I have been playing this game for many years and I have noticed some strange things. Why can I never beat my time? Am I having bad RNG? or is it the emulator itself?

The run I did some years ago I was using another version of the ePSXe emulator, when I switched I realized some strange things that I will show you now. Remembering that I have already done in the guide https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove_2/guide/v4sj0 showing only the music times in the training part and gave an update analyzing the times in the middle of the gameplay.

With a deep analysis I used some runs as a base and played several versions of emulators and caught several RNGs and also I was wondering why the other runners can not beat the WR being that he got the same RNG of the record holder.

After playing so much I decided to share these loadings tests of some emulators/old versions. Maybe these can't be the same loadings as your emulator because of my configuration, but it is interesting to know that the comparisons are quite different. #Emulator settings EMU ePSXe X.Y.Z and more emulators and consoles - PS1 settings

Analyzed Runs: RNG 1 WR:

RNG 2:

RNG 3:

RNG 4:

Console/Emulators - Times

In some versions the music has delays, which makes it difficult to do the commands and has a lot of delay. So I will discard some versions.

ePSXe v1.5.2 - 0:06.900 (music without syncrony)
ePSXe v1.6.0 - 0:07.250 (music without syncrony)
pSXfin v1.13 - 0:08.050
ePSXe v1.7.0 - 0:08.100
PSXjin v2.0.2 - 0:08.350
ePSXe v1.9.25 - 0:08.400
ePSXe v1.9.0 - 0:08.750
ePSXe v1.8.0 - 0:08.800
Duckstation - 0:09.550
ePSXe v2.0.0 - 0:10.250
ePSXe v2.0.5 - 0:10.250

PS1 console - ?
PS2 console - ?
ePSXe v1.0.1 - No read disc
ePSXe v1.2.0 - No read disc
ePSXe v1.5.0 - bad (music without syncrony)

Videos: Bust a Groove 2 - Loadings comparison (PS1 emulators) #1

Bust a Groove 2 - Loadings comparison (PS1 emulators) #2

Bust a Groove 2 - Loadings comparison (PS1 emulators) #3

I also noticed a certain delay when you finish a song, when the option "You Win!" appears in which the character has an animation you wait for more time, I don't know if this depends on the character, but I noticed this delay analyzing the first place run with mine. And I realized that this is not only in the beginning, but in all the phase selections there is this delay when the music starts and that is why I can't beat my time.

I selected a frame before the loading screen appeared as shown in the images:

Bust a Groove 2 - Loadings comparison (Full run) #4 *Any% - ( Emulator ) in 24m 21s by lokisanchez - 1st place - https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove_2/run/ydw91pvm *

BAG2 - 24:53 WR [EMU ePSXe 2.0.0] -

#Animations 06/Dec/2022

I did another analysis regarding the animations the characters do when they win. This will vary depending on which emulator/console you are playing.

Each character has three animations, some speak and some don't and depending on the music it ends faster as the score/HUD also disappears faster, the ones that save more time is Capoeira that doesn't speak at all, just short animations, Comet doesn't speak, just a little voice in an animation where she serves food, and the one that speaks the least is Tsutomu.

I used this run as a base (EMU Duckstation): https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove_2/run/meev22qm 100% - ( Emulator ) in 4h 12m 41s by DehBR - 1st place -

Each time analyzed in various ways, so pay close attention to the time.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmI_nx2XTE1G_dK6TsLw6jb01b5duNRYZ

Phase (Striker):

Phase (Comet):

Each character: - - - - - - - - - -

All the characters together: - - - -

#Conclusion All runners can beat the same time with this RNG from the first image, unless I find out something new; There are very specific sequences, it is not 100% random (in total there are 4 sequences) and that the best version for you to be playing this game is pSXfin v1.13; And for a 100% run playing on pSXfin v1.13 you can save a lot of time 1 or 2 minutes out there (without losing any matches or basic errors).

Bust a Groove 1 - Loadings Comparison https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove/thread/h3udy/1#ppf0p

#RNG Times (EMU: pSXfin v1.13) 12/Dec/2022

Any% 1° 24:15 https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove_2/run/y80qn3nm 2° 24:21 https://www.speedrun.com/bust_a_groove_2/run/z1q364ry 3° 24:22 - 4° 24:33 -

100% (theoretically) 1° 4:02:30 2° 4:03:30 3° 4:03:40 4° 4:05:30