Four Swords Anniversary Edition

[Blazeingphoenix]

Question, is there a confirmed World Record for Four Swords Solo. I know there's a WR for Co-Op on the original Four Swords [21:38], but I can't find anyone with a Solo run.
I would like to know, if there's a Solo run of Four Swords A.E. faster than my time [24:20]... which I've been playing for about a week or two.
Also, I'd like to point out, I know for a fact, a Solo run can be under 22 minutes, because my sum of best splits add up to 21:28. [Which, if I ever got that time or faster, I'll be the happiest Four Swords player ever :p]
I've also watched the run of Four Swords Co-Op WR, and I feel that Co-Op could be done under 20 minutes, but I don't have any friends with Four Swords or Four Swords A.E. :p
Lastly, how come ZeldaSpeedRuns doesn't have Four Swords / Four Swords A.E. on the leaderboards?

Here's my run of Fours Swords A.E (sorry for bad quality, I don't have 3DS capture yet):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wVLjQ27KNE&feature=youtu.be

[Zmaster91]

As far as I know no one has done a solo run of the game.  I'm pretty sure that the anniversary edition is the only version that let's you play solo, the gba version forces you to play co-op.

On a side note, I think Tompa said that the gba version is faster due to the text being faster I think.  I was actually looking at this game, maybe I should try a run of it sometime .

[Blazeingphoenix]

Yeah, I did notice that while watching Tompa's WR run, the text is fastest, and it saves a lot of time at the end when doing both fight's of Vaati. I think it was 20-30 seconds faster for the first fight, and about 5-10 seconds faster for the second... if I timed it right. Also, whenever you make a new save on A.E. and start, it forces you to choose the tutorial level. Luckily, I figured out that right after the first [I think they are] fairy speaks, you can hit start and choose Stage select, opening the other 3 areas. I used to get through the first dialog, talk to the second fairy to open the warp, then warp out. The hitting start and leaving the level save about 5-10 seconds. But the tutorial level itself waists 15-20 seconds. So 20-30 second faster text + 5-10 seconds for more faster text + 15-20 seconds wasted on Tutorial, that makes the solo run on A.E. almost a minute longer than GBA Co-Op.
Also, whenever you get all three keys and the animation of Vaati's Palace appears, it makes you sit there and read the text box that appears for awhile on A.E. vs GBA where I noticed Tompa got to choose Vaati's Palace right after it showed the text box. Not only that, I noticed that the Tompa didn't have to watch a little animation of Link putting in the keys to open the door [which is about 5-10 seconds on A.E.]. But all these extra things add up... which is why I think Co-Op is faster than Solo.
Last thing I'd like to point out, is I'm not sure how in the world they killed the boss on Death Mt. so easily. All they had to do was hit the ball back, attack fire, and hit back once more and it died. I've tested this boss on A.E., had 2 strengths up, hit ball back, found the boss in less than 3 seconds while it's in small fire form, hit the boss 8-10 times, and I still had to do another cycle of hitting ball back, attack fire, then killed with third ball back.

[Tompa]

Our co-op run is pretty awful. And we have never tried to get an actual good run so far. And that includes getting good level RNG. I don't really know anything about the levels (RNG, how many there are etc.). For some levels, you save lots of time being alone, in others the opposite and sometimes it hardly matters. So timing which way is actually faster is tricky, with both runs having optimal RNG.

I would love to do some AE runs actually. I haven't got a capturing device for my 3DS however. And you are unable to TAS DSi-ware games . Life's tough... I guess I could just point a camera at it though.

[Blazeingphoenix]

Tompa, of all things you've seen of Four Swords, do you know of any Solo time faster than my 24:20 [which I hope I'll eventually get sub 22 of FS A.E. Solo], if not, is it safe to say at the moment I have WR? Also, [noob alert here... somewhat new to the whole speed running world] what exactly is TAS. I've heard many runners talk about it? Is it like a glitch, or something help make a run of a game faster?
Finally, I will admit you WR run had some bad things to it, but the Talus Cave and Vaati's Palace levels you got were just beautiful... as well as starting off with the woods in Sea of Trees. Basically, from my experience, other than Sea of Trees [being both levels under 30 seconds is great], getting a level done in about a minute or less is great. But my question is, what did you guys do to beat the Death Mt. boss so fast? I always have to hit the fire ball back three times, where as you guys had to only do it twice. :/

[Pedalpowertoast]

Also, [noob alert here... somewhat new to the whole speed running world] what exactly is TAS. I've heard many runners talk about it? Is it like a glitch, or something help make a run of a game faster?

TASes (Tool Assisted Speedruns) are done by using an emulator with save states and slow down to create runs that are really optimised and contain stuff that are almost impossible to do in real time. You can find more info in tasvideos.org

[mzxrules]

Any% is lame. You should run 100% it's longer Kappa.

Also Four Swords isn't on ZSR yet because it has the unfortunate combination of needing to play co-op to achieve any decent times, and being unplayable for many due to either said co-opness or having to be lucky enough to have the AE edition (since it's no longer available for download).

[Blazeingphoenix]

I have also thought about doing a run with the original four stages [Sea of Trees, Talus Cave, Death Mountain, and Vaati's Palace], and also adding Realms of Memories and Hero's Trial. So normal run, and what I'm calling the "Hero's Run". And thought that could be made into two categories... solo runs of that, and co-op runs, since solo and Co-Op use some different mechanics of how to play. So, Four Swords Co-Op, Four Swords Solo, Four Swords Hero's Run Solo, and Four Swords Hero's Co-Op. Any thoughts on that idea?

[26pt2]

Hey Blaze! Just saw that you've been posting here as well. Giving you a heads up that NOUfozzy (Four Swords Adventures runner in training) and I plan on doing an any% race for fun. IMO though, I prefer doing Individual Level runs of the various Realm of Memories stages because there are no boss fights and the stages are not completely RNG (random number generator). As for leaderboards, there is a zelda4sa@gmail.com email that the other FSA runners and I made specifically for ILs of FSA. With the approval of the FSA community, I would be down to add another board for FSAE, especially since I want to do ILs of RoM and possibly Hero's Trial.

Edit: The FSAE leaderboards can be found at (http://bombch.us/X9O)

[Blazeingphoenix]

Whatz Up everyone! Been awhile since I've talked about Four Swords / Four Swords A.E. on here. So, just a heads up to everyone, I have been busy with college, as well as playing around with other games (whether it's new games that come out I get to play, or practicing other games to speed run) so I haven't done a whole lot with Four Swords A.E., but I have been playing around with the three Realm of Memories levels. My 3DS has yet to be modded, due to stupid reasons I rather not talk about... so the most I can do recording wise is still with my tablet. :/
But once I get it modded, I'll start going for the fastest times I can for main game solo and all the individual levels [I don't want to go all out till I have as great of a quality video as I can].

Anyways, I have found some cool things within each of the levels of the Realm of Memories. I've posted a video of my run with Realm of Memories: Link's Awakening [which I've learned a few new things, so I may redo the video soon]. Working on RoM: Legend of Zelda and RoM: A Link to the Past [once I post those videos, I'll edit this post saying I've uploaded them]. They can be found on my main YouTube Channel Blazeingphoenix. As for Hero's Trails, I tried one of the levels out, and I have beaten all of them before, but I still suck at them. So those I would need to do when I have a great free time to find a "easy" way to do them. So I wouldn't expect me doing a video of those anytime soon.

Finally, I know Four Swords is hard to do for Zeldaspeedruns, due to the fact of needing co-op for the GBA version [plus whatever extra is needed for co-op] and due to the fact Four Swords A.E. is unavailable, making it hard to get, and requiring a great camera or DSi/3DS capture device [the preferred way] for video proof... but I think it would still be great to have a leaderboard for it on the site. It may get some more people trying the game out, or show people that there are people doing runs of the game. Whether it's main game co-op, main game solo, or individual levels [co-op and solo]. I'm not going to get mad or sad if you guys don't do it, as it seems no one is really affected that it's not up there, but I feel it may help more people try the game, and get into it.

[Blazeingphoenix]

So, while playing around on Four Swords A.E. Hero's Trail Bronze Door [the ice like levels], on the second level of it, I found out you can skip a big portion of the level, saving minutes. But, it's luck based whether you can get it [as far as I know].
Basically, after the first wave of the five Spiked Beetles and getting across the ice, there's a patch of grass. If you're lucky, one of the grasses may contain a bomb. Quickly, try to move the bomb in the middle of the wall south of the grass [right next to the ice you came from]. If fast enough [or the grass next to the wall was the one that had the bomb, making things easier], it should create a hole in the wall. Walk in the hole, and it'll move Link up to the four chest area. Now you've skipped a great portion of this long level.
I found this out by accident, just by cutting grass to try to get hearts, and a bomb showed up out of no where, and making a hole in the wall. I've played around with this a lot, and either I have bad luck, or bombs don't show up much in the grass. Out of around 50 attempts, I've only had 2 bombs show up. And the 2 bombs only showed up around the first 5 attempt, meaning the following 45, I've yet to see another one. :/
Overall, I like there's a way to skip a good portion of that level, but it seems like it'll be rare to do it.

[Blazeingphoenix]

So, started playing around on Four Swords A.E. today, since I haven't played it in over half a year (mainly been spending my time speed running Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (1.5)). While playing around on Hero's Trail Dark Talus Cave (Gold Door... not Bronze like I said in last message), I played around with the bombable wall on the second level of it. I found out if you hold your sword out and start tapping it on the wall, it makes a different sounding clank as well as an ! appears next to Link's head. Sound difference is kinda like how it is in Ocarina of Time, where bombable walls have different sounds when you hit your sword on it. Not sure if this was a known thing or not, but if not, maybe this could be useful for finding other shortcut walls. Prob. not going to get back into Four Swords A.E. any time soon, as I still have no way for straight video capture and don't want to use a camera to record video. I do eventually want to route out Hero's Trail though, even though I know that'll be a difficult task.

[Tompa]

That "sword tap" to hear the noise of breakable walls has been a thing in most 2D Zelda games, from A Link to the Past and on. So that's not really new =).

I've been able to make LeafeonZ intersted in running this game. We will be doing races for it eventually, in case you want to join in!

[Blazeingphoenix]

Whatz Up everyone. Another good amount of months since I've posted about Four Swords A.E. I'm back to Four Swords A.E. again, as I have a better camera and wanting to try to beat my time of 24:20. Not the best camera, and not nearly as good as a modded DSi/3DS straight capture, but I feel it's better than my last camera. Anyways, the main reason why I'm posting here is while I was relearning both the levels and the bosses, came up with a fast way of fighting the Talus Cave boss, Dera Zol. Nothing too amazing, but it tend to be about 10-15 seconds than what I did in my 24:20 run (which had a sloppy fight anyways). I explain how the strat works in the description of the video. I would like to apologies in advanced for the video being recorded vertically, just wanted to show both top screen and bottom screen, thinking it may be necessary while I recorded the fight. When I do attempts again, most likely will just have top screen shown... as I see no real need of showing bottom except for having stat boost being shown.

Video for me fighting the boss Dera Zol --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd6Ap8jQmz8&feature=youtu.be

Note: Not the fastest I've fought that boss, and made some sleight mistakes in the video (nothing to time costly, but mistakes nonetheless). But I feel I showed what I wanted to show. Also, still unable to stream, so if/when I do beat 24:20, will have it uploaded on YouTube. My goal is to get sub 22, but I may be happy if I get sub 23. If/when I do beat my 24:20 time and post the video, and people don't mind me recording with a camera, may also try to improve my times for the Realm of Memories levels, as I remember having fun routing and doing those. As for Hero's Trail... undecided about that.