I haven't watched much of speedruns of this game but I plan on doing some runs soon, and I noticed the trend is to use Master Sword with Link. Is it actually better?
I know the first thought is "Yes obviously!" but I genuinely want to know, wouldn't a 5-star Magical Sword (or 8-bit sword) be better having the "Legendary" and "Hasty Attacks" skills? (Along with a bunch of other skills)
I ask because, maybe (MAYBE, haven't actually tried anything) even if the magical sword is slightly less powerful, the increased speed of Hasty Attacks might be beneficial for speedruns. Is there any data on what weapons are the best for runs?
When you're at full health, the Master Sword has additional beams on the C2, C3, and C4 combos, giving the attacks much more aoe enemy clearing and single-target dps. The strong attack and C4 are also much better on the Master Sword. If you were hurt, it might be faster to have a hasty Hylian Sword, but with as many heart drops and potions that there are, it isn't too hard to keep the beams. Hope this helps :)
I ca't tell 100% for sure as I'm no expert and have little experience running thisgame, but seeing how the master sword has those beams that definitively makes it the better weapon for Link and it seems to be the best character so far (unless you want to do some glitches in free mode you'll have to use Tingle and the fairy weapon)
and although I haven't actually tested accurately, I've had close results with Volga in some missions, so it might be close as fast as Link