AKheon | Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate - Siege of Shouchun in 2:33.36 @AKheon | Uploaded April 2021 | Updated October 2024, 9 hours ago.
Team: Xingcai, Hanzo Hattori, Benkei
This is kind of an awkward level to run. It's not only an escort mission, but it also has RNG from vaguely buggy scripting that may prevent a major event in the middle of the level from working as intended.
0:00 - I start with Red Hare equipped. Having Red Hare is helpful since I do want to push the level's escort (Ujiyasu Hojo) around as much as possible.
I ride into the nearby garrison and defeat the closest officer because I think he may interrupt and slow you down if you don't do so. Right now, as I'm writing this description, I'm not 100% certain, though. This could be a small point of improvement for future run attempts in this level.
0:16 - then begins the arduous process of pushing Hojo towards the Shouchun Castle. The level scripts cannot progress until Hojo gets close enough to the Castle and says a certain line.
The push could overall be better, but I do get some pretty smooth, long pushing segments in there.
1:20 - Yoshishige Satake almost certainly slows you down if you don't defeat him quickly.
1:33 - the line that you need to hear is "Alright, Fuma..." After this, the doors to the Castle open and enemies appear in the center area. I infinite jump to get there early. You only need quite a small jump to enter from this side, but the walls seem to work differently from the other side, prompting me to do a much taller jump over the gate to get out.
1:46 - what happens next is a bit random due to how the level scripting works. Basically, Shouchun Castle is supposed to get lit on fire and you get stuck in the middle of an ambush. Defeating the officers in the center should clear the ambush, which updates Hojo's script so that he wants to leave the castle once the appropriate message is displayed on screen. Defeating Kotaru Fuma doesn't win the level early, unfortunately, but it does skip a few lines of dialogue and often makes the fire start earlier... eh, I can't say I completely understand it all yet.
First major problem is that sometimes the fire doesn't start until much later, or it doesn't start at all. This might happen if you defeat the officers (or at least: Kotaru Fuma) in the center too fast, but I can't say for sure.
Second major problem is that sometimes Ujiyasu Hojo's script is not updated and he does not want to leave the Castle even after all enemies are defeated. I have no idea what causes this issue, but again, it's probably related to going too fast. He may also just dally around for tens of seconds fighting enemies instead of immediately leaving, which is bad news for your speedrun if it happens.
While a bit sloppy, this run basically ended up being my fastest attempt for now because Ujiyasu Hojo decided to leave the castle after the ambush almost immediately, which is very rare.
2:17 - Hojo needs to get to a certain point on the bridge to activate one final ambush. Out of this ambush, defeating two officers (any officers?) is necessary to activate some dialogue that makes final Kotaru Fuma spawn to the south-east side of the level.
I dialogue skip to get Kotaru Fuma to spawn in a more timely manner, and also use Benkei to get around the place faster. Unfortunately, the Benkei speed boost effect works inconsistently at this part, and it's easy to lose time from doing his special at a wrong time (indeed, that happens twice on this run attempt... like I said, it's a bit sloppy).
So yeah, overall you could certainly get sub 2:30 in this level, but it's frustrating enough that I think I'll leave that milestone for some other time.
Team: Xingcai, Hanzo Hattori, Benkei
This is kind of an awkward level to run. It's not only an escort mission, but it also has RNG from vaguely buggy scripting that may prevent a major event in the middle of the level from working as intended.
0:00 - I start with Red Hare equipped. Having Red Hare is helpful since I do want to push the level's escort (Ujiyasu Hojo) around as much as possible.
I ride into the nearby garrison and defeat the closest officer because I think he may interrupt and slow you down if you don't do so. Right now, as I'm writing this description, I'm not 100% certain, though. This could be a small point of improvement for future run attempts in this level.
0:16 - then begins the arduous process of pushing Hojo towards the Shouchun Castle. The level scripts cannot progress until Hojo gets close enough to the Castle and says a certain line.
The push could overall be better, but I do get some pretty smooth, long pushing segments in there.
1:20 - Yoshishige Satake almost certainly slows you down if you don't defeat him quickly.
1:33 - the line that you need to hear is "Alright, Fuma..." After this, the doors to the Castle open and enemies appear in the center area. I infinite jump to get there early. You only need quite a small jump to enter from this side, but the walls seem to work differently from the other side, prompting me to do a much taller jump over the gate to get out.
1:46 - what happens next is a bit random due to how the level scripting works. Basically, Shouchun Castle is supposed to get lit on fire and you get stuck in the middle of an ambush. Defeating the officers in the center should clear the ambush, which updates Hojo's script so that he wants to leave the castle once the appropriate message is displayed on screen. Defeating Kotaru Fuma doesn't win the level early, unfortunately, but it does skip a few lines of dialogue and often makes the fire start earlier... eh, I can't say I completely understand it all yet.
First major problem is that sometimes the fire doesn't start until much later, or it doesn't start at all. This might happen if you defeat the officers (or at least: Kotaru Fuma) in the center too fast, but I can't say for sure.
Second major problem is that sometimes Ujiyasu Hojo's script is not updated and he does not want to leave the Castle even after all enemies are defeated. I have no idea what causes this issue, but again, it's probably related to going too fast. He may also just dally around for tens of seconds fighting enemies instead of immediately leaving, which is bad news for your speedrun if it happens.
While a bit sloppy, this run basically ended up being my fastest attempt for now because Ujiyasu Hojo decided to leave the castle after the ambush almost immediately, which is very rare.
2:17 - Hojo needs to get to a certain point on the bridge to activate one final ambush. Out of this ambush, defeating two officers (any officers?) is necessary to activate some dialogue that makes final Kotaru Fuma spawn to the south-east side of the level.
I dialogue skip to get Kotaru Fuma to spawn in a more timely manner, and also use Benkei to get around the place faster. Unfortunately, the Benkei speed boost effect works inconsistently at this part, and it's easy to lose time from doing his special at a wrong time (indeed, that happens twice on this run attempt... like I said, it's a bit sloppy).
So yeah, overall you could certainly get sub 2:30 in this level, but it's frustrating enough that I think I'll leave that milestone for some other time.
