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Final Fantasy XII (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to William 'Youkai' Welch!
Final Fantasy XII (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Audio/Video both seem good. There were some sound issues in the commentary (a lot of mispronunciation, too :P), but nothing too terrible.
Everything here is legit, no cheating.
By my estimate, the timer should be at 6:35:19-20 when The Undying goes down.
Now for some more specific comments:
I'm sure there are improvements to the route, but I can really only think of cutting down the number of segments. Most notably the Basch HP manipulation segment and the two liscense grid segments. That said, only the second-to-last segment is really bad, but in a 6+ hour run, with two nightmarish segments bookending it, I can understand why he did it.
Regarding saves: while save do contain more information later in the game, the amount of free space on a memory card actually is important. I filled up one of my memory cards, and after I cleared it out, the saves were more than twice as fast. Fortunately, the saves for this run took far less space, so the effect is mitigated greatly, but copying saves from old segments to another memory card would have saved time.
I also feel obligated to point out that in some points the running could have been slightly more optimized, usually at switchback-style stairs and ramps. Probably lost no more than 20 seconds though, and no doubt Youkai was paying attention to enemy locations, traps and other such things.
Some of the times gambits were turned on or off were unnecessary as well, what with fleeing cancelling the spells, but this was a fairly rare occurrence. In most cases it was justified.
But enough with the negativity... I didn't notice any other mistakes that Youkai didn't point out himself, and there really weren't that many of them to begin with.
I especially have to give props for the boss strats from Mandys on. It was obvious that Youkai made a serious effort to squeeze every second out of them.
Despite its flaws, the audio commentary was well worth it. As long as this run is, though, not every moment could be relevant and/or entertaining talk. Even if things aren't explained right away, they are explained eventually, and explained well. It answered pretty much all of my questions as a verifier (mostly of the "did you try this" variety), and it does a good job of explaining the myriad complexites of speedrunning this game to those who don't know the game that well. There were a few instances where the commentators had their facts wrong, or couldn't remember something, but in each case the correct information would not have sped up the run (example: Bowline Sashes, which prevent confusion, are first available in Old Archades, at which point they're useless to the run).
This run is not without its flaws, but in my opinion they are easily outweighed by all the good things. Accept.
Everything here is legit, no cheating.
By my estimate, the timer should be at 6:35:19-20 when The Undying goes down.
Now for some more specific comments:
I'm sure there are improvements to the route, but I can really only think of cutting down the number of segments. Most notably the Basch HP manipulation segment and the two liscense grid segments. That said, only the second-to-last segment is really bad, but in a 6+ hour run, with two nightmarish segments bookending it, I can understand why he did it.
Regarding saves: while save do contain more information later in the game, the amount of free space on a memory card actually is important. I filled up one of my memory cards, and after I cleared it out, the saves were more than twice as fast. Fortunately, the saves for this run took far less space, so the effect is mitigated greatly, but copying saves from old segments to another memory card would have saved time.
I also feel obligated to point out that in some points the running could have been slightly more optimized, usually at switchback-style stairs and ramps. Probably lost no more than 20 seconds though, and no doubt Youkai was paying attention to enemy locations, traps and other such things.
Some of the times gambits were turned on or off were unnecessary as well, what with fleeing cancelling the spells, but this was a fairly rare occurrence. In most cases it was justified.
But enough with the negativity... I didn't notice any other mistakes that Youkai didn't point out himself, and there really weren't that many of them to begin with.
I especially have to give props for the boss strats from Mandys on. It was obvious that Youkai made a serious effort to squeeze every second out of them.
Despite its flaws, the audio commentary was well worth it. As long as this run is, though, not every moment could be relevant and/or entertaining talk. Even if things aren't explained right away, they are explained eventually, and explained well. It answered pretty much all of my questions as a verifier (mostly of the "did you try this" variety), and it does a good job of explaining the myriad complexites of speedrunning this game to those who don't know the game that well. There were a few instances where the commentators had their facts wrong, or couldn't remember something, but in each case the correct information would not have sped up the run (example: Bowline Sashes, which prevent confusion, are first available in Old Archades, at which point they're useless to the run).
This run is not without its flaws, but in my opinion they are easily outweighed by all the good things. Accept.
Quote:
A/V are good, although, I could hear the sounds getting progressively more desynched (plays slightly too early) throughout each segment, this is always only very slight though and I could only notice it in the menus.
There's no cheating.
The Undying goes down at about 6:35:19.
Having dug into FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIII-2 running myself I'm well aware of the pains of attempting runs with such a variable amount of RNG. It can be discouraging knowing you will always be able to get a better, cleaner, segment but I'm pleased to say Youkai has set an exceedingly high standard of play in this run. With this said; the run is improvable by further RNG manipulation, but not by much. Youkai also consistently made good decisions to compensate for any mistakes that could have ruined segments, such as Ashe dying against Ahriman, Ashe dying at the end of segment 35, Ashe not using Dark Mote early into the soldier fight in segment 4 or something else that Ashe borked.
As for Youkai's execution, there were often hiccups in menu navigation such as entering the wrong menus, shaky gambit selection or sluggish combat menus, but I feel like this was most often the case in the tail end of the most difficult segments or ones that Youkai didn't have to attempt many times so it's somewhat understandable and usually unnoticeable. On the flip side ALL the boss fights were intensely impressive, they were all executed amazingly well with many interesting strategies, and as I said before, a high amount of successful luck manipulation included.
Thanks to Youkai for an admirable run, I hope should I ever get around to submitting an FFXIII/XIII-2 run people are as understanding as they have been with this one considering how unrealistic it is to get perfect.
Accept.
There's no cheating.
The Undying goes down at about 6:35:19.
Having dug into FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIII-2 running myself I'm well aware of the pains of attempting runs with such a variable amount of RNG. It can be discouraging knowing you will always be able to get a better, cleaner, segment but I'm pleased to say Youkai has set an exceedingly high standard of play in this run. With this said; the run is improvable by further RNG manipulation, but not by much. Youkai also consistently made good decisions to compensate for any mistakes that could have ruined segments, such as Ashe dying against Ahriman, Ashe dying at the end of segment 35, Ashe not using Dark Mote early into the soldier fight in segment 4 or something else that Ashe borked.
As for Youkai's execution, there were often hiccups in menu navigation such as entering the wrong menus, shaky gambit selection or sluggish combat menus, but I feel like this was most often the case in the tail end of the most difficult segments or ones that Youkai didn't have to attempt many times so it's somewhat understandable and usually unnoticeable. On the flip side ALL the boss fights were intensely impressive, they were all executed amazingly well with many interesting strategies, and as I said before, a high amount of successful luck manipulation included.
Thanks to Youkai for an admirable run, I hope should I ever get around to submitting an FFXIII/XIII-2 run people are as understanding as they have been with this one considering how unrealistic it is to get perfect.
Accept.
Quote:
No problems with the A/V, although like another verifier mentioned, it's jarring to hear things pronounced differently to how I would say them in the audio commentary 
no biggie there obviously.
No cheating detected in any way.
This is easily the best run of a 'conga line with monsters' simulation that I've ever seen. Menuing could be better but it's certainly nothing to actually complain about. Some of the boss fights are just frankly ridiculously impressive, cleverly thought out and well executed. It really says something when the first two boss fights are pretty much the longest in the game... Particular props to most of the esper fights, it's incredible to see them beat before even getting their finishers off once when in a casual run that would happen many many times. Mateus was also particularly clever in abusing the targeting system by switching party members in after the battle had started.
I think this run could be improved with fewer segments (although I wouldn't want to be the one to try that) but in general it's an excellent run and a great addition to the site. I agree with the timing of 6:35:19
Accept
No cheating detected in any way.
This is easily the best run of a 'conga line with monsters' simulation that I've ever seen. Menuing could be better but it's certainly nothing to actually complain about. Some of the boss fights are just frankly ridiculously impressive, cleverly thought out and well executed. It really says something when the first two boss fights are pretty much the longest in the game... Particular props to most of the esper fights, it's incredible to see them beat before even getting their finishers off once when in a casual run that would happen many many times. Mateus was also particularly clever in abusing the targeting system by switching party members in after the battle had started.
I think this run could be improved with fewer segments (although I wouldn't want to be the one to try that) but in general it's an excellent run and a great addition to the site. I agree with the timing of 6:35:19
Accept
Quote:
Sorry for the delay in comments guys.
A/V fine, no complaints here. Pretty much everything has been said already that I was going to point out. Loved the abuse of targeting system and boss fights in general. Some very minor flaws available but as has been mentioned before they aren't ones I'd want to have to go and improved and they are generally outweighed massively by all of the impressive gameplay. If I had to be picky I'd say the biggest improvement for me would be the menuwork but I'm not sure it's even the biggest time cost (just the most noticeable) and certainly not somehing that would stop me from Accepting the run.
Accept
A/V fine, no complaints here. Pretty much everything has been said already that I was going to point out. Loved the abuse of targeting system and boss fights in general. Some very minor flaws available but as has been mentioned before they aren't ones I'd want to have to go and improved and they are generally outweighed massively by all of the impressive gameplay. If I had to be picky I'd say the biggest improvement for me would be the menuwork but I'm not sure it's even the biggest time cost (just the most noticeable) and certainly not somehing that would stop me from Accepting the run.
Accept
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to William 'Youkai' Welch!
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