Speed run of Metroid Prime in 15 segments completed on June 24 2004. This is a redo of the last 4 parts of the 1:05 completed 9 days before. The first 11 parts are therefore identical to the first 11 parts from that run.

Author's comments:
After I finished, I had been meaning to mess around with the second form of the last boss and see if I could find a way to beat him in 3 pools. I thought it was strange how you only had to use half of the fourth pool to finish him off, but this is the only thing I was basing my attempts on; I had no memory of him being at different amounts of health after the third pool, or anything that made me suspect there was a way to get more out of each pool. I decided to look for one regardless.

I noticed pretty quickly that something was up when I would constantly enter and leave a pool while shooting. The only explanation for this is that you make the pool last longer by entering it just enough to get a free shot. This would make sense, as Radix says a pool will drain at a slower rate when you're not standing in it. Another thing I noticed is that this constant interrupting of his actions doesn't slow his countdown to the next pool. It seems you can even speed him up by shooting him out of a shockwave attempt. It cancels the attack, yet he acts as if he has just completed it (thanks to Radix for making the connection).

As a result, you can get two pools to exist at the same time, by preserving the first one and interrupting all his shockwave attempts. I've seen no logical reason to want two pools at once, however, at least not one that is logical for speed. This is why I finish draining the pool when I think he's close to making the next one. Ideally, you'll do enough damage with the first two pools that you'll be able to drain the third as soon as it appears and still kill him, allowing you to save the full 44-46 seconds gotten from cutting out a pool, as well as any speed up time from his earlier phases.

I'd need thermal in order to actually use this new strategy, so I had to redo part12 and up from my backup save on another card. It might be possible to do this without thermal, but I'm not about to try. Even though it takes 9-10 seconds to get, I knew I could remove the cost by improving part12 and part13.

The first form battle is still awful, the only reason I took it is because it would have to literally be perfect to get 1:03. He refused to use his plasma form in Subchamber Four, but if you get lucky enough, it will be the only form he uses there, allowing for a fight that is over 40 seconds better. The other subchambers were close enough to the limit, but even they would have to be much better for 1:03. Trying to win the lottery four times in a row is awfully hard... it would be easier to just do a new run. That leaves a chance of 1:02 without new finds, if one somehow managed the perfect first form battle, and improved on the rest of the run. The former is probably not possible, the latter is easy.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews