I first ran MegaMan Legends a few months ago, and though I was aware of an easy mode run, I really didn't find it particularly interesting. Unlike most easy modes, the Easy mode in MegaMan Legends is something of a reward for beating hard mode (or, alternatively, scoring a time of under 3 hours in normal mode.)
But, a few days ago before this run, I saw a rejected run that utilized a new trick, and had several holes. While it was faster than the submitted run, it had poor video quality and I decided that it was interesting enough to try my hand at it.

After my normal mode run, problems with my game disc caused me to stop running Legends 1, so this features a new game disc and a new PS2, and even a new controller for good measure.

I know this game inside and out, and after all the crap I dealt with in normal mode, all the bosses that gave me trouble, I was looking for revenge! And then... I found even dumber tricks that were just as hard if not harder than their normal mode counterparts. Personally, I think this run is far more optimized and impressive than my normal mode run is, and as my third submitted speedrun, I think it's by far the best in terms of technical quality as well; I've learned so much about timing, comparing, and routing that it makes a real difference in final time over me just a few months ago. Most of the tricks in Normal Mode aren't really important for easy. I still utilize diagonal running since it's faster than walking, as well as the fact that most reaverbots don't do contact damage if they're just standing around. Onto the run!

- Opening/Intro Ruin -

The opening ruins kills about 90% of my runs because of how good one of my earlier runs did it. Thusly, losing a second or more here is a reset. Considering how early it is, I do mostly blind jumps, and a frame perfect jump right at the start out of a pause. If I'm a frame late, it enters the text without me covering the distance in the jump. Anyway, the pause is to equip the jetskates (which are given for free in Easy mode) and the max buster, which maxes out your buster's stats.

There are lots of triggers, and I do the fastest movements into each one. Because of how their triggered, the jetskates are actually slower after the ledge grab for some reason.

The Two power generators are extremely hard to hit fast, I basically don't even check if I hit them and go to the door, if it's not down, then I reset. This was a relatively average opening, probably lost half a second on my best run of it.

The Boss is easy to take down, running toward him just gets in more hits faster allowing the cutscene to trigger. The rejected run jumped at the end, which actually loses time because the cutscene will not start until you're stationary. This is true in almost every case.

- Cardon Forest - Junk Store -

This is a surprisingly hard little part here, because of how tight it is to talk to gramps. All the trigger locations are memorized and I let go of the jetskates before them to allow cutscene skipping at the optimal time. This doesn't go perfectly and I lose about a third of a second from being slow on talking to gramps. Everything else about this section went well, and you can talk to the junkstore lady first frame by holding circle through the transition.

- Junk Store Man Rescue -

I hate this part of the game. This is where randoms come to kill your runs. Considering how high my standards are for the opening, they drop significantly for this part. Also, I have cancelled looking for him too many times to admit.

Have I gotten a perfect setup on the snakes at the end? Yeah. Have I gotten the zakobon to stay out of my way on the way back up? Sometimes. But getting both at the same time is nearly impossible, and considering how many randoms are in the run, I let this one go a little bit. It's just out of my control and I hope maybe a little badluck here will be rectified later.

I thought it went perfect this time, then as I was going up to talk to the junk store man, I saw a little snake at the bottom of the screen. It somehow dodged my spinning buster of death and lived. I saw it in time and it probably only cost me 2 seconds, but still. I woulda reset at the end of this segment, but then none of the zakobon hit me and I called it even.

- Miscellaneous running around -

Unlike my normal mode run, the buster completely obsoletes the mines and makes them completely useless. I use them for show in a few spots though, so yay?
Jet skating through the city goes okay, and I get through the "secret meeting" of the boys relatively fast. It's very hard to hit start while jetskating back and forth, so I do lose some time on skipping cutscenes. If only I had a few more fingers...

Anyway, after I go to townhall, I rescue Tron and get another obscure glitch during the cutscene with the dog. For some reason, if I mash start, it skips after the dog is in the final screen, but if I hit start rhythmically, and slower, it skips far earlier, saving a good two seconds. I very rarely get this, and am not complaining that it happened this run. There's probably some science behind skipping the cutscene, but, I haven't figured it out.

- BloomBears - Bon Bonne -

Bloombears are easy, shoot the yellow one to trigger the key being thrown, and kill blue before it catches the key. The key's collision detection is complete crap, so, I lose a good two seconds on that. I'm not happy about it one bit. Hopefully the two seconds is an exaggeration though.

Feldynaught went perfectly. As long as you don't shoot her right away, she won't drive, and it goes really easy.

Town Hall goes poorly, the yellow bot randomly goes to either side of the map, the other side is faster because I can hit it at a better angle after everything else is dead. I also fall down the sloped street, which is totally my fault. I probably lose 3 - 5 seconds here compared to my practice segments. I handled what randoms I was given well so despite me wanting to reset (I figured that even beating my previous best was impossible at this point.)

Bon Bonne doesn't go perfectly, I probably lose a second or so on him. I'm not terribly upset about that, as he can go into an attack where he refuses to die until the animation finishes. The key to doing it perfectly is to step up as little as possible per set of missiles to stay out of melee range. I get a little too close and pay the price, but it probably doesn't cost that much time.

- Marlwolf - Cardon Refractor -

This goes absolutely perfectly, I use the pointy tip of the rock for angle and estimate the higher angle. In practice, this strat works about 60% of the time. The attack he does depends on the success ratio, because the flying bombs steal shots and make it very hard to hit. He does that attack this time, but, luckily my shots are already in position and it kills them as they spawn.

The weirdest glitch comes after this... one I can't really explain. For some reason, I don't skip the townhall cutscene despite mashing start, but I do somehow regain control. Thus, I leave the room while the cutscene is playing. I'm so thrown off by the glitch that I lose time on the next two door transitions.

Now for the out of bounds glitch. It's easy to just jetskate through, but if you hit it at an awkward angle, you need to go backwards before you can go forward. I am careful not to do that and go right through. For everyone's information, this is the only wall in the game you can get through.

Cardon Forest goes very, very well. I'm playing as hard as I can since I had a subpar opening and play risky. The route through the breaking platforms was carefully considered, and this was the riskiest, fastest route I have. The route through the ruin is pretty simple and grabs all three keys as fast as possible. I have some trouble getting the elevator to go up at the end, but, that's okay considering everything else was good.

- Boat - Balcon Gerald -

After a quick trip in the support car, I equip the jump springs and use the car to skip the long walk across uptown. I get to the boat as fast as possible and start the turret shooter segment. I try to shoot to the music here, but with the shot lag and animation hiccups, it's pretty difficult to do it with any accuracy. I also use landmines on the water to some success. Yay.

But, the boss of this area is actually one of the biggest do or die moments in the entire run, I used to get it about 15% of the time in runs until I got really serious and learned a bunch of visual cues to setup my shot. I'm sorry about all the excessive shooting, but the height of the shot is very important the walls allow me to get it very precise. The key to the Balcon Gerald is to hit the far arm with 2 - 5 shots before moving to the turrets, this allows me to do a 0 cycle and kill it before the battle even truly begins. That orb on the back will not come up if all weapons aren't dead before the second sound on the drill attack. You'd have to wait 24 seconds for the ship to go all the way around again to get it to come up, so this was a run ender if I failed it.

- Lake Jyun -

This is an interesting ruin, the Zakobon at the beginning are random, and despite me getting through this area almost perfectly almost every time... I get hit a bunch. There's really nothing I can do when they're in that position. The rest of the ruin goes okay, I get a few bad jumps out of the jetskates, but they make it anyway and I don't get ledge grabs.

The Boss here features another of my new strategies. I've known this for quite a while, but this guy doesn't get stun frames when he's in middle of an attack. I spent several hours in emulator just playing this boss over and over again seeing if there was a way to abuse it and finish it way faster. This is the result, it saves about 3 seconds over playing it perfectly, and loses a second if I mess it up. It works out here and I save some time with the stupid strategy. Though, after the fact, it was really stupid to do my fast strat with the amount of health I had... if I had been paying attention, I would have played it safe. Oh well. Leaving the ruins goes perfectly.

- Clozer Woods -

This is usually my strongest point of the run. After I get out of the boat shop, I go to Roll and promptly forget to skip her dialogue, which costs half a second before I realize it. After that I zoom through the flutter's cramped quarters near perfectly, get the required grenade arm, and then have her fly me to the ruin.

In the ruin, things go very well up to the boss. This is my favorite ruin to zoom around, and the fact I start with lock on disabled worked out in my advantage in the grenade wall room.
The boss gives me bad randoms. Normally the one on the left charges at me and I can get it through the invncibility stun and then zoom across. Here, he jumps back and does the fire attack. Costs 3 or 4 seconds, but I handled it pretty much as perfectly as I could. The damage doesn't matter because of all the health they drop.

I get out of the ruins just fine, though I could have optimized movement a little bit. I guess I was nervous after the boss gave me weird randoms. All I have to do is open the main gate and leave.

Also, the elevator trick is slower in Easy mode by 4 seconds, because of the max buster. I break even despite not getting the randoms I wanted. If the dog didn't jump back, I could have skated across while they were in their invincibility state, and killed them as they chased after.

- Flutter Air Bosses -

After I leave the ruin, there's a trio of bosses to fight on top of the flutter. The first one is easy as long as you have lock on off, just follow the first airship and you can knock it down.

The Gesselschaft is easy. I run toward the skull at the end because it saves some miniscule amount of time.

Fokkerwolf is easy, but my shield by the bad luck in Clozer, so the missiles really hurt after the end of the fight. Lack of Lock On lets me just lead the shots and kill her before she can do anything. I've been killed after the fight several times, so only taking splash damage from the missiles was a welcome change.

- Maingate - Bruno -

Okay, talking to Barrel there is iffy because of the fact you can hit Triangle before he talks and waste time kicking. I'm aware of it and don't do it. I leave, go to maingate through the support car and skate down the ramps to the door. That's pretty much the fastest I've ever gotten down, I hit the corners as well as possible despite the camera glitching up. I activate the subgates successfully this time, I've lost 10 seconds being an idiot and selecting the wrong options and panicking.

Bruno's 1 cycle is very very difficult in easy mode. I just barely pull it off as it is here. I then use the grenade arm to blow up a wall to save a second later on. I try to show off some glitches in explosion positions, but without full health I'm not willing to get hit by one of the explosions, so you'll just have to trust me on the fact they hurt.

- SubCities -

The first two subcities actually feature brand new strats that shave seconds off, even if they aren't much. I shoot the reaverbots in a different order in Sub City 1, plus I found out that if a reaverbot gets close, using the grand grenade is faster than buster. The first two go very well, maybe missing a few shots in the first one, but it happens. But the third goes absolutely perfectly, so I can't complain. The trick to get four shots in on the boss in the first two phases is actually more difficult in easy mode because of how fast the shots come out. Notice how when everything goes right I have less to say?

- Final Stretch -

On the way down the main gate, I chicken out of jetskating between the first pair of gorubeshus because it's very precise and I rarely get it. Somehow I got it in my normal mode run, so check that out if you're curious!

Other than that, things go well, I get the throw a bomb glitch with the dialogue boxes that I enjoy so much... but that's pretty much it. The only thing left is the final boss...

- MegaMan Juno -

I have no fear for Juno, I didn't in normal mode, I don't now. The only way to get a fast, consistent Juno is to be absolutely fearless of him. The moment you think about dodging, or play it safe, he's going to hit you. First Phase goes well enough, only one of the invisibility attack. He jumps more than I'd like too, but it still goes very well.

Phase two on the other hand goes perfectly. The attack I don't want is the jumping around attack, and he doesn't do it very much here. Again, as long as you don't care about what he's doing and just fire away, you're going to be okay. I think this boss fight is an absolute treat to watch, because of how perfect it goes.

- Possible Improvements? -

Get better luck in Junkstore Rescue, City Hall Defense, and Clozer Woods Boss. Good luck getting all of those with getting such a friendly Juno fight though. I'd think humanly, it could go under 39 if all the random AIs worked together in one run. But... then you'd have to do all of the very difficult tricks, boss strats and inconsistent things I did here on top of it. I think this record is pretty stout, and far better than my normal mode run in terms of optimization.

Special Thanks

I didn't have much help on this run in particular, but thanks to everyone who helped me on my other runs, plus my viewers on Twitch.tv (See me at http://twitch.tv/JMC4789)

Speed Demos Archive and MegaMan Legends Station are always helpful. And the previous runners, who laid the ground work and routing for this run.

Speedrunslive is always worth checking out as well because I wouldn't have gotten into serious speedrunning without them!

Run History

MegaMan Legends may not be my favorite game, but it is one that has stuck with me for a long time. It has a certain charm about it that very few games have. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, you'll be thrown into three or four boss battles in a row instead of the typical dungeon/ruin structure.

Because it's so simple, I didn't expect many new tricks to be found, especially with a long standing record. My original goal wasn't even to top the record, which looked impossible at the time. I watched it merely as a guide for a forum event at Legends-Station that was going to be ran on Speedrunslive. But, practicing on emulator I quickly found that I was faster on many of the individual sections I was practicing, using savestates to practice would be run killers over and over.

It was supposed to be an easy run until I spent way too long practicing the Balcon Gerald, the ship boss about halfway through the run. The previous record did a three cycle, two on arms/cannons, one on their secret weapon. In my practice, I was painfully close to getting the arms and cannons killed in one cycle. Many hours went into figuring out exactly where to shoot until finally, I managed to do it and could one cycle the boss. This trick is the single hardest thing to get consistent in MegaMan Legends, and ended up being the main reason I thought I could take down the record. It saved 24 seconds.

I managed to set several very good times on emulator, several under 57 minutes culminating with what I thought was a near perfect 55:16. That run convinced me to repair my PS2 and resurface my MML1 disc, just to have a chance at actually setting the record. Several days, tools, POT adjustments later, I managed to get the PS2 reading again. Unfortunately, the T.V. tuner didn't play nice, and again I found myself buying new parts and finally getting it to work.

My first time on console was 55:40, but missed so many things, and was slower than my best time so I kept going. Very next day, I get a 54:29, which felt like a perfect run again, I was really happy and nearly submitted it. The next day? I set a 53:58; when I saw the time I thought I was done... but I watched the run and it just made me sick to see how badly I messed up the beginning.

Unlike the previous runs, I probably had to put in 20 - 30 attempts over the next few days to even get close, and finally, this run happened.

Run Comments

This is the first speedrun on console I didn't do constant jumping in. While in all my tests jumping constantly is faster, the fact is that there's only a few frames to jump when you land that it saves time. One miss basically costs enough time to cancel out five or six perfect jumps. It's just not realistically worth it outside of straight paths.

As my route is based out of the previous SDA run's route, I grab the power raiser in the intro ruins. It allows me to take down the Hanmuru Doll (First Boss) much faster. I employ stutter shot (...poorly done, in this run, probably lost half a second) to increase my shot output and take him down.

Once I'm out of the intro ruins, we have to save the junkstore guy. I grab 2600 zenny from the cove, and then kill the snakes. Power raiser allows me to take them out in one hit instead of two, and saves me money from having to buy it. Unlike the old run, I have a different zenny route and don't collect any spare parts to sell.

After going to town hall, I jump three times heading to Tron. It's slower than diagonal walking, but far faster than running straight ahead. I do this because if you're at an angle, talking to Paprika (the dog) is difficult. I've easily lost 3 - 4 seconds trying to get it to detect.

I buy Power Raiser + 2 because it saves a ton of time coming up. Then I talk to roll, and we start the boss montage.

Bloombears (Triple Tank/car things) goes okay. Red always throws the key to blue, so, just kill blue before he catches it. They won't move until you do so much damage, so I use that time to get into position that shields me from the machine gun fire.

Feldynaught (4 legged thing) goes okay. I've had better positions in which it never gets an attack off or spins, but, everything else had gone well and the biggest, most random thing was coming up next.

City Hall Battle is by far the most random, difficult part of the run. I turn off lock on because I don't trust it. I'd rather put my manual aim to the test than let that fickle thing pick the wrong targets and miss. I do okay here. You have to take down the three fliers before you take out the tanks, because the fliers will leave and bring back more. While they're gone, I can't attack them. Once they're dead, it's as simple as killing all of the dozer things and waiting for Bon Bonne to show up.

Bon Bonne (Yellow floating guy) has the most amusing trick. The original variant wasn't mine, but it required town hall to get destroyed. That takes too long, so I experimented and came up with this exact position. It's not as easy as it looks, as he'll sometimes float too high, or I'll stumble off, or you can even crash the game once in a while by throwing an extra mine after he's dead! If the stupid random dozers kill the lamppost by his spawn, this battle can go a few seconds faster. It happens maybe 1 - 5 times, and usually when it happens that dozer will go hide.

Since we just fought four bosses in a row, pretty much, what do we do now? Another boss! The MarlWolf (Green Digging thing) is a fickle thing. He has two attacks once you do the somewhat tricky jump onto his back. One is releasing birds, which doesn't give you enough time to attack the open hatch. Plus they can blow up and hit you. The other, is sending out a servbot (that lego guy I blow up) with a bomb. I like that one, and finally get it allowing me to do the one cycle and go grab some zenny from a tank.

After that, I talk to roll, use the car to warp to Cardon Forest. The tanks are waiting for me there. The first tank is the only one I really worry about, as Roll won't move until it's dead. The rest are way too easy to take out before she gets stopped, so I kill them, collect money, etc. For those interested, rolling through the fence is faster than waiting and running through it, but an even faster way is to actually jump into the car, and get stuck on the roof and run to the ruin entrance from there. It's a very difficult trick and missing it costs a second or two. I don't attempt it here, because the City Hall battle went so well.

Cardon Ruin goes okay. I throw an extra mine on accident, but skipping the text is the same button as special weapons. The Jakkos nest (beehives, basically) contain an amount of zenny depending on how many jakkos are left in it. I get 2000 - 3000 zenny per, which removes a lot of the randomness from zenny drops. I do my risky route through the collapsing platforms, grab the jump springs, hit some switches, grab the keys and get out. It's really a simple ruin, but one so easy to mess up. One fall can cost ten seconds or more.

Now, the run sort of goes on autopilot, I talk to Roll, get my jumpsprings made, go back into the ruin and go up the side. (which is accessible without jump springs with a perfect diagonal jump, but, it's slower because there is a jump in there that requires jump springs!) I collect zenny from the little mirocs, they can drop up to 500 zenny, or as little as 100. I get bad luck, so I grab the extra 800 zenny from the first cove. Sometimes I ignore it when I'm ahead on the zenny route.

The crates aren't very good to me either, getting the lower zenny drops on two of them, but I grab the rollerboard and buster unit (which is very important for this run) before heading out.

I buy Laser, Hypercartridge (special weapon refill) just like the old run, but I don't buy the shield restore (because, why would I buy an item in case I mess up?) and I add in a turbo charger (which comes in use WAY later in the run.)

The boat section is basically a 3D autoscroller, nothing I can do to speed it up or slow it down. I sometimes shoot to the music, but because the firerate is really low, I can't do a good job.

The Balcon Gerald (Boat Boss) goes perfectly and I one cycle the weapons. I always get nervous before this part, as the trick is extremely difficult. It went fairly well, I had at least two seconds to spare, which is about as much as I can ask for.

Lake Jyun is the second big ruin of the game. Three keys again, but they're all close. I grab the hoverjets because they're essential for the jetskates, which increase my movement speed for the rest of the game.

The Yellow Tube boss goes very well for my standards, I tend to miss his head a lot because of iffy collision detection + autoaim. I try to lure him towards the door as much as I can, but running sideways, shooting and jumping will often trigger a roll, which will ruin your chances at stun locking him.

I leave the ruin, repair the Flutter. The Grand Grenade is required because of one single silly destroyable block in Clozer forest. Luckily, it's in Gramps room and I need to change out the mines later anyway. I talk to gramps because if I don't, Roll will act scared and not let us go yet. But, once I talk to him, even though she doesn't know it, she doesn't care any more. I make the weapons, items, and then we enter Clozer.

I equip the jetskates, and equip my buster parts, and go through the ruin. Zenny luck is extremely important because I was behind earlier, so I shoot all the little guys on my way instead of jetskating. I grab the first key, and get out of the room before the Gorubeshus (Fireshooters) hit me and break my shield.

Skate down some hallways, activate the elevator generator, pick up the conveniently located key... then I have the Karumuna Bash (FireBreathing Dogs) boss battle. This one sucks, I never get this trick right, they always hit me or die separately (Which, is bad because I need the zenny) but here? Goes perfectly.

After that, I check my zenny, get the key, and open the Main Gate. But, of course the pirates ambush us before we can leave, and we end up with three boss battles.

The first one is hold Triangle to win. The second one is easy as long as it doesn't to the pattern where it goes from the sides back to the front.

The last part, the Fokkerwolf (Flying Red Machine) is aptly named. It is a run ender with homing missiles, hard to shoot movement and random attacks. I miss the one cycle, but get her out of her second attack, so it isn't too bad. Could have saved five to six seconds here with a better battle.

Next, I refill my energy, go down to the main gate. I make a stop that the previous run didn't, grabbing the Buster Unit Omega. It allows me to max out my damage without using a power raiser, allowing me to add the turbo charger I bought earlier in its place. With that activated, stutter shooting is now FAR more effective and saves a ton of time in the subcities and the last few bosses.

I head through a door and open the subcities. I go down the corridor to face the next boss, Bruno (Giant Mech.) Basically, he's an ass. There's one specific position you can stand and not get his by his missiles, allowing you to shoot him with your Active Buster until he dies. No waiting through his lengthy attack animation with the green orbs the second time. I know I'm in a bad position before he fires the missiles, I get hit. I do save a little time by luring one of the green balls into the fence that blocks me. But, this is probably the worst mistake in the run, costing me a clear ten seconds.

The Sub City wasn't my best, the enemies threw their homing machine guns at me twice, as well as the fact I didn't hear whether one enemy died and had to turn around and check. Once you kill all the enemies, the door opens and you can grab the key. There are three subcities, with three keys. The Second Subcity was not my best either, but it didn't go poorly either. I probably lost five seconds on my best run there.

The Third Subcity has a weird glitch. The Carrier Reaverbot needs to be killed, along with all of the reaverbots he drops, for the door to the key to open. To do that, you shoot the hatch when he drops reaverbots. The pattern the game expects is 1 3 3 2 for the first two hatches, and 1 3 3 1 for the last one. I discovered that if you delay the third shot long enough, it doesn't stun him and you can get a fourth shot in before his hatch closes. This means he drops a reaverbot, but, it also allows two running cycles to be cut off. Well worth it in my opinion. I take him out without issue.

After that, It's preparation for Juno. I skate back down the stairs, doing a risky, but neat, trick between two Gorubeshu. The trick does not work for the second set though, so I don't even attempt it there.

I turn in the keys, skate through, and refill my energy one last time. I bid Data farewell and go to face MegaMan Juno. Without any armor upgrades, this guy is a real tough one. Two hits puts you in redlife from the first form. That includes shockwaves, his arm lasers, and even his dive. He does the disappear attack twice, costing me precious time. I've had runs where he's never done it, but, being so late in the run it's very very hard to get angry over that. It maybe costs five to ten seconds over if he had done a perfect pattern.

The Second Form goes well. There's no real randoms to worry about, just dodge his attacks and fire away. The special weapon is used cautiously because it does tons of damage to his head, but less than the buster does anywhere else. I get lucky, and it actually homes in on his head instead of being stupid. The Buster seems to do similar damage no matter where it hits, so I stutter shot my way through. I try to run toward the center of the room whenever he jumps, because for some reason it interrupts his attack if he lands away from the wall. It allows me to get more shots in instead of simply waiting for the attack to finish up. I get hit toward the end, but I don't panic and simply finish out the boss. I look away at the end because of the extreme lag of his explosion.

The timer doesn't actually stop until you talk to Roll and leave! I've actually forgotten to talk to her before and messed up my time.

And then there's the long wait to the final time. The Credits and final cutscene probably take about ten minutes of time. If you watch all the way to end, you can see the final time printed out.

If you made it this far and read through, I really thank you for your time. This run was a blast making and I intend to tackle the sequel as well!

I sometimes stream my attempts/practice on Twitch.tv/JMC4789 if you're interested. You can contact me there or on the SDA forums if you have any questions or suggestions.

Extra tips/information: http://mmls.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=talkmmlgeneral&action=display&thread=5161&page=1

Special Thanks

Eric Chiz - For pushing me and listening to me whine about strategies and ideas.
Trege - Helped start the MML1 race, which got me to speedrun the game in the first place. Also tested weapons, routes, and told me a few boss strategies.
MegaMan Legends Station and its denizens - For keeping the spirit of the series alive!
Speedrunslive - Without them I may never have gotten the supplies/equipment to capture from console. Long Live SRL!
Keiji Inafune - For being one of the great people in the game industry and bringing this game to life. Also for MegaMan Classic and MegaMan X.
And, of course, everyone who has taken interest/watched this run, along with all of those I'm going to forget because I'm a scatterbrain.

Well... I certainly got my money's worth out of MegaMan Legends. This is my fourth category I've attempted, and the third one I've completed. I also feel it's the most beatable, yet most impressive of the runs simply because of what the final boss does to me.

Hard Mode is mostly, and I say mostly because of two huge exceptions, normal mode where you do less damage and enemies do more damage. In MegaMan Legends, it isn't that big of a deal mostly because there are very few cases where enemies can do damage to you if you don't screw up. The bigger issue is killing the bosses fast when you do a pittance for damage.

I'll highlight the major differences between normal and hard, but for the most part, assuming my normal mode run is up, things are true between the two categories. Money route is slightly different, but I'll tell you why when I get there. Mindset wise, it's similar to Normal mode in that you're always fearing Juno at the end, especially so now... but there are a few other areas that are incredibly difficult as well, making getting to Juno that much harder.

Important Tricks:

Stutter Shot: Tapping up cancels the shooting animation and allows you to shoot again immediately. You're still bound to the rapid limitation on the number of shots out at once though. Saves time later.

Diagonal Running: All but necessary in hard mode... but it's faster than running straight.

Landing Canceling: Not exactly a glitch, but if you do a running jump, you can immediately jump again when you hit the ground as long as you're still holding a direction. Necessary in hard mode.

Opening Ruins

This is identical except for the boss, The Hanmuru Doll. He has so much health and I do so little damage, it's faster to stick him in the wall and stutter shot. This goes as well as possible, considering he's random. The ruins themselves don't go perfectly, but considering that most of my runs are going to end anyway, I don't reset over half a seconds worth of mistakes.

Town Stuff

I need to do all the stuff I do here. I grab some stuff to sell for money because I can't use my money maker in normal mode in hard mode. Not much interesting, getting the junkstore guy goes okay, but, Those Zakobon can be incredibly annoying; if they go into the snake zone, the guy will complain about them as well.

Blumebears

Boring; same as normal but with more health. Get a really good zenny drop.

Feldynaught

It doesn't drive, which means it's a good battle. One of my fastest ever; though I could have been more aggressive with the landmines.

City Hall

The flying things go AMAZING. Like, considering my power down from normal, it's supposed to take WAY longer, but they go so fast. I feel like Hard Mode is actually easier to hit those for some reason.

The tanks go okay, I mean, I have time to spare because I want city hall to get destroyed to make Bon Bonne easier. The reason I don't bomb all the tanks is because I need the ammo for Bon as well. Missing one shot is annoying, but, it was utterly perfect otherwise. Downright amazing.

I hate how rewatching my run for this commentary makes it look unbeatable, but the final boss from this run is burned into my memory from being so painful.

Marlwolf
You can't one cycle him in Hard Mode because he has too much health, but my research on how to make this fight faster actually lead to something that could improve normal mode by a good 5 - 10 seconds as well. Good stuff!

I climb up as quickly as possible, and jump near the big tank because I need to lure him away or else he'll shoot me off the marlwolf later. I don't have time to destroy it, so simply turning it has to do. I miss the two cycle by a few hits, I feel like it's possible, but I've never actually done it. It'd require 25% randoms to get the servbots twice as well.

Cardon Forest And Ruins

Cardon Forest is still a joke. The ruins have a change that cuts nearly 9000 zenny out of my run. The nests are invincible in hard mode... which kind of makes this run way harder because zenny is an issue. Hard Mode seems to make zenny drops worse overall, so getting enough money in a run is incredibly rare. Out of the runs that made it to the end, this is the first one where I didn't have to grind for money.

Anyway, I'm a little cautious on the platforming in the breakable platforms area; the run before this I failed to drop the treasure chest and had to reset.

Transitional ruins and town

Same as normal, grab stuff I need, grab money, get screwed on zenny drops, grab an extra chest, etc. I buy the same stuff as normal except I skip the hyper cartridge, because Bruno takes forever regardless, and I can't spare the money this time around.

Boat Section

In normal this area is a joke. In hard, one of the people who were running the game Segmented told me this is why they quit running hard. While I believe that is an over-reaction, this section is very difficult to survive. I've had many runs ruined here, and other times I miss the proper cycles on the boss at the end.

You need at least half your health for the boss fight because it has an attack you cannot dodge in hard mode; at least with my poor buster stats. It only takes four good hits to take me below half health, or a single plane crashing into me, or a missile hitting the front of the boat; since only the explosion does damage and stays in it longer.

It's a horrible section, and requires me to have mines, because I need to destroy some of the boats before they fire multiple shots. Other times, I need to get lucky, because there are spots where a red boat can fire that I cannot shoot down the torpedos! Gah... just... it was a mess. I'd say a good 50% of my runs end here, but, I got more consistent as things got down to memorization, only the worst luck putting me in critical health.

Balcon Gerald

Easy has a zero cycle, Normal has a one cycle, and Hard has a two cycle. It's by far the easiest of the early cycles to get with this route. The problem is the orb at the end; with my current stats, I'm always two shots away from killing it before it gets out of my range. There is a trick to shoot between the upper and lower body to get early hits; and I get one here, but I need two. I feel like it's possible, but this one I just couldn't get. The Orb cannon fires so fast you can't stun it most of the time and that's why I need so much health coming in.

Lake Jyun

This ruins is the same as normal. Zakobons are still annoying, still grab the jetskate part, still takes almost no time to go through.

The boss here though, is actually different. There is no stun pattern unlike normal and easy. So, the way I save time here is to abuse his glitchy hitbox and just never stop firing at him to get extra hits while he attacks. It's somewhat related to the abuse I do in my easy mode run that saves 1 second, except it saves way more here.

Clozer Ruins

Yeah, I'm not commenting on the stuff before this. I actually discovered why the elevator trick is inconsistent, and found a way to always get it to work because of how long I need to be on the elevator in hard mode. Of course, this run I manage to botch it. The rest of the ruin is just me getting the active buster, money, and stuff. Normal Commentary applies except I'm more nervous on money.

Karumuna Bash

Right, the elevator trick. They can actually hit you if they're standing on the elevator, but if you stun them with grenades, they won't do their fire attack, and you can't get hit... if you're not standing on the edge like a dumbass! Ugh, watching the run, I can see it so clearly, but at the time I wasn't fully aware of it. It still goes okay, I collect the money, probably lose 10 - 15 seconds. Damn it.

Gesselschaft and Fokkerwolf

Unlike Easy and Normal, it's not really consistent to kill all the ships in the first go. The first little ship gets away unless he goes straight up or down, and it doesn't here. I try to conserve as much ammo as I can while killing them quickly. It goes pretty good.

The Gesselschaft itself is actually identical to in normal mode time wise, it's just incredibly difficult to make sure you get the good pattern by taking out the cannons. If they hit the flutter so much, you don't fly down, and you don't get to hit the wings!

Fokkerwolf

It goes relatively well; I'm in redlife, so this is always something that can kill me out of splash damage alone. I mean, could it go better? Sure, because the tips of her wings can block shots for some dumb reason! And the stupid active buster doesn't reach, so I can't even quickly kill her with that.

Bruno

Main gate is identical, so whatever. Bruno on the other hand has so much health that I honestly have no idea what to do with him. This is all I could think of; powered up buster + all my active buster ammo. I couldn't afford to risk grinding for minutes to buy a hyper cartridge; though on this run it probably would have been faster; usually I don't even have enough zenny, but this time I was only 900 off of affording the hyper cartridge.

The lock on makes this fight incredibly difficult, my shots have to be amazingly precise, or else it will try to aim for the other weapons. This is why I cannot stutter shot him here.

I roll when he fires at the fence because 50% of the time the shot will go through the fence. Seriously. What the hell.

I get combo'd pretty awesomely at the end by Bruno, but it literally costs me nothing since I refill active buster.

Also, glitchy explosions!

Sub City 1

I can't stun any of the reaverbots that matter, so I have to memorize their health. Active buster does variable damage based on explosion position, so part of it is a guessing game as well. Got some weird enemy placement, but it goes okay. I could have been a little faster, but I messed up a few of the jumps midway through.

Sub City 2

25% I get the good pattern on this section. If the first pink thing turns toward me, the Sharukurusu will destroy me while I try to destroy it. I need to be facing things one at a time because of the lack of hit stun and huge health bars.

First green one was in a weird position, but that was because I take longer to kill things in hard mode. My fault for not looking in the right position.

My viewers tell me I missed a Sharukurusu when looking at the end, and then he blind sided me, but I swear I do not see where he was until after he hit me. I'm more than pleased with how it went though, if a Sharukurusu hides, then I an waste several minutes.

Sub City 3

The amount of health of the enemies it drops makes it harder to do the 1 4 4 3 3 pattern that is optimal to kill the first two phases. I let him drop enemies to get the extra hit in which saves time.

I get the bad pattern for hard, so I end up having to skate a few more seconds, but it's not a huge loss.

Pretty much the same as normal and easy.

MegaMan Juno Phase 1

This is pretty much the same as Normal Mode except he has more health, and I think he feels a little faster at times, but, honestly, it doesn't change the fight at all if he is. Because he has more health, I have to be careful on my ammo. Again, Juno Phase 2 is resistant to special weapons (or at least, the ones I could get in a speedrun) so it's faster to use all my ammo now.

MegaMan ****ing Juno.

This is actually where the fight begins.

I lied, it begins when he reaches half health, and pulls out one of the most bull**** moves I've ever seen in a commercial video game boss. It feels like something that would be put in a romhack of MegaMan Legends to make it incredibly difficult.

It's literally a hacked move, too, Capcom was lazy enough to put no effort into hard mode to this point, and the one thing they changed was probably a few variables on health and this one attack.

Juno's critical attack, when I first discovered it in a joke run for my viewers, was undodgeable for me. I spent over an hour playing through the boss over and over again just to get a good look at this attack, to see the utter bull**** for myself.

I almost feel like Capcom didn't want you to dodge it, they wanted it to be undodgeable, or they were aware of glitches in the movement physics and didn't fix them solely to make this attack dodgeable... I don't know.

Juno ended all but two runs that got this far, the other one being about a minute slower than this one, but having a much better fight. Let me explain:

Juno's attacks are kind of like a roulette. The first half doesn't really matter because the critical attack isn't in the roulette. But after it is, he could use it as many or as few times as he wants. The problem is that I can't exactly hit him during this attack. I try to get a few hits while doing my messed up circle strafing, but that's not exactly the same as pumping in ten - fifteen shots during his other attacks.

Oh right, did I mention how you're supposed to dodge it? He fires two shockwaves with glitchy collision boxes that extend far behind their sprites, one then another. You can't jump over both, even with the jump springs, and you can't jump up and down in place because the landing animation takes too long for you to jump to dodge the second one. So, I have to jump toward Juno while rotating the camera away, hold back in midair so I don't run into a wall (which is certain death, btw, because of the second part of the attack.) When I hit the ground, I have to hold up again, and jump during the landing animation, but not too early that it fails the
cancel, but not too late that I get hit again. If I manage to do all that, I can dodge the first half of the attack. Oh, but it's not over.

In Normal mode, the lasers falling from the sky is harmless, just run around in circles. In Hard, I have to be running diagonal to get far enough away from their explosion radius to avoid damage. If I touch a wall, I get hit, comboed and can be one hit KO'd if I'm unlucky. If he's in the center of the screen, this isn't too bad, because I can keep him in view and just use the walls as guides, but if he's in a corner, I'm completely blind and have to position myself incredibly carefully with the two jumps so I can run unimpeded long enough to dodge the lasers.

So, when he does that attack, the moment I see the warmup, I have to be planning not only my safe area, but where I need to land with both jumps, as well as remembering his position and spinning enough that when the attack ends, I have him in sight so I don't get hit by a cheapshot during his next attack. He does this attack at least eight times during this fight. If he touches me, I'm instantly at zero health. The lasers can do enough damage to bring me to red life in two hits, or combo me there immediately. The shockwaves do two damage if I have my shield, or redlife me if I don't.

Just watch it, I nearly run into Juno during one of them even, and my heart skips a beat.

And after all of this, I do one of the most retardly gutsy things I've ever done in a speedrun.

I kamikaze Juno when he does the attack at low health. The speed of the attacks mean that if my last shot does not kill him, I die. I didn't realize how stupid it was until after it was over... and that is why; despite the bad luck, I think this run is worthy of being submitted. When everything was on the line, I played with incredible recklessness to save a few seconds; and to me, that's what speedrunning is all about.