Not sure why there isn't a version of this here, but here we go. The following will explain the route as well as manip. Note, all manips posted here are treated as a community effort, and I take no claim on one individually.

Walking, jumping, and camera angles don't affect manip, but attacking, dodge rolling, and entering battles does. The room directions are weird, but from checking the minimap, when I say up = upper right, down = lower left, right = lower right, left = upper left.

New Game Sora Beginner Vibration Off (optional) Yes [Timer Start]

Skip 4 cutscenes. Mash X to get rid of World Cards on screen. Skip text by mashing X/Circle (O)/Triangle (A). X for Traverse Town. Skip cutscene (SC).

Tutorial time. Keep mashing through text as you go along. Dodge roll twice (once to get Donald, once afterwards). I'll explain later. Turn backwards before using Donald. You should see him use Blizzard+Cure. Dodge Roll once (DR1) + Jump once. DR1 + Jump + Attack 3 times mid-air (3AA). Assume all mid-air combos require a Jump input prior. Lock on with R2. DR1 + 3AA 4 times, so the deck empties. Hold X to reload. Hold L1 to quickly cycle through (the one that moves your cards rightward). Mash Touchpad to enter and exit Enemy card deck. SC.

Attack the Barrel. DR1 left to pick it up faster. Before it finishes its animation of absorbing into you, attack the small lamp on the right wall. 1 of 2 seeds here, you will either get nothing (Seed 1) or 30 MP (Seed 2). Seed 1 if Donald's Blizz didn't hit Tutorial Black Coat, Seed 2 if it was Guarded.

After picking up the box, walk forward 5 steps and toss it on the Shadow. If you are on Seed 2: AtkLeftLamp, DR2, attack 3 boxes with one swing. 160MP total. If you are on Seed 1: AtkRightLamp, DR1 left, AtkLeftLamp, DR2, attack 3 boxes with one swing. 160MP total.

Walk into the Shadow afterwards.

[- For those not strictly obsessed with time optimization, you can start the game and collect more MP via the following manip:

Tutorial: Dodge Roll once Use Donald Dodge Roll > Jump Air Combo Target All Air Combos Reload Hold R1

Before 1st barrel(Blizz): Roll x5 > Barrels Right > Roll x3 > Lamp > Lamp > Roll > Lamp > Roll > Barrel (roll?) (Blizz) (pick up Box and throw away) Roll x5 > Post (Left) > Roll > Post (Right) > Roll x3 > Box > Roll x5 > Barrel > Roll x3 > 3 Boxes - Shadow = 294MP -]

5 Shadows

Triple Ground Combo (3GC), DR1 backwards, 3GC, DR1 backwards, 3GC. Assuming the Shadows didn't go underground, the fight can end in 9 strikes if your aim is good.

Walk forward. Open the Moment's Repreive Room. Continue through to the Tranquil Darkness room.

Attack the 1st Shadow in the corner, but before the fight begins, open your menu, and throw on the Blizzard at the start of your deck.

There are 6 fights in this room. Any Shadows that spawn in sets of 2 at the beginning, run away, and re-strike the fight to get a fightable spawn. Fight them all. Use Goofy if he drops.

Afterwards, ensuring you hit no lamps/barrels/boxes/banners, go back to the MR room, save, and either Return to Title Screen or Soft Reset (both options reset the game seed to the same starter value when reloading your save).

The game seems to start upon the same base seed after every reload, so that means we can get some things that will speed up our overall gameplay. This includes extra Blizzards, lots of MP, and later on, Random Jokers. But for now, reload:

DR6 -> WallLamp -> DR7 -> AtkBoxes -> DR3 -> WallLamp -> DR4 -> LampPost -> Blizz -> DR2 -> next room -> AtkBarrels -> Blizz -> DR1 -> WallLamp -> DR1 -> AtkBanner -> DR3 -> SmallLamp -> DR7 -> AtkBanner -> DR1 -> AtkBoxes. You should have around ~492 MP and 4 Blizzards total now.

At this point, depending on the cards you got from the 1st 6 battles, you have a choice of what to do. If you got a Sleeping Darkness room (value 0, 3-9), you can open it up and continue the manip to get a Red Nocturne card plus some more MP (note, don't attack any of these enemies to start the battle):

DR2 -> open SD room -> DR1 -> MENU (equip your 3 extra Blizzards at the start) -> Red Nocturne -> Blizzaga the Shadow -> Blizzard the 2 RNs = Red Nocturne Enemy Card -> DR3 -> Lamp -> 2barrels ->3boxes -> DR1 -> Box -> RedNoc -> 1Blizz = 3 Teeming Darkness -> DR2 -> Post -> Shadow -> Blizzaga the Solider +2 Shadows, then Blizz the 2 RNs = Sorcerer Awakening -> DR3 -> Shadow -> Blizz the Shadow -> Blizzaga the 2 RNs = 0 Teeming Darkness -> you can fight the last Soldier if you want ->return to previous room and use your Key to Beginning you should have an extra ~230 MP and 5 Blizzards total now.

If you didn't get a Sleeping Darkness room, you can use the Key to Beginnings early and get Simba and Key to Guidance, then open a Teeming Darkness and continue the grind without extended manip. If you have neither of those 2 cards, you should reset. Teeming Darkness gives you the most amount of fights per room, and you want to get to 99 cards before you progress through the game, and you do so by fighting in mostly these rooms.

Assuming you are going through TD rooms only after the KtB room, menu in the 3/4 additional Blizzards, and put Simba at the end of your deck. Open a TD and fight all 16 fights. I won't list strat in this supposed brief guide. but Blizzaga/Simba is good. As before, avoid the 2-Shadow spawn by escaping and re-striking the fight. It's a ~10s loss each time, but fighting through it is a slog, with big time loss and low EXP gained. By the end of the grind, you would have used 5 Teeming Darkness rooms, ideally leaving Traverse Town with ~75 cards. and 2 Red Nocturnes. Amount of Random extra Enemy Card drops and whether you used a Sleeping Darkness room may alter this final amount. Use the Key to Truth last to get into the boss:

Guard Armor Simba once, Blizzaga, Keys, Reload. Use Goofy if he drops. Use Gimmick if it drops. Continue.

A good run will have at least 1200MP when you're leaving this World. Assuming in the 5TD grind you got at least one more Blizzards, do another menu: 5th Blizz at the start Guard Armor Enemy card after Simba. Remove a 2-keyblade card.

Axel Blizzaga. Reload. Blizzaga. Reload Blizzaga.

Agrabah. Forced fight: Simba. GA. 3AA until the Fat Bandit spawns. Blizzaga. Use Aladdin if he drops. 7 fights in this room, fight them all, as well as going through the KtB door and unlocking the KtT door while you're here.

Next up room is a Teeming Darkness, preferably 0 value. Fight all 16 battles here too. Use Aladdin because you are low on MP required in the route. Now keep track of what you got, because it determines if the run can continue:

6 Blue Cards [3 Mog Rooms, 3 any blues (with one being 1-value)].

If you have those, open 1 Mog door to the left. Turn around and open a 2nd one. Go to this second critter and open 4 Magic packs (800MP). You want to see ~8 Fires. Return back and do the same on the left room you opened. Enter the KtG room. If a Joker dropped you can use it on this 15 door. Fight it, same strats as the Tutorial in this world. Ether gained.

Now here you are put in a randomized Unknown room. Good luck will have you at ~90 cards at this point. You want 96 before you continue the manip (94 if you found a Random Joker during the Agrabah grind and are still holding it), so check how many more battles you need before you get to that amount. If the rooms is no good for you, open a Meeting Ground room down, to make up the rest of the cards. Once you reach 96, open 1 fresh Mog Room and 1 fresh Sleeping Darkness room (preferable one in the first Unknown room holding the KtT door, and the next up, either order). If for some reason you didn't get that 5th Blizzard in TT, equip it now from one of your Mog pack pulls. Now exit the world, save, reset.

Walk back into Agrabah. Break 1 stand with 3GC and 1 barrel. Now in the SD room (remember, don't attack sleeping enemies), DR1 -> FatBandit -> Escape (note, if the spawn is a single Fat Bandit, reset and try again, because the manip got lost somehow [~30% chance] -> next Fat Bandit (should be single) -> Blizzaga = RJ1 -> Attack pot -> DR1 -> Shadow -> Stock 2 Blizz -> (face backwards) Simba = 7 Looming Darkness -> Shadow -> Blizzaga -> Blizzara+Atk = RJ2 -> Attack pot -> Yellow Opera -> fbSimba = RJ3 -> walk into your opened Mog room -> walk back into SD -> DR1 -> Fat Bandit -> bottom right Blizzaga to destroy them all except one YelOpe, then Jump and Blizz the last one for RJ4. The manip continues into the Mog room, so go back to it, DR1, Mog (sell enough keys/simbas/cure/enemy cards to get 800MP, this doesn't affect the manip no matter when/how much you sell), Upper Left Blue pack, Upper Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right. *

Create 2 new decks, one with Blizzagas galore, along with Ether+Cure, and 0 cards. The other is Firaga spammage, along with Ether+Cure, and 0 cards, and Red Nocturnes. Enter the KtT and fight the boss. You're exiting this world with 99 cards and 4 Random Jokers at least.

The route isn't much different from before past this point. The best timesave is doing the grind in TT as opposed to AB. Solid runs have an 8 Blizzaga and an 8 Firaga deck.

Most bosses are just a matter of Enemy Card -> -ga spell spamming. Axel/Hades/CardHenchmen/ShadowWave/Battle use the Blizzaga deck. The rest use Firaga spam. Use a 0 if they use a Sleight on you.

Try to use the same type of card per world. I'll list some of my preferences below. Big rooms (3 stars, like Teeming Darkness/Lasting Daze) are to be used on Door Requirements, so you spend less time waltzing about getting door to door between Worlds.

World Order after this goes:

Olympus - Cloud - Hades [Feeble Darkness]

KtB: Right - Up - Up - Right - Down KtG: Down - Right KtT: Up - Up - Right

Wonderland - Henchmen - Trickmaster [Sleeping Darkness]

KtB: (plant)Left - Up - Left - Down KtG: Up - Right KtT: Left - Up - Left

Monstro - Parasite Cage - Shadow Wave [Sorcerer's Awakening]

KtB: Right - Up - Right
KtG: Left - Down KtT: Up - Left - Up - Right - Up

HalloweenTown - Battle- OogieBoogie - Larxene 1 [Tranquil Darkness]

KtB: Right - Up - Left KtG: Right - Up - Up - Right - Down KtT: Down - Right - Right - Right - Down

Atlantica - Ursula - Riku 1 [Strong Initiative]

KtB: Left - Down - Left KtG: Right - Up - Right KtT: Left - Left - Left - Left - Down

HollowBastion - Maleficent - Riku 2 [Premium Room]

KtB: Right - Up - Right KtG: Down - Right - Down - Down KtT: Up - Up - Up - Right

Neverland - Hook [Stagnant Space]

KtB: Up - Up - Up - Up - Left KtG: Down - Right - Down - Down - Right KtT: Up - Up - Left - Left

100AcreWood (no minigames needed) - Vexen

Only one forwards direction to go.

TwilightTown - Vexen 2 - Riku 3 [Stagnant Space]

Right - Up - Up - Left

DestinyIslands - Riku 4 - Larxene 2 [Meeting Ground]

Left - Up - Right Left - Up - Up - Right - Right - Right - Right

CastleOblivion - Axel 2 - Marluxia x3 [Meeting Ground]

Right x3 - Up x2 - Left x4 - Up Right Up Left Up Right Up Right x3

FAQ:

So where's your run submission?

I'm too tough on myself. If I get too many enemy cards, slow mob battles, imperfect RNG, or just general incompetence, I reset. I'll post something up that I'm moderately proud of soon enough. Sadly, my Elgato is on loan, so I'll need to upload it in segments from PS4 recordings.

What's a good time, you think?

I won't submit anything above a 2:07. TT finishes at ~40 min, Agrabah at ~1hr. My menus are poor too. PS5 might save some time on loads, and we'll see what PC does for the game. Note, manip does not work on PS2 attempts (PS3 untested).

How can I get more Magic cards?

Can't help you much there. The manip I use only works for the 3rd Mog room, and even that one is imperfect. While there is likely no manip to get 20 Fires from 4 packs, at some point you need to choose how much time you are willing to lose to get the pack results from the manipped seed you got (ex. dodge rolling 31 times is not a worthwhile manip for 4 Firagas). But other manips do exist in this game, ask around, or even discover your own!

Isn't the manip slower?

If you had complete control of the game from start to end, yes. But RNG changes upon enemy movement, which happens in this first Tranquil Darkness room. Doing the first manip let's you complete the Traverse Towns faster, and these were already speedier than the Agrabah fights before the manipulation was found. Enemy cards don't need to be manipped from simple statistics, in that you will likely get what you need from a standard grind. As for Agrabah, ~24 random fights will probably not get you the Random Jokers you require, and fighting longer in this world is slower.

So the RNG is gone from the run? Awesome!

Hahaha no. No 1-Blue card in Agrabah? Done. No 2 Red Nocturnes? Boo. Goofed the manip? Try again. Accidentally got 6 5-value Greens and can't progress though Castle Oblivion? Tough. 6 Firaga deck? Get bodied. Nonetheless, having this manipulation available is incredible, and I look forward to others enjoying the game much more now.