So, over the course of the next however-long-it-takes I am considering a segmented run of Bit-Blot's Aquaria, an incredibly well-made Metroid-vania style game (Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqY9mDOw-UI. The run would be performed on the 1.0 release version of the game is it allows for a number of critical sequence breaks, most notably ignoring Beast Form entirely, cutting out the whole Mithalas segment and the tentacle glitch which renders the Sunken City unnecessary.
Preliminary Route/Segmentation Thoughts (Note: Notation follows this map
http://www.yandwproductions.com/games/aquaria_maps.pdf):
1. Beginning - Save point before the nightmare sequence
2. Nightmare sequence - Save point at entrance to Energy Temple
3. Energy Temple entrance - Save point before Energy Temple Boss
4. Pre-Boss save - Energy Temple entrance
5. Energy Temple entrance - Open Waters I
6. Open Waters I - Kelp Forest I
7. Kelp Forest I - Mother Nature Boss
8. Mother Nature Boss
9. Mother Nature save - Kelp Forest I (via Blue Ball tunnel)
10. Kelp Forest I - Open Waters II (via Veil I)
11. Open Waters II - Li Cave
12. Li Cave - Veil III (right side, having cut through lower reaches of the Sun Temple)
13. Veil III Right Side - Veil III Right side (getting Sun Form)
14. Veil III Right Side - Either Open Waters II or Open Waters I (Via Home Waters turtle)
15. Either - Abyss I
16. Abyss I - Body I (after getting Dual form. A note, the currents around the save are so strong it takes a looong time to go up them without beast, so I want to use it as few times. I don't however, want to do the whole body in one segment)
17. Body I - Pre-Final Boss save
18. The Creator
As this is my first time speed-running (formally at least) I was hoping you the community might have answers to a few questions:
Questions:1. For a run thats shooting to be around the 1 hour mark, is this too many segments? I've broken it into this many because to move quickly in Aquaria you need to wall jump and effectively keep a "combo" of successful jumps going. This is made hard by the irregular shapes of the environment and enemies so even traveling for long periods can be really hard to get a clean run of. On the other hand, the time will suffer for going out of my way (though typically only slightly) to get to the save crystals.
2. For those who have played the game, how useful have you found +Energy items to be for killing bosses? I think Mother Nature's second form for example can be killed in one fewer iterations by using a spicy roll (such as the one by the Open Waters II turtle or the Energy Temple's shaft or cooked with the food glitch) and the final boss' second form would go down faster that way.
Segment Details:Segment 11: To go from Open Waters II to Veil I without obtaining Beast form, I would use a briar rocket off of one of the rocks nearby to ride up the currents. The other Aquaria thread had a link for a Veil shortcut but the youtube vid is down so I don't know if there is a more efficient method (though this can be pretty fast).
-Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E04xkDxlW9ISegment 13: I want to save before this because this segment would involve climbing the outside of the Sun Temple with briars to cut to the boss. This is stupid hard, and particularly tough to get consistent with so between that feat of Nature form agility and the Sun Worm fight, this gets its own segment. I can't decide which will be worse, this or segment 16....
Segment 16: In the beginning of the monster that would be segment 16, I would use the the Tentacle glitch to enter The Body without going to the Sunken City. I need to experiment more with this to see if it is doable without getting Fish form, (i.e. maybe nature form for the spikes?) (if not, I would pick up the form while travelling through the Kelp Forest II in segment 7).
Closing Notes:As school is really picking up this semester, this would be in a spare-time only basis, but I really hope to finish this within the foreseeable future!
