The only real help that this game will give you in the speedrun is in the form of the Name Glitch. The glitch is simple to execute, but you won't see any benefit of it until after you finish the Trial of Wisdom. The benefit is that this glitch will give you certain items based on what letters you enter in the name-entry screen at the beginning.

The ability to rename Milo and Pyra has been known for a long time, this glitch just takes it a step further.

When you go to the name-entry screen, after you name your Hero, instead of hitting "End", go back up to the letters and enter another letter (or blank space). Your letter will be entered and the cursor will go back to "End". You can technically repeat this for as long as you want.

What this does is eat into the RAM of the game starting at value FF173A (which is the first letter of the Hero's name). Each letter puts a value into the RAM. While this isn't too important for the names, what is important is what is stored in the RAM after Pyra's last letter, which is the Craft section of the Trader (the screen you get when you go to retrieve an item that you had crafted or repaired).

Simply put, adding letters after Pyra's last letter adds items to pick up (for free might I add) at the Trader. Since each letter corresponds to a certain item, you have a small range of items you can get for free. Below is the list of items that can be obtained based on letter:

A-Bull Whip B-Thorn Whip C-Steel Whip D-Hex Whip E-Great Flail F-Super Flail G-Doom Blade H-Wood Shield I-Dark Armor J-Frost Armor K-Thunder Armor L-Sun Armor M-Cotton Robe N-Woven Robe O-Fur Robe P-Worn Robe Q-Straw Robe R-Hemp Robe S-Leather Robe T-Light Robe U-Magic Robe V-Dark Robe W-Leather Armor X-Chainmail Y-Breast Plate Z-Bronze Armor Blank-Bronze Knife

There aren't a lot of of great options but there are enough to make this worthwhile, namely the Doomblade, Hex Whip, Super Flail, Thunder Armor, and Light Robe.

There is one little thing to remember when entering letters: the first letter directly after Pyra's name is a "dead letter", meaning it won't give you anything. After that, you can enter 7 letters and get items. As an example "using - as a blank space", entering this on the Name Entry screen will net you 3 Light Robes, a Hex Whip, Super Flail, Thunder Armor, and Doomblade:

HERO-MILO-PYRA-TTTTDFGK

This will net you some of the best gear for each character for free right after you are able to access the Trader. The extra Light Robe helps with money. Though this does help with some game, this game is still VERY brutal and unfair.

That being said, there is some experimenting still going on. A steady way to get the above mentioned gear and the Earth Hammer (a very powerful multi-use item that can deal upwards of 100 damage to each enemy) has been found using the following entry:

HERO-MILO-PYRA-TTTTTTTTTTTDDFFGGKK

This is 11 T's and 2 of each other. When you first get to the Trader, you will only see the Earth Hammer. Pick it up, leave the town, and enter the Trader again to get 7 Light Robes. Pick them all up, leave town, and return to get the remaining items (you will only get 1 Doomblade, Super Blade, Hex Whip, and Light Robe though because of reasons). After you get the remaining items, all remaining items will be Bronze Knives (0 in the RAM). What lies beyond is still unknown as of this writing.

Another small note that you can enter blanks for the 3 characters name (except for the first letter of the Hero's name) and this will save small amounts of frames throughout the entire run.