I read a guide that says you have to click "New Game" right before the confetti starts falling on the title screen. This way, the world will generate in a particular manner that makes finding the hidden Watering Sprites that much easier. However, no matter how much I try, I can't get the "backwards tick" generation I'm supposed to get to appear. I was thinking that I might be able to practice in one of two ways, but I'm not sure if they'll work:

1. Use a TAS to go frame-by-frame and figure out the exact moment I'm supposed to click "New Game". However, I don't know how to make a TAS using DeSmuME.

2. Use some sort of cheat to skip the Harvest Goddess questionnaire and the beginning of the opening cutscene. This way, I can see right away whether my input worked. However, I have no idea how to make such a cheat or whether one already exists.

Do any of you know of any other ways to time the input correctly, or do I just have to keep grinding until I finally get it to work?

Are you also setting your console time? Set your console's time to 00:00, restart the console and launch the game. Then you can time hitting new game. If you don't get it just reset and try again. You don't have to change the console time until it rolls around to 01:00. As long as the hour is all zeros it will work. As far as getting the right timing for hitting new game, I find it easier to go by audio. Turn the volume up and listen to the intro song and time it with a certain part of the music. Play a couple videos of runs and listen to that intro song a few times, listening for when the runner interrupts the song by hitting new game. This trick is NOT frame perfect, you actually have a window of several frames that will give you the same generation. So my advice would be make sure you're setting the console time, time it by audio, and keep trying, it is easier than you think it is.

Thank you so much for the quick reply! It's really cool that a master speedrunner like you is so quick to reach out to a complete noob like me.

I'm using an emulator, so I thought it would be OK to just keep loading from a save state so I didn't have to sit through the whole intro every time. This may have been why it didn't work. I just tried it again tonight doing what you said to do, and it actually worked! Hopefully, this wasn't just a fluke.

That's good to hear! I'm not exactly sure how it works with save states, I used to start a new movie recording every time. I'm glad you got it, I'm sure with some practice it will get even easier. You can also join our discord if you would like to, if you post any questions you have in the DS channel, someone will be super quick to reply to you no matter what time it is. https://discord.gg/MCwBNXA

I tried it again twice without using save states. The first time, I failed, but the second time, I succeeded again. So, it wasn't a fluke! I may not be getting it 100% of the time, but this is much better than my previous success rate of 0%.