Rim Elm: - Faster to go to Vahn's House before Tetsu. - May just want to use a single punch on T1 of the Tetsu training (saves a second) - Same with T4; no need to throw the gratuitious kick in after the Somersault. Rim Elm (Mist) - It's probably fastest to run from the first Gimard fight; you'll make up the time if you fight them after getting Meta (+10 ATK) - - I've had good luck with escaping that fight in my Segment 1 practice attempts. - - After Meta, fastest kill of Gimard is > > > (repeat over three turns). This is consistent, but takes 4 turns rarely. Faster than your 5 turn kills. - I prefer the route where you talk to Village Elder to trigger the villagers gathering at the Tree. (Mei, Val, or Village Elder will trigger this.) - - This lets you quickly get the Magic Leaf at his house with minimal delay. - - I generally buy the Warrior Boots for Vahn in Rim Elm. (+7 ATK / 6 LDF / 3 SPD). Speed boost helps escape odds slightly. Drake Castle (Mist) - Running from the 2x Gimard fight and fighting the Skeleton + Ghost would have been easier and gained more EXP (kill Ghost first to avoid Windhash). - Skeletons are fastest, then Ghosts, then Gimards. Kill them in this order to minimize expected number of enemy attack animations. - Gimards have 99 HP. It may be possible to kill them with Tornado Flame, so you need fewer heals. Worth trying out, especially with the Boots in Rim Elm. Snowdrift Cave - It's easier to talk to Terra for a free heal than to use the Shroom after the second Piura fight. (I'd save or sell the Shroom; money is pretty tight.) - Red / Black / Red is the minimum to get to L2 and leave the Training Grounds. Faster to build EXP on Rikuroa, since you get more than triple per fight. Rikuroa (Noa's side) - Swan Driver may have been enough to take out that Worm post-Golem. Rikuroa (Vahn's side) Caruban Fight: - Man, do I love the boss battle music in this game. All of them. - With the Magic Leaf in Rim Elm, you could have used Gimard 3x and a Noa Tempest Break for a T3 kill of Caruban before the counter. - - This would have let Vahn survive and gain EXP. Was the Tornado Flame necessary there? Maybe use Gimard on T2 to judge the damage dispersion? Drake Castle - You missed a Magic Leaf and Fury Boost hidden on the third and second floors, respectively. - - See: http://www.legendoflegaia.net/legend_of_legaia/towns/drake_castle/drake_castle_items.html - - These don't matter much, but it's 1500 G when sold, and that would save time down the line (better armor / equipment / Defender Chains) - 0/3 the quiz gets a Wisdom Water (sell for 1000 G) - I'd buy 3 Defender Chains here; they'll give you breathing room throughout the rest of the game). Biron Monastery: - Having Noa talk to Maya in the bedroom is unnecessary. You only need to talk to Zopu to trigger the party. West Voz: - The more damaged your party is, the easier it is to escape random battles, but it's more dangerous. There's a risk/reward tradeoff to consider. - Is there a reason why you switch to walking at times? Biron (Mist) - There's a Guardian Water in the Women's Bedroom, in the urn on the right side of the room. Very much worth it. - Even if it's a bit slower here, it may be better to get Gala some EXP while absorbing Theeder so he can handle the Songi 1 fight better. - Does Noa even need Theeder? Seems like Gizam would be better for her. East Voz: - See above regarding Gizam. - Maybe it would have been better if Gala used the Healing Bloom on T1 in the Viguro fight and Noa also tried for a confuse? - As awful luck as you had in the Viguro fight, congrats on surviving it! Game decided to really mess you over, no? - - I'd put the Ra-Seru Egg on Gala and have him spam Healing Blooms, at least until you can get a confuse/kill on one of the Viguros. Defender Chains would help here. - You missed the Earth Jewel hidden between the two trees "above" the Genesis Tree. Helpful for the Berserker fight. Biron (Post-Mist) - Talk to Maya for 10x Healing Leaf. - I'd really have gotten Deep Sea Jewels for the Zeto fight; you can play much more aggressively, though I still would have gotten armor for Gala for Songi 1. Zeto's Dungeon - You know, scratch the first comment in the Caruban fight. All this music is awesome. - Go, Theeder, use Phallic Laser! (Come on, we all know it's true.) - Thunder Punch probably would have worked (he had about 80 HP left out of 888), but Point Card was the safer choice. - Songi 1 is Dark, so the Burning Jewel does nothing except waste 3 seconds to equip/unequip. - Did you know Noa wears her Ra-Seru on her left hand, while Vahn and Gala wear theirs on their right? Fun fact. - Tornado Flame into Power Punch does a little more damage. - Not getting the Deep Sea Jewels here is really biting you, my segmented run had a much cleaner/faster kill on the first try despite being lower leveled. Half damage from all attacks is a big thing. - - The Defender Chain also helps. You have enough money from selling Elixirs / Waters to get two Chains and 2 more Jewels. There's at least three minutes you can save. Road to Sebucus (Ancient Wind/Water Cave) - Going to the kitchen is a waste of time; there's another armor and weapons shop in the Caves. - Barren Fields of Mist is a better soundtrack than Earth of Joy, I think. I do talk about the music a lot in these comments. - There's a Wisdom Water and Silver Compass in the Wizard's hideout. The first can be sold, and the second will save you 3,000 G about two minutes later. - - You missed the Magic Water in the barrels by the Witch's counter. Big help for getting ESM MP earlier in the game. Jeremi - In Segmented, we use Nighto abuse on Berserker. That may be faster, even with Save/Resets. Vidna - I'd save/reset to slot abuse, since that saves tons of time. Even if only to get the War Soul and Spirit Jewel. Leveling Up: - Is Theeder better than Gizam for Noa? I concede it costs 4 less MP, but she's only getting 2 casts anyway for awhile. - - Gizam has slightly lower base damage, but Noa uses Water spells at 95% power and Thunder at only 70%. It's also a "hit all" instead of an AoE spell. - - See: http://www.legendoflegaia.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=949 - - This is why Vahn has the best Kemaro, Gala's is decent, and Noa's sucks to high heaven. Octam - I didn't know that you could read the Books of Prophecy in any order. That will save me a few seconds and possibly a random battle too. - Why do you go to the Shadow Gate so early? You can't Door of Wind there, so it seems like a time waste. I don't think the Miracle Water saves that much time. Also, no time spent leaving/re-entering. - You go to Octam to trigger Cara, but don't get Orb here? Seems faster to do both at once. Leveling Up (Part Zwei) - I'm not sure I follow your intentions about leveling up. Seems like you just want to stick around Vidna before heading to Octam and Shadow Gate, no? Makes for easier Orb gathering and better escape odds. - Go, Go, More Phallic Lasers! - Does it save time to buy Magic Leaves to avoid having to leave/re-enter Vidna? Berserker: - Vera at L5 or higher cures Rot. - It's amazing how much easier this fight is at L14/15. Given that Earth Jewels mitigate his damage, maybe fight him at an earlier level (12, perhaps?) using the Jewels (buy in Biron)? - There's a Guardian Ring (UDF/LDF+20%) in the counter behind the bar. At the least, it sells for 4000 G. There's also a Speed Ring in the tower. Ancient Path: - Seems like you got lackluster random encounter luck, but you escaped from the fights easily. Octam Underground: - Why the **** did you sell the Ivory Book? That triples the Kemaro absorption rate (from 15 to 45%) and that saves a ton of time in RTA if you can absorb one/both in Ratayu. - - Why I... don't even... I need a moment to collect my thoughts. - There's a Life Water in the cabinet on the top floor of the Palace of Meditation (Hari's House) - I don't know if the Gala Mace really saves much time, but... eh... - Don't get the Phoenix at the end of the Fire Path; wait for it to become a Magic Water after beating Xain. - I like using the Magic Waters on Vahn in preparation for using ESM as early as possible; Gala doesn't really need more MP. Xain: - I know that Xain is pretty slow (SPD = 82). With the Speed Ring in Jeremi, Vahn should consistently outspeed Xain so Noa can focus on damage - - She's Wind to Xain's Earth, so she gets a +6.25% elemental damage bonus. - - Is Super Javelin stronger than Vulture Blade -> Sonic Javelin? - - I'm impressed at how much damage Gala's Theeder is doing to Xain. Octam (Part 2) - I mentioned the Miracle Water earlier to you. Ratayu: - There's a really funny cutscene if you try to go to Ratayu before beating Xain and you ignore your party's request. Not speedrun relevant. Mt. Letona: - I'd put the Power Ring on Noa; she benefits more from the increase in ATK because she gets more hits per turn. Songi 2: It goes much quicker at level 16 than level 12, that's for sure! - It's better to go Tornado Flame -> Fire Blow than the reverse, since the game processes the arts in reverse order when determining which fire and which don't due to lack of AP. Ratayu (After Mist) - I wouldn't sell that Magic Fruit, since we'll want it to power ESM's in Sol Tower. Gala has the MP with a Spirit Jewel. - There's a second Ivory Book in one of the houses in Ratayu. This will make it easier to absorb Kemaro, and later to absorb Spoon when you get to Sol. - Equip your Earth Jewels for the Kemaro battle. That way, Gala will be able to attack instead of wasting turns and animation time with Orb. - Kemaro looks a little like Jack Frost from the front. You know, the Atlus mascot character? Saryu: - Frost Breath -> Tempest Break is far stronger than Super Javelin. - - If you don't have 76 AP, I recommend Sonic Javelin -> Tempest Break instead. - Excellent work with the Juggernaut Room skip; it usually takes me 20-25 seconds to set up. - You can actually Juggernaut Room skip before even clearing Mt. Letona. You get some dialogue that very few people would have ever seen. No Comm fight though. Dohati: - He always Chaos Breath's on Turn 1, and he does so periodically. The physical size of Dohati is an indication of when he's ready to blow, so to speak. - Equip the War Soul to Noa; it will save a lot of time. - Assuming Vahn gets all three Magic Waters up until this point, he would be 1 Max MP away from being able to use ESM with a Spirit Jewel. So, L19 should be pretty safe to plan on for using ESM. L18 is possible, given that you missed the Miracle Water in Octam Underground. Don't count on L17 for single-segment. Average is 154/164/174 for L17/18/19, which becomes 178 / 188 / 198 with 3x Magic Water. To Karisto: I normally get the Miracle Water from visiting Zalan in Jeremi. It does cost 1:35 real time to get (I timed it), but it could easily save that much later on. The Bee fight for the Honey is closer to 4 minutes, and it's almost surely not worth it. - Never timed it, but leaving Ratayu through the West Checkpoint may be faster by a second or two. - I would definitely not have sold that War Soul. - A Madlight Jewel would make the Lu Delilas fight safer/easier/less resource intensive. - There's 3000 G in the tree near the Honest Person's Kiosk. You can buy the travel kit and get a free Vitality Ring after the Zora fight with it. I'd just take the money and not buy the kit. Sol: - Unless you are going to train before Gaza 1 (and you don't need to), triggering the Noa dream sequence is a time waster; you can talk to the top-left monk in the dojo to get a full heal without going to the inn. - Not getting the Speed Chain probably cost you more than 25 minutes in the second half of the run. Every second you spent where random encounter enemies got to attack before you ran away & you had to heal after the fight was wasted time. To get this, you need the Gold Card from the Muscle Dome, and then you need to win the dance competition and talk to the Disco King afterwards. - - You can guarantee to win the Dance Competition by using Triangle for the first two steps, and then not using triangle again until the very last step of the "round". Assuming you make no misses, your score should be above 600; Mary always seems to get 539 points, so you can usually afford one miss without costing time. - Speaking of Speed Chain; it would have saved the Noa and Vahn KO's in the Gaza 1 fight since you would be guaranteed to heal before Gaza attacks. That would have saved time since they could keep attacking. This is going to be something of a recurring theme in the second half, I think. - Technically, you can do the Sage's Treasure Chest quest before fighting Gaza 1, open the Sol Basement, and be guaranteed to have Kemaro for Gaza 1. I don't know if this will unequivocally save time, though. It's funny how Gala will still mention taking the Genesis Tree seedling to Warrior's Square despite not having the Seedling or knowing it exists. - Frost Breath -> Tempest Break is still a lot more powerful than Super Javelin. - Go back to the dojo for another quick heal rather than using the inn, post Gaza 1. - It would have taken far less than 25 minutes to save/reset until you hit a slot machine bonus game, and that's all I'll say on the matter. - Having the Ivory Book would have saved oodles of time in absorbing Spoon (success rate increase from 15 - 45%) - I am not convinced that Door of Lighting out of Sol after the last Sage Treasure Chest is faster. I'd like to test that out. - Repeat my spiel about the Speed Chain and Gaza 2 deaths... - Don't bother using the inn after Gaza 2; you can heal in Usha Research Center. Another Noa Dream Sequence waste of time. I actually didn't know you could trigger the final dream so early; I thought you could only trigger it after clearing Nivora. The More You Know! (shooting star flies by) Uru Mais: - Waste of 20 minutes of life. There's a Magic Grail in the large crack on the right side of the ruins. Even if you never use it, it still sells for 20,000 G. Nivora: I wouldn't have taken time to get the Fury Boost. You can save a bit of time by not quite walking Vahn to the ledge, so Meta doesn't say anything. Madlight Jewel is better than Rainbow, since Rainbow is 25% resist and the elemental jewels are 50% for their respective element. Delilas Family - Speed Chain would have made the Che Delilas fight faster, with the accessory setup S. Chain / Earth Jewel / Defender Chain, and now we're using a Lightning Storm (or Theeder which is safer), Kemaro, and Point Card to finish this fight. - I like the accessory setup Evil Talisman / Spirit Jewel / Life Grail for Vahn, which makes this a pretty safe 4 turn fight (ESM / Magic Fruit / Spirit / ESM). Allows the Che fight to go much faster. - War Soul / Madlight Jewel / Defender Chain is a faster setup for Lu; I had a faster fight of Lu despite being lower level, because Frost Breath -> Tempest Break was doing upwards of 1,400 damage. - Koru fight was solid; I don't know if the Speed Elixir was necessary. If Vahn's speed is at least 150% of Gala's, he would always attack first (alternately, you could have put the Slowness Chain on Gala to guarantee him the last attack {Give the Spring Salts to the Mayor of Octam}). Buma / Mt. Dhini: - I like to prioritize buying leg armor because of the increase in attack; Gala's ATK would have increased by nearly 50 if you got his leg armor in Buma. - I wouldn't have sold the Wonder Amulet until after Zora; not getting petrified can save you a ton of time if things go bad with Glare luck. I use the Amulet even in segmented. Floating Castle, etc. - Sell that Wisdom Ring. +1 INT increases your damage output by 1/2, on average. Conkram: - If you are getting the treasure Chests in Conkram Present, do it after returning from the Past so you can just Door of Light out. Not sure if this would trigger Noa's mother giving her speech, in which case you're probably faster to do it this way. Rogue's Tower: - The "don't step on a teleporter while the floor is warped" clause only applies on the 3rd level. No need to wait during the first and second levels. - 2 ESM's is probably the fastest kill of Berserker 2 (10,000 HP). Is Magic Fruit consumption an issue? 1 ESM takes care of Caruban (4,096 HP) - If you are going to train ESM here, buy a Bad Luck Bell back in Usha Research Center. The High Encounter effect will negate the Low Encounter effect present on the Evil Talisman and bring you back to normal encounters. Less time running in circles (literally) getting into random battles. - I find that you can generally hit two warp pads per cycle before the floor moves to the "warped" pattern. - Lucky block with Noa on Berserker 3. That could have cost a good bit of time. Why not use ESM followed by Noa's Miracle Art to deal with Caruban 3? Given that you were doing >6,000 damage, Noa's Miracle would have easily finished him off. - I don't see a need to safety save here; Rogue is the easiest and safest boss fight in the game; much safer than Berserker 3 you just fought, by any means. Solid Rogue fight; this is the same strategy I use in Segmented, by the way. - Is getting Minea's Ring here faster than getting a Life Armband by talking to Mei in the Bio Castle (because it seems slower)? From looking at your notes, it doesn't look like you even use the Ring until Final Cort, so this would be a bit slower than getting that one later. (Do you need it before Cort 2? I didn't, but the Cort 1 fight can be a bit sketchy, so maybe it's a worthwhile safety measure for Cort 1?) Jette's Fortress - Does saying "Gate of Hell" here make audio commentary get the "strong language" tag? - Nice luck actually hitting the real Jette on T1. Good thing his clones are shorthand for "I just wasted a turn". - Presumably, a 5 turn battle here is optimal (~29,000 from ESM x5, plus some extra damage from Noa's side. Having Kemaro and/or Speed Chain would have been ideal to making sure it's not a 6 turn battle). - Gala's line here is my favorite in the whole game. "We wasted much time." Classic. - Given you have to deal a lot of damage with Noa in this fight, maybe it's worth using a Power Elixir or three on her on the first turn? The fight is really safe until the shield breaks (after 25,000 damage dealt) and he can start using ESM. - Seems like another fight where the Speed Chain is really useful (so you can decide whether you need to use a Healing Fruit or Healing Berry, as appropriate. Thankfully, Cort is actually really slow, so maybe it's not needed? - Lack of Healing items really seemed to have bitten you in the butt here. Barely eked that one out. - Have you noticed that for your ESM, all three hits are about the same strength, while Cort's has the last hit much stronger than the first two? - Why waste time healing after Cort 2? You get a free heal when you make it to Rim Elm. Battle for the Seru-kai - Ideally, you'd have the healing/magic recovery items so you could delay the trip to Soren Camp and not need another trip after Noaru Valley. - One battle run through Noaru is pretty optimal; I don't think 0 battle is possible (maybe in TAS?) - Songi fight went well. - Given sufficient healing items and that you need to head to Soren Camp to charge the point Card and buy healing items again, it probably is a time loss to use the Point Card here; I'd just wait to use it on Cort 2 because the animation time for ESM is pretty long (~40 seconds) The Creature Castle - I wouldn't bother equipping weapons/armor until the final boss to save menu time. Lack of Speed Chain is costing time because you are getting hit by enemies before you can run and have to watch attack animations (and stop to heal). Altogether, you probably lost maybe 4:30-5:00 (Puera L3 x3 fight cost a minute right there) in the Bio Castle from extra enemy attack animations and having to heal. - Getting the Miracle Water may not save much/any time compared to the 15 seconds it takes to get it. - It's actually a bit surprising just how much different the single-segment fight is from the segmented fight. I'm curious what your backup would have been if Gala had been attacked/killed on T1. - For timing purposes, run should end at 5:49:51 when Cort 2 starts exploding.