I beat Persona's time, barely, but then I learn about a new trick. so yeah...

-segment 1:

no.

-segment 2:

I have to admit I might be using too many segments, but too bad.

-segment 3:

no.

-segment 4:

I freaking hate those bomber skeletons.

-segment 5:

I Used bones instead of the wind wave this time on Necromancer.

-segment 6:

no.

-segment 7:

Same thing as segment 5 with the iron golem.

Since I'm using a different tactic, I don't need those MP ups.

-segment 8:

New trick: climbing the wall.

Using a summon, or stalactite, in midair will stop your vertical velocity. Do it repeatedly while walljumping and you can successfully enter the Underground Waterway from the back. However, it was extremely tedious to do.

-segment 9:

Used a new strat on Camilla: bone, then a few wind waves.

The bone is dark elemental. Enemies take half damage from attacks of their element. Camilla is.
Switching cards while the bone is being thrown AND before it appears will make it non-elemental, doubling the damage done.

-segment 10:

no.

-segment 11:

I did not expect that much luck on Hugh.

You'll see how I make up the time spent saving there during Dracula.

-segment 12:

First form could be better, but I wanted to see what happens on the second form.

second form too, but...

I actually hit the eye form with a bone. Even luckier than with Hugh.

END.

I started this run a few days after I got the 0:40:48 SS time. I knew the best way to go was to force Strength Rings to defeat later bosses a lot faster, and to not kill so much. Segment one took longer than most other segments because I kept changing my mind about if I wanted to force a drop of a Wrist Band or not, and if I wanted to save before Cerberus. Like most segmented runs it turns out to be the worst segment, because I got better as I went and also I regretted the decision. I should've forced the Band and I should've saved, making it 10 segments. Instead I tried to get a nice Cerberus battle and reset if I didn't... but I got very sick of that. He needs to turn blue to have a good fight but he only does it like 1/8th of the time (or I just had really bad luck) so I ended up accepting a fight where he turned red.

I limited the segments to one random thing each and in the second one it is definitely Necromancer. His first form is a little tricky but I quickly came up with a good strategy. The second form involves praying he doesn't turn into an energy ball on one of his two chances. Of course that's not the end of the segment and sometimes I got good fights that got ruined after that. At 2:30 you might wonder why I seem slow and it's because that bone the skeleton throws ruined a segment once.

The random part of segment 3, Iron Golem, isn't as easy to do well as you might think. The number of hits each boomerang takes can vary a lot and I need to beat him before my hearts run out. In segment 4 I need to force my first Strength Ring from a Were-bear. If I would get a Night Suit from a Hyena along the way I wouldn't complain, but I never got a ring when I got one of the suits. Even if the first bear gave a ring I'd still kill the rest to try to get the second one, but this time it was the last bear that dropped. There's a tricky shortcut after the drop that ruined a few segments.

A large shortcut in segment 5 looks harder than the one in segment 4 but I think it's not that much more difficult, and only 35 seconds into the segment. Of course then comes forcing another Strength Ring from a selection of only two Were-Bears. Many more resets from that. In this run everything went perfectly until I got hit by a Were-panther, but I said I'd go on because I wouldn't get the darn ring... and then I did. Boy was I cursing as I wall jumped up to the save.

Segment 6 took two weeks, not because of Adramalech, but because of what's after. For Adr. I need to be in just the right spot so that each boomerang hits eight times, and thanks to my very high STR, that kills him with only four of them. After the fight there's three minutes of running to the Underground Waterway and doing its first half. Doing it all without mistakes took a lot of tries.

Getting the rest of the way to Camilla is pretty easy. It took me a while to come up with a good strategy for her, and it involves hoping she does a certain attack after she reaches the left side of the room. The boomerang is my savior again, only 7 to take her out. I missed a jump right before the save room which cost a little time.

I thought this segment would take a month or longer. I need to force a drop of Soldier Fatigues from the Catoblepas in the secret room with a Heart up. It's very rare... takes a few times even when you have 6000 LCK on Thief mode. Because of that I was often taking up to five seconds of mistakes just to get to the darn thing to kill it. I ended up getting this segment the first night I tried it after only an hour or so, but there's one bad mistake where my Roc Wing usage sent me straight into the ceiling. This seems to be because of the way I hold the GameCube controller, sometimes when I press R to do the super jump it just doesn't do it, probably because even though I'm pressing up+left, it's not "enough up" for the GBA to see it as both up and left, only left.

The final segment is both Hugh and Dracula since there's no good save point after Hugh. The Dark Armors aren't fun, especially the first two. I think I only ever made it all the way to Hugh without getting hit once. Got hit twice this time. Hugh is pretty easy, and I love killing him by sliding into him. Dracula's first form is easy, he only gets to appear twice. I stupidly got hit by his fire bats but it makes for a cool shot when I get the final level ups. Ideally I would get Dracula's rock summoning form next because I can take him out right there. But like Cerberus's red/blue decision, it doesn't seem to be balanced at 1/3rd of the time. So I just took anywhere where I beat him on the second appearance, and this time I barely was able to.

The final form is really hard to get good boomerang hits on. Some of the ones I tossed only hit once, but I was able to beat him in only two rounds, my goal. I also got lucky in that he only appeared twice each for his rush across the screen attack. I can't tell you what the game timer is because I don't show it and frankly don't care... but I'll mention that on a previous attempt I did look and it was 29:02. Since this is better, I'll say with confidence that it was <= 28:59.

Under 31 minutes real time is obviously possible, practically from my shoddy segment 1 alone, but I don't know about under 30. I won't be trying it! I did try an SS luck mode run after I did the 36:58 SS fighter, but I never got very far. I'm done with this game.

I did this run the same day I finished the segmented run which had taken six weeks. Although I was impressed with my 40:48 when I did it, I knew I killed too much, plus I learned several things when doing the segmented run so I wanted to try to improve the SS. I finished the segmented run at 1am, and after sleep & work I tried an SS. I got this on the first try and had no intentions to try again since it was good enough. I haven't even watched the run yet, and since it's almost three months after I made it now, these comments will be like from an outside perspective.

I killed a lot of Bats on the way to Cerberus to try to get a Wrist Band and thankfully I did. Getting random drops in an SS run is a lot more hair pulling than a segmented run, you certainly can't take the time to kill enemies over and over again to get them, you just have to press on without them. I stop to get a lot of heart maxes that are slightly out of the way which I skip in the segmented run, because I know I'll need them for Dracula.

The Cerberus fight wasn't too great, I got hit way too much. He actually changed into the correct color the first time, which I tried for a lot in the segmented run and didn't get, but I wasn't able to kill him quickly because I was too close to him.

The Mummy room is a fine example of where I wasted a lot of time in the 40:48. This time I just run right through and take a little damage. My single usage of the holy water to kill some axe armors suffered from bad aim. As with Cerberus, I need to make sure I get a level up just before reaching Necromancer or he'll be way too slow. His first phase didn't go so well, but in the second I got lucky and killed him right before he was about to turn into an energy ball and waste time.

I kill the Heat Shades hoping for their Stylish Suit drop, which is +10 STR, but it doesn't happen. I need to refill in the save room like always because my health is really low. Standard location to get the boomerange right before Iron Golem which went pretty well. Soon I'm killing Hyenas to try to get their Night Suit drop, +20 STR, but again no luck. Of course, it's the Were-bears that have what I really want, Strength rings. I kill everyone of them and don't have any luck. I got Prison Garb from an Evil Hand... yay for +5!

There's two shortcuts in Chapel Tower that I found during the segmented run, just because somebody on the forum mentioned there being a big shortcut. The first one is kind of minor but still worth it, and I manage to get both on the first try. Then the Heat Shade's fire knocked me down and I had to climb the wall again... gah! The Adramelech fight is rather slow because of my lack of STR items, and I use a lot of hearts as a result. I try one more time for a strength ring and amazingly get it. I'm not sure if I'd have gone on if I hadn't.

Going through the Underground Waterway without the Cleanse item is difficult, but I've done it so many times now that it's not a big heart pounding moment in an SS run like you might think. I really like getting frozen after the shortcut, but since I refilled at the save, I still have plenty of health. Wow... I skip the save in the middle of the area; that's gutsy. Camilla went well, except for that one boomerang that completely missed.

I go into the Catoblepas's room for the heart up, and to see if maybe he'd give me the Soldier Fatigues. If he actually had though I'd probably have shit a brick. The road to Hugh went quite well, I didn't get hit by very many of those annoying Dark Armors. Hugh is easy of course, but slow since I'm only doing 36 damage vs 50 in the segmented run. Both of his two phases have the same health, so I kept track of the hits in phase one so I could end phase two by sliding into him, which just looks really cool hehe.

Dracula's first form is good, though I maybe should've saved a few more boomerangs for the third form. Now it's really the heart pounding moment, not just because it's the end, but because Dracula's 2nd and 3rd forms are hard, especially with this low of a STR. When doing the first SS run I reached Dracula and died many times. The second form went fast, only two appearances, but again I wasted some boomerangs. I look to see if I had gotten any heart items, but I hadn't, but I use a potion for a whole 20 HP just in case things get that close. I miss several times with boomerangs completely, it's awfully hard to hit that eye which doesn't move at a constant speed. After several whip-only rounds, he finally dies and I didn't need the potion.

Under 35 minutes is certainly possible, but it would require at least +100 in STR boosting, and I only got 60. The biggest time difference from this and the segmented run has got to be Dracula's third form, but after that, just the time I spend killing enemies hoping in vain for drops. I don't plan to try this again, feel free to beat it yourself!