Yep yep yep!
No, this is not a joke. I really am torturing myself with this... thing (calling it a game is giving it too much credit, especially now that I've seen the end cutscene).
No completed runs yet, and all my playing has been on emulator, but I've already found a couple handy speed tricks. Even though I doubt anyone will actually suffer this abomination long enough to know what I'm talking about, I'll post my findings here.
In the Boneyard, there's an auto-checkpoint when the gate closes behind you after the first use of the sneakers. Suicide on the exploding zombies after it, and you respawn just past the gate, with the same health and dew (the power for the magic items) you had when it activated. Going in with near-full dew lets you skip going down into two graves to collect more dewdrops.
EDIT: New trick/sequence break. Much like above, preserve the dew past an auto-checkpoint, this time the one after Boneyard red desert. Stop before the third set of insta-collapsing floor and refill your dew inside the grave, then run across, quickly pull the gate out a bit, and run back to fully refill dew. Then switch to Hannah and move the second gate out of the way, back to Zach and run straight for the mirror. The sneakers resume draining your dew once you come out the other side of the mirror, but you can preserve some by getting past the checkpoint and suiciding. This extra second of sneaker use will probably save the most time in the crypt, using it to completely skip the first Fiery Footpath mirror and basically the whole right half of the area./end edit]
An obvious one, but in the Crypt you can damage boost past the sphinxes you're supposed to deactivate with a switch. Cuts out a bit of extra travel and switching characters. Also, the gire from the dragon heads on Firey Footpath can be avoided by walking along the top edge of the path.
In Twisty Turny Woods, a precise use of the frisbee lets you get past a spot where you're intended to use the sneakers, letting you use them once somewhere else. I'm 99% positive the best place would be Main Street, to get Zach to the clock tower without having to go up and around.
During the barrel jumping in the Swamp, you can avoid waiting at the slowly-rotating barrels by jumping from one to another opposite the rotation.
The second key in the Swag House can be gotten first by having one twin jump on another's head, making the first key useless. Interestingly enough, even the GameFAQs guide used this trick. Whatever the puzzle in that room with the green flame is, it's so convoluted no one can figure it out.
Other than that, so far it's all optimization and knowing what to do.
Random notes related to optimization:
Diagonal movement is good. Both horizontal and vertical speed are the same as when moving up/down/left/right, so you can make lots of diagonal jumps you wouldn't think possible.
Invincibility frames last several seconds, and health is relatively common, so it could be better to just run through most enemies.
Always trade bombs with another item when menuing to avoid having to put them down one at a time in empty spaces.
Some enemies (most notably many of the fire breathers in Dark Tunnels) will ignore you after you run past them.
Well, that's it for now.
No completed runs yet, and all my playing has been on emulator, but I've already found a couple handy speed tricks. Even though I doubt anyone will actually suffer this abomination long enough to know what I'm talking about, I'll post my findings here.
In the Boneyard, there's an auto-checkpoint when the gate closes behind you after the first use of the sneakers. Suicide on the exploding zombies after it, and you respawn just past the gate, with the same health and dew (the power for the magic items) you had when it activated. Going in with near-full dew lets you skip going down into two graves to collect more dewdrops.
EDIT: New trick/sequence break. Much like above, preserve the dew past an auto-checkpoint, this time the one after Boneyard red desert. Stop before the third set of insta-collapsing floor and refill your dew inside the grave, then run across, quickly pull the gate out a bit, and run back to fully refill dew. Then switch to Hannah and move the second gate out of the way, back to Zach and run straight for the mirror. The sneakers resume draining your dew once you come out the other side of the mirror, but you can preserve some by getting past the checkpoint and suiciding. This extra second of sneaker use will probably save the most time in the crypt, using it to completely skip the first Fiery Footpath mirror and basically the whole right half of the area./end edit]
An obvious one, but in the Crypt you can damage boost past the sphinxes you're supposed to deactivate with a switch. Cuts out a bit of extra travel and switching characters. Also, the gire from the dragon heads on Firey Footpath can be avoided by walking along the top edge of the path.
In Twisty Turny Woods, a precise use of the frisbee lets you get past a spot where you're intended to use the sneakers, letting you use them once somewhere else. I'm 99% positive the best place would be Main Street, to get Zach to the clock tower without having to go up and around.
During the barrel jumping in the Swamp, you can avoid waiting at the slowly-rotating barrels by jumping from one to another opposite the rotation.
The second key in the Swag House can be gotten first by having one twin jump on another's head, making the first key useless. Interestingly enough, even the GameFAQs guide used this trick. Whatever the puzzle in that room with the green flame is, it's so convoluted no one can figure it out.
Other than that, so far it's all optimization and knowing what to do.
Random notes related to optimization:
Diagonal movement is good. Both horizontal and vertical speed are the same as when moving up/down/left/right, so you can make lots of diagonal jumps you wouldn't think possible.
Invincibility frames last several seconds, and health is relatively common, so it could be better to just run through most enemies.
Always trade bombs with another item when menuing to avoid having to put them down one at a time in empty spaces.
Some enemies (most notably many of the fire breathers in Dark Tunnels) will ignore you after you run past them.
Well, that's it for now.
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