Comments: This is my fourth completed run of this particular game. In 2008, I did two runs with what little time I had access to a DVD recorder, one of which I submitted (and was later rightly rejected). The third run was of the memosave variety, which was going to shave off an insane amount of time, but during recording of the run, 4 discs up and croaked. That ended what would be my final memosave attempt. It's too frustrating to do a no-random battle run.

When I started this run, fearing losing more discs, I made the decision to rip the VOBs of all successful attempts and keep them on my PC. Eventually I would get a nice, shiny 2 terabyte hard drive to rectify that problem, and resume the run.

This run started in July of 2010, and ended in December of 2010. Upon starting this run, I feared losing more discs, so I made the decision to rip the VOBs of all successful attempts and keep them on my PC. This would quickly eat up my hard drive space, because I only had 120 gigabytes of total hard drive space when this run began. As successful attempts piled up, I ran out of space, eventually getting down to about 300 megabytes free collectively.

What sparked my drive to try this run again was anally retentative verifiers rejecting Winkwonle's first run, I feel wrongly rejected. I never managed to watch it, and since SDA still didn't have a run of this game on the site yet, it was wrongly rejected. Part-way through the making of my run, Wink finally got a run accepted, which left me in a bit of a pickle. I wasn't sure if I should continue with mine or not, because SDA would finally get a run up. I decided to continue, because I had put a lot of work into this game already.

When I got to the final couple of segments, I had the thought in the back of my mind that I could potentially get sub-3 hours. Alas, as the last segment drew near, I realized that the final dungeon had to be perfect at that point for me to get that mark. However, if you want to draw straws, Chaos died at 2:56/2:57. *whistles*

Segment 1: Rescue the princess!
The great romscout once said "you need to have a team besides pandora :S" And naturally, he says it after I'm already committed and making failed attempts at the Marsh Cave. In any event, Team Pandora makes their next, and perhaps final appearance. Dragonsbrethren (DKK, he used to go by Dark Knight Kain in the old days, I used the abbreviation here), Lenophis (that's me!), Imzogelmo, and King Lettuce.

The party is three fighters and a red mage, but a memosave run would use a black mage instead of a red. Why black? It gets MP charges faster than the red does, which means better vampire and Lich fights. Anything after that would go about the same with red, until the last dungeon.

As for why I chose this party, it has the best overall chance of victory, at least from my observations. There's no real wrong answer here, unless you stick a Thief or two in there. Then you're a doofus. There was a discussion a while ago about which team was better for a speedrun, unfortunately no conclusion was reached. So with no evidence to suggest my party was sub-par, I kept it for this run.

Segment 2: Nasty pirates!
This was a very lucky segment, because it's pretty much impossible to get good battles on the way to Pravoca and get a great pirate fight. Short of putting all 9 pirates to sleep, it could not go better.

Segment 3: Could you spare a gil?
The quest to get 40,000 gil and then turn around and spend it all. As painful as it may be to wait during the 15-tile puzzle game, I have no choice, cause something like this always happens if I don't. In my previous runs, I ended the segment here because of the run-killing risk of getting to Elfheim. But with a DVD recorder, time, and hard drive space on my side, it was a risk I could take.

Segment 4: Let's go to the cave!
I suppose you're wondering why I chose to accept this segment. Simple - experience, and the first formation was exactly what I was hoping for, but I could've done without the ambush. However, it's a relatively rare formation, and I was happy enough with the end-result.

Segment 5: Who hides a crown in a place like this?
This was not my best attempt, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. I had a better attempt (beware, it is crap in quality) but it was scrapped because I got ballsy and took a stupid chance.

Segment 6: To the castle!
The trek to the castle is its own segment simply because Astos is a somewhat difficult fight. So, nyah. :P

Segment 7: We've been betrayed?!
I rectified the mistake made in my previous runs and made sure this g'fooker was deathless.

Segment 8: Back and forth, and back and forth...
I hate what this segment involves. Too much running around, no opportunity to save at all until you get to Melmond or the Terra Cavern. Unfortunately, since it's a big segment there tends to be a lot of opportunities for a run-killer, and getting to the Terra Cavern or Melmond is what will likely cause it. I did break my mold of acceptance for this segment, because it can be that difficult. That is why I took the 2-try run just before Mt. Duergar. For those interested, at the end of this segment, the Lesser Tiger was a 3/64 chance of an encounter.

Segment 9: You..youyouyou d-d-d-don't scare me, vampire!
Surprisingly, this didn't take all that many attempts to make, comparitively speaking anyway. It was 2 days of attempts, but the overall number didn't exceed 50 tries. The hardest part was getting to the third floor, although the third floor has its share of annoyances, as well.

Segment 10: It just wouldn't be an adventure if we didn't have to get an item.
This was an annoying segment, and mostly because there's a 37.5%* chance of getting into a battle with Shadows, which have the highest ambush rate of any formation in the game. In other words, run killer.

*: The numbers say it's a 37.5% chance, but of the 8 formations you can see in the Melmond area, the Shadows occupy two of the slots. Adding up all of the numbers, it's a 24/64 chance, which does sound favorable. In reality, they show up all the time. :P

Segment 11: FUN WITH LICH!
This one took a while to make, but not nearly as long as the Ice Cave segment. Up until this point, I had been making the run using my old-ass PS. The controller bug that plagues this game seems to be a bit worse while playing on the PS2, and the loading was not going to take a significant hit. However, after enough frustration with unsuccessful attempts, this conversation on IRC took place late at night, on July 30th, 2010:

<Lenophis> grrrrrrrrr
* Lenophis considers a no-encounters code
<Saeko> FF1 owning you?
<Lenophis> that's putting it lightly
<Saeko> ouch. XD
<Tom-Servo> FF1 is easy peezy
<Tom-Servo> when I first played it I rented it for like 2 weeks
<Lenophis> not when you're trying to go fast
<Saeko> Tom: he's trying to do a non TAS.
<Tom-Servo> near the end the save file corrupted
<Tom-Servo> TAS eh?
<Saeko> *non* TAS.
<Saeko> aka real-time.
<Tom-Servo> erm
<Lenophis> you know, the thinhgs that need skill
<Saeko> using a PSX console and a copy of the game.
<Saeko> (or in his case, a PS2)
<Lenophis> actually, I'm using a PS here
<Saeko> oh? i thought it was failing on you?
<Lenophis> more responive
<Lenophis> responsive*
<Lenophis> it is, but the game seems to play better on it than my PS2
<Lenophis> dunno why
<Saeko> you have a slim PS2 don't you?
<Lenophis> yep
<Tom-Servo> oh, I don't cheat so I wouldn't even know what TAS means :P
<Saeko> Tom: http://tasvideos.org/WelcomeToTASVideos.html
<Saeko> basically using an emulator with slow-down and savestates.
<Tom-Servo> yeah, cheatin!
<Tom-Servo> I never go fast
<Tom-Servo> no fun in that
* Lenophis turns off
<Lenophis> I tell you
<Lenophis> the *instant* I get a good segment
<Lenophis> it's getting uploaded
<Lenophis> and anybody that dares reject it will get an assload of boot
* Leno_jr has joined #romhacking.net
<Leno_jr> -_-
* Lenophis Quit (Ping timeout)
...
<Leno_jr> you know
<Leno_jr> just for shits and giggles
<Leno_jr> I'm gonna see if this segment fares any better on the PS2
<Saeko> XD
<Leno_jr> somehow I doubt it
<Leno_jr> but I'm getting desparate here
<Leno_jr>
http://www.backloggery.com/games.php?user=lenophis&console=PS&rating=&status=&own=®ion=&wish=&alpha=
<-- it's getting that bad
<Leno_jr> soon I'll offer my ops
...
<Leno_jr> ok
<Leno_jr> let's see if this fares any better...
<Leno_jr> >_>
<Leno_jr> that's not even fare
<Leno_jr> fair
<Leno_jr> *
<Saeko> ?
<Leno_jr> holfd
<Leno_jr> almost to the 5th floor already
<Leno_jr> MADE IT TO LICH
<Saeko> good segment then?
<Leno_jr> very
<Leno_jr> FUCK YES
<Leno_jr> if I get out
<Leno_jr> I AM KEEPING THIS
<Leno_jr> that was the best lich fight of all time, almost
<Leno_jr> HELL YES
<Saeko> best segment evar?
<Leno_jr> by far
<Leno_jr> I demolished lich (first time getting to him)
<Leno_jr> and I got to him very fast
<Leno_jr> the whole segment is a smidge over 7 minutes in movie time
<Saeko> damn, that's fast. :o
<Leno_jr> game time probably took about 6:40
<Leno_jr> give or take
<Leno_jr> I'll time it
* Leno_jr rips
<Leno_jr> this bastard is going up to youtube as soon as I am able to upload it
<Saeko> nice.
<Saeko> look forward to seeing it.
<Leno_jr> if youtube chokes, I'll just normal up it
<Leno_jr> in-game timer is at 0:59 at the end of this segment
<Leno_jr> hot damn
<Leno_jr> the movie time was 7:29, which includes a good 15 seconds
fumbling with memory cards
<Leno_jr> segment 9 (vampy segment) was 7:03 in movie time

And from that point on, the game would be played on my PS2.

Segment 12: The boat won't do? Get a canoe.
Not much to say here, I head to Crescent Lake to gear up, pick up the Canoe, and head to the Citadel of Trials. The worst part of this segment was the petrification at the end.

Segment 13: Test your mettle, warriors.
This frustration is child's play compared to what's coming up. For any attempt to be successful, the Nightmares need to cooperate, on top of everything else that has to go right. You pretty much need one of the three healing items, and the Healing Staff is the quickest one to get. That means two forced encounters with the Nightmares, unfortunately (only one if you play the NES version, though). Nightmares have 200 HP, are weak to ice, and don't resist lightning. I have 1 charge of level 4, which means for the first battle I use Bolt2. Even though they are weak to ice, I've lost many attempts by using Ice2 and still not killing them in the first round. It was very frustrating.

It should be noted that you must talk to the sage at the entrance, otherwise the chair to proceed does not work.

Segment 14: We should go this way, instead!
Technically speaking, you're supposed to go to the volcano first, before you get the hint about the Ice Cave. Do what the game wants you to do, really? Who does that anymore? :P

Segment 15: Hell freezes over.
This segment took forever to make, but the game being uncooperative was not the whole reason why. Right around this point, I had been running out of hard drive space. Since the arrival of the DVD recorder, I had been recording a lot of TV, and making a bunch of SotN runs for romscout, and at the worst, I was down to a combined 300 megabytes of free space. Four months would go by, and I would finally get a new hard drive, which would allow me to resume the run. After three days of attempts, I finally managed to get to the Evil Eye, but since this is speedrunning, and since this is FF1, things inevitably go wrong (see bloopers below). Additional bloopers were made, but the video quality of those movies are horrible, so consider yourself lucky if you haven't seen them. But if you feel brave enough, you can check out WarMech's FF1 thread to find them.

What I had to do was get enough gil and experience so I would survive the rest of the game. This meant a farming trip at the Evil Eye, which is ok as long as you can get to it. Yes, I chose to be careful here, but I had to. During recording of the memosave run, I lost about 20 segments due to walking too far, and going in a pit. And after the massive failings of previous attempts, nothing was going to keep me from completing this segment. But just like the blooper below, I nearly lost this segment to the same damn formation. Considering the extreme difficulty, this is an easy accept for me, and hopefully anybody with a brain.

Segment 16: The Sky Warriors' Airship.
The hardest part about this segment was getting back to the ship. Although, there's a good chance of getting a run killer near Onrac when getting the Bottle...

Segment 17: Hot-foot it into a volcano.
Quite possibly the easiest segment there was to make. Because of how little time is spent in here, I lump in going to Melmond and transitioning to the waterfall.

Segment 18: What's a dungeon doing inside a waterfall, anyway?
This one took a few attempts to make, and it produced an interesting blooper. At this point, running consistency becomes a huge factor, which is why I started to fight more battles. Yes, I likely should've ran from the forced fight, but at that point I just wanted to make sure it was a success.

Segment 19: Dive, dive!
Despite how much I hate this part of the game, this segment did not take many attempts to make. I opted not to get the Diamond Armor, because it felt like too much time for too little gain. At this point, the defense isn't going to help as much as it could, so I took a chance and it worked in my favor.

Segment 20: Cracking the code.
Pretty much a transition segment, I pick up the last quest item I need which allows me to enter the Mirage Tower. If only the damn Lufenians would stop getting in my way...

Segment 21: Repressing the instigator.
You can tell how good or bad an attempt will go based on if the Mirage Tower cooperates. I tried this segment about 60 times, and all but 2 never made it out of the Mirage Tower. A couple formations have rather high ambush rates, and a lot of enemies act like the Nightmares, meaning you can run, but good luck in doing it. Oh yeah, there's the 1/64 encounter, too (see blooper section below). I made the decision to get Thor's Hammer, because I ancitipated using it later in this segment or in the final dungeon, neither of which happened. Since I had to get the Dragon Armor and Sunblade anyway, it cost me all of 2 seconds. In the end, I accidentally used my last cottage. I wanted to use a tent instead, but I don't think it hurt me as much as it appears.

Segment 22: They stole King Arthur's sword!
For a while, I was considering lumping this is with the Mirage/Floating segment, but I didn't want some extremely stupid thing like a battle/ambush to ruin it, so it's by itself. And because I used my last cottage at the desert, I make a trip to the Cornelia Inn to restore HP/MP to full, then use a tent outside the Temple. I didn't want to redo the previous segment, and considering how much I needed to heal, I sincerely doubt I lost any time.

Segment 23: Take a step forward to go back in time 2000 years...
This dungeon is hell's big brother, and once inside, all bets are off. Getting to Lich is the hardest part, but after that, it's smooth sailing until Tiamat's floor. Chaos is a run killer, at least in lower-level runs, which most speedruns are. In the past, I've lost several attempts at Chaos, because his skills still do a lot of damage. Thankfully, he cooperated with me on the only attempt I got to him.

Finally, I have a couple of particular bloopers I wish to share. One is a failed Ice Cave attempt, and another is a couple 1/64 encounters which I managed to get 4 times during the making of this run. I recorded all of them, but the earliest ones were lost due to the aforementioned lack of hard drive space. As I kept mentioning that I was getting the 1/64's, I was told that I would inevitably run into WarMech, and I agreed with the assessment. However, luck would surface, and I evaded WarMech's sights. If I did run into it, though, it definitely would've been included in the blooper reel, I assure you. :P

I wish to thank a few people:

Disch - Creator of FFHackster. This utility helped with a lot of planning, still!
Dragonsbrethren, Imzogelmo, and King Lettuce - Team Pandora. Wait, aren't we still working on something else?
Aftermath - For coming through with assistance on the sample extraction when no-one else would.
setz - For the assist on helping with that last letter in the blooper banner.
Saeko - For keeping IRC logs. You're a life saver.
Sliver-X - For some reason, he decided to make a non-NES version of one of his songs, and at least IMHO, one of the better songs from Dragoon X Omega II.
Gideon Zhi and dn - Both had faith that I would run into WarMech.
Carcinogen - He suggested the idea of using 2 memory cards to counter the time of saving with many files on one card.
I.S.T. - He said he wanted in.
romscout - Because he doesn't want to be thanked by everybody for contributing nothing.
Alantas - For helping clarify a few things with these written comments.

Welcome to my Final Fantasy 2 Speedrun (take two). This second time around I think I put a lot more effort into making each segment as close to perfect as possible, mainly cause I had the first run to compare it to. With the current strategy used, I don't think I could personally improve it by any more than 2 minutes. I tried to set the bar as high as possible.

I would like to thank:

- SURUME, for the 3:00 time-attack on Ultima Garden, which gave me many of the strategies I used on this run.

- Bananamatic, for starting the FF2 Origins topic, which sparked my interest to do this run myself.

- Carcinogen, for the link to the Time Attack report on Ultima Garden.

- All the other Final Fantasy runners (Essentia, Farringa, Darkwasabi, Deign, Alex Eustis), for their Final Fantasy Speedruns, which gave me the motivation to do this run to add to the Final Fantasy speedrun collection.

- Nate, for helping me figure out the video issues that got my previous run rejected.

- Anyone who has posted on the FF2 thread giving me encouragement to finish the run.

- Anyone who watches this run.

- SDA, for accepting this run and for maintaining such a great community.

73 segments seems like a lot for a relatively short Final Fantasy run, but there are good reasons for it. First of all, in FF2 Origins, you can save a Memo File anywhere in the game (except when you are in battle), so there are more opportunities to save. You can only save to the Memory Card on the World Map. The Memo File gets erased when the Playstation is reset, however, so it is necessary to save to the Memory Card sometimes, even though it takes several more seconds. Another reason for the amount of segments is the sheer difficulty of fleeing from encounters in this game. There are many regular encounters that you cannot flee from no matter what your stats are, and fighting unnecessary battles adds significant chunks of time to the run. The segments are kept fairly short in order to flee every encounter possible, but I spent a great deal of time trying to get as far as I possibly could before saving.

The encounter rate in this game is based on how many steps you take. The step count is shown in the menu below the time. Unlike Final Fantasy 1, the encounter rate does NOT reset when you save. Running a direct path is very important to avoid getting more encounters than you need to. Unlike my previous run, I don't believe there are any places where I make unintentional missteps. If I seem to take wrong steps anywhere, it is on purpose to avoid an encounter.

I apologize for the screen distortion after the menu and some cutscenes; it's something weird with my capture device that I can't do anything about. Nate told me what it was a couple years ago but I can't remember.

Segment comments:

1) Intro - Altair

I don't rename any characters because the clock is already ticking. In the Black Knight "battle" I restarted until I got an Enemy Strikes First so I die faster. I set the text speed to 1 so the dialogue boxes can be skipped significantly faster. I remove and sell everyone's equipment to get Gil for boat and airship rides later. Maria and Gus are naked throughout the entire run, and Firion doesn't need anything except shields until much later. The extra buckler I buy is for fleeing later.

Time: 0:02 Steps: 90 Gil: 985

2) World Map (Altair)

The basic strategy for this run is to get Firion to level 10 Barehand and Shield, for boss killing and fleeing, respectively. To do this I use the "cancel trick." If you select an action, then cancel it, then select it again, you will keep getting points towards leveling up a weapon or shield. There is a formula for how this is calculated, but in simple terms I will say that at level 1, the first attack gives 11 points, then each one after gives 1 point, so in the first battle I need to select attack 90 times to level up. Some time can be saved on these leveling segments by mashing the buttons faster, but I tried to do it as fast as I could without screwing it up and/or losing count.

Time: 0:04 Steps: 105 Gil: 997

3) World Map (Altair)

In the 2nd battle, the first attack gives 0 points, the 2nd attack gives 11 points, and the rest give 1 point each.
This pattern continues for all the leveling segments. So, on each level I need to attack one more time than the previous level. I do these all as separate segments to ensure that I only get one goblin. Any more than one will take too much time to kill.

Time: 0:05 Steps: 122 Gil: 1009

4) World Map (Altair/Gatrea)

Barehand/Shield Level 4

Time: 0:07 Steps: 149 Gil: 1034

5) World Map (Gatrea/Fynn)

Barehand/Shield Level 5

Time: 0:09 Steps: 178 Gil: 1040

6) World Map (Fynn)

Barehand/Shield Level 6

Time: 0:10 Steps: 189 Gil: 1090

7) World Map (Fynn)

Barehand/Shield Level 7

Time: 0:12 Steps: 200 Gil: 1140

8) Fynn [Ring]

Barehand/Shield Level 8 and getting the Ring from Scott.

Time: 0:15 Steps: 418 Gil: 1146

9) World Map (Fynn)

Barehand/Shield Level 9

Time: 0:16 Steps: 440 Gil: 1158

10) World Map (Fynn)

Barehand/Shield Level 10. Now that I have finished leveling Firion, I don't need Maria and Gus for anything for a while, which is why I kill Gus here. Maria will die in the next segment.

Time: 0:18 Steps: 451 Gil: 1208

11) World Map (Fynn) - Altair [Canoe] - Paloom - Poft - World Map (Semitt)

Starting on this segment I load from Memory Card slot 2, and save to Memory Card slot 1, so I only have one save per card. This makes it take less time to save to the memory card, which counts towards the run time.

I get a Pre-emptive Strike here so I can kill Maria without being attacked. I equip the 2nd shield on Firion so his chance to flee is higher. At this stage he can probably flee most encounters with only one shield, but he definitely needs both later. I get Mindu in party and receive the canoe so I can travel over lakes and rivers. You cannot get encounters in the canoe, so it is useful for avoiding encounters that you would get otherwise.
After paying for the airship ride, I pay for the return boat trip in advance, so I don't have to re-enter Poft when I come back to the boat.

Time: 0:21 Steps: 771 Gil: 844

12) Semitt Falls

I can flee from everything here, but I need to make it through without any Enemy Strikes First. An interesting note is that Pre-emptive Strikes are actually bad when I am only fleeing; it takes about a half second longer to flee from a Pre-emptive strike than a normal encounter, since you can't select actions right away when the banner pops up.

Time: 0:24 Steps: 1106 Gil: 844

13) Semitt Falls {Sergeant} [Mythril]

Most bosses I need to hit with both fists, but the Sergeant will die to one fist. Firion also attacks faster when he has one fist and one shield, so there isn't as much chance of the enemy or another character attacking first.
I reset until I get a Mythril Axe, which I need to sell for 1k gil. Warp is easily the biggest time saver in this run. Without it, the run would probably be at least 30 minutes longer.

Time: 0:25 Steps: 1108 Gil: 844

14) World Map (Semitt) - Paloom - Altair - Poft - Bafsk

I put Firion's 2nd shield back on since it is a while before the next boss. When I get to Paloom, I pay for the boat trip in advance, because it is less out of the way now than when I come back from Altair. I take a detour in the canoe and another detour before going down the steps in Bafsk, to avoid 2 encounters.

Time: 0:29 Steps: 1521 Gil: 680

15) Bafsk Cave [Pass]

Here's the first place where I use secret passages to shorten the run distance, and lower the amount of encounters.
There is really no rhyme or reason to the locations of these passages, but I'm not really complaining. Some of them are just downright silly, as you will see later. I run to the teleport pad since it doesn't let you use Warp in this area.

Time: 0:31 Steps: 1716 Gil: 680

16) World Map (Bafsk) - Poft - Paloom - Altair - Poft - Salamand

I have to stop in Poft to memorize Airship and Sunfire from Cid, otherwise I can't memorize Goddess Bell from the king, which I need to get Josef to join the party. Mindu leaves the party permanantly, so I remove his equipment to sell later. Now that Mindu is gone, I need to get Warp and Life on Firion. Getting the Mythril Axe was important, because if I hadn't gotten it, I wouldn't have been able to buy both scrolls, and I would have had to come back to Salamand later to get the other one. I very subtly avoid three encounters on this segment; I'll let you figure out where ;)

Time: 0:36 Steps: 2239 Gil: 173

17) World Map (Salamand) - Semitt Falls [Snowcraft] - Snowfield

Whenever a character leaves the party, the rest of the party gets an automatic resurrection; which in this run hurts more than it helps. The first encounter is ideal for killing off Maria and Gus. I don't really need Josef either, but it would take too much time to kill him with his higher HP.

Time: 0:39 Steps: 2564 Gil: 173

18) Snow Cavern

The Snow Cavern is the first place in the game where I have to worry about running into encounters that are impossible to flee from. It is not as bad as some places though, so I am able to get through in one segment with only 1 Enemy Strikes First. Four enemies striking first takes quite a bit of time though, so in retrospect, it might have been slightly faster to add an extra segment here.

Time: 0:42 Steps: 2998 Gil: 173

19) Snow Cavern {Adamantoise} [Goddess' Bell] {Borghen}

I need to get a Diamond Shield from the Adamantoise to sell for 4k gil later. The Enemy Strikes First right before Borghen is unfortunate, but the Diamond Shield is pretty rare, so I kept it.

Time: 0:45 Steps: 3058 Gil: 573

20) Snowfield - Poft - Castle Kas'ion

Since Josef left the party, Maria and Gus are alive once again, so I need the Enemy Strikes First to kill them off.
Getting an encounter on the last step before entering Poft is really dumb, but there was no way to avoid this one.
I switch the Bronze Shield to Firion because it gives him slightly more evasion than the buckler, and I need the other buckler for Gareth later anyway.

Time: 0:49 Steps: 3385 Gil: 173

21) Castle Kas'ion (1F-3F)

On my previous run, this was the first segment that I realized that the encounters in this game are not completely random. Every time you reload the game, the RNG is reset, but the encounter pattern you get is fixed. If you attempt a segment enough, you will notice the same encounter patterns showing up several times. You can actually alter the pattern by attacking in an encounter instead of just fleeing, but it's not practical in most situations. Looking at this segment again, I'm not sure why I didn't redo this and have Gordon die at the start instead of the end, and by only one enemy, not two. I guess I thought it was a good idea at the time, but now it looks kind of bad.

Time: 0:50 Steps: 3539 Gil: 173

22) Castle Kas'ion (3F-5F)

Not much to say about this segment, just running the rest of the way to the boss.

Time: 0:52 Steps: 3734 Gil: 173

23) Castle Kas'ion {Shrieker} [Egil's Torch] [Sunfire]

I have to get a Pre-emptive Strike on the Shrieker or it will always kill Firion before he can attack. There is a cutscene that was supposed to be at the end of this segment, but I accidentally saved before triggering it. It doesn't affect the time though; it just made the next segment more annoying.

Time: 0:53 Steps: 3751 Gil: 185

24) Chocobo Forest - World Map (Palamecia)

Getting the Chocobo quickly isn't as easy as it looks, because it doesn't always run into your path.

Time: 0:54 Steps: 3936 Gil: 185

25) Dreadnought (1F-2F)

This is the first very difficult segment in the run, and it was the one I was stuck on when I put the run on a 14 month hiatus. The chances of fleeing 3 or 4 encounters in a row on these floors are very low, combined with selecting the pass quickly at the start and not having a guard randomly block you. My PS2 also locks up sometimes when I do the Select/Start/L1/L2/R1/R2 reset on this game, which it did multiple times on Segment 28, causing me to lose the memo file and having to redo this segment yet again. Looking back, I wish I hadn't kept this terrible four Enemy Strikes First encounter, but I needed to make progress to get myself back into doing the run, and that was the cost. After this segment, I think I put a lot more effort into the run than I did up to this point.

Time: 0:56 Steps: 4044 Gil: 185

26) Dreadnought (2F)

This segment is a bit easier because I don't have to do the Pass selection thing, but it's still pretty rare to get through 3 encounters in a row.

Time: 0:57 Steps: 4135 Gil: 185

27) Dreadnought (2F-1F)

Again, getting through 3 encounters in a row is pretty rare on these floors, not much else to comment on.

Time: 0:58 Steps: 4233 Gil: 185

28) Dreadnought (3F-4F)

These floors are a bit easier to flee on, so I make it through 5 encounters this time. That stupid guard blocks me, but fortunately it moved out of the way faster than normal, so it probably didn't waste more than a second.

Time: 0:59 Steps: 4367 Gil: 185

29) Dreadnought (5F)

The easiest floor on the Dreadnought; I just have to not screw up selecting the Sunfire.

Time: 1:02 Steps: 4523 Gil: 185

30) Altair - Paloom - Tropical Island

I stop at the inn to replenish Firion's MP for Warp/Life later. I need to memorize Dragoons and Wind Drake in order to get the Dragon Egg from the Wind Drake later. The fire scrolls I buy are for upcoming forced battles. I only end up using 9 of the 10 scrolls, but buying one extra doesn't take that much time, and I wanted extra to be safe. I switch the Gold Hairpin to Firion to give him +10 agility.

Time: 1:07 Steps: 4993 Gil: 1474

31) Tropical Island

I keep Maria and Gus alive here because I need them to take hits from the boss in the next segment. You can flee from everything here, but you can't get any Enemy Strikes First, because the enemies will not miss anymore.

Time: 1:10 Steps: 5338 Gil: 1474

32) Tropical Island {Gigan Rhino} [Black Mask] - World Map (Deist)

I need to kill the Gigan Rhino in two hits, and it needs to kill Maria and Gus. I take a small detour in the ship to get a sea encounter since the island has a very low flee rate. I also avoid an encounter by going through the lake. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten across the whole island without an encounter in this segment.

Time: 1:12 Steps: 5574 Gil: 2074

33) Deist Cavern [Pendant] - Castle Deist [Dragon Egg]

You cannot flee from anything in Deist Cavern B1, and hardly anything on B2, so I use the fire scrolls on the weak-to-fire undead here.

Time: 1:14 Steps: 5686 Gil: 2798

34) Deist Cavern (B1)

Again, I have to kill the undead with a fire scroll, because you cannot flee from anything on this floor.

Time: 1:15 Steps: 5770 Gil: 3823

35) Deist Cavern (B2)

The only encounter you can flee from on B2 are Revenants, and there is only a 6% chance of getting that encounter. The odds of getting two Revenant encounters in a row, let alone three, are astronomical, so I make each encounter on this floor a separate segment.

Time: 1:15 Steps: 5786 Gil: 3823

36) Deist Cavern (B2)

Revenant group #2

Time: 1:15 Steps: 5810 Gil: 3823

37) Deist Cavern (B2)

Revenant group #3

Time: 1:16 Steps: 5859 Gil: 3823

38) Deist Cavern (B3-B4)

This segment was probably in the top 5 for amount of attempts it took to complete. In both this and the previous run, this was the only pattern I could make it through 4 encounters in over a thousand attempts. I wanted to make it through 5, but it just was not going to happen.

Time: 1:17 Steps: 5957 Gil: 3823

39) Deist Cavern (B5) {Chimera}

You can get 1-4 Chimeras, so obviously I restarted until I only got one.

Time: 1:18 Steps: 6011 Gil: 4223

40) World Map (Deist) - Altair

I probably should have redone this, because I turned the ship too early, but it was pretty rare to get this pattern. A couple extra turns probably only wastes half a second, but it just looks kind of ugly. I cast Life on the party for the boss in the next segment.

Time: 1:20 Steps: 6470 Gil: 4223

41) Altair {Lamia Queen}

I had three criteria for this boss fight. 2 hits, drops a Diamond Plate, and kills Maria OR Gus, but not both. Pre-emptive strike would have been a bonus, but I got the main three, so it couldn't have been much better. Even though Leila leaves the party, Gus doesn't get resurrected, since Gordon replaces Leila. The Auto-res only happens when someone leaves the party without being replaced immediately.

Time: 1:23 Steps: 6549 Gil: 4223

42) World Map (Altair) - World Map (Palamecia)

Pretty simple segment, just a few encounters and some boat maneuvering.

Time: 1:24 Steps: 6826 Gil: 4223

43) Coliseum {Behemoth}

The Behemoth battle is pretty straightforward, I need to kill it in two hits, and it needs to not kill Firion. I get an Elixir to use on Firion, because he needs more MP for Warping, and it's much faster than stopping at an inn again. Here's another place with secret passages; it's kind of funny that there are holes in the prison walls. Gordon leaves the party, so Maria and Gus are alive again, but I actually need them for the next boss. I think this is the only time that the auto-res is actually good.

Time: 1:28 Steps: 7069 Gil: 4223

44) World Map (Palamecia) - World Map (Fynn)

Basically segment 42 in reverse, except going to Fynn instead of Altair.

Time: 1:29 Steps: 7420 Gil: 4223

45) Castle Fynn {Gottos}

I was planning on having everyone except Firion die on the Gottos battle, but keeping Leila alive actually worked out better in the upcoming segments, which is why I equip her with fire scrolls at the end.

Time: 1:31 Steps: 7526 Gil: 5723

46) Castle Fynn (B1)

Much like the Deist Cavern B1, you cannot flee from anything on Fynn B1. Revenants take two fire scrolls to kill, so I need to only have one Revenant that Firion can one shot and Leila can take out the rest. I keep this encounter as its own segment because it is incredibly rare to only get 1 Revenant in a group twice in a row.

Time: 1:32 Steps: 7558 Gil: 6298

47) Castle Fynn (B1-B4)

Like the last segment, I need to only get one Revenant so I can finish the battle in one turn. Unlike Deist, B2-B4 here you can flee from almost everything. I equip two more fire scrolls in preparation for the forced battle in the next segment.

Time: 1:34 Steps: 7705 Gil: 7223

48) Castle Fynn (B4) [Blood Sword]

The Specters often take three fire scrolls to kill, but I kill them in two here. I get the Blood Sword out of this chest, which will be the main boss killer from now on.

Time: 1:35 Steps: 7760 Gil: 9398

49) Castle Fynn (B5) [White Mask]

This is probably the worst floor in the whole game, because you cannot flee from anything and unlike the undead, the Splinters won't die to one or even two fire scrolls. Three splinters is the minimum that you can get, and they each take one or two hits from Firion's fist. I use only one fist, because if I took both shields off he would die. This floor is the reason for getting the Diamond Plate from the Lamia Queen. If he didn't have the armor, the hit that he took would have killed him (even though it was a shield block, the block wouldn't have happened without the armor). On this run I saved after taking the White Mask, because there is one more encounter on this floor, and on the previous run it was a really bad, really slow 6 Splinter encounter. Instead I got another 3 Splinter encounter at the beginning of the next segment. This saved more than a minute from the old run.

Time: 1:36 Steps: 7829 Gil: 12098

50) Castle Fynn (B5) - Mysidia

This segment is where I make the biggest mistake in the entire run, which I didn't realize was a mistake until it was too late to fix it. When I go to Mysidia and buy the Life scroll, I should have also bought a Banish scroll from the same NPC. What I forgot was that Banish works similar to Warp when you use it in the menu, only it teleports you one floor up or down instead of porting you out of the whole place. This would have been extremely useful in the Cyclone, as you will see later. The five Blink scrolls are for bosses later on.

Time: 1:39 Steps: 8140 Gil: 9898

51) World Map (Mysidia) - Mysidian Cave (B1)

In the previous run, this segment was just walking from Mysidia to the cave entrance, but I decided it wasn't too hard to get through B1 here. It also makes the next segment much easier. I skip the Ninja Suit this time (as well as the Thief Gloves in Mysidia), because the extra agility really isn't worth the extra time it takes to get it.

Time: 1:40 Steps: 8302 Gil: 9898

52) Mysidian Cave (B2-B4)

Even though I got through B1 in the last segment, it is still too difficult to get all the way through in one segment here. It would have been nice to have gotten to B5 before saving, but it doesn't affect the time.

Time: 1:42 Steps: 8555 Gil: 9898

53) Mysidian Cave (B4-B5) [Crystal Rod]

B5 has a pretty low flee rate, which is why it needs its own segment.

Time: 1:44 Steps: 8706 Gil: 9898

54) World Map (Mysidia) - Intestines [Headband, Power Sash]

This time I got through the intestines in this segment instead of the next one, because the next part is tricky, and it is much easier to do it at the start of a segment rather than in the middle.

Time: 1:46 Steps: 8950 Gil: 9898

55) Stomach - Mouth {Barrel Worm} [Power Armlet]

The guy standing in front of the Power Armlet chest is really annoying, because he usually loves to walk right in my path, which is why I wanted to do this at the start of a segment. After that, selecting the crystal rod and equipping Gareth quickly is far from automatic. The Barrel Worm goes well, since I need everyone alive for the tower.

Time: 1:48 Steps: 9069 Gil: 11898

56) Mysidian Tower (1F-4F) {Fire Gigas}

The secret "passage" on 1F doesn't save that much time, but it does take a few less steps. Running around those pillars was a pain because it was very easy to run too far. There is also a secret passage on 2F, but it takes the same amount of time and steps as the route I took, so it wasn't really necessary. 3F has an abnormally HIGH encounter rate, which is why it is insanely lucky that I didn't get a single encounter on 3F. On the old run I had three encounters within a few steps on the stairs. The Fire Gigas went ok, but the Fire 16 instead of a regular attack really sucks. This was the best pattern I could get though, without adding another segment.

Time: 1:50 Steps: 9252 Gil: 12898

57) Mysidian Tower (5F) {Ice Gigas}

5F also has an abnormally high encounter rate, like 3F, so only getting 1 encounter here was also extremely lucky. The boss fight is pretty straightforward; he takes 3 hits, and needs to kill Firion and Gus.

Time: 1:51 Steps: 9323 Gil: 13498

58) Mysidian Tower (6F-7F)

6F has a pretty low chance of fleeing, and the Thunder Gigas is much more luck reliant than the other two Gigases, so I have to do the boss at the start of the next segment instead.

Time: 1:52 Steps: 9415 Gil: 13498

59) Mysidian Tower (7F-10F) {Thunder Gigas} [Ultima Scroll]

The Thunder Gigas goes pretty much perfectly, which is why I reluctantly accepted those two enemies attacking me before I could flee.

Time: 1:55 Steps: 9578 Gil: 13498

60) Castle Fynn [Wind Drake] - Cyclone (1F-4F)

I was extremely fortunate to find a pattern that got me through the first 4 encounters in the Cyclone, after sitting through 2 cutscenes to get there. Due to my PS2 locking up several times in the next segment, I had to redo this segment way too many times. However, since I knew the pattern I was looking for, I just restarted unless I got 2 Boltfish, to make it a little more bearable.

Time: 1:59 Steps: 9980 Gil: 13498

61) Cyclone (5F) [Defender]

Here is where the mistake in Segment 50 is very costly. If I had thought to get Banish in Mysidia, I could have teleported out of this floor after picking up the Defender. It places you at the end of the previous floor also, not the beginning, so I would have been right near the next set of stairs I need to go up. But since I forgot about Banish, I had to backtrack through this floor, which just happens to be the worst floor in the Cyclone for fleeing.

Time: 2:00 Steps: 10077 Gil: 13498

62) Cyclone (6F-7F)

These floors are a little better than 5F, but not by much. If I had remembered Banish though, this segment probably wouldn't even be necessary.

Time: 2:01 Steps: 10140 Gil: 13498

63) Cyclone (7F) {Emperor}

This segment was very difficult, because all three battles have to go well for it to be acceptable, and it is not very easy to get all three to be good. You can get 2-4 royal guards in the first two battles, but two isn't always faster than three. It depends on how many hits they take and how many attacks they get off. The first battle being a pre-emptive strike was pretty usual speed, but the second battle went way faster than I expected, considering it was 3 enemies without a pre-emptive strike (Ironically, I get a Banish scroll random drop from the 2nd battle). The last battle was also faster than expected with it not being a pre-emptive strike. The main things that kill the attempt on this battle are Firion getting killed and the Emperor casting Bolt 10. Fortunately neither of those happened. I could have done without the Slow at the end, but overall, this segment couldn't be much faster.

Time: 2:05 Steps: 10187 Gil: 18398

64) Fynn - Palamecia [Airship]

Getting that last encounter right at the airship really sucks, but there isn't anything I can do about it. The Airship has a turbo mode that is first activated when you press circle 32 times. Afterwards you can toggle it on and off by just pressing circle once. Unfortunately, I am not a great button masher, so the turbo usually kicks in right when I'm about to make the turn, and I usually overshoot the turn. I decided to not leave the turbo on until after the turn so I could make it precisely. Then it is also very easy to overshoot the castle when the ship is in turbo mode, so I actually end up stopping 1 "step" too early, but it isn't a problem to take that one step at the beginning of the next segment.

Time: 2:08 Steps: 10675 Gil: 18398

65) Castle Palamecia (1F-5F)

Not much to say here, just running and fleeing. Getting through without any Enemy Strikes Firsts was pretty lucky.

Time: 2:11 Steps: 11018 Gil: 18398

66) Castle Palamecia (6F-8F) - World Map (Mysidia)

Since Gareth is leaving the party permanently, I need to remove the Blood Sword/Defender and armor pieces from him and put them on Leon. I was a bit slow equipping Leon, but the rest of the segment went pretty much perfectly.

Time: 2:15 Steps: 11343 Gil: 18398

67) Jade Passage (B1-B2)

Since Gareth left the party, Maria and Gus are alive yet again, and I need to kill them off in a timely manner. In order to accomplish this, and get through all the encounters in a timely manner as well, I split the Jade Passage into two segments this time, which ended up saving quite a bit of time. The secret passage on B2 I only recently discovered, after I had already done a couple hundred attempts on this segment.

Time: 2:16 Steps: 11438 Gil: 18398

68) Jade Passage (B2-B6)

You can actually flee from almost everything in the Jade Passage, but the hard part is not getting any Enemy Strikes Firsts along the way. It's not quite as hard as doing it in one segment though.

Time: 2:19 Steps: 11828 Gil: 18398

69) Pandaemonium (1F-2F)

Unlike the Jade Passage, Pandaemonium is difficult to flee in again. I had to take 1 Enemy Strikes First here to avoid adding another segment.

Time: 2:21 Steps: 12056 Gil: 18398

70) Pandaemonium (3F-6F)

3F has the lowest chance to flee of any of the floors, so having 3 encounters here instead of 2 made this segment far more difficult than the old run. I wanted to get all the way to 7F in this segment, but the different encounter placements made this pretty much impossible.

Time: 2:23 Steps: 12192 Gil: 18398

71) Pandaemonium (6F-7F)

Again I have to save slightly before the end of the floor, because the encounter placements made it impossible to get all the way through.

Time: 2:24 Steps: 12356 Gil: 18398

72) Pandaemonium (7F-10F)

Just running the rest of the way to the boss.

Time: 2:25 Steps: 12465 Gil: 18398

73) Pandaemonium (10F) {Emperor}

Like in many Final Fantasy games, the final boss is easier than much of the rest of the game, and this one is no exception. The Blood Sword makes short work of the Emperor; I just have to avoid his really long spell animations.

Final Time: 2:32

Kudos to anyone who actually read through all these comments :)