Any chance for trials categories, one for each character and control type? For example, I have a run for Classic Guile.

After some deliberation (and in a complete reversal of the last forum post), we've been considering adding a break midway through to this game. LAD is one of several Yakuza games that has absolutely no breaks in the run, and given that it's one of the longest, going 4 hours without pause while you still have to remember what to do has been viewed as a bit excessive. We'd like to know what you guys think. One 5-minute break seemed to be the most common suggestion in the community Discord.

AKA more detailed rules, or explanations for why they are the way they are. This is a wall of text. You have been warned.

Game Rules (AKA Main Rules)

1. For PC runs, you MUST use the provided load remover by Livesplit. An FPS counter must also be visible to ensure that the game is running at 60 FPS. Steam's in-game FPS counter, RTSS via MSI Afterburner, or other FPS counters are acceptable as long as they are actively measuring the game's frame rate.

PC runs require a load remover for one very simple fact; no two PCs are 100% alike unless spec'd as such. Any one PC can be faster or slower. A load remover attempts to equalize them. 60 FPS is also chosen for the cap because RGG has repeatedly proven unable to A: Allow lower end hardware to hit the next cap, which is 120, and B: NOT tie everything to the frame rate, breaking the game and occasionally, the balance of the game. In LAD:I's case, Gunman shoots faster at 120 FPS, and they had to fix the Heat drain issue as it depleted much faster at said frame rate. Unlimited makes the game go off the rails and would again be a matter of which PC can run the game at 1000 FPS, so a cap of 60 was the best option.

2. For console runs, you MUST submit your time ONLY under "time with loads". You may NOT use the game's in-game timer, it is not reliable.

Relatively self-explanatory. IGT has historically been inaccurate relative to real time, and while it does largely ignore the load times, it can still be manipulated very easily just by save/loading until you get the perfect run; measuring console runs in real-time makes more sense.

3. The timer must be on screen at all times and not obscure important HUD elements (i.e. health bars).

By extension, this also means the HUD elements must be turned on. If they are off, we wouldn't be able to tell if you, say, hacked in infinite health or just -slightly- increased your damage.

4. All runs require game audio.

This is just an integrity check. We can be lenient and still verify a run with poor audio quality, but if it's obvious that it's spliced, we can't help you there.

5. Failure to comply with any of the above rules will result in your run being rejected.

Well... it should. But I'm personally lenient with mistimed runs, so I'd be willing to let them slide the first time around. It does suck that most RGG games are really long to speedrun and having 4 hours go down the drain because you didn't split correctly is even worse.

6. The accessibility options are allowed to be used.

There is no reason for us to gatekeep anyone that wants to enjoy the game the way they want to (aside from complying with the speedrun rules, of course). The accessibility options are also beneficial, and they're, well, accessible for everyone. It'd be extremely difficult to moderate them, let alone enforce a ban on them, so turn on as many as you want.

General Category Rules

No segmented runs.

All runs must be done in one sitting. We don't encourage breaks even for these long RGG runs because break time can give you a lot more time (sometimes too much time) to think over your next strats. Part of the skill in speedrunning is putting all of your ideas together and adapting on the fly if something goes wrong. But if you give yourself infinite prep time, you could theoretically spin up the perfect run, or make the VOD utterly unwatchable.

Time starts upon clearing the autosave window that appears AFTER selecting "yes" or "no". Time ends on clearing the results screen after final boss's defeat.

The reason time ends on clearing the results screen after the boss and NOT on the final hit is that the game does not get to the end until the cutscene plays. The results screen clear is also a more consistent end point; for example, if you knew exactly what the damage is for any given heat action, you could just press time on the triangle press. But you might also be 1 pixel off, making that run invalid. If you just split where the game can play the final cutscenes, there's no fuss about it.

DLC (including Ishin! difficulty and the free cards) is not allowed.

For the categories that exclude DLC, the cards aren't necessarily that good, but the weapons probably are. We don't think it would be a good idea to make the category pay-to-win, and while Ishin! difficulty is kinda the opposite to that idea, it is still a fairly controversial addition to the remake. Why is the hardest difficulty be locked behind a paywall? It really shouldn't. But it is technically allowed in NG+, which I'll leave for now. It doesn't seem like switching to it would affect anything in any way, but for parity's sake, there is no Ishin! difficulty category for NG+ yet.

Mods on PC are not allowed.

This is listed under the category rules and not the game rules because I am genuinely invested in game mods. I am not opposed to opening categories for them in the future. They introduce fresh ways to play the games we know and love. That being said, they should not be allowed in the main categories, and will never be.

The game's been out for a couple of weeks now, and there have been some developments in figuring out the rules for everything. In the Discord, I made a few points on how I thought the rules should be laid out, and I have enough information to make my own verdict (not final, mind you, unless the community as a whole agrees)

1. The FPS should be locked to 60. I've tried playing the game on a GTX 1060 and while it does stay fairly constant there, it cannot do the same at 120. I figured it would be a good enough borderline GPU at 120, but it is not. If this was my only option as a GPU, I would be bothered if I had to upgrade just to run the game at this standard. An FPS split has proven problematic late in a game's lifespan, as seen with Yakuza Kiwami, so a hard cap is preferred right off the bat. As for the actual advantages running at 120 would've provided, Gunman shoots faster, and just like in other games, LAD:I runs better as a whole at higher FPS. In that line of thought, we do not want PC runs to be pay to win in order to brute force the time. Yakuza 0 and Kiwami are already far gone past that point unfortunately, but LAD:I is another chance to make it right like it was done with the Judgment games.

2. The accessibility options are fine. Turn as many of them on as you want. The only options that would provide a meaningful advantage are the auto-Heat Actions (because they guarantee activation without needing "guesswork" on whether they'll land in tight situations) and Distance Assistance (which supposedly makes everything easier to land). Everyone has access to them, so it is up to the runner's discretion on whether they want to use them or not.

3. DLC should be disallowed in Any%, and allowed in NG+. There may be a separate variable for DLC in Any% if demand is high enough.

4. Difficulties should be split between "Any Difficulty" and "Legend". Ishin! difficulty should not be included because it would fall among DLC in point #3, and it seems rather controversial, being a difficulty locked behind a paywall.

Noticed a quirk with the load remover that stops time at the save screen. It seems to be present in all Dragon Engine games with no clear fix, so I highly recommend there be a rule against abusing this timer pause.

Hi all, I'm adding a note to Game Rule #1 regarding the load remover's quirk to pause the time on the save screen between chapters and when save/loading fight spawns. No PC run has done this yet, but I ask that it not be abused for break time, as console runners do not have that luxury. It is worded as follows:

Note: The load remover counts the save screen as a load and thus time is paused while you stay on it. Do not take advantage of this.

Hi all, you may have noticed that Normal and Hard are no longer listed categories for Any%, NG+, and ASS%. This is because they have been mostly empty for a very long time. As with Yakuza 0 (see: https://www.speedrun.com/yakuza_0/thread/gzhjl ), those times have now been moved to Easy, which has been renamed to "Any Difficulty".

I've seen a couple of submissions within those categories from other games that seem to be "WR fishing"; submitting a time for the sake of "claiming WR". For that reason, I see no reason to keep the individual categories. While the game is certainly "harder" on Normal and Hard, the route does not change substantially enough to warrant an entirely separate board, especially in K2 where the bosses take the same amount of damage.

There was also the complication of "what if you change the difficulty to Easy during a Normal or Hard run"? To which this new "Any Difficulty" category comes in. This also coincides with how Judgment and Lost Judgment difficulties are handled, and with some recent discoveries in LJ where Simple comes into play, it makes sense.

Legend runs are untouched because you cannot shift the difficulty down while you're playing on Legend mode. Game Overs also instantly occur upon losing all your health. If you want a more challenging run, Legend is the way to go, not Hard. Disregarding continues, you'd have to nitpick on the differences between Hard and Legend.

Majima Saga is untouched because there is far more overlap, and taking out only the Normal runs seemed a bit pointless.

Hi all, you may have noticed that Normal and Hard are no longer listed categories. This is because they have been mostly empty for a very long time. Those times have now been moved to Easy, which has been renamed to "Any Difficulty".

I've seen a couple of submissions within those categories that seem to be "WR fishing"; submitting a time for the sake of "claiming WR". For that reason, I see no reason to keeping the individual categories. While the game is certainly "harder" on Normal and Hard, the route does not change substantially enough to warrant an entirely separate board.

There was also the complication of "what if you change the difficulty to Easy during a Normal or Hard run"? To which this new "Any Difficulty" category comes in. This also coincides with how Judgment and Lost Judgment difficulties are handled, and with some recent discoveries in LJ where Simple comes into play, it makes sense.

Legend runs are untouched because you cannot shift the difficulty down while you're playing on Legend mode. Game Overs also instantly occur upon losing all your health. If you want a more challenging run, Legend is the way to go, not Hard. Disregarding continues, you'd have to nitpick on the differences between Hard and Legend.

Is there a file I can use for my own NG+ runs? There doesn't seem to be one available for this game. My file has progressed too far into Majima Everywhere and has upgraded too many things for any of my runs to be optimal, so I don't think I'd be able to use it.

Edit: After nearly two weeks of no reply, I have decided to make my own file with the help of Graywords, who's previously done All Substories and 100%. I've already posted it in Resources.

Hi all, RyuHousen here. I've begun cleaning up the Game Rules for all the games I run. Yakuza 0 is more lax by comparison, so I've only added the bare minimum for what applies to all Yakuza games. Here is how they currently look:

Please see each category's rules for explanations on their individual rule sets.

1. For PC runs, you MUST use the provided load remover by Livesplit.

2. For console runs, you MUST submit your time ONLY under "time with loads". You may NOT use the game's in-game timer, it is not reliable.

3. The timer must be on screen at all times and not obscure important HUD elements (i.e. health bars).

4. All runs require game audio.

5. Game must be run on the latest version.

6. Failure to comply with any of the above rules will result in your run being rejected.

Hi all, RyuHousen here. I've begun cleaning up game rules for all the games I mod. These rules were added in response to (relatively) recent discoveries and oversights on our part. They should be consistent with all other Yakuza games. Here's how they currently look:

Please see each category's rules for explanations on their individual rule sets.

1. For PC runs, you MUST use the provided load remover by Livesplit. An FPS counter must also be visible to ensure the game is capped to 60 FPS. Steam's in-game FPS counter, RTSS via MSI Afterburner, or other FPS counters are acceptable. Note: The load remover counts the save screen as a load and thus time is paused while you stay on it. Do not take advantage of this.

2. For console runs, you MUST submit your time ONLY under "time with loads". You may NOT use the game's in-game timer, it is not reliable.

3. All runs require game audio.

4. Failure to comply with any of the above rules will result in your run being rejected.

Hi all, RyuHousen here. I've begun cleaning up the game rules for all the games I mod. Nothing substantial was removed, just clarified for easier reading. Here's how they currently look for K2:

Please see each category's rules for explanations on their individual rule sets.

1. For PC runs, you MUST use the provided load remover on Livesplit. An FPS counter must also be visible to ensure the game is capped to 60 FPS. Steam's in-game FPS counter, RTSS via MSI Afterburner, or other FPS counters are acceptable. If your hardware prevents the in-game FPS cap from working (i.e. dropping from 60 to ~40), you can use Nvidia Control Panel or the AMD equivalent to force the game to run at 60 FPS.

2. For console runs, you MUST submit your time ONLY under "time with loads". You may NOT use the game's in-game timer, it is not reliable.

3. Timer must be on screen at all times and not obscure any important HUD details (i.e. health bars).

4. All runs require game audio.

5. Difficulty must be shown being selected on the VOD before hand, as that is where time starts in most categories.

6. If your game crashes (On Console or PC) the timer can be stopped. You're allowed to pause the timer and quit out once to circumnavigate a crash, but please mention in your submission where you do it. This is the only time the timer can be stopped.

7. Failure to comply with any of the above rules will result in your run being rejected.

Note: Currently the auto splitter does not work at the start of Any% Normal and the end of any difficulty for Any%. For Majima Saga - Normal Difficulty does not auto start and does not auto stop on Ibuchi's defeat, so in all these cases, you'll have to manually split for those.

Cleaned up the rules so the statements regarding Livesplit, controllers, game audio, and the like are all included in Game Rules rather than each category's rules. Here is how it currently looks:

"Please see each category's rules for explanations on their individual rule sets.

1. For PC runs, you MUST use the provided load remover by Livesplit (any run with a load remover that removes the title cards from the timer will be rejected). An FPS counter must also be visible. Steam's in-game FPS counter, RTSS via MSI Afterburner, or other FPS counters are acceptable.

2. For console runs, you MUST submit your time ONLY under "time with loads".

3. All runs require game audio.

4. Using controller macros of any kind is not allowed. This includes Steam's "action layer" system, any way to map multiple in-game actions to one button, or anything else in that spirit."

Practice save files are all in one zip file now, and a well prepared New Game+ clear save file is also now available. You can officially start blasting your way through the game (and somehow still have it take 5 hours long)

Hi all, Ryu here again. I forgot to add this requirement to PC runs; an FPS counter should be visible to ensure the game is properly capped and makes it easier to spot places where the game is sped up. Steam, RTSS via MSI Afterburner, or other FPS counters are acceptable.

There have been no incidents of speeding up Yakuza 5 that I've seen, so PC runs before this post that don't have an FPS counter will not be taken down. That doesn't mean it won't ever happen, and so I still wanted to address it before it can potentially come up.

That is all.