I do technically have written notes for this game that I could make into a shareable Google Doc. The problem is that they... aren't particularly good notes.

Alternatively, I have a playlist on YouTube where I commentate the entire thing. In this case, it's an LTC run rather than a speedrun, but the strategies I used are identical. But said commentary is very amateurish, so you'd have to put up with that. If you can, I think you'd be able to find the info you're looking for.

The playlist for that is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1M74x3OAjRqi-H0M202SIhRQpxk1Z6H

I have no problem with emulator use as of right now. I've tried the game out on emulator myself and I don't recall any major advantages. Rather, it was actually much, much harder to do the card minigames with a mouse.

And in general I'm of the opinion that emulators are totally fine for any game with less than a dozen runners. IMO, it's more a matter of encouraging play than being as accurate as possible, especially considering the state of DS screen capture.

Posting this for history's sake.

Japanese runner "maxwel" documented their run of 7th Dragon 2020 from November 2012 on ultimagarden.net. Time began upon difficulty selection and ended on the post-credits save. The run was performed on console and the final time was 13:08:31. This run was glitchless, though it seems that the only bug the runner was aware of was reusing EXP/SP Bonus skills via reloading. The general strategy maxwel used was Intercept Stance + Too Hot to Touch + Bush Trap (the party was D/P/T).

The full document is here: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://ultimagarden.net/report/maxwel_7thdragon2020_rta.txt&prev=search&pto=aue

Hey, what's up? I don't run 7th Dragon and, in fact, I haven't even played past the prologue (I run 2020, though). But I've got some info I think might be worthwhile for those reading this.

First, there seems to be a Japanese runner named Peta who has allegedly achieved an Any% PB of 3:38:49. I say allegedly because, due to niconico's archiving system, video proof doesn't appear to be available. I am, however, inclined to believe that the run is legitimate due to the sheer quantity of information about the game this person has posted to their blog and Twitter about 7th Dragon.

Peta's Blog: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://akmeda.3rin.net/&prev=search Peta's Twitter: https://twitter.com/7thRTA/media

And although video evidence is absent, Peta has apparently typed out the route they used from start to finish, which you can find here: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://peta.sdbx.jp/%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2583%2596%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2589%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25B4%25E3%2583%25B3RTA%25E3%2583%2581%25E3%2583%25A3%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2583%2588/7thRTA%2520ver4.01.pdf%3F__module%3Doff&prev=search

Lastly, there is an annual speedrunning marathon in Japan called "RTA in Japan." Presumably due to COVID-19, they've switch to online delivery this year, and have just opened submissions. One submission, interestingly enough, is 7th Dragon Any% with an estimate of 4:20:00 by a runner named sora. I haven't been able to track down video evidence of sora's runs, either, but I'm preeeetty sure I've got their Twitter. So, there is at least a non-zero chance that there will be a marathon run of this game in a couple of months.

RTAinJP Online 2020 Submission List: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Frtain.jp%2Fplayer%2Fsubmission%2Fgame%2Fsubmission-rtaij2016%2F&prev=search sora's Twitter I think?: https://twitter.com/sora_soramame99?lang=en

I apologize for the absolutely garbage formatting.

Thanks for letting me know! I was aware (though not at the time) that the game operates on a a global timer, but not the number of increments or when the timer started. In my experience, mashing through the menu and playing as close to optimally as possible just so happens to give pretty excellent Birdo patterns in 1-1 and 1-2, so that's what I've been doing.

I stand by what I said about a dedicated Discord channel not seeing much use, but if you do decide to make one, I recommend you post it here anyway. I would join, for what it's worth (not that I use Discord much).

Congrats on your success running the game so far and good luck in the future!

Considering that only seven runners have submitted over the past year, I don't imagine that a dedicated Discord server would see much use. Unless there's, like, a crowd of people quietly grinding this game unbeknownst to anybody, but I kinda doubt that. That's just my opinion, though.

I know there's a general Mario speedrunning Discord somewhere. You could ask to get a game-specific channel made there, maybe?

If a NDS option was added, we would also need to differentiate the Gamecube GBA Player. There is also the GBI, which is a homebrewed GC Player that seems to decrease input lag, scale better, and do nothing else. It seems like some games bother to include these as options (Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland) and some don't (Metroid Zero Mission).

The only decent topic I found on the subject is here: https://www.speedrun.com/knidl/thread/3rnvd

Well, don't I look dumb?

Thanks, and sorry again.

Sorry, I would handle this in a private message if speedrun.com had such a feature but since it does not I'll have to do it here.

My All Levels, 1-1 IL, and 1-2 IL runs were performed using a physical cartridge of the game played on an original DS outfitted with a capture card, not an emulator. I might have accidentally specified that an emulator was used when I submitted the run, and if I did, that was my mistake.

Thanks.

(And also thank you for repeatedly retiming my runs. Maybe I'll get one right one day. :P)