Or: Things I promised I would do "soon" 3 months ago. "whoops"
Anyways, I still haven't cleaned up my route notes, but I figure it's high time I just post them and let others mock my inability to organize information: http://pastebin.com/sRk9giPw
Current WR is 6:30-ish (video: https://www.twitch.tv/dowolff/v/87481482 ), though that's going to go down by a lot of time--maybe an hour, If I had to guess?--the next time I do a run because, umm... So I was messing around yesterday, and it turns out that you can hold triangle for about a second to skip cutscenes entirely. I have no idea how neither I nor anyone in my channel knew that before >_> Only other piece of speedrun tech that isn't immediately obvious is that you can hold down R as a battle starts to start it in hyper mode, and to make literally everything go faster during the "map" mode. Really, except during pre-battle menus, there's no reason to let go of R.
Good resources (besides Gamefaqs):
http://yggdra-psp.heriet.info/ <-- Easily the best resource, but in Japanese. If there's a specific page someone would like me to translate, give me a holler.
http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23270 <--Has a couple of really good strategies I've adopted / stolen
Open questions:
Is the Mistel route worthwhile? Mistel herself is garbage, and this requires doing a decently long extra stage, but this extra stage both gives a lot of experience and the Gold Dozeu (ALL UP edible) (A number of English resources say this is hard mode only; this is incorrect. It simply can only be gotten on your second+ playthrough). I've always assumed that it wasn't worth the time, but I've never done a thorough comparison, and being able to skip cutscenes changes the arithmetic. Additionally, who gets the Gold Dozeu? Nitchee seems like the obvious choice, but it could also let me make a competent Roswell. The only problem with a competent Roswell is that getting enough XP onto Flame is tricky, but... Options!
Roswell or Rosary? Roswell gets dark immunity, which is useful on 16 and 25; and can teleport, which is useful on 19, 22, and every escape-style map (e.g. 13, 23, 24). Rosary gets fire immunity, which is useful whenever we have to fight witches (probably more common than Emilia, who's the only source of Gravity Chaos) and against Gulcasa (!), gives us a female character during a part of the game when we basically don't have any, and while +Fire damage isn't great, it does pair nicely with the very-powerful Ruby Rod. Plus, it lets us kill Roswell and take his stuff and give to other characters. Namely, Midnight Robe is great on Yggdra on 16 (since otherwise I have to jump through hoops to stop her from fighting Emilia's troop and getting demolished by GC), and Black Rose Crest gives me +Dark Damage to use... somewhere. There's a lot of places where it'd be good, just a matter of picking one >_>
Does hard mode actually make any of the enemies harder? I don't think so, but...
Mind Change? In theory, this card is stupidly powerful. In practice, I've always found it too situational, and it's fighting with Shield Barrier and the elemental cards to get POW, since you can only level up so many low-move cards. But I really want it to be good~ Similar questions (and problems) plague Ace Guard (4 move is so painful~)
Anyways, I still haven't cleaned up my route notes, but I figure it's high time I just post them and let others mock my inability to organize information: http://pastebin.com/sRk9giPw
Current WR is 6:30-ish (video: https://www.twitch.tv/dowolff/v/87481482 ), though that's going to go down by a lot of time--maybe an hour, If I had to guess?--the next time I do a run because, umm... So I was messing around yesterday, and it turns out that you can hold triangle for about a second to skip cutscenes entirely. I have no idea how neither I nor anyone in my channel knew that before >_> Only other piece of speedrun tech that isn't immediately obvious is that you can hold down R as a battle starts to start it in hyper mode, and to make literally everything go faster during the "map" mode. Really, except during pre-battle menus, there's no reason to let go of R.
Good resources (besides Gamefaqs):
http://yggdra-psp.heriet.info/ <-- Easily the best resource, but in Japanese. If there's a specific page someone would like me to translate, give me a holler.
http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23270 <--Has a couple of really good strategies I've adopted / stolen
Open questions:
Is the Mistel route worthwhile? Mistel herself is garbage, and this requires doing a decently long extra stage, but this extra stage both gives a lot of experience and the Gold Dozeu (ALL UP edible) (A number of English resources say this is hard mode only; this is incorrect. It simply can only be gotten on your second+ playthrough). I've always assumed that it wasn't worth the time, but I've never done a thorough comparison, and being able to skip cutscenes changes the arithmetic. Additionally, who gets the Gold Dozeu? Nitchee seems like the obvious choice, but it could also let me make a competent Roswell. The only problem with a competent Roswell is that getting enough XP onto Flame is tricky, but... Options!
Roswell or Rosary? Roswell gets dark immunity, which is useful on 16 and 25; and can teleport, which is useful on 19, 22, and every escape-style map (e.g. 13, 23, 24). Rosary gets fire immunity, which is useful whenever we have to fight witches (probably more common than Emilia, who's the only source of Gravity Chaos) and against Gulcasa (!), gives us a female character during a part of the game when we basically don't have any, and while +Fire damage isn't great, it does pair nicely with the very-powerful Ruby Rod. Plus, it lets us kill Roswell and take his stuff and give to other characters. Namely, Midnight Robe is great on Yggdra on 16 (since otherwise I have to jump through hoops to stop her from fighting Emilia's troop and getting demolished by GC), and Black Rose Crest gives me +Dark Damage to use... somewhere. There's a lot of places where it'd be good, just a matter of picking one >_>
Does hard mode actually make any of the enemies harder? I don't think so, but...
Mind Change? In theory, this card is stupidly powerful. In practice, I've always found it too situational, and it's fighting with Shield Barrier and the elemental cards to get POW, since you can only level up so many low-move cards. But I really want it to be good~ Similar questions (and problems) plague Ace Guard (4 move is so painful~)
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