Never give up!
Wow.
I know the game was fairly unpopular, but I was hoping for at least some confidence-boosting. Is the idea of SSing this game just that silly?
Anyway, I had some thoughts about this game, and I actually think I'm going to do this BEFORE I do the X-Men Legends runs, because those are going to be segmented and I want to do exactly two more long single-segment runs (this, plus a game I've done a segmented run of before) before I expect to lose the time to really work on them. I'll still spend time on Golden Axe 3 intermittently, since that game's easier to find time to attempt.
Since it's been a while since I've played the game, I'm spending time familiarizing myself with required triggers for advancement and the timing for skipping cutscenes (personal notes, you must understand - I plan on putting the notes into an easy-to-follow format and printing them when I'm done with this, so I have a tactical reference during the run). I'm also seeing if I can find any suspected tactical improvements over darkwasabi's run, because I am incredibly skeptical of this statement in his commentary:
My theory is that at minimum, two minutes of savings can be found. And because I seriously doubt I'll beat the segmented run's time, if anyone's willing to try it, these can be applied to a new segmented run. I don't know where I'll find it, I just suspect I'll find it as I test possibilities.
Here's what I've noted so far:
Chapter 1:
Triggers and Skip Points:
-First airship sequence: Talk to Brother, then go inside the Cabin area.
-Gagazet, cutscene before Leblanc fight: Can't skip this until Leblanc shows up.
-Gagazet, final scenes: Fast-forwarding the text here doesn't seem to affect the time at all.
-Celsius, after getting Black Mage: Can't skip it until Buddy says the word "Gullwings".
Tactical changes (pluses mean possible improvements, minuses mean I'll undoubtedly be slower here, question marks mean investigation is underway, equals means nothing changes, asterisk means merely a strat change):
+Gagazet, Leblanc fight: Forget about going all-out on Ormi and Logos early on - go after Leblanc first. The idea here is that Ormi and Logos only have a chance (and apparently a slim one) of wasting time with their moves - Leblanc almost always wastes time with moves like Sonic Fan and Love Tap. After this, I'd say go after Ormi (the more dangerous of the two lackeys at this stage) second, and save Logos for last. I'm positive a good 20-30 seconds can be shaved on this fight just with this tactic change, and I suspect even more savings here is realistic.
-Gagazet, 'race to the top' sequence: Extra encounters won't be necessary - I can run from them (or fight them if I can win faster than I can run away, which might happen). But I'll be snagging the Elixir and Yellow Ring here to make sure I can afford an extra accessory in Calm Lands.
=Gagazet, Boris fight: Sticking with three Warriors for this fight. Critical hits are the only way I'll be faster than darkwasabi - the fight's sped up by a few seconds if I get just one - and I can't count on those happening.
?Celsius, post-Gagazet: I may take a trip to the Engine Room if I find that letting Yuna switch between an Amulet and a Wristband as necessary makes certain parts go faster, because Remedies sell for enough money to finance that. I'd drop this before I dropped the Elixir if I find this isn't helpful enough, as I think this is slower than that.
?Calm Lands: Charm Bangle, two Amulets, and two Wristbands for sure. If I determine Yuna could use more Magic before Paine gets the Gold Hairpin, I'll buy one more Amulet.
*Class change before Besaid: I've decided on my setup for this part. Yuna and Paine as Black Mages, Rikku as a Thief. Why Thief instead of Warrior? This is the first fight where needing to heal is a very realistic possibility in an SS, and Thief is faster than Warrior for impromptu strategy changes.
-Besaid: I will need to check some of the ciphers, because I can't simply memorize the password ahead of time. However, I will only check the ciphers for the first, third, and fourth parts of the code. I believe it is faster to brute-force the second number, even if you use all ten possibilities, than to run over and find it out for sure.
More to follow as I do my refamiliarizing. You also bet I'm going to work on my combo hit timing as I do this - it's decent but I feel it still needs a bit more work.
I have theories for some possible improvements but I think I'll test those some more before presenting them. It mostly has to do with different classes and some different purchases, and I'm not entirely sure it'll all pan out the way I want it to.
I know the game was fairly unpopular, but I was hoping for at least some confidence-boosting. Is the idea of SSing this game just that silly?
Anyway, I had some thoughts about this game, and I actually think I'm going to do this BEFORE I do the X-Men Legends runs, because those are going to be segmented and I want to do exactly two more long single-segment runs (this, plus a game I've done a segmented run of before) before I expect to lose the time to really work on them. I'll still spend time on Golden Axe 3 intermittently, since that game's easier to find time to attempt.
Since it's been a while since I've played the game, I'm spending time familiarizing myself with required triggers for advancement and the timing for skipping cutscenes (personal notes, you must understand - I plan on putting the notes into an easy-to-follow format and printing them when I'm done with this, so I have a tactical reference during the run). I'm also seeing if I can find any suspected tactical improvements over darkwasabi's run, because I am incredibly skeptical of this statement in his commentary:
Quote:
...because going flawless all the way up to the final save would probably not even save a minute...
My theory is that at minimum, two minutes of savings can be found. And because I seriously doubt I'll beat the segmented run's time, if anyone's willing to try it, these can be applied to a new segmented run. I don't know where I'll find it, I just suspect I'll find it as I test possibilities.
Here's what I've noted so far:
Chapter 1:
Triggers and Skip Points:
-First airship sequence: Talk to Brother, then go inside the Cabin area.
-Gagazet, cutscene before Leblanc fight: Can't skip this until Leblanc shows up.
-Gagazet, final scenes: Fast-forwarding the text here doesn't seem to affect the time at all.
-Celsius, after getting Black Mage: Can't skip it until Buddy says the word "Gullwings".
Tactical changes (pluses mean possible improvements, minuses mean I'll undoubtedly be slower here, question marks mean investigation is underway, equals means nothing changes, asterisk means merely a strat change):
+Gagazet, Leblanc fight: Forget about going all-out on Ormi and Logos early on - go after Leblanc first. The idea here is that Ormi and Logos only have a chance (and apparently a slim one) of wasting time with their moves - Leblanc almost always wastes time with moves like Sonic Fan and Love Tap. After this, I'd say go after Ormi (the more dangerous of the two lackeys at this stage) second, and save Logos for last. I'm positive a good 20-30 seconds can be shaved on this fight just with this tactic change, and I suspect even more savings here is realistic.
-Gagazet, 'race to the top' sequence: Extra encounters won't be necessary - I can run from them (or fight them if I can win faster than I can run away, which might happen). But I'll be snagging the Elixir and Yellow Ring here to make sure I can afford an extra accessory in Calm Lands.
=Gagazet, Boris fight: Sticking with three Warriors for this fight. Critical hits are the only way I'll be faster than darkwasabi - the fight's sped up by a few seconds if I get just one - and I can't count on those happening.
?Celsius, post-Gagazet: I may take a trip to the Engine Room if I find that letting Yuna switch between an Amulet and a Wristband as necessary makes certain parts go faster, because Remedies sell for enough money to finance that. I'd drop this before I dropped the Elixir if I find this isn't helpful enough, as I think this is slower than that.
?Calm Lands: Charm Bangle, two Amulets, and two Wristbands for sure. If I determine Yuna could use more Magic before Paine gets the Gold Hairpin, I'll buy one more Amulet.
*Class change before Besaid: I've decided on my setup for this part. Yuna and Paine as Black Mages, Rikku as a Thief. Why Thief instead of Warrior? This is the first fight where needing to heal is a very realistic possibility in an SS, and Thief is faster than Warrior for impromptu strategy changes.
-Besaid: I will need to check some of the ciphers, because I can't simply memorize the password ahead of time. However, I will only check the ciphers for the first, third, and fourth parts of the code. I believe it is faster to brute-force the second number, even if you use all ten possibilities, than to run over and find it out for sure.
More to follow as I do my refamiliarizing. You also bet I'm going to work on my combo hit timing as I do this - it's decent but I feel it still needs a bit more work.
I have theories for some possible improvements but I think I'll test those some more before presenting them. It mostly has to do with different classes and some different purchases, and I'm not entirely sure it'll all pan out the way I want it to.
