Shenmue - 2:33.70 WR run breakdown

Commentary of "Shenmue 70 Man Battle speedrun in 2:33.70 by Richard Payne [NEW WR!]"

2:33.70 - New World Record run: https://youtu.be/9rqh681tAtA
2:37.90 - Former World Record run: https://youtu.be/Lp7C283yPRo

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||||| RUN SPLITS ||||||
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||||| New WR VS Former WR |||||

・0:38.80 VS 0:33.90 [20 defeated]
・0:49.63 VS 0:45.60 [BOSS 1 defeated]
・1:22.16 VS 1:22.43 [40 defeated]
・1:28.56 VS 1:33.40 [BOSS 2 defeated]
・1:48.73 VS 1:51.90 [53 defeated]
・2:09.00 VS 2:16.43 [66 defeated]
・0:24.70 VS 0:21.47 [VS Pedro & minions]
・2:33.70 VS 2:37.90 [Final Time]
・0:04.20 [Time saved]

0-20 DEFEATED: Not as good as in the previous run, but still a solid segment. I start the run with Mistral Flash instead of Brutal Tiger… for some reason. I don’t think that saves any time, so I may drop that for future attempts.
At 1:15 I attack too early and miss the enemy, then I try and recover with Crawl Cyclone, but the game triggers Thunder Kick instead, which also misses… Not the end of the world, but a silly way to lose time nonetheless.

BOSS 1: At the start, I get probably the worst pattern I could get from Shingo. He begins with a double chop attack, which not only is difficult to react to, but also renders him immune to throws during the entire duration of the move. I could have probably blocked the attack and go for a Demon Drop from there, but didn’t feel like taking the risk, considering I was at a pretty awkward part of the map too; it’s safer to just take the hit and wait for a better opening. I do get one soon after when Shingo uses his knee attack: the last frames of that move do not grant him invincibility and I exploit that to initiate the Demon Drop spam. Three Demon Drops and he’s out, bye bye Shingo.

21-40 DEFEATED: An almost perfect play. Still bummed by Against Cascade missing for no reason at 2:08, but other than that, it went as smooth as butter.

BOSS 2: I mess up the first Wall Glitch* setup due to being too far from Sato (Stick guy), but I quickly correct the distance and beat him in roughly 6 seconds, a huge time gain from my previous run.

*The Wall Glitch is, you guessed it, a damage glitch I discovered back in 2020. It only seems to affect the second part of the throw move “Tiger Storm”, specifically the trained variant of the move.
When you push the enemy onto a wall or invisible boundary during the second lunge strike, there’s a chance the move will deal way more damage than intended (up to 5 times more damage!). This makes it possible to one shot bosses and even two-three shot guys like Pedro and the great Chai!
What triggers the glitch is a mystery, but it seems to happen more often when you push the enemy sideways onto a wall, rather than pushing directly.
Normally, it would take at the very least 11 seconds to beat Mr Stick if the fight goes smooth, but with the Wall Glitch, you can defeat him in as low as 4 seconds!*

41-53 DEFEATED: This section seems easy but is, in fact, a trap. Most of the enemies you encounter in this phase can dodge Ryo’s attacks at random, so I only use moves that have a higher chance of not being dodged (Trample Kick if the enemy has low health, Crawl Cyclone if it has medium health). I quickly deal with all enemies and make my way through the last part before Pedro.

54-66 DEFEATED: This is another part that seems easy on paper but can go wrong in several different ways. The main source of trouble comes from the many hat dudes* that spawn at this point.

*The “hat dudes” are what I call a type of Mad Angel fighter who likes to wait for Ryo to attack, only to block and counter. Most, if not all of them, wear hats, so "hat dudes" is an easy way to distinguish them from the others.*

To limit the chance of having to deal with them directly, I make heavy use of Tiger Storm (they can’t block/dodge throw moves), and even use the enemy/object collision to my advantage, which ends up working perfectly in this instance. The only true mistake I make is at 2:53: the guy changing his run path at the last second throws me off and I act too late as a result, but luckily, it’s just a minor time loss.

66-70 DEFEATED (PEDRO & MINIONS): This is where it gets CRAZY. Since last year, I’ve been going for an incredibly risky strategy: instead of first dealing with the remaining thugs, I try and get near Pedro just before the cutscene starts (using Shadow Reaper to get even closer), in order to damage him as soon as I possibly can. It’s easy to understand why this is a BAD idea (getting surrounded, getting thrown/launched away by Pedro before you even have the time to react), but if you’re lucky, you can somehow damage Pedro and take out his minions at the same time!

The main idea behind this ridiculous strategy is to make sure Pedro does not leave that area, which seems to grant you the greatest chance of a successful Wall Glitch execution. In addition, if you’ve watched my juggle combo tutorial video on YouTube, you’ll quickly realize I can potentially combo Pedro after a Wall Glitch, as long as there’s a single minion left. Well, what do you know? This is exactly what happens at the end!

It’s unreal how lucky I got here. I do a decent amount of damage to the boss, dodge a throw attempt, and defeat two of the three last minions, but I leave myself open from both Pedro and the last guy… Had I got a less favourable RNG, it would have been over.

Pedro could have easily used one of his BS moves there but chose not to (?), and when Stab Amor (inexplicably) fails at 3:21 and the guy behind me starts attacking, I yet again thought I was doomed…

To the surprise of everyone, Pedro does not punish me again (what?!), giving me the perfect chance to set up the Wall Glitch. I push him where he needs to be and the rest is history! Taking out both him and the last guy with a perfect Demon Drop was just the icing on the cake!

P.S. Did I mention Pedro has a 50% (maybe even higher) chance of dodging Tiger Storm, making the Wall Glitch even riskier than normal? What that means is - had he dodged the throw move, I would have been screwed... but he didn't, so that means he's not such a bad guy after all. Love the dude!

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That’s pretty much how the whole run went. Overall I’m very pleased with how everything turned out and wouldn’t be surprised if this was my last time set for the 70 Man Battle. Will I get SUB 2:30 one day? Unlikely, but not impossible!

Thank you for showing interest. If you like the concept of racing against the clock in the 70 Man Battle, why not starting doing that yourself? This category could use more runners and it’s a lot of fun!
I started with a 7 minute run time and slowly (very slowly...) worked my way down to where I am now. If I can do it, everyone can!