My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.
Eric 'Vykan12' Grosse's run
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Reason: Lots of luck manipulation, fast menu-work and tile movement. All the stuff that makes a good Strategy RPG run.
Eric 'Vykan12' Grosse's run
Verifier Responses
Quote:
The run isn't cheated. Segment times, weapons (location and durability), money, levels, and stats are all consistent throughout the run.
Play quality is excellent. Movements are quick and precise with strategies that abuse luck manipulation to hell and back to get the fastest times. It's evident that a lot of time and effort was spent to make these strategies and perfect the times. If someone were to improve on this, I can't imagine it being much faster.
That said, there are a few optional items obtained that were never used: the Brave Sword and the 3-11 Master Crown. In addition, the same Brave Sword and a Paragon scroll are sent to Ike's team via Ilyana, but are also unused. However, the time lost for these only amounts to about 15 seconds or less.
Another part that I'm not too sure of, but should require runner clarification, is early on when four Iron Knives are forged for Sothe. At the end of the run, the total amount of uses remaining on them would make only three necessary. I think it's so that the "'weapon' broke" wouldn't have to appear and that there wouldn't be any worry about breaking any of them before killing an enemy, but some clarification would be nice. Overall probably a negligible time difference, so I'm just being nitpicky.
A definite accept from me.
For those interested, some of the parts I enjoyed the most were 1-E, 3-3, all the green units dying and cutting out an other phase in 3-4, the boss room in 4-4, and 4-E in general.
Play quality is excellent. Movements are quick and precise with strategies that abuse luck manipulation to hell and back to get the fastest times. It's evident that a lot of time and effort was spent to make these strategies and perfect the times. If someone were to improve on this, I can't imagine it being much faster.
That said, there are a few optional items obtained that were never used: the Brave Sword and the 3-11 Master Crown. In addition, the same Brave Sword and a Paragon scroll are sent to Ike's team via Ilyana, but are also unused. However, the time lost for these only amounts to about 15 seconds or less.
Another part that I'm not too sure of, but should require runner clarification, is early on when four Iron Knives are forged for Sothe. At the end of the run, the total amount of uses remaining on them would make only three necessary. I think it's so that the "'weapon' broke" wouldn't have to appear and that there wouldn't be any worry about breaking any of them before killing an enemy, but some clarification would be nice. Overall probably a negligible time difference, so I'm just being nitpicky.
A definite accept from me.
For those interested, some of the parts I enjoyed the most were 1-E, 3-3, all the green units dying and cutting out an other phase in 3-4, the boss room in 4-4, and 4-E in general.
Quote:
Overall:
An amazing run. The planning was very well executed, with no deaths to be found.
Another aspect of his run that impressed me was his seeking of perfection, so to speak. On a few save screens I noticed he had already made a save, but these saves were always slower. This showed he tried to get as low a time as possible, which (to a non-perfectionist like myself) is great to see. He actively tried to not only have the perfect strategy, but also perfect movement. He should be a TASer Wink
Kill all enemies:
These stages are the worst. Not only did the runner have to kill all enemies as fast as possible, but he had to deal with reinforcements coming to the aid of their dying allies. It is clear the runner is either Alexander the Great, or has done many a trial and error reset.
The most amazing example of this, in my opinion, would be segments 81 to 86. I remember this room clearly, having a literal shit-ton of enemies. The runner found places for his units that manipulated as many of the computer characters to attack as possible. It may not sound like much, but the planning for such an occurrence is mind blowing.
Seize:
These stages are generally time consuming. First you have to kill units to get to the base, then kill the guard blocking said base, then you seize the base. The biggest difficulty is that seizing a base usually requires the weakest character on your team. For a speedrun, this is bad.
The runner typically followed a formula, which was have a stronger character (ex: Haar) carry the weaker character straight to the base. What impressed me was how the runner seemed to have no trouble manipulating the computer. Not only did the strong character get to the destination, but the weak character (iirc) was not damaged after being dropped.
Defeat the Boss:
Talk about a bee line. The runner goes straight for the boss, killing him in only a few turns. An excellent example would be segment 38. My jaw was on the floor; I just couldn't believe it took under 20 seconds to beat that level!
Screw ups:
Aside from the occasional missed square, there was nothing major that I noticed. Yes, he could have re-done the segment had he overshot the cursor, but that cursor is fast and difficult to control to begin with. Not once did he allow the character to actually move to the wrong square, so I do not think these small mess ups are a deal breaker. I would assess the damage at ~5 to 10 seconds for the whole run.
An amazing run. The planning was very well executed, with no deaths to be found.
Another aspect of his run that impressed me was his seeking of perfection, so to speak. On a few save screens I noticed he had already made a save, but these saves were always slower. This showed he tried to get as low a time as possible, which (to a non-perfectionist like myself) is great to see. He actively tried to not only have the perfect strategy, but also perfect movement. He should be a TASer Wink
Kill all enemies:
These stages are the worst. Not only did the runner have to kill all enemies as fast as possible, but he had to deal with reinforcements coming to the aid of their dying allies. It is clear the runner is either Alexander the Great, or has done many a trial and error reset.
The most amazing example of this, in my opinion, would be segments 81 to 86. I remember this room clearly, having a literal shit-ton of enemies. The runner found places for his units that manipulated as many of the computer characters to attack as possible. It may not sound like much, but the planning for such an occurrence is mind blowing.
Seize:
These stages are generally time consuming. First you have to kill units to get to the base, then kill the guard blocking said base, then you seize the base. The biggest difficulty is that seizing a base usually requires the weakest character on your team. For a speedrun, this is bad.
The runner typically followed a formula, which was have a stronger character (ex: Haar) carry the weaker character straight to the base. What impressed me was how the runner seemed to have no trouble manipulating the computer. Not only did the strong character get to the destination, but the weak character (iirc) was not damaged after being dropped.
Defeat the Boss:
Talk about a bee line. The runner goes straight for the boss, killing him in only a few turns. An excellent example would be segment 38. My jaw was on the floor; I just couldn't believe it took under 20 seconds to beat that level!
Screw ups:
Aside from the occasional missed square, there was nothing major that I noticed. Yes, he could have re-done the segment had he overshot the cursor, but that cursor is fast and difficult to control to begin with. Not once did he allow the character to actually move to the wrong square, so I do not think these small mess ups are a deal breaker. I would assess the damage at ~5 to 10 seconds for the whole run.
Quote:
Dishonesty:
Nothing noticeable. Timings line up, and there's nothing missing (at least that I could keep track of).
This run has no deaths of any player-controlled (i.e. Blue) units. Everyone else dies (alot).
Capture Quality:
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Just a note, many of the segments begin relatively early, and idle on the title screen for a bit (ussually about 12 secs), or show the runner going to the load screen, then mysteriously returning to the title screen before loading the game. I can make a list if its a big deal.
Audio Quality:
Nothing I could notice
Gameplay Quality:
Standard Fire-Emblem-luck-manipulation-up-the-bum fare, this time around with more mid-battle optimization than ever before.
As a result, the run is rather tightly optimized in nearly every respect, though the high segment count is a little off-putting (maybe ask the runner to note a 'highlight reel' of interesting (i.e. 1-3 turn segments, or segments with high luck manipulation) for those that don't want to sit through 91 consecutive downloads).
A small number of minor mistakes or small planning oversights, but none that cost more than a second or two at a time; otherwise, extremely well planned and executed, especially considering the relatively high difficulty of the game during normal play.
I say accept.
Nothing noticeable. Timings line up, and there's nothing missing (at least that I could keep track of).
This run has no deaths of any player-controlled (i.e. Blue) units. Everyone else dies (alot).
Capture Quality:
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Just a note, many of the segments begin relatively early, and idle on the title screen for a bit (ussually about 12 secs), or show the runner going to the load screen, then mysteriously returning to the title screen before loading the game. I can make a list if its a big deal.
Audio Quality:
Nothing I could notice
Gameplay Quality:
Standard Fire-Emblem-luck-manipulation-up-the-bum fare, this time around with more mid-battle optimization than ever before.
As a result, the run is rather tightly optimized in nearly every respect, though the high segment count is a little off-putting (maybe ask the runner to note a 'highlight reel' of interesting (i.e. 1-3 turn segments, or segments with high luck manipulation) for those that don't want to sit through 91 consecutive downloads).
A small number of minor mistakes or small planning oversights, but none that cost more than a second or two at a time; otherwise, extremely well planned and executed, especially considering the relatively high difficulty of the game during normal play.
I say accept.
Quote:
Verifier: The final time is 3:13.38. Notable for being one second above Elite. 
Verifier: I just finished checking the save times. Everything matched up.
Verifier: Though I should mention that I only did pre/post-chapter save checks. Battle save checks would only be reasonable for the most anal of verification people.
Verifier: Seriously, it would require a ridiculous amount of VirtualDub opening and comparing real-time minutes/seconds to what the timer shows.
Verifier: The reason is because the game doesn't show you the save screen when you do a Battle Save, by the way.
Verifier: I don't know what else I need to say other than: "This is the best Fire Emblem speed run I've ever seen, by far."
Verifier: I just finished checking the save times. Everything matched up.
Verifier: Though I should mention that I only did pre/post-chapter save checks. Battle save checks would only be reasonable for the most anal of verification people.
Verifier: Seriously, it would require a ridiculous amount of VirtualDub opening and comparing real-time minutes/seconds to what the timer shows.
Verifier: The reason is because the game doesn't show you the save screen when you do a Battle Save, by the way.
Verifier: I don't know what else I need to say other than: "This is the best Fire Emblem speed run I've ever seen, by far."
Decision: Accept
Reason: Lots of luck manipulation, fast menu-work and tile movement. All the stuff that makes a good Strategy RPG run.
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