I'd like to know if anyone who runs Blue Dragon, or at least has an interest in running it, has an opinion on loading saves during runs.

The in-game timer doesn't keep track of game overs, hence why real time is used for timing. The problem is that while boss battles (the places where you game over 99% of the time) utilize a checkpoint system, dying outside of them sends you back to the main menu and essentially out of the run. From there, if you'd want to continue, you'd have to load the last save you made during the run (assuming that you made one at all). While it would be very easy to catch someone loading a different save to continue the run with, my other issue is that it feels like you've been put out of the run itself, and therefore it's a mandatory reset.

The bright side of this is that, from what I know based on my disc 1 runs, there are very few instances where this could happen during a run. The only thing that comes to mind is the overworld between the Gul Mountains and Talta Village. Here's a clip from my PB in disc 1 were this very issue occurs, and I'm forced to reload the safety save I made:

I never tried fighting back when I got hit by these enemies, but maybe they're actually beatable? I usually just tried to flee, and in this case it didn't work.

Anyway, I'd like to know if anybody else has an opinion on this, as I said before. I don't want to make loading saves banned without knowing if any of the other runners agree or disagree. It wouldn't be fair, seeing as I'm currently the only mod. All this came to mind because I intend on getting back in to Blue Dragon soon, so I thought I'd make sure the rules are solidified first.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!

Upon looking in to this further, I've noticed that there is an occasion when saving and reloading is likely to be beneficial. It will depend on your route of course, but in Lapogne's segmented run, it's very clear that saving and reloading the game during the Black Belt grind is faster:

I'm still not sure what I think about it, but I guess this can be discussed further if people take interest.

I've had this sort of problem with other games and opted to record both real time and game time. If reloading is allowed, and game time remains the main.comparison, what will stop someone from reloading endlessly to optimize game time? This hasn't really been a problem though. Unless there's noticeable differences in loading, I'd opt for real time supplemented with game time.

The main problem with game time is that, in this game, dying to bosses and getting them second or third try is expected, due to the very specific luck required in some fights. Game time in this is really just a way to see what time it would have been if everything was first try. It also seems to overcompensate (for lag maybe?) and add 10 seconds+ over real time in a Disc 1 run. But yeah, I'd say real time's the way to go with this game. It would be quite a lot slower for no real reason otherwise, with the item stealing glitch in the segmented run I linked above in mind.