Final Fantasy IX Speedrun

Essentia

2007-04-16 02:59:52 am

Everything's better with Magitek

Quote:

what did you get for winning the card game btw?

Rebirth Ring. Gives the ability Auto-Life, which is very much needed for certain parts. Wink

Vivi_Fan

Edit history:

Vivi_Fan: 2007-04-16 09:10:38 pm

2007-04-16 09:09:42 pm

I have just finished watching the run. It's really great! (even if it could have been a bit better in some points)
Your equipment planning is amazing, as well as your strength bonus planning (in order to have a number of HP which ends with a 7). I never thought about using Charge! for the ending battles (and I used Vivi instead of Freya), but this is a great strategy, it saves a bunch of time.
I was really amazed by some boss battles: Taharka pawned Grin

, Arkh without Clear headed, Kraken strategy, and also the last battle (when I saw that there were only Zidane standing after Grand cross, I thought even the three Blue Shockwaves wouldn't let you enough time to defeat Necron before the next Grand Cross but I was wrong. The end of this battle was awesome).
Well finally I thank you Essentia, I 'm really glad that FFIX has a speed run on SDA because it's a marvelous game which is often underrated... Now I think I will review my strategy the next time I attempt an Excalibur II run Grin

PS: Now I'm sure that NTSC version runs way faster than PAL version. Even the characters in the exploration screen move faster! (for instance, right at the beginning of the game, there's no way to avoid being bumped into by Puck).

I have just finished watching the run. It's really great! (even if it could have been a bit better in some points)
Your equipment planning is amazing, as well as your strength bonus planning (in order to have a number of HP which ends with a 7). I never thought about using Charge! for the ending battles (and I used Vivi instead of Freya), but this is a great strategy, it saves a bunch of time.
I was really amazed by some boss battles: Taharka pawned  ;D , Arkh without Clear headed, Kraken strategy, and also the last battle (when I saw that there were only Zidane standing after Grand cross, I thought even the three Blue Shockwaves wouldn't let you enough time to defeat Necron before the next Grand Cross but I was wrong. The end of this battle was awesome).
Well finally I thank you Essentia, I 'm really glad that FFIX has a speed run on SDA because it's a marvelous game which is often underrated... Now I think I will review my strategy the next time I attempt an Excalibur II run  ;D

PS: Now I'm sure that NTSC version runs way faster than PAL version. Even the characters in the exploration screen move faster! (for instance, right at the beginning of the game, there's no way to avoid being bumped into by Puck).

Essentia

2007-04-16 09:41:52 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Thank you, Vivi_Fan, although I should stress that most of the boss strategies I got from the Ultima Garden run. The only strategies I came up with completely on my own were for Deathguise, Trance Kuja, and Necron. BTW, one of the things I practiced most on this run was equipping and setting abilities. Wink

So can you avoid Puck running into you in the PAL version?

Vivi_Fan

2007-04-17 08:44:46 am

Well I think it's just me who don't know how to move a character properly Tongue

Here is the best I can do:

But if you watch this and then the first segment of your run, you can see that Vivi is faster in the second one.

Essentia

2007-04-17 09:28:55 am

Everything's better with Magitek

It looks like you were using the control stick to move Vivi. For that part, I used the D-pad instead and just held up. There were quite a few times when I used the D-pad instead of the stick, mainly when I had to move in a straight line across a screen.

SantaC

2007-04-18 01:04:37 am

necron is unbeatable right. He is just testing their strenght?

Carcinogen

2007-04-18 04:54:18 pm

Quote:

Well I think it's just me who don't know how to move a character properly Tongue

Here is the best I can do:

But if you watch this and then the first segment of your run, you can see that Vivi is faster in the second one.

You from French Canada or France? Is that the PAL version of the game?

Vivi_Fan

Edit history:

Vivi_Fan: 2007-04-18 06:20:01 pm

2007-04-18 06:16:36 pm

Quote:

There were quite a few times when I used the D-pad instead of the stick, mainly when I had to move in a straight line across a screen.

Now I understand why you set the Movement on Run at the beginning Grin

Quote:

You from French Canada or France? Is that the PAL version of the game?

From France, so I have the PAL version.

Carcinogen

2007-04-18 06:32:26 pm

Quote:

Now I understand why you set the Movement on Run at the beginning Grin

From France, so I have the PAL version.

Vivi runs slower because the PAL version is slower.

Ishmayl

2007-05-03 04:31:35 am

Where can I find this run? FFIX is one of my favorite games, and I would love to see a good run of it.

Zurreco

2007-05-03 04:36:48 am

Just call me the cynicism machine

Quote:

Where can I find this run? FFIX is one of my favorite games, and I would love to see a good run of it.

It's hosted right here on SDA.

Essentia

2007-05-03 07:27:25 am

Everything's better with Magitek

Quote:

Where can I find this run? FFIX is one of my favorite games, and I would love to see a good run of it.

Look here:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/FinalFantasy9.html

Hope you enjoy the run!

Ishmayl

2007-05-03 07:07:17 pm

I can't imagine how I missed that...

DavizZz

2007-05-03 07:14:19 pm

youtube.com/DavizZz2106

Quote:

I can't imagine how I missed that...

right! it is not better than XII but it still belongs to my favs

Feldherr

Edit history:

Feldherr: 2007-05-11 05:26:54 pm

2007-05-11 05:23:44 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Very interesting thread, folks. ^^

I've three general questions regarding the FF IX Speedrun:

1.)
Even it's against the SDA rules, how do I manage to skip fmv sequences with a slimline PS2?
When I open the CD-Case, the scene stops, the CD too and normally, if I close it immediately, the scene will be cut and the game jumps to the next ingame point.

But not with the slimline PS2. It simply progresses the scene when I close the CD-case...

I've tried it many times and it *did* cut a scene sometimes, but very rare and - yeah - only sometimes...

2.)
Does anyone has worked out hot to fasten load times? There's a "Start"-Button trick at the very beginning of this thread I've never heard from. Does it really work?

3.)
Has anyone tried to load FF IX from a HDD on PS2? Can't you save incredible time by copying FF IX on a Harddrive? It should be much faster than the CD-load times.

Arkantos

2009-01-10 01:38:42 pm

Hi everyone, long time reader, first time poster! Haven't registered yet but I will get round to it at some point Smiley

First up, I've got to say that I love this site, one of the best I've ever come across so keep up the good work guys!

Ok, so as you might have gathered, the reason why I'm here is because I intend to do an FFIX speedrun. Now, the problem is, I'm running on the PAL system. The game itself runs 5/6 slower than the NTSC version, but the clock doesn't compensate for this and still runs at NTSC time. Therefore, any NTSC time must be divided by 5/6 to come up with a comparable time for the PAL version. Essentia's run (which inspired me to attempt this) is 8 hours and 32 minutes. This is equivalent to 10 hours and 14 minutes by my calculations in PAL time. So, essentially what I would be interested to know is, would the run be accepted to the site, even though it would appear slower than Essentia's?

Thanks a lot,
Arkanos

Lag.Com

2009-01-11 07:07:12 am

sda loyalist

Well, because the PAL version doesn't have any gameplay differences, you would need to beat the equivalent PAL time to have it up on the site. Also, FF7 had a problem with the timer being fixed during the FMVs but not normal play; you may need to subtract the time taken in FMVs before you do the 5/6 calculation. If this isn't the case anymore, than yeah, that's all you have to do.

I'm interested to know if you have any new strategies to beat Essentia's run, though. Smiley

Enhasa

2009-01-12 09:42:39 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Exactly, I don't want to put you down, but I don't think there's much of a point in redoing an already long run for a slower system if you aren't making significant improvements. Of course we will understand the PAL slowness issue and your run will be judged on gameplay, but 10 hours is 10 hours, and if you want to be nice to viewers and the community, you might want to consider getting an NTSC system like Frezy_man did.

It's not a straight 5/6 either, because there could be other factors like FMV like Lag said, or that loading times will be comparable, or even the simple fact that it's easier to play at a slower speed. PAL/NTSC comparisons are basically just icky. Your run will be judged on its own. Of course you don't have to beat 8:32, but 10:14 isn't a magic number either.

Essentia

2009-01-12 10:21:45 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

I posted some improvements to my run in another thread, but I'll repost them here. However, I don't think they'll save more than around 5 minutes. I would be really interested if you've found some other significant improvements.

-First of all, I had 10 total random encounters, but that number could be cut in half (because that's what the Ultima Garden run did) by getting 2 fewer encounters in the Iifa Tree, not getting an encounter in Ipsen's Castle, and not getting the 2 encounters in Memoria.

-In the first segment, steal the Mage Masher on the first turn. I've also been told that it's faster to kill your own party (apparently you don't get a game over), but I haven't tested that.

-When fighting King Leo in the play, get a battle where none of the enemies use any stage magic.

-Eliminate the save in the middle of Evil Forest, at the spring. Also, you could eliminate the save in the Ice Cavern, just before the Sealion battle. I actually lost time by saving there; it would even have been faster if I hadn't saved and got one encounter in the cavern. However, that save helped save my sanity, since the Sealion requires luck--you can do everything right on it, and still lose because the damage from your trance attacks doesn't do quite enough.

-Avoid both the guards in Alexandria Castle with Steiner and Marcus (it's possible).

-Steal the Orichalcon from Taharka (the boss in Ipsen's Castle). This would save some time when fighting the Earth Guardian, but it could be annoying to get since that battle depends on a ton of luck anyway. Also, if you steal the Orichalcon, you won't have to buy it in Bran Bal like I did.

-Get a better fight with the Red Dragons in Mt. Gulug, preferably one where Amarant inflicts Venom on at least one of them.

I posted some improvements to my run in another thread, but I'll repost them here.  However, I don't think they'll save more than around 5 minutes.  I would be really interested if you've found some other significant improvements.

-First of all, I had 10 total random encounters, but that number could be cut in half (because that's what the Ultima Garden run did) by getting 2 fewer encounters in the Iifa Tree, not getting an encounter in Ipsen's Castle, and not getting the 2 encounters in Memoria.

-In the first segment, steal the Mage Masher on the first turn.  I've also been told that it's faster to kill your own party (apparently you don't get a game over), but I haven't tested that.

-When fighting King Leo in the play, get a battle where none of the enemies use any stage magic.

-Eliminate the save in the middle of Evil Forest, at the spring.  Also, you could eliminate the save in the Ice Cavern, just before the Sealion battle.  I actually lost time by saving there; it would even have been faster if I hadn't saved and got one encounter in the cavern.  However, that save helped save my sanity, since the Sealion requires luck--you can do everything right on it, and still lose because the damage from your trance attacks doesn't do quite enough.

-Avoid both the guards in Alexandria Castle with Steiner and Marcus (it's possible).

-Steal the Orichalcon from Taharka (the boss in Ipsen's Castle).  This would save some time when fighting the Earth Guardian, but it could be annoying to get since that battle depends on a ton of luck anyway.  Also, if you steal the Orichalcon, you won't have to buy it in Bran Bal like I did.

-Get a better fight with the Red Dragons in Mt. Gulug, preferably one where Amarant inflicts Venom on at least one of them.

Arkantos

2009-01-13 06:15:51 am

Thanks for your comments and advice everyone.

@Enhasa: I'll probably now just use the 8:32/10:14 as a general guideline to try and stop me from getting too lenient! I'm doing a practice run at the minute, and trying to get through Ice Cavern without saving and no encounters is unbelievably difficult! Having set time constraints on myself, hopefully it will stop me from giving in too easily Smiley

Also, I have tried getting hold of an NTSC system, but there don't seem to be any about at all here in the UK. I'm broke as well (French degree student :)) so I can't really afford to have one sent over the Atlantic.

@Essentia: Thanks for your advice. For random encounters, I am going to try and get this down to at most 5, preferably less but I would still like to be sane by the time I finish this Smiley

I feel that these will perhaps be the biggest time-savers on my run. I'm also going to attempt to do this run in fewer segments, as you've briefly touched on. Some of your saves I felt were a bit unecessary, but then again they probably did help to stop you from being carted off!

Thanks again everyone!

Arkantos

Thanks for your comments and advice everyone.

@Enhasa:  I'll probably now just use the 8:32/10:14 as a general guideline to try and stop me from getting too lenient! I'm doing a practice run at the minute, and trying to get through Ice Cavern without saving and no encounters is unbelievably difficult! Having set time constraints on myself, hopefully it will stop me from giving in too easily :)
  Also, I have tried getting hold of an NTSC system, but there don't seem to be any about at all here in the UK. I'm broke as well (French degree student  :)) so I can't really afford to have one sent over the Atlantic.

@Essentia: Thanks for your advice.  For random encounters, I am going to try and get this down to at most 5, preferably less but I would still like to be sane by the time I finish this :) I feel that these will perhaps be the biggest time-savers on my run. I'm also going to attempt to do this run in fewer segments, as you've briefly touched on.  Some of your saves I felt were a bit unecessary, but then again they probably did help to stop you from being carted off!

Thanks again everyone!

Arkantos

DoubleThink

2009-01-13 09:00:34 am

There's a word for that

Hm.
Having watched the current run (which is already pretty damn good and ended up coercing me into playing the game in the first place), there were a couple of other things I noticed that could save time, mostly involving abuse of Elem-Atk boosting gear for weapon elements. This increases the damage done by an extra 50% when hitting neutrally, meaning many weapons can out-power their counterparts despite having lower attack. There are two biggies:
-Steal the Holy Lance from Ark. This can then be Freya's weapon for the remainder of the run, since with a Holy-boosting item (like the Angel Earrings or the Rebirth Ring), it out-damages Kain's Lance quite handily. It's also obscenely overpowered for when you get it and absolutely wrecks Meltigemini, as well as hitting weaknesses on Lich and Necron as well. This will probably mean no Amarant in Mt Gulug (Steiner needs the AP for Charge! and Vivi is mandatory I think?), but speaking of Amarant
-Steal the Kaiser Knuckles from Silver Dragon! These are normally sold in Daguerreo but obviously there's no time to go there. These are Wind-element, so something like the Black Belt will boost them. These things are crazy in Memoria; I'm talking guaranteed 9999 per hit on Nova Dragon, Lich, AND Deathguise, close to it on Necron, and something like 8K on everything else. The only stumbling block in Tiamat, who absorbs Wind, but this can be solved by getting the Rune Claws, re-equipping the Avenger, or just throwing stuff at him.
These two things combined also mean that Amarant can get away with not buying ANY weapons before the Avenger, or buying anything for Freya from then on, which saves quite a bit of cash.
There are a few other little things, like equipping Steiner with a Holy-boosting item after getting the Excalibur II (Rebirth Ring is perfect!) to ensure 9999 per hit on everything, giving him the Flame Sabre before Meltigemini (provided Steiner learns Charge! on the Red Dragons like he does in this run) since he's weak to Fire, and maybe abusing some stuff like Level Up.
Anyways, good luck if you do decide to take this run up, since I can only assume it will be a massive and continuous pain in the butt to run this game Undecided

Hm.
Having watched the current run (which is already pretty damn good and ended up coercing me into playing the game in the first place), there were a couple of other things I noticed that could save time, mostly involving abuse of Elem-Atk boosting gear for weapon elements. This increases the damage done by an extra 50% when hitting [i]neutrally[/i], meaning many weapons can out-power their counterparts despite having lower attack. There are two biggies:
-Steal the Holy Lance from Ark. This can then be Freya's weapon for the remainder of the run, since with a Holy-boosting item (like the Angel Earrings or the Rebirth Ring), it out-damages Kain's Lance quite handily. It's also obscenely overpowered for when you get it and absolutely wrecks Meltigemini, as well as hitting weaknesses on Lich and Necron as well. This will probably mean no Amarant in Mt Gulug (Steiner needs the AP for Charge! and Vivi is mandatory I think?), but speaking of Amarant
-Steal the Kaiser Knuckles from Silver Dragon! These are normally sold in Daguerreo but obviously there's no time to go there. These are Wind-element, so something like the Black Belt will boost them. These things are crazy in Memoria; I'm talking guaranteed 9999 per hit on Nova Dragon, Lich, AND Deathguise, close to it on Necron, and something like 8K on everything else. The only stumbling block in Tiamat, who absorbs Wind, but this can be solved by getting the Rune Claws, re-equipping the Avenger, or just throwing stuff at him.
These two things combined also mean that Amarant can get away with not buying ANY weapons before the Avenger, or buying anything for Freya from then on, which saves quite a bit of cash.
There are a few other little things, like equipping Steiner with a Holy-boosting item after getting the Excalibur II (Rebirth Ring is perfect!) to ensure 9999 per hit on everything, giving him the Flame Sabre before Meltigemini (provided Steiner learns Charge! on the Red Dragons like he does in this run) since he's weak to Fire, and maybe abusing some stuff like Level Up.
Anyways, good luck if you do decide to take this run up, since I can only assume it will be a massive and continuous pain in the butt to run this game :-\

Socky2

2009-01-19 02:58:53 pm

I have heard that by abusing the Chocobo Hot or Cold minigame, you can sequence-break / glitch the game on Disc 1.

I don't know if this would save time, but it's definitely worth looking into.

Essentia

2009-01-19 03:18:03 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

I checked out that Chocobo hot & cold sequence break, and it doesn't seem to work on every copy of the game (at least, I couldn't get it to work on mine). However, I concluded that it wouldn't be worth it anyway, because it would take so long to get all the needed chocographs, and you would lose out on the treasure/levels/AP at the places you skip (I'm a little fuzzy on the details since it's been so long, but I think you would skip Kuja's Palace, Oeilvert, and Esto Gaza), which might make later bosses much harder or even impossible.

spikevegeta

2010-03-28 10:39:48 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I just wanted to let everyone know, that I finally have a little bit of free time, and I would like to start creating a topic for collecting any and all improvements to Essentia's run. I've been told that the run could be improved by close to 30 minutes, so I would like to either challenge that myself, encourage others to do it, or even get Essentia to want to do it.

I'll be doing this alongside Kingdom Hearts 2 SS attempts, so let's just see how it goes. For Segment 1, all I know of is to make sure I get Magemasher first steal, then kill off your party against baku.

Essentia

2010-03-28 11:06:40 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

That's great that you're interested in improving this, spikevegeta. I don't think I'll ever do an improvement, mainly because I know how much work it takes to run this game. Wink

I'd be glad to help out, though, and I wish good luck to you if you decide to do this.

I can't think of any other improvements to segment 1 right now. For segment 2, I think I remember someone telling me that it's faster to kill yourself in some of those battles, but I've never tested it. I'll really have to go back and watch my run so I can point out improvements, but I won't be able to for a while since I'm having my baby tomorrow (Monday). Smiley