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Aresake: 2006-05-11 05:48:02 am
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Hi people!

This is my first post ever on this forum.  Lately I've gotten really interested in watching speed runs, and, being a fairly addicted gamer myself, decided to attempt one of my own.

The game is Final Fantasy V, which was only Japanese originally, but there's a Playstation remake of it.  I'm personally a big fan of this game because it pioneered the job system that is essentially the same as the one in Final Fantasy: Tactics.  Because of the flexibility of the job system, there are a LOT of tricks you can use to beat this game fast and at very low levels. 

I have finished testing my speed run on an emulator.  I was able to complete the game in 4:14:30, to the nearest thirty seconds, using the in-game timer plus the time I manually clocked against the final boss (since it's impossible to measure this time using the in-game timer).  I'm considering recording a speed run on a Playstation to post to SDA.

However, before I attempt this project, it would be really nice if I knew a couple more things.  First, does anyone know of a competing fastest time for this game?  Despite a moderate amount of searching, I've been totally unable to locate any other time, much less a video of a speed run.

Second, one of the purposes of this post is to see who would be interested in viewing a run of this game.  If you continue to read the following paragraphs, I'll attempt to convince you that this run would be worth watching.  But it seems to me that there should be at least some a priori interest, merely because of the fact that it's in the Final Fantasy series.  Plus there have been a number of successful RPG runs lately.  Please post a reply on this thread if it sounds like a cool idea.

Now, I do know that this game has gotten some attention relatively recently, since it's actually listed as one of the top 10 FAQ pages for SNES on the site www.gamefaqs.com/.  There you will find walkthroughs for amazing challenges such as the low level challenge, wherein you beat the game with all four of your characters at or below level 3.  As I mentioned above, this is made possible by exploiting the job system to its fullest.  People have also attempted Single Character Challenges for every class. This means you are allowed to use only one job class throughout the entire game.  For certain classes (e.g. White Mage) this is EXTREMELY difficult.  For those of you that have played this game before, I would say those pages make for amusing reads.

Conspicuously missing, however, is any information on speed running the game, which seems like a real shame to me.  For some reason, I decided to just go ahead and try it, using the information on that site (and especially the very complete and accurate page: Algorithms/Stats FAQ by instructorpepe) as a guide.  Unlike several other RPGs, you can get through this game with ridiculously low levels (and hence ridiculously low HP) by abusing all sorts of abilities that enable you to avoid various attacks altogether.  I thought: low levels = less time spent leveling.  Also, many bosses are vulnerable to being killed with one or two spells, regardless of what your level is.  I thought: Mucho time saved in boss fights.

Once it was all finished, I decided it was a pretty solid run, with enough little tricks to pique the interest of anyone familiar with the Final Fantasy series.  Not to boast or anything, but 4:15:30 isn't bad for a game that's meant to take about 25 hours, and it does stack up against the times for other RPGs on this site.  Granted, it's pretty useless to compare times for different games, which is why the lack of comparison times frustrates me to no end.

Anyways, I just thought I'd let everyone know about this, because if this thread generates enough interest, I'll do my best to get myself a Playstation and record it for real.  It would probably be 5-10 minutes slower because I wouldn't be able to fast forward through the dialogue, and hence I would be able to re-record segments fewer times for a fixed amount of patience.
 
This is probably more than enough information for a first post.  I'll be more than happy to answer your questions about my methods or questions about the game in general.  I'll also say again that any information at all about speed running this game would be of great interest to me.

Thanks for reading,
      Alex ("Aresake") Eustis
Thread title:  
MGS for PS1 forever.
I don't know if you have read a lot of other threads in the forum...but in one of them I mention that I have recorded a speedrun of the first world of FF V. Boco (someone who was trying to do a TAS and got to the library) used different tactics because I was going for livable/easy to execute tactics instead of her TAS tactics. Total time for the first world is 2 hrs 15 mins. Based on that I estimated that 6 hours could be achieved. However, I have yet to test the 6 hour theory.

I have many questions and I hope you can answer all of them. I too studied many of the guides at gamefaqs.com. I didn't study the algorithims because FF V...like many of them...relies on luck.

1. When you say rediculously low...how low are we talking about? Boco was very low as well, but for a speedrun in which you have to do a segment a certain length (i.e. you can't save in a dungeon therefore you would have to have a dungeon as a segment) there are so many instances of luck that a speedrun of FF V would be very painful. The fire boss on the ship is one such instance. Even having a save-state about two seconds before the boss he could transform into the wrong thing and waste minutes of time ten times in a row. That would mean you'd have to try that segment at least ten times...unless you were lucky.

2. Because of the job system you would have to use only certain skills to further you ahead. I did many blue spells. Aqua Rake kills the sand creature in one hit...but you have to have a certain amount of health to get the Aqua Rake ability...therefore you have to level up to do so. Again...it comes back to the 'how low is low' question. After the fire boss I leveled up in the forest until one of my guys could get level 5 death from the library. I guess question 2 would be 'what skills do you use?'

3. Whenever I saved it would sometimes bring up a screen that was always really funky (garbled). Did you have any problems with this or do you do the whole game at once? If you did it single-segment...how the fuck did you manage that?

I would like you to write down exactly what spells you get...what level all of your characters are at different places...such as end of world 1 or after a certain dungeon and what skills you get.

I would also personally like to work on this with you because doing it on an emulator is one thing, but doing it on the playstation is much different.
Visit my profile to see my runs!
Verily, the reason Final Fantasy V has been so popular among the throngs of Gamefaqs' libraries is partly due to me.  Damn Omega and Shinryu...
Anyway, I've beaten the game, and despite that it was my least favorite Final Fantasy aside from FFII (No, not FFIV; not FFIV at all), I would nevertheless watch the run with unbridled enthusiasm and ebullience. 
Anyway, yes, GF is typically scant in speedrun walkthroughs, so don't let that discourage you. 
I believe that your time is sufficiently applaudable.  If you can duplicate this run in an acceptable manner [VHS tape], please do so.  I'll await the run with fervant anticipation.
I'd really have to make a somewhat unwelcome return to the game to really be of any help to you, but my only suggestion is not to use a Summoner, despite the temptation, as I would think they'd require plenty of sidetracking, even though they pay off in the average play through. 
Also, the permanent job idea sounds plausible, but I'd wager that the run would actually move quicker if you were to adopt additional abilites; luckily, you can keep your mage abilities, to an adequate extent, while you develop another class.  Despite that I am not a veteran of the game, and I wasn't planning on producing a speedrun strat, the team with which I conquered the game consisted of a Knight/Samurai, a White Mage/Monk, a BlueMage/Summoner, and a Black Mage/Sorcerer.  The Sorcerer, by the way, did not pay off for me.  I've no idea whether that helps you, at all, but there it is.
In response to Mkt2015:
Just for the record, I would never use a Blue Mage during this speedrun, but I know that probably wasn't your intention.
Also, I, too, experienced the phantom save screen.  I believe it was an American release issue; I doubt it can be avoided in potential speedruns.
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
http://ultimagarden.net/ff_ta.html
FFV Time (PS edition) - 3 : 13 : 03 (Last Save Time)
Visit my profile to see my runs!
Wow, that's an amazing time.  However, I did not understand the 'chart' displayed on that page; it seems to have appeared improperly on my computer...
Is that really his time?  That's amazing, but would it be safe to even trust that it's accurate?
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
Chart displaying "incorrectly" because it's Japanese page ;).
Japanese text goes faster than english, just because it take less space. And because of that I think same playtrough with English text will take more time.

I have attempted Speed Run time ago, and I can say that Blue Magic is necessary. Atomos + Blackshock=L5 Death etc. If level divisible to 2, then here goes L2 Old + L5 Death.
Wario Land!!!11!11!1
Coin Atk will own your life.
Eternal Understudy
Don't forget the crazy Chemist-XDeath trick!
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
Quote:
Don't forget the crazy Chemist-XDeath trick!

Kiss of Blessing ? Bug ?
Edit history:
KennyMan666: 2005-10-31 06:17:56 pm
Precursor
Now, I've only played this game as a translated SNES ROM, so some of the names I use might not be the same as in the PSX release.

You'll definitely want a Thief and a Monk in your initial job setup, not really sure for the two others. You definitely don't want to make Lenna your Thief, since then you won't have running capabilities in the pyramid. And never let the Thief change jobs until you can use Dash for other jobs. I'm thinking Butz or Faris would be the best choice. Maybe try to steal some good equipment from Gilgamesh when you meet him? You can pick up one good item from every time you fight him. Maybe change one character to a Elementalist at some points, for walking over tiles that do damage. If there's a strong two-handed axe easily obtainable in your path, I think a Berserker would be worth it.

As for a Summoner, I think it might be worth it - for one reason only, and that reason is called Golem. It has saved my life countless times. And, unless I'm mistaken, there's a number of other obtainable summons along the path of the game.

Now... unless I'm mistaken, you have to get three of the legendary weapons. I don't really remember how good the weapons are, but if you have a Samurai (you really should have, since GP Toss wins) and a Dragoon, I think you want the Masamune (always strike first) and the Holy Lance (makes Jump stronger). As for the third, I'm thinking Excalibur... second or third strongest sword in the game, IIRC.
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Hello again, I'm a college student, so I can't guarantee that I'll be able to reply quickly every time.  Anyway, let me just answer some of your selected questions quickly, and then I'll answer the rest by posting a basic walkthrough of what I did.

Mkt2015:
1: I was level 11 upon exiting world 1, level 14 upon exiting world 2, and level 14/16 against Exdeath/NeoExdeath.  I found the probability of success to be annoyingly low at times, but never less than, say, 1 in 4.  For instance, you mentioned liquiflame, but I killed him with three ice rods and therefore encountered the hand form between zero and two times, the latter having only 1 in 4 probability.  Liquiflame was not the worst place for luck by a longshot.  The two toughest places for luck were Big Bridge (to get few random encounters) and the boss Apanda (Because if he wind slashes, or uses fight or drain to kill a key character, then I have to restart).  Both places have a save point right before.

By the way, what is a TSA run?  I'm not familiar with all the lingo yet. Smiley

2: You can read the walkthrough in my next post to find out which skills I used.  My main classes were blue mage, black mage, summoner, and samurai (for giltoss), although only 5 out of the 20 classes did not have a unique ability that I used at least once.  Also, the Mix ability in particular was incredibly important for my Cleft of Dimension strategy.

3: I hope this save screen business doesn't pose a huge problem.  There is absolutely no way I could do this run in a single segment.  I'm thinking about 11 segments here would be the minimum, although more would probably allow for a slightly quicker time.

4: Here is a complete list of all the spells I used during the run:

Black magic: fire, ice, bolt, ice2, fire3

White magic: cure, mute, life.  Cure2, sort of.

Blue magic: frogsong, deathclaw, lv. 5 doom, darkshock, exploder, lv. 3 flare.  Also used emission and missile, although they weren't necessary but didn't take any extra time to learn.

Summon magic: Ifrit, ramuh, titan, golem, carbunkle.

Time magic: fast2, exit, quick

(Some other "magic" that may or may not count as magic depending on your definition.  Above are all the spells that use MP.)

InsipidMuckyWater: I'm afraid that unless you can back up your class suggestions a little better, they're a bit off.
Although I do have to make slight sidetracks for ramuh, golem, and carbunkle, all three of these battles are very quick and give HUGE payoffs.  Maybe I could attempt to use the knight lockout instead of golem, but I find that incredibly difficult to pull off, plus requires a dedicated knight, so it would probably increase rather than decrease the time overall even if I could do it.

Blue magic is absolutely essential to this run, without question.  I can envision no spells more suited to a speedrun than deathclaw and lv. 5 doom.

The sorcerer class (I prefer mystic knight) also comes in very handy in a couple spots, vs. bosses that are vulnerable to break sword.  I'm thinking carbunkle, Twin Tania, and NeoExdeath part 2.

In general, physical classes don't work at low levels.  I never use them for their melee abilities except once vs. galura, a boss early in world 1. 

As for the 3:13:03 time, I'll believe it when I see a video of it.  I don't believe such a time to be possible on the version I played.  I can envision cutting off at most 30 minutes from my run by using luck manipulation, faster menu navigation, skipping Neo, and just making fewer brief pauses in genral.  As for time cut off due to strategic improvements, I can't say for sure, but I would probably cap that at about 15 minutes, which is approximately the total time I spend fighting non-mandatory battles.  But yeah, if I could even break 4:00:00 I'd be extremely happy.  I think that 3:13:03 is roughly equal to the amount of time as you are forced to spend dashing the minimal distance path plus viewing the mandatory cutscenes.  Battles not included!

I can't believe I forgot that L2 old reduces monster levels!  In combination with L5 doom, it could kill any boss.  I have to use darkshock for level reduction instead.  Thanks Genji, this could very well be the key to a sub-four-hour run; I'd have to think more about it.  My initial thoughts:

I should definitely use it against Exdeath (castle), Calotisteri and Antlion since they're even level and my current strateges involves direct damage.  Even an odd level boss may be darkshockable to an even level.  But then you probably have to boost your own level with sampson power in order to be able to hit with darkshock, and at that point you probably might as well continue darkshocking them to a multiple of 5.  (This is how I kill the tree form of Exdeath for instance).  But I now need to re-think my Neo strategy with this in mind.

Kiss of Blessing glitch: For some reason you can use the chemist mixture maidenkiss + holywater to inflict beserk status on any target, even one which has beserk status immunity.  Beserk status overrides any boss' AI script, so kiss of blessing allows you to prevent certain scripts from being executed.  The infamous example is Exdeath -> NeoExdeath in the final battle. 

Although you can use the kiss of blessing to bypass NeoExdeath, I find this incredibly unsatisfying, and any run which does this would have to be placed in a seperate category as far as I'm concerned.  I've even heard that it causes the SNES version to crash.

I have no qualms against using the kiss of blessing in other places, but I honestly can't think of a place where it would actually improve my time. 
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Ok, so here's my walkthrough as promised.  I'm mainly just going to talk about the battles here; the mandatory ones plus the few non-mandatory ones that I chose to fight.  Feel free to give me more specific questions.

World 1:

Winshrine: I fight two battles here to get to lv. 2, which is necessary for the ship graveyard.

Karlabos: bolt owns him.

I fight a couple more battles in the ship graveyard to get to levels 4/5.  This helps against Siren but I'm mainly doing it for the upcoming Galura battle.  Plus the battles here can be won with three spells, so they're fast.

Siren: Fire in her undead form.  I kill her before she changes back.

Magisa: I kill her with the ice rod that may be found in Carwen.  She doesn't get to summon Forza (Faltzer) this way.  For those of you who don't know: you press up in the item menu to use your rod as an item.  It casts the appropriate third tier elemental spell, which is a great strategy in world 1.

Galura: There are two options here:
1) Win a fire rod from the rikald mages in the lower tower.  However, the rod is a rare win and I'd have to  restart every single time I didn't get it.  What do people think about this?  Does it count as unfair luck manipulation? Would TG/Radix approve?  If I can't do this, then I must use my current slower strategy, which is:

2) learn frogsong from the elf toads and steal two mithril swords from the icesoldiers.  Then, get galura both frogged and muted so he can't unfrog himself, and hack him apart with knights.

I fight a couple packs of wild nacks on the way to Karnak; they give good exp and gil, and are weak against fire.

Karnak: I buy ice2, life, and cure2, although I didn't need that last one really.  More importantly, I buy four ice rods.

Steamship: I fight a couple more battles here too; namely the ones that can be won with a single casting of ice2 (of which there are several).  By now I think I'm level 8 or so.

Liquiflame: Two ice rods takes him out.  Sorry, in my above post I was mistaken, it's been awhile since I did that fight.  That means he can hit me with fire2 at most once.

I take a little extra time to steal some elixirs from the Gigas MIAB in Karnak castle.  I need them for the Cleft of Dimension, and it's a common steal.  Just have two theives, the first one steals and the second one escapes.  On the last time, I kill gigas with an ice rod to get his exp and the final elixir he was guarding.

Iron claw: I kill his dogs with enhanced ice2, then wait to learn deathclaw, then break an ice rod.

Karnak: stock up on rods again

On the way to the ancient library, I kill a dolm chimera with a rod.  They give excellent exp.  No, I don't try to learn aqua rake because I don't have enough HP.  Aqua rake is only useful against sandworm, and three water scrolls kill sandworm nearly as fast.  Anyway, Bartz is level 10 now, the rest are 9.

Ifrit: Two ice rods again.

There is one point in the ancient lib. where you're forced to fight a battle; here's where I learn lv. 5 doom.

Byblos: deathclaw.

Sandworm: Three water scrolls from Lix.

Crayclaw: 1 thunder rod.  Pathetic boss.

Turtle: lv.5 doom.

Next, I'm going to have to fight the cannons, which is probably the biggest obstacle in world 1.  You have to be lv. 11 to survive an emission, and I'm pretty sure there is no way to do the battle efficiently without being able to survive emission.  This is one of the main reasons why I do so much leveling in world 1.  Anyway, I fly to one of the small islands north of Crescent and fight two battles against five blackflames each.  (Every random battle there is five blackflames.) They go down with an enhanced Ifrit.  I'm level 11 now, plus I learned darkshock.

Next, I kill ramuh with deathclaw.  The reason is that I don't have enough money to buy all the rods I'd need against the cannons, and Bolt of Judment is only very slightly slower.

Now, I'm ready to kill the cannons with Bolt of Judment.  I do so.  Sol Cannon = lv. 5 doom + 6 thunder rods.

Archaeoavis: This annoying boss takes 6 rods in all, plus lv. 5 doom.

Puroboros: Giltoss x 2

Titan: Giltoss, and I Jump over earth shaker.

Chimabrain: Deathclaw, and I needed a appropriately timed Jump to finish him off.  (Deathclaw won't paralyze him)

I'm not sure exactly what my time was leaving world 1, but I'm pretty sure it was under 2 hours.  2:15 is a great time, though; that's about where I was before I started doing some seriously nitpicky optimizations.

Gilgamesh (dungeon): Missile, since I get it anyway and it works slightly better than deathclaw in this instance.

Big Bridge: I had to restart if I got too many random encounters, because you can't run away from them.  All the enemies can be dealt with using Bolt of Judment except for a Neogalura, for whom I had giltoss at the ready.  Giltoss was also the best way to defeat Gilgamesh (bridge) that I could think of.

Here is where I defeated a shield dragon in Kuzar casle for three levels to everybody, using Control which I was careful to learn in world 1.  Now I'm level 14.  This is the last place where I need to gain levels.

Tyrasaurus: deathclaw

Golem: I can win this battle in the first round by singing requiem three times, so I'm pretty sure it's worth it.  Requiem is easily learned in Kelb villiage.

Hiryuuplant: deathclaw + titan.

Gilgamesh (ship): darkshock + lv. 5 doom.  No enkidou to deal with.

Atomos: darkshock + lv. 5 doom again.

Carbunkle: After he casts three spells he's vulnerable to break sword.  This is another quickie with a big payoff.

Exdeath: I used a summoner and three blackmages and reflectricked fire3 onto him nine times, while holding fire rods which I was careful to save from world 1.  I also considered using yellowdragons, but they take too long to catch.  Now I realize that the best way to do this is L2 old + L5 doom.

World 3:
Time: 3:10-ish.

Antlion: I used two blackmages, but again L2 old + L5 doom would have been better.

I couldn't avoid fighting one aspis in the pyramid.  If anyone knows a way around this it might be worth pursuing, but would only save about 15 seconds anyway.  I did manage to avoid all the machinheads.

Mummies: 3 blackmages, fire3 kills them in one hit.

Merugene: You can beat her with fire3 before she does a barrier change.

Here's where I took a brief detour to Mirage to prepare for the Cleft of Dimension.  I bought the spell Quick and some magic-power enhancing gear, and stocked up on items for mixing and use.

Cleft of Dimension: I had to fight a party of levelchecks in order to learn lv 3 flare.  This was a pretty slow fight though, at least 2 minutes, so I'd be interested in changing my Neo strategy so I could cut it from the run.

Calotisteri: Summoner + 3 BM, reflectricking fire3.  Again, I should have used L2 old.

Apanda: Major luck-fest, since he's weak against fire I could do 9000 damage to him by reflectricking fire3, but he has several ways to retaliate and I need a little luck to beat him.

Catastroph: I got float in a previous battle using the Levitate mixture.  Then, I had a time mage wear the running shoes and cast fast2, which allowed my party to move first.  After that it was more reflectricking of fire2.  I wonder if darkshock + lv. 5 doom would work better, but I'd have to boost my own level with Sampson Power to hit with darkshock, so I don't think it'd save much time if any.

Halicarnassos: He (she? It?) has a lot of HP but I still like the reflect trick (as you can see).  I used the same party as catastroph so I could be fast, and also used my time mage to feed a couple sampson powers to my two Black mages.

Twin Tania: I got a mystic knight to survive his attacks by holding an ice shield and wearing a coral ring.  Then it's just break sword when he charges up for Giga Flare.  I barely even had enough HP to survive Mind Blast, though, so this strategy wouldn't have worked at a much lower level.

Exdeath/Neo Exdeath: This battle requires its own post, really.  As I said before, I'm committed to not skipping Neo.  My party was:

Bartz: Mystic knight with Mix
Lenna: Summoner with Mix
Cara: Time mage with Blue
(Blue took some effort to learn, but I was finally able to get it in the Cleft of Dimension)
Faris: Time mage with Mix

Now, I just boosted Cara to lv 99 and hit the tree form with sampson power + darkshock x 3 + lv 5 doom.  Cara, my effective blue mage, has Quick so this goes fast once she's high enough level to hit with darkshock.
I use golem to protect myself, and lifeshield also to prevent white hole.

Neo Exdeath: I killed part 2 with break sword, and gave parts 1 and 4 sampson power so that they would be vulnerable to LV3 flare.  I used carbunkle to defend against part 4's magic attacks.  Then Cara, being fast and doing Quick + LV3 flare + LV3 flare could do about 14000 damage per round to each remaining part.  This was good enough to prevent Grand Cross from ever hitting.  I just had to be careful not to leave a single part standing, because meteo would own me.

Victory!


Now a hit show on the CW
Quote:
3: I hope this save screen business doesn't pose a huge problem.  There is absolutely no way I could do this run in a single segment.  I'm thinking about 11 segments here would be the minimum, although more would probably allow for a slightly quicker time.

If I remember correctly, you can still save when the menu is glitched. So just memorize the order of button presses you have to make to save. This will only be a problem if there's a specific file you want to overwrite (due to multiple attempts or whatever).

Anywho, I don't really have any other advice to give. Looking forward to the run Smiley
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Oh, and to KennyMan:

You don't have to get any legendary weapons.  You can just head straight into the Cleft of Dimension.  I didn't want any weapons anyway; I never used them. 
Visit my profile to see my runs!
I'm sorry; I totally forgot about Golem. Yeah, just for him, and similarly Carbunkle, go ahead with the summoner.  I'm not entirely sure if I could ever have beaten the game without his shielding.

BTW, I never meant to suggest that my party was THE PREFERRABLE SELECTION.  Like I said, without attempting to strat and without having been an expert of the game, I used the team aforementioned.  In other words, that was the team that I developed, without a faq or anything, on my first and only play through of the title.  By all means, if you think you have a better suggestion, disregard my comments!

Finally, okay, you definitely could apply the doom type spells, but I'm assuming that you would only use this on enemies that you are forced to fight [as you could run from random encounters]?  I didn't have trouble with anything in the game, except for Omega, Shinryu, and the bridge fight with Gilgamesh [for unapparent reasons], so I guess I forgot about using Doom spells, at all.  Though, if you're looking to level quickly, it could be useful.  Other than that spell, and Frogsong, I didn't use anything superfluous or that couldn't have been seamlessly replaced with a high level black mage spell.

Finally, again, your suggested classes were not all that different from mine, so I don't think my comments were that obsolete. 
Like I said, I would NOT use a sorcerer. 
I actually DID have a Time Mage; I realize that, after the fact, from loading my game just now.  (my last save is in a portion of the game dedicated solely to levelling, so I do not use the Time Mage at the moment. My bad.)
I did use a Blue Mage in my game, so that is the same.  I still don't think I would bother with one, but hey, I never claimed to be an expert on this game.
Somebody mentioned using a Dragoon; that may be a good idea; not sure.
I don't think I ever used a thief in my game.  I can't, therefore, judge whether it would be beneficial.  I'm tempted to think not, as stealing items probably won't be particularly necessary for a speedrun.  I know they have some job skill, other than stealing, but I can't recall what it is or what is its function.  If you think you'll need it, go for it, though.

Sorry; I do not mean to make an agenda of defending my lack of specification.  I wish well to you on the run, but, as I mentioned, you probably can't depend on me for an abundance of counsel; I'm, obviously, not the best.

EDIT: The save screen shouldn't impede your run; it just requires that you memorize something to the tune of, "Hit X, then hit Down, then hit X again," when you aren't able to clearly view your screen.  After all, at least two people on this forum made it through the game despite this hindrance. 
100% runs=great to watch
One thing to consider may be waiting for the imminent GBA reduxish FFV to come out.  Nobody knows if they've fixed any bugs or added stuff and whatnot yet...but ya might want to hold off until it is known what that version may offer.

That said I'm a huge FFV fan from the SNES trans and would love to see a full run of the game!  Good luck wiht however you may go about it!
MGS for PS1 forever.
The bad thing is that I have only beat the game with gameshark. I did get pretty deep into world 2 without it...but then I found out that I needed certain abilities from certain classes for certain bosses and I just wanted to see the endings so I said fuck it just cheated. However, with my TAS (tool-assisted --> using an emulator for save states) I have memorized pretty much everything about the first world. There were a few things I noticed with your walkthrough.

1. After the fight on the mountain with one ice rod...I believe you either get a sword from her or something and you can cause paralysis on Galura if you equip it onto Faris. This might be a bit too much luck...and you might really need the frog song you mention and the other thing. Anyway...paralysis and then you just hit him a few times.

2. On Titan I made Butz a dragoon and had the two of them use ice rods (I used ice rods on practically every single battle). You have to time this out and have Butz jump after the 2 ice rods and before he does his earth shaker. This might save time. Might not. Dunno.

Anyway...it does look like you have a solid strategy for everything and my aquarake is the only thing that I didn't need...it seems. The bad thing is that I probably spent an extra 40 minutes leveling up to get it so I'd have to go back and redo that.
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Thanks for your suggestions again Mkt2015.  I hadn't thought of paralyzing Galura.  What you win from Magisa is a whip, which has a paralyzing effect on creature-type monsters such as Galura.  This strategy would be a lot faster than frogsong/mute, mostly because I wouldn't have to sit through the animation of Galura counterattacking as a frog each time I hit him.(Enemies cannot counterattack when paralyzed).  Plus, I wouldn't have to win the frog battle; I could just steal swords and run.  There's even a chance that this could be faster than winning a fire rod (since it saves the rikaldmage battle), but I doubt it.  And no, I don't need to use frogsong or mute at any other point in the game.

As for your titan suggestion, that is exactly what I do, except I substitute giltoss for rods.  The two would work equally well. 
Edit history:
Genji: 2005-11-01 09:39:43 am
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
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I take a little extra time to steal some elixirs from the Gigas MIAB in Karnak castle.  I need them for the Cleft of Dimension, and it's a common steal.  

I dont think you need to do it.
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cannons, which is probably the biggest obstacle in world 1.  You have to be lv. 11 to survive an emission,

3 Ninja with Thunder  Scroll will own cannons before they can even start moving.
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Now, I'm ready to kill the cannons with Bolt of Judment.  I do so.  Sol Cannon = lv. 5 doom + 6 thunder rods.

Thunder Scrolls cost less, and Ninja can throw it faster.
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Archaeoavis: This annoying boss takes 6 rods in all, plus lv. 5 doom.

Kamaitachi(!Terrain) tottaly own him.
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Puroboros: Giltoss x 2

Two-Three throws of Thunder Scroll, and then let them to explode, learning "exploder".

You forgot about Abductor -> Exploder is the fastest way.
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Here is where I defeated a shield dragon in Kuzar casle for three levels to everybody, using Control which I was careful to learn in world 1.  Now I'm level 14.  This is the last place where I need to gain levels.

I dont think it's neccesary
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Gilgamesh (ship): darkshock + lv. 5 doom.  No enkidou to deal with.

Or just release Aquathon, you caught in battle between Bal and Kelb.

- You forgot about Seal Guardians -> Gilltoss I guess ?
- And ExDeath -> Exploder will end battle in seconds.

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Now I realize that the best way to do this is L2 old + L5 doom.

Yeah...
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Merugene: You can beat her with fire3 before she does a barrier change.

Put her to sleep to prevent barrier change. 3 Fire Rods can greatly increase Fire3 damage btw.

- Apocalypse. Just use exploder at him, he will learn it and use ))) Stupid .... will kill himself -)
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Catastroph: I got float in a previous battle using the Levitate mixture.  Then, I had a time mage wear the running shoes and cast fast2, which allowed my party to move first.  After that it was more reflectricking of fire2.  I wonder if darkshock + lv. 5 doom would work better, but I'd have to boost my own level with Sampson Power to hit with darkshock, so I don't think it'd save much time if any.

No need to use samson power, use resets instead -)

[EDIT]
For start I like Boco's strategy :
1) When you enter Pirates Cave, fight 3 x Bat battle.
2) In Tule kill Goblin MIAB (At beginners hall), learning Goblin Punch. (It will level Lenna and Galuf to lvl 2)
Buy Bolt and Ice.
3) In battle with Siren use Goblinpunch with Butz, Lenna, Galuf (L2 Characters will deal 240 dmg to L2 Siren)
4) Pick up Ice Rod at Corwen
5) Kill, using  Ice, 2 x Tatu, it will level you to 3,3,3,4 levels.
6) Kill Magissa breaking Ice Rod.
7) Kill Galura using Blue Mage x 3 + Bare formation. L3 Butz, Lenna and Galuf will deal 240 dmg to L3 Galura. Faris must hit Galura with Whip and inflict paralyze.

Btw, at the basement of Worus castle you can pickup 2000 Gil.
MGS for PS1 forever.
Boco's strategy is fine for a TAS...but even then it's very hard. Blue Magic can only be learned if it is cast on a person who is a blue mage...therefore her tactic of only having Lenna be a blue mage for goblin punch will only work 1/4 of the time. For me...if I wanted a person to learn something or if I needed a summoner...I would at least have 2 if not 3 people be a blue mage/summoner just in case one of em would die I would still be able to win. <-- this would definitely be the case for an actual speedrun and not a TAS.
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
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blue mage for goblin punch will only work 1/4 of the time.

- First: it is 1/3 chance; Faris not in the party.
- Second: Turn two or three characters to Blue Mages right before learning Goblinpunch.

Boco's strategy is very nice. and BTW, you will have couple of resets trying to learn Death Claw and L5 Death.
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
Wow Genji, I must say all these ideas are very good.  I can see now that you really weren't kidding about the 3:13:03 time for the Apocalypse save.  It's true that you'll need to use some pretty bad luck manipulation, especially for the Catastroph part, but if I don't do it, someone else will.  That's sort of the nature of speed runs, I guess.

I can see how I can adopt the strategies you mentioned and be able to omit the ramuh, carbunkle, and levelcheck battles, plus do many aboss battles lot faster.  And that's a lot of time.

New Neo strategy: I don't need to learn L3 flare.  Instead, I can hit part 2 with break sword, part 4 with L2/L5, part 3 with darkshock/L5, and part 1 with sampson/darkshock/L2/L5.  When I considered strategies like this before, I thought I was going to need to connect with four evadable spells versus Neo, which would require more luck than I could afford since all of Neo's parts have very high magic evade.  This strategy requires only two (the two darkshocks) because now I know about L2 old, so I might be able to pull it off if I boost somebody to lv. 99.  However, combined with the fact that I need to do the Catastroph darkshock thing on the same segment, this could be a very frustrating final segment indeed.  I think I will go insane unless I use at least one or two sampson powers vs. Catastroph to improve darkshock odds.  He is lv. 71 so to hit him with, say, a lv. 11 character the probability is (66 + 11 - 71)% = 6% base chance, then his evade check, so 4% altogether.  Each sampson power increases this probability by about 7%, which could make the difference between my sanity and not. 

Without carbunkle, I'd probably have to win the Halicarnassos battle w/level manipulation as well.  However, he has low defense so I was actually considering a knight/boost/beserk/dblgrip strategy, if I can somehow manage to learn dblgrip.  I may be able to get such a knight's damage to nearly 9999 this way, which would be sufficienty fast and REQUIRE NO LUCK.  Anyway, I've got a lot to consider, and perhaps I'll start testing Boco's opening strategy to see if it's feasible.
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
Hmm,, may be just L99(Samson Power)+Hermes Shoes +$toss  for Neo ExDeath ?

Btw to get EXP\Gil you can use Blackfire x5 battle in first world (One throw of scroll) and for second world it can be Radiator at Guido Cave (L5 Death)

I dont know how Carbuncle is usefull now, may be you can totally skip him looking for luck -)

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I can see now that you really weren't kidding about the 3:13:03 time for the Apocalypse save.

That was Necrophobia save Wink
Glowy eyes of DOOM!
I thought about using giltoss for the final battle, but when I tested it with 25000 gil or so I didn't have nearly enough gil even to kill the tree form.  By not buying Quick or the other gear I purchased in Mirage, and by taking even more chests, I might be able to scrounge together roughly 100000.  This may be enough to kill three of Neo's parts; I'm not sure and I should find out exactly how much I'd need.  Otherwise I'd have to get the magic lamp to wipe out the fourth part, which adds at least a minute.  Giltoss is something to consider, but I think a L5 doom-based strategy will probably be at least as fast, even if I'm only looking for, say, two hits out of six attempts.  But yeah, I need to think about giltoss again.

Also, the opening is working very well!  I'm about 10 minutes ahead of my old time coming out of Karnak castle.  The castle explosion segment is annoying because I can't get escape yet so I can't get attacked by any sergeants, and I want the 6000 gil. 

Killing a whitesnake + goblin in the windshrine is slightly faster than three 3 x bat battle, since the enemies don't get a move.  It also grants the appropriate amount of experience.

I'm not certain of this, but don't you think it would be faster to learn exploder from the motortraps in the steamship rather than Puroboros?  Waiting for all six of them to explode themselves is pretty time consuming, whereas you can hit motortraps with bolt to make them explode.  To reveal the motortraps only takes one ice2.

One more thing: I don't quite see how getting garkimasra's 2000 gil is feasible without Escape, nor do I think I need it that badly. 
Blue Mages will rule this world =)
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Waiting for all six of them to explode themselves is pretty time consuming, whereas you can hit motortraps with bolt to make them explode.  To reveal the motortraps only takes one ice2.

In my playthough I've threw 3 Thunder Scroll praying to kill 5(!) of Puroboss. I've tried it two times, and both times it was working.