ZSR Forums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_GSSPpl6vA&list=UUqMrmotlRQk1uG358ffbrlQ&index=1&feature=plcp
I found a glitch, quite a long long time ago, first time i played Zelda 4 swords on gamecube, was found by mistake the first time I did 1-1 from spamming roll.
From what I know, this glitch is not in the records, really just posting this to confirm its not know and to show it off to everyone.

The way this is done, maybe it could be done in other levels with similar rooms.

Thanks to Theonly0 for letting me upload this!

That looks so suspiciously like a cheat code. I love it, will try it out maybe.

O Trust me its not :3

if anyone has seen the FSA TAS, you will see that it's possible to make a shortcut on the holes.
Well I've done it without TASing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GVLiDQijOU

You mean there is a FSA TAS somewhere...? :O
That trick is very nice btw! Should probably be useful at more places in the game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Hb3uXrEnY
is pretty good :P

So how do you do the hole skip thing?

1: Holding C Stick beside the wall (you'll get stuck)
2: C Stick Up + Rolling
3: Make a Sword atack until link touches the ground (as shown in the video)
4: Press 'X' to change Link, you will fall
5: At least one Link will be in the other side of the hole
6: Press 'X' again, and done :d

Glad to see glitches popping up for this game!

The only zelda I really have interest in speed running :P

hope to see more soon!

ima give this a try!

With the help of Sergi's thread, I found a huge skip in 2-2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuAnr-2oSfE

I really hope this applies in other places to be useful. 

Also, I don't have a video of it, but it is possible to do this in co-op (2 players).  Although, it is extremely hard compared to doing it just by yourself.  If people are interested I can try to make a video of it.

I hope to pick this game up and interest a couple other people also.

Nice work  :o

I discovered a new glitch/strat where Link can fly  q:  I think is better than this one.
I'm making a video of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOE9eVCK-N4&feature=youtu.be

Sorry for the quality.

I've merged the couple Four Swords Adventures threads together because there isn't nearly enough discussion going on to need so many different threads.

Finally got my account registered! Thanks mzx!

Anyway, I've been messing around with ILs in this game for the past couple months, with the intention of doing a single segment run eventually. I'm so glad there's actually an interest in this game now. We are a budding community :). I've mostly been trying to recreate ZekonDo's/SDA's ILs, and looking into incorporating the gap skip (or whatever we're calling it) sergi found wherever I can.

Unfortunately, this is my first speed game and I'm kind of a baddy. I did however get a 2-2 time that cut the SDA time by a couple minutes using the sequence break zmaster described. I didn't have a capture card at the time though so it doesn't mean shit >_>. But I just got my cap card working the other day so now I can start recording attempts. I'm sure zmaster will shatter that time though, he seems pretty great at this game.

I've found a few small optimizations in the course of doing ILs. I'll just go over gap skips for now.

For the upwards gap skip (1-1, 2-2), I've found that mashing R+B works, but it's faster to press B then roll a fraction of a second later. I'll try and make a vid when I have time, but I'm sure you can figure it out yourselves. You can usually get red link over there in 1 or two tries of pressing B then R. Probably something to do with removing green links collision detection on sword swings or something, idk. The one problem I have with this skip is that the purple/blue links sometimes push each other into the gap after you drop, which is a big time waster. Not sure how to prevent this really.

In 1-1, the TAS also does a left gap skip in the cave after the waterfall. I've messed around a lot here and haven't found a way to recreate this in game. Does anyone know what inputs the TAS uses to do this? This could save like 5 seconds or so, maybe more.

In 2-1, the beach level, you can do a right gap skip in the cave by the house, but it has kind of tricky timing. My method:

slash pot
hug bottom wall
hold c-left (diamond)
hold right
roll right (mash R)
hover to bat
let go of everything and slash the bat
rehold right, c-left, and mash R again
hover to the right edge
face link to the right
hold right and c-up (long) then press R a fraction of a second after
Mash X as one of the links rolls to land

Red or blue link should roll to land if you do it correctly. It's also possible to hover around the corner and drop your links off to the right of that vertical stretch of blackness, but it's ridiculously hard and very inconsistent. Probably faster though. I forget the exact inputs unfortunately.

I actually died so many times trying to get a consistent method for this that I got a weird glitch where red link was permanently dead and was controllable in the same way that dead links in co-op control. It was really weird, I wish I had recorded it.

Zmaster already went over the 2-2 skip. It's exactly the same as 1-1, really.

2-3 seems like it has a lot of potential to be broken. If you could hover over the large gap at the beginning you could skip arrows, and there are enough force gems after this area that it would be fine to sequence break.

Haven't messed around with the cloud area gap skips sergi found. I'm doing ILs sequentially so it won't be awhile til I get there. That looks really cool though, I didn't know you could do this skip in the non-GBA portions of the game. I'm also really interested to know how you're doing these in co-op too! Also interested in learning how to fly >_>.

Anyway, I took a month long break from this game so I'll be derusting before I start doing new ILs. I left off at 2-3, only routed out like half the level though.

Hey Geno! Nice to see you here  :).  When I play again I really want to try your method of getting the other link over during the gap skip, I never really understood it. 

Thanks for sharing that 2-1 method, my way of doing it was really inconsistent, so I discarded it.  I'll definitely try that out.

When I was practicing that damn skip, the glitch where the rest of your people die was so aggravating.  I couldn't take it anymore haha.

I have actually done that skip you mentioned in the TAS.  I don't remember the exact way to get to the opposite side, but it wasn't hard to figure out.  I'm assuming you're having trouble just getting on the ledge after your next to it.  What you need to do is jump slash and then press x so that your red guy's momentum during the jump slash puts him on the ledge.  Then you can switch to him and go along.  It was pretty difficult iirc.  Still might be helpful in later levels.  I haven't messed around with that in a couple weeks so I could maybe try it again.  This would seriously make 1-1 the hardest IL ever haha.

I guess I can address how to do it in co-op.  I'll try to write it out, hopefully in makes sense. 

1. Make one player have three links
2. Do the gap skip (what the hell are we calling this...) 
NOTE: This is substantially harder than in one player.  You need to mash up on the gameboy and R.  It is very finicky and precise, but it is the same concept.
WLOG let's say player one did the skip, then usually the blue link would be on the other side while the purple and green links are on the starting side. 
3. Then player one should choose to be blue and player two should line themselves up right next to the purple link.
4.  At the same time player one press L and player two presses R and what should happen is player two picks up the purple link to be on their team. (this part is kind of hit or miss)
At this point, player one is on the other side while player two is still the initial side, each player has two links.
5.  Now player two does the gap skip thing but only to the point where they are close enough to the ledge so that player one can just pick them up.
6.  Player one can just then throw them on their side, and player two will then fall in the hole and appear on the other side.

The reason why this is so convoluted is that I didn't find away to get the other side with just two people on your team.  It seemed you needed at least 3.  Then getting the other player over there was other hurdle to figure out.

Found a nice time saver in 2-3 that lets us skip the moon orb.  Not the kind of skip we wanted but at least it's something haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwcaIePoepQ

Come to think of it, you could get the moon orb and use it later when your getting the lamp, might save a few more seconds getting that moon orb.  If that makes any sense...

Wow, that's such a clever skip. I wonder if we could utilize invulnerabilty anywhere else.

I'll try out the jump slash method to skip that one part of 1-1. I think I tried that, but I must not have timed it correctly. 1-1 being so hard would nice in single segments, just so you can get the tough stuff out of the way and reset early :).

Hmm, that does seem like that co-op method would work. If getting both players over is slow, we could always just do it with one person since it's not like you end both players at the other end. Some later level with that skip might require having all 4 links there though. I dunno, it's hard enough to route 1 player ILs, co-op is gonna be a beast to optimize. The ZSR marathon co-op run is gonna be hilariously unoptimal.

Anyway, here are some potential names for our cute little trick:

chasm hover
gap hover
hole hover
chasm skip
gap skip
hole skip

I'm partial to chasm hover. You basically hover your links over a chasm. Pretty simple! gap/hole aren't to my liking since as sergi showed, this trick is possible in the cloud levels, and the sky isn't really a hole or gap imo >_>.

When I first did it in 1-1 I called it wall fucking since the links kind of shiver against the wall. Use your imagination. Obviously there are scenarios where you don't need a wall to do this trick (going right with c right) so that's not the most apt name.

Maybe formation hover? shiver hover? Suggest more if you want!

I kind of like Formation Hover.  But in that case we might have to label the ones using the wall by saying Wall Formation Hover or something.

This allows link to walk on air pretty much.  Unfortunately this trick hasn't been useful yet (I've tried so hard, lol).  Maybe someone will find a use for this someday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jpgQh9IsY&feature=youtu.be

This isn't new, but I just wanted to make it well-known to potential people looking at this game.  Although, I did find a more accessible way of doing the same thing with bombs, so it's not all old news. 

That's pretty cool, I'll try messing around with it later. By the way, how did you find out about this? Is there some hidden four swords internet resource I don't know about?

When I first started, I just googled for glitches and found it.  This has the most I know so far (3 lol). 

http://www.jaytheham.com/zcw/Four_Swords_Adventures

I found an actor type glitch in 4-3 yesterday.  Pressing pause between the transition of the scenes causes it I think.  I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF7SGajZ694

Woah what? So the softlock restored your health too? This is so weird. I don't even.

This game didn't seem that broken as of a few months ago. It's weird how many glitches are just popping up in normal gameplay.

I think that is just a heart that dropped from the pot when I broke it, you can see it because the game doesn't load any actors I guess.  At least it gives pausing some potential to break the game.

Found a use for the formation hover in lost woods.  It skips pretty much everything in the level, but leaves you with very little force gems.  After some routing, I would say this is 30-45 seconds faster optimally. (I've gotten a bad run that was 5:05 compared to the 5:27 on SDA which was pretty well executed.) The skips are really hard to do on the first try consistently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMXln6fAJDs&feature=youtu.be

Found a nice little time saver in 6-1.  Also, this gives another way to do the floating link glitch and actually makes it useful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCu1FefI4Gg

Hey! So my notes will be done very soon! I will work on revising them for the next month and then post shorter, more useful notes with reminders for runners that know that route well. I guess backup strats would be nice to include too, especially for races. I am unsure if the co-op route should be its own route. Anyways, here is the link to my notes: http://pastebin.com/ccaRyYKL

Cool shit. Co-op having its own route makes sense just cause it'd be annoying to read notes for both in the same doc I guess.

By the way, if anyone new wants to discuss some hot four swords action with us, you can pop into the speedrunslive irc at #fsa.

So I found a nice and easy skip for the Pegasus boots in 8-1. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTbkMBM3_Jw

Officially the easiest trick in the game, lol.

Also, I think I found another big skip (~1.5 minutes) in the same level, but I'll have to test it more tomorrow.

So I have a skip for the end of 8-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ5oKgKS1kY&feature=youtu.be

Unfortunately I don't know how to really do it.  I've done it once yesterday but I can't replicate it.

Help?  :-\

First (non-blind) any% race tomorrow night. Get hyped!

Please submit runs for individual levels (ILs) to (zelda4sa@gmail.com). The leaderboard for the ILs has been setup here: http://bombch.us/IN0

I just started playing FSA again and was wondering what are the strats for consistent gap skipping. I can get it sometimes, but others Link will simply either not start the hover or one of the Links will not end up on the other side.

For Level 1-1 and level 2-2, stand as close to the right wall as possible and a bit below the hole (so you don't just roll in and fall). Roll up while holding up on the C stick. When you reach the other side, dash slash up (while holding up on the C stick) and immediately press X to switch to another Link when Red Link slashes onto the platform.

Super weird dead links glitch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjaEau4P8w

Edit: Fixed the dead link - mzxrules

Good news! Mzx created a section for FSA for the site. So far, Sergi, Zmaster91, 26pt2, and I have the ability to make & edit pages for it.

Sweet! For anyone that would like to see (I couldn't find a link on the front page), here it is: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/fsa/tech/formation-hover

There isn't one because there weren't any pages to the site. If you fill out a few of 'm then I'll add it to the front page.

topic exploded since I last looked here!

I really wana get into this game later on when I can get my hands on it.

Some neat stuff popping up as well!

I am currently exploring something weird in the game, probably nothing but really hard to do it when I have to play at a friends house..

I finally finished making the Google Doc. Basically, it lists the items picked up for each individual level. Also, I explained all of the known glitches thus far. The coolest part is that there are links to the videos (mostly by zmaster91) that are very helpful. I will be checking the co-op route since there is much more optimization needed in that department. Anyways, check it out!

http://bombch.us/KV0

O yes this is amazing :D

Also would be nice to get a 4 sword section on the forums :3

FSA section on the forums would be great. And one on the website, too. I'm down for writing glitches and stuff on the page, if I can get a quick little tutorial on how to do so.

There's already a FSA section on the website at http://zeldaspeedruns.com/fsa (http://zeldaspeedruns.com/fsa). However I've just added it to the dropdown.

Thanks :3

Good news:  The dodongo skip in 8-1 is finally somewhat consistent/possible.

Bad News: Doesn't save a "ton" of time, and is very risky.  Also, the strat only works on JP... lol. 

The basic reason why it works on this version is because this version let's you switch links if another grayed out link is falling.  In the US version, this is not possible.  E.g. In US if you throw purple link into a pit, you can't switch to red as the purple link is in the falling animation.  However, in the JP version you can even switch to purple link while he is falling.

Also, this consequence makes it so when you do formation hovers to the right, you can switch to red very easily, saving a few seconds since you don't have to wait for the falling animation.  Whereas in the US version this happened very rarely and usually was just because you got lucky with your inputs or something.  Anyway here is the video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoZ8N301hCM&feature=youtu.be

Nice Z! I have been doing some co-op routing lately. There were quite a few surprising changes. However, the awesome stuff is what remains the same, especially... the floating links glitch! Check out the 2 player action here (does not work in 3 or 4 player mode unfortunately): http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/3257373

Here (http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/3296221) is a video explaining the setup for all the hardware that I have in order for a co-op run of Zelda Four Swords Adventures to happen. Many people wonder about this but as you can tell, it ain't easy to get 2 solid runner of this game in the same room ...let alone put all these pieces together.

NOW what would be neat is if we somehow made it possible to get control over one of the players via internet!

Tho I would think delay could be an issue but not necessarily!

Co-op run with multi players would be amazing to watch!

Guess tas could perfect that...

Co-op over WiFi is definitely possible in the original Four Swords on the GBA using VBA link. I am not sure if NetPlay works for that though. However, I struggle trying to get Four Swords Adventures to work even on the same computer but that has more to do with the GBA bios file. I was planning on doing the co-op run of FSA tomorrow on December 29th but my friend got called in to work so we postponed the run until sometime after AGDQ 2014. Our goal will be sub-6 …maybe sub-5, though zmaster91 and I would easily achieve sub-4 if that ever happens. Anyways, I will keep practicing and updating the wiki here on ZSR for all the information about co-op. The notable stages with differences are 2-3, 4-2, and 5-3, mainly in the GBA rooms.

So when I was visiting a friend (who actually has gameboys) I tested out the actor glitch in 4-3 with a gameboy controller instead of a gamecube one (thanks to mzx for the suggestion).  So, it turns out that with the gameboy as a controller, you can actually navigate through the level.

What we found out is that you never appear in the gameboy, therefore, you have navigate all of these screens blind.  Also, everything that can move is completely invisible throughout the whole level.  This includes things such as the enemies, gems, switches, and even the boss (you are also invisible the whole time as well).  Luckily the enemies all have spot lights on them, so this isn't a huge deal.  However, we didn't finish the level correctly, because doing it in co-op proves to be a lot harder (each time you die, you lose gems).  So hopefully when I get my gameboy player disc sometime next week I'll get a run of the level. 

I'm not expecting anything special from this since it is just a graphical glitch (well I think so anyway), but we'll see.  If anyone else wants to try, that would be great.

So Z… are you going to beat my single player GBA controller% run?  ;) It's nothing special. Just 3:38

I will beat it when I start running :D

Hello everyone, I just thought I join the small party here and show some love for FSA.

I hope to run this game in the near future, but as for now, I just do some glitch hunting whenever I can spare some free time.

Speaking of glitches, I thought I discovered something new, but Zmaster analyzed it and it seems to be a variation of the floating link glitch.
Too bad! This game really needs more glitches.

In case anyone is interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0JnUCUzXZI

Not a bad find. For that specific area, we skip using those switches in single player by jumping & tossing a Link onto the platform blocked off by the flames. The other major glitch, which I have yet to accomplish, is the "actor" glitch in stage 4-3 where you purposefully get caught by the lights and hit "start" to pause on a specific frame. Lastly, a "glitch" worth looking into is the GBA screen distortion (I can't think of a clever name for it), which allows for the possibility of "wrong warping" to a different screen. Unfortunately for me, the only result I get when falling down a hole to a GBA screen and pressing different directional inputs ...is a GBA screen that is off-center from the middle position on the TV. This last glitch is likely the one most worth researching and discovering consistent methods for manipulating in order to chip more time off the run. Best of luck! Recently, I managed to nab the official 2nd place for the fastest Four Swords Adventures runner in the world but I am currently taking a break from the game. I may do runs of Four Swords Anniversary Edition on the 3DS (but excuse the poor camera quality; might get a 3DS with the capture board in the future?) or have fun with A Link to the Past and a certain category that I enjoy (Palace of the Four Sword, Out-of-Bounds, single-segment).

TL;DR
A GBA screen glitch may be the key to wrong warping within a stage

Yeah, I watched Z's IL of 3-3 and saw how it's done fast ^^
The video itself was just to show what the glitch accomplishes (at this point I didn't realize it's just another FLG).

The GBA Screen glitch thingy sounds interesting, I should look into that.

But, in the last week, Z, Pedro and I found some new stuff (several Skips like in 1-1, skipping the complete part past Tingle and just access the bridge early, or skipping the bow and get the lamp faster in 2-3). They all use the GBA OoB Glitch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG8HN58NhOY) to position the Links in unintended places and then reunite with L ,Y or C.

Sweet. The funny thing is... there have been several times where zmaster and I unintentionally did that trick (or something similar) during runs and got irked because it slowed us down. A great example would be using the moon pearl to warp in 8-3 (the main room) with only green link running around when we really wanted all 4 to be present.

Finally, a co-op speedrun has happened! I did this first attempt with friends last night. In theory, I think the time can be pushed down below the sub-4 barrier with 2 competent runners. There are plenty of differences (albeit mostly slower) for the co-op run. Namely, rolling in tight corridors is not feasible due to the risk of stealing another player's additional Link. Also, Shadow Link battles are an issue, as well as the boss battles. Below are the VODs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXlF-fqcZg

or

http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/4181567

Alternative method for skipping the Lost Woods gap on English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2UsJj2Dq50

Probably not faster than just mashing X, but perhaps more consistent and it seems easier to me.

Too bad no one seems to run English anymore  :'(.

So, since we were encouraged to actually use the forums...
Let's update some stuff.

Some cool things were discovered just recently ,

Gem Barrier Skip in 8-3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJb5NbLR64

Skipping the first barrier in 8-3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26zf-o4Lfmo

Jewel fight skip in 7-1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZKfuueCk4

Obtaining bombs early in 6-3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUaA1Y3XQw