Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (NES)

MASTER-88

Edit history:

MASTER-88: 2013-08-10 12:13:55 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-10 12:12:51 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-09 11:26:32 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-08-09 11:21:18 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-08-09 10:59:22 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-08-09 10:57:47 pm

2013-08-09 10:56:26 pm

Master-88

i bought this cart fucking three weeks ago but im not still pick up this yet. Why ebay why?. I was bored and drunk i did last test run on emulator with few resets

This time really surprised for me and i miss last boss quick kill too. I think my SDA console goal could be sub 10 minutes. Im not want make too good run on emulator but my previous 13:15 was simply horrible and iwanted redo it. But yeah this 10:35 was pretty good run especially awesome galago tunnels. But yeah sub 10 minutes is easily possible. I´ll aim that my goal my SDA submission. Probably sub 10 is too easy goal 9:40 seems like god. If i can throw all harder speedtrick level 1 & 2 mean skipping selections and have totally perfect luck with galago tunnels its insanely difficult but definitely theory possible make run like 8:59-9:10 range. But seriously i have to be really bored then. Run like 9:40-9:50 will be definitely worth submission.

EDIT:
LOL i have to say this is one best Nes games ever. When i started play that first time i really hate this game. This game seems piece of shit. But rightnow i want play that game over and over and enjoy every seconds. I love music into game.
BTW there is one cool remix i find in youtube

i bought this cart fucking three weeks ago but im not still pick up this yet. Why ebay why?. I was bored and drunk i did last test run on emulator with few resets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg4ucHm-H6w

This time really surprised for me and i miss last boss quick kill too. I think my SDA console goal could be sub 10 minutes. Im not want make too good run on emulator but my previous 13:15 was simply horrible and iwanted redo it. But yeah this 10:35 was pretty good run especially awesome galago tunnels. But yeah sub 10 minutes is easily possible. I´ll aim that my goal my SDA submission. Probably sub 10 is too easy goal 9:40 seems like god. If i can throw all harder speedtrick level 1 & 2 mean skipping selections and have totally perfect luck with galago tunnels its insanely difficult but definitely theory possible make run like 8:59-9:10 range. But seriously i have to be really bored then. Run like 9:40-9:50 will be definitely worth submission.

EDIT:
LOL i have to say this is one best Nes games ever. When i started play that first time i really hate this game. This game seems piece of shit. But rightnow i want play that game over and over and enjoy every seconds. I love music into game.
BTW there is one cool remix i find in youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rPidsYLOk0&list=FL3wTFz5TFa06oOYl9tvOcoA

MASTER-88

2013-08-20 08:35:17 am

Master-88

First speedrun used real NES
9:20

Finally managed last boss quick flash method used. Its take me several resets. That was still not my best run i have some bad luck galago tunnels and losting too much energy before level 5 thats requires me use energy item which cost extra selection.

Now i have to just wait can i beat SDA quality test. I post some samples in tech support.

When quality test is done i´ll look how much i can lower that time. I think 9.10 started are very good run and sub 9 is definitely possible but maybe requires some harder selection skips.

ktwo

2013-08-21 09:26:28 am

Congrats on your new pb. Are you making full run attempts now based on the strats you have developed so far or are you still planning on improving the details (to minimize diagonal walking etc)?

MASTER-88

Edit history:

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 10:04:51 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 10:04:22 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 10:03:53 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 10:01:49 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 09:52:05 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 09:51:22 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 09:44:52 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-21 09:44:08 am

2013-08-21 09:42:35 am

Master-88

Quote from ktwo:

Congrats on your new pb. Are you making full run attempts now based on the strats you have developed so far or are you still planning on improving the details (to minimize diagonal walking etc)?

9:20 is my first "very good" full run my real Nes. Now i´ll wait proper answers my recorded quality settings. Nate not are comment that yet so im not are going try "perfect" run before quality things are good enought in SDA.

I think i´ll try aim sub 9 minutes run before SDA submission. I think i can pretty easily drop at least 10 seconds off my 9:20. We let see. Im not really see any bad gameplay errors my 9:20 run expect i could avoid some select screens and make some very minor things better here and there. Especially avoid all alternate select screens includes levels 1, 2 & 5 could save something like 22-25 seconds. But its requires good rng luck and some mad skills avoid those ones in one run.

My plannings is pretty much done rightnow. Only try consistent some things which caused me serious troubles. I´ll try look some minor things, but when quality things are fine i´ll make full attempts all time and let see how much my time will drop.

[quote="ktwo"]Congrats on your new pb. Are you making full run attempts now based on the strats you have developed so far or are you still planning on improving the details (to minimize diagonal walking etc)?[/quote]

9:20 is my first "very good" full run my real Nes. Now i´ll wait proper answers my recorded quality settings. Nate not are comment that yet so im not are going try "perfect" run before quality things are good enought in SDA.

I think i´ll try aim sub 9 minutes run before SDA submission.  I think i can pretty easily drop at least 10 seconds off my 9:20. We let see. Im not really see any bad gameplay errors my 9:20 run expect i could avoid some select screens and make some very minor things better here and there. Especially avoid all alternate select screens includes levels 1, 2 & 5 could save something like 22-25 seconds. But its requires good rng luck and some mad skills avoid those ones in one run.

My plannings is pretty much done rightnow. Only try consistent some things which caused me serious troubles. I´ll try look some minor things, but when quality things are fine i´ll make full attempts all time and let see how much my time will drop.

MASTER-88

2013-08-21 07:29:27 pm

Master-88

Damn sub 9 minutes. Take me 2 hours beat my previous record.

8:56

I might post video later if anyone interested see this run. This run is definitely SDA submission worthy at least with gameplay is awesome. I used recorded settings and its look Nate accepted those he encode and say quality is good. There is nothing major errors but some minor errors and better lag controlls could drop more time.

Selection skips went much better than anyother runs. I use pea shooter through level 2 but im not going make it level 1. It was way too hard this time and level 1 is really hard to beat pea gun without losting much damage. I just set goal sub 9 minutes and i wanted make it.

So i might add every fucking hardest tricks and try run game under 8:50. Let see if this happen, but rightnow i have at least very good run which rush my goals with good marginal. I think lowest possible console time seems like something 8:40 range.

But we let see can i redo that run. I´ll at least try it. But if this not happen i´ll submit this one.

Damn sub 9 minutes. Take me 2 hours beat my previous record.

8:56

I might post video later if anyone interested see this run. This run is definitely SDA submission worthy at least with gameplay is awesome. I used recorded settings and its look Nate accepted those he encode and say quality is good. There is nothing major errors but some minor errors and better lag controlls could drop more time.

Selection skips went much better than anyother runs.  I use pea shooter through level 2 but im not going make it level 1.  It was way too hard this time and level 1 is really hard to beat pea gun without losting much damage. I just set goal sub 9 minutes and i wanted make it.

So i might add every fucking hardest tricks and try run game under 8:50. Let see if this happen, but rightnow i have at least very good run which rush my goals with good marginal. I think lowest possible console time seems like something 8:40 range.

But we let see can i redo that run. I´ll at least try it. But if this not happen i´ll submit this one.

MASTER-88

2013-08-22 03:57:44 am

Master-88

8:56 is here. I think nobody like really watch runs with game, but i´ll still public this even previous run has only 5 viewers in youtube. This game doesn´t seems very popular.

About RNG with this game. Sometimes those bullets is random i have very good example video which really proof game randomness sometimes IMO

You can usually dodge this first bullet tunnel of the galagos three when you keep dpad right b button down when you enter the room. But its doesn´t always work like you can see this video. I have same fucking trouble flying part level 5. I find savespot fly this part without losting damage but sometimes its doesn´t work. probably TAS guys could tell better but its look there is two differents bullets encounters. Fast bullets & slow bullets and its luck and you can,t controll it on console. Usually this game is not very random enemys located same spots but bullet rain is sometimes really weird. I can,t personally controll that. There is several spots especially level 4 & 5 and galago tunnels where i lost random damage with bullets even i know what im doing.

8:56 is here. I think nobody like really watch runs with game, but i´ll still public this even previous run has only 5 viewers in youtube. This game doesn´t seems very popular.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7SXwwpAnIg

About RNG with this game. Sometimes those bullets is random i have very good example video which really proof game randomness sometimes IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id5J2q5AYUA

You can usually dodge this first bullet tunnel of the galagos three when you keep dpad right b button down when you enter the room. But its doesn´t always work like you can see this video. I have same fucking trouble flying part level 5. I find savespot fly this part without losting damage but sometimes its doesn´t work. probably TAS guys could tell better but its look there is two differents bullets encounters. Fast bullets & slow bullets and its luck and you can,t controll it on console. Usually this game is not very random enemys located same spots but bullet rain is sometimes really weird. I can,t personally controll that. There is several spots especially level 4 & 5 and galago tunnels where i lost random damage with bullets even i know what im doing.

ktwo

2013-08-22 07:15:00 am

The new run looks much better. As you can probably guess, if Ikari Warriors 2 is in the verification queue one day, I will be one of the verifiers... My initial reaction to this run was that the execution was good enough, but some parts could be polished without adding risk (nothing major wrong, but the details are just lacking in some spots) and I also have a couple of questions regarding things I wonder if you have tried or not. I don't want to sound like an a-hole by saying this, but at the same I want to be upfront on where I stand as you'll hear it sooner or later anyways. If you want to, I can make some more detailed comments about your run (sort of similar to if this had been verified). I will not offer this for every improvement you make, so choose the occasion wisely if you're interested. ;-)

I forgot to mention earlier that I looked at the Galago tunnels a while ago. You probably already know that if you make a save state right before entering a tunnel, you'll always get the same setup. I made save states further and further back in level 1 until the tunnel setup was not always the same. That brought me back to somewhere around mid-level. However, I grew tired of re-doing the remaining part of the level over and over again to see if I could find a pattern in how to avoid enemies in the tunnel. I therefore still don't know if there is a way to always trigger items in the tunnels or if it's just some rng that happens to freeze mid-level. But like I said, I didn't test it thoroughly, so it's possible that something could come out of more testing.

The new run looks much better. As you can probably guess, if Ikari Warriors 2 is in the verification queue one day, I will be one of the verifiers... My initial reaction to this run was that the execution was good enough, but some parts could be polished without adding risk (nothing major wrong, but the details are just lacking in some spots) and I also have a couple of questions regarding things I wonder if you have tried or not. I don't want to sound like an a-hole by saying this, but at the same I want to be upfront on where I stand as you'll hear it sooner or later anyways. If you want to, I can make some more detailed comments about your run (sort of similar to if this had been verified). I will not offer this for every improvement you make, so choose the occasion wisely if you're interested. ;-)

I forgot to mention earlier that I looked at the Galago tunnels a while ago. You probably already know that if you make a save state right before entering a tunnel, you'll always get the same setup. I made save states further and further back in level 1 until the tunnel setup was not always the same. That brought me back to somewhere around mid-level. However, I grew tired of re-doing the remaining part of the level over and over again to see if I could find a pattern in how to avoid enemies in the tunnel. I therefore still don't know if there is a way to always trigger items in the tunnels or if it's just some rng that happens to freeze mid-level. But like I said, I didn't test it thoroughly, so it's possible that something could come out of more testing.

MASTER-88

2013-08-22 08:32:56 am

Master-88

8:46

I think im done now. Includes select skip level 1 too. This fucking take me 3 & half hours and 5 attempt die with Zada quick kill. its really shitty trick end of the run.

MASTER-88

Edit history:

MASTER-88: 2013-08-31 01:25:41 am

MASTER-88: 2013-08-31 01:17:28 am

2013-08-31 01:15:17 am

Master-88

Quote from MASTER-88:

8:46

I think im done now. Includes select skip level 1 too. This fucking take me 3 & half hours and 5 attempt die with Zada quick kill. its really shitty trick end of the run.

Okay guys. I decide submit 8:46. Im not public run yet, but as far as i can tell this run is so fucking tight. Level 1 selection skip save me 5 seconds and other 5 seconds coming with better gameplay.

My run is coming verification soon, i´ll hope i can got enought verifers. My run includes some waste steps (those biggest errors my run) I might try back this run in future. I know i can somethings like 10 seconds off my time in theory. Its might be max human limit.

But okay i think i´ll started go some other games runs and practice (need we some other rare Nes games up in SDA). So 8:46 is my final time its improve 10 seconds my public run in youtube.

MASTER-88

Edit history:

MASTER-88: 2013-09-13 12:45:29 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-09-13 12:42:52 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-09-13 12:42:28 pm

MASTER-88: 2013-09-13 12:40:21 pm

2013-09-13 12:39:03 pm

Master-88

LOL my 8:46 still wait verifers.

I still like play that game. I did beat super challenge. See no damage playthrough. Its not real speedrun, but just perfect guide beat game without taking any single hits. Final time was 10:47. My intention was beat game without any single glitches. So thats not includes last boss skip. Its totally damage free playthrough and includes pretty good speed too. I am really glad i beat this. Its take me something like 2 hours. Always some bad luck with galagos and some hits happen and mean resets.

I might try interested try redo my 8:46 submited run later, but this look game has real trouble find enought verifers and nobody else than Ktwo are interested. But yeah this game is quite fun to play, so i might back this game later.

I´ll hope my submited run "8:46" will take enought verifers in future.

But yeah this my no damage runthrough is worth watching too. I did this just for fun and my drunk entertaiment. But yeah this look i really mastered that game. I can,t find anymore challenges here.

LOL my 8:46 still wait verifers.

I still like play that game. I did beat super challenge. See no damage playthrough. Its not real speedrun, but just perfect guide beat game without taking any single hits. Final time was 10:47. My intention was beat game without any single glitches. So thats not includes last boss skip. Its totally damage free playthrough and includes pretty good speed too. I am really glad i beat this. Its take me something like 2 hours. Always some bad luck with galagos and some hits happen and mean resets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K84fjOFXFs0

I might try interested try redo my 8:46 submited run later, but this look game has real trouble find enought verifers and nobody else than Ktwo are interested. But yeah this game is quite fun to play, so i might back this game later.

I´ll hope my submited run "8:46" will take enought verifers in future.

But yeah this my no damage runthrough is worth watching too. I did this just for fun and my drunk entertaiment. But yeah this look i really mastered that game. I can,t find anymore challenges here.

MASTER-88

Edit history:

MASTER-88: 2013-09-14 10:15:09 am

MASTER-88: 2013-09-14 10:14:56 am

2013-09-14 10:11:31 am

Master-88

Why this game has really trouble find verifers? If you not have this game you can load it your emulator and play it through with savestate or use ABBA code. I think then you can know how this game working and verifer my run. 3 weeks is coming and then not enought verifers. Im not know how long this will take. One rare run in SDA take 2 years find verifers.

I usually verifer rare NES games runs. But i can,t verifer my own run.

Come on guys. Go for verifer my best run. I know game is rare its look my youtube too something like 10 views my videos.

coolkid

2013-09-14 05:22:16 pm

sweet, i could prolly end up veryfying this as ive had interest in running the game before. nice job

ktwo

2014-11-07 10:40:07 am

I recently got this game together with a few other nes-games. It's nothing I would have considered speedrunning on my own, but since I got a bit involved in the routing of the current sda-run, I thought it could be fun to see if I could push the time a bit lower. Here is a quick summary of the most important changes compared to Master-88's run:
- Only use the default weapons throughout the whole game (never change to boomerangs).
- Use flying in level 2 iso level 3.
- Use the lightning quick boss kill on the level 3 boss (iso the arrow).
- Quick kill the level 4 boss with the arrow (iso slowly pounding it with grenades).
- Skip the menu trip for the health refill.
- Replacing a lot of the diagonal walking with straight vertical walking.

With my route, there are three spots in the game where losing health is more or less unavoidable (one in level 3, one in level 4 and one in level 5). On top of that, there are a bunch of spots where you can lose health "randomly" due to undodgeable shots depending on the mood of some of the enemies (especially the start of level 5 is very inconsistent for me). Getting lucky to get both lightning quick kills (boss 3 and the last boss), not getting monsters in the Galago tunnels and the health are the biggest concerns, but it feels like it should be possible to overcome with enough attempts as soon as my consistency with the simple stuff gets good enough. An "ideal" run would be just over 8 minutes. I'll probably stream some attempts in the near future as well.

If anyone's interested, I've created a page in the wiki explaining the route and with some observations on the Galaga tunnels etc: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Ikari_warriors_2

I recently got this game together with a few other nes-games. It's nothing I would have considered speedrunning on my own, but since I got a bit involved in the routing of the current sda-run, I thought it could be fun to see if I could push the time a bit lower. Here is a quick summary of the most important changes compared to Master-88's run:
- Only use the default weapons throughout the whole game (never change to boomerangs).
- Use flying in level 2 iso level 3.
- Use the lightning quick boss kill on the level 3 boss (iso the arrow).
- Quick kill the level 4 boss with the arrow (iso slowly pounding it with grenades).
- Skip the menu trip for the health refill.
- Replacing a lot of the diagonal walking with straight vertical walking.

With my route, there are three spots in the game where losing health is more or less unavoidable (one in level 3, one in level 4 and one in level 5). On top of that, there are a bunch of spots where you can lose health "randomly" due to undodgeable shots depending on the mood of some of the enemies (especially the start of level 5 is very inconsistent for me). Getting lucky to get both lightning quick kills (boss 3 and the last boss), not getting monsters in the Galago tunnels and the health are the biggest concerns, but it feels like it should be possible to overcome with enough attempts as soon as my consistency with the simple stuff gets good enough. An "ideal" run would be just over 8 minutes. I'll probably stream some attempts in the near future as well.

If anyone's interested, I've created a page in the wiki explaining the route and with some observations on the Galaga tunnels etc: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Ikari_warriors_2

ktwo

2014-11-14 08:41:21 am

I've found a few improvements since the last post and managed to implement everything into a run I'm really happy with, http://www.twitch.tv/ktwo123/b/588705049 (starts at 1h31). I beat my goal time (based on a save-stated emulator run) by one second, so I'm definitely settling with this. According to the splits, it was a 7:57. I've updated the knowledge base page, so it should be up-to-date with what I know about this game. Now it's on to the next game. :-)

presjpolk

Edit history:

presjpolk: 2014-11-14 08:55:04 am

2014-11-14 08:54:52 am

HELLO!

So that's what the level 3 boss fight's supposed to look like. Congratulations. You got that pretty quickly.

ktwo

2014-11-14 09:18:16 am

Thanks pres. This is honestly not a difficult game to speedrun execution-wise. The two lightning quick kills are admittedly difficult and it requires a bit of luck to get through with enough health and getting the right spawns in the Galago tunnels. But nothing a few resets can't remedy. :-)

jeffsledge

2014-11-14 03:29:42 pm

Nice job on the run.
I want to try this game myself, so thanks for the documentation.

MASTER-88

2014-11-16 07:15:03 am

Master-88

Damn sick run. Nothing else can´t say.

Its crazy RNG with galagos and mad how you pass game through with pea guns and without energys.

You really rush my time. This run look like TAS LOL. thumbsup

;D

ktwo

2014-11-16 08:03:08 am

Thanks Master-88. It's true that a lot of things went my way in this attempt. But those who watched the streams leading up to this run will probably agree when I say that there have also been lots of resets because of bad rng (both with the Galago tunnels and from too many random hits).

Jeff, if you indeed pick this game up some time in the future, I hope you will let me know if you find any possible improvements (or just post here directly).

ktwo

2020-07-22 07:46:55 am

A bit of a random post, but I decided to take another look at the end of level tunnels and figured out the game mechanics. It's pretty simple, it depends on your heart count ($F8).
- If it's uneven, the tunnels will be filled with weapons.
- If the heart count is even, the tunnels will have enemies.
Some enemy types drop odd-valued hearts, while other enemy types drop even-valued hearts. So only the former enemies need to be considered. I'll explore this a bit more to see how much room there is to manipulate the heart counter by on-the-spot or routing decisions and then update the existing guide in the knowledge base.

Not that it really matters in a speedrun, but the weapon content is determined by the value of $6FE, which as far as I can tell is generated by RNG and therefore not possible to manipulate in real-time.

Finally, I was wondering where the term "Galago tunnels" in this thread came from and found in the game manual that the enemies are called "Galango", so I guess they should from now on be referred to as "Galango tunnels".

A bit of a random post, but I decided to take another look at the end of level tunnels and figured out the game mechanics. It's pretty simple, it depends on your heart count ($F8). 
- If it's uneven, the tunnels will be filled with weapons. 
- If the heart count is even, the tunnels will have enemies. 
Some enemy types drop odd-valued hearts, while other enemy types drop even-valued hearts. So only the former enemies need to be considered. I'll explore this a bit more to see how much room there is to manipulate the heart counter by on-the-spot or routing decisions and then update the existing guide in the knowledge base.

Not that it really matters in a speedrun, but the weapon content is determined by the value of $6FE, which as far as I can tell is generated by RNG and therefore not possible to manipulate in real-time.

Finally, I was wondering where the term "Galago tunnels" in this thread came from and found in the game manual that the enemies are called "Galango", so I guess they should from now on be referred to as "Galango tunnels".

ktwo

Edit history:

ktwo: 2020-11-08 08:19:13 am

2020-10-14 03:46:57 am

Since my last post, I've completed a TAS (http://tasvideos.org/4277M.html) and a few days ago I started working on an improvement of my console speedrun. It's not going to be a big improvement, but the time will be lowered by a few seconds. The improvements compared to my pb are:
* I'm going to implement "diagonal stutter-walking". Just like in the first Ikari Warriors game, the first and last movement in a diagonal movement are faster. So by dividing a diagonal movement into several smaller diagonal movements, there will be small time gains that add up. Maybe a second over the course of a run.
* During the creation of the TAS, I discovered a slightly more direct route in stage 2. Maybe half a second to save.
* Shortly after I started practicing on console, I discovered a faster way to get past the statues at the start of each stage. You can take them out with a grenade. This is only useful when the path through the stage starts to the left, which means it can be used in stages 3, 4 and 5. The time save should be around half a second in each of those stages, so 1.5s in total. This wasn't used in the TAS, so I will go back and update it as well in due time.
* By manipulating the content of the Galango tunnels, I'm getting more good attempts, which allows me to be slightly more picky and more reset-prone in other areas. For example by being a bit more aggressive during the menu trips, which is something that was improvable in my current pb.

Yesterday, I had an attempt that ended at the last boss because I couldn't get the quick-kill. The pace was for a mid-7:54, so it would have been a 3-second improvement over my pb. I think I can do better in the early splits though, so I'm fine with that attempt not being completed. I'm hoping for at least a low 7:54. A 7:53 is absolutely possible, but will be tight.

The guide in the knowledge base isn't updated yet with the new routes, but I plan to get to it within not too long.

Edit (081120): I'm done with the game and will just add a few points before leaving this topic.
The knowledge base has been updated. Both with the new routes and with the new knowledge that has surfaced.
For documentation purposes, below is a copy-paste of the updates I posted about this game on my twitch channel:

(2020-10-20): 7:52 in today's stream. It was the third time I got to the last boss in a proper attempt. Overall solid run, with no visible mistakes. Time can still be gained in menus, more precise cornering etc, but I'm happy with the run and the time and will settle with this.

(2020-10-09): I got around to do a TAS of this game not long ago. During the course of creating the TAS, I implemented a few things that my console pb didn't do and found a few improvements. All of them are small, but can potentially add up to a few seconds. I also figured out what determined the content in the end-of-level tunnels (it only depends on the collected hearts and is therefore possible to control). Following that effort, I'll see if the findings can be translated into actual time gains against my pb splits.

Since my last post, I've completed a TAS (http://tasvideos.org/4277M.html) and a few days ago I started working on an improvement of my console speedrun. It's not going to be a big improvement, but the time will be lowered by a few seconds. The improvements compared to my pb are:
* I'm going to implement "diagonal stutter-walking". Just like in the first Ikari Warriors game, the first and last movement in a diagonal movement are faster. So by dividing a diagonal movement into several smaller diagonal movements, there will be small time gains that add up. Maybe a second over the course of a run.
* During the creation of the TAS, I discovered a slightly more direct route in stage 2. Maybe half a second to save.
* Shortly after I started practicing on console, I discovered a faster way to get past the statues at the start of each stage. You can take them out with a grenade. This is only useful when the path through the stage starts to the left, which means it can be used in stages 3, 4 and 5. The time save should be around half a second in each of those stages, so 1.5s in total. This wasn't used in the TAS, so I will go back and update it as well in due time.
* By manipulating the content of the Galango tunnels, I'm getting more good attempts, which allows me to be slightly more picky and more reset-prone in other areas. For example by being a bit more aggressive during the menu trips, which is something that was improvable in my current pb.

Yesterday, I had an attempt that ended at the last boss because I couldn't get the quick-kill. The pace was for a mid-7:54, so it would have been a 3-second improvement over my pb. I think I can do better in the early splits though, so I'm fine with that attempt not being completed. I'm hoping for at least a low 7:54. A 7:53 is absolutely possible, but will be tight.

The guide in the knowledge base isn't updated yet with the new routes, but I plan to get to it within not too long.

Edit (081120): I'm done with the game and will just add a few points before leaving this topic.
The knowledge base has been updated. Both with the new routes and with the new knowledge that has surfaced.
For documentation purposes, below is a copy-paste of the updates I posted about this game on my twitch channel:
[hidden](2020-10-20): 7:52 in today's stream. It was the third time I got to the last boss in a proper attempt. Overall solid run, with no visible mistakes. Time can still be gained in menus, more precise cornering etc, but I'm happy with the run and the time and will settle with this.

(2020-10-09): I got around to do a TAS of this game not long ago. During the course of creating the TAS, I implemented a few things that my console pb didn't do and found a few improvements. All of them are small, but can potentially add up to a few seconds. I also figured out what determined the content in the end-of-level tunnels (it only depends on the collected hearts and is therefore possible to control). Following that effort, I'll see if the findings can be translated into actual time gains against my pb splits.[/hidden]