tell me where I'm going wrong please, I need constructive criticism to get better.

Hi Danduffers,

Watched the vid, and from my perspective -

1. Routing - Identify what's the most efficient route you can take. Stages where you have to jump between heights or background (level 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, etc.), you want to minimize the times you make those transistions. Also, with good routing, you will find yourself not getting pinned down by enemies in certain spots.

2. Clean up movement/attacks, know the enemy patterns - Working with #1, try to minimize the "standing" attacks that cause your character to stop. Also, know what the enemies are capable of and how they react to you. You'll then learn who you should shuriken/who you should shuriken with a power-up, jump kick, jump over, body bump, avoid and run away from.

3. Muscle memory - Keep practicing and playing to get into a groove.

Work with the above first. As you get your time lower, put your own spin and improvements on the run. After that, then focus on boss improvements:

Boss 1 - Can be cleaned up, learn how to chain your attacks. Definitely recommend watching leaderboard fights from the top runners.

Boss 2 - Know the "options" you have in terms of your character vs boss spacing, boss height, and the concept behind the 1 cycle = having a second shuriken overlap the boss's hit box when you trigger the magic. Then work on timing and muscle memory.

Boss 3 - Keep practicing, determine proper character placement to avoid initial body bump.

Boss 4 - Good 1 cycle. Have a backup plan if that fails. Know how many times the stupid wheel can revolve around you, and how to handle boss height.

Boss 5 - Clean up the ninja fights. Don't let them overwhelm you as there were some close calls.

GL on your runs!

thank you, Sir. this means a lot.

Oh wow, I watched your video on gdq, felt for you on the stage 3 boss.

this game is also special to me, my uncle had a Japanese mega drive years ago and one of the games was shadow dancer, the Japanese box art is next level.

it was actually your video I watched a few months ago that got me into speed running this game.

I have two shirts with the jp box cover art. It's really good!

And yeah, the stage 3 boss was definitely a jerk that day, I'm thinking it was because I lost my wedding ring prior to the GDQ run (it was found days later), and in my livesplits, I title that fight "The Ex" lol...so the boss was trolling me really bad haha.

Happy to hear I played a part in you picking up the speedrun! It's a goal of mine to spread the love I have for games when I play/stream. Especially the ones I'm very fond of and grew up with as a child.

I can save loads of time, I messed up a few times

just hit a 13:21, I'm coming for your place, Cypherin.

Nice job, Danduffers! I actually have a 12:3x time, iirc. Never uploaded, as it didn't move me up the leaderboard, and I was content with where I am, at that time. But the highlight is on my channel.

So it doesn't count, but you still gotta come up a liiiiittle further :-). Keep up the great work!