I'm not sure when this change was made, but the platform column is gone on a leaderboard I moderate: https://www.speedrun.com/fffct

There's only one platform to choose from for this game (DS), but I'd still like the platform column to be visible to indicate which runs were performed on emulator. Could this functionality please be restored?

I recently found that the credits of Chocobo Tales vary in length depending on the version of the game: JP takes 9:47, NA takes 11:42 and EU takes 13:14. In light of this, I asked Crrool for his opinion on what should be done about timing in light of this, and I also asked the wider speedrunning community for their input since this isn't a popular speedgame (https://www.speedrun.com/speedrunning/thread/5idsy). Crrool and I shared the opinion that since the credits are purely an autoscroller in Any%, it would be a better reflection of each run if timing were changed from IGT to RTA, ending right before the credits began to roll. I enacted this change today, and all Any% runs will be timed in this way from now on.

Note that for 100% Collection, since the credits are an important gameplay segment in that category, timing remains unchanged. If you want an optimal 100% run, it is suggested that you run on the Japanese version of the game.

The game in question is Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. There isn't much of a community for this game, so I figure I'd pick the brains of the wider speedrunning community.

Up until now, I've been timing runs on the leaderboard by in-game time for any%. The in-game timer is accurate to the second, and the nice thing about this is that I can accept runs that don't have a full video. The DS needs a specialist capture modification to record runs, and this is a niche game, so I like being able to accept runs above 3 hours IGT that just show a short video of their final time. I understand that someone could do a segmented run in this case to reduce their IGT, but it's a trade-off I've been willing to make.

Today, I found out that the credits (which are timed in IGT) vary in length depending on the version of the game: JP takes 9:47, NA takes 11:42 and EU takes 13:14. Unlike most games, the credits in Chocobo Tales are a minigame of their own (you tap the o's in the text to get points), so even though the fastest thing to do in any% is not get enough points to get any prizes, it's technically a gameplay segment.

The only other differences that I know of between versions are text differences between languages, and the inability to get promo cards in the NA version (free cards you can get before the story mode starts so that you don't have to collect as many cards in-game to fill out your deck).

In light of this knowledge, I have a few options:

1. Keep timing any% runs by IGT, and recommend that runners run on the JP version for the fastest time. This preserves the purity of the run at the expense of putting Western runners off unless they import another version.

2. Change any% timing to RTA up to when the game fades to black just before the credits, and remove shoesockgaming's run from the leaderboard since they don't have a video of their complete run. This goes a long way towards equalising different versions, but removes a gameplay segment from timing.

3. Take a fixed amount of time off a runner's final time based on how much time they lost to JP version credits. It feels more "fake" than option 2 to me, but I would be able to keep shoesockgaming's run because I can tell that it was done on the NA version.

I'm not clear at all on which option is the best right now, so I'd appreciate your thoughts!