Shining Force 1 100% RTA in Under 7 Hours!

2013-09-28 08:49:24 pm

I have actually, though I stopped shortly after the Colossus. The story, I think, is pretty enjoyable, the graphics aren't as stupidly childish as I remembered form my childhood...but there is one really irritating thing about it. The Levelups...

Seriously, what in the WORLD was the point of making everyone the EXACT SAME?!? You know how boring that makes it?!?

Fionordeguester

2013-09-28 09:12:10 pm

I mean, it's still a fun game, don't get me wrong, but that's one thing that kind of hurts it in my opinion

sfdrew

Edit history:

sfdrew: 2013-09-30 06:09:46 am

2013-09-30 06:09:04 am

I've been thinking about it and it's probably better to kill those goblins in the second battle. They are in the way anyway, and the more of them you leave alive, the more turns they get to chase you, which also wastes time. In most battles, unless the AI makes them stay in place because you haven't crossed some magic threshold, it's probably best to finish off as many as you can while still moving toward your ultimate goal.

I've been playing around more with the first Chapter and I think it's best to kill everything in the first battle, especially for Max. Having him be level 3 makes a huge difference. I've been trying to get everybody killed except Lowe, Toa/Hans, and Max. I egress and pick-up Gong. It was nice tip to egress instead of walking. It does save time.

Fionordeguester

2013-10-01 06:21:57 pm

I see. If it helps, I find it best to not go out of your way to kill all those guys until you can get them in range of the Rune Knight, who just murders him. But, I'm curious, what's the logic in saving Hans rather than Luke? And are you sure you need Lowe when you have Gong?

sfdrew

Edit history:

sfdrew: 2013-10-02 11:33:58 am

2013-10-02 11:31:44 am

I'd rather use Gong's turns to get experience; he is really strong in the first half of the game if you keep him leveled up. I use Lowe to heal. I also give an herb to hans, since he has a high speed value, so sometimes he can get to max and heal him if need be. The somewhat random turn order can make things very difficult. You can never really count on whether a character will get a turn before they are attacked again. When it comes to Max, I can't assume an enemy won't get two turns "in a row", before he gets to go again, so I've learned to heal him with whatever I've got if there is even a chance he will get critical, double attacked, or attacked again before his next turn.

I think Hans is an undervalued character. His attack sucks [later on], but he has a high speed, and a ranged attack. He can hit tricky monsters like bats a lot more often, and once he gets his enhanced range, he can pretty much attack enemies every turn. A character like Luke is only useful if he can actually attack something. I try to maxamize every turn, so that each character can do something useful. Hans fits this description.

I've really noticed how much time it wastes to leave monsters alive. Obviously you should go for the leaders, or try to get Max to town if you can, but each monster gets a turn, which wastes time moving the cursor, deciding what they will do, possibly moving them, and worst of all, the animation if they attack somebody.

One of the hardest things to balance is to figure out when to kill off individual monsters as fast as possible to get them out of the turn rotation, or weakening several at a time so that one character (like Max) can get a kill on most turns and level up faster.

I think I'm going to do Chapter 1 a bunch more times and record it. I'll try different things and then record how much time was used for various things, like monster movement and come up with some charts. Maybe some generalizations can be pulled out. I'll be sure to use your route as well, to see how it stacks up.

I'd rather use Gong's turns to get experience; he is really strong in the first half of the game if you keep him leveled up. I use Lowe to heal. I also give an herb to hans, since he has a high speed value, so sometimes he can get to max and heal him if need be. The somewhat random turn order can make things very difficult. You can never really count on whether a character will get a turn before they are attacked again. When it comes to Max, I can't assume an enemy won't get two turns "in a row", before he gets to go again, so I've learned to heal him with whatever I've got if there is even a chance he will get critical, double attacked, or attacked again before his next turn.

I think Hans is an undervalued character. His attack sucks [later on], but he has a high speed, and a ranged attack. He can hit tricky monsters like bats a lot more often, and once he gets his enhanced range, he can pretty much attack enemies every turn. A character like Luke is only useful if he can actually attack something. I try to maxamize every turn, so that each character can do something useful. Hans fits this description.

I've really noticed how much time it wastes to leave monsters alive. Obviously you should go for the leaders, or try to get Max to town if you can, but each monster gets a turn, which wastes time moving the cursor, deciding what they will do, possibly moving them, and worst of all, the animation if they attack somebody.

One of the hardest things to balance is to figure out when to kill off individual monsters as fast as possible to get them out of the turn rotation, or weakening several at a time so that one character (like Max) can get a kill on most turns and level up faster.

I think I'm going to do Chapter 1 a bunch more times and record it. I'll try different things and then record how much time was used for various things, like monster movement and come up with some charts. Maybe some generalizations can be pulled out. I'll be sure to use your route as well, to see how it stacks up.

Ojih~Sama

2013-10-13 05:40:31 pm

u skipping the starting characters and using only max and gong, wouldn't that make the run any %?
I've seen a TAS run like that where u get the guy in purple to block the guards to access the first battle

i haven't been doing runs at all due to school but my time is 57:59, however this time is in the 100% category (getting all characters), also this time can be shaved down by alot as i forgot you can turn off the battle text as soon as u gain control in the first battle.

how i do my 2nd battle is i try to get the 3 guys (max, tao, luke) to lvl 2 or close to lvl 2, it is important that tao gets lvl 2 before the 2nd battle as she needs the mp to weaken most of the goblins blocking the path (She also needs at least 10 mp by that lvl up). I also try to save 2 mp for the last dwarf at the bridge close to guardina, so max or tao can kill it.

i've had battles where max is able to 2HKO the goblins at lvl 2, luke is able to as well as long as he gets a good lvl up at 2 (he must get +1 atk). Max being lvl 3 before engaging the 2 dwarfs at the end of the road block helps a bunch tho. Blazing one of them with tao also helps, and having luke and gong clean up as i send max and tao towards the bridge speeds things up.

Leaving monsters behind is very ideal but it can get difficult. I was routing the first battle in ch 2, there r 3 dwarfs blocking the bridge, wut i try to do is kill one of them and get everyone as far away from the drawfs as possible to the point to where aggro is not drawn, but its very annoying with the bats in the way. I've only managed to pull off that strat once.

u skipping the starting characters and using only max and gong, wouldn't that make the run any %?
I've seen a TAS run like that where u get the guy in purple to block the guards to access the first battle

i haven't been doing runs at all due to school but my time is 57:59, however this time is in the 100% category (getting all characters), also this time can be shaved down by alot as i forgot you can turn off the battle text as soon as u gain control in the first battle.

how i do my 2nd battle is i try to get the 3 guys (max, tao, luke) to lvl 2 or close to lvl 2, it is important that tao gets lvl 2 before the 2nd battle as she needs the mp to weaken most of the goblins blocking the path (She also needs at least 10 mp by that lvl up). I also try to save 2 mp for the last dwarf at the bridge close to guardina, so max or tao can kill it.

i've had battles where max is able to 2HKO the goblins at lvl 2, luke is able to as well as long as he gets a good lvl up at 2 (he must get +1 atk). Max being lvl 3 before engaging the 2 dwarfs at the end of the road block helps a bunch tho. Blazing one of them with tao also helps, and having luke and gong clean up as i send max and tao towards the bridge speeds things up.

Leaving monsters behind is very ideal but it can get difficult. I was routing the first battle in ch 2, there r 3 dwarfs blocking the bridge, wut i try to do is kill one of them and get everyone as far away from the drawfs as possible to the point to where aggro is not drawn, but its very annoying with the bats in the way. I've only managed to pull off that strat once.

Fionordeguester

2013-11-10 06:37:06 pm

Quote:

I'd rather use Gong's turns to get experience; he is really strong in the first half of the game...

Are you sure that's wise? Seems to me like the hard part of the run is going to be the end, not the beginning, since most of the enemies get ridiculously inflated stats at that point.