Four Swords Adventures Discussion

First (non-blind) any% race tomorrow night. Get hyped!

Please submit runs for individual levels (ILs) to (zelda4sa@gmail.com). The leaderboard for the ILs has been setup here: http://bombch.us/IN0

I just started playing FSA again and was wondering what are the strats for consistent gap skipping. I can get it sometimes, but others Link will simply either not start the hover or one of the Links will not end up on the other side.

For Level 1-1 and level 2-2, stand as close to the right wall as possible and a bit below the hole (so you don't just roll in and fall). Roll up while holding up on the C stick. When you reach the other side, dash slash up (while holding up on the C stick) and immediately press X to switch to another Link when Red Link slashes onto the platform.

Super weird dead links glitch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjaEau4P8w

Edit: Fixed the dead link - mzxrules

Good news! Mzx created a section for FSA for the site. So far, Sergi, Zmaster91, 26pt2, and I have the ability to make & edit pages for it.

Sweet! For anyone that would like to see (I couldn't find a link on the front page), here it is: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/fsa/tech/formation-hover

There isn't one because there weren't any pages to the site. If you fill out a few of 'm then I'll add it to the front page.

topic exploded since I last looked here!

I really wana get into this game later on when I can get my hands on it.

Some neat stuff popping up as well!

I am currently exploring something weird in the game, probably nothing but really hard to do it when I have to play at a friends house..

I finally finished making the Google Doc. Basically, it lists the items picked up for each individual level. Also, I explained all of the known glitches thus far. The coolest part is that there are links to the videos (mostly by zmaster91) that are very helpful. I will be checking the co-op route since there is much more optimization needed in that department. Anyways, check it out!

http://bombch.us/KV0

26pt2 wrote

I finally finished making the Google Doc. Basically, it lists the items picked up for each individual level. Also, I explained all of the known glitches thus far. The coolest part is that there are links to the videos (mostly by zmaster91) that are very helpful. I will be checking the co-op route since there is much more optimization needed in that department. Anyways, check it out!

http://bombch.us/KV0

O yes this is amazing :D

Also would be nice to get a 4 sword section on the forums :3

FSA section on the forums would be great. And one on the website, too. I'm down for writing glitches and stuff on the page, if I can get a quick little tutorial on how to do so.

There's already a FSA section on the website at http://zeldaspeedruns.com/fsa. However I've just added it to the dropdown.

Thanks :3

Good news:  The dodongo skip in 8-1 is finally somewhat consistent/possible.

Bad News: Doesn't save a "ton" of time, and is very risky.  Also, the strat only works on JP... lol. 

The basic reason why it works on this version is because this version let's you switch links if another grayed out link is falling.  In the US version, this is not possible.  E.g. In US if you throw purple link into a pit, you can't switch to red as the purple link is in the falling animation.  However, in the JP version you can even switch to purple link while he is falling.

Also, this consequence makes it so when you do formation hovers to the right, you can switch to red very easily, saving a few seconds since you don't have to wait for the falling animation.  Whereas in the US version this happened very rarely and usually was just because you got lucky with your inputs or something.  Anyway here is the video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoZ8N301hCM&feature=youtu.be

Nice Z! I have been doing some co-op routing lately. There were quite a few surprising changes. However, the awesome stuff is what remains the same, especially... the floating links glitch! Check out the 2 player action here (does not work in 3 or 4 player mode unfortunately): http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/3257373

Here (http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/3296221) is a video explaining the setup for all the hardware that I have in order for a co-op run of Zelda Four Swords Adventures to happen. Many people wonder about this but as you can tell, it ain't easy to get 2 solid runner of this game in the same room ...let alone put all these pieces together.

NOW what would be neat is if we somehow made it possible to get control over one of the players via internet!

Tho I would think delay could be an issue but not necessarily!

Co-op run with multi players would be amazing to watch!

Guess tas could perfect that...

Co-op over WiFi is definitely possible in the original Four Swords on the GBA using VBA link. I am not sure if NetPlay works for that though. However, I struggle trying to get Four Swords Adventures to work even on the same computer but that has more to do with the GBA bios file. I was planning on doing the co-op run of FSA tomorrow on December 29th but my friend got called in to work so we postponed the run until sometime after AGDQ 2014. Our goal will be sub-6 …maybe sub-5, though zmaster91 and I would easily achieve sub-4 if that ever happens. Anyways, I will keep practicing and updating the wiki here on ZSR for all the information about co-op. The notable stages with differences are 2-3, 4-2, and 5-3, mainly in the GBA rooms.

So when I was visiting a friend (who actually has gameboys) I tested out the actor glitch in 4-3 with a gameboy controller instead of a gamecube one (thanks to mzx for the suggestion).  So, it turns out that with the gameboy as a controller, you can actually navigate through the level.

What we found out is that you never appear in the gameboy, therefore, you have navigate all of these screens blind.  Also, everything that can move is completely invisible throughout the whole level.  This includes things such as the enemies, gems, switches, and even the boss (you are also invisible the whole time as well).  Luckily the enemies all have spot lights on them, so this isn't a huge deal.  However, we didn't finish the level correctly, because doing it in co-op proves to be a lot harder (each time you die, you lose gems).  So hopefully when I get my gameboy player disc sometime next week I'll get a run of the level. 

I'm not expecting anything special from this since it is just a graphical glitch (well I think so anyway), but we'll see.  If anyone else wants to try, that would be great.

So Z… are you going to beat my single player GBA controller% run?  ;) It's nothing special. Just 3:38

I will beat it when I start running :D

Hello everyone, I just thought I join the small party here and show some love for FSA.

I hope to run this game in the near future, but as for now, I just do some glitch hunting whenever I can spare some free time.

Speaking of glitches, I thought I discovered something new, but Zmaster analyzed it and it seems to be a variation of the floating link glitch.
Too bad! This game really needs more glitches.

In case anyone is interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0JnUCUzXZI

Not a bad find. For that specific area, we skip using those switches in single player by jumping & tossing a Link onto the platform blocked off by the flames. The other major glitch, which I have yet to accomplish, is the "actor" glitch in stage 4-3 where you purposefully get caught by the lights and hit "start" to pause on a specific frame. Lastly, a "glitch" worth looking into is the GBA screen distortion (I can't think of a clever name for it), which allows for the possibility of "wrong warping" to a different screen. Unfortunately for me, the only result I get when falling down a hole to a GBA screen and pressing different directional inputs ...is a GBA screen that is off-center from the middle position on the TV. This last glitch is likely the one most worth researching and discovering consistent methods for manipulating in order to chip more time off the run. Best of luck! Recently, I managed to nab the official 2nd place for the fastest Four Swords Adventures runner in the world but I am currently taking a break from the game. I may do runs of Four Swords Anniversary Edition on the 3DS (but excuse the poor camera quality; might get a 3DS with the capture board in the future?) or have fun with A Link to the Past and a certain category that I enjoy (Palace of the Four Sword, Out-of-Bounds, single-segment).

TL;DR
A GBA screen glitch may be the key to wrong warping within a stage

Yeah, I watched Z's IL of 3-3 and saw how it's done fast ^^
The video itself was just to show what the glitch accomplishes (at this point I didn't realize it's just another FLG).

The GBA Screen glitch thingy sounds interesting, I should look into that.

But, in the last week, Z, Pedro and I found some new stuff (several Skips like in 1-1, skipping the complete part past Tingle and just access the bridge early, or skipping the bow and get the lamp faster in 2-3). They all use the GBA OoB Glitch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG8HN58NhOY) to position the Links in unintended places and then reunite with L ,Y or C.

Sweet. The funny thing is... there have been several times where zmaster and I unintentionally did that trick (or something similar) during runs and got irked because it slowed us down. A great example would be using the moon pearl to warp in 8-3 (the main room) with only green link running around when we really wanted all 4 to be present.

Finally, a co-op speedrun has happened! I did this first attempt with friends last night. In theory, I think the time can be pushed down below the sub-4 barrier with 2 competent runners. There are plenty of differences (albeit mostly slower) for the co-op run. Namely, rolling in tight corridors is not feasible due to the risk of stealing another player's additional Link. Also, Shadow Link battles are an issue, as well as the boss battles. Below are the VODs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXlF-fqcZg

or

http://www.twitch.tv/26pt2/c/4181567

Alternative method for skipping the Lost Woods gap on English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2UsJj2Dq50

Probably not faster than just mashing X, but perhaps more consistent and it seems easier to me.

Too bad no one seems to run English anymore  :'(.

So, since we were encouraged to actually use the forums...
Let's update some stuff.

Some cool things were discovered just recently ,

Gem Barrier Skip in 8-3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJb5NbLR64

Skipping the first barrier in 8-3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26zf-o4Lfmo

Jewel fight skip in 7-1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZKfuueCk4

Obtaining bombs early in 6-3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUaA1Y3XQw