Dragon Warrior any% (complete RNG manipulation) got a standing ovation, I think that’s this GDQ’s version of the Tetris Grandmaster block.
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as someone who has never played it, it took a bit until they explained why those metal slimes are such an important thing that i started to have a feeling that this game is completely broken by the runner, didn’t watch the full run yet though… have to do so then!
rng manipulation is the method by which you turn 1% into 100%, which makes it the most anime of runs
the jp stream chat on dragon warrior was much less, uh, mindblown than the english stream chat. seemed like there were a lot of people who are well familiar with TASes hanging around there.
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the marathon is basically finishing up now, so I just need to catch up on the runs I missed and I can make a list. hopefully they plan to upload them to youtube soon because I’d rather not crawl through days worth of full VODs
They have uploaded some runs on their channel, I’ve seen.
The DKC reverse boss order run is… quite interesting, what with the kind of manipulation necessary to make it work, and how it plays out.
Recommended!
The one thing I wish the commentary had taken the time to explain is Dragon Warrior’s 16-frame framerule, as that’s the key to why this is possible (and actually not even hard compared to any other context we talk of “human TAS”, except for the couple of bits like textbox clears that aren’t subject to the rule). With the game only sampling input every quarter-second and allowing perfect buffering if your input comes early, he’s basically running a TAS script but at 1/16 the pace that is normally required, which is well within almost any human’s ability to execute with perfect consistency. The same annoying sluggishness in the responsiveness of the controls in this game which you may remember from your casual play, makes it uniquely suited to this.
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Reddit has one of these VOD link threads every year, and it’s basically the official reference complete with a 24-hour team of volunteers that keeps it up to date as soon as runs start: https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/7oljmp/agdq_vod_thread_2018/
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Yeah, this is what I was looking for. Thanks!
Good article on how it’s organized, with a focus on their custom technical setup:
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aweful games block delivers:
Athena race is… something, but can be skipped.
Titenic run is nice,
Densha de D is great if you know initial D.
Alright, I’ve watched as much as I’m going to (i.e. most) of the marathon, so here’s a big fat list of suggestions that would have been much longer but I realized writing this is pretty boring. These are also just my opinions so feel free to disagree. @Father.Torque and anybody who’s been putting this off, here ya go. In (I think) chronological order:
S Rank = Must Watch
A Rank = Good
B Rank = Not necessarily a highlight, but worth mentioning
Z Rank = Disaster/Hate-Watch
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Ratchet & Clank (NG+) (A Rank): The skips and exploits in R&C are good stuff, though might have been seen a lot by now. 22:51
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Main Quest) (A Rank): Everybody has probably watched a Skyrim run, maybe? I found the runners really funny, though. 50:26
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F-Zero GX (All Tracks Time Attack (Max Speed)) (S Rank): This run takes the conventional play to its logical extreme, using certain exploits (note: not skips) to reach ludicrous speed. 1:11:32
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Blaster Master Zero (Any% vs EX Character Any%) (B Rank): Good run but I’m mostly I’m listing this because it’s a good display of a good game that not a lot of people bought. 44:08
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Wario’s Woods (Hard Difficulty VS COM) (A Rank): This is really high level play and it’s kind of hilarious how incredibly dumb the AI is on Hard Mode. 20:27
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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (Hero Story Race) (S Rank): This race gets crazy, and both racers trade the lead several times. 36:03
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El Matador (B Rank): I didn’t think this run was the most entertaining, but the exploit this revolves around really has to be seen to be believed. 23:02
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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Zero Bosses) (A Rank): I could probably watch this game get broken forever just because of how it was designed (which is to say, without any restraint whatsoever). 28:56
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Dying Light (Any% Co-op) (A Rank): This run is hilarious and I the only reason I didn’t rank this an S was because it’s over an hour. Definitely one of my favorite runs this year. 1:32:02
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Disney’s Toy Story (any% SNES) (B Rank): The commentary is a little bro-y but I learned a lot about this game. As a kid I thought it was ugly and boring but there’s a goddamn Wolfenstein level in there! 22:17
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Kid Icarus (any%) (A Rank): I figure everyone knows Kid Icarus already but there’s a lot of good exploits here as well as commentary about the game’s extremely important but for some reason hidden score system. 25:35
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Battletoads Arcade (Max Difficulty bid war) (A Rank): I’m a big fan of watching people play beat em ups really well, and PJ even has a main button break during the run, forcing him to work around it. 40:35
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Battletoads (Any% Warpless) (A Rank): I figure people have watched Battletoads runs before, but I still find them exciting. This also has the added bonus of the runner afterwards doing the Turbo Tunnel blindfolded! 29:04
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Dragon Warrior (any%) (S Rank): This is absolutely insane, the runner exploits this game down to the individual frames and controls the RNG the entire time. It’s like watching a wizard or a god or something. 27:19
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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (Any% Warpless Race) (A Rank): This year had several good races, which is something I had previously never looked into. Bonus in the post-race interview where one of the Japanese runners says the “fuck” word. 1:46:36
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Superman 64 (A Rank): I’ve seen Superman 64 plenty but this run was wayyy funnier than I expected it to be. Despite how famously broken the game is, the run goes really smoothly. Also the runner is a cutie. 36:49
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Arabian Nights (any%) (A Rank): Beautiful awful kusoge, horribly broken. 47:17
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Titenic (Beat the Game) (B Rank): This is a really noteworthy bootleg, though Brossentia’s screechy narration detracted from it for me. 10:15
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Deadly Towers (Z Rank): Unfortunately the awful block this year had a lot of runners who thought the proper way to talk about kusoge is to repeatedly yell about how bad it is. It’s educational, but kind of excruciating to listen to. 34:26
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Ultima VI: The False Prophet (Any% No Major Glitches) (A Rank): This run had some of my favorite commentary, extremely dry and funny. 28:32
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Secret of Evermore (Z Rank): Unfortunately we’re back to the bad runners. They mostly clung together and commentated on each other’s games. This runner in particular was probably the loudest, and was pretty vocally disappointed when the bonus donation incentive for his game was thankfully not met. 1:38:59
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I wanna be the Boshy (Average-mode 100%) (A Rank): I Wanna Be The Guy fangames are usually worth at least one run. Games that antagonize the player are something I tend to enjoy (at least conceptually), but seeing a skilled player get around that is also compelling. This runner also balances these games out by having a dry sense of humor. 55:58
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I Wanna Run the Marathon (any%) (A Rank): Same runner! 37:32
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Cloudbuilt (Full Game Defiance) (A Rank): High level play of a game made for both casual play and speedrunning, knowledgable commentary, and even a skype call with one of the devs. Cloudbuilt is really entertaining to watch, and this exclusively focuses on the extra difficult DLC. 48:57
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Super Monkey Ball (Beginner, Advanced, Expert Stages) (S Rank): Super Monkey Ball is always worth watching. Also, the run is followed up by a TASBot run, which eventually slips into the inhuman. First Run: 23:22, TAS Run: 13:00
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Mega Man 1 - 3 Team Relay Race (any%) (A Rank): Another really good race, one of the players button mashes with his teeth as an actual technique. 1:26:59
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Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! + Super Punch-Out!! (2 Games 1 Controller) (S Rank): Absolutely must be watched. Lots of clever use of the start button (which pauses SPO but uses the star punch in MTPO), and a good mix of memorization and thinking on the fly. 23:56
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (100%) (A Rank): This is an extremely indepth run and really interesting but oh my god don’t watch it it’s too long. 4:33:19
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Princess Rescue (any%) (A Rank): Blechy is my favorite of all the main GDQ commentators, he’s got a great personality. 6:43
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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Randomizer, No Glitches, Open Mode Race) (S Rank): The S Rank runs all kind of compete for which is best, but this one is worth anyone watching. LttP is put through a randomization program which rearranges all the items in the game, the runners are experts of the game, and they aren’t given a sword. It is super hot from beginning to end. 1:42:40
Honorable mentions:
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The Bloodborne run which was supposedly terrible and clogged with memes.
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The RE7 run which apparently Griffin McElroy said was his favorite of the whole marathon.
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I saw about ten minutes of the Breath of the Wild run and it looked great but I still gotta play that myself.
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All the runs of obscure/indie games were pretty good at showing them off.
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bloodborne run was fine if you were like me and watched the japanese restream where they talked over it in japanese.
The RE7 run had a british commentator who is well versed in speed running horror games and there was good chemistry between him and the runner. The runner himself is pretty good at taking stuff in stride since the route is semi-randomized due to the drops and there’s a number of times the game decides it’s going to do things a little differently. There’s an especially notable one about midway through.
Said british couch person ran Silent Hill afterward if you didn’t mind him.
I was half paying attention to the Dark Souls 3 run which I’d rate higher than Bloodborne.
CovertMuffin shows up on the couch for Hyper Light Drifter, some other game and also ran Jedi Academy himself. Enthusiastic, optimistic and buzzing with energy without being too much.
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dark souls 3 run was good, bloodborne run was, to use Curry’s phrasing, Z-rank for the exact same reason Curry rated those runs low. One of the most annoying runners I have ever seen.
Oh… oh my…
You can have it all, my empire of dirt.
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