• Emulator: snes9x 1.43+ improvement 9
    • Use WIP1 Timing
    • Allow Left+Right / Up+Down
    • Volume Envelope Height Reading
  • ROM: Final Fantasy III (U) (1.1)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors
Credits
  • Flagitious
    • Muddle/77B, this resulted in major changes to my run. Who/when to teach certain spells to, but ultimately, skipping Gogo.
    • The Warp Stone inside Vector.
    • Teaching me how to rig the Slots since I was too lazy/dumb to read/understand the Slot Guide by Master ZED.
    • Pointing out any mistakes I may have made and making suggestions to improve time in certain areas.
    • Pre-emptive values for the Floating Continent (it works different to the rest of the game).
    • Values used to block attacks. Also, attack values for Leo's X-Fight. Such a simple battle required a lot of work.
    • Managing the steps to encounter Gau in 2 steps on the Veldt (WOR).
    • Hex-editing any desyncs I had.
  • Imzogelmo
    • Testing out the Lete River thing, which ensured I only got the minimum number of battles for that part.
    • Values for the fish to appear on the beach while saving Cid.
    • How the pre-emptive attacks work and the values you provided. It has saved me a lot of time from going through trial and error.
  • Novalia Spirit
    • I think you deserve maximum thanks, your run (although so short) was what inspired me to give my 110.1% at this run.
    • Critical hits, Desperation attack values and how to manipulate pre-emptives.
    • Your 100+ Bugs Topic. Walking through the soldier (so-called "Kutan bug"), Smoke Bomb vs Kefka at the gate, 'Verdant Respite' bug, and many others I forget.
    • Pretty much everything up to the Magitek Factory sort of came from you. Skipping all treasures (except getting an Earrings or two), steal Magicite, etc.
    • Mag Roader Guide, it helped manage AP and getting the quickest time past that sequence.
  • Catastrophe
    • Your run was what really opened my mind. Think the run on SDA, with perfect movement and perfect dialog advancing. That was it, until I saw your run.
    • Many ideas we discussed together all those times.
  • Nitrodon
    • For information on how the beach and the fish worked.
    • Saving me time from testing things out on the Floating Continent.
    • Tier 1, values to abort Shock Waves upon their death.
    • Monster packs on the Floating Continent.
  • FAQ Writers
    • Master ZED's Monster Stats Guide and Slot Guide. Terii Senshi's Algorithms FAQ and enemy script data (although your Charm Bangle info is partly wrong), and assassin17's (?) Randomosity Guide.
  • DeHackEd, Karetaker and Upthorn
    • Both for making side-by-side .avi's of the WIPs, Upthorn for teaching me how to hex and DeHackEd for helping me submit this run!
Synopsis
  • Config
    • Battle Mode: Wait
    • Battle Speed: 6 (does not affect allies)
    • Command Set: Short
    • Cursor: Memory
    • Background: 4 (nice timber feeling)
  • Narshe
    • First battle I made Vicks/Wedge escape so Terra gets EXP.
    • Avoided the tile in the centre to avoid 2 fights.
    • Fought random battle (before Whelk) for EXP.
    • Whelk: I enter menus when animations are playing, so the Shell's ATB does not increase. It does not enter it's shell nor does it get a second attack.
    • I fought the 2 battles with a lone Terra for EXP. I'm LV5 so Locke will join LV7.
    • Marshal: Took off the Mithril Pike/Shield for later use.
  • Figaro Castle/South Figaro
    • Silly me to have let a Tek Laser go off.
    • Fought all random battles in the cave for EXP.
    • Bought 3 Sprint Shoes, and I equipped a pair on Terra.
    • Didn't take a chocobo, though I think it might be worth it.
  • Mt. Koltz
    • Fought 3 battles along the way, I leveled up enough so that Sabin joins at LV10, instead of LV9.
    • Riot Blade is done before Gale Cut, I havn't tested but from the naked eye, Gale Cute seems longer than Doom Fist.
  • Returner's Hideout/Lete River
    • I grabbed the Fenix Down (for GhostTrain) not realizing that I would get an Elixir later on from TunnelArmr. Not a huge loss though.
    • A counter increases while inside the Hideout(and various other zones in the game). If this counter is 25 or 26 as I jump on the raft, I will only encounter 2 battles(the minimum). My waiting around inside the Hideout saves more time than fighting the extra battles.
    • I talked to Banon, and went to grab my Genji Glove to save the "Received Genji Glove!" dialog later on.
    • Trapping the NPC increases the counter more quickly.
    • I stepped on the save point before talking to Edgar to avoid dialog later while on the raft.
    • Bought 11 Echo Screens. Much later I discovered I needed more, but hex editing caused a nearly unlimited chain of desyncs. Thank you Upthorn for teaching me how to hex-edit.
  • Lete River
    • I fought the battles for EXP so Celes joins at LV9.
    • Ultros always targets Terra with its first Tentacle so I had no choice but to use Riot Blade, otherwise I would have used TigerBreak.
  • Locke's Scenario
    • Thanks to Novalia's discovery, I grabbed Celes from going around the back.
    • I went out of my way to get the Earrings which I believe proves too useful.
    • I grabbed all 3 chests for a total of 3000GP. I think I'll ignore them next time.
    • I encountered a formation with Rhodox in the forest. Silly me for not mapping out random encounters (what I'd fight and where I'd fight them) earlier.
    • Thunder Rod is too out-of-the-way. I thought of using Locke's Mirager but I thought I'd show as many Desperation Attacks as I could during this run.
  • Banon's Scenario
    • If you're playing the .smv with a 1.0 ROM, then this is where you will desync.
  • Sabin's Scenario
    • Shadow is a nuisance.
    • The Templar/Soldier battle with Sabin can be improved.
    • Cyan's battle with Leader can be improved. I don't know what I was thinking when I did that battle.
    • One of the battles with an uncontrollable Cyan can be improved.
    • Grabbed another Earrings on the train.
    • Elixir's animation is quicker than Fenix Down's (vs. GhostTrain).
    • Not what I was expecting but it could've been much worse: running into Rhodox. In a future run, I'd like to optimize this.
    • The Rhodox formation I used prevents Gau from returning from that particular battle so I had to Leap into it, and not return from it.
    • The last battle in the trench, I couldn't manipulate a pre-emptive for that battle. I lost 100 frames to fight that battle as opposed to escaping.
  • Zozo
    • I took Edgar and Sabin to Zozo, they just seemed the most all-rounded characters. I was considering Locke to steal a Sneak Ring but he's too weak.
    • Catastrophe suggested a very good idea, to bring Cyan alone to Zozo. It would save running away time and he may just be powerful enough to take down Dadaluma. Two Earrings, Retort and Back Blade to give an idea of how.
    • Only took Stray and the mandatory Ramuh.
  • Opera House
    • I got lucky with the first 2-3 corners with the rats. I needed to use the menu to change the course of the other rats.
    • I also wanted to take Ultros out in 1 hit but I wasted some frames for doing it. I'll bash him beforehand and finish off with a Desperation Attack next time.
  • Vector
    • Bought Warp Stones and Smoke Bombs here (forgot how many exactly).
    • Stole a Magicite from a Flan (a battle I couldn't avoid anyway).
    • Ignored the Ifrit Magicite.
    • Stole a Flash for the Minecart sequence.
    • Used the Magicite with a to-be muddled Celes to cast Phantom on the boss, and finish it off with Snare. I'll know better than to steal a Rune Edge next time (read Banquet section).
    • Good thing about Snare is that it aborts all counter-attacks and it removes the death animation.
    • Stray is equipped onto Locke to learn Muddle, and Phantom onto Gau to learn Vanish.
    • Number 128 is immune to Clear otherwise I would've used the same strategy as the previous boss battle.
    • Stole the Debilitator from the Crane for a later event.
    • Locke learns Muddle for a later event.
  • Cave to the Sealed Gate
    • In the room with the moving bridges, I manage to get into a battle as the bridges change, once I'm out of the battle, the bridges change immediately. This saves 3-4 seconds of waiting for the bridge to re-shift. And a battle a few steps later. Thanks flagitious for suggesting it and working it out.
    • Thanks again to Novalia, for discovering that Warp Stones/Smoke Bombs works against Kefka.
  • Banquet
    • Talked to 23 soldiers and later only ask 2 of 3 questions. I grab the Gale Hairpin, also I should have grabbed the Back Guard and avoid stealing the Rune Edge earlier on.
    • Initially, I had planned to talk to 21 soldiers and ask 3 questions, but thanks to Flagitious who suggested the plan I used.
    • Manipulated all 3 Commandos to drop Tents to sell later.
    • Equipped Terra with Phantom and then used a Warp Stone. Thank you Flagitious for discovering the trick.
  • Thamasa/Esper Gathering Place
    • Sold stuff, and bought 3 Ice Rods and 7 Fire Rods.
    • Locke's Muddle comes to use. Muddle/Phantom/SabreSoul to avoid the cutscene with Relm and Ultros.
  • IAF & Floating Continent
    • Taking Celes saves a 5 second dialog box later on. Thanks flagitious.
    • Celes learns Muddle on the last of the 6 fights against the IAF.
    • Since Gau can't attack allies, I had to rely on Ultros to hit my Setzer. I should have turned Battle Speed to 1, and change it back afterwards, it would have saved some time. Suggestion by flagitious.
    • Gau learns Vanish after the Air Force battle.
    • Equipped Celes with Phantom and Setzer with Stray.
    • I fight a random battle to gain AP. I never imagined I'd run into a forth Naughty, if I had known then I would have prepared for it and fought that instead.
    • "The airship's below! > Jump! Wait". I hate doing this, but I had to this time around.
  • Solitary Island
    • This area was brought to you by Imzogelmo and Nitrodon.
  • Nikeah/Figaro Castle
    • Bought a Gaia Gear for later events.
    • Lost a few frames due to NPC blocking.
    • I attempted the Tentacles battle without casting Phantom but it turned out impossible. I want to think that there is another quicker strategy to this battle, but I can't think of anything yet.
  • Daryl's Tomb and Narshe
    • After I hit the second switch, I'm supposed to use a Warp Stone(which explains why I have 1 Warp Stone remaining when I finish the game), but when I encountered the battle on the Veldt to retreive Gau, it's a battle formation where Gau can't return, so I had to fight an extra battle inside the tomb to change that. The mistake isn't visible, but it's there. Thank you Nitrodon and Flagitious for working out the whole problem for me.
    • Related to above. I unequipped the Charm Bangle from Edgar at that moment so I would encounter the battle on the Veldt in 2 steps.
    • Celes learns Vanish against the Dullahan.
    • I optimized Celes (to equip the Gaia Gear) as I equipped the Charm Bangle on Gau before entering Narshe.
  • Kefka's Tower
    • The minimum number of times to switch teams is 10 (within the current situation) and I managed to do it (didn't think I could at first).
    • Teams are Celes+Mog, solo Gau and Setzer+Edgar.
    • I've heard suggestions that Setzer should solo Kefka's Tower. This is impossible. Inferno's and Poltrgeist's speed are too great to act twice before they slaughter him.
    • Setzer learns Float, and casts it on him and his teammate.
    • Equipped the Aura Lance on Mog. No reason to, I just thought the +2 Speed would help(but it didn't really make a difference).
  • Final Battle
    • Tier 1: It never gets to move, apart from its counterattack upon death. The delay in the menu with Gau aborts all Shock Waves. Thanks Nitrodon for helping me with that. Here lies the only death of the game. RIP Gau.
    • Tier 2: 3 of the 4 targets seemed to have a preset pre-emptive against me, so I had no choice but to wait out those attacks. I couldn't have Haste or Imp be casted by Magic instead of Haste 2 because that attack ultimately depends on what happened on the previous tier, and I believe it was impossible or not worth waiting to manipulate. The brief running manipulated the game to make all 10 hits avoid Setzer and to abort W Wind/Merton on the next tier. I could get Imp to be used but it would be on either Celes or Setzer.
    • Tier 3: Moved Remedy to the top of the Item List for the next battle.
    • Kefka: I was originally going to use an Elixir to heal Setzer, and go along with Muddle/Hit/77B (I didn't know any better) but thanks to Flagitious for explaining to me how the Slots worked (thanks to Master ZED), I figured out to use the Remedy.
This run is definitely improvable, if anybody is interested. I won't be running this game to correct my mistakes unless something major is discovered. I'm not sure if 5 minutes and 53 seconds can be saved from this using the same route though.

Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
SGreenwell wrote:
My copy keeps de-syncing shortly after Locke and Terra escape Narshe, but before they make it into Figaro Castle. I've tried the pre-loaded movie settings, and GoodSNES tells me I'm using v1.1 of FF3. I've also tried fiddling with a few options here and there; anyone else have this problem besides me and have a fix for it?
Same thing happend to me when I was using FF3 V1.0 rom. I just switched to 1.1 and it worked fine. I suppose this is not helping at all though. Cheers! :)
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 22
I upgraded my SNES; apparently, I only have the v7 improvement. Who knew it made such a difference ;) Works fine now. After reviewing the movie, it's amazing work. My only question: why did you bring Gau and Setzer to the Sealed Cave? Does the game make you take three people at this point? Between that segment on the airship and the end of the Sealed Cave, there are no fights, since you can run from them all. You don't fight again until during the Imperial recruitment, which arguably you don't need to do, since I don't think you use the Charm Bangle. If you did, sorry I missed it, since I was watching in fast forward.
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
I took Gau to gain AP from the Mega Armor for the Vanish spell while talking to the soldiers. Setzer was for Joker Doom against the Sp Forces.
Player (209)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
I finally watched the run! I liked your strategies for all the battles. They seem to be pretty optimized. The use of the Phantom esper making your party invisible to avoid hits was very smart. The playing around with the cursor to "randomly" select which character should die in waiting parts like before using a desperation attack was also a nice idea to increase the entertainment a bit. It was surprising to see how fast you managed to pass the WOR compared to WOB, just awesome! The overall playing was also extremely well optimized and you even skipped each text dialog on the first possible frame which makes this run high qualitative. So without a doubt YES vote! One thing I wonder though: In Lockes scenario you take a detour for a Earring. But in around frame 317000 on the way to the hidden chocobo hut where you pass the house of which a colloseum gets build in WOR you could get a Hero Ring from a pot which is done very fast. I think this detour would be faster than to get a earring in Lockes scenario and if I'm not wrong a hero ring has the same effect on magic power as one earring but it increases the attack power as well which could be even more useful in some battles. Have you missed that or is there still a reason for not taking this powerful relic and replace one earring?
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [549] SNES Final Fantasy VI by erokky in 4:05:52.87
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
What's the deal with Rhodox? Why do you talk about them so much in the submission?
Active player (282)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The Rhodox rage uses Snare. Vanish + Snare (like Vanish/Doom, Vanish/X-Zone, Vanish/SabreSoul, etc.) can instantly kill any enemy without Clear immunity.
Joined: 6/8/2005
Posts: 236
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
I just checked out the workbench and found a FFIII video. Awesome! I watched it and I was going to post, but looked up at where the thread was and it said Published Movies... hmm, apparently it was published while I was watching it :) I'm no expert on TAS, I watch them merely for entertainment value. Having played FFIII for hours on end, this was certainly an enjoyable watch. Knowing the story of the game definitely adds flavor to the TAS, so if you haven't played the game before you probably won't recieve the same level of entertainment. (that probably goes for all the RPGs and a few other games) There were some things done in this video that I never even really knew about. Like Vanish+Snare, that was cool. And the sketch bug wasn't used this run. But you probably didn't need it anyway. On an unrelated note, the song in the FFIII soundtrack from Zophar called "Celes" really grabs me. The soundtrack to this game is by far my favorite of all the ones available there. (Chrono Trigger and Star Ocean are really good too.)
Post subject: For more information
Joined: 2/20/2006
Posts: 5
I can see how this could be boring or confusing if you haven't played the game. Even if you have played the game, it can still be confusing. For maximum enjoyment, you might want to read a FAQ on speedrunning FF3. The "6:30" walkthrough on GameFAQs isn't too bad and introduces many of the concepts. Here are a couple of simple things that might help those viewing the game: When a playable character gets down to a very low number of hit points (10% or lower of max HP), and is commanded to "Fight", there is a small chance the character will perform a "desperation attack" instead of a normal attack. The desperation attack is about 25X the power of a normal attack. You will see this often in the game -- Erokky gets one character down to 10 HP or so (by having the other players attack that character, etc.), then manipulates luck to make that player perform a desperation move. Very cool, especially since you can often get through the whole game without seeing a single desperation attack, especially if you're like me and always heal characters that go below 25% max HP. Relics have various effects on the characters, and those are used carefully by Erokky. If somebody in the party is wearing Sprint Shoes, the player moves about 2X as fast, so Erokky almost always has somebody in the party wearing them. Earrings increase the damage of magic attacks, and wearing more than one Earring increases the effect. The charm bangle decreases the frequency of random encounters somewhat. The Moogle charm (usable only by Mog) completely avoids random encounters. There are several "Instant Death" spells in the game. Snare, Doom, and X-Zone come to mind. If one of these spells hits, the target instantly dies. As you might expect, many bosses and higher-level monsters are hard or impossible to hit with these spells. There is a glitch in the system, though. If a monster has the "invisible" status, magic attacks always hit. So a cheap way to kill a monster is to make it invisible, then cast an instant-death spell on it. You can cast "Vanish" on most enemies to make them invisible. You can also tell somebody to summon the Phantom esper, then Muddle that character, with the result that Phantom might make your enemies invisible instead of your allies. The Vanish + (spell) combo is also used for attacks that aren't normal spells. Gau and Mog can be told to "Rage" and "Dance", which means they go into an uncontrollable state and start performing various attacks at "random" (of course, there's no such thing as "random", esp. for a TAS). Both of them have Rage/Dance moves that cast "Snare", which is instant-death if it connects. So you'll see some moves where Snare seems to come out of nowhere (it came from a Rage or Dance command). On tough enemies, you'll see a Vanish command given first to make sure the Snare connects. Setzer has a nifty Slot Machine attack which is the most powerful attack in the game. If the slots come up 7-7-7, you get Joker Doom, which is instant death to all enemies (and it always hits). Of course, it is a gamble: if the slots come up 7-7-Bar, you get reverse Joker Doom, which is instant death to all allies. Of course, the slots are rigged, so you have to "be lucky" to get the 7-7-7 combo to come up. The random number generator that affects slots starts at 0 for every fight. If the random number generator is in the wrong state, it won't let you get 7-7-7. Different events in the fight change it by different amounts. One easy way to get the random number generator to a state that allows 7-7-7 to come up is to use an Echo Screen item. On some boss battles, it is completely impossible to get a 7-7-7. Fortunately, 7-7-Bar is always possible. If Setzer is muddled and gets a 7-7-Bar (death to all allies), there is a chance that he will accidentally reverse the attack to make it reverse-reverse Joker Doom.
Post subject: Re: For more information
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
dcook, that was an awesome explanation. Thank you.
Joined: 12/15/2005
Posts: 38
This was an awesome RPG TAS.....easily up there in quality with the Dragon Quest ones. Thanks for the great movie!
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
Thank you for the positive replies. And thank you dcook for a great explanation with things.
Player (209)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Hmm.. someone must be blind I guess:
Saturn wrote:
One thing I wonder though: In Lockes scenario you take a detour for a Earring. But in around frame 317000 on the way to the hidden chocobo hut where you pass the house of which a colloseum gets build in WOR you could get a Hero Ring from a pot which is done very fast. I think this detour would be faster than to get a earring in Lockes scenario and if I'm not wrong a hero ring has the same effect on magic power as one earring but it increases the attack power as well which could be even more useful in some battles. Have you missed that or is there still a reason for not taking this powerful relic and replace one earring?
Still wondering... And thanks dcook for the nice explanation.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Emulator Coder
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 563
Location: Toronto, Ontario
wow. definite yes ;) This run beats the pants off of my personal best of 18h32m :P
Active player (410)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
Zurreco wrote:
It also wrenched my heart to see you walk away from some of that Magicite.
Yes but we were able to see a minor bug that makes the left magicite to shine when Maduin's magicite is shining. Erokky: Did you considered talking to Kefka instead of waiting where you must talk to 23 Empire's soldier at Emperor's meeting event? It would make the loooooooooong minute less boring.
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
Phil: I did while bearing in mind there would be a loss of 80 frames due to screen transitions, but it would definitely be less boring. I think if I ever do another run, I'll play around with that final Commando inside the battle.
Joined: 3/10/2006
Posts: 347
Location: Maryland, United States
Just watched it. Blew me away by how fast you were going through the game, especially the wor. I was shocked when you entered Kefka's tower with out leveling up. I was also surprised that joker doom worked on Kefka. Can someone tell me why the guy who did the speed run in speed demos archive didn't do the same trick on Kefka?
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
My assumption is, that player wasn't aware of the trick.
Joined: 7/2/2005
Posts: 31
Location: Charlotte, NC
Does anyone have any idea why it keeps giving me different names? I kept wondering why I couldn't find it on my computer after downloading it several times, and it turns out the torrent was giving it to me as the correct file, with different names of other speedruns from the site - arkanoid, bubble bobble, boulderdash, then it finally put the correct nam eon it...and then i suddenly find four copies of a 4-hour .avi file in my speedruns folder >.<
YtterbiJum, on SMB3: I've tried 20+ times and it always desyncs there. Unless, of course, Genisto meant to die, use a star on the map screen, go in a pipe, and jump around till time runs out.
Joined: 3/10/2006
Posts: 347
Location: Maryland, United States
erokky wrote:
My assumption is, that player wasn't aware of the trick.
Yeah, he knew about it because he used it on other bosses. The last boss he used it on was Poltergeist.
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
Okay then. My next assumption would make more sense: since that particular player wasn't aware of 7-7-Bar, the counter to manipulate 7-7-7 would not have changed throughout the course of the 3 tiers EXCEPT, attacks like Atomic Ray and GravBomb change that counter and would make it impossible for an ordinary person determine when to go for 7-7-7. The thing with Echo Screen is that if the battle starts with the counter at 0, then Echo Screen will make it the perfect number in order to execute 7-7-7. There are some formations where 7-7-7 is impossible though. Some examples include the 3 tiers, Ultros/Chupon, Guardian(at Vector). If you want to know more, check out Master ZED's brilliant guide to Slots he has made. http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com/GameDocs/slotfaq.html
Joined: 3/10/2006
Posts: 347
Location: Maryland, United States
Oh, ok. I didn't realize the counter could change throughout the course of the 3 tiers. So he likely wouldn't be able to get the 3 sevens by using an echo screen like he did with the other bosses.
Joined: 1/1/2022
Posts: 1716
Longtime viewer/reader first time poster. First of all, nice. Very nice. Loved the run, but hated to see Shadow left on the floating continent… Best character ever. Anyway, you probably already know this, but you can do any blitz at anytime. So, why did you only use pummel and aura bolt? Is the added damage not worth the extra few frames? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, I don't know much about the physics of the FF series.
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
You must be mistaken. Sabin is LV10 and only has access to Pummel, Aurabolt and Suplex.
Joined: 12/16/2005
Posts: 69
That was awesome :)