Shenmue - WR pace run breakdown [70 Man Battle speedrun]

Commentary of "Shenmue 70 Man Battle fastest WR pace - 66 defeated in 2:06.03" [https://youtu.be/e5GRYoUCoUM]

For once, I don’t think I can speak very negatively about this run. While I lose a few seconds here and there, my performance is really solid, taking advantage of all the knowledge I gathered in the past two years. I’d say the highlight is from BOSS2 onwards.

For instance, at 2:17, I use Trample Kick against two of the Mad Angels, which normally may or may not defeat them in one blow. I used to think this oddity was entirely based on luck, since, often times,  not even a fully trained Trample Kick would guarantee a one-shot. In actuality, I recently figured out it actually depends on the state the CPU is in. Basically, at least in Shenmue I, enemies repeatedly switch between what I call “active mode” (when they’re about to attack/have the intention of attacking you/they're attacking) and “passive mode” (when they're walking/running/not attacking, when you block one of their attacks, and when they've just stopped attacking) and Ryo’s moves seem to deal more damage when the target in active mode, so to say.

What does this mean, you ask? Well, it means that Trample Kick, which normally deals like 2.9 damage points, can deal 3+ damage points and defeat those pesky enemies with 3 health points who would usually require a stronger attack like Side Reaper Kick to be defeated in one shot. Since Trample Kick is arguably Ryo’s best “basic” move in terms of speed, precision and ease of use, it ends up saving quite a decent amount of time and it’s very convenient too, provided you get the timing right and don’t hit the opponent when it’s in passive mode of course.

Another highlight moment is from 2:30 onwards. While these last thugs are as weak as the first 20 Mad Angels (they have 2 health points), they are very aggressive and can waste a huge amount of time if they attack together. Those guys with hats in particular can block your attacks when you least expect it, and they can block as many times as they please if you don’t hit them when they’re in active mode (which is hard to predict). For this reason, I decide to go for the risky “Tiger Storm” strat (instead of the standard “Side Reaper Kick” strat), which is a fast, consistent way to deal with them, but it’s also really easy to screw up because I need to manually input the throw every time and they also need to be in passive mode. Luckily for me, it works out better than it usually does and that’s how I was able to hit 2:06.03 before Pedro.

Speaking of Pedro, It’s too bad the last segment went as “bad” as it did. I really think I did the best I could do with the very little time I had to plan what to do, and I don’t think I’m wrong when I say I really deserved better luck overall. At 3:11, I used the newly-discovered ***Dark Moon strategy*** to guarantee me at least a shot at the Wall Glitch, but Pedro didn’t mean to cooperate this time. Part of me thinks I should have just gone with the Demon Drop spam strategy at 2:58, but I was really worried the last Mad Angel would interrupt the chain and kill the run (which happens almost every single time by the way). The Wall Glitch on the other hand would have allowed me to achieve a 2:26-2:35 run without having to deal with that guy constantly trying to screw me over. Oh well, I can't go back and try again, that's the sore point of speedruns. I'll just have to keep trying and hope for better luck.

*** To put it simply, Dark Moon and Cyclone Kick have a weird property as in they freeze the CPU for a short period time, making it react slower than intended (not quite sure why this happens exactly, your guess is as good as mine). We can abuse this small opening to either combo the opponent with a long chain of attacks, or to squeeze in a throw right after Dark Moon (in this latter case, it's not necessary for the move to actually hit the opponent). This doesn't exactly mean throw moves will always work after Dark Moon, because positioning and alignment also play an important role (if you're too far/not properly aligned, Ryo will attempt a grab instead), but there's a pretty good chance it will (granted, the inputs must be fast and clean to begin with).

I use this strategy to more freely use Tiger Storm and to slightly increase my chances of nailing the Wall Glitch. It's important to note however that Satoshi (BOSS2) and Pedro (BOSS3) aren't always affected by this side effect and may surprise-attack after a while, so I recommend using this trick to more easily use throw moves in general or to make short combos (make it too long and they can break out of it). ***

Well, that's it from me. Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something new. See ya!