Hello! I've completed my first any% speedrun of this game offline (I will stream official attempts soon), but I'm really confused. I played the game from beginning to end with no game overs and no saving in-between, but at the end of the run, after I killed Gamuran, the end game screen showed my "Final Results" time as 00:00:00. My "realtime" score from my livesplit is 2:11:20. The time at the end of the game at the save screen was 2:07:22.
At the moment the World Record on the leaderboards for any% looks like it's using the time from the save screen, but the True Ending% is using the time from Final Results screen. Which one is correct? Are they scored different based on category?
Also, I know the run description for the only any% run says the the run is invalid, but doesn't say why. I'm assuming it's because the 'dead body' cheat code was used to jump higher, but I'm not sure. Was there another reason? Since it's an invalid run is it only on the leaderboards until another run is submitted?
Also does anyone know why my Final Results time was 00:00:00? I love this game, but I'm still confused on the rules.
Thanks -NjNJA QK
He Ninja, I don't really have any good answers. I use play on original hardware so I have relied on the final game time to be my in game timer and I use live split as my real time. There are no real hard rules in how to time is counted. This is my proposal. For now its probably best to use the end game save screen as the IGT.
I prefer if it was the end results screen because the timer stops earlier than when you create the end screen save file. Emulated runs can't produce accurate end screen results so we cannot have comparative results using the end screen.
I'll just change the times on my runs to show the end game save screen time. Tell me if
I think this is resolved. So from what I've seen in other videos and doing a little testing of my own, this is how it breaks down:
Real Time - This is simply how long it takes you from the time you in real time to beat the game from start to finish the game (specifically from the time you select your difficulty until the time you get the last hit on Gamuran). It's great to be able to see what you're getting in real time, but note that different load times affects this score so emulators would always have an advantage over consoles and therefor this shouldn't be used to determine what place you get on the leaderboards.
Final Results time - Apparently this has nothing to do with the current run. It shows the time from a previous save that's already on the memory. Why? No idea lol. Maybe it's showing the fastest playthrough on the memory card. Since I always use a new memory card with no previous save in every any% run, this is why my time is always 00:00:00.
In-Game time - This is shown once you save your game at the end of the run. I'm not exactly sure what the in-game time is keeping track of, but it likely pauses on load times and cut-scenes. This is why the IGT (In-Game Time) is usually shorter than RT (Real Time). Since load times are not included in this timer, there should be no differences between running on console or emulator and therefor this time is what should be used to determine where the run falls on the leaderboards. It is important to note though that you can't even see what your In-Game Time is at the end of the run unless you have a memory card inserted so don't speedrun this game without a memory card 😅
The leaderboards for Shinobido: Way of the Ninja is currently based off of In-Game Time so no further adjustments need to be made. 👍
Yeah I just talked about this with Tesla last night after I completed my any% attempt I noticed it as well. I never noticed before because, I always saved before boss battles durring my runs to avoid dying in a boss fight playing on Very hard mode.
I'm still not 100% on there being no differences in times between emulated runs and on the original hardware. When the game is suffering lag, I think the in-game time is still counting in real time and isnt frame rate dependant. I have a hunch because it can't maintain a constant 30/60fps there will be a slight edge using an emulator with a stable frame rate over using playing on original hardware which can tend to dip in high stress scenarios.
I think its likely a slight edge can be gained can build up around the 2nd third of the game where ninja like Taraba are introduced, due to them firing explosive spheres in groups and the stealth kill animation lag they occasionally suffer. But I think it might mostly affect true ending% runs or Very hard mode runs where the AI has more health overall.
You're probably right. Most people say that although emulators can get really close, they'll never perfectly emulate the real console.
