This run is dedicated to my grandfather. It's been very stressful with him in the hospital, so that's one of the reasons why this run wasn't here sooner. Let's hope as you're reading this, he's still with us.

This is a (most requested, perhaps) improvement to my last run, shaving off more than 3 minutes. A list of the things changed:

• Not getting the Crissaegrim. This saved upwards of 2 minutes alone. However, using the Iron Shield Combo for the rest of the game does dilute that gain somwehat.
• Not getting the Alucart equipment/Entering Olrox's Quarters in under 9 minutes. Saves 1 minute.
• Not getting the Onyx in Olrox's Quarters. Time saved is questionable.
• Skipping Richter on the first try.
• Various other little touchups.

I don't think I'd be lying if I said every mistake I made previously has been fixed in this run. However, there are new mistakes in their place. The most notable mistake is what I will refer to as "The Flea Rider Fiasco." You'll see what I mean. There are also little things spritzed throughout. Nothing too minor though.

Thanks to:

• The SDA Team, as usual. (Yes, this includes DJGrenola.)
• Mike Uyama (again) and RaneofSOTN for clueing me in on how much time the Crissaegrim wastes.
• RaneofSOTN (again) for helping me with a Heart Refresh glitch I ended up not using.
• Persona for eventually hosting this vid over at his site.
• SirVG for some spiritual inspiration.

And thank you the viewer for watching. Watch the run, watch it again with the commentary, and enjoy.

First of all, many thanks to the SDA team for maintaining a great site for hosting speed runs and making the process of submitting mine a smooth one. Secondly, there are many other SotN runners who have helped me improve my runs in some way or another, but among them I would especially like to thank Andrew "RaneOfSOTN" Melnyk, Chris "Satoryu" Kirk, MarkSoupial, Lenophis, and Kevin "xarugas" Areopagita. I would also like to show my appreciation to all of my friends, SDA members, and stream viewers who supported me during races and the total process of running the game. There is commentary on audio track 2 of the video for those who want a little extra entertainment while watching the run. The people involved are mainly me, RaneOfSOTN and Mike Uyama. Satoryu, MarkSoupial and Nick Houser also say stuff once in a while. We had a lot of fun recording this and hope you have just as much fun listening to it. Please note that the commentary does not always focus on the action in the run. There are also a handful of references to old SDA SotN runs. In case you don't understand anything we're talking about, you can download the runs on these Archive.org pages:

• Adam Grise's 55:51 run
• Lucid Faia's 43:51 run
• Satoryu's 37:50 run

For those not inclined to listen to the audio commentary or who want a little more basic information, this run was submitted as an improvement to my previous SDA record of 31:19 on the XBLA version of SotN. It uses the same basic route and strategies as the previous record, but my execution has improved significantly since then and I developed a few minor enhancements after watching how Satoryu played the game at the Awesome Games Done Quick marathon (the SDA charity event where we raised over $50,000 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation) in January 2011. The XBLA version of SotN uses the in-game timer (which doesn't count menu time), has faster loading times and less lag than the PlayStation or PSN versions of the game, but the same ideas can be used for making an optimal real-time attack in the standard any% category for those other releases. Here are some of the more important tricks and techniques used in the run for those who are unfamiliar with them:

• Shield Dashing:Alucard's backdash is faster than walking, but it slows down toward the end of its animation. Luckily, the animation can be cancelled by a variety of moves, with the quickest method being to flip your shield. The closer to turbo speed that you can alternate the backdash and shield buttons, the closer you will be to having nonstop acceleration. Even though my shield dashing appears to be very fast in the run, it is still nowhere near turbo speed.
• Shield Rod Spells:This is actually a simple function that is already part of the game's design, but there are always a few viewers who are confused by the spell I use to kill bosses so fast in the run. Whenever you have the Shield Rod equipped in one hand and a shield in the other, you can press the buttons for both simultaneously and it will cast a spell based on the particular shield. The only one used in the run is the Iron Shield's spell, but another notable one used in Luck Mode runs and 100% runs is the Alucard Shield's spell which allows you to stick your shield out and do massive damage to anything it touches.
• Transformation Chains:This is simply doing consecutive transformations to avoid losing time from untransforming and then transforming into something else. The most common instance of this in the run is turning into a bat after a wolf charge, which is especially helpful because you keep your momentum from the charge as you turn into the bat. Other examples from the run are doing a bat-mist-bat chain after a wing smash to avoid falling and doing a wolf jump to mist chain in the library for a sequence break.
• "Bat Kick":This is a trick similar to the wolf charge to bat chain. You simply double jump, do a kick, and then turn into a bat so that you have a lot of momentum going forward with the transformation. This is used quite a bit during the run but is especially notable in the battle with Death because it allows you to start underneath him and control where he will go with the Iron Shield cast.
• Infinite Wing Smash (IWS):When you do a wing smash as a bat, you can avoid untransforming by chaining the input with proper timing. Even though this is simply timing, I'm not sure that it was an intended function in the game. This technique saves massive amounts of time over the course of a run but also presents a challenge for managing MP since every wing smash uses some and you don't replenish any during the process.
• Invincibility Abuse:Whenever you cast spells or use certain potion items like a Manna Prism or Uncurse, you have a brief period of invincibility where you can move through any spikes or enemies without being harmed. This is most notably abused in the run when escaping the Shield Rod room and during the battle with Minotaur and Werewolf (when I cast Soul Steal and Werewolf dives through me).
• Damage Stacking:Basically all types of damage stack in SotN, so grabbing the holy water and Dragon Helm in the Inverted Castle is very important for speeding up the later boss battles. The Dragon Helm gives a strength boost and lowers enemies' defense, which significantly boosts the effectiveness of the Iron Shield spell. With some extra Shield Rod hits and the Holy Water stacking on top of that, the number of spells casts needed to take out the bosses are cut down, ultimately saving time despite taking a small detour to grab the helm.
• Richter Skip: There are actually multiple ways to avoid collecting the Holy Glasses when trying to reach the Inverted Castle, but the most consistent method for a single-segment attempt is to collect all of the wolf relics and skip the trigger that loads the Richter battle with a wolf charge and well-timed jump. This makes the game act as if the event was cleared and allows you into the second castle. If anyone wants to learn how to do the skip, I'd simply recommend studying that part of the run and trying to replicate it since the trick comes down to positioning and using a visual cue for the jump.

Unlike my previous runs, I feel that this one would take a gargantuan effort to top in the same category. The run's certainly not perfect, but my level of execution far exceeds that of any other attempt I've put forth so far and the strategies within the route are as good as they've ever been. There are still some further improvements that could be made, but many of them would require activating the "MP refill glitch", which involves pausing the screen through a level up, relic collection, spell cast, heart refresh usage, etc. on the same frame that your MP is replenishing so that the refill is extended for the entirety of the pause. This would avoid having to use a Manna Prism or a save room to gain full MP. I may do any% attempts that take more advantage of this eventually, but for now I'd like to concentrate on other games I've been meaning to run. Playing SotN for speed always remains fun to me though, so don't be surprised if I try to improve this run again or go after other categories that the game has to offer.

I've been seriously working on the SotN any% run on and off for about a year now, so I hope you enjoy watching my latest effort and listening to the audio commentary if you choose to do so. If you liked this run, stay tuned to my JustinTV stream channel so that you can watch me perform speed runs and races live with commentary. You can also see other runs of mine on my YouTube channel, including some that I upload before submitting to SDA.

My JustinTV channel: http://www.justin.tv/romscout
My YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/romscout

It's very rare when I say this about games I run, but I am VERY happy with this run.

I have been working on this game for about 3 years now, and the run has come a long way. I can't remember what my first time was when I started timing my runs, but I think it was something like 15 minutes. hahaha. Like I said, it has come a long way. Now, onto the run.

The entrance was pretty standard. Got 32 seconds entering the door. If I get anything more than that, I reset, so not much going on here.

Alchemy Lag was good except for a small mistake where I was a bit too high and air slashed into a wall. Minor time loss. Still got 1:02 which is standard.

Chapel was perfect apart from the boss fight. I missed the quick kill on Hippogryph, but he didn't fly and didn't use his fire attack a second time, so I was able to whip him a couple times and make the time loss minimal. Lost maybe half a second.

Keep was perfect.

Reverse Keep was weird. Uppercutted in the wrong direction (if you're not aware, my controllers can be very unresponsive sometimes). This probably cost me half a second at the most. I got the keep skip first try though. That is a frame perfect / pixel perfect / alignment dependant trick that saves one second. This part of the run is the deal breaker. Got it first try so, cool. Missed and air slash in the loading screen room, but very minor time loss.

Reverse Chapel was perfect, apart from missing the quick kill on Medusa, but she dies so quickly anyway that I barely lost any time.

Reverse Colosseum was perfect except for the last room where I missed an air slash. Miraculously, I didn't get hit.

Reverse Olrox Quarters. Perfect! Hit everything in the zig zag room which is crucial. There's four frames after an uppercut when you hit the ceiling where there's dead input. That means any input you do during those four frames won't register, and having to air slash in that small corridor makes it very difficult. I was very nervous at this point.

Shaft fight cost me the most time. Missing the quick kill on him is the worst because it costs 2 seconds or if you're not quick enough, he can kill you real easily.

Overall, I'm happy with the run, but I'm not finished. I want to at least get the quick kill on Shaft and have zero mistakes in the run, which will be next to impossible, but I know it can be done.

HONK!

Note: There is no audio commentary for this run despite the StatID saying that it has.

Hello there fellow gamers! If you're reading this, then you're in for a treat. This run has come a long way since I first started speed running all bosses with Richter. When I first started, beating all bosses without saving was unheard of, then later, I depended on grabbing as much health as possible. Naturally, as time went on, I got more comfortable skipping health if it wasn't standing right in front of me, because frankly, everything pretty much kills Richter in one hit anyway, so what's the point of grabbing health?

Now, onto the run.

The first two minutes are probably the most lax when it comes to losing time because as long as I get to the clock room in before two minutes, I'm good because the statue only moves back every other minute. I can't be too lax though because I need enough hearts for later.

The Slogra/Gaibon fight is something I'm personally proud of because it took a lot of experimenting to get it just right. Basically I slide kick and get as close to Slogra as possible without hitting him (if you hit him, Gaibon will pick him up). After that, axe item crash. As you're falling, whip in the opposite direction then all you have to do after that is to airdash through Slogra. It's pretty sexy when it goes well. :)

Olrox is the first big annoying thing in this run, because the quick kills is practically random (I'll explain quick kill later), so if I don't get the quick kill, I lose a few seconds. Unfortunately, I only got the first form, but whatever.

There's something I do after the Olrox fight that I just recently started to do. When I airdash in the big room, I whip after. Whipping very slightly propels me forward and I just catch the platform to start sliding immediately. A minor thing but still effective.

Chapel and Castle Keep were sexy as shit. Love it when airdashes do their job!

During the Karasuman, you'll probably notice that I cast Hydro Storm and can start moving immediately. As far as I know, this is the only room you can do this, because as soon as I enter, the door shuts and pushes me off the ledge. If you do something like Hydro Storm where you can't move for a few seconds, getting pushed off the platform will allow you to move. I use this as a chance to get a really quick kill. Unfortunately, I didn't get it in this run.

Clock Tower and Outer Wall went alright I guess.

Library went pretty well until I somehow slide kicked into Lesser Demon's face. He was looking at me wrong, so I had to do somehting about it.

The long hallway in Marble Gallery went really well. I have to be pretty precise in this room, or else my timing can get really messed up. Right before entering Underground Caverns, you'll see that whip action again.

Scylla "Wrym". There's something interesting about this room. After I kill her, you see I have to wait until she dies before the door opens, right? Well sometimes, the door won't be there after the fight, which means you can kill her then just run straight out of the room. After a bunch of testing, me and romscout have pretty much concluded it's just a random occurance (it's not, but we couldn't find a consistent way to do it, at least in Richter mode).

The toads and frogs, man. Scary shit. Amazingly, none of them hit me, which is unheard of!

No quick kill on Cerberus. :(

The room after, I use the whip to propel me forward to get some sexy results.

And again in Catacombs. This is one of the areas I'm most proud of, mainly because it's so hard to get through it at all. What I mean is the Lossoths can randomly turn around and shoot fire at me as I'm passing them, and they're strong. In an amazing twist, I got through all of that without getting hit!!! One imp hit me at the end, but that's mainly the result of an uppercut that failed to register, so whatever.

Fast forwarding to Reverse Clock Tower. The game was being a little picky about airdashing in one spot. Blegh.

Reverse Outer Wall. Goddamn hotness!

Long hallway in the Reverse Marble Gallery. I always have a lot of trouble in this room, and I don't know why. Still went fairly well I guess.

Doppleganger40 is what nightmares are made of. There's a super easy strat to take him out, but it's much slower. Basically, what I'm doing here is uppercutting him the exact moment he swings his sword. This is the only time you can hit him with the uppercut without him misting. I do lose time if he mists obviously, but I can still catch him the moment he recovers from it. Despite what you might think, that fight went really well.

Cave sucks. Simply put.

Reverse Catacombs (Floating Catacombs) went about as well as I could have hoped. I missed an air dash in the room before the witches that would've saved me a second or two, and it looks badass, but that's the game being a troll I guess.

Fast forward to Ctulhu room because everything else went about as well as it usually does. The reason and move back to a certain point in the room after my air dashes give me shit is because there's a certain point I need to stand before I start chaining air dashes to be able to get through Ctuhlu without taking damage.

Going back to the Anti-Chapel. The imp room is so scary. There's one certain imp that if I miss him, I'm almost guaranteed to die (I say "almost" because I made it through there once without dying and made a highlight of it because it was that amazing).

Reverse Colloseum. Well, I didn't die I guess. I use an item crash if I miss an air dash as a safeguard because it makes me invincible, and Minotaurs' axes are super strong.

Fast forward to Beelzebub fight. Another fight I'm really proud of. After a while, I found out it's actually faster to use and axe item crash on him and Shaft, so I grab it right before Beelz. Originally, I using two axe crashes on Beelz, then after more testing, I found a surefire way to kill him using just one really well placed crash and an air dash.

Right before entering Bitterfly room pissed me off a bit. The reason that airdash is vital is because I have to get through the Bitterfly room a very specific way. Otherwise, the Bitterflies will tear me a new ass, and this close to the end, I wasn't willing to challenge them.

Fast forward to Shaft. You could say he got "Shafted". YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!

So yeah, sub-28. When I first started running this category, I never have thought I would even get sub-30. Hell, I was bent on submitting at 32-something, so to get this much time shaved off is mind-blowing for me.

And now, to explain a couple things people might be asking...

Hyrdo Storm quick kills: Basically when you use Hydro Storm, it's possible for it to attack twice as fast if you throw a holy water at the right frame. This can save a lot of time if I get a lot of them. On the downside, it's pretty much random because it's frame perfect.

Jumping out of Air Dashes: This is one that got me all excited when I discovered it. Basically, it's possible to jump in the air the moment an air dash ends. I use this a lot to regain height when I'm air dashing sometimes. There's other spots I use it too. It's pretty precise where you can do it, but also pretty lenient. About as lenient as an airdash input I guess.

I hope that covers everything.

In closing, I'd like to thank romscout for coming up with the effective route and just being overall supportive. Cosmo Wright for finding a faster route in the reverse castle. He found a way to skip the need for an extra warp room. I'd also like to thank everyone that watched me while I streamed attempts or kept me company via Skype call. If it wasn't for you guys, I probably wouldn't have gotten this far! Lastly, I'd like to thank the verifiers and Flip for handling the verification. I love you guys! ^_^

A few months ago I watched one of SDA's best runs, Satoryu's 34:34 of Castlevania: SoTN. Amazed at how the game looked and played, I got a copy of Dracula X Chronicles only so I could play SoTN. My first ever CV game was Portrait of Ruin, and I've collected all the DS titles after that, but I've never experienced the masterpiece that is Symphony of the Night until a few months ago. Needless to say I got hooked. Better late than never right?

Before I get into the run comments, I have to thank the following:

• mike for allowing the use of a game ISO for the run, as well as managing SDA in general.
• nate for encoding the run, and his recent upgrade for the SDA forums.
• Breakdown, Flip, and dex for their very hard work on updating SDA regularly, keep it up guys.
• Satoryu for time savers, tips and tricks, and for his original 34:34 run, which led me to discover (and eventually speedrun) the game. Also for his entertaining audio commentaries. :P
• RaneofSoTN for route tips, glitch info and general advice on my first few test runs.
• romscout for bugging me about the Infinite Wing Smash trick, which sadly isn't in this run >_> I'll master that thing someday.
• the guy who uploaded a JPN version 23:xx speedrun waaaay back. His run helped alot with some tricks to moving around the Inverted Castle.

This run was done in the PSP version of the game included in Dracula X Chronicles. Apparently, it was based on the Japanese version, with a few alterations here and there to resemble its US PSX counterpart. Luckily for me, the PSP version has a handful of tricks/glitches that are NOT available in the PSX version, so I take full advantage of that.

Here are some of the glitches/tricks used in this run:

Hydrostorm + Holy Water trick- In the Bloodlines Dracula fight, tossing a Holy Water at the right time during a Hydrostorm will cause massive damage in a very short span of time.

Keep Alucard equipment- Simply enter and exit the room where you first encounter Death. The cutscene won't activate and the BGM will stop, then you get to keep all your starting equipment. Originally this was only doable in Luck Mode.

Warp Room trick- Press Up while backdashing at the hole in a warp room. This will make Alucard slide "into" the warp (he'll sort of enter the hole) before the screen fades. Upon reloading in the new warp room, Alucard will be closer to the door. (depending on where you backdash) Although it does save a bit of time to get into the door, I mess up the whole thing in the one and ONLY time I needed to do it.

Outer Wall floor drop- After entering and exitting the CD room leading to the scorpion warp, hold the backdash button and Alucard will get pushed through the floor landing him right in front of the elevator. This saves around 2 seconds.

Relic Heart Refresh Cancel- Not an official name :P Simply open the menu as you obtain a relic. (in this run, the Soul of Bat) Equip a Heart Refresh and hold the appropriate button as you exit the menu. You will automatically use the item, BUT instead of being stuck in its lengthy animation, you will cancel it halfway right when the words "Obtained Soul of Bat" disappear. This allows me to use a Library Card earlier than usual, saving 3 seconds.

Divekick Shortcut- With the Leap Stone and Soul of Bat, pressing Down+R or Down/Forward+R will make Alucard perform a drop kick->bat morph even if you didn't double jump. I use this as a speed boost mostly in the last stretch of the Inverted Castle from Medusa to Dracula.

Library Card Richter Skip- After killing Richter, immediately use a Library card. This version of the Richter Skip is around 1:3x faster than the Wolf Jump one, since you don't have to collect the 2 Wolf Relics. However, not having the Wolf Dash for Inverted Castle dilutes the time saved, especially if the Infinite Wing Smash isn't used.

Shaft Room Skip- If you move towards the entrance of Shaft's room from the left (the gap in the ceiling) as a bat or wolf, the game will unmorph you automatically and you land in the room. After that, touching the left wall will warp you directly to Dracula. This saves around 15+ seconds.

Alucard Shield Combo cancel- Opening the menu while the Alucard Shield Combo is in effect will cancel the effect. I do this after killing bosses so I don't waste MP while shield-dashing.

Originally my goal was simply sub-30 minutes. After realizing that manual timing (from start of control to loss of control) is around 30-40 seconds longer than the in-game clock, I was almost satisfied of an initial 29:47 run. Around 80+ attempts later, I get a NEARLY sub-29 time. (in-game clock was 28:36 after killing Dracula) I submitted that, but I wasn't satisfied. After optimizing my IC route even further and around 60 more attempts, here we are at sub-29.

I hope the mistakes in the first 8 minutes of the run are negligible, since I reach the giant clock room just under 8 minutes. There are a couple of areas where I had trouble activating the wing smash due to being too hasty, some of which cost around 2-4 seconds each. Like they say, haste makes waste..even in speedruns. As for the rest of my big blunders:

• The Shield Rod room didn't go as planned. I got clipped by the sword armor's blade before I could finish the command for Summon Spirit. Could've been worse, though.
• I nearly messed up (would've been a reset) the Wolf jump->Mist at the library. It was sheer luck that the books were there at the right moment.
• After the flea rider area I played it safe and made the jump instead of risking my MP going out before I could land in front of the save room.
• Warping from the Outer Wall to Castle Keep was hilarious, I can't believe I actually messed up a very simple trick and I ended up losing time instead.
• In the Reverse Outer Wall my mind became dumb for a split second and I morphed when I didn't have too. I decided to keep going for a bit instead of simply unmorphing, so I think it didn't cost much time. It looks really awkward though.
• Two of the ugliest mistakes were at Akmodan's room. First, I was too close to him so the shield-kill wasn't fast. Second, after the double jump my thumb slipped off the D-Pad and messed up the divekick. It caught me by surprise and it took a few seconds to react, losing around 4 seconds.

The rest of the errors are pretty minor and I don't think I could've shaved off 50+ seconds even if the run was 99% perfect. What would REALLY save alot of time is the Infinite Wing Smash. I hope its absence in the run is tolerable, as I can't execute the trick at all. I've tried pulling off the darn thing so much that I almost think that it's non-existent in the PSP version. If I ever learn to do AND master the trick properly, expect a BIG improvement in the near future.

The run isn't perfect, but if the execution is near-perfect and the infinite wing smash is used for the 6 or so rooms that benefit from it, this run could be 30+ seconds faster, or possibly even sub-28. SoTN has been the most fun game to speedrun so far and I hope you guys enjoyed watching it. :)

Saturn Maria Single-Segment Text Commentary
by wild mouse

* Slide: v + jump. Fastest movement, deals a little damage.
* Drop Kick: > > + kick. Deals damage. Can be shortened by pressing back. To kick through hitboxes instead of bouncing off them, hold kick.
* Jump Kick: v + jump after triple jump. Deals a little damage from Maria's foot. Causes a frontslide when jump kicking close to the ground.
* High Jump: v ^ + jump. Deals damage and gives Maria invincibility. Direction of high jump can be influenced.
* Summon Four Holy Beasts: ^ > v < ^ (hold for 1 second) v, fire. Gives Maria invincibility and her hitbox deals damage.
* Summon Byakko: ^ v > + fire. High damage fire attack.
* Summon Seiryuu: < > v < > + fire. Summons controllable dragon.

The Warg guarding the zombie room causes a lot of lag when it dies, so I double jump over him, then drop kick as soon as I land. Drop kicking through the zombie room and luckily not having any zombies spawn under me. In the Merman room, jump kicking onto the rock to frontslide over some it, then sliding over the rest. Front sliding into rooms with sloped floors is an easy way to transfer into ground based movement.

Drop kicking through more Wargs, using combinations of movement that put dying Wargs off screen fast to reduce lag. Continuing to the floor switch instead of taking the stairs, we eventually reach Alchemy Lab.

Drop kicking out of the door into a jump kick then high jump into a critical hit on a red skeleton on the next screen. That's gotta hurt. Continuing up and left to the blue door. Hold right and backdash during Maria's walk animation puts you in a good position to finish Alchemy Lab with two more drop kicks. Alchemy Lab is one of the shortest portions of the run, but requires the most precise movement.

Diagonally high jumping up the big staircase. Some fancy zig-zagging through a room with a giant sword. It's easy to accidentally turn around during the high jump input and bonk into a low ceiling during the first chapel tower climb, but I make it through without any issues. Getting revenge on birds was a nice bonus.

Drop kicking into the first long hallway, but buffering left during the screen transition so that I kill the first bat, but land in a good position to pick up the Good Book subweapon. Luckily, three drop kicks end up just barely being enough to hit the candle, which is the best position to be in to avoid getting hit by bats. I pick it up as I drop kick through the bats.

Some fancy drop kicks, high jumps and jump kick frontslides through more bat and skeleton rooms and into the Hippogryph fight.

Hippogryph's attack is based on his distance from the player. When the player is close enough to him (or in his hitbox), he will slowly fly up and towards the player, then come back down to the center of the room. I take advantage of this by casting Four Beasts for the invincibility and drop kicking into his hitbox then repeatedly high jumping into him as he flys on the ceiling. Since I was able to pick up the Good Book on my way to the fight without losing any time, I use it to do even more damage. The fight was amazingly short, even for the Good Book strat.

Finishing up the short remainder of the chapel with more dropkick-highjump-frontslide. Drop kicking through the first Axe Armor and getting in a good position to drop kick completely over the next Axe Armor to reduce lag. The last two aren't so lucky. I dash for a bit before the drop kick to get in a good position to high jump into the Castle Keep.

High jumping through a Flea Rider and into Dracula's throne room where I get some extra speed by zipping over the top of the staircase. After eight slides, I dash and jump onto the ledge, and drop kick as soon as I land, which zips me to the teleporter faster that dashing up the stairs. The zone to activate the teleporter is a few pixels wide and can cost time having to hunt it out, but I land on it perfectly and make my way to the second castle.

Kicking as I dash up the staircase to save some frames. The reverse Dracula chamber is a pain, but I slide through as much as I can. High jumping up and left, then right to the tombstone hallway where I just drop kick through them, carefully not bouncing off candles and waste time.

Entering Anti-Chapel with a dropkick-highjump-frontslide into a hallway and drop kicking over Balloon Pods and a Black Panther.

Medusa's hitbox takes somewhere over a second to activate, so I drop kick through her to place me closer to the exit. I cast Byakko when her hitbox activates and the fight is over. I dash towards to exit and drop kick out as the door opens.

I carefully avoid getting hit by Black Panthers in the next hall, and dash out the exit, releasing right as the screen transitions. This puts me in a good position to backdash, then hold right as I transition back into the hallway. This ends up causing Maria to drop through the floor and out of bounds. As soon as I know I'm out of bounds, I hold left to exploit a zip that sends me forward a bit, then I start to alternate jump kicks and high jumps, making my way past the rest of the Anti-Chapel, returning eventually to the sword room leading to the Reverse Colesseum.

Sliding to the first Minotaur and drop kicking him as fast as possible to damage boost through his enormous hitbox. I'm clenching left and kick, hoping I damage through him and not backwards towards the door, which happens rarely. It works out, putting me in a good position to high jump into the elk skull hall. Drop kicking as soon as I enter a room filled with Minotaurs and Werevolves. Holding left and kick as I fall to get a good damage boost through the room, and sliding out of further harm's way. Dropkick-frontsliding through the rest of the colessium and skipping a Life Vessel to save time. Taking a final damage boost taken to get past the last Werewolves. Can't get much better than that.

Drop kicking into Death Wing's Lair and getting a sweet zip on my high jump, then carefully timing a jump over the upside-down staircase. Perfect stair-sliding up the zig-zag room. Drop kicking through the Black Marble room and landing onto the clock trigger with a flashy movement combo. The clock takes what feels like an eternity to finish its chimes. Heart races faster.

Fast movement out the elevator and onto the Shaft fight room. I drop kick as soon as I land on top of it to avoid the game cutting my controls and dashing the rest of the way. Turn canceling the drop kick just before I lose control so I land on the edge and fall into the fight faster. Shaft "powers up" and I regain control. I carefully input the Summon Seiryuu spell and finish the perfect run.