Hello, I've played through the game a couple of times in preparation to start speedrunning it, and I'm thinking I'd like to do any% runs.

I notice the timer goes all the way through the finale, and I'm not sure I like that. During the finale, the player input does not matter, it's basically a cutscene that you click through. It's also very long. I think the timer should end at the end of the P-03 fight or at the very start of the finale, rather than the end of the entire game, since it's effectively a final cutscene and doesn't actually add any value to the speedrun.

Is there a reason that the finale should be in that I'm not seeing, or is it just a preference thing?

I agree it'd be nice if we could just cut time early, but in the end I don't think ending the game at an arbitrary point is the best idea. Especially when there are theoretical skips to save time during the finale (ex. the Magnificus fight ends when the music ends, so finding a way to cut the music early could be possible.) Plus it's still possible to make mistakes and lose time in the Grimora/2d whitespace part.

I'm just thankful it's at the end of the run (so I can just quit out if I'm not on PB pace), as opposed to the middle or the beginning lol.