We all scream for Eyes Cream
I wonder if people want a run of this, or even if its even possible for one under 7 hours. The fastest segmented time is 8:41 by David Kovaz and was done sometime last month. I have a log of his run from his post at Gamefaqs. This will be really long and requires more than 1 post, just to warn you.
Before you read the logs though, it would probably be easier(And better) to watch this highlight video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8632521559913937401&pr=goog-sl
Log of Saves
PT- Previous time (from the 10:03 run)
TT- Target time to be on track for 8:59 finish (don’t pay too much attention to these)
1. Mt. Glaus after first Nue battle – 0:24
PT- 0:26
TT- 0:24
This was a high 0:24 (about 24mins 50sec). This took over 10 tries. I had two attempts that were about 25mins 5sec, but I was hell bent on getting the save at 0:24 (yes, I restarted 10 times to save 15 seconds). Twice I got screwed on very fast starts by getting poisoned by Currs at the very bottom of Mt. Glaus. I skipped buying items to save some extra time (it turns out you don’t really need to anyway).
2. McNeil after Nue battle – 0:36
PT- 0:38
TT- 0:36
In the video you’ll notice I had another 0:36 saved, but that was 36mins 58sec, so it was basically a 0:37. The previous one was just as fast until it took two attempts to run away on BOTH battles in Cedar Woods (needless to say I was not pleased). Something very strange was happening that caused me to reset a couple dozen times for this segment. Half the time I would get into a random battle immediately after leaving the save statue (literally one step), and other times I would fight one somewhere between the cabin and the cave entrance (and rarely not fighting a battle until getting inside the cave). If the first battle occurred close to the cabin, then you’d have to fight an extra battle inside the cave, so I kept resetting for good battle locations. If you don’t understand what I just said, then don’t worry about it. Just know that I had to reset like 30 times
3. McNeil after fishing – 0:39
PT- 0:42
TT- 0:39
This took a lot of resetting and still could have been better, but I was pretty happy with this segment. I got great fish placement on the first spot and decent fish placement on the second spot, although I did lose a little time when I failed to snag a Trout. The Manillo placement could have been a lot better, but on most of my good attempts he was hanging out in deep water. At best I could have been 20 or so seconds faster if I waited for absolutely perfect fish placement.
4. Manor roof – 0:58
PT- 1:04
TT- 0:59
This only took 6 tries, and believe me, I thought it would take a whole lot more tries than that. I was hoping for a high 0:59, and I ended up getting 58mins 55sec, which is incredible. The biggest time cut was against Torast, who I dispatched of in the quickest way possible (Teepo acted first and got a critical hit with the Silver Knife). My battles with Pooch and Rocky were also much better. I was also fortunate with random battles. It doesn’t get much faster than this.
5. Camp before Myrneg – 1:14
PT- 1:22
TT- 1:15
The first try went fairly well, so I went with it. Amalgam was ok, and everything else was fine except some random battle annoyances when going for Bunyan.
6. Genmel – 1:31
PT- None
TT- 1:32
When I initially planned this run, I wasn’t planning on making this save, but splitting the Myrneg to Tower segment into two parts lets you save quite a bit of time since there are so many random battles in that interval which can potentially screw you over. In the video you can see that I saved over a 1:47 Tower save, with which I ended up being dissatisfied. This was about as perfect as you can get, because I ran from all random battles successfully and I only had to fight 3 battles at Myrneg (often you’ll have to fight a fourth just a few steps before Sunder).
7. Tower after getting Momo – 1:46
PT- 1:57
TT- 1:48
I got screwed by a double failed escape attempt on an Orc, but besides that everything was perfect. I just really wanted 1:46, and this was about a 1hr 46mins 40sec, so it wasn’t too bad.
8. Plant before the Dump – 1:59
PT- 2:11
TT- 2:00
Despite my super fast puzzle solving to begin the segment, I was pretty disappointed with this, but I was forced to accept it and proceed. I really wanted 1:58, which I thought would be easily attainable with a decent run through the Tower, but this run was pretty good and I was still 20sec off. The only major slow-down was a failed escape against a pair of Hyper Bots (and if Momo hadn’t revived with willpower, then it would have been a game over). Even if that hadn’t occurred, 1:58 may have still been out of reach, which is why I settled for a low-ish 1:59. A notable change here from my last run was skipping the 800z and using that extra time to grab the Ivory Dice (which probably cancelled out evenly).
9. Contest before Patrio – 2:13
PT- 2:29
TT- 2:17
In the vid you’ll see that I saved over a 2:15, but I decided to try for something better since my Mutant battle was terrible (over a minute slower than in my previous game). As you can see by the time I got, it paid off, and it only took one extra try. Believe it or not, the Mutant is one of the hardest bosses in a speed game. It’s difficult just to beat him, let alone beat him quickly. I used a suicide strat with Momo at the front of attack formation equipped with Flame Chrysm. The first round Momo attacks, Nina uses a Molotov, and Ryu casts Protect on Momo. Then Momo keeps attacking, Nina uses a Healing Herb on Momo every turn, and Ryu casts Protect on Momo and himself a couple more times. If you’re really lucky the battle can end in 5-6 turns, and if you have some luck left over (like I did) then Nina will get killed at the end of the battle. I was really happy with this.
10. Contest after Patrio – 2:22
PT- 2:38
TT- 2:25
The strat I used was the same as in the previous game, except I used the Ivory Dice on the Dodai to gain 3 extra levels. I also tried to get Momo to learn Double Blow from Claw in hopes that it might make the battle go faster, but just learning it in this fight is improbable because you only get one try (maybe two if Momo is killed by Double Blow, learns it, and is revived by willpower). I don’t think it would have saved very much time anyway, if any. If you watch the vid, you’ll see that I saved over a 2:22, which may seem pointless, but my first one was about 2hr 22mins 40sec and the second one was about 2hr 22mins 1sec, so it was a significant cut.
11. Genmel after contest – 2:34
PT- 2:52
TT- 2:38
I took a few tries on this and ended up saving over a slower 2:34. I refined the Emitai strat to make that battle go considerably faster (basically just had Momo and Nina defend and never heal, as healing definitely isn’t needed in this battle). Ryu was damaged from the Emitai fight, so I was able to kill myself and end the Garr battle before Garr could even attack.
12. Rhapala before Beyd – 2:55
PT- 3:16
TT- 2:57
I guess when I was setting the TT’s I overestimated the amount of time I could save in this segment, although I still shaved off a couple minutes. I got pretty lucky on the goons and the Stallion (but you need to be to save a lot of time anyway). Ryu got a critical hit in dragon form which did over 400 damage. I didn’t make the same mistake in Rhapala that I did in the previous run, obviously, but I got hung up a bit getting the Thunder gene, because I accidentally hit the R1 button when I didn’t mean to and I couldn’t see what had happened. I didn’t lose that much time on it, though. Besides that it was a very solid segment.
13. Rhapala after Beyd – 3:03
PT- 3:26
TT- 3:05
This was on my first try, which took me by surprise. I almost wanted to do it over because I thought my reaction time in some places wasn’t good, but after I reviewed the segment I figured I could only save a few seconds if I had been perfect. I refined my Beyd strat… again. I gave him Garr’s Scale Mail and a Dagger (lolz) which saved me a trip to the weapon shop. This time I trained him in one turn with Super Combo and got his HP up 4 points. Zig got a Lucky Strike on the first turn, Beyd had just enough HP to survive it, and I Super Combo’d Zig on the second turn (and I didn’t screw it up, like I sometimes do). Now I’m pretty sure you can’t do this any faster unless there was some way to skip training Beyd altogether.
14. Camp after the Lighthouse – 3:15
PT- 3:40
TT- 3:18
Random battles are a huge problem here. The sheer number of them that you have to face makes a perfect run impossible, so I just went with a decent run. There were a handful of failed running attempts in it, but compared to how lousy the luck was on my previous 20+ tries, this run wasn’t half bad. This was actually a very low 3:15 (less than 10 seconds over), which is actually better than I initially expected to do. I brought Nina along instead of Garr just because she’s easier to kill off and Garr doesn’t need any exp. I think the dialogue might be slightly shorter as well. Gazer was a joke this time around.
More in the next post.
Before you read the logs though, it would probably be easier(And better) to watch this highlight video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8632521559913937401&pr=goog-sl
Log of Saves
PT- Previous time (from the 10:03 run)
TT- Target time to be on track for 8:59 finish (don’t pay too much attention to these)
1. Mt. Glaus after first Nue battle – 0:24
PT- 0:26
TT- 0:24
This was a high 0:24 (about 24mins 50sec). This took over 10 tries. I had two attempts that were about 25mins 5sec, but I was hell bent on getting the save at 0:24 (yes, I restarted 10 times to save 15 seconds). Twice I got screwed on very fast starts by getting poisoned by Currs at the very bottom of Mt. Glaus. I skipped buying items to save some extra time (it turns out you don’t really need to anyway).
2. McNeil after Nue battle – 0:36
PT- 0:38
TT- 0:36
In the video you’ll notice I had another 0:36 saved, but that was 36mins 58sec, so it was basically a 0:37. The previous one was just as fast until it took two attempts to run away on BOTH battles in Cedar Woods (needless to say I was not pleased). Something very strange was happening that caused me to reset a couple dozen times for this segment. Half the time I would get into a random battle immediately after leaving the save statue (literally one step), and other times I would fight one somewhere between the cabin and the cave entrance (and rarely not fighting a battle until getting inside the cave). If the first battle occurred close to the cabin, then you’d have to fight an extra battle inside the cave, so I kept resetting for good battle locations. If you don’t understand what I just said, then don’t worry about it. Just know that I had to reset like 30 times
3. McNeil after fishing – 0:39
PT- 0:42
TT- 0:39
This took a lot of resetting and still could have been better, but I was pretty happy with this segment. I got great fish placement on the first spot and decent fish placement on the second spot, although I did lose a little time when I failed to snag a Trout. The Manillo placement could have been a lot better, but on most of my good attempts he was hanging out in deep water. At best I could have been 20 or so seconds faster if I waited for absolutely perfect fish placement.
4. Manor roof – 0:58
PT- 1:04
TT- 0:59
This only took 6 tries, and believe me, I thought it would take a whole lot more tries than that. I was hoping for a high 0:59, and I ended up getting 58mins 55sec, which is incredible. The biggest time cut was against Torast, who I dispatched of in the quickest way possible (Teepo acted first and got a critical hit with the Silver Knife). My battles with Pooch and Rocky were also much better. I was also fortunate with random battles. It doesn’t get much faster than this.
5. Camp before Myrneg – 1:14
PT- 1:22
TT- 1:15
The first try went fairly well, so I went with it. Amalgam was ok, and everything else was fine except some random battle annoyances when going for Bunyan.
6. Genmel – 1:31
PT- None
TT- 1:32
When I initially planned this run, I wasn’t planning on making this save, but splitting the Myrneg to Tower segment into two parts lets you save quite a bit of time since there are so many random battles in that interval which can potentially screw you over. In the video you can see that I saved over a 1:47 Tower save, with which I ended up being dissatisfied. This was about as perfect as you can get, because I ran from all random battles successfully and I only had to fight 3 battles at Myrneg (often you’ll have to fight a fourth just a few steps before Sunder).
7. Tower after getting Momo – 1:46
PT- 1:57
TT- 1:48
I got screwed by a double failed escape attempt on an Orc, but besides that everything was perfect. I just really wanted 1:46, and this was about a 1hr 46mins 40sec, so it wasn’t too bad.
8. Plant before the Dump – 1:59
PT- 2:11
TT- 2:00
Despite my super fast puzzle solving to begin the segment, I was pretty disappointed with this, but I was forced to accept it and proceed. I really wanted 1:58, which I thought would be easily attainable with a decent run through the Tower, but this run was pretty good and I was still 20sec off. The only major slow-down was a failed escape against a pair of Hyper Bots (and if Momo hadn’t revived with willpower, then it would have been a game over). Even if that hadn’t occurred, 1:58 may have still been out of reach, which is why I settled for a low-ish 1:59. A notable change here from my last run was skipping the 800z and using that extra time to grab the Ivory Dice (which probably cancelled out evenly).
9. Contest before Patrio – 2:13
PT- 2:29
TT- 2:17
In the vid you’ll see that I saved over a 2:15, but I decided to try for something better since my Mutant battle was terrible (over a minute slower than in my previous game). As you can see by the time I got, it paid off, and it only took one extra try. Believe it or not, the Mutant is one of the hardest bosses in a speed game. It’s difficult just to beat him, let alone beat him quickly. I used a suicide strat with Momo at the front of attack formation equipped with Flame Chrysm. The first round Momo attacks, Nina uses a Molotov, and Ryu casts Protect on Momo. Then Momo keeps attacking, Nina uses a Healing Herb on Momo every turn, and Ryu casts Protect on Momo and himself a couple more times. If you’re really lucky the battle can end in 5-6 turns, and if you have some luck left over (like I did) then Nina will get killed at the end of the battle. I was really happy with this.
10. Contest after Patrio – 2:22
PT- 2:38
TT- 2:25
The strat I used was the same as in the previous game, except I used the Ivory Dice on the Dodai to gain 3 extra levels. I also tried to get Momo to learn Double Blow from Claw in hopes that it might make the battle go faster, but just learning it in this fight is improbable because you only get one try (maybe two if Momo is killed by Double Blow, learns it, and is revived by willpower). I don’t think it would have saved very much time anyway, if any. If you watch the vid, you’ll see that I saved over a 2:22, which may seem pointless, but my first one was about 2hr 22mins 40sec and the second one was about 2hr 22mins 1sec, so it was a significant cut.
11. Genmel after contest – 2:34
PT- 2:52
TT- 2:38
I took a few tries on this and ended up saving over a slower 2:34. I refined the Emitai strat to make that battle go considerably faster (basically just had Momo and Nina defend and never heal, as healing definitely isn’t needed in this battle). Ryu was damaged from the Emitai fight, so I was able to kill myself and end the Garr battle before Garr could even attack.
12. Rhapala before Beyd – 2:55
PT- 3:16
TT- 2:57
I guess when I was setting the TT’s I overestimated the amount of time I could save in this segment, although I still shaved off a couple minutes. I got pretty lucky on the goons and the Stallion (but you need to be to save a lot of time anyway). Ryu got a critical hit in dragon form which did over 400 damage. I didn’t make the same mistake in Rhapala that I did in the previous run, obviously, but I got hung up a bit getting the Thunder gene, because I accidentally hit the R1 button when I didn’t mean to and I couldn’t see what had happened. I didn’t lose that much time on it, though. Besides that it was a very solid segment.
13. Rhapala after Beyd – 3:03
PT- 3:26
TT- 3:05
This was on my first try, which took me by surprise. I almost wanted to do it over because I thought my reaction time in some places wasn’t good, but after I reviewed the segment I figured I could only save a few seconds if I had been perfect. I refined my Beyd strat… again. I gave him Garr’s Scale Mail and a Dagger (lolz) which saved me a trip to the weapon shop. This time I trained him in one turn with Super Combo and got his HP up 4 points. Zig got a Lucky Strike on the first turn, Beyd had just enough HP to survive it, and I Super Combo’d Zig on the second turn (and I didn’t screw it up, like I sometimes do). Now I’m pretty sure you can’t do this any faster unless there was some way to skip training Beyd altogether.
14. Camp after the Lighthouse – 3:15
PT- 3:40
TT- 3:18
Random battles are a huge problem here. The sheer number of them that you have to face makes a perfect run impossible, so I just went with a decent run. There were a handful of failed running attempts in it, but compared to how lousy the luck was on my previous 20+ tries, this run wasn’t half bad. This was actually a very low 3:15 (less than 10 seconds over), which is actually better than I initially expected to do. I brought Nina along instead of Garr just because she’s easier to kill off and Garr doesn’t need any exp. I think the dialogue might be slightly shorter as well. Gazer was a joke this time around.
More in the next post.
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