Hello All,

I've booked a few hundred hours on the game casually, searching for exploits and glitches. And at least 200 hours dedicated exclusively to speedrunning. I've found a few things to note.

Cut-scenes. ¤ They come in 2 different varieties, where the models move, and pre scripted. There is 1 pre scripted cutscene that cannot be skipped. (The water dragon's explanation near the end of the game). ¤ pre scripted cutscense cannot be skipped the 1st time you run through the game. If you delete your save files that have gotten past the particular cutscene, you will need to watch it again. ( I believe this is a per character basis)

Forest Fox skip: There is a way to skip a bunch of dialog when talking to the forest fox by saving and reloading. You can find info on it in the SpeedDemosArchive forums, I have found that it is significantly slower for me than mashing through the text.

Forest Fox / The Mother: Killing the fox is always faster, as it cuts out a whole zone, and a bunch of travel. The downside is the enemies are more difficult (in my opinion)

Quick Door - This is more of an interesting system mechanic. (On Controller) When running to a zone change door, your character will stop at the door automatically if you hold the stick forward, but you will not be able to press (A) until they're fully stopped. If you however release the directional stick, they still take ~1-2 more steps, but more importantly you can press (A) to zone out about 1/4 to 3/4 seconds sooner. Not a huge time save, but it is something to note.

Starting Weapon - The sword you can get at the beginning can hit more than 1 enemy in any given swing.

Here's a fun one if you go too fast. - After being introduced to Dawn Star - Once Gao the Lesser exits the conversation, his character model disappears after reaching a certain point. You cannot exit the zone until after his character model disappears.

You can do Harmonic Combo's to kill weak/weakend enemies quickly. (I personally find it easier to keep attacking than take the time to setup a combo) ((This is most useful for enemy management when you can be surrounded quickly like the steps leading up to the final boss))

You can look at current runs to get an idea of the other setups that people use when it comes to fighting styles. At this point in time, there is no "faster" style, rather the one you're most comfortable with is the best one to use.

Plan out when and what you level up. Leveling up every time you ding may not be the most effective use of your time.

Other than that, the game is in my opinion 95% about being able to end fights quickly, and 5% not messing up on a menu.