Good work soldiers! I am happy to see that the work I started has been continued. All 16 main levels have been accounted for and completed. There are, however, a total of 32, with 17-32 only being accessible through passwords.

Also, I originally worked on two categories: Charlie and Annihilation, based on the two possible ways to win. This would show the full strategic capabilities more.

What does 100% entail? Getting all the Dances? All the Dances and Heart Containers?

There is one unlockable track not yet listed on the leaderboard: Asteroid. It is an asteroid belt in space.

There should be separate leaderboards/categories for Parts 2 and 3. If possible, include separate categories for Original (Japanese on console) and Translation (the English Translation). There is more motivation to run games when there are proper leaderboards for them.

Japanese is the cheapest, and probably the most different. There should be a Japanese category, and if possible, make it console only.

Highest Point Lead is the "high score" category I'm trying to introduce into the series, as well as racing games in general. It could possibly even be in other games like Wave Race as well.

Highest Point Lead is when you subtract the 2nd place's overall score at the end of a Grand Prix from your score (most likely all 1sts).

Obviously, there is no place for it on Speedrun.com, so I'm wondering if it can have its own separate page, possibly on MarioKart64.com.

I have already put out threads for this challenge on the Super and 64 pages, but I would like to see this throughout the entire series and get expert opinions from everyone. In my mind, this could extend the games. I don't think most Grand Prixs will last that long to get the max points, but I sure do look forward to something like what can be done with the All Cup Tour from DD!

Tell me what you think.

I know that Mario Kart players, who have been inching Time Trial times down for decades, will soon be running out of times left. They want to keep playing their favorite games and experiencing their favorite tracks. I present to you an entirely new category throughout the entire series: Highest Point Lead. We are used to playing Grand Prix's and finishing first on every single race. Getting perfect 36s (and 45s in Super) is mundane at this point.

Here is the new challenge: count each score difference between you and 2nd place. Your PB is determined by your best point lead at the end of each Grand Prix on an individual basis. Finishing with 36 points and a 2nd place at 18 points, for example, isn't worth 36 points, it's worth 18. What we would do after is put all the best leads in each cup in each difficulty and put them all together to determine a player's total score.

It would be something like The-Elite.net, except where in that website, individual PBs would be counted into points to determine their overall worth, in this challenge (and the new leaderboards we would make for it, we would already measure it with points, so there would be no need for conversion.

This category would do to things: Make Grand Prix's much more relevant, and give players who have exhausted Time Trials something more to do.

Rules:

Changing buttons on Wii U and Switch is legal. Hacking/save states/other things are not.

In the first 3 Mario Kart games, which give the bottom four the opportunity to retry, pausing or placing 5th-8th would be the end of a run. This is to prevent abuse of Mario Kart 64's unlimited chances.

One player only. 2 Players could be used to greatly abuse or ease the game, and not everyone has access to a 2nd player.

I await feedback and appreciate you for reading to the end.

I know this is Speedrun.com, but I don't know anywhere else where this idea will get easy attention.

Super Mario Kart is already a premiere speed game, but it needs something more- a high score category. I present Highest Point Lead. Highest Point Lead is an Individual Grand Prix run of sorts where at the end of each Grand Prix, your score is determined by the difference between you and 2nd place. So having 45 points and having two other drivers tied with 21 would be a 24 point lead over 2nd place for example. You would take your best score of each individual Grand Prix (sort of like IL Time Trials) and add them all together to determine who has the most total points. There would also be a "best overall" like in the Time Trial leaderboards. Getting a lead of 27 or 30 points on the same cup on the same difficulty will only add 3 or 6 more points to the 24 you originally had before, not 27 or 30 more points. It's only your PB's we're comparing here obviously.

Unlike Time Trials, any official release of the game can be used. No emulators or unofficial console ports though. On Wii U and Switch, you can change the button configuration. As long as you aren't using cheats, save states, or rewind, the run counts.

Some general tips for Highest Point Lead: There is one "super racer" assigned as the rival for each driver as well as a distinct hierarchy thereafter. Study this and use items at the end of races (while coming in 1st) to manipulate positions obviously. The next best racer who places 2nd will take the place of being your main super racer rival, so factor that in.

DKR and the Crash racing games, as well as other racing series not even related to "cartoony arcade go-karting" could have something like this. It'll certainly be something for when the time trials run out of fuel.

Make it happen.

This game was originally on the Wii. There's no Wii category and the only available console is PS3. There should be the options for Wii and Wii U under the "Tales of Series" text. The Wii version has many differences and should be a unique category, especially because there are no runs at the time of writing.

I want to run this game and submit records. However, there are no moderators to verify my run. So can I be one?

2020 was very successful for Digimon World 2 with the two new route guides, but it isn't quite good enough. The two routes create a split in the game, and the better route has a guide that is far more vague. In 2021, we should all collaborate on one definitive guide. This does not have to be MY route. It's EVERYONE's route. In addition, the guide should be even more thorough with Bit costs for everything, exact locations in shopping menus, amount of bits you should have at that exact point, triggers for progression with specific instructions, and even detailed battle strategies. Here are some of my initial ideas:

Combine the best parts of the two routes that currently exist.

-An early part of the game will have two DarkTyrannomons and a MetalGreymon for a multi-targeting attack and an Interrupt, as well as them being powerful

-Ending party would have multiple benefits, such as an Okuwamon, a Whamon, and an Andromon. Both the benefits of reducing enemies' Attack and Defense, plus healing

-Extra money gaining/saving techniques to get as many Upgrades for the Digi-Beetle as early as possible (such as the Turtle-BAT)

-Best enemies to grind on for both money and exp in each part (ClearAgumon and Piddomon in SCSI Domain where you get Yanmamon are great for example)

-Techniques to waste as little EP as possible especially in the early game, even finding cues to immediately tell where to go

-Possibly even cutting out major upgrades by the end if they are too expensive

These are just suggestions. It is a work in progress and anyone can feel free to contribute!

I've been playing the Japanese version following my own guide. It's working great. But there is a problem: it has softlocks. Just in case you want to get the cheaper Japanese version, keep this in mind. It's not unbeatable, but save often.

The softlocks have happened in the Main Gate and Gold Hawk HQ. The music still plays and the game still animates, but you can't move. And this is supposed to be in required cutscenes. You have no choice but to reset. The Japanese version was known to be slightly suboptimal but not deal-breaking before this (with the chest opening) but this solidifies the Japanese version as the less optimal game, and this is in a game that already has problems with forced resets through no fault of your own.

This thread is for various documentation of Digimon World 2 speedrunning in case any creator of a history documentary needs some facts researched. Be sure to put in any obscure fact you think is necessary.

Try to imagine Karl Jobst's voice reading this. Or ThaRixer or Summoning Salt or whoever your favorite commentator is.

Digimon World 2 was once considered "Nearly Humanly Impossible to Speedrun". The obvious reason would be due to its length. This is not entirely the case, given that longer runs, such as "Nemesis%" in Final Fantasy 10, were done regularly around this time. In addition to being very long, players are at the mercy of the game's brutal RNG. Floors are randomized and can either put you at the opposite end of a Floor Portal or right next to it, and when trying to Capture a Digimon, there is a chance of the one you want not even being in the Domain. There's also the fact that Items you shoot at Digimon can be rejected, and even when the biggest of three Hearts possible is hovering above a Digimon, there is still a not-so-slim 1-in-8 chance that they can refuse to join. Given the amount of Digimon you need to capture in a run with a fast route, this starts to add up, and problems caused by bad RNG can be very costly to outright run ending.

In addition to that, Digimon World 2 is very unrefined and unforgiving with its mechanics. Most RPGs at the time were refining their mechanics to be more inviting and less daunting. Digimon World 2 goes in the opposite direction, even bringing back Ineffective Attacks seen in some NES RPGs, where attacking a defeated enemy in the same turn results in your attacker missing and wasting an attack on nothing. In addition to that, Running Away is also quite the troublemaker. During each turn, your protagonist Akira has the option to just Give Orders to Digimon, Use either the Z Cannon (to attack enemies) or the ShooterGun (to benefit your Digimon) before Giving Orders, or Run Away. You only get one use of each per turn, and if you try and fail to Run Away (again, it's entirely up to luck), your Digimon will be defenseless against hits from the other team of Digimon before you get another chance on the next Turn. Obviously, enough failed Run Aways can put you in danger, deplete recovery items, and add minutes to the run.

One aspect of annoying mechanics is status effects, particularly being Confused. Being confused is awful, because when you are confused in Digimon World 2, your Digimon will always hit themselves or their allies. Unless you cure Confusion, it can last the entire fight, causing problems for you in addition to the onslaught of enemy attacks. I bring this up because one of the Digimon you are required to battle, three separate times in the game in fact, is Raremon, who will Counter Attack with Buffalo Breath, which Confuses whoever it hits. One battle with a Raremon is in the Coliseum, where the Z Cannon as well as curative items are not allowed, meaning you will most likely have to take a Buffalo Breath to the face or two, which is brutal. Confusion can be cured with Electro Thread and prevented entirely with an Interrupt, but these are aspects of the game that aren't intuitive without knowledge or trial and error.

Another thing that turns people off of Digimon World 2 is the amount of special items you need to destroy game-blocking barriers, some of which are invisible until you run into them or press X/O right next to them. You are given no indication of when one is about to come up, and even if you've played the game before, it's still annoying to have situational Missiles and BugZaps take up space in your already strictly limited inventory. Being short a Missile or two and having to take a much more roundabout route to Floor Portals tends to be a common occurrence in speedruns, due to the lack of routing research done on being prepared for this reviled mechanic. On some parts of File Island, the game's second half, Bugs that fall from the ceiling are impossible to avoid if you don't have the correct type of BugZap, which you need to just guess as it's random in each Domain attempt. Unless you want to sacrifice inventory space to carry several of each type of BugZap, you will just have to eat them. This is especially bad because one type of Bug is the ReturnBug, which randomly dumps 1-3 Digimon, permanently removing them for the remainder of the Domain. This has even happened in a WR run mentioned below. This aspect of the game is so hated, mods will remove it entirely.

There's also the problem of attack animations taking too long. This is obviously a major factor of why the game is so lengthy. Each attack is accompanied by several seconds of a Digimon standing there doing nothing, followed by an attack animation. This is excruciating to sit through in the early parts of the run, let alone later when battles will regularly consist of 3-on-3 matchups and attacks will regularly hit or heal all three Digimon on a team, with some moves even affecting all six. The upside is that this gives runners plenty of opportunities for breaks, but runners must still remember turns where they Ordered one of their Digimon to use an Interrupt attack. Runners can potentially get up to go get a drink during a long turn, only to come back to discover an idling menu asking them if they want to use an Interrupt attack on an enemy. You can technically take breaks during long turns, but you should probably still pay attention to when they're over so you don't add too much idle time to the run.

Speaking of things taking too long, much of Digimon World 2 is padded out with copious amounts of required grinding. This means you must do many of the slow battles to level up Digimon, and for some reason, the Digimon can't gain more than one level per battle, even if they have enough EXP for it. When this happens, you must do one more battle for the next level(s) to register. This is especially true when your team gains a new Rookie later in the game, and you need to do easy and safe enough battles to have your stronger Digimon carry the new one. This will happen a lot due to the fact that the game has an important feature called DNA Digivolution, essential for optimized runs. This is when you fuse together two equally powerful Digimon (such as two that are both at Level 22), sacrificing them both for a single Rookie inheriting the same moves, but reverting to Level 1 with stats to match. You will need to do a lot of grinding if you want things like the special Okuwamon who can use DuoScissorClaw and missile attacks, or a Whamon who can use Tidal Wave, Horn Buster, and Twig Tap, mentioned later below. This isn't a confusing mechanic, but it is something that can make large parts of the run quite a slog unless you figure out a way to weave it efficiently into other important Domain expeditions.

The first speedrunner brave enough to attempt Digimon World 2 was KHeartz back in 2014, with a time of 30:38:36. That's not a typo- Digimon World 2 really is that long. Make no mistake- this run was terrible. The most impressive thing about it is that it existed. Even KHeartz himself said the run could have been 10 hours shorter through fewer mistakes and resets alone. He did this as part of an effort to speedrun every Digimon game. He was active on 1 and 3, but only did this one run of 2. Still, two years would go by before someone else beat this time. ZChaotix was also running the game, and barely missed the WR.

In 2016, ZChaotix was the next to hold the WR with 24:29:36, cutting quite a few hours through better play, but with a route that was nothing to write home about. Later that year, AzureFlame4 began doing attempts on the game- one every weekend. While this was happening, SmartBall did one attempt and finished his run with a time of 22:14:13 shortly before Azure did, and Azure was only 90 seconds off. He never ran the game after that. SmartBall introduced a new routing innovation that's still used today- the Double Okuwamon. When an Okuwamon becomes Level 22, it will gain an attack called DuoScissorClaw, one of the most useful attacks in the run. DuoScissorClaw attacks all three enemies and reduces their defenses. Digimon's attributes can only be buffed or debuffed two times, so two Okuwamon can make enemies' defenses as low as they'll go in one turn. Much of the game is trivialized by the ability to use DuoScissorClaw with two Okuwamon.

One thing I haven't mentioned until now is one consequence of long runs- it's difficult to get one without a recording issue. Early speedruns of Digimon World 2 are split into multiple parts. SmartBall's first WR in the game is in one part, but has several recording errors with unnecessary time costs to fix. This is especially a problem given that one of the game's regulations is to finish runs in a single segment (more on that later). In 2017, SmartBall would finish another run, 20:09:33, this time a single segment run that also has no recording errors and was the first clean run of the game.

2018 is when players would start to get good at speedrunning Digimon World 2. ZChaotix got a new PB, 17:31:40, one with excellent gameplay, little to no idling in menus, and more efficient and thought-out weaving of progress, Captures, and grinding. In addition to the two Okuwamons, there was also a Whamon able to use Tidal Wave, which is similar to DuoScissorClaw, except that it lowers enemies' damage output instead of weakening their defense. It also inherited Horn Buster, MetalGreymon's useful Interrupt move, and Woodmon's Twig Tap, which drains enemy health equivalent to the amount of damage it did, very useful for Coliseum battles where items become unusable and there's no opportunity to heal in between battles unless you Leveled Up, which completely recovers the individual Digimon that leveled up. Speaking of Coliseum battles, some of them were done earlier in the game rather than all at the end to get good rewards earlier. This new route made the game a breeze compared to previous ones, and was much faster and more consistent. This run would remain the World Record for two years until SmartBall broke it again in 2020.

Speaking of routes, one major barrier to entry for Digimon World 2, besides not having enough time for it, is having enough resources to even know where to begin. Six years after the game had first been run, there were still no Guides. There were plenty of Digimon speedrunners with ambitions to run Digimon World 2, but no example to follow, given that each run of the game up to that point used a different route. That's when Princess Rescuer came in to meticulously copy each Domain, Shopping, Capture and Digivolution choice off of ZChaotix's PB and put it into a Guide. Shortly after, it had provably helped a new runner, The Wavy Commander. Although Wavy's run was segmented, and therefore did not qualify for the leaderboard, it followed the same route used in ZChaotix's WR very closely. It didn't do it as well as ZC, but the potential for copiable routes had been proven by that run.

In 2020, SmartBall introduced another innovation to Digimon World 2 speedruns- not just a new route, but the first ever proper grind of the game, where many attempts were done within one day of each other. SmartBall was trying out a new super-secret route, which he only had the opportunity to do runs months apart with before the grind. SmartBall was nearly about to quit and never attempt the game again before Landail streamed it and renewed interest. After several failed attempts making it a little further each time, it cut it very close with a 16:59:58. Not only was this a new WR, but it was also much less refined than ZChaotix's PB, proving that the potential for improvement was much greater. One late-game domain in this run even loses one of the Okuwamon to a ReturnBug, finishing the Domain with only one Okuwamon and a Piddomon, yet it was still much faster. The route was just that good, though still one that required a consistent grind to get. This also resulted in the first route written by a top runner of the game. ZChaotix's route is still an option though, as it's more consistent, something every runner of Digimon World 2 desperately needs, especially if they aren't planning on dedicating themselves to it. Still, there is much more to go with Digimon World 2, seeing as how every World Record has started with a different number of Hours and have all used different routes. It has only started getting optimized in the past couple of years and very few skips/glitches have been discovered in what is a very unrefined game that probably has a fair few more.

If anyone wants to post video tutorials, post them here. I have already made some getting into the first hour of the game, and they're also in Japanese in case anyone reads Japanese better than English or can't afford the English version/console. Video tutorials in little parts are needed because they are much more digestible and easier to skip around in than the long PB VODs. I'm going to stop for now, but I'm looking forward to feedback!

This is a Thread where I will put the previous Routes that I have typed out. Expect this to get bigger as the game gets more optimized.

Now that there's a guide that gives you a clear path through the game, here's some tips on how to train.

First, be consistent. Consistently play the game, do individual runs of domains (especially ones with captures or learning new moves) and start new play throughs as often as you can if only to refresh yourself and get used to resetting in runs. In each new attempt, you should be more "prepared" and less idle. Watching every single run except for the current WR, the big problem in each of them is the amount of downtime they have- an hour or two for each of them practically. You should get it down to making selection before the camera is done spinning around to focusing on something. With captures, try to get it to before the camera reaches the Digimon you're trying to capture.

Also, if something isn't working, try doing something else. Start with minor tweaks before major route changes. You have many different Digimon as well as Digivolutions you can do in this game. Also try watching other runs to figure out what didn't work in theirs- if you skip around, you can learn so much from flawed runs, almost as much as you can learn from good ones.

As we all know by now, DW2 is an infamously long and unforgivingly random game. I think a separate category for segmented runs would probably make it much more appealing. This is already what 100% runs of BOTW are doing, in addition to allowing the "TA" method of speedrunning, where you can pause the game, turn off the recording, and take short breaks after playing for a while. Of course, there should be some sort of regulation, such as a minimum amount of time for each segment (except for the last one of course), or a maximum amount of segments that you must finish a run in, or something that prevents you from playing it safe and perfecting small parts of the game together.

New Adventure Island on the Turbografx-16 does not have any moderator. That means that if you submit a run, it can't be put on the leaderboard, even if it's a legitimate World Record. There is one time, but the runner has quit.

I am already in charge of World Court Tennis, a Turbografx-16 game I pioneered. I love that game, and I love New Adventure Island. I am working on speedrunning that game, and would like to have the ability to put my time on, as well as anyone else's.

Thank you for reading.

Final Lap Twin currently only has one category: Quest Mode English. Here is where you suggest new categories.

Quest Mode Japanese

The Japanese version, and players who can’t understand English, are at a clear disadvantage. There is more text- two boxes for each encounter in English, three for Japanese. Japanese is more common and cheaper. It’s easy to forget, as a speed runner, that language barriers still exist.

F1 Grand Prix

The F1 Grand Prix is a 16-heat-long racing tournament that you need to win to get the game’s other ending. Despite being the first option in the menu (and shorter than Quest Mode) it’s less popular. It’s also separate from the F-3000 and doesn’t need to be unlocked.

Despite being the first option in the main menu, the Grand Prix mode in Final Lap Twin is the more overlooked one compared to the Quest Mode. It seems the GP was intended to be the main mode due to all of the attract cutscenes focusing on it (and none focusing on the Quest Mode). There are no runs of it, or even recorded play throughs besides a tool assisted Longplay. There are two reasons for this: it isn’t as interesting, and it’s also much more difficult.

Throughout all sixteen races (!) there is one opponent who mainly stunts you: the Red Car. This car is programmed to always win, always catch up to you, and try to get in your way. Whenever you can, push the Red Car off of the track, and you will have few obstacles to gaining several positions. Keep doing this whenever the red car catches up to you. Your car is easier to push around than every other car, so push the red car into road signs during turns while you’re on the inside of the turn. You can even hang around the outer rim of a turn and trick the red car into speeding past you into the signs. The other cars can also, counter-intutively, be bumped into from behind for a speed boost. You can use this to gain small speed boosts throughout the race, and even use it to increase your bumping power in opportune times. Choose the 720 Car in each race and learn how to switch gears to accelerate, maintain speed and not fly off of the road during turns.