Hanako Games

This is a really silly game to speedrun

#1 by Darksilverhawk - Feb 18 2015

So I did it anyway.

Long Live the Queen Any% 5:17

The goal was to get to the coronation as fast as possible; timing begins when I click New Game and ends on the final textbox of the coronation scene. The run is far, far, far from optimized; I haven't really played in about a year and this was the result of about 40 minutes of attempts. As I was sitting there thinking about it this morning I came up with some possible small optimizations that might save a second or two each, but they'd need experimentation.

The basic strategy is reliant on the fact that you only have to pass two checks in the whole game: one to avoid the chocolates (I use court manners) and one to remain calm after your father's death. As such, those are the only skills I build, so the poor girl looks pretty and talks well but otherwise is as dumb as a brick. Court manners was chosen over dogs because the early court manners allows you to skip the entire Togami event, saving several text boxes for the trade off of one extra text box at the ball. Early presence allows Elodie to skip the result text boxes from fighting in Ixion, but I'm not sure if the time gain is cancelled out by the extra clicks required to switch back and forth between conversation and royal demeanor. Elodie never leaves the castle unless she has to, and her commanding yet polite demeanor allow her to not piss off the nobles too badly. Her weekends are spent in quiet meditation, as services and her mother's grave those are the closest activities to the center of the screen and quickest to click on.

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#2 by Mmeaninglessnamee - Feb 20 2015

The only thing I'm disappointed in is that I don't have time to try to beat this for a while.

Good run.

EDIT: Also, I'd never seen or heard about the delirious, bedridden ending. Gee, I wonder what (who) could have caused it ;)

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#3 by Darksilverhawk - Feb 21 2015

I'm almost positive you could bop this time without much effort. Court manners+ public speaking -> royal demeanor to 70+ presence and composure -> back to court manners and flattery until court manners 70+, then sit in manners classes for the rest of the year. Not the most interesting run, admittedly.

Speedrun.com suggests an arbitrary category in which you become a lumen and so have to actually deal with Togami. That would be significantly more interesting to route, though I have no real desire to do so.

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#4 by Darksilverhawk - Mar 18 2015

Two additional thoughts.

One, Lumen wasn't actually that much harder. (any% is also now down to 3:26, since my computer was running better that day)

Thought two is that while this obviously makes a really terrible speedrunning game (even if there are at least three people who have run it now...), I think it would make a good bingo game. For those outside the speedrunning community who have no idea what bingo is, it's a type of race in which a random set of goals are placed on a 5x5 grid, and players race to complete goals in a straight line to get a bingo. The goals would be things like "Save Briony" or "Make Lucille Duchess" or "Kill Charlotte." It would probably take more than one playthrough to achieve all the goals, so you'd need to try to figure out the fastest route and execute it well to win.

It's a thought.

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#5 by Mmeaninglessnamee - Mar 29 2015

that would be a good - though possible extremely tough - bingo game

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#6 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 2 2015

Finally, a game I can speedrun even with my toaster of a laptop.

Joking aside, bingo runs seem like the most interesting way of doing any sort of competition, since otherwise it's simply about clicking fast enough. It actually requires some thought to save time on saving and loading and starting new games. (Maybe saves would be banned so that you can't just have a bunch of branching saves? That might be an arbitrary rule, though, especially if a bingo sheet has lines with a few closely-related events; I've never been involved in setting any kind of game competition rules, so I'm not sure where the line should be drawn.)

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#7 by Darksilverhawk - Apr 6 2015

Oh, I didn't think about branching saves. Obviously reloading pre-existing saves would be banned (typical any% rules- start from a fresh file), but I'm not sure about how in-game saves should be handled. I think reloading saves created during the current game should be alright- it's just another kind of route planning.

I didn't expect anyone to agree to this. I might have to make a card-making program now.

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#8 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 8 2015

Yeah, in hindsight, saving at branching points and reloading would be in line with the idea of fitting half a dozen goals into one file; I'm messing with romance candidates right now to see which people have contradicting paths, and it'd get annoying really fast to have to play through the entire game again just so you can choose one person over another.

I think a lot of it is figuring out how to cram in enough goals without making a scenario so precise that failing it and trying to fix it wastes even more time; after all, we can always just shove some things into a run where all Elodie needs to do is live is not eat the chocolates and not attack Togami.

...though I don't think Serious Balance Testing should be done for a game where a princess reads weird squid poems and can execute half the nobility.

(On a related note, I just remembered that a new option for avoiding the chocolates was recently added: Elodie can pass it with Composure, something that she needs anyway for a Dead Joslyn run, or something easily picked up if she's also grinding Presence. Court Manners (and Conversation in general) helps with appeasing the nobles, though, such as when declining Gwenelle's invitation or when talking to everyone at the gala.)

(Hm. Actually, I'll test it right now to see if I can get only enough Court Manners to pass the necklace, and still avoid a civil war later on. EDIT: Done! Got through with only about 10 in Court Manners, no civil war, and if debugging is to be believed there was a big margin of error even without any party bonuses. I think so long as taxes are lowered and a respectable feast is given, there shouldn't be any issues.)

(EDIT 2: For the record, I'm also terrible at optimizing clicks and would probably lose a good minute or two just hesitating at the class screen as i try to remember how to to click it. :- P and my toaster laptop doesn't like me streaming at any quality above low... although I haven't tried streaming on Twitch yet anyway...)

Re: This is a really silly game to speedrun

#9 by Darksilverhawk - Apr 8 2015

Tsunamiracle:

Yeah, in hindsight, saving at branching points and reloading would be in line with the idea of fitting half a dozen goals into one file; I'm messing with romance candidates right now to see which people have contradicting paths, and it'd get annoying really fast to have to play through the entire game again just so you can choose one person over another.

Presumably if you got radically conflicting paths on a row you just wouldn't pick that bingo; you do have 12 completion options per card, assuming a standard 5x5 bingo game. Usually at least a couple per card are impractical anyway.

(Actually, if you can pass the chocolates with composure now I may need to re-route any%. I need to anyway because someone proved dogs is faster than court manners but cutting court manners/dogs out entirely might be an optimal run.)

I need to figure out who I need to ask to get the SRL bingo code, but a brief brainstorm of possible goals goes as such (a lot of the numbered ones would probably need playtesting to determine goal length, it was just what I estimated as being reasonable for 1-2 runs) :

Attend Gwenelle's Party, Save Briony, Make Lucille Duchess, Kill Charlotte, Make Charlotte a Lumen, Execute a Noble, Kill a Relative, Face a Vote of No-Confidence, Win the Naval Battle, Win a Tournament, Defeat Togami Without Violence, Win a Civil War, Unlock 7 Outfits, Become a Lumen, Reach 100 in 6 skills, Completely Empty Your Treasury, Kill Joslyn, Kill Kevan, Romance a Woman, Marry Kevan, Marry Ignatius, Die 6 Different Ways, Cause a Commoner Uprising, Face a Rebellious Province, Kiss Someone, Hold a Captive for Ransom, Kill a Lumen, Raise a Sea Monster, Have an Adviser, Become Queen without Lumen Powers,