This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2838: knbnitkr's SNES Romancing SaGa 2 in 1:08:30.85

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This is already Recorded a year ago Unable to improve it? Wait a long time But I vote Yes

This one has been sitting for quite some time so I would like to see it judged soon. Feedback on this has been scarce. One of the few comments in the thread suggests that this is one of the most boring runs ever created. Not a glowing review, yet 91% of you have voted yes! If you are one of the people that voted yes can you please make a post to explain why you voted this way, or if you do not want to post publicly you can PM me instead. Also, knbnitkr, if you are reading this can you please finish your submission text? Especially information about the glitches used. Whatever information you can provide would be great.

This one has been sitting for quite some time so I would like to see it judged soon. Feedback on this has been scarce. One of the few comments in the thread suggests that this is one of the most boring runs ever created. Not a glowing review, yet 91% of you have voted yes! If you are one of the people that voted yes can you please make a post to explain why you voted this way, or if you do not want to post publicly you can PM me instead. Also, knbnitkr, if you are reading this can you please finish your submission text? Especially information about the glitches used. Whatever information you can provide would be great.

I’m one of the people voted yes. Because of the number of viewer here, I thought it’s unnecessary to explain. Many other TASes are mirror-uploaded on the site, but the most of them have fewer viewers. Also I was lazy to post comment because English is not my mother tongue. This game was released only in Japan, so the number of comments is small. But it was presented by square, which was famous for Final Fantasy series. In fact this game is very popular in Japan. RS(Romancing Saga) series is famous for its free scenario system. In these games you can go everywhere you like, make anyone take part in the party. It’s very difficult to decide route and strategy. I think this is one of the most difficult games for TASing. Besides that, RS2 is the most challenging and interesting game. The game system is so complicated that I can’t explain enough. When you touch an enemy, a battle takes place. It’s very difficult to avoid encounter. I even laughed seeing the character running through a floor. Plus luck manipulation, these are possible on TAS. They can’t be done on normal play. So the technical quality is enough. I personally enjoyed enough. Maybe I should make subtitles but my English is poor and I’m busy.

Thanks for the encode, Velitha. My vote would be meh to no on this one. I am abstaining from voting, however, because I think my vote is heavily biased by not being familiar with the game. About half of the movie is spent sitting in one spot repeatedly running from enemies (which is boring as all get out), but due to my lack of knowledge of the game/ability to read Japanese, I can't understand why the author did that (i.e. you have to fight x number of battles to move on and ruinning is the fastest way to end the battle, author is setting up a glitch, running away raises your agility skill or something so the bosses later can be defeated faster).

I found this boring and stale. It seemed to just be running away every couple of seconds, and the fact it was Japanese didn't help matters. Thanks for encoding Velitha.

I think that this deserves to be published. This run reminds me of all the other RPG TASes that we have, plus more with these glitches. It stands out with all the other interesting fetures that the game already brings with. I think that this run is an acceptional lenth for this game and it doesnt seem like it drags on. In short, I vote Yes. However, I'd recommend that you make translated subtitles for this movie like you did for Lagrange Point. Also, Velitha...You put the wrong captions. This isnt Mike Tyson's Punchout. :P

Also, Velitha...You put the wrong captions. This isnt Mike Tyson's Punchout. :P

Phil secretly made this movie. knbinitkr is his double. XD

After spending a few days playing through this game, watching the run and reading various sources I've decided to accept this submission. Some of you disliked this run so I'll explain why I am accepting it. I will also try and explain some of the important aspects of this run (as best I can, in spite of being unable to read Japanese). It is generally understood that TASes of RPGs are given some leniency in regards to their entertainment requirement. I agree with this as RPG runs tend not to have inherent qualities that make them entertaining to the lay viewer (Chrono Trigger being a notable exception). They can have many qualities that make them incredibly entertaining to those familiar with them, but some are still uninteresting tool-assisted. Getting the balance right here is important. RPGs are not completely exempt from entertainment and we must strive to publish material that maintains our high standards. With this in mind I am generally looking for an RPG run to represent three qualities to some degree: 1) Most importantly, an RPG run should demonstrate proficiency with skills common to good RPG runs i.e. the author should have to deal with luck manipulation and the author should have put considerable effort into battle strategy and route planning. This should be fulfilled in a comparatively surprising/entertaining way. 2) The game itself should not be manifestly unsuitable for TASing i.e. the visuals should not be ugly, the music should not be irritating, and the game must not be of unreasonable length. 3) Finally, there should be enthusiasm about the run and there should be many viewers that can appreciate the submission. Otherwise, there would be little point in granting the leniency to the run in the first place. This run scores big points on 1). The game seems tailored to make speedrunning difficult. The author runs away from many battles, which confused some of you. When you run from a battle in this game you keep the money that you would have won from the battle, but don't get the experience points. Furthermore, the enemies level up depending on how many battles you have fought, which means that if you run from a battle the enemies are levelling up faster than the player. The author runs a lot but is able to get the balance right and the game is still beatable. This was interesting to watch. Also, when you run outside of battles the game hides the enemies from you in an attempt to cause more encounters and ultimately slow you down. This was another interesting quirk that the author dealt with well. There was also some impressive glitches towards the end. The game also has a completely non-linear storyline and you can beat the seven heroes in any order that you wish, which provided interesting route possibilities. On point 2) this was pretty standard. The music was good, visuals acceptable and the run's length was quite short comparative to other SNES RPGs. On point 3) this run is relatively unknown to Western gamers, but it is my understanding that this game is big in Japan and our large, but quiet, Japanese contingent seem to be quite enthusiastic about this one. For these reasons, I believe that this submission makes the grade.

This run scores big points on 1). The game seems tailored to make speedrunning difficult. The author runs away from many battles, which confused some of you. When you run from a battle in this game you keep the money that you would have won from the battle, but don't get the experience points. Furthermore, the enemies level up depending on how many battles you have fought, which means that if you run from a battle the enemies are levelling up faster than the player. The author runs a lot but is able to get the balance right and the game is still beatable. This was interesting to watch. Also, when you run outside of battles the game hides the enemies from you in an attempt to cause more encounters and ultimately slow you down. This was another interesting quirk that the author dealt with well. There was also some impressive glitches towards the end. The game also has a completely non-linear storyline and you can beat the seven heroes in any order that you wish, which provided interesting route possibilities.

Thanks for clarifying the running stuff. Still not sure I'd vote for this run, but at least I appreciate it a little more.

Also, Velitha...You put the wrong captions. This isnt Mike Tyson's Punchout. :P

Phil secretly made this movie. knbinitkr is his double. XD

Ugh, notepad++ refused to save my subs :/ Redumping, re-encodeing, hunting for screenshot, and I'll publish it Edit: Got a bad dump and x264 crashes at the end, I'm gonna have to wait about 2 more days for a good encode (unless somebody else wants to handle this, just don't use my encode due to wrong subtitles)

This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1646] SNES Romancing SaGa 2 by knbnitkr in 1:08:30.85

I really wish someone would elaborate on the glitch towards the end. It seems to visibly look glitchy around 1:06:38 (The grass on the right shifts positions or something really fast) and eventually leads to what looks like a debug menu.. Reminds me of the Earthbound glitch run where the TASer glitches into a debug menu and goes to the last scene that can trigger the credits.