Golden Sun (Sub 4 Hours????)

2010-04-02 07:16:21 pm

Test. The actual run will probably be about 1:30 faster at the Aerie, maybe even 2:10. I'm still ironing out a few kinks in my route and learning what I can. For instance, just today I learned that when you reset the game the djinn cooldown timer is reset, so I have to make sure to restore my djinn before saving for Saturos.

Due to the utter predictability of this game, my actual run will follow pretty much this exact same route, move for move, but be much neater.

2010-04-03 09:59:51 am

Vomit. 1:27 after Saturos. I really wish you could skip cutscenes.

I'm pretty happy with the fight, though.

Segment 20: save in the second corridor after retreat warping.
Segment 21: save atop the lighthouse, pre Saturos, post Sleet/second retreat warp.
Segment 22: save after filling bottle.

Current time: 1:27

Levels: 7/6/7/10
Djinn: 1/2/1/2
0 herbs remaining Shocked

I couldn't have beaten him with even one less, not with my strategy.

2010-04-03 10:19:46 am

SEGA Junkie

How did you set up your Djinn for the fight? And who was using Crystal Powder, did you just use them all from one character or spread them around?

Edit history:

FlamingMage: 2010-04-03 01:01:40 pm

2010-04-03 10:46:51 am

My djinn were Venus for Isaac, Jupiter for Garet, Mercury for Ivan and Mars for Mia. This let Mia use herbs faster than Saturos's attacks, and let Garet use Ward at a few key points to allow a character to survive. I wish that Garet could also have had an attack psyenergy, but at least Ivan got Prism, which he used almost every turn.

Isaac had two powders, Garet had three, and Ivan had one.
I never summoned or used a single Djinn. Regrettable, but I had to ensure that I was well healed for Eruption (which, admittedly, Saturos only used I believe once) and I needed as much health as I could get.

Also, I went ahead a raped my way up to Mogall. Tret is such a pansy.

Segment 23: saves in the second part of Kolima Forest.
Segment 24: saves in the first room of Tret Tree.
Segment 25: saves in front of Breeze.
Segment 26: saves in front of Tret
Segment 27: saves in the first room of Mogall.

Current time: 1:44. I know its a big jump, but I've covered a lot of ground. This time could be brought down to 1:41 with perfect execution.

The previous best run, which did Tret first, had times of Defeated Tret 1:21, Defeated Saturos 1:45, Defeated Killer Ape 2:06. So, depending on how you look at it, I'm at least about four minutes or so ahead of him, depending on how fast he covered the ground between Mercury Lighthouse and Mogall. Less than I would have hoped, but I'll make up even more time as the run goes on.

I'll probably continue to work on this run for the rest of today, so expect more updates.

EDIT EDIT EDIT:

Segment 28: saves in front of Quartz
Segment 29: saves in front of Killer Ape
Segment 30: saves after exiting Xian
Segment 31: saves near the Mars Djinn in the forest.
Segment 32: saves after the first Living Statue
Segment 33: saves after the second Living Statue
Segment 34: saves after talking to Hama and getting reveal.

Time: 2:03. With perfect optimization, this could be perhaps 1:59-1:57. Its so hard to cut time out of this game, since many things take a predefined amount of time regardless of anything you do.

How curious. I cut three Crystal Powders from the route, and I'm around three minutes ahead of my last attempt. Hrm. Smells like correlation.

For those of you who haven't followed this whole thread, there's a retreat warp in Altin Peak that allows me to skip the third and forth Living Statue and the Hydros Statue. Don't worry, I don't need the lifting gem, and this handy little timesaver is one of the things that keeps my run ahead of the past attempts.

My djinn were Venus for Isaac, Jupiter for Garet, Mercury for Ivan and Mars for Mia. This let Mia use herbs faster than Saturos's attacks, and let Garet use Ward at a few key points to allow a character to survive. I wish that Garet could also have had an attack psyenergy, but at least Ivan got Prism, which he used almost every turn.

Isaac had two powders, Garet had three, and Ivan had one. 
I never summoned or used a single Djinn. Regrettable, but I had to ensure that I was well healed for Eruption (which, admittedly, Saturos only used I believe once) and I needed as much health as I could get.

Also, I went ahead a raped my way up to Mogall. Tret is such a pansy.

Segment 23: saves in the second part of Kolima Forest.
Segment 24: saves in the first room of Tret Tree.
Segment 25: saves in front of Breeze.
Segment 26: saves in front of Tret
Segment 27: saves in the first room of Mogall.

Current time: 1:44. I know its a big jump, but I've covered a lot of ground. This time could be brought down to 1:41 with perfect execution.

The previous best run, which did Tret first, had times of Defeated Tret 1:21, Defeated Saturos 1:45, Defeated Killer Ape 2:06. So, depending on how you look at it, I'm at least about four minutes or so ahead of him, depending on how fast he covered the ground between Mercury Lighthouse and Mogall. Less than I would have hoped, but I'll make up even more time as the run goes on.

I'll probably continue to work on this run for the rest of today, so expect more updates.

EDIT EDIT EDIT:

Segment 28: saves in front of Quartz
Segment 29: saves in front of Killer Ape
Segment 30: saves after exiting Xian
Segment 31: saves near the Mars Djinn in the forest.
Segment 32: saves after the first Living Statue
Segment 33: saves after the second Living Statue
Segment 34: saves after talking to Hama and getting reveal.

Time: 2:03. With perfect optimization, this could be perhaps 1:59-1:57. Its so hard to cut time out of this game, since many things take a predefined amount of time regardless of anything you do. 
 
How curious. I cut three Crystal Powders from the route, and I'm around three minutes ahead of my last attempt. Hrm. Smells like correlation.

For those of you who haven't followed this whole thread, there's a retreat warp in Altin Peak that allows me to skip the third and forth Living Statue and the Hydros Statue. Don't worry, I don't need the lifting gem, and this handy little timesaver is one of the things that keeps my run ahead of the past attempts.

2010-04-17 06:35:22 pm

Segment 35: saves after getting the Vulcan Axe
Segment 36: saves after exiting the first cave
Segment 37: saves in front of Manticore (This should be one segment with the one before it, I totally didn't realize that the last area is enemy-free.
Segment 38: saves on overworld after exiting Lamakan Desert.
Segment 39: saves after entering Kalay (get vine)
Segment 40: saves on the Tolbi-bound ship.

Current time: 2:14

Manticore was a bitch, and I expect the Kraken to be even worse. Trying to find fast strategies that don't rely too much on turtling is soooo hard when Ivan can get one-shotted by Poison Tail. Still, the kraken is the last real boss I'll have to fight, besides the FD. Interestingly enough, I only fight four difficult battles the whole game: Saturos, Manticore, Kraken, FD. Everyone else is skipped/wimp.

2010-04-17 08:24:07 pm

SEGA Junkie

You can two-turn Manticore, I have no idea why that should be seen as difficult at all. :/

Kraken is unique among the bosses in that it can be affected by status ailments, so you should be able to put it to sleep (or stun it) and win before it even gets an attack off.

2010-04-17 08:52:23 pm

Agent PK

Yeah, if you can get a quick Sleep or Stun with your fastest party member, Kraken's not so tough. Depending on your levels, you should be able to survive a hit or two if he happens to wake up before you finish him, so I wouldn't worry about putting him back to sleep. After looking over my own run of this game, this fight was one of the areas that I realized I could have saved a decent chunk of time on.

DoubleThink

2010-04-17 09:27:43 pm

There's a word for that

I'm pretty sure a couple other bosses can actually be afflicted with status, I know the Killer Ape is another one. Maybe Hydros Statue?

2010-04-17 09:35:39 pm

How the bloody hell can you deal 1700 damage in two turns? Neptune only does ~380. Maybe if you've been fighting random battles, but keep in mind I've only fought six sirens.

No, Kraken is not by any means the only boss that can be status-d. For that matter, Manticore could be.

Hey pk, thanks for inspiring me with your run. I'm not saying that Kraken is unbeatable, but going into it with levels 10/10/10/12, and without wish? Without even decent equipment? I plan to sleep him, of course, but I'll have to manipulate three of four good hits with Mist. Should be fun.

2010-04-17 10:08:16 pm

Agent PK

Ah, you're significantly lower leveled than I was. I was around level 14-15 this point, so I had both Sleep and Wish to work with. I guess some luck on a few turns of sleep along with a summon rush will do the trick. I went the more defensive route in my run, and it cost me in the long run.

FionordeQuester

2010-04-17 10:13:53 pm

What would you have done differently if you worked on this run once more?

2010-04-17 11:04:18 pm

Agent PK

It's funny you ask, because that's actually a big part of why I joined here. Tongue

I hope to improve my 100% run and submit it eventually, but probably not til late this year or sometime next year.

One of the biggest problems about my previous run is that I was uploading videos as I finished segments, so I couldn't start from scratch if I learned any new ways to save time later on. Another big thing was too many random battles. I didn't want to avoid all the fights in order to keep from being too underleveled, but I ended up overleveled (my target was ~16-18, I ended up @ 20). Some of my strategies for the boss fights were a little shaky, too. The thing about that run is, since it was partly for entertainment purposes (ie: the speed up montages, etc), I didn't spend quite as much time perfecting each segment as I should have, since I was working on a schedule. Overall, my route would stay pretty similar, but I'd probably add segments in some places, and get rid of some in others. Who knows, I may even learn a thing or two from this run. Wink

It's funny you ask, because that's actually a big part of why I joined here. :P I hope to improve my 100% run and submit it eventually, but probably not til late this year or sometime next year.

One of the biggest problems about my previous run is that I was uploading videos as I finished segments, so I couldn't start from scratch if I learned any new ways to save time later on. Another big thing was too many random battles. I didn't want to avoid all the fights in order to keep from being too underleveled, but I ended up overleveled (my target was ~16-18, I ended up @ 20). Some of my strategies for the boss fights were a little shaky, too. The thing about that run is, since it was partly for entertainment purposes (ie: the speed up montages, etc), I didn't spend quite as much time perfecting each segment as I should have, since I was working on a schedule. Overall, my route would stay pretty similar, but I'd probably add segments in some places, and get rid of some in others. Who knows, I may even learn a thing or two from this run. ;)

FionordeQuester

2010-04-18 12:26:07 am

I see. What have you come up with so far?

EDIT: Also, are you guys planning a Golden Sun The Lost Age speedrun? It'd be interesting to see how you handle the data transfer.

2010-04-18 04:24:03 am

SEGA Junkie

Quote from FlamingMage:

How the bloody hell can you deal 1700 damage in two turns? Neptune only does ~380. Maybe if you've been fighting random battles, but keep in mind I've only fought six sirens.

That might be where we differ, I'm sure I had four Water Djinn for Manticore. Strat was basically, turn 1: summon rush, turn 2: Psynergy rush. That came up a few points short so giving Garet a Crystal Powder did the trick.

Oh I get it, Spritz is in the mine isn't it? That sucks. Sad

Should still be able to get him in three turns though!

2010-04-18 07:41:59 am

A psyenergy rush with Spire, Volcano, Plasma and Ice? I can't see that doing the ~900 damage it would have to in two turns, and if I don't heal than 2 people at least would be dead. Even his very first mad blast will put Ivan in the yellow and half everyone else. I could certainly do a lot of damage by blindly summon rushing, but it also ends up with people dead...and I really want that EXP.

pk: Good to hear that you're going to revisit your run, I really enjoyed watching it the first time. If you're going to use retreat warping this time, I can tell you each of the spots I exploit. Some of them speed up getting djinn, or just the level in general.

Flonordre: I don't know nearly as much about GS2 as I do GS1, but it is totally possible that I'll try to at least post up a decent set of practice times for future runners to follow. My main concern is that such a run would be +7 hours, even at the fastest possible--Some of the dungeons are really lengthy, and there are a hell of a lot of them.

A psyenergy rush with Spire, Volcano, Plasma and Ice? I can't see that doing the ~900 damage it would have to in two turns, and if I don't heal than 2 people at least would be dead. Even his very first mad blast will put Ivan in the yellow and half everyone else. I could certainly do a lot of damage by blindly summon rushing, but it also ends up with people dead...and I really want that EXP.

pk: Good to hear that you're going to revisit your run, I really enjoyed watching it the first time. If you're going to use retreat warping this time, I can tell you each of the spots I exploit. Some of them speed up getting djinn, or just the level in general.

Flonordre: I don't know nearly as much about GS2 as I do GS1, but it is totally possible that I'll try to at least post up a decent set of practice times for future runners to follow. My main concern is that such a run would be +7 hours, even at the fastest possible--Some of the dungeons are really lengthy, and there are a hell of a lot of them.

2010-04-18 10:36:27 am

Segmnet 41: saves in front of first ship battle.
Segment 42: saves in front of third ship battle.
Segment 43: saves before Kraken.
Segment 44: saves after landing near Tolbi.
Segment 45: saves after getting Mars Djinn.
Segment 46: saves after getting Mercury Djinn.
Segment 47: saves on the beach en route to Venus Djinn.
Segment 48: saves after exiting docks.
Segment 49: saves in Altmiller cave entrance.
Segment 50: saves on the second floor.
Segment 51: saves on the third floor.
Segment 52: saves after Jupiter Djinn.
Segment 53: saves on fourth floor.
Segment 54: saves on the bottom floor.
Segment 55: saves in the colored stones room.
Segment 56: saves on the second floor (again)
Segment 57: saves after Babi's speech.

Time after Kraken: 2:31
Current time: 2:44

I'm really happy with how my Kraken strat turned out, fourth-level summons are so awesome. I wish I could find some way to speed up the boat part, but it seems like since so many cutscenes don't even have dialogue, I can't just mash through them. I was a little segment-happy, but enemies are starting to get pretty hard. I included my time after Kraken because the previous best run also used that as a benchmark: I was 33 minutes ahead, at the time. And I'm going to use the Sanctum warp cheat to get back to Kalay super fast. Next up, Colosso!

@ pk: I'm curious why you had your party members "lend a hand" in your Colosso segments. Although it is necessary to choose a place for all of them, you can save some time by just having them say they're done cheering immediately, since the actual challenge courses take the same amount of time regardless, once you wait for the other gladiator to catch up. Is there some factor at work here that I'm unaware of?

Segmnet 41: saves in front of first ship battle.
Segment 42: saves in front of third ship battle.
Segment 43: saves before Kraken.
Segment 44: saves after landing near Tolbi. 
Segment 45: saves after getting Mars Djinn.
Segment 46: saves after getting Mercury Djinn.
Segment 47: saves on the beach en route to Venus Djinn.
Segment 48: saves after exiting docks.
Segment 49: saves in Altmiller cave entrance. 
Segment 50: saves on the second floor.
Segment 51: saves on the third floor.
Segment 52: saves after Jupiter Djinn.
Segment 53: saves on fourth floor. 
Segment 54: saves on the bottom floor.
Segment 55: saves in the colored stones room.
Segment 56: saves on the second floor (again)
Segment 57: saves after Babi's speech.

Time after Kraken: 2:31
Current time: 2:44

I'm really happy with how my Kraken strat turned out, fourth-level summons are so awesome. I wish I could find some way to speed up the boat part, but it seems like since so many cutscenes don't even have dialogue, I can't just mash through them. I was a little segment-happy, but enemies are starting to get pretty hard. I included my time after Kraken because the previous best run also used that as a benchmark: I  was 33 minutes ahead, at the time. And I'm going to use the Sanctum warp cheat to get back to Kalay super fast. Next up, Colosso!

@ pk: I'm curious why you had your party members "lend a hand" in your Colosso segments. Although it is necessary to choose a place for all of them, you can save some time by just having them say they're done cheering immediately, since the actual challenge courses take the same amount of time regardless, once you wait for the other gladiator to catch up. Is there some factor at work here that I'm unaware of?

2010-04-18 01:12:42 pm

Agent PK

@Mage: Nope, you're right. Having the others "lend a hand" is definitely a waste of time. Not doing that probably could've saved me 2 or 3 minutes (or more), when you consider the time it takes to put each person in the right spot, along with the psyenergy animations for each round, rather than just putting each person in the closest three spots. What's ironic is that I actually mentioned that the race time was fixed during my run, but I somehow overlooked this.

Oh, and any tips on where you retreat warp would be great. I'm fairly new to the concept, so that would help out a lot.

@Fionorde: I haven't really made much progress so far. Right now, I'm just doing a practice run to get a feel for the game again and come up with a better number of segments. Since my previous run was in about 24 segments, some of them were a bit too long, and I sometimes ended up with sloppy mistakes toward the end of a segment. So far, I've just exited Vale, and I'm about a minute faster than my other run.

As for a TLA speedrun, if I ever decide to do one, it probably won't be for a very long time. I'm not as familiar with that game either, and like Mage said, it would probably end up being +7 hours, and even more so since I'd be going for 100%. I would like to work on one someday, but if I couldn't get it around 7 hours (give or take 30 minutes or so), I'd probably only upload it to youtube or something. One thing I'm curious about is whether getting all sumons would be considered part of a 100% run (which would require a linked game), or if merely collecting all the Djinn available in TLA would be accepted.

This is more of a general question, but do you guys think Deadbeard should be included in a 100% run? That was one of the things I wasn't sure about before, since it's an optional fight, and you don't get anything significant from it (essentially making it no different than fighting the Storm and Tempest Lizards, which I skip). Adding that could possibly keep me from getting sub 5 hours in my run.

@Mage: Nope, you're right. Having the others "lend a hand" is definitely a waste of time. Not doing that probably could've saved me 2 or 3 minutes (or more), when you consider the time it takes to put each person in the right spot, along with the psyenergy animations for each round, rather than just putting each person in the closest three spots. What's ironic is that I actually mentioned that the race time was fixed during my run, but I somehow overlooked this.

Oh, and any tips on where you retreat warp would be great. I'm fairly new to the concept, so that would help out a lot.

@Fionorde: I haven't really made much progress so far. Right now, I'm just doing a practice run to get a feel for the game again and come up with a better number of segments. Since my previous run was in about 24 segments, some of them were a bit too long, and I sometimes ended up with sloppy mistakes toward the end of a segment. So far, I've just exited Vale, and I'm about a minute faster than my other run.

As for a TLA speedrun, if I ever decide to do one, it probably won't be for a [i]very[/i] long time. I'm not as familiar with that game either, and like Mage said, it would probably end up being +7 hours, and even more so since I'd be going for 100%. I would like to work on one someday, but if I couldn't get it around 7 hours (give or take 30 minutes or so), I'd probably only upload it to youtube or something. One thing I'm curious about is whether getting all sumons would be considered part of a 100% run (which would require a linked game), or if merely collecting all the Djinn available in TLA would be accepted.

This is more of a general question, but do you guys think Deadbeard should be included in a 100% run? That was one of the things I wasn't sure about before, since it's an optional fight, and you don't get anything significant from it (essentially making it no different than fighting the Storm and Tempest Lizards, which I skip). Adding that could possibly keep me from getting sub 5 hours in my run.

Edit history:

FlamingMage: 2010-04-18 04:23:13 pm

2010-04-18 02:06:00 pm

I think a 100% run would be all djinn, max level, all enemies fought at least once, all unique items, every person spoken to, every shop bought from, every class setup equipped, and maximum money.

And by that I mean that there are at least a hundred different definitions of 100%. Personally, I think all djinn is 100%. But that is just me.

I retreat warp twice in Mercury lighthouse. The first one in is the room where you have to jump on water, I exit back through the door you enter in and that places you near the Djinn. The second time is exiting the Djinn room itself, which places you next to the door which leads to the magical waterfall area...This means you only have to go through seven rooms in the whole lighthouse, out of 25, and none of the rooms you go to are puzzle areas.

I also warp in Altin peak, but you'll have to go a little deeper to get Spritz. There seems to be a trend of multiple doors in the same area leading to the same place, so you might be able to find a door closer to the Djinn that works for you, I never tried. The one I use is in a short horizontal room, which consists of two elevations, two doors, and a frost puddle. If you retreat and then walk through the door which leads into the dragon shield room, you appear in Altin Crossing, as if you walked out of the hidden tunnel there. Note that this warp does not allow you to ever learn Lift, so you should probably give it the pass.

One of the doors in Suhulla Gate, in the cave area, teleports you to the end of the gate. I forget which one, but there's only five possible so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

The next one doesn't save all that much time, but I still love it. If you enter Babi's lighthouse through the front door, retreat, then walk out backwards, you appear next to the ladder which leads onto the outside of the base. This saves you from having to solve that little pillar puzzle and expedites acquiring the last Jupiter Djinn.

Also, there are a lot of locations that teleport you to immediately outside Vale. I obviously couldn't use these, but since you'll be going back for the Djinn you might find a use for them. The one that seems like it would be the most useful is in the Lamakan desert; the door leading out of the tunnel and towards the Manticore. I forget which way you have to walk through it. At this point the broken bridge by Vault has been repaired so you can skip the Manticore completely and quickly get those two Djinn, then return to where you're supposed to be.

When you say you're fairly new to the concept, I'm assuming that you know how it works and the basic rules that govern it, but if you don't I'll happily explain.

The only areas that I haven't searched for warps in are Vale and Vault cave, Gondowan cave, and Lunpa Fortress. I have searched Fuchin Cave, but I totally forget if I found anything helpful. I remember I did find a lot of warps tho, I just don't know if they were helpful. Nothing that was fast enough to convince me to get that Djinn.

This page will help you enormously, these maps are amazing: http://rpg-home.lunar-net.com/gs-web/index.html

EDIT: Colosso!

Segment 58: saves before first Gladiator
Segment 59: saves before second Gladiator
Segment 60: saves after exiting Tolbi after long-ass Babi speech.

Current time: 3:03. Colosso is impossible to speed up. The little chit-chat with Babi probably takes 4:30 at least by itself.

EDIT: EDIT: Suhulla...

Segment 61: saves at Suhulla Desert entrance.
Segment 62: saves after first lizard.
Segment 63: saves after second lizard.
Segment 64: saves after third lizard.
Segment 65: saves before Djinn.
Segment 66: saves at top of ladder. (this shouldn't be a segment.)
Segment 67: saves after first battle during chase.
Segment 68: saves on the world map, post Suhulla.
Segment 69: saves in Suhulla gate.

My last time to get here was 3:19, I believe.

Current time: 3:08

Hell yes.

EDIT: EDIT: EDIT:

Segment 70: saves in the entrance to Venus Lighthouse 1.
Segment 71: saves in the entrance to Laverino.
Segment 72: saves in front of Djinn.
Segment 73: saves after speech in the ruins.
Segment 74: saves in the entrance to Venus Lighthouse 2 (technically still called Tunnel Ruins)

Current time: 3:17

I think a 100% run would be all djinn, max level, all enemies fought at least once, all unique items, every person spoken to, every shop bought from, every class setup equipped, and maximum money.

And by that I mean that there are at least a hundred different definitions of 100%. Personally, I think all djinn is 100%. But that is just me.

I retreat warp twice in Mercury lighthouse. The first one in is the room where you have to jump on water, I exit back through the door you enter in and that places you near the Djinn. The second time is exiting the Djinn room itself, which places you next to the door which leads to the magical waterfall area...This means you only have to go through seven rooms in the whole lighthouse, out of 25, and none of the rooms you go to are puzzle areas.

I also warp in Altin peak, but you'll have to go a little deeper to get Spritz. There seems to be a trend of multiple doors in the same area leading to the same place, so you might be able to find a door closer to the Djinn that works for you, I never tried. The one I use is in a short horizontal room, which consists of two elevations, two doors, and a frost puddle. If you retreat and then walk through the door which leads into the dragon shield room, you appear in Altin Crossing, as if you walked out of the hidden tunnel there. Note that this warp does not allow you to ever learn Lift, so you should probably give it the pass.

One of the doors in Suhulla Gate, in the cave area, teleports you to the end of the gate. I forget which one, but there's only five possible so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

The next one doesn't save all that much time, but I still love it. If you enter Babi's lighthouse through the front door, retreat, then walk out backwards, you appear next to the ladder which leads onto the outside of the base. This saves you from having to solve that little pillar puzzle and expedites acquiring the last Jupiter Djinn.

Also, there are a [i]lot[/i] of locations that teleport you to immediately outside Vale. I obviously couldn't use these, but since you'll be going back for the Djinn you might find a use for them. The one that seems like it would be the most useful is in the Lamakan desert; the door leading out of the tunnel and towards the Manticore. I forget which way you have to walk through it. At this point the broken bridge by Vault has been repaired so you can skip the Manticore completely and quickly get those two Djinn, then return to where you're supposed to be.

When you say you're fairly new to the concept, I'm assuming that you know how it works and the basic rules that govern it, but if you don't I'll happily explain. 
 
The only areas that I haven't searched for warps in are Vale and Vault cave, Gondowan cave, and Lunpa Fortress. I have searched Fuchin Cave, but I totally forget if I found anything helpful. I remember I did find a lot of warps tho, I just don't know if they were helpful. Nothing that was fast enough to convince me to get that Djinn.

This page will help you enormously, these maps are amazing: http://rpg-home.lunar-net.com/gs-web/index.html

EDIT: Colosso!

Segment 58: saves before first Gladiator
Segment 59: saves before second Gladiator
Segment 60: saves after exiting Tolbi after long-ass Babi speech.

Current time: 3:03. Colosso is impossible to speed up. The little chit-chat with Babi probably takes 4:30 at least by itself.

EDIT: EDIT: Suhulla...

Segment 61: saves at Suhulla Desert entrance.
Segment 62: saves after first lizard. 
Segment 63: saves after second lizard.
Segment 64: saves after third lizard. 
Segment 65: saves before Djinn.
Segment 66: saves at top of ladder. (this shouldn't be a segment.)
Segment 67: saves after first battle during chase.
Segment 68: saves on the world map, post Suhulla. 
Segment 69: saves in Suhulla gate.

My last time to get here was 3:19, I believe.

Current time: 3:08

Hell yes.

EDIT: EDIT: EDIT:

Segment 70: saves in the entrance to Venus Lighthouse 1.
Segment 71: saves in the entrance to Laverino. 
Segment 72: saves in front of Djinn.
Segment 73: saves after speech in the ruins.
Segment 74: saves in the entrance to Venus Lighthouse 2 (technically still called Tunnel Ruins)

Current time: 3:17

2010-04-18 07:26:42 pm

SEGA Junkie

3:17 and you're right near the end? Awesome!

I guess now the fun part is going to be finding out what strat works on Fusion Dragon at such a low level. I posted one earlier but I fancy I was a couple of levels ahead of you when I made it...

2010-04-18 07:31:07 pm

"Right near" is a bit of an overstatement, but I should reach the Aerie in 7-10 minutes. I might go ahead and do that tonight, depending on how I'm feeling.

I'm not looking forward to the final bosses. Luckily, I have Granite and Flash, so...worse comes to worse, I can have Isaac and Garet alternate those two, have Mia use Wish, and have Ivan deal damage. If I don't mind waiting a million years to actually kill it.

Also, luckily, I've leveled up quite a bit (relatively) and am now at the awesome levels of 14/14/14/15, and will remain at these until the final boss. I'll probably level up from Saturos and Menardi, but that's my only consolation. Speed runs FTW.

2010-04-18 08:22:15 pm

Agent PK

Just curious, what's your Djinn setup at this point? If you have at least 5 Mars Djinn, you could try giving at least 4 of them to Mia and giving Flash to Ivan, just in case you need it. That lets Mia use Wish while Isaac or Garet uses water summons on Saturos and Menardi. She also gets a decent speed boost with that class for quick healing, but at your levels that may not matter. With all of the Mecury Djinn set to Isaac or Garet, you can have one of them attack while the other uses Granite when needed, rather than having Ivan attack (that is, if you actually end up having to Granite/Flash through this fight).

Manocheese

Edit history:

Manocheese: 2010-04-18 08:55:42 pm

2010-04-18 08:36:48 pm

Yes, a cucco riding the ground.

I don't think TLA would take more than seven hours. Yuisin claims to have finished in 7:06 (final battle), and that was with quite a few Djinn:

Venus: 12
Mars: 14
Jupiter: 16
Mercury: 16

I assume he didn't retreat warp, in which case you can save some time by using some of the ones I've found (described here). Incidentally, if you want to learn more about retreat warping, pkGamer, that post is a good place to start. It works the same way in GS as it does in TLA.

EDIT: Since 100% for both games was mentioned, here's my two cents: 100% means all Djinn in GS and all Djinn and summons in TLA. That would mean that Deadbeard does not need to be fought (but neither does Dullahan, thanks to retreat warping, so the two games are even. :P).

EDIT2: About data transfer: I think that for any%, runs with data transfer should be a separate category. Since 100% requires data transfer, there would be no non-transfer 100% category. Any run with data transfer would be expected to have a super-strong GS1 party.

I don't think TLA would take more than seven hours. Yuisin claims to have finished in 7:06 ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QL7PYDVuNY]final battle[/url]), and that was with quite a few Djinn:

Venus: 12
Mars: 14
Jupiter: 16
Mercury: 16

I assume he didn't retreat warp, in which case you can save some time by using some of the ones I've found ([url=http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=8737.msg306512#msg306512]described here[/url]). Incidentally, if you want to learn more about retreat warping, pkGamer, that post is a good place to start. It works the same way in GS as it does in TLA.

EDIT: Since 100% for both games was mentioned, here's my two cents: 100% means all Djinn in GS and all Djinn and summons in TLA. That would mean that Deadbeard does not need to be fought (but neither does Dullahan, thanks to retreat warping, so the two games are even. :P).

EDIT2: About data transfer: I think that for any%, runs with data transfer should be a separate category. Since 100% requires data transfer, there would be no non-transfer 100% category. Any run with data transfer would be expected to have a super-strong GS1 party.