Hello all,
After talking it over with the other mods/runners in the community, we have come to a consensus that the Japanese version of Pac-Man World 2 is too different from the English version to be considered the same category/run.
The main/misc categories will be split into JP and USA/PAL versions, and ILs will continue as they were before (Where there are differences between japanese and english, the ILs will be seperated).
Thanks,
Ruse and the other mods
Posting here once so I can just link this message:
They were split because the amount/size of version differences has made them uncomparable.
When the JP version of the game was first being investigated, the time save caused by the reduction of difficulty was vastly underrated. They seemed like relatively surface level changes (pits in canyon chaos filled, no giant bear at the end of IRR), where it was simply a slightly different version that traded a slightly easier version of the game for slightly worse load times.
With the recent tournament, discussion around JP has come up again, and we have realized just how much easier that Japanese version of the game is. For example, it is near impossible to fail clyde on the japanese version of the game, due to not requiring a second hit because of reduced health. In blinky, the fastest strategy is not only much easier due to only having to land 3 hits on the boss, it is much faster as well. In inky/pinky, it is near impossible to die because of the safety nets added above the platform.
Additionally, entire chunks of some levels (Into the volcano/volcanic panic) are removed. This is one of the biggest reasons why the games cannot be compared.
In my opinion, one of the most compelling arguments for why JP and USA should be separated is based on the times of the top JP runner (Marsh). He has a mid 45 on JP, but is unable to get a run below 48 on the GCN copy of the game. This shows quite clearly the advantage that JP provides, where a player can get a time that would be impossible for them to achieve otherwise, due to the game being much easier. (This is not meant as a personal attack at marsh, its just a real life example of why JP can't be compared with english easily)
The Japanese version provides an advantage which cant be easily quantified. If it was as simple as "load times are 2 minutes faster" then of course all reasonable people would just switch to the japanese version. However, how can we effectively compare them? Do we say "Maybe they wouldnt have died on clyde if they were on JP, so their time is probably around 30 seconds faster?" If you have a player with a 50 on JP and another player with a 52 on english, its impossible to tell who is the better runner. Maybe the JP saved 2 minutes of potential time loss. Maybe not. It's really impossible to tell, and that's why the categories needed to be split.
This is not some revolutionary idea, when two versions of a game have significant differences, they are tracked on different leaderboards: For example, little nemo on NES has different boss patterns, so they are split into different categories. Another game with this phenomenon is battletoads. When games are this different, they cannot be tracked on the same board.
-Ruse and the other mods
