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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an action role playing game developed by The Game Designers Studio and published by Square Enix in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube. This was the first Final Fantasy game to include real-time fighting, which has since become a staple of Final Fantasy games. It was also the first Final Fantasy game to be published on a Nintendo console since Final Fantasy VI on the SNES.
You play as a caravanner, trying to beat dungeons to collect myrrh drops to be able to sustain your village's crystal energy, which protects the villagers from the mortal effects of the miasma. In this run, you go out as a Yuke, a race of mages, to go explore the world, but only the fastest way possible, skipping longer dungeons and bosses.

Sync Instructions

It's necessary to provide the game with a formatted memory card before being able to play the movie file.
  1. Set up a memory card in the Dolphin settings;
  2. Launch the game;
  3. When this screen appears, select the upper option twice and press X key;
  4. Now the movie file can be played.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Dolphin 5.0
  • Finishing the game as fast as possible
  • Don't use any glitch

Comments

This is my fifth TAS of this game, and first time on this category. Any% is not the first category I chose to TAS because I wanted to play all dungeons initially, but since my run got published, I wanted to try to beat the game as fast as possible. This way, Conall Curach and Rebena Te Ra (and the end of Lynari desert) are skipped and replaced by faster cycle 2 dungeons (Mushroom Forest and Goblin Wall).
Final Fantasy is my favorite game of all time, even if it's mostly nostalgia. Here, you go on an epic quest to discover characters and cities, new stories unfold and there is sidequests offered to you along the way. Unfortunately, in this run, I skip most of it. In this game, the fastest way to beat it is to get to the last dungeon, wich is blocked by a miasma wall. The only way to pass it is to get the unknown element in the Lynari Desert, which is only accessable at year 5. You have to collect 3 drops of myrrh to complete a year, wich means I have to beat 12 dungeons before even being able to get to the last boss, 13 if we count reviving the flowers in Veo Lu Sluice to rise up the river to even get there. I do all 11 of the 14 dungeons in this game.
I chose to play the Yukerace, because he is not only the fastest caster, but his casts are even faster than autoattacks. Not only that, but spells are way more flexible and fusions can offer some great gameplay to beat boss easily. Also, with this race, I skip having to buy equipment, instead I focus on getting good artifacts to gain magic power. Since it's a TAS, I dont have to worry that much about my defense either since I can manipulate rngs all I want.
You choose, after each dungeon, an artifact that will give you permanent bonuses. In my case, I obviously choose the ones helpful for my magician. There is 2 ways to get artifacts: with points, or by dropping them inside the dungeon. The game works on a global timer, so each frame dungeons get a different seed wich affects bonus points conditions and ennemy drops (in the first room). The best way to manipulate what you want is to wait frames before entering a dungeon or a zone. It's also the same strategy I do after beating bosses to get the good set of artifacts I want. You also gain bonus points by killing ennemies and picking up things. It is important to know that my magical power only grow each multiple of 5. So most of the time I try to get to the higher one, with fruits and droppable artifacts. We start with 15, and we will be at the last boss with 75.
Money is also something important in this game, to pay the boat's fee. It costs me a total of 1200 gils, 2200 if I want to do a dialogue skip of 1 second. I got just over 1200 with all the money I dropped, and the items I sold to my merchant dad. I also take some detours here and there to change the element of my cristal, to be able to pass miasma streams.

Stage by stage comments

River Belle Path

New strategy on this first dungeon compared to the precedent run, since I decided to make some time sacrifice to gain more magic power, so I need 119 points. Taking 2 Blizzard Magicite and fusing them, plus the fire magicite for the Firaga spell, makes the boss faster than ever. (Kris (magic+3) is won.

Mushroom Forest

The artifact Silver Bracer (+1) is taken from the chest, and I also pick the regular Fire Magicite from the hell plant. Some strategy occured to me to take time eating a carrot and eating a fruit to gain life and magic respectively to be able to beat the boss faster (and not needing to wait for Mog who's slowing at the end).

Cathuriges Mine

I drop a fire magicite, which is still the best element to deal damage to early bosses of the run. The Mage Masher (+1) is dropped from the troll, and, since we beat the boss faster than ever because of better optimizations and also better magic power. We have to note that in the japanese version, fruit effect lasts longer (and does not stop at a loading zone) so it's useful to beat the troll faster.

Goblin Wall

Here I want 110 points, wich is pretty easy since the boss have many minions. I also take advantage of that by picking up a fruit for later. I take the thunder magicite for damage and stun, and finish the level with the Wonder Wand Artifact (+3).

Tida

I take the bomb's key because it's faster than killing the worm. Also, as long as you have no fire magicite in you inventory, you can manipulate fire magicite to drop from the containers in the second part of the dungeon. Contrarily to the precedent TAS, I only take 2 magicites to make Fira since I did't take another command slot yet. Still, my magic is so high I beat the boss faster. I take the Dragon's Wisker artifact (magic+1).

Moschet Manor

I need 84 points at least to be able to manipulate the needed artifact, Red Slippers (magic+3). In the dungeon, I manipulate the switch to always have the Yuke tribe logo when needed, and since the fruit effet lasts, I don't have to take the bonus artifact in the chest to get to 25 magic. It decays at the 3/4 of the boss tho. Fire magicite is used.

River Belle Path

In cycle 2, every ennemy is way more powerful than before. I need 119 points again to get the Mage's Staff (+5), and I take in my way 2 blizzard magicites and a fruit. Blizzara proves hitself very fast again to beat the Giant Crab.

Selepation Cave

I take the fast thunder magicite here, and go take the artifact Cat's Bell (magic+1) in the chest. I manipulate the bos to always do it's inhaling ability, until he's scripted to jump, and there I fuse Thundaga with Mog. A fruit is eaten for more damage.

Daemon's Court

We need to manipulate the content of the chest to get a blizzard magicite (1/4), then manipulate the position of the 2 golden lizards (1/12), and finally manipulate a mythril from the nearest mace lizardman (1/2). We don't need bonus points because we will get the Chocobo Pocket for 0 point, wich gives our third command slot. Mythril is our main source of money, giving 875 gils when sold to you father.

Goblin Wall

110 points is easily attainable here. The strategy is almost the same as with our first visit, except that we eat a fruit. We are finally awarded the Mage's Staff (+5) for our efforts.

Mushroom Forest

The game developpers put 3 easily accessible Blzzard Magicite in this dungeon. I benefit greatly from that, gaining Blizzaga, and more than easily destroying the Malboro, manipulating it's inhaling attack. The Sage's Staff (+3) is then taken.

Kilanda

A blizzard magicite is manipulated on the first chest. Then, I kill the Coeurl for a second magicite, that I fusion to kill the troll faster. It drops the Noah's Lute (magic+5). I also hit the goblin with the giant sword to open the way to the boss faster.

Lynari Desert

I do all the complex steps of getting the unknown element as fast as possible, including skipping a menuing by making gravity with Mog. As soon as we have the element, we teleport out of the dungeon. No artifact is taken here.

Veo Lu Sluice

Heal a flower, pick a key, run away. Repeat 3 times. I can get 2 fire magicites wich are super effective against the boss. The Blizzard Ring artifact (magic+1) gives you the equivalent of a free magicite of blizzard, wich is useful at the last dungeon.

Mount Vellenge

I need a final amount of 75 magic power. So I drop +9, +9, +5 and +5. I also get 2 other ice magicites, because the wide fusion is very important against the last boss (all that combined have a chance of 1/128 happening, hard rng manipulations were done) You have to wait for meteor parasite to get vulnerable, so I make some shenanigans in between cycles. Raem and Memiroa are manipulated to be as fast as possible.

Other comments

Funny thing is that the any% route and the all dungeons route are the exact same for the 3 first years. So for my next TAS, it'll be technically already started. Concerning the mistakes of the run, I must say that I have very few, and some that are not even mistakes at all. A mistake in Deamon's Court cost me like 5 frames, and I lost some little frames here and there (most notably up to 15 frames in the Mushroom Forest cycle 2) because of RNG.
Japanese was hard to TAS also. I mean, I don't understand Japanese ^^ You know, I'm sorry for all the bad mistakes I can make in english since it's not my native langage, but Japanese is out of my league. I don't even know how I named my character :P To manipulate artifacts and bonus points, I've used the awesome technique of try and retry :3
 

Special thanks

  • Leossier, my best friend, this run is dedicated to him
  • The speedrunning community of FFCC. This game is for their enjoyment after all. It is worth noting the any% record became recently less than 2 hours, congrats to Neviutz!
  • The TAS community, wich is the reason this beautiful video can be made and published for others to see in the first place

ThunderAxe31: Judging.
ThunderAxe31: File replaced with a 228 blank frames trimmed version.
ThunderAxe31: Setting to delayed, in view of a potential improvement.
Nach: A better submission has been made by the author.

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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6207: Wobmiar's GC Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles in 1:40:46.55
Wobmiar
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Please note that some of this text, mostly the game description, is copy pasted from the precedent publication. Sorry if it feels rushed, it's because I put a lot of time doing these comments, and not many things changed from run to run (except the dungeon per dungeon details, wich I edited accordingly). If there's any problem, just tell me :) Also, I was wondering, is it ok if half of the run is reused for the all dungeons category? First 3 years are exactly the same, so... Anyway, encode coming soon :)
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Memory
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Wobmiar wrote:
Also, I was wondering, is it ok if half of the run is reused for the all dungeons category? First 3 years are exactly the same, so...
Makes sense to me, it was your TAS, and no need to redo redundant work.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Wobmiar
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I mean, I take the 3 first years of THIS TAS. So any% and all dungeons will have the same first half :3
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Wobmiar wrote:
I mean, I take the 3 first years of THIS TAS. So any% and all dungeons will have the same first half :3
As long as the input you copy is optimal for both categories, of course. (I remember one time there was a TAS that copied input from a different category, but it wasn't optimal for the new category.)
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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It is optimal ^^ It beats the current all dungeon TAS by like 50 seconds (first 3 years).
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just passing by to say: you're amazing, this game is absurdly complex and yet you did another run of it, great work
TAS i'm interested: megaman series: mmbn1 all chips, mmx3 any% psx glitched fighting games with speed goals in general
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Oh, thank you. I put a lot of time working on it. To be really honest tho, it's not the most complex thing I've work on. When I see all those TAS on GBA, SNES, with things I don't understand like ramwatch, or lua scripts, I'm like "wow". I find TASing really impressive. I do this game without those tools tho, I'm like doing it manually. Per example, I need to play each dungeon each frame I want to manipulate de bonus points. With a script it might be easier, but I'm a super noob. What I like the most in this game is the routing. I work my creativity a lot to think about the fastest way to defeat a boss or to pass trough a dungeon. Oh boy I'm sounding like a narcissic. Sorry, I love to talk about my experience. Thank you again for your nice compliment, it warms my heart. Happy new year everyone :D
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Memory
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Dolphin doesn't even have those tools built into it anyways so it's not uncommon to see TASes made for it without.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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Just to be sure, I need to comfirm that "all dungeons" can be considered as the full-completion definition for this game. Does the game give an award or an acknowledgment if you beat all dungeons? Does it keep track of the dungeons you have beaten during the play? Are there other possible full-completion definitions available for this game? For example, does the game keep track of the side-quests completed? Can you do the side-quests more than one time?
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
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All Dungeons is NOT 100% the game. BUT it is acknowledged by the game by giving you the memories. Ok so Memories are are a "page" in our adventure journal (the crystal chronicles). We gain a specific Memory each time we finish a dungeon for the first time, each time we visit a town for the first time, and each time we advance a story or sidequest (the scenes on the overworld). You can see all memories collected on the pause menu, and read them. There is no achievement, but you still get the specific memories of the dungeons completed. I decided to do All Dungeons because I tough it would be more entertaining to see all dungeons and all bosses from the game. Also, it's a RTA category on speedrun.com. There is many unique things that can be collected. - You can collect all artifacts (each can only be collected one time). It would take 25 years to complete (any% and all dungeons are 5 years). - You can collect all Moogle stamps. There is one in each area except Mount Vellenge (the final dungeon). They would require some useless detours in each place. I say useless because they only unlock memories and a minigame wich can't even be played on Dolphin. - You can collect all Memories (all the sidequests, all the events, all the dungeons, all the moogle stamps). - You can collect all the best weapons and accessories. "Best" is subjective tho, so it's not something simple. We would have to get all classes to get all gears anyway. I think that's it. I plan on doing, after finishing the next all dungeons, a "selkie%". The Selkie class is the prefered class for RTA any%, and it would show off a completely new and original route whith using physical attacks instead of magic. I hope it sounds ok :)
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Thank you for the detailed answers. Indeed, just beating all dungeons can't be considered as full-completion (aka 100%), because there are more kinds of accomplishements that are acknowledged by the game. On the other hand, full-completion doesn't necessarily need to consist in achieving every single thing that can be done only once, as many games can have a lot of secondary stuff isn't much important for the idea of full-completion for the relative game. For example, in most Pokémon games you can beat each opponent trainer only once, so it's a one-time accomplishment, however we don't consider it as part of the full-completion requirements; we only consider catching all Pokémon. This is mostly for two reasons: 1. The game awards the player for catching all Pokémon, not beating all trainers. 2. Catching all Pokémon is the main theme of the series. Now, getting back to FFCC. I don't know if the game does award the player for getting all the memories of the adventure journal, however it seems to me that it can be considered as the main theme of the game, as it's even part of the game title. Do you agree? About the "selkie%" run, it seems a nice idea to me! We already have games with extra branches that feature a different character, and the fact that it would result in a different route helps much. But remember that I can't guarantee beforehand if that would be accepted or not; sometimes the only way to know for sure is to go through the judgment process.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
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Wobmiar wrote:
Oh, thank you. I put a lot of time working on it. To be really honest tho, it's not the most complex thing I've work on. When I see all those TAS on GBA, SNES, with things I don't understand like ramwatch, or lua scripts, I'm like "wow". I find TASing really impressive. I do this game without those tools tho, I'm like doing it manually. Per example, I need to play each dungeon each frame I want to manipulate de bonus points. With a script it might be easier, but I'm a super noob. What I like the most in this game is the routing. I work my creativity a lot to think about the fastest way to defeat a boss or to pass trough a dungeon. Oh boy I'm sounding like a narcissic. Sorry, I love to talk about my experience. Thank you again for your nice compliment, it warms my heart. Happy new year everyone :D
I really love this post. These were exactly my feelings when I started TASing, and I didn't know how to use advanced tools, which always felt very expert to me. Curiosity made me learn them too, which led me to emulator coding, scripting, and game disassembling. But I've never lost those feelings! And I created a page that tries to help preserve and nurture them. http://tasvideos.org/TasingGuide/TASArt.html There's also this incredibly naive post I made years ago, which looks a bit excessive (on top of broken English) to a calm mind, but I was way too amused. Thread #11977: Inspiration on TAS as a form of art
ThunderAxe31 wrote:
Now, getting back to FFCC. I don't know if the game does award the player for getting all the memories of the adventure journal, however it seems to me that it can be considered as the main theme of the game, as it's even part of the game title. Do you agree?
I know nothing about the game, but after Wobmiar's explanations, it does look like "all memories" would be a very good candidate for the full completion category. If there are plans to make such a run, it'd be helpful to define full completion before the run is started, so that the work isn't wasted if there's general disagreement with such a definition and it ends up being rejected for whatever reason. There's no such branch at https://www.speedrun.com/ffcc. Does anyone know if there are talks about 100% goal for this game anywhere?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Wobmiar
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The big problem with "all memories" is that it does not involve much more gameplay. Most of the memories are cinematics and dialogues. It would probably not be entertaining. Also, and I'm not sure, but each year gives one memory. So I think I would need to play a certain (big) number of years. There is no known achievement, at least I think, for having all memories. I don't even know what all memories are, I would have to do some research :3 There is no achievement either for all dungeons too but beating a dungeon for the first time is aknowledged by the game, thus beating all of them once gives you the related memories. So I think it's still a decent category (in my opinion). And yes, memories are the main theme of the game. Memories are even used against the final boss ^^ (tho I don't use them because my magic is so strong). The quiz at the end is also related to the memories.
feos wrote:
There's no such branch at https://www.speedrun.com/ffcc. Does anyone know if there are talks about 100% goal for this game anywhere?
Not that I'm aware of. I talked to a guy who wanted to route a all artifacts, but it's still not really 100%. That would need some talk like you said.
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No one is forced to make such a movie, and it doesn't even have to be entertaining! If we agree it's full completion, once someone makes it, it can be accepted to Vault and serve as a pure speed record aiming to maximize completion in some objective way.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Wobmiar
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I'm so sorry guys I didn't really know how ending movies works, so I left unnecessary frames at the end. Here is the correct file, final time is 1:40:46.55 http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/52513800214644711 I did the same mistake for all dungeons, correcting it. Sorry again
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This is all I see when I try to play it back (dolphin version matches, game hash matches, portable mode): https://i.imgur.com/jV1LJpM.png
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Wobmiar
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This is the option to mmm I don't know the term, but "making the memory card usable". It asks the first time you open the game (either english or japanese) and from this point, after you select yes, it will never ask again (for either version of the game) EDIT: Formatting. That's the word.
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Memory
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Wobmiar wrote:
This is the option to mmm I don't know the term, but "making the memory card usable". It asks the first time you open the game (either english or japanese) and from this point, after you select yes, it will never ask again (for either version of the game)
I think what feos wants to know is if there are any special actions required to make the movie sync in spite of it?
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
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Okay I had to set up a memory card in settings, and when that screen appears, select the upper option twice and hit X key. Extra screen seems to be gone now.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Wobmiar
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You need to select "yes" at that screen, and then the memory card is formatted for every next time you play the game. All playbacks work after clicking yes and reloading the game/movie. EDIT: Yeah that's it :3
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Wobmiar
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So hem hi guys. When I started selkie%, I didn't plan for it to be that fast. Long story short, I think my selkie% run can beat this any% run. Would it be possible to delay this publication and the all dungeons one? Because if Selkie% indeed is the new any%, then the All Dungeon TAS would be different enough to merit publication (maybe). My point is that could change a lot. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience ^^'
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Makes sense to me. Good thing delaying the judgment is really easy.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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om, nom, nom... blech, salty!
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Cancelling because I made an improvement :3
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