Merriam, welcome to the leader boards. You mentioned in your submission that you're interested in learning about encounter manipulation, if there's anything I can do to help please let me know or consider joining the Discord community

Thank you, Avin. I apologize in advance for the few resubmissions of my video, as I tried to figure out how to do a multi-parter. A little about me:

I've been watching speedruns for a while, but only got into it a few months ago with Mario 1. Few modern games appeal to me. I like the 8/16-bit games I grew up with, but I've already replayed them a ton. Speedrunning them is a new approach for me that keeps them fresh. I love watching record videos and tutorials to learn about how new strategies were developed, and it's fun when I make even a little progress.

When I started speedrunning, I thought a game like Final Fantasy would be my max-length for a speedrun game. Based on how the other games I've run have gone, I naively thought I would get a sub 4 without trouble. I realize now that was insulting to the amount of effort, planning, and focus required for such a feat, and I think the runners above me on the leaderboards are incredible.

My first completion time using FiFiRMRM was 7.5 hours...The issue was my VHS only recorded for 6 hours. So, I bought another kind that records up to 8, but also tried improving. I saw a video on YouTube that was solo Fighter in under 4 hours, but I couldn't get it to work (Rub/Petrify/Paralysis). I didn't quite yet want to learn step manipulation, so I looked at overm420's FiThRMFi video, as it appeared to be the fasted video without step manipulation, and I tried to replicate. After a few failed 6 hour runs, I decided to play it safe just to get on the board.

I do want to learn step manipulation in the future, but I'm going on vacation and taking a short break. I appreciate the support and it's been fun.

Props: gyre- learned a lot and was entertained watching your videos

overm420- providing a model that could work for me, a beginner runner for FF1 who has only put a mere 50 hours into the game

Celdia- I learned a lot from your video. Also, congrats on moving up the leaderboard =)

Ategenos- your maps and notes were very helpful

Slops: The 4-hour solo Fighter run on YouTube- This run didn't use step manipulation and had no trouble getting sub 4. But, it's like the person never got any status ailments, which seems like they hit the lottery or something. The video made it look so easy, yet I found it impossible lol.