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Touhou Bunkachou - Shoot the Bullet (Any %) (Individual Level)
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Giant Catfish & fsvgm777!
Touhou Bunkachou - Shoot the Bullet (Any %) (Individual Level)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Video is fine, audio is fine, no cheating at all, etc. etc. etc.
ARF did a fantastic job on this game, and fsvgm sniped one scene in there too, even if it has since been beaten during the submission process.
I was going to go in-depth on every scene but then I decided that it would be an exercise in futility since the gameplay is pretty self explanatory and consistently at an insanely high level.
Accept the whole table.
ARF did a fantastic job on this game, and fsvgm sniped one scene in there too, even if it has since been beaten during the submission process.
I was going to go in-depth on every scene but then I decided that it would be an exercise in futility since the gameplay is pretty self explanatory and consistently at an insanely high level.
Accept the whole table.
Quote:
A/V: Seems fine.
Cheating: No evidence of anything untoward. There are TAS tools for the game series that can (unfortunately) make legit looking replays, which is a problem score table sites have had in the past, but these runs were a community project with public and incremental improvements and no reason to suspect any abuse.
Overall quality: Insane. Mostly near TAS level optimization, at least a few scenes (1-4!) are frame perfect or very close to it. There are no major mistakes, and only a couple of scenes where strategies go unused or dropped. It's an easy ACCEPT for the whole batch. I'm just putting that up front before getting into the blood and guts.
Timing: The game timer (which counts down from varying starting amounts) is the preferred method. Note that the game timer does NOT match realtime precisely, it slows down in tandem with the gameplay speed during any camera zoom and when Youmu slows time in 6-2/4/6. It does count down normally during Sakuya's timestops, though.
So the ideal method for scenes is simply to hold the quickcharge as much as possible. If this is done consistently, most scenes can be timetabled for optimization according to their number of shots required. Zoom shots are somewhat discounted since the timer slows down, but it's still best to snap the shots as quickly as possible, with no zoom. You get about a second of "free" fast movement after a successful shot before quickcharge will work again, so taking that into account, there are surprisingly few scenes that require any additional "real" noncharge dodging. There are, however, several scenes with invincible boss cycles or patterns that can't be held to timetabling. Oh, and the last factor to consider for timing is bullet clears - you get up to 30% charge back from clearing bullets with a shot, and in most cases this cap is hit with no trouble. If it isn't, though (for example, the first shot of scenes that take a while for sufficient bullets to appear), having to charge from less than 30% can add some time.
Best times per shot#:
3 shots - 12.45 (1-1)
4 shots - 16.05 (2-4)
5 shots - 20.02 (3-2)
6 shots - 24.82 (4-8)
7 shots - 28.81 (8-2)
8 shots - 32.98 (6-1)
9 shots - 37.43 (7-1) (but this is the only table-worthy 9 shotter in the game)
10 shots - 40.96 (8-6) (clearly close to optimal)
So the math seems pretty clear, optimal shots take 4 seconds and anything over that is a loss, either to error or requisite patternstuffs.
Here's a long table, marking clear outliers.
1-1: 12.45 - 3s
1-2: 12.53 - 3s
1-3: 23.97 - 5s
1-4: 21.23 - 4s ***
1-5: 20.83 - 5s
1-6: 22.28 - 5s
1-3 - Wow, almost 4 seconds lost vs baseline, despite the player clearly charging all the time, where'd it all go? The answer is not clearing enough bullets to cap out chargeback. Notice how the first shot only gets around 10% back, instead of the ideal 30%! Goes to show just how much that can matter. While there clearly just aren't enough bullets to get 30% on every shot, I feel like it might be possible to save some time overall by slightly delaying shots 2 and 4 (especially 4) so that more bullets are cleared, and by manipulating Wriggle to stay in the center rather than the side to make sure no clearable bullets are lost offscreen.
1-4 - Not tableable because Rumia is invincible while in the clouds. The scene is optimized by barely squeaking in a shot on a cycle, so the last shot can be taken earlier. Excellently done and probably near frame perfect.
1-6 - Again, 2 seconds lost mainly due to insufficient chargeback on some shots. I think this has less room for improvement than 1-3 though.
2-1: 21.24 - 5s
2-2: 16.40 - 4s
2-3: 22.14 - 5s
2-4: 16.05 - 4s
2-5: 21.36 - 5s
2-6: 21.94 - 5s
2-3 - 2 seconds lost vs base, but this time it's the runner's fault, shots 1 and 2 (especially 2) have long and unnecessary zooms. This has to be improvable by at least 1 second.
2-4 - First appearance of YOLO strats. Also a good demonstration of making full use of the free movement after a shot. It LOOKS like there's way too much dodging, but in fact this is a near perfect time.
2-6 - Chargeback strikes again, but there's really nothing to be done about it here.
3-1: 20.81 - 5s
3-2: 20.02 - 5s
3-3: 20.60 - 5s
3-4: 26.93 - 6s
3-5: 21.38 - 5s
3-6: 29.19 - 7s
3-7: 24.52 - 5s
3-8: 16.43 - 4s
3-2 - Near optimal time. Compare the play and the time here to 1-3, and you'll see what a difference full chargeback can make.
3-4 - Miserable chargeback, but there's not a ton you can do without getting lasered.
3-7 - This is better than the time seems, a bit of positioning and dodging is required.
4-1: 18.85 - 4s
4-2: 25.88 - 6s
4-3: 21.14 - 5s
4-4: 26.63 - 6s
4-5: 21.29 - 5s
4-6: 26.42 - 6s
4-7: 27.35 - 6s
4-8: 24.82 - 6s
4-9: 20.41 - 5s
Yeah, stage 4 has 3 bosses and 9 scenes, for whatever reason.
4-1 - Reisen spends some time phased out of existence, where she can't be photographed.
4-4 - The Youtube version of the run mistakenly lists the time as 16 seconds instead of 26, if anyone is trying to take times from that and getting confused.
4-5 - Those purple poison clouds slow your movement as well as obscuring vision. Nicely done, I didn't expect that to work so close.
4-6 - Reisen phases out again, making some awkward shots necessary, but this is still a surprisingly good time.
4-7 - This could be played more aggressively, but you can't even see what's going on so...
5-1: 24.83 - 5s ***
5-2: 20.68 - 5s
5-3: 20.90 - 5s
5-4: 20.96 - 5s
5-5: 27.84 - 6s ***
5-6: 20.46 - 5s * for impressive
5-7: 28.82 - 7s
5-8: 25.34 - 6s
5-1 and 5-5 - On both of these scenes, Meiling will kick you in the face if you don't run away from her constantly, so staying in charge mode is a lost cause.
5-6 - WOW. From a planning and execution standpoint, this is one of the most impressive scenes in the run. Also one of the only (maybe THE only) scene where you have to worry about exactly what your photo rectangle is clearing. Under 21 seconds despite all that!
6-1: 32.98 - 8s
6-2: 18.89 - 4s
6-3: 21.03 - 5s
6-4: 15.08 - 3s ***
6-5: 31.21 - 7s ***?
6-6: 21.94 - 5s
6-7: 23.44 - 5s
6-8: 22.44 - 5s
6-2, 4 and 6 all involve copious use of time slow, which also slows the clock. And 6-4, well, the gimmick is pretty obvious.
6-5 - Again you can clearly see this is an easy scene, nothing weird is going on, and the runner never stops charging, yet it's losing 3 seconds vs the baseline, all because of that first empty shot putting the charge back at 0%. But this is also clearly optimal, so whatchagonnado?
6-7 - Low chargeback AND tight windows to hit Chen before she bounces back out of range.
7-1: 37.43 - 9s
7-2: 34.51 - 3s ***
7-3: 30.54 - 5s ***
7-4: 29.40 - 7s
7-5: 36.48 - 6s ***
7-6: 30.11 - 7s
7-7: 27.40 - 5s ***
7-8: 29.00 - 7s
7-1 - This is the only 9 shotter in the game besides 10-8, which has its own stuff going on, so there's no good baseline time to compare... but math suggests it SHOULD be around 36 seconds. I think the zoom on shot 2 is what's eating a second here.
7-2 - Remilia spends the first 24 seconds chillaxing in invincible bat form. The actual time seems good. However, it's worth noting that you could take a failure shot or two at the start to make her shoot more lines of knives, which can potentially max out the bullet limit and make her stop moving or despawn some of the large red balls.
7-3 (and 5 and 7) - The timer keeps running during Sakuya's timestops, so it's hard to strictly compare these times. 7-3 also has some wacky dodging required, and 7-5 kind of puts an obvious limit on your shots. The play seems fine in all of them though.
8-1: 25.47 - 6s
8-2: 28.81 - 7s
8-3: 25.31 - 6s
8-4: 30.60 - 7s
8-5: 29.74 - 7s
8-6: 40.96 - 10s
8-7: 38.25 - 8s
8-8: 23.50 - 4s ***
8-7 - Good play, yet horrible time, thanks to bad chargeback on almost every shot. It might be possible to improve this somewhat by making Ran stick to a smaller area.
8-8 - Yuyuko is invincible for the first 10 seconds.
9-1: 29.64 - 6s !?!
9-2: 25.35 - 6s
9-3: 29.70 - 7s
9-4: 30.05 - 6s
9-5: 27.25 - 6s
9-6: 29.97 - 7s
9-7: 33.31 - 8s
9-8: 29.28 - 7s
9-1 - This scene. THIS scene. One of the slowest and hardest to clear when playing normally. It's not hard to survive, but it's designed to box you in and make you take defensive shots while waiting for opportunities to close distance. When trying to speedrun? Well, the strategy is "reset until you get a good pattern". This time isn't exactly pretty, but I think anything that doesn't have defensive shots or excessive waiting around is acceptable here. The other option on this scene, if you're completely insane, would be Omnigamer's strategy of staying high up in the danger zone, and... praying, or something. Good luck to whoever tries that one.
9-4 - I think this is the worst scene in the submission, and the reasons are unfortunately apparent in the run itself. That tricky dodge where you twitch just aside of the laser and go through all the balls? Yeah, that should be happening every time the laser fires, not just once or twice. The scene can't be full charged, granted, but having a worse time than 9-6 here is just ugly.
9-5 - Shot 1, no chargeback, lose 3 seconds, do not pass go, again there's nothing that can be done.
9-6 - The most difficult scene in the game, so loathed and infamous that ZUN brought it back in the sequel. Playing normally, this is a pinnacle of a skill tester, but for a speedrun it's just tedium. Pick a spot and sit there until miracle gaps open for you on every single wave, as seen here. I don't even want to know how many attempts this took. At least the time is nice. It sort of has to be since what else can you DO?
10-1: 37.03 - 8s **?
10-2: 24.90 - 6s
10-3: 27.74 - 6s ***
10-4: 45.55 - 10s
10-5: 32.62 - 7s
10-6: 37.26 - 6s
10-7: 25.80 - 6s
10-8: 50.89 - 9s ***
10-1 - Yeah, ain't no way you're dodging the first phase of this attack in charge mode.
10-2 - Speedrunning this game is kind of stupid sometimes. This might very well be "harder" than 9-6.
10-3 - Impressive stuff!
10-5 - Combination of low chargebacks and somewhat defensive play. I think this is improveable.
10-6 - This is... flashy, but when you put it on the chart, the time looks bad and I have a feeling it is in fact bad. ("Bad" being relative here, not like reject worthy or anything!) It's a tough nut to crack, for sure, and you have to run from the laser, but on the other hand, the pattern is nonrandom (it's static based on laser angle and timing of shots), and it's definitely possible to survive a lot higher up on the screen than where the runner hangs around most of the time (check some of the score replays on royalflare). It would require a lot of time to learn, but the potential is there (parenthesis).
10-8 - I... guess this is an okay time? Maybe? This is another one that's really hard to measure out, since you do have some choices in when you take your shots, but have to weigh a lot of different possibilities, and chargeback usually sucks no matter what you do.
X-1: 25.50 - 6s
X-2: 26.51 - 6s
X-3: 22.55 - 5s
X-4: 25.75 - 6s
X-5: 43.68 - 10s
X-6: 20.27 - 5s
X-7: 56.83 - 3s ***
X-8: 42.55 - 10s
X-4 - This is super impressive and TASlike, if you don't know that the entire scene is 100% static and it's actually just a super boring micromemorization grind.
X-5 - Not a terrible time by any means, but I think it could go down another second or two with less hesitation towards the end.
X-6 - This attack is some sort of sick joke. Almost a pity that this isn't the best 5 shotter time.
X-7 - Failed shots??? REJECT!!! No just kidding. Masterful strategy, flawless execution, this is close to frame perfect.
VERDICT: ACCEPT
Whew. Let me know if I'm messing something up here.
Cheating: No evidence of anything untoward. There are TAS tools for the game series that can (unfortunately) make legit looking replays, which is a problem score table sites have had in the past, but these runs were a community project with public and incremental improvements and no reason to suspect any abuse.
Overall quality: Insane. Mostly near TAS level optimization, at least a few scenes (1-4!) are frame perfect or very close to it. There are no major mistakes, and only a couple of scenes where strategies go unused or dropped. It's an easy ACCEPT for the whole batch. I'm just putting that up front before getting into the blood and guts.
Timing: The game timer (which counts down from varying starting amounts) is the preferred method. Note that the game timer does NOT match realtime precisely, it slows down in tandem with the gameplay speed during any camera zoom and when Youmu slows time in 6-2/4/6. It does count down normally during Sakuya's timestops, though.
So the ideal method for scenes is simply to hold the quickcharge as much as possible. If this is done consistently, most scenes can be timetabled for optimization according to their number of shots required. Zoom shots are somewhat discounted since the timer slows down, but it's still best to snap the shots as quickly as possible, with no zoom. You get about a second of "free" fast movement after a successful shot before quickcharge will work again, so taking that into account, there are surprisingly few scenes that require any additional "real" noncharge dodging. There are, however, several scenes with invincible boss cycles or patterns that can't be held to timetabling. Oh, and the last factor to consider for timing is bullet clears - you get up to 30% charge back from clearing bullets with a shot, and in most cases this cap is hit with no trouble. If it isn't, though (for example, the first shot of scenes that take a while for sufficient bullets to appear), having to charge from less than 30% can add some time.
Best times per shot#:
3 shots - 12.45 (1-1)
4 shots - 16.05 (2-4)
5 shots - 20.02 (3-2)
6 shots - 24.82 (4-8)
7 shots - 28.81 (8-2)
8 shots - 32.98 (6-1)
9 shots - 37.43 (7-1) (but this is the only table-worthy 9 shotter in the game)
10 shots - 40.96 (8-6) (clearly close to optimal)
So the math seems pretty clear, optimal shots take 4 seconds and anything over that is a loss, either to error or requisite patternstuffs.
Here's a long table, marking clear outliers.
1-1: 12.45 - 3s
1-2: 12.53 - 3s
1-3: 23.97 - 5s
1-4: 21.23 - 4s ***
1-5: 20.83 - 5s
1-6: 22.28 - 5s
1-3 - Wow, almost 4 seconds lost vs baseline, despite the player clearly charging all the time, where'd it all go? The answer is not clearing enough bullets to cap out chargeback. Notice how the first shot only gets around 10% back, instead of the ideal 30%! Goes to show just how much that can matter. While there clearly just aren't enough bullets to get 30% on every shot, I feel like it might be possible to save some time overall by slightly delaying shots 2 and 4 (especially 4) so that more bullets are cleared, and by manipulating Wriggle to stay in the center rather than the side to make sure no clearable bullets are lost offscreen.
1-4 - Not tableable because Rumia is invincible while in the clouds. The scene is optimized by barely squeaking in a shot on a cycle, so the last shot can be taken earlier. Excellently done and probably near frame perfect.
1-6 - Again, 2 seconds lost mainly due to insufficient chargeback on some shots. I think this has less room for improvement than 1-3 though.
2-1: 21.24 - 5s
2-2: 16.40 - 4s
2-3: 22.14 - 5s
2-4: 16.05 - 4s
2-5: 21.36 - 5s
2-6: 21.94 - 5s
2-3 - 2 seconds lost vs base, but this time it's the runner's fault, shots 1 and 2 (especially 2) have long and unnecessary zooms. This has to be improvable by at least 1 second.
2-4 - First appearance of YOLO strats. Also a good demonstration of making full use of the free movement after a shot. It LOOKS like there's way too much dodging, but in fact this is a near perfect time.
2-6 - Chargeback strikes again, but there's really nothing to be done about it here.
3-1: 20.81 - 5s
3-2: 20.02 - 5s
3-3: 20.60 - 5s
3-4: 26.93 - 6s
3-5: 21.38 - 5s
3-6: 29.19 - 7s
3-7: 24.52 - 5s
3-8: 16.43 - 4s
3-2 - Near optimal time. Compare the play and the time here to 1-3, and you'll see what a difference full chargeback can make.
3-4 - Miserable chargeback, but there's not a ton you can do without getting lasered.
3-7 - This is better than the time seems, a bit of positioning and dodging is required.
4-1: 18.85 - 4s
4-2: 25.88 - 6s
4-3: 21.14 - 5s
4-4: 26.63 - 6s
4-5: 21.29 - 5s
4-6: 26.42 - 6s
4-7: 27.35 - 6s
4-8: 24.82 - 6s
4-9: 20.41 - 5s
Yeah, stage 4 has 3 bosses and 9 scenes, for whatever reason.
4-1 - Reisen spends some time phased out of existence, where she can't be photographed.
4-4 - The Youtube version of the run mistakenly lists the time as 16 seconds instead of 26, if anyone is trying to take times from that and getting confused.
4-5 - Those purple poison clouds slow your movement as well as obscuring vision. Nicely done, I didn't expect that to work so close.
4-6 - Reisen phases out again, making some awkward shots necessary, but this is still a surprisingly good time.
4-7 - This could be played more aggressively, but you can't even see what's going on so...
5-1: 24.83 - 5s ***
5-2: 20.68 - 5s
5-3: 20.90 - 5s
5-4: 20.96 - 5s
5-5: 27.84 - 6s ***
5-6: 20.46 - 5s * for impressive
5-7: 28.82 - 7s
5-8: 25.34 - 6s
5-1 and 5-5 - On both of these scenes, Meiling will kick you in the face if you don't run away from her constantly, so staying in charge mode is a lost cause.
5-6 - WOW. From a planning and execution standpoint, this is one of the most impressive scenes in the run. Also one of the only (maybe THE only) scene where you have to worry about exactly what your photo rectangle is clearing. Under 21 seconds despite all that!
6-1: 32.98 - 8s
6-2: 18.89 - 4s
6-3: 21.03 - 5s
6-4: 15.08 - 3s ***
6-5: 31.21 - 7s ***?
6-6: 21.94 - 5s
6-7: 23.44 - 5s
6-8: 22.44 - 5s
6-2, 4 and 6 all involve copious use of time slow, which also slows the clock. And 6-4, well, the gimmick is pretty obvious.
6-5 - Again you can clearly see this is an easy scene, nothing weird is going on, and the runner never stops charging, yet it's losing 3 seconds vs the baseline, all because of that first empty shot putting the charge back at 0%. But this is also clearly optimal, so whatchagonnado?
6-7 - Low chargeback AND tight windows to hit Chen before she bounces back out of range.
7-1: 37.43 - 9s
7-2: 34.51 - 3s ***
7-3: 30.54 - 5s ***
7-4: 29.40 - 7s
7-5: 36.48 - 6s ***
7-6: 30.11 - 7s
7-7: 27.40 - 5s ***
7-8: 29.00 - 7s
7-1 - This is the only 9 shotter in the game besides 10-8, which has its own stuff going on, so there's no good baseline time to compare... but math suggests it SHOULD be around 36 seconds. I think the zoom on shot 2 is what's eating a second here.
7-2 - Remilia spends the first 24 seconds chillaxing in invincible bat form. The actual time seems good. However, it's worth noting that you could take a failure shot or two at the start to make her shoot more lines of knives, which can potentially max out the bullet limit and make her stop moving or despawn some of the large red balls.
7-3 (and 5 and 7) - The timer keeps running during Sakuya's timestops, so it's hard to strictly compare these times. 7-3 also has some wacky dodging required, and 7-5 kind of puts an obvious limit on your shots. The play seems fine in all of them though.
8-1: 25.47 - 6s
8-2: 28.81 - 7s
8-3: 25.31 - 6s
8-4: 30.60 - 7s
8-5: 29.74 - 7s
8-6: 40.96 - 10s
8-7: 38.25 - 8s
8-8: 23.50 - 4s ***
8-7 - Good play, yet horrible time, thanks to bad chargeback on almost every shot. It might be possible to improve this somewhat by making Ran stick to a smaller area.
8-8 - Yuyuko is invincible for the first 10 seconds.
9-1: 29.64 - 6s !?!
9-2: 25.35 - 6s
9-3: 29.70 - 7s
9-4: 30.05 - 6s
9-5: 27.25 - 6s
9-6: 29.97 - 7s
9-7: 33.31 - 8s
9-8: 29.28 - 7s
9-1 - This scene. THIS scene. One of the slowest and hardest to clear when playing normally. It's not hard to survive, but it's designed to box you in and make you take defensive shots while waiting for opportunities to close distance. When trying to speedrun? Well, the strategy is "reset until you get a good pattern". This time isn't exactly pretty, but I think anything that doesn't have defensive shots or excessive waiting around is acceptable here. The other option on this scene, if you're completely insane, would be Omnigamer's strategy of staying high up in the danger zone, and... praying, or something. Good luck to whoever tries that one.
9-4 - I think this is the worst scene in the submission, and the reasons are unfortunately apparent in the run itself. That tricky dodge where you twitch just aside of the laser and go through all the balls? Yeah, that should be happening every time the laser fires, not just once or twice. The scene can't be full charged, granted, but having a worse time than 9-6 here is just ugly.
9-5 - Shot 1, no chargeback, lose 3 seconds, do not pass go, again there's nothing that can be done.
9-6 - The most difficult scene in the game, so loathed and infamous that ZUN brought it back in the sequel. Playing normally, this is a pinnacle of a skill tester, but for a speedrun it's just tedium. Pick a spot and sit there until miracle gaps open for you on every single wave, as seen here. I don't even want to know how many attempts this took. At least the time is nice. It sort of has to be since what else can you DO?
10-1: 37.03 - 8s **?
10-2: 24.90 - 6s
10-3: 27.74 - 6s ***
10-4: 45.55 - 10s
10-5: 32.62 - 7s
10-6: 37.26 - 6s
10-7: 25.80 - 6s
10-8: 50.89 - 9s ***
10-1 - Yeah, ain't no way you're dodging the first phase of this attack in charge mode.
10-2 - Speedrunning this game is kind of stupid sometimes. This might very well be "harder" than 9-6.
10-3 - Impressive stuff!
10-5 - Combination of low chargebacks and somewhat defensive play. I think this is improveable.
10-6 - This is... flashy, but when you put it on the chart, the time looks bad and I have a feeling it is in fact bad. ("Bad" being relative here, not like reject worthy or anything!) It's a tough nut to crack, for sure, and you have to run from the laser, but on the other hand, the pattern is nonrandom (it's static based on laser angle and timing of shots), and it's definitely possible to survive a lot higher up on the screen than where the runner hangs around most of the time (check some of the score replays on royalflare). It would require a lot of time to learn, but the potential is there (parenthesis).
10-8 - I... guess this is an okay time? Maybe? This is another one that's really hard to measure out, since you do have some choices in when you take your shots, but have to weigh a lot of different possibilities, and chargeback usually sucks no matter what you do.
X-1: 25.50 - 6s
X-2: 26.51 - 6s
X-3: 22.55 - 5s
X-4: 25.75 - 6s
X-5: 43.68 - 10s
X-6: 20.27 - 5s
X-7: 56.83 - 3s ***
X-8: 42.55 - 10s
X-4 - This is super impressive and TASlike, if you don't know that the entire scene is 100% static and it's actually just a super boring micromemorization grind.
X-5 - Not a terrible time by any means, but I think it could go down another second or two with less hesitation towards the end.
X-6 - This attack is some sort of sick joke. Almost a pity that this isn't the best 5 shotter time.
X-7 - Failed shots??? REJECT!!! No just kidding. Masterful strategy, flawless execution, this is close to frame perfect.
VERDICT: ACCEPT
Whew. Let me know if I'm messing something up here.
Quote:
The main concepts of speedrunning this game have been explained rather eloquently by [above verifier], so I wont go into much depth here. In cases where the attacks are not static, it largely comes down to RNG and precise shot placement in order to clear the stage faster. For the former, it just comes down to as close to frame perfect shots as possible and memorising where to sit and when.
While it is rather easy to cheat in this game and get away with it, there are always tell-tale signs when someone has used a slowdown tool or anything similar. It is very, very rare to find a player who can make a replay look like it isn't using Tool Assisted Slowdown when in fact it is. In this regard, I can almost certainly say that none of these replays were TAS'd. With the way the players were competing for the top time, other players did look at the replays in order to see what they did and where they could improve the scenes time - and not once did anyone else hold any suspicions either in the thread.
As for individual scenes, again [above verifier] has pretty much covered everything I'd have to say about them - a few seconds could be shaved off here and there, but they are largely improvable only by slightly better reflexes or better RNG.
Audio and video quality appear to be consistent and of relatively high standards - you can actually see the writing, first of all, and make out the individual bullets.
There's some incredible play to be seen here, ARF does a fantastic job with his scenes and I know how much work he's put into this.
Definite accept for the whole table.
While it is rather easy to cheat in this game and get away with it, there are always tell-tale signs when someone has used a slowdown tool or anything similar. It is very, very rare to find a player who can make a replay look like it isn't using Tool Assisted Slowdown when in fact it is. In this regard, I can almost certainly say that none of these replays were TAS'd. With the way the players were competing for the top time, other players did look at the replays in order to see what they did and where they could improve the scenes time - and not once did anyone else hold any suspicions either in the thread.
As for individual scenes, again [above verifier] has pretty much covered everything I'd have to say about them - a few seconds could be shaved off here and there, but they are largely improvable only by slightly better reflexes or better RNG.
Audio and video quality appear to be consistent and of relatively high standards - you can actually see the writing, first of all, and make out the individual bullets.
There's some incredible play to be seen here, ARF does a fantastic job with his scenes and I know how much work he's put into this.
Definite accept for the whole table.
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Okay. Video quality seems fine and all that. I don't see any signs of cheating either. I can't honestly say that it would be easy to detect in this game though. Of course, if slowdown were used for dodging, it would be easy to tell, but if it were used to take photos immediately after the camera charge reached 100%, I don't think I could notice very easily. Regardless, considering the level of participation from other players, each analyzing the others' replays, strategies, etc, and the sheer amount of time and dedication ARF put into this project, I think it would be outrageous to suspect him of cheating.
Quality of play is excellent. Breaking charge only when absolutely necessary, never taking failed shots, optimal strategies everywhere, etc. I can't think of any scenes that weren't taken to insane levels. I'll agree with [verifier 2] that 9-4 has the most room for improvement, though it is a hugely luck dependent scene. X-5 is probably similar in that sense. I do think [verifier 2] was too critical with 10-6 though. While it is completely memorizable, it's not possible to remain charging the whole time, especially if you move further up. It could definitely be improved with huge amounts of memorization, but I would sooner make that argument about X-4, where I think it would make an even bigger difference.
That's just nitpicking though. Every scene here is incredibly well done. Accept the whole thing, for sure.
Now, I've never verified a run here before, so hopefully I haven't done anything egregiously wrong.
Quality of play is excellent. Breaking charge only when absolutely necessary, never taking failed shots, optimal strategies everywhere, etc. I can't think of any scenes that weren't taken to insane levels. I'll agree with [verifier 2] that 9-4 has the most room for improvement, though it is a hugely luck dependent scene. X-5 is probably similar in that sense. I do think [verifier 2] was too critical with 10-6 though. While it is completely memorizable, it's not possible to remain charging the whole time, especially if you move further up. It could definitely be improved with huge amounts of memorization, but I would sooner make that argument about X-4, where I think it would make an even bigger difference.
That's just nitpicking though. Every scene here is incredibly well done. Accept the whole thing, for sure.
Now, I've never verified a run here before, so hopefully I haven't done anything egregiously wrong.
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Took a bit to reply. I actually had some old attempts at an IL table back from sometime around 2007-8, when spineshark/Enhasa/I tossed the idea around. Wasn't completed (obviously) and most of them weren't good, but I had to dig those up to see how they compared. I found exactly two levels where I beat the time, or at least the time listed in the forum topic, by 0.07 in 1-3 and 0.3x in 5-8. It will be pretty obvious which verifier I am after I post those replays, heh.
For the most part these times destroy whatever we had, usually by several seconds or more. It looks really easy to play this game when you watch these vids. It's, uh, not. These vids are really good, and showcase a lot of cool strategies I wish I'd thought of. There are a couple places where I thought a more aggressive strategy might work, with emphasis on the 'might'. It'd basically be throwing yourself into an undodgeable sea of bullets hoping that you get it within your first few thousand shots. Other verifiers noted those spots as well, so I won't list them in depth. Thinking mainly of 9-1 here. I actually distinctly remember seeing omnigamer's video of that years ago, and didn't realize until now that that's him and he's made his way over to SDA/speedrunning.
Don't really have anything to say other than that. Other verifiers covered it well enough. A/V fine, no evidence of cheating, good play. Solid accept, and grats.
For the most part these times destroy whatever we had, usually by several seconds or more. It looks really easy to play this game when you watch these vids. It's, uh, not. These vids are really good, and showcase a lot of cool strategies I wish I'd thought of. There are a couple places where I thought a more aggressive strategy might work, with emphasis on the 'might'. It'd basically be throwing yourself into an undodgeable sea of bullets hoping that you get it within your first few thousand shots. Other verifiers noted those spots as well, so I won't list them in depth. Thinking mainly of 9-1 here. I actually distinctly remember seeing omnigamer's video of that years ago, and didn't realize until now that that's him and he's made his way over to SDA/speedrunning.
Don't really have anything to say other than that. Other verifiers covered it well enough. A/V fine, no evidence of cheating, good play. Solid accept, and grats.
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I wish I was more invested in this project, alas, my mind has been elsewhere. When there's a scene in this pack that isn't optimized to an insane degree, It's a matter of hoping the stars align and you get miraculous RNG. That, and it is for the most part just a matter of frames, anyway. Most improvements would be unnoticeable to viewers. Cheating in this game is a difficult subject, could be hard to prove or disprove. I see no reason to think any cheating has occured. Video quality and sound quality are both fine, the run itself is just splendid, huge props to ARF for pouring his heart and soul into this game and Double Spoiler. Hopefully someone will try to beat that single segment run on nico... Accept.
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Giant Catfish & fsvgm777!
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