Phantasy Star II (Good Stuff Happening, See Page 2!)

madmanlotar

2006-12-18 02:05:06 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Yes, I love this series and would like to watch a speedrun.

Emptyeye

2006-12-30 03:12:13 pm

Talk to the Hand

Just so everyone knows, I do intend to return to this. Busy with post-Christmas loot at the moment, specifically Guitar Hero II and the Sega Genesis Collection.

Emptyeye

2007-03-01 03:40:35 am

Talk to the Hand

Annnnnd I'm back!

I haven't completely broken the GHII addiction yet, but I think I can make some slow progress on the practice of this run. Segment 3 is actually not too bad as long as you don't hit Blasters, heh. I how have Amy at Oputa, and the next step is to level her up a bit.

stanski

2007-03-01 05:41:08 am

wise fwom yo gwave

awesome! i thought hte run was dead Sad

Emptyeye

2007-03-03 04:52:53 pm

Talk to the Hand

Nope, run is very much alive.

Amy's now at Level 4; Rolf is at Level 6. I'm going to attempt the BioSystems Lab at Level 6 again (I think I ended up having to level to 7 last time, but eh) and see what happens.

Also, I've decided on a medium change for the final run; I'm going to do it on the Sega Genesis Collection on PS2. This shouldn't affect anything strategy-wise, but what it does do is allow me a permanent base of operations as opposed to having to wait for my brother to return the GameCube from school.

As an aside, very early estimates aren't exactly looking good for sub-7.

Breakdown

2007-03-03 10:21:38 pm

Haters gonna hate

Good to see this is still in the works!

And I'd have been astounded if you'd managed to bring this in under 7, I'm sure there will be some leniency granted for this title.

Emptyeye

2007-03-10 05:51:37 pm

Talk to the Hand

I hope so.

Anyway, no progress to speak of in practice. I'm really not looking forward to trying to go through the Biosystems Lab again.

On a related note, does anyone have any suggestions for a DVD recorder? Something with a hard drive is a must...other than that, I'm open to more or less anything. NTSC please.

Emptyeye

2007-03-19 03:00:13 am

Talk to the Hand

Okay, I'm gonna have to put this on hold for the time being. I just can't get the motivation to do this. Sorry if I disappointed anyone. If anyone else decides to take up the challenge, I'll be happy to share anything I learned from what I did do.

Instead, I'm starting another run, the topic for which I'll post in a minute. Admittedly, it's no Phantasy Star II in terms of frustration, but I don't think you'll be disappointed with the choice.

MrStarbird

2014-06-12 07:37:47 pm

Leader of Starbirdia!

So this is 7 years old and I couldn't find any newer posts, so I'm going to cast Rever on it and hope it's good.

Much like myself dabbling in Phantasy Star IV and Landstalker, this game interests me. I have studied the TAS videos a bit and discovered that there is an item glitch using the storage room that will allow you to get practically any item early in the game at the cost of one character's inventory.

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1910&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100 Posting this here as future reference.

I have tried the glitch out on console and it does work, but it's just a matter of finding the right pieces to manipulate. I can get a Laconican Helmet right off the bat to sell for a ton of money, but that's about it right now. I haven't figured out everything yet, but if glitching Nei's inventory to buff up Rolf in the early going or even get some key items to avoid a lot of the dungeons, then it would make a speedrun of this game more feasible.

Lag.Com

2014-06-13 02:03:27 am

sda loyalist

Combining that with the item duplication glitch would probably solve any issues early in the run.

MrStarbird

Edit history:

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 11:53:35 am

2014-06-13 11:15:50 am

Leader of Starbirdia!

I've heard of the item duplication glitch, I just don't know how it works.

EDIT: So far I have been able to find a way to skip going to the Biosystems Lab by finding the Recorder in the 52nd/53rd item slot in Nei's inventory, giving it to Rolf, and going back to the Central Tower. This will initiate the cutscene and will give you the keytube to open the bridge to Zema. Still mapping out the rest of the glitched inventory and hoping to find some new stuff soon.

TheKeeperSA

2014-06-13 12:08:50 pm

I commend everyone trying to achieve such a speedrun. However, looking back, that game was long and hard for only one reason: grinding...

MrStarbird

Edit history:

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 06:55:15 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 06:26:38 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 05:36:32 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 03:29:06 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-13 02:35:42 pm

2014-06-13 12:16:40 pm

Leader of Starbirdia!

Actually, the only real reason to grind in this game is for money, which can easily be alleviated by inventory glitching. I've beaten the game legitimately at level 23 and the only reason I had to grind was early on for some gear. The Dark Force battle was a pain (but even at higher levels it is tough) but the Mother Brain fight even at that level is easy enough. That being said, I did have a great need for Shir to be in the party due to her high speed and the Snow Crown. The GiRes items were also quite important to low-level the game, but even still, low-leveling it is still a lot faster than having to grind.

EDIT: I have just discovered something amazing with this glitch! There is a way to actually make it so that you can give any of your minor characters Invincibility from any damage. I'm working to see if this glitch can also give super strength, and if so I should be able to just blast through the game with no problem with only 2 characters or so.

EDIT 2: So anyways, since glitching the inventory basically gives you items based on where stats are stored in hex on the system. Along with invincibility, there is also a way to super-level characters. You basically take the item attached to the character's level (say Rudo is at Level 2), and give the item to anybody (the level then becomes 0 because nothing is in that slot anymore). When you battle again, you will level up back to what level your Exp tells you that you should be at after the battle (so Rudo would again be at level 2), but he actually LEVELS UP in stats, so the rest of his stats increase as if he actual leveled up. I had Rudo after a few battles only at level 3, but he had nearly 300 HP and was one-shotting almost any low-level enemy with a pair of Ceramic Knives. The only enemies that do any real damage to him were the Wasps and such since their damage is fixed.

This can technically also be done with Amy, Hugh, Anna, Kain, and Shir. I haven't gotten that far yet but it should be possible to Speedrun this game now with no grinding at all, even if you have to fight every random battle (though if I can figure out how to manipulate that, I'd be even happier)

EDIT 3: Okay, I believe that by using this glitch it might be possible to beat the game using only NEI. I've managed to use this inventory glitch to get the 4 cards for the dams early. The only dungeon I visited so far was Roron just to get the Scooter. After that, I am able to enter the dams. AND (here's the best part) because I haven't had the cutscene where Neifirst is defeated and Mother Brain goes nuts, there are NO robots on Mota to attack me, so I went through the entire Green Dam without a single encounter! I will keep you all informed as I progress. But right now, I have Nei with invincibility and her strength is insanely high.

EDIT 4: Okay, so it is possible to complete the Dams with Nei in your party and go through Gaira as well. However, I've noticed that when you get back to Paseo after the crash, when you talk to the Governor, it repeats the dialog from the very beginning, then you automatically return home to pick up Nei just like in the beginning. If you had Rudo and Amy or anybody else in your party, going back into the house will make their dialogs appear again. I thought this might have ended the run here, but going back to the Central Tower DOES reveal the Roof, allowing you to fly to Dezo. Let's just hope I can continue from there.

EDIT 5: I know, I know, a lot of edits. Better than duplicate posts. Anyways, continuing on the realms of possibilities, it is possible to get Nei to Dezo. Also, glitching the Prism into the inventory makes the dungeons appear so you don't have to go to the Esper Mansion. Though it might be easier to just try to glitch in the Nei Sword (I will have to figure that out at some point to see if I can just skip getting the 8 items all together), I did discover that again, because certain sequences are out of place, the Dezo Dungeons (i.e. Menobe), much like the Dams, do NOT have any encounters to them!

That being said, I am certain that using these glitches the game CAN be beaten in UNDER 2 hours. I think it might be possible to do so even close to 1 hour.

Any thoughts?

Actually, the only real reason to grind in this game is for money, which can easily be alleviated by inventory glitching. I've beaten the game legitimately at level 23 and the only reason I had to grind was early on for some gear. The Dark Force battle was a pain (but even at higher levels it is tough) but the Mother Brain fight even at that level is easy enough. That being said, I did have a great need for Shir to be in the party due to her high speed and the Snow Crown. The GiRes items were also quite important to low-level the game, but even still, low-leveling it is still a lot faster than having to grind.

EDIT: I have just discovered something amazing with this glitch! There is a way to actually make it so that you can give any of your minor characters Invincibility from any damage. I'm working to see if this glitch can also give super strength, and if so I should be able to just blast through the game with no problem with only 2 characters or so.

EDIT 2: So anyways, since glitching the inventory basically gives you items based on where stats are stored in hex on the system. Along with invincibility, there is also a way to super-level characters. You basically take the item attached to the character's level (say Rudo is at Level 2), and give the item to anybody (the level then becomes 0 because nothing is in that slot anymore). When you battle again, you will level up back to what level your Exp tells you that you should be at after the battle (so Rudo would again be at level 2), but he actually LEVELS UP in stats, so the rest of his stats increase as if he actual leveled up. I had Rudo after a few battles only at level 3, but he had nearly 300 HP and was one-shotting almost any low-level enemy with a pair of Ceramic Knives. The only enemies that do any real damage to him were the Wasps and such since their damage is fixed.

This can technically also be done with Amy, Hugh, Anna, Kain, and Shir. I haven't gotten that far yet but it should be possible to Speedrun this game now with no grinding at all, even if you have to fight every random battle (though if I can figure out how to manipulate that, I'd be even happier)

EDIT 3: Okay, I believe that by using this glitch it might be possible to beat the game using only NEI. I've managed to use this inventory glitch to get the 4 cards for the dams early. The only dungeon I visited so far was Roron just to get the Scooter. After that, I am able to enter the dams. AND (here's the best part) because I haven't had the cutscene where Neifirst is defeated and Mother Brain goes nuts, there are NO robots on Mota to attack me, so I went through the entire Green Dam without a single encounter! I will keep you all informed as I progress. But right now, I have Nei with invincibility and her strength is insanely high.

EDIT 4: Okay, so it is possible to complete the Dams with Nei in your party and go through Gaira as well. However, I've noticed that when you get back to Paseo after the crash, when you talk to the Governor, it repeats the dialog from the very beginning, then you automatically return home to pick up Nei just like in the beginning. If you had Rudo and Amy or anybody else in your party, going back into the house will make their dialogs appear again. I thought this might have ended the run here, but going back to the Central Tower DOES reveal the Roof, allowing you to fly to Dezo. Let's just hope I can continue from there.

EDIT 5: I know, I know, a lot of edits. Better than duplicate posts. Anyways, continuing on the realms of possibilities, it is possible to get Nei to Dezo. Also, glitching the Prism into the inventory makes the dungeons appear so you don't have to go to the Esper Mansion. Though it might be easier to just try to glitch in the Nei Sword (I will have to figure that out at some point to see if I can just skip getting the 8 items all together), I did discover that again, because certain sequences are out of place, the Dezo Dungeons (i.e. Menobe), much like the Dams, do NOT have any encounters to them!

That being said, I am certain that using these glitches the game CAN be beaten in UNDER 2 hours. I think it might be possible to do so even close to 1 hour.

Any thoughts?

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2014-06-14 04:41:12 am

2014-06-14 04:41:04 am

sda loyalist

Sounds excellent! Almost the entire game is walking through dungeons that might give you 100 or 0 encounters, so it could be pretty short with a lot of luck.

If you hit 'cancel' at the same time as giving an item from one character to another, it will overwrite one of the item slots on the other character with the item you're trying to give. You can use this to overwrite Monomates with Ceramic Knives or whatever early on to make a bunch of cash.

MrStarbird

Edit history:

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 09:06:35 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 08:32:20 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 07:04:19 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 04:25:17 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 03:54:14 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-15 08:59:49 am

2014-06-14 12:10:07 pm

Leader of Starbirdia!

The thing that scares me right now though is the Dark Force battle. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but it might be hard with one character with his curse ability. That and I'm not sure if the Nei Sword's cure for it works if Rolf is dead. Guess I will find out one way or another.

EDIT 1: Glitching the Nei Sword into the Inventory without the other Nei Items will NOT get you into Noah. So traversing the 4 Dezo dungeons will still be required unless I glitch the 8 Nei Items myself.

EDIT 2: Okay, so the Nei Sword does not have to be equipped and Rolf doesn't have to live in order for its effect to remove the curse in the Dark Force battle. However, even with the ridiculously high Defense my characters have, Dark Force's attack still does a fix amount of damage (there are some attacks in the game that do that), so having a healer ready with some Trimate is beneficial (which is why I took Amy with me where she can use Deban and NaRes as needed. It can be a bit of a battle, but Dark Force falls easily.

EDIT 3 (Game Finished): So here is my final synopsis. It is very possible to beat the game with Nei still alive. Now that I've finished the game, I am probably going to optimize and start recording for submission here at SDA for a run.

There are a couple of categories that possibly could be run. There is an all dungeon run which uses the Glitch but is a little less optimal in my opinion. This run would be impossible to do with Nei because she has to die in order to fully do all dungeons. So you would most likely be glitching Rudo's level defense and probably later Hugh's. I haven't attempted this yet, but I'm sure it would be longer.

The category I am going to run I would like to call "Girl %" or "Any %" This category uses the inventory glitch on Rolf's inventory (making him useless for the entire game) to make Nei invincible first and also provide me with a Moon Dew, Tiem (which will allow me to skip Shure and Nido dungeons) and the Nei Shot. I pick up Rudo and Amy as well, glitching Rudo's inventory so that I can do the same for Amy's defense (which in turn gives me extra inventory space). As Nei levels, I can grab the Key Tube, Green Card, Blue Card, Yellow Card, Red Card, and Prism from her through the inventory glitch. If she levels too much in battle, then I have Amy as backup. Both Rolf and Rudo are better off dead and most likely will die easily.

I go to Roron to activate the Jet Scooter. It is actually the ONLY dungeon in the game that I access that will have random encounters. By the time I am done with Roron, I should have all 4 Cards and the Prism. From Roron, I hit the Red, Blue, Yellow, and then Green Dams. I pick up the Snow Crown at the Blue Dam. At the Green Dam, I fight and lose to the Army Eyes and go through the events in Gaira. After that, I fly to Dezo, go to Naval, Guaron, Ikuto, and Menobe (which also have no encounters) before going to Crevice (again, no encounters). At the Esper Mansion, I use the Moon Dew to revive Rolf because he is needed alive in order to enter. I enter, wake up Lutz, talk to him again to get the Nei Sword, then go to Noah (where, as with every other dungeon, no random encounters). I fight Dark Force and then Mother Brain (long battles, but easily doable) and then I end the game with Nei and Amy standing tall in victory.

There are still random encounters on both Mota and Dezo overworlds. This is fine. Nei levels up quickly, and after she reaches Level 14, I can power level her by dumping the Telepipe that is in her level slot in the inventory glitch (same thing with Amy, but she levels a lot slower). I got Nei to where her HP was over 1000 (probably could have gone more so that she had more attack power).

Amy is in the group to deal extra damage (although it is minimal at first) and to provide healing during the two boss battles (she should be able to use NaRes by the time I'm ready to fight Dark Force.

Some things I have to look out for and perhaps improve upon:

1. Finding a way to easily and reliably get the Nei Items through the inventory glitch. The Nei Shot I can get because her initial stats will always be the same.
2. If I level Nei too much, then her Defense will roll back over to 0 and to low numbers. This means a lot of trouble and almost any enemy will do massive damage to her.
3. Amy's technique list gets funky towards her later levels. Meaning the list may show a full set of techniques, but she may only be able to access a couple of them. I'm not sure how this will work but I will have to pay attention to this. If I don't have access to NaRes then the final two battles will be a pain because I need her healing as I don't carry Trimates.

EDIT 4: So I've decided to go through it again with my optimized strategy. So far, with a bunch of mistakes and double-checking some numbers and maps, I have made it past Gaira and am about to go to Dezo for the first time. I am currently sitting at 48 minutes and 12 seconds (48:12). Considering the vast difficulty and time that it takes to beat this game, 48 minutes and about 2/3 of the way through is a really good time so far. Sub 1-hour is not looking likely at this point, but Sub-2 hours is.

EDIT 5: Official un-official first unrecorded attempt time-type thing: 1 hour, 45 minutes, 5 seconds (1:45:05 in a single segment)... I have played this game since it came out and I even learned to read because of this game. To think that this game can be defeated in that short of a time is still nothing short of amazing. The time can easily be beaten and I will try to do so... but still, that is a really good starting point for that game. I did discover though that there is such a thing as over-leveling in which a character's attack will basically "roll over" back to low numbers. I'm not sure what causes it, but item glitching the ATK slot seems to fix it.

Not sure when I will make an official record of it to submit here, but I believe I have a good starting point.

The thing that scares me right now though is the Dark Force battle. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but it might be hard with one character with his curse ability. That and I'm not sure if the Nei Sword's cure for it works if Rolf is dead. Guess I will find out one way or another.

EDIT 1: Glitching the Nei Sword into the Inventory without the other Nei Items will NOT get you into Noah. So traversing the 4 Dezo dungeons will still be required unless I glitch the 8 Nei Items myself.

EDIT 2: Okay, so the Nei Sword does not have to be equipped and Rolf doesn't have to live in order for its effect to remove the curse in the Dark Force battle. However, even with the ridiculously high Defense my characters have, Dark Force's attack still does a fix amount of damage (there are some attacks in the game that do that), so having a healer ready with some Trimate is beneficial (which is why I took Amy with me where she can use Deban and NaRes as needed. It can be a bit of a battle, but Dark Force falls easily.

EDIT 3 (Game Finished): So here is my final synopsis. It is very possible to beat the game with Nei still alive. Now that I've finished the game, I am probably going to optimize and start recording for submission here at SDA for a run.

There are a couple of categories that possibly could be run. There is an all dungeon run which uses the Glitch but is a little less optimal in my opinion. This run would be impossible to do with Nei because she has to die in order to fully do all dungeons. So you would most likely be glitching Rudo's level defense and probably later Hugh's. I haven't attempted this yet, but I'm sure it would be longer.

The category I am going to run I would like to call "Girl %" or "Any %" This category uses the inventory glitch on Rolf's inventory (making him useless for the entire game) to make Nei invincible first and also provide me with a Moon Dew, Tiem (which will allow me to skip Shure and Nido dungeons) and the Nei Shot. I pick up Rudo and Amy as well, glitching Rudo's inventory so that I can do the same for Amy's defense (which in turn gives me extra inventory space). As Nei levels, I can grab the Key Tube, Green Card, Blue Card, Yellow Card, Red Card, and Prism from her through the inventory glitch. If she levels too much in battle, then I have Amy as backup. Both Rolf and Rudo are better off dead and most likely will die easily.

I go to Roron to activate the Jet Scooter. It is actually the ONLY dungeon in the game that I access that will have random encounters. By the time I am done with Roron, I should have all 4 Cards and the Prism. From Roron, I hit the Red, Blue, Yellow, and then Green Dams. I pick up the Snow Crown at the Blue Dam. At the Green Dam, I fight and lose to the Army Eyes and go through the events in Gaira. After that, I fly to Dezo, go to Naval, Guaron, Ikuto, and Menobe (which also have no encounters) before going to Crevice (again, no encounters). At the Esper Mansion, I use the Moon Dew to revive Rolf because he is needed alive in order to enter. I enter, wake up Lutz, talk to him again to get the Nei Sword, then go to Noah (where, as with every other dungeon, no random encounters). I fight Dark Force and then Mother Brain (long battles, but easily doable) and then I end the game with Nei and Amy standing tall in victory.

There are still random encounters on both Mota and Dezo overworlds. This is fine. Nei levels up quickly, and after she reaches Level 14, I can power level her by dumping the Telepipe that is in her level slot in the inventory glitch (same thing with Amy, but she levels a lot slower). I got Nei to where her HP was over 1000 (probably could have gone more so that she had more attack power).

Amy is in the group to deal extra damage (although it is minimal at first) and to provide healing during the two boss battles (she should be able to use NaRes by the time I'm ready to fight Dark Force.

Some things I have to look out for and perhaps improve upon:

1. Finding a way to easily and reliably get the Nei Items through the inventory glitch. The Nei Shot I can get because her initial stats will always be the same.
2. If I level Nei too much, then her Defense will roll back over to 0 and to low numbers. This means a lot of trouble and almost any enemy will do massive damage to her.
3. Amy's technique list gets funky towards her later levels. Meaning the list may show a full set of techniques, but she may only be able to access a couple of them. I'm not sure how this will work but I will have to pay attention to this. If I don't have access to NaRes then the final two battles will be a pain because I need her healing as I don't carry Trimates.

EDIT 4: So I've decided to go through it again with my optimized strategy. So far, with a bunch of mistakes and double-checking some numbers and maps, I have made it past Gaira and am about to go to Dezo for the first time. I am currently sitting at 48 minutes and 12 seconds (48:12). Considering the vast difficulty and time that it takes to beat this game, 48 minutes and about 2/3 of the way through is a really good time so far. Sub 1-hour is not looking likely at this point, but Sub-2 hours is.

EDIT 5: Official un-official first unrecorded attempt time-type thing: 1 hour, 45 minutes, 5 seconds (1:45:05 in a single segment)... I have played this game since it came out and I even learned to read because of this game. To think that this game can be defeated in that short of a time is still nothing short of amazing. The time can easily be beaten and I will try to do so... but still, that is a really good starting point for that game. I did discover though that there is such a thing as over-leveling in which a character's attack will basically "roll over" back to low numbers. I'm not sure what causes it, but item glitching the ATK slot seems to fix it.

Not sure when I will make an official record of it to submit here, but I believe I have a good starting point.

Emptyeye

2014-06-15 09:44:00 pm

Talk to the Hand

Wow, that's awesome! Keep in mind that a bazillion years ago when I created this topic, I don't think any of this (Item glitching, running from boss fights, etc) was known. Regardless, though, I'm glad it's known now, particularly because it makes running this actually feasible now. Can't wait to see the end product!

MrStarbird

Edit history:

MrStarbird: 2014-06-17 07:02:52 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-17 06:56:22 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-17 02:42:40 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-16 06:07:15 pm

MrStarbird: 2014-06-16 01:20:34 pm

2014-06-16 06:32:06 am

Leader of Starbirdia!

Thank you. I actually do not do anything to avoid encounters and I don't try to run from the bosses, since it seems boss skips have to be frame perfect or rely on a lot of luck that is only feasible in a TAS run. Avoiding encounters is detrimental to Nei and Amy's development since they both need high stats in order to survive Dark Force.

I can easily single segment this run... however, I may try for a 2-segment at first because the Dark Force battle can be a pain. If Amy dies, then it's impossible for me to finish both battles. if I were to ever marathon this game, I'd have to use the visiphone to make a save right before the Dark Force battle anyway.

EDIT: I decided to try this game out on my copy of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on the Xbox360 to see if the glitch works on that as well. The glitch does work in the exact same way and I even think the frame-rate might be a bit higher, so the game might run faster on that version. Plus it just looks and sounds better (for the most part). I think when I begin recording, I am going to use this version of the game because my Genesis doesn't have stereo output whereas my xbox does.

EDIT 2: After playing around with the inventory glitch some more, I found an easy way to get ALL 8 Nei Items. Doing this, I don't need the Prism nor do I need to enter any of the Dezo dungeons. As soon as I get to Dezo, I can go straight for the Esper Mansion and for Noah. This will probably save me about 15-25 minutes in having to scour the Dezo dungeons. I still doubt I can do sub 1 hour, but a little over 1 hour is more than likely now.

So the strategy goes like this now: Glitch the Nei Shot from Nei, go to Arima and Oputa, buying 2 Ceramic Knives and a Fiber Gear for Amy. I then glitch the rest of the Nei items from Amy and then make my way to Roron and then the Dams, making sure to glitch the Key Tube and the Cards when I get to level 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I complete the Dams, finish Gaira, go to Dezo, traverse through Skure and the Crevice, get the Nei Sword, go to Noah and defeat Dark Force and Mother Brain.

EDIT 3: So I tried it again with the new route. I messed up quite a bit and over-leveled Nei before I could get the Cards off of her, so I probably wasted 5-10 minutes leveling Amy to get the Red Card. I ended with a time of 1:31:34, so I shaved at least 15 minutes off the original run that did not have me manipulate the inventory for all Nei items. I had quite a bit of bad RNG as well, wasting even more time.

I think this can be done around 1:15:00 or so if perfected with decent RNG. The Dark Force battle still requires some good RNG but the fight only lasts about 2-3 minutes whereas the Mother Brain fight is about twice as long.

EDIT 4: I think I've got the strategy down enough to make an attempt at setting a record. I single segmented a 1:16:38 just moments ago and I did have a little bit of bad luck with the Dark Force battle, so my estimate of 1:15:00 is doable. I think if I can get a run under that I will submit it. Next step though will have to be setting up a Quality Test.

Thank you. I actually do not do anything to avoid encounters and I don't try to run from the bosses, since it seems boss skips have to be frame perfect or rely on a lot of luck that is only feasible in a TAS run. Avoiding encounters is detrimental to Nei and Amy's development since they both need high stats in order to survive Dark Force.

I can easily single segment this run... however, I may try for a 2-segment at first because the Dark Force battle can be a pain. If Amy dies, then it's impossible for me to finish both battles. if I were to ever marathon this game, I'd have to use the visiphone to make a save right before the Dark Force battle anyway.

EDIT: I decided to try this game out on my copy of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on the Xbox360 to see if the glitch works on that as well. The glitch does work in the exact same way and I even think the frame-rate might be a bit higher, so the game might run faster on that version. Plus it just looks and sounds better (for the most part). I think when I begin recording, I am going to use this version of the game because my Genesis doesn't have stereo output whereas my xbox does.

EDIT 2: After playing around with the inventory glitch some more, I found an easy way to get ALL 8 Nei Items. Doing this, I don't need the Prism nor do I need to enter any of the Dezo dungeons. As soon as I get to Dezo, I can go straight for the Esper Mansion and for Noah. This will probably save me about 15-25 minutes in having to scour the Dezo dungeons. I still doubt I can do sub 1 hour, but a little over 1 hour is more than likely now.

So the strategy goes like this now: Glitch the Nei Shot from Nei, go to Arima and Oputa, buying 2 Ceramic Knives and a Fiber Gear for Amy. I then glitch the rest of the Nei items from Amy and then make my way to Roron and then the Dams, making sure to glitch the Key Tube and the Cards when I get to level 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I complete the Dams, finish Gaira, go to Dezo, traverse through Skure and the Crevice, get the Nei Sword, go to Noah and defeat Dark Force and Mother Brain.

EDIT 3: So I tried it again with the new route. I messed up quite a bit and over-leveled Nei before I could get the Cards off of her, so I probably wasted 5-10 minutes leveling Amy to get the Red Card. I ended with a time of 1:31:34, so I shaved at least 15 minutes off the original run that did not have me manipulate the inventory for all Nei items. I had quite a bit of bad RNG as well, wasting even more time.

I think this can be done around 1:15:00 or so if perfected with decent RNG. The Dark Force battle still requires some good RNG but the fight only lasts about 2-3 minutes whereas the Mother Brain fight is about twice as long.

EDIT 4: I think I've got the strategy down enough to make an attempt at setting a record. I single segmented a 1:16:38 just moments ago and I did have a little bit of bad luck with the Dark Force battle, so my estimate of 1:15:00 is doable. I think if I can get a run under that I will submit it. Next step though will have to be setting up a Quality Test.

Worn_Traveler

2014-06-17 07:09:41 pm

Formerly known as Skullboy

I'm more familiar with Phantasy Star III but I am glad to see some work being done on this wonderful game. Good luck.

MrStarbird

Edit history:

MrStarbird: 2014-06-27 05:21:58 pm

2014-06-17 07:11:05 pm

Leader of Starbirdia!

I wouldn't mind speed running Phantasy Star III at some point either, since I do love that game to death. I know of the glitch to basically skip all of Nial's quest and go straight to Aron's, but other than that I'd have to see if there is anything else that could be skipped.

Thanks for the support!

EDIT: It seems that RNGesus hates me right now. Every time I get a run going now to record, I run into one monster that can override my super defense and one shot me before I even get to input a command. Of course, this only happens when I want to record.

MrStarbird

2014-06-28 01:47:59 pm

Leader of Starbirdia!

Bumping to let everyone know that I created a strategy page for this game in the Knowledge Base. If anybody wishes to attempt this game as well, I've outlined everything that I could.

MrStarbird

2014-10-08 09:08:37 am

Leader of Starbirdia!

3-month bump.

Sorry, haven't made much progress on this because of life kicking in and having to work on my 2nd novel, but I have been talking with Jiseed and he has done quite a bit of work improving my times to get this game below 1 hour (I believe he said 58:28 to be exact the last I checked). If anybody else wants to attempt this I'd be more than happy to give what information I have learned from my experience and what Jiseed has told me.

Emptyeye

2014-10-11 09:43:23 pm

Talk to the Hand

Just want to say that it's pretty crazy what happened to this game. Updated the title to reflect that.

Jiseed

2014-10-11 10:08:23 pm

Hey guys, thought I'd post the video of the 58:28 in case anyone was interested. Things get a little wacky, so if you have any questions feel free to ask. I also have a pastebin that explains some of the things going on: http://pastebin.com/Y510BwwF

Video below:

philosoraptor42

2014-10-13 08:38:03 am

Dapper as fuck.

Seeing this progress makes me want to run this game. Smiley

Good work you guys!

philosoraptor42

Edit history:

philosoraptor42: 2014-10-19 08:49:58 am

2014-10-19 08:23:48 am

Dapper as fuck.

OK, so I've been trying the beginning part of this game and I am not sure exactly what you are doing when you glitch Rolf's inventory, but it looks like you end up putting the key tube in the baggage thing and don't leave the 2nd item menu? The pastebin nor the KB really explain that part of it. Getting the red card there while glitching Rudo's inventory I was guessing was using slot 36 for Amy, but I haven't tried that yet.

Edit: So I don't know how you get either of those 2 items during the inventory glitch in the room. I can do all the other item glitching you do to get Teim, the 8 Nei items, and the 2 storm gears though.