Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Got my goal for this game. Done for a while, good luck to whoever wants to beat this time. Great run all around, that level 3 split in particular was basically perfect and a new gold for me.

FAQ:

Q: Why is the Bat Boss in level 1 dying in one hit?
A: It's a glitch called "critical hit" glitch. When you hit an enemy on the same frame it hits Simon, the whip's hitbox glitches out and lingers for longer than normal, dealing extra damage. This makes it a frame perfect trick. Doing the glitch on stairs will deal even more additional damage, to the point where it one-shots the Bat Boss.

Q: Why are the Mummies in level 3 dying so quickly?
A: This is another glitch with the cross subweapon. If there's two overlapping hitboxes (the Mummies) and the cross passes over them, each hitbox will end up taking damage every other frame while it's going through them. So all that's needed for this fast kill is to stack the Mummies on top of each other and then throw a cross at them. Normally this is done with 1 cross and a (slower) pattern manipulation, or with 2 crosses if the Mummies weren't manip'ed. In this specific run I didn't manip the Mummies but only had 1 heart, which meant I had to go for a frame perfect toss in order to get the one-shot.

Q: Can this run be beaten?
A: Of course it can! While mostly subtle, there's definitely some time losses in this run. First of all there's the heart pickup in level 1 (which I found out to be "only" 8 frames of time loss instead of 12 as I pointed out in the video). Then I lost around 0.2 seconds from a laggier pattern on the bone pillars in stage 06; around 0.3 seconds from a slower jump off the moving platform in stage 10; 1 framerule in stage 13 by settling for the "alternative bone boost" instead of getting the fast bone or trying for the TASbone; and around one full second throughout all of level 6 thanks to a slightly unoptimal damage boost off of the skeleton in stage 17 and a couple holy water throws that I missed on the Cookie Monster (notice the jumps where I only whipped instead of throwing holy water on landing).
That being said, this run still had an incredible amount of things going right (that level 3 is the fastest I've ever done) and it's definitely doing to be difficult to replicate this run's pace and improve upon some of its time losses.
There's also some new strategies that some other runners are already attempting and that I'll be trying for as well when I come back to this game. The most notable is going for critical hits on other bosses. Right now there's a critical hit on the Bat Boss and on Dracula, which when combined with other tricks and depending on your definition of it means that there's 4 or 5 mandatory frame perfect tricks in the run for the world record, along with a few extra frame perfect item manips I hit in level 3, and a number of 2 and 3 frame windows as well. Going for a crit on Medusa, Frankenstein's Monster or Death doesn't save nearly as much time as it does on other bosses because you don't have stairs (like on the Bat) or you don't save a teleport (like on Dracula), so it only ends up totaling to around 0.8 seconds for crits on Medusa and Frank, and even less for Death as it requires picking up some wall meat to do it. The time save was never really worth the extra frame perfect trick considering how hard the run was already. Now is probably the time to go for at least one of them.
I like to compare this run to Super Mario Bros. a lot, and more specifically this crit situation reminds me of the flagpole glitch in that game, in how it's a relatively small and very difficult time save that is only worth the extra resets if there's not much time to save elsewhere. While SMB is on just another insane level of optimization and Castlevania is probably never going to get there, I like to think that it's getting somewhat close as it's soon going to enter the "flagpole glitch" era :)
Long paragraph, here's a cookie for scrolling down this far [::]

Twitch channel: twitch.tv/sbdwolf