100 Jumps

I got 100 Super Jumps in Super Mario RPG last night!

This is pretty crazy to me, and I'm still kind of in awe that I actually did it. So much so that I felt I had to write a paste about it.

See, the thing is, I've been interested in running SMRPG for a *long* time - but the Super Jumps were always the thing that scared me away from it (as they do for most people). I'd been able to get to 30 and the Attack Scarf once before, but there just didn't seem to be any chance that I could get all the way up to 100. Especially not in the pressure situation of a speedrun.

But then I ended up having a brief talk with pidgezero_one at AGDQ, and when I mentioned this interest, she got so excited about the idea of somebody picking up the game that I couldn't help but pick up on that energy. I found the wiki and saw just how great and detailed all the resources they had put together were. She did a good enough job selling the "anybody can learn" message that I bought a J cart of the game pretty much as soon as I got home.

It wasn't until this last month or so that I really got started (thanks to v0oid's many streams finally leading to the game grabbing enough of my attention). Even then, I didn't think I'd be going for the Super Jumps. I thought I'd learn one of the no-SJ routes and just see how it felt. But as I was playing the game, I was just having so much dang fun. And as I read the routes, there are just so many detours in the no-SJ routes that it just didn't feel worth learning those. So I decided to just get up to the point where Mario learned Super Jump and see what happened.

I decided to use pidge's rotato strats to actually do the jumps (pressing, Y, X, A, B in rotation as opposed to just a single button). It's hard for me to keep track, so only counting to 25 rather than 100 is a nice perk. And it gives me something else to focus on rather than just a single point on the screen. I was able to cross the 13/14 barrier pretty quickly - but kept dropping around 20. I think I got up to 26 on the first day. I didn't try much on the second, but did get up to 40. It was feeling like this would be a long process, so I didn't put too much work into it - just a little bit here or there.

Finally, yesterday, during pidge's run at RPGLB, I decided I was just going to dedicate some extended practice to them. I was good enough to use them to get past Johnny (in 3 rounds), and managed to get to jagger. The really quick turnaround on practice time made that really helpful. I even made a donation just to make the joke that I was using rotato strats - and I figured that would be the end of it.

But then I had what felt like "the run."  I made it past 10 rotations (ie, 10 circles around the 4 buttons). Most of my attempts had been dropping at 6 or 7 - *occasionally* getting up to 9 or 10. Then I was past my old high of 14. Before I knew it I was at 18 and on a roll - I started thinking "wow - I might actually be able to do this!" I was starting to feel excited! I might be able to do this *during* the RPGLB run! Right now!.... and then a drop. Adrenaline was rushing pretty good at this point, so I ran back over to the dog to see what I had gotten to. 94. Wow. I shot up from dropping mostly between 20 and 30 jumps all the way to 94.

It was only mild disappointment though - as now I actually believed I could do it. Up until this point, I didn't know if I'd be able to - nor did I know how much time it would take me. But now I *knew* I could do it. That little amount of belief changed everything. Every bit of jumping I had done before that had doubt creeping in my mind. But every jump I did after this came with BELIEF. I still would drop around 6-7 rotations sometimes, but now I was making it into the teens regularly. I had a few different times where I did around 80 jumps. I set it in my mind that I was going to get this done during the RPGLB run, and when I did I was giving $100 to let pidge know her rotato strats are confirmed the BEST.

And that's exactly what I did. When it finally happened I completely lost count, but I knew I was in the zone. When I hit what I thought was 25 rotations, I just kept going. I knew the game would stop me when I got there, and I knew I was close, but I wouldn't let myself think about it. I think I ended up needing another 2 or 3 rotations before my jumps actually dropped (speaks to that counting might be the hardest part of this in the end...). When I did drop, I was pretty sure I had 100 (as it was on a Y press that I fell - another perk to this technique) - but I wasn't sure. This was another major reason I wanted to do my jumps in Land's End - to be able to find out right away how I had done. And when I got that Super Suit... well that was a good moment.

I didn't try any more after that - the sense of relief was palpable. Not only did I get it, I got it FAST. I had maybe spent an hour or so practicing before last night - spread across 3 days. Yesterday was maybe a little over an hour of dedicated practice. Perhaps the best part about this was the feeling that I am going to be able to do this. I am going to be able to do speedruns of this game! Up until yesterday, I still didn't know when, or *if*, it would ever happen. But now I know they will. It might still be awhile, as there's a lot more to learn, and I have to develop a *lot* more consistency before I feel up to putting a whole run together (5 hours is not a block of time I'll often have available - I need to practice enough to be able to do it in 4 or less). But now I know I will. And that's pretty cool. (Having the RPGLB crowd clapping at my donation was pretty cool, too).

Shoutouts to pidge for giving me the courage to actually start running this game (and the rotato strats), to v0oid whose runs have provided the inspiration to get started, and to kbz and justin who have been tremendous sources of tips and advice. These won't be the last shoutouts that you four (and others) get from me.

(All that money I gave to RPGLB went to BabyGrill as Dagger's name in FFIX - seeing as how my first daughter was a major part of my FFIX E2PG run a few years back, and that's what we called her in chat, it just seems right. Also, I bought 2 more carts of this game - a J and a U. I really only needed one more J for some extra save files, but my 6yo son got excited about the game, and I wanted him to play on SNES rather than VC, so I bought the U as well.)