Demo Speed Runs

Edit:

Okay so I PB'd again as promised and actually don't have a crappy video to share. 2:36.79 (without load time)


(edit2: this run was done using keyboard)

A little motivation for you guys... You can do it!

Since I'm doing runs on keyboard as well I may be able to help you a little.

Starting dialogue boxes: hit ZXC, then tap A, and start spamming Z. Be mindful of your hop after the attack dialogue box, as soon as you hop off the ground, hit B to go into the menu while mashing Z (usually 2-3 times since keyboard drops input occasionally) and S,  Z, B (takes a little muscle memory, but you can get really fast) have not found a way to go faster through this dialogue box. This will stop the backdash animation from canceling and you can continue to chain them without stopping even with the menu. After you hit A for the first time after the first dialogue box, you shouldn't need to push any directional inputs until you get to the dialogue box on top of the platforms (you can also swap your weapon here without losing time if you prefer) when you turn around to hop on the ledge to go outside the ship. I prefer doing the short hop over the Seama, you can get an acceleration glitch from putting your feet in his head at the right frame, then slide off the edge of the platform, but its likely to reset your run if it doesn't work, so is a little safer to just make 2 short hops and position yourself for the slide dialogue box, Z was the fastest way through for me since you can position the backdash to chain into the slide without losing time.

Shard dialogue box: mash zxczx similar to the starting dialogue box, you should be in the air while getting the shard so you can burn the cannon so you won't mess up any animations with extra inputs. Stairs occasionally will cancel your backdash, it has to do with your position on the stairs and the boat rocking, very very annoying, but the controller suffers from this problem too, if you are worried about this you can do a short hop the screen before and start an accelerated slide down the stairs which won't interrupt the animation.

Also, the short hop attack glitch is insanely annoying due to dropped inputs, I had this problem a lot while first starting. I think I spent about 3~4 hours just jump slashing on the boat. If you need to practice without Vepar bothering you, use the Amy glitch to kill it, go back 1 door, then go back to Vepar who will be dead when you finish the cutscene, you won't get Thank you for playing, so you can stand on the end of the boat and practice jump slashing. For this trick you really have to have near perfect timing, just lightly flick your finger over the spacebar so Miriam just comes off the ground, and left click almost simultaneously, you should just barely see the sword, you will hear it, which you need to pay strict attention to since this is how I keep my timing.

I can't think of much else at the time which could help, I put at least 60+ hours into this speedrun so far. I think the biggest help was switching my resolution to help with the frames, outside the ship seems to drop my fps down to 30~49ish which severely impacts the ability to jump slash the boss properly.

Hopefully this helps in some way ~ keep it up I know you can do it!

Is there an end date for the contest, or can somebody find out when the contest is supposed to end?

Well, as I said, it is faster, just not easy to pull off efficiently.  Mess up even once out of ten interrupts and you've lost speed compared to simply backstepping.  The reason it's faster is fairly straightforward: The beginning of the backstep has the most momentum, and it lessens up to the point when Miriam lands.  Interrupting gives access to more time of maximum momentum, and it's enough to more than counterbalance the momentum lost from crouching / stopping the backstep.

I did a video analysis of the backstep/crouch technique and I have sadly come to the conclusion that it is in fact no faster than simply backstepping, or if it is, it's no more than about 1%, and would take a robot (or a TAS) to accomplish to that level. Certainly it's nothing like 5 to 10% faster (or slower). So, yeah, I take back what I said.

At this point, I'm pretty happy with my 3:18. One problem is that the game chugs with my computer right now, which the whole thing itself is being slow as of lately. So I really can't play some games with the frame rate chugging down to 10 for a few seconds a time. Second problem is school is back in session (Even though I said I would stream again after school started) and I'm completely busy with real life stuff. Really the only time I can get time to stream is before I go to bed on school nights (which usually results me in playing Overwatch or youtube for like 45 minutes then going to bed early) or weekends, and usually there, I am a huge lazy butt who can't do anything else except procrastinate on homework.

Siiiigh. Maybe one day I'll get to streaming...maybe tomorrow? Hopefully. Will I ever return to Demo% runs? Maybe. Honestly, I'm waiting for the beta if there is one and eventually the full game. Considering going back to Axiom, or moving on to Another Metroid 2 Remake to do some any% runs. If I were to return to Demo% runs, I would possibly go for a sub 3 and call it quits.

It is tough watching individual videos and accounting for load time and end time, so I thought I would throw together this race between the two fastest Bloodstained speed runs I could find. Look forward to the official winner in a future update.