Released in January 2005, Resident Evil 4 follows Leon Kennedy, now a U.S. Agent, on his quest to find the President's kidnapped daughter. His path leads him to a mysterious town in Europe where he is suddenly attacked by the locals who seem to have gone insane. Leon must survive long enough to rescue Ashley and solve the mystery behind the villagers' madness. The game was re-released for PlayStation 2 in October 2005, and for Wii in June 2007.
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2:06:24 by Tim Bright, done in 19 segments.
Author's comments:
From what I remember, the biggest 'problem' in my run for the first few segments was simply inventory management. While the first time I access my inventory to switch to a grenade was pretty quick, everything following that was pretty slow, mainly because I used the wrong control pad when in the inventory screen. As the run progresses, however, I get much better, and it quickly becomes the least of my problems. Also worth noting is the fact that I didn't figure out how to go directly from the inventory screen to the treasure screen until about chapter 3, though it didn't save that much time to warrant re-doing the entire run before that point. This run was segmented once per sub-chapter for a total of 19 segments. Remember, however, that these are reflections, and are not what went through my mind as I was doing the run. Also, I could not re-do just one segment, because the end time would hopefully not match up with the load time of the next chapter, and in difficult chapters, the ammo count would not match up either, meaning I would have to redo all subsequent segments(irregardless of how perfect they were) just to fix a few errors in the first few segments. I'm writing this more than a week after I finished the run, so I can now see what I could do differently, rather than how well I did what I thought was the best route, as I was when I first finished a segment and looked it over. Also, while the below statements seem to endlessly list mistakes, I wouldn't doubt that any more than a minute and a half could be shaved off by perfecting my current strategies. I'm pretty proud of this run, and will probably only try to improve it if someone were to beat my time.
1-1
I start the run out with a critical head shot (the first few enemies' heads remain in tact, even in you shoot them with the handcannon), and quickly move on to the main fight scene. Overall, I think it went pretty well. I was hoping for a grenade to drop from the first round of enemies I took out, but this is very rare, and even rarer if you want the head shot and grenade in the same segment, so I decided to leave it be without. Also, the reason I wait after tossing the first grenade is that if I went too far to the left the ganados would not spawn in that convenient alley where I used the second grenade. Again, I was slow healing myself at the end of the fight, but it was still my best time for that chapter. This segment was two seconds faster than my previous best, despite what you see on the save screen, where it appears fourteen seconds were mysteriously shaved off. Finally, I felt the blind shot to the trip-wire at the end was a pretty nice visual add-on, though it didn't actually save or lose time.
1-2
I honestly don't think this could have gone any better. It seemed as though every ganado cooperated with me, especially those before the dynamite room. No matter what I did, one of them would usually hit/grab me, effectively ruining the run, forcing me to either accept the lost time, or restart the run. I was a little conservative when shooting down the pocket watch because I didn't want to waste ammo and have to reload. After practicing this segment again, just goofing around and whatnot, I found that you don't have to wait for the ganado with the axe at the bottom of the hill to attack if you run fast enough and hug the left wall.
1-3
Lots of ammo collecting here, specifically grenades/incendiaries. Again, I had a slow merchant interaction(it gets MUCH faster later in the run), then proceeded to turn the wrong way when I left him. I'm pretty sure that the pauses before the graveyard cut scene didn't waste any time, because pressing start seems to pause the timer(though I'm not sure how quickly the timer is stopped/resumed). The Del Lago went great, in my opinion, as it could have only been 1 throw faster, had I hit him three times before he submerged in the beginning of the fight. That only would have saved approximately three seconds though, and saving at the typewriter in order to get rid of this problem would have cost me about ten seconds, because the timer keeps going until you agree to save.
2-1
This is another pretty good segment, overall. I amazed myself with the shooting of the boxes to make the bridge (of course I only left myself with exactly three bullets, meaning I couldn't miss). Later, however, I miss the Amber Ring once, but missing it gave the enemies just enough time to position themselves in a manner in which I could just run by without getting hit. I use the five seconds which needed to be waited through to get a short load time after the demise of El Gigante to collect Shotgun Ammo and a spinnel. If you flash-forward a few segments, however, this proves to be the wrong decision (as opposed to waiting the time in the pause screen), as I have more than eighty shells in my inventory at one point. The rest of the segment is pretty much running, and nothing really went wrong.
2-2
I had just gotten past the Water Room with a reasonably good time, then proceeded to celebrate with a little jumping and shouting. I then went back to review all the segments, and, for whatever reason, this segment was missing. I had written down the time of the segment and continuously checked that spot on the tape, yet it was gone. There was no other segment near it (I left the tape running over many attempts, and the final attempt ended up being near the very end), just black on the screen. Luckily for you (and me) this did not discourage me, and I went back (Thank God I still had the save), and ended up completing the chapter fifteen seconds faster than the previously recorded one! One of the major differences between this one and the previous one was that I had Ashley get attacked when I first re-enter the village. This seems to lower the health of the ganados in the Cabin, effectively shortening the total time of the fight.
2-3
Hopefully you realize that my accuracy is not really that bad, as you should see me actually hit the ganados when I'm trying, especially near the end. I was both trying to get rid of some ammo, as well as lower my accuracy, as this supposedly lowers the difficulty of Mendez. Unfortunately, I didn't waste enough ammo, as it still took four incendiary grenades to take out his first form, plus an extra shotgun blast at the end. Overall, however, not too much time was wasted. I wanted to leave Ashley earlier so she gets grabbed, but oh well. I also used the knife trick on Ashley on the former segment during the gondola ride, but when I was forced to redo it I figured it was best to leave it out. And if you don't know what the knife trick is, it's probably better I don't tell you.
3-1
This one is very long, and very difficult. In my opinion, the developers should have ended the chapter after the Ramon Salazar cut scene (when you enter the castle, right before the typewriter). Anyway, I somehow managed to do the entire segment without the use of that typewriter, and without any large mistakes. Unfortunately, I was about seven thousand pesetas short of the one hundred and five thousand needed to buy the larger case, the semi-auto rifle, and the Rocket Launcher for the two garradors, and was forced to pick up the gold bangle next to that 'house'. The interaction with the merchant during this segment was the type of inventory 'skills' I referenced to earlier in my comments; in other words, it was pretty good. For some reason, there is always a group of zealots just standing outside the door of the castle gate key room, even after I shoot the barrel(unfortunately it just stuns them from such a great distance), making me shoot them down, or run past them, most likely taking damage; I chose the former. The garrador fight went pretty well, as I can't aim quick enough to get two shots in before he recovers, so I wait until the moment he stands up straight, then shoot the plaga. Any sooner would not cause him to writhe in pain, and, instead, attack me. The water room itself, surprisingly, went really well. There were many close calls in the beginning, but Ashley pulled through (I'm not quite sure how, seeing as she ducks for cover in much safer situations, allowing herself to get hit/grabbed, as seen later in this segment), and eventually we made it from the two switches to the crank, where I made Ashley turn. During this time, I switch to my inventory many times, though not one of those times was an accident, or wasted time. When the stairs finally came down, I threw a flash grenade, then ran up and kicked them because of a zealot who wasn't stunned. Ashley ducked, contrary to her previous acts of bravery, wasted about six seconds and got hit. I don't heal her because she automatically has full health at the start of her chapter. The next part I'm pretty proud of. Head shot after head shot, all in quick, sequential order, of everyone on the balcony. I felt it was very entertaining to say the least. After I get the first aid spray, I should have reloaded the Rifle, because if I had messed that running zealot, I would have been screwed. Oh well, the rest went really well, and we finish off the hardest part thus far. The time shaved off at the end was actually how much time I went down after re-doing the cabin fight, and coming back to this part. It took me nearly three weeks(including a lot of my spring break) to get the first time, then I come back and crush it. Yay for me!
3-2
Fairly easy chapter, yet I still manage fuck it up. By far, this is the worst segment in the whole run. Don't get me wrong; this segment is not horrible, but still leaves room for a lot of improvement. The sewers and the Hedge maze went fine. It was the middle parts which gave me trouble. Somehow, I missed the second shot to the red zealot carrying the key, yet still was able to kill him before he ran through the door, as he usually does. Also in this part, I pick up the stash in the corner, totaling around four thousand pesetas. Combine that with the extra thousand I had from selling the gold bangle, and you have how much money I had left over at the end of the run, meaning you can tack an extra three seconds to the list of time wasted in this segment. The next parts mistakes primarily consisted of enemies attacking. I tried turning around so the first zealot would grab Leon's back, which would not have done any damage. Instead, I was about ninety percent turned around when he grabbed me, and put my health exactly where orange health(aka 'caution' in the previous games), forcing me to grab the green herb conveniently located next to the door (I actually didn't even know there was one there until I looked it up in my strategy guide one or two attempts before this). The next part was just bad. I'm not even going to bother commenting on it besides this little rant; you should be able to see what went wrong for yourself.
3-3
The shortest chapter in the game, meaning it has the most potential to be perfect, and I think this was pretty close to it. I could have shot the wine-bottle a bit faster, and I was hoping the archer would hit me sooner while I was reloading the shotgun. The next part was good, except I veered a bit too far when avoiding the mace zealot. I purposely take damage by the shielded enemies in order to prevent multiple rounds of enemies during the next part. I did not heal Leon, because the game auto-heals him at the start of chapter four.
3-4
Another great segment. One hundred percent accuracy too, I might add. I probably could have shot the first three enemies a bit faster had I zoomed out, and used the D-pad along with the control stick, but it was still pretty good. Ashley got to the door pretty quickly, which didn't allow me enough time to properly set up for the second round of zealots, but I compensated for it pretty well with quick and accurate aiming. I have to admit, I completely stole the grenade strategy used from Tarao's run. Without it, the sequence generally took thirty to forty five seconds longer because I had to wait for everyone to get themselves into a good position, then shoot each one individually. The reason I waited to behead the final enemy was because If I shot him while he was sideways, as he was in the beginning, the game would think I shot Ashley, even though the cross hairs were nowhere near her. When I first take control of Ashley, there seems to be a mandatory pause before she starts moving, so rest assured that I did not lose focus or mess up, in case you were wondering about that. I spent maybe a turn or two longer than I should have on the second crank, but that wasn't too big of a time waster, and there's a trick I didn't use to get past the 'button-press' knights a few milliseconds faster (combined with all three, it may have saved a second at most), but was used in the next part (I didn't find it until then, unfortunately). The rest of the run was near perfect, in my opinion, as I didn't mess up at all, except maybe taking semi wide around the corners at the end.
4-1
Yet another long start to a new chapter. To start things off, I probably should have switched to the flash grenade right away instead of waiting until I killed that guy blocking my path. Because it was at the beginning of the segment, I easily could have retried until I dodged him. Anyways, I use a flash grenade to knock off the zealot controlling the dragon which blocked the way to the chest because none of my other weapons seemed strong enough to break the locks efficiently, and shooting him from the side after waiting for the fire to be blown in the middle proved to be too time consuming. This did, however, set me back, as I was a grenade short for the Knights in the following part. Luckily, however, there was a flash grenade conveniently placed on a chair just barely off the beaten path. I shot the falling ceiling tiles before they descended, saving a few seconds(even though it was a bit slow), and I may have been a bit slow killing the second zealot in the killing machine, though I don't know for sure. Right before the knights room, there are suits of armor you have to dodge. During the time where it prompts you to dodge its attack by hitting a button combination, you can walk or run in any direction. The knight attacks too fast to completely dodge the attack, as shown by the second knight, but this is still beneficial because instead of losing five or more steps during the dodge back flip, you only lose those five steps minus the length you managed to go before pressing the dodge buttons. I discovered this trick on these knights, which is why you don't see me use it with Ashley, and I figured it didn't save enough time to warrant a re-run of the previous segment. The actual Knight 'boss' battle went pretty well, though every bit of ammo I picked up proved to be wasted time. One of my biggest regrets of this run was the use of the yellow herb. I didn't mean to pick it up; when I was running toward the door, I was simply tapping 'A' in anticipation of the door, and I accidentally picked it up. It did, however, prove to be moderately useful by the end of chapter five. I got pretty lucky in the hallway right after the Knight battle, as, despite several extremely close calls, I managed to get through un-damaged. Too bad I couldn't say the same for the Novistador nest room. It was all going perfect: I ran to the switch, shot down the bridge fairly well (I only missed once, but it was a quick-fix), turned around, kicked a couple of novistadors, then one grabbed me. Had I run a few steps farther, I'd have been able to kick the approaching novistador, and continue on my merry way. This, of course, didn't happen, but luckily that was the only damage taken in that room. In the clock tower, I should have re-loaded at the bottom as I waited for the dynamite to explode, but Luckily Leon reloads fairly quickly. In my opinion, the zealot who grabbed me at the bottom either should have missed, or grabbed my back, as I wasn't even close to facing him when I got grabbed. The next parts went pretty well, though, as I was recording the run, I thought I had missed the garrador with the rifle shot, which was the reason I reloaded. I should have switched to the rocket as soon as I bought it from the merchant, as Leon seems to run faster with it, and picking up the incendiary grenade was pointless because I used an alternate strategy for Krauser.
4-2
I start this segment off on a bad foot; "Not enough cash, strangah," not to mention the rest of the interaction went mind-numbingly slow to say the least. The reason I kept this segment, then, was because of the remaining parts. The mining room went great. I ran from the cart switch, to the power switch, and back to the cart switch without a problem-a very rare occasion. When I grabbed the dynamite, however, and proceeded back to the boulder, I got grabbed accidentally by some jerk. The second grab, however was on purpose, as I wanted to avoid flinching after the explosion of the boulder. Unfortunately, that damn dynamite enemy decided to die from the explosion, causing his dynamite to explode, causing me to flinch anyway(the flinch from the boulder would have wasted less time, but usually he is knocked back and doesn't die). I was able to grab the grenade without getting hit or grabbed, so that was a plus. In the next room, it seems that I'm looking for the switch-don't worry, I knew where it was; I was simply trying to lure the Gigante into the right spot so I could dump him in the lava without standing at the switch, waiting for him. Also, it may appear that time was wasted when I missed the money the second gigante gave, but none was actually wasted, as I still had to wait for the door to open. The reason for that is because the door only opens once both are dead and disintegrated, or at least started the process, and I had to wait for the the one in the lava to die. The novistador cave went great. I only needed one kick to get out of the first cave, one kick to get in the next, and one kick to get out. Once I was out, I felt a bit cocky, and avoided a kick, which proved to be the wrong decision, once again. I then left the level with only one more kick to the two novistadors at the end. One more thing, after reviewing the tapes, I was wondering whether it might be possible to simply run past the triple(if not then do the double) blocks without any weapons. If I recall correctly, I tried it and it didn't work, but I don't have a save near it anymore, so I can't test out this theory at the moment. Just some food for thought.
4-3
Not a very exciting chapter, and very few mistakes. It was pretty good up until the falling ceiling room; not much to comment on there. In that room, you see me shoot the first two tiles, run forward, turn around, shoot one, back up, then the other. This was simply to avoid getting hit by the plagas in the room. You can see that it was worth the effort, because as I was exiting, one jumped at Leon, and barely missed. It is possible to aim really fast and not have to move at all, but I only could do that if I were really lucky, or was using the Chicago Typewriter, which I didn't have in my run. I recommend you actually watch the cart ride, as there are some interesting spots, I knife a bunch of enemies, kill a couple of Dr. Salvadors, stuff like that. The only improvements I could see would have been to duck at the second road block(thereby eliminating the need to heal myself, which also would have saved a first aid spray) and switching to a flash grenade at the end of the ride to run a bit faster. Of course if I did that, I wouldn't have remembered to relocate the other grenades, which would have wasted a lot more time.
4-4
One of my best segments. Its hard to comment on perfection without sounding braggy, so I guess I'll tell you of the hardships which were overcome to erect such a wonderful work of art (there I go sounding all braggy, again). The initial inventory management would have been unnecessary had I weened off the Shotgun ammo collection, though it still went pretty fast. I usually played the cutscenes by ear, as I knew about where they were initiated, and tried to press start as soon as it started. Then, I had to worry about the zealot blocking the way. I easily dodged his attack, and ran up the ladder. The flash grenade could have been thrown a bit closer, but no time wasted either way. I may have been able to press the button prompts a bit faster, and the reload after shooting the lock on the door was pretty cool, I thought. In the tower, I waited at the bottom of the ladder in order to let the guy on top fiddish his animation, and pull the switch again, and, if I went any sooner, he would have turned and grabbed me. One of the main reasons I saved up so much shotgun ammo was because I wanted to make sure I had enough for the elevator ride. When I actually did that part, however, I discovered an extremely easy method to quickly go up the elevator(though the positioning needs to be pretty pricise), meaning I had tons of leftover ammo just waiting to be used...Anyways, the ride itself went pretty well; I managed to shoot the dynamite out of that one guy's hand, which killed him, I reloaded too soon after that, though(though I probably would have waited about that long for them to get into position). Then, at the top, I shot two groups too early, resulting in one enemy from each staying aboard. I decided to kill the one with the mask because the one without a mask always sprouts a plaga when killed, meaning they would take many more hits, and much more time to kill. Salazar went very well, and running to the exit couldn't have gone any better. Ok, so it wasn't perfect. You have to admit, though, it was still pretty damn good. Hopefully you did, because I spent almost as much time working for a good segment as I did for the water room, because the elevator trick isn't as easy as it looks, nor was the first part a walk in the park.
5-1
Finally, after all this work, were onto disk two(and less than forty minutes left of the game). There's some pretty nice running up to the first mirror, which I turn before I turn before I press the button which sends out the laser. I would have done the other one as well, but no matter how close you get to it being correct, the game automatically shows the laser shooting just left or right of its intended target. As soon as I run up to the mirror and check on it, without pressing anything else, besides 'A' of course, the door opens, meaning Leon has to be at one of the mirrors in order to solve the puzzle. Also, running to the side of the door which you see me go to in the run is the easiest way to avoid getting shot at by JJ, though the other side seems to put you on a better, faster path (you can go anywhere on that door to start the laser). After that's done, I jump down too much toward the center of the edge of the opening and get maced. I'm not quite sure what causes the boulder to be pushed onto Leon, but luckily it didn't happen. I use the same methodology to avoid the rocket ganado's attack which I used for JJ, and manage to squeeze through the pack of enemies guarding the door at the end of the path. Too bad you can't use the ladder like Ada does in her minigame. I would like to alk about the garage door trick used in this segment, and how it evolved. As you can imagine, I enjoyed the effect combining a bullet with dynamite has in this game, as demonstrated in the previous segment. My original method for this room was to toss a grenade at them, and hope it blows up before they threw their dynamite(a single grenade won't kill them, but if the grenade sets off the dynamite in their hands, they die). This method, however, was very boring, wasted a lot of time, and was pretty unreliable. I then turned to the handgun, where I tried shooting the dynamite before it left either one of their hands. This method proved to be even more unreliable, because the small window of oppertunity to shoot, combined with the small target at such a great distance, caused a very difficult shot fairly far into the run. I then turned to the rifle to try to snipe the dynamite, which was when I discovered one of them was not wearing a helmet; I put two and two together and you have the trick. Not only is this method much faster than the original, it looks much cooler, and allowed me to skip th grenade in the basin after Oven Man, saving even more time (plus it was the only reason I got one-hundred percent accuracy for this stage). For some reason, I feel there exists a faster method to complete the colored arrows security switch puzzle; whatever that is I havent found (though I haven't actually tried yet), but I feel there has to be one. I'm probably wrong, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway. The waste-disposal area was going perfectly until that jerk in the corner shashed me. Ironically, however, I ended up right next to an herb, nullifying the effects of the attack barring a few seconds. The balance of the run couldn't have gone any smother, except maybe switching to the rocket launcher faster. Other than that, though, this was a very nicely done segment.
5-2
A very fun segment; I waste sixty-four shotgun shells,effectively thinning out my inventory. For this chapter I had to make a choice: combine this part with the previous, meaning I would have a longer paper airplane cut scene, but no giant enemies behind the door, or have it be its own segment, have a short cut scene, but have the giant enemies. I chose the latter, both going with the current format of the run, plus the insane difficulty that the former would entail, not to mention the headaches and rages resulting from failed attempts(...not that any of that occured...). Of course, they are just far enough away where the door will not hit them if I kicked it open, so I had to wait for them to attack to make my move. I threw a flash grenade for safety as soon as I passed them, then safely proceeded to the exit. Up to the dumpster all went pretty well; I like how the enemies attack Ashley instead of Leon, even though their job is to safely extract her to Saddler's lair. Because I got rid of the knife trick on the gondola ride, I added a little 'bonus' during the crate pushing. If you squint really hard, and use your imagination, it looks like Ashley and Leon are doing some, um, 'overtime' (please don't tell me that I'm the only one who sees it). Then there was the wrecking ball room. If Ashley was anymore of a coward, I'm not quite sure how completing this game would be even remotely possible. Sure, I could see why she ducked after the ganado tried to grab her. But staying down while he's stunned with his back turned to her? What the hell? Is she really THAT stupid? I could rant all day about how many times I've had to hit the reset button because of her, but these comments are running pretty long as is. Of course, I had my own instance of stupidity in the same segment when I threw the third flash grenade, hoping it would deflect the axe the ganado had thrown at Leon (I should have waited a bit longer, as that giant enemy nearly cost me the run as I was running for the exit). As you watch Leon dodge the regenerator while Ashley opens the door, it looks as though Leon is thinking, 'oh, you think you're tough? I can kick your ass. Or, maybe not...' as he turns and rns away. If you look closely, you can see that the regenerator Leon said that to got mad, as he was about a millisecond away from attacking Ashley (If you blink, you'll miss it; it's right after Leon and Ashley unlock the double doors, and before I open it). Only two minor mistakes were made in the remainder of the run, one of which was semi-expected. Those occured at the pit-stop, where I had to flip the switch, and the mace ganado hit me (very rude, I know), and at the very end when the final ganado (whom I was THIS close to shooting, but I panicked because I heard the truck) hit me just after I dealt enough damage to the truck. It was a very lucky break from this unlucky situation, I guess, if you were to look at it positively. I finished it off with a very nice Merchant interaction, but a slower than I would have liked cut scene skip. Again, I make this segment look easy, but it was far from it. In fact, I got so mad at this part I actually broke the controller. I didn't mean to; I was just really pissed because I kept dying for the stupidest reasons, like one of the enemies walking through the bottom of the truck where I stood, instead of hopping on top (you'll see one actually do this, if you don't believe me, during the run), or Ashley dieing in the beginning amoung other things, so I threw my controller at the bean-bag chair in hopes it would take out my anger without doing any severe damage. However, the chair was quite a distance away from the GameCube, and the cord would disconnect from the console, seemingly doing no damage(it was a relatively straight path, I thought it just disconnected, and that was it). Shamefully, I had made this a habbit since about chapter four, subchapter four, though none of those times foreshadowed a problem. On the final time, however, the connection point of the controller was mangled beyond repair. Luckily, I had my trusty Wavebird controller just waiting to be played. Despite not having a cord, I refrained from throwing it like its predicessor.
5-3
So simple, yet so very hard. Simply put, this segment consists of the Krauser knife fight cut scene, two bosses, and the running inbetween; if only it were that easy to run through. To be honest, the Knife Fight was just a waste of time for this run; I perfected a method in which will get me through it every single time I play, unless, of course, the batteries of my wavebird died. The biggest problem in the beginning of this segment was simply knowing which direction to turn and when to do it. The laser part was great; a quick note: That is the last time I reload the handgun; it only needed two more bullets than what was already in there to complete the game, but I end up using an extra one due to some bad aiming. That bad aiming doesn't come until the next chapter, though, so enjoy the perfect shooting included in this segment (that's right, another one-hundred percent accuracy to add to the list). The only way the U3 battle could have gone faster was if he were to cooperate better(I still did pretty well maneuvering around him, though). That pause before I press the switch was because I didn't even know U3 was attacking. I simply thought I had pressed the switch, and was free to proceed. Luckily, however, I was still pressing 'B' because of the running; if it were the other button prompt, I'd have died, and had to restart from the beginning. I start running a bit too soon after I tossed the grenade in the third segment, but not too much time was lost. Switching to the Rocket Launcher at the point in which I did seems to allow me to bypass the long loading screens after each skipped cut scene, as is clearly displayed in the movie. Somehow, he survives the rocket blast, but my knife makes short work of him after that. The enemies guarding the tent seemed to cooperate with me well, and the merchant interaction was phenominal. Quickly moving onto the Krauser area, I didn't make any mistakes. At Krauser, however, I was hoping he would toss a grenade or shoot an arrow. Unfortunately, he took out his TMP, and fired away. My path to the stairs was a bit off, which cost me health and time, as it gave Krauser just enough time to hit me. In the first 'house' is where my worries for this segment begin; in order to have a good segment, I need to kill him quickly, which, in this case, inclides two well aimed knife shots(one to his torso, one to his head). Krauser seems to slide different distances into the house each time, which makes it difficult to hit him in the head with relatively good consistancy. After accomplishing that, You see me wait at the door; If I tried to open the door any sooner I would have activated the locking cut scene, and, about a second later, the unlocking cut scene would take place, both unskippable if I remember correctly. I then proceed to grab the first aid in the hut for the sole purpose of healing after the actual boss fight with Krauser, and wait at the window until he started to shoot, because jumping over the window stops the firing. The next Krauser battle was fairly easy: just shoot his grenade, then knife him in the face. The real challenge of this part is accurately pushing the block. While I don't get it, the amount of space I miss it by is questionable; if you look closely, you can actually see space between the edge of the statue and the crumbling pillar. Oh well. The rest went pretty well. I hope you enjoy my Krauser strategy(I won't comment on it so as to not spoil it), as I found it pretty fun and entertaining, not to mention it saved a few seconds. Too bad you can't combine all the pieces at the end and place them all in at once, as it would have sped up this long, boring process.
5-4
Way too many enemies. With that, however, I would like to say that every time I got hit was on purpose, with the exception of that archer near the end, to lower the difficulty of Saddler enough to where a single rocket was enough to trigger the Ada cut scene. Somehow I manage to miss the barrel which knocks the lock off of the door (you have to admit, it was a pretty bad camera angle), but the rest of it went pretty well, up to that point. Luckily, I didn't have to wait for JJ to swing at me, nor did I have to wait for the archer at the bottom to shoot(Its a pretty sweet still if you pause it as soon as Leon gets hit). That Yellow herb used earlier definately pays off in this chapter. Many a time I am hit, and my health is just above the point where I need to heal, saving me a lot of time from not accessing my inventory, or walking slowly. It was absolutely necessary that the rocket launcher enemy hit me when he did; by doing so, he killed the ganado opperating the machine gun turret, which makes Mike blow up the other side, which, for those of you still with me, is a very good thing. The rest of this part went perfect, except I didn't need to pick up the first aid spray. The next running sequences were fine, nothing really to comment on. Because of the yellow herb, as previously mentioned, I didn't have to heal after that archer shot Leon in the back. I accidentally check the door again after the cut scene of it locking, but not too mech time was wasted. Immediately after that, I kill just the ganado with the key card; usually I kill a bunch of them because of their positions, but as long as I don't kill them all, JJ won't make an appearance. You see me pause after using the key-card because, as you'll surely notice, the game was moving ridiculously slow (you can bet, however, that the timer was still going full speed ahead). The pause seemed to restore it back to the speed it was before the use of the card, but it was still pretty slow, and gradually got faster. Picking up the flash grenade on the table proved to be an unnecessary precaution, as I stunned everyone whom could possibly be deemed as a threat with a single one, and was able to proceed to the exit with only a little bit of maneuvering to dodge the two shielded ganados. Ocasionally, the first giant enemy doesn't point at Leon, and I figured I could use the second flash grenade on him, but the need didn't arise. With this segment, you either do well, like I did, or fail miserably because of all the random elements presented in this one segment. Luckily, I managed to get most of the random elements to cooperate, and was able to produce what you will see in the chapter before the end of the game. It only took me the better part of a weekend to get a segment I was satisfied with, but, besides that, I have no other interesting real-life tales to share with you.
6-1
Wow. The end of the game already. When I first started out, maybe five months ago, it seemed as though this day waould never come. I felt as though I was destined to fail as so many others have before me. But I didn't; I pushed through thick and thin, triumphed over evil, and celebrated with the good (though no 'overtime'...) until I created an ample conclusion to this two hour epic tale of a man chasing after a girl, over, and over again after tragically losing and getting her back so many times. Overall, this was the best I could manage for the finale of the run. Squeaking out a few more seconds may have been possible, but not by any means I know of. Unfortunately, I was unable to skip the Ada cut scene, no matter what button I mashed, so that definately added a few unnecessary seconds. I'm pretty sure that this is just an NTSC problem, because in the PAL version, the cut scene is easily skipped. While on the Jetski, I didn't do the back flip, because I'm pretty sure it wastes more time than its worth, but I pulled off the barrel rolls for your viewing pleasure. Finally, I skipped the credits, even though they don't add any time, but I left in the final radio call as a nice conclusion to the run. Shooting the left eye on Saddler's leg is a lot easier and faster than shooting the one way up high on the right leg. There were no mistakes in this segment; being the last segment, I wanted it perfect so it left you with a sense of amazement. Somehow, however, seeing that 'twenty-four' at the end stat screen gave me a feeling of dissapointment. I was hoping it the seconds be in the teens, and, had the Ada cut scene been skippable, I'd have achieved my goal. Since there was nothing I could do about that, I decided to not let it bother me too much, and kept the segment, thus completing the run.
With that, I say, with the upmost sincerity, that I hope you enjoy the run as much, if not more, than you enjoyed reading my comments (you did read all that, right?). I had a lot of fun making this run, and hopefully that will be reflected through my playing. It was, however, not all fun and games; as you can see there are still a few mistakes left in. Just remember, though: for each mistake you see, there were about twenty others painstakenly ironed out. To get a perfect segment each time would require much more time than its worth in time saved, in my opinion, though each one of the segments presented to you was my personal best for each part of Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo GameCube. I gave you nothing less than my lowest time, as shown by the save times at the end of each segment, so remember that also when you watch this. Overall, I am very proud of this run, as it is a mere seven minutes slower than my special weapons run, which you can see here also. I do, however, like this run better because I spent much more time making it, and I feel the overall playing quality is better, and is therefore more fun to watch. The beginning chapters and the end chapters were, in my opinion, extremely well done. The middle bulk of this run could use a little bit more practice, but was still pretty well done. Now you know all the secrets of this run, and every reason I made every move. You may wish to take that with a grain of salt, but I thought you would like to know those things while you were watching the run itself. Again, I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it!
If you wish to talk about this run, or about video games in general, you can IM me at leprachaunboy04
Special weapons run, European version, in 1:43:47 by Tomi Salo, done in 18 segments.
Author's comments:
Thanks
Radix for founding this awesome site and mikwuyma for running it now. nate for encoding my run and DJGrenola for the other stuff :p. atwyatt, on top of the TMP glitch, you've been awesome help and support from start to finish. Ditman from GameFAQs for discovering the striker glitch (ditman), pota and torao for their groundbreaking runs from couple of years ago. ZhenXiang for his/her 1:47 run which I stole couple of tricks from and all the others who kept watching/supporting during the making of the run.
General Tricks and Techniques
The run
The reason I picked up the normal costumes is because I simply can't stand the special ones.
Start out with the Striker, use ditman after the first kill and jump out the window downstairs because the window upstairs cancels the glitch. Used a grenade at the first group in the village and as you can see the first group spawns a lot faster on PAL so you gotta be fast when switching to IRL. The first group has quite slow chance of spawning, I think I found a way to manipulate the second group. Move like I did after shooting the first group and there's probably a trigger somewhere. I might be completely wrong, though (credit atwyatt for the village fight strat). Rest of the run is piece of cake, except for the grenade throw in the end.
I played these two chapters together because it allows me to skip the loading in 1-3, saving around 10 secs on PAL and allowing me to make Del Lago a bit easier by saving at the cabin. Of course the fastest way would be to run 1-2 and 1-3 plus Del Lago but that would take forever to pull off. I could have thrown the grenade in the beginning right when I entered the area but I didn't find it reliable at all. Also, taking time to aim the throw is probably slower than my method (thanks atwyatt for this). I could have shot the both tripmines at once, dunno how I completely missed that :/.
Stupid random asshole. The throw when Del Lago turns around the first time is stupid random because of lag. Also, to get Del Lago not to dive is just so much fun.
Ok, shooting those crates weren't good. Rest of the chapter goes well, mainly because this is one of those two-three chapters which have no randomness.
Thanks Ashley for making ditman glitch almost useless in this chapter, well, there weren't many places to use it! Blowing up myself wasn't intentional in the cabin fight but it killed one of the enemies so it was enough. Cabin fight solely depends on how Luis kills those enemies.
The second non-random chapter. One of the better chapters in my run. no complaints. If you're wondering why I don't use the Old Key asap, it's because I have to wait for Ashley.
One of the hardest chapters in this run. The beginning isn't random anymore but the rest is just pain in the ass. I used a safe strategy at the Water Room to make it a little less random. You could use ditman when you enter the Castle Key area but that requires the enemies to open the door for you, which I found that is not happening along with the other things used in this chapter.
Alas the Gallery Key Zealot glitch doesn't work on PAL but Ditman glitch somewhat makes up for it. The beginning of the sewers with the novistrados is just super random because of Ditman glitch. Mostly because the novistrados are a lot more aggressive for some reason and I can't use any action commands because it cancels ditman. TMP glitch was used in this chapter, too. I make it look too easy, though. I got super lucky in the end, btw.
With difficulty manipulation this chapter is one of the non-random, too. I blew up myself to adjust difficulty some more and Leon has full hp at the start of 4-1 anyway.
One of the most hardest chapters this run. I made a sweet strategy in the Lion Ornament room to eliminate all randomness without losing time! The TMP glitch here is a loooot easier here. The area with the novistrados nest is as horrible as ever. Shooting those wooden sticks at the tower sucked ass, too. I blame not having mouse+keyboard ;). Rest went great, I got really close getting grabbed at the bottom of the tower. Also before you fall down to the pit, after the two garradors, my game crashed once. RE4 nor my GC have never crashed. Of course that run was better than this one ;).
One of the most random chapters. The cave with the novistrados is just stupid because I can't use any action commands because of ditman. I had to use shitload of grenades instead. Usually that doesn't work, though. I bet you noticed that I skipped the middle pillar with Ditman glitch.
There's only little randomness in this chapter, so I kinda like it. That cart ride is boring as hell, though. I unload all my shotgun bullets to adjust difficulty, I shouldn't have started out with that many.
The lift strat here is hard. First you need that dynamite guy to blow up the barrels before you kill him because if you don't it only needs one enemy to land on the lift and it stops. Then you have to shoot listening to the sound only. Picking up that faint growling sound behind everything else ain't that easy. Shooting Salazar wasn't that good.
Despite it's length this chapter is not so random. Atleast not with my strategies. I shoot the search light in the beginning to avoid the cutscene and cancelling the ditman glitch. At the second mirror, I lured the enemies to the side so I could jump down unharmed. I just couldn't run past that rocket launcher ganado, I had to shoot him.
I used such safe strategies here because the game was already getting so much on my nerves. All goes well, except that wrecking ball room mistake, which probably isn't a mistake.
Don't get me started with this one. I honestly was ready to quit the speedrun completely. I simply looOOoove the Krauser knife cutscene, I think I'm in the thousands when talking about how many times seen. That hit I took wasn't fair. It clearly went through the wall :p. Krauser knife scene, It cages one and two, pushing the statue and Fina Krauser just make this chapter the worst ever. It goes without saying that this chapter is the hardest.
I think this chapter is on par with Del Lago when talking about randomness. There are so many impossible strategies for this chapter, three of them involved enemies opening, keeping doors opened and knocking those metal bar doors down so I can keep running with ditman glitch. Also getting Mike blow up the right Gatling gun tower is just stupid hard. The hit I took and the misused Flash grenade were stupid in the end. Usually there's 3 enemies in the room with the first button and only couple of enemies in the second. Now it was the other way around. Of course I had no time to look.
This chapter is just a joke.
Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed my run. If you have anything to ask regarding RE4 or my run, PM me at the forums or at IRC on irc.freenode.com #sda or mail me at sarouyucgan at gmail dot com
Single-segment special weapons run in 1:59:07 by Tim Bright.
Author's comments:
As for mistakes, in the very first chapter (all of ch 1), two of four guys always hit me, though which ones vary depending on what the game 'feels' like. First, one of the two guys guarding the bridge may or may not hit me (We'll count those as one guy). Next, the guy with the axe right before the building I enter in 1-2, and the guy with the axe after you pass the Dynamite throwing guys and go down the hill.
Finally, on 1-3, the guy with the axe(Guys with pitch forks have worse aim) in the group of people just past Dr. Salvador in 1-3. He, more than the rest, is usually a definite. The reason I took a dive on Del Lago (Yes, it WAS on purpose) is because he seems to follow roughly the same path each time afterward, making mistakes less likely. This battle is very important to do well in order to have a good overall time. Since, for the most part, his path is pretty random, a flawless (according to your strategy) AND fast victory is necessary.
In the beginning of CH 2, I forgot to shoot down the boxes from above in order to quickly form the bridge, but not that much time was actually lost due to my awesome aiming skills (lol). During each run, I could never think of a faster way to do the cabin fight, except maybe use the RL. The problem with that, though, is that shooting through one window allows for enemies to rapidly approach through the other, making it impossible to effectively use the RL (you'll lose health/kill yourself/recoil and duck allows more enemies from other window). The Mendez battle seemed to go well, except for the fact that I needed to change weapons after the gondola. Only once have I successfully ridden down it with the RL, so I guess it doesn't waste too much time, since I use it for the next parts anyway.
The next real mistake occurred when I tried to free Ashley. As you'll notice, I use the Rocket Launcher. I hit the first time, then miss, then hit. All I lost was about six seconds, but those are acceptable when compared to waiting for the "Help me Leon" cutscene, as well as switching items (It warps you to the platform anyway, and I wanted the RL to deal with the next round of enemies). Then, in the Dragon room, it may seem like wasted time when I return to the turning table, but the guy I shoot usually grabs me, resulting in me just making the jump. Not wanting to take that chance, I shot him, ran to the machine, and repeatedly pressed 'A' until I jumped.
The two garradors in Ch 4 are very hard, for me, anyway, to kill at the same time. During this run, three rockets were used in order to move on. Like freeing Ashley, the first hit, the second missed (you don't need to kill the Illuminados), but the third killed him. A little after that, you'll notice my horrible aiming skills as I attempt to un-jam the cogs in the tower. Even though the one as I turned around on the third floor to shoot was right in front of me, but I failed to effectively shoot it, wasting maybe a second. Sorry if you find the shooting annoying during the lift to Salazar, but it was necessary in order to kill all the red guys as fast as possible. If two or more land, the lift stops, wasting time. Salazar seemed to cooperate very well, and I moved onto the final chapter.
Ch 5 was probably my best chapter. I knew exactly what I was doing (like the other chapters) and everything went my way, for the most part. The only challenge was the Krauser knife fight. If you die there, you instantly loose 10, then 30, then maybe 45 seconds because you have to re-watch the slow cut scene. As soon as the knife goes flying, however, you know you're home free, as the rest of the game is fairly easy, granted you have the right equipment. I easily beat U3 and Krauser, but, then again, who can't with the IRL and CT? In the very end of 5-4, I take the card key as soon as it appears, and ran with it. This allowed me to not even see the gattling gunner (J.J.), saving me health and time. Finally, just for show, I pulled off the flips on the jet-ski. The final Hunnigan call is risky business to skip early because you can potentially skip your final stats.
All in all, my time was 1:59:07. Unless someone beats this time, I probably won't try to improve it myself. If you have any questions or comments relating to this run, please IM me at Leprachaunboy04 on AIM.
Single-segment special weapons run on professional difficulty in 2:02:45 by Daniel Chamness.
Author's comments:
Striker Glitch: Allows Leon to run incredibly fast, but due to the time it takes to just activate the glitch itself, I rarely use it. When implemented, it only saves a few seconds at a time, and overall the time saved by the glitch isn't too much, maybe only 1-2 minutes.
Locked Door Glitch: With the TMP, and ONLY the TMP, locks on the opposite side of doors can be broken, thus skipping approximately 5-6 minutes of the game. I do not have to go through the castle maze, nor the falling ceiling to get the Queen's Grail.
Although the current record time for RE4 Special Weapons is 1:59:07, and I utilized glitches to save time, I am playing on PRO mode. Enemies are harder to kill, such as Del Lago takes extra hits, and enemy AI is a lot more responsive. I'll let my video speak for itself, considering the RE4 SDA page already has a lot of comments on it. If I want to be realistic, my time is about 1 minute faster but I had to switch recordable DVDs since I went over 2 hours.
My AIM is danthetrmptman and my e-mail is dantheman9192@yahoo.com for anyone that wants to contact me to discuss this run or other games.
Assignment Ada, European version in 0:06:31 by Greg Innes.
Author's comments:
Right, let's get onto the run :)
The only thing that can trouble you is the JJ "Swing" attack and the archer at the top.
This route i take has worked 100% (I wish the shield ganados were always this stupid all the time). It's the only part i never had to retry at. :)
The running is no problem, the guy guarding the sample may strike so that results in another failed attempt.The part with the 3 ganados is what i wanted to do in my 6:42 run but could never get it consistent.I now can, about 6/10 attempts.
Nothing special until the corridor.It can be so random.Sometimes the giant will point and sometimes he will not.I decided to use a quick HG bullet at the top ganado as i could never pass him that often.
The optimum route from my findings.It usually works 9/10 times(unless the ganado guarding the switch past JJ decides to swing for you with the tazer). I also obtain a Hand grenade for JJ.The way the rifle shooting went in the cell was good.The tazer ganado can sometimes hit you, so i overemphasise the "turning" of the run to the case.
I equipped the TMP and decided to shoot the guy at bottom of stairs to "lure" the other ganados out.The transition from TMP to Hand grenade could have been half a second quicker.
Even though i had 6 bullets left for Krauser, i decided to reload to help me time the door activation.
The most frustrating of all.I must have mucked up so much runs because of him. But here, i finally got him with a strategy that i devised myself.
I hope you enjoyed my run alot more than i did running it :P
My next target in the Resident Evil 4 world will be the 1:43:47 run.