Dark Cloud has and always will be one of my favorite games and speedruns ever, but I’ve basically had to stop running it due to the detrimental health effects it has on my body since the game has little to no downtime to allow breaks mid-run. Back when I was running any% glitchless a few years ago I was still somewhat able to deal with what essentially amounted to a 8+ hr run without meaningful breaks, but no more.

These days I deal with chronic back pain and a bladder that definitely isnt what it used to be when I first started speedrunning longer games 4-5 years ago. What I’m proposing is a discussion to allow breaks during longer categories where you are allowed to pause the timer to take a stretch or restroom break. Not only is this better for all of our health but it will also make the longer categories more accessible and appealing to others.

An example would be that no excessive pausing would be allowed and any points in the run where you choose to take such a break should be clearly timestamped in the run description.

Maybe we allow 1 minute per hour of your run time (so 6 hrs and you get 6 minutes of “pausing” or maybe a set 5-10 minutes to use as you see fit. Maybe have a second timer in your livesplit that displays how much break time you have taken or only display it during an actual break.

Idk, maybe I’m just speaking for myself here but as we all get older I find it harder and harder to find the ability to do runs of this game, and maybe implementing something such as an allowed break rule will rejuvenate peoples ambitions to start or continue running this game. Thoughts?

When I was given control of the Rez board from the previous mod a few years ago it was pretty messy, but at the time I was pretty much the only active runner so I left it. Lately there’s a lot more runs being submitted so I cleaned up the board layout to make it easier to navigate and submit runs to categories.

Changes: -PC and Console are now sub categories, rather than entire categories. -Moved Direct Assault categories to misc. -Removed the requirement for milliseconds, now it is just hours, minutes, seconds.

To do list: -Clarify the rules for each category to make it a bit more clear on when to stop the timer. -Add a VR category IF a VR run is submitted (but I think it will only be for “normal” any% and 100% and not hard, to keep from cluttering the boards. I will add Hard VR if it is submitted though.

If you have any suggestions feel free to request them here and I will see what I can do. I tried adding a variable for PC runs to clarify if a mouse or controller was used but I don’t think this can be done unless it applies to ALL boards including console, so I didn’t add it.

What does everyone think about having series race boards? Nice short runs without the need of constant loading screens (and repeating courses) from story mode. Heck, an “All Series Races” board may end up being a better run than story mode anyway. I haven’t delved into them much yet but it seems like it’s 4 races each. How many in total?

Since several people have been submitting incorrect times lately due to this I just wanted to clarify how to correctly fill out your IL times.

Example: You get an 18.84 in-game IL time

CORRECT time on SRC form: 18s 840ms

WRONG time on SRC form: 18s 084ms

Also, be sure to leave the “Real time” field blank and only fill in the “In-game” time form (unless you’re doing the All Network Speedruns category).

I did a few any% runs and found it a little lacking, obviously a category where you collect all artifacts and puzzle pieces would be way more interesting. I was wondering everyone’s thoughts on a 100% category (by the game’s standards, separate from trophies) that would classify as completing the Labo room 100%? There’s a lot of trophies and it would be quite a nice middle ground between any% and all trophies%.

The game runs much faster in PAL than NTSC (at least in emulator), which means someone running a NTSC physical copy of the game stands no chance against a PAL run. I would like to run this (physical NTSC) but was curious what the community thought about the boards.

Started running this tonight and really enjoyed it, but I’m having trouble understanding the speed tech? I notice in the top times there’s snaking non-stop, on grass, etc. does drifting give a slight speed boost or something over just driving straight on the straightaways?

Are the jump pads favorable except for when you have invincibility active?

Also, sometimes I seem to randomly spin out when drifting/attempting snaking. I’m not excessively holding the drift so not sure why it happens.

Do rings increase top speed enough to go out of the way to collect?

Thanks for any insight.

Now that EMU runs are being shown on the leaderboard, I am just wondering if they offer any sort of unfair advantage (like lag reduction) ? Has it been tested and proven to be 100% accurate to runs on a real console for this game? I ask because I remember watching Zikana’s 52min run when I was getting into learning this speedrun and it will filled with mistakes, falls, and just not-so-good play overall. Compared to Koilro’s 52min WR (which is much cleaner) I just can’t see how Zikana’s run is barely slower than his time. I know the game has lots of RNG but if you watch both runs it seems hard to believe that Zikana’s run can be that close to Koilro’s run.

The rules say emulator runs must specify specific details about the emulator used, but none of the EMU runs on the board provide any such details.

The times for this game are already so tight/close that it will be hard to find motivation to compete against artificially advantaged times if they do provide an advantage. Maybe Emu should be in its own sub-category from consoles ?

I streamed this game casually tonight, was absolutely loving it up until level 5 kicked my ass for almost 2 hours straight and I gave up. I onlymade it to stage 5 boss once. I can do normal rick’s spin kick 90% of the time but powered up rick’s special is almost impossible for me. Is the timing faster or something? Are you doing 3 inputs (away, toward, away) or are you finding a way to cut out an input? Do you attack on the same frame as the final “away” input or do you stagger the attack button slightly after? Any help is appreciated.

Just curious why there are so many JP runs? Is there a gameplay difference or text speed difference somewhere that would save time?

Hey guys, been learning this speedrun and I do really enjoy glitch hunting. Spent several hours the other day looking for stuff and while I came up empty handed on anything major I did find 3 things:

In the desert, don’t do the weather vanes in the intended order. For the purpose of my explanation, assume the normal (game intended) order each vane is called 1,2,3,4. Do them in this order 1,4,3,2 not only is this route slightly faster, but it forces a glitch that only makes you sit on the big/breakable weather vane ONCE instead of twice to trigger the cutscene. I sit on the top most blade (the one facing the #4 vane) and it breaks instantly. Overall I estimate this route/glitch saves approx 25-35 seconds.

In the final scene of the game it is several seconds faster (3-5 seconds) to end the game by sacrifice rather than jumping. This could change depending on the cycle you get though and how long you need to wait for the “person” ahead of you to sacrifice. EDIT: After doing runs tonight I can clarify that ending the game by sacrifice is NOT faster since the cycle, no matter how well you move, you can never skip in line fast enough. Jumping saves at least 8 seconds.

Lastly, and this may need some testing, but if you hold forward and mash jump in the opening to the final chapter cutscene (right before the ball turns into the bird mask) it makes one of the npc characters (and possible the playable character) start running sooner while the cutscene is still loading on the black screen. You will actually hear the playable character make his jumping noises while the screen is still black.

Looking to learn the run, specifically starting with Azure Swallowtail. Are there any resources to get started? A pastebin guide was mentioned in WR description but not only is the WR video not available anymore to view but there’s no link to the guide either. Thanks for any help.

I am most interested in Spyro 1. I have no speedrun experience with the original PS1 release which worries me because I am not sure how accurate the any% guides will be for reignited if certain routes or skips don’t exist. I know this game is filled with backup and advanced strats for gem collection, so I am not familiar if those same strats carry over to this release.

Idk if anyone plans on making an any% guide for Spyro 1 for Reignited, but in the meantime, which runner is the best to watch that doesn’t use strats too difficult for a new runner?

Will this be included on the same leaderboard? I tried looking up differences and it mentions it has an “easy mode” but not sure what this entails. I would like to run this game at some point and was just curious about using this version, even if use of easy mode was banned.

The leaderboards are now split into each respective difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard) for All Strikes%, and seperated by console (PS3, PS2, PS1, PC). The reasoning behind this is because the PS3's load times are a lot slower, meaning runners can never compete with PS2. PS3 also has smoother framerate, making certain levels feel way different than the PS2 counterpart. PS1 is its own category since a couple of people DID do runs on a PS1, so I can't just eliminate those runs. PC is obviously on its own since it is almost like a totally different game. Check out the Any% runs to see what I mean.

And speaking of Any% runs, I have chosen to leave that category as-is, since all the runs are on PC anyway with the exception of one. If people begin to submit Any% runs on PS2 or PS3 I will separate Any% as well.

Make sure when submitting a new run to look over the submission form carefully to make sure you're selecting the appropriate category and console/platform you are playing on.