Final Fantasy X

2010-08-10 08:26:26 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

So Essentia is done now and for those who didn't see it, here's a bit of rundown.

1: Essentia kills Tros(I think that's the Octopus boss...2nd one) before the Pincer Attack command appeared. Crit Grenades ftw?

2: Essentia walks away during a cutscene and forgot the Analog on the PS2 controller turned off, and lost 2 seconds.

3: During the battle with the Wolf and Bird involving a somewhat tutorial, Wakka missed, Tidus missed, Wakka gets blinded, then kills the bird.

4: Run ends at Kimahri. After the 6th hit, he still lived and killed her with a double turn, using a regular attack and Jump.

5: Essentia raged after 4. It was funny but also sad. Cry

Renokye

2010-08-10 10:27:52 pm

Touhou anyone? :D

D: Oh dear... I can imagine that Essentia would rage about it.
*gets shotgun and cocks it* Where's Kimahri? >:[

wee187

2010-08-10 10:32:56 pm

Another reason why Kimahri can be my least-used character in Final Fantasy X. Roll Eyes

Essentia

2010-08-11 11:35:07 am

Everything's better with Magitek

I'm over my rage at Kimahri now, although I think I see some self-destructs for him in the future. Wink

I looked back over the recording and figured out what happened. Kimahri has 750 HP, and usually Tidus does 125-130 damage and can finish the battle with 6 hits. However, this time there were a few hits that did around 118 damage, and after 6 hits I'd done a total of 747 damage. I think what I'll do from now on is activate Tidus's first strength node before fighting Kimahri (usually I activate it on Besaid beach, just before boarding the ship), which will hopefully make sure I beat him in 6 hits.

As for Tros, it seems that two of my grenades got criticals (which I didn't realize was possible), so the battle ended about 20 seconds early. Then when I fought the bird in the tutorial battle, it got a turn before Wakka (which is rare) and actually blinded Wakka, causing him to miss on his first turn. I had Tidus attack, but of course he missed, then the bird got another turn, and then Wakka was able to kill it despite being blinded.

I do plan to make another attempt at this, but I'm not sure when as of now. I'll be sure to post here when I do it, though.

I'm over my rage at Kimahri now, although I think I see some self-destructs for him in the future. ;)

I looked back over the recording and figured out what happened.  Kimahri has 750 HP, and usually Tidus does 125-130 damage and can finish the battle with 6 hits.  However, this time there were a few hits that did around 118 damage, and after 6 hits I'd done a total of 747 damage.  I think what I'll do from now on is activate Tidus's first strength node before fighting Kimahri (usually I activate it on Besaid beach, just before boarding the ship), which will hopefully make sure I beat him in 6 hits.

As for Tros, it seems that two of my grenades got criticals (which I didn't realize was possible), so the battle ended about 20 seconds early.  Then when I fought the bird in the tutorial battle, it got a turn before Wakka (which is rare) and actually blinded Wakka, causing him to miss on his first turn.  I had Tidus attack, but of course he missed, then the bird got another turn, and then Wakka was able to kill it despite being blinded.

I do plan to make another attempt at this, but I'm not sure when as of now.  I'll be sure to post here when I do it, though.

Renokye

2010-08-11 11:41:09 am

Touhou anyone? :D

Good to see that you didn't give up after raging. Cheesy

You have my respect, Essentia. SSing Final Fantasy X is no easy task and your taking it head on and learning from any mistakes you make along the way. Way to keep your chin up high!
Good luck!

Emptyeye

2010-08-11 06:32:20 pm

Talk to the Hand

...rage?

As my cousin once said, "Oh c'mon, that wasn't even a gaming-level tantrum!"

Of course, I'm used to watching UltraJMan's stream, so maybe I just have a different definition of "rage" in my head from most people. Tongue

Anyway, that sucked to watch. Stupid Kimahri.

Trekhaak

2010-08-12 07:06:32 am

Everybody's favorite monster

All Hail Essentia.

Essentia

2011-02-03 01:04:36 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

So I'm getting back into my SS run. I've done some practice runs and a bunch of testing in the past couple weeks, and I've made some changes to my route.

The first big change is that I've decided not to try to get the strength sphere from winning the blitzball game. After a bunch of testing, it looks like giving the strength sphere to Yuna doesn't save as much time as I thought it would, and I could possibly waste a lot of time trying to get it. The only battles this will affect are Chocobo Eater and the aeon battles in the Via Purifico. On Chocobo Eater, as long as I inflict power break and slow before summoning Ifrit, it takes the same number of turns to kill him with or without the strength sphere because I have to use Ifrit's OD three times either way. And since I've decided it's too risky to summon Ifrit without power break and slow on the boss, the strength sphere isn't needed here. In the Via Purifico, against Isaaru's Valefor it once again takes the same number of turns because Shiva's OD gauge has to completely fill in that battle: with the strength sphere I'd attack twice, boost twice, then use Shiva's OD; without the strength sphere, I'd attack four times then use her OD. The only battle where extra strength would save time is Isaaru's Bahamut, but even then it would be only a few turns.

The second big change is actually a bunch of small changes in the section from the Calm Lands to Zanarkand. During that section I have to steal a lot of gems and have Tidus learn slice & dice. I never really had a specific strategy for this - I'd just kind of wing it, depending on which battles I got. Also, I'd have to be careful while doing these things, because if someone failed to run away I could potentially get a game over. However, I realized that since I changed my strategy for Flux, Tidus doesn't need slice & dice until Spectral Keeper. This means that I can have him learn it in Zanarkand where most of the enemies can fill his OD gauge in one hit, instead of Mt. Gagazet where it's just the opposite. This also means that I can just focus on stealing fire gems on Mt. Gagazet; since I'll have first strike on both Rikku and Tidus, Rikku can steal and then Tidus can immediately use flee, which makes the battles much faster. There are a lot of other little improvements in this section of the game, but they're kind of hard to explain and I'm probably the only person who'd notice them anyway, so I'll just say that this part of the run will be much cleaner and neater than it's been in the past (even in my segmented run).

So I'm getting back into my SS run.  I've done some practice runs and a bunch of testing in the past couple weeks, and I've made some changes to my route.

The first big change is that I've decided not to try to get the strength sphere from winning the blitzball game.  After a bunch of testing, it looks like giving the strength sphere to Yuna doesn't save as much time as I thought it would, and I could possibly waste a lot of time trying to get it.  The only battles this will affect are Chocobo Eater and the aeon battles in the Via Purifico.  On Chocobo Eater, as long as I inflict power break and slow before summoning Ifrit, it takes the same number of turns to kill him with or without the strength sphere because I have to use Ifrit's OD three times either way.  And since I've decided it's too risky to summon Ifrit without power break and slow on the boss, the strength sphere isn't needed here.  In the Via Purifico, against Isaaru's Valefor it once again takes the same number of turns because Shiva's OD gauge has to completely fill in that battle: with the strength sphere I'd attack twice, boost twice, then use Shiva's OD; without the strength sphere, I'd attack four times then use her OD.  The only battle where extra strength would save time is Isaaru's Bahamut, but even then it would be only a few turns.

The second big change is actually a bunch of small changes in the section from the Calm Lands to Zanarkand.  During that section I have to steal a lot of gems and have Tidus learn slice & dice.  I never really had a specific strategy for this - I'd just kind of wing it, depending on which battles I got.  Also, I'd have to be careful while doing these things, because if someone failed to run away I could potentially get a game over.  However, I realized that since I changed my strategy for Flux, Tidus doesn't need slice & dice until Spectral Keeper.  This means that I can have him learn it in Zanarkand where most of the enemies can fill his OD gauge in one hit, instead of Mt. Gagazet where it's just the opposite.  This also means that I can just focus on stealing fire gems on Mt. Gagazet; since I'll have first strike on both Rikku and Tidus, Rikku can steal and then Tidus can immediately use flee, which makes the battles much faster.  There are a lot of other little improvements in this section of the game, but they're kind of hard to explain and I'm probably the only person who'd notice them anyway, so I'll just say that this part of the run will be much cleaner and neater than it's been in the past (even in my segmented run).

Scorpio

2011-02-03 01:30:47 pm

Watcher

I do not have any practical advice so I just say ... THUMBS UP ESSENTIA AND GOOD LUCK Cheesy

In addition, You were great during marathon Cheesy

I have no name

2011-02-03 06:10:25 pm

Obscure games ftw

Quote from Scorpio:

I do not have any practical advice so I just say ... THUMBS UP ESSENTIA AND GOOD LUCK Cheesy

In addition, You were great during marathon Cheesy

What he said.
/pointless support post

Rakuen

2011-02-03 10:40:28 pm

Weegee Time

But Blitzball is the best part of the game, and now you're just going to sidestep it? Aw... Guess I'll fire up my copy of FFX again!

I'm looking forward to attempts on this. Gogogo Essentia!

Arrow

2011-02-03 11:52:51 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

The changes you have in mind sound good - the more randomness you can eliminate from a 10+ hour run, the better. I eagerly await the upcoming season of Late Nights with Essentia... aka, From Zero to Crazy in Eleven Hours Wink

nitwit

2011-02-17 06:41:37 am

11:39:28 RTA by しあ (at least credited to this on the nico rta page) :

http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/23825240

It's been a long time since I have even played this game; so here are my limited observations.

1. The timing starts at power-on and ends only at the final "The End" following the credits. Yu Yevon is defeated around 11 hours and 19 minutes after power-on.

2. It's not new game+.

3. I have no idea about this particular attempt; however, if Google Translate is accurate enough, during an earlier attempt the runner used a turbo controller. See a blog entry here: http://blog.livedoor.jp/siangana/.

4. The runner uses the Sphere Grid lots, far more than Essentia did during any of her attempts.

5. The runner only gets the 30 Wings to Discovery from Remien (and the Cloudy Mirror obviously). MasterThief is never customized. And a Chocobo Wing is never obtained.

6. Slice and Dice is never learned.

7. I think the runner only steals from Evrae once, thus negating the need for the rare steal. However, I think that there was some item mismanagement along the way as his Seymour Omnis battle looks a bit sloppy. He hesitates quite a bit after using an initial Lightning Gem. He wins without a game over, but his method does not look deliberate.

8. He does not bribe a Grenade on Mt. Gagazet. Again, not having that much knowledge of the game, I don't know what items he uses to kill the aeons. Yu Yevon is defeated with ZombieStrike + healing items.

9. I think his method for Seymour Flux is as luck reliant as ever, unfortunately.

I don't know how luck reliant his Spectral Keeper and BFA strats are; he takes more time than Essentia did during at least her original TSG run for both battles. However, using Spiral Cut 10 times would eat up some time over the course of a run. Of course, using the Sphere Grid also takes time.

Not obtaining the 30 Pendulums from Remien also presents some time saving possibilities in the context of a new game+ SS run given that the trip to Remien and the acquisition of the 30 Pendulums takes a bit more than 5 minutes of real time. (I used Essentia's old TSG run for this time.) Again I have no idea how luck reliant his BFA method is, but I saw the time around the defeat of Yu Yevon, and I automatically subtracted 5, with of course the potential for more reduction since Evrae and Natus would be faster battles.

11:39:28 RTA by しあ (at least credited to this on the nico rta page) :

http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/23825240

It's been a long time since I have even played this game; so here are my limited observations.

1.  The timing starts at power-on and ends only at the final "The End" following the credits.  Yu Yevon is defeated around 11 hours and 19 minutes after power-on.

2.  It's not new game+.

3.  I have no idea about this particular attempt; however, if Google Translate is accurate enough, during an earlier attempt the runner used a turbo controller.  See a blog entry here: http://blog.livedoor.jp/siangana/.

4.  The runner uses the Sphere Grid lots, far more than Essentia did during any of her attempts.

5.  The runner only gets the 30 Wings to Discovery from Remien (and the Cloudy Mirror obviously).  MasterThief is never customized.  And a Chocobo Wing is never obtained.

6.  Slice and Dice is never learned.

7.  I think the runner only steals from Evrae once, thus negating the need for the rare steal.  However, I think that there was some item mismanagement along the way as his Seymour Omnis battle looks a bit sloppy.  He hesitates quite a bit after using an initial Lightning Gem.  He wins without a game over, but his method does not look deliberate.

8.  He does not bribe a Grenade on Mt. Gagazet.  Again, not having that much knowledge of the game, I don't know what items he uses to kill the aeons.  Yu Yevon is defeated with ZombieStrike + healing items.

9.  I think his method for Seymour Flux is as luck reliant as ever, unfortunately.

I don't know how luck reliant his Spectral Keeper and BFA strats are; he takes more time than Essentia did during at least her original TSG run for both battles.  However, using Spiral Cut 10 times would eat up some time over the course of a run.  Of course, using the Sphere Grid also takes time.

Not obtaining the 30 Pendulums from Remien also presents some time saving possibilities in the context of a new game+ SS run given that the trip to Remien and the acquisition of the 30 Pendulums takes a bit more than 5 minutes of real time. (I used Essentia's old TSG run for this time.)  Again I have no idea how luck reliant his BFA method is, but I saw the time around the defeat of Yu Yevon, and I automatically subtracted 5, with of course the potential for more reduction since Evrae and Natus would be faster battles.

Axel Ryman

2011-02-17 07:14:11 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

Did he use the Expert Sphere Grid? Seems like that was done on the International version and not the original one.

Essentia

2011-02-20 10:52:55 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Wow, thanks for that link, nitwit. If I could avoid having to get the chocobo wing and learning slice & dice, that would save quite a bit of time. I've started watching it (up to Kilika now), and I've been taking notes of everything he does differently from my run. I'll post more about it when I've watched more.

Axel, I'm pretty sure it's not the expert sphere grid. Doesn't the international version have English voice acting? This run is all in Japanese (which makes me glad I can at least read katakana Wink

).

Also, I've been talking to a guy who's working on a segmented PAL run. He found some improvements over my run; he says he was able to save 8 minutes between Yunalesca and Overdrive Sin by filling Rikku's OD in boss battles instead of backtracking to Zanarkand to do it. Most of his improvements won't be applicable to my SS run, but there are a few little things I'll be able to use. He's got the first few videos of his run posted here. The last segment was done in August, but he recently told me he's going to start working on it again.

Wow, thanks for that link, nitwit.  If I could avoid having to get the chocobo wing and learning slice & dice, that would save quite a bit of time.  I've started watching it (up to Kilika now), and I've been taking notes of everything he does differently from my run.  I'll post more about it when I've watched more.

Axel, I'm pretty sure it's not the expert sphere grid.  Doesn't the international version have English voice acting?  This run is all in Japanese (which makes me glad I can at least read katakana ;) ).

Also, I've been talking to a guy who's working on a segmented PAL run.  He found some improvements over my run; he says he was able to save 8 minutes between Yunalesca and Overdrive Sin by filling Rikku's OD in boss battles instead of backtracking to Zanarkand to do it.  Most of his improvements won't be applicable to my SS run, but there are a few little things I'll be able to use.  He's got the first few videos of his run posted [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/BlitzAce469#g/c/9EBF75CD779E5E53]here[/url].  The last segment was done in August, but he recently told me he's going to start working on it again.

RPGamer

2011-05-05 08:23:53 pm

So recently I got into playing this game, and tried speed-running it. After a couple failed attempts, I got my best time to be 12:15. The best time on SDA is 10:25. I think I can improve on this time with some proper planning.

So using these notes: http://speeddemosarchive.com/FinalFantasy10.html

and some help with planning from whoever, I think I can improve the time.

I'll edit this post later with some more notes on my run...

Rakuen

2011-05-05 10:16:26 pm

Weegee Time

First: http://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/final_fantasy_x.html
Second: I imagine Essentia is lurking about somewhere, and if I recall, she's found some time savers already.

Flip

2011-05-10 04:21:58 pm

1-Up!

Merged for you.

Caracarn

2011-07-13 01:14:48 am

Now that I'm done with Final Fantasy II, I decided to start a test run of this game. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to actually make a serious attempt at this run, but I think with enough patience/planning I can improve the time. I'll leave the single segment run to Essentia though, I don't think I have that much patience :p

How are everyone else's runs going?

Essentia

2011-07-13 01:18:30 am

Everything's better with Magitek

I've found a bunch of improvements to my segmented run - probably at least 15 minutes worth. I need to finish watching the Japanese RTA, and then I'll make a complete list of improvements.

Caracarn

2011-07-13 02:17:21 am

I've been watching that too, although I can't read Japanese, so it's a bit hard to figure out some things. I'm only up to Luca so far in my test run, but I have noted some improvements already. Much of the improvements are better luck manipulation though, so I'm not really going to utilize them all in the test run unless it affects the overall strategy rather than just the time. (ex. getting more crits).

I don't really know yet how much time I can save on each segment, but I did improve segment 1 by about 22 seconds so far, just because I wanted to see if I could do it. I'm obviously not going for perfection on the rest of the test run though.

What remains to be seen though, is if I will be able to maintain my sanity manipulating luck in a 10-hour game. FF II was taxing enough, and that was 1/4 the run time, with far fewer cutscenes Tongue

Caracarn

2011-07-18 03:03:05 am

After reading through some previous pages on this thread, I just now found out about that trick where you can skip part of the intro by pressing select. I had never heard of that before. I don't know if it works on other versions or not, cause BlitzAce didnt use it on his PAL run, and the Japanese run on nicovideo doesn't use it either. Has anyone tested to see if that works on any other cutscenes in the game? (although spamming select through the entire game would be pretty annoying).

Also, kind of embarrassingly, what was supposed to be my Al Bhed Primer save (which had a ton of other stuff maxed), was somehow missing Primers XX and XXII, which you can't go back to get after a certain point, so I had to go play through to collect those primers before I could continue with the test run. (D'oh!)

Toothache

2011-07-18 06:03:32 am

Let the music play!

I think the intro cutscene is the only one that can be shortened in any way, other than the obvious text skipping.

Essentia

2011-07-18 01:07:06 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

The intro scene is the only one I know of that you can skip. BlitzAce said he didn't use that trick because he didn't know about it, but I have no idea if it works on other versions.

Caracarn

Edit history:

Caracarn: 2011-08-05 02:35:31 pm

Caracarn: 2011-08-03 11:27:38 pm

Caracarn: 2011-08-03 06:32:32 am

2011-08-03 06:02:19 am

I finished watching the RTA on nicovideo, and I typed up a detailed report of the run. I figure this will help anyone that doesn't read Japanese who wants to watch it, but doesn't feel like pausing it constantly to figure out what he did in some places. I will post it as an attachment later, but I need to proofread it to make sure there are no errors/omissions.

A few key things I noticed in the run are:

1. He wastes a lot of time actually playing the blitzball game instead of holding on to the ball. ~~He ends up winning, but unless I missed it, he NEVER uses the strength sphere anywhere in the run.~~ EDIT: Upon closer investigation, it seems that you don't actually get a Strength Sphere from the blitzball game on the Japanese version; I think you get some random piece of equipment instead. There was a random Bangle (Bright Bangle i think), in between the Thunder Moomba (from Oblitzerator), and the Hunter's Spear that he gets on the Mi'ihen Highroad, and I am pretty sure it did not drop from any fiends. Anyone have any knowledge of the Japanese version to confirm this, to make sure I'm not going crazy?

2. Killing Chocobo Eater by pushing him off the edge is interesting, but it seems slow compared to using Ifrit's or Valefor's Overdrive.

3. He learns Steal on Lulu early to get Petrify Grenades from the Basilisks, which is possible by getting an early Level 1 Key Sphere on the Mi'ihen Highroad and going through the Level 1 lock to the North of Lulu's starting point.

4. He mixes Calamity Bomb on Wendigo instead of using a Petrify Grenade. This lets the Guado get Shell and Protect off, making Wendigo take much longer to kill. ~~If I kept track of items right, he had a couple extra Petrify Grenades at the end of the run.~~ Edit: he actually didnt have a Petrify Grenade available at Wendigo, but he probably should have stolen a 5th one at Djose.

5. He only gets 3 Smoke Bombs in the desert, because of a failed 2nd steal on the Zuu, so the Bevelle guards could have been a bit faster. He could have stolen a couple extra from Alcyones at the same time he was getting Sleeping Powders from the wolves.

6. The Evrae strategy was very interesting, and it made me stop wondering why he got the Luck Sphere in Kilika. Mixing Miracle Drink makes all attacks go critical, so he spams crit grenades + Tallboy mix + Self Destruct.

7. He uses Entrust to refill Rikku's Overdrive on Sins Fins through Overdrive Sin. I honestly never even knew what this skill did before watching this.

8. As mentioned above, the Omnis fight was very bad, because he only had Fire gems left after the first Lightning Gem. He probably thought he had a Water Gem, but he ended up using it on the YAT-99 in Bevelle. This could have easily been remedied by stealing another Lightning Gem from an Imp at Gagazet though; if he had realized it. Edit: or he should have just used a Fire Gem on Yenke instead of an Ice Gem.

9. He uses Poison Fangs to kill the Aeons, which are stolen from the Nebiros (bees) in the Calm Lands. The last hit on Bahamut was a Silence Grenade that he stole from an Exoray.

Essentia, somehow I always miss when you do this run, so hopefully I won't miss the next one (whenever that may be Wink

). I really want to see your run, as well as compare strategies between this run and yours. Also, out of curiousity, what has your best single-segment time been, so far?

I finished watching the RTA on nicovideo, and I typed up a detailed report of the run. I figure this will help anyone that doesn't read Japanese who wants to watch it, but doesn't feel like pausing it constantly to figure out what he did in some places.  I will post it as an attachment later, but I need to proofread it to make sure there are no errors/omissions.

A few key things I noticed in the run are:

1. He wastes a lot of time actually playing the blitzball game instead of holding on to the ball.  [s]He ends up winning, but unless I missed it, he NEVER uses the strength sphere anywhere in the run.[/s] EDIT: Upon closer investigation, it seems that you don't actually get a Strength Sphere from the blitzball game on the Japanese version; I think you get some random piece of equipment instead. There was a random Bangle (Bright Bangle i think), in between the Thunder Moomba (from Oblitzerator), and the Hunter's Spear that he gets on the Mi'ihen Highroad, and I am pretty sure it did not drop from any fiends. Anyone have any knowledge of the Japanese version to confirm this, to make sure I'm not going crazy?

2. Killing Chocobo Eater by pushing him off the edge is interesting, but it seems slow compared to using Ifrit's or Valefor's Overdrive.

3. He learns Steal on Lulu early to get Petrify Grenades from the Basilisks, which is possible by getting an early Level 1 Key Sphere on the Mi'ihen Highroad and going through the Level 1 lock to the North of Lulu's starting point.

4. He mixes Calamity Bomb on Wendigo instead of using a Petrify Grenade. This lets the Guado get Shell and Protect off, making Wendigo take much longer to kill. [s]If I kept track of items right, he had a couple extra Petrify Grenades at the end of the run.[/s] Edit: he actually didnt have a Petrify Grenade available at Wendigo, but he probably should have stolen a 5th one at Djose.

5. He only gets 3 Smoke Bombs in the desert, because of a failed 2nd steal on the Zuu, so the Bevelle guards could have been a bit faster. He could have stolen a couple extra from Alcyones at the same time he was getting Sleeping Powders from the wolves.

6. The Evrae strategy was very interesting, and it made me stop wondering why he got the Luck Sphere in Kilika. Mixing Miracle Drink makes all attacks go critical, so he spams crit grenades + Tallboy mix + Self Destruct.

7. He uses Entrust to refill Rikku's Overdrive on Sins Fins through Overdrive Sin. I honestly never even knew what this skill did before watching this.

8. As mentioned above, the Omnis fight was very bad, because he only had Fire gems left after the first Lightning Gem. He probably thought he had a Water Gem, but he ended up using it on the YAT-99 in Bevelle. This could have easily been remedied by stealing another Lightning Gem from an Imp at Gagazet though; if he had realized it. Edit: or he should have just used a Fire Gem on Yenke instead of an Ice Gem.

9. He uses Poison Fangs to kill the Aeons, which are stolen from the Nebiros (bees) in the Calm Lands. The last hit on Bahamut was a Silence Grenade that he stole from an Exoray.

Essentia, somehow I always miss when you do this run, so hopefully I won't miss the next one (whenever that may be ;) ). I really want to see your run, as well as compare strategies between this run and yours. Also, out of curiousity, what has your best single-segment time been, so far?