Ghadius aerial corruption

Channel:

Balneor

Subscribers:

135

Published on October 25, 2023 9:39:42 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b207WPWKrqU

Game:

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997)

Duration: 2:09

53 views

4

Brand new corruption spot, first accidentally found by !nconsistent here :
https://clips.twitch.tv/FuriousObservantFennelPRChase-eup40-Y7MHsakVJC

Surprisingly, not only was it reproducible, it turned out to be the simplest corruption method the game currently have. It’s surprising it wasn’t found earlier, although its random steps have perhaps played a role in that. And it involves our good old King of Nightmares.

Heading there, you want to deal four hits so it triggers the game to make a transition to phase 2 in the future. However, you want to enter an orb *before* it actually takes you there else it won’t work (in other words, Ghadius must not say whatever he says there https://youtu.be/W9WOYZsEB7g?t=9486). After that, you take the orb back to the inner ring.

Doing this on its own won’t do it, but it will however induce a graphical bug at the top left edge. A one-frame long colored square. It was orange here but it can also be pink.

The last step to the corruption is simply to hover upon being sent back in the arena. It doesn’t always work, but it’s quickly attempted over.
Its effects aren’t the most random and volatile corruptions the game has seen. As far as I can tell, all it does is instantly turn the game all red. In various shades of red should I say. Can be a lot brighter than in this video, or with a faint purple gradient ?

It’s hard to tell if it’s the hover that causes the corruption, or if it’s simply a matter of being high on the screen. If you don’t immediately hover after falling, it won’t happen.
To be thorough with this information, you *can* press jump on a very specific frame (that isn’t always available) right before being warped back, and it’ll make Klonoa jump in the air. Still, you fall down faster than the corruption frame happens... unless you stop yourself by hovering.

After the sudden transition of the game to hell, the game remains surprisingly very playable. No slowdowns, no audio bugs, crashes… even when entering the orbs… or retrying/quitting the stage. Doing these two last actions reveals the corruption carries over, in a diluted form.
(if you're wondering, triggering this with the corruption already present doesn't seem to do anything special)


Now for the question : why wasn’t it found any earlier ?
For casual players, it would be very unusual to enter orbs. You tend to view them as dangerous things you want to avoid. Entering one, at such a specific time, and then hovering on the way back…
Speedrunners are much closer to it than them. We enter the orbs to skip a long phase transition animation, right as the game wants to advance to phase 2. However, hovering is generally seen as a slow and hindering movement, especially for a moment like Ghadius where you always want to be on the move. Best they would get is the yet unnoticed square corruption.
...In the end, all we had to do is wait for the one to try it.
To be fair, there probably were other runners who were in this exact situation, that simply didn’t get the corruption… and you know, it’s not possible on JPN and Namcollection.

Overall, a very neat corruption. One so easy to do, and seemingly perfectly stable, that I’d wager you could get it in a run, and play the remaining minutes with it on for the funsies.
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t personally ban a run from using it. Shit's not even epileptic !

I checked other places in the fight where this could happen, for instance phase 2 to 3. But couldn't find anything. Possible there's more to it though.

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