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Hi all. I've been making Let's plays on YouTube on and off since 2010 and am currently nearing the end of my let's play covering the Russian faction on Medieval 2 Total War. My YouTube username is Bucha563 and a link to my channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/bucha563 . Below is the games I have so far played on my channel: - Civilization 3 - Minecraft - Troy Total War - Rome Total War - SWAT 4 - Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour - Medieval 2 Total War - Democracy 3 - PlayStation One (series where in each episode I play on of my PS1 games) - Broken Crescent My earlier videos aren't that good but I have felt I've improved over the several years I've done this and feel like my most recent uploads are the best I've uploaded and following that I hope to improve in 2018. If any of you are interested in the above list of games come and have a look at my channel and see what you think. I'm hoping to start new series on the channel this year covering other pc games that I have.

I'm looking for a couple of Co-Commentator's for my Let's Play's on YouTube. Tell me if your interested and let me know when you would like to commentate my gameplay with me. I'm looking forward to recording and working together with you!

Hey everyone, I don't think it's been a secret that I've been working on an LTC playthrough. I am adding commentary to it, either by myself or alongside someone who is free and able to talk about LTC playthroughs (I have a mental list of people who can help) My first video I'm going solo because it's 3 and a half minutes long and there's barely any time for me to say everything I want in it so I can't imagine someone else being able to help me out. Here's the playlist with the videos, and once I'm done what I want to finish with the stream archive I'll post that here too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwvZZVTdx4 Just a few links to tutorials and some minor details I'd like to point out before I start. RNG ABUSING As many of you know, random numbers are not entirely random. They are generated depending on the previous couple numbers, and the initial numbers used to generate more random numbers are known as a seed. If you are interested in computer science, then they follow a Linear feedback shift register which actually has a massive cycle rate so you won't see many of the same set of random numbers repeating. However, you will see that sometimes small numbers follow after small numbers, and these are a result of this idea. I can view these random numbers as a result of lua scripts which allow me to view the random numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbn183W8E4 This video gives a basic tutorial of how to use it, but it helps me save A LOT of time in burning random numbers because I can see them. It is largely useless on enemy phase, because enemy phase burns random numbers to determine enemy movements path and enemy AI. You can actually use it to manipulate the first action or so but beyond that it becomes extremely difficult. The process of manipulating the RNG requires what's known as path retracing. You might notice me selecting a unit, wiggling them around, and they don't move or do any actions at all (and sometimes they do); this actually burns random numbers, because what happens is that the unit goes to a square with multiple paths. The way the game determines which path you traverse is through the RNG. This FAQ on IGN brings it up in more detail and also talks about how to manipulate it, however the IGN FAQ describes how to burn one random number at a time because the game has only two paths to choose from; if you notice from this picture: Florina actually has some squares she can traverse all the way to the left. One way of burning a bunch of random numbers at a time is going 6 spaces left and one space down, then from there I go one space down, one space right in order to burn anywhere from 1 to 7 RNs at a time. If I need to burn a single random number then I will apply the single random number tricks, however burning multiple RNs at a time speeds up the time it takes for me to hit the random number I desire. There is some fancy nonsense going on in the lua script, but I don't tend to make use of them because they make things more complicated. I am good at eyeballing the RN string because I'm not going to spend more time than I need manipulating the RNG. You often see weird things like Alan and Lance next to each other and Marcus on the other end of the map, but I attack with Alan first, Marcus second, and Lance third. This is because an RN string that benefits Marcus shows up before one that benefits Lance. (You'll see it in action in Chapter 1). I don't manipulate much of anything (outside of dodges, level ups, certain hits) on enemy phase unless I absolutely need a critical. There are very few instances where I will absolutely need a critical on EP, otherwise criticals on EP are extra and I just work around them if they happen. I do have to manipulate more than usual on EP due to the low survival rates I face sometimes. In general, I really have no remorse with criticals, and if I want or need one then I'll manipulate it. I try to avoid casually rigging a 1% critical, but if I need it to OHKO a boss then I'm going to go for it. RECORDING I use the movie tool in VBA to record my inputs, then I play the movie from the start and have vba record the .avi from it. In the process of recording the movie, I do a "dry run" of sorts where I record every single input I do down to the letter, I also do some testing to see which order they should happen in to ensure it looks smooth, and then I run it. I often use save states if I mess up an action, and other times I slow the game down so it takes me less time to RNG abuse. You may notice some weirdness in my first couple runs with menu commands, certain cursor movements, menu commands going fast, and certain RN burns a little too slow and whatnot, but they get largely better as the playthrough progresses. DISCLAIMER I view this as a tool assisted run (but it's not a tool assisted speed run) and I see no shame in that considering the fact that these tools just save me a lot of time instead of having to spend time doing a bunch of single RN burns, attacking, then repeating. It also makes it visually more appealing because I can do things to burn more RNs quickly, instead of doing a bunch of single RN burns. SELF-IMPOSED CONDITIONS - All units kept alive - All units recruited (51 characters) - Lowest turncount I can get to the best of my ability You guys will not like some of my strategies due to the risk involved, and that's okay with me. My purpose is to get low turn counts through mostly any means possible, and I end up RNG abusing a lot to keep units alive and other times to make up for random positioning errors. I could fix these up a little bit more, but as it stands I think my runthrough is fairly optimized for what it is and I could maybe save a few turns here and there early on. Many of these chapters will be the lowest possible turncount given the conditions I state. With that said, I will update this OP with a link to each of my chapter posts, and I will post any level ups I gained as well as a quick description of each unit I obtain in that chapter. Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can improve in my commentary, and also keep in mind that the majority of Chapters will be with me and another user (it'll vary a bit but I will do it with a select few people). OTHER INTERESTING LINKS Irysa's LTC playthrough - this one is interesting because Irysa spends a lot of time figuring out to what extent he can play this game. His EXP is far more optimized than mine is and he gets 7 stat level ups to see what ends up happening. Thus far he has saved 3 turns on my run because of major level ups (notably: Thany/Shanna having a significant amount more defense). Having that said, I do have a feeling that certain chapters could be done in x turns so everytime I have a feeling I could shave a turn from my run (with more durability and etc) I let him know. Often times he's able to achieve it. dondon151's 0% Growths LTC - much better commentary than I can provide, and he pioneered 0% growths playthroughs which changed the way we discussed the game. A must watch and Irysa and I are definitely drawing quite a bit of inspiration from this playthrough. He's given us some fundamentals for each chapter and I utilize a few of his strategies to some extent. Unfortunately they don't solely apply to my playthrough and I do A LOT of different things, but ultimately a lot of the same idea is there., Espinosa's FE6 Reverse Recruitment LTC - What if Marcus and Yodel switched spots? What about the Cavs and Juno/Dayan? What if you had a Dancer AND a Bard? Fear not, because there's a hack for that! Espinosa's doing an LTC run of it with minimal RNG abuse (but she is "fixing" the RNG so to speak, performing actions in a certain order to manipulate where the numbers go), and it's really interesting to watch because of all the weird stuff that happens in Reverse Recruitment. EDIT: I have decided to do a twitch stream of the whole thing and commentate in real time as opposed to make videos. It is much easier for me and suits my style more. I will be streaming it Sunday, 6/19 at 11am PST. Feel free to come by, my twitch is twitch.tv/lraven17!

Hello folks, Before I get to the meat of this, I wanna say that for those who read my MGSV review, I sounded unsure of what was my next game to review. But now I know it’ll definitely be Persona 3, look forward to that. Back to the topic at hand, a game released recently on Steam called “The Beginner’s Guide” my goodness, it is superb! Brought to you by the writer of The Stanley Parable. I wasn’t gonna release a review of it since it’s pretty short and has barely anything to talk about (Exactly 90 minutes long.) But if The Stanley Parable was an amazing game for how short it was, then this game is no different. There are no traditional mechanics found in it, hardly any set goal, but it tells a tale, and what a tale it is. This game is essential for game designers such as myself, and trust me, while I may sound mysterious about it, it’s because I don’t want to give too much away. The game is only understood through experience. It makes me think, and think… how could you ever understand creations more than the creators themselves? And that happened a lot during our projects, my friends and I were very creative people, we had a lot of big and ambitious ideas. But at the same time, a lot of us came up with those very abstract, simple games for demonstration, for expression, to show people that a single person can deliver a message that has a deep meaning behind it and in the end, deliver a product that is finer than most big budget triple A games out there. But that’s only for the ones who understand the idea behind it, I loved this game as much as I did for how much I can relate to it, but there’s still a lot that the game has to offer that I don’t not to give away, it’s a personal story more than anything. I implore you to try this game out! I still think it's too vague to be called a review. But I said my piece on it and can't talk further without spoiling. So if I were to give it a verdict like I did for other games, I can’t give it a 10, it’s a short game that’s nothing special mechanically. But I can never deny the emotional impact it gave me. And the emotional impact it surely had on other players. I will give The Beginner’s guide a 9 out of 10. Get it on Steam, it's 8 bucks for now. http://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/ Score: 9/10 Excellent! Discuss the game at will, and yeah, Persona 3 is next. It will be back to writing the big stuff, and your feedback to my Persona 4 review couldn't have inspired me even more.

Many broken promises and unfinished playthroughs later... It's finally here! Complete YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPtcK2f-aIoT9WbxLMRByDhQjGVLxqz9e I won't cover everything that Mekkah and I talked about in the video, but here are some nuggets that the average user may not know. FE6 mechanics in-depth GBA FE random number generator (RNG) So first of all, the RNG isnt truly random. But you probably know that already. Thats a limitation of computing. The GBA FE games generate their random numbers (RNs) using a linear feedback shift register. How exactly that works is not a terribly important detail, and I dont have sufficient knowledge of RNGs to be able to provide a good explanation, anyway. The key point here is that the GBA FE RNG uses the 3 most recently generated numbers to generate subsequent RNs. How are those 3 numbers seeded? Its always the same 3 numbers. Whenever you start up the GBA, the game uses a seed that corresponds to the decimal sequence 8, 56, 21. The RNG in this game is deterministic and entirely predictable. If you always reset the game prior to starting a chapter, you will always get the same results given the same sequence of inputs. rngdisplay.lua in action after a hard reset. The upcoming RNs are on the right, with 8, 56, 21 as the seed. I use a tool called a Lua script to view the RNG while playing the game on VisualBoyAdvance. The script itself is called rngdisplay.lua and was written by user amaurea of TASVideos. This is an immensely helpful script that allows me to route more efficiently. Hard mode differences FE6 is the first installment in the series to give the player an option to play on an increased difficulty. This difficulty has classically been referred to as hard mode (HM), with the default difficulty retaining the designation of normal mode (NM). This run will be played on HM. In FE6, there are 2 key differences between HM and NM. The first is that HM enemies get a stat bonus compared to their NM counterparts. The second is that some maps have more starting enemies and/or more enemy reinforcement units on HM. These are the exact same enemy from chapter 22. The stats on the left are from NM. The stats on the right are from HM. HM bonuses are generated by applying extra hidden level ups to all enemy units. I wont get into the details here. HM bonuses in FE6 increase in magnitude as the game progresses. Enemies can have as few as 5 extra level ups near the beginning of the game to as many as 16 extra level ups at the end of the game. For comparison, in FE7, all HM enemies get only 5 extra level ups, and in FE8, all HM enemies get between 1 and 4 extra level ups. Speedrunning techniques In order to cut down on video time and make the cleanest possible strategies, I employ a handful of speedrunning techniques. Not all of them need explaining. Note that this is not an actual speedrun, and so not every decision is optimized. Fast cursor movement In the GBA FE games, holding down the B button while moving the cursor allows the cursor to move at double the normal speed. Unfortunately, this makes the cursor difficult to control, especially when moving units. One way to deal with this is to always move the cursor at right angles when moving units. With practice, it is possible to fairly consistently move exactly 1, 2, 3, etc. spaces while holding B. Another way to deal with this is to take advantage of natural barriers. When moving a unit, the cursor stops if it would move out of the units movement range. Essentially, if at any time during the movement path I run the cursor into a wall, an enemy unit, or simply the edge of the units movement range, the cursor stops immediately. This helps to ensure accuracy of unit movements. Its easier to move Roy if he keeps running into walls. L-switching The L button serves a convenient purpose in the GBA FE games: it switches the cursor from one player unit to another. The sequence of cursor switching is determined by the order in which units are deployed in the chapter. Example: here is the deployment order for chapter 24. Suppose that the cursor is on Roy. One L input switches the cursor to Fae. Subsequent L inputs switch the cursor to Lalum, then to Milady, and so on. If the cursor is not on a player unit, pressing L will move the cursor to the first unit in the deployment order. This is usually Roy. RNG abuse via path retracing Sometimes, youll see me do this funny thing where I appear to move a unit somewhere, wobble the cursor a little bit, and then I end up doing something else. This is a speedrunning trick used to advance the RNG. Occasionally I come across a sequence of RNs that I cant use effectively, so I simply burn them with some path retracing. I first draw Zeisss (the selected units) movement path on the left. Then, I wobble the cursor to another tile on the edge of his movement range. The game has to retrace the movement path. rngdisplay.lua indicates that the new path took 7 RNs to draw. The game uses RNs to generate a new path if it cant adapt the old path. The longer a path is, the more RNs on average will be used for a path retrace. This technique features prominently in TASes (where they do it super fast), but I usually reserve it for when I have no other option, not only because its somewhat time-consuming, but it also compromises the integrity of the run. About this playthrough This playthrough operates under the following conditions: Player units have 0% growths in all stats. It recruits all possible units and keeps them alive (there are 51 player units in any given playthrough). It primarily aims for the lowest possible turncount. It secondarily aims for a low play time on the game clock. Videos of each chapter will be uploaded, with audio commentary from Mekkah and me. An explanatory write-up will accompany chapters for viewers who are unfamiliar with this game or have trouble with the Japanese. Chapter list Turncounts: