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

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-09-24 02:09:10 am

2011-09-23 05:43:07 pm

Reaver - it does appear from your videos that the rewind trick is easier to pull off on the PC than on the gamecube. I kinda want to get the PC version just to try it out...should be pretty cheap.

I'm still not sure what you mean about jumping from rope to rope in the observatory....i know what part you're talking about, but i guess i don't understand the best way to do it? i haven't tried anything there yet.

EDIT: Mike, take a look at this video. A couple things to show you....first, look at how i get to the save point in the sewer. I can get it every time....what you should do is climb up the ledge furthest to the right (but not TOO far to the right or you won't be able to climb up, as seen in one of my attempts). After climbing up, tilt the joystick down so the prince is facing you. Then go into FPV and aim so that the save point is just a little off to the right of center. Then push forward and jump. Really easy and works basically every time.

The second past of the video shows a new spot to do the rewind trick...this spot is A LOT easier to pull it off, and the nice thing is that if you don't get the trick, you will die much quicker because you are jumping from a higher ledge. The only tricky thing with this is lining yourself up at the right angle on the ledge corner. Try this out and i think you'll see that this is a very effective spot to do the rewind trick for the sewer escape. This will no doubt be in my SS attempts as i can get this rewind trick about 75% of the time. I think you should put this in your marathon run and keep attempting it until you get it. Let me know if you have success with this, and also with the jump to the save portal.

Reaver - it does appear from your videos that the rewind trick is easier to pull off on the PC than on the gamecube.  I kinda want to get the PC version just to try it out...should be pretty cheap.

I'm still not sure what you mean about jumping from rope to rope in the observatory....i know what part you're talking about, but i guess i don't understand the best way to do it?  i haven't tried anything there yet.

EDIT: Mike, take a look at this video.  A couple things to show you....first, look at how i get to the save point in the sewer.  I can get it every time....what you should do is climb up the ledge furthest to the right (but not TOO far to the right or you won't be able to climb up, as seen in one of my attempts).  After climbing up, tilt the joystick down so the prince is facing you.  Then go into FPV and aim so that the save point is just a little off to the right of center.  Then push forward and jump.  Really easy and works basically every time.

The second past of the video shows a new spot to do the rewind trick...this spot is A LOT easier to pull it off, and the nice thing is that if you don't get the trick, you will die much quicker because you are jumping from a higher ledge.  The only tricky thing with this is lining yourself up at the right angle on the ledge corner.  Try this out and i think you'll see that this is a very effective spot to do the rewind trick for the sewer escape.  This will no doubt be in my SS attempts as i can get this rewind trick about 75% of the time.  I think you should put this in your marathon run and keep attempting it until you get it.  Let me know if you have success with this, and also with the jump to the save portal.

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

UCpro

2011-10-05 02:00:23 am

New shortcut for segment 6 using the rewind trick. Saves 12 in-game seconds. Would need to get a sand cloud to do this (most likely the one by the second sword) and that will cost me about 5 seconds. So in total this shortcut would be 7 in-game seconds faster (5 seconds slower real-time...but i'm shooting for the lowest in-game time for this run).

Reaver

2011-10-05 04:45:18 am

What happens if you use the rewind glitch to jump from the middle platform straight to the platform with the sand cloud on it? I've done it before ages ago but I can't remember what happened. Does the next section fail to load or something? Was just wondering if you could kill yourself to get the next area to load at any point.

UCpro

2011-10-05 09:26:00 am

Quote from Reaver:

What happens if you use the rewind glitch to jump from the middle platform straight to the platform with the sand cloud on it? I've done it before ages ago but I can't remember what happened. Does the next section fail to load or something? Was just wondering if you could kill yourself to get the next area to load at any point.

i made a video of it earlier....the video was called "the fastest way through this part leads to void" i believe? Anyways, yes the game doesn't load correctly. The only place i can find in this section where you can actually use the rewind trick is what i just found last night. Still have to figure out if i want to put it in or not....i'm leaning towards putting it in.

Reaver

2011-10-05 10:01:34 am

Quote from UCpro:

i made a video of it earlier....the video was called "the fastest way through this part leads to void" i believe? Anyways, yes the game doesn't load correctly. The only place i can find in this section where you can actually use the rewind trick is what i just found last night. Still have to figure out if i want to put it in or not....i'm leaning towards putting it in.

Thats annoying.

Can you manage that trick consistently? I wouldn't risk it for 5 seconds unless you can happily pull off that rewind trick each time.

UCpro

2011-10-05 10:31:24 am

i only worked on it for a couple minutes, didn't test consistency (tried it maybe 3 times). From what i can tell it will be pretty consistent, and it's still somewhat early in the segment. It would be 7 seconds saved total (maybe 8) from what i can tell, not 5, but i need to see exactly how long getting that sand tank would take. I'm just trying to find as many shortcuts as i can because i really want to be at 42:xx at the save. There's hardly anything left as far as shortcuts in this segment that i can find, but this is pretty huge if it's at least partially consistent.

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-10-06 01:13:24 am

2011-10-06 01:11:56 am

Found a new cutscene skip....saves 7 seconds and is easy to pull off

Oh, and i realized that after i do the rewind trick in the Baths, i pass RIGHT OVER a sand cloud. That means i wouldn't have to go out of my way to re-fill my sand tanks to do that new rewind trick i found. Since it only takes 3 seconds to retrieve a sand cloud, the total time saved using that new rewind trick is 9 seconds. And it's a really easy one to pull off (i just got it 5 times in a row).

So, the 9 seconds saved with that plus the 7 seconds saved with this new cutscene skip means i've found 16 seconds of timesavers the past two nights.....not too shabby!!! I don't know if there's any more timesavers left to be discovered for segment 6, but it's now safe to say that these 16 seconds of improvements will make 42:xx pretty easy to get for the 50% save.

mikwuyma

2011-10-06 11:28:38 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Wow nice skip, but I don't think it's faster to break the wall the way you did. I'm pretty sure it's fastest to slash twice, then double tap so you don't get the slow third slash.

Sorry, I haven't been focusing on Sands of Time lately, but I'll get back on it soon.

UCpro

2011-10-07 01:24:44 am

a break from the game is always good Mike Smiley

so i tried that new cutscene skip again today and it's definitely not as easy as i originally thought. Many times you'll get stuck on a pillar while jumping over the cutscene trigger, and you'll end up falling right on the trigger....which is no good. Need to practice this more to get it down consistently.

Other than that i think i'm ready to start finalized segment attempts. I played through the segment again looking one last time for any new short cuts....there are just no more left that i can find. Absolutely nothing. I've tested so many things and have had a lot of close breakthroughs, but nothing more that is of any use. So.....i will do a little more practicing for this and then start attempts. If i get 42:51 or lower i'll have a chance to get 43:xx at the 52% save.

UCpro

2011-10-08 01:55:12 am

While practicing that new rewind trick i found, i had an idea for a new place to do the trick. See the video....

This new one saves 18 seconds, whereas the other one i found a couple days ago saves 12. This new one is a little more difficult, but still has a success rate around 50% for what i can do. That's good enough for me to put it in. I also want to point out that i'm a little more consistent with that new cutscene skip.

With this new rewind trick, i'm now going for 42:4x at the 50% save. Although i have bumped up the difficulty with these new shortcuts i've recently found, i am now going to accept a few more mistakes in this segment. I will accept around 15 seconds of mistakes, so having that in mind should keep me sane as i start recording.

Reaver

Edit history:

Reaver: 2011-10-08 07:42:16 am

2011-10-08 07:38:53 am

Finally, no more hectic working schedules. I'm free for a while at least. I managed to do some testing in that area this morning. Looks like the loading trigger for the scarabs section is those ledges that you jump too. The loading trigger for the next section leading up to the mess hall is in the section with the scarabs, so there isn't a way around them as far as I could tell with the routes that I tested.

I did however find a rather unique way to get to the scarabs. I haven't timed it but I doubt its faster than your method, in fact its probably slower however it is interesting Smiley

This can be done with 4 sand tanks. From what I can tell you need Farah to say "Look, a crack" and "Careful" otherwise when you die it resets your position to where the vid started rather than in that corridor. Included the mess hall entrance because I broke the camera Smiley

Ucpro

2011-10-08 11:01:19 am

interesting! i knew about the rewind trick at 0:08....and i also knew about the rewind trick at 0:37 to get to the scarabs early. HOWEVER, i didn't know you could have Farah start out on the switch after getting to the scarabs and fighting them. Very interesting....you're right though, i don't think it's faster than doing the rewind trick i found last night. Still a great find though....i'm tempted to time it.

Also, the wall rebound off the door at 3:00 is interesting too. You gain a lot of distance because the enemy is there and you end up jumping over him. I wonder if this is faster (there's a little bit of setup to wall rebound off the door like that) than just rolling into the cutscene.

Reaver

2011-10-09 04:52:19 am

I think it would be more beneficial to be closer to the wall when that cutscene triggers in the mess hall. Perhaps in over places it might work out better. Maybe the torpedo attack could work here off the inside of the door so you've already knocked one sand monster down.

Off topic:

Turns out "A long buried secret" doesn't work on the PC version. I did manage to use the rewind trick to an invisible ledge and pass through the wall but it crashes the game. Looks like they were going to put the area in but didn't complete it as the door is there but you cant break through the wall. If you glitch through the wall it gives you the option to save the game and the save is titled "A long buried secret" but you can't do anything there and then the game crashes the moment you save. If you load the save game you are stuck between an unopened gate and the unbreakable wall.

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2011-10-09 11:38:43 am

2011-10-09 11:37:48 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Some notes:

-I nailed UCPro's new cutscene skip my first try, and then I haven't been able to nail it since. It's actually really hard to get consistently.

-The mess hall skip isn't too difficult...as long as Farah doesn't slip into the door. I don't know how to reliably prevent Farah from entering the Mess Hall. I know you want an enemy to distract her, but that's about all I know. Oh yeah, every time I get the trick, I just barely get it.

-That new spot for the rewind trick took me a long time to get the hang of, but now my consistency rate is somewhere around 70-80% on that trick. I should be able to do it for a marathon/SS run.

-I found a funny cutscene glitch exiting the sewer that lets you go through the game at zero life so all of the enemies ignore you, but it's useless because you'll die the moment you take any damage, so you'll die in the hall of learning doing the shortcut to the rope (you take a tiny bit of fall damage), and it really screws up the checkpoint triggers. You can save after meeting Farah, and when you load it, you will end up in the sewers, despite the game save saying otherwise. If you heal yourself, the game acts normally, so there's really no use to the trick unless if you want to show off. I did record the footage, so I can upload it to youtube sometime.

-I think the palm tree shortcut before the prison can be done reliably enough for a SS run. I was able to do it fairly consistently off the right palm tree after a lot of experimenting. My success rate with the left palm tree is zero percent. Sad

-I am still really bad at the button rewind trick. I don't think my consistency is higher than 10%. Maybe there's a better spot/angle so that the consistency can be higher?

I might stream some later today, we'll see.

Some notes:

-I nailed UCPro's new cutscene skip my first try, and then I haven't been able to nail it since. It's actually really hard to get consistently.

-The mess hall skip isn't too difficult...as long as Farah doesn't slip into the door. I don't know how to reliably prevent Farah from entering the Mess Hall. I know you want an enemy to distract her, but that's about all I know. Oh yeah, every time I get the trick, I just barely get it.

-That new spot for the rewind trick took me a long time to get the hang of, but now my consistency rate is somewhere around 70-80% on that trick. I should be able to do it for a marathon/SS run.

-I found a funny cutscene glitch exiting the sewer that lets you go through the game at zero life so all of the enemies ignore you, but it's useless because you'll die the moment you take any damage, so you'll die in the hall of learning doing the shortcut to the rope (you take a tiny bit of fall damage), and it really screws up the checkpoint triggers. You can save after meeting Farah, and when you load it, you will end up in the sewers, despite the game save saying otherwise. If you heal yourself, the game acts normally, so there's really no use to the trick unless if you want to show off. I did record the footage, so I can upload it to youtube sometime.

-I think the palm tree shortcut before the prison can be done reliably enough for a SS run. I was able to do it fairly consistently off the right palm tree after a lot of experimenting. My success rate with the left palm tree is zero percent. :(

-I am still really bad at the button rewind trick. I don't think my consistency is higher than 10%. Maybe there's a better spot/angle so that the consistency can be higher?

I might stream some later today, we'll see.

UCpro

2011-10-09 12:12:56 pm

the cutscene skip i found out works more if you run up just slightly right of center on the door frame and then press left on the joystick after the camera angle changes (when you do the last wall jump).

I haven't found a reliable way to prevent Farah from entering the mess hall either. My success rate is around 50% for her not to enter....which isn't great, but it's not bad either. She doesn't necessarily need to be distracted by an enemy to not go in. Sometimes she won't go in if you kill all 4 enemies of the first wave....she will follow you up to the door frame (just past the drinking fountain) and then she'll stop and won't go in. Don't ask me why she does this....it's just a Farah thing i guess Smiley

Be careful with the new rewind trick i found. If you do it the first way i found (by jumping off the ledge), that's safe. But if you do it like the new way i found (jumping off the platform) there's a chance if you're not careful that the next area won't load. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this part and get the next area to load 100% of the time. Which rewind trick method are you using?

the cutscene skip i found out works more if you run up just slightly right of center on the door frame and then press left on the joystick after the camera angle changes  (when you do the last wall jump).

I haven't found a reliable way to prevent Farah from entering the mess hall either.  My success rate is around 50% for her not to enter....which isn't great, but it's not bad either.  She doesn't necessarily need to be distracted by an enemy to not go in.  Sometimes she won't go in if you kill all 4 enemies of the first wave....she will follow you up to the door frame (just past the drinking fountain) and then she'll stop and won't go in.  Don't ask me why she does this....it's just a Farah thing i guess :)

Be careful with the new rewind trick i found.  If you do it the first way i found (by jumping off the ledge), that's safe.  But if you do it like the new way i found (jumping off the platform) there's a chance if you're not careful that the next area won't load.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this part and get the next area to load 100% of the time.  Which rewind trick method are you using?

mikwuyma

2011-10-09 12:17:25 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

I'm jumping off the higher ledge, and I've never had a problem with the next area loading. I didn't even know you could jump off the platform.

UCpro

2011-10-09 12:38:54 pm

Quote from mikwuyma:

I'm jumping off the higher ledge, and I've never had a problem with the next area loading. I didn't even know you could jump off the platform.

look at the last video i posted. Yeah, the nest area will always load the way you're doing the rewind trick.

mikwuyma

2011-10-09 12:44:10 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Oh oops, I'm talking about the sewer rewind trick. I haven't even tried that ledge jump one. It doesn't look worth it for how little time it saves real-time.

UCpro

2011-10-11 06:10:24 pm

Mike - i just watched your 1:58 run from yesterday. After watching the first half of the run i figured there was NO WAY you were going to beat your old run, but then the second half went really well (even though there were still a TON of mistakes Smiley

). If you could get through with no huge mistakes and no game overs, a 1:56 would be really easy. I have to imagine that without all the saves a 1:52 would be really easy to get if there were no game over loops. Optimal SS run run would easily be in the mid 1:4x:xx range.

Tonight i'm gonna try working on a fast consistent strat for the area after the prison escape. I'm gonna suggest not doing the rewind trick for your marathon run. I know it would be cool if you got it, but it's just not consistent for you. I'm sure i can find something consistent for you for that part.

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2011-10-11 08:46:06 pm

mikwuyma: 2011-10-11 08:44:17 pm

mikwuyma: 2011-10-11 08:44:08 pm

2011-10-11 08:43:36 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Yeah it's ridiculous how many mistakes I made and still beat my 1:59:29. If that freeze wasn't there, then I would have had a really high 1:56:xx, and I was not too happy when I died in the final area. Sad

I know that a good marathon run would be sub-1:55 range. I also agree that a submittable SS run would be somewhere in the mid-1:4x range.

BTW, what's your best SS time, UCPro? Or have you not tried one yet?

Do you have any tips for the button rewind trick? My consistency on it is still awful, despite practicing it a lot (I even have a save right at that area), though I seem to be getting the fast final rewinds in that area like you do. I've tried doing a wall run and then jumping to catch the platform with the block on it, but I think the autoaim doesn't quite catch on, or the prince is just barely too low to catch the platform.

BTW, do you have a list of big, difficult tricks that need to be in an SS run? Here's the ones I know of (I'm sure I missed something).

-Dagger of Time early (probably 4 tries or less)

-Second sword early (I swear I usually don't screw it up as much as I did in the 1:58). I guess 5ish tries? That would be a full sand tank worth of tries

-Mess Hall skip. Performing it isn't difficult, but only 50% chance of being able to do it. Sad

It does save a lot of time, so I guess it needs to be in an SS. :-/

-The Sewer skip within 2 or 3 tries. Not that difficult really.

-The stupid palmtree shortcut. I don't know if you've played around with this at all, but the right palm tree is actually pretty consistent. You just need to be pretty far to the left when you run up the wall. You can usually tell by the second jump off the wall if you got it or not, because you'll be slightly to the left of the shadow if you got it.

Ones I'm not sure about:

-The rewind trick you do in segment 3. I really haven't played around with this one much. My guess is that it's not SS-friendly, but I figure I should at least try different angles and doing it with four rewinds before saying no.

-The rewind trick you do in segment 4. Like the segment 3 one, I only tried this one a couple of times before giving up on it.

-That stupid button rewind. I'm only putting this here because I suck at it. Sad

P.S. Warrior Within is so terrible. I don't know how they managed to screw up everything good about Sands of Time so badly.

Yeah it's ridiculous how many mistakes I made and still beat my 1:59:29. If that freeze wasn't there, then I would have had a really high 1:56:xx, and I was not too happy when I died in the final area. :( I know that a good marathon run would be sub-1:55 range. I also agree that a submittable SS run would be somewhere in the mid-1:4x range.

BTW, what's your best SS time, UCPro? Or have you not tried one yet?

Do you have any tips for the button rewind trick? My consistency on it is still awful, despite practicing it a lot (I even have a save right at that area), though I seem to be getting the fast final rewinds in that area like you do. I've tried doing a wall run and then jumping to catch the platform with the block on it, but I think the autoaim doesn't quite catch on, or the prince is just barely too low to catch the platform.

BTW, do you have a list of big, difficult tricks that need to be in an SS run? Here's the ones I know of (I'm sure I missed something).

-Dagger of Time early (probably 4 tries or less)

-Second sword early (I swear I usually don't screw it up as much as I did in the 1:58). I guess 5ish tries? That would be a full sand tank worth of tries

-Mess Hall skip. Performing it isn't difficult, but only 50% chance of being able to do it. :( It does save a lot of time, so I guess it needs to be in an SS. :-/

-The Sewer skip within 2 or 3 tries. Not that difficult really.

-The stupid palmtree shortcut. I don't know if you've played around with this at all, but the right palm tree is actually pretty consistent. You just need to be pretty far to the left when you run up the wall. You can usually tell by the second jump off the wall if you got it or not, because you'll be slightly to the left of the shadow if you got it.

Ones I'm not sure about:

-The rewind trick you do in segment 3. I really haven't played around with this one much. My guess is that it's not SS-friendly, but I figure I should at least try different angles and doing it with four rewinds before saying no.

-The rewind trick you do in segment 4. Like the segment 3 one, I only tried this one a couple of times before giving up on it.

-That stupid button rewind. I'm only putting this here because I suck at it. :(

P.S. Warrior Within is so terrible. I don't know how they managed to screw up everything good about Sands of Time so badly.

UCpro

2011-10-11 09:13:09 pm

I haven't done a SS run yet....i'm not going to do any SS attempts until i finish my segmented run. Actually, i've been thinking lately that i might restart my segmented run...i think i could improve it quite a bit. Will probably just continue it from where i'm at now though, and then maybe improve the whole thing sometime later. I have a feeling new ideas/shortcuts for this game will come up after i finish my run, so it might not be worth doing something super optimal at this stage.

The list of big tricks that should be required for a SS you put together seems good to me. All the ones you listed that you weren't sure about, i would leave all those out. The segment 3 trick you are referring to isn't too reliable. Segment 4 trick doesn't save enough time for how difficult it is (it is VERY inconsistent and not reliable at all). Stupid button rewind i don't think should be put in. Like i said, i'm going to test this area out in the next couple of days, and i'm pretty sure i can come up with a good method for getting past this spot quickly and consistently without doing any rewind trick.

I haven't done a SS run yet....i'm not going to do any SS attempts until i finish my segmented run.  Actually, i've been thinking lately that i might restart my segmented run...i think i could improve it quite a bit.  Will probably just continue it from where i'm at now though, and then maybe improve the whole thing sometime later.  I have a feeling new ideas/shortcuts for this game will come up after i finish my run, so it might not be worth doing something super optimal at this stage.

The list of big tricks that should be required for a SS you put together seems good to me.  All the ones you listed that you weren't sure about, i would leave all those out.  The segment 3 trick you are referring to isn't too reliable.  Segment 4 trick doesn't save enough time for how difficult it is (it is VERY inconsistent and not reliable at all).  Stupid button rewind i don't think should be put in.  Like i said, i'm going to test this area out in the next couple of days, and i'm pretty sure i can come up with a good method for getting past this spot quickly and consistently without doing any rewind trick.

UCpro

Edit history:

UCpro: 2011-10-12 02:40:45 am

2011-10-12 02:40:03 am

Mike, you should be very happy when you see this next video.....i think this is a VERY huge breakthrough for the SS route.

I just figured this method out and it works basically 100% of the time. Out of the 20 or so times i've tried this, Farah never died (i keep the camera off her as much as possible). Some of the attempts in the video are really bad, but i was still able to get through ok.

Here's a new method for climbing the ropes.....is it the fastest way up?

Here's another small thing i found....

probably doesn't save much time, maybe 1 second between the 2 of them. I don't think i needed to pause for that swinging trap at 0:25....i'll test more with that part later. Just something i found while on my way to practice the post-prison escape SS method Smiley

mikwuyma

2011-10-12 03:17:30 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

ARGHSLKJSTLKHSALKTHSTLKSTAKLHSAH

I tried that exact method and it never worked for me! I hope what I said in my last post at least helped you figure that out. Sad

It looks like you need to let go of R at the last possible moment for that trick to work, but it definitely looks a lot more consistent than the rewind trick to hit the button.

The fastest way to climb the ropes makes so much sense now that I'm watching it. I have no idea why I didn't think of wall running, then jumping to the ropes.

I'll definitely try out these tricks soon, but right now I'm playing through Warrior Within (and soon The Two Thrones) because running Sands of Time made me more interested in the other two games.

Reaver

2011-10-12 04:44:06 am

Nice find on thie first vid. Second vid is the method I use to climb up the rope. Sorry mike, I should've mentioned wallrunning up a bit then jumping onto the ropes. 3rd vid looks risky, I mean those blades were passing straight through you Smiley

Not a fan of the gameplay on the other 2 games, but I do like the story across the trilogy.

UCpro

2011-10-12 12:50:40 pm

Mike - you're having trouble replicating my new method for getting up to the button? Are you having trouble wallrunning and jumping up to the platform with the box?