Hello all, (Yes, people who have not run this game before I am also asking you) I've realized recently that a more intermediate main category is needed for this game, for a few reasons. The main reason is that there is an 8 minute long category, and a 4 hour category. This has lead quite a few people away from this game, as they do not wish to devote that much time to a speedrun.

Thus comes the question: Does anyone have any ideas for a speedrun category that preferably ends before chapter 6, is over 20 minutes in length, accomplishes a significant goal, requires actual skill, but is still newcomer friendly? - Watch a movie category was a good attempt, but watching a movie simply did not have enough significance to make this an interesting category.

-I.E. no 'kill Gargaros', as most new players do not have such an understanding of IAE to do this quickly.

-I realize that I'm not a mod, but I'm active enough in the community to hold sway.

Unlimited train pass? IDK

Actually, if bug/critter rng works in the way I was discussing in the Speedrun server recently, all critters could work.

I would make a level leaderboard, it seems like a good idea to make short runs and could attract more players to the game.

I know this is a dead thread but how about single chapters?

I don't like this idea, and let me tell you why: You only get three save files. You can't just "Go" to a chapter without spending a fair bit of time. if you make it past the first 3 chapters, just speedrun the game. We don't have a large community of this game, there's no real reason to start a category that no one will want to run. Also there's so much rng that it wouldn't balance out, like in a full game run. You get three bingo cutscenes? Sucks to be you. Enjoy not PB'ing. The other problem is that this isn't accessible. for the later chapters, you have to already have a save file there. It's not accessible if you have to do three hours of work to get there in the first place.

The problem with this game is that there isn't a good "short run" category. Starting from the beginning of the game has so much bad rng associated with the first 3 chapters, that those are the few chapters you don't want to run. I get that this game really could benefit from it, but... there aren't great options.

you might argue that you should start from ch5 and see how fast of a ch5 you can get, but then how do you start? some chapters open with cutscenes, and in order to "start" at that chapter you need to skip them. Do you stop, save to diary, and then play each cutscene?

Idk... I see what you're saying but it's not the way to do it.

also hold up I STARTED THIS THREAD? I DO NOT REMEMBER WRITING THIS THREAD WHAT THE HECK

Ohh understandable. I just figured if someone wanted to speedrun one chapter to optimize time it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to take up a save specifically for that chapter. I figured that with skippable cutscenes it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to start a chapter that starts out with a cutscene since it's less than half a second to do so. Besides single chapters the only thing I can think of would be the boss rush or (even though it sounds like RNG hell) a category to summon a specific legendary.

I figure a boss rush one wouldn't be too bad since if you're going to run a game it's safe to assume you have at least 1 finnished save file.

I should have proof read before I sent with the "It takes less than half a second to do so" i was referring to skipping the cutscene