Hi, i am interested in speedrunning Dragon Quest Monsters/Dragon Warrior Monsters and before i start serious attempts i would like to ask/discuss, how the timing rules for this games are (or should be).

Is it A ) the ingame timer at the credits-safe (as in Pokemon games) or, B ) by real time (as in the submitted run by tonic).

If it is up to discussion: If it is A) then runs should by default also be single-segment (no save & load).

Objectively, RTA-runs would be faster than single-segment runs, as there are three major uses of save and load mechanics (1. get a specific foreign monster tamer, 2. tackle S-Class with monsters that will usually win, but not close to guaranteed, 3. get a specific floor in a travelers gate). On the other hand the vaguely comparable series of Pokemon games use ingame timer for speedruns

I personally would like it to be single-segment, because then the final time would depend on the overall rng and not on getting good/perfect rng after less loads.

On a different note: What categories besides any% are there, if none defined i would propose the following (and try working on a decent route/run for them):

1. All travellers gates A run of this category would just clear all the left out and newly accessible travllers gates after the starry night tourney. It would potentially be interesting for viewers because a run would include getting 13 tiny medals to open the medal man gate (a game mechanic that is ignored in any%) and beats/shows all the boss monsters that might be known from other dragon quest/dragon warrior games.

If clearing one of the longer gate takes about 20 to 30 minutes and considering maybe a short levelling sequence with metabbles, this category would take about 6-10 hours i think

2. Complete monster library (100% ?) This would be an insanely long run, as it includes clearing all gates (only after that the watabou joins the team, which is also necessary to breed a darkdrium) , "catching" a lot more monsters from traveller gates and doing a series of breeding to get those monsters that are not directly accessible through the gates. The question-mark at the 100% because the two sidequests (showing the queen the monsters she wants to see and collecting 30 tiny medals for the medal man), are not needed.