I wanted to see how much time FDS saves over emulator in this game (for Any% specifically) so I went ahead and frame-counted the loads from my recent PB (31:32) and Leo's WR (28:57) and compiled my findings into this spreadsheet as a reference for everyone else:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Twhx62ygwvWrEYaXHRLcnf8GK0dr_yZF1Y3P0k_sOf0
Oddly enough, a couple loads are slightly faster on emulator, but for the most part FDS is superior and ends up saving ~25 seconds over the course of the run.
UPDATE: I have also timed out the loads from Caveman's PB (29:43) vs. my 31:32 to compare the loading times for Ruff vs. Tumble and have updated the above link with a spreadsheet that also shows this (on a separate tab). I found that the load times for Ruff were only ~1 second faster. However, the video quality of Caveman's PB is quite poor, making it difficult to discern the correct reference frames at the start/end of loads. A number of loads, when compared to mine, differed by only a frame or 2 in either direction, so I can fairly confidently say that character choice does not significantly impact loading times.
Great work, man! Now there are only 2 more things to look into. For some weird reason, Tumble's loads seem to differ variably from Ruff's. For example, the very first loading screen takes 2 more seconds with Tumble. I haven't tested any other screens but CavemanDCJ used Tumble for his runs so I guess we have a reference. Also, there is the concern of lag. For example, in Witch Way Woods, When you enter the room with 4 doors (One of them has a Ninja box), there seems to be intense lag. Not to mention when you beat Crab and the Final Boss. Their destruction animations cause mega lag. This can be reduced by going into first person mode and looking away from the explosion so it's not relevant. A 90k PS2 might reduce all lag but it would be sad if we had to buy a whole new console just to compete with emu.
I can time the loads from Caveman's run and add them to that spreadsheet as well. I'm fairly confident he played his run on a 90k, which will be a good reference. My runs are all done on a 90k too, and that room in Witch Way Woods is extremely laggy, as are a number of other areas. Timing out all the time lost from lag will likely be impossible, but from the few runs I've done, it doesn't seem like emulator saves back all the loading screen losses with lag.
