How Obama Skip Changed New Pokemon Snap

released in april of 2021 new pokemon snap was a sequel to the n64 smash hit 22 years in the making hyped since it was first announced it did not disappoint and speedrunners immediately started looking for ways to break the game to save time no stone was left unturned and as glitches started being discovered the community came to one conclusion the game was programmed very well despite a few out of bounds glitches that didn't pan out there wasn't much in the way of time save until obama skip was found if you're familiar with speedrunning you know that some skips have very ridiculous and outrageous names and this would be no exception since it skips obama snow the person that discovered it took the opportunity to follow in the time-honored tradition and obama skip was born but to understand it we need to look at the game's mechanics pokemon snap is a game that takes place on rails which means you move from point a to point b with little input on the direction or speed of your movement since this is the case you may be thinking how do you speedrun a game like this wouldn't everyone's time be the same not exactly and that has to do with two things the mechanics of the game and the system that grade your pictures first we'll look at the game's mechanics since they have the most moment-to-moment impact on each level and then we'll get an overview of why the picture grading system matters as the two are intricately tied together in the route for the speed run the mechanics of the game are easily understood as they each offer a unique way of interacting with pokemon and the environment you have fluff fruit scans the melody player illumina orbs and of course the ability to take photos when a level starts your cart will move on its own what you need to worry about is taking good pictures while the ride is in progress so let's look at the foremost mechanic snapping pictures you can look around the cart in 360 degrees with dual stick control one to move the entire camera and one to move the pointer inside of the camera's focus zone the camera has a zoom function as well but while you're zoomed in the cart actually moves slower so it's better to snap a quick picture when zooming then switch back to the normal view the other mechanics are used to elicit special behavior out of the pokemon such as eating with the fruit and dancing with a melody player the only exception is the scan which is used to get a pokemon to look your way to increase its directional score when being evaluated which means it's a good time to look at the grading system once you complete a level you're taken to a picture grading screen where you submit the best pictures from your round to professor mirror the game has a star rating system for each pokemon that goes bronze silver gold and diamond with each tier representing an increasingly rare behavior for each pokemon that you can photograph since you can only submit one photo per pokemon you can't submit different star levels in the same run of a course and once you've selected each photo you'd like graded the evaluation begins there are five criteria that go into scoring your photos pose size direction placement and other pokemon in the frame pose refers to what the subject is doing when you snap the photo with size and placement being determined by how much of the pokemon you get in the frame and how close to center it is direction is scored based on where the subject is looking when you snap a shot and other pokemon adds bonus points on additional pokemons that are in the frame with the main target each of these criteria have a maximum number of score they can give which is important as your total score from photos is used to unlock new levels to explore and new photo opportunities in areas already unlocked so how does this all work together for the any percent speed run since the objective is to finish the game as quickly as possible we are not concerned with taking a lot of pictures in fact we want to take as few pictures as necessary just enough to hit the point threshold required to unlock the next area this means getting to level 2 research in most areas and the route has been carefully planned for two things getting the minimal number of high scoring photos to hit the research levels and photographing as many repeat pokemon as possible with a tight scoring requirement this means you have to be precise in the pictures you take as one photo scoring below what you need can mean a revisit to the area or taking another pokemon's picture which will result in time loss when being graded the reason we want to get pictures of pokemon we photographed in earlier levels is because whenever you submit a new pokemon for grading there is an animation that plays and if you're taking pictures of new pokemon in every level the time loss will add up quickly mechanically using the zoom feature for extended periods and snapping shots of new pokemon are the big time losses you can get from player error but what about things outside of the game's mechanics whenever a pokemon walks in front of the cart or makes contact with it you will stop until it has ceased blocking your path since this is the worst case scenario in a speed run it's in your best interest to avoid these situations where possible which is where obama skip comes in during the night time run of shiver snow fields you will come across an obama snow in the final area that will saunter into your path for a prolonged period of time this is also a level where you first unlock the boost so let's see how this affects gameplay then apply it to the obama skip the boost gives increased speed to the cart when holding a button which also allows you to get angles on pokemon that were previously inaccessible due to timing you'd think that boosting through shiver snowfields would get you past a bomb of snow before he wandered into your path but that's not the case before getting to obama snow there are two piplups that block your path so no matter how fast you get to him you're forced to watch as he approaches the lined up sphere and chases them into the pond if you go the normal speed you're missing out on saving time by boosting so finding a way around this problem was of great value and fortunately several people would work on a solution martin scores easy and gun lap would both be routing the skip with gunlap giving it the fantastic name obama skip and martin putting it into a world record between the 10th and 15th of may now let's look at how the skip is done when you are stopped at the piplup there are a series of actions you can take to stop obama snow from blocking your path first you'll take a picture of the piplup then you'll toss a fruit at the line of spiel to get them out of your path ahead of a bomb of snow then you'll want to snap a quick shot of braviary for points and immediately begin boosting at which point you'll also throw an apple at abomasnow this stuns him briefly and stops his movement which is important because if he ever enters his run animation you can throw as many fruit as you want but he will continue unabated the key is to follow up with another fruit while boosting so you can keep him out of your way and snap a quick photo as you pass if done correctly you'll save 8 seconds over waiting for him to move thanks obama since obama's skip was found about two weeks after the game released there hasn't been much in the way of glitches added to the run except for one cutscene skip at the very end so let's have a look when you're on the final level with xerneas you'll encounter a cutscene that lasts for about a minute once the level is complete since xerneas is an illumina pokemon you need to hit him in his real form with an illumina orb before you can get a picture that professor mirror will grade which will also happen to be a two star photo since he moves around the level quickly in orb form this isn't the easiest of tasks and ib would learn this on one particular run in late june having missed every orb opportunity to get a picture he threw an apple into a hole that spawned xerneas then quickly hit his sphere form with an orb causing him to appear briefly with some quick pictures during the transition animation he proceeded to the end of the level and oddly the cut scene never triggered he moved to the picture grading sequence and to his surprise a xerneas picture worth one star was able to be submitted despite not having been illuminated with an orb in his dear form this was astounding as the true form only appeared for a brief moment and the game is very unforgiving when it comes to giving credit for pictures taken during transition animations the going theory was that the game expects at least a two star picture from this level but since the apple in the whole spawn somehow counts as a one star illuminated photo the game skips the cutscene since the two-star picture isn't present this wasn't exactly correct however and would be proven wrong in martin scories recent world record where he hit the strat but still encountered the cutscene so what happened when you approach the end of a level the game spawns a teleporter and on this course two different portals can spawn if you take no pictures one that doesn't play a cutscene and if you take gradable pictures one that triggers the cutscene since the game doesn't expect any pictures to be taken once it spawns this level's teleporter if you trigger the apple in the whole xerneas closer to the end you have just enough of a window to get the one star picture and take the wrong teleporter this leaves two remaining questions why is this picture worth one star and why is it illuminated we're not really sure on both counts the only explanation we have as to why the picture might be illuminated is that there may be lingering illumination from when you hit him with the orb in sphere form giving a few frames where the game thinks he's illuminated but the one star value remains a mystery unexplained phenomena aside skipping the cutscene is about one minute of time save and since this is the very end of the run it's fortunate for runners that this is an easy trick to learn otherwise an entire two and a half hour run would hinge on a trick in the last 20 seconds given that snap is so new there are likely more skips waiting to be found in the game and we only covered two of the big ones in the run with plenty of small time saves present in other levels but there's one skip left to cover and that's subscribing so that you don't accidentally skip out on the next video thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Abyssoft

Views: 266,830

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Id: mKp5TrtC-rI

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021