About the route: If you play in GBA mode, you can buy a Gasha Seed from the Advance Shop, which would be faster than getting the one in D1. It also means that you can plant both Seeds before entering D1 so there's a good chance you don't have to farm kills later on. After getting the Gasha Nut at the farmer's spot you can do another Toilet warp, savewarp and hold up while respawning, which gets you to Yoll Graveyard faster. Savewarping after rescuing Nayru is probably faster than using the harp. There's quite a long cutscene after you defeat Veran that also counts towards the final time so it would be nice if you could call the credits directly. Although I have no idea if that's possible at all and how long it would take. I've uploaded scripts that help determine drops to my userfiles. You should use the ones labeled "(slash)" when you use a swordslash to kill an enemy, and the other ones in any other instance. Hopefully they'll make luck manipulation a bit more enjoyable. Another thing that is going to become important is health management since you don't need to carry a potion around anymore and deathwarps are faster than savewarps on the English version.
I didn't know GBA mode was kosher for a GBC TAS. I'm assuming that a Linked Game TAS would be a different beast entirely? The Red Ring is (supposed to be) earned in Seasons for killing the four golden beasts so it's probably better to assume it's unavailable for an Ages-first arc. The Green Ring might be more beneficial since it can be generated legit in either game, reduces the time spent fighting bosses, and allows for more damage boosting. Not to the same degree as the specialized Red and Blue rings, but the potential is there.
Password Abuse only works in a linked game anyway, which is when the Red Ring would be viable for Ages. For a non-linked game the Green Ring would be viable since it's something you can acquire with sufficient luck manipulation. Each room has a Monster 0; their HP is at address 0000D0A9 and as far as I can see bosses take the Monster 0 spot. I'll post if I find contradictory results. An unboosted Wooden Sword deals 2 HP damage with each hit.
Huh, I'd forgotten that rings were tiered. And now to jump topics again: It's theoretically possible to have the entire trading sequence completed by the time you make the first journey up to Patch's Hideaway, since you can pitwalk to the Old Zora Hermit's cave and you'll have gale seeds by that point anyway, mitigating some of the backtrackery. However, it may be entirely possible that Patch won't recognize that you have the broken sword until you've returned the repaired Tuni Nut. I'll test this and report results. EDIT: It may be unnecessary, as the Expert Ring's punch deals 4 damage anyway.
The Tasty Meat and everything after the moustache is out of the way enough for it to be worth skipping, yeah, but there's a couple of disadvantages to using the Expert's Ring that may make a difference entertainment-wise: range and compatability. The Sword gives you the range to attack at an earlier frame, and can be used in conjunction with other items/rings. The Expert Ring can (as far as I know) only be used when nothing is equipped to the buttons and by nature precludes wearing other rings - and since items get used a lot more in Ages than in Seasons, that could mean a lot of menu-switchingIn short, I agree with you, I just don't like that fact that I do. Still, getting the Noble Sword hinges on whether or not Patch accepts that you have the Broken Sword before L4 is opened up, so it may be a moot argument either way we go. EDIT: Scent Seeds. Is there a way to get them before L6 without planting the Scent Seedling? If there is, it's faster to get the Scent Seed Key in Present Mermaid's Cave than the Switch Hook key by several room transitions and an item switch.
EDIT2: Never mind, I was using an interim build instead of the official release. Doy.
EDIT3: And as it turns out, Bizhawk's Ram Watch and VBA-RR's Ram Watch show different values for the addresses I gave earlier, so it's back to the salt mines for me. At least I have a workable test case for finding Monster 0 HP ^^;....You need to have at least two tiles of walkable space at both the entry point and the exit point, otherwise you'll just fall into a pit. The reason is that you're switching back and forth between tiles as you pitwalk, which makes the game try to pull you into the other pit. If there's an obstruction to where there's a pit of width 1 you can't fool the game into trying to pull you into the other pit because there is no other pit. EDIT: I'm a complete newbie at setting up Bizhawk; when I tried to play back that file I got this:
