Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
  • Emulator: snes9x 1.43+ improvement 9
    • Use WIP1 Timing
    • Allow Left+Right / Up+Down
    • Volume Envelope Height Reading
  • ROM: Final Fantasy III (U) (1.1)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors
Credits
  • Flagitious
    • Muddle/77B, this resulted in major changes to my run. Who/when to teach certain spells to, but ultimately, skipping Gogo.
    • The Warp Stone inside Vector.
    • Teaching me how to rig the Slots since I was too lazy/dumb to read/understand the Slot Guide by Master ZED.
    • Pointing out any mistakes I may have made and making suggestions to improve time in certain areas.
    • Pre-emptive values for the Floating Continent (it works different to the rest of the game).
    • Values used to block attacks. Also, attack values for Leo's X-Fight. Such a simple battle required a lot of work.
    • Managing the steps to encounter Gau in 2 steps on the Veldt (WOR).
    • Hex-editing any desyncs I had.
  • Imzogelmo
    • Testing out the Lete River thing, which ensured I only got the minimum number of battles for that part.
    • Values for the fish to appear on the beach while saving Cid.
    • How the pre-emptive attacks work and the values you provided. It has saved me a lot of time from going through trial and error.
  • Novalia Spirit
    • I think you deserve maximum thanks, your run (although so short) was what inspired me to give my 110.1% at this run.
    • Critical hits, Desperation attack values and how to manipulate pre-emptives.
    • Your 100+ Bugs Topic. Walking through the soldier (so-called "Kutan bug"), Smoke Bomb vs Kefka at the gate, 'Verdant Respite' bug, and many others I forget.
    • Pretty much everything up to the Magitek Factory sort of came from you. Skipping all treasures (except getting an Earrings or two), steal Magicite, etc.
    • Mag Roader Guide, it helped manage AP and getting the quickest time past that sequence.
  • Catastrophe
    • Your run was what really opened my mind. Think the run on SDA, with perfect movement and perfect dialog advancing. That was it, until I saw your run.
    • Many ideas we discussed together all those times.
  • Nitrodon
    • For information on how the beach and the fish worked.
    • Saving me time from testing things out on the Floating Continent.
    • Tier 1, values to abort Shock Waves upon their death.
    • Monster packs on the Floating Continent.
  • FAQ Writers
    • Master ZED's Monster Stats Guide and Slot Guide. Terii Senshi's Algorithms FAQ and enemy script data (although your Charm Bangle info is partly wrong), and assassin17's (?) Randomosity Guide.
  • DeHackEd, Karetaker and Upthorn
    • Both for making side-by-side .avi's of the WIPs, Upthorn for teaching me how to hex and DeHackEd for helping me submit this run!
Synopsis
  • Config
    • Battle Mode: Wait
    • Battle Speed: 6 (does not affect allies)
    • Command Set: Short
    • Cursor: Memory
    • Background: 4 (nice timber feeling)
  • Narshe
    • First battle I made Vicks/Wedge escape so Terra gets EXP.
    • Avoided the tile in the centre to avoid 2 fights.
    • Fought random battle (before Whelk) for EXP.
    • Whelk: I enter menus when animations are playing, so the Shell's ATB does not increase. It does not enter it's shell nor does it get a second attack.
    • I fought the 2 battles with a lone Terra for EXP. I'm LV5 so Locke will join LV7.
    • Marshal: Took off the Mithril Pike/Shield for later use.
  • Figaro Castle/South Figaro
    • Silly me to have let a Tek Laser go off.
    • Fought all random battles in the cave for EXP.
    • Bought 3 Sprint Shoes, and I equipped a pair on Terra.
    • Didn't take a chocobo, though I think it might be worth it.
  • Mt. Koltz
    • Fought 3 battles along the way, I leveled up enough so that Sabin joins at LV10, instead of LV9.
    • Riot Blade is done before Gale Cut, I havn't tested but from the naked eye, Gale Cute seems longer than Doom Fist.
  • Returner's Hideout/Lete River
    • I grabbed the Fenix Down (for GhostTrain) not realizing that I would get an Elixir later on from TunnelArmr. Not a huge loss though.
    • A counter increases while inside the Hideout(and various other zones in the game). If this counter is 25 or 26 as I jump on the raft, I will only encounter 2 battles(the minimum). My waiting around inside the Hideout saves more time than fighting the extra battles.
    • I talked to Banon, and went to grab my Genji Glove to save the "Received Genji Glove!" dialog later on.
    • Trapping the NPC increases the counter more quickly.
    • I stepped on the save point before talking to Edgar to avoid dialog later while on the raft.
    • Bought 11 Echo Screens. Much later I discovered I needed more, but hex editing caused a nearly unlimited chain of desyncs. Thank you Upthorn for teaching me how to hex-edit.
  • Lete River
    • I fought the battles for EXP so Celes joins at LV9.
    • Ultros always targets Terra with its first Tentacle so I had no choice but to use Riot Blade, otherwise I would have used TigerBreak.
  • Locke's Scenario
    • Thanks to Novalia's discovery, I grabbed Celes from going around the back.
    • I went out of my way to get the Earrings which I believe proves too useful.
    • I grabbed all 3 chests for a total of 3000GP. I think I'll ignore them next time.
    • I encountered a formation with Rhodox in the forest. Silly me for not mapping out random encounters (what I'd fight and where I'd fight them) earlier.
    • Thunder Rod is too out-of-the-way. I thought of using Locke's Mirager but I thought I'd show as many Desperation Attacks as I could during this run.
  • Banon's Scenario
    • If you're playing the .smv with a 1.0 ROM, then this is where you will desync.
  • Sabin's Scenario
    • Shadow is a nuisance.
    • The Templar/Soldier battle with Sabin can be improved.
    • Cyan's battle with Leader can be improved. I don't know what I was thinking when I did that battle.
    • One of the battles with an uncontrollable Cyan can be improved.
    • Grabbed another Earrings on the train.
    • Elixir's animation is quicker than Fenix Down's (vs. GhostTrain).
    • Not what I was expecting but it could've been much worse: running into Rhodox. In a future run, I'd like to optimize this.
    • The Rhodox formation I used prevents Gau from returning from that particular battle so I had to Leap into it, and not return from it.
    • The last battle in the trench, I couldn't manipulate a pre-emptive for that battle. I lost 100 frames to fight that battle as opposed to escaping.
  • Zozo
    • I took Edgar and Sabin to Zozo, they just seemed the most all-rounded characters. I was considering Locke to steal a Sneak Ring but he's too weak.
    • Catastrophe suggested a very good idea, to bring Cyan alone to Zozo. It would save running away time and he may just be powerful enough to take down Dadaluma. Two Earrings, Retort and Back Blade to give an idea of how.
    • Only took Stray and the mandatory Ramuh.
  • Opera House
    • I got lucky with the first 2-3 corners with the rats. I needed to use the menu to change the course of the other rats.
    • I also wanted to take Ultros out in 1 hit but I wasted some frames for doing it. I'll bash him beforehand and finish off with a Desperation Attack next time.
  • Vector
    • Bought Warp Stones and Smoke Bombs here (forgot how many exactly).
    • Stole a Magicite from a Flan (a battle I couldn't avoid anyway).
    • Ignored the Ifrit Magicite.
    • Stole a Flash for the Minecart sequence.
    • Used the Magicite with a to-be muddled Celes to cast Phantom on the boss, and finish it off with Snare. I'll know better than to steal a Rune Edge next time (read Banquet section).
    • Good thing about Snare is that it aborts all counter-attacks and it removes the death animation.
    • Stray is equipped onto Locke to learn Muddle, and Phantom onto Gau to learn Vanish.
    • Number 128 is immune to Clear otherwise I would've used the same strategy as the previous boss battle.
    • Stole the Debilitator from the Crane for a later event.
    • Locke learns Muddle for a later event.
  • Cave to the Sealed Gate
    • In the room with the moving bridges, I manage to get into a battle as the bridges change, once I'm out of the battle, the bridges change immediately. This saves 3-4 seconds of waiting for the bridge to re-shift. And a battle a few steps later. Thanks flagitious for suggesting it and working it out.
    • Thanks again to Novalia, for discovering that Warp Stones/Smoke Bombs works against Kefka.
  • Banquet
    • Talked to 23 soldiers and later only ask 2 of 3 questions. I grab the Gale Hairpin, also I should have grabbed the Back Guard and avoid stealing the Rune Edge earlier on.
    • Initially, I had planned to talk to 21 soldiers and ask 3 questions, but thanks to Flagitious who suggested the plan I used.
    • Manipulated all 3 Commandos to drop Tents to sell later.
    • Equipped Terra with Phantom and then used a Warp Stone. Thank you Flagitious for discovering the trick.
  • Thamasa/Esper Gathering Place
    • Sold stuff, and bought 3 Ice Rods and 7 Fire Rods.
    • Locke's Muddle comes to use. Muddle/Phantom/SabreSoul to avoid the cutscene with Relm and Ultros.
  • IAF & Floating Continent
    • Taking Celes saves a 5 second dialog box later on. Thanks flagitious.
    • Celes learns Muddle on the last of the 6 fights against the IAF.
    • Since Gau can't attack allies, I had to rely on Ultros to hit my Setzer. I should have turned Battle Speed to 1, and change it back afterwards, it would have saved some time. Suggestion by flagitious.
    • Gau learns Vanish after the Air Force battle.
    • Equipped Celes with Phantom and Setzer with Stray.
    • I fight a random battle to gain AP. I never imagined I'd run into a forth Naughty, if I had known then I would have prepared for it and fought that instead.
    • "The airship's below! > Jump! Wait". I hate doing this, but I had to this time around.
  • Solitary Island
    • This area was brought to you by Imzogelmo and Nitrodon.
  • Nikeah/Figaro Castle
    • Bought a Gaia Gear for later events.
    • Lost a few frames due to NPC blocking.
    • I attempted the Tentacles battle without casting Phantom but it turned out impossible. I want to think that there is another quicker strategy to this battle, but I can't think of anything yet.
  • Daryl's Tomb and Narshe
    • After I hit the second switch, I'm supposed to use a Warp Stone(which explains why I have 1 Warp Stone remaining when I finish the game), but when I encountered the battle on the Veldt to retreive Gau, it's a battle formation where Gau can't return, so I had to fight an extra battle inside the tomb to change that. The mistake isn't visible, but it's there. Thank you Nitrodon and Flagitious for working out the whole problem for me.
    • Related to above. I unequipped the Charm Bangle from Edgar at that moment so I would encounter the battle on the Veldt in 2 steps.
    • Celes learns Vanish against the Dullahan.
    • I optimized Celes (to equip the Gaia Gear) as I equipped the Charm Bangle on Gau before entering Narshe.
  • Kefka's Tower
    • The minimum number of times to switch teams is 10 (within the current situation) and I managed to do it (didn't think I could at first).
    • Teams are Celes+Mog, solo Gau and Setzer+Edgar.
    • I've heard suggestions that Setzer should solo Kefka's Tower. This is impossible. Inferno's and Poltrgeist's speed are too great to act twice before they slaughter him.
    • Setzer learns Float, and casts it on him and his teammate.
    • Equipped the Aura Lance on Mog. No reason to, I just thought the +2 Speed would help(but it didn't really make a difference).
  • Final Battle
    • Tier 1: It never gets to move, apart from its counterattack upon death. The delay in the menu with Gau aborts all Shock Waves. Thanks Nitrodon for helping me with that. Here lies the only death of the game. RIP Gau.
    • Tier 2: 3 of the 4 targets seemed to have a preset pre-emptive against me, so I had no choice but to wait out those attacks. I couldn't have Haste or Imp be casted by Magic instead of Haste 2 because that attack ultimately depends on what happened on the previous tier, and I believe it was impossible or not worth waiting to manipulate. The brief running manipulated the game to make all 10 hits avoid Setzer and to abort W Wind/Merton on the next tier. I could get Imp to be used but it would be on either Celes or Setzer.
    • Tier 3: Moved Remedy to the top of the Item List for the next battle.
    • Kefka: I was originally going to use an Elixir to heal Setzer, and go along with Muddle/Hit/77B (I didn't know any better) but thanks to Flagitious for explaining to me how the Slots worked (thanks to Master ZED), I figured out to use the Remedy.
This run is definitely improvable, if anybody is interested. I won't be running this game to correct my mistakes unless something major is discovered. I'm not sure if 5 minutes and 53 seconds can be saved from this using the same route though.

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Posted: 6/8/2006 7:29 PM
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15569
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1097: erokky's SNES Final Fantasy III in 4:05:52.87
Posted: 6/8/2006 8:00 PM
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flagitious
Player (201)
Joined: 7/6/2004
Posts: 511
Awesome job. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but I am so throughly impressed by how well you use Umaro to take out some of the bosses at the end. Its really cool that you only fight a single optional random battle to gain AP, you're pure business. And that WOR is done faster than any human could do it with lvl 99 characters.
g,o,p,i=1e4,a[10001];main(x){for(;p?g=g/x*p+a[p]*i+2*!o: 53^(printf("%.4d",o+g/i),p=i,o=g%i);a[p--]=g%x)x=p*2-1;}
Posted: 6/8/2006 8:12 PM
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zefiris
Joined: 4/11/2006
Posts: 487
Location: North of Russia :[
I am not fan of FF, I have never played FF3, and I got bored with movie very soon... I won't vote still, I did not watch movie to the end...
Posted: 6/8/2006 8:34 PM
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Dada
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
This is an absolutely astonishing movie. I love it. I haven't watched it all the way, but this is a definite yes vote.
Posted: 6/8/2006 9:28 PM
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quietkane
Player (66)
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Yeah... been following the WIP of this run. It's awesome. Of course, it's an awesome game for TAS-ing, since you've got dozens of things to manipulate, not the least of which is the Slots. Oh, so pretty... But then again, as with most RPGs, you're not really sure what's going on if you haven't played the game so if you haven't played it... go play it! Also, the movie has a tendency to desynch for me if I'm not using the Fake Mute Desynch option. Not sure if anyone else is getting that. *shrug*
If life were an RPG, I'd be an NPC.
Posted: 6/8/2006 9:34 PM
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GuanoBowl
Former player
Joined: 7/4/2005
Posts: 714
Location: Albuqueruqe, New Mexico
Movie is fun but as Quietkane said "You're not really sure what's going on if you haven't played the game". That goes for me. I am not a fan(at all) of FF games. More of a BoF(Breath of Fire) person. Especially III and IV. But as of seeing 60% of the run so far, my eyes cannot take 425% speed anymore, a YES vote entirely from me. I liked the run because its an RPG and they seem to be the toughest TAS around because of the lenght of the game.
Change my sig. again, and I will murder your pet fish.
Posted: 6/8/2006 9:44 PM
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AngerFist
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
First edition TAS of 2015 Innovative TAS of 2007
Never played any Final Fantasy game so I gave this submission a shot. Im sorry but I dont find "telling" instead of performing "yourself" a certain action entertaining. Not voting at all.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Posted: 6/8/2006 10:37 PM
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Zurreco
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Voting yes. Excellent run. I'm glad I got to see some of the desperation attacks, since I never had the chance to use them when I played. It also wrenched my heart to see you walk away from some of that Magicite.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Posted: 6/8/2006 11:28 PM
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Highness
Player (71)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
voted no because it sucked. /me is a bad at lying. ;) Great work mate! I don't know what else to say really. My brain feels... Well... What can I say? Soloing around with Gau in Kefkas tower has not been my primary tactic through out the years. Fun to see his real strength and what he is capable of. I demand this run to be encoded into a DVD with chapters! :D Please make it an iso.
Posted: 6/9/2006 12:08 AM
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IMPblackbelt
Joined: 6/19/2005
Posts: 180
Looks good, but a bit repetetive near the end. Improvements could be made, but I couldn't spot them for you. :P Voting yes because we need a Final Fantasy 6 on here. Now we just need 4 and 5. :)
Posted: 6/9/2006 12:16 AM
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Sketchie
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 141
Oh, yes, I am definitely voting YES. The gun is just beautifully done, and there were several things I have never seen happen before, and/or would have never thought of. And you've ultized Gau a lot in the run - I would normally leave him out every single time, but I'm starting to think otherwise. Yay for Gau! Now someone needs to finish a FF2/FF4, FF3 and FF5 run, and we're all set for now! Heheheh.
Posted: 6/9/2006 12:56 AM
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Bob_A
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 432
Voted yes. I especially liked the final battle.
Posted: 6/9/2006 6:23 AM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Awesomeness! I will watch it when I come back from work again. Can't wait to see this movie! :-)
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 6/9/2006 8:22 AM
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Sketchie
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 141
flagitious wrote:
Awesome job. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but I am so throughly impressed by how well you use Umaro to take out some of the bosses at the end.
Uh, are you thinking of someone else? Because erokky hasn't picked up Umaro at all in his run. At the end, he only had Edgar, Setzer, Celes, Mog, Gau and Terra. Nobody else. If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.
Posted: 6/9/2006 8:24 AM
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erokky
Former player
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
It's just a little joke we were playing as I was running this game. At the time he was doing a solo Umaro challenge, and I asked if I could improve my game plan somehow and he said "get Umaro" which made me laffing so hard :P. I actually thought of releasing a joke WIP where I go to get Umaro right after Mog, but I didn't have time(well I did) and wanted to finish this for the people who were looking forward to it.
Posted: 6/9/2006 8:43 AM
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Sketchie
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 141
erokky wrote:
It's just a little joke we were playing as I was running this game. At the time he was doing a solo Umaro challenge, and I asked if I could improve my game plan somehow and he said "get Umaro" which made me laffing so hard :P. I actually thought of releasing a joke WIP where I go to get Umaro right after Mog, but I didn't have time(well I did) and wanted to finish this for the people who were looking forward to it.
Ahh, that would explain it. :P
Posted: 6/9/2006 11:54 AM
Post subject: The comment I wanted to leave yesterday
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Well, I've found (suprisingly) enough strength to watch it… And the run's not bad at all! Voting yes.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 6/9/2006 3:22 PM
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Turambar
Joined: 2/13/2006
Posts: 39
Location: Finland
As I have watched the WIPs a bit, and read the Final Fantasy 6 thread, I think I can say "yes". I think this reply counts as a yes vote, unfortunately I can't just vote yet. Nevertheless the movie will be published, and I'm really looking forward to it (the encoded version). This game is perhaps the second on my best games ever top list. Really awesome work, thanks a lot!
Posted: 6/9/2006 4:12 PM
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Rising_Tempest
Player (168)
Joined: 4/27/2006
Posts: 304
Location: Eastern Canada
Poor Vegas,,, they're got nothin' left.
Posted: 6/9/2006 4:29 PM
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Sabikage
Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 57
Definitely improvable. This could be brought below the four hour mark. Minor optimizations add up. Something I noticed because it's a glaring loss of time is the battle with Ifrit and Shiva - if you use the esper Ramuh (by equipping it on a character, and then going to the magic menu and pressing up IIRC) the battle ends immediately, rather than requiring you to defeat both Ifrit and Shiva. I'm paused at that section right now; I'll do a final vote after I watch the rest of the movie.
Posted: 6/9/2006 4:35 PM
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agopo
Joined: 2/25/2005
Posts: 68
Location: Germany
Four hours are long for a TAS, but this game is quite long, too, after all. The quality was really good as far as I could tell (yes I _did_ play the game). The way you beat some of the bosses is hilarious (lvl5 death? lol) and it's so nice to finally see this being done, FFs for sure aren't easy to speedrun. Mad props! YES vote.
Erklärung der Relativität: "Wenn du deine Nase in meinen Po steckst, haben wir beide eine Nase im Po. Nur ich bin relativ besser dran."
Posted: 6/9/2006 7:46 PM
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Bp_
Joined: 11/30/2005
Posts: 81
Location: Quebec
I really can't wait to see this run. I finsih this game about 3-4 time and I always liked to wtch a speed run of this game (the one on speeddemoarchive). This run is like 1 hours faster. This will be awsome !! Gj
Posted: 6/10/2006 4:47 AM
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SGreenwell
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 22
My copy keeps de-syncing shortly after Locke and Terra escape Narshe, but before they make it into Figaro Castle. I've tried the pre-loaded movie settings, and GoodSNES tells me I'm using v1.1 of FF3. I've also tried fiddling with a few options here and there; anyone else have this problem besides me and have a fix for it?
Posted: 6/10/2006 6:22 AM
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erokky
Former player
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
if you use the esper Ramuh (by equipping it on a character, and then going to the magic menu and pressing up IIRC) the battle ends immediately
Who the hell told you this? To person above: Play it with snes9x 1.43 improvement 9
Posted: 6/10/2006 6:32 AM
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Joe
Joined: 6/10/2006
Posts: 152
Location: Wisconsin
Having played this game before, I was amazed at the boss strategies used iin the game (Vanish + Snare = cheapest move in game!). Also liked the strategies involving avoiding battles manipulating luck to get the fish. I couldn't find any noticeable improvements you could have made This TAS is rather long, but the great music and more cinematic cutscenes make thase parts bearable. The dungeons that involve constant running away do tend to get old and are the parts I forwarded through as the random battles get old. I'd like to see this one published
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