Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2016-05-10 11:01:44 am

2016-04-26 11:42:12 am

Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/CastlevaniaHD.html

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (ntscus) (xb360) [Any %] [Individual Level] [Hard] [No Zips] [Character: Simon]

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to 'Wizdaddy'!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2016-04-26 11:42:13 am

Run Information

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (ntscus) (xb360) [Any %] [Individual Level] [Hard] [No Zips] [Character: Simon]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/castlevaniahd-20160419/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

Satoryu

2016-04-27 11:36:46 pm

Visually Appealing

Quality of the videos are very good.

Chapter 10 - The main difference made in this run is using Fool's Tablets, and it really pays off. The Dracula fights are incredibly fast, and possibly some of the other bosses as well. And despite the constant lack of health he played pretty aggressively. Only real time losses compared to the existing run are not going for a divekick off a Medusa Head in Stage 2 and a slower Stage 6 skip.

Chapter 11 - The route used in this run is different. It seems to be the more difficult of the two, at least that's how I feel. Level 3 Decapiclops is really nasty. But it ends up saving time by not having to double back through the small tunnel. This run was ahead of the current one at the elevators, despite an unlucky Chimyriad fight and two really dumb mistakes; he got hit by two flames in the beginning, and he divekicked past the platform leading to Decapiclops. He also had a much faster final boss fight. Not quite a one round fight like the Julius run, but Ryuukotsuki punched almost instantly after the initial round. First form did jump away, but no biggie.

Easily accept both as improvements.

Quality of the videos are very good.

Chapter 10 - The main difference made in this run is using Fool's Tablets, and it really pays off. The Dracula fights are incredibly fast, and possibly some of the other bosses as well. And despite the constant lack of health he played pretty aggressively. Only real time losses compared to the existing run are not going for a divekick off a Medusa Head in Stage 2 and a slower Stage 6 skip.

Chapter 11 - The route used in this run is different. It seems to be the more difficult of the two, at least that's how I feel. Level 3 Decapiclops is really nasty. But it ends up saving time by not having to double back through the small tunnel. This run was ahead of the current one at the elevators, despite an unlucky Chimyriad fight and two really dumb mistakes; he got hit by two flames in the beginning, and he divekicked past the platform leading to Decapiclops. He also had a much faster final boss fight. Not quite a one round fight like the Julius run, but Ryuukotsuki punched almost instantly after the initial round. First form did jump away, but no biggie.

Easily accept both as improvements.

PJ

2016-05-01 03:14:17 pm

Is PJ

First off, apologies for not getting around to verifying the Julius runs in time! I've been rather busy and completely lost track of it.

I am EXTREMELY excited to see improvements to these two chapters! My Chapter 10 was EASILY improvable, and I simply had no interest in doing so. I merely wanted to finish the table so that I could submit chapters 7, 8, and 9 (the ones I actually invested a lot of time on). I knew from the start that Fool's Tablets would be better, but I was not interested in investing the time in getting a run with them, considering the heavy RNG. I'm really glad that this chapter was brought down to Simon's true potential. Cheesy

Every corner boost in "stages 1 and 2" of this chapter were missed, and there was a bit of slop here and there. The climb in "stage 4" was absolutely demolished, as was Creature and most of "stage 5". There were some super close calls in there! Taking R.Firebomb instead of Bible and adjusting the route to handle ravens better as a result was a really smart play. The advantage of R.Firebomb is really apparent in the Creature/Death fights, and his Drac fight was SUPER good, thanks to all the extra MP and INT from more aggressive equipment. Really good level!

Chapter 11 route was something that I knew also could have been improved, but I didn't have any interest in improving it beyond what I did because Ryukotsuki is a pain in the ass. Thanks for improving this one too!

There were several missed corner boosts and extra hits early on, and Ox can definitely be done faster with BDC'd whip special (I didn't BDC in my IL, but BDC'd whip special should be able to KO him before he attacks). He hits loads of corner boosts after Ox, but the Chimyriad fight was really unfortunate. I like level 3 Chimyriad much more than level 2 for consistency and speed, but that route is less fluid. Loads more corner boosts to Decapiclops (who gets clobbered) and super good time to the elevator. I missed every single corner boost on the bridge in my PB, and he hit the two biggest corner boosts, which is really really good. Missing a corner boost on the late end will usually drop you into the lava and kill you, so hitting those can be tough. Better item choice on Ryukotsuki + better pattern makes for a much faster fight overall. Solid level!

Absolutely accept both of those improvements! Congrats and thanks, Wizdaddy! Cheesy

First off, apologies for not getting around to verifying the Julius runs in time!  I've been rather busy and completely lost track of it.

I am EXTREMELY excited to see improvements to these two chapters!  My Chapter 10 was EASILY improvable, and I simply had no interest in doing so.  I merely wanted to finish the table so that I could submit chapters 7, 8, and 9 (the ones I actually invested a lot of time on).  I knew from the start that Fool's Tablets would be better, but I was not interested in investing the time in getting a run with them, considering the heavy RNG.  I'm really glad that this chapter was brought down to Simon's true potential.  :D

Every corner boost in "stages 1 and 2" of this chapter were missed, and there was a bit of slop here and there.  The climb in "stage 4" was absolutely demolished, as was Creature and most of "stage 5".  There were some super close calls in there!  Taking R.Firebomb instead of Bible and adjusting the route to handle ravens better as a result was a really smart play.  The advantage of R.Firebomb is really apparent in the Creature/Death fights, and his Drac fight was SUPER good, thanks to all the extra MP and INT from more aggressive equipment.  Really good level!

Chapter 11 route was something that I knew also could have been improved, but I didn't have any interest in improving it beyond what I did because Ryukotsuki is a pain in the ass.  Thanks for improving this one too!

There were several missed corner boosts and extra hits early on, and Ox can definitely be done faster with BDC'd whip special (I didn't BDC in my IL, but BDC'd whip special should be able to KO him before he attacks).  He hits loads of corner boosts after Ox, but the Chimyriad fight was really unfortunate.  I like level 3 Chimyriad much more than level 2 for consistency and speed, but that route is less fluid.  Loads more corner boosts to Decapiclops (who gets clobbered) and super good time to the elevator.  I missed every single corner boost on the bridge in my PB, and he hit the two biggest corner boosts, which is really really good.  Missing a corner boost on the late end will usually drop you into the lava and kill you, so hitting those can be tough.  Better item choice on Ryukotsuki + better pattern makes for a much faster fight overall.  Solid level!

Absolutely accept both of those improvements!  Congrats and thanks, Wizdaddy!  :D

SDAVerification

2016-05-10 11:01:45 am

Decision posted.