Difference between revisions of "Castelian (NES)/any%(ntscj)"

Revision as of 13:34, 23 June 2019

The route shown here is for the Japanese version, played on Hero difficulty . This is the fastest combination for beating the game.

Tower 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIeP55IynsE

• Taking the elevator past the first molecule on Hero difficulty only works on the JP-version and is frame perfect (= 3 actual frames since the game runs at 20 fps).
• With a well times jump (around 0:28-0:29 in the video), it's possible to time the spawn of the vertical moving enemy at the second destroyable ball so it bounces back off the ball, eliminating any waiting time. It saves a little under a second. However, this depends on other enemy positions that are difficult to gauge in real-time and therefore adds quite a bit more risk.
• It's important to walk, and not jump, onto the elevator leading to the aforementioned vertical moving enemy and the second bouncing ball (at around 0:30). This ensures that the bouncing ball can be destroyed before other enemy blocks it and will also set up a better timing of the last molecule appearance.

Tower 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj9bC4TRzM

• Note the jump at 0:16. It would have been possible to jump one step further down to scale the stairs faster. However, jumping on this step will spawn the enemy above as early as possible. This will allow you to push on a little earlier when it's blocking the way a little later on.
• Walking (and not jumping) up the stairs after the jump mentioned above and allowing the character to turn in the wrong direction at 0:24 (by not holding right) almost work as a buffer strat for jumping past the enemy at 0:26 pretty much as early as possible. You're still likely to arrive a bit early for the jump. If that's often the case, you can experiment with including a small delay somewhere or entering the door in a slightly unoptimal way.
• With perfect execution, it's one movement frame (= 3 actual frames + any random lag frames) faster to jump to the very last lift instead of walking onto the breaking floor tile. However, if the jump is not timed well enough, it will end up losing time to walking.

Tower 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8eO3qdGExs

• By shooting just out of range of the bouncing ball at the beginning, it's often possible to manipulate the ball to delay its start of movement. This allows you to enter the opening, which otherwise is not possible without shooting the enemy. By avoiding to destroy it, 6 frames of countdown are saved at the end of the level.

Tower 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz5pIti9gRM

• The timing and time window for passing beneath the first molecule is tight. A well-timed jump (at 0:11) is needed to make the molecule spawn when you're at the top of the jump. The molecule always appears at the same time after the level begins, but since it can be difficult to have consistent movements, it's not always easy to gauge when to jump with the required precision. This trick is however important as failing it will cost several seconds both here and also set up the molecule in an unfavorable way later on.
• It's a movement frame faster to jump to the door at 0:35 and 0:39. However, the jumps are pixel perfect and failing to execute them will lead to a time loss instead.
• If the blinking pellet to the right is destroyed at 0:39, you can continue to the left at 0:45. However, that route is slightly slower.
• There is a risk that the bouncing ball at 1:19 will not start moving if you push on too fast. This can be mitigated by adding an intentional pause before shooting (see enemy movements for more details). Postponing shooting until after the jump is both risky (if the ball starts moving towards you) and slower. Once the ball is destroyed, the molecule timer will start ticking down. The more it ticks down, the more time saved at the very end when waiting for getting knocked down.
• The brief pause at 1:21 was to get the molecule timer to tick down a bit more and make the molecule appear earlier at the top. By timing this correctly (= minimize waiting time for getting knocked down), half a second or so is saved.
• It's slightly faster to jump (and not walk) onto the last lift that leads to the top of the tower.

Tower 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQJK2u9DO8E

• Try to jump off the blinking pellet at 0:08. There is not much room to do so, but it will trigger the enemy above earlier if successful. The time save is free (at worst you'll just walk up to the next step), but also very minor though.
• Turning around at 0:17 (instead of immediately activating the elevator) gives the best pattern for the circling enemy above.
• The jump at 0:43 was to trigger the spawning of the enemy that was passed beneath at 0:57.
• The horizontal moving enemy that spawned around 1:02 will occasionally collide with one of the vertical moving enemies and then create a different pattern. Basically all the enemy movements are linked from this point until the end of the level. So when this happens, it's difficult to predict the outcome. However, most of the time the horizontal moving enemy will not collide.

The final section is a bit more complex and will be described based on the following illustration:

• While standing at position 'A' (1:30), the molecule timer won't run. It's important to manipulate the molecule to appear at the right time. The time when to move two steps to the right to position 'B' (1:33) is therefore critical. Watch the enemy positions for the queue when to start moving.
• '2' will always bounce off '1', like in the video. This is assuming that the route until this point has been followed and that you didn't get bad luck with a collision between the enemies around 1:05.
• The last stretch with the two bouncing balls ('4' and '5') and the two vertical moving enemies ('6' and '7') is difficult to fully control in real-time.
• '7' will appear when '4' is destroyed. If you destroy '4' too early, it can be tight to squeeze past '7'.
• '6' will appear when '3' (the molecule) disappears. Ideally, '6' should bounce off '5' before it's shot. This requires:

- not shooting too early

- that '5' starts moving in a timely fashion (see enemy movements for more details)

- that '3' was manipulated to appear (and therefore disappear) at the right time for '6' to spawn.

• It should be mentioned that this level has the most theoretical potential for improvement. In TAS-conditions, the enemy manipulations can be pushed a few steps further to save several seconds.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

Tower 6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcOj3kiV7wM

• It's worth noting the jump at 0:20 to despawn the enemy below for a small time save.
• At 0:48, it's not necessary to take the elevator up to jump onto the stack of destroyable floor blocks. Jumping directly from the elevator at its lowest position is pixel perfect and saves a little less than a second. Initially it saves a bit more time, but the enemy positions are worse near the end and eat up some of that time.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

Tower 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7N57DXg44

• Shooting the bouncing ball on the top of the tower is optional, but is overall a few frames faster by reducing lag.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

Tower 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGvS2048Y1g
The most critical part of this level is the mid-section. The discussion below will refer to the following illustration:

The key is to keep an eye on enemy '1'. If '1' is eventually despawned too late, '5' (the molecule) will not appear until the end of the lift ride above '6'. If it appears in this position, it's going to be undodgeable, so it's imperative that it's triggered during the lift ride. Fortunately, the timing of '5' can be manipulated.
'1' can spawn during jumps from position 'A', 'B' or 'C'. Otherwise it will spawn during the lift ride from position 'D'. This depends on if one of the four bouncing ball enemies in the bottom screenshot is despawned during any of the mentioned jumps. This creates four potential outcomes that can require specific actions. If '1' spawns during the jump from 'A', it's going to be easy to notice. If it spawns at position 'B', 'C' or 'D', it will be off-screen. However, it's still possible to tell when it comes back on-screen when it spawned (the later it spawned, the later it will be in its movement cycle). The four possibilities are described below:

A

• For the mid-section, this is the best outcome, but it has one potentially major drawback later on (see below). The enemy at '1' should be out of the way both times when crossing the shaft it moves in and '5' shouldn't be a problem either.
• From the point when the molecule appears for the first time in this level (at '5'), the next appearances will be set without possibility to manipulate the timing. For the third appearance (at 1:45), there is not a lot of time to turn around and shoot the pellet and then jump out of the molecule's way. The earlier the molecule spawned in '5', the less time there will be to the point where it's not going to be possible at all. This can be gauged by looking at the y-position when the molecule appears at '5'. The lower the y-position, the less time there will be later on. It can also be gauged when going through the tower right before the third molecule appearance. As a rule of thumb, if the screen has scrolled so that the blinking pellets have the tower behind them when the molecule's spawning sounds, there should be enough time. If it's not the case, it will lead to a 2 sec time loss because of the additional maneouvering required.

B

• It's likely going to be tight jumping over '1' the first time, so it will be important to jump past '2' as early as possible.
• If the lower blinking pellet is shot after jumping over '1' the first time, '1' will be in the way the next time and cause a time loss.
• If the lower blinking pellet is not shot after jumping over '1' the first time (and this is the better option), a quick pause is needed at the lift with the two blinking pellets before activating it. 10-15 frames or so should do. The reason for this is to ensure that '5' (the molecule) is triggered during the lift ride past '6'.

C

• Same as 'B', but the first jump over '1' is going to be easier and the pause at the lift needs to be slightly longer (~0.5 secs). This is because the molecule timer will start counting down once '1' has disappeared, which happens slightly later in 'C' than in 'B'.

D

• The blinking pellet doesn't matter. It can be shot either the first or the second time.
• A slightly longer wait at the lift with the two blinking pellets is required than in 'B' or 'C'. Around a second will be required.

• Getting '1' to spawn at 'A' is difficult to manipulate. However, from RAM-address observation, it seems to be a little less than 50% chance of occuring, with a cycle of 20-25 frames.
• For any of the four cases above, '6' can sometimes spawn slightly late and require a short wait before activating the lift for the last part. This is difficult to control in real-time since it depends on when '2', '3' and '4' despawn. Since their appearance in turn depended on the bouncing balls in the bottom screenshot, it's essentially going to be random for the purpose of real-time attempts.
• For reference, the linked video above got '1' to spawn after jumping from position 'B'.