Effort.

I read somewhere in a YouTube comment someone (it was posted by one of the speed runners I track, no worries - except that I don't recall exactly which one) said, quote...

"It takes diligence to speed run."

That is pretty obvious, yes.  But it made me think about my efforts toward Seaside Hill.  Every other stage that I did a speed run for (except Speed Highway), I put a lot of time into before I had my PVR.  Green Hill... I ran for a long time since the Generations demo as the whole Havoc engine was still new to me.  Sky Sanctuary, I ran for at least two weeks.  City Escape... I don't remember though my first serious time which was top 50 may have taken at least two days and a few more days to top ten.  Crisis City... MONTHS, and I loved every bit of it.  Seaside Hill - 5 days from scratch with minimal hours of play.

Honestly, I don't know why I was in such a rush considering I had previous experience in other stages.  This was the quickest I've ever learned a stage, and simultaneously... it's the highest I've ever put myself on a Sonic leaderboard.  It really was a stage I could have simply been patient towards. Perhaps a part of me was convincing myself that the actual stage wasn't as hard as I thought it was... or maybe I'm getting better at the game... or both?  Maybe I created my own sense of urgency to make a recording of it by always talking about it?  Who knows.

After I had finished uploading the video to YouTube, I just watched it... over and over.  When I had to leave the computer, I was watching it over and over.... over my phone.  My brain was feeling some sort of release from the experience.  That was probably the stress of practicing it a few days ago being liberated.

I saw some missed opportunities in the run (at least the last 2D and 3D sections where I dedicated the least amount of time to) but in the end - it made the music sync with what was going on quite well from start to finish.  Didn't even have to move the track.  I just started it when the video started.  Must give thanks to my good friend for throwing that song in my direction.  Again, in the end, it's not so much about having the fastest time more than a good looking run with some nice music... and I'm glad just how well it turned out.

From the exception of Crisis City Act 2, that one mission where you hit the music notes and Action Master, every other stage that winds up recorded from this point on in Generations will be from scratch.  By that, I mean every stage up to now will be taken seriously for the first time.  So when I start Unleashed.... man... there's probably going to be a lot of downtime in between Generations and Unleashed, let alone between Unleashed itself.  I've BARELY scratched the surface with that game.


Speaking of Sonic Unleashed, lately I feel like I haven't been sharing enough speed runs from other people, and I want to throw this one in because it's a stage I never really liked (at least the non-DLC version of it).  But I think I've changed my mind now.

Man, Unleashed is so fast.  Miller states in his description that it took him over 5,000 tries and he's very proud of this.  I don't know how accurate that statement regarding the number of tries is, but hey... can't say I don't relate to him about how he feels in the end.  It's just the love for the game... and when it comes to love towards anything, in spite of how frustrating it is and how many fails you have to stack up before you succeed, you just don't know how far you can go...

... unless you are willing enough try and keep trying.

Seaside Hill Act 2... R.I.P.

Man... I'm telling you - I was so stressed making this, but the music I put in makes it all worthwhile.

So what's next?  I think I'm going to go for Chemical Plant Act 2.  Why not?  It's the only stage I haven't recorded from the Genesis Era and I've covered all of the Dreamcast Era stages.  I believe my current time is something around a 1:41ish.  There's plenty of room to improve and I still want to save my favorite stage for last.

After 3 hours of recording.

Never made it to the last 2D section of Seaside Hill 2.  The furthest I made it was to the side-step area where I either hit a bomb because I brain-farted or didn't jump or mis-jumped.

Normally, I could try recording a bit longer, but - I really hate this stage.  Even though it took me literally months to get down Crisis City Act 2, it didn't stress me out like this stage does.  This was the first stage to actually upset me to that extent - which is feeling stressed.  If I reach that point again, I'm just going to stop because there is frustration and then there is stress (and unlike frustration, stress kills).  After taking a break, I was too tired to try again.

So, what are my problems?  Honestly, nothing I haven't already said before, though there's more to add with one crucial discovery.  The biggest challenges is still the section after the killer whales and then grinding.

• It seems that once Sonic lands after the display of orca, if you boost too early, you will fuck up the camera which causes it to zoom more on Sonic and less on the surroundings.  This is easily avoidable if you slightly delay the boost when he lands.
• That whole part where you are aiming him to collect rings, drift over water and then smash enemies & collect rings to fill the boost meter before hopping into the cannon is very tedious and was the center of my issues this morning.  Aiming Sonic at the rings properly is a challenge.  Water treading is okay, it's just that the camera doesn't point at what's ahead of Sonic after he's done drifting on the water.  With a bit more attentiveness I believe I can fix that issue.

• However, in the first 2D section where you wall jump and air boost into the trick ring is so ununderstandable when it comes to getting Sonic consistently high enough on the wall jump platform after destroying that enemy.

Fortunately, I was able to figure out on my own why Sonic refuses to air boost after entering  the cannon and hitting the springs.  See that enemy that's standing next to the cannon - DON'T TOUCH IT.  It was only because I was killing before landing in the cannon that the air boost wouldn't work.

Unfortunately, that opened up a new problem - getting used to using it.  After the air boost, if I want to hop off the platform and on to the rail (providing I don't air boost over the platform, though that may suggest I'm doing it too late) I'm going to have to air boost again just before landing on the rail to get the most out of it.  I find this to be very tricky to simply perform since the camera is mostly above your head. If you reached the cannon with say, less than half boost meter, the two air boosts will destroy your meter, and you can forget about running on water in the next section.  Alternatively, I can just air boost immediately after hitting the last spring and land on the speed booster... and it didn't seem all that much slower, honestly (helluvalot easier.)

And of course there are times the controls don't want to respond...

All these things really make me realize that this stage is really good at revealing the problems within this gameplay from the camera to the controls.  Seaside Hill is super stingy when it comes to meter and it sometimes made me wish that Sonic's boost was more useful when it comes to magnetizing rings (not like Unleashed HD, just better balanced.).  The only reason why the last 2D section is so easy is because the top section is just so simple, all it's good for is to just prepare you for the last 3D section of running on water.  It's just wall jump, air boost, kill an enemy, go through the 180, air boost late, collect rings on rails, fall, air boost, boost, run the 3D section.

I really hate speed running this stage.  At first it was fun, but I wasn't going nearly as fast at first... and maybe Sonic Team wasn't either.  I was thinking practicing it with skills might be nice (or just doing a skilled recorded run instead).  I'm not discouraged... just frustrated.

Good night.

Seaside Hill Act 2.. Take 4...

Yeah, I know what you're thinking...

I'm on it!  The good news is that this took me less than 2 hours to pull off (for once) and I'm confident I can do it again.  Couldn't record earlier sadly.

But can it go faster?  It can, but I don't know if it will go faster than 3rd place.  Gonna test some things in the stage before I start recording to make sure everything goes as smooth as possible.

Seaside Hill Act 2... take 3... I hate running on water.

If I ever said I liked Seaside Hill 2... I'm sorry.  I don't feel that way anymore.

First of all... I know it can't just be me (or maybe it is) but I find the stage rather boring when you're taking the speed run route.  Not that my heart doesn't beat out of my chest when things are going right and Sonic's going consistently fast, but... idk.  Maybe because the challenging areas are rather... uninteresting (not all of them).  I can't say that about the rest of the stage's alt paths because the stage is actually quite flexible overall.  Although I now completely understand what it takes to get on top of that falling orange platform after running over water (stop boosting before you turn right or you'll cause Sonic to "understeer."), I dunno... just seems so plain.  Secondly, to add insult to injury, after hitting the black speed booster that launches Sonic, you boost down to the end, only to jump and stop all of Sonic's momentum because for some reason, Sonic Team doesn't want Sonic to... go relatively fast around a corner to the left.  For a shortcut, it sure does seem rather bland to kill Sonic's flow.  Last but not least, I'm annoyed at the territory of this game when it comes to the controls in this stage.  Again, air boosting after the cannon launches you to the springs, air boosting seems to be an option on and off like.  It's just like Green Hill 2's last set of springs before hopping over the trip step which you can overcome any control issues by air boosting before hitting the springs.

Well, I've got the early morning ahead of me and after getting 6th on XBL (as I said, I should at least get 8th or 7th), I felt it was time to actually show some progress.  I actually ran out of meter in the final part of the stage and if I didn't, I possibly could've snatched 4th.  Well... that's the plan when I record the run.  The current ruler of the XBL leaderboard is none other than KYUURI999@ 1:30:44.  Right now, I don't see myself knocking 5 seconds off my time.  Still have a lot of work cut out.  Right now, my biggest concern is making the most out of the last 2D section with the wall jumping as it doesn't make much sense to me yet.

... I actually look forward to getting through this stage so I can focus on Crisis City Act 2 again.  I think this stage is definitely more fun to watch played than it is to play it as a speed run.  Maybe a red ring attack would be better...?

Me vs Seaside Hill 2... part 2.

Haven't gotten a chance to play in the past few days so I'm getting used to the stage again.  I managed to complete a run that brought me to the top 15, but... if you don't know, readers... I want a top 10 run unless I don't think I can do better.  This means getting below 1:36:23 and I am currently at 1:36:88.

...

Which means if I do this right, I should get no lower than 7th or 8th.  I really want something that'll put me at 4th, but... there are a few problems.

This majority of the stage before the last 2D section is very hard on your meter.  To speed run, every 3D section requires Sonic to run over water.  The first 3D part at the beginning of the section is moderately difficult, but everything is fine if you simply collect all the rings over the water.  Sometimes I have more problems timing the jump into the cannon which seemingly works better from the water opposed to from the land around it.  (I assume that when Sonic is running on water, he is somewhat higher.)

The first 2D section is weird.  I do not try to get off a homing attack dash on the platform because if I kill the 2 enemies starting from that pillar, I cannot get Sonic high enough to land on the right wall jump pad or on the platform to the left.  Instead, I let him fall and the result to getting him high enough after defeating the second enemy seems to mostly be based on how high Sonic's jump was on the first enemy.  It's weird, but the success rate seems around 70%.

The second 3D section is ALL about meter management.  By the time you get to the 2nd cannon, you need at least 90% meter to run over the body of water to the orange platform.  Most of this will successfully depend on whether you collected enough boost energy and you'll want to collect as many line of rings you come across before the first cannon.  The first line on the beach and the second on the water are mandatory.  There are two lines of rings on the next part of the beach, but there are also two enemies together, so destroying those gathering the last line of rings before the first cannon really helps out tremendously.  Before getting on this beach area, it's a good idea to hop from the water on to the beach because sometimes Sonic flies up as if he hit a slope, and that will not help at all.  After getting into the cannon and hitting the last spring, my challenge here is whether the air boost will work or not.  It seems random.  If it does, getting the most speed out of the rails is a bit tricky as hopping on it won't give you immediate access to boosting for some reason (so I guess you have to do it right as you land on it.)  Last but not least is the water section.  In a previous entry, I stated that it wasn't too hard once you get it down, but that was then.  Today, it's a challenge. If I accidentally cause the camera to get caught behind a part of the level, I'm pretty much playing a guessing game at this point.  Other than that, I've yet to really cement it.

The rest of the stage seems pretty much like a cake walk, but that's yet to be determined because I made mistakes the last time I went through it and that only happened from lack of experience there.  Meter is no issue.  The only challenge seems to be based on whether my wall jumps will get Sonic high enough for an air boost on the top platform.

Time will tell if I get this done tonight.  If not, I'll try again tomorrow.

So, it's been decided...

As I was cycling through the stages checking out leaderboard times, I was trying to figure out which stage I should perform a speed run in next, and when I decided to check the times for Seaside Hill, I accidentally chose to play the stage.

... looks like I'm practicing this one. (Almost feels like a socially awkward penguin moment lol.)

Honestly, I was quite intimidated by this stage for some reason.  Perhaps that's because I know that the fastest known route for tackling the 2nd part of the 3D section requires running on water...?  It took many times to judge where I needed to stop boosting, but it's one of those things that once you get down, it should be pretty easy afterwards.  It seems as if you'll need a full meter to make the distance (let me clarify, starting from the last rails that Sonic grinds on), but no.  Around 85-90% should suffice.

After that, I only had enough time to make it to the end once and jumped nearly 200 spots on the leaderboard.  I'm Currently at 44th now.  Other than that, I need to mess around with the first 2D section a bit more.  It's short, but getting the most out of it doesn't look simple.  In fact, I think Kakipi1000 is the only person I've seen come out of the trick ring and use a homing attack on the enemy.  Perhaps everyone is just doing the wrong trick?  The last 2D section looks easy and I assume is easy.  When I ran it, I wound up starting at the bottom of the last 2D section without really knowing where to go, but I was 20 seconds ahead of my previous time.

Not too lost on what music I'll be using, but nothing concrete yet~