Hello, I am Knewster and I would like to discuss the rules.

1. As far as I understand it the timing starts from the dialogue prompt with the hotel owner and ends with the appearance of the Licourtrix. I am very confused by the end point because I have no idea what frame "the dragon's head appears" means. Would it be alright if we changed end point to final dialogue prompt with Licourtrix? I think that would be a much easier frame to pinpoint. On a side note I am unsure if it is allowed to stall on the hotel keeper's input or if the tier starts as soon as the dialogue prompt appears.

2. Secondly I wanted to ask opinions re: sound. I have been running the game with sound off when practicing bc I have difficulty figuring out how to listen to audiobooks or Twitch and not have it recorded in OBS. At the same time, what with several high profile faked speedruns in the news, if people feel sound should be mandatory to make it harder to cheat, I have no problem with it even if it would dq a few of my submissions.

3. Third of all, while it should be obvious, I would like the rules to explicitly state that any exploit must be set up in the speedrun. For example, crashing the cpu to open all the doors must not have been set up in a previous game. I have heard there are other ways to confuse the game by flipping between save slots, and those should be outlawed as well, since the save slots would have been set up in advance. I am unsure if save state abuse would hypothetically be allowed if they are all set up during the same run, but I know of no potential use for this.

Let me know what you think of these suggestions and if you have any other ideas!

1. As it stands now, time starts as soon as the dialogue screen with the hotel clerk pops up and ends when the dialogue screen with Licourtrix pops up. This method was used for my time as it appears on the leaderboard now. The time posted on my YouTube video may be different (my original timing was from Press Start to when Licourtrix first appears); I don't remember if I ever changed it.

2. My general rule (for any game) is for sound to be present on all runs. I do understand that it is very difficult, sometimes impossible, to record game audio while listening to something else you don't want recorded. This is something I also struggle with when recording runs, but IMO, game sound makes for a better presentation from a viewer's perspective and of course helps avoid the questions about fake runs you mentioned. Commentary or chatting over gameplay is always acceptable as long as game audio is present.

3. I feel it wouldn't be out of line to ask for a hard reset before starting a run. I don't think there's any issue as long you're starting a run from "New Game" instead of "Load Game". I'm 90% sure soft reset wouldn't be a problem, but using "Load Game" on any slot not saved to in the current game should be explicitly disallowed. I highly doubt there any way Save Game abuse would make for a faster run (unless working from a previous save slot), but loading a previously saved game should never be allowed in any run.

OK knewster, I accepted your best run with game audio -- 54:39 after retiming. Actually, I would accept your marathon run since it's faster even with the awkward start (lol). I haven't officially rejected your faster runs without audio (your 47:xx is a good run), but it's probably best to keep it off the board for now. I assume you will be going for another PB, but if not, let me know. We should clarify the rules to avoid confusion from here on out.

Also, I believe there are options for recording audio in OBS from selected sources using third-party software. Voicemeeter is a virtual audio mixer that is often recommended, though I haven't tried using it. If you have tried and can't get it working, let me know. It may be something I test out in the future.

Sounds great, thanks! I like the way you have improved the ruleset and think we are in general agreement. I have no problem with removing the submissions I recorded without audio. As the rules are going to require sound from now on, it wouldn't be fair to accept them. Yes, I am once again speedrunning this game with competitive routes (I spent a couple weeks practicing safety routes for the marathon and took a break after), so losing the 47ish minute run isn't that bad since I will expect to beat that time quickly enough, RNG willing. I don't plan to submit the marathon run since it would raise awkward questions about when the timing should start since due to streaming incompetence I had to fiddle with dials and levers as you saw (and somehow didn't even fix the audio issue), and bc it is a time I should beat in any successful yolo attempt. I will play around with Voicemeter and see if I can get it to work for me, thanks for the suggestion!

Awesome! You definitely have some interesting route ideas, like using the Quinton contact and Sharkey to warp back to Sinsearach. Also, nice that some of the safer options you choose don't really waste much time, so could be very useful for route balancing. I'm thinking of maybe revising my route and trying it out again, but I'll have to put it off at least a couple weeks due to work obligations. In the meantime, good luck on the runs!