Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (New Game, sub 5. will have audio commentary)

2012-08-17 02:08:31 pm

$15 per rant/allegory

Wow Zhu 2:29:55 August 10, 2012 Clear five years, use Seruki
This kite above 2:31:03 August 8, 2012 Clear five years, use cravat
Motte 2:38:17 August 14, 2012 Clear five years, use Riruti
Coin 4:43:30 September 18, 2010 Clear five years, using Euclidean

Jap times. You guys gotta do better than 5 hours.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-08-18 12:08:32 am

dondon151: 2012-08-17 02:42:10 pm

2012-08-17 02:17:00 pm

(Any videos for those times?) Actually any videos at all would help; the only videos that I've found are a couple of test runs uploaded by ShaddoD2, and they only cover Year 1 and part of Year 4.

Year 1 can be done in far less than a half hour. Year 2 is slightly more difficult and longer but still should be below a half hour - you should get the Dual Shooter after Goblin Wall, which makes combat go a lot faster. Year 3 is basically a slightly more difficult Year 1. Any good player should aim for sub-2:30 at minimum.

Maybe when it comes time for someone to seriously start an attempt, a new thread should be made that doesn't have the parenthetical expression.

Renokye

2012-08-17 11:13:09 pm

Touhou anyone? :D

I'd like to see videos of those, too. I'm really curious. :3

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-08-18 01:01:07 am

dondon151: 2012-08-18 12:58:24 am

dondon151: 2012-08-18 12:57:43 am

dondon151: 2012-08-18 12:50:34 am

2012-08-18 12:11:47 am

I did find a trio of videos for the conclusion of a Yuke speedrun on NicoVideo: http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/5395454

He dies a little bit more often than I would have liked. The "blind" spots that he uses in the Meteor Parasite and Raem battles are interesting. I think the blind spot on the third form of the Meteor Parasite is a little too far away for Selkie FA, though.

EDIT: It looks like he has some pretty boss armor, or somehow got a lot of +def artifacts - he has +22 def on the Yuke base with Travel Clothes and Helm, which is likely a set of Mythril Armor and Mythril Helm (or an Iron alternative if he picked up some +def artifacts along the way).

His stats going into Mt. Vellenge are: 10 HP, 6 CS, 30 atk, 42 def, 32 mag, 40 mem

Which is +17 mag on the Yuke base. I didn't get a glimpse of his equipment, but he probably has a Rune Hammer, which perfectly explains the 30 atk.

Now, somewhere between Mt. Vellenge and the Meteor Parasite battle, he gains 22 mag, probably from picking up those artifacts in Mt. Vellenge. I don't know if the artifacts in the chests are consistent there, but picking up the heavy-duty +str artifacts is probably a good idea for Selkie runners.

It also seems apparent that ~42 def is required in order to be able to survive Memiroa's fiery laser of death attack with half a heart of health. If that's the case, then a route without armor upgrades sounds like a grim unlikelihood. A Selkie with basic armor only has 21 def, which probably isn't even enough to survive Raem's basic attacks (his beak jabs). The best case scenario of a completely optimized speedrun will probably not get hit at all, but I really don't think that is an achievable possibility. So we're probably going to have to plan for an armor upgrade somewhere... The problem is: where, and to what? Mythril armors are expensive, plus the materials can't be that easy to obtain. I feel like Iron armors are a faster, more economical choice, but even then, the cost of forging the armors necessitates a large amount of item and material harvesting. This is where knowledge of the damage formula can come in handy.

I don't agree with his use of Haste. Unless it enables strategies that are otherwise impossible without cutting down lag in between attacks, the amount of time spent getting the required magicite for Haste and going into and out of menus is not going to compensate for the slightly faster attacking speed. A Selkie runner will also not spend very much time in the menu, probably only needing to make Cure and Holy.

As far as offensive power in a Selkie run goes, I don't know enough about the damage formula to confidently say anything about it, but a Selkie will end up with about the same atk as a Yuke will mag (I'm projecting ~44 atk going into Mt. Vellenge, more if there are +atk artifacts to pick up) and Dual Shooter's FA has comparable power to Thundara according to http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/gc/ffcc/

I did find a trio of videos for the conclusion of a Yuke speedrun on NicoVideo: http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/5395454

He dies a little bit more often than I would have liked. The "blind" spots that he uses in the Meteor Parasite and Raem battles are interesting. I think the blind spot on the third form of the Meteor Parasite is a little too far away for Selkie FA, though.

EDIT: It looks like he has some pretty boss armor, or somehow got a lot of +def artifacts - he has +22 def on the Yuke base with Travel Clothes and Helm, which is likely a set of Mythril Armor and Mythril Helm (or an Iron alternative if he picked up some +def artifacts along the way).

His stats going into Mt. Vellenge are: 10 HP, 6 CS, 30 atk, 42 def, 32 mag, 40 mem

Which is +17 mag on the Yuke base. I didn't get a glimpse of his equipment, but he probably has a Rune Hammer, which perfectly explains the 30 atk.

Now, somewhere between Mt. Vellenge and the Meteor Parasite battle, he gains 22 mag, probably from picking up those artifacts in Mt. Vellenge. I don't know if the artifacts in the chests are consistent there, but picking up the heavy-duty +str artifacts is probably a good idea for Selkie runners.

It also seems apparent that ~42 def is required in order to be able to survive Memiroa's fiery laser of death attack with half a heart of health. If that's the case, then a route without armor upgrades sounds like a grim unlikelihood. A Selkie with basic armor only has 21 def, which probably isn't even enough to survive Raem's basic attacks (his beak jabs). The best case scenario of a completely optimized speedrun will probably not get hit at all, but I really don't think that is an achievable possibility. So we're probably going to have to plan for an armor upgrade somewhere... The problem is: where, and to what? Mythril armors are expensive, plus the materials can't be that easy to obtain. I feel like Iron armors are a faster, more economical choice, but even then, the cost of forging the armors necessitates a large amount of item and material harvesting. This is where knowledge of the damage formula can come in handy.

I don't agree with his use of Haste. Unless it enables strategies that are otherwise impossible without cutting down lag in between attacks, the amount of time spent getting the required magicite for Haste and going into and out of menus is not going to compensate for the slightly faster attacking speed. A Selkie runner will also not spend very much time in the menu, probably only needing to make Cure and Holy.

As far as offensive power in a Selkie run goes, I don't know enough about the damage formula to confidently say anything about it, but a Selkie will end up with about the same atk as a Yuke will mag (I'm projecting ~44 atk going into Mt. Vellenge, more if there are +atk artifacts to pick up) and Dual Shooter's FA has comparable power to Thundara according to http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/gc/ffcc/

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-08-23 01:13:10 am

dondon151: 2012-08-22 04:20:48 am

2012-08-22 04:18:05 am

Bleh, update.

I have been doing a lazy run through the game, trying to figure out strategies and stuff. I would still like to see those speedrun videos, though...

As far as Year 4 goes, Selepation Cave and Daemon's Court are both pretty easy. I suppose I should still test out Rebena Te Ra and Conall Curach, but as far as I can tell, there is no reason to go to the Rebena Plains - Selepation Cave requires you to defeat no generic enemies and the Cave Worm is really easy, and Daemon's Court has a pretty easy boss battle as well. The keys for Daemon's Court are always dropped by the Gold Lizard Skirmishers, and on my couple of test runs, their positions were always the same - one on the left side of the map, and one in the middle of the elevated area near the top of the map. Both of them can be fought without pulling other enemies (the one on the left is slightly trickier).

So far, the hardest dungeons for me are Goblin Wall, Mine of Cathuriges, and Moschet Manor:

- Goblin Wall has an insane mob of enemies that contains the Goblin Chief that drops the key for the boss chamber. I still can't figure out the best way to do that part of the dungeon: whether to pick off the enemies one by one, or just chip at the Goblin Chief with basic attacks. The latter approach is pretty much required in cycle 2, though, because there is a Ghost in that group of enemies and he's functionally impossible to kill without getting Holy beforehand, and he does 2.5 hearts of damage on a basic attack.

- The Orc King just gives me a very hard time in both cycles. His melee attacks are really fast and do a lot of damage. In cycle 2, the 2 Orc cohorts are also a huge pain in the ass. I think I figured out an easy way around this battle, though: staying at a certain distance away from the Orc King will cause him to heavily favor his ranged attack, which is easy to punish with FAs. Needs a bit more testing.

- Gigas Lord battle is also giving me sort of a hard time. His punching attacks start and end very quickly and doesn't leave enough lag for a punish with an FA (at least, not without me getting hit). Maggie is very easy, at least. The way that I start out the battle causes her to appear from the top right room every time, and she gets knocked back upon getting struck with an FA, so I can just pummel her at range and she can't get out a Slowga cast. I think that staying at a certain range away from the Gigas Lord causes him to heavily favor his breath attack, but I am less sure of this one than the Orc King battle.

Anyway, I'm at 3:00 going into Year 5 on a very lazy run, with maybe an average of 5 deaths per boss (yeah I know) in addition to some deaths in the middle of dungeons. Sub-2:30 is very feasible. I think that I, for example, died once doing Tida and the entire thing still took only 7 minutes off the game clock. Years 1, 2, and 3 should maybe only take 20-25 minutes each to complete.

More update:

Lynari Desert involves a ton of walking, and Mog gets tired super fast. Don't know if it's worth cutting his hair; this is something that needs to be timed. There's a moogle nest in Port Tipa, so no big detour is required. All of the magicite needed for the puzzle can be obtained from 4 enemies relatively near the starting point, and the Antlion battle is super easy (even though his mandible attack nearly OHKOs; that one is easy to dodge with the defend command).

Veo Lu Sluice is honestly kind of hard with reviving the pumpflowers because some areas have a lot of enemies. Golem screwed me up a couple of times but I think the battle can be done easily enough by just standing at a certain distance away in front of him and using the defend command whenever he runs up to punch or uses either the ice or fire laser. He can't actually hit you with his fists if you're standing directly in front. Will have to check ShaddoD2's video for ideas.

Bleh, update.

I have been doing a lazy run through the game, trying to figure out strategies and stuff. I would still like to see those speedrun videos, though...

As far as Year 4 goes, Selepation Cave and Daemon's Court are both pretty easy. I suppose I should still test out Rebena Te Ra and Conall Curach, but as far as I can tell, there is no reason to go to the Rebena Plains - Selepation Cave requires you to defeat no generic enemies and the Cave Worm is really easy, and Daemon's Court has a pretty easy boss battle as well. The keys for Daemon's Court are always dropped by the Gold Lizard Skirmishers, and on my couple of test runs, their positions were always the same - one on the left side of the map, and one in the middle of the elevated area near the top of the map. Both of them can be fought without pulling other enemies (the one on the left is slightly trickier).

So far, the hardest dungeons for me are Goblin Wall, Mine of Cathuriges, and Moschet Manor:

- Goblin Wall has an insane mob of enemies that contains the Goblin Chief that drops the key for the boss chamber. I still can't figure out the best way to do that part of the dungeon: whether to pick off the enemies one by one, or just chip at the Goblin Chief with basic attacks. The latter approach is pretty much required in cycle 2, though, because there is a Ghost in that group of enemies and he's functionally impossible to kill without getting Holy beforehand, and he does 2.5 hearts of damage on a basic attack.

- The Orc King just gives me a very hard time in both cycles. His melee attacks are really fast and do a lot of damage. In cycle 2, the 2 Orc cohorts are also a huge pain in the ass. I think I figured out an easy way around this battle, though: staying at a certain distance away from the Orc King will cause him to heavily favor his ranged attack, which is easy to punish with FAs. Needs a bit more testing.

- Gigas Lord battle is also giving me sort of a hard time. His punching attacks start and end very quickly and doesn't leave enough lag for a punish with an FA (at least, not without me getting hit). Maggie is very easy, at least. The way that I start out the battle causes her to appear from the top right room every time, and she gets knocked back upon getting struck with an FA, so I can just pummel her at range and she can't get out a Slowga cast. I think that staying at a certain range away from the Gigas Lord causes him to heavily favor his breath attack, but I am less sure of this one than the Orc King battle.

Anyway, I'm at 3:00 going into Year 5 on a very lazy run, with maybe an average of 5 deaths per boss (yeah I know) in addition to some deaths in the middle of dungeons. Sub-2:30 is very feasible. I think that I, for example, died once doing Tida and the entire thing still took only 7 minutes off the game clock. Years 1, 2, and 3 should maybe only take 20-25 minutes each to complete.

More update:

Lynari Desert involves a ton of walking, and Mog gets tired super fast. Don't know if it's worth cutting his hair; this is something that needs to be timed. There's a moogle nest in Port Tipa, so no big detour is required. All of the magicite needed for the puzzle can be obtained from 4 enemies relatively near the starting point, and the Antlion battle is super easy (even though his mandible attack nearly OHKOs; that one is easy to dodge with the defend command).

Veo Lu Sluice is honestly kind of hard with reviving the pumpflowers because some areas have a lot of enemies. Golem screwed me up a couple of times but I think the battle can be done easily enough by just standing at a certain distance away in front of him and using the defend command whenever he runs up to punch or uses either the ice or fire laser. He can't actually hit you with his fists if you're standing directly in front. Will have to check ShaddoD2's video for ideas.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-08-30 04:57:39 am

dondon151: 2012-08-30 02:05:03 am

dondon151: 2012-08-30 02:03:41 am

dondon151: 2012-08-30 02:03:03 am

dondon151: 2012-08-30 02:02:14 am

2012-08-30 02:02:00 am

More quick update:

I found the notes of a Japanese player who recently RTA'd the game with a time of 2:20:52. His notes were very thorough, but what struck me as most intriguing was his route.

Up until now I've copied the route of an English-speaking player, ShaddoD2, who has a test run on UStream. He picks a merchant occupation, buys Alloy from the father in Year 2, picks up the Warrior's Weapon scroll and an Iron in Goblin Wall, and forges the Dual Shooter before the 2nd drop of myrrh in Year 2. The Japanese player opts instead for a fisherman occupation and buys the material for a Dual Shooter before the 3rd drop of myrrh in Year 1, which requires hunting ~10 optional enemies in River Belle Path and Mushroom Forest and opening ~4 chests in River Belle Path. This is a significant time commitment but makes Mine of Cathuriges and Goblin Wall much, much faster - I can easily defeat the Orc King within 1 cycle of his Orc cohort respawn, and the mandatory battle against the Ogre for a key goes about twice as fast (haven't gotten to Goblin Wall yet). I think the comparison is close, but I suspect that the Japanese route would be faster.

I've only given a cursory glance at the rest of the route, but there seem to be a handful of oddities, such as going to Daemon's Court instead of River Belle Path in Year 3 (probably for better items/artifacts?) and going to Mt. Kilanda. I'll have to take a good look at the route. His inclusion of Fish in the route is certainly interesting because it makes certain boss battles go faster and it also provides an HP buffer. In any case, I'm thinking that something close to 2 hours would definitely be possible for segmented. Currently I'm at 0:22:xx leaving Tipa at the beginning of Year 2.

EDIT: I think I know why he skips River Belle Path in Year 3: he needs to get some drops from Mushroom Forest and Mine of Cathuriges, then backtrack to Marr's Pass to sell those items and forge a Butterfly Head, Mythril Armor, and Iron Belt. I'm slightly wondering if Butterfly Head is worth it because the FA brings you to close range (whereas staying away from some bosses is preferred), but it does quite a bit more damage than the Dual Shooter's FA and you can still switch to the Dual Shooter for certain boss battles. I'll see if I can move RBP back to Year 3 and manipulate the drops necessary for the forges after Mushroom Forest.

More quick update:

I found the notes of a Japanese player who recently RTA'd the game with a time of 2:20:52. His notes were very thorough, but what struck me as most intriguing was his route.

Up until now I've copied the route of an English-speaking player, ShaddoD2, who has a test run on UStream. He picks a merchant occupation, buys Alloy from the father in Year 2, picks up the Warrior's Weapon scroll and an Iron in Goblin Wall, and forges the Dual Shooter before the 2nd drop of myrrh in Year 2. The Japanese player opts instead for a fisherman occupation and buys the material for a Dual Shooter before the 3rd drop of myrrh in Year 1, which requires hunting ~10 optional enemies in River Belle Path and Mushroom Forest and opening ~4 chests in River Belle Path. This is a significant time commitment but makes Mine of Cathuriges and Goblin Wall much, much faster - I can easily defeat the Orc King within 1 cycle of his Orc cohort respawn, and the mandatory battle against the Ogre for a key goes about twice as fast (haven't gotten to Goblin Wall yet). I think the comparison is close, but I suspect that the Japanese route would be faster.

I've only given a cursory glance at the rest of the route, but there seem to be a handful of oddities, such as going to Daemon's Court instead of River Belle Path in Year 3 (probably for better items/artifacts?) and going to Mt. Kilanda. I'll have to take a good look at the route. His inclusion of Fish in the route is certainly interesting because it makes certain boss battles go faster and it also provides an HP buffer. In any case, I'm thinking that something close to 2 hours would definitely be possible for segmented. Currently I'm at 0:22:xx leaving Tipa at the beginning of Year 2.

EDIT: I think I know why he skips River Belle Path in Year 3: he needs to get some drops from Mushroom Forest and Mine of Cathuriges, then backtrack to Marr's Pass to sell those items and forge a Butterfly Head, Mythril Armor, and Iron Belt. I'm slightly wondering if Butterfly Head is worth it because the FA brings you to close range (whereas staying away from some bosses is preferred), but it does quite a bit more damage than the Dual Shooter's FA and you can still switch to the Dual Shooter for certain boss battles. I'll see if I can move RBP back to Year 3 and manipulate the drops necessary for the forges after Mushroom Forest.

dondon151

2012-08-31 04:55:48 am

0:29 going into Tida (tied with wasshu's best time, though faster than his 2:20 run)

Any ideas for Armstrong? I haven't found much of anything to exploit and he moves around too much. I kill one of the Skeleton Mages and then just usually end up blindly attacking, which results in me dying half the time (and it ruined an awesome run where I picked up 2 Worm Antennae and a Gear). Combo attack is preferred over focus attack if I get slowed (wondering if I should just restart; that slow mist is nearly impossible to avoid if he casts it, however).

$Dogg

2012-08-31 11:05:38 am

Fuzzy pickles!

Sadly, I have nothing to contribute to this thread other than support. I'm extremely excited to see someone working on this, as I fiddled around with the idea of a run of this game myself.

By the way, do you happen to have a link to the Japanese player's run comments? I'm pretty interested in checking them out.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-08-31 03:24:43 pm

2012-08-31 03:24:15 pm

His notes can be downloaded here:

▼チャート
　　　　セルキー（2012/08/24）
　　　　　http://www1.axfc.net/uploader/Sc/so/372723
　　　　　pass=wasshu

All in Japanese, I'm afraid; I'm somewhat familiar with the language and have either translated or understood the gist of most of it, but actually translating the entire thing is a pain in the butt and not something that I plan on doing. The important thing to note is that this is an SS route, so he leaves some leeway for mistakes or sub-optimal luck.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-09-01 03:40:00 am

dondon151: 2012-09-01 03:13:45 am

2012-09-01 03:10:02 am

0:56 going into Year 4 (0:09 ahead of wasshu's best time)

I ignored his recommendation to get the Butterfly Head, letting me go to River Belle Path for Year 3 (and skipping Kilanda during Year 4), saving me a good bit of item hunting. I did manage to get a Mythril Armor and an Iron Belt, which by my calculations puts me at exactly 40 def, just enough to survive a shot from most everything in Mt. Vellenge (except for I think a couple of Memiroa's attacks). A little too early to say, but assuming that this year doesn't take too long - which it shouldn't - I think I'll be at sub-1:20 going into Year 5, which puts me in a good position to get close to 2:00. His Year 4 went pretty quickly even going to Kilanda: only 0:18.

By the way, I'm really liking the choice of fisherman as the father's occupation. It enables some noticeably faster and/or easier strategies against some enemies and bosses.

Marche_Fighter_Paladin

2012-09-01 08:40:05 am

Claimh Happy

What are you getting for artifacts in most places?

dondon151

2012-09-02 02:32:01 am

Moogle Pocket in River Belle Path (Year 1)
Earth Pendant in Mine of Cathuriges (Year 1)
Iron in River Belle Path (Year 3)
Rune Bell in Mine of Cathuriges (Year 3)
Moon Pendant in Veo Lu Sluice (Year 5): do I have to complete the dungeon in order to successfully revive the pumpflower plants?

+Atk artifacts otherwise. Some of the stuff up there is because I don't have a better option.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-09-03 04:51:23 am

2012-09-03 04:44:54 am

1:12 entering Year 5, 11 minutes ahead of wasshu's best.

Learned (and confirmed) some interesting stuff. First of all, Goblin Wall on cycle 2 is really hard. I have to make 2 "useless" kills to even have a chance at defeating the Goblin Chieftain for his key near the end of the dungeon. Second, the Goblin King learns Slowga for cycle 2 and also casts spells faster, which makes my cycle 1 strategy useless.

For Selepation Cave, fastest route to the boss that I discovered was going taking the right path in area 1, then immediately going to the top right again in area 2. Cave Worm is a battle where the Dual Shooter is probably a better weapon than the stronger Butterfly Head because the boss will always use either his close range thrashing attack or his earthquake attack when the player is up close.

The Gold Lizard Skirmishers that drop the keys for the boss chamber appear randomly in 2 of 4 possible locations. So there's a 1 in 6 chance of getting the ideal configuration. I'll have to time which configuration is the fastest; there are 2 in particular that seem to be pretty close to me.

I also slightly revised my artifact pickups to better optimize boss battles.

Honestly, Dual Shooter seems to be better in all of these boss battles. Goblin King has a very fast close range attack. Cave Worm has fast and damaging close range attacks. Lizardman King also has a fast close range attack with a large effect radius. Butterfly Head may make some generic battles easier, but I'd have to give up the Mythril Armor on my route (which I may very well do in the end, anyway).

1:12 entering Year 5, 11 minutes ahead of wasshu's best.

Learned (and confirmed) some interesting stuff. First of all, Goblin Wall on cycle 2 is really hard. I have to make 2 "useless" kills to even have a chance at defeating the Goblin Chieftain for his key near the end of the dungeon. Second, the Goblin King learns Slowga for cycle 2 and also casts spells faster, which makes my cycle 1 strategy useless.

For Selepation Cave, fastest route to the boss that I discovered was going taking the right path in area 1, then immediately going to the top right again in area 2. Cave Worm is a battle where the Dual Shooter is probably a better weapon than the stronger Butterfly Head because the boss will always use either his close range thrashing attack or his earthquake attack when the player is up close.

The Gold Lizard Skirmishers that drop the keys for the boss chamber appear randomly in 2 of 4 possible locations. So there's a 1 in 6 chance of getting the ideal configuration. I'll have to time which configuration is the fastest; there are 2 in particular that seem to be pretty close to me.

I also slightly revised my artifact pickups to better optimize boss battles.

Honestly, Dual Shooter seems to be better in all of these boss battles. Goblin King has a very fast close range attack. Cave Worm has fast and damaging close range attacks. Lizardman King also has a fast close range attack with a large effect radius. Butterfly Head may make some generic battles easier, but I'd have to give up the Mythril Armor on my route (which I may very well do in the end, anyway).

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2012-09-07 03:07:30 am

dondon151: 2012-09-07 03:04:40 am

dondon151: 2012-09-07 03:04:37 am

2012-09-07 02:59:33 am

1:34 before Mt. Vellenge, 12 minutes ahead of wasshu's pace. I lost a bit of time by having to pick up and sell extra items because I forgot to take into account the cost of boat fare. Kind of disappointing that Year 5 takes sooo long but that's what happens when you have to travel from literally one corner of the FFCC map to another and then another. I'm not too sure what's up with the caravan cutscenes; I know that some of them are fixed, but some of the others may not be fixed and I need to make sure if there is a possibility of traveling across the map without engaging in any of these cutscenes.

Golem on cycle 2 is so unfair. He likes to use his fire laser and spinning attack a lot, both of which have a huge radius and the latter is virtually unblockable for all hits, as far as I can tell. If I decide to skip armor upgrades in the actual run, I might do Moschet Manor in Year 2 if I can get a good configuration on the switches (so I only have to fight the Golem on cycle 1).

Ghoul02

2013-07-21 02:48:37 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Well, this is an old thread to be bumping...

I've got the game completely routed out now for a single segment run, although I'm not quite sure if I can beat the 2:20 RTA in this... I've done a few test runs up to Mount Vellenge and was getting about a 2:10 in game time to that point, which is pretty good.

The interesting thing is I have the game routed out for a Lilty, since I don't think the extra running speed as a Selkie would really help you much anywhere other than the Lynari Desert. And Lilties are built to hit hard. Cheesy

My route is:
Year 1: River Belle, Mushroom Forest, (get bronze armor), Mines of Cathrige
Year 2: Goblin Wall, (get warrior's weapon), Tida, Moschet Manor
Year 3: River Belle, farm 3 Mythril from Griffins, Mushroom Forest, (mythril gloves and armor) Mines of Cathrige
Year 4: Goblin Wall, Selepation Cave, Master's Weapon, Daemon's court
Year 5: Lynari to get holy, Veo Lu Sluice (clears for extra artifact, either blizzard ring or heart container, Mount Vellenge.

There are a few things that are possible with RNG however that can change the route up immensely. The biggest one is it's possible to get Mythril from an encounter on a highway and a Master's Weapon scroll instead of a Warrior's Weapon scroll in Goblin wall. If this happens, there's no reason to not get an early Master's weapon. I think it's probably pretty rare, in all my tests, I've only seen either happen once.

The other major change happens from money management. I repeat River Belle Path on cycle 2 three times and kill the two griffins before the boss. Those griffins can drop Mythril, which is best since it sells for 1250 gil, a griffin wing, which sells for about 300-500, and a Flame craft, which sells for a whopping 25. If I get unlucky with that and get flame crafts instead of an extra mythril, I can go to Daemon's court early, get the mythril and master's weapon scroll there, and go to Selepation cave with the Master's weapon.

The only other issue I'm really having at this point is phase three of the Meteor parasite. I have almost no good strategies to handle him. The first two are time consuming and tedious, but pretty easy overall. Find the sweetspot in cycle 1, nuke it with the FC from the master's weapon. Cycle 2 is a bit trickier, since his head is, for whatever reason, too high for the FC to hit. Instead, I run in, smack it 3 times, move out for the explosion and repeat. Phase 3 looks to just suck up every healing item I have though, and I still have no guarantee of beating him. What I've found out so far is that if I kill the fire flower, the area just to the right and all the way at the top of the screen is a safe zone from most attack: the poison flower will still ground pound if you stay there too long, and the meteor parasites explosions will hit you there, but the guns will always miss. If you get hit by two of the guns, it's an instant death, since and it's really easy to run into two of them if you're trying to move out of the way. My route for Mt.Vellenge is incredibly bare minimum (I kill one of the first two Chimera for life, kill the giant skeletor to the right for blizzard, grab the two artifacts on the right wing, kill the first ghost with Cure and move to the boss, grabbing the two artifacts on the way) and before I ran out of Phoenix Downs, that area was over 30 minutes.

Every video I've found online has either been way farther, which means they can tank most of those hits, or they camp and use magic, which isn't really viable for a character who has a 16 mag tops.

Anyway, I've definitely got room for about 20 minutes of improvement in the runs I have done, between poor bosses and stupid mistakes (getting lost in a town I rarely go to comes to mind). I may just have to practice the crap out of the Meteor parasite, or find a new strategy. If you guys have any thoughts or comments let me know. I'll gladly share my notes too, if you guys want to take a look. It's actually a decent game to run and I'd love to race somebody.

Well, this is an old thread to be bumping...

I've got the game completely routed out now for a single segment run, although I'm not quite sure if I can beat the 2:20 RTA in this... I've done a few test runs up to Mount Vellenge and was getting about a 2:10 in game time to that point, which is pretty good.

The interesting thing is I have the game routed out for a Lilty, since I don't think the extra running speed as a Selkie would really help you much anywhere other than the Lynari Desert. And Lilties are built to hit hard. :D

My route is:
Year 1: River Belle, Mushroom Forest, (get bronze armor), Mines of Cathrige
Year 2: Goblin Wall, (get warrior's weapon), Tida, Moschet Manor
Year 3: River Belle, farm 3 Mythril from Griffins,  Mushroom Forest, (mythril gloves and armor) Mines of Cathrige
Year 4: Goblin Wall, Selepation Cave, Master's Weapon, Daemon's court
Year 5: Lynari to get holy, Veo Lu Sluice (clears for extra artifact, either blizzard ring or heart container, Mount Vellenge.

There are a few things that are possible with RNG however that can change the route up immensely. The biggest one is it's possible to get Mythril from an encounter on a highway and a Master's Weapon scroll instead of a Warrior's Weapon scroll in Goblin wall. If this happens, there's no reason to not get an early Master's weapon. I think it's probably pretty rare, in all my tests, I've only seen either happen once.

The other major change happens from money management. I repeat River Belle Path on cycle 2 three times and kill the two griffins before the boss. Those griffins can drop Mythril, which is best since it sells for 1250 gil, a griffin wing, which sells for about 300-500, and a Flame craft, which sells for a whopping 25. If I get unlucky with that and get flame crafts instead of an extra mythril, I can go to Daemon's court early, get the mythril and master's weapon scroll there, and go to Selepation cave with the Master's weapon.

The only other issue I'm really having at this point is phase three of the Meteor parasite. I have almost no good strategies to handle him. The first two are time consuming and tedious, but pretty easy overall. Find the sweetspot in cycle 1, nuke it with the FC from the master's weapon. Cycle 2 is a bit trickier, since his head is, for whatever reason, too high for the FC to hit. Instead, I run in, smack it 3 times, move out for the explosion and repeat. Phase 3 looks to just suck up every healing item I have though, and I still have no guarantee of beating him. What I've found out so far is that if I kill the fire flower, the area just to the right and all the way at the top of the screen is a safe zone from most attack: the poison flower will still ground pound if you stay there too long, and the meteor parasites explosions will hit you there, but the guns will always miss. If you get hit by two of the guns, it's an instant death, since and it's really easy to run into two of them if you're trying to move out of the way. My route for Mt.Vellenge is incredibly bare minimum (I kill one of the first two Chimera for life, kill the giant skeletor to the right for blizzard, grab the two artifacts on the right wing, kill the first ghost with Cure and move to the boss, grabbing the two artifacts on the way) and before I ran out of Phoenix Downs, that area was over 30 minutes.

Every video I've found online has either been way farther, which means they can tank most of those hits, or they camp and use magic, which isn't really viable for a character who has a 16 mag tops.

Anyway, I've definitely got room for about 20 minutes of improvement in the runs I have done, between poor bosses and stupid mistakes (getting lost in a town I rarely go to comes to mind). I may just have to practice the crap out of the Meteor parasite, or find a new strategy. If you guys have any thoughts or comments let me know. I'll gladly share my notes too, if you guys want to take a look. It's actually a decent game to run and I'd love to race somebody.

Tiberius

2013-07-21 05:03:48 pm

Make it so.

Really glad to see someone doing an awesome job on this, it's a game I've always wanted to see a run of as I used to love playing it coop (until my disc broke). I'd love to see your notes too if that's ok, if I can find a new disc/emulate it I'd be happy to help with any testing too.

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2013-07-22 10:32:31 pm

2013-07-22 12:11:19 am

I haven't revisited this run for awhile (Meteor Parasite is too hard! That and just a lack of time, but mostly a lack of time), but according to wasshu's nicovideo page, his new best with a Selkie is 2:11:30. He also updated his route awhile ago with a v. 3.0, though I haven't taken a good look at it yet. It's been so long that I can't remember exactly what's what now.

I don't remember good strategies for MP's third form, but I swear that I've seen one around somewhere. wasshu's route has a couple of lines of notes, although they seem to be incredibly nonspecific. If you want his notes, look underneath the "RTA" section at http://com.nicovideo.jp/community/co1332646 for a link. I also drafted partial notes for a segmented Selkie run that go up to Mt. Vellenge.

Anyway, I can't really comment on your money management plan, seeing as I'm unfamiliar with Lilty weapons, but wasshu's route doesn't require Mythril farming at all. In Mines of Cathuriges cycle 2, there are IIRC 2 or 3 treasure chests that have a fair chance at dropping Mythril, and his route notes other places where enemies tend to drop valuable items. The other major change that I would suggest would be to try to avoid Moschet Manor entirely. That map just takes way too long, especially if you don't get good luck with the switches. According to my notes, going to Veo Lu Sluice is anywhere from 1-2 minutes faster.

Are you sure that Selkies have faster running speed? I'm not good at noticing these things. I thought that they were supposed to only have a faster FA charging time on their weapons. I'm actually not convinced at all that Lilty is anywhere close to the best race for speedruns, because the only advantage that I'm aware of is that they have +1 base str in comparison to Selkies. This only means that they reach atk thresholds slightly sooner at best, and judging by the artifact sequence, this hardly matters at all. Most of their 2-hit Focus Attacks actually do 1 fewer damage per hit than the Selkies' Dual Blast. So unless they do their 3-hit combo faster than Selkies, I can't think of any other reasons to go Lilty. And actually, I noticed that Clavats have a faster 3-hit combo, so I do see an argument for a Clavat speedrun. Most bosses go slightly faster, but I think that there are some bosses that Selkies can cheese from range that Clavats have a harder time against.

tl;dr I would love to see your notes and share mine.

I haven't revisited this run for awhile (Meteor Parasite is too hard! That and just a lack of time, but mostly a lack of time), but according to wasshu's nicovideo page, his new best with a Selkie is 2:11:30. He also updated his route awhile ago with a v. 3.0, though I haven't taken a good look at it yet. It's been so long that I can't remember exactly what's what now.

I don't remember good strategies for MP's third form, but I swear that I've seen one around somewhere. wasshu's route has a couple of lines of notes, although they seem to be incredibly nonspecific. If you want his notes, look underneath the "RTA" section at [url]http://com.nicovideo.jp/community/co1332646[/url] for a link. I also drafted partial notes for a segmented Selkie run that go up to Mt. Vellenge.

Anyway, I can't really comment on your money management plan, seeing as I'm unfamiliar with Lilty weapons, but wasshu's route doesn't require Mythril farming at all. In Mines of Cathuriges cycle 2, there are IIRC 2 or 3 treasure chests that have a fair chance at dropping Mythril, and his route notes other places where enemies tend to drop valuable items. The other major change that I would suggest would be to try to avoid Moschet Manor entirely. That map just takes way too long, especially if you don't get good luck with the switches. According to my notes, going to Veo Lu Sluice is anywhere from 1-2 minutes faster.

Are you sure that Selkies have faster running speed? I'm not good at noticing these things. I thought that they were supposed to only have a faster FA charging time on their weapons. I'm actually not convinced at all that Lilty is anywhere close to the best race for speedruns, because the only advantage that I'm aware of is that they have +1 base str in comparison to Selkies. This only means that they reach atk thresholds slightly sooner at best, and judging by the artifact sequence, this hardly matters at all. Most of their 2-hit Focus Attacks actually do 1 fewer damage per hit than the Selkies' Dual Blast. So unless they do their 3-hit combo faster than Selkies, I can't think of any other reasons to go Lilty. And actually, I noticed that Clavats have a faster 3-hit combo, so I do see an argument for a Clavat speedrun. Most bosses go slightly faster, but I think that there are some bosses that Selkies can cheese from range that Clavats have a harder time against.

tl;dr I would love to see your notes and share mine.

Ghoul02

2013-07-22 09:42:04 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

My Japanese is better than most, but I don't have a prayer at deciphering that... My friend's offered to help though, so I'll do what I can and let him take over.

If I could figure out Meteor Parasite, I could at least get to completing runs. I think switching to Selkie may help there (and in other places as well).

My notes are pretty simple for the most part. I tried to have enough to route the game, which meant copying drops. I wanted it bare-bones enough to look at while I go, so especially for the later levels, the big point is the maps. You can find them here if you're interested, but it's probably better to just talk about it, since they're really rough... However, if somebody were to pick up the game, it'd probably be pretty nice to have, especially since, as far as I can tell, there aren't any real maps for most levels. Even mine are pretty crude (just lines in paint) but they do the job well enough.

Going down this bit by bit:

On race: I didn't know that Clavat's hit faster. It's an interesting twist in what was already an interesting debate... You have no idea how happy I was when I tried out a Yuke to make sure they weren't somehow faster with magic and was 10 minutes behind on an average run. There aren't really any Yuke designs I like.

I think for the first two bosses, Lilty is probably slightly faster, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that slow down over time, especially since being farther away baits easily punishable ranged attacks. Lilties don't get a ranged FC until the Master's Weapon, and I've already discussed it's biggest failing: namely that it can't hit the Meteor Parasite in phases 2 and 3. If a Selkie's Dual shot or a Clavat's MW FC could take care of that, it might very well be faster to use one.

Selkies have a slightly higher running speed, but it's easiest to see when they carry the Chalice. Without it, you're still confined by Mog, but anecdotally, it's much easier to reach the very edge of Mog's barrier, and when they carry the chalice, they're a good deal faster. Maybe I'm wrong I guess, but I could swear that's true.

Lilties do pretty well against bosses, but they're a bit tricky early game, thanks to a bit of a wonky FC on their basic weapon (the hit box is long enough to hit twice if sweetspotted, but it's relatively weak). The other problem is, again, the lack of a halfway decent ranged attack to bait spells from bosses.

I usually use a Clavat when playing for fun, so I'd be happy if that were a viable option (Dark Coat is just adorable). I'd assume they'd rely less on the FC then and more on the quick 3 combos. I do think you'd need the Master's Weapon though if that's a ranged FC, or else you're going to have to use my strat for the meteor parasite I found before I learned about the sweet spot (if you run in circles, you can bait poison in the back, avoid the fireballs, and smack the parasite a few times.

Money management is pretty tricky, partly because I never really charted out the exact prices things sell for and how much of each I need. I can almost guarantee I pick up too many useless things for a small reward... I think a better chart of exactly what I need is going to be pretty important. If I were to map it out... You need 300 both ways to Lynari, 50 per time crossing over to the Fields of Fum (at least 3), Bronze armor is about 200, the warrior's weapon is about 300, Mythril armor is about 400, myrthril accessory is about 300. You also need two Alloys, at about 125 each, the mythril armor and accessory plan at about 350 each and it's probably nice to have at least one meat/fish for each boss, which comes out to 28 gil per if you buy it from your dad, 40 if at a town.

Speaking of dad, why does his route use rancher? I could sorta see fisherman, since fish is probably something you eat before each fight, but Selkies like fish by default, so it also works out as a last ditch healing item if need be. I could see if they were equal but he explicitly switches TO rancher. Does the Rancher give more meat or something? And that's excluding the fact that I think a merchant parent is important, since it allows you to delay purchases; the merchant only shows up in Marr's Pass on odd years. Having a merchant father allows you to delay the alloy purchases, as well as sell items later, when you have a few more of them to sell.

By Daemon's Court, I assume you mean Moschet Manor? The level where you have to kill the tonberrys? I've considered dropping that one as well, seeing as not only do you go to pretty much every room (the only one without tonberrys almost always has an item worth 350 gil), but the boss can be a mega troll and heal. It's a quick boss if you're lucky, but if you catch it wrong, it can take forever. The only issue with going to Veo Lu there though is that it puts Veo Lu at cycle 2 on your second trip there, which will slow you down a little bit. I'd imagine you'd intentionally die after reviving all the flowers to get back to the entrance, rather than face the boss, right?

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. Let me know what you think; I'd love to bounce some ideas back and forth here.

My Japanese is better than most, but I don't have a prayer at deciphering that... My friend's offered to help though, so I'll do what I can and let him take over.

If I could figure out Meteor Parasite, I could at least get to completing runs. I think switching to Selkie may help there (and in other places as well).

My notes are pretty simple for the most part. I tried to have enough to route the game, which meant copying drops. I wanted it bare-bones enough to look at while I go, so especially for the later levels, the big point is the maps. You can find them [url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5u_D20FII-INm9kd01idm1VU0k/edit?usp=sharing]here[/url] if you're interested, but it's probably better to just talk about it, since they're really rough... However, if somebody were to pick up the game, it'd probably be pretty nice to have, especially since, as far as I can tell, there aren't any real maps for most levels. Even mine are pretty crude (just lines in paint) but they do the job well enough.

Going down this bit by bit:

On race: I didn't know that Clavat's hit faster. It's an interesting twist in what was already an interesting debate... You have no idea how happy I was when I tried out a Yuke to make sure they weren't somehow faster with magic and was 10 minutes behind on an average run. There aren't really any Yuke designs I like.

I think for the first two bosses, Lilty is probably slightly faster, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that slow down over time, especially since being farther away baits easily punishable ranged attacks. Lilties don't get a ranged FC until the Master's Weapon, and I've already discussed it's biggest failing: namely that it can't hit the Meteor Parasite in phases 2 and 3. If a Selkie's Dual shot or a Clavat's MW FC could take care of that, it might very well be faster to use one.

Selkies have a slightly higher running speed, but it's easiest to see when they carry the Chalice. Without it, you're still confined by Mog, but anecdotally, it's much easier to reach the very edge of Mog's barrier, and when they carry the chalice, they're a good deal faster. Maybe I'm wrong I guess, but I could swear that's true.

Lilties do pretty well against bosses, but they're a bit tricky early game, thanks to a bit of a wonky FC on their basic weapon (the hit box is long enough to hit twice if sweetspotted, but it's relatively weak). The other problem is, again, the lack of a halfway decent ranged attack to bait spells from bosses.

I usually use a Clavat when playing for fun, so I'd be happy if that were a viable option (Dark Coat is just adorable). I'd assume they'd rely less on the FC then and more on the quick 3 combos. I do think you'd need the Master's Weapon though if that's a ranged FC, or else you're going to have to use my strat for the meteor parasite I found before I learned about the sweet spot (if you run in circles, you can bait poison in the back, avoid the fireballs, and smack the parasite a few times.

Money management is pretty tricky, partly because I never really charted out the exact prices things sell for and how much of each I need. I can almost guarantee I pick up too many useless things for a small reward... I think a better chart of exactly what I need is going to be pretty important. If I were to map it out... You need 300 both ways to Lynari, 50 per time crossing over to the Fields of Fum (at least 3), Bronze armor is about 200, the warrior's weapon is about 300, Mythril armor is about 400, myrthril accessory is about 300. You also need two Alloys, at about 125 each, the mythril armor and accessory plan at about 350 each and it's probably nice to have at least one meat/fish for each boss, which comes out to 28 gil per if you buy it from your dad, 40 if at a town.

Speaking of dad, why does his route use rancher? I could sorta see fisherman, since fish is probably something you eat before each fight, but Selkies like fish by default, so it also works out as a last ditch healing item if need be. I could see if they were equal but he explicitly switches TO rancher. Does the Rancher give more meat or something? And that's excluding the fact that I think a merchant parent is important, since it allows you to delay purchases; the merchant only shows up in Marr's Pass on odd years. Having a merchant father allows you to delay the alloy purchases, as well as sell items later, when you have a few more of them to sell.

By Daemon's Court, I assume you mean Moschet Manor? The level where you have to kill the tonberrys? I've considered dropping that one as well, seeing as not only do you go to pretty much every room (the only one without tonberrys almost always has an item worth 350 gil), but the boss can be a mega troll and heal. It's a quick boss if you're lucky, but if you catch it wrong, it can take forever. The only issue with going to Veo Lu there though is that it puts Veo Lu at cycle 2 on your second trip there, which will slow you down a little bit. I'd imagine you'd intentionally die after reviving all the flowers to get back to the entrance, rather than face the boss, right?

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. Let me know what you think; I'd love to bounce some ideas back and forth here.

dondon151

2013-07-22 11:04:09 pm

Oh wow, I totally derped on Moschet Manor. Yes, that's what I meant.

Rancher does give out more meat than Fisherman gives fish. Rancher gives around 16 pieces of meat per year (I think you have to keep talking to him?), whereas I think fisherman gives only 4 fish per year. You don't really need a ton of meat, but one year's worth should last you for most of the game. Selkies like fish better than meat by default, but meat is #2 on their list. I personally never found the necessity to have a merchant parent, but I also planned my route for a segmented run. The meat/fish are obviously important for the strength bonuses.

The Clavat ranged FA is still weaker than the Selkie ranged FA (either version), and more importantly, is not available before the Master's Weapon. Its range is also slightly smaller than the Dual Blast FA. The Orc King and Goblin King boss battles are, off the top of my head, a bit harder without a good ranged option. However, for some other battles (like Armstrong and Golem), the faster 3-hit should offset the Selkie's FA power advantage, I think.

Finally, I'm not sure if it's prudent to go for a Mythril accessory (I'm assuming you mean shield, helm, gloves, etc. depending on race). For Lilties, it does actually let them reach 45 def, but Clavats and Selkies can't reach 45 def without a +def artifact or two. It costs a lot to make and the half heart of damage that you'll not take from enemy attacks relative to Iron might prove to have no effect.

Oh wow, I totally derped on Moschet Manor. Yes, that's what I meant.

Rancher does give out more meat than Fisherman gives fish. Rancher gives around 16 pieces of meat per year (I think you have to keep talking to him?), whereas I think fisherman gives only 4 fish per year. You don't really need a [i]ton[/i] of meat, but one year's worth should last you for most of the game. Selkies like fish better than meat by default, but meat is #2 on their list. I personally never found the necessity to have a merchant parent, but I also planned my route for a segmented run. The meat/fish are obviously important for the strength bonuses.

The Clavat ranged FA is still weaker than the Selkie ranged FA (either version), and more importantly, is not available before the Master's Weapon. Its range is also slightly smaller than the Dual Blast FA. The Orc King and Goblin King boss battles are, off the top of my head, a bit harder without a good ranged option. However, for some other battles (like Armstrong and Golem), the faster 3-hit should offset the Selkie's FA power advantage, I think.

Finally, I'm not sure if it's prudent to go for a Mythril accessory (I'm assuming you mean shield, helm, gloves, etc. depending on race). For Lilties, it does actually let them reach 45 def, but Clavats and Selkies can't reach 45 def without a +def artifact or two. It costs a lot to make and the half heart of damage that you'll not take from enemy attacks relative to Iron might prove to have no effect.

Ghoul02

2013-07-22 11:18:31 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

The Mythril Accessory is partly because of playability; in a single segment run, I really want to make the run count, but at the same time, I don't think it's in Wasshu's route. I'm working on translating what I can; my friend can help me with the rest. You're right though; that may be relatively easy to skip and the price difference is immense: assuming I get 3 mythril over the course of the run, being able to sell one is 1250 gil in my pocket. Naturally, not needing a third mythril opens all kinds of devilish possibilities. The only other argument I can think of would be something like a marathon where making sure I finish the game counts. In that case, selecting defense artifacts and getting all Mythril gear is enough to survive 2 hits of the meteor parasite, at least as a Lilty and probably a Clavat.

Wasshu's route looks rather interesting with a split of it's own; if you have enough gil, you skip Goblin Wall R2 and go to Mount Kilanda, which is interesting. I suppose this avoids the Goblin King trolling you and that area right before the boss where it's either sacrifice a PD or sacrifice a lot of time... I can't wait to get this sucker translated...

Side note: This is probably completely useless knowledge, but a 4 player run would probably use what in your opinion? I would think it'd take at least one Yuke for magic artifacts(there's always going to be one or two that need taking), faster healing and life, one Selkie to carry the chalice, and one Clavat for the faster 3 hit combo. I suppose the last would probably be another Selkie for ranged FCs? Family trades of Farmer, Merchant, Rancher and Fisher?

The Mythril Accessory is partly because of playability; in a single segment run, I really want to make the run count, but at the same time, I don't think it's in Wasshu's route. I'm working on translating what I can; my friend can help me with the rest. You're right though; that may be relatively easy to skip and the price difference is immense: assuming I get 3 mythril over the course of the run, being able to sell one is 1250 gil in my pocket. Naturally, not needing a third mythril opens all kinds of devilish possibilities. The only other argument I can think of would be something like a marathon where making sure I finish the game counts. In that case, selecting defense artifacts and getting all Mythril gear is enough to survive 2 hits of the meteor parasite, at least as a Lilty and probably a Clavat.

Wasshu's route looks rather interesting with a split of it's own; if you have enough gil, you skip Goblin Wall R2 and go to Mount Kilanda, which is interesting. I suppose this avoids the Goblin King trolling you and that area right before the boss where it's either sacrifice a PD or sacrifice a lot of time... I can't wait to get this sucker translated...

Side note: This is probably completely useless knowledge, but a 4 player run would probably use what in your opinion? I would think it'd take at least one Yuke for magic artifacts(there's always going to be one or two that need taking), faster healing and life, one Selkie to carry the chalice, and one Clavat for the faster 3 hit combo. I suppose the last would probably be another Selkie for ranged FCs? Family trades of Farmer, Merchant, Rancher and Fisher?

dondon151

Edit history:

dondon151: 2013-07-23 12:23:35 am

2013-07-22 11:47:15 pm

No opinion on the 4-player run. I haven't thought that far yet. A Yuke to sponge the magic artifacts is almost a requirement because there's no way that you'd be able to have offense of any caliber otherwise.

I partially translated part of wasshu's route (my Japanese is passable), but I don't have enough time right now to do the rest.

Anonymous

2013-07-24 06:56:18 pm

I have a question as to why you can't reach Leynari desert on year 3 by using life on the plants in Veo Lu Sluice in order to fix the river?

Ghoul02

2013-07-24 10:48:23 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

That's not how it works sadly (although that'd make for a very boring speedrun as well).

In Year 1, there are only 3 stages available. In Year 2, all of the non-river crossings are available.
In Year 3, you can pay to cross the river, and possibly to go to Mount Kilanda, but you can't go north to Alfitaria.
In Year 4, you can go pretty much anywhere but Leuda and Mount Vellenge.

The reason you HAVE to make it to Year 5 is because that's the year the river dries up. This forces the ferryman out to the ocean and opens Leuda/Lynari Desert. After this, you make the trek up to Veo Lu to refill the river and allow you to cross it. At that point, you have both the holy element and are on the correct side of the river to complete the game. The river will naturally refill on its own in Year 9 or so, which is supposed to give you time to bulk up before going to the Abyss.

Side note, I did a little test of getting to Mount Vellenge with Wasshu's route, which is clearly superior. I lost 15 minutes according to the in game timer, but I took my time far more than I normally do (killing extra enemies, etc). I also had absolutely abysmal drop luck with getting mythril and other necessities, so I had to spend a decent amount of time farming it

That's not how it works sadly (although that'd make for a very boring speedrun as well).

In Year 1, there are only 3 stages available. In Year 2, all of the non-river crossings are available.
In Year 3, you can pay to cross the river, and possibly to go to Mount Kilanda, but you can't go north to Alfitaria.
In Year 4, you can go pretty much anywhere but Leuda and Mount Vellenge.

The reason you HAVE to make it to Year 5 is because that's the year the river dries up. This forces the ferryman out to the ocean and opens Leuda/Lynari Desert. After this, you make the trek up to Veo Lu to refill the river and allow you to cross it.  At that point, you have both the holy element and are on the correct side of the river to complete the game. The river will naturally refill on its own in Year 9 or so, which is supposed to give you time to bulk up before going to the Abyss.

Side note, I did a little test of getting to Mount Vellenge with Wasshu's route, which is clearly superior. I lost 15 minutes according to the in game timer, but I took my time far more than I normally do (killing extra enemies, etc). I also had absolutely abysmal drop luck with getting mythril and other necessities, so I had to spend a decent amount of time farming it

Ghoul02

2013-07-29 11:08:03 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Bumping to say I finally completed a run; an absolutely horrible 3:10. I easily lost 10 minutes against Raem and in Mount Vellenge. It was absolutely godawful. But I completed it. Makes the topic title even more laugable, but then again, I suppose the eventual run will be sub-5, so there lol. I would share the video here, but apparently dummy me forgot to put game audio through somehow... >_> Whoops.

The goal is to trim an hour off of it. It's gotta be possible, since the Japanese world record is, as far as I can tell, a 2:12. The question may be what I'm satisfied with. I think cutting 20 minutes off in the next week is both manageable and a good start. It'd get me a third of the way there.

dondon151

2013-07-29 11:29:36 pm

Congratulations for finishing a run; once you've tested out some better boss strats, you won't have to waste so much time grabbing so many Phoenix Downs, either.