The infamously long speedgame, Digimon World 2, is a hard sell for most speedrunners. Requiring a full waking day of run time for the any% run (far longer than most 100% categories), the game has gained infamy among non-fans who have ambitions of going the distance to shave hours off of the time. However, there are many obstacles preventing the community to get the army it needs.

First off, lack of resources. Virtually nowhere aside from watching PB videos and picking up vague hints can anyone figure out the first thing they need to do in the route. Digimon World 2 is daunting to begin with not only due to how long it is, but how expensive the NTSC-U version (the faster one, I'm assuming) is. The game needs its veteran players to write out a detailed guide on every move players need to do, not to mention contingency plans for unfavorable floor layouts or unfriendly RNG. Not to mention the fact that the game is obtuse and many new players won't even be able to pick up on things like which items you need to fire at wild Digimon in order to recruit them, the specific results of Fusions (narrowed down to what's useful for a speedrun of course) the quirks of item storage, or what sequence of menus and buttons someone's supposed to press to clear out Electro Spores and Missile Blocks.

SmartBall's 20:09:33 is officially the first "optimized" run the game has ever seen, and it's still in such early stages that top players will frequently draw mental blanks on menus when it should be a simple sequence of input memorization. Not to mention they aren't well-versed on contingency plans for going in rooms and discovering booby traps or a horde of wild Digimon. Also, no real glitches, wrong warps (that work) or duping have been discovered, which if found, would guarantee a generous free PB and make the run much more appealing, especially to outsiders with no attachment to Digimon.

Finally, runners need guides on another important thing: where to get the game, as well as good prices or places to buy it. Digimon World 2's lack of appeal does not begin and end with speedrunning. In its day, the game was a huge departure from the first game to an extent as great as the 8-bit Terrible Twos of old (such as Mario 2, Zelda 2, Castlevania 2, Final Fantasy 2, and Fire Emblem Gaiden) and followed a "dungeon crawling" trend which was in vogue in Japan at the time, but felt like an unnatural and intrusive virus to Western players only familiar with the cartoon and the first game. As a result, the less optimal Japanese version is very cheap, but the U.S. version is a fair bit rarer and more expensive. In 2014, when DW2 speedrunning was in its infancy, KHeartz got his copy while the getting was good and only had to pay about $50 for it. Today, prices can regularly exceed $80 or even $100, as with most uncommon games not liked in their time.

Anything else I have to mention? Ohhh yeah, guides on how to even make time and stay awake for the whole run. Even though Digimon World 2 is longer than the amount of time most people are awake during the day, it's a less demanding game than other long games when it comes to the amount of undivided attention it requires. Each and every turn in the game's signature 3-on-3 battles gives you over a solid minute of downtime, meaning you can not only grab a drink or take a leak, but don't have to rush it as well. And if you don't need those things right then, you can also take care of other important stuff like preparing food or just getting up to stretch. You may already know that sitting all day is bad for your health, not just because your muscles atrophy, but because it's mentally detrimental to be confined to one place for long periods of time. Players will need guides on when to take brakes as well as feed themselves. And let's not forget the most important thing: making time to do the run in the first place. For most people with jobs, families, and other hobbies, playing a video game for a day straight is generally considered societally frowned upon behavior. Most players won't want to sacrifice the quality of their livelihood in order to master an old and unpopular game. This game needs all the help it can get from just about anyone who isn't planning on becoming a Neviutz, Highspirits, Luzbelheim, Cordellium, Cereth, or Maffoonian.

Digimon World 2's best days of discoveries, improvements, and rising champions are ahead of it. It's very long, but will attract the attention of many due to being a vast and incomplete canvas of speedrunning. Give runners the necessary amount of help, and you might see an influx of outsiders come in, especially during times of need or dormancy. We will pave the roads that will be explored in a World Record History video on the game someday.

I started this topic six months ago, hoping it would sound the alarm for experienced players of the game to begin creating easy to follow tutorials on how anyone can run the mother of all speed games. Although it was read by plenty of people, nobody stepped up to record piecemeal route videos or even write out a series of actions for new players to do. The guide section is still empty.

There have been new developments in DW2 speed running recently. Although not on the leaderboard at the time of writing, ZChaotix re-routed the game and got the first sub 18 run of the game, which will pique the interest of new runners now that the game is remotely RTA viable for more people. And soon, Smartball will re-route the game again and improve it further. Despite the fact that the game is much shorter and more consistent than ever before, the resources for new players interested in making their mark are lacking.

Here’s what I’m planning- when Smartball finishes his new route and possibly gets a new WR with it, I am planning on recording the route in segments on the Japanese version. I don’t have time for a full run, but I could help bridge the gap for someone who is interested. I chose the Japanese version because it’s a lot cheaper than the English version and while resources on English are few, there are no runs or resources for Japanese. And I’m confident that anyone will be able to tell what I’m doing to run the game in English. The Japanese version is slower, but it is better than nothing. And the differences should be negligible at this stage of the game. I have doubts about how helpful this will be, so I would like feedback. If my videos get one more person to run this game, I will have succeeded.

I have completed all of my other gaming goals until Umihara Kawase Fresh comes out, so I will have the time for this. It would at least be the first step to giving runners something besides skipping through long PB videos and easily getting lost. What do you think?

So as a newcomer to your speedrunning area I offer a couple suggestions such as in resources putting http://stage.metalkid.info/DigimonWorld2 as it contains digivolutuons and DNA combos attack data etc etc and side question have you thought of getting a devidramon during the eighth mission as it’s tech is stronger or on par with ultimate techs and if you’re looking for wrongwarps and glitches I’d keep an eye on the gamefaq board as there has been a interest gathering in modding the game just my thoughts I wish you guys the best of luck in lowering this games wr

Anyone reading this now, some of these Things have Been Done. Much progress has been made to develop knowledge and strategies for the game. There are now TWO separate guides which give you thorough details from start to finish. And the runs these days are generally better, with two runs under 18 hours. In addition to that, I also have a six-part tutorial on the first hour of the game until you finish BIOS Domain with MetalGreymon using ZChaotix's Route.

Let's see what everyone else can do.