Soul Blazer

Edit history:

aarin: 2012-02-05 09:30:13 am

2012-02-05 09:27:21 am

<3

Quote from Shiden86:

As a side note, I've been playing Ys Origin and I just obtained a skill called Phoenix, and it actually looks alot like the Phoenix magic you get in Soul Blazer, pretty neat! Attached a video if anyone wants to check it out.

Very intriguing. An homage? A shared designer? That's seriously cool, in any case. Looks awesome.

Funny thing: Everhate just moved away from Ice Armor, and now I'm thinking about putting it back in for the Lab run. I'm almost certain I'd use it for a live setting, since running back to master an extra time looks dumb, and slow. Going without either is risky, to say the least~ I think the time lost is rather neutral. I always ran without it since I sure wasn't going back to Greenwood to pick it up for the Fire Shrine, and had been running quite conservative in the Lab.

To be perfectly honest, I've lost track of where the Light armor is, so I normally just play patty-cakes with the ghosts, slow as hell. Might have to do a detour for that as well.

I like how this game is like that, making you think about trade-offs with no glitches to use as a crutch. I can get certain monsters to despawn (1 per lair instead of 3+) depending on situations, but I rarely do that since it screws with my leveling HP-fills.

I really wish I could find a grind spot between the Mountain and the lab, I'd sacrifice 2 min there easy if I could swing the Z sword (I'm just as fast with the backswing as Kaz is with his TAS-pokes). But I did kill all the speeders and copters without dying 3 times this morning.

And I really wonder what the depth of knowledge is about this game. For all I know, there's an undiscovered glitch with those spells I never use when I'm equipped with the f'n silver stone and an underleveled Z-sword, and I can possibly nuke metal monsters. This is the crap I'm working on while I'm 'learning to poke better.' I'm hopeless Tongue

I'll be trying to get out of that Lucky Blade thing, and not because it saves more than 2 secs. Bastard game doesn't get to tell me I need a Lucky Sword.

[quote="Shiden86"]As a side note, I've been playing Ys Origin and I just obtained a skill called Phoenix, and it actually looks alot like the Phoenix magic you get in Soul Blazer, pretty neat! Attached a video if anyone wants to check it out.[/quote]
Very intriguing. An homage? A shared designer? That's seriously cool, in any case. Looks awesome.

Funny thing: Everhate just moved away from Ice Armor, and now I'm thinking about putting it back in for the Lab run. I'm almost certain I'd use it for a live setting, since running back to master an extra time looks dumb, and slow. Going without either is risky, to say the least~ I think the time lost is rather neutral. I always ran without it since I sure wasn't going back to Greenwood to pick it up for the Fire Shrine, and had been running quite conservative in the Lab.

To be perfectly honest, I've lost track of where the Light armor is, so I normally just play patty-cakes with the ghosts, slow as hell. Might have to do a detour for that as well.

I like how this game is like that, making you think about trade-offs with no glitches to use as a crutch. I can get certain monsters to despawn (1 per lair instead of 3+) depending on situations, but I rarely do that since it screws with my leveling HP-fills.

I really wish I could find a grind spot between the Mountain and the lab, I'd sacrifice 2 min there easy if I could swing the Z sword (I'm just as fast with the backswing as Kaz is with his TAS-pokes). But I did kill all the speeders and copters without dying 3 times this morning.

And I really wonder what the depth of knowledge is about this game. For all I know, there's an undiscovered glitch with those spells I never use when I'm equipped with the f'n silver stone and an underleveled Z-sword, and I can possibly nuke metal monsters. This is the crap I'm working on while I'm 'learning to poke better.' I'm hopeless :P

I'll be trying to get out of that Lucky Blade thing, and not because it saves more than 2 secs. Bastard game doesn't get to tell me I need a Lucky Sword.

2012-02-05 10:58:11 pm

Light armor comes from the first lair in the power plant (last section of leo's lab). Kill the worms, it opens a path down, light armor is right there. Takes a total of like 10 secs to get, and keeps you a LOT safer in magridd castle. Definitely worth the time to get.

2012-02-07 02:14:31 am

<3

Yeah, the Light Armor is a keeper~

I just did the Lab twice without the ice armor. It's still risky, but I think I've got the level-ups timed right, and I'm not getting hit as often as I was a few days ago.

The Demon Bird is being a troll.

World of Evil is pretty fast. I should have a new SS time to report in a few days. I'm going to dick around in the Lab a little more first.

Edit history:

aarin: 2012-02-09 03:52:00 am

aarin: 2012-02-09 03:28:28 am

aarin: 2012-02-09 03:27:34 am

aarin: 2012-02-09 03:23:55 am

2012-02-09 03:18:55 am

<3

Double-post for status, as promised. Times = after map, next shrine (rounded up to half/full minutes) :

Any% SS, no deaths (no Ice Armor, no herbs)

GrassValley - 15:30
Greenwood - 18:30
Saint Elles - 22:30
Mountain - 17:30
Leo's Lab - 13:00
Magridd - 20:30
WoE+Phoenix - 17:30
Deathtoll in Flames/End ttl - 2:05:00

By cutting herbs completely, I lost some time but had more fun:

*No Leo's Painting herb adds about 30 seconds. the Mantis still isn't cheese-material. Level up prior to that is mandatory.
*No Water Shrine Herb adds close to a minute waiting for fire shrine tiles to behave. I still cheese the boss because the Heads troll me. Still faster than Ice Armor.
*No Southeria or Rockbird Herbs don't hurt much because Durean takes forever regardless with or without the Mermaid Tears. There's a choice level-up at the end of the ascent.
----At this point I sort of figured out I didn't need herbs at all since I kept ending up at the Mountain of Souls with my Painting herb.
*It's pretty impossible to die at the Mountain unless you ignore the moose in the first cave. No herb required. I time in a few extra kills there just to make my level-up in the Lab time up correctly. Still faster than Ice Armor.
*I haven't found a Lab herb recently, and while I used to burn one in Basement 2, I just time my level-up after the first hot-plates and manage the rest of the stage without it anyway. I might lose 30sec-1min here by not tanking the mini-bulldozer things. Powerplant has never been a problem, or the Tin Doll.
*No Torture Room herb since it's only good for the Demon Bird or tanking the plates to the Soul Armor. If the Spirits beat me up too bad (even with Light armor, TY Everhate!), I need to open the Master's shrine to escape anyway, so I refill there. Plenty of level ups at this point, starting the stage at level 16. Maybe 20 seconds lost not being as boss-aggressive.
*WoE is too short to bother with herbs (I lose 30 seconds doing the Soul Armor slow), and Deathtoll is herb-optional.

I lose about 2 minutes this way, but gained a minute by not screwing around in Southeria, which I used to have big trouble with before I get my first armor.

I don't know what my time would be with deathwarps, but that hasn't been my focus. I can probably get another 2 minutes out of deathless, no herbs, and maybe hit >2hr plain deathless.

My boss strats are still cheese+shit for Mantis, the trolling Shrine-fuckers (ffffuuuuuuuuu!!), and the Demon Bird who always swoops, never spews.

I'll give it a week and try to record a normal deathless run if I feel it's not getting much better than 1:59:59

Double-post for status, as promised. Times = after map, next shrine (rounded up to half/full minutes) :

Any% SS, no deaths (no Ice Armor, no herbs)

GrassValley - 15:30
Greenwood - 18:30
Saint Elles - 22:30
Mountain - 17:30
Leo's Lab - 13:00
Magridd - 20:30
WoE+Phoenix - 17:30
Deathtoll in Flames/End ttl - 2:05:00

By cutting herbs completely, I lost some time but had more fun:

*No Leo's Painting herb adds about 30 seconds. the Mantis still isn't cheese-material. Level up prior to that is mandatory.
*No Water Shrine Herb adds close to a minute waiting for fire shrine tiles to behave. I still cheese the boss because the Heads troll me. Still faster than Ice Armor.
*No Southeria or Rockbird Herbs don't hurt much because Durean takes forever regardless with or without the Mermaid Tears. There's a choice level-up at the end of the ascent.
----At this point I sort of figured out I didn't need herbs at all since I kept ending up at the Mountain of Souls with my Painting herb.
*It's pretty impossible to die at the Mountain unless you ignore the moose in the first cave. No herb required. I time in a few extra kills there just to make my level-up in the Lab time up correctly. Still faster than Ice Armor.
*I haven't found a Lab herb recently, and while I used to burn one in Basement 2, I just time my level-up after the first hot-plates and manage the rest of the stage without it anyway. I might lose 30sec-1min here by not tanking the mini-bulldozer things. Powerplant has never been a problem, or the Tin Doll.
*No Torture Room herb since it's only good for the Demon Bird or tanking the plates to the Soul Armor. If the Spirits beat me up too bad (even with Light armor, TY Everhate!), I need to open the Master's shrine to escape anyway, so I refill there. Plenty of level ups at this point, starting the stage at level 16. Maybe 20 seconds lost not being as boss-aggressive.
*WoE is too short to bother with herbs (I lose 30 seconds doing the Soul Armor slow), and Deathtoll is herb-optional.

I lose about 2 minutes this way, but gained a minute by not screwing around in Southeria, which I used to have big trouble with before I get my first armor.

I don't know what my time would be with deathwarps, but that hasn't been my focus. I can probably get another 2 minutes out of deathless, no herbs, and maybe hit >2hr plain deathless.

My boss strats are still cheese+shit for Mantis, the trolling Shrine-fuckers (ffffuuuuuuuuu!!), and the Demon Bird who always swoops, never spews.

I'll give it a week and try to record a normal deathless run if I feel it's not getting much better than 1:59:59

2012-02-09 04:04:49 am

Cutting herbs is an interesting restriction. I normally have my herbs mapped out for the times I'm going to use them to (hopefully) save the most time.

Painting herb on the first boss, since it speeds up the kill.
Greenwood herb during the floor is lava section.
St Elles herb on durean.
Mt of souls herb in leo's lab basement 2
Magridd herb in world of evil (so i can run through more blocks...since running through blocks looks cooler than dodging)

Still refining a bit on the bosses, though I think I've got most of them worked out (and yes, bird is evil...random bastard likes to swoop on me 6-7 times in a row). I've actually figured out a way to do the 2nd boss quite reliably and pretty quickly, without taking dmg (since there's no ice armor at the time).

Unfortunately, I haven't put together a run in awhile, but it's good to see others working through it, as it appears I may not be able to record anything submittable soon.

2012-02-17 07:52:19 pm

<3

I haven't been able to repeat that Leo's Lab time I posted. I've shaved 30 seconds-ish off most the other stages, but haven't hit sub-2hrs deathless (with herbs) yet.

Since I have this game 'down,' I've been playing other stuff, just running this in parts, with maybe a full run twice a week. I also do killboss-reset-killboss-reset training.

I'm waiting for sub 2 hours to hit record; there's no reason this should be impossible.

obdajr

2012-02-18 02:39:38 am

heck yes this game is awesome! go for 1:50ish for sure though, its definitely in reach.

Edit history:

Everhate: 2012-06-21 08:23:37 am

Everhate: 2012-06-12 01:13:06 am

Everhate: 2012-06-11 08:29:13 pm

2012-06-11 07:46:51 pm

Been awhile, but got back to running it again. Finally streamed a run of the english version with death warps in 1:47:25, which is almost 5 mins better than my previous time. Worked on some improved boss strats, and overall played sloppy but better than my previous best.

Had said not long ago that 1:48 was my goal time, but I thought 1:45 was possible, and this reinforces that. I figure I made at least 3 mins worth of mistakes (lost almost a minute in world of evil/fetch quest just playing terribly)

Will cut the video at some point as it was toward the end of multiple fail attempts, so that some of the changes can be seen. Of particular interest is the 2nd boss (3 statues) that I can manage a kill on in ~28 secs if i do well and go for the super risky strats. In the run it was probably a 33-35 second kill due to sloppiness. Either way, the new strat is significantly faster than the old =D.

Also, once again, the bird boss was a jerk. 6 dives before i got one pass, then another 1-2 before he finally passed again so i could kill him, ugh.

Edit: Apparently xsplit was angry and dropping a bunch of frames at random times. Most of the boss fights are reasonably in tact (except for that damn bird, but it was nothing special anyway).

http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/b/321158316 part 1 before it got split multiple times due to bad internet. Rest are highlighted, but this is the bulk of the run, and has the altered boss fights (even if a couple of the bosses are minor changes, most of them are super easy to execute...except the statues, that's crazy tight, heh)

Edit again: Turns out almost the entire run has total trash for video quality...so I'm going to try to get this fixed and improve the run sometime soon.

Edit sequelized again: Been toying with the idea of low% and 100%. Low% would likely look pretty similar, though i'd cut out the herb abuse. Could theoretically get mermaid tear skip without the herb if I was good enough/got decent luck, and leo's lab would just require precise xp amounts and good execution (while doing 1 dmg/hit due to no power bracelet, ofc). Could be interesting.

Was wondering how it would be reasonable to define 100% for the game. Obviously all the weapons/armor/spells/souls/various inventory items like the bracelets and the magic bell. Would imagine release all monster lairs would be included as well, as these are tracked in the pause menus for areas, and most of them do something to alter the game world.

May not get around to routing 100% for awhile, but it's someting that's on my mind at least.

Been awhile, but got back to running it again. Finally streamed a run of the english version with death warps in 1:47:25, which is almost 5 mins better than my previous time. Worked on some improved boss strats, and overall played sloppy but better than my previous best.

Had said not long ago that 1:48 was my goal time, but I thought 1:45 was possible, and this reinforces that. I figure I made at least 3 mins worth of mistakes (lost almost a minute in world of evil/fetch quest just playing terribly)

Will cut the video at some point as it was toward the end of multiple fail attempts, so that some of the changes can be seen. Of particular interest is the 2nd boss (3 statues) that I can manage a kill on in ~28 secs if i do well and go for the super risky strats. In the run it was probably a 33-35 second kill due to sloppiness. Either way, the new strat is significantly faster than the old =D.

Also, once again, the bird boss was a jerk. 6 dives before i got one pass, then another 1-2 before he finally passed again so i could kill him, ugh.

Edit: Apparently xsplit was angry and dropping a bunch of frames at random times. Most of the boss fights are reasonably in tact (except for that damn bird, but it was nothing special anyway).

http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/b/321158316 part 1 before it got split multiple times due to bad internet. Rest are highlighted, but this is the bulk of the run, and has the altered boss fights (even if a couple of the bosses are minor changes, most of them are super easy to execute...except the statues, that's crazy tight, heh)

Edit again: Turns out almost the entire run has total trash for video quality...so I'm going to try to get this fixed and improve the run sometime soon.

Edit sequelized again: Been toying with the idea of low% and 100%. Low% would likely look pretty similar, though i'd cut out the herb abuse. Could theoretically get mermaid tear skip without the herb if I was good enough/got decent luck, and leo's lab would just require precise xp amounts and good execution (while doing 1 dmg/hit due to no power bracelet, ofc). Could be interesting.

Was wondering how it would be reasonable to define 100% for the game. Obviously all the weapons/armor/spells/souls/various inventory items like the bracelets and the magic bell. Would imagine release all monster lairs would be included as well, as these are tracked in the pause menus for areas, and most of them do something to alter the game world.

May not get around to routing 100% for awhile, but it's someting that's on my mind at least.

sdafan2012

2013-01-15 05:29:08 pm

will we be seeing this added to the list soon guys as a completed run? looking forward to it.

2013-01-17 04:46:45 am

I'm not in a position currently to be able to get a good recording off console, but hopefully that will change in the future. There's also a vid of a deathless run of 1:51:18 at http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/c/1737577 with at least watchable quality, though far from good.

If/when I get the ability to record, I'd probably be looking at sub-1:46 with deaths or sub 1:50 without as a submittable time. There's not a ton of meaningful randomness in the game, but you can easily lose a minute or two in magridd castle. Both times will be pretty difficult to hit, but that's the goal for now, unless glitches or new strategies are discovered.

2013-06-06 04:37:16 am

A few people have expressed interest in picking up the game, so I decided to throw together a tutorial video of the boss strategies I use with some explanation/rambling alongside.

http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/c/2385742

There were some unfortunate occurrences since I'm a bit rusty on some of them, but I managed to get pretty clean kills at one point or another, and tried to include the considerations to make, adaptations to damage taken, alternate patterns, etc. If anyone needs further explanations just let me know and I'll see if i can clarify.

Hopefully I'll get around to doing tutorials for the actual body of the game using the same general style, accounting for different approaches for a run with deaths vs one without, but I don't have a current timeline on when I'll get that accomplished.

PJ

2013-06-06 01:20:54 pm

Is PJ

Oh awesome! Watching this right now.

2013-07-18 03:56:16 am

Finally managed to get through a run with deaths and cut the arbitrary 1:47.

http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/c/2578270 1:46:52 with a ton of mistakes. Sub-1:45 looks pretty doable, all things considered.

http://www.twitch.tv/jenja23/c/3700993

2013-12-03 09:03:27 pm

Since this thread hasn't been updated in ages, I figured it's time to post something.

Been working on the JP version lately, have an any% at 1:37:55 with 1 unintentional death. Looks like the time difference is pretty close to 10 minutes. There are a few alterations to bosses. The first boss is a complete joke, as there's no conveyor in the middle. 2nd boss has a different AI for the 3rd statue, so I had to devise an alternate strat, and Poseidon has larger platforms on the sides of the room, so you can damage him/her more frequently, cutting a cycle compared to the NA version.

Also did a mini-tutorial, covering Leo's Lab, as it's likely the most difficult area for people learning the game: http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/c/3338882 (typical rambling included, not to be used as a flotation device, keep out of reach of children, etc.)

If there's interest, I can do something similar for the other sections of the game, though there are relatively few tricky spots as long as you aren't terrible like me.

Since this thread hasn't been updated in ages, I figured it's time to post something.

Been working on the JP version lately, have an any% at 1:37:55 with 1 unintentional death. Looks like the time difference is pretty close to 10 minutes. There are a few alterations to bosses. The first boss is a complete joke, as there's no conveyor in the middle. 2nd boss has a different AI for the 3rd statue, so I had to devise an alternate strat, and Poseidon has larger platforms on the sides of the room, so you can damage him/her more frequently, cutting a cycle compared to the NA version.

Also did a mini-tutorial, covering Leo's Lab, as it's likely the most difficult area for people learning the game: http://www.twitch.tv/everhate/c/3338882 (typical rambling included, not to be used as a flotation device, keep out of reach of children, etc.)

If there's interest, I can do something similar for the other sections of the game, though there are relatively few tricky spots as long as you aren't terrible like me.

Jenja

2014-01-28 10:53:01 pm

Just thought I might bring in a quick update, as I managed to get 1:44:36 in the any% English version. Took quite some time but I actually think that sub 1:44 with the current setup is possible, if everything goes really well (like the Demonbird). But overall I am really happy with this run:
http://www.twitch.tv/jenja23/c/3570855

I try to explain the stuff I am doing during the run, but basically Everhate has provided all necessary information already before.

Jenja

2014-02-10 03:43:59 pm

Another quick update, got 1:43:42 in my last run. There were still some minor flaws, especially in Leo's Lab, but other than that a really good run and I also found out, that birds are not all jerks after all Wink

2014-02-13 12:42:53 pm

Really good run. May take some marginally ridiculous strats to be able to cut much time off that.

Great job, sir.

sbfan

2014-06-18 02:13:42 pm

any word on when or if this will get posted?

2014-06-19 11:01:00 am

SNES rules!

Hi all,

As some of you may know, I've recently picked up Soul Blazer, and I got an Any% time of 1:44:24 yesterday (off stream though, my best on stream is still 1:48:02). I play on BizHawk by the way.

I would be willing to try 100% some time, but I'm not sure what the definition of that category would be for SB.
It's obvious that you would have to pick up all swords, armors, magic and the five helping souls, as well as all bracelets, Master's Emblems and the Magic Bell.
However, there seems to be two possibilities for Monster Lairs. We can either:
- seal absolutely all of them, or
- seal only those which release a person or an animal (as they seem to make a more significant change in the game), therefore fully complete all towns.

Those two possibilities are not equal, because some ML's only release a shortcut, make a chest appear, or do some other minor change.
Although, I feel that sealing absolutely all ML's would also make sense because the game keeps track of them in some way: when you press Start in any room of a dungeon, the game tells you how many ML's are left.
I think I would slightly favor the "all monster lairs" over "fully complete towns" as a 100% requirement, but that's just me. Or maybe they could make two separate categories?

If you have any insight on this matter, feel free to add your two cents. Smiley

I'm curious about how much longer a 100% run would be over an Any% one.

Hi all,

As some of you may know, I've recently picked up Soul Blazer, and I got an Any% time of 1:44:24 yesterday (off stream though, my best on stream is still 1:48:02). I play on BizHawk by the way.

I would be willing to try 100% some time, but I'm not sure what the definition of that category would be for SB.
It's obvious that you would have to pick up all swords, armors, magic and the five helping souls, as well as all bracelets, Master's Emblems and the Magic Bell.
However, there seems to be two possibilities for Monster Lairs. We can either:
 - seal absolutely all of them, or
 - seal only those which release a person or an animal (as they seem to make a more significant change in the game), therefore fully complete all towns.

Those two possibilities are not equal, because some ML's only release a shortcut, make a chest appear, or do some other minor change.
Although, I feel that sealing absolutely all ML's would also make sense because the game keeps track of them in some way: when you press Start in any room of a dungeon, the game tells you how many ML's are left.
I think I would slightly favor the "all monster lairs" over "fully complete towns" as a 100% requirement, but that's just me. Or maybe they could make two separate categories?

If you have any insight on this matter, feel free to add your two cents. :)
I'm curious about how much longer a 100% run would be over an Any% one.

Warepire

2014-06-19 01:30:39 pm

Heavy Metal Powered

Since the game keeps track of the monster layers, I would prefer to see all monster layers cleared in a 100% run.

2014-06-21 09:44:35 am

SNES rules!

Oh, snap! I've just got a 1:42:14 Any% offline! My first no-bad-death run. Smiley

I'll have to do some runs on stream to try to sub the 1:42.

By the way, I agree with you Warepire, I believe 100% should close all the MLs.

2014-06-22 12:18:13 pm

SNES rules!

New record done on stream: 1:41:12!
Here is the Twitch highlight (Youtube encode coming soon): http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/c/4514310

2014-06-24 02:14:13 pm

SNES rules!

Youtube link to my PB:

Enjoy the run!