Final Fantasy IX Speedrun

2012-05-08 11:35:55 am

Yeah, I've started watching that run. Unfortunately, I didn't start watching until after I had redone segment 1. Do you know for a fact that that works just by talking to that guy, or did you just see it in that video? When I saw that, I figured it was a TAS-only trick (talk to the guy on the same frame Puck hits you or something). It just looked very "TAS-y" the way Vivi floated into the next screen. It also looked like he positioned himself in a specific spot, he didn't just run directly up to him. Either way, I'll have to try it out.

And yes, I was planning to do that second trick.

Essentia

2012-05-08 11:57:31 am

Everything's better with Magitek

I haven't actually tried that Puck trick, but it sure looks like it's activated by talking to that guy. I'm going to try doing it later today, to see how feasible it is on console.

BZero

Edit history:

BZero: 2012-05-09 07:53:51 am

BZero: 2012-05-09 07:39:07 am

BZero: 2012-05-09 07:38:51 am

BZero: 2012-05-09 07:38:33 am

2012-05-09 07:38:13 am

I've tried it three times, and it hasn't worked for me. Puck just knocks Vivi over anyway (the dialogue box from the guy just disappears). So I stand by my original guess that you have to talk to him on the same frame as Puck hits you to trigger that glitch. I'll try reading the FFIX thread on tasvideos to see if it's mentioned there.

Edit: The TAS author confirmed on page 8 of this topic that it's frame precise.

Essentia

2012-05-09 09:34:44 am

Everything's better with Magitek

Yeah, I tried it a few times too and never got it to work. Oh well.

ashe_bug

2012-05-11 05:11:39 pm

+2 against silly

I've actually been thinking about picking this up myself, though I'm leaning more towards the single segment than the segmented - half because I'm crazy and half because I do RTAs all the time. They're just never actually RTAs; they're just me sitting for hours doing everything. ^^;;

Either way, I know the single-segment will probably be anywhere from 9-10 hours if only because the encounter manipulation won't be as reliable, though upon reading the TAS comments, it doesn't look like resetting/save-loading affects the step counter for encounters at all.

Still haven't gotten off my butt to see if PSN or PS2 + fast disc load is faster, since I do have access to both. Have we established whether the flip-top cutscene skip is allowed for runs or are we still keeping cutscenes in?

Essentia

2012-05-11 11:33:11 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

SDA rules say no hardware modification, so no skipping FMV cutscenes.

I've also been thinking about working on a single-segment run of this game (although I probably won't start working on it until after AGDQ), and puwexil has expressed interest in doing one as well. I know spikevegeta was working on SS a while ago, but I think he was having trouble beating the final three bosses consistently. Maybe if we all work together, we can figure out some strats.

ashe_bug

Edit history:

ashe_bug: 2012-05-12 08:27:06 am

ashe_bug: 2012-05-12 08:24:19 am

2012-05-12 08:21:06 am

+2 against silly

All right; that's what I thought.

I know Deathguise is rather a jerk at in low level runs due to Meteor and... my brain seems to think he has Curse, but I'm pretty sure that's only Hades and Ozma (which we shouldn't need to worry about!). As for Kuja and Necron... my usual strats involve heavy amounts of Support Stones, which we don't really have access to, so I guess it all depends on what the average level is when hit that final save point in the Crystal World. I'm pretty sure Bird Killer works on all three, so that's a small boost at the very least. Of course, one of the easiest things to try would be to Tent after Deathguise if he hasn't been already so it's full strength for Kuja (and then Necron auto-heals anyways). That's about... seven seconds, I think?

I'm going to need to refresh my memory on some of the later dungeons at least so I might try doing an RTA or something in the coming week -- especially for the Desert Palace (which I have a terrible memory of the actual dungeon), Pandaemonium (possibly to incorporate that encounter dodging trick the TAS uses with the blue lights), and... actually possibly Fossil Roo as well. So... all the puzzle-like dungeons, ironically enough.

EDIT: Timed out a tent use - it's about 8-9 seconds depending on if you're mashing the X button... I tend to be a little conservative with my menu button presses, which I should probably work a bit on... ^^;

EDIT 2: Should probably mention my fastest RTA is about 23 hours. Usually I can get between 22-25 consistently, but I also do just about everything, including the whole Chocobo quest along with various side quests, so shaving that off should easily get me to 18 hours. Then I just need to re-memorize some dungeon and optimize my item gets/movements/bosses and I might START get to in the range of time needed. ^^;;

All right; that's what I thought.

I know Deathguise is rather a jerk at in low level runs due to Meteor and... my brain seems to think he has Curse, but I'm pretty sure that's only Hades and Ozma (which we shouldn't need to worry about!). As for Kuja and Necron... my usual strats involve heavy amounts of Support Stones, which we don't really have access to, so I guess it all depends on what the average level is when hit that final save point in the Crystal World. I'm pretty sure Bird Killer works on all three, so that's a small boost at the very least. Of course, one of the easiest things to try would be to Tent after Deathguise if he hasn't been already so it's full strength for Kuja (and then Necron auto-heals anyways). That's about... seven seconds, I think?

I'm going to need to refresh my memory on some of the later dungeons at least so I might try doing an RTA or something in the coming week -- especially for the Desert Palace (which I have a terrible memory of the actual dungeon), Pandaemonium (possibly to incorporate that encounter dodging trick the TAS uses with the blue lights), and... actually possibly Fossil Roo as well. So... all the puzzle-like dungeons, ironically enough.

EDIT: Timed out a tent use - it's about 8-9 seconds depending on if you're mashing the X button... I tend to be a little conservative with my menu button presses, which I should probably work a bit on... ^^;

EDIT 2: Should probably mention my fastest RTA is about 23 hours. Usually I can get between 22-25 consistently, but I also do just about everything, including the whole Chocobo quest along with various side quests, so shaving that off should easily get me to 18 hours. Then I just need to re-memorize some dungeon and optimize my item gets/movements/bosses and I might START get to in the range of time needed. ^^;;

spikevegeta

2012-06-03 03:45:24 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I'll be going back down the path of a SS/RTA of this game. At least a marathon worthy run of the game, so I'll start streaming that tonight in the next 15 minutes or so and just follow the Ultima Garden guide for now. Come by and watch. Also, I've started a chip-in to get me to AGDQ, so drop something if you want!

spikevegeta

2012-06-04 03:52:35 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Starting Disc two at about 5:15 Central Time. I'll do Discs 3/4 tomorrow around the same time, and I'll stream a whole game attempt on Wednesday. Come by and enjoy!

CrystalBeauty

2012-06-04 05:54:43 pm

Roses of May

Atomos and I, have been trying to come up with a pretty solid way against deathguise, we assume night has higher than 100% hit chance, because its never missed for us, so using Night, 3 characters attack, night, 3 characters attack/ repeat, deathguise wouldn't get a single attack during the fight. It just that you have to rely on the atb bar, and if quina doesn't go first surviving meteor. also other issues would be A) after the fight wasting time to switch party members unless you really want to take quina to kuja/necron, and B) wasting time on getting Night (even though there is a enemy on the way in fossil roo)
Also we're trying to look more into the battle mechanics, to see if it's possible to decrease deathguises chance for his meteor to hit of (74/2 (37) + Spr (46) = 83%)

ashe_bug

2012-06-06 08:41:27 am

+2 against silly

Ack, wish I could watch your attempts SV, but I have class today. I'll definitely take a look in the archives at some point, though.

One of the issues with being at home over the summer is I'm having a hard time getting a solid chunk of time to dedicate to a RTA without getting bothered in some way by other things (namely getting called off to do other things). I know I can pause WSplit, but I still don't want to leave the game on pause even if it doesn't increment the in-game timer...

spikevegeta

2012-06-06 09:26:30 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Sorry about the false advertising, I won't be doing a full run today, but possibly a little bit tonight around 10 Central Time. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I will do a Disc 1/2 Test run with splits and all. I'll probably start it right at about Noon. THe Ultima Garden time has about a 5:33:31 through two discs, so I'll shoot for that. Hope to see you guys there!

lazy

2012-06-06 10:02:04 am

http://www40.atwiki.jp/niconamarta/pages/27.html

Fastest time streamed on nicolive was 9:41, timed from power-on until the display of "The End." That's quite a bit faster than the ultimagarden 10:29. There is no video though. There is a 10:37 RTA on nicovideo. It's a shame handsomelives' youtube account no longer exists; his run was much closer to the fastest RTA time than the ug run.

Link to nicovideo 10:37:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/25282442

still_lazy

2012-06-07 05:21:14 am

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18023991

That's the Necron battle from the 9:42:10 RTA by トマトごはん. Timed from when the ATB starts moving to final blow, the battle lasts about 3 minutes 6 seconds. Comparatively, in the 10:37 run, the Necron battle lasts ~5 minutes 34 seconds, and in Essentia's run, the Necron battle lasts ~3 minutes 28 seconds. トマトごはん has some extra equipment/abilities (Reflect Ring), and party characters are at higher level. So, it probably is still net slower than Essentia's battle.

The most things are that トマトごはん never sees Protect, Grand Cross, and Neutron Ring (through use of Freya's Jump, yeah I know that's well known), and that at least for this method Auto-Life appears to be unnecessary; even Amarant's ability Aura is unnecessary. Amarant stays dead pretty much the entire battle.

Alko

2012-06-07 02:50:23 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

*not a fan of leaving kana untranscribed*

Quote:

トマトごはん

make that tomatogohan. Tomato breakfast, if I'm not too much mistaken =D I like!

ashe_bug

2012-06-07 06:58:56 pm

+2 against silly

I'm assuming the manipulating of Necron so he only uses Blue Shockwave is through Freya's Jump? I get that he's using Charge! at the end to pile on the damage, but I've never seen Necron use ONLY Blue Shockwave for the whole battle (well, other than that initial cast of Thundaga).

Also, lol those after effects.

CrystalBeauty

2012-06-08 03:48:06 am

Roses of May

I'm assuming freya using jump makes necron work like ozma, where ozma will only use Doomsday And curaga, only difference is freya has to be the the only character alive during ozma fight for the AI to be gimped up like that.

spikevegeta

2012-06-18 05:52:33 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

http://com.nicovideo.jp/live_archives/co315587

You'll have to log in under my account to watch the FF9 9:39:17 RTA (new WR) in the middle of the page. Click the top right hand link and here's the info:

E-mail:
axt002@uark.edu

password:
jetblack

Essentia

2012-06-20 07:57:57 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

spikevegeta, none of those videos have run times listed (that I can see, anyway). Which video is the 9:39:17?

spikevegeta

2012-06-20 09:44:42 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

At this point, it is the run that starts at the bottom of the 1st page(video should be about 3 and half hours and covers the end of the run), and spils into two more parts on the 2nd page, one of which only being about 16 minutes, and the final one covering the first 2 or so discs, and coming in at about 5 hours, 40 some odd minutes. They should say "FF9 RTA..." and should be above a series of videos listed as "FF9 RTA Disc 4..."

puwexil

2012-06-21 09:10:42 pm

Professional Second Banana

I've tried playing back the videos a few times now (to try and screencap them into MP4 format so we'll be able to watch in a media player that supports slow motion/frame advance), and they run for a minute or two before suddenly ending with an error screen that translates to "please try again later"; and after this happens I have to log back into the site. Not sure if Nicovideo doesn't like accounts being used from multiple locations or has bandwidth caps or something; but since I'm working from home tomorrow I'll try setting it up again in the morning (which will be late at night in Japan) and see if I have any better luck.

CrystalBeauty

2012-06-22 06:30:36 am

Roses of May

I have my own account linked from facebook, and i got the same error puewxil, so I have no idea.

Caracarn

2012-06-22 06:39:46 am

btw トマトホモごはん (Tomato Rice) has also been doing FF9 RTAs lately (although he is doing FF8 as I type this).

http://com.nicovideo.jp/community/co1464263 is his nico page.

Essentia

2012-06-22 08:51:34 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

puwexil, the same thing has been happening to me. If you find a way to watch the whole thing, let me know.

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2012-06-23 12:26:08 am

2012-06-22 09:33:04 pm

Professional Second Banana

I had better luck playing back the RTA today (started around 4-5AM Japan time to try to avoid bandwidth caps) and have screencapped about 6 hours so far. Unless it bombs out later tonight I'll figure out a place to upload the videos to tomorrow.

Edit: Made it to around the 8 1/2 hour mark before the Nico player died on me - I'll grab the last hour tomorrow and then see if I can splice everything together.