Hey guys, last night I did 2 runs on SFC. The second one is attached to this post. I ordered an SFC cart and tried it out after NewSchoolBoxer's forum post pointed out the changes in leveling. In the post, I estimated this version of the game would save about 90 seconds or so - turns out it saves a bit more than that. This run wasn't particularly great and the time is already at 58:29. I haven't submitted it yet as I'd like to get yall's opinion.

Should we have a separate category for SFC? The run is quite a bit easier due to leveling. Most games will just incorporate Japanese versions for various reasons into their leaderboard alongside the NA versions. However, like many other versions of Ogre Battle, the slight tweak to experience/battles/spawns makes it distinguishable from the others. My vote is to create a separate category (I know we already have a lot), but I am biased due to the amount of effort and difficulty this took for the sub-hour run on SNES. Would like to hear what everyone thinks.

I like how you beat your English WR on the first day you played in Japanese. The 1-2 level advantage gives more routing flexibility and less risk. Each extra STR or INT point on Opinion Leader is 1-2 points in Tarot card damage.

90+ seconds is larger than it seems considering most of any run is spent idling. Can save 30-60 seconds in Any% by never drawing a card at liberation and never pulling buried treasure but you pay for it in Joker cost and missed opportunity. We also didn't have as much competition a year ago. I was originally neutral on separation.

I like separation if we don't separate Fireseal where there is no difference in leveling or routing and the WR odds are steep. I recorded a few hundred Playstation attempts with no success.

If Fireseal is reclassified as a Level versus Miscellaneous Category then SNES/SFC could stay combined there. Sarjem Island as a Level wouldn't show up anymore for SNES/SFC/Playstation.

The (Japanese) Nintendo Power SFC version has the same nerfed EXP gain as English SNES. I would group that with English. It was released on flash cart and flash carts have always been allowed. Edit or do we ban it for being the least accessible and most obscure?

I would just assume the Nintendo Power version would be included with the other version (no need to create a new category/console), as long as the Nintendo Power version is shown to have no significant changes to the speedrun.

I looked at what other RPGs are doing on SNES. Some combine English and Japanese, some separate and Final Fantasy III/VI combines for some categories but not others. Let's wait 1 week for additional responses and split if there's no pushback.

Nintendo Power included with original SFC won't get played. People might run it included with English for text advantage but that would be criticized by active runners. For rules simplicity, let's put it with SFC. Can revisit in the future.

There is no difficulty difference for Fireseal and Krayzar's and bizarreluck's runs on SFC would still be #1 and #2 if done in English. Seems fine then keeping Fireseal together. If I ever submit Japanese Fireseal and someone doesn't like it ranked with English then that can be discussed. Both versions have instant text display so maybe the text difference is less significant than the PS2 model loading times.