Break through the final confusion
Thanks as always, guys!
@BlueGlass: Yeah, I've had to make a couple of those jumps already (Segment 15 was an example that was FULL of 'em), and I definitely hope that I'm making them seem a lot easier than they actually are - that particular jump cost me at least one good attempt IIRC. And yeah, the timing for that flying guy is pretty tricky if you're trying not to waste too much time (I've run into him plenty of times), so that's why I got a bit nervous and jumped early. But yeah, I'm glad at how well everything worked out.
@Exo: I always aim to please! With Bombs and all of that health, damage boosts are going to be the way to go (actually, I'm now realizing that I'm going to have some HEAVY Bomb usage throughout the run at this rate!). Yeah, the free time thing is a bit tricky... but hopefully most of my weekends will be free from now on.
@Anon: Ah yes, I'm a big fan of Song of Curry as well.
I don't think the speed run gets a lot of Chamber of Life action, though (2 segments to go through most of it and then random visits during the Mantras part). But still, good stuff.
Anyway, just coming by to say that it's looking like I'll be able to give Segment 24 a serious shot on Monday, so hopefully I'll be coming by later with good news!
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EDIT: Phew... it took a LOT of attempts, but here it is! Hey BlueGlass, if you liked the jump from the last segment then you're going to LOVE the one in the Death Seal room!
Segment 24:
Another 3 1/2 minute segment, this wasn't quite the randomness-filled ordeal that Segment 23 was, but this still ended up being much more difficult than I thought it would be due to some very difficult maneuvers. This actually reminded me a lot of Segment 15 - even though I still would say Segment 15 was much harder, it should hopefully show the amount of effort required here. This particular attempt had pretty much the best luck I've ever gotten, along with quite a few close shaves that should make it a fun watch. I had a few sub-optimal parts but definitely nothing major, and I nailed all the important parts which make me very happy with how this turned out.
The segments starts with the usual grinding in the Tower of the Goddess, with some intense Antarctic Adventure + Comic Bakery to Maze of Galious + Seal of El Giza action which, as you can probably tell, ate up a good number of the attempts.
Endless Corridor as a whole went optimally. The first screen has a VERY close shave with that second bat!
Something to note on the third screen - first off, when I jump on that jar, you can jump on top of it without running in to it (so that the jump doesn't slow down) but it's too precise for me to bother, since it doesn't save much time and you usually end up hitting your head on the ledge above. Secondly, that red camel thing LOVES to start blasting away at me and then I have to do some insane dodging to try to avoid getting hit. Luckily it doesn't happen too often. Anyway, other than that everything went great, especially all the weapon switching.
Ah yes, the Death Seal room. It's the randomest part of this segment and easily the part that caused the most restarts. This WOULD have been a non-issue with the Lamp of Time (well, except for that insane jump that I'll go into in a bit), but it's much better saved for later in the darkness. Anyway, two things about this room: the enemies, as you can imagine, are freaking annoying and impossible to avoid if they choose to charge at you. In particular, the one in the bottom-left is GUARANTEED to hit you as you come up if he doesn't jump out of the way early. Luckily, that's what he did here. And then you get to see probably the hardest jump I've had to do so far, which is not only precise in timing but also positioning. Yeah... I hope it's impressive, because it ate up a bunch of attempts, haha...
Then we move on the Pyramid of the Sun, which also went great. Everything up to the Coin jar you should already know from before. Note that at this point I try to position myself so that I kill the flying thing on the screen below - this is because if that thing chooses to go down or down-left, it WILL hit me and end the segment. So I stab right where it WOULD go to stop it from doing so. Note that here I actually missed which was ok since that means it has chosen a path that won't get in my way. Also, I get hit right after this by the OTHER flying thing but luckily, thanks to the elevator, it ends up being not much of an issue.
Oh, another note about that room is that I can actually stop that platform from crumbling if I land on it JUST right, which would save some time later when I come back for the Mantra stuff. But it's so precise that it's not really worth doing since it doesn't save THAT much time (you just have to make it to that elevator in time anyway).
On the next screen, the flying thing decides he HAS to hit me and chooses to pepper the whole screen with bullets, so of course one of them hits me. This counts as the only real enemy hit that wastes time in this segment, but it's no biggie since it didn't really waste much time (plus, I'm lucky I only got hit once with all those bullets on the screen!).
I never get tired of the jump to get the Talisman. Ironically enough, this is probably the only part of the segment that's EASIER than it looks. If you place that jump just right, the timing works out so that flying head doesn't have much of a chance of hitting you. So I fully take advantage of that here for awesome effect.
Last thing of note is yet another close shave with a bat near the end. Good thing too, since the bats in this screen LOVE to run into you.
Alright, now it's time for the complete darkness of the Chamber of Extinction. I am TERRIBLE at this part (understandably so, hopefully), since the jumps here are quite tricky so it's extremely hard to make them without seeing where the ground is. That said, this went perfectly - the only small mistake I made (falling off the ledge in the first screen) was cancelled out by the damage boost from the bat. The mural part went perfectly, which NEVER happens. Finally, I use my Lamp of Time in the Life Jewel room because it's not really an option - those flying gargoyle things are ridiculously hard to avoid, so I'm happy to make it a non-issue. This room is actually quite tricky to navigate in the dark, and it goes great here - I checked my last jump up to the Life Jewel because the ledge underneath it juts out quite a bit, and I've lost a few attempts hitting my head on it and falling down the left side.
Now I Grail over to the bright side to fight Palenque, and this screen has my final mini-mistake. Actually, this one requires a bit of explanation - the position of that elevator changes as soon as you enter the Chamber of Extinction, so it's basically impossible to predict where it'll be when you Grail here. So once you get here, you have a split second in which to decide whether or not you'll take the elevator or try to avoid it - if it's in the wrong position, it'll raise you too high and force you into the screen above, or otherwise it'll just get in your way. So, what happened what I actually hesitated - I was GOING to take the elevator but realized at the last second that it probably was too late and would force me to the screen above, so I cut off my jump but cut it too short and accidentally slipped off the ledge. Anyway, this counts as only the second real time-waster, but, again, it's no biggie since it's not much of a drop - and plus, I'd probably have to wait a bit for it to get out of the way before I could make the big jump up to the ledge anyway, so it's all good!
Luckily, for the 100% run I get to use the Maze of Galious to shortcut me to the Palenque section. You also get to enjoy a cool graphical glitch I discovered for a split second as I leave the Maze.
The path to Palenque has lots of big stairs, so I get to use Bomb boosts to their fullest. Also, the jump to the Coin block after the first fall is pretty hard to pull off (especially this late in the segment), so I'm happy it went great here. Oh, and note that skeleton that's ABOUT to hit me as I leave - he's another one that loves to end attempts.
Alright, the last thing left is to talk about Palenque. Palenque's nice since beating him fast is extremely easy AND there's no randomness involved at all. However, to beat him OPTIMALLY is a bit tricky. First of all, you can't just shoot Flares immediately since he's not vulnerable until about a second into the fight intro. Then, even if you time it perfectly, you can only shoot 5 volleys (or 15 Flares - there's 3 Flares per volley thanks to the Ring) before the game automatically pushes you to the left - then you have to catch up to him and hit him with two more Flares before he's gone for good. Since he's moving to the right as well, I found that you have to start shooting a bit later than your reflexes would tell you. Anyway, I finished him off with my first volley, which makes this an optimal fight and definitely makes me very happy.
Well, that's that! I'm happy I got to get in two segments this week. I likely won't be able to start Segment 25 until the weekend after this next one, but in any case, I'll keep you all posted!
@BlueGlass: Yeah, I've had to make a couple of those jumps already (Segment 15 was an example that was FULL of 'em), and I definitely hope that I'm making them seem a lot easier than they actually are - that particular jump cost me at least one good attempt IIRC. And yeah, the timing for that flying guy is pretty tricky if you're trying not to waste too much time (I've run into him plenty of times), so that's why I got a bit nervous and jumped early. But yeah, I'm glad at how well everything worked out.
@Exo: I always aim to please! With Bombs and all of that health, damage boosts are going to be the way to go (actually, I'm now realizing that I'm going to have some HEAVY Bomb usage throughout the run at this rate!). Yeah, the free time thing is a bit tricky... but hopefully most of my weekends will be free from now on.
@Anon: Ah yes, I'm a big fan of Song of Curry as well.
Anyway, just coming by to say that it's looking like I'll be able to give Segment 24 a serious shot on Monday, so hopefully I'll be coming by later with good news!
---------
EDIT: Phew... it took a LOT of attempts, but here it is! Hey BlueGlass, if you liked the jump from the last segment then you're going to LOVE the one in the Death Seal room!
Segment 24:
Another 3 1/2 minute segment, this wasn't quite the randomness-filled ordeal that Segment 23 was, but this still ended up being much more difficult than I thought it would be due to some very difficult maneuvers. This actually reminded me a lot of Segment 15 - even though I still would say Segment 15 was much harder, it should hopefully show the amount of effort required here. This particular attempt had pretty much the best luck I've ever gotten, along with quite a few close shaves that should make it a fun watch. I had a few sub-optimal parts but definitely nothing major, and I nailed all the important parts which make me very happy with how this turned out.
The segments starts with the usual grinding in the Tower of the Goddess, with some intense Antarctic Adventure + Comic Bakery to Maze of Galious + Seal of El Giza action which, as you can probably tell, ate up a good number of the attempts.
Endless Corridor as a whole went optimally. The first screen has a VERY close shave with that second bat!
Something to note on the third screen - first off, when I jump on that jar, you can jump on top of it without running in to it (so that the jump doesn't slow down) but it's too precise for me to bother, since it doesn't save much time and you usually end up hitting your head on the ledge above. Secondly, that red camel thing LOVES to start blasting away at me and then I have to do some insane dodging to try to avoid getting hit. Luckily it doesn't happen too often. Anyway, other than that everything went great, especially all the weapon switching.
Ah yes, the Death Seal room. It's the randomest part of this segment and easily the part that caused the most restarts. This WOULD have been a non-issue with the Lamp of Time (well, except for that insane jump that I'll go into in a bit), but it's much better saved for later in the darkness. Anyway, two things about this room: the enemies, as you can imagine, are freaking annoying and impossible to avoid if they choose to charge at you. In particular, the one in the bottom-left is GUARANTEED to hit you as you come up if he doesn't jump out of the way early. Luckily, that's what he did here. And then you get to see probably the hardest jump I've had to do so far, which is not only precise in timing but also positioning. Yeah... I hope it's impressive, because it ate up a bunch of attempts, haha...
Then we move on the Pyramid of the Sun, which also went great. Everything up to the Coin jar you should already know from before. Note that at this point I try to position myself so that I kill the flying thing on the screen below - this is because if that thing chooses to go down or down-left, it WILL hit me and end the segment. So I stab right where it WOULD go to stop it from doing so. Note that here I actually missed which was ok since that means it has chosen a path that won't get in my way. Also, I get hit right after this by the OTHER flying thing but luckily, thanks to the elevator, it ends up being not much of an issue.
Oh, another note about that room is that I can actually stop that platform from crumbling if I land on it JUST right, which would save some time later when I come back for the Mantra stuff. But it's so precise that it's not really worth doing since it doesn't save THAT much time (you just have to make it to that elevator in time anyway).
On the next screen, the flying thing decides he HAS to hit me and chooses to pepper the whole screen with bullets, so of course one of them hits me. This counts as the only real enemy hit that wastes time in this segment, but it's no biggie since it didn't really waste much time (plus, I'm lucky I only got hit once with all those bullets on the screen!).
I never get tired of the jump to get the Talisman.
Last thing of note is yet another close shave with a bat near the end. Good thing too, since the bats in this screen LOVE to run into you.
Alright, now it's time for the complete darkness of the Chamber of Extinction. I am TERRIBLE at this part (understandably so, hopefully), since the jumps here are quite tricky so it's extremely hard to make them without seeing where the ground is. That said, this went perfectly - the only small mistake I made (falling off the ledge in the first screen) was cancelled out by the damage boost from the bat. The mural part went perfectly, which NEVER happens. Finally, I use my Lamp of Time in the Life Jewel room because it's not really an option - those flying gargoyle things are ridiculously hard to avoid, so I'm happy to make it a non-issue. This room is actually quite tricky to navigate in the dark, and it goes great here - I checked my last jump up to the Life Jewel because the ledge underneath it juts out quite a bit, and I've lost a few attempts hitting my head on it and falling down the left side.
Now I Grail over to the bright side to fight Palenque, and this screen has my final mini-mistake. Actually, this one requires a bit of explanation - the position of that elevator changes as soon as you enter the Chamber of Extinction, so it's basically impossible to predict where it'll be when you Grail here. So once you get here, you have a split second in which to decide whether or not you'll take the elevator or try to avoid it - if it's in the wrong position, it'll raise you too high and force you into the screen above, or otherwise it'll just get in your way. So, what happened what I actually hesitated - I was GOING to take the elevator but realized at the last second that it probably was too late and would force me to the screen above, so I cut off my jump but cut it too short and accidentally slipped off the ledge. Anyway, this counts as only the second real time-waster, but, again, it's no biggie since it's not much of a drop - and plus, I'd probably have to wait a bit for it to get out of the way before I could make the big jump up to the ledge anyway, so it's all good!
Luckily, for the 100% run I get to use the Maze of Galious to shortcut me to the Palenque section. You also get to enjoy a cool graphical glitch I discovered for a split second as I leave the Maze.
The path to Palenque has lots of big stairs, so I get to use Bomb boosts to their fullest. Also, the jump to the Coin block after the first fall is pretty hard to pull off (especially this late in the segment), so I'm happy it went great here. Oh, and note that skeleton that's ABOUT to hit me as I leave - he's another one that loves to end attempts.
Alright, the last thing left is to talk about Palenque. Palenque's nice since beating him fast is extremely easy AND there's no randomness involved at all. However, to beat him OPTIMALLY is a bit tricky. First of all, you can't just shoot Flares immediately since he's not vulnerable until about a second into the fight intro. Then, even if you time it perfectly, you can only shoot 5 volleys (or 15 Flares - there's 3 Flares per volley thanks to the Ring) before the game automatically pushes you to the left - then you have to catch up to him and hit him with two more Flares before he's gone for good. Since he's moving to the right as well, I found that you have to start shooting a bit later than your reflexes would tell you. Anyway, I finished him off with my first volley, which makes this an optimal fight and definitely makes me very happy.
Well, that's that! I'm happy I got to get in two segments this week. I likely won't be able to start Segment 25 until the weekend after this next one, but in any case, I'll keep you all posted!