A post was written and sent over discord recently proposing the idea of altering all stories to allow a mix of difficulties, creating a sort of "true all stories" category. This way, for instance, if someone wanted to run all stories, but didn't like Terra crit or Aqua beginner, they could do Terra beginner and Aqua crit in the same run. The mods have talked it over a bit, and here's what we've been discussing:

• Having three versions of the all stories category: All stories any%, all stories (beginner) and all stories (critical). Critical would still require completion of the final and secret episodes, while the other two would only require final.

In addition to this, we've also opened discussion about whether we should allow the use of external save files in order to cut unlock requirements from the run. Our proposal is this:

• In order to make things more consistent with other games, as well as make all stories any% a true any% category that requires no prior completion of the game to run, we're proposing requiring the tutorial(though this can be debated, as it is something skippable before the run even starts) and all unlock conditions for the final episode to be required within all stories runs.

We would like input on these topics from the members of the community. What are people's feelings on these changes? And if we were to implement the requirement changes and not allow "NG+ content", what would we do with current runs?

Personally, I really like the idea of a "true all stories". I would recommend having the tutorial and the no prior save only for the "true all stories." That way current all stories categories can stay as they are, and as they have been working out over the years.

As the tutorial is part of the main game as a prologue I believe it would thematically fit into the run. However, in my opinion, it should only be required to be done once at the start, not every time you starts one of the three stories (I'm assuming that is what was meant by adding it in, but I just want to make sure.

As for requirements, basically reports, only Terra's mirage arena one would seem like something annoying to get. However I do believe a "true all stories" run should reflect the "true" entire game, and that would include getting the reports. We should definitely discuss this further though, as it can definitely be annoying to have to get the report on Terra.

Just as one small detail, I would personally recommend to keep the all stories category as is in term of not removing standard and proud as difficulties, for purposes of consistency if anything else. But that's just a minor detail.

To clarify, we're not proposing running the tutorial 3 times. The mentality more here is "Can I buy the game, boot it up, hit new game and do the run?", so it would only be done once, however, since one could argue it's not any more required to get to the final episode as it is to complete an individual character run, that aspect is debatable.

As for the reports, I personally like the idea specifically for Terra, as this makes for more routing specific for this category vs just doing 3 of the same any% runs in a row.

So I've have been thinking about it while gathering my thoughts about this, I completely agree with having three versions of All Stories, including All Stories Any%. As for having All Stories require Tutorial and getting all Xehanort Reports, I feel like there should probably be a All Stories (New Game) and a All Stories (New Game+). All current runs would be moved to New Game+ while New Game would include Tutorial and getting all Xehanort Reports.

Personally, I wouldn't want to see any of this get added if it were alongside the current stuff, as then there would be two slightly different categories one to which most people would latch onto, leaving the other useless. I think my thoughts on it were a little unclear in discord too I guess. Here's what I'd love to see:

All Stories requires tutorial, no influences from prior save data (meaning you have to pick up all the reports during the run). Includes all 3 character runs and final episode. Leave secret episode to RoD RTA. Two sub-categories for difficulty: "Any (or Mixed) difficulty" and "Critical Level 1." The former for speed, the latter for challenge.

Any% would remain exactly the same.

As for what to do with all of the current All Stories runs, I have no idea. Maybe you leave them as legacy if it's determined they could be beaten with the new rules, maybe you just delete them. I'm not a big fan of just splitting them into their own category just for the sake of keeping them around though, because it just sounds like another unnecessary category on the boards. Obviously the majority of runners would need to be on board with whatever decision was made regarding the current runs.

I don't think it would be a good idea to require tutorial, but I like the other ideas. I don't think the current runs on the boards should be removed, so it would make sense, as Sonic suggested, to make All Stories NG and All Stories NG+, and I do like the idea of requiring the collection of all Xehanort reports during the run, since that isn't particularly difficult and has been something I've always wondered why it isn't required (pardon the awkward wording).

However, I would support requiring tutorial, since the idea of "opening the box and starting a run fresh on the PS3/4" makes sense - although there are a lot of categories that one can't do that on - Riku's story in CoM/Re:CoM comes to mind. Since the tutorial is only required once per profile, it doesn't seem that hard to have the setup for tutorial being done, or, as is required for Any% runs, start the timer for the beginning of the run on Character Select, at which point, completing the tutorial or not completing the tutorial is a moot point, since the same character select screen loads either way.

I also definitely think secret episode should be handled as it currently is - only Crit runs require RoD, and that would jive with the idea of starting a run as soon as you open the box, as Faye was talking about.