Final Fantasy IX Speedrun

2012-06-22 10:47:31 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I've been translating most of it and I'm translated through Disc 3. I'll try to finish Disc 4 tomorrow and post a preliminary guide to the WR run by Monday that can be adjusted over time.

I must say the run is VERRRRRYYYY Good. Decent to great RNG throughout with all boss battles and random encounters, and his menu execution is astounding, even if he had notes up to look at, there is almost no pausing at nearly any menu screen, so he must have had it pretty well memorized. I was hoping to make some of my own WR attempts at beating this, but unless there are some better strats found, most likely I'll just be working on this for the marathon along with puwexil and Essentia.

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2012-09-09 10:31:24 pm

2012-06-23 10:01:22 pm

Professional Second Banana

I've uploaded the 9:39:17 RTA by セミエル (Semieru) to my Youtube (I set the videos to unlisted since they're not my work, so use the below links for access).

Part 1:

Part 2:

spikevegeta

2012-06-23 11:09:02 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Nice puwexil, I hopefully we'll finish my translation and post it here with a link tomorrow morning.

Also, to note, it looks like the same runner made another attempt but only got about a 9:46 or so. I don't intend on watching it, but maybe we should just to see how he deals with certain random encounters and such. Might be good to skip to some parts and watch how he deals with certain kinds of adversity.

spikevegeta

2012-06-24 12:02:17 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Alright, here it is, it's almost completely consistent throughout, but I'll make a version 2.0 of this where I fill in all blanks in battles, but now that puwexil has uploaded the video to Youtube, the visual there should be speak for itself. I have translated all the buy/sell/equip/ability stuff.

Attachment:

FF9 93917.rtf

CrystalBeauty

2012-06-25 07:41:16 pm

Roses of May

practice this route a few times and i should get it.

spikevegeta

2012-06-26 02:15:15 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Just wanted to advertise the stream a little:

Tonight @ 5PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 1
Wednesday @ 7PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 2
Thursday @ 7PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 3
Friday @ 8 PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 4

Saturday @ 12 PM(Noon) Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Full Run.

TheThrillness

Edit history:

TheThrillness: 2012-06-26 04:48:06 pm

2012-06-26 04:47:41 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Quote from puwexil:

I've uploaded the 9:39:17 RTA by セミエル (Semieru) to my Youtube (I set the videos to unlisted since they're not my work, so use the below links for access) and Dropbox (I'll keep them there until 7/1 if anyone wants the raw video files to watch menuing with frame advance).

Part 1:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jbgvq0amh65193/FF9RTASemieru93917-1.mp4

Part 2:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kz4swdhtz27iene/FF9RTASemieru93917-2.mp4

You can get rid of the onscreen comments (can be annoying) by clicking the speech bubble indicated here:

Attachment:

nico1.png

Alko

2012-06-27 03:00:03 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Quote from spikevegeta:

Just wanted to advertise the stream a little:

Tonight @ 5PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 1
Wednesday @ 7PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 2
Thursday @ 7PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 3
Friday @ 8 PM Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Disc 4

Saturday @ 12 PM(Noon) Central Time: Final Fantasy IX Full Run.

Damn time difference. That's 2 and 3 a.m. respectively in Central Europe >___> Ma~ybe (but probably not so) I might be able to watch the full run on Saturday evening …

CrystalBeauty

2012-06-27 06:57:52 pm

Roses of May

I'll also be streaming full run attempts daily for about 1-2 weeks

Alko

2012-07-01 04:53:52 am

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Shame I fell asleep in front of the stream at something like 8 p.m. central xD But nice RNG-trolling I witnessed, Spike =D

spikevegeta

2012-07-01 11:13:11 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

While I did screw things up last night and had to re-do a section a couple of times by accidentally buying SIX Avengers and wasting my money, and I screwed up a lot in Disc 4, that was actually just all user error, which can be fixed. Good news is even with that I got about a 10:03 yesterday at killing Necron.

More good news is that I learned the strats for Nova Dragon and Deathguise. Nova Dragon is now completely safe(Although he can take a while if he trolls) and Deathguise only has about a 25% chance of killing you. So in a marathon setting, a save before him is warranted, but we shouldn't get stuck on him or anything. Still need to go back and learn what to do if the Red Dragons spam Twister on you. Everyone was alive at the end, but it took a little while and I wasn't able to kill Vivi in time, so my leveling was lower for the rest of the run. It seemed like that particularly made the 3 battles in Pandemonium (not the bosses but the smaller enemies) more annoying and higher risk.

On top of this, I stil haven't tried to honestly learn any of the menu's, and with three of us memorizing those for the marathon, that should shave off at least 5 minutes right there, if not closer to 10. I'm actually going to go practice those now. Now that I've had my experience with it, I probably will only make MAYBE make one more Full attempt at this run in the next few months, since at the marathon none of us will be doing the whole thing, but I will put in some practice every couple of days, if not everyday on something. At the very least menus.

While I did screw things up last night and had to re-do a section a couple of times by accidentally buying SIX Avengers and wasting my money, and I screwed up a lot in Disc 4, that was actually just all user error, which can be fixed. Good news is even with that I got about a 10:03 yesterday at killing Necron.

More good news is that I learned the strats for Nova Dragon and Deathguise. Nova Dragon is now completely safe(Although he can take a while if he trolls) and Deathguise only has about a 25% chance of killing you. So in a marathon setting, a save before him is warranted, but we shouldn't get stuck on him or anything. Still need to go back and learn what to do if the Red Dragons spam Twister on you. Everyone was alive at the end, but it took a little while and I wasn't able to kill Vivi in time, so my leveling was lower for the rest of the run. It seemed like that particularly made the 3 battles in Pandemonium (not the bosses but the smaller enemies) more annoying and higher risk.

On top of this, I stil haven't tried to honestly learn any of the menu's, and with three of us memorizing those for the marathon, that should shave off at least 5 minutes right there, if not closer to 10. I'm actually going to go practice those now.  Now that I've had my experience with it, I probably will only make MAYBE make one more Full attempt at this run in the next few months, since at the marathon none of us will be doing the whole thing, but I will put in some practice every couple of days, if not everyday on something. At the very least menus.

Essentia

Edit history:

Essentia: 2012-07-01 03:30:21 pm

2012-07-01 03:30:05 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

I've started watching that Japanese RTA while going through the route that you posted; when I've finished, I want to start streaming some attempts. The only problem is that I can't find my PS1 memory card, so I'll either have to buy another one or practice on the PS3 (which has horrible loading times).

spikevegeta, I mentioned this to puwexil: I'm usually pretty good at the swordfight, although I can't guarantee that I'd get 100 in a marathon run. If one of us did manage to get 100, though, would the extra money be useful?

TheThrillness

2012-07-01 03:35:24 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Quote from Essentia:

so I'll either have to buy another one or practice on the PS3 (which has horrible loading times).

Just so I am clear, you mean load a PS1 disc on PS3 right? How does the PSN game on hard drive compare to an original PS1 if I may ask?

Essentia

2012-07-01 03:38:05 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Yes, I'd be using a PS1 disc in my PS3. I don't know for sure how it compares with the PSN version, but I've heard Poxnor say that with FF8, the PS1 disc was slower than PSN. (So using a PS1 disc in a PS3 is probably the slowest of all.)

TheThrillness

2012-07-01 03:44:38 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Thought that would be the case, thanks.

Not really being FFIX specific here but in the eyes of SDA what happens if a speedrun was done on original PS1 and was only slower than the PSN version due to loading? Separate categories I assume?

puwexil

2012-07-01 05:10:27 pm

Professional Second Banana

Generally there need to be more differences between versions of a game besides noninteractive loading times in order to justify separate categories (like Mega Man 3 vs. Mega Man 3 Anniversary Collection), since we try to avoid redundancy on the game pages as much as possible. If we had a case where someone submitted an FF9 run on PS2 w/ Fast Disc Speed and then someone else submitted a run of the same category on the PSN version, it would be up the verifiers to decide whether the PS2 or PSN run has faster/better quality gameplay.

(Takes admin hat off) spikevegeta/Essentia, do you think fighting a few extra random battles would make the Red Dragon battles more consistent; and would fighting a few Grand Dragons before going to Memoria help get the odds of gameovering to Deathguise closer to 0?

spikevegeta

2012-07-01 06:00:11 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Essentia: I haven't really looked into how getting the 10K would effect shopping/picking up gil for the rest of the game, but my next step in the process will be going through the game with two empty memory cards to make a ton of save points to practice/look into the most useful places to spend the extra 9 or so thousand. The WR didn't get it, so it's not a big deal if we don't get it, but probably good to look into. Also, getting it could be multiplied by buying more Wrists/Steepled Hats for Cotton Robes in Dali/Lindblum.

Puwexil: I'm thinking now that killing Grand Dragons isn't really needed. Again, Nova Dragon isn't a problem, but yeah, Deathguise looks like it can screw you over in a number of ways, but the odds are down to about 20% at this point, and that's just from what I've learned.

Also, I think I need to post an updated version of the notes since those that I posted we're very rough, as I was typing them as I was going. I'll try to do that tonight.

CrystalBeauty

Edit history:

CrystalBeauty: 2012-07-03 08:02:04 am

2012-07-03 08:00:31 am

Roses of May

I'm starting to memorize this, and Got 10:07 as my latest attempt I Gotta keep learning the Disc 3 menus, and really gotta learn disc 4 menus I spent like another 20 mins of menu'ing on disc 4

As for if you got the extra sword fight gil, i don't know if itd be used for more cotton robes. but it could like small time not picking up ethers/gil on the ground in areas.

Also if someone wants to know how much a difference PSN is to PS2 Fast disc speed, my old route was used on both PSN and PS2, And PSN had slightly better RNG (encounters etc) (PSN: 10:36) (Ps2:9:58), I wouldn't know about PS1 disc on PS3 though all i know is i tried it for a lil bit and got lag in areas i wouldn't normally get lag in.

as for Red dragons, I took an extra round by just using blizzaga on one at a time.
So pretty much Zidane Soul Blade one for confuse Vivi blizaga the other With Stiener attack to kill it, Then Vivi blizaga the confused one, Zidane kill Vivi, Stiener final attack. (If Blizzaga + Stiener attack isn't doing enough just get armrant to finish it off)

I'm starting to memorize this, and Got 10:07 as my latest attempt I Gotta keep learning the Disc 3 menus, and really gotta learn disc 4 menus I spent like another 20 mins of menu'ing on disc 4

As for if you got the extra sword fight gil, i don't know if itd be used for more cotton robes. but it could like small time not picking up ethers/gil on the ground in areas.

Also if someone wants to know how much a difference PSN is to PS2 Fast disc speed, my old route was used on both PSN and PS2, And PSN had slightly better RNG (encounters etc) (PSN: 10:36) (Ps2:9:58), I wouldn't know about PS1 disc on PS3 though all i know is i tried it for a lil bit and got lag in areas i wouldn't normally get lag in.

as for Red dragons, I took an extra round by just using blizzaga on one at a time.
So pretty much Zidane Soul Blade one for confuse Vivi blizaga the other With Stiener attack to kill it, Then Vivi blizaga the confused one, Zidane kill Vivi, Stiener final attack. (If Blizzaga + Stiener attack isn't doing enough just get armrant to finish it off)

BZero

Edit history:

BZero: 2012-07-04 04:11:07 pm

2012-07-04 02:36:24 pm

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get through segment 2 in a halfway acceptable fashion. >_<

I don't know how many hundreds of attempts I've had over the past two months, but I'm pretty sure it's getting close to 1,000 attempts, if not more. I really, really suck at that sword fight. I've actually gone up to five "blind" button presses now, instead of four (see this post if you have no idea what I'm talking about).

Of course, I only get as far as the sword fight every seven or eight attempts on average, and that's if I accept some quite less-than-optimal King Leo battles: If I deliver the final blow when my recording timer is at less than 4:50 (I always hit X to load at 10 seconds), I accept it, even though it's possible to finish the battle ~20 seconds faster than that. I've been using the same strategy as Essentia (ignore Zenero and Benero and don't bother with Cinna), but now I've started taking out Zenero and Benero first, because I think it's a little less luck reliant that way (less chance of SFX). And I've also started using Cinna. The reason I didn't use him before was because I thought King Leo had 200 HP (because a FAQ said so), which would make it *very* unlikely that I would do enough damage with five hits if I used Cinna. Turns out he has only 186 HP, which makes it much more likely.

So yeah, still trying...

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get through segment 2 in a halfway acceptable fashion. >_<

I don't know how many hundreds of attempts I've had over the past two months, but I'm pretty sure it's getting close to 1,000 attempts, if not more. I really, really suck at that sword fight. I've actually gone up to five "blind" button presses now, instead of four (see [url="http://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/final_fantasy_ix_speedrun_25.html"]this[/url] post if you have no idea what I'm talking about).

Of course, I only get as far as the sword fight every seven or eight attempts on average, and that's if I accept some quite less-than-optimal King Leo battles: If I deliver the final blow when my recording timer is at less than 4:50 (I always hit X to load at 10 seconds), I accept it, even though it's possible to finish the battle ~20 seconds faster than that. I've been using the same strategy as Essentia (ignore Zenero and Benero and don't bother with Cinna), but now I've started taking out Zenero and Benero first, because I think it's a little less luck reliant that way (less chance of SFX). And I've also started using Cinna. The reason I didn't use him before was because I thought King Leo had 200 HP (because a FAQ said so), which would make it *very* unlikely that I would do enough damage with five hits if I used Cinna. Turns out he has only 186 HP, which makes it much more likely.

So yeah, still trying...

Alko

Edit history:

Alko: 2012-07-04 02:54:59 pm

2012-07-04 02:54:37 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

How many mistakes do you make during an average swordfight (not counting the blind button pressing)? I also assume you're using NTSC, so everything will be faster than I know it?

BZero

Edit history:

BZero: 2012-07-04 03:18:37 pm

BZero: 2012-07-04 03:17:00 pm

BZero: 2012-07-04 03:16:31 pm

BZero: 2012-07-04 03:16:07 pm

2012-07-04 03:12:09 pm

Well, if I make a mistake, I just reset immediately, so...

When practicing, it's not really that I make mistakes, it's just that I'm too slow. I tried doing the sword fight without blind button presses once today and I got 98 (meaning no mistakes). At that speed, I believe I should be able to get 100 with four ultra-fast (blind) button presses. But doing the sword fight in an actual attempt, after a successful King Leo battle and after getting lucky with the blind buttons, is different than practicing it, because then it's suddenly much more important to get it right, and I get nervous. I once had a perfect King Leo battle (maybe the fastest I've had in any of my attempts), and I got the five blind button presses right, and I didn't even make any mistakes for the rest of the sword fight, and then I was told only 99 nobles were impressed. That was annoying. I guess I was just too afraid to screw up after such a great battle and getting lucky with the buttons, that I was just too careful/slow.

Edit: And yes, I'm playing the NTSC version. I tried going back to the PAL version once to see how easy it was after getting used to the NTSC version, and I have to say the PAL version is laughably easy in comparison. You can almost take a short nap between each button you press. >_> I mean, you don't even have to be focused at all, you can just leisurely press the buttons that show up on the screen. I wish the NTSC version was that easy for me... =/

Edit 2: ^I mean, that's how it feels in comparison to the the NTSC version. I once thought the PAL version was kind of challenging too, but not like this.

Well, if I make a mistake, I just reset immediately, so...

When practicing, it's not really that I make mistakes, it's just that I'm too slow. I tried doing the sword fight without blind button presses once today and I got 98 (meaning no mistakes). At that speed, I believe I should be able to get 100 with four ultra-fast (blind) button presses. But doing the sword fight in an actual attempt, after a successful King Leo battle and after getting lucky with the blind buttons, is different than practicing it, because then it's suddenly much more important to get it right, and I get nervous. I once had a perfect King Leo battle (maybe the fastest I've had in any of my attempts), and I got the five blind button presses right, and I didn't even make any mistakes for the rest of the sword fight, and then I was told only 99 nobles were impressed. That was annoying. I guess I was just too afraid to screw up after such a great battle and getting lucky with the buttons, that I was just too careful/slow.

Edit: And yes, I'm playing the NTSC version. I tried going back to the PAL version once to see how easy it was after getting used to the NTSC version, and I have to say the PAL version is laughably easy in comparison. You can almost take a short nap between each button you press. >_> I mean, you don't even have to be focused at all, you can just leisurely press the buttons that show up on the screen. I wish the NTSC version was that easy for me... =/

Edit 2: ^I mean, that's how it feels in comparison to the the NTSC version. I once thought the PAL version was kind of challenging too, but not like this.

Alko

2012-07-04 03:17:42 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Definitely annoying =O Never realised that was how it worked. Only had mistakes versus everybody pleased so far … PAL ftw … Thought it was one (or maybe two) nobles per button that were unhappy, if you missed o.o'

CrystalBeauty

Edit history:

CrystalBeauty: 2012-07-10 07:01:52 pm

CrystalBeauty: 2012-07-10 07:01:08 pm

CrystalBeauty: 2012-07-10 05:56:36 pm

2012-07-10 05:48:30 pm

Roses of May

Puwexil Those Videos are outdated lol
http://www.twitch.tv/garnet2525 Has the New RTA WR with 9:37 (http://www.twitch.tv/garnet2525/b/323615733) Run starts about an hour in 20 mins in.
essentially a 9:05 Single Segment

Alko

2012-07-10 06:24:00 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Which again makes me wish I had nine hours of time *sob*
Ah well, guess I'll have to clone myself and then win the lottery. Or maybe only win the lottery. Or invent a perpetuum mobile, as that sounds more realistic xD

CrystalBeauty

2012-07-10 07:00:27 pm

Roses of May

I feel happy, that the person is only following me, Spike, and puwexil lol.
Besides that, person has insane menu skills.