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Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Any %) (Single Segment) [Character: Sypha]
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Josh 'funkdoc' Ballard!
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Any %) (Single Segment) [Character: Sypha]
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Didn't get to catch this one live unlike the Batman run unfortunately. Video's good. Audio's good. Timing is good.
Most of the notable mistakes or bad luck are mentioned in the comments already, and none were particularly significant. The ice jumps were executed well, and about as quickly as they could be given the luck he had.
Accept this if for no other reason than the stage completion poses.
Most of the notable mistakes or bad luck are mentioned in the comments already, and none were particularly significant. The ice jumps were executed well, and about as quickly as they could be given the luck he had.
Accept this if for no other reason than the stage completion poses.
Quote:
First off..... THAT PENDULUM SECTION WAS THE BALLSIEST THING IVE EVER SEEN. In fact every falling platform section made me a bit nervous. Had to get that out of the way. I don't see any reason to say what went wrong as the author already indicated in the comments. That being said.... this run just blew me away and aside from the authors comments.... flawless.
The ice jumps were mind blowing to me. Jumping off a bone to reach a higher place was just silly (and faster). I also noticed how the author was able to maximize the amount of damage boosts in certain levels due to the health drop, which just tells me that the author had a vast amount of experience in this game.
The audio and video were good. For the timing.... I got 28:55 (from character being controlled first until Sypha got the orb from Dracula). The stage completion poses were very impressive... especially the whip to boomerang one.
Decision: Accept this as this run meets SDA standards.
The ice jumps were mind blowing to me. Jumping off a bone to reach a higher place was just silly (and faster). I also noticed how the author was able to maximize the amount of damage boosts in certain levels due to the health drop, which just tells me that the author had a vast amount of experience in this game.
The audio and video were good. For the timing.... I got 28:55 (from character being controlled first until Sypha got the orb from Dracula). The stage completion poses were very impressive... especially the whip to boomerang one.
Decision: Accept this as this run meets SDA standards.
Quote from PJ:
Audio and video look fine to me. I have watched probably 80% of Josh's attempts at this game live, so I definitely know he's legit (although it is great to watch with proper frame rate...welcome back, sprite flickering!). Obviously no evidence of cheating, and my timing matches the StatID. Good start!
I'll begin by saying this is PJ. I am thrilled to verify this run, because I think for some reason this is the first CV3 run of Josh's that I verified somehow. Sorry, Josh! I have been following Josh's runs of this game since the very beginning (and I mean the VERY beginning), and I'm just astonished at the progress he has made with this game. I remember when he first beat Tom Votava's Sypha run and then shortly afterwards had the realization that it'd be faster to pick her up and proceed to never use her. Haha.
This route came as a total surprise for me. After being spoiled by Josh wrecking the Japanese version with Sypha using the thunder glitch, I didn't have much faith that a run of the US version would be interesting. I couldn't be happier to be proven wrong! This run is ridiculous! Josh manages to use all of Sypha's magic spells throughout the run, and he actually legitimately uses them effectively (unlike boasting about using all of Trevor's subweapons but only using the dagger to hit a candle :P). I never thought the fire spell was so strong!
I could go on for hours singing the praises of this run, but it really speaks for itself. Josh's previous PB was worthy of submission, and this run is like 15 seconds faster. It is unreal how far he has pushed this game. I don't really know what else to say.
In terms of 'mistakes', there are very few. Most of the improvements are luck-dependent. He couldn't do the damage boost off the axe in 5-0A because the axe armor gave him a bad pattern. He accidentally walked into a bone tower in level 6 instead of jumping over it and damage boosting forward. His shortcuts in level 7 are done perfectly (!), but he unfortunately gets unlucky with axe armor positioning after the last one and takes a hit (or maybe this was his fault...I don't remember). The extra damage means he had to play it a little safer against cyclops, although I honestly didn't notice a difference in his strats here. Haha. His level 8 was fantastic! The only improvement I remember is damage boosting off the axe in 8-02 to get through the axe armor; his ice spell froze the axe this time so he couldn't do that, but it's only slightly faster to do so.
Stage 9 is where it gets real. I have seen basically everything here: surprise fire spell ruining the run, a really bad bird making the shortcut at the end impossible, a perfect level followed by a doppelgänger that refused to get trapped in the AI loop, etc. This level would be incredibly cruel on its own, but the fact that it is at the end of such an intense run makes it so much worse. Getting hit by the fleaman at the very beginning makes this level a lot scarier, too. Josh still plugged ahead fearlessly and did just fine. His bird luck was not good, unfortunately. I've seen him set this up much quicker, but he has no control over the bird's behavior. If the bird doesn't swoop, it doesn't swoop. That's just how it goes. As he mentions in his comments, though, the luck he had on doppelgänger definitely softens the blow from that bird luck.
Final level is beast. The pendulum skip is perfect, and the drac fight is super sexy. I love it. Fire is destroyer!
Verdict: Very accept! The execution in this run is incredible, and the only real mistakes were luck based. This run is bonkers. Haha. Plus, his poses were consistently good throughout the run (that level 1 campfire!). Congrats,POVERT
I'll begin by saying this is PJ. I am thrilled to verify this run, because I think for some reason this is the first CV3 run of Josh's that I verified somehow. Sorry, Josh! I have been following Josh's runs of this game since the very beginning (and I mean the VERY beginning), and I'm just astonished at the progress he has made with this game. I remember when he first beat Tom Votava's Sypha run and then shortly afterwards had the realization that it'd be faster to pick her up and proceed to never use her. Haha.
This route came as a total surprise for me. After being spoiled by Josh wrecking the Japanese version with Sypha using the thunder glitch, I didn't have much faith that a run of the US version would be interesting. I couldn't be happier to be proven wrong! This run is ridiculous! Josh manages to use all of Sypha's magic spells throughout the run, and he actually legitimately uses them effectively (unlike boasting about using all of Trevor's subweapons but only using the dagger to hit a candle :P). I never thought the fire spell was so strong!
I could go on for hours singing the praises of this run, but it really speaks for itself. Josh's previous PB was worthy of submission, and this run is like 15 seconds faster. It is unreal how far he has pushed this game. I don't really know what else to say.
In terms of 'mistakes', there are very few. Most of the improvements are luck-dependent. He couldn't do the damage boost off the axe in 5-0A because the axe armor gave him a bad pattern. He accidentally walked into a bone tower in level 6 instead of jumping over it and damage boosting forward. His shortcuts in level 7 are done perfectly (!), but he unfortunately gets unlucky with axe armor positioning after the last one and takes a hit (or maybe this was his fault...I don't remember). The extra damage means he had to play it a little safer against cyclops, although I honestly didn't notice a difference in his strats here. Haha. His level 8 was fantastic! The only improvement I remember is damage boosting off the axe in 8-02 to get through the axe armor; his ice spell froze the axe this time so he couldn't do that, but it's only slightly faster to do so.
Stage 9 is where it gets real. I have seen basically everything here: surprise fire spell ruining the run, a really bad bird making the shortcut at the end impossible, a perfect level followed by a doppelgänger that refused to get trapped in the AI loop, etc. This level would be incredibly cruel on its own, but the fact that it is at the end of such an intense run makes it so much worse. Getting hit by the fleaman at the very beginning makes this level a lot scarier, too. Josh still plugged ahead fearlessly and did just fine. His bird luck was not good, unfortunately. I've seen him set this up much quicker, but he has no control over the bird's behavior. If the bird doesn't swoop, it doesn't swoop. That's just how it goes. As he mentions in his comments, though, the luck he had on doppelgänger definitely softens the blow from that bird luck.
Final level is beast. The pendulum skip is perfect, and the drac fight is super sexy. I love it. Fire is destroyer!
Verdict: Very accept! The execution in this run is incredible, and the only real mistakes were luck based. This run is bonkers. Haha. Plus, his poses were consistently good throughout the run (that level 1 campfire!). Congrats,
Quote:
Audio/Video quality fine for an NES game.
All in all a really nice improvements over the previous US Sypha record, with a better subweapon route for Trevor in the earlier stages and very creative and well-executed use of Sypha's spells for floor clips (particularly the 'nasty' room in stage 9) and boss quick-kills (especially Death and Final Dracula) in the latter stages. Glad to see Sypha get some more screen time in a run named after her!
Like PJ I've also been following Josh's CV3 runs pretty much from the beginning (back when he was doing Saturday night CV3 streams on Ustream with probably 20-30 viewers tops); and it's been a real treat to watch his progress at demolishing one of my top 5 favorite NES games!
I vote to accept.
All in all a really nice improvements over the previous US Sypha record, with a better subweapon route for Trevor in the earlier stages and very creative and well-executed use of Sypha's spells for floor clips (particularly the 'nasty' room in stage 9) and boss quick-kills (especially Death and Final Dracula) in the latter stages. Glad to see Sypha get some more screen time in a run named after her!
Like PJ I've also been following Josh's CV3 runs pretty much from the beginning (back when he was doing Saturday night CV3 streams on Ustream with probably 20-30 viewers tops); and it's been a real treat to watch his progress at demolishing one of my top 5 favorite NES games!
I vote to accept.
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Josh 'funkdoc' Ballard!
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