Final Fantasy IX Speedrun

2006-06-30 03:49:06 pm

I just started the run and ended the first segment at the first moogle with a time of 6:29. I'm about to do the play and the swordfight scene and am going for 100/100 impressed nobles so I can get the 10000 gil. This way I can do the cotten robe trick in Lindblum.

I've decided to skip all FMVs. I don't recall if Radix gave the OK for it but it doesn't matter. I'm shooting for around 9 hours total.

Any assistance from people who have a good knowledge of FFIX would be appreciated.

Thread title:

Psychochild

2006-06-30 04:08:16 pm

I thought skipping FMVs fell under Hardware Modification, but eh...

gmacd

Edit history:

gmacd: 2006-06-30 04:35:09 pm

2006-06-30 04:16:34 pm

I'd like to think that Radix is reasonable enough to allow it, considering that it would shave off around half an hour or more from the time.

Here is the rule in question:

Quote:

Cutscenes: If a game lets you skip cutscenes, then you must do so. This is not a cutscene and/or plot site. Runners who have played a game dozens of times to do a run don't want to sit through cutscenes. Unfortunately, some games are lazily programmed and you can't skip cutscenes. In this case the runner goes insane as they count for his or her time.

I'm about to take my 4th go at the swordfight. That scene has always been my weakness, and I'm pondering if the extra gil will even save me any time.

Hitaro

Edit history:

Hitaro: 2006-06-30 04:37:30 pm

2006-06-30 04:35:57 pm

Though I'm not sure what "FMV" stands for nor how to skip it, but if you're aiming for 9 hours, I'm pretty sure it's a bit over the limit.

Edit: Yay acronym finder!

If the videos are skipped just by pressing a button, without any 3rd party hardware, it should be allowed.

Psychochild

Edit history:

Psychochild: 2006-06-30 04:47:19 pm

2006-06-30 04:43:11 pm

Quote:

Though I'm not sure what "FMV" stands for nor how to skip it, but if you're aiming for 9 hours, I'm pretty sure it's a bit over the limit.

Edit: Yay acronym finder!

If the videos are skipped just by pressing a button, without any 3rd party hardware, it should be allowed.

Yes, the videos are skipped just by pressing a button. To be more specific the "Open" button for the PS/PS2 disk tray. There's no way in the game to skip them. But of course, that's just my thoughts and I'm certain it was a concern the first time the topic came up. See what Radix has to say about it before you continue, I say.

Hitaro

2006-06-30 04:47:54 pm

Quote:

Yes, the videos are skipped just by pressing a button. To be more specific the "Open" button for the PS/PS2 disk tray. There's no way to skip them otherwise. But of course, that's just my thoughts and I'm certain it was a concern the first time the topic came up. See what Radix has to say about it before you continue, I say.

Close enough. I would consider it hardware modification, this falls in the same place as the Crooked Cartridge.
And, again, if you're shooting for 9 hours, I'm not sure a run will be accepted anytime soon.

CannibalK9

2006-06-30 04:55:46 pm

give me your eyes!!!

Grr, there was discussion and it was mentioned that the cutscene trick was intended by the developers to beat it under 12 hours and get the Excaliber. I never managed to find an article on the subject.

gmacd

2006-06-30 04:59:20 pm

I don't believe it is similar to a crooked cartridge. In OoT, you can use that trick to go past people who you shouldn't be able to. That and the garbled noise makes look very bad. Skipping FMVs in FFIX is a simple thing that doesn't change anything in the game like the cartridge trick.

Hitaro

2006-06-30 05:30:29 pm

Quote:

I don't believe it is similar to a crooked cartridge. In OoT, you can use that trick to go past people who you shouldn't be able to. That and the garbled noise makes look very bad. Skipping FMVs in FFIX is a simple thing that doesn't change anything in the game like the cartridge trick.

Except skipping the cutscenes, wich is a major time saver.

gmacd

2006-06-30 05:46:11 pm

But nothing is different. What I mean is the game continues on the same whether or not an FMV is skipped. On the other hand with the cartridge trick, things do change. You could go and talk to the Deku Tree for the first time with the Fairy Ocarina if you wanted to.

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2006-06-30 06:08:56 pm

2006-06-30 06:06:26 pm

sda loyalist

This does NOT fall under hardware modification. It is built-in functionality to the game that opening the tray while an FFIX FMV plays, skips it.

Try it on other FF games. It doesn't work.
From the back of my CD case:

Quote:

Almost one hour of seamlessly integrated full motion videos

gmacd

2006-06-30 06:20:02 pm

I'm so bad at the sword fight. I've been trying for the last two hours with no luck. The highest I got was 98/100.

It'd look kinda bad if I didn't get 100 on the sword fight, but I'm getting a little frustrated.

CannibalK9

2006-06-30 06:26:13 pm

give me your eyes!!!

Hmm, I always found that laughably easy.

Oh well, keep trying!!

gmacd

2006-06-30 06:39:02 pm

Then maybe you should be the one doing the speedrun.

Anyway, I'm still trying. I really want to run this game.

Dark

2006-06-30 07:21:24 pm

The highest I ever had was 99/100. (depressed) Keep trying, you'll get it with practice.

darkwasabi

2006-06-30 08:23:23 pm

King of hearts

FUMIZO got a time of 7:28 at the final save point in ultimagarden, so sub 9 should easily be obtainable. There's a guide of how he did it that's on the site, so if someone could translate that you'd be able to get a crapload of tips, but so far we haven't gotten anyone able to do that yet. I remember something about fast loading, you have to constantly tap Start to get the game to load things quicker. Also playing it on the PS2 with the Fast Disk Speed option should be able to save about 15 minutes overall(which is legal here).

http://ultimagarden.net/ff_ta.html

Mkt2015

2006-06-30 09:16:12 pm

MGS for PS1 forever.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&(you)=http://www.ne.jp/asahi/personal/heaven/ltt/ff/9/ta/tareport.html

After "ja&" only use the the third letter of you. Also, don't include the ().

The rest of the links on the page should automatically translate.

Psychochild

2006-06-30 09:21:29 pm

OK then. Carry on.

gmacd

2006-06-30 09:22:55 pm

The problem is that the translation is very hard to follow. His explaination of a trick to make load times faster is almost incomprehensible. We really need someone fluent to translate it.

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2006-06-30 10:15:02 pm

2006-06-30 10:11:04 pm

sda loyalist

The load time thing for battles is true, we mentioned this in the last thread about FF9, which is probably back a page or so...

Also, the japanese text is by default quicker, because there'll be less of it. Comparisons are hard for games with as much text as this.

The battle speedup thing relies on pressing the Start button while it's loading. I don't know the exact timing, but I've done it many times.

Edit: From what I can make out from that page, it's to do with the drive spinning up. Experiment a bit; before the spinup, at the same time, a little after...

spikevegeta

2006-07-18 09:08:52 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Hey, I'm interested in Helping out with what I can on this run. When I click on the link to Ultima Garden, the only link to the FF9 run is the 3rd box from the left, which traslates as report. I'm assuming that's the Guide right?

Anyways I can't figure out how to translate any of that at all. The translater won't put it in English, but I don't even no if that is what I'm looking for. Could somebody help me out?

Mkt2015

2006-07-18 11:45:23 pm

MGS for PS1 forever.

I had...a few days ago, translated the first couple parts from english to understandable english. However, when it comes to parts that are very detailed it can be very confusing. If you view the translated page, after the line that reads like "there are no items which are stolen and no items which are bough" you can ignore everything else. The rest is mainly just comments. Now, if someone wanted to help me translate the whole thing...that would help.

Fragmaster01

2006-07-20 03:58:29 am

Wiggle wiggle

Sorry, can't help you there. However, for the extra gil part from the swordfight, I don't see how the gil would be much use, but the moonstone might be, does it teach any summons? I forget...
Also, who would you concentrate on for party members? Zidane and Steiner are probably good ideas(Grand Lethal+Shock), but what of the others? I'd probably take Eiko and Dagger over the others, Dagger for summon/heal, and Eiko for summon and more importantly, dispel(stupid protects and shells on the final boss). The quick animation for the summons would definately need to be on for that idea, though.
Moot point for me to try, though, my PS1 is broke, so I only have an emulator, which while I could fake the disc removal possibly, emu runs aren't accepted here.

Traximus

2006-07-20 05:42:20 pm

:)

Remember to pick up the Excallibur II then :p

Lag.Com

2006-07-21 12:15:59 am

sda loyalist

Nah, the battle with Hades is somewhat lengthy. Besides, nobody needs Excalibur II. Give Steiner a fairly good sword and you can Shock things for 9999 anyway.

Well, maybe not in a low level speedrun. I bet the damage is still high.