Alright! First off!
  • I used SNES9X v1.43+ for windows. Started using it on the old emulator so I finished it. Judging, the new one should work fine.
  • Use WIP1 Timing
  • Allow Left+Right / Up+Down
  • Volume Envelope Height Reading
  • I used no passwords
  • I used a couple glitches in the game to my advantage, the only one noticable is the fight with Dark King. (Not sure if that is a glitch or an easteregg)
  • I takes hits and use death of one player to save time.
  • My aim this time was to beat the game as fast as possible, entertainment value in an RPG comes from sheer speed I think...
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is one of the easiest Final Fantasies to play. Player 2 even has an autoplay mode if you wish (though I don't recommend unless you've never played an RPG). Benjamin, our hero, must hunt down the four elemental crystals and go to the Dark King before his prophesy is fulfilled.
This movie was a lot harder to make this time and took much more time. I probably worked on it for close to two months. The hardest part was making the battles faster! Before I was going for number of turns and seeing how much damage I could avoid getting. Then I realized that healing only takes 140 or so frames, versus all of the long attacks I was letting the enemies hit me with.
The only real thing I changed in my path through the entire game was getting cure before the skull dungeon. This saved me a mere half turn on the Skull Rex, but someone mentioned it probably makes the movie look smoother.
I really didn't start saving time until I got the Knights Sword. That thing was a time saving gold mine. First off, it only took 30 frames to get, in the first run I simply jump over the chest! Second it made me more powerful, so I could swing my sword which takes significantly less time then any magic attack (except Exit). Third, it made me faster! All the way until Pazuzu's tower I was saving turns on every battle. Then they just became too fast. The final blow though for speed was when I got Phoebe again. She is slow! Any chance of going before all monsters was ruined because a monster would go before Phoebe.
The second item I got was a shield..I can't recall it's name now but I got it just in the hope that it would save me more then 30 frames in "miss" manipulation, and it probably did.
I changed my strategy for a lot of boss battles. This is the first time I've actually been able to use memory reading at all. I kept it up seeing how much HP the bosses had and how much I was taking. Pazuzu had something like 15 HP left the last time I beat him! Figuring I couldn't take anymore HP from any one attack I opted to use much faster attacks instead.
There's one annoying glitch in this game that one should keep in mind when playing. If you use the Dragon Claws and at any time during a battle their effect is unleashed (instant death, poison, paralyse, etc.) all magic used after that will take a little less then half normal for the rest of that battle.
I also managed to go through the game using only the seeds I got waaaaaay back in the game. I didn't even have to visit the old lady this time to get more seeds. I still had 3 to spare!
I actually ended up on level less this time! The first time I ran this I got to level 23. This time only to level 22. Why? For many battles in Pazuzu's tower the only way to go first was to use Exit, which when used gives no experience. This also explains what happened last time I fought the Dark King. I actually did that battle slower then Hero did, he also finished the game at level 22. My theory was wrong, so I will just let you all watch what happens when you have a little fun with a glitch. ;)
All in all I saved 29764 frames or 0:08:16.07! when I started this run I did not think I would get below 1:50:00, but I did! Just barely too. My first goal for the movie was to get below 400,000 frames (1:51:06.67), the the battle with Zuh brought me below 1:50:00 (The last battle before the Dark King!)
The movie is 393600 frames long or 1:49:20.
If anyone can beat this, I welcome them to try and to put the effort into it that I did. With ~68000 re-records this was a challenge!
I hope everyone enjoys, the difference is noticeable!
    • OKAY, IMPORTANT:
Sorry about the resubmission guys, I wish I had caught Nitrodon sooner who actually figured out exactly how the Dark King cure glitch works! With his help, which I am very grateful for, he helped me save another 29 seconds. I won't spoil the surprise, you'll just have to watch for yourself. ;) THANKS NITRODON!

Bisqwit: Submission renumbered, editing to update links. Please do not make duplicate submissions, it's hassle and wastes resources. Better if you ask to change the submission file.

Bisqwit: Accepting, and taking for encoding. Congratulations on having the courage to go for a new run at this long game. :)


Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Bisqwit wrote:
Hmm, desynched at me at 22:30 when I tried to make an AVI. Replaying to see if it does that again... Edit: happened again, at same spot :-/
That's weird. I used an older version of SNES9X, but I figured you noticed that... it works just fine for me all the way through. I even tested it before submitting to make sure it worked.
Soft Blue Dragon
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Former player
Joined: 11/6/2004
Posts: 833
It works for me, and I'm part way through pass 2, so don't worry too much.
Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
DeHackEd wrote:
It works for me, and I'm part way through pass 2, so don't worry too much.
Oh okie, that works then. It's just bugging me a little is all. I'm a mad perfectionist it's what I do, heh. It worked past 22:30 thrice doing three different things...so I really don't know what happened.
Soft Blue Dragon
Player (102)
Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin
DonamerDragon wrote:
I wonder who voted "Meh". I don't mind, I would just like to know why is all. Did I miss something? Or is it just the nature of an RPG.
I'm really sorry... Truly sorry, I know this took a lot of work, but good god FFMQ is a boring game. :( I do admire the job you did, but I just don't see why.
http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
josh l. wrote:
DonamerDragon wrote:
I wonder who voted "Meh". I don't mind, I would just like to know why is all. Did I miss something? Or is it just the nature of an RPG.
I'm really sorry... Truly sorry, I know this took a lot of work, but good god FFMQ is a boring game. :( I do admire the job you did, but I just don't see why.
It's fine it's fine. I put a lot of effort into it because I do love this game. It takes a different taste to enjoy an RPG TAs because they are generally so long. Anyone who has played this game knows that the best chance is to get to at least level 30 and get all the magic before even going after the dark king. First time I didn't even know about the cure glitch, I beat him the way he was intended...
Soft Blue Dragon
Player (168)
Joined: 4/27/2006
Posts: 304
Location: Eastern Canada
It was entertaining enough to not have to skip through anything, and some of the strategies used here 'n there surprised me a bit. Very nice, voted Yes.
Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Rising Tempest wrote:
It was entertaining enough to not have to skip through anything, and some of the strategies used here 'n there surprised me a bit. Very nice, voted Yes.
Thanks, I'm really glad I could get an RPG to that point, if that's where it is at. :)
Soft Blue Dragon
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 563
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Yes vote from me.
Joined: 12/13/2004
Posts: 103
Really looking forward to see this, but waiting for the avi... i LOVED the previous run.
Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Hehe, Thanks Maximus and MovieWatcher. :D
Soft Blue Dragon
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15527
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [706] SNES Final Fantasy Mystic Quest by DonamerDragon in 1:49:20.00
Player (30)
Joined: 9/23/2006
Posts: 207
Location: Moreno Valley, California
Nice!
"The way to move out of judgment is to move into gratitude." — Neale Donald Walsch DannyLilithborne on IRC
Joined: 1/4/2007
Posts: 1
Excellent! I've finished MQ countless times (addiction since childhood) with a non-TAS speedrun at ~2:50 and was amazed by this video! Even learnt a thing or two (the fast exit in Bone Dungeon for one). If I may ask, is there a particular reason you don't exterminate Flamerous Rex with Tristam's life spell? This would shave some more seconds (I hope the video I watched is the latest version).
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
If anyone's interested in redoing an old game, this one should be a straightforward obsoletion; there's a glitch involving arranging your consumables inventory and then buying 0 seeds that lets you skip all of the Fire chapter, including three dungeons. It's presumably common knowledge among speedrunners of the game; I just happened to stumble across it while watching a race.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Player (80)
Joined: 8/5/2007
Posts: 865
Derakon wrote:
If anyone's interested in redoing an old game, this one should be a straightforward obsoletion; there's a glitch involving arranging your consumables inventory and then buying 0 seeds that lets you skip all of the Fire chapter, including three dungeons. It's presumably common knowledge among speedrunners of the game; I just happened to stumble across it while watching a race.
For reference, the relevant skip and brief explanation appears to happen around 45:51: Link to video Give me a few days and I may look into this. I'm very curious about what's going on underneath and whether it can be further exploited.