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Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou (Any %) (Individual Level)
Verifier Responses
... Then one of the verifiers submitted improvements, so everybody verified again.
Decision: Accept the first batch along with the improvements sent in later.
Congratulations to Jeffrey 'I have no name' Bardon, 'Random,' 'guwa,' 'Ridley 64,' 'ARF,' Peter 'Zil,' & Christian 'DarkDespair5' Walker!
Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou (Any %) (Individual Level)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
A/V: Quality is fine 
No cheating detected.
Overall the runs are impressive, level of play is high, there's lots of neat things and clutch moments which will probably surprise many players who are only familiar with playing the game for survival. Considering how random some of these scenes can be I think completely optimized play is too much to ask for.
Details:
Level 1
Overall the most optimized level, top notch execution all around. No obvious ways to improve any of these scenes, apart from faster camera handling (1-2 has been improved by 0.04 seconds). I can see some small improvements happen in 1-5 through lucky bullet cancels.
2-3
Execution is good, route is questionable. Through better positioning and cancels 0.2 seconds could probably be saved. Has been obsoleted by an insignificant amount.
2-4
Execution is fine, there's some wasted canceling potential on the second photo. Has been improved by 0.2 seconds.
4-4
Route seems fine, theoretically a faster route might be possible, but it would be very rare to finish a run using that. Also switching to vertical alignment on the fourth photo in the current route gives more bullet recharge, saving around 0.2 seconds.
4-7
Good execution, one potential improvement would be positioning on the fourth photo, but executing this scene is difficult enough as it is.
5-1
Well executed, route seems sound to me.
5-3
Going into charge for short periods like this doesn't refill the gauge much at all, in fact, it actually makes the camera refill slower than just dodging back and forth normally. Has been improved by over a second.
5-5
This scene is pretty much flawless, while better bullet cancel luck is possible, the runner already got very lucky in that regard here, and improving this will be difficult.
6-4
Probably very close to optimal, though it has been obsoleted by an insignificant (0.03 seconds) amount through a route variation.
6-7
Very good, probably only a few frames at most from being completely perfect since waiting for the last wave is required for maximum bullet canceling.
7-4
The route is really great, camera handling is top notch, however, cancels are unlucky, could be around 0.1 seconds faster with that. Has been obsoleted by an insignificant amount.
7-6
It's good, but letting more crystals pile up before starting to cancel them seems to allow for a faster time, has been obsoleted by 0.08 seconds through such means.
8-5
Strategy is good, third photo is not great, loses around 0.1-0.2 seconds through poor canceling there.
9-4
Execution is impressive, route is good, but the dash up to the top left corner before the 8th photo costs some time, a faster route has been found and this has been obsoleted by one third of a second.
9-5
Straightforward scene, very well executed.
9-7
Very good, considering how difficult surviving this scene is, the runner did a great job here.
10-8
It's pretty difficult to play the scene like the runner does, since the unconventional bullet trajectories takes some time to get used to, can't see any significant route changes happen here. Has been obsoleted by 0.05 seconds.
12-7
Route is good, waiting for the first wave gives max recharge. Execution is okay, but it has been improved by 0.1 seconds through better execution.
EX-6
Very good, improvable only through faster camera handling and better bullet cancels from the third photo.
SP-1
Supposedly frame perfect.
SP-2
This is okay, but it has been improved by almost 1 second through a route change and lucky boss movements.
SP-3
Route and execution looks great to me.
SP-4
Can't see any improvements to the route, execution is good especially considering how dodging op close the amulet spreads is pretty risky.
SP-5
Supposedly frame perfect.
SP-6
Has seen a negligible improvement since, through better boss movement luck and positioning.
SP-7
Looks pretty much flawless, it is possible to get the second photo before moving away from the boss, but that probably doesn't make much difference since getting the third is almost certainly impossible. Maybe it could mean a 1% difference in camera recharge, but I'm doubtful.
SP-8
Positioning for the last photos is great, looks very tight.
I'd estimate that real-time play-time for the whole run to be around 46 minutes and 15 seconds, not counting the fadeout time after beating the level.
For the IL's themselves I'd suggest going by the best time on the in-game clock.
Waiting to hear what others have to say before passing a judgment.
No cheating detected.
Overall the runs are impressive, level of play is high, there's lots of neat things and clutch moments which will probably surprise many players who are only familiar with playing the game for survival. Considering how random some of these scenes can be I think completely optimized play is too much to ask for.
Details:
Level 1
Overall the most optimized level, top notch execution all around. No obvious ways to improve any of these scenes, apart from faster camera handling (1-2 has been improved by 0.04 seconds). I can see some small improvements happen in 1-5 through lucky bullet cancels.
2-3
Execution is good, route is questionable. Through better positioning and cancels 0.2 seconds could probably be saved. Has been obsoleted by an insignificant amount.
2-4
Execution is fine, there's some wasted canceling potential on the second photo. Has been improved by 0.2 seconds.
4-4
Route seems fine, theoretically a faster route might be possible, but it would be very rare to finish a run using that. Also switching to vertical alignment on the fourth photo in the current route gives more bullet recharge, saving around 0.2 seconds.
4-7
Good execution, one potential improvement would be positioning on the fourth photo, but executing this scene is difficult enough as it is.
5-1
Well executed, route seems sound to me.
5-3
Going into charge for short periods like this doesn't refill the gauge much at all, in fact, it actually makes the camera refill slower than just dodging back and forth normally. Has been improved by over a second.
5-5
This scene is pretty much flawless, while better bullet cancel luck is possible, the runner already got very lucky in that regard here, and improving this will be difficult.
6-4
Probably very close to optimal, though it has been obsoleted by an insignificant (0.03 seconds) amount through a route variation.
6-7
Very good, probably only a few frames at most from being completely perfect since waiting for the last wave is required for maximum bullet canceling.
7-4
The route is really great, camera handling is top notch, however, cancels are unlucky, could be around 0.1 seconds faster with that. Has been obsoleted by an insignificant amount.
7-6
It's good, but letting more crystals pile up before starting to cancel them seems to allow for a faster time, has been obsoleted by 0.08 seconds through such means.
8-5
Strategy is good, third photo is not great, loses around 0.1-0.2 seconds through poor canceling there.
9-4
Execution is impressive, route is good, but the dash up to the top left corner before the 8th photo costs some time, a faster route has been found and this has been obsoleted by one third of a second.
9-5
Straightforward scene, very well executed.
9-7
Very good, considering how difficult surviving this scene is, the runner did a great job here.
10-8
It's pretty difficult to play the scene like the runner does, since the unconventional bullet trajectories takes some time to get used to, can't see any significant route changes happen here. Has been obsoleted by 0.05 seconds.
12-7
Route is good, waiting for the first wave gives max recharge. Execution is okay, but it has been improved by 0.1 seconds through better execution.
EX-6
Very good, improvable only through faster camera handling and better bullet cancels from the third photo.
SP-1
Supposedly frame perfect.
SP-2
This is okay, but it has been improved by almost 1 second through a route change and lucky boss movements.
SP-3
Route and execution looks great to me.
SP-4
Can't see any improvements to the route, execution is good especially considering how dodging op close the amulet spreads is pretty risky.
SP-5
Supposedly frame perfect.
SP-6
Has seen a negligible improvement since, through better boss movement luck and positioning.
SP-7
Looks pretty much flawless, it is possible to get the second photo before moving away from the boss, but that probably doesn't make much difference since getting the third is almost certainly impossible. Maybe it could mean a 1% difference in camera recharge, but I'm doubtful.
SP-8
Positioning for the last photos is great, looks very tight.
I'd estimate that real-time play-time for the whole run to be around 46 minutes and 15 seconds, not counting the fadeout time after beating the level.
For the IL's themselves I'd suggest going by the best time on the in-game clock.
Waiting to hear what others have to say before passing a judgment.
Quote:
Audio/Video is fine. No signs of cheating, etc.
I won't try to comment on every scene. They're all very well done. Almost invariably remaining in charge mode whenever possible, not taking purely defensive pictures, etc. There is only one scene which I feel was done poorly, and that is 5-3.
In response to what [above verifier] said about some scenes having been improved, I don't think that necessarily means the old times are so bad that we should reject them. For the most part, they were executed very well. Even if better strategies have been found now, they weren't known at the time, so it's not like the players were making blatantly foolish decisions. Naturally it should be understood that (aside from the supposedly perfect times) every single time here has the potential for improvement, but that alone doesn't invalidate them.
5-3 is different though. Everyone who plays the game seriously should know that repeatedly switching in and out of charge actually slows you down. The player here had no reason whatsoever to be doing that. It's clearly not necessary for survival. It's purely detrimental. I'm a bit surprised that one even made it into the submission, since it's so obviously flawed.
So as it is, I'd pass every scene except 5-3.
I won't try to comment on every scene. They're all very well done. Almost invariably remaining in charge mode whenever possible, not taking purely defensive pictures, etc. There is only one scene which I feel was done poorly, and that is 5-3.
In response to what [above verifier] said about some scenes having been improved, I don't think that necessarily means the old times are so bad that we should reject them. For the most part, they were executed very well. Even if better strategies have been found now, they weren't known at the time, so it's not like the players were making blatantly foolish decisions. Naturally it should be understood that (aside from the supposedly perfect times) every single time here has the potential for improvement, but that alone doesn't invalidate them.
5-3 is different though. Everyone who plays the game seriously should know that repeatedly switching in and out of charge actually slows you down. The player here had no reason whatsoever to be doing that. It's clearly not necessary for survival. It's purely detrimental. I'm a bit surprised that one even made it into the submission, since it's so obviously flawed.
So as it is, I'd pass every scene except 5-3.
... Then one of the verifiers submitted improvements, so everybody verified again.
Quote:
Not much more to say from me, I'm very impressed by the remaining scenes, I think they'll all pose a serious challenge for anyone wanting to improve this in the future.
Quote:
Sorry for the delay.
As before, the video quality is fine. The improvements are all good. Excellent playing, no signs of cheating, etc. I especially liked Septentrion and DNA's Flaw.
So as it is, I've no qualms with any of these. Assuming I don't need to go into any greater detail, I guess that's that. Accept everything.
As before, the video quality is fine. The improvements are all good. Excellent playing, no signs of cheating, etc. I especially liked Septentrion and DNA's Flaw.
So as it is, I've no qualms with any of these. Assuming I don't need to go into any greater detail, I guess that's that. Accept everything.
Quote:
Audio/Video: more than good enough
Cheating: none detected
Decision: Very easy ACCEPT
Verifier 1 already nitpicked about most of the improved scenes, but I'll throw in my 2 cents as well.
1-1: Great way to start the run, that safespot is not easy to pull off, especially the dash between the 3rd and 4th shots. It took me about 50 tries to even clear the scene once with that strategy, let alone with fast photos all the way through.
1-2: Good bullet cancels, charge speed throughout.
1-3: Hitbox abuse is fun.
1-4: That laser dodge at the end is probably unnecessary, but it looks cool and costs no time so *shrug*
1-5: Looks like there was a tiny bit of time loss after the 2nd shot here, would have preferred to see dodging inside the "stalks" in that particular RNG scenario, but the photos are all very quick.
1-6: This scene gave me a lot of trouble when I was first playing this game. The runner flirts with death for all early shots, narrowly avoiding the clippy egg bullets.
2-1: 4th shot looks impressive, 3rd shot gets very good bullet cancels.
2-2: If the scene isn't ended where it is, Hina goes offscreen and you have to wait for her return.
2-3: VERY impressive strategy on this scene-shots with no bullet cancels can be worth it, and between the hearts is a very tricky maneuver.
2-4: The improvement to this scene has some insane bullet cancels, very well executed.
2-5: I think more bullets could have been cancelled early, but this would still be very hard to beat due to the level of execution and the speed of the shots.
2-6: Oh look another 'uber strat'. Most people could probably pull this one off, but not this close to Hina...
3-1: Some really nifty dodges inside the pattern here. Excellent bullet cancels as well.
3-2: The redirection of the umbrella "tongues" is very well done here, allowing as much time in charge as possible. Perhaps improvable by entering it after the 2nd shot?
3-3: Not breaking the charge right before the 3rd shot is insane O_O. I wouldn't want to try that strategy...
3-4: Incredibly simple scene, very fast shots.
3-5: 4th shot looks a bit slow...given the scene I'm not sure how it could be improved though.
3-6: This strategy has very little room for error. Very well done.
3-7: Simple scene, the second shot, though it slows down the game via a "scope shot" to 1/4 speed, costs no game time as the timer is also slowed. I see no reason to alter timing for this as it very rarely offers an advantage in speed due to the smaller photo size.
3-8: This scene is all RNG, and the runner gets 4 umbrellas on each of the 2nd through 4th shots. 5 is possible, and I've gotten 6 once. Slightly improvable with better luck, though the execution here is spot on.
4-1: Another difficulty strategy for minuscule time gains through bullet cancels.
4-2: The shots could be taken a bit quicker, though the last shot is very risky here to recover a bit of the time.
4-3: Very near optimal.
4-4: Waiting for bullet cancels, nothing special here.
4-5: The first scene to have a run, though this run here is a one and a quarter second improvement over it! Excellent cancels, difficult strategy and spot-on execution.
4-6: Fairly standard clear of the scene-wait, did he just go THROUGH the spiral!
4-7: A bit of a tricky scene normally, done at midscreen. Mad skills here.
5-1: Safespotting static waves for minuscule boosts to camera recharge.
5-2: I never would have thought to go above Murasa for this scene, cool to see it saves time.
5-3: Not shooting the fist in the second shot costs no time due to stalling on later shots. The dodging done on the last wave redirects the fists to where they interrupt Aya's movement less.
5-4: Could have had slightly better boss movement.
5-5: This is pretty much one of the worst scenes in the game. How the runner was able to read the lasers that close to Unzan...
5-6: This is one of those scenes that comes down to timing the last cycle. The first 2 shots mean next to nothing, optimizing the latter 3 are what matter. The photos are taken nearly instantaneously.
5-7: Dodging between walls of lasers inside the wall. Ok then...
5-8: Before seeing this replay i didn't know the anchors blocked shots. Going for the 4th shot we get the magic of hitboxes-a solid wall of bullets goes straight around Aya.
6-1: Nothing new to say on this one.
6-2: Pretty lucky run of the scene, with never having to leave charge and all the bullets going around. Far from the most egregious instance of solid walldodging though...
6-3: Thissceneissoboringanddumbandretardedandonly2shotsmatterhereandtheyarebothdoneverywell
6-4: The army of mini-Suika's give a lot of camera recharge, making prioritizing them in shots the ideal strategy.
6-5: I remember this scene was the first one I had to skip playing through the first time. I just could not read curvy lasers. Though, they aren't dense enough in this scene so you can just luck around them.
6-6: Fun scene, if a bit broken for survival. Staying that close to Suika is tricky due to the mist bullets.
6-7: This one is all about wuickshots. The red bullet RNG matters a bit, but the deciding factor is how fast you take the shots.
6-8: Pretty much fixed time, no way to save a cycle, boring and dull. More playaround in downtime please :3
7-1: This scene can be a pain to even beat...going above Shou for the last 2 shots is genius though, since her laser pattern up there looks static or at least predictable.
7-2: 2nd and 6th shots could have been a bit faster. 5/7 superquick shots and 2 quickshots is very good for this scene though.
7-3: Very impressive strategy, with the not having to break charge for the final shot.
7-4: Uber strat. Times 2. All there is to say here.
7-5: 4th shot has a bit of RNG, but excellent strategy.
7-6: Maybe improvable with better bullet cancels. I liked the 5th shot.
7-7: I remember when this scene got a 9 second improvement...good times.
8-1: VERY good luck with Orin's movement.
8-2: Saved a bit over a cycle on a normal clear.
8-3: Good camera manipulation to leave fairies alive for more bullets for more recharge.
8-4: Did not know Utsuho stops short of the player like that...I have a persona vendetta against this scene for being a stupid unfun piece of crap.
8-5: Dodging fairies like it's nothing.
8-6: Impressive unfocused dodge near the end.
8-7: 4th shot looked a touch early, unless not cancelling all the bullets was part of the strategy. Good luck with Orin's movement again-how far she moves is annoyingly random.
8-8: Interesting strategy, I don't think it's the best possible for the scene though it certainly has a lot of time in charge...maybe redirect above Utsuho for later shots?
9-1: No defensive shots third phase, all fast shots. I remember my first clear of this scene lasted about 4 times as long as this run.
9-2: That green heart dodge is pretty difficult, very impressively done, this scene really shows how tight the movement is.
9-3: This scene is a piece of garbage. Setup for the last shot is pretty cool though.
9-4: This scene is 100% static...if your movements are exactly the same to the pixel. Probably improvable with a better strategy, but since this is over a half a second improvement of Seiga Kaku's old run of 176.43 (which incidentally took 17643 shots, that's a lot of patience and persistence), there's no reason not to pass it through as it's also very well done. I think of the entire game, this is the scene I'd want to see maxed with a TAS the most.
9-5: No stalling no Satori screenleaving no rejection
9-6: The phase 2 strategy is pretty cool, though it's again something I feel could be improved with more thought. The 4th phase was very lucky as well.
9-7: That looked easy right? Right? Just sit there, take 3 shots, go home, suddenly done. WRONG! This scene is RNG hell incarnate (well, as close as these games get to it anyway :V). Everyone will know who this is from this information, but this scene took me a whopping 1733 shots to clear once. 1733, to get 3. Yeah. Oh right, the run itself, really really well executed, all fast shots, aggressive play, and IIRC the runner mentioned sometihng about 5000 shots for this. That translates to about 8 hours spent.
9-8: Sure doesn't look like hell to me :V Especially not after 9-7.
10-1: An earlier iteration of this run jumped through the bubbles as they expanded, but I pointed out that you could sit pretty much right on top of Tenshi and have the bubbles miss-with a bit of luck from the red bullets.
10-2: Could be improved with better boss movements and a more aggressive strategy. However, due to the lasers it's very hard to be close-ish to Iku.
10-3: The keystone hitboxes are deceptively tight, the runner makes going through them looks very easy.
10-4: I find this scene ridiculously impressive done quickly from the pushing nature of it.
10-5: The loosely aimed red streams played very nice in this run. Very good strategy, I liked the 5th shot.
10-6: See 10-3, but add weird trajectories.
10-7: Timing on the first shot is ridiculously tight, that dodge for the 7th shot blows my mind-I'd be interested to know if it was reading or luck.
10-8: I spent a lot of time on this scene trying to beat 176.67, ended up with a few ties. This runs is an eighth of a second faster. That's a lot when considering the forced timing of parts of this game.
11-1: Speedstrats and survival strats are the same here. It's all about the fast shots.
11-2: This scene...is really annoying to speedrun due to the bullets Suwako shoots. So much so that in the original table it was the last scene to get an IL. The runner makes it look easy here. This is the scene I think I'd want to see a TAS of second most.
11-3: Most people do this scene unfocused or in focus speed the same way it's done here. The runner does it in charge speed.
11-4: Suwako didn't learn from Nitori's mistake earlier in that dodging above is easier :V
11-5: This is some seriously impressive (and lucky) stuff here. Could still be improved by probably a half second at least, but that would require inhuman luck with the meteoric lasers while still not screwing up.
11-6: Probably one of the most fun scenes in the whole game. Improvable by a large amount...if the person attempting it is insane enough to dodge inside Suwako's rings.
11-7: Same as a normal clear but with turbo shots, and stopping inside the spawning bullets for the second shot.
11-8: Nice fireworks. Shame most of them are prevented from going off
12-1: Very fast shots, I like how it hits the bullet limit.
12-2: I remember when Zil submitted an IL of this with a defensive shot to take out the clone. I thought "well that's just slow" and did it without any defensive shots. A few iterations of my strategy later, the runner pulls this off. It's a tricky strategy, but not so difficult that it can't be done consistently.
12-3: No defensive shots. Easier to do than it looks, but could be improved by braving more of the kunai storm.
12-4: I'm very impressed with charge only being broken near the end of the final shot.
12-5: The red bullets get really tight for the last shot, very well played given that the speed strat is a lot harder than the standard survival method.
12-6: The strategy of going above Nue is really smart. I remember this scene needed an IL, so I live-recorded a bunch of attempts at it and got my first clear of it about a half second slower than this replay. This scene likes to desync on replays, so the fact that a speedrun replay actually works is amazing.
12-7: Really impressive bullet cancels.
12-8: PS2 best console. This is totally relevant.
EX-1: Going around all hitbox giant squares like nothing.
EX-2: Wouldn't have thought an empty first shot was optimal, but here we are.
EX-3: Some very impressive dodges up close to Sanae to cancel the bullet spawn point for more charge.
EX-4: Scoring wants more bullets, speed wants more bullets. So thwe runner dodges this 1 ring closer than most people would.
EX-5: Worst scene in the game, ridiculously impressive run, never breaks charge except for photos, easily one of the highlights on the submission. Tha's saying something given some of the other insane things that were pulled off.
EX-6: Seiga Kaku and I had a back and forth on this scene, improving it from something like a 175 with a defensive shot/stalling to a low 179, and then all the way up to 180.56 from Seiga to beat my 180.53. It took me a few hours and over a thousand shots, but then out of nowhere I pulled a 180.70. Then Random sniped the scene after we were both burned out of it with this 180.75. Not sure where the gap comes from, faster shots or better cancel luck, but it's faster so it's here. This is definitely the scene I put the most effort into though, it's a shame it doesn't show in the end.
EX-7: Hitbox abuse is cool. Anyone else find it weird that the music changes from Nemesis Stronghold to Infinite Nightmare here?
EX-8: Cool strategy with all the Spark redirections.
EX-9: Avoids the break-charge-walling phase completely with clever movement. Blows my mind.
SP-1: Frame perfect.
SP-2: 4th shot is really really close as if you're in photo mode, Hatate's photo goes at full speed!
SP-3: Stalling for bullet cancels may not be faster, but it was safer. Maybe that could be looked into?
SP-4: Those last couple shots are really tight timing to avoid being killed by Hatate's final photo.
SP-5: Frame perfect.
SP-6: Diagonal unfocused dodges are cool.
SP-7: See SP-7 but add in fast shots and a strategy I'd never think of.
SP-8: Stalling the 4th shot keeps Aya from instakilling you at the phase shift.
SP-9: BEST SCENE IN THE GAME BAR NONE! Uhhh...and I guess it's pretty fast too. Especially that 10th shot, dodging up through converging bullets and taking the shot like there's no pressure or anything.
Cheating: none detected
Decision: Very easy ACCEPT
Verifier 1 already nitpicked about most of the improved scenes, but I'll throw in my 2 cents as well.
1-1: Great way to start the run, that safespot is not easy to pull off, especially the dash between the 3rd and 4th shots. It took me about 50 tries to even clear the scene once with that strategy, let alone with fast photos all the way through.
1-2: Good bullet cancels, charge speed throughout.
1-3: Hitbox abuse is fun.
1-4: That laser dodge at the end is probably unnecessary, but it looks cool and costs no time so *shrug*
1-5: Looks like there was a tiny bit of time loss after the 2nd shot here, would have preferred to see dodging inside the "stalks" in that particular RNG scenario, but the photos are all very quick.
1-6: This scene gave me a lot of trouble when I was first playing this game. The runner flirts with death for all early shots, narrowly avoiding the clippy egg bullets.
2-1: 4th shot looks impressive, 3rd shot gets very good bullet cancels.
2-2: If the scene isn't ended where it is, Hina goes offscreen and you have to wait for her return.
2-3: VERY impressive strategy on this scene-shots with no bullet cancels can be worth it, and between the hearts is a very tricky maneuver.
2-4: The improvement to this scene has some insane bullet cancels, very well executed.
2-5: I think more bullets could have been cancelled early, but this would still be very hard to beat due to the level of execution and the speed of the shots.
2-6: Oh look another 'uber strat'. Most people could probably pull this one off, but not this close to Hina...
3-1: Some really nifty dodges inside the pattern here. Excellent bullet cancels as well.
3-2: The redirection of the umbrella "tongues" is very well done here, allowing as much time in charge as possible. Perhaps improvable by entering it after the 2nd shot?
3-3: Not breaking the charge right before the 3rd shot is insane O_O. I wouldn't want to try that strategy...
3-4: Incredibly simple scene, very fast shots.
3-5: 4th shot looks a bit slow...given the scene I'm not sure how it could be improved though.
3-6: This strategy has very little room for error. Very well done.
3-7: Simple scene, the second shot, though it slows down the game via a "scope shot" to 1/4 speed, costs no game time as the timer is also slowed. I see no reason to alter timing for this as it very rarely offers an advantage in speed due to the smaller photo size.
3-8: This scene is all RNG, and the runner gets 4 umbrellas on each of the 2nd through 4th shots. 5 is possible, and I've gotten 6 once. Slightly improvable with better luck, though the execution here is spot on.
4-1: Another difficulty strategy for minuscule time gains through bullet cancels.
4-2: The shots could be taken a bit quicker, though the last shot is very risky here to recover a bit of the time.
4-3: Very near optimal.
4-4: Waiting for bullet cancels, nothing special here.
4-5: The first scene to have a run, though this run here is a one and a quarter second improvement over it! Excellent cancels, difficult strategy and spot-on execution.
4-6: Fairly standard clear of the scene-wait, did he just go THROUGH the spiral!
4-7: A bit of a tricky scene normally, done at midscreen. Mad skills here.
5-1: Safespotting static waves for minuscule boosts to camera recharge.
5-2: I never would have thought to go above Murasa for this scene, cool to see it saves time.
5-3: Not shooting the fist in the second shot costs no time due to stalling on later shots. The dodging done on the last wave redirects the fists to where they interrupt Aya's movement less.
5-4: Could have had slightly better boss movement.
5-5: This is pretty much one of the worst scenes in the game. How the runner was able to read the lasers that close to Unzan...
5-6: This is one of those scenes that comes down to timing the last cycle. The first 2 shots mean next to nothing, optimizing the latter 3 are what matter. The photos are taken nearly instantaneously.
5-7: Dodging between walls of lasers inside the wall. Ok then...
5-8: Before seeing this replay i didn't know the anchors blocked shots. Going for the 4th shot we get the magic of hitboxes-a solid wall of bullets goes straight around Aya.
6-1: Nothing new to say on this one.
6-2: Pretty lucky run of the scene, with never having to leave charge and all the bullets going around. Far from the most egregious instance of solid walldodging though...
6-3: Thissceneissoboringanddumbandretardedandonly2shotsmatterhereandtheyarebothdoneverywell
6-4: The army of mini-Suika's give a lot of camera recharge, making prioritizing them in shots the ideal strategy.
6-5: I remember this scene was the first one I had to skip playing through the first time. I just could not read curvy lasers. Though, they aren't dense enough in this scene so you can just luck around them.
6-6: Fun scene, if a bit broken for survival. Staying that close to Suika is tricky due to the mist bullets.
6-7: This one is all about wuickshots. The red bullet RNG matters a bit, but the deciding factor is how fast you take the shots.
6-8: Pretty much fixed time, no way to save a cycle, boring and dull. More playaround in downtime please :3
7-1: This scene can be a pain to even beat...going above Shou for the last 2 shots is genius though, since her laser pattern up there looks static or at least predictable.
7-2: 2nd and 6th shots could have been a bit faster. 5/7 superquick shots and 2 quickshots is very good for this scene though.
7-3: Very impressive strategy, with the not having to break charge for the final shot.
7-4: Uber strat. Times 2. All there is to say here.
7-5: 4th shot has a bit of RNG, but excellent strategy.
7-6: Maybe improvable with better bullet cancels. I liked the 5th shot.
7-7: I remember when this scene got a 9 second improvement...good times.
8-1: VERY good luck with Orin's movement.
8-2: Saved a bit over a cycle on a normal clear.
8-3: Good camera manipulation to leave fairies alive for more bullets for more recharge.
8-4: Did not know Utsuho stops short of the player like that...I have a persona vendetta against this scene for being a stupid unfun piece of crap.
8-5: Dodging fairies like it's nothing.
8-6: Impressive unfocused dodge near the end.
8-7: 4th shot looked a touch early, unless not cancelling all the bullets was part of the strategy. Good luck with Orin's movement again-how far she moves is annoyingly random.
8-8: Interesting strategy, I don't think it's the best possible for the scene though it certainly has a lot of time in charge...maybe redirect above Utsuho for later shots?
9-1: No defensive shots third phase, all fast shots. I remember my first clear of this scene lasted about 4 times as long as this run.
9-2: That green heart dodge is pretty difficult, very impressively done, this scene really shows how tight the movement is.
9-3: This scene is a piece of garbage. Setup for the last shot is pretty cool though.
9-4: This scene is 100% static...if your movements are exactly the same to the pixel. Probably improvable with a better strategy, but since this is over a half a second improvement of Seiga Kaku's old run of 176.43 (which incidentally took 17643 shots, that's a lot of patience and persistence), there's no reason not to pass it through as it's also very well done. I think of the entire game, this is the scene I'd want to see maxed with a TAS the most.
9-5: No stalling no Satori screenleaving no rejection
9-6: The phase 2 strategy is pretty cool, though it's again something I feel could be improved with more thought. The 4th phase was very lucky as well.
9-7: That looked easy right? Right? Just sit there, take 3 shots, go home, suddenly done. WRONG! This scene is RNG hell incarnate (well, as close as these games get to it anyway :V). Everyone will know who this is from this information, but this scene took me a whopping 1733 shots to clear once. 1733, to get 3. Yeah. Oh right, the run itself, really really well executed, all fast shots, aggressive play, and IIRC the runner mentioned sometihng about 5000 shots for this. That translates to about 8 hours spent.
9-8: Sure doesn't look like hell to me :V Especially not after 9-7.
10-1: An earlier iteration of this run jumped through the bubbles as they expanded, but I pointed out that you could sit pretty much right on top of Tenshi and have the bubbles miss-with a bit of luck from the red bullets.
10-2: Could be improved with better boss movements and a more aggressive strategy. However, due to the lasers it's very hard to be close-ish to Iku.
10-3: The keystone hitboxes are deceptively tight, the runner makes going through them looks very easy.
10-4: I find this scene ridiculously impressive done quickly from the pushing nature of it.
10-5: The loosely aimed red streams played very nice in this run. Very good strategy, I liked the 5th shot.
10-6: See 10-3, but add weird trajectories.
10-7: Timing on the first shot is ridiculously tight, that dodge for the 7th shot blows my mind-I'd be interested to know if it was reading or luck.
10-8: I spent a lot of time on this scene trying to beat 176.67, ended up with a few ties. This runs is an eighth of a second faster. That's a lot when considering the forced timing of parts of this game.
11-1: Speedstrats and survival strats are the same here. It's all about the fast shots.
11-2: This scene...is really annoying to speedrun due to the bullets Suwako shoots. So much so that in the original table it was the last scene to get an IL. The runner makes it look easy here. This is the scene I think I'd want to see a TAS of second most.
11-3: Most people do this scene unfocused or in focus speed the same way it's done here. The runner does it in charge speed.
11-4: Suwako didn't learn from Nitori's mistake earlier in that dodging above is easier :V
11-5: This is some seriously impressive (and lucky) stuff here. Could still be improved by probably a half second at least, but that would require inhuman luck with the meteoric lasers while still not screwing up.
11-6: Probably one of the most fun scenes in the whole game. Improvable by a large amount...if the person attempting it is insane enough to dodge inside Suwako's rings.
11-7: Same as a normal clear but with turbo shots, and stopping inside the spawning bullets for the second shot.
11-8: Nice fireworks. Shame most of them are prevented from going off
12-1: Very fast shots, I like how it hits the bullet limit.
12-2: I remember when Zil submitted an IL of this with a defensive shot to take out the clone. I thought "well that's just slow" and did it without any defensive shots. A few iterations of my strategy later, the runner pulls this off. It's a tricky strategy, but not so difficult that it can't be done consistently.
12-3: No defensive shots. Easier to do than it looks, but could be improved by braving more of the kunai storm.
12-4: I'm very impressed with charge only being broken near the end of the final shot.
12-5: The red bullets get really tight for the last shot, very well played given that the speed strat is a lot harder than the standard survival method.
12-6: The strategy of going above Nue is really smart. I remember this scene needed an IL, so I live-recorded a bunch of attempts at it and got my first clear of it about a half second slower than this replay. This scene likes to desync on replays, so the fact that a speedrun replay actually works is amazing.
12-7: Really impressive bullet cancels.
12-8: PS2 best console. This is totally relevant.
EX-1: Going around all hitbox giant squares like nothing.
EX-2: Wouldn't have thought an empty first shot was optimal, but here we are.
EX-3: Some very impressive dodges up close to Sanae to cancel the bullet spawn point for more charge.
EX-4: Scoring wants more bullets, speed wants more bullets. So thwe runner dodges this 1 ring closer than most people would.
EX-5: Worst scene in the game, ridiculously impressive run, never breaks charge except for photos, easily one of the highlights on the submission. Tha's saying something given some of the other insane things that were pulled off.
EX-6: Seiga Kaku and I had a back and forth on this scene, improving it from something like a 175 with a defensive shot/stalling to a low 179, and then all the way up to 180.56 from Seiga to beat my 180.53. It took me a few hours and over a thousand shots, but then out of nowhere I pulled a 180.70. Then Random sniped the scene after we were both burned out of it with this 180.75. Not sure where the gap comes from, faster shots or better cancel luck, but it's faster so it's here. This is definitely the scene I put the most effort into though, it's a shame it doesn't show in the end.
EX-7: Hitbox abuse is cool. Anyone else find it weird that the music changes from Nemesis Stronghold to Infinite Nightmare here?
EX-8: Cool strategy with all the Spark redirections.
EX-9: Avoids the break-charge-walling phase completely with clever movement. Blows my mind.
SP-1: Frame perfect.
SP-2: 4th shot is really really close as if you're in photo mode, Hatate's photo goes at full speed!
SP-3: Stalling for bullet cancels may not be faster, but it was safer. Maybe that could be looked into?
SP-4: Those last couple shots are really tight timing to avoid being killed by Hatate's final photo.
SP-5: Frame perfect.
SP-6: Diagonal unfocused dodges are cool.
SP-7: See SP-7 but add in fast shots and a strategy I'd never think of.
SP-8: Stalling the 4th shot keeps Aya from instakilling you at the phase shift.
SP-9: BEST SCENE IN THE GAME BAR NONE! Uhhh...and I guess it's pretty fast too. Especially that 10th shot, dodging up through converging bullets and taking the shot like there's no pressure or anything.
Decision: Accept the first batch along with the improvements sent in later.
Congratulations to Jeffrey 'I have no name' Bardon, 'Random,' 'guwa,' 'Ridley 64,' 'ARF,' Peter 'Zil,' & Christian 'DarkDespair5' Walker!
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