Hard mode in 1:15. Spoilers obviously. Skips both Varia and Gravity. Some of the tricks are nuts, especially early Screw Attack. I bet they will whittle this down to sub 1 hour eventually.
I think the glitch used for skipping Varia and Gravity just got patched out.
Huh. I'm surprised they would patch something out that is highly unlikely to affect normal play-throughs. Seems like taking a risk patching out something that's only used by the speed running community and would otherwise go unnoticed.
I think the glitch used for skipping Varia and Gravity just got patched out.
Huh. I'm surprised they would patch something out that is highly unlikely to affect normal play-throughs. Seems like taking a risk patching out something that's only used by the speed running community and would otherwise go unnoticed.
When I looked it up, the patch notes specifically said that they decided to patch it because it could be done accidentally. IIRC the one that was patched just involves going into morph ball at the right time as you enter an EMMI door, which results in Samus being completely invincible until you change zones. Definitely very unlikely to happen, and I'd hate to risk upsetting the speedrun community, but I can see why they did it.
As someone who works in the software industry as a quality tester, I would always push for the quality of the game to go up via a patch. Granted, I do not work in the video game industry, and so I don't have to deal with customers who adopt bugs as part of their play-strategy. But to me, Quality > All. And if a bug is found, patch it and fix it.
As someone who has watched the Games Done Quick competitions and stuff, it always infuriates me when people use glitches so egregious that they are literally no longer playing the game. Take for example the speed run from a couple years ago on Elder Scrolls Oblivion, where a guy basically uses a reload glitch to get through a locked door at the start of the game, which allows him to bypass like 99.999% of the game and "beat" Oblivion within like 4 minutes and seconds. That isn't playing Oblivion at that point. That stuff bugs me.
What does impress me is speedrunners who play with 0 glitches and play the game as the devs intended. Even if a bug exists and is not patched out, I'd rather watch someone play the game at a very high level without exploiting glitches to shave time.
My opinion on glitches basically comes down to how much it breaks it the game and how entertaining it is. Boost ball nonsense in Prime that lets you collect every spawned-in upgrade at once for instance is ridiculously silly to watch.
Most games will just have categories for things - like OoT has a well known wrongwarp right to the end of the game that reduces it to just clearing the first dungeon. (To say nothing of more recent nonsense that's basically human-feasible ACE)
As someone who works in the software industry as a quality tester, I would always push for the quality of the game to go up via a patch. Granted, I do not work in the video game industry, and so I don't have to deal with customers who adopt bugs as part of their play-strategy. But to me, Quality > All. And if a bug is found, patch it and fix it.
As someone who has watched the Games Done Quick competitions and stuff, it always infuriates me when people use glitches so egregious that they are literally no longer playing the game. Take for example the speed run from a couple years ago on Elder Scrolls Oblivion, where a guy basically uses a reload glitch to get through a locked door at the start of the game, which allows him to bypass like 99.999% of the game and "beat" Oblivion within like 4 minutes and seconds. That isn't playing Oblivion at that point. That stuff bugs me.
What does impress me is speedrunners who play with 0 glitches and play the game as the devs intended. Even if a bug exists and is not patched out, I'd rather watch someone play the game at a very high level without exploiting glitches to shave time.
I do think those videos are funny, but I don't think of them as like beating the game
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
The Sekiro speed run where it’s 75% air swimming is so fucking boring, for example
Everybody has a different threshold for how buggy they like their speedruns and it varies from game to game and even from Runner to Runner since I've seen super entertaining runs where the game barely gets played and super boring ones where they 100% it with nothing more than bonkers tactics and madcap skill.
I mean, the Super Mario World stuff where they're essentially recoding the game on the fly is fascinating, but I'd much rather watch a 100% TAS of Secret of Evermore or some guy who drew the short straw and has to beat Sneak King.
Also the Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts run where the guy is required to pick up every weapon that drops, so he can't just use the Dagger or whichever one is the best.
On the one hand, "warp to credits" might sometimes be boring to watch, but the process of getting there can be really interesting.
Funnily enough, I just stumbled my way into this video a few days ago and I loved it. The sheer challenge of it is something that could never be tackled by "standard" means.
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
There is another hidden attack on Kraid if you sequence break. This time for the flash shift. Samus must flash shift into Kraid when his eyes flash to trigger it. Not an insta-kill, but still neat.
The sad thing is that the speedrunners won't do it, because they can get higher DPS by just pressing the fire button once every frame (seriously, I don't know how they manage to spam beam shots like they do, my bones won't support that frequency without shattering under the strain).
The sad thing is that the speedrunners won't do it, because they can get higher DPS by just pressing the fire button once every frame (seriously, I don't know how they manage to spam beam shots like they do, my bones won't support that frequency without shattering under the strain).
As I mentioned before, 3rd party controllers with turbo buttons are a thing.
The sad thing is that the speedrunners won't do it, because they can get higher DPS by just pressing the fire button once every frame (seriously, I don't know how they manage to spam beam shots like they do, my bones won't support that frequency without shattering under the strain).
As I mentioned before, 3rd party controllers with turbo buttons are a thing.
Speedrunners don't use them because they're too slow.
The sad thing is that the speedrunners won't do it, because they can get higher DPS by just pressing the fire button once every frame (seriously, I don't know how they manage to spam beam shots like they do, my bones won't support that frequency without shattering under the strain).
As I mentioned before, 3rd party controllers with turbo buttons are a thing.
usually those are forbidden for runs.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
So I picked up where I left off and cleaned up the remaining few shinespark puzzles to get 100% and take down the final boss again. It was brutal. I know I haven't played for a couple weeks, but I felt like I had 2 left hands trying to do this shit. Just couldn't get the timing right on inputs to save my life. I kept at it though and eventually persevered.
I got really, really pissed at those shinespark puzzles. What masochist designed these?
Welp. I was rather embarrassed to discover I forgot to put my TV into game mode and was doing all this with a ton of input lag. I almost wish I could roll back my save file and try those puzzles again without input lag. I bet they are actually reasonable once you figure out the solution. Oh well.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
edited November 2021
This final boss isn't playing around. Kicking my butt one end of the arena to the other.
Update: Killed the boss. I found the easiest way to consistently deal damage was to focus on evasion into the counter sequence.
I'm kinda behind, I'm playing through Fusion now for the first time, so I can get to Dread soon hopefully. I'm enjoying it, the extra story bits and explanation help make up for the increased linearity. I was doing pretty well on the bosses, but I just ran into a brick wall
In the form of the spider boss in the reactor core, underneath where the ship is. This thing is ridiculous! The first time I died in like 3 hits of it dropping me, all right in a row. It happened so quickly I thought it was an intentional loss.
I really don't know how you're supposed to effectively dodge this thing, the only way I can do it is once it starts moving faster, and stops hitting as much of the ground, and I can just hang out in morph ball mode underneath as it just hits one diagonal line pattern. But by that point I'm already down to like 2 bars.
It also seems kind of horseshit that it can often grab me twice in a row without me actually getting to escape at all. Last attempt it was 3 times in a row, so I was basically almost dead as soon as I arrived. Combine that with not being able to save before the fight, and if it weren't for the virtual console save states, I'm sure I would have thrown this game out the window already.
I just got the Varia Suit in Samus Returns, and am lost and frustrated. Between the game laying on the parry really thick and a total of four enemies out on the field, I'm thinking of giving up.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I'm kinda behind, I'm playing through Fusion now for the first time, so I can get to Dread soon hopefully. I'm enjoying it, the extra story bits and explanation help make up for the increased linearity. I was doing pretty well on the bosses, but I just ran into a brick wall
In the form of the spider boss in the reactor core, underneath where the ship is. This thing is ridiculous! The first time I died in like 3 hits of it dropping me, all right in a row. It happened so quickly I thought it was an intentional loss.
I really don't know how you're supposed to effectively dodge this thing, the only way I can do it is once it starts moving faster, and stops hitting as much of the ground, and I can just hang out in morph ball mode underneath as it just hits one diagonal line pattern. But by that point I'm already down to like 2 bars.
It also seems kind of horseshit that it can often grab me twice in a row without me actually getting to escape at all. Last attempt it was 3 times in a row, so I was basically almost dead as soon as I arrived. Combine that with not being able to save before the fight, and if it weren't for the virtual console save states, I'm sure I would have thrown this game out the window already.
I believe if you morph ball in the left corner it can't grab you. Be patient and take your shots carefully. The game is trying to get you to panic and run around the arena, which puts the spider at an advantage.
I'm kinda behind, I'm playing through Fusion now for the first time, so I can get to Dread soon hopefully. I'm enjoying it, the extra story bits and explanation help make up for the increased linearity. I was doing pretty well on the bosses, but I just ran into a brick wall
In the form of the spider boss in the reactor core, underneath where the ship is. This thing is ridiculous! The first time I died in like 3 hits of it dropping me, all right in a row. It happened so quickly I thought it was an intentional loss.
I really don't know how you're supposed to effectively dodge this thing, the only way I can do it is once it starts moving faster, and stops hitting as much of the ground, and I can just hang out in morph ball mode underneath as it just hits one diagonal line pattern. But by that point I'm already down to like 2 bars.
It also seems kind of horseshit that it can often grab me twice in a row without me actually getting to escape at all. Last attempt it was 3 times in a row, so I was basically almost dead as soon as I arrived. Combine that with not being able to save before the fight, and if it weren't for the virtual console save states, I'm sure I would have thrown this game out the window already.
I believe if you morph ball in the left corner it can't grab you. Be patient and take your shots carefully. The game is trying to get you to panic and run around the arena, which puts the spider at an advantage.
Yeah, I tried it again and managed to beat it in one shot, with basically that strategy. I thought I remembered it grabbing me just as easily in morph ball mode, but I guess not.
It seems like it's not all that difficult in the end, there's just a specific trick to it - but it's still kind of egregious to me to be so far from a save point. That whole following section where the doors don't open and you can't get to a recharge station also sucks. I don't appreciate having to go back to farming enemies for health again, especially when it's so stingy with it. The X parasite collection is a cool idea but collecting them effectively often requires charging forward into groups of enemies, or into areas you can't really see, which doesn't usually work out well.
Just beat it. Really enjoyed it in general, but...
Am I the only one who was upset about how linear it felt? Like, every time I got a new upgrade and I wanted to go around the map, scratching at all the corners, a giant chunk of it was locked off to force me to go forwards, instead.
Sure, I could have gone and found what limited amount of them that my new upgrade minus the lockoff would allow, but that felt so dispiriting, so I saved it for the end, and then when I got to the end, I just didn't want to go and do a whole lap across all the areas and navigate all the elevators and such to try to figure out what pathways let me actually get where.
Just beat it. Really enjoyed it in general, but...
Am I the only one who was upset about how linear it felt? Like, every time I got a new upgrade and I wanted to go around the map, scratching at all the corners, a giant chunk of it was locked off to force me to go forwards, instead.
Sure, I could have gone and found what limited amount of them that my new upgrade minus the lockoff would allow, but that felt so dispiriting, so I saved it for the end, and then when I got to the end, I just didn't want to go and do a whole lap across all the areas and navigate all the elevators and such to try to figure out what pathways let me actually get where.
I do wish they let you explore a bit more freely at times, but it was appreciated to a degree once I realized what they were intending with the artificial roadblocks (keep you from getting too lost at times on where to progress). I still ran into a few spots where it wasn't entirely obvious as to where to go next, and there are some sequence breaks you can do still if you know what you're doing (see speedruns, at least the ones on the current patch that can't abuse the old tactics of going invulnerable to damage or camera out of bounds tricks).
I thought they struck an acceptable balance between fusion's "lock you in a small subsection of the map to keep the possibility space of where you need search to progress small" and super's "maybe sometimes we'll get you stuck in a deeper part of the map for a little bit until you find a couple upgrades to be able to backtrack out again"
From an audience acquisition standpoinr, I think they made the right choice. I would have loved more freedom and exploration, but my first exposure to Metroid was *Metroid*.
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
I felt the same way as I was playing it but looking back I enjoyed that it was as linear as it was. So many open world games out now that are just free to do what you want. A little more freedom and less directing could have been fine, but I like the constant changing scenery and directed approach Dread took.
I honestly wouldn't mind if they did let you have more freedom, but it wasn't like other Metroid games don't also roadblock you at times (even Super does it, to some extent but not as much as Fusion or Dread).
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited November 2021
With regards to the linearity in Samus Returns, it can not be overstated on how much of that is due to it being a remake of the original Metroid 2, which was probably the most linear Metroid game in the series.
Because they were taking the basic Metroid formula and giving it a second go-around, only this time on a game boy with a very small screen and shorter overall playtimes, they pretty much eliminated backtracking altogether.
The structure of the game is built around a single central corridor that goes down through most of the game. This corridor only has 1-2 branching points, and those branches will always be blocked by lava unless you have cleared the previous section's Metroids. So the exploration/backtracking then gets limited to the sub-areas where the Metroids are - which are big, but not enormous. All the better for a system where you don't have a map function like is now standard in this style of game.
Spoiler: Map of Metroid II:
If you can hear the music, you'll always know when you are in the central corridor. One of the best musical themes in the Metroid series is played there. There's a little bit of visual difference as well, but it is harder to pick out on the limited color scheme of the GB game.
Edit: Looking at that map.. it's actually really cool how much the SR388 map twists over itself. Something you don't see as much with modern 2d metroidvanias in my experience.
I think the only thing I found frustrating was that I felt like the world closed up behind me too often. I like being able to decide when I want to go back and clean up missed items.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Yes! I finally got this new item, now I can go back and... awwww.
I finished Metroid II on Gameboy and the weird thing is that it felt incredibly claustrophobic because of the small screen until suddenly... it just didn't.
At some point, I can't really remember when it happened, it was like I was visualizing entire rooms in my head and seeing them even though the screen was only displaying a tiny bit.
Of course then I tried to go back and play it a decade and later and I lasted maybe five minutes before noping out :P
Yeah, that's a better way to phrase it. Not that it was linear, but that the glee of finally finding the item that unlocks a challenge I _know_ about was usually immediately met with the frustration of knowing that I couldn't actually get back there because like... a heat-powered door just shut or something. I just kinda stopped caring about going back for stuff, because I knew I'd probably be blocked by _something_ along the way.
yeah arbitrarily scripted environment block-offs behind you rubbed me a little bit the wrong way, particularly in the first area where they leaned on it heavily to keep you moving forward through the tutorial. Felt inelegant.
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Hard mode in 1:15. Spoilers obviously. Skips both Varia and Gravity. Some of the tricks are nuts, especially early Screw Attack. I bet they will whittle this down to sub 1 hour eventually.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Huh. I'm surprised they would patch something out that is highly unlikely to affect normal play-throughs. Seems like taking a risk patching out something that's only used by the speed running community and would otherwise go unnoticed.
When I looked it up, the patch notes specifically said that they decided to patch it because it could be done accidentally. IIRC the one that was patched just involves going into morph ball at the right time as you enter an EMMI door, which results in Samus being completely invincible until you change zones. Definitely very unlikely to happen, and I'd hate to risk upsetting the speedrun community, but I can see why they did it.
Curious to know how well it was received.
As someone who works in the software industry as a quality tester, I would always push for the quality of the game to go up via a patch. Granted, I do not work in the video game industry, and so I don't have to deal with customers who adopt bugs as part of their play-strategy. But to me, Quality > All. And if a bug is found, patch it and fix it.
As someone who has watched the Games Done Quick competitions and stuff, it always infuriates me when people use glitches so egregious that they are literally no longer playing the game. Take for example the speed run from a couple years ago on Elder Scrolls Oblivion, where a guy basically uses a reload glitch to get through a locked door at the start of the game, which allows him to bypass like 99.999% of the game and "beat" Oblivion within like 4 minutes and seconds. That isn't playing Oblivion at that point. That stuff bugs me.
What does impress me is speedrunners who play with 0 glitches and play the game as the devs intended. Even if a bug exists and is not patched out, I'd rather watch someone play the game at a very high level without exploiting glitches to shave time.
Most games will just have categories for things - like OoT has a well known wrongwarp right to the end of the game that reduces it to just clearing the first dungeon. (To say nothing of more recent nonsense that's basically human-feasible ACE)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I do think those videos are funny, but I don't think of them as like beating the game
Conversely, I have no issue with the quick kill on the optional endgame boss by baiting into leaping off the level. Good riddance to that thing.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
This is why, generally, speedrunners break things down into different categories, so things that aren't really fun don't get done.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I mean, the Super Mario World stuff where they're essentially recoding the game on the fly is fascinating, but I'd much rather watch a 100% TAS of Secret of Evermore or some guy who drew the short straw and has to beat Sneak King.
Also the Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts run where the guy is required to pick up every weapon that drops, so he can't just use the Dagger or whichever one is the best.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
Funnily enough, I just stumbled my way into this video a few days ago and I loved it. The sheer challenge of it is something that could never be tackled by "standard" means.
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3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
As I mentioned before, 3rd party controllers with turbo buttons are a thing.
Speedrunners don't use them because they're too slow.
usually those are forbidden for runs.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I got really, really pissed at those shinespark puzzles. What masochist designed these?
Welp. I was rather embarrassed to discover I forgot to put my TV into game mode and was doing all this with a ton of input lag. I almost wish I could roll back my save file and try those puzzles again without input lag. I bet they are actually reasonable once you figure out the solution. Oh well.
Update: Killed the boss. I found the easiest way to consistently deal damage was to focus on evasion into the counter sequence.
I really don't know how you're supposed to effectively dodge this thing, the only way I can do it is once it starts moving faster, and stops hitting as much of the ground, and I can just hang out in morph ball mode underneath as it just hits one diagonal line pattern. But by that point I'm already down to like 2 bars.
It also seems kind of horseshit that it can often grab me twice in a row without me actually getting to escape at all. Last attempt it was 3 times in a row, so I was basically almost dead as soon as I arrived. Combine that with not being able to save before the fight, and if it weren't for the virtual console save states, I'm sure I would have thrown this game out the window already.
It seems like it's not all that difficult in the end, there's just a specific trick to it - but it's still kind of egregious to me to be so far from a save point. That whole following section where the doors don't open and you can't get to a recharge station also sucks. I don't appreciate having to go back to farming enemies for health again, especially when it's so stingy with it. The X parasite collection is a cool idea but collecting them effectively often requires charging forward into groups of enemies, or into areas you can't really see, which doesn't usually work out well.
Am I the only one who was upset about how linear it felt? Like, every time I got a new upgrade and I wanted to go around the map, scratching at all the corners, a giant chunk of it was locked off to force me to go forwards, instead.
Sure, I could have gone and found what limited amount of them that my new upgrade minus the lockoff would allow, but that felt so dispiriting, so I saved it for the end, and then when I got to the end, I just didn't want to go and do a whole lap across all the areas and navigate all the elevators and such to try to figure out what pathways let me actually get where.
I do wish they let you explore a bit more freely at times, but it was appreciated to a degree once I realized what they were intending with the artificial roadblocks (keep you from getting too lost at times on where to progress). I still ran into a few spots where it wasn't entirely obvious as to where to go next, and there are some sequence breaks you can do still if you know what you're doing (see speedruns, at least the ones on the current patch that can't abuse the old tactics of going invulnerable to damage or camera out of bounds tricks).
not PERFECT but... acceptable
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Because they were taking the basic Metroid formula and giving it a second go-around, only this time on a game boy with a very small screen and shorter overall playtimes, they pretty much eliminated backtracking altogether.
The structure of the game is built around a single central corridor that goes down through most of the game. This corridor only has 1-2 branching points, and those branches will always be blocked by lava unless you have cleared the previous section's Metroids. So the exploration/backtracking then gets limited to the sub-areas where the Metroids are - which are big, but not enormous. All the better for a system where you don't have a map function like is now standard in this style of game.
Spoiler: Map of Metroid II:
If you can hear the music, you'll always know when you are in the central corridor. One of the best musical themes in the Metroid series is played there. There's a little bit of visual difference as well, but it is harder to pick out on the limited color scheme of the GB game.
Edit: Looking at that map.. it's actually really cool how much the SR388 map twists over itself. Something you don't see as much with modern 2d metroidvanias in my experience.
At some point, I can't really remember when it happened, it was like I was visualizing entire rooms in my head and seeing them even though the screen was only displaying a tiny bit.
Of course then I tried to go back and play it a decade and later and I lasted maybe five minutes before noping out :P