Hi there. New user here and one that is actually pretty eager to actually run this game once I get a few casual playthroughs of this game under my belt.

I would just like to ask if anyone has attempted to do a glitchless version of this run, as I am more than willing to try to work out something unless someone has already started. This game just fascinates me enough to the point to where I would actually like to try to get a glitchless category for this game.

My only concern is that I currently have no way of buying this game off the internet at this point in time and if that is the case, if you would be fine with allowing emulation runs of this to be done. There would have to be additional verification steps taken, such as a player using an emulator to go through every settings option to show that there is no shenanigans going on, because this would be the only way that I would be able to speedrun this game for quite a while.

Let me know what you guys think about these two questions so that we can discuss this.

Thanks!

To answer both questions

1. Generally speaking, unless otherwise stated, emulation for SNES games is usually ok as long as you don't use the notoriously inaccurate ZSNES or UOSNES.

I'd recommend SNES9x 1.51 since it's the standard emulator used, lightweight and just acceptable in almost every speedrunning community. If you do happen to use an emulator, capture the entire window and just make a note in the run submission what emulator it was used on. I'm not going to enforce stringent emulation rules since those rules are only valid in extremely competitive games, just don't do functions on the emulator that is impossible to do by humans (like Left/Right, turbo, fast forward, etc.).

Some of the first records of this game used emulation, so don't let that hold you back from starting out.

2. No one's really completed a glitchless speedrun, or has publicly attempted it. Back around 2011 there was an attempt on SDA to route and do a Segemented speedrun, but that project was abandoned by the runner.

We have many resources that should help out the process for you routing, check the "Guides" section of this game and you'll see many links to important data for this games.

I also apologize if we don't have any other mediums like a discord server due to this being an obscure game, though active competition and more runners would generally lead towards those being created.

Edit: One final thing I forgot to mention, but a glitchless category has always been a planned category addition, it's just a run has to be done before it can be added to the leaderboard.

Thanks for letting me know. I would be using SNES9x1.51, so that shouldn't be an issue. In theory, a glitchless run is pretty much just going to be a casual play that is just faster than normal. We would have to test and see what the lower limits are in terms of the lowest possible level to beat each boss is and the lowest equipment that we can get away with using.

Routing a glitchless run wouldn't actually be too difficult...it would just require you to go out of your way to pick up a lot more of the useful treasures in the game, of which I have found very few outside of the ones currently picked up in the glitched route. The other problem with a glitchless route is money, and I don't know how to possibly account for the money that would be needed a lot later in the game unless there was an easy way to get money that doesn't involve glitches.

Furthermore, I believe that a glitchless run would be a LOT less entertaining since it would involve a LOT more grinding. I mean, as I said before, the three main things that would need to happen is to figure out what the lowest level each boss is possible to beat and the lowest level equipment it is possible to beat each boss with, and then to come up with a money route for both (items would definitely be needed to help out the grinding), and finally to come up with the fastest grinding method to obtain said levels in each location.

I wouldn't mind if someone would be able to help with finding the lowest level of character and equipment combinations you can have for some of the later bosses, but I also don't mind undertaking the whole project myself, either. The main information I would probably need I can probably find in the resources section here, but I'm not sure if you have a list of secret item locations (like the hidden items in Pokemon that are invisible and you have to press the A Button in front of the right tile to pick them up). If there was a list of those, and possibly a list of every possible item a monster can drop, both would be very helpful.

My final thoughts on this project would be that a glitchless speedrun would require a LOT of RNG, especially with gear drops from monsters, in my opinion.

Once I get the project in terms of notes and everything done, I will be glad to share them with the group to allow for revisions and additional information to be added and routing changes. I expect that I might be able to get this project done within a year if I focus really hard on this. Unfortunately, I don't have the Internet needed to stream my routing of the game, but I can upload Youtube videos to share some of my insights with the group as I get into the routing phase.

A rough timeline of my process for this project would be:

Casual playthrough completed in a month or two. I will be doing some routing in terms of boss level/equipment set-ups during this time period, especially at the end of the game with the four refights and all of the Homncruse fights and make sure that the routing for all five of these fights are done before I complete my first casual playthrough.

The actual speedrun routing after that would begin and I would probably use a bunch of different resources, such as EP/GP values, drops, hidden items, chests, store inventories, EXP requirements for each level and the such. Then I would begin to go through the game and see what the lowest level I can get away with beating each boss is in combination with which equipment I used and how much gold it took to get me there. This is the part where I could release Youtube videos on my progress weekly to keep you guys informed. This is the part I expect to take the longest. I estimate I could maybe have this done by the end of this year.

If everything works out, then I could take the notes that I wrote for the route, and condense them down into speedrun notes, and then share both versions before I attempt a run using the route that I come up with. Unfortunately, since I believe such a run would take a minimum of 10 hours, I would most likely have to split it into two or three sessions, which means it would have to be segmented until I am able to find the time to do the entire run in one sitting. This is also the part where I am not sure how long it would take as my focus is difficult to maintain at times, but I will most definitely finish at least one run for you guys.

In terms of how I would submit the run, I would probably upload the entire run onto my Youtube channel without any editing and then link the run here.

Thanks again for the help, and I will keep you updated on the progress of this run!

The resources tab has all you need especially the hidden items, and there's a gamefaqs link in there I think, Cvagts has a boss FAQ / Guide (here it is https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588647-tecmo-secret-of-the-stars/faqs/8523 )

I wish I could help you but it's not possible for me to run this game in the quality I would like to present to others, however I do have a good knowledge of the game and glitchless isn't as bad as it's made out to be. I think you'd have a harder early on portion of the run, but once you get to higher levels and have more magic (and more importantly HP), the boss fights become slightly easier, albeit slower than the any% route.

As long as you are willing to answer any questions I have about the game as I go through the routing process, that would be more than enough of the help that I would need.

Yeah, after looking through the Secrets.txt file, that should probably be all that I need as most of the other guides that I need in terms of boss strategies and the such are already available on GameFAQS or some other source.

In terms of the difficulty of the speed run, there are going to be RNG segments as I am mapping this out in my head because I do not think that I would have enough Moon Drops for every part of the run that I would want them for. That was mostly why I was asking for what monsters dropped what, so that I could tell what I needed to farm to get more Moon Drops than what the game gives you, especially after counting the number in the game. I would need to save a bunch of them for the final boss, even with more MP, but I think I will have a better understanding of the amount needed when I finish my casual playthrough within the next couple of weeks.

Cheers!

Quick edit: Isn't Turbo allowed in most JRPGs? I'm not saying that I will use it, but just saying that sometimes it is a valid option for some games. I don't think it is needed in this game because of the game's length.

Further edit: In terms of the glitchless category, it should disallow every glitch, which basically means no equipment glitch, no MP oversight, and no gold glitch. Is that what has generally already been accepted as the rule set?

Turbo is only valid for Japanese version speedruns of some RPG's because that's what a lot of Japanese communities rulesets allow. This game has a built in instantaneous text scrolling for battles, check out the runs of this game and you'll see how fast text goes by.

Rules of glitchless is to not use a glitch, even unintentionally, those rules would probably be defined specifically once the game has runs but what you stated sounds almost all right, there's also a combine magic glitch that I have not got around to updating but that requires using 2 moves that shouldn't make a combo magic but does.

Right, I forgot about that one as well. Pa-sama actually mentioned it during her run at RPGLB 2018 I believe or someone on the couch did. Anyways, I will start a new thread entitled Glitchless routing progress to let you all know of the progress I have made towards the routing of this game.

Cheers!