I'm interested in learning this run starting on emulator. As far as I can tell, the category rules don't have any stipulations on the emulator, settings, or game version used, but some of these things seem like they could make a pretty significant difference, so I wanted to ask some questions to clarify what is or isn't allowed.

1. I variously use either DuckStation or PCSX-Redux for PS1 emulation depending on my needs for a particular game. Does it matter which emulator we use?
2. I did some tests on door load times using the door between the room where you get the security card and the hall with the 3 doctors. I counted the load time from the first frame where the game starts to fade out in the first room to the first frame where it starts to fade in in the second room. In DuckStation, with default emulation settings, this load takes roughly 8 seconds in the US version and 7 seconds in the JP version (with some variance from run to run). However, in Ulver's WR run, this load takes only ~5 seconds. To achieve a comparable load time, I had to set the CD speedup setting in DuckStation to 3x. But if CD speedup is allowed, why stop at 3x? I tested CD speedup set to Maximum and this reduced the load time to ~2 seconds in both the US and JP versions. I only tested in the first few rooms of the game, so it's possibly there could be stability issues at some point in the game with this speed setting, but if not, this would save multiple minutes over the WR in load time alone. Personally, I don't really have a problem with reducing the load times like this in theory, but it does feel a bit unfair to the runs already on the board.
3. I was also curious about key bindings when playing with keyboard; specifically, binding multiple buttons to the same keyboard key. The US version allows running forward with L2 without having to hold square. I like this because it means I never have to press square, freeing up a keybind. But if I bind W to L2, then I can't navigate up in menus with it, which is awkward. So my solution is to simply bind W to both L2 and up on the d-pad. Likewise, X is the action button, but the main menu (and maybe others? can't recall off the top of my head) requires you to select an option with Start. So I've chosen to bind spacebar to both X and Start. This doesn't seem that crazy to me, but just wanted to confirm this isn't an issue.
4. Lastly, I wanted to clarify whether it makes any difference whether we play the US or JP version of the game. I see all the current emu runs are on the US version. Per Ecdysis' comment, I understand that that version is faster on PS2 for console, but it's not clear to me that that's the case on emulator. In DuckStation, on default CD speed, I repeatedly observed door loads being roughly 1 second faster on JP (although the difference was less clear in PCSX-Redux). Text is also faster on JP due to the lower character count. When picking up key items, the fade back to gameplay actually seemed to be generally slower on JP by 0.5-1 seconds, but given there are far more doors than key items, I would still expect this to work out in favor of JP. The only thing I haven't checked is the time difference between US and JP for spoken dialogue in the unskippable cutscenes, so I don't know whether this is a net gain or loss, but I'm still leaning towards JP being faster. If maximum CD speedup is allowed, the load time differences would become negligible, so all the difference would come down to text and dialogue.

Edit: A patch is out now to address most of these issues! See this post for details: https://www.speedrun.com/posts/puhe3

Edit 2: A new patch version is available as of 2025-11-13 which fixes a bug with the Leon B elevator cutscenes. Make sure to update if you run Leon B. https://www.moddb.com/games/resident-evil-2/downloads/unofficial-re2-door-cutscene-skip-mod-patch

Lots of us have been having fun running the awesome cutscene skip mod since it released earlier this year (including me!). However, it does still have some lingering issues, particularly in the B scenarios which don't get as much attention. I'm trying to collect a list of known issues in the hopes of getting out a new update to address them. If you've encountered any bugs, crashes, or inconsistent behaviors in the current version of the mod, feel free to report them here and I'll add them to the list.

The current list of known issues:

• (Patched) Stairs and ladders don't skip automatically like normal doors; you have to mash through them or you lose time.
• (Patched) Tyrant can disappear from his final fight in Claire B:
• (Patched) It's possible to pick up items off of Mr. X while he's still alive
• (Patched) Black screen after entering Irons' dungeon in Claire B: https://www.twitch.tv/nabson_1/clip/PeacefulRelentlessPhoneWoofer-53RvVKIR1188Qvtn
• Inconsistent cutscene skips with Sherry at the elevator in Irons' office both before going down and after coming back up
• (Patched) Holding the action button through the cutscene of using the vaccine machine in the MO disk room or red keycard room can softlock the game
• (Patched) When skipping the cutscene where the licker falls through the skylight in B scenario, sometimes you can move immediately but sometimes you have to wait a moment

Not sure if this is already known, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. The initial state of the music box is re-rolled every time you enter the room. I tested this on Sourcenext with Classic Rebirth, but I believe it applies to all versions. Given that the PC version has door skip and each switch takes a couple seconds, I wonder if it's actually viable to bust a quick turn and try again if you see you've gotten particularly bad RNG?

I've been reverse-engineering this game and I decided to look into exactly how the secret knock works to see what makes it so tricky. I thought folks here might find that interesting as well. I made a video with details and examples which I'll link at the bottom, but to summarize:

• All timing is based on the first knock, NOT the time between knocks.
• Each knock has a 7-frame window, up to 3 frames before or 3 frames after the ideal frame.
• Knock #2 should come 18 frames after knock #1, #3 should come 29 frames after #1, #4 should come 39 frames after, and #5 should come 55 frames after.
• Timing is based on when you press the button, not the animation or sound.

Here's the video with visuals and examples of different knock patterns: