Greetings! It seems this game is a haven for French players, as I'm here to present my work, which improves upon the existing one produced by Atomnium (TinQua) by almost 3 minutes (exact time TBD, first input frame 413, last input frame 323973). I've been speedrunning this game for almost a decade, and my experience has given me a number of ideas for additions. I currently hold the world record in this category, finishing the game in 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 25 seconds, and I've previously united WRs on all categories for FFA.
The emulator used for this run is BizHawk 2.11 (the latest version at the time of writing) with the GB BIOS and TAStudio.
To begin, it's important to explain the true nature of the game. Each screen contains enemies positioned according to the frame on which you enter it, as well as the previous actions and their consequences (experience/gold gain, enemy/NPC movements, which can also be manipulated by "provoking" them, approaching them, or hitting them). Therefore, it's certainly impossible to guarantee that the run presented is unbeatable. However, I gave it my all to sacrifice as few frames as possible to run the RAM values that manage the RNG.
What are the notable improvements?
- The two Tigror bosses, who serve as the first two bosses, share the same room and the same health bar, allowing damage dealt during the explosion of the first boss to be transferred to the second.
- Leveling up later in the run, trying to maximize the hits landed/experience ratio, and also trying to favor multi-kills. Late-game enemies inevitably give more experience and some can be one-shotted.
- Taking damage boosts saves a significant number of frames overall (between 10 and 20 depending on the quality of the action).
- Optimal route taken: some paths taken by the current TAS are not optimal, particularly in Kett's and the Dime Tower, first encounter with the Chocobo is avoided.
- Better inventory management: I could have taken a set of mattocks and one or two more crystals, but it's impossible to be certain that this would actually save even more time (the mattock action is faster than the Star's, plus it eliminates the need to switch weapons at certain times).
- Better weapon usage: Underground Volcano enemies have an elemental affinity and are very vulnerable to the Ice Sword, and we take full advantage of this, for example.
- Crossing a flag forces us to leave our Chocobo in the icy zone by using an in-progress movement during a save. Once loaded, the save restarts us at the end of this movement. We can then take it with us into the dungeon, which saves a lot of time and avoids tedious maneuvers here, as the area is extremely dangerous. However, it's sometimes faster to walk certain sections. On the return trip, we disembark the Chocobo at the same spot during a specific movement to avoid a text box.
- Abuse of saves to allow, particularly in Ice Cavern, escaping the conveyor belts. The game does indeed let us move freely for a short time when the game resumes. We can also use them, as in the castle, to prevent a switch from being deactivated.
The challenges?
- This is my very first project outside the world of speedrunning and randomizers. I therefore don't have the experience of a seasoned TASer and may lack knowledge of tools that could simplify my work, although using RAM Watch has been very helpful.
- Length: Choosing a run of about an hour and a half might not have been the best choice for a beginner, but I did it with passion and will definitely rework it.
- The extremely RNG-dependent and uneven nature of the game's mechanics: frame rules that prevent building "blocks" of task execution (leveling up, changing weapons, etc.), sacrifices, making the choice between killing or waiting for a better opportunity is truly a dilemma.
- Some fights are very difficult to optimize; a few of them are better executed in the existing run. The damage dealt is not constant and depends on rules I don't fully understand, but it seems the essential elements are: our movement, the movement of the enemy being hit, the frame on which we attack, and, of course, the charge level of the Will gauge.
Finally, I hope you and anyone else who might be interested enjoy watching. This was something I've been wanting to do for a while, and I'm excited to present this project. I may be working on the "any%" category soon, as some major discoveries have been made recently (Drôle Menu: a sort of debug menu; Key glitch: pressing the item button 256 times with a key equipped can cause wrong warps/sprite fusions, allowing, for example, early chocobo recovery/creating "projectiles" that kill bosses in one hit; and a Credit Warp trigger whose details I don't yet know).
Thank you in advance for your time in reviewing this. I'm available for any questions you may need to ask
