Game:

Swords of Xeen (1995)

Duration: 5:10

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15

Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen, GOG version; DOSBox version 0.74 with max 100% cycles. Much as I'd like to put cycles at a static value, it seemed to cause problems when reloading the game quickly (you'll see why that's a problem as you watch). Original video date: 2016/07/29

Timing begins after the "Select Game Preference" disappears from the main menu. Timing ends when the victory screen appears ("HAVEC is free,...").

I am planning to go through Clouds and Darkside, but with this game fresh in my mind after a toiled playthrough, I decided to take a hand at this oft-forgotten relic in the Might and Magic series. You can finish the game with nary a collection, so long as you know the right words to type in and know how to avoid everything else.

Some brief notes:

If an enemy has yet to see you, it will not take action. This is true upon each load, so you can turn away from an enemy, save/load, and it'll no longer do anything until you look at it again. This is the primary exploit of the run, used both alone and in combination with others. This is why I spend the first minute walking backwards: with careful turning and positioning, outside enemies are no threat whatsoever en route to the destination.

You can buffer an action immediately after acting (moving, casting, etc) to skip the enemy's turn. Ultimately this results in the enemy ALSO going twice in a row, though there are ways to circumvent that part. Sometimes I'm cautious when it comes to action because of this potential, which is why you'll see some slower pacing at times (though to be fair I'm sometimes just plain slow).

The biggest exploitation, seen in the "metal tower" section, is to combine the above two features to manipulate enemy movement precisely. As a basic example, you can Jump directly behind an enemy in front of you, buffer into the menu, then save/load the game to prevent them from taking action. This, in essence, is what allows me to navigate the tower without entering combat even once.

If you're curious of the specifics, I ended up explaining the run during a stream. You can find that here: https://secure.twitch.tv/capnclever/v/80610480

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