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Waiting hurts my soul...
Quote from gmacd:
Going by the speed walkthrough's pace, you're doing pretty well, especially considering that you've been killing more enemies than him. I don't know how useful the buckler is since I haven't played this game in such a long time. I agree that elixirs would be kind of pointless with the way damage is calculated with Raging Ache.

Planning-wise, I think that most of the hard work is done for you in the walkthrough. The main issue (and the one that led to my abandoning the run) is reflexes on combos and defensive skills. I don't know about the 1:17 claim; email the author of the FAQ and see what he says about it.

Shoot for sub-2:30 since that's what the author's best time was.

Aim for sub-2:00, that's more bounty.
Exoray
Quote from CallMeY:
Questions:  Is it REALLY necessary to equip Buckler? 


If you have practiced enough so that you know when to react with impact guard / absorb magic for each different kind of attack for most of the time (90% success rate or so) you shouldn't be needing the buckler.
If you are feeling a little less confident about your reactions, the buckler should make up for some of it by helping reducing both physical and magic dmg slightly.

The more damage you take when receiving a blow landing you on negative hp, the more you will be healed by impact guard, so using a buckler will reduce your free healing capability. This may force you to use more healing items, which of course costs time.
berserker status
I appreciate any and all input.  I'm not too keen on my impact guard reflexes but it's steadily getting better so i'll stick with the buckler for now.  i'm just playing through this for the first time at this pace and i've relied on nothing but impact guard or gain life (in the very beginning only) and no healing items or spells.  hopefully some of the info i gain by going through this run can help anyone interested in running this game because i'm constantly trying to find any kind of shortcuts (although that seems doubtful since the walkthrough on GAMEFAQS pretty much spells it out for you; the only real detour i can spot right away on the strategy given is getting the mandrake sigil at the beginning of the Iron Maiden and skipping most of the second abandoned mines and teleport). 

So right now i finished the Sanctum with a time of 26:38 which wasn't as low as i was hoping for but i'm definitely killing more enemies than i should though for sure.  Like i said before i'm shooting for the snowfly forest by sunday evening but i won't be playing tomorrow.  I'm just aiming to complete this run in sub 2:20 for now and see how much you can scrape off to get an ideal time (that is unless of course someone else already has one in the works or even completed----if that is the case let me know what the person's time or estimate will be because it would suck to get blown away by a huge margin for all this work; but it's fun though since this game is the bessst  XD  ).

*Golem goes down in one clean combo of about 14-15 hits or more if you miss a couple strikes.
*The skeleton with the crossbow had to be killed because he wouldn't let me go around the last column to avoid his arrow cuz it's tricky for me to impact guard on time. 
*After killing the skeleton I get Fire Proof
*The lizards in the next rooms usually can't be avoided.  The first one will try and hit you but is easily impact guarded.  The second one is after you get on top of the cloudstone and it has the priority with the range, so i had to impact guard twice on this bastard
*The Dragon should go down before he does anything.  I did a couple 18 hit chains to kill him.  I think I learned reflect magic after this but i have to double check...

I practiced part of the abandoned mines but got killed by a hellhound and called it a night.  Grissom (i think that's his name) is pretty annoying as he avoids lots of your attacks on almost every part of his body.  If you impact guard his explosion lv. 1 then you get a lot of life back and lose a lot of firepower so it's best to off him before he does anything.  I get terra ward during the fight usually.  Still got a ways to go though...

Also I was wondering, if you use crimson pain all the time does it eventually kill you?  If you use reflect magic/reflect physical attack (forget the tech name), does that kill you if you run out of life since you still sustain part of the damage? 
Edit history:
moooh: 2009-04-25 05:15:14 am
Exoray
Quote from CallMeY:

Also I was wondering, if you use crimson pain all the time does it eventually kill you?  If you use reflect magic/reflect physical attack (forget the tech name), does that kill you if you run out of life since you still sustain part of the damage? 


Yes crimson pain will eventually bring your hp down to 0 as it damages you based on a percentage of the base dmg of the attack, not a percentage of your hp.
Reflects are not true reflects as they don't reduce the damage taken at all, they could more be seen as counters. So yes, you can get killed when using a reflect. A funny thing is that Ashley doesn't die until after the damage has been reflected which opens for situations where both you and your enemy die at the same time Smiley

Also, regarding the crossbow skel, listen for the sound it makes when firing. This way you can easily learn to impact guard on time without even needing to see the enemy.
I don't think you need to worry about someone else working on the run and beating you; I first posted this topic over two years ago.

My attempt ended at the Rue Lejour savepoint with a time of around 1:40. The segment following that killed me because I suck at hitting defensive abilities on reaction.
berserker status
Argh.  I didn't get to play this game that much during the day but I got some hours in pretty late.  I made progress and yet I didn't.  Mostly because I fucked up when I tried saving.

Abandoned Mines would've been completed in 43:00 flat if i had saved correctly but i didn't of course and accidentally loaded my data instead.  That means i would've gained about 8 seconds on the speedy guide in GAMEFAQS and be ahead by about one minute.  The good news is that i killed a lot of enemies again in that run.  I did impact guard certain key enemy attacks but let's just say i got pretty tired and annoyed and just went on a rampage.  I will definitely improve it very soon and although I didn't even come close to my goal, i know i'll probably be done with snowfly forest by the end of the week with some effort.

*Duane (the guy right before mines) is so damn inconsistent.  In the best case scenario, you can land a 15 hit chain plus a 12 hit chain (landing a little over half of strikes) to off him before he even blinks.  Other times he just dodges practically everything i throw at him.  I still haven't found a reliable weakness but maybe his right hand?  Maybe i'll even try using a vera thing to see if i can chain him consistently somehow.

*Almost all of the enemies in this segment are unavoidable and have to be impact guarded usually.  Like I said before, I solved this problem by cutting through the goblins, stirges, and hellhounds

*The Wyvern is not as as bad as Duane but he avoids some attacks

*Landing on the healing panel has the potential to save some time by helping to kill the 3 stirges in the room with the eruption panel and to quickly kill the goblins in the same room as the Fern Sigil.  You can even take take a risk and take damage without impact guard to save time and keep rolling without the defensive animation.  Sometimes, it's best to kill enemies in certain rooms that have specific layouts with boxes, ledges to climb, or treasure chests because they're going to attack you incessantly anyway and waste time to and fro (stirges).

*The Fire Elemental is pretty easy and goes down in one 20 plus combo or a couple long ones.

*The Ogre is also pretty damned easy since I beat him on my first (and only) try.  He goes down in a few 15 plus strings without taking a swing.

*Getting hit by any status ailment slows you down because you have to use either an antidote or yggdrasil's tears.  Not always but sometimes you have to use an item to stay alive which eats up at least five seconds with the animation alone.  In a pretty good run, you'd have to keep this down to a maximum of 3 status ailments or less if possible.

Damn, I wished I had saved correctly but hopefully i'll be able to cut the time to 42:30 or something.  I'll post my chain abilities and defensive abilities when I actually have some better news.
Exoray
Keep defensive ability Ward equipped and you should be able to avoid the two most annoying ones (paralysis and numbness). Some of the status ailments go away by themself after some time out of combat mode so in the cases where the status isn't slowing you down you should try and endure it.

Well, your failed save gave you a new opportunity to do that segment even better Smiley
berserker status
Quote from moooh:
Keep defensive ability Ward equipped and you should be able to avoid the two most annoying ones (paralysis and numbness). Some of the status ailments go away by themself after some time out of combat mode so in the cases where the status isn't slowing you down you should try and endure it.

Well, your failed save gave you a new opportunity to do that segment even better Smiley


It's probably best to try and use ward in those situations, definitely.  I kept getting caught off guard because it was late and i'm tired on so many levels (sore as a mutherfucker).  It eliminates the need to go through the item screen as well.  And you are right, some status ailments where off after a while but in situations where you get hit with poison or something it might kill you if your HP is low enough which sometimes it can be.  There's been times where i barely survive a hit and get left with single digit HP (even one!) and you're in deep trouble if something unlucky happens.  Like most other times though, you will die  =D  Thanks for the moral support, this game is brutal no matter how well you may think you understand the route.  Someone with exceptional defensive reflexive skills can probably get through this with less tries.
Good luck with this run, Riskbreaker.  I've been waiting for a speed run of this game for years. 
Edit history:
Riskbreaker Y: 2009-04-27 03:24:23 pm
berserker status
Quote from Rainman7:
Good luck with this run, Riskbreaker.  I've been waiting for a speed run of this game for years. 


lol, that'd make two of us.  right now i'm just running the game to see if i can get a time of a little over 2:00 but the bounty specifies sub 2:00 so that should be interesting.  I don't have a DVD recorder and I don't know how to record stuff onto the computer so unfortunately I can't upload any segments or anything for you guys to take apart and criticize.  I'm pretty technologically inept.  If I can get something between 2:10 and 2:20, you better believe that i'll be looking into that stuff.  Maybe someone out there who's *REALLY* good will take notice and attempt a run of their own.

oh and i have a question:  for this run to qualify as a low% run, would i just skip the buckler altogether since that's the only chest i open up besides the absolutely necessary ones?  Or do i have to discard EVERYTHING i pick up randomly from enemies?  I've been accepting most items as it's faster to press square and get out of the screen asap.
Edit history:
ZenicReverie: 2009-04-27 07:11:40 pm
Waiting hurts my soul...
I'd say just don't get the buckler.  low% means not going out of your way to collect items, it doesn't mean not using what you get through random chance.  Just consider it a lucky run.  This may be wrong though, better to check with Enhasa, Mike, or someone more knowledgeable about the game.
Edit history:
Riskbreaker Y: 2009-04-28 04:06:28 pm
berserker status
The Abandoned Mines are thankfully now behind me...i haven't completed a Snowfly Forest segment yet because i'm being particular about not opening up the menu screen until i learn Absorb Magic from one of the ichthious.  i'm also hoping for a couple of faerie wing drops for later use in puzzles.  The following segment will include Undercity West and the Snowfly Forest because i don't find it necessary to save after coming out of Undercity.  i'm hoping to save some time here. 

*Rue Bouqet 42:51, not exactly a huge improvement but my fandango was blood thirsty from the frustration of missing so many shots on Duane.  That f*ck  Angry  .  The healing panel idea didn't pan out as i thought it would.  and the animation wastes time.

Town Center West

*the first two crimson blades almost always get one attack in.  Sometimes you might have to parry a third time.

*the last crimson blade is not as difficult to parry as people may think.  just because your view is obstructed doesn't mean you can't time the impact guard about 95% of the time.  luckily, my impact guarding skills are much better against armed foes than beasts and the like.  you can sneak by after parrying one time if you're quick.

Undercity West

*You should never kill a zombie or even let them take a step

*The giant crab is pretty easy and goes down in one 20 plus chain or a couple 14.  He should never try to hit you or use the bubble spell.

*Average completion 46:35

Snowfly Forest

*once the route is memorized and understood, this is pretty simple. just time your jumps and keep your camera stationary for the most part to avoid confusion.  not even the ichthious should initiate attack animations.  there's two places so far that i've seen that spawn ichthious for faerie wings and one of them doesn't always produce them so i'm relying on some luck to get these drops on the first kills.  i want at least one or two.  besides they're quick and always cast that long spell which needs aqua guard to defend against...and i don't want to waste time in the menu until gaining Absorb Magic.

*the earth dragon is pretty random since you can either strike first--or suffer the wrath of acid breath.  i know what you're going to say:  just use terra ward.  i got it but what's the point?  you go into the screen  and the dragon of course takes his sweet time.  if you absorb the damage (and it isn't too difficult) you get a shit a load of HP back and your raging ache loses its power.  i don't remember exactly but you can get hit in up to 3-4 body parts and each takes away over 80 HP so even though it's annoying, i think it's best to off him before he can do anything.  he goes down in about three 15+ chains.

*after the ichthious, you encounter a fire elemental again.  dispose of him before he casts.

*in the area with the river in the middle, i think it's possible to get by clean before the zombies cross with minimal parrying.

I haven't reached the second fire elemental or the main boss yet but i took a break.  Hopefully this portion can put a little more distance between me and the author of the speedy guide on GAMEFAQS.  I'm aiming for a sub 53:00 time by the time i save at the wooden gate next.






berserker status
Reached Forest River save point in 50:59; but my menu handling skills were shaky and i lost about 5 seconds doing stupid stuff.

*i encountered some difficulty early on with the blades because they forced me to impact guard four times which easily cost me at least 20 sec.  the third one got a second shot in too so there's another 5 seconds. 

*kept this time because i got a faerie wing drop and decided to save inside the Snowfly Forest so that i wouldn't have to save at the Wood Gate and maybe get another drop since the next ichthious usually get an attack in anyway.  learned and equipped absorb magic.

*the earth dragon didn't do anything and got dropped in two chains.  the trick is to hop twice quickly underneath his head so that even if he gets an attack off, it will be a physical one.

*unfortunately, when i checked my time at the wood gate it was about  55:00 so i'm breaking even with the unofficial record...not a good sign indeed.  my only chance to recoup some time is to get to the Sinner's Corner save point quickly in sub 1:05, with or without another faerie wing drop.  this probably won't happen today but who knows. 
All I can really contribute right now is encouragement. I really wish you had a tv tuner or a dvd recorder so you could post your progress on Youtube.
Edit history:
Riskbreaker Y: 2009-04-29 04:13:21 am
berserker status
Quote from gmacd:
All I can really contribute right now is encouragement. I really wish you had a tv tuner or a dvd recorder so you could post your progress on Youtube.


Thanks and trust me i wish i had the means and the know-how to do so.  Plus:  i'm kind of tearing into this game right now so i don't want to wait around.

So I finally got a faerie drop so that makes two.  there were times when the ichthious would drop two but those either resulted in death or worse times.

*Warrior's Rest (how apt) about 59:49.  Pre-Rosencrantz battle

*I may have stumbled upon a very,very nice gem.  it's not as groundbreaking as the impact guard/absorb magic tricks that allow you to survive mortal blows though.  Well, seeing that most of the game you're impact guarding/absorbing magic (even before using fire proof or whatever) it's probably best to get poisoned early in the game and stay that way most of the time.  the rationale?  it insures your battle power is always better than it would be otherwise (with raging ache).  If you're about to die, than cure it by all means.  but it's probably important since it essentially reduces the number of chains you have to combo and thus less time.  Currently i'm impact guarding Rosencrantz's Vile Scar Break Art and keeping the poison until the next Dragon hopefully and then some.  I'll buy that for a dollar!

*Another minor note:  it's always best to run with your sword out most of the time since your HP recovers more slowly that way and that may have a slight effect on your strength.

Snowfly Forest (second half)

*i get the faerie wing drop by killing three ichthious

*Fire Elemental gets snuffed out without any wasted animations

*The Grissom and second Dullahan fight actually went quite interestingly to say the least.  The most annoying part about this fight is how Sydney 99% (somehow on my very first try in this fight this didn't happen) of the time casts either prostasia or heal on you or himself.  the annoying part is if you heal you lose like half your strength pretty much which means double the time.  he heals me on this segment but luckily enough i get bitch-slapped by Grissom with his staff and don't react in time to absorb it.  so i skip the animation for that obviously and save time.  i quickly kill both of em although the dullahan usually casts prostasia too.  this fight is tough to do any faster than this.

The Keep/Iron Maiden

*The lizards quickly go down and i do the necessary impact guards although it's possible to only have to do one.

*The Poltergeist thing in the Iron Maiden goes down in one combo, i get the mandrake sigil and dispose his winged flunkies without giving them a chance.

I'll post more stuff when I progress up to Rue Lejour next hopefully.
Exoray
Well, the know-how is not far away: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Console_Recording
Not to mention you can get help from pretty much anyone at the forum by just asking.

Then it all comes down to if you can afford getting a DVD-recorder.
Some pointers for choosing recording medium is also present in the kb:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Recording_Medium
berserker status
Quote from moooh:
Well, the know-how is not far away: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Console_Recording
Not to mention you can get help from pretty much anyone at the forum by just asking.

Then it all comes down to if you can afford getting a DVD-recorder.
Some pointers for choosing recording medium is also present in the kb:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Recording_Medium


Yea, I got around to looking around that section and reading about the different ways you can record or upload.  My main concern is having enough cash for the DVD-recorder.  I probably won't be able to afford one until the beginning of June or hopefully sooner.  I could just get a VHS recorder but honestly i love this game too much to do it injustice like that.  I play on a 60 inch high def flat screen and i smooth out the graphics when i play with the ps2 so i want QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY.  Even if i have to wait a month or more.  I'll probably read up on it ahead of time so that i'll have less questions later.
berserker status
Don't get excited i haven't gotten to Rue Lejour yet, but i've gotten to the sinner's corner with +30 sec. on babo07052 (the author of the speedy guide on Gamefaqs, now to be called by his rightful name).  The only problem is finding a consistent strategy for Bandit's Hollow.  It's obvious that I should absorb magic/impact guard any of the gargoyles's attacks (not the lizard, he's usually jumping away) but it's tricky climbing up at the same time.  I'll get it soon enough hopefully.  This is one of the places i anticipated trouble before the run.

But the main reason why i'm writing this is because of a funny occurrence that has happened quite a few times in this particular segment.  It first happened to me at the keep with the lizards.  I'm not sure how many people know this but it's actually possible for enemies to accidentally hit one another.  Now this doesn't open up HUGE possibilities but it can save you a few seconds since you don't have to impact guard.  This tends to happen a lot with enemies who try and shoot you with a crossbow and you're actually behind someone else.  Sometimes it happens with other weapons too.  It's actually kind of funny because the enemy that gets hit actually gets that *surprised* quote marks right above his head.  He usually stands there bewildered as you keep on rolling by.  Just a funny little tidbit i thought i'd share. 
I'm sorry I don't have any actual advice to contribute, but it seems to me like running VS on your TV setup may not be the easiest or best option.  The TV has to upscale the 480i signal to whatever the native resolution is (1080p probably), and then it has to run additional postprocessing including the smoothing you are adding in yourself.  All of those things increase the display latency time significantly.  I think this lag would be a legitimate factor in a game that is so sensitive to precise timing with the attack chains and especially impact guards.  If you think you're missing button presses too frequently, you might want to try playing on a plain old SDTV to see if that might help in the long run.  Of course, if you're already fully used to inputting in all the commands 60-120 ms early (or however much the lag on your setup actually is), there's no reason to switch now.
berserker status
Thanks for the quick tech lesson!  I also read about this in another forum and was concerned about the audio lagging or something.  Despite the 100 ms lag that you mentioned, my ability to chain and parry attacks is actually improving since with practice comes precision.  Playing on a SDTV would be too weird for me at this point as the screen would be really small and the animations would undoubtedly be 'faster' from that new perspective.  I mostly rely on audio cues and key animations to do what i gotta do.  To chain effectively, i strongly suggest looking at ashley riot's animations closely until you get used to it.  Don't try and look for the exclamation point for your timing because you're making it harder on yourself.  Sometimes it's best to chain as soon as the Fandango is about to make contact with the enemy.  For impact guard/absorb magic, i've depended mostly on audio cues.  Armed foes are pretty easy to parry since most of their attacks are identical to your own when you actually equip those weapons so this shouldn't be a problem (even the crossbow which is getting easier to time with the audio cue, thanks Mooh for pointing that out, it took me awhile to realize the value in your advice!).  For absorb magic, you HAVE to be familiar with magic animations and some of the audio cues.  For example:  before you fight the Air Dragon you have to face a Dark Elemental in Undercity West.  Most of the time, he casts Dark Chant.  Now, to absorb this attack you need to be patient since the starting animation takes a while but then you have to predict right before the *scream* sound effect happens because right when it starts that's when you should absorb magic.  Sorry for the excessive explanations but the point is is that the lag isn't significant enough to affect gameplay since i'm already used to it and the aforementioned would apply anyways.  OH YEA:  Ashley *grunts* right before he makes contact so you can rely on both visual and audio cues to practice.
berserker status
This is going to be the last update until sunday evening at the earliest.  I will be away with family this weekend and this saturday me and my brothers will be playing SF4 on PS3, watching game 7 between chicago and celtics (go bulls! Cheesy  i'm from socal btw), and watching the Pacquiao vs. Hatton fight.  So like i said i won't get any playtime in until afterward.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the Sunless Way in Undercity West today but hopefully i could get this next segment done by sunday evening cuz the randomness is killing me  XD 

*Bandit's Hollow 1:07:11; i've gotten to Rue Lejour with over a minute lead on babo07052 so it's possible to get a good time of sub 1:20 at the Sunless Way.  This is an informal run as well as my first but i still want to finish faster!!

Rosencrantz Battle

*He goes down in about 3 chains of i don't know how many f*ckin hits.  In a submitted run this battle would have to go pretty well to pass standards.  He gets in a vile scar and something else so my time is far from ideal.  He usually does Vile Scar, Rending Gale, or a regular physical hit most of the time.  Sometimes he hits you with a Cherry Ronde (magical based attack) so know how to counter everything to preserve your sanity.  I hate it when he runs from me.  So i keep the poison status for now.

Town Center East

*One of the crimson blades in the first area usually casts herakles but it's possible to get by without him doing it.

*The second area is more interesting.  There's three crimson blades and one of 'em has a crossbow.  It didn't happen this time but about 10-15% of the time you can get the crossbow fella to hit one of the other guys if you happen to position them in a certain way.  This time i just impact guarded the arrow and let the guy cast his herakles spell like he always does.  If you're unlucky he does it twice and even impact guard twice.

*The last area with the crimson blades i got by clean but usually you have to parry one attack from either one of them.

City Wall East

*The first room i get by clean, there's one skeleton and a zombie mage or something.  Usually the mage casts either herakles or solid shock on you.  You have to impact guard solid shock remember.

*The next room has two skeletons.  It's possible to get by clean but i parried the shotel of one of the skeletons.  He rarely hits the wall and misses you if you're almost through the door.

*This room is pretty much like the first.  You can get by clean but the mage almost always casts herakles on himself or even solid shock.  This time he just casts herakles.

*The last room has two gargoyles.  I have no f*ckin idea what to use against that numb attack that the gargoyles throw at you.  If you're fast they only have one chance to get you if you don't off it first.  This time i impact guard a physical attack but this place can be annoying.  It's possible to get by clean but it's hard.

Undercity West

*The Dark Elemental goes down in two combos.  He can be killed in one 19 hit combo i think.  It's definitely worth the effort to kill him in before he casts anything.  He usually casts dark chant which isn't that hard but he also does meteor!  Meteor is even slower than dark chant so the timing can be tricky if you're not used to the animation.

*The Sinner's Corner is the other place where a skeleton with the crossbow can accidentally hit the other skeleton.  I just impact guarded it this time since you don't save a ton of time trying to get lucky.

*The next room before the exit has one of those dark sphere-like entities that look almost like floating eyeballs---yea, i have no idea what they're called but it either casts psychodrain (steals mp?), casts that spell that lowers your int, or that aqua water spell.  Obviously it's ideal to get one of the first two which i did get...it lowered my int.

Abandoned Mines B2

*Bandit's Hollow:  this room was the room that was bugging me.  Naturally i saved here when i did fairly well.  As soon as go in, stay on the level that you're on and one of the imps will drop down right next to you so it's best to off him before he slows you down.  I avoid the lizard in there completely but the imp pestered me with a couple spells, one of them being vulcan lance (magical in case you were wondering) so i killed the bastard before he slowed me down even more. 

*Save*

*The Air Dragon fight is quite simple and should go in your favor no matter what (especially since i saved right before!).  By this time, my HP is usually in the single digits and my initial hit takes off about 25-26 as opposed to less than 20 without the poison.  Now, the time you save with the few hits may or may not be worth it because of using an item to cure yourself afterward but if it saves you from dealing out 3-5 more hits it's pretty helpful.  The Dragon can go down in one 28-29 hit chain if you can muster it but usually he goes down in a couple 15+ combos so making sure to kill the dragon consistently before he does anything may depend on those fewer hits that you have to bust out to kill this bastard.  Sorry if this is confusing or is completely useless!  Something tells me i'll probably eschew the poison altogether anyway in a formal run!

The next areas include Undercity West, City Walls North Town Center East, and Undercity East so even though i have got most of this part down there are some infamous areas that are stupid, annoying, and can really kill your run easily.  So naturally i'm having some difficulty with this portion.  Like i said before hopefully i can get through the next segment by sunday evening. 
everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
Sounds like good progress but
Quote from RiskBreaker Y:
watching game 7 between chicago and celtics (go bulls! Cheesy  i'm from socal btw), and watching the Pacquiao vs. Hatton fight.

lol anticlimax
berserker status
Thanks, hopefully i can get through to limestone quarry today!  lol, yea seriously that was pretty pathetic.  Even my beloved bulls put up more of a fight than hatton!  My friend had pacquiao in 5 or 6 but i gave it to him in four...yea we were both completely wrong needless to say.
Edit history:
Riskbreaker Y: 2009-05-03 05:57:43 pm
berserker status
So some of the most annoying segments of this run have been completed and while i'm relieved i'm not sure whether i should be happy or disappointed with the current time.  There were some places where i had some decent luck and others where i literally lost an entire minute most probably due to bad planning and some item screen fun  XD 

*Sunless Way 1:29:09; this is a save right before i finally venture into the limestone quarry and the last stretch of the game. 

Let me recap so far

Abandoned Mines B2

*Air Dragon gets felled in two blows and without attacking me.  I cure my poison and proceed.

Undercity West

*The Dullahan here usually casts both herakles and degenerate about 90% of the time.  If you're unlucky he'll hit you too, if you're lucky he'll cast just one of those spells or even attack you just once.  He just casts degenerate this time.

Town Center East

*Save Rue Lejour 1:10 (i was getting sick of killing the dragon and killing it in one chain doesn't save you much time at all...the next segment was pretty annoying.

*ahhhhh, the kesch bridge.  this whole town center area is infamous for the crimson blades who cast 'herakles' and 'prostasia' incessantly.  in this section your run can come to an end if the archer jumps onto the central pillar and camps there.  you can try and haul ass and climb onto it anyway but more likely he'll just shoot your ass off and you restart.  if you're lucky he'll come after you if not he'll just wait for you all the while.  there's another blade trying to axe you to death too.  the best scenario is this:  impact guard the arrow, lure the blade off the pillar and run for the exit.  the other crimson blade will cast herakles and prostasia on himself only.  If you're unlucky you can expect to see more spells, more impact guards, and wait around for the enemies to agree with you.  I impact guard the arrow and axe once while the crimson blade on the other end casts his usually double.  Not too bad.

*The next area has a crimson blade who usually casts lightning or vulcan lance.  Absorb magic can be tricky but it's not difficult either.  If you're really unlucky he'll slash you and you won't be able to impact guard because it doesn't work for some reason (silver weapon?).  most of the time you'll just have to absorb magic but this time i had to impact guard the attack of another crimson blade.

*When you get to the area next to the damascus/silver workshop, there's a crimson blade there that can be bypassed if you're REALLY lucky and have good timing but more often than not he'll just torment you with offensive spells.  If you're unlucky he'll jump down and prevent you from climbing onto the next ledge which can seriously irritate you and waste A LOT of time.  I kill the bastard and move on without using multiple chains.

*The last area has two crimson blades:  one casts spells and the other comes after you.  In the best case scenario you'll just have to tolerate the spells cast and avoid the spear-wielding Blade.  I avoid the Blade.

Undercity East

*Quicksilvers are really pesky and dangerous.  They all seem to carry silver weapons which means impact guard is useless so you can expect to get caught and killed some of the time no matter what. 

*The first room i bypass the two quicksilvers and let one of them cast its usual 'silence' on me.  I avoid the second one thankfully.

*I destroy the Harpy in two chains, although it is preferably killed in one 13-15 chain hit.  It can sometimes avoid your attacks randomly but he shouldn't do anything at all.

*The Lich is put away with a measly 8 hit combo (10 max) without him uttering a word.  He teleported away but he came right back with a death wish.  I collect the necessary sigil and learn Teleportation.

*In the next room, there are two quicksilver who are unpredictable and pesky.  I kill the lot of them to salvage my nerves and proceed to slaughter the Lich and the two other quicksilvers with him in the room with the Iron Key.  They don't interrupt me with any animations though.

*Going back out of the chest room, i return to the previously inhabited room and open the locked door with the Iron Key

*The next room has a quicksilver and a Harpy which are disposed of promptly.  I proceed to the next room to collect the Mellisa Sigil from the Nightstalker and dispatch him in two chains without breaking a sweat.

*I return to the previous room and exit to the City Walls North where a Dark Elemental is ready to ambush me.  He drains my MP and I kill him in two chains.  I leave the City Walls North and use a mana tonic to replenish my MP.  At Rue Lejour I use the save point to teleport to the Warrior's Keep.  I use another mana tonic and teleport to the Sunless Way at Undercity West.

*Save:  1:21:17

Undercity West (revisited)

*While unarmed, i dash to the next two rooms to get the necessary sigil and impact guard the skeletons arrow.  you may have to do this twice or more here.

*Back at the Sunless Way, I use a mana...the one that restores 25 MP (i had three with no more mana tonics left) and teleport to Warrior's Rest.  I use another mana item and teleport to the Kesch Bridge.

*At the Kesch Bridge, i impact guard an arrow and enter the City Walls North.

*I avoid the lizards and confront the Dark Elemental before Undercity East.  I kill him in one chain and move on.  He'll do meteor most of the time and sometimes dark chant.

Undercity East

*I avoid the Lich and two quicksilvers in the boss room completely, just dash straight for the door through the teleporting Lich.

*There's a Harpy in the next room but he's docile.

*The chest room has a Lich and two quicksilver which are vanquished before they kill me or anything.  I get the sigil from the chest, get hit by the trap (traps can't kill you i believe because i've been left with 1 HP many a time by them) and return to the now empty boss room and try to exit but Neesa and Tieger won't let me.

*I put down Neesa fast in two chains and leave without too much stress.

*The Dark Elemental is back but I kill him before he does anything

*I return to the Kesch Bridge, use my last mana item and teleport to Warrior's Rest.

*Warrior's Rest:  waiting...........and..........waiting....with...........more waiting...i have to wait until my MP is up to 35 before i can teleport back to the Sunless Way.  It.....finally happens!  And i teleport back to Undercity West and save with an under a minute lead on Babo07052.  This segment probably needs some good strategy and efficient item use to eliminate unnecessary idling which cost me at least 30-45 secs.  This probably wouldn't have happened if i had killed that Dark Elemental sooner or if he had just cast something else.  Nonetheless, this segment needs fairly good execution for a good usable time. 

Currently I'm about to enter the Limestone Quarry and hopefully by tonight I can reach the Temple of Kiltia.  I can't believe i've made it this far with a half-decent time.  Not up to par for a real speedrun but the more i play this game the more i realize that a sub 2:00 time is a tall order indeed.  A more realistic time of 2:05 to 2:20 is within the confines of reason. 

I also was wondering about whether recording a speedrun on a DVD has that much higher quality than one recorded on a VCR.  I understand there are a few generous folks in the the forums who transfer VCR footage to DVD if you mail them your video cassette and pay for the shipping.  I just wanted to know if it even makes a difference in quality since this game is a psone game and isn't necessarily the best looking game out there.  I don't mind saving up for a DVD recorder but I have a VCR ready so i just need some input from some tech people and people who are interested in a visually acceptable run for this particular game.
Great work! You've been doing great. On the technical side I can't really help you though; when I record video games I use the tv tuner card in my PC.