First off, I need to give some route credit to Matt Trent...although I changed the level order I still mostly used his. I also need to give him thanks for doing his run period...else I might not have ever gotten around to actually doing mine.

I'll admit it right now, I'm not all that hot with the whip - at least not until I get a few of the advanced techniques. You'll notice early on in the Ghostly Theatre and The Dark Palace of Waterfalls that my whip control is lackluster at best...at least in the Dark Palace I have my sub-weapon to make up for it.

Speaking of sub-weapons...I only need one - the Knife. Yes, the Knife - The weakest sub-weapon out there. Combined with the Yellow Orb, however, it's one of the strongest attacks in the game. And I abuse it to no end...which is the reason I'm constantly gathering Hearts. Astral Knife has a high base attack power, but the real power behind it is when I'm able to use it at point blank range. When it's used it summons 8 small knives that fire straight out from Leon, doing damage if anything is in the way. They then begin circling over Leon's head until something is close enough, then they will home in and attack. At point blank it's possible to add 2-4 extra hits to this attack, making it extremely useful even on enemies that are resistant to the Knife. It's also a great crowd clearer, as can be seen in almost any part of the run.

I should also note that the only reason I save is so I can use the Memorial Tickets. They won't let you use them if you don't do a complete save...which I found rather annoying.

I chose to do the Ghostly Theatre and Succubus first for 2 reasons:

1) Succubus is a pain and probably the boss I had the most trouble with. Plus she tends to use her guard ability whenever you use a sub-weapon, and sometimes when you try and whip her as well (when she yells "No Tricks" - she only does it a couple times). The idea was to get the hardest boss out of the way first.

2) I need the Yellow Orb to use Astral Knife, which you obtain after defeating Succubus. It makes her a pain to kill, but it speeds up everything else after that.

I also grab the HP Max Up just outside Succubus' room...mostly for the free refill.

In the Dark Palace of Waterfalls I use a Memorial Ticket to skip the Doppelganger completely. I also grab the Heart Max up since it's an easy Refill before Joachim.

Joachim himself was being a pain...using the harder to dodge attacks most of the time and causing me to waste 2 potions. I think the fight would have gone faster if I'd been a little more willing to get up close when firing off Astral Knife (just compare the damage when I'm standing right next to him to when I fire it off from a distance).

Medusa was an easy fight...Astral Knife works quite well since she's usually in your face...I just wish I'd had the Vertical High Technique at this point...it would have helped immensely. When she did her "Summons" attack (the snakes) I should have been firing off Astral Knife in Mid-Air. I'm not sure how long it was after finishing this run that I realized I could do that.

Undead Parasite would have been better if I had better guaged the HP of the eyes. I can normally drop each one after 1 point blank Astra Knife and 1 whip combo...but I kept cutting the combo short in hopes that it would be dead. The 4th eye didn't drop due to the Soulless that my Knives went after instead of the eye.

Golem - I don't care if he's resistant to the Knife...at point blank it still tears him apart. He guards when you use sub-weapons, but all the knives hit before he does this, and it allows me to stay at his side without fear of retaliation. The second form would have gone faster if I had been using Astral Knife in mid-air.

In the Pagoda of the Misty Moon, I should have maxed my Hearts out before fighting Doppelganger. It wold have saved me the trouble of maxing them out after, and would have made the fight with the 2 Phantoms go much faster.

On the 2nd floor, I should have hit the save point so I could use a 2nd Memorial Ticket here...not sure if it would have been faster, but it would have saved me one extra trip down that long hall with the 3 Lizard Knights and the Gaap.

Walter. This fight went a lot better than I expected. Using Astral Knife just as he reappears was a great trick for heightened damage. I know I could have done a perfect guard on his insta-kill attack, but this was the best attempt I'd had and didn't want to chance losing it. You'll also notice the game slows down when he fire the 3 exploding red orbs...this actually caused problems for me since it made it awkward to time my whip combos.

Death...I'm normally a lot better at dodging his "Deadly Tempest." Double jumping is by far the easiest way to go about it, I just completely screwed it up a couple times. The last time I did it right, then walked into the center flame...

Something else that I could have done is to not have bothered picking up the Raccoon Charm (or equipping the Coin of Happiness). At those points I had completely forgotten what the Luck stat actually did.

I also took refills at time when I really didn't need to before bosses. Joachim I did need it for, but not for any of the others.

100% for Leon is a pain. He has quite a few more items to grab than Joachim does, plus runs quite a bit slower. I was aiming for under 1:50, but considered this close enough. 100% for Leon means Map Completion (of course), all 7 Orbs, all powerups (HP, MP, Heart), 8 out of the 10 relics (all but the 2 rare drops), and all accessories found lying around in the castle.

I had originally thought that Relics would play a much greater role in this run, but not enough of them are all that useful, or drain MP too quickly to get much use of out them. I did find that the Svarog Statue works wonders on Succubus (with a full MP bar it does anyway), and the Black Bishop is nice against Death since sub-weapons are useless against him. Other than that the Wolf's Foot was the Relic of choice just to get me around quicker.

I should also note that this is a very money intense run. I need a total of 13 Memorial Tickets (at $800 a pop) and 2 Magical Tickets to take all the shortcuts. I also needed enough to buy the White Bishop Relic. The rest I spent on potions, until the end where I had just enough for the 2nd best armor. I actually needed $3200 before fighting Succubus. That's what that pause on the menu screen was for. The same is true when I just pause it in front of Rinaldo's house - I'm calculating how I'm going to spend what money I have.

Leon's route revolves around the 5 keys. I start in Ghostly Theatre as always for the Yellow Orb and Astral Knife. The Key here unlocks the door in the Dark Palace of Waterfalls. I head to the Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab next for the Flame Whip. There's a door in the Dark Palace that is covered in ice and can only be opened if you have the Flame Whip. Then I hit the Dark Palace of Waterfalls. I grab the Ice Whip here, and also the key for the Garden Forgotten by Time. I love the fact that Joachim is has an Ice weakness. Next is the Garden Forgotten by Time. Standard runthrough here, grab the key for the Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab, and set my warp point as well. There's a room here that can't be entered without the Wolf's Foot Relic, which I use the Key from here to get. I polish off the Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab after that. I already did some of the map my first time here so it saves me a lot of backtracking to fill the map out. After Golem I warp back to the Garden Forgotten by Time so I can enter that one room. House of Sacred Remains is last. I use 4 Memorial Tickets here to save a lot of running. Undead Parasite is a pishover with all the crap I've picked up so far. I then quickly backtrack to Ghostly Theatre to open the locked door and get a rather useful Accessory. The Heart Brooch reduces Heart comsumption by 25%, so all those Astral Knives only cost me 7 instead of 10. Pagoda of the Misty Moon is obviously next. I more or less clear the entire map here before heading back down to fight the Forgotten One. Memorial Tickets ahoy!

Walter and Death were pushovers. The Black Bishop Relic heightened Leon's already high damage output.

Not much else I can say really. Enjoy.

Joachim's game is faster than Leon's, but he actually takes longer to kill most bosses - mostly due to the lack of a sub-weapon.

I also noticed after I finished this run that it's slightly faster to constantly dash than it is to run...not by a lot but it may save a little time.

I chose to do Succubus first, like in Leon's, but this was because it was the shortest level, and she is one of the harder bosses.

Speaking of Succubus...there's only a couple times during the fight that specials are useful. She has a shield she likes to use (she yells "No Tricks") which guards against everything. She tends to use this when you use any sort of special against her. So I was stuck using the default attacks for the most part. When she clones herself and splits is a good time to use it though. You can safely hit any one of her, and even if you miss you're invunerable and can continue searching for the real one. The other good time is during her Vine Snake attack...again, partially because of the invunerability, and partially from the damage...but she can break the attack to shield herself.

No skipping Doppelganger in this one...and I suck against him. This was by far the worst fight of the run. I took way too many hits and was overall too defensive.

Joachim I nearly died on. He insisted on doing the hard-to-dodge attacks pretty much the whole fight.

I found the weaker of the 2 specials to be more effective here. If used point blank it sometimes will score a couple extra hits - granted I didn't utilize this like I should have. I spend too much time at a distance when I could have been using this right next to him.

There's a quick way to take out the 4 eyes for Undead Parasite. Get into one of the corners and fire the beam so you're partially diagonal to the closest eye. It will place you in the corner, in a position so that you can hit 2 eyes with the beam. I did it right the first time, screwed the 2nd time up badly, and did it right the 3rd time but didn't realize it and didn't take advantage of it.

Medusa - I hate the camera in this room. I used the beam and the camera changed angles to the point where I couldn't see where I was aiming...which pretty much meant a wasted special. Other than that this fight went rather well, though I could have been a bit more aggresive.

The only thing I saw for Golem was that I wasn't close enough when using the special - Note that using any special here will cause him to guard for a short while...so the beam isn't effective at all. The Spinning Blades work well since they can do their damage before he guards. If I had been closer it probably would have done a little more damage.

Doppelganger 2 went almost perfectly, except when I couldn't find him after firing the beam.

Walter was a pushover. Always save enough MP to use the beam when he uses his insta-kill attack.

Death wasn't too bad, but I could have used a special right at the start during one of the "Minions" phases and I would have easily had another one by the time he started using "Deadly Tempest" which was what I was saving it for anyway.

100% for Joachim isn't actually that hard, since he has no keys to deal with, and dashing all the time helps speed things up as well. For a 100% run I feel that not only do you need 100% Search Ratio (Map Completion) but also 100% of Joachim's power-ups (HP, MP, Attack, Defense) along with the 6 Orbs he can obtain (all but White). Potions and Food (which are sometimes found in rooms with accessories/relics/keys for Leon) I don't consider as anything worth grabbing.

I started with Ghostly Theatre as usual. Joachim and Leon's route through here is almost identical - Leon just skips the locked room this time through, and also has to pick up the HP Max Up in the Cyclops room. I started here since it's the only area that has an Attack Increase that doesn't require a boss fight. Succubus actually isn't that hard even with only that one attack increase as well.

Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab is next due to it's short length and because the Flame Elemental is the easiest of the 3 Elementals. Leon's and Joachim's route through here is completely different. Leon actually makes 2 trips to cover it all, Joachim just has to enter/exit in a few places to cover everything. The Golem is pathetically easy with 2 Attack Increases.

The Garden Forgetten by Time is next. Leon and Joachim's route through here is almost identical, save for the extra trip Leon has to make back here after obtaining the Wolf's Foot Relic. Pretty standard runthough. Medusa dies quickly.

Dark Palace of Waterfalls is another area where Leon and Joachim have completely different routes. While Joachim takes the right at the first fork and uses the stairs to head downstairs, Leon uses the Elevator up near the Ice Elemental since her gets a Relic for collecting all the money on the way down. Joachim is still a bitch even with all the upgrades.

I saved the House of Sacred Remains for last since its the only one of the 5 areas that doesn't have an Attack increase. Both character's routes through here are similar, except Joachim has to walk everywhere, and Leon gets to use Memorial Tickets to warp around. Undead Parasite drops quickly with the massive Attack power I have.

The only thing about this run that bugs me is the huge backtrack I have to do just to get to Forgotten One. Despite the fact that Joachim can't pick up any other Event Items, he still needs the Unlock Jewel to get downstairs. So I end up having to walk from Pagoda of the Misty Moon 2F all the way back down through the Entrance and past the level transporters just to get to him, then another pleasant walk back upstairs all the way back to Walter.

Not much to be said about Walter/Death. They both drop quickly since I'm at full power. Walter even drops without ever getting to use his Insta-Kill attack.

I don't show my equipment or anything else at the start of the fight, so I'll list it here:
Weapon: Whip of Flames
Armor: Solar Plate
Acces1: Bloody Cape (Gain hearts when you take damage)
Acces2: Heart Brooch (Decreases heart comsumption for Sub-Weapons)
Acces3: Megingjord (Increases damage as HP goes down)
SubWpn: Knife
Orb: Yellow
Relic: Invinvibility Jar

Swapping equipment (Whips and Accessories) is the key. The Brisingamen helps a lot for fights utilizing Relics, and the Assassin Necklace is nice for Walter/Death. Swapping Whips for different elemental weaknesses is essential.

There are some bosses which are quite counterproductive to having a good Boss Rush - any that can guard.

Flame, Ice, and Thunder Elemental can all do this, along with both Doppelgangers. Ice just seems to do it whenever she wants, but it's less annoying than the others. The other 4 pretty much guard if they aren't attacking...which wouldn't be a big deal if they wouldn't sometimes spend 20+ seconds doing nothing. The Thunder Elemental fight kinda sucked when he decided to not do anything...I tried to break it but didn't quite do what I wanted.

Succubus can also guard, but hers is different. When she yells "No Tricks" she puts up a shield for a couple seconds. Usually she does this as a counter to a sub-weapon. Sometimes you can catch her in the middle of an attack, but it's not likely since she can cancel her attack and put the shield up anytime.

Joachim can also be annoying. After you drop his shield he sometimes like to just move around the room without doing anything (I had one attempt where he did nothing but circle the room). It's rather hard to whip when he's constantly out of range.

Forgotten One. He's not hard just annoying. The first phase is simple. Just Astral Knife and whip. Never stay on the ground long enough for a maggot to hit you. Second phase just make sure not to get hit by the hand. Stay as far to the right as possible too - this allows you to semi-manipulate where his hand will go. After he slams it down fire off an Astral Knife and as many whips as you can. The third phase you need the Invincibility Jar. Just use more Astral Knife and whip as usual, but when he charges up his insta-death beam, activate the jar and keep attacking.

Walter - the only trick here is to use the Invincibility Jar when he uses his insta-kill attack.

For Death, keep your HP low and use the Invincibility Jar during the "Minions" and "Deadly Tempest" attacks.

Joachim takes longer than Leon, but is a bit easier as well. There's no equipment swapping or item usage, so its almost always an immediate teleport after the fight.

Against the Flame and Thunder Elementals, and both Doppelgangers, the Beam is extremely useful for breaking their guard stance. The Ice Elemental can still guard it, though.

My Undead Parasite Trick worked almost perfectly this time. The first Beam was perfect, the 2nd was a little too far to the left but somewhat managable, the 3rd was on target but still hard to aim...you have to listen for that second hit on the far eye.

Succubus isn't even worth using specials on...she'll usually use her shield if you do.

I should have saved more MP for the Joachim fight...I could have gotten a few more Spinning Blades specials off.

Against Fogetten One the weaker stance is better. Its easy to score multiple hits with it. The first phase you'll notice I was getting 3+ hits per swing. Use the Beam to clear the Maggots, and use the attack stance when there's only the one large target left. The 2nd phase goes quickly if you can keep him slamming the far right since you can press the attack easily while his hand is still in the air. Notice also that his hand has 2 hit locations. 3rd phase also seems to have 2 hit locations, but they're not as easy to multi hit as the hand. Save your beams for when he's using his insta-death beam.

Walter drops quick. Save a beam for when he uses his insta-death attack. This is one of the few bosses that Joachim can drop faster than Leon.

Death is also fairly quick. Just abuse the special when he does "Minions" or "Deadly Tempest" and keep piling on the sword attacks. This would have gone a bit faster if that one Minion would have left me alone however.

I just did a quick comparison...Joachim drops 4 of the bosses faster than Leon (Succubus, Joachim, Walter, and Death). It seems any boss I can't use major Sub-Weapon abuse on with Leon is faster for Joachim.