I'm used to seeing that they are for other games, and I don't know how serious Hard Mode can be taken as it involves so much carried over from a previous room.

But Easy lets you have a fresh start, while having mildy different mechanics than Normal Mode. I only see one list on the board here, but should there be two?

Hard mode can't be done on new game, and NG+ really trivialises the game, as well as having a really harsh setup level requirement to be optimal. Easy mode also pretty much makes everything more trivial than it already is (most fights are already fairly brainless in Normal), but it also takes out the one difficult fight from the run (Final boss is also brainless on easy). Also the change in mechanics makes the run faster, but honestly more boring to perform. At least that's my opinion, and I think most other people broadly agree that neither are runs that we're interested in seeing, but may disagree on the specific reasons.

If easy mode runs were to be done, for very obvious reasons it has to be a separated category. A lot of the game mechanics are different such as 1 EP Overclocks, no time lost on battle escape, etc. Generally Normal Node is most likely to be the most competitive category since Easy Mode trivializes the game very much like MLSTRM previously said. With that said if people start running Easy Mode, then it could be added to the boards as it's own category. However I don't see a reason to put Easy Mode up on the boards if there is only one runner. If it actually becomes something that gets attention and multiple people are running it, then that would make sense.

On the topic of difficulties in regards to Hard Mode. You could start a file from new game, clear Normal Mode, then clear Hard Mode and that would make sense. But NG+ is not and should never be treated as an official category, at least in the case of Lightning Returns. Whole point of speedrunning is to start the game fresh and beat it as fast as possible while playing the game normally. Cheesing everything by being overleveled and using equipment that you aren't intended to have at certain points goes against what speedrunning is.

Hey everyone, wanted to bring this topic back up, I have recently taken an interest in Easy Mode, have done routing and a run, , I have also got some notes in the works, almost done which can be thrown under resources if we get this as a category: http://pastebin.com/uZWuRpYP (Only PC routed as of now). I have a few friends from other speed games who have shown an interest in giving this a go, and as an easier category I think adding it to the leaderboards and getting it known could be a really good way of getting LR more attention as a speed game. Please let me know your thoughts. I definitely think its something we should add to the leaderboards.

20 minutes faster than my own (possibly only existing) attempt, and still room to improve. Very impressive.

With two of you having done runs now and potentially more to come from others, that should be enough reason to get it up on the boards now. I will see what I can do.