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Video Game Speed Runs, Challenges, etc.

The only game I really ever got into speedrunning was metroid zero mission (I don't think TTs in mario kart ds counts, considering it's a racing game and all). Currently, my best time is like 57:59; just barely sub-one hour (I'm not bragging or anything - the record is sub-30 minutes, and that means I suck). I've started a new run recently in an attempt to fix a lot of the mistakes I made in that run, and I'm looking to cut out about 15-20 minutes or so. I'm at the first norfair save room with 6:54 on the clock (already obtained power grip), and although that isn't exactly fantastic (world record is like a minute and half faster, and actually, it doesn't even save there), that's already like 3-4 minutes faster than I was in my previous run, so I guess it's a start.
 
My best Metroid Zero Mission time was 42:37 and horribly segmented for super missile drops near the end. I think Metroid Zero Mission is a pretty cool game to speed run; the world's fastest single-segment console run is only about five minutes slower than the world's fastest infinite-segment (TAS) run, which is quite amazing considering the inordinate amount of wall-jumping and luck manipulation it incorporates.

I always get a kick out of watching TAS RPG runs, though, especially Dragon Warrior games. The idea of encountering a Metaly and instantly slaying it with a critical hit for three consecutive tiles gives me faith in humanity's ability to fool entropy inputs.
 
hahahahaha

just a little anecdote, i remember seeing a HUGE (and really difficult) ff7 challenge awhile back and the acronym was like 20 characters long, so like, initial equipment, no materia, etc etc. anyways i remember part of it being 'ncwad' which stood for 'no crying when aeris dies'

hahaha... Now that's just too hard ='(

Really though why kill off the *one* mage??

It does improve the storyline --a LOT-- but it kinda sacrifices the game's balance... they could have at least made another mage-like character. Ah well, c'est la vie.
 
suddenly my two FFV Single Class Chalanges don't seem amazing anymore.

I have an initial equipment game going on FFVII right now. I can say I really hate Bronze Bangles, and I don't want to help Cloud any. Cid has 6 more materia slots.
 
Oh, I guess I'm doing pistols-only in RE4 Wii. It's on Normal though, but I must say it does make it a lot more challenging nonetheless. Can't wait to get to the stuff that's nearly impossible to deal with without a shotgun, like those flying insects.

But yeah, stuff like Initial Equip seems stupid to me... "hmm Cid starts with the strongest weapon and armor as well as a crapload of materia slots... I WONDER who I'll use." I'm trying the class-system idea by making my own rule set, I hope it works out.
 
i tried doing a speedrun of Golden Sun the Lost Age that including getting every single extra and completing every single sidequest. it's a pretty big game and at my best, i did it under 22 hours, but if i ever find my cartridge/buy a used copy, i would definitely try to do better since i had done it pretty sloppily. its still a pretty tough game until you get the puzzles down pretty well since some of them can be pretty big.
 
But yeah, stuff like Initial Equip seems stupid to me... "hmm Cid starts with the strongest weapon and armor as well as a crapload of materia slots... I WONDER who I'll use." I'm trying the class-system idea by making my own rule set, I hope it works out.

actually, you use Cloud/Cait Sith/Vincent most of the time, due to Cait Sith and Vincent having more magic than Cid.

but Cid/Cait Sith/Vincent will be a wonderful time.
 
Nearly all of the challenges I've done were in FF games(Unless you count playing WoW with kakky for over a year a challenge!), let's see what I can recall doing...


I've done single class challenges with about half of the classes in FFT, but that isn't rare around here(at least with the IRC crowd) since it's pretty ridiculously popular with this group. I've done Ramza-only too which was a bit trickier than most of the SCCs I've done.

I've done several No Sphere Grid FFX games, and I got to Jecht with No Spehere Grid, No Summons, No Customize, No Overdrives, No Escaping, No No Encounters, and No Blitzball, which was a lot of fun but the final boss strategy is basically 'hope his AI makes the worst decision possible every round' which is not nearly as much fun... I don't think anyone has actually completed it anyway.

Contrary to what DM said I did finish that stupid initial equipment FF7 challenge, which really didn't make the game any harder at all(we really should have banned Enemy Skill Materia). I've done low level FF7 and no materia FF7, which were both harder but not really as hard as I expected in either case.

I've done no level up FF8 but that really makes the game easier rather than harder so I'm not certain that it really 'counts.'

I think I've done some other FF ones but none of them are coming to me right now... I have a hard time sticking with challenges long enough to complete them outside of FFX and FFT. I think I wanna try initial equipment Chrono Cross though, that seems like it would be fun since weapons are pretty important in that game.
 
I've done no level up FF8 but that really makes the game easier rather than harder so I'm not certain that it really 'counts.'

Considering I absolutely abhor that game but it's the only FF I haven't finished, anything to make it easier to get through it interests me. How does this "challenge" work?
 
The only thing remotely close to a challenge I did was a 4 (yes, I got a heart container at King Dodongo thanks to my instincts being used to pick up the damn things and I sure as hell didn't feel like starting all over again) heart OoT game.
I did get other stuff like bottles and the biggoron's sword etc though so I guess I cheated.
 
Considering I absolutely abhor that game but it's the only FF I haven't finished, anything to make it easier to get through it interests me. How does this "challenge" work?

It basically just works off of the fact that enemies level up as you do.

Obviously, when you level up you gain stat points, and of course so do the monsters. However, regardless of what level you're at, magic that you junction to your stats gives you the same boost. The lower level you are, the bigger the boost you get from junctions (ie., if you get like 2800 HP from a magic junction, it matters a hell of a lot more if your max HP is 600 rather than 6000). Obviously to prevent this, the magic you draw from enemies is shitty when they are low level, but by refining items into magic and using draw points on the world map and drawing from certain bosses that have good magic no matter what level they are at you eventually get all the best magics and have fairly ridiculous stats compared to your enemies.
 
It basically just works off of the fact that enemies level up as you do.

Obviously, when you level up you gain stat points, and of course so do the monsters. However, regardless of what level you're at, magic that you junction to your stats gives you the same boost. The lower level you are, the bigger the boost you get from junctions (ie., if you get like 2800 HP from a magic junction, it matters a hell of a lot more if your max HP is 600 rather than 6000). Obviously to prevent this, the magic you draw from enemies is shitty when they are low level, but by refining items into magic and using draw points on the world map and drawing from certain bosses that have good magic no matter what level they are at you eventually get all the best magics and have fairly ridiculous stats compared to your enemies.

Ahhh, I see, that's quite genius. The only thing is that the draw/junction was one of the things about that game that I positively couldn't stand, so I suppose I'll never beat it now. :pirate:
 
Currently half way through Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+ at Level 1 on Critical Mode (where the enemies do 2x the damage, and you have half the HP).
 
I'm not a fan of challenges in RPGs, since it usually involves too much luck and not enough fun. I'm more of an action game kind of person when it comes to challenges, but even then, I can never bring myself to finish them. In most games, I just beat the highest difficulty 100% and call it a day.
 
I once set out to speed run Paper Mario for the N64, but I never even finished my first practice run(Around 6 hours or so at Bowser's Castle), and I pretty much gave that up. One game I used to attempt speed runs on, and actually finish, was Metroid Zero Mission. Though, my best run was only 1:06:xx. :/

I also tried to speedrun Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, but I didn't like how almost every decision I made came down to luck...I don't even want to imagine what FE5 speedruns are like, if there are people crazy enough to even attempt one. X_x
 
The best system to perform speed runs on is the SNES.

I've completed Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the SNES without dying and in 61 minutes. I was close to the record which was 52 minutes.
 
I can speed run through the original super mario brothers for the nes in a few minutes, but I think everyone can.
 
The only challenge I can say I've done is complete Fire Red and Emerald without going into a Pokemon centre. That was kinda fun :-)

This doesn't sound very difficult but I do kinda want to try it. Maybe tack on an additional stipulation such as no purchasing of restorative items, or no purchasing items at all. *shrugs*

EDIT: Now that I think about it, without restorative items you have no Struggle fuel. I imagine pickup would help out a lot, though.
 
My best Metroid Zero Mission time was 42:37 and horribly segmented for super missile drops near the end. I think Metroid Zero Mission is a pretty cool game to speed run; the world's fastest single-segment console run is only about five minutes slower than the world's fastest infinite-segment (TAS) run, which is quite amazing considering the inordinate amount of wall-jumping and luck manipulation it incorporates.

I always get a kick out of watching TAS RPG runs, though, especially Dragon Warrior games. The idea of encountering a Metaly and instantly slaying it with a critical hit for three consecutive tiles gives me faith in humanity's ability to fool entropy inputs.

Lol


(@22 minutes is so cool if you know your DQ3 areas)

I do agree, those are awesome.
 
I just realized HOW MANY challenges there are for FF7... dear god...
-low level
-initial equip
-no materia
-no items
-no inns
-solo character
-enemy skill only
-commands only
-any combination of 3-4 of the above

Crazy... None of them really sound "fun" to me though... Just limiting and frustrating (enemy skill sounds ok actually). I would personally like to play through it again with a "class system" of sorts, like assigning certain materia to certain characters and banning stuff like ultimate weapons and KotR, maybe limiting levels a little bit, to make it more challenging. Like say Barret could be a Paladin, so he'd get Materia like Cover, Cure, Counter, Life, etc. and accessories to boost defense/survivability, etc.
Wanna sit on your ass for almost an hour while playing FF7? Equip Character 1 with KotR and x4 Materia. Then, have your next 2 characters use Mime...... >.> I went, ate dinner, checking the tele, came back and was like, WTF!? Still not done? Good times. 8)
 
I used to love doing speed runs of platformers on the N64, and me and my friends used to see who could beat them faster. I remember I used to be able to do Mario 64 really quickly, but with no glitches, so it wasn't anywhere close to the records. My best was Banjo Kazooie. I don't remember any of the times, but I had memorized the exact amount of everything I needed from each place to get to the end, and I had figured out which jiggies were the least time consuming to get. I think I might play it again just to see how much I remember
 
I've completed Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the SNES without dying and in 61 minutes. I was close to the record which was 52 minutes.

what the fuck, that game is so insanely hard, I'd have to see it to believe it.

edit : ok after watching a speed run on youtube, I'm willing to admit it's possible! Dude destroyed those damn red demon monsters I have all the trouble in the world passing through.

He beats the game in 45 minutes btw.
 
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