I only saw this submission once it was up on the TASVideos YouTube, but I have a lot to add about its optimization and planning.
The briefest way I can summarize this run is that the planning it used was naive, or at least quite outdated as compared to current RTA strategies. This has a significant impact on the entire course of the run. For comparison, consider the current RTA record in the same category:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SrKeb3AlKU
With a comparable route and further luck abuse I think a more optimized TAS could be about 10-15 minutes faster than this submission. I've listed some specific points for improvement below.
General Comments:
-The recruitment order is fundamentally different in this run from very early on, so it is difficult to directly compare the strategy. However, I believe that the order chosen in this submission is not optimal because of several forced revisits, party composition issues, and some wasted opportunities for multitasking.
-Early-game movement is not optimal. About halfway through, it looks like the author noticed that proper-timed diagonal shifting can save frames over normal non-bounce movement. However, they did not use this in earlier parts of the run and only started appearing about 3 hours in.
-One of the largest and most beneficial bugs is the Kindness underflow, which I believe is completely absent from this run. This is the keystone glitch that is abused in RTA for significantly faster boss fights. In a TAS, this is even more potent since you can manipulate critical hits and significantly cut down on preparation time vs what's done in this submission.
-Another critical bug that is not utilized is the Rune Unite bug, which lets characters piggy-back off of a single Level 4 spell to cast the powerful Unite magic. I don't think this is used a single time over the course of the run, and would stand to significantly speed up boss fights from the midgame onward.
-Speed is seldom utilized in this run. One key component of speeding up boss fights is making sure you can attack before they can. For many characters this isn't practical, but the Spark rune helps with this by matching all following characters turn orders to the Spark user's. I don't think this was utilized anywhere.
-Somewhat related to the prior two points, a special bug for abusing Rune Unites to grant a 30% speed boost is not used. This is a very tricky bug to explain, but it is understood, and is planned for in the current RTA routes. It does require careful control of item and equipment slots.
-Spell animation times are a significant source of time loss throughout the run. The current RTA route heavily optimizes for this, and in fact leans on combining the Kindness underflow with a specific, very fast rune ability to clear out the enemy mobs quite a bit faster.
-Experience routing is a critical element in this game, throughout the entire course of the run. While the author does abuse some power-leveling in the earlier portion, they miss other significant opportunities that would have cut down on the number of battles, and also had benefits in later boss fights with a slimmer character pool.
-Because this route relies heavily on magic for raw damage, there is a huge amount of inventory and character management going on that eats up a lot of time. It could be significantly improved if the strategy were changed.
-Using L or R buttons in War Battles lets you jump between units. In several cases, the author would have saved time from using these instead of manual cursor navigation.
Specific points of improvement, separate from route:
-1st fight in Rakutei Mountain: could have finished the fight sooner by manipulating a counter against the Commander.
-Farming double beats is generally inefficient compared to power-leveling and using the Kindness underflow.
-Picking up the Peeing Boy statues serves an additional purpose for recruiting Gordon, but I still question whether there would have been a better opportunity elsewhere.
-The very first War Battle can end sooner if Solon Zhee is taken out. It requires some mild cooperation and luck from the NPCs though.
-In RTA routes for all categories, the standard is to prepare Jowy to get a power-leveled boost in Sindar Ruins to level ~30. This significantly speeds up the Double Head fight, and reduces time spent in some of the other encounters.
-It is hard for me to imagine the early Matilda Gate being beneficial overall. The Harpy fight is painfully slow, and you have better opportunities to power-level in the region later. The actual strategy of letting the Birdmen carry members away was clever, but still wholly too slow compared to other options.
-Bosses throughout the entire midsection are quite slow. This is from relying on magic, rather than optimized Kindness and Violence strategies.
-Some recruiting order choices are questionable. Again, it's hard to compare the strategies, but for example getting Sid on the return trip from Greenhill is a costly choice for just one additional castle level 2 star.
-There was an instance to save several seconds in Banner Pass with an Escape Talisman on the last screen.
-Ridley War Battle could have gone somewhat better, considering there's fewer things to control and manipulate for.
-The Luca fight was extremely slow, due to relying heavily on magic. There are also new-ish bugs abused in the RTA route that significantly speed up this fight and abuse certain characteristics.
-The author could have skipped the entire Sierra introduction cutscene. This is a new trick as of ~2 years ago, and saves a minute at almost no cost.
-The author does not utilize an Escape Talisman in Tinto Mines after the Golem for the "Zombie Skip." It's estimated to save about a minute.
-The author gets into an extra battle in Greenhill that can be avoided with just movement.
-All battles in the latter half of the game are quite slow, including regular enemy battles, due to not abusing faster spells, rune unites, or Kindness underflow.
-Could have removed Hoi during the Vincent recruitment to remove an additional cutscene in the Castle.
-Could have included Pasmerga in the party instead of upgrading weapons with the Silver Hammer to recruit Gen.
There's plenty more I can say, but with the above comments it should be clear that this run is not optimized, even to the best of current knowledge. This is a very tough game to optimize since there are so many decisions that have impacts throughout the run duration, but I would at least like to see the run be up-to-date with the current best known strategies, glitches, and movement.
One last thing that I'd like to add is that the author should connect with the rest of the speedrunning community for this game if they'd like to improve this submission. As far as I know, despite being credited in the notes, myself and the active portion of the RTA communities were not consulted for this TAS which would have aided its quality and planning significantly. As it stands, it needs a full rework from beginning to end. That said, the few runners of this game have invested years in understanding all the different mechanics, time tradeoffs and otherwise. I'd really love to see what the limits of running this game are, and am happy to provide my knowledge towards that, but this run is not it.