Final Fantasy VII

GarlandG

2007-12-18 10:44:58 am

I will knock you all down!

The goal is less than 8 hours, which I believe is possible.

Hattori HANZo

2007-12-18 11:19:40 pm

contraddicted

[boring part]
Hi there!
I've gotten aware of SDA about a year ago and really enjoyed the nostalgic feeling that overcame me, while watching the games I played in my younger days being speedrun.
Yesterday, I thought of taking a look here again and read the news. A slight feeling, like loosing the link to reality, overcame me, when I saw that someone indeed had done a speedrun on VII. A speedrun. On Final Fanatasy VII. OMFG!
This lead me to take a look into the forums and so I read a bit here and there and found this thread, discussing another VII speedrun, this time on the PS :eek:
I am more than sure, that doing a speedrun on this particular game implies that the runner has crossed the line of mental sanity and gone haywire pretty much the same way as I did some years ago Cheesy

No really, even just completing a run on this game with any time is very respactable.

@ GarlandG

I now watched most of the segments you are already uploaded and they are really astounding. I nearly felt to my knees and cried Wink

Sure, you're perfectly right calling them imperfect, but further improvements would require an enormous number of tries (getting only one fight at the elevator at ShinraHQ) or would be insignificant (loosing less than a second by running past the safepoint and back to it). So I really pay tribute to you for what you've achieved already.

Also, after having played VII quite a lot, read much about it and done that again today, I presume that finishing the game in less than 8h should be no problem if you keep going like this. If forced to guess, I'd go for about 7:45.
[/boring part]

I also am sorry for my english, but the time I learned it or had some sort of practice are noticeably gone...

[boring part]
Hi there!
I've gotten aware of SDA about a year ago and really enjoyed the nostalgic feeling that overcame me, while watching the games I played in my younger days being speedrun.
Yesterday, I thought of taking a look here again and read the news. A slight feeling, like loosing the link to reality, overcame me, when I saw that someone indeed had done a speedrun on VII. A speedrun. On Final Fanatasy VII. OMFG!
This lead me to take a look into the forums and so I read a bit here and there and found this thread, discussing another VII speedrun, this time on the PS :eek:
I am more than sure, that doing a speedrun on this particular game implies that the runner has crossed the line of mental sanity and gone haywire pretty much the same way as I did some years ago :D
No really, even just completing a run on this game with any time is very respactable.

@ GarlandG

I now watched most of the segments you are already uploaded and they are really astounding. I nearly felt to my knees and cried ;)
Sure, you're perfectly right calling them imperfect, but further improvements would require an enormous number of tries (getting only one fight at the elevator at ShinraHQ) or would be insignificant (loosing less than a second by running past the safepoint and back to it). So I really pay tribute to you for what you've achieved already.

Also, after having played VII quite a lot, read much about it and done that again today, I presume that finishing the game in less than 8h should be no problem if you keep going like this. If forced to guess, I'd go for about 7:45.
[/boring part]

I also am sorry for my english, but the time I learned it or had some sort of practice are noticeably gone...

GarlandG

2007-12-29 11:40:49 am

I will knock you all down!

7:45 isn't very realistic. In fact, it will be very hard to beat the 8 hour mark. But if I manage to do it, I will be a very happy man and I will have something to brag about for the rest of my life Cheesy

Oh, and you don't have to be sorry about your English. I don't know what your first language is, but you type a lot better than many people whose first language is English. Nowadays, people care less and less about writing properly, soemthing you can easily tell by browsing a few message boards. The worst case is those who don't use punctuation and capitalized letters at all, for no good reason whatsoever. That really bothers me.

Anyway, the year is getting close the end and I promised I would get out of Midgar by then, so I guess I better start working on those last segments. Stay tuned for videos during the next couple of days!

GarlandG

2007-12-31 05:53:24 pm

I will knock you all down!

New Segment 11:

I have completed segment 12 too, but I'm not able to upload it today, so you're gonna have to wait until next year. Happy new year, everyone!

ShadowLaguna

2007-12-31 11:31:30 pm

THE GAME!!

Happy New Year to you too. Smiley

GarlandG

2008-01-01 09:35:00 pm

I will knock you all down!

Segment 12 (Part 1):
Segment 12 (Part 2):

I'm 7 minutes ahead of my old time now and that's really a lot, considering there weren't many things to improve in Midgar. My goal is to beat the game in 8 hours, so I have a little over 6 hours left. Last time, I beat the game in 8:57:59, so I need to shave off another 51 minutes. Will I be able to do it? Stay tuned.

Carcinogen

2008-01-01 10:23:05 pm

Considering how much progress you've made so far, I think you can.

Hattori HANZo

2008-01-02 03:24:03 am

contraddicted

Quote:

7:45 isn't very realistic. In fact, it will be very hard to beat the 8 hour mark. But if I manage to do it, I will be a very happy man and I will have something to brag about for the rest of my life Cheesy

WTF?
Seriously, 7:45 was a typo. I don't know how I managed to hit the 4 instead of the 5, but I'll just explain it with posting too soon after getting up :p
Of course I meant 7:55! Shocked

You gained 7 minutes in about 1\4 of your intended completetion time. So you have to gain about 8 minutes per hour from now on.
I've never played the PSX version and the last time I played VII was some years ago. So, how much time you really have to "play", meaning not just watch cutscenes and push away dialogues, is only vaguely assessable to me.
If there's one hour of movies and brabbling, you'd have to go for about 7 minutes of improvement per hour, meaning ~12%. Two hours of story mean about 10 minutes per hour or ~16%.

Seen from this perspective, you'll have a damn hard time. But you probably knew this already Cheesy

Based on the presumably worse watch:play ratio in Midgar and your statement, saying that the real improvements are to come past the Midgar episode, I just took the liberty of irrevocably deciding that you'll make it in sub 8 hours Grin

Quote:

Oh, and you don't have to be sorry about your English. I don't know what your first language is, but you type a lot better than many people whose first language is English. Nowadays, people care less and less about writing properly, soemthing you can easily tell by browsing a few message boards. The worst case is those who don't use punctuation and capitalized letters at all, for no good reason whatsoever. That really bothers me.

Thanks

But surely you'd revise that once you heared me speaking. *cough*

[BEWARE!!! off topic driveling on]
My first language is also latin based, has a vocabulary of about 300k-500k words, three grammatical genders and also reversed genders for sun and moon. And according to people who tried to learn it, the grammar is a pain in the ass to learn, so I'm happy its my mother tongue Grin

Yeah, you're right, it's german.
I can absolutely assure you, that what you've adduced for written english is possibly even worse in written and also spoken german.
Worst of all, most of the people do not just refuse to put any effort in what they write, leaving it contentwise unstructered, but really are completely unable to correctly use punctuation and capitalization. Of course especially the latter one is quite complicated, even for native speakers, but the horrible way in which it is misused can make you shiver. Also the immense amount of words that are not missppelled as a result of typos, but of sheer ignorance. Often leading to funny expressions or severe missunderstandings is the incapabilty of judging whether something is to be written in one or in several words. The distinction between "charging a battery" or "a specialized store selling batteries" is made by a simple space. (So today I had to tell someone, that it is no good idea to implant a battery store in his car...)
Also very annoying is the pseudo-americanization. There seems to be an immensive urge to use or create an english word for everything, especially in economic sciences and advertising. The result sounds often ridiculuos and has no clearly assigned meaning. And especially the latter one is quite bugging me, because the possibility to very precisly express yourself is not only something I really love about the german language, but also something that was influenced and influenced the culture enormously. But the option to do this today gets ignored in most cases anyway...
Also the apostrope in front of the genetive "s" has found its way to the Continent, where it is a misstake. And is not only used by idiots in rare cases but even on the packaging of commercial products. Really raping both languages was the sign "American Pizza's und Burger's" at a fast food booth Grin

The unforced and unneeded use of english terms also isn't limited by the price of something or the effort put into its marketing. The new Mercedes C-class can be ordered with the "Adaptive Break", the "Agility Control" damper system, "Keyless Go", "Kneebag" and top navigation system is called "COMAND", just for example. Yes, they write "COMAND" with one m, as far as I know even in the US.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the language itself and absolutely have no problem with technical terms in any foreign language, as not everything has to have its own name in different languages.

With the smallest linguistic sense, you sometimes feel cursed and doomed these days. And if it makes you feel better, you can be happy that the complete lack of capitalization is much more confusing in German.

Argh, I knew that I would not be able to withstand the temptation to post something, after you mentioned the continuous decay of written text. But it really shouldn't have gotten this long and, worse, boring.
[Phew, it's over!]

[quote]7:45 isn't very realistic. In fact, it will be very hard to beat the 8 hour mark. But if I manage to do it, I will be a very happy man and I will have something to brag about for the rest of my life :D
[/quote]

WTF?
Seriously, 7:45 was a typo. I don't know how I managed to hit the 4 instead of the 5, but I'll just explain it with posting too soon after getting up :p
Of course I meant 7:55! :o

You gained 7 minutes in about 1\4 of your intended completetion time. So you have to gain about 8 minutes per hour from now on.
I've never played the PSX version and the last time I played VII was some years ago. So, how much time you really have to "play", meaning not just watch cutscenes and push away dialogues, is only vaguely assessable to me. 
If there's one hour of movies and brabbling, you'd have to go for about 7 minutes of improvement per hour, meaning ~12%. Two hours of story mean about 10 minutes per hour or ~16%.

Seen from this perspective, you'll have a damn hard time. But you probably knew this already :D
Based on the presumably worse watch:play ratio in Midgar and your statement, saying that the real improvements are to come past the Midgar episode, I just took the liberty of irrevocably deciding that you'll make it in sub 8 hours  ;D

[quote]Oh, and you don't have to be sorry about your English. I don't know what your first language is, but you type a lot better than many people whose first language is English. Nowadays, people care less and less about writing properly, soemthing you can easily tell by browsing a few message boards. The worst case is those who don't use punctuation and capitalized letters at all, for no good reason whatsoever. That really bothers me.[/quote]

Thanks :)
But surely you'd revise that once you heared me speaking. *cough*

[[color=red]BEWARE!!![/color] off topic driveling on]
My first language is also latin based, has a vocabulary of about 300k-500k words, three grammatical genders and also reversed genders for sun and moon. And according to people who tried to learn it, the grammar is a pain in the ass to learn, so I'm happy its my mother tongue ;D
Yeah, you're right, it's german.
I can absolutely assure you, that what you've adduced for written english is possibly even worse in written and also spoken german.
Worst of all, most of the people do not just refuse to put any effort in what they write, leaving it contentwise unstructered, but really are completely unable to correctly use punctuation and capitalization. Of course especially the latter one is quite complicated, even for native speakers, but the horrible way in which it is misused can make you shiver. Also the immense amount of words that are not missppelled as a result of typos, but of sheer ignorance. Often leading to funny expressions or severe missunderstandings is the incapabilty of judging whether something is to be written in one or in several words. The distinction between "charging a battery" or "a specialized store selling batteries" is made by a simple space. (So today I had to tell someone, that it is no good idea to implant a battery store in his car...)
Also very annoying is the pseudo-americanization. There seems to be an immensive urge to use or create an english word for everything, especially in economic sciences and advertising. The result sounds often ridiculuos and has no clearly assigned meaning. And especially the latter one is quite bugging me, because the possibility to very precisly express yourself is not only something I really love about the german language, but also something that was influenced and influenced the culture enormously. But the option to do this today gets ignored in most cases anyway...
Also the apostrope in front of the genetive "s" has found its way to the Continent, where it is a misstake. And is not only used by idiots in rare cases but even on the packaging of commercial products. Really raping both languages was the sign "American Pizza's und Burger's" at a fast food booth ;D
The unforced and unneeded use of english terms also isn't limited by the price of something or the effort put into its marketing. The new Mercedes C-class can be ordered with the "Adaptive Break", the "Agility Control" damper system, "Keyless Go", "Kneebag" and top navigation system is called "COMAND", just for example. Yes, they write "COMAND" with one m, as far as I know even in the US.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the language itself and absolutely have no problem with technical terms in any foreign language, as not everything has to have its own name in different languages.

With the smallest linguistic sense, you sometimes feel cursed and doomed these days. And if it makes you feel better, you can be happy that the complete lack of capitalization is much more confusing in German.

Argh, I knew that I would not be able to withstand the temptation to post something, after you mentioned the continuous decay of written text. But it really shouldn't have gotten this long and, worse, boring.
[Phew, it's over!]

Maglok

2008-01-02 12:16:28 pm

Dum die dum

Happy new year indeed.

Great segments. I hope you do those 51 minutes, but I got a feeling it just isn't doable.

GarlandG

2008-01-02 12:38:24 pm

I will knock you all down!

It's possible, but it will be very close. I wouldn't be surprised if my final time ends up being 7:59:59 Tongue

Quote:

Often leading to funny expressions or severe missunderstandings is the incapabilty of judging whether something is to be written in one or in several words. The distinction between "charging a battery" or "a specialized store selling batteries" is made by a simple space. (So today I had to tell someone, that it is no good idea to implant a battery store in his car...)

It's like this in Norway too. I think the most common spelling mistake here in Norway is putting a space between words that should be written in one word. And when you do, the meaning changes completely.

BTW, I tried to learn German back in 8th to 10th grade. I had German two hours a week for three years and I didn't really learn a lot. I can read and understand some German, but I have no chance understanding spoken German Tongue

GarlandG

Edit history:

GarlandG: 2008-01-03 10:11:48 pm

2008-01-03 06:00:12 pm

I will knock you all down!

Are you ready for more? I can't say "more action" because this is a very actionless segment. Yep, the Kalm flashback. Anyway, here it is:

Segment 13, Part 1:
Segment 13, Part 2:
Segment 14:

Arrow

2008-01-07 10:46:05 am

Now a hit show on the CW

Just wanted to say that the run looks fantastic so far and I eagerly await new segments Smiley

Nice job!

GarlandG

2008-01-07 03:31:54 pm

I will knock you all down!

Thank you. I've already done enough practice on the next segment and I'm starting real attempts today. With a little luck, you might see it on the tube tonight Wink

ZeroEXE

Edit history:

ZeroEXE: 2008-01-07 10:46:20 pm

2008-01-07 10:45:05 pm

Frisbee Grenadier

Keep on trucking then. Luck manipulation sucks as far as time to complete a run goes, but it looks really good once you get it all together. What's next? Gold Saucer?

Edit: Wait, Juno should be next, if I recall correctly. I haven't played in forever.

Carcinogen

2008-01-08 01:21:51 am

Junon is next, yes. I'd commit suicide before travelling to Junon without getting into a battle, followed by a perfect boss fight, all under the clock.

GarlandG

2008-01-08 01:47:58 am

I will knock you all down!

Actually, I have yet get into a battle before I reach Junon, so I think I was very lucky with where I saved.

Also, the Bottomswell battle doesn't require that much luck. I need to poison him on the first attempt and Cloud must be attacked once so that he gets a limit break (to use on Jenova) and that seems to happen about 1 out of 5 times. Considering it's so early in the segment, that's not bad at all. Jenova will be much much much much MUCH worse.

I had one very good attempt, but then I messed up badly on the boat. That pissed me off, so I turned off the game and started playing Crash Bandicoot instead. What an awesome game that is. I'm doing a 100% run and I'm uploading all the levels, in case anyone wants to see Wink

Paused

2008-01-08 01:40:37 pm

Quote:

I'm doing a 100% run and I'm uploading all the levels, in case anyone wants to see Wink

Just when you think the news in a thread can not get any better...

GarlandG

2008-01-14 05:13:48 am

I will knock you all down!

After playing a lot last weekend and after that failed attempt last Monday, I figured it was time for a small break. I'll start up again today Smiley

ZeroEXE

2008-01-14 10:21:32 am

Frisbee Grenadier

Good stuff then, I look forward to your next segment, whenever you get it to the point you are happy with it.

lolo26

2008-01-24 04:16:15 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Okay, so brutal pointed me to the other thread, since it was a single segment run, but I saw you decided to close it, so I'll say something about what was in that thread here.

First, about the time difference between PC and PS2.
Farringa's run is good, but nowhere close to what Garland is doing, and Garland's aim is to beat the 8 hours mark, so it would still be slower than the PC record.
From my estimations Farringa's time would be somewhere around 8:20-8:25 on the PS2, which is still an incredible time Grin

As for the single segment run, I did it on the PS2, and not on the PC, and the time was 9:08:xx.
If only my hdd didn't die on me, you guys would have been able to see it ><
I said I would redo it someday, with the aim to beat the 9 hours mark, but it's pretty damn hard; had to restart a lot more than I thought, did quite a lot of little mistakes here and there but yeah the run is long.... Tongue

But I think I got really fast and almost non-luck dependant strategies for all the bosses figured out and everything else too (like how to cross the swamp without a chocobo and without having to rely on luck Roll Eyes

)

Garland always saves on his site the old speedrun discussion topics we have on gamefaqs, and there I pretty much explained everything I did in detail, so if you want that link or want to discuss anything concerning the ss run, don't hesitate (this is obviously directed to the guy who wants to do one).
In fact, anything FFVII speedrun related, doesn't have to be single-segment Wink

Okay, so brutal pointed me to the other thread, since it was a single segment run, but I saw you decided to close it, so I'll say something about what was in that thread here.

First, about the time difference between PC and PS2. 
Farringa's run is good, but nowhere close to what Garland is doing, and Garland's aim is to beat the 8 hours mark, so it would still be slower than the PC record.
From my estimations Farringa's time would be somewhere around 8:20-8:25 on the PS2, which is still an incredible time ;D

As for the single segment run, I did it on the PS2, and not on the PC, and the time was 9:08:xx. 
If only my hdd didn't die on me, you guys would have been able to see it ><
I said I would redo it someday, with the aim to beat the 9 hours mark, but it's pretty damn hard; had to restart a lot more than I thought, did quite a lot of little mistakes here and there but yeah the run is long....  :P
But I think I got really fast and almost non-luck dependant strategies for all the bosses figured out and everything else too (like how to cross the swamp without a chocobo and without having to rely on luck  ::) )

Garland always saves on his site the old speedrun discussion topics we have on gamefaqs, and there I pretty much explained everything I did in detail, so if you want that link or want to discuss anything concerning the ss run, don't hesitate (this is obviously directed to the guy who wants to do one).
In fact, anything FFVII speedrun related, doesn't have to be single-segment  ;)

Carcinogen

2008-01-24 05:09:31 pm

lolo, did you run NTSC or PAL?

lolo26

2008-01-24 09:54:45 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

NTSC.
Playing it with the Pal version would really have sucked, since it's 1.2 times slower, that would have meant like 2 hours extra Grin

Lag.Com

2008-01-24 10:19:33 pm

sda loyalist

Ye-es, but the time would be converted to an equivalent NTSC time (YES I KNOW ABOUT THE MOVIE FRAMERATE)

lolo26

2008-01-25 12:35:59 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I'm well aware that the time would be converted, in fact the timer would still show the correct time (since it's also 1,2 times slower, except for the FMV's, as you mentionned).
I was just saying that I sure didn't want to have to play for 2 more hours...9 hours straight was more than enough Roll Eyes

Brother Cloud

2008-01-25 11:55:34 am

Croc, FFVII, Halo oh yeah!

Yo dude 9 hours SS thats pretty damn good. I'll be playin it on the PS1 (or now that i think about it i could do it on the PS2) it'll be the PAL version though, because thats the english one. Is there much difference between PS2 and PS1? cant be much, maybe a bit faster loading, its backwards compatible so itll probably play the same. I know this isnt about ff7, but i played croc on the PS3 and the buttons where wierd, it reacted slower, so i put it in the PS1 and it actually played smoother. Ahh yeah i'll have to do it on the ps2, on my ps1 i have to save before i change disc because i have to reset then change disc.