Chakan: The Forever Man

2014-02-08 12:00:27 pm

Haven't seen anyone discuss this here, but it's a game I've been working on for some time. My best time is 16:39, though it's a sloppy run with some mistakes. Most notable are those in the boss fights and the unintended death, but I'm pretty proud of it anyway.

Link is below, taken during my time streaming today and played on an Emulator.
http://www.twitch.tv/golembuddy/c/3687250

Thread title:

Golembuddy

2014-02-10 01:31:14 am

So I wrote some notes on the route I take if anyone is interested. They're down below with some details about the game itself.

Premise, for those who don't know:
You're Chakan. You beat Death and gained immortality. Now you regret it and have to defeat all the Evil before your “curse” will be lifted. This includes platforming and action combat, aided by the use of alchemy.

Difference between Easy and Hard? You take much more damage on Hard. That's it. Damage boosting becomes exceptionally more risky. I'll have to see about routing for Hard mode.

Potions:
These show up as pick-up items through out the levels and can be combined in pairs to produce different effects. I pick up very specific potions and ignore all others. The come in four colors: Red, Green, Blue and Clear.

Tricks:
This game has two major tricks: The Roll Hop and the Infinite Jump/Copter Jump
Both of these tricks are used in the run, but the Roll Hop is much more frequent than the Infinite Jump/Copter Jump.

Short Notes (I can write up more details notes if people are interested) They're behind spoiler gates because despite being “short” they're still pretty long.

Game Start/Air Stages

Start Air 1, grab 1 Clear and 1 Red Potion.
Suicide.
Open portal, finish rest of air stages
I wait for the Insect Rides so I can kill them and take their mounts. The TAS just uses Copter Jumps to clear this stage. This is humanly possible but incredibly difficult and not worth it in my opinion.
The Insect Riders can be manipulated to run away from you. All you need to do is hold the attack button with your sword equipped. Sure, Chakan directs everyone where he's going, but the enemies just run away...
Pick up the Blue Potion in Air 6 before getting on the first Insect Mount.
The boss is a jousting match, won't attack you unless you're on an Insect Mount. You can set up a free hit if you make it through previous laser towers without getting hit. I failed on this, but it's possible I chased him away by attacking earlier. (This was a sloppy fight, and a sloppy stage)

Fire Stages

Start Fire Stages
Fire 4
These stages suck. The roll hop at the beginning is risky and saved a minimal amount of time. Looks cool though.
The first gap with the Grotesque can be rolled across, then ascended with a Copter Jump. The platforms after this can be double-jumped to with correct timing.
Roll off the next Grotesque and judge the distance using the thing's skull. After that just jump forward gauging your distance with the Lava Fall.
Fire 5
Copter Jump up, then just roll through the fires off the edge.
You can do a roll hop into a Copter Jump at the ledge. ( I missed it here, but I'll post a video of a successful one) This can save a good chunk of time.
Pick up 2 Red Potions from Fire 5
Fire 6
Roll through the flames. Saves a lot of time.
It's hard to describe what I'm doing on this section, it's easier to just watch. The pauses are intentional and manipulate some spawn cycles for enemies and platforms.
Don't die.
Roll off the last platform then immediately reverse direction. Line yourself up next to the Lava Fall and you should land on the platform.
I fall here and navigate the platforms, it might be faster to roll off this and take damage from the flames, depending on how much health you have.
This boss is easy, but I mess it up really bad. You can get him into an endless loop as long as he keeps falling into that pit. Timing on the axe swings are trickier than you'd think. Alternatively you can use the Grappling Hook and just jump and hold it in front of you. Takes twice as many hits, though.

Earth Stages

Start Earth Stages
Pick up even more potions here; 2 Blues, 2 Greens, and 2 Reds all for use later. Just follow the route I go. This level can be completed even faster if you just take the top route, but these potions are needed for later stages and this is the easiest place to pick them up without going out of your way.
Using 2 Blue Potions for Invisibility is the only way I've found to get past the giant maggot in Earth 5. If there's another way to do it I'm interested.
You can navigate the top section without any problems if you roll hop properly. I'm just
a baddie.
Pick up the blue potion after the Giant Maggot vanishes.
In Earth 6, I have no idea what triggers the Giant maggot to spawn, or when. The only thing I can say is to listen and watch for rumbling, then change levels. It's fairly easy to avoid him.
The Boss here is laughably easy. Use two green potions to create the Blue Lightning Swords, stand in the corner and just point at him. He'll kill himself in four hits.

Water Stages and End

Start Water Stages
I have no idea how to complete this stage outside of the way I do it. Roll hop over the spikes ( or jump ) and then roll hop off the edge below.
Water 5 is pretty straight forward, there's one possible cycle skip on the ice platforms, but it's risky and seems to be inconsistent. I don't even attempt it. Might as well be an auto-scroller.
Water 6 is also straight forward. You can roll Hop off the second “weighted” platform and catch the grapple point if you time it correctly. Saves like half a second if that.
More Ice Platforms
This boss is just... stupid and slow. He has four phases per cycle, and you can only hit him during the fourth cycle. However, you can hit him twice in this cycle. Once as he rises up, and again just as he sinks below the snow. Using the Green Lightning Swords (2 red potions) allows you to kill him in six hits, or three cycles.
I stand at a place called Hat Mountain, where you're pretty much immortal. He can't actually hit you with any of his attacks other than when he runs back and forth. You can see me line it up at the start of the fight. Takes me awhile to get it.
Ending Sequence/Epilogue/Credits
Hold up on the D-Pad. Trust me. It speeds up the text scroll.
For the fight against HR Geiger's Death Machine, use 2 blue potions for invisibility, and two red potions for the Green Lightning Sword. Then just hit him six times in each head, and two more times where the second head was once it dies. You should be able to kill him before the invisibility goes away.

So I wrote some notes on the route I take if anyone is interested. They're down below with some details about the game itself.

Premise, for those who don't know:
	You're Chakan. You beat Death and gained immortality. Now you regret it and have to defeat all the Evil before your “curse” will be lifted. This includes platforming and action combat, aided by the use of alchemy.

Difference between Easy and Hard? You take much more damage on Hard. That's it. Damage boosting becomes exceptionally more risky. I'll have to see about routing for Hard mode.

Potions: 
	These show up as pick-up items through out the levels and can be combined in pairs to produce different effects. I pick up very specific potions and ignore all others. The come in four colors: Red, Green, Blue and Clear.

Tricks:
	This game has two major tricks: The Roll Hop and the Infinite Jump/Copter Jump
	Both of these tricks are used in the run, but the Roll Hop is much more frequent than the Infinite Jump/Copter Jump.

Short Notes (I can write up more details notes if people are interested) They're behind spoiler gates because despite being “short” they're still pretty long.

Game Start/Air Stages
[spoiler] 
	Start Air 1, grab 1 Clear and 1 Red Potion. 
		Suicide.
	Open portal, finish rest of air stages
		I wait for the Insect Rides so I can kill them and take their mounts. The TAS just uses 	Copter Jumps to clear this stage. This is humanly possible but incredibly difficult and not worth it in my opinion.
		The Insect Riders can be manipulated to run away from you. All you need to do is hold the attack button with your sword equipped. Sure, Chakan directs everyone where he's going, but the enemies just run away...
		Pick up the Blue Potion in Air 6 before getting on the first Insect Mount.
		The boss is a jousting match, won't attack you unless you're on an Insect Mount. You can set up a free hit if you make it through previous laser towers without getting hit. I failed on this, but it's possible I chased him away by attacking earlier. (This was a sloppy fight, and a sloppy stage)
[/spoiler]
Fire Stages
[spoiler]
	Start Fire Stages
		Fire 4
		These stages suck. The roll hop at the beginning is risky and saved a minimal amount of time. Looks cool though.
		The first gap with the Grotesque can be rolled across, then ascended with a Copter Jump. The platforms after this can be double-jumped to with correct timing.
		Roll off the next Grotesque and judge the distance using the thing's skull. After that just jump forward gauging your distance with the Lava Fall.
		Fire 5
		Copter Jump up, then just roll through the fires off the edge.
		You can do a roll hop into a Copter Jump at the ledge. ( I missed it here, but I'll post a video of a successful one) This can save a good chunk of time.
		Pick up 2 Red Potions from Fire 5
		Fire 6
		Roll through the flames. Saves a lot of time.
		It's hard to describe what I'm doing on this section, it's easier to just watch. The pauses are intentional and manipulate some spawn cycles for enemies and platforms.
		Don't die.
		Roll off the last platform then immediately reverse direction. Line yourself up next to the Lava Fall and you should land on the platform.
		I fall here and navigate the platforms, it might be faster to roll off this and take damage from the flames, depending on how much health you have.
		This boss is easy, but I mess it up really bad. You can get him into an endless loop as 	long as he keeps falling into that pit. Timing on the axe swings are trickier than you'd think. Alternatively you can use the Grappling Hook and just jump and hold it in front of you. Takes twice as many hits, though.
[/spoiler]
Earth Stages
[Spoiler]
	Start Earth Stages
		Pick up even more potions here; 2 Blues, 2 Greens, and 2 Reds all for use later. Just follow the route I go. This level can be completed even faster if you just take the top route, but these potions are needed for later stages and this is    the easiest place to pick 	them up without going out of your way.
		Using 2 Blue Potions for Invisibility is the only way I've found to get past the giant maggot in Earth 5. If there's another way to do it I'm interested.
		You can navigate the top section without any problems if you roll hop properly. I'm just
		a baddie.
		Pick up the blue potion after the Giant Maggot vanishes.
		In Earth 6, I have no idea what triggers the Giant maggot to spawn, or when. The only thing I can say is to listen and watch for rumbling, then change levels. It's fairly easy to avoid him.
		The Boss here is laughably easy. Use two green potions to create the Blue Lightning Swords, stand in the corner and just point at him. He'll kill himself in four hits.
[/spoiler]
Water Stages and End
[spoiler]
	Start Water Stages
		I have no idea how to complete this stage outside of the way I do it. Roll hop over the spikes ( or jump ) and then roll hop off the edge below.
		Water 5 is pretty straight forward, there's one possible cycle skip on the ice platforms, but it's risky and seems to be inconsistent. I don't even attempt it. Might as well be an auto-scroller.
		Water 6 is also straight forward. You can roll Hop off the second “weighted” platform and catch the grapple point if you time it correctly. Saves like half a second if that.
		More Ice Platforms
		This boss is just... stupid and slow. He has four phases per cycle, and you can only hit him during the fourth cycle. However, you can hit him twice in this cycle. Once as he rises up, and again just as he sinks below the snow. Using the Green Lightning Swords 	(2 red potions) allows you to kill him in six hits, or three cycles.
		I stand at a place called Hat Mountain, where you're pretty much immortal. He can't actually hit you with any of his attacks other than when he runs back and forth. You can see me line it up at the start of the fight. Takes me awhile to get it.
	Ending Sequence/Epilogue/Credits
		Hold up on the D-Pad. Trust me. It speeds up the text scroll.
		For the fight against HR Geiger's Death Machine, use 2 blue potions for invisibility, and two red potions for the Green Lightning Sword. Then just hit him six times in each head, and two more times where the second head was once it dies.  You should be able to kill him before the invisibility goes away.
[/spoiler]

Naegleria

(user is banned)

2014-02-10 02:08:11 am

I'm not too familiar with the game, but I know there is an infinite jump glitch. You can see it in action around the 35 second mark of this video (http://www.twitch.tv/megaultrajman/c/2801879). You jump, attack, and then jump teh first frame after attacking.

Golembuddy

2014-02-10 11:27:48 am

Yeah. The TAS uses it all time, especially in the Air Stages. Pulling that off for a human is ridiculously taxing and an exercise in stamina/endurance. Completely destroys the second water stage as well with a combination of roll hops and infinite jumps.

It also sets up a pretty amazing quick kill on the dragon that I just haven't been able to replicate (around 5:50)

nomadhar

2014-05-26 04:45:30 am

i love lamp

just thought i might update this thread, as i have some free time to practice this game myself again.

Golembuddy ran a solid 15:38:

this includes a strat i found while Golembuddy and i were both playing Chakan and chatting on his stream. Waspinator (air boss) can be completely manipulated. this involves the following AI behaviors.

a) Waspy will initiate a charge at Chakan once it is level with you for about a second.
b) Waspy remains vertically level with Chakan during the charge.
c) Waspy raises its lance when too close to the ground. at this level, however, Waspy also will not initiate a charge.

moving back and forth in a 45 degree angle manipulates all of these. Chakan justs needs to start high enough so that Waspy will begin his charge animation. then, descend low enough so that Waspy charges with lance raised. move 45 upwards to land a safe hit, and Waspy will reset during the reverse movement. you can use the hollow area of the left wall of the boss area to gauge your elevation.

we have both also managed to replicate a manipulation of the fire boss that the TAS uses. essentially, jumping back and forth causes the dragon to reset in a vulnerable position after knocking it into a pit. this can cut the boss fight time in half. in practice, however, the jump height and timing are really tricky and mistakes can be costly in both time and HP.

i've worked a bit on some infinite jump strats on all three air stages, also originating in the TAS. the point is to use infinite jump to bypass the early parts of the stages; time usually spent waiting for the insect rider to spawn. as a result, it isn't terribly costly to fail. the timing of the infinite jump gets tough for me to sustain, though.

just thought i might update this thread, as i have some free time to practice this game myself again.

Golembuddy ran a solid 15:38:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ6dHWxkJDQ[/url]

this includes a strat i found while Golembuddy and i were both playing Chakan and chatting on his stream.  Waspinator (air boss) can be completely manipulated.  this involves the following AI behaviors.

a) Waspy will initiate a charge at Chakan once it is level with you for about a second.
b) Waspy remains vertically level with Chakan during the charge.
c) Waspy raises its lance when too close to the ground. at this level, however, Waspy also will not initiate a charge.

moving back and forth in a 45 degree angle manipulates all of these.  Chakan justs needs to start high enough so that Waspy will begin his charge animation.  then, descend low enough so that Waspy charges with lance raised.  move 45 upwards to land a safe hit, and Waspy will reset during the reverse movement.  you can use the hollow area of the left wall of the boss area to gauge your elevation.

we have both also managed to replicate a manipulation of the fire boss that the TAS uses.  essentially, jumping back and forth causes the dragon to reset in a vulnerable position after knocking it into a pit.  this can cut the boss fight time in half.  in practice, however, the jump height and timing are really tricky and mistakes can be costly in both time and HP.

i've worked a bit on some infinite jump strats on all three air stages, also originating in the TAS.  the point is to use infinite jump to bypass the early parts of the stages; time usually spent waiting for the insect rider to spawn.  as a result, it isn't terribly costly to fail.  the timing of the infinite jump gets tough for me to sustain, though.

lecorbak

Edit history:

lecorbak: 2014-05-26 05:45:14 am

lecorbak: 2014-05-26 05:43:07 am

2014-05-26 05:42:08 am

Vanilla H is mai waifu

is this really humanly possible to just finish the game? :V
I can only finish 3 or 4 levels.

0:50 why the fuck do you have already all the weapons and the level is not the same ?

nomadhar

2014-05-27 12:21:29 am

i love lamp

Quote from lecorbak:

is this really humanly possible to just finish the game? :V
I can only finish 3 or 4 levels.

0:50 why the fuck do you have already all the weapons and the level is not the same ?

that strat is a game skip/glitch. one air and one fire potion usually creates a portal back from a level to the hub area, exiting above right of the air portal. in most places in the hub, Chakan cannot use any spells. however, if the portal spell is used in the hub at that portal exit position, it skips all of the terrestrial levels for all elements. it also acts as if all of the levels were beaten properly, so Chakan will have all of the weapons. the middle hub area also lights up correctly.

still really not sure if it is a glitch or a planned sequence break. i think it works far more cleanly than i would expect from a glitch.

Golembuddy

2014-05-29 12:43:51 pm

Quote from lecorbak:

is this really humanly possible to just finish the game? :V
I can only finish 3 or 4 levels.

0:50 why the fuck do you have already all the weapons and the level is not the same ?

Yeah, it took me awhile to figure out what was going on when I watched the TAS and seeing it skip entire levels. This skip is the only reason I go to Air 1 and pick up the two potions. As for whether it's intended or not... like nomadhar said, how consistent and clean it is, we're pretty sure it's intentional. As for what purpose it serves, can't be certain, for now it just lets us skip the very tedious starting stages and the (arguably) more difficult bosses.

And as for the Fire Boss/Dragon, I've got a better strategy figured out that isn't nearly as dangerous or as exacting as the TAS fight. Just requires you to knock him on the ground, then hit him again while he's standing up. Gotta get pretty close though, because his hitbox starts somewhere around his shoulders and not his head like you'd think.

[quote="lecorbak"]is this really humanly possible to just finish the game? :V
I can only finish 3 or 4 levels.

0:50 why the fuck do you have already all the weapons and the level is not the same ?[/quote]

Yeah, it took me awhile to figure out what was going on when I watched the TAS and seeing it skip entire levels. This skip is the only reason I go to Air 1 and pick up the two potions. As for whether it's intended or not... like nomadhar said, how consistent and clean it is, we're pretty sure it's intentional. As for what purpose it serves, can't be certain, for now it just lets us skip the very tedious starting stages and the (arguably) more difficult bosses.

And as for the Fire Boss/Dragon, I've got a better strategy figured out that isn't nearly as dangerous or as exacting as the TAS fight. Just requires you to knock him on the ground, then hit him again while he's standing up. Gotta get pretty close though, because his hitbox starts somewhere around his shoulders and not his head like you'd think.

Golembuddy

2014-06-14 01:05:42 pm

Just found out the demo uses the roll bounce "glitch" in the Water Stage 1 section. I don't even know what's real anymore.

UltraJMan

2014-07-05 06:14:32 pm

It's time for some HEErooooOOOOHi cs!

So, while hanging out with nomadhar at SGDQ, Blueglass accidentally discovered this glitch. I ended up taking some time figuring out how to replicate it, and as it turns out this is 100% replicatable and not that hard of a glitch to pull off!

Some notes about the glitch: if you walk into a solid wall for too long, you will lose all momentum and revert to normal speed. The same goes for hitting an enemy, theoretically you CAN carry this speed to the end of the stage as using the grapple hook does not lose your momentum as long as you come out of it moving. It's a little tricky to explain, but if you experiment I think you guys will get what I mean.

I need to show this to sonikkustar as well and see if we can't get him to figure out if this'd be utilizeable in any other stage. I highly doubt it but if we can get Chakan moving that fast consistently....well, that'd be fairly incredible.

lecorbak

2014-07-11 12:43:06 pm

Vanilla H is mai waifu

this is great