by one.

Edit: Only Flying Armor and Balore have different HP, 250 -> 550 and 900 -> 1400.

Dario has 1500 HP, ice does 270, club does 45. So yeah, 5 ices and 4 clubs = death.

Persona

2009-11-22 08:13:26 pm

Castlevania?

Also, do you club Flying Armor twice so that he'll die before the lightning ends? For Balore, would using Alucard's special to avoid the fists be better (hitting Balore twice with it)? Seems you might be able to fit in a third lightning attack from Yoko on Gergoth. Other than those three, I don't see anything else that could shave more time other than better boss patterns. Oh, maybe use lightning on Death's first form? Unless you're sure that you can get in two hits from the ice.

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-11-22 08:33:24 pm

2009-11-22 08:28:00 pm

Quits halfway

I club Flying Armor twice because he dies pretty quick that way. 95% of the restarts happen there because lightning doesn't hit correctly, and it will need 4 clubs (hence why I hate Yoko). Hopefully that answers your question, not sure what you were asking, so I just ranted >_>

On Balore, if he does the upward fist it's pretty likely that only one of the hits on the special will hit, and it takes a huge amount of MP. It seems strange to conserve, but if I use a special here I won't have enough for Bat Company. But yeah, because of the not-hitting issue, jumping to avoid it is better. If you're falling down from the air as his fist is going up, you won't get hit, I was just dumb and got hit.

Can't do more lightning with Yoko or I run out of MP on Bat Company.

I should probably try lightning on Death if he does a bad first attack. Usually I'm pretty good about getting the double hit though. I could definitely switch between the two though, or just test/record it and see how much damage it does over time vs mp cost. I don't think it'll outdamage ice for MP cost, so the small time gain might be lost due to using Alucard for more of the second form. Annoyingly, I had a random second form fight where Death was at the bottom of the screen the whole time (kept warping though), so I was able to do super fast attacks on him. Definitely didn't want to know that that was possible.

I club Flying Armor twice because he dies pretty quick that way. 95% of the restarts happen there because lightning doesn't hit correctly, and it will need 4 clubs (hence why I hate Yoko). Hopefully that answers your question, not sure what you were asking, so I just ranted >_>

On Balore, if he does the upward fist it's pretty likely that only one of the hits on the special will hit, and it takes a huge amount of MP. It seems strange to conserve, but if I use a special here I won't have enough for Bat Company. But yeah, because of the not-hitting issue, jumping to avoid it is better. If you're falling down from the air as his fist is going up, you won't get hit, I was just dumb and got hit.

Can't do more lightning with Yoko or I run out of MP on Bat Company.

I should probably try lightning on Death if he does a bad first attack. Usually I'm pretty good about getting the double hit though. I could definitely switch between the two though, or just test/record it and see how much damage it does over time vs mp cost. I don't think it'll outdamage ice for MP cost, so the small time gain might be lost due to using Alucard for more of the second form. Annoyingly, I had a random second form fight where Death was at the bottom of the screen the whole time (kept warping though), so I was able to do super fast attacks on him. Definitely didn't want to know that that was possible.

Persona

2009-11-22 11:15:02 pm

Castlevania?

Ah, was just questioning the clubbing on Flying Armor because most of the time I just set off a lightning attack and then start making my way to the door while it kills him. At most I would have to club him once. I usually jump right in front of him and then use the spell. Most of the time he would float still in front of me while the lightning curls into him. At most he would start flying to the left where the lightning follows.

I still have no idea how to do the fast Alucard hops though. Do you rub the buttons like it's sandpaper or something? >_>

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-11-24 05:40:55 pm

2009-11-24 04:19:25 pm

Quits halfway

Okay, so starting more attempts today. I made a video of my hands when I'm attacking, maybe it'll give you an idea of what I do with my thumb. I'm not warmed up though (looks like it's going to be an off day :(). The first part is just slowly showing where I slide my thumb, then I attempt to do it quickly, but it's pretty bad. The last part is showing an alternative that I was playing around with, which is closer to what I use for Soma mode, but it's too risky since messing up = special attack. Again you can see that my thumb just doesn't want to do what I want, but hopefully it gets the idea across.

Also, some tests:

Starting Paranoia with Yoko is bad. I haven't been able to get it to kill in one round, and even if it did, it'd add more randomness that I don't really want. What I did work on though is not being dumb with Alucard and managing to get the fireballs on him every time he does his stomp attack. It also seems possible to manipulate his position for how high he hovers, so I might try messing with that, because that would definitely speed it up if I can trap him near the ground.

Death's second form most likely isn't faster with Lightning, and if it is, it doesn't make up for the second form, where you can really only use 1 lightning attack before running out of MP. I'll record something and compare the Death fight times, but I wouldn't expect to see this strategy in the record run.

How fast do you kill Flying Armor with your strategy? With the 2 clubs, I restart if it's not 3.xx.

Edit: Yep, total off day, haven't done a single Alucard fight without messing up an attack. I decided just to do full runs since I wasn't going to get any records and, funnily enough, I never got anything close to over 5 minutes, which a week ago I thought would be a great run.

But, I was looking through the video of the 4:34, and on the parts where I did get the fast attacks, I'm attacking once every 15 frames. The fastest possible attacking is once every 10 frames, so basically I'm doing the boss fights at only 2/3 the speed which they could be done. I don't think I can really speed up my thumb much (4 jumps/second has been ingrained from another game which I played for like 6 years), but it's interesting that something like 20 seconds could come off of the time because of this.

Okay, so starting more attempts today. I made a video of my hands when I'm attacking, maybe it'll give you an idea of what I do with my thumb. I'm not warmed up though (looks like it's going to be an off day :(). The first part is just slowly showing where I slide my thumb, then I attempt to do it quickly, but it's pretty bad. The last part is showing an alternative that I was playing around with, which is closer to what I use for Soma mode, but it's too risky since messing up = special attack. Again you can see that my thumb just doesn't want to do what I want, but hopefully it gets the idea across.

Also, some tests:

Starting Paranoia with Yoko is bad. I haven't been able to get it to kill in one round, and even if it did, it'd add more randomness that I don't really want. What I did work on though is not being dumb with Alucard and managing to get the fireballs on him every time he does his stomp attack. It also seems possible to manipulate his position for how high he hovers, so I might try messing with that, because that would definitely speed it up if I can trap him near the ground.

Death's second form most likely isn't faster with Lightning, and if it is, it doesn't make up for the second form, where you can really only use 1 lightning attack before running out of MP. I'll record something and compare the Death fight times, but I wouldn't expect to see this strategy in the record run.

How fast do you kill Flying Armor with your strategy? With the 2 clubs, I restart if it's not 3.xx.

Edit: Yep, total off day, haven't done a single Alucard fight without messing up an attack. I decided just to do full runs since I wasn't going to get any records and, funnily enough, I never got anything close to over 5 minutes, which a week ago I thought would be a great run.

But, I was looking through the video of the 4:34, and on the parts where I did get the fast attacks, I'm attacking once every 15 frames. The fastest possible attacking is once every 10 frames, so basically I'm doing the boss fights at only 2/3 the speed which they could be done. I don't think I can really speed up my thumb much (4 jumps/second has been ingrained from another game which I played for like 6 years), but it's interesting that something like 20 seconds could come off of the time because of this.

Attachment:

ds_hands_HQ.mp4

ShinerCCC

2009-11-24 06:50:46 pm

Yes, a worthless avatar riding my posts.

Quote from Aftermath:

I don't think I can really speed up my thumb much (4 jumps/second has been ingrained from another game which I played for like 6 years),

Super Smash Bros. Melee? Who can jump like that?

Aftermath

2009-11-24 06:58:26 pm

Quits halfway

Wavedashing with Samus. I used it as my only form of movement so I got really used to the timing.

Persona

2009-11-24 11:06:56 pm

Castlevania?

Hmm so basically I guess the current strats is the final draft? I sometimes question if there's a better strat for Abbadon instead of just jump attacking but I doubt it.

Hmm if you're killing Flying Armor in about 3 seconds then I'm pretty sure you're faster than me... although the difference is that by the time the door opens, I'm already waiting for it. Hmm... this one is hard to calculate lol. I questioned your clubbing because I was pretty sure you club him because you don't want to wait on the lightning to kill him. So basically you kill him quickly while I get to the door quickly but I think the best method would be for you to leave one club out so you can make it to the door quicker? Because from what I remember, the door was already fully opened when you reached it.

Aftermath

2009-11-25 12:22:15 am

Quits halfway

It was fully opened that time, but I messed up on a backdash. Normally I reset if I don't make it as it's opening, and generally I jump through just as it's wide enough to pass through. You could also just check the time as I'm passing through the door, I think I usually get 6s, and reset if I see 8 at all.

And yeah, looks like those are the final strats. I don't think there's a better way for Abaddon just because I'm doing a lot of damage really really fast. Lightning hits for less than Alucard's hits, and I'm hitting about as fast as the lightning. One possible change could be getting hit during certain summons of his (jumping just before getting hit) so you could attack him for more damage than a special attack. I haven't messed with this too much, but I don't think it'll be a reliable thing to get hit how you want.

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-12-03 05:37:57 pm

2009-12-03 11:31:53 am

Quits halfway

Not sure if anyone's interested/has time to watch, but I'm going to stream practice of Julius Mode boss rush and either Soma bosh rush or New Game+ single segment practice (either any% or 100%).

The link is here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/castlevania-practice

I'll set things up now and should be streaming in a few minutes.

Edit: Done with streaming for now, and got at least one viewer, so it was successful. Never really got that great of runs, best was like 4:36, although I was always 4-5 seconds slower after Balore than the 4:34 (since I was trying not to reset too much). I got a little better on Paranoia, and was able to get the one round kill about 2/3 times towards the end, as opposed to like 1/10 at the start. Death's first form usually went okay as far as getting double hits went, but I had no luck with him in the last hour or so and ended up dying a bunch.

Anyway, I'll probably stream some more tomorrow, most likely NG+ SS attempts, and probably any% no warp since I know the route really well.

Another edit: I took over the first post, hopefully all the links are right. If there's anything to add, just let me know.

Persona, your NG+ run only has part 1 on youtube. I still have a copy of it, would it be okay if I uploaded it to youtube if you don't plan on it? It seems we can both upload without time limits so doesn't matter who does it.

Not sure if anyone's interested/has time to watch, but I'm going to stream practice of Julius Mode boss rush and either Soma bosh rush or New Game+ single segment practice (either any% or 100%).

The link is here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/castlevania-practice

I'll set things up now and should be streaming in a few minutes.

Edit: Done with streaming for now, and got at least one viewer, so it was successful. Never really got that great of runs, best was like 4:36, although I was always 4-5 seconds slower after Balore than the 4:34 (since I was trying not to reset too much). I got a little better on Paranoia, and was able to get the one round kill about 2/3 times towards the end, as opposed to like 1/10 at the start. Death's first form usually went okay as far as getting double hits went, but I had no luck with him in the last hour or so and ended up dying a bunch.

Anyway, I'll probably stream some more tomorrow, most likely NG+ SS attempts, and probably any% no warp since I know the route really well.

Another edit: I took over the first post, hopefully all the links are right. If there's anything to add, just let me know.

Persona, your NG+ run only has part 1 on youtube. I still have a copy of it, would it be okay if I uploaded it to youtube if you don't plan on it? It seems we can both upload without time limits so doesn't matter who does it.

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-12-05 10:10:42 am

2009-12-05 03:44:18 am

Quits halfway

Hmm, was recording some Julius Mode attempts and figured I'd post a small clip to show all the trouble that Flying Armor gives me. It's very typical of all of my recording sessions, and I'm not sure how Persona claims to only use one club hit.

Also, going to stream stuff in a few hours, most likely Soma NG+ any% practice. (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/castlevania-practice)

I'm also considering a Julius-only run. I don't know if it'd be an SDA category, but he's just the most fun to play out of the trio.

Edit: Blargh, done with Boss Rush for now. I got 4:36 without a one round Paranoia (it was super ugly), so I'm changing the goal to sub-4:20. I'm going to make myself get 14.xx on Balore, and no more than 38.xx after Puppet Master. My current attempts have all been over 40 after Puppet Master. Rahab has two patterns, the worse one being about .5 seconds slower, but I'm not going to worry about that. What I will do is get a Gergoth that beams, since that's by far the fastest pattern. I'm not going to concern myself much with Zephyr. If he wants to jump around and throw knives, fine by me, but I'll aim for like sub-1:45.

I'm debating allowing Aguni to go off the top once, but I'll try to avoid it as much as possible. Abaddon doesn't matter too much. I'll try to go into the fight with as much HP as possible and, on the patterns that can't be special'd, just do shorthop slashes and take the hits (saves a couple seconds). If I somehow get all of this, I should finish Abaddon under 3:10. I'm not really going to worry about Death at all, whatever he wants to do I sort of have to let him. But yeah, at that point it shouldn't be difficult to get under 4:20.

However, this is a ridiculous plan and it'll take forever to complete, but I'll try to spend a couple hours a day on it and see if it ever materializes.

Edit: Done with streaming, didn't really get any viewers, and wow @ how bad I am at Soma mode now. I only made it through once, getting 35:40, and kept dying in a lot of random places. In addition, I did really poorly in a lot of the boss battles because I wasn't used to the Death Scythe anymore. I'm going to practice that some more off-air and try to get 9 of all the good recovery items and Claimh Solas, which I was missing for some reason.

Hmm, was recording some Julius Mode attempts and figured I'd post a small clip to show all the trouble that Flying Armor gives me. It's very typical of all of my recording sessions, and I'm not sure how Persona claims to only use one club hit.

Also, going to stream stuff in a few hours, most likely Soma NG+ any% practice. (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/castlevania-practice)

I'm also considering a Julius-only run. I don't know if it'd be an SDA category, but he's just the most fun to play out of the trio.

Edit: Blargh, done with Boss Rush for now. I got 4:36 without a one round Paranoia (it was super ugly), so I'm changing the goal to sub-4:20. I'm going to make myself get 14.xx on Balore, and no more than 38.xx after Puppet Master. My current attempts have all been over 40 after Puppet Master. Rahab has two patterns, the worse one being about .5 seconds slower, but I'm not going to worry about that. What I will do is get a Gergoth that beams, since that's by far the fastest pattern. I'm not going to concern myself much with Zephyr. If he wants to jump around and throw knives, fine by me, but I'll aim for like sub-1:45.

I'm debating allowing Aguni to go off the top once, but I'll try to avoid it as much as possible. Abaddon doesn't matter too much. I'll try to go into the fight with as much HP as possible and, on the patterns that can't be special'd, just do shorthop slashes and take the hits (saves a couple seconds). If I somehow get all of this, I should finish Abaddon under 3:10. I'm not really going to worry about Death at all, whatever he wants to do I sort of have to let him. But yeah, at that point it shouldn't be difficult to get under 4:20.

However, this is a ridiculous plan and it'll take forever to complete, but I'll try to spend a couple hours a day on it and see if it ever materializes.

Edit: Done with streaming, didn't really get any viewers, and wow @ how bad I am at Soma mode now. I only made it through once, getting 35:40, and kept dying in a lot of random places. In addition, I did really poorly in a lot of the boss battles because I wasn't used to the Death Scythe anymore. I'm going to practice that some more off-air and try to get 9 of all the good recovery items and Claimh Solas, which I was missing for some reason.

Attachment:

yoko_sucks.mp4

Persona

Edit history:

Persona: 2009-12-05 02:53:13 pm

2009-12-05 02:10:06 pm

Castlevania?

Yeah you can upload it although I don't know why you would want to though because I personally didn't like my run.

As for Yoko, it's one club but the club doesn't kill Flying Armor but the lightning does. I basically club once and start backdashing to the door. I checked your Yoko vid and I barely ever get those lightning patterns. o.o

Aftermath

Edit history:

Aftermath: 2009-12-07 04:14:26 pm

2009-12-07 04:02:22 pm

Quits halfway

I guess I won't upload it then, and I think anyone who'd be interested in seeing it already saw it when it came out.

In other news, I started work on the Julius Mode run, here's the best I managed today (2:50 before Dario). There's quite a few slipups, and the video is messed up a couple minutes in (another element of randomness I'm having to deal with currently is whether my HDD will fail to capture correctly). Towards the end, I was really trying to backdash jump over the Corpseweeds and Unes, but for some reason in those two rooms I couldn't figure out ow to press L.

But yeah, comments or suggestions for strategy changes are more than welcome.

I used a new youtube account since I decided that whenever I do recording sessions, I'll take the best time I got for the day and post it. I don't really want a billion videos on my main account so I'll just use this. And despite the fact that there's not too much interest in these runs, it also will let you know if I've been working on any runs or dropped them.

I played a couple segments ahead and tested out a couple things on Dario/Puppet Master. On Puppet Master, I use Yoko's fire until I'm out of MP, then switch to Alucard and do shorthop slashes (damage is 58x2 for fire, 27 each slash). ALucard-only might be faster, but it didn't really feel like it (I'll have to time it). It's possible to avoid the doll-switch attack by switching characters, but I've only done it once out of trying a lot (the one time was really a fluke too so didn't pay attention to the timing). I'm pretty sure I'll just luck manipulate so that he spews the floating things twice, and then the doll is on the lower right hand so I can take it out quickly. All in all though, this boss goes down wayyy quicker than I would have expected.

I'll have to time Dario, I can't really tell if Yoko or Julius is faster.

I guess I won't upload it then, and I think anyone who'd be interested in seeing it already saw it when it came out.

In other news, I started work on the Julius Mode run, [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzRb7XUnXaY]here's the best I managed today (2:50 before Dario)[/url]. There's quite a few slipups, and the video is messed up a couple minutes in (another element of randomness I'm having to deal with currently is whether my HDD will fail to capture correctly). Towards the end, I was really trying to backdash jump over the Corpseweeds and Unes, but for some reason in those two rooms I couldn't figure out ow to press L.

But yeah, comments or suggestions for strategy changes are more than welcome.

I used a new youtube account since I decided that whenever I do recording sessions, I'll take the best time I got for the day and post it. I don't really want a billion videos on my main account so I'll just use this. And despite the fact that there's not too much interest in these runs, it also will let you know if I've been working on any runs or dropped them.

I played a couple segments ahead and tested out a couple things on Dario/Puppet Master. On Puppet Master, I use Yoko's fire until I'm out of MP, then switch to Alucard and do shorthop slashes (damage is 58x2 for fire, 27 each slash). ALucard-only might be faster, but it didn't really feel like it (I'll have to time it). It's [i]possible[/i] to avoid the doll-switch attack by switching characters, but I've only done it once out of trying a lot (the one time was really a fluke too so didn't pay attention to the timing). I'm pretty sure I'll just luck manipulate so that he spews the floating things twice, and then the doll is on the lower right hand so I can take it out quickly. All in all though, this boss goes down wayyy quicker than I would have expected.

I'll have to time Dario, I can't really tell if Yoko or Julius is faster.

Beenman500

2010-01-09 10:06:05 am

Joke of all trades

just a thought, but for the run that is on youtube, whynot use mandragora instead of yeorick, its bullet soul and it does huge (talkin 80-90 and you can unleashe at 3 or 4 times the rate of yeorick) damage in an area of effect and there's one right in the path, or at least very close.

Sir VG

2010-01-09 11:56:34 am

Fucking Weeaboo

This is why you use subweapons in a speedrun, BTW.

Satoryu

2010-01-09 12:15:36 pm

Visually Appealing

Quote from Beenman500:

just a thought, but for the run that is on youtube, whynot use mandragora instead of yeorick, its bullet soul and it does huge (talkin 80-90 and you can unleashe at 3 or 4 times the rate of yeorick) damage in an area of effect and there's one right in the path, or at least very close.

Yorick is far stronger. I don't remember being able to spam Mandragora like that, either.

Aftermath

2010-01-10 01:51:50 am

Quits halfway

Yorick generally does a little more than twice the damage of Mandragora. You can have two Mandragora out at once, although the time it takes the animation to finish is pretty long and, more or less, a cycle of two Mandragora takes the same time as a Yorick (and the Yorick will do more damage). Each Mandragora takes 30MP, while Yorick takes 20. On the early bosses, especially Dario, you have almost exactly enough MP to finish the fight with Yorick spam, so Mandragora wouldn't work because of MP usage.

Lord_VG: Depends on the boss, about half of them don't really need subweapons in Julius Mode.

Aftermath

2010-01-19 06:14:22 am

Quits halfway

I'd really like to accept that as a segment 1, but I'll have to think about it for a couple days. I was a little hesitant with Yoko's backdash at the start, only missed one or two, but the jumps could have been lower and faster. I mess up the room after the second Skeleton Ape, supposed to club the Une and jump onto the ledge all in one motion, the damage boost made me lose a little less time though. The main thing is the third to last room, I miss two backdashes that I really didn't want to.

Julius' part went well, my Flying Armor fights are always the same amount of time. Dodging the Skeleton Apes seems to be faster, as is using Ice on the Treant.

I'll probably try to beat this some more (I can't really see getting better than 2:37 though), but I'm interested in hearing your guys' opinions.