Ni No Kuni speedrun

2013-06-13 05:39:45 pm

Speed > Safety

So I'm planning to make a guide like i do for Secret of Evermore, which you can find in the SDA thread if you're curious, for this game and I've been following FFG's route thus far. However, I would really be interested in seeing the routes the rest of you use up to Volcano start so I can compare routes and possibly put together something that is more fluid or efficient. I'm not doubting FFG's planning skills or anything like that, I think it's just better to have multiple sources.

Also, in regards to the badge thing, perhaps it's an error in the coding for specific familiars?

FFgamer86

2013-06-13 06:10:57 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

I will be doing some routing after work tonight. Look for me between 1 and 3 am est.

KaeLynne

2013-06-13 06:15:24 pm

Maybe you can equip same items on one familiar in the shop. Did anyone try that. It might work on certain familiars , might not.

My run is uploading right now, will take about 2 days. I will attempt another run. If my next run is much better than the previous one, I will upload that instead (I updated my routing/strats)

So maybe when it's uploaded, you can use that as a reference. Regarding FFG's routing. It's good, similar to mine. The only difference is my fight mobs differently and I don't get the second coffee in ding dong well and the strong coffee in old smoky.

But I'm optimizing the first half of my run so it can definitely change.

TheAngryPanda

Edit history:

TheAngryPanda: 2013-06-13 08:58:55 pm

2013-06-13 08:58:42 pm

Speed > Safety

So I stumbled across this while looking for stuff online regarding EXP amounts needed to level (which I still haven't found...)

"By setting the text speed to slow, you can have Oliver cast an innocuous spell like Seek Fortune (on the overworld) or any of the interior spells (Levitate, Chart Chests, etc.) to trigger on-screen text.
While the text message is being typed in the message box, enemies will be frozen in place. This allows Oliver to catch (or avoid) enemies easily, since you can move Oliver while the text is being printed."

Have you guys considered this? It would be worth noting that opening the menu to switch back to proper text speed is advisable under obvious conditions. But this would make traversing the desert and other overworld areas much easier and perhaps even negate the need of the skipping ability? I haven't personally tested this but if it works it looks fairly promising.

Rakuen

2013-06-13 09:03:22 pm

Weegee Time

Is this similar to how all the enemies stop moving for a few moments when you use a harvest point? I've used that in casual play to get around otherwise unavoidable encounters.

TheAngryPanda

2013-06-13 09:10:19 pm

Speed > Safety

I think so. It should be easy to abuse in the later areas when we have lots of MP to play with and much tougher enemies. Since there's usually save stones before major fights we can just refill the MP there instead of having random battles and running away or having delays from constantly having to buffer hops with pause menu. The real test would be figuring out which spell is the best to use and what we should do up to that point assuming we actually do use this. Hopefully we can get something prior to desert, Healing Touch perhaps? Like I said, needs testing unless it's already been looked into.

KaeLynne

Edit history:

KaeLynne: 2013-06-13 09:29:54 pm

KaeLynne: 2013-06-13 09:29:19 pm

2013-06-13 09:26:55 pm

I've been doing that in my runs. I discovered this a while back during my casual playthrough.

The jump skip is the only encounter skip until you get the spell "levitate" from the seagull in the fairyground.

Levitate has a fairly long text, and if you set the text speed to the lowest, you have about 5-7 seconds of free walking as in familiars will stay in place during the time. You can even go through the familiar and you won't get an encounter. It's very essential to the run.

Levitate is also the easiest spell to get since it's required to have in the game unlike chart chests which you get from Horace (optional quest) in Hamelin (I think)
BUT levitate only works in dungeons (doesn't work during zombified Ding dong well, Hamelin, Al Mamoon). It doesn't work in the world map, but the jump skip on the other hand works anywhere.

Rakuen

2013-06-13 09:36:33 pm

Weegee Time

Yes, Chart Chests comes from Hamelin. That means you have to do the first five steps of the Horace quest. You'll receive Vacate at step 3 in Castaway Cove. I'm not all the way through the game, and most dungeons have either kicked me out or given me a warp point, but I guess that could save a tiny bit of walking?

KaeLynne

2013-06-13 09:40:48 pm

you get the blue circle warp points after bosses which is like vacate, but you gotta walk to the blue warp which takes about 3-4 seconds. you actually lose time talking and solving his riddles :/ It's not worth the time when speedrunning the game

FFgamer86

Edit history:

FFgamer86: 2013-06-13 10:30:10 pm

2013-06-13 10:28:45 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

Horace dies give a spell that completely makes you invisible from enemies and then you can just run past without pausing.
Edit. I'm not sure I will stream tonight. Really tired already and still at work. If I'm not on by 3 then can assume I won't be on tonight.

KaeLynne

2013-06-13 10:33:11 pm

yea he gives it @ perdida, but I don't think it's worth the time to solve all his riddles to get the spell. It's faster to do the levitate skip which takes less than 2 seconds to cast.

hmm I was looking forward to the stream but it's all good if you don't stream.

FFgamer86

2013-06-13 10:40:12 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

I will definitely stream tomorrow if I do or don't tonight, since I have Friday through Sunday off. Plus I need to get up at 8am Saturday so I probably won't tonight.

TheAngryPanda

Edit history:

TheAngryPanda: 2013-06-14 02:43:05 am

2013-06-14 02:39:33 am

Speed > Safety

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xl5y6x2rdzbwh6f/Ni%20No%20Kuni%20-%20v1.pdf

Small preview of the guide/route/whatever so far... It's literally what FFG's route is right now since nobody else has provided much information. The only alteration is that I've added the counterattacking to Hickory Dock (and after posting this Guardian of the Woods). Not much really, but it's a start.

I'll add more to it probably tomorrow or over the weekend, feedback is more than welcomed.

sockfolder

Edit history:

sockfolder: 2013-06-14 01:25:31 pm

2013-06-14 01:03:59 pm

I found a new pretty crazy glitch. There are a lot of crazy things I've found you can do, though nothing actually practical so far.

Basically, start talking to the Familiar Deposit, then spam square (or triangle) before the first dialog comes up. You have to hit square on an exact frame, and it can be hard sometimes. If you succeed, you will have the magic menu (or main menu) up DURING the dialog. From here, there are many weird things that can happen.

1) If you just cancel everything, the dialog box stays on the screen. Not that special. It goes away on loading a zone or on dialog. You can skip mobs with this dialog up though, so maybe it could be useful in some dungeons.

2) If you bring up addition text (of the same type), the game will softlock. For example, talk to the stone in the main menu.

3) If you cast travel (or vacate) with the menu still up, you travel while the Deposit menu is active. After cancelling (and moving), the camera has this weird glitchy moment, and Oliver and pals are temporarily black. At this point, you have no menu access and can't interact with anything, but THERE ARE NO ENEMIES! This effect lasts through loading zones, and it only seems to go away when entering the area where it was originally triggered, or by interacting with a save point. Cutscenes and bosses still trigger, but the effect does last after the cutscenes/bosses. You can get stuck from this due to lack of interaction/menu,

4) If you cast gateway with the menu still up, you get a similar camera glitch as before. This results in a normal CONTROLLABLE CAMERA in Motorville. Also, you get to meet the ground car and ground people. The effect goes away on zoning or entering certain camera transition zones. There is no menu access like (3) and I think you are stuck forever.

5) If you cast gateway/travel, then immediately cancel the Deposit menu, you have time to bring up the magic menu again during the spell. If you then cast "chart chests", you cancel the travel, but.. you are INVISIBLE! Loading zones don't work, but you can open the menu and talk to people. It is possible to travel out which removes the glitch. I've tried doing it with Vacate in dungeons, but it didn't seem to leave enough time to cast another spell.

6) You can also use a save point after doing this glitch with vacate before the warp. The save dialog will appear after you load. You get control very briefly after selecting save, which you can use to, for example, enter a loading zone. Saving mid transition doesn't seem to have a corruption effect as far as I can tell.

This glitch still needs a lot of testing. Here is a video of me messing around with it (I figure out how to get it 6min in):
http://www.twitch.tv/sockfolder/b/416744644

I found a new pretty crazy glitch. There are a lot of crazy things I've found you can do, though nothing actually practical so far.

Basically, start talking to the Familiar Deposit, then spam square (or triangle) before the first dialog comes up. You have to hit square on an exact frame, and it can be hard sometimes. If you succeed, you will have the magic menu (or main menu) up DURING the dialog. From here, there are many weird things that can happen.

1) If you just cancel everything, the dialog box stays on the screen. Not that special. It goes away on loading a zone or on dialog. You can skip mobs with this dialog up though, so maybe it could be useful in some dungeons.

2) If you bring up addition text (of the same type), the game will softlock. For example, talk to the stone in the main menu.

3) If you cast travel (or vacate) with the menu still up, you travel while the Deposit menu is active. After cancelling (and moving), the camera has this weird glitchy moment, and Oliver and pals are temporarily black. At this point, you have no menu access and can't interact with anything, but THERE ARE NO ENEMIES! This effect lasts through loading zones, and it only seems to go away when entering the area where it was originally triggered, or by interacting with a save point. Cutscenes and bosses still trigger, but the effect does last after the cutscenes/bosses. You can get stuck from this due to lack of interaction/menu,

4) If you cast gateway with the menu still up, you get a similar camera glitch as before. This results in a normal CONTROLLABLE CAMERA in Motorville. Also, you get to meet the ground car and ground people. The effect goes away on zoning or entering certain camera transition zones. There is no menu access like (3) and I think you are stuck forever.

5) If you cast gateway/travel, then immediately cancel the Deposit menu, you have time to bring up the magic menu again during the spell. If you then cast "chart chests", you cancel the travel, but.. you are INVISIBLE! Loading zones don't work, but you can open the menu and talk to people. It is possible to travel out which removes the glitch. I've tried doing it with Vacate in dungeons, but it didn't seem to leave enough time to cast another spell.

6) You can also use a save point after doing this glitch with vacate before the warp. The save dialog will appear after you load. You get control very briefly after selecting save, which you can use to, for example, enter a loading zone. Saving mid transition doesn't seem to have a corruption effect as far as I can tell.

This glitch still needs a lot of testing. Here is a video of me messing around with it (I figure out how to get it 6min in):
http://www.twitch.tv/sockfolder/b/416744644

FFgamer86

2013-06-14 01:32:13 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

Awesome find. I already have some ideas of usefullness, although not sure timesaving.

TheAngryPanda

2013-06-14 01:33:21 pm

Speed > Safety

Number 1 and 3 are pretty awesome, especially since most bosses (and their triggers) have save points just before them. Nice find sockfolder, definitely going to go play around with this for a bit.

We still need to find a combat orientated glitch or whatever, have you tried somehow getting into a battle with this glitch? May not be possible.

FFgamer86

2013-06-14 02:42:54 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

I just thought of a HUGE way to use this glitch combined with the spell VACATE. enter a dungeon, for example Mt Smoky(obviously wont have vacate at this point but works for other dungeons to. Make it to the first save point/familiar deposit, do the glitch and vacate out or teleport to the location you just entered. then you can run through the dungeon with no encounters, get to the end and touch save to reset the glitch. Fight boss.

sockfolder

2013-06-14 02:48:58 pm

There are a few problems with that. First, there are already ways to skip encounters, especially after you get levitate. It is hard to see that this would save time. Most substantially though, you can't interact with anything or use a menu, and most dungeons have various spots that require spells casts. The most likely practical use to me is actually (1), just leaving the text up. You have full menu spell access, but still skip all the mobs (they are there, but don't interact with you while text is on the screen). It will probably go away at the first special part of the dungeon (i.e. where other text will appear) but it could still be faster. I need to see if the text lasts through opening chests.

KaeLynne

2013-06-14 03:30:11 pm

is this glitch hard to execute??
it's a very interesting find. It could save some time, especially in ding dong well since there is no way to skip encounters there.

FFgamer86

2013-06-14 04:13:24 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

Well, from looks of it so far, you need a way to teleport out of an area and something to talk to in order to get the glitch.

KaeLynne

Edit history:

KaeLynne: 2013-06-14 04:22:46 pm

2013-06-14 04:21:56 pm

oh. then the glitch wouldn't be available until tombstone trail (because I think horace gives vacate at castaway, and the next dungeon after castaway is tombstone trail) :/ and by then, you would have levivate. Travel is there after the Hamelin arc.

If this glitch is viable to do, I don't think it will save a lot of time compared to levitate skip. At least I don't think so.

Oh by the way FFG, are you going to stream tonight?

FFgamer86

2013-06-14 04:35:43 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

Im streaming right now, testing stuff with the glitch.

KaeLynne

2013-06-14 06:22:46 pm

I've tried #1 glitch, and I've come to a conclusion that it only works (efficiently and faster than levitate) int old smoky.

I'm going to test #3 glitch, but I don't really find anywhere where it could be used in a speedrun since it requires Travel (accessible after hamelin) and you can't use travel when you're world map running since the place hasn't been discovered yet so you can't use the travel spell.
An example would be skull mountain. I don't think you can do the #3 glitch going to skull mountain.

But it was discovered today, and there's a lot of potential for these glitches and new ones.

sockfolder

2013-06-14 11:21:02 pm

Wrong Warp Found!

(Not useful =p). If you vacate(/travel) out of a dungeon with the above glitch, then cancel out and immediately use a save totem, you can save while the game is loading the next area. If you do it fast enough (the screen should still be back when the save starts), the save will be corrupt. When you load it, it will say you are in Motorville. You will be placed on the world map, but at the coordinate of the save in the dungeon. Mostly you get warped to spots where you get stuck with this, but there are some wrong warps that send you to valid locations. I think I've tried all of them, and none of them are actually useful.

Example: http://www.twitch.tv/sockfolder/c/2426519

KaeLynne

2013-06-14 11:30:34 pm

My upload of my run was at 85% and I was recording a video then my laptop gave me a blue screen............................ WTF
It only had about 600 minutes left till it was completed............................................... WTF
I can't believe this right now. I never got a blue screen before and it happens when I'm uploading a 12gb video.. wtf ):

@sockfolder you're finding several glitches in this game. If you keep it up, soon you'll find something that will be really really useful, and that'll be the day. Some day.