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Hello,

I was recently thinking of doing an Azure Dreams run and decided to check SDA.
However, I noticed there were no times for the game.

I did manage to find a post on the forums that is 6 years old (so I didn't feel like necroposting).
https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/azure_dreams_speed_run_psx.html

I've seen a TAS run:


Short of a normal Any% run and being subject to RNG on every floor, I will probably aim for 100% runs.

The problem I find is that there was never really a defined 100% run.

100% run thoughts:

MUST
Story complete
All side-quests
Blue Collar
All girls
All buildings

Yes?/No?

Familiars
1 of each familiar (36) [Unevolved]*
1 of each familiar (36) [Evolved]*§

Weapons
1 of each sword (11)
1 of each wand (9)
1 of each shield (11)
1 of each troll equip (3)

* One or the other, not both. (This could be very long times due to Egg spawn RNG)
§ Only 9 familiars evolve.



I find it hard apart from these aspects to imagine if they count, or if anything else would count for that matter.
This is because the games original play style never truly ends.

There is a story arc, which reaches a conclusion.
There are side-quests, which reach their conclusions.
There are buildings and extras that ultimately end.

However, as soon as the story ends you can continue going into the tower and doing as you please with the game forever essentially.


If anybody can help with this or has thoughts to help shape this run, I would be greatly appreciative.
Thread title:  
While I wouldn't call it 100%, I think a run in the similar spirit to some other games (such as FFVI) could include all the first section (story, quets, buildings, girls, etc).
Everything else is just SO random (trained rod for instance) that outside of a TAS I really just can't imagine it being feasible outside of a segmented run (good luck getting through it though...)

Still I'm very happy to see someone looking into this, as this is one of the games I'm *really* bothered by how much people skip because "gotta get to the ending no matter how much of the game is skipped" is the mentality. A huge part of this game is the town bulding and girl befriending.....skipping all of that seems so silly.
Indeed, I agree with you.
The upgrading of the town and farming up stuff from the tower was always my favorite part.

The game overall is very rare and missed out on by a lot of people.
I feel it's still a game that stands at a great standard even against many modern titles.

The other stuff (especially the weapons) was just a desperate grab at something else that needs to be done.

Since the familiars (come from eggs, only found randomly in the tower) are subject to RNG, it's very possible that you wouldn't find eggs.
This would make the run far too variable.

I'm not sure what (if anything) else would be required for a 100% run, and what it would be called (if not"100%").
Weegee Time
I would say those top 5 items would be your basis for a 100% run.

Main Story Compete - Obviously.
All Sidequests - I don't think any are unreasonable, so in the vein of CT/FF6, yes.
All Girls - These are basically side quests in context of game completion.
All Buildings - I think the sidequests and girls require this anyway.  If there's any upgrades/buildings that don't, those might be debatable.
Blue Collar - Most debatable on the list as it's essentially equipment, but if having 2 familiars could make things faster, then go for it.

That said, this run requires a lot of money so you're going to be even more at the mercy of the RNG than a standard run.  You'll not only need to figure out some optimal strategies to get money quick, you're also going to have to figure out cut-off points where you need to scrap the run due to poverty. Sad
There are buildings that aren't required to win over the girls, but they all buildings requested by people.
Would they would count as side-quests? (requests?)

As for the collar, I'm starting to question it. Blue Collar simply means you can have a second familiar out in the tower.
It allows for fusion of familiars and so if a route needed a specific familiar fusion, then it would be essential.
It also lets you do the multiplication glitch (if this was desirable/possible), but it takes a bit of time.
(Could be useful for raising fast funds by multiplying eggs - Requires a Picket and Manova familiar though.)
However, I imagine having two familiars out would make fights (where you had to) slower.

I guess it's something that could be picked up when you get to F15 if the run needs it, but it won't be criteria for the run I guess. (It's 100% generated when reaching F15 and you haven't collected it.)
I'm going to begin investigating a bit closer and designing some routing for the run (soon) such as consider ways to overcome poverty and quests while subject to RNG. (Not much, I imagine)

I think as far as 100% criteria is concerned (unless anybody comes up with any reasonable arguments and thoughts about it) the following will be what is done:

Main Story Complete (Obviously)
Side-quests Complete (Including all girls)*
All Buildings Built (Unless funds are far too hard to come by due to RNG - Shouldn't be though...)

Since the game will also go on past the story end, there will be no major point to define when the timer should stop.
I know that when you want to make a building upgrade you need to enter the tower and then wake up the next morning (Can't remember if it takes multiple visits or a certain time),
but the wake up in the morning might be a good point to end the timer.


*- It's probably best to win over the girls towards the end of the run (if possible), so all they aren't all crowding and slowing down leaving times for the tower.

I really feel that all the buildings should count towards the 100% progress.
The game boasts 2 sides to the gameplay, The Tower and The Town. As such I believe the town should be fully upgraded.

I also do not want to include the familiars in the 100% run, due to far too much RNG required collecting an egg of every familiar's species.
From the view of a completionist, collector and monster trainer (I love games like this) it'd be fantastic, but it also draws the question of where do you draw the line.
Even if you collect all of them, do you evolve them? Do you fuse them to make alternate element versions of each?
Let's just leave them out, the run is already going to be long (I assume).

I'm still waiting on my PS2 and the game arriving, but I'll try refer to wiki's for now before getting in about the game when it arrives.
Edit history:
Ryuken: 2015-03-23 04:30:33 pm
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
Holy cow someone else actually interested in running this game that is fantastic!

First thought; I CANNOT believe that I started running Azure Dreams 6 years ago. I did indeed end up finishing an Any% run for what I assume is the WR at 42:41

Part 1: http://www.twitch.tv/ryuken1315/c/3662687
Part 2: http://www.twitch.tv/ryuken1315/c/3662671

While Any% runs are hugely RNG based I know for a fact that 100% runs would also be infinitely moreso RNG whether it be from good items to get quick cash, or the eggs, or good weapons etc. As far as the Familiar requirement I would only say that you would need every entry in the monster book filled out. Meaning you would only need to evolve the ones that can evolve and get Hi-Kewne (Required) and build both the amusement and bowling centers (Also required). It would be a far less taxing requirement than collecting every monster since the game has no counter to keep track of that. 100% doesnt necessarily mean a perfect file so all I would say is all Buildings, Monster Book entries, and all question marks filled (Girls+Beldo)

If you are interested in actually pursuing this I would recommend doing it Single Segment (Prevents it from being super boring for both the runner and audience) and I would love to help out with both giving notes and more than likely doing some runs myself to compare against/with!

EDIT: Also as far as money goes all you will need is 100,000 G's to build the casino, the slots in the casino are OBSCENELY easy to abuse for triple 7's which give somewhere between 20,000-50,000 per jackpot (cant remember exact amount). That will easily give all the cash you need to complete all buildings within 10-15 minutes no problem
Hey Ryuken,

I loved this game when I was young and I started speed running and streaming after the last AGDQ.
Wanted to do it for a while and finally decided to start.

Even though I didn't have immediate access to it, Azure Dreams has been in the back of my mind for a long time as a game I would love to run.

I'm glad to hear about your run, i'll be sure to have a watch.

I'm questioning the monster collecting all together though as you could play 20 days and never get them (true RNG).
I forget if you get monster entries by encountering monsters or by hatching them. (If it was simply by seeing them, then only trying to get the ones that evolve could be doable but I can't remember).

Nice to hear about the Casino, I remember as a child I didn't actually spend too much time in there, I'll have to give that some good 'ol practice then.

It would be nice to have someone to compare notes and thoughts with, especially since you have experience running the game.

I was going to be aiming for SS as well, so that should be fair enough.
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
Yeah its as soon as you kill one they are entered in the book so you only need the evolveable ones and to raise them to 20, again the only place the game keeps track of that is in the monster book so I can see not including it. However the only downside to that is then all the extra you are doing is the girls and the buildings meaning a LOT of the run will be going into the tower and leaving ASAP to progress the storyline of the girls. They will be 50% of the run if not more if monsters are not included
Edit history:
Keyah_Uchnouma: 2015-03-23 04:53:08 pm
Keyah_Uchnouma: 2015-03-23 04:47:15 pm
Yup, this is true.

This is why I wanted to try and find what a 100% run should be.
I felt there wasn't enough being accomplished besides the scaling of the tower.

If that's the case then with the monsters, then yes I think they should be included.
"Monster Book Completed"

From memory the ones I can think of are (I know there's more):
Clown > Death
Flame > Ifrit
? > Griffon
Kid > Dragon
? > Nyuel

EDIT: Clown was always one of my favorite familiars. Might be my go to for scaling the tower, we'll see.
EDIT: Kraken's too, they were brutal.
Edit history:
Ryuken: 2015-03-23 05:45:12 pm
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
Clown is absolutely an essential for climbing the tower, and if you are able to find  Nyuel and evolve it to a Battenel you can do the "Reverse Battenel" glitch giving it max stats.

Evolving Familiars: Clown>Death
Flame > Ifrit
Griffon > Grinuet
Kid > Dragon
Nyuel > Battenel
Snowman > Sabre
Arachene > Ashra
Unicorn > Univern
Block > Metal

Some General notes:

-Some buildings wont trigger until others are already built, main one being Jorda will not suggest the new temple until you build your first house upgrade. And the Temple must be upgraded before he will suggest the casino.
-From my experience eggs of all monsters will show up between 2-5 floors of where you see the monster (ex. Clowns appear on floor 8 you will find their eggs between floors 6-13)
-Wands are your best weapon for damage because you will use mixture magic almost exclusively
-Gold swords, Life Wands, Diamond/Mirror Shields, and Magic Balls will be almost exclusively your source of income at ~1k per item (more if cursed)
-Save ALL wind crystals you come across to guarantee quick tower trips for girl sidequests
-Selfi will not start her sidequest until you talk to her in town which should be done ASAP since most of her quest is done on floor 2 of the tower

EDIT: Also save your biggest house upgrade for last as that will allow ALL completed girls to show up at your house EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. with the first upgrade it will be just one girl saving tons of dialogue time
I had a feeling Clown would be incredibly useful, it also makes me very happy that one of my favorites will probably be used almost exclusively for scaling the tower. (Hopefully you would find multiple to speed the evolving process.)

Ah yes, I don't know how I forgot Block.

From what I've been able to find out:
- House (6,000g) > Temple (4,000g) > Bowling Alley (40,000g) > Casino (100,000g) - 150,000g required
- I remember this being somewhat true with the eggs also. Whether or not it's 100% I'm unsure, but it sounds about right. (It'd be nice to find out so time isn't wasted on floors looking for eggs if they don't spawn there).
- Does it matter which wand? (Trained would obviously be best, but lol) Money Wand be of any use? Would element wands be worth it because of element resist/boost? Would it be worth wasting slots with one of each element wand for making fights faster?
(probably not, money wand sounds good though.)
- This sounds good. Given that inventory space is rather sparse, what would be the most you could make? If you dis-count 5 spaces for 2 familiars, wand, shield and wind crystal; That would only leave 5 spaces so 5k? (30~ tower trips before casino?)
- Since there will be a lot of trips into the tower for money raising, it may be possible to slow the procedure of building the casino to secure girls over time while raising money?

Yes I had this thought before thinking it was just simply winning over the girls. I imagine that the House and Hut upgrades serve no purpose/slowing you down, so yeah, last builds.

Should there be a defined point for the timer stop? Leave F40 till the end of everything? Or simply do stuff in whatever order pleases the runner and time when everything's done?

EDIT: Just watched the play through and noticed you have a second page for inventory ( It's been a while o.o; ). So that makes for 15 spaces, ~15k per tower raid, meaning 10~ raids.
Also managed to get a watch at your run, very nice. A couple of clutch moments, but very nice all the same. Shame it was an emulator run D:
Edit history:
Keyah_Uchnouma: 2015-03-24 04:02:12 pm
Keyah_Uchnouma: 2015-03-24 03:55:20 pm
This is theoretical and based on perfect tower raids of 15K every time.

For just now at least, this seems (to me) like the best route on paper:


This would allow for starting multiple girls progress while raising funds and getting additional side-quest items (if not already done).
I'm not sure if it's optimized in practice, but in theory I think it looks okay.

Also worth noting that trying 1 of everything on the Menu for Patty costs 3230 g (Not taken into account since the meals' small pricing would never effect a build; if you were getting the 15k every time.)

Using this method of building, by making one extra trip before the Bowling Alley/Casino funds to build the Hospital, Library and Theater; By the time the Casino is built almost all girls but Vivian should be compelte.
(I'm not 100% certain on it, but it would be around this many trips).

So I guess it depends how long it takes to earn this much gold each trip from the first 12 trips, or if you go about another method.

I'll make an updated version when I can find out specifics regarding the girls and not vagueness.
There's no reason more journey's couldn't be made, but I think this would be the best case scenario.

N.B: This is based on the "iirc assumption" that all buildings take one trip into the tower to finish completion.

EDIT: I can't remember if you can only order one thing from the menu per day. If so, then Patty would not be complete until around the same time as Vivian (I would imagine).
EDIT: This doesn't take into account gold found in the tower. If able to make additional 5k each raid in gold, then this would drastically shorten the number of raids to probably around 9 for the buildings but the rest will still be required for advancing side-quests.
Quick Update:
My copy of Azure Dreams has finally arrived.

German retail (PAL) version
Immaculate condition and plays in English.

I can see playback through my capture device, but I have no real-time playback just now as I use monitors.
I have purchased an upscaler for the PS2 and it should do the trick.

When it arrives I'll be starting casual playthroughs on Sundays and start looking at pathing and potentials.
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
So I started a 100% run and took some notes along the way. Im not done yet but here is what I have so far

Azure Dreams 100% Notes
Before going into tower first trip go see: Nico, Library Guy, Madam (Bartender Lady), Wookie Wookie Pool

First Trip Tower/Town Notes
Made it to floor 6, Kewne reached level 6. Found 468g in tower. Sold Gold Sword (1k) Mirror Shield (Cursed 4500) Iron (Cursed 675) Fire Ball (5chg 450) Sleep Ball (5chg 1200) Acid Rain Ball (880) Pulunpa Egg (400)- Total 10318g
Donated 1k to Fountain (9318g), Built Expand 1 for 6k  (3318g), Talked to Selfi, Talked to Horse Racing Man, Talked to Library Man, Talked to Issac (Guru's Pot), Went Back into tower

Second Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Kewne lvl6, Wooden Wand, Wooden Shield, Med. Herb
Talked to Selfi on second floor, Found Cyclone Egg, Blue Collar, Scarlet Wand, Iron Shield, sold 5 magic balls (3990g) -Total 8032g
Donated another 1k to fountain (7032g), Donated 4k to the temple (3032g), Dropped off Cyclone Egg, Talked to Library Man, Talked to Selfi, Went back to tower

Third Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Kewne lvl 8, Scarlet Wand, Iron Shield, Pita, Wind
Made it to floor 17, Found Steel Shield+2, Fire Sword, Mazarr Seed, Blue Sand, Gulf Wand and Guru's Oil Pot
Sold: 3 Water, 2 Sleep, 1 Pillar Ball, Gold Sword, Iron Shield (~7300g) -Total 11567g
Talked to Library Man, Selfi, Nico at the Fountain, Doc, Jorda went back to the tower

Fourth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Kewne lvl 14, Scarlet Want, Steel Shield+1, Wind Crystal
Talked to Selfi on Floor 2, made it to floor 18 found Baloon egg (sold)
Sold: Random items (cant remember what) -Total 18242g
Talked to Jorda (suggested casino), Doc (built hospital 4k), Librarian (Library suggested), Selfi, went back to tower

Fifth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Selfi and Ghosh on floor 2, Egg on floor 4, Egg on floor 8 (CLOWN!!!!), Got Blue cape
Sold: Goldx2, Earth S, Flamex2, Blinderx2, Poison, Pillar, Holy Scroll, Noise Egg (9660g) -Total 26199g
Talked to Selfi, Gave Blue Cape, Talked to Cherrl, Talked to her again, went back into tower

Sixth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Cyclone, Clown, Scarlet Wand, Blizzard Sword, Steel Shield
Talked to Selfi on floor 2, Clown became Death, got Roche Fruit!
Sold: Scarlet, Money Wand, Goldx2, Cursed Gold, Troll Hammerx3, Troll Sword, Binding, Blinder, Recovery, Water Ball, Water Crystal, Star Glasses (15360g) -Total 44056g
Went to Bar, re-entered bar, Talked to Cherrl, Talked to Selfi, re-entered Tower

Seventh Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Death lvl20, Kewne lvl20, Scarlet, Steel, Roche
Saved Selfi from Pulunpa, found egg on floor 3 (Manoeva), egg on floor 9 (Blume), Roche'd a Barong, egg on floor 18 (Barong.............of course)
Sold: Money Wand, Ice Rockx3, Sleep, Blaze Ball, Holy Scroll, Barong (15780g) -Total 64634g
Talked to Selfi, Visited the Bar (Talked to Vivian), Talked to Vivian again, Talked to Cherrl, Walked with Cherrl, Talked to Doc about Cherrl, re-entered tower

Eighth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Barong lvl1, Death lvl21, Kewne lvl21, Life Wand, Live Shield
Talked to Selfi, Egg on floor 10 (Dreamin), found an egg on floor 24 (Unicorn), egg on floor 28 (Zu), Found trained wand
Had argument with Fur, talked to fur again, Sold: Goldx4, Dark, Holy Swordx2, Troll Hammer, Troll Sword, Pillar Ball, Water Ball, Dreamin Egg, Zu Egg (44050g!!!!!) -Total 112167g
Built Casino (-100k), Built Theater (-8k), Built Hut Exp 1 (-4k) -New Total 167g
Talked to Vivian, Nico, and Selfi and re-entered tower

Ninth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Barong lvl1, Unicorn lvl1, Death lvl 27, Trained Wand+1, Live Shield+2
Selfi on floor 2, egg on floor 22 (Block)
Sold Random items (money no longer an issue), won four jackpots at the casino (240k), Built Alley, Circuit, Hut 2, Amusement Center, Library
Ate all dishes at resturaunt, re-entered the tower

Tenth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Barong lvl7, Unicorn lvl1, Death lvl31, Trained Wand+4, Mirror Shield+4
Selfi on 2, Roche'd a Picket, Found 2 eggs (Troll, Kraken), Patty made Koh food, Talked to Mia, Talked to Cherrl, re-entered tower

Eleventh Trip Tower/Town Notes
Found 5 eggs (Cyclone, Nyuel, Barong......AGAIN, Weadog, Unicorn), Roche, Healing Herb, evolved Unicorn into Univern
Finished Nico sidequest, Finished Fur sidequest, gave healing herb to doc, talked to vivian, talked to Mia, talked to Patty

Twelfth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Leveled up Nyuel to Battenel and reversed to level 2 for max stats, wind crystal'd out
Talked to Patty, Talked to Cherrl, Talked to Mia, Talked to Selfi, purchased Hut 4

Thirteenth Trip Tower/Town Notes
Starting Equipment: Manoeva, Picket, Trained+8, Mirror+7, Roche
(Will Dupe Roche ~10 times to egg all evolveable monsters)


So basically it will be a lot longer than I initially thought money wise. It took one GODLY luck run to get the casino money in time, and even more godly egg/barong luck to have the setup I do by my 13th trip. I would assume a good estimate to shoot for with this file trips wise would be somewhere in the low 20's. Time wise probably 10ish hours at least. With my maxed out Battnel I planned on doing floor 40 last after having everything else just to give myself a good final cutoff point seeing as how I can do it whenever I want now
Wow, that's a good set of notes.

It does seem like a slower start that predicted anyway.

I imagine that this run is close to completion then?
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
Yeah, I havent touched it in a few days but I am maybe 6-8 trips away from completion most of those being quick in and outs for girl and leveling purposes. All of the difficult and lengthy stuff is done so this is definitely the home stretch
Nice, glad to hear it.

That 44k haul is certainly beautiful and is a nice uplifting point after the somewhat hardships of the other raids.
I'm thinking of getting metal legs..
Hey man. I was playing again and thought I'd take a look at your posts.

Anyways, collecting all the monsters or even completing the monster book would be terribly difficult because I believe you need 2 Roche fruits to capture barong and dragon (kid)? The odds of finding a Roche is crazy low, at least in my experience. That alone would add alot of time and leave a lot to chance. Again I'm kinda rusty so I might be off.
Edit history:
Ryuken: 2015-04-09 07:52:54 pm
Ryuken: 2015-04-09 07:52:44 pm
I'm the man.......nothing else needs to be said
Well my plan was to utilize the dupe manoeva/picket glitch to make as many roche's as i need so once i have that Barong+Manoeva+Picket combo its just a matter of time until I get everything I need. Its also how I leveled my Nyuel so fast, I duped Mazarr seeds. With a category like this I plan on using everything I can to get the best time/least RNG dependent run.

With the trip I am currently on in this 100% file I will have every egg I need by the time I leave because I plan on duping ~10 roche's

EDIT: Also in this file I got SUPER GOD LUCK and have FOUND TWO BARONG EGGS!!!!! However this came after Roche'ing one so the luck was mainly a slap in the face
I'm thinking of getting metal legs..
Dude, duping is the best. But I have terrible luck at finding the eggs I want. Also I didnt know this but I used a scarlet wand with a fire mixture magic and it did a lot more than the standard wand. So I guess I should try and find a gulf wand too so I can have a lot of damage with either kewne or clown. But then again I just found a nyuel, so gotta level him up and max him out.

And 2 barongs is pretty sweet, i found its pretty easy to max out your inventory around floor 5 or so and just start chucking everything at them.