Apparently the Western version of the game has immense difficulty compared to the Japanese release and fans made a patch that solves that? Before I commit to learning, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't the version being run or anything.

Second, I was curious if multiple routes/categories would be possible utilizing the different main characters? I see the run is done with Lux but if testing hadn't been done for others I'd love to contribute.

Lately, are there any notes for the run? If there are glitches or anything that I might not understand just from watching the vods I felt it'd be wise of me to ask.

Thanks!

Valsu Lux and Wilme are statistically the best. Valsu is pretty strong in magic but only hits single enemies and isn't very good with physical attack . Wilme is a bit more powerful and more speed than Lux, but his attack animation is longer than Lux's and Lux stats early is more sustaining.

I suspect this is the reasons to choose Lux, just possible observation.

Lux is used because of one particular upgrade glitch in the past that can be repeated and you can max stats Lux with this. Not to mention he has best early game and overall easier time. Otherwise you would need to grind something like 4 hours more with other characters or was it 3 hours. PJdicesare has ran pretty much all the characters and so did Zakky, I do not think anything could be improved on their speedruns.

It's been a while since this post was put up, but I just thought I'd answer the questions here from @Palmer.

#1: The versions are that are being run are the originals. So for The 7th Saga, it's NOT patched and is the original and hard 7th Saga. For the Elnard categories, that is the actual Japanese Elnard version.

#2: Yes, different people have tried different characters in the routings. I might mess with it more in the future, but generally people have found that Lux as the main for Any% seems to be the fastest. For No Tune-Up Glitch, Wilme seems the fastest, but there could be more options on the table, like using Lux or Lejes as the main character.

#3: I recently posted Zakky's guide that he wrote a few years ago for the Any% run. EricFaceplant and I have found some improvements to the methods in that guide, which I may update or create a new guide in the future on Any%. Another thing I've thought about is doing a guide for the No Tune-Up Glitch run as well. As of right now, the top 3 runs for both 7th Saga categories generally use the same route, but there are some variations between each of the runs (different towns at different levels, different methods of grinding, different methods of recruitments, etc). Watching them and seeing the strats used in those runs can give a good idea of the routings currently being used.

Hope that all helps answer the questions!