Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Gamecube any% and 100%)

2011-01-27 05:03:02 am

I've tried a few variations with little success. I'll work on it again this weekend when I get a bit of time. I'll record a demo of each stategy I try even if it fails so that at least we have a record of what was done even if it wasn't successful.

One thing I did notice in one of my tests is if you can get down to the bottom without Farah then there are no sand monsters. You can move all the boxes without any hassle. Leads me to think that all the sand monsters in the game are only there because of her Wink

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-01-27 11:51:10 pm

2011-01-27 08:23:06 pm

Quick question.....is there any consistent way to do the fight against the prince's father? i hate when he blocks ur attacks....i think it takes about 8 hits on him before he goes down. I seem to usually have 1-2 times where he blocks my attack after jumping over him, and i really don't want that to happen at the very end of a good attempt. So yeah, just let me know if there is a way to prevent him from blocking....if its a random thing, then ill just live with it

EDIT: i did about 30 minutes of recorded attempts and i got a bit closer today...i can get that rewind trick about 50% of the time now so that helps a lot. This is actually a fairly easy segment now that i've put in the practice, but the fight at the end makes it difficult and may cause headaches.

Reaver

Edit history:

Reaver: 2011-01-28 04:15:06 am

2011-01-28 04:11:57 am

Quote from UCpro:

Quick question.....is there any consistent way to do the fight against the prince's father? i hate when he blocks ur attacks....i think it takes about 8 hits on him before he goes down. I seem to usually have 1-2 times where he blocks my attack after jumping over him, and i really don't want that to happen at the very end of a good attempt. So yeah, just let me know if there is a way to prevent him from blocking....if its a random thing, then ill just live with it.

Been a while since I fought him, but if I remember correctly when jumping over and attacking him, if you press the attack button immediately after you jump he has a greater chance of blocking. In order to hit him without blocking I think if you get to the peak height in your jump over him then attack. As long as there's a longer delay between the jump and attack buttons it should work. If you die in the battle does it restart at the battle with all of them again? Could get some practise on that section by dying. I assume the Prince's father gets up after hes knocked down so you can let him kill you.

[quote="UCpro"]Quick question.....is there any consistent way to do the fight against the prince's father?  i hate when he blocks ur attacks....i think it takes about 8 hits on him before he goes down.  I seem to usually have 1-2 times where he blocks my attack after jumping over him, and i really don't want that to happen at the very end of a good attempt.  So yeah, just let me know if there is a way to prevent him from blocking....if its a random thing, then ill just live with it.[/quote]

Been a while since I fought him, but if I remember correctly when jumping over and attacking him, if you press the attack button immediately after you jump he has a greater chance of blocking. In order to hit him without blocking I think if you get to the peak height in your jump over him then attack. As long as there's a longer delay between the jump and attack buttons it should work. If you die in the battle does it restart at the battle with all of them again? Could get some practise on that section by dying. I assume the Prince's father gets up after hes knocked down so you can let him kill you.

UCpro

2011-01-30 12:55:23 pm

here's a good segment 3....but the fight at the end was pretty bad (just unlucky, like most of the fights go) Time at the end of the segment is 20:57

the fight could be about 25-30 seconds faster, but i'll probably be happy with something that is 20 seconds faster than this. Up to the fight was pretty good, only a couple seconds worth of execution errors. Even though i'm not keeping this segment i wanted to post it and see if there were any other route changes, or execution things that could be better. Wanted to check with you Reaver to see if there's anything i'm missing...

Reaver

Edit history:

Reaver: 2011-01-30 04:59:19 pm

2011-01-30 04:57:03 pm

Wow. That was almost a perfect segment 3. You had all the little timesavers in it too, like the jump to the post and across the bed (1:36 in your vid). The jump out of the hole in the wall at the top. Was going really well. Nice one on the little cutscene skip at 4:34. Again nice cutscene skip at 9:25. That was really awesome segment, just a shame about the fight at the end.

Only small timesaver I can think of is at 1:56 where you smash the box and chair to progress through the door, if you position yourself a little more to the left of the box and slash at an angle towards the chair also blocking your path, you can smash them both in one swing, although it doesn't always work.

Unfortunately I can't advise on the fight because the majority of time it really is just down to how lucky you get with the positioning of your enemies. By the way did the trick I mentioned previously for the battle with the Prince's father work? Also what was the time at the end of that segment?

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-01-30 10:25:21 pm

2011-01-30 08:49:09 pm

Quote from Reaver:

Wow. That was almost a perfect segment 3. You had all the little timesavers in it too, like the jump to the post and across the bed (1:36 in your vid). The jump out of the hole in the wall at the top. Was going really well. Nice one on the little cutscene skip at 4:34. Again nice cutscene skip at 9:25. That was really awesome segment, just a shame about the fight at the end.

Only small timesaver I can think of is at 1:56 where you smash the box and chair to progress through the door, if you position yourself a little more to the left of the box and slash at an angle towards the chair also blocking your path, you can smash them both in one swing, although it doesn't always work.

Unfortunately I can't advise on the fight because the majority of time it really is just down to how lucky you get with the positioning of your enemies. By the way did the trick I mentioned previously for the battle with the Prince's father work? Also what was the time at the end of that segment?

the trick you mentioned for fighting the prince's father does work...although, there is the occasional time when he will still block your attack. But i definitely think pushing B to attack when you are at the highest point of the jump is the best way to go.

The segment time was 14:05 which put the total run time at 20:57 at the completion of that segment. It was my first attempt that went sub-0:21. with a better fight i think i can push that down to around 20:35. For me, everything up to the fight isn't too difficult now...i just gotta keep doing attempts until a good fight happens. I'll test your small timesaver suggestion and see if it's something i want to put in.....

EDIT: tested that timesaver and its really hard to do...i'm gonna leave it out. Probably would only save half a second at most.

I really hate this segment...that fight at the end is going to drive me crazy. I may need to practice it more to find some kind of consistent strategy.

[quote="Reaver"]Wow. That was almost a perfect segment 3. You had all the little timesavers in it too, like the jump to the post and across the bed (1:36 in your vid). The jump out of the hole in the wall at the top. Was going really well. Nice one on the little cutscene skip at 4:34. Again nice cutscene skip at 9:25. That was really awesome segment, just a shame about the fight at the end.

Only small timesaver I can think of is at 1:56 where you smash the box and chair to progress through the door, if you position yourself a little more to the left of the box and slash at an angle towards the chair also blocking your path, you can smash them both in one swing, although it doesn't always work.

Unfortunately I can't advise on the fight because the majority of time it really is just down to how lucky you get with the positioning of your enemies. By the way did the trick I mentioned previously for the battle with the Prince's father work? Also what was the time at the end of that segment?[/quote]

the trick you mentioned for fighting the prince's father does work...although, there is the occasional time when he will still block your attack.  But i definitely think pushing B to attack when you are at the highest point of the jump is the best way to go.

The segment time was 14:05 which put the total run time at 20:57 at the completion of that segment.  It was my first attempt that went sub-0:21.  with a better fight i think i can push that down to around 20:35.  For me, everything up to the fight isn't too difficult now...i just gotta keep doing attempts until a good fight happens.  I'll test your small timesaver suggestion and see if it's something i want to put in.....

EDIT: tested that timesaver and its really hard to do...i'm gonna leave it out.  Probably would only save half a second at most.

I really hate this segment...that fight at the end is going to drive me crazy.  I may need to practice it more to find some kind of consistent strategy.

Reaver

2011-01-31 03:57:48 am

Hmmm, perhaps its more effective to attack when your a bit more behind him rather than in the peak of your jump?

This run is really looking good. Sub-21 is a brilliant time at this point.

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-02-04 12:36:19 am

UCpro: 2011-02-03 08:50:04 pm

UCpro: 2011-02-02 12:29:22 pm

2011-02-02 12:28:50 pm

hopefully i'll be way under 21 minutes once i figure out a good strat for the fight....i'm not going to do any more recorded attempts of segment 3 until i feel confident i can get a good fight 50% of the time.

EDIT: i HATE segment 3 Sad

EDIT 2: OH YEAH.....finally got this segment done. You are going to love this segment once i get it up for you to see....it's almost flawless up to the fight at the end, and the final fight went extremely well. Altogether the segment is 22 seconds faster than the attempt i posted 5 days ago. New segment 3 time is 13:43, which puts my total run time through segment 3 at 20:35. I have full health too Smiley

...soooooo, everything has gone extremely well up to this point. I'll have the new segment 3 video up sometime soon!!!!

UCpro

2011-02-04 11:11:14 am

Enjoy this segment 3.....this is probably the best segment i've ever done for any speedrun i've ever worked on. Very impressive!!!

Segment time: 13:43
Total run time: 20:35

Reaver

2011-02-04 05:06:57 pm

Really awesome. That came off almost perfectly. Really good end fight too. After I finished my segment 2 I worked on segment 3 for a while but got no where with it. Kept making stupid continuous mistakes and when I thought everything went well I ballsed up the end fight. I know how much effort it must've taken to get that to come off that well. Congratulations.

UCpro

2011-02-05 03:16:05 pm

thanks....i probably logged over 300 recorded attempts for that segment. Probably one of the more difficult segments in the run. I actually thought it was going to take a lot longer before i finally got this, so i'm really happy to get such a good attempt so quickly.

Reaver, have you had any luck with that one potential shortcut in segment 4? I messed around with it a little bit, but every scenario ended with Farah dying and having to restart back where you meet up with her. Gonna play around with it some more...would love to get it to work....such a big timesaver if it could work.

Reaver

2011-02-05 04:06:31 pm

No luck with it yet.... Same as you everything I try results in starting back at the top again. Personally I think its Farah's fault. She ruins everything.

VorpalEdge

2011-02-05 04:20:17 pm

welcome to the machine

really good segment. nice job.

UCpro

2011-02-06 02:05:15 am

thanks Vorpaledge!

Reaver....take a look at this video i made. A new possible route for the potential shortcut (skip to 2:30 in the video, the first couple tries are just failed attempts)

The new rewind trick gets to the platform where Farah normally goes first. I don't know if this really does anything for us.

HOWEVER, you can also do the rewind trick on the opposite side of the room, to get to the platform with the second lever you're supposed to pull. Getting to this platform using the rewind trick is about 25-27 seconds faster than the normal route (because you normally have to go all the way around to the beginning of the room, where you first enter), so that's a shortcut which really does work. After doing this you just pull all the levers in the normal order to get Farah down to the bottom of the room. The problem with this is that i can only do this rewind trick at the top of the room using 3 sand tanks, leaving only 1 left to do the rewind trick at the bottom of the room (and i don't think it's possible to do that one with only one sand tank). I've gotten really close to the ledge using 2 sand tanks, but haven't gotten it yet. Maybe you could give it a try Reaver. If i could get to that ledge using only 2 sand tanks, then i would be able to do the rewind trick at the bottom of the room with the remaining 2 sand tanks, and we would have a new successfully found shortcut.

At the end of this video i also show a way to get through the door at the bottom of the room with Farah still at the top of the room. You'll see that the game doesn't load correctly, so it look like a dead end. But may after watching this video Reaver you'll come up with some new ideas for how to make this shortcut work

thanks Vorpaledge!

Reaver....take a look at this video i made.  A new possible route for the potential shortcut (skip to 2:30 in the video, the first couple tries are just failed attempts)

The new rewind trick gets to the platform where Farah normally goes first.  I don't know if this really does anything for us.

HOWEVER, you can also do the rewind trick on the opposite side of the room, to get to the platform with the second lever you're supposed to pull.  Getting to this platform using the rewind trick is about 25-27 seconds faster than the normal route (because you normally have to go all the way around to the beginning of the room, where you first enter), so that's a shortcut which really does work.  After doing this you just pull all the levers in the normal order to get Farah down to the bottom of the room.  The problem with this is that i can only do this rewind trick at the top of the room using 3 sand tanks, leaving only 1 left to do the rewind trick at the bottom of the room (and i don't think it's possible to do that one with only one sand tank).  I've gotten really close to the ledge using 2 sand tanks, but haven't gotten it yet.  Maybe you could give it a try Reaver.  If i could get to that ledge using only 2 sand tanks, then i would be able to do the rewind trick at the bottom of the room with the remaining 2 sand tanks, and we would have a new successfully found shortcut.

At the end of this video i also show a way to get through the door at the bottom of the room with Farah still at the top of the room.  You'll see that the game doesn't load correctly, so it look like a dead end.  But may after watching this video Reaver you'll come up with some new ideas for how to make this shortcut work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfnXTaEf6kM

UCpro

2011-02-08 12:32:30 am

Ahhhhhh, i finally found a way to make this shortcut work!! I'll make a video of it a little later.....still need to iron out a few things to make it as efficient as possible

Reaver

2011-02-08 07:19:45 am

Sweet, can't wait to see it. Sorry I only just noticed this. Been working on my thesis.

I hadn't had much luck on this the times I did play it. Only things I could think of used too many sand tanks which meant you couldn't get the button at the bottom the quickest way.

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-02-10 12:55:31 am

2011-02-10 12:54:40 am

Finally have a video of the new shortcut!! I just timed it, and it's about 50-55 seconds faster than the old route!!!! That's some crazy time savings right there Wink

here's what i wrote in the video description which explains a few things.......

I can't tell you how long it took to get this shortcut down. But i'm so happy to have it figured out. This route is about 50-55 seconds faster than the previous route, which is a TON of time saved!!!! If i could figure out how to do the first rewind trick using 2 sand tanks (i can only get to the ledge using 3), then that would save me from having to get a sand tank filled (from killing an enemy which takes 15 seconds) in order to do the second rewind trick. It looks a little odd that i have to go down and kill an enemy, and then go back up to the ledge.....but it's the only choice i have right now.

It's also possible that instead of killing the enemy (in order to do the second rewind trick), i could move the one block on the pressure switch, and then go and wallrun up to the button to open the door. I haven't timed this yet, but i think it would be very close to the same time as what i have in this video......i'll test it out later. If it is similar time-wise, i may go that route, because it would be MUCH easier than doing the rewind trick (which is the hardest one in the game IMO).

Finally have a video of the new shortcut!!  I just timed it, and it's about 50-55 seconds faster than the old route!!!!  That's some crazy time savings right there ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVZhI6L19xE

here's what i wrote in the video description which explains a few things.......
[i]
I can't tell you how long it took to get this shortcut down. But i'm so happy to have it figured out. This route is about 50-55 seconds faster than the previous route, which is a TON of time saved!!!! If i could figure out how to do the first rewind trick using 2 sand tanks (i can only get to the ledge using 3), then that would save me from having to get a sand tank filled (from killing an enemy which takes 15 seconds) in order to do the second rewind trick. It looks a little odd that i have to go down and kill an enemy, and then go back up to the ledge.....but it's the only choice i have right now.

It's also possible that instead of killing the enemy (in order to do the second rewind trick), i could move the one block on the pressure switch, and then go and wallrun up to the button to open the door. I haven't timed this yet, but i think it would be very close to the same time as what i have in this video......i'll test it out later. If it is similar time-wise, i may go that route, because it would be MUCH easier than doing the rewind trick (which is the hardest one in the game IMO).[/i]

Reaver

2011-02-10 05:50:55 am

Awesome find. Did she respawn on the platform because she died below it do you think? If thats the case you could try pushing her off from the top Cheesy

Really nice find. Had a feeling you would find something if I showed there was a possibility. I was trying to find a way to keep at least 3 sand tanks so you could save the time at the bottom hitting that switch....

I have one other idea at the moment but it's much later in the game and could save some time getting the 3rd sword. Problem is it requires the wallrun straight up and rewind trick to get more height. I've never been particularly good at that one. I'll keep searching for possible shortcuts that can be used anywhere else.

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-02-10 07:13:04 pm

2011-02-10 07:11:43 pm

Quote from Reaver:

Awesome find. Did she respawn on the platform because she died below it do you think? If thats the case you could try pushing her off from the top Cheesy

Really nice find. Had a feeling you would find something if I showed there was a possibility. I was trying to find a way to keep at least 3 sand tanks so you could save the time at the bottom hitting that switch....

I have one other idea at the moment but it's much later in the game and could save some time getting the 3rd sword. Problem is it requires the wallrun straight up and rewind trick to get more height. I've never been particularly good at that one. I'll keep searching for possible shortcuts that can be used anywhere else.

haha, that would be awesome if we could just push Farah off at the top and then we'd restart on that bottom platform. I need to try it out!!

I think i know what you're talking about for that future possible shortcut....are you talking about the first room in the baths? i've thought about that myself and can't wait to test it out. I've gotten pretty good at the rewind trick where you wallrun straight up, so the difficulty shouldn't be an issue.

I just did some testing to see how fast pushing the block to reach the switch takes, and it's basically the exact same time as killing an enemy and then doing the rewind trick (both routes take 27 seconds from the moment you restart after Farah dies, to when you activate the switch). So, i will definitely be pushing the block to reach the switch because that is so much easier than doing the rewind trick. I do think the rewind trick route is about a second faster, but that's hardly any time at all when you consider how much easier it's going to be to just push the block.

[quote="Reaver"]Awesome find. Did she respawn on the platform because she died below it do you think? If thats the case you could try pushing her off from the top :D

Really nice find. Had a feeling you would find something if I showed there was a possibility. I was trying to find a way to keep at least 3 sand tanks so you could save the time at the bottom hitting that switch....

I have one other idea at the moment but it's much later in the game and could save some time getting the 3rd sword. Problem is it requires the wallrun straight up and rewind trick to get more height. I've never been particularly good at that one. I'll keep searching for possible shortcuts that can be used anywhere else. [/quote]

haha, that would be awesome if we could just push Farah off at the top and then we'd restart on that bottom platform.  I need to try it out!!

I think i know what you're talking about for that future possible shortcut....are you talking about the first room in the baths?  i've thought about that myself and can't wait to test it out.  I've gotten pretty good at the rewind trick where you wallrun straight up, so the difficulty shouldn't be an issue.

I just did some testing to see how fast pushing the block to reach the switch takes, and it's basically the exact same time as killing an enemy and then doing the rewind trick (both routes take 27 seconds from the moment you restart after Farah dies, to when you activate the switch).  So, i will definitely be pushing the block to reach the switch because that is so much easier than doing the rewind trick.  I do think the rewind trick route is about a second faster, but that's hardly any time at all when you consider how much easier it's going to be to just push the block.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHYV1bDUFx0

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-02-14 11:08:06 pm

UCpro: 2011-02-14 11:06:30 pm

UCpro: 2011-02-14 11:06:13 pm

UCpro: 2011-02-14 11:05:37 pm

UCpro: 2011-02-14 11:04:56 pm

2011-02-14 11:04:31 pm

Today i practiced the fight against the four enemies at the end of segment 4 and found a quick method for defeating them. So....looks like i have everything down for this next segment (my guess is i'll be around 26:15 at my next save). All that's left to do is begin recorded attempts. However, I won't start recording until at least a month from now....i'm getting married in 12 days and then have a long honeymoon right after. Needless to say, i won't have time for this game until that's all over and my life becomes routine again. So, i'm officially putting this on pause, but i can't wait to start it back up once my schedule opens up again!!

Caveberry

2011-02-15 06:58:31 pm

trepidation

Oh No!! Man Down! I repeat, MAN DOWN!!!

J/k UCpro. Congratulations on living the dream. I can't wait to see the rest of the run.

UCpro

2011-02-16 09:49:30 pm

Quote from Caveberry:

Oh No!! Man Down! I repeat, MAN DOWN!!!

J/k UCpro. Congratulations on living the dream. I can't wait to see the rest of the run.

haha, thanks....glad to hear you're looking forward to the rest of the run. I hope it won't disappoint!!

Reavy (work)

2011-02-17 08:46:47 am

Congratulations dude! Best Wishes!

UCpro

2011-03-11 01:51:07 pm

Just an update....i'm going to be starting this run back up soon! I don't think segment 4 will be too hard, so hopefully after a little practice i can get this done quickly Smiley

BaronHaynes

2011-03-14 02:07:08 am

Strange days, incredible days

I've just started watching some of these segments, the last time I watched a Sands of Time run was probably in 2007, so this is pretty exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing it come together, good luck.