My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet
Thomas L. Mallory, Jr's run of every single scenario
Patrick 'messenger' McElwee's Edge's scenario single-segment
Verifier Responses
NOTE: There are so many verifier responses because Mr. Mallory thought it was a good idea to improve EVERY SINGLE SCENARIO that I'm not even going to pretend to organize the responses. I the earlier responses are talking about the first versions of each run, and the later responses talking about version 2.
Thomas L. Mallory, Jr's run of every single scenario
Patrick 'messenger' McElwee's Edge's scenario single-segment
Verifier Responses
NOTE: There are so many verifier responses because Mr. Mallory thought it was a good idea to improve EVERY SINGLE SCENARIO that I'm not even going to pretend to organize the responses. I the earlier responses are talking about the first versions of each run, and the later responses talking about version 2.
Quote:
Edge's Story
Video Quality: Good, save for one minor issue, stated in Segment 01
Audio Quality: Good
Segment 01: Good work on taking out the 4 disciples quickly. The video cuts off a hair early, but you do see the game timer before the save is complete. Given that only 2 seconds have passed and it's not crossed into the 4 minute mark (there would need to be another about 6-8 seconds for that to happen), it's not a discrepancy, IMO, but if it's just a video encoding error, it should be fixed for aesthetic reasons. Otherwise, no issues.
Segment 02: The first ninja dies quickly. Had a hair of trouble getting the Chocobo, but nothing major. No issues here either.
Segment 03: The second ninja dies pretty quick too. A little trouble walking through the bar, but no real time loss.
Segment 04: The third ninja tries to outsmart the Sahagins, but his fate is too sealed. Getting no battles in the overworld in the fourth ninja's section is ridiculously common. No issues with this segment.
Segment 05: The fourth ninja dies tragically. Poor ninja. And we return to Edge for the save.
Segment 06: Funny how Edge gets a hold of all of his student's armor, even when they died far away. Major luck on Belephor, having to have the one miss and the rest of the attacks be tornados to avoid having to cure. Random battles sucked, but it's a FF game after all. The Proto Clockwork battle is very slick, getting them confused so they attack each other, speeding up the battle!
Mysterious Girl is a bitch. Funny how afterwards a summon becomes the only random battle!
Now, welcome back to a piece of 16-bit history with a short cutscene before Rydia saves the day! This leads directly (timeline wise) into The Crystals (the final storyline).
Final Save time: 0:27. This is a VERY impressive time for this storyline. Despite little mistakes here and there, I don't think you can push it any lower then that, except by some bizarre luck manipulative miracle.
Even with the minor video clipping in Segment 01, I accept this storyline submission.
Video Quality: Good, save for one minor issue, stated in Segment 01
Audio Quality: Good
Segment 01: Good work on taking out the 4 disciples quickly. The video cuts off a hair early, but you do see the game timer before the save is complete. Given that only 2 seconds have passed and it's not crossed into the 4 minute mark (there would need to be another about 6-8 seconds for that to happen), it's not a discrepancy, IMO, but if it's just a video encoding error, it should be fixed for aesthetic reasons. Otherwise, no issues.
Segment 02: The first ninja dies quickly. Had a hair of trouble getting the Chocobo, but nothing major. No issues here either.
Segment 03: The second ninja dies pretty quick too. A little trouble walking through the bar, but no real time loss.
Segment 04: The third ninja tries to outsmart the Sahagins, but his fate is too sealed. Getting no battles in the overworld in the fourth ninja's section is ridiculously common. No issues with this segment.
Segment 05: The fourth ninja dies tragically. Poor ninja. And we return to Edge for the save.
Segment 06: Funny how Edge gets a hold of all of his student's armor, even when they died far away. Major luck on Belephor, having to have the one miss and the rest of the attacks be tornados to avoid having to cure. Random battles sucked, but it's a FF game after all. The Proto Clockwork battle is very slick, getting them confused so they attack each other, speeding up the battle!
Mysterious Girl is a bitch. Funny how afterwards a summon becomes the only random battle!
Now, welcome back to a piece of 16-bit history with a short cutscene before Rydia saves the day! This leads directly (timeline wise) into The Crystals (the final storyline).
Final Save time: 0:27. This is a VERY impressive time for this storyline. Despite little mistakes here and there, I don't think you can push it any lower then that, except by some bizarre luck manipulative miracle.
Even with the minor video clipping in Segment 01, I accept this storyline submission.
Quote:
Rydia's Story:
Video Quality: Good, except for one very minor hiccup in Segment 2.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Rydia is sad, because she keeps causing bad things to happen. Is she jinxed? Hard to say, but this segment isn't.
Segment 02: There's a slight hiccup in the video at 2:05, but isn't that bad.
Segment 03: The choice of saving before or after the Sealed Cave cutscene is a tough one, but I think for the sake of sanity (and that it only costs like 2 seconds), you might as well save after, like was done here.
Segment 04: This segment shows quite well why Rydia's story sucks to play - the damn Sealed Cave. The enemies are a total pain in the ass, and you HAVE to level up to stand a chance in this storyline. At least in the 2nd Blood Flower right, the game was generous with that Preemptive Strike.
Segment 05: Little hiccups here and there, but nothing major. At least all the monsters fell quickly and didn't mass spam their attacks.
Segment 06: I feel kinda bad about this segment. Partially because of the first back attack random battle. And also partially because of the need to revive Calca and Brina prior to Demon Wall. While I understand the intent to use them as meat shields, they didn't serve much purpose other then wasting time. Calca did jack shit that was worthwhile, and while I know Brina has worthwhile spells, having nothing work right just cost time time time. And then getting unlucky with the Purple Bavarois sucked indeed. The other thing I don't get is the moon phase. Why, when you're using a ton of black magic attacks, do you fight on the phase you do? A waxing moon weakens black magic, while a full moon strengthens it. Yes, it weakens physical attacks, but that also puts Demon Wall at a disadvantage for HIS physical attacks, further negating the need for Calca and Brina. Granted, this is speculation, but I have strong reason to believe that a better moon phase would have helped a lot in this fight.
Segment 07: The game, as well as Mysterious Girl, is a bitch. Intersection with Palom's story is seen here.
Segment 08: The showdown with the Agart Turtle was a total breeze, but Titan was a fight to survive. Because they disrupted their strategy, it almost cost them the fight and the segment.
Couple things be improved? I think so. While my thoughts are only speculation, I think using 2 tents/cabins before Demon Wall (putting a Full Moon there) and one after (Waning Quarter) would have improved way the rest of the battles worked. Being on a Full Moon for Demon Wall would make Rydia's magic stronger, you could use Big Throw (not affected by the moon) with Luca to avoid the Attack penalty, and Demon Wall's mostly physical attacks are weakened. Then putting the rest of the run on Waning Quarter would have lowered Black Magic, but that would also in a sense weaken Titan's Earthquake spell, but strengthen his regular attacks. However, since the earthquake is stronger and hits BOTH characters, I think it would have been worth it, even if his attacks for most of it are physical based.
However, despite this, I think probably only 1 minute could have been taken off, two tops. The run is still very good despite this, and there could be the possibility that I'm just wrong. I'll trust the runner's judgment, especially since for a 46 minute run (that doesn't display seconds, but counts them) bringing it down to 0:45 or possibly (but probably not likely) 0:44 is minor.
I'll accept Rydia's Story.
Video Quality: Good, except for one very minor hiccup in Segment 2.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Rydia is sad, because she keeps causing bad things to happen. Is she jinxed? Hard to say, but this segment isn't.
Segment 02: There's a slight hiccup in the video at 2:05, but isn't that bad.
Segment 03: The choice of saving before or after the Sealed Cave cutscene is a tough one, but I think for the sake of sanity (and that it only costs like 2 seconds), you might as well save after, like was done here.
Segment 04: This segment shows quite well why Rydia's story sucks to play - the damn Sealed Cave. The enemies are a total pain in the ass, and you HAVE to level up to stand a chance in this storyline. At least in the 2nd Blood Flower right, the game was generous with that Preemptive Strike.
Segment 05: Little hiccups here and there, but nothing major. At least all the monsters fell quickly and didn't mass spam their attacks.
Segment 06: I feel kinda bad about this segment. Partially because of the first back attack random battle. And also partially because of the need to revive Calca and Brina prior to Demon Wall. While I understand the intent to use them as meat shields, they didn't serve much purpose other then wasting time. Calca did jack shit that was worthwhile, and while I know Brina has worthwhile spells, having nothing work right just cost time time time. And then getting unlucky with the Purple Bavarois sucked indeed. The other thing I don't get is the moon phase. Why, when you're using a ton of black magic attacks, do you fight on the phase you do? A waxing moon weakens black magic, while a full moon strengthens it. Yes, it weakens physical attacks, but that also puts Demon Wall at a disadvantage for HIS physical attacks, further negating the need for Calca and Brina. Granted, this is speculation, but I have strong reason to believe that a better moon phase would have helped a lot in this fight.
Segment 07: The game, as well as Mysterious Girl, is a bitch. Intersection with Palom's story is seen here.
Segment 08: The showdown with the Agart Turtle was a total breeze, but Titan was a fight to survive. Because they disrupted their strategy, it almost cost them the fight and the segment.
Couple things be improved? I think so. While my thoughts are only speculation, I think using 2 tents/cabins before Demon Wall (putting a Full Moon there) and one after (Waning Quarter) would have improved way the rest of the battles worked. Being on a Full Moon for Demon Wall would make Rydia's magic stronger, you could use Big Throw (not affected by the moon) with Luca to avoid the Attack penalty, and Demon Wall's mostly physical attacks are weakened. Then putting the rest of the run on Waning Quarter would have lowered Black Magic, but that would also in a sense weaken Titan's Earthquake spell, but strengthen his regular attacks. However, since the earthquake is stronger and hits BOTH characters, I think it would have been worth it, even if his attacks for most of it are physical based.
However, despite this, I think probably only 1 minute could have been taken off, two tops. The run is still very good despite this, and there could be the possibility that I'm just wrong. I'll trust the runner's judgment, especially since for a 46 minute run (that doesn't display seconds, but counts them) bringing it down to 0:45 or possibly (but probably not likely) 0:44 is minor.
I'll accept Rydia's Story.
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Edward's Story
Video Quality: Good, except that glitch in Segment 03.
Audio Quality: Good, except the audio being out of sync in Segment 02.
Segment 01: Simple segment, no problems here.
Segment 02: As stated in the runner's comments, the audio is out of sync. Other then that, segment is also fine.
Segment 03: The video blanks out for a moment at 1:25, but not like there's anything to see here. Mostly dialogue with a couple of tents...nothing much to see here.
Segment 04: Damn, the game was generous on random encounters.
Segment 05: Is it me, or does the Underground Waterway theme sound like "hand read"?
Segment 06: RUN EDWARD RUN.
Segment 07: No fight against Antlion? No haunting memories of FF IV? Damn. It intersects near the end with the end of Yang's story. And the rest is interesting banter. Well, if you know what the script is.
Overall, Edward's story is probably the most interesting plot wise, but the most boring gameplay wise, given that there are ZERO forced battles. But it doesn't mean that it's easy to do. The runner does a good job at his title...running. Har har.
Edward's story is accepted.
Video Quality: Good, except that glitch in Segment 03.
Audio Quality: Good, except the audio being out of sync in Segment 02.
Segment 01: Simple segment, no problems here.
Segment 02: As stated in the runner's comments, the audio is out of sync. Other then that, segment is also fine.
Segment 03: The video blanks out for a moment at 1:25, but not like there's anything to see here. Mostly dialogue with a couple of tents...nothing much to see here.
Segment 04: Damn, the game was generous on random encounters.
Segment 05: Is it me, or does the Underground Waterway theme sound like "hand read"?
Segment 06: RUN EDWARD RUN.
Segment 07: No fight against Antlion? No haunting memories of FF IV? Damn. It intersects near the end with the end of Yang's story. And the rest is interesting banter. Well, if you know what the script is.
Overall, Edward's story is probably the most interesting plot wise, but the most boring gameplay wise, given that there are ZERO forced battles. But it doesn't mean that it's easy to do. The runner does a good job at his title...running. Har har.
Edward's story is accepted.
Quote:
Something funky happened, and the files I downloaded included two runs through what's called the 'main story.' The run labelled ff4:tay is his 1:12, and the parts marked Ceodore and Kain, together, are his superior 1:09. I think the runner also ran the long, final portion called The Crystals, which was not available for download.
Well, here are my comments for what I've recieved so far:
(I am writing this response not yet having seen the run of The Crystals, the final portion of the game.)
This run has four huge things going for it - good use of items without going far out of the way to get them, timely power levelling, lots of luck manipulation, and almost always really fast menu navigation and attack selection. Well, put those things together with a solid route, and you'll probably manage a darn good Final Fantasy game speedrun, assuming no crazy glitches have been discovered in your game.
I think the runner planned thoroughly just how many attack items and haste/berserk items to grab, and against what enemies he would use them. I don't know if his exact strategy is 100% optimized, but to me it looks very very good.
I thought setting the battle speed to maximum would work to the enemies' advantage and end up hurting the run, but I was wrong, if you're as fast at making selections as the runner.
This is really eight separate speedruns, and I think I should give separate accept/reject votes for each one, but no need for suspense; I'm happy to say I voted Accept for every one
This is just my opinion, but I think these should be timed to the second, as there would be a world of difference between a 28:05 and a 28:59.
Audio and video seem fine overall, assuming this verification copy isn't one of the highest-quality versions. There's a little jump, probably a couple skipped frames, a few seconds into Main Story segment 5. I saw a momentary flash of the end of a failed attempt at the beginning of Main Story segment 17. About 50-60 seconds into Yang's segment 4 the screen goes black while the damage numbers should have been shown. Porom segment 5's audio and video are slightly out of sync; Edward's segment 2 is the same. Edward's segment 3 goes black for a moment at about 1:25. The sound cuts out just for a moment, late in the credits in Edward's segment 7. The sound and picture cut out momentarily, a minute into Lunarians' segment 5, and almost 4 minutes into Lunarians' segment 8. Often the screen jumps a little right after the runner saves.
I saw no signs of cheating.
Main Story
I think he could have gotten away with one less heal against the Sand Worm had he fought a slightly tougher fight beforehand (rather than just Goblins). He could have been level 4 rather than 3. I'm not sure if that would have actually saved time.
As Cecil, it's pretty impressive that he got all the way to the Centaur Knight with enough HP so he didn't have to heal before the fight. Impressive luck against Strato Avis, I think, getting by with so few heals.
He gets by with very few purchased healing items. He could have sold Cecil's armor for big bucks, but I guess he didn't have to.
That's crazy! He got through Devil's Road with no random battles.
Segment 9 is stellar - have Ceodore die against Mist Cave's gateman for Hooded Man to gain extra experience, and the only random battle is two Liliths, good for exp. if you have the right attack item, which he got in Baron castle I think. In segment 10 his Tunneler strategy is solid. I don't know, his luck during the battle didn't look as tasty as it was against the octopus or evil Kain, but I'll believe the runner that this battle went far better than it usually would.
One random encounter on Mt. Ordeals? Again, that's crazy luck manipulation.
I saw a fumble while trying to save after segment 13, costing about 2 seconds, which is the biggest mistake I've seen so far. That being the biggest mistake says quite a bit.
I'm not exactly sure why he went out of the way for the Bone Wrist. It's not a big improvement as far as I know, and he replaced it with something else later. edit: His comments say the reason is to make the first Zombie Infantry fight less damaging (since Bone Wrist is strong against Undead attacks). I will accept this explanation, especially since the detour to grab it didn't result in any random encounters. Somehow though I think the fastest plan would be to skip the Bone Wrist and the item next to it, and rely on luck vs. the enemy.
By the time you reach Mist Cliff and the cavern, almost any random enemy can finish off your party at these levels, especially with half the party dead to begin with. But of course in these segments that fact isn't a big factor since the runner gets by with so few random encounters besides the ones he wants to farm for experience.
He had Kain's armor in his inventory, which he could have sold for another big chunk of money, but I guess not doing that is not a mistake, considering he got by fine on the money from the Sleep Blade. I can think of a possible alternate strategy - to instead sell both Cecil's and evil Kain's armor, then have the Sleep Blade to make running from enemies easier (use sleep blade as an item and target all to put enemy parties to sleep), but there are so few encounters he runs from later on (due to luck manipulation) that I think the runner's strategy is significantly faster (albeit scarier).
Nice, solid octopus thrashing. I don't understand why the runner had Cid attack vs. the Zombie Infantry. Nice, gutsy fight against evil Kain, and of course the long version of the credits to finish it off.
The large number of short segments is well worth it, considering how well the runner manipulated out random encounters, each of which can cost half a minute or cause death later in the run. Without question, I say accept.
Rydia's Tale
First of all, the runner definitely should have moved Fira closer to the top of Rydia's spell list, right away in the first or second segment.
He spent a lot of time early on running around gathering supplies, from Kokkol Ores to even a Silver Apple, but not as much time as I expected. You should see how nearly impossible Sealed Cave is if you're low-level and not prepared! It was crafty to have a Tomahawk before entering Sealed Cave (buy Crescent Axe, 3 Kokkols to Battle Axe, 4 Kokkols to Tomahawk if I remember right). I understand picking Tomahawk over Mythril Hammer, because this way Luca can fight from the back row.
I forgive the runner for walking into Sealed Cave, watching a cutscene, then walking back out to save. Then again, since the next segment did not seem to have a lot of luck manipulation, I wish he would have saved before entering the first time.
Segment 4, the grinding segment, looked messy to me. I think he should have manipulated it (more attempts) to get less bats and more Blood Flowers; maybe even split it into two segments to do so. For a while I was wondering why the runner wasn't making his way toward the save point (the one without a Trapdoor guarding it of course), but I do like the decision of healing in the castle pot.
As for simply the fact that he took the time to grind, well, just try walking to Demon Wall, fighting him and surviving the trip back to the save point at lower levels x_x The grinding itself is necessary.
The fight with the four bats in segment 6 took an insufferable amount of time, but I don't consider it to be a mistake to fight them. He got all the way from that fight to the boss with no more encounters, and that bat fight gave twice as much experience as any fight before the save point. Running from that fight would have taken nearly as long as fighting it. Plus, in this area the bats are the only encounter that is not a serious threat to the party's survival.
Too bad the runner didn't have another Bacchu's Wine or maybe Hermes Sandals to use on Luca for the Wall fight. But they were more badly needed later vs. Titan.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the trip out of the cave (after the save point) was luck-manipulated anywhere near as well as most of the Main Story segments. Or maybe it's almost impossible to cut the number of encounters lower here. I honestly don't know for sure.
After watching Sealed Cave, which to be perfectly honest did not impress me despite the fact it's very difficult, it was a joy to watch the first 2/3 of the long final segment, very squeaky clean (well tiny walking mistakes are forgiveable), and the awesome turtle fight with black magic boosted. Using the pot on the way out was a good idea.
Over 10-minute segments are cool, but maybe the runner should have saved before the Titan battle. Of course I say that already knowing how the battle went, so I may be wrong.
I vote to accept this run, but not by a wide margin. I would love to see the runner redo this chapter, maybe with a couple more segments. This runner is good enough that I believe he could cut a minute off this one, maybe more. If there's an additional semi-convenient Hermes Sandals or Bacchu's Wine the runner should use it against the wall I think, and if there's an Ether it would have been great to have vs. Titan (again knowing the score already, so I may be wrong). But to once again be brutally honest this run was nowhere near bad, and this chapter is a bitch.
Yang's Tale
Heh heh, I like that Mom Bomb strategy. It would have been very difficult to get the silly monks to die any other way. Maybe the runner should have removed their armor, to make their deaths faster?
Then Yang even allows his daughter to die. He is a very cruel, and strong, man, carrying all those dead bodies around. It's a good strategy though, as Yang's gonna be your main damage-giver vs. Kain and the turtle.
I think the power-levelling run through Mt. Hobs went well.
The invasion scene was really nice. I especially liked his strategy against the Leshy-Domovoi-Waterhag fights, having Yang attack the enemy in the back row. The accidental attack against a Captain was not a big deal. Well, with 100 tries the invasion scene might go a couple seconds faster once, but it was good. Yang would've survived with one less heal against Kain I think, but hindsight is 20-20, and I think the fight went fine, quite nicely actually.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Ouch, I think the runner was unlucky in that fight on the boat. Walking out of the way a bit to save before the boss was almost certainly worth it.
I know there was a little menu fumbling at the start, but that turtle fight kicked ass. I can't imagine a better strategy. And the run ended the way it mostly began - with Ursula and all the monkeys dead
This run was a joy to watch, and the runner made it look easy, which it is not. Strong accept vote.
Palom's Tale
It was pretty neat seeing not a single random encounter in segment 2. Segment 3 looked good too, with almost no healing besides the pots, and lots of Skeletons for quick experience. Gaining some experience is quite necessary. There are numerous tiny little mistakes in segment 3, but nothing significant at all. The runner also picked up a couple items to buff up Leonora's healing ability and defense.
Segment 4 saw some further grinding on the top floor, which is probably the best place in the chapter to do so. The final boss of the chapter is tough, making it probably a good idea to gain all those levels. (edit: And for Palom to learn Warp! Good strategy.) Bring on the six-Bomb fights! Too bad there weren't more of them. Then not a single fight on the map screen, late in a long segment.
Segment 5 doesn't look very luck-manipulated for fewer encouters, but because of the extra grinding, encounters here cost little time. When entering Chocobo Village the runner always enters in the middle even though entering on the right side would be faster, but that's just one step each time, so it's not a big thing.
The runner was extra careful to keep his party healed in Lodestone Cavern. The Dark Elf fight looked good. It actually looked easy, but I don't think it was. There was a little difficulty leaving the save room before fighting Mysterious Girl. I wonder if at the end the runner should have cast a spell or two with Palom rather than worrying about giving Leonora a Dry Ether.
Well, the runner maybe should have put Palom's attack spells at the top of his list, and perhaps should have had Leonora dead for some of the grinding (that one I'm not sure about), but I'd say this chapter's speedrun went well. Accept.
Edge's Tale
Flood is the best move to use in that very first battle.
I think it was a good call to not pick up the throwable weapon in Gekkou's suicide mission (even though it would only take 4-5 seconds). And the suicide missions went nicely! I mean, really well, except for Tsukinowa's which was still pretty good. Well, Zangetsu did have a little trouble running into things.
The four fights that the runner did not run from are unrunnable. Those required fights all went perfectly pretty much, though there were a fairly large number of unwanted fights between them. And there was only one Back Attack or Surprised the rest of the way, and the runner spent very little time healing.
I can't see this chapter being run much better. Enthusiastic accept vote.
Porom's Tale
That Cooler Mammoth fight ever-so-nearly ended in tragedy, over and over. I think it went pretty quickly though.
In this chapter, Sealed Cave is harder to survive than Mt. Ordeals. Just one random fight in Sealed Cave is very good.
I didn't like the two-square walking mistake on the way to Mt. Ordeals right at the beginning of the segment. Mt. Ordeals itself went nicely. The runner got by on no healing, I think.
I think the Blood Eye would have gone down with just a Kain attack at the end rather than another Jump. You've gotta love the fighting strategy though; every member of the party disabled or dead except Kain
This chapter would be relatively easy to speedrun since characters with high experience levels keep joining the party. The runner did well. Accept.
Edward's Tale
It seemed the runner didn't luck manipulate the trip out of the crash site; there were an awfully large number of random encounters (but then the number the first time through Underground Waterway was excellent). Two Tents to reach Full Moon (reduced damage) is a good idea.
In terms of survival, the only dangerous part of this whole run is running through Underground Waterway (two times!) as Edward by himself.
There was no need to cut it so close in terms of healing items. He could have purchased a whole boatload of Potions when he got the Tent. But I don't think he lost any time by not doing so.
There really isn't much to say about this run of this easy chapter. The encounter rate was kept pretty low, for the most part. Congrats to the runner on another job well done. Accept.
Lunarians' Tale
On Full Moon, those Bios vs. the required fights early on really pack a punch! Gathering items the first time through the Subterrane is smart as it will not result in any random encounters.
Maybe instead of saving, segments 2 and 3 should have been combined and the runner use a healing pot. I am not sure though. I have strong doubts as to whether it was worth grabbing the Mythril Helm, as physical attacks are not a major part of this chapter. When talking to the crystals, I think that saving the first one he talked to for last would make the process slightly faster.
Hoo boy, the runner took out all three Count Malboros in one visit and made it look easy. Maybe Thundaga should've been higher up both characters' spell lists. Leaving the party poisoned is the right call. Too bad there were so many encounters on the map screen.
The second Mysterious Girl fight was awe-inspiring. Excellent strategy.
I think the runner's strategy on the way down the Subterrane was better than keeping FuSoYa alive and using a lot of cure spells. If he could have cut out one of those back attacks, though, obviously he would have saved time. Good Zeromus battle.
Accept.
Well, here are my comments for what I've recieved so far:
(I am writing this response not yet having seen the run of The Crystals, the final portion of the game.)
This run has four huge things going for it - good use of items without going far out of the way to get them, timely power levelling, lots of luck manipulation, and almost always really fast menu navigation and attack selection. Well, put those things together with a solid route, and you'll probably manage a darn good Final Fantasy game speedrun, assuming no crazy glitches have been discovered in your game.
I think the runner planned thoroughly just how many attack items and haste/berserk items to grab, and against what enemies he would use them. I don't know if his exact strategy is 100% optimized, but to me it looks very very good.
I thought setting the battle speed to maximum would work to the enemies' advantage and end up hurting the run, but I was wrong, if you're as fast at making selections as the runner.
This is really eight separate speedruns, and I think I should give separate accept/reject votes for each one, but no need for suspense; I'm happy to say I voted Accept for every one
This is just my opinion, but I think these should be timed to the second, as there would be a world of difference between a 28:05 and a 28:59.
Audio and video seem fine overall, assuming this verification copy isn't one of the highest-quality versions. There's a little jump, probably a couple skipped frames, a few seconds into Main Story segment 5. I saw a momentary flash of the end of a failed attempt at the beginning of Main Story segment 17. About 50-60 seconds into Yang's segment 4 the screen goes black while the damage numbers should have been shown. Porom segment 5's audio and video are slightly out of sync; Edward's segment 2 is the same. Edward's segment 3 goes black for a moment at about 1:25. The sound cuts out just for a moment, late in the credits in Edward's segment 7. The sound and picture cut out momentarily, a minute into Lunarians' segment 5, and almost 4 minutes into Lunarians' segment 8. Often the screen jumps a little right after the runner saves.
I saw no signs of cheating.
Main Story
I think he could have gotten away with one less heal against the Sand Worm had he fought a slightly tougher fight beforehand (rather than just Goblins). He could have been level 4 rather than 3. I'm not sure if that would have actually saved time.
As Cecil, it's pretty impressive that he got all the way to the Centaur Knight with enough HP so he didn't have to heal before the fight. Impressive luck against Strato Avis, I think, getting by with so few heals.
He gets by with very few purchased healing items. He could have sold Cecil's armor for big bucks, but I guess he didn't have to.
That's crazy! He got through Devil's Road with no random battles.
Segment 9 is stellar - have Ceodore die against Mist Cave's gateman for Hooded Man to gain extra experience, and the only random battle is two Liliths, good for exp. if you have the right attack item, which he got in Baron castle I think. In segment 10 his Tunneler strategy is solid. I don't know, his luck during the battle didn't look as tasty as it was against the octopus or evil Kain, but I'll believe the runner that this battle went far better than it usually would.
One random encounter on Mt. Ordeals? Again, that's crazy luck manipulation.
I saw a fumble while trying to save after segment 13, costing about 2 seconds, which is the biggest mistake I've seen so far. That being the biggest mistake says quite a bit.
I'm not exactly sure why he went out of the way for the Bone Wrist. It's not a big improvement as far as I know, and he replaced it with something else later. edit: His comments say the reason is to make the first Zombie Infantry fight less damaging (since Bone Wrist is strong against Undead attacks). I will accept this explanation, especially since the detour to grab it didn't result in any random encounters. Somehow though I think the fastest plan would be to skip the Bone Wrist and the item next to it, and rely on luck vs. the enemy.
By the time you reach Mist Cliff and the cavern, almost any random enemy can finish off your party at these levels, especially with half the party dead to begin with. But of course in these segments that fact isn't a big factor since the runner gets by with so few random encounters besides the ones he wants to farm for experience.
He had Kain's armor in his inventory, which he could have sold for another big chunk of money, but I guess not doing that is not a mistake, considering he got by fine on the money from the Sleep Blade. I can think of a possible alternate strategy - to instead sell both Cecil's and evil Kain's armor, then have the Sleep Blade to make running from enemies easier (use sleep blade as an item and target all to put enemy parties to sleep), but there are so few encounters he runs from later on (due to luck manipulation) that I think the runner's strategy is significantly faster (albeit scarier).
Nice, solid octopus thrashing. I don't understand why the runner had Cid attack vs. the Zombie Infantry. Nice, gutsy fight against evil Kain, and of course the long version of the credits to finish it off.
The large number of short segments is well worth it, considering how well the runner manipulated out random encounters, each of which can cost half a minute or cause death later in the run. Without question, I say accept.
Rydia's Tale
First of all, the runner definitely should have moved Fira closer to the top of Rydia's spell list, right away in the first or second segment.
He spent a lot of time early on running around gathering supplies, from Kokkol Ores to even a Silver Apple, but not as much time as I expected. You should see how nearly impossible Sealed Cave is if you're low-level and not prepared! It was crafty to have a Tomahawk before entering Sealed Cave (buy Crescent Axe, 3 Kokkols to Battle Axe, 4 Kokkols to Tomahawk if I remember right). I understand picking Tomahawk over Mythril Hammer, because this way Luca can fight from the back row.
I forgive the runner for walking into Sealed Cave, watching a cutscene, then walking back out to save. Then again, since the next segment did not seem to have a lot of luck manipulation, I wish he would have saved before entering the first time.
Segment 4, the grinding segment, looked messy to me. I think he should have manipulated it (more attempts) to get less bats and more Blood Flowers; maybe even split it into two segments to do so. For a while I was wondering why the runner wasn't making his way toward the save point (the one without a Trapdoor guarding it of course), but I do like the decision of healing in the castle pot.
As for simply the fact that he took the time to grind, well, just try walking to Demon Wall, fighting him and surviving the trip back to the save point at lower levels x_x The grinding itself is necessary.
The fight with the four bats in segment 6 took an insufferable amount of time, but I don't consider it to be a mistake to fight them. He got all the way from that fight to the boss with no more encounters, and that bat fight gave twice as much experience as any fight before the save point. Running from that fight would have taken nearly as long as fighting it. Plus, in this area the bats are the only encounter that is not a serious threat to the party's survival.
Too bad the runner didn't have another Bacchu's Wine or maybe Hermes Sandals to use on Luca for the Wall fight. But they were more badly needed later vs. Titan.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the trip out of the cave (after the save point) was luck-manipulated anywhere near as well as most of the Main Story segments. Or maybe it's almost impossible to cut the number of encounters lower here. I honestly don't know for sure.
After watching Sealed Cave, which to be perfectly honest did not impress me despite the fact it's very difficult, it was a joy to watch the first 2/3 of the long final segment, very squeaky clean (well tiny walking mistakes are forgiveable), and the awesome turtle fight with black magic boosted. Using the pot on the way out was a good idea.
Over 10-minute segments are cool, but maybe the runner should have saved before the Titan battle. Of course I say that already knowing how the battle went, so I may be wrong.
I vote to accept this run, but not by a wide margin. I would love to see the runner redo this chapter, maybe with a couple more segments. This runner is good enough that I believe he could cut a minute off this one, maybe more. If there's an additional semi-convenient Hermes Sandals or Bacchu's Wine the runner should use it against the wall I think, and if there's an Ether it would have been great to have vs. Titan (again knowing the score already, so I may be wrong). But to once again be brutally honest this run was nowhere near bad, and this chapter is a bitch.
Yang's Tale
Heh heh, I like that Mom Bomb strategy. It would have been very difficult to get the silly monks to die any other way. Maybe the runner should have removed their armor, to make their deaths faster?
Then Yang even allows his daughter to die. He is a very cruel, and strong, man, carrying all those dead bodies around. It's a good strategy though, as Yang's gonna be your main damage-giver vs. Kain and the turtle.
I think the power-levelling run through Mt. Hobs went well.
The invasion scene was really nice. I especially liked his strategy against the Leshy-Domovoi-Waterhag fights, having Yang attack the enemy in the back row. The accidental attack against a Captain was not a big deal. Well, with 100 tries the invasion scene might go a couple seconds faster once, but it was good. Yang would've survived with one less heal against Kain I think, but hindsight is 20-20, and I think the fight went fine, quite nicely actually.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Ouch, I think the runner was unlucky in that fight on the boat. Walking out of the way a bit to save before the boss was almost certainly worth it.
I know there was a little menu fumbling at the start, but that turtle fight kicked ass. I can't imagine a better strategy. And the run ended the way it mostly began - with Ursula and all the monkeys dead
This run was a joy to watch, and the runner made it look easy, which it is not. Strong accept vote.
Palom's Tale
It was pretty neat seeing not a single random encounter in segment 2. Segment 3 looked good too, with almost no healing besides the pots, and lots of Skeletons for quick experience. Gaining some experience is quite necessary. There are numerous tiny little mistakes in segment 3, but nothing significant at all. The runner also picked up a couple items to buff up Leonora's healing ability and defense.
Segment 4 saw some further grinding on the top floor, which is probably the best place in the chapter to do so. The final boss of the chapter is tough, making it probably a good idea to gain all those levels. (edit: And for Palom to learn Warp! Good strategy.) Bring on the six-Bomb fights! Too bad there weren't more of them. Then not a single fight on the map screen, late in a long segment.
Segment 5 doesn't look very luck-manipulated for fewer encouters, but because of the extra grinding, encounters here cost little time. When entering Chocobo Village the runner always enters in the middle even though entering on the right side would be faster, but that's just one step each time, so it's not a big thing.
The runner was extra careful to keep his party healed in Lodestone Cavern. The Dark Elf fight looked good. It actually looked easy, but I don't think it was. There was a little difficulty leaving the save room before fighting Mysterious Girl. I wonder if at the end the runner should have cast a spell or two with Palom rather than worrying about giving Leonora a Dry Ether.
Well, the runner maybe should have put Palom's attack spells at the top of his list, and perhaps should have had Leonora dead for some of the grinding (that one I'm not sure about), but I'd say this chapter's speedrun went well. Accept.
Edge's Tale
Flood is the best move to use in that very first battle.
I think it was a good call to not pick up the throwable weapon in Gekkou's suicide mission (even though it would only take 4-5 seconds). And the suicide missions went nicely! I mean, really well, except for Tsukinowa's which was still pretty good. Well, Zangetsu did have a little trouble running into things.
The four fights that the runner did not run from are unrunnable. Those required fights all went perfectly pretty much, though there were a fairly large number of unwanted fights between them. And there was only one Back Attack or Surprised the rest of the way, and the runner spent very little time healing.
I can't see this chapter being run much better. Enthusiastic accept vote.
Porom's Tale
That Cooler Mammoth fight ever-so-nearly ended in tragedy, over and over. I think it went pretty quickly though.
In this chapter, Sealed Cave is harder to survive than Mt. Ordeals. Just one random fight in Sealed Cave is very good.
I didn't like the two-square walking mistake on the way to Mt. Ordeals right at the beginning of the segment. Mt. Ordeals itself went nicely. The runner got by on no healing, I think.
I think the Blood Eye would have gone down with just a Kain attack at the end rather than another Jump. You've gotta love the fighting strategy though; every member of the party disabled or dead except Kain
This chapter would be relatively easy to speedrun since characters with high experience levels keep joining the party. The runner did well. Accept.
Edward's Tale
It seemed the runner didn't luck manipulate the trip out of the crash site; there were an awfully large number of random encounters (but then the number the first time through Underground Waterway was excellent). Two Tents to reach Full Moon (reduced damage) is a good idea.
In terms of survival, the only dangerous part of this whole run is running through Underground Waterway (two times!) as Edward by himself.
There was no need to cut it so close in terms of healing items. He could have purchased a whole boatload of Potions when he got the Tent. But I don't think he lost any time by not doing so.
There really isn't much to say about this run of this easy chapter. The encounter rate was kept pretty low, for the most part. Congrats to the runner on another job well done. Accept.
Lunarians' Tale
On Full Moon, those Bios vs. the required fights early on really pack a punch! Gathering items the first time through the Subterrane is smart as it will not result in any random encounters.
Maybe instead of saving, segments 2 and 3 should have been combined and the runner use a healing pot. I am not sure though. I have strong doubts as to whether it was worth grabbing the Mythril Helm, as physical attacks are not a major part of this chapter. When talking to the crystals, I think that saving the first one he talked to for last would make the process slightly faster.
Hoo boy, the runner took out all three Count Malboros in one visit and made it look easy. Maybe Thundaga should've been higher up both characters' spell lists. Leaving the party poisoned is the right call. Too bad there were so many encounters on the map screen.
The second Mysterious Girl fight was awe-inspiring. Excellent strategy.
I think the runner's strategy on the way down the Subterrane was better than keeping FuSoYa alive and using a lot of cure spells. If he could have cut out one of those back attacks, though, obviously he would have saved time. Good Zeromus battle.
Accept.
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Palom's Story
Video Quality: Good.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Come sail away. Come sail away. Come sail away with me, lad!
Segment 02: Good old Palom. Picking up the chicks. What a swinger.
Segment 03: Lots of fighting, lots of winning.
Segment 04: More fighting, more winning, more cheesy dialogue. The first warp usage was kinda stupid though.
Segment 05: I always hated the Lodestone Cavern. Both in the original and in here.
Segment 06: Nice work on retrofitting Leonora into the ending of FF IV. Too bad things get ugly after that. Damn you Mysterious Girl!
Overall, it was very well planned out. Only two minor changes that I can think of that I would have done, but probably wouldn't have made enough difference: 1 - put bot of them in the back row. Most of the attacks were physical and I don't remember any back attacks. Could have helped out reducing physical damage (and it doesn't hamper the black magic). 2 - have Palom use Bluff during Dark Elf. But wouldn't have saved a lot of time or rounds.
Good job. Lodestone Cavern is a bitch of a level and it was handled quite well. Palom's Story is accepted.
Video Quality: Good.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Come sail away. Come sail away. Come sail away with me, lad!
Segment 02: Good old Palom. Picking up the chicks. What a swinger.
Segment 03: Lots of fighting, lots of winning.
Segment 04: More fighting, more winning, more cheesy dialogue. The first warp usage was kinda stupid though.
Segment 05: I always hated the Lodestone Cavern. Both in the original and in here.
Segment 06: Nice work on retrofitting Leonora into the ending of FF IV. Too bad things get ugly after that. Damn you Mysterious Girl!
Overall, it was very well planned out. Only two minor changes that I can think of that I would have done, but probably wouldn't have made enough difference: 1 - put bot of them in the back row. Most of the attacks were physical and I don't remember any back attacks. Could have helped out reducing physical damage (and it doesn't hamper the black magic). 2 - have Palom use Bluff during Dark Elf. But wouldn't have saved a lot of time or rounds.
Good job. Lodestone Cavern is a bitch of a level and it was handled quite well. Palom's Story is accepted.
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The Lunarian's Story
Video Quality: Minor video hiccup in Segment 05 and another in Segment 08, but nothing major.
Audit Quality: Ok, though it does hiccup in the same spots as the video.
Segment 01: Short, sweet, not much to say here.
Segment 02: Switches to full moon to make magic powerful, a wise move. There's no random battles in the cavern, which makes this segment go quick and easy. Every battle that happens here is completely scripted. Good magic usage here. Never thought about getting White Fang.
Segment 03: Sometimes you can kill Chimera w/ one Bio. Sometimes you can't. White Fang is used here, saving a round of battle. I don't get the movement pattern of speaking to the crystals, but it probably is about the same # of steps anyways.
Segment 04: Into the depths of the Impact Creator. Minor missteps here, but nothing major.
Segment 05: Mysterious Girl, time to meet your maker! Made it by 161 damage. Phew. And then moving UP to Bahamut's Lair instead of down. HUH.
Segment 06: One thing I would have done differently is move from Waning to New Moon, to lower physical attack damage. Also, should have kept up on Fusoya's MP count so they wouldn't have lost a turn to use Ether during the 3rd Count Malboro. Cut it close at the end there though.
Segment 07: Mysterious Girl, why won't you ever die?! Nice on the overkill though (the 2nd to last magic attack pushed her to 760 HP left. The final killed her with 4795 to spare. Overkill indeed!) After that, it's just running for your life! But poor Fusoya...
Segment 08: And down further we go and face the old boss of FF IV, ZEROMUS. Last time, Golbez and Fusoya didn't have a prayer against him. They still don't, but at least every attack doesn't cure him for 9999 HP. Good decision to let Fusoya stay dead at the end, given that Zeromus only had about 6000 HP at the time. Not that there was any choice in the matter...
Overall, very good game play. With some better luck and ironing out the wrinkles, it may be possible to get 0:37. Maybe. Still a damn impressive run though.
The Lunarian's Story run is accepted with all the others.
Video Quality: Minor video hiccup in Segment 05 and another in Segment 08, but nothing major.
Audit Quality: Ok, though it does hiccup in the same spots as the video.
Segment 01: Short, sweet, not much to say here.
Segment 02: Switches to full moon to make magic powerful, a wise move. There's no random battles in the cavern, which makes this segment go quick and easy. Every battle that happens here is completely scripted. Good magic usage here. Never thought about getting White Fang.
Segment 03: Sometimes you can kill Chimera w/ one Bio. Sometimes you can't. White Fang is used here, saving a round of battle. I don't get the movement pattern of speaking to the crystals, but it probably is about the same # of steps anyways.
Segment 04: Into the depths of the Impact Creator. Minor missteps here, but nothing major.
Segment 05: Mysterious Girl, time to meet your maker! Made it by 161 damage. Phew. And then moving UP to Bahamut's Lair instead of down. HUH.
Segment 06: One thing I would have done differently is move from Waning to New Moon, to lower physical attack damage. Also, should have kept up on Fusoya's MP count so they wouldn't have lost a turn to use Ether during the 3rd Count Malboro. Cut it close at the end there though.
Segment 07: Mysterious Girl, why won't you ever die?! Nice on the overkill though (the 2nd to last magic attack pushed her to 760 HP left. The final killed her with 4795 to spare. Overkill indeed!) After that, it's just running for your life! But poor Fusoya...
Segment 08: And down further we go and face the old boss of FF IV, ZEROMUS. Last time, Golbez and Fusoya didn't have a prayer against him. They still don't, but at least every attack doesn't cure him for 9999 HP. Good decision to let Fusoya stay dead at the end, given that Zeromus only had about 6000 HP at the time. Not that there was any choice in the matter...
Overall, very good game play. With some better luck and ironing out the wrinkles, it may be possible to get 0:37. Maybe. Still a damn impressive run though.
The Lunarian's Story run is accepted with all the others.
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Yang's Story
Video Quality: A couple of glips could create controversy, but I see nothing to contest.
Audio Quality: Fine.
Segment 01: Yang is a sexist father. Isn't he? Not much to say here, other then that's an odd set for the random battle...
Segment 02: The first part of the clip is cut off here, but I do not see a discrepency. Strange strategy for Mombomb though. I get it, but it just looks odd.
Segment 03: Gets the metal knuckles, as he should.
Segment 04: A minor video hiccup here during the zombie fight, but the audio continues on. No discrepancy caused by this to my findings. Good luck with not getting a ton of random battles going down the mountain from the summit (sometimes you can get a TON of random battles).
Segment 05: Total ripoff from FF IV. Though it was more fun having Cecil, Yang, and Edward involved...mainly for Edward. Fight Edward! No, I'm too beautiful to die! But you'll join Anna if you do. Oh wait, yes. KILL ME NOW! Poor Edward.
Segment 06: Edward's Story intersects here for a moment. Lots of talk, no fighting. Nice shortcut, BTW.
Segment 07: Interesting strategy for adamantoise. Yang is a fucking walking battle tank.
Overall, very well planned out. A few minor mistakes here and there, but nothing major. Good work.
Accepting Yang's story with all the others.
Video Quality: A couple of glips could create controversy, but I see nothing to contest.
Audio Quality: Fine.
Segment 01: Yang is a sexist father. Isn't he? Not much to say here, other then that's an odd set for the random battle...
Segment 02: The first part of the clip is cut off here, but I do not see a discrepency. Strange strategy for Mombomb though. I get it, but it just looks odd.
Segment 03: Gets the metal knuckles, as he should.
Segment 04: A minor video hiccup here during the zombie fight, but the audio continues on. No discrepancy caused by this to my findings. Good luck with not getting a ton of random battles going down the mountain from the summit (sometimes you can get a TON of random battles).
Segment 05: Total ripoff from FF IV. Though it was more fun having Cecil, Yang, and Edward involved...mainly for Edward. Fight Edward! No, I'm too beautiful to die! But you'll join Anna if you do. Oh wait, yes. KILL ME NOW! Poor Edward.
Segment 06: Edward's Story intersects here for a moment. Lots of talk, no fighting. Nice shortcut, BTW.
Segment 07: Interesting strategy for adamantoise. Yang is a fucking walking battle tank.
Overall, very well planned out. A few minor mistakes here and there, but nothing major. Good work.
Accepting Yang's story with all the others.
Quote:
Porom's Story:
Video Quality: Good.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Story story story. Palom is such a brat, isn't he?
Segment 02: Follow the footsteps of the great sage called Ni! ...wait, what?
Segment 03: Cooler Mammoth is a tough fight. Handled as best as possible.
Segment 04: *yawn*
Segment 05: "Kain" joined the party, huh? Intersection here with the end of Palom's story.
Segment 06: Damn mages are worthless.
Overall, not much to say about this segment, other then good job handling Cooler Mammoth. He's a bitch.
Porom joins her brother in the accepted category.
Video Quality: Good.
Audio Quality: Good.
Segment 01: Story story story. Palom is such a brat, isn't he?
Segment 02: Follow the footsteps of the great sage called Ni! ...wait, what?
Segment 03: Cooler Mammoth is a tough fight. Handled as best as possible.
Segment 04: *yawn*
Segment 05: "Kain" joined the party, huh? Intersection here with the end of Palom's story.
Segment 06: Damn mages are worthless.
Overall, not much to say about this segment, other then good job handling Cooler Mammoth. He's a bitch.
Porom joins her brother in the accepted category.
Quote:
Yang's Story v2
Video Quality: It is just fine.
Audio Quality: Just fine it is.
Segment 01: Yang is a sexist father. Isn't he? Not much to say here, since it's just storyline banter.
Segment 02: Short, sweet, and no random battles.
Segment 03: Should have gone for the hi potion right after Mombom instead of using Chakra. About the same time and Yang would have more HP in the end.
Segment 04: Isn't it amazing how dead people talk? Yeah, you Ursula. Yang gets a Metal Knuckle, as he should.
Segment 05: Not much to say, but am surprised at the save spot choice. Whatever works though.
Segment 06: RUN YANG RUN!
Segment 07: Over the forest and round the mountains to Fabul Castle we go...
Segment 08: Total ripoff from FF IV. Though it was more fun having Cecil, Yang, and Edward involved...mainly for Edward. Fight Edward! No, I'm too beautiful to die! But you'll join Anna if you do. Oh wait, yes. KILL ME NOW! Poor Edward.
I must say though, I never realized that Monk C had Metal Knuckles! WHAT A FIND. WHAT A STRATEGY. Kain didn't have a chance! WOW.
Segment 09: Edward's Story intersects here for a moment.
Segment 10: Nice shortcut. Funny how it ends with exactly 1000 Gil.
Segment 11: Interesting strategy for adamantoise. Yang is a fucking walking battle tank.
Segment 12: The Half-Hour Adventure is over. Close escape, but an escape none the less.
v1 was very well thought out, but this takes that and throws in some interesting tricks! I have nothing to argue with here.
Yang punches his way into the acceptance list.
Video Quality: It is just fine.
Audio Quality: Just fine it is.
Segment 01: Yang is a sexist father. Isn't he? Not much to say here, since it's just storyline banter.
Segment 02: Short, sweet, and no random battles.
Segment 03: Should have gone for the hi potion right after Mombom instead of using Chakra. About the same time and Yang would have more HP in the end.
Segment 04: Isn't it amazing how dead people talk? Yeah, you Ursula. Yang gets a Metal Knuckle, as he should.
Segment 05: Not much to say, but am surprised at the save spot choice. Whatever works though.
Segment 06: RUN YANG RUN!
Segment 07: Over the forest and round the mountains to Fabul Castle we go...
Segment 08: Total ripoff from FF IV. Though it was more fun having Cecil, Yang, and Edward involved...mainly for Edward. Fight Edward! No, I'm too beautiful to die! But you'll join Anna if you do. Oh wait, yes. KILL ME NOW! Poor Edward.
I must say though, I never realized that Monk C had Metal Knuckles! WHAT A FIND. WHAT A STRATEGY. Kain didn't have a chance! WOW.
Segment 09: Edward's Story intersects here for a moment.
Segment 10: Nice shortcut. Funny how it ends with exactly 1000 Gil.
Segment 11: Interesting strategy for adamantoise. Yang is a fucking walking battle tank.
Segment 12: The Half-Hour Adventure is over. Close escape, but an escape none the less.
v1 was very well thought out, but this takes that and throws in some interesting tricks! I have nothing to argue with here.
Yang punches his way into the acceptance list.
Quote:
Much more impressive this time compared to the old Yang run. I definitely encourage the runner to attempt faster times for other stories considering what he did with reducing Rydia's and Yang's stories.
Unlike before, I give this Yang run an accept.
Unlike before, I give this Yang run an accept.
Quote:
At least five segments end with less than half a second of some kind of sound distortion, but it's not that bad.
Yang's Tale
I like this runner's trend in his recent efforts toward a larger number of segments, and an extreme amount of luck manipulation. He doesn't get in a single random battle before Mom Bomb.
That Mom Bomb fight is obviously very carefully done for just the right result, plus it takes place after great luck manipulation earlier in the segment (no random battles). The runner wants only Yang alive so he can recieve all the experience of this and later fights, since he'll be the damage giver versus the two later bosses. Good fight, I think.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Going out of the way to save at the end of segment 5 seems a bit excessive, but then again the runner got the rest of the way down the mountain without any random fights, so the runner sure didn't lose much time compared to one or two more random fights. I think the reason had to do with keeping Yang alive with an extreme minimum of Hi Potions. Aside from the Bacchu's Wine and Hermes Sandals in segment 1, the runner spends an extreme minimum of time collecting useable items in this run, and because of this Yang is in great need of healing by the time he makes it back to Fabul. He made it!
The invasion scene looked pretty flawless. I finally figured out how the runner obtained his second Metal Knuckles - he took it from Monk C during one of the invasion fights. It looked like the runner already knew exactly what Kain was going to do each round (and was ready to heal appropriately), which probably means the runner had made many attempts at segment 8. The idea of using Cover Counter seems pretty good, and it worked well against Kain, though I'm not sure if it was worth it against Mom Bomb (the counter only happened once, and it meant Mom attacked Yang, who was the only party member the runner wanted alive after the fight). Oh, and the Kain fight was fast!
The small number of random fights in segment 10 was pretty incredible. Like in the Kain fight, it appeared the runner knew just what the turtle was going to do. And it went very well. (I do not suspect any kind of cheating, just excellent manipulation.) Segment 12 once again has a very small number of random fights, and an apparent reckless disregard for life
All in all, this chapter run is incredible, extremely well manipulated and with perhaps no visible walking mistakes. I say accept.
Yang's Tale
I like this runner's trend in his recent efforts toward a larger number of segments, and an extreme amount of luck manipulation. He doesn't get in a single random battle before Mom Bomb.
That Mom Bomb fight is obviously very carefully done for just the right result, plus it takes place after great luck manipulation earlier in the segment (no random battles). The runner wants only Yang alive so he can recieve all the experience of this and later fights, since he'll be the damage giver versus the two later bosses. Good fight, I think.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Going out of the way to save at the end of segment 5 seems a bit excessive, but then again the runner got the rest of the way down the mountain without any random fights, so the runner sure didn't lose much time compared to one or two more random fights. I think the reason had to do with keeping Yang alive with an extreme minimum of Hi Potions. Aside from the Bacchu's Wine and Hermes Sandals in segment 1, the runner spends an extreme minimum of time collecting useable items in this run, and because of this Yang is in great need of healing by the time he makes it back to Fabul. He made it!
The invasion scene looked pretty flawless. I finally figured out how the runner obtained his second Metal Knuckles - he took it from Monk C during one of the invasion fights. It looked like the runner already knew exactly what Kain was going to do each round (and was ready to heal appropriately), which probably means the runner had made many attempts at segment 8. The idea of using Cover Counter seems pretty good, and it worked well against Kain, though I'm not sure if it was worth it against Mom Bomb (the counter only happened once, and it meant Mom attacked Yang, who was the only party member the runner wanted alive after the fight). Oh, and the Kain fight was fast!
The small number of random fights in segment 10 was pretty incredible. Like in the Kain fight, it appeared the runner knew just what the turtle was going to do. And it went very well. (I do not suspect any kind of cheating, just excellent manipulation.) Segment 12 once again has a very small number of random fights, and an apparent reckless disregard for life
All in all, this chapter run is incredible, extremely well manipulated and with perhaps no visible walking mistakes. I say accept.
Quote:
The Lunarian's Story v2
Video Quality: It looks like an After Years speed run.
Audit Quality: It sounds like an After Years speed run.
I was doing segment by segment comments, but given that pretty much every single section of the game has been thrown out at once, well...better just summarize this quickly so I can be done before Christmas...2010.
Mysterious Girl #1 strat: WTF?
Lair of the Father: Pushing our luck, aren't we?
Mysterious Girl #2 strat: WTF? Again!
Zeromus' Malice: p0wned.
If it looks like an After Years speed run, sounds like an After Years speed run...it probably is.
This story is destroyed. Good job to the runner.
Video Quality: It looks like an After Years speed run.
Audit Quality: It sounds like an After Years speed run.
I was doing segment by segment comments, but given that pretty much every single section of the game has been thrown out at once, well...better just summarize this quickly so I can be done before Christmas...2010.
Mysterious Girl #1 strat: WTF?
Lair of the Father: Pushing our luck, aren't we?
Mysterious Girl #2 strat: WTF? Again!
Zeromus' Malice: p0wned.
If it looks like an After Years speed run, sounds like an After Years speed run...it probably is.
This story is destroyed. Good job to the runner.
Quote:
Response to segmented runs through all Tales besides The Crystals
I have had the pleasure of watching this runner's individual-chapters segmented run evolve. He has now completed at least two runs of every part of Final Fantasy 4: The After Years except for The Crystals, which is the finale and the longest part of the game. I have something to look forward to ... this runner plans to submit runs of that too!
I voted to accept all his first submitted runs of each chapter. All of them except maybe Rydia's were impressive to me. But since then he has totally upped his level of luck manipulation into the stratosphere, in the process increasing his segment counts. I think the large numbers of segments are totally worth it -- he fully eliminates random encounters in many areas, and he flies through areas probably literally faster than would be possible in a run with fewer segments due to this game's quirky random number generator.
Along with the runner's willingness to luck-manipulate this game to death, I think his planning is quite good throughout, and now in his newest runs of each chapter his execution is often nearly flawless. His newest runs of every chapter all deserve a place on SDA
I thought setting the battle speed to maximum would work to the enemies' advantage and end up hurting the run, but I was wrong.
This is just my opinion, but ideally I think these should be timed to the second, as there would be a world of difference between a 28:05 and a 28:59.
Audio and video seem fine overall, assuming this verification copy isn't one of the highest-quality versions. In every video the screen "bobs" up and down by one pixel every frame, but I hear that's something nate can fix. Many segment videos end with a half-second sound distortion, but I think that has something to do with how SMPlayer plays AVIs. There's a little jump, probably a couple skipped frames, a few seconds into Main Story segment 5. I saw a momentary flash of the end of a failed attempt at the beginning of Main Story segment 17. The audio and video are desynced a bit in Rydia's Tale segments 5 and 6. The screen jumps up and down a bit in Palom's segments 5 through about 15. Edward's segment 12 video begins with a split second of a failed attempt.
I saw no signs of cheating.
Main Story 1:09 in 20 segments
I think he could have gotten away with one less heal against the Sand Worm had he fought a slightly tougher fight beforehand (rather than just Goblins). He could have been level 4 rather than 3. I'm not sure if that would have actually saved time.
As Cecil, it's pretty impressive that he got all the way to the Centaur Knight with enough HP so he didn't have to heal before the fight. Impressive luck against Strato Avis, I think, getting by with so few heals.
He gets by with very few purchased healing items. He could have sold Cecil's armor for big bucks, but I guess he didn't have to.
That's crazy! He got through Devil's Road with no random battles.
Segment 9 is stellar - have Ceodore die against Mist Cave's gateman for Hooded Man to gain extra experience, and the only random battle is two Liliths, good for exp. if you have the right attack item, which he got in Baron castle I think. In segment 10 his Tunneler strategy is solid. I don't know, his luck during the battle didn't look as tasty as it was against the octopus or evil Kain, but I'll believe the runner that this battle went far better than it usually would.
One random encounter on Mt. Ordeals? Again, that's crazy luck manipulation.
I saw a fumble while trying to save after segment 13, costing about 2 seconds, which is the biggest mistake I've seen so far. That being the biggest mistake says quite a bit.
I'm not exactly sure why he went out of the way for the Bone Wrist. It's not a big improvement as far as I know, and he replaced it with something else later. edit: His comments say the reason is to make the first Zombie Infantry fight less damaging (since Bone Wrist is strong against Undead attacks). I will accept this explanation, especially since the detour to grab it didn't result in any random encounters. Somehow though I think the fastest plan would be to skip the Bone Wrist and the item next to it, and rely on luck vs. the enemy.
By the time you reach Mist Cliff and the cavern, almost any random enemy can finish off your party at these levels, especially with half the party dead to begin with. But of course in these segments that fact isn't a big factor since the runner gets by with so few random encounters besides the ones he wants to farm for experience.
He had Kain's armor in his inventory, which he could have sold for another big chunk of money, but I guess not doing that is not a mistake, considering he got by fine on the money from the Sleep Blade. I can think of a possible alternate strategy - to instead sell both Cecil's and evil Kain's armor, then have the Sleep Blade to make running from enemies easier (use sleep blade as an item and target all to put enemy parties to sleep), but there are so few encounters he runs from later on (due to luck manipulation) that I think the runner's strategy is significantly faster (albeit scarier).
Nice, solid octopus thrashing. I don't understand why the runner had Cid attack vs. the Zombie Infantry. Nice, gutsy fight against evil Kain, and of course the long version of the credits to finish it off.
The large number of short segments is well worth it, considering how well the runner manipulated out random encounters, each of which can cost half a minute or cause death later in the segment. Without question, I say accept.
Rydia's Tale 0:36 in 12 segments
The runner should have moved Fira nearer to the top of Rydia's spell list right at the start.
He spends quite a while gathering supplies at the beginning, but without being prepared the Sealed Cave would be impossible at the party's beginning levels. Actually, the preparation at the beginning looks quite optimized. Saving before entering Tomra may be just a tad bit excessive, but I gladly forgive it, seeing how perfectly the runner gets around in segments 3 and 4.
No bats! And no healing in segment 7! Segments 5-7 were fiendishly optimized. (Bats take longer to defeat than Liliths and Blood Flowers, and give less experience.) Watching the cutscene then exiting Sealed Cave at the end of segment 4 was okay, considering how perfectly segment 5 was manipulated.
Segment 8: I can hardly believe my eyes. Not a single fight on the way to the Wall, the boss fight was superb (both normal Potions used were needed, and they were the only healing), then only one fight on the way back to the save spot. Random fights in this area can easily cost a minute or cause the party's demise (at these experience levels). I wonder how many hours it took to get that segment manipulated just right.
Wow, I was not expecting such dangerous-looking power-levelling for Rydia on the way out of the cave. I guess Rydia's spells are going to do the brunt of the damage to the two remaining bosses, and the party is still quite low-levelled, so this seems to be a good idea.
In Agart the runner bought some equipment to further enhance Rydia's magic damage, then changed the moon phase for the same purpose at the beginning of segment 11. Just one random fight before the turtle battle is excellent. I wonder if the turtle would have gone down with less Big Throws (having Luca do nothing some of the rounds).
The runner ran back into Agart for more shopping (Hi-Potions), but using this strategy the runner couldn't have bought those during the same visit as Rydia's equipment, since he had just enough money for the equipment before. Still, I wonder if he could have combined the two purchasing trips somehow (sell something, or somehow have a bit more money).
When a run is as perfectly manipulated as is much of this one, the thought has to come to mind that just maybe the game is being 'manipulated' by something from the Homebrew Channel. But I am not making an accusation I see no signs of cheating, just signs of hours of work getting the segments to go just right. When I verified this runner's first submitted run of Rydia's Tale, I was really on the fence. I ended up choosing to vote Accept, but I had serious thoughts of rejecting the run. This effort is so much better in so many ways. Here's my enthusiastic Accept vote.
Yang's Tale 0:30 in 12 segments
I like this runner's trend in his recent efforts toward a larger number of segments, and an extreme amount of luck manipulation. He doesn't get in a single random battle before Mom Bomb.
That Mom Bomb fight is obviously very carefully done for just the right result, plus it takes place after great luck manipulation earlier in the segment (no random battles). The runner wants only Yang alive so he can recieve all the experience of this and later fights, since he'll be the damage giver versus the two later bosses. Good fight, I think.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Going out of the way to save at the end of segment 5 seems a bit excessive, but then again the runner got the rest of the way down the mountain without any random fights, so the runner sure didn't lose much time compared to one or two more random fights. I think the reason had to do with keeping Yang alive with an extreme minimum of Hi Potions. Aside from the Bacchu's Wine and Hermes Sandals in segment 1, the runner spends an extreme minimum of time collecting useable items in this run, and because of this Yang is in great need of healing by the time he makes it back to Fabul. He made it!
The invasion scene looked pretty flawless. It looked like the runner already knew exactly what Kain was going to do each round (and was ready to heal appropriately), which probably means the runner had made many attempts at segment 8. The idea of using Cover Counter seems pretty good, and it worked well against Kain, though I'm not sure if it was worth it against Mom Bomb (the counter only happened once, and it meant Mom attacked Yang, who was the only party member the runner wanted alive after the fight). Oh, and the Kain fight was fast!
The small number of random fights in segment 10 was pretty incredible. Like in the Kain fight, it appeared the runner knew just what the turtle was going to do. And it went very well. (I do not suspect any kind of cheating, just excellent manipulation.) Segment 12 once again has a very small number of random fights, and an apparent reckless disregard for life
All in all, this chapter run is incredible, extremely well manipulated and with perhaps no visible walking mistakes. I say accept.
Palom's Tale 0:38 in 33 segments
In one sense it's silly for me to continue verifying these huge improvements this runner is submitting. After all, I was impressed by all his original submissions except Rydia's tale. But of course there are more things than just speed/planning quality that I am to watch for, like audiovisual problems or cheating or missing segments, so verifying the improvement videos is not silly at all.
I'm glad to see the runner move Palom's most-used spell to the top of his list right away. The time saved is extremely small potatoes, but it's still a good idea.
Woops, I jokingly made fun of the runner for entering Chocobo Village from the bottom-center rather than the bottom-right, but now in his comments I see that this was intentional to manipulate the chocobo into being easier to catch. Sorry
I like the decision to run from Flans. They're not worth their exp., even though this chapter requires grinding. The skeletons and especially the Bombs are worth more.
If I remember right there are not Bombs on the first floors of the tower, but I might be wrong. If there are, maybe manipulating one Bomb fight into each early segment would have been a good idea (easier said than done without adding more unwanted encounters though!). Oh, and walking has been done exquisitely thus far. I've seen, what, maybe half a second total in walking mistakes before the grinding segments.
This is the first time the runner has chosen to spend a large number of segments farming experience points in any chapter. This decision doesn't bother me. This way he can fight the tower's highest-exp. enemy over and over again. Manipulating to only need to take one step every segment is a nice feat. There might have been a way to get in two Bomb fights into some of these segments, I don't know, but that may not have saved time. Heh, it's funny how the manipulation works, where Leonora recieves two 17-point attacks every single fight for the longest time
Hmm, if Leonora's and Palom's positions on the battlefield were reversed, would all those Bombs have attacked Palom instead of Leonora? Maybe that would have meant less time spent healing, or maybe it wouldn't, I don't know.
I'm not sure about the decision to walk back to the previous save spot in segment 17. Would it have been better to walk forward and continue grinding on floor 6? (If there aren't Bombs on floor 6, then I think the answer is no.) I definitely like the decision to start toward the top again with Palom still at level 18.
Palom gains Warp at level 19 which makes leaving the tower faster, running from enemies the rest of the way through the chapter is faster at higher levels, and the chapter's final boss may be unbeatable at lower levels, so I agree that levelling Palom to 19 is good, and my guess is that the tower is the best place to do it. I bet it was a good choice to grab the Hermes Sandals on the top floor.
The rest of the chapter, there's not much to say. Good avoidance of random encounters through luck manipulation, and very good job getting around (just one notable walking mistake). It was probably a good choice to pick up equipment for Leonora in the tower, and to buy equipment to further buff Leonora's defense and healing power in Lodestone Cavern. I'd say the Dark Elf fight was good, though with manipulation maybe there could have been one or two less Curas early on.
This run continues with the extremely high quality standard this runner has set in his improvements to his chapter runs, which is a humongous compliment. Definitely an accept vote.
Edge's Tale 0:26 in 12 segments
Flood is the best move to use in that very first battle (which the runner used).
I think it was a good call to not pick up the throwable weapon in Gekkou's suicide mission (even though it would only take 4-5 seconds).
I can't see the suicide missions going much better at all. Segment 3 is a particular masterpiece. I would have totally accepted if Zangetsu had to walk to the save point in his dungeon then save, then fight a quick battle in the next segment, but instead the runner works two extremely optimized suicides into one segment, along with virtually flawless execution just getting around and all. Consider my jaw dropped.
The runner goes out of the way to save twice once he's playing as Edge, but considering how few random battles he managed to encounter, this is probably worth it.
The four fights that the runner did not run from are unrunnable. There's a trick that's been discovered where waiting to attack the first Belphegor saves time, but that was not discovered until after this run was made I think.
Hmm, there are a few extra steps taken in between the required fights ... those must be to manipulate either a better result in the required fights or less fights in between, or both. In any case those extra steps don't take a lot of time. Attacking a Blood Bat must have been for manipulation too, or to keep it from attacking? In any case, the entire trip was fast, so I am not complaining.
The runner kept up his usual manipulation and execution quality levels this chapter, taking them even a bit higher in that one segment with two perfect suicides. Hmm, if you wanted to start talking saved frames, maybe the runner could get by without taking quite every piece of equipment from all the subordinates, and/or not quite selling all of it, but that's getting silly. How could I not say Accept.
Porom's Tale 0:27 in 14 segments
Hmm, I don't think there's anything to manipulate in the first two segments besides NPCs getting in the way, so the runner probably should have combined the first two segments into one (thought I don't think saving takes very much time). If the runner can pull off segment 6 (more running around) flawlessly, then certainly he could manage these first two parts as one segment
As I've come to expect from him, the runner keeps the encounter rate very low, which isn't as easy as it may look. Good call, moving the most-used spells to the top of the lists.
Cooler Mammoth is not an easy fight at these levels! Maybe the fight would have gone faster had it not used Shell right at the start. But the fight was good.
In this chapter, Sealed Cave is harder to survive than Mt. Ordeals. But that doesn't matter, because the runner gets through with no random battles (and a save in the middle).
Again, there was nothing to manipulate that I know of in segments 9-10, so maybe the runner could have saved the time it takes to save once by combining them.
Mt. Ordeals was completed very nicely, with one random encounter I think. I think the runner could have taken one less step on the way to the chocobo forest?
My gosh the party was a mess by the time the two required fights with Kain were done, but the fighting strategy seemed rather perfect.
This chapter would be relatively easy to speedrun since characters with high experience levels keep joining the party. Aside from two saves that I think were unnecessary, the run looked nearly flawless. Accept.
Edward's Tale 0:25 in 17 segments
Heh heh, in a way it is humorous that the runner used so many segments to run such an easy chapter. But this was done to luck-manipulate out encounters, and it saves a lot of time.
Two Tents to reach Full Moon is necessary to do at some point because the Sand Ruby can only be obtained during Full Moon.
I think the runner could have entered the Crash Site one step to the south, saving one step. Obviously it's not a big thing.
You wouldn't know it from watching this video, but the Underground Waterway does have random enemies The runner completely avoids random encounters in all the Underground Waterway segments. I bet this could be done with a cheat code using the tools available for Wii, but I do not at all suspect the runner did this. He has proven in many chapters that he can manipulate out random battles. This part of the run is very impressive.
Like Porom's Tale, this is a relatively easy chapter to speedrun (this one even more so). Like in Porom's Tale, the runner used a couple unnecessary segments that make the run look a bit worse to me (in this case the two trips between Antlion's Nest and Underground Waterway could have easily been combined with the segments before them, since the map screen has no enemies in this chapter). But like in Porom's Tale, this speedrun is extremely optimized and extremely impressive. Like in Porom's Tale, I vote to accept.
Lunarians' Tale 0:34 in 14 segments
Right off the bat, nice timing of the Ebony Blade swiping right when it is not going to cost time since Cecil is taking a turn
I don't object to segment 2 being so short. That's a lot of stuff he gets done in such a short time! And I think everything he did was a good idea, to the best of my knowledge.
On Full Moon, those Bios vs. the required fights early on really pack a punch! Gathering items the first time through the Subterrane is smart as it will not result in any random encounters. I think that skipping Mythril Helm was a good call.
When talking to the eight crystals, saving the first crystal for last may have saved a bit of time, but not much.
Hoo boy, the runner took out all three Count Malboros in one visit and did it in a hurry. Leaving the party poisoned is the right call.
Both Mysterious Girl fights were very good, and clearly well planned. The trip down the Subterrane looked very good, with a few extra steps for luck manipulation for the Zeromus battle I assume. Very good Zeromus battle, and of course the long sequence of Golbez flying to Earth.
I strongly vote Accept once again.
[hr]
Response to single-segment run through Edge's Tale
The video has a black border around the top and left and right, but no border at the bottom. Also, often every few seconds the screen shifts up or down by a pixel, probably for the same reason that the other runner's videos shift up and down every frame (whatever that is). Audio is good, and I would say video is quite acceptable. I see no signs of cheating.
Gekkou's suicide had just exquisite luck. Izayoi's was quite nice too. Then poor Zangetsu had to walk all over the place before he found a monster willing to murder him. Tsukinowa is probably best beaten by the monsters in the treasure chest one chest to the north (those two Navy Moths usually spend a turn blinding him before they finish him off).
I don't think there was any need to take all the subordinate's weapons, considering the runner had more than enough Hi Potions (bought with the money obtained by selling equipment), but taking the weapons along with the armor doesn't really hurt anything.
The runner gets around pretty well, making only occasional small walking mistakes. He could have entered Chocobo Village one square farther right to save a tiny bit of time. Menu work is not as fast as it could be, but it is consistent and does not include notable mistakes.
The four battles the runner fought are unrunnable. Waiting until the Belphegors attack before doing anything is a good idea, as (as the runner discovered himself) damage from a hit landed right away would be negated by an invisible event. This time the runner might possibly have gotten by without any healing during the Belphegor fight, but then the RNG would have been at a different point in its cycle, and the Belphegor probably wouldn't have missed (ending the run). It was daring to not heal between the Belphegors and the Flamehounds! The robot fight and the ice dog fight went well.
It is unfortunate that the runner had to run from Ifrit an extra time due to a small mistake getting around.
Some areas like Eblan Cave had a lot of random encounters, but overall I'd say the runner had good luck this run. I think his plan was the best plan known for running this chapter.
I enthusiastically vote Accept. I am sure that more time could be saved with tremendous luck and maybe improvements, but this run is well done, and exciting. I would guess that 27:xx is feasible (not easy though!) but this video deserves to be on SDA.
I have had the pleasure of watching this runner's individual-chapters segmented run evolve. He has now completed at least two runs of every part of Final Fantasy 4: The After Years except for The Crystals, which is the finale and the longest part of the game. I have something to look forward to ... this runner plans to submit runs of that too!
I voted to accept all his first submitted runs of each chapter. All of them except maybe Rydia's were impressive to me. But since then he has totally upped his level of luck manipulation into the stratosphere, in the process increasing his segment counts. I think the large numbers of segments are totally worth it -- he fully eliminates random encounters in many areas, and he flies through areas probably literally faster than would be possible in a run with fewer segments due to this game's quirky random number generator.
Along with the runner's willingness to luck-manipulate this game to death, I think his planning is quite good throughout, and now in his newest runs of each chapter his execution is often nearly flawless. His newest runs of every chapter all deserve a place on SDA
I thought setting the battle speed to maximum would work to the enemies' advantage and end up hurting the run, but I was wrong.
This is just my opinion, but ideally I think these should be timed to the second, as there would be a world of difference between a 28:05 and a 28:59.
Audio and video seem fine overall, assuming this verification copy isn't one of the highest-quality versions. In every video the screen "bobs" up and down by one pixel every frame, but I hear that's something nate can fix. Many segment videos end with a half-second sound distortion, but I think that has something to do with how SMPlayer plays AVIs. There's a little jump, probably a couple skipped frames, a few seconds into Main Story segment 5. I saw a momentary flash of the end of a failed attempt at the beginning of Main Story segment 17. The audio and video are desynced a bit in Rydia's Tale segments 5 and 6. The screen jumps up and down a bit in Palom's segments 5 through about 15. Edward's segment 12 video begins with a split second of a failed attempt.
I saw no signs of cheating.
Main Story 1:09 in 20 segments
I think he could have gotten away with one less heal against the Sand Worm had he fought a slightly tougher fight beforehand (rather than just Goblins). He could have been level 4 rather than 3. I'm not sure if that would have actually saved time.
As Cecil, it's pretty impressive that he got all the way to the Centaur Knight with enough HP so he didn't have to heal before the fight. Impressive luck against Strato Avis, I think, getting by with so few heals.
He gets by with very few purchased healing items. He could have sold Cecil's armor for big bucks, but I guess he didn't have to.
That's crazy! He got through Devil's Road with no random battles.
Segment 9 is stellar - have Ceodore die against Mist Cave's gateman for Hooded Man to gain extra experience, and the only random battle is two Liliths, good for exp. if you have the right attack item, which he got in Baron castle I think. In segment 10 his Tunneler strategy is solid. I don't know, his luck during the battle didn't look as tasty as it was against the octopus or evil Kain, but I'll believe the runner that this battle went far better than it usually would.
One random encounter on Mt. Ordeals? Again, that's crazy luck manipulation.
I saw a fumble while trying to save after segment 13, costing about 2 seconds, which is the biggest mistake I've seen so far. That being the biggest mistake says quite a bit.
I'm not exactly sure why he went out of the way for the Bone Wrist. It's not a big improvement as far as I know, and he replaced it with something else later. edit: His comments say the reason is to make the first Zombie Infantry fight less damaging (since Bone Wrist is strong against Undead attacks). I will accept this explanation, especially since the detour to grab it didn't result in any random encounters. Somehow though I think the fastest plan would be to skip the Bone Wrist and the item next to it, and rely on luck vs. the enemy.
By the time you reach Mist Cliff and the cavern, almost any random enemy can finish off your party at these levels, especially with half the party dead to begin with. But of course in these segments that fact isn't a big factor since the runner gets by with so few random encounters besides the ones he wants to farm for experience.
He had Kain's armor in his inventory, which he could have sold for another big chunk of money, but I guess not doing that is not a mistake, considering he got by fine on the money from the Sleep Blade. I can think of a possible alternate strategy - to instead sell both Cecil's and evil Kain's armor, then have the Sleep Blade to make running from enemies easier (use sleep blade as an item and target all to put enemy parties to sleep), but there are so few encounters he runs from later on (due to luck manipulation) that I think the runner's strategy is significantly faster (albeit scarier).
Nice, solid octopus thrashing. I don't understand why the runner had Cid attack vs. the Zombie Infantry. Nice, gutsy fight against evil Kain, and of course the long version of the credits to finish it off.
The large number of short segments is well worth it, considering how well the runner manipulated out random encounters, each of which can cost half a minute or cause death later in the segment. Without question, I say accept.
Rydia's Tale 0:36 in 12 segments
The runner should have moved Fira nearer to the top of Rydia's spell list right at the start.
He spends quite a while gathering supplies at the beginning, but without being prepared the Sealed Cave would be impossible at the party's beginning levels. Actually, the preparation at the beginning looks quite optimized. Saving before entering Tomra may be just a tad bit excessive, but I gladly forgive it, seeing how perfectly the runner gets around in segments 3 and 4.
No bats! And no healing in segment 7! Segments 5-7 were fiendishly optimized. (Bats take longer to defeat than Liliths and Blood Flowers, and give less experience.) Watching the cutscene then exiting Sealed Cave at the end of segment 4 was okay, considering how perfectly segment 5 was manipulated.
Segment 8: I can hardly believe my eyes. Not a single fight on the way to the Wall, the boss fight was superb (both normal Potions used were needed, and they were the only healing), then only one fight on the way back to the save spot. Random fights in this area can easily cost a minute or cause the party's demise (at these experience levels). I wonder how many hours it took to get that segment manipulated just right.
Wow, I was not expecting such dangerous-looking power-levelling for Rydia on the way out of the cave. I guess Rydia's spells are going to do the brunt of the damage to the two remaining bosses, and the party is still quite low-levelled, so this seems to be a good idea.
In Agart the runner bought some equipment to further enhance Rydia's magic damage, then changed the moon phase for the same purpose at the beginning of segment 11. Just one random fight before the turtle battle is excellent. I wonder if the turtle would have gone down with less Big Throws (having Luca do nothing some of the rounds).
The runner ran back into Agart for more shopping (Hi-Potions), but using this strategy the runner couldn't have bought those during the same visit as Rydia's equipment, since he had just enough money for the equipment before. Still, I wonder if he could have combined the two purchasing trips somehow (sell something, or somehow have a bit more money).
When a run is as perfectly manipulated as is much of this one, the thought has to come to mind that just maybe the game is being 'manipulated' by something from the Homebrew Channel. But I am not making an accusation I see no signs of cheating, just signs of hours of work getting the segments to go just right. When I verified this runner's first submitted run of Rydia's Tale, I was really on the fence. I ended up choosing to vote Accept, but I had serious thoughts of rejecting the run. This effort is so much better in so many ways. Here's my enthusiastic Accept vote.
Yang's Tale 0:30 in 12 segments
I like this runner's trend in his recent efforts toward a larger number of segments, and an extreme amount of luck manipulation. He doesn't get in a single random battle before Mom Bomb.
That Mom Bomb fight is obviously very carefully done for just the right result, plus it takes place after great luck manipulation earlier in the segment (no random battles). The runner wants only Yang alive so he can recieve all the experience of this and later fights, since he'll be the damage giver versus the two later bosses. Good fight, I think.
Are the power-enhancing armor items really that far out of the way? Some of those have just as big an effect on attack and multiplier as the Metal Knuckles, and/or Fairy Claws are a +3 to Speed which I'd think would come in handy. But both runners of this chapter have come to the conclusion that these items are not worth getting, so I'll just go ahead and guess that they're probably right.
Going out of the way to save at the end of segment 5 seems a bit excessive, but then again the runner got the rest of the way down the mountain without any random fights, so the runner sure didn't lose much time compared to one or two more random fights. I think the reason had to do with keeping Yang alive with an extreme minimum of Hi Potions. Aside from the Bacchu's Wine and Hermes Sandals in segment 1, the runner spends an extreme minimum of time collecting useable items in this run, and because of this Yang is in great need of healing by the time he makes it back to Fabul. He made it!
The invasion scene looked pretty flawless. It looked like the runner already knew exactly what Kain was going to do each round (and was ready to heal appropriately), which probably means the runner had made many attempts at segment 8. The idea of using Cover Counter seems pretty good, and it worked well against Kain, though I'm not sure if it was worth it against Mom Bomb (the counter only happened once, and it meant Mom attacked Yang, who was the only party member the runner wanted alive after the fight). Oh, and the Kain fight was fast!
The small number of random fights in segment 10 was pretty incredible. Like in the Kain fight, it appeared the runner knew just what the turtle was going to do. And it went very well. (I do not suspect any kind of cheating, just excellent manipulation.) Segment 12 once again has a very small number of random fights, and an apparent reckless disregard for life
All in all, this chapter run is incredible, extremely well manipulated and with perhaps no visible walking mistakes. I say accept.
Palom's Tale 0:38 in 33 segments
In one sense it's silly for me to continue verifying these huge improvements this runner is submitting. After all, I was impressed by all his original submissions except Rydia's tale. But of course there are more things than just speed/planning quality that I am to watch for, like audiovisual problems or cheating or missing segments, so verifying the improvement videos is not silly at all.
I'm glad to see the runner move Palom's most-used spell to the top of his list right away. The time saved is extremely small potatoes, but it's still a good idea.
Woops, I jokingly made fun of the runner for entering Chocobo Village from the bottom-center rather than the bottom-right, but now in his comments I see that this was intentional to manipulate the chocobo into being easier to catch. Sorry
I like the decision to run from Flans. They're not worth their exp., even though this chapter requires grinding. The skeletons and especially the Bombs are worth more.
If I remember right there are not Bombs on the first floors of the tower, but I might be wrong. If there are, maybe manipulating one Bomb fight into each early segment would have been a good idea (easier said than done without adding more unwanted encounters though!). Oh, and walking has been done exquisitely thus far. I've seen, what, maybe half a second total in walking mistakes before the grinding segments.
This is the first time the runner has chosen to spend a large number of segments farming experience points in any chapter. This decision doesn't bother me. This way he can fight the tower's highest-exp. enemy over and over again. Manipulating to only need to take one step every segment is a nice feat. There might have been a way to get in two Bomb fights into some of these segments, I don't know, but that may not have saved time. Heh, it's funny how the manipulation works, where Leonora recieves two 17-point attacks every single fight for the longest time
Hmm, if Leonora's and Palom's positions on the battlefield were reversed, would all those Bombs have attacked Palom instead of Leonora? Maybe that would have meant less time spent healing, or maybe it wouldn't, I don't know.
I'm not sure about the decision to walk back to the previous save spot in segment 17. Would it have been better to walk forward and continue grinding on floor 6? (If there aren't Bombs on floor 6, then I think the answer is no.) I definitely like the decision to start toward the top again with Palom still at level 18.
Palom gains Warp at level 19 which makes leaving the tower faster, running from enemies the rest of the way through the chapter is faster at higher levels, and the chapter's final boss may be unbeatable at lower levels, so I agree that levelling Palom to 19 is good, and my guess is that the tower is the best place to do it. I bet it was a good choice to grab the Hermes Sandals on the top floor.
The rest of the chapter, there's not much to say. Good avoidance of random encounters through luck manipulation, and very good job getting around (just one notable walking mistake). It was probably a good choice to pick up equipment for Leonora in the tower, and to buy equipment to further buff Leonora's defense and healing power in Lodestone Cavern. I'd say the Dark Elf fight was good, though with manipulation maybe there could have been one or two less Curas early on.
This run continues with the extremely high quality standard this runner has set in his improvements to his chapter runs, which is a humongous compliment. Definitely an accept vote.
Edge's Tale 0:26 in 12 segments
Flood is the best move to use in that very first battle (which the runner used).
I think it was a good call to not pick up the throwable weapon in Gekkou's suicide mission (even though it would only take 4-5 seconds).
I can't see the suicide missions going much better at all. Segment 3 is a particular masterpiece. I would have totally accepted if Zangetsu had to walk to the save point in his dungeon then save, then fight a quick battle in the next segment, but instead the runner works two extremely optimized suicides into one segment, along with virtually flawless execution just getting around and all. Consider my jaw dropped.
The runner goes out of the way to save twice once he's playing as Edge, but considering how few random battles he managed to encounter, this is probably worth it.
The four fights that the runner did not run from are unrunnable. There's a trick that's been discovered where waiting to attack the first Belphegor saves time, but that was not discovered until after this run was made I think.
Hmm, there are a few extra steps taken in between the required fights ... those must be to manipulate either a better result in the required fights or less fights in between, or both. In any case those extra steps don't take a lot of time. Attacking a Blood Bat must have been for manipulation too, or to keep it from attacking? In any case, the entire trip was fast, so I am not complaining.
The runner kept up his usual manipulation and execution quality levels this chapter, taking them even a bit higher in that one segment with two perfect suicides. Hmm, if you wanted to start talking saved frames, maybe the runner could get by without taking quite every piece of equipment from all the subordinates, and/or not quite selling all of it, but that's getting silly. How could I not say Accept.
Porom's Tale 0:27 in 14 segments
Hmm, I don't think there's anything to manipulate in the first two segments besides NPCs getting in the way, so the runner probably should have combined the first two segments into one (thought I don't think saving takes very much time). If the runner can pull off segment 6 (more running around) flawlessly, then certainly he could manage these first two parts as one segment
As I've come to expect from him, the runner keeps the encounter rate very low, which isn't as easy as it may look. Good call, moving the most-used spells to the top of the lists.
Cooler Mammoth is not an easy fight at these levels! Maybe the fight would have gone faster had it not used Shell right at the start. But the fight was good.
In this chapter, Sealed Cave is harder to survive than Mt. Ordeals. But that doesn't matter, because the runner gets through with no random battles (and a save in the middle).
Again, there was nothing to manipulate that I know of in segments 9-10, so maybe the runner could have saved the time it takes to save once by combining them.
Mt. Ordeals was completed very nicely, with one random encounter I think. I think the runner could have taken one less step on the way to the chocobo forest?
My gosh the party was a mess by the time the two required fights with Kain were done, but the fighting strategy seemed rather perfect.
This chapter would be relatively easy to speedrun since characters with high experience levels keep joining the party. Aside from two saves that I think were unnecessary, the run looked nearly flawless. Accept.
Edward's Tale 0:25 in 17 segments
Heh heh, in a way it is humorous that the runner used so many segments to run such an easy chapter. But this was done to luck-manipulate out encounters, and it saves a lot of time.
Two Tents to reach Full Moon is necessary to do at some point because the Sand Ruby can only be obtained during Full Moon.
I think the runner could have entered the Crash Site one step to the south, saving one step. Obviously it's not a big thing.
You wouldn't know it from watching this video, but the Underground Waterway does have random enemies The runner completely avoids random encounters in all the Underground Waterway segments. I bet this could be done with a cheat code using the tools available for Wii, but I do not at all suspect the runner did this. He has proven in many chapters that he can manipulate out random battles. This part of the run is very impressive.
Like Porom's Tale, this is a relatively easy chapter to speedrun (this one even more so). Like in Porom's Tale, the runner used a couple unnecessary segments that make the run look a bit worse to me (in this case the two trips between Antlion's Nest and Underground Waterway could have easily been combined with the segments before them, since the map screen has no enemies in this chapter). But like in Porom's Tale, this speedrun is extremely optimized and extremely impressive. Like in Porom's Tale, I vote to accept.
Lunarians' Tale 0:34 in 14 segments
Right off the bat, nice timing of the Ebony Blade swiping right when it is not going to cost time since Cecil is taking a turn
I don't object to segment 2 being so short. That's a lot of stuff he gets done in such a short time! And I think everything he did was a good idea, to the best of my knowledge.
On Full Moon, those Bios vs. the required fights early on really pack a punch! Gathering items the first time through the Subterrane is smart as it will not result in any random encounters. I think that skipping Mythril Helm was a good call.
When talking to the eight crystals, saving the first crystal for last may have saved a bit of time, but not much.
Hoo boy, the runner took out all three Count Malboros in one visit and did it in a hurry. Leaving the party poisoned is the right call.
Both Mysterious Girl fights were very good, and clearly well planned. The trip down the Subterrane looked very good, with a few extra steps for luck manipulation for the Zeromus battle I assume. Very good Zeromus battle, and of course the long sequence of Golbez flying to Earth.
I strongly vote Accept once again.
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Response to single-segment run through Edge's Tale
The video has a black border around the top and left and right, but no border at the bottom. Also, often every few seconds the screen shifts up or down by a pixel, probably for the same reason that the other runner's videos shift up and down every frame (whatever that is). Audio is good, and I would say video is quite acceptable. I see no signs of cheating.
Gekkou's suicide had just exquisite luck. Izayoi's was quite nice too. Then poor Zangetsu had to walk all over the place before he found a monster willing to murder him. Tsukinowa is probably best beaten by the monsters in the treasure chest one chest to the north (those two Navy Moths usually spend a turn blinding him before they finish him off).
I don't think there was any need to take all the subordinate's weapons, considering the runner had more than enough Hi Potions (bought with the money obtained by selling equipment), but taking the weapons along with the armor doesn't really hurt anything.
The runner gets around pretty well, making only occasional small walking mistakes. He could have entered Chocobo Village one square farther right to save a tiny bit of time. Menu work is not as fast as it could be, but it is consistent and does not include notable mistakes.
The four battles the runner fought are unrunnable. Waiting until the Belphegors attack before doing anything is a good idea, as (as the runner discovered himself) damage from a hit landed right away would be negated by an invisible event. This time the runner might possibly have gotten by without any healing during the Belphegor fight, but then the RNG would have been at a different point in its cycle, and the Belphegor probably wouldn't have missed (ending the run). It was daring to not heal between the Belphegors and the Flamehounds! The robot fight and the ice dog fight went well.
It is unfortunate that the runner had to run from Ifrit an extra time due to a small mistake getting around.
Some areas like Eblan Cave had a lot of random encounters, but overall I'd say the runner had good luck this run. I think his plan was the best plan known for running this chapter.
I enthusiastically vote Accept. I am sure that more time could be saved with tremendous luck and maybe improvements, but this run is well done, and exciting. I would guess that 27:xx is feasible (not easy though!) but this video deserves to be on SDA.
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Edward's Story v2
Video Quality: It looks like an After Years speed run.
Audit Quality: It sounds like an After Years speed run.
I was doing segment by segment comments, but given that pretty much every single section of the game has been thrown out at once, well...better just summarize this quickly so I can be done before Christmas...2010.
There's a glip of a failed attempt at the beginning of Seg 12 that should be cleaned up. Nothing major though.
If it looks like an After Years speed run, sounds like an After Years speed run...it probably is.
This story is destroyed. Good job to the runner.
Video Quality: It looks like an After Years speed run.
Audit Quality: It sounds like an After Years speed run.
I was doing segment by segment comments, but given that pretty much every single section of the game has been thrown out at once, well...better just summarize this quickly so I can be done before Christmas...2010.
There's a glip of a failed attempt at the beginning of Seg 12 that should be cleaned up. Nothing major though.
If it looks like an After Years speed run, sounds like an After Years speed run...it probably is.
This story is destroyed. Good job to the runner.
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