I have also had my eyes on this game. I have the cartridge and have played through it once. Hard game... I gave up my thoughts of speedrunning it pretty much immediately after that (for the same reasons as PJ). Best of luck if you decide to go through with it. I'd be very interested to see this.
Just for the record, the player who made the video PJ linked to has a time of 9:54 reported. There is no video for that time though. Without going into a discussion of the validity of a claim without (public) video proof, I don't think it hurts to entertain the thought that the 11:22 is not perfect in terms of strats/route. Either way, as things stand today, I don't think anyone is going to hold it against you if you can't get close to that 9:54.
Finally a comment about the last boss. From the tas submission notes, it seems like the location of the last boss is determined when you press start on the title screen. Considering how heartbreaking that 25% chance is, maybe it could be worth to investigate if there is a way to manipulate the location by understanding when to press start (you would first need to figure out the ram-address for his location though). Or maybe there are some tells of his location during the game? Sorry to only bring questions and no answers...
Just for the record, the player who made the video PJ linked to has a time of 9:54 reported. There is no video for that time though. Without going into a discussion of the validity of a claim without (public) video proof, I don't think it hurts to entertain the thought that the 11:22 is not perfect in terms of strats/route. Either way, as things stand today, I don't think anyone is going to hold it against you if you can't get close to that 9:54.
Finally a comment about the last boss. From the tas submission notes, it seems like the location of the last boss is determined when you press start on the title screen. Considering how heartbreaking that 25% chance is, maybe it could be worth to investigate if there is a way to manipulate the location by understanding when to press start (you would first need to figure out the ram-address for his location though). Or maybe there are some tells of his location during the game? Sorry to only bring questions and no answers...