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.

Hey Bloodymary,

You may have already messaged tonic about this but I'll respond in case others are curious. The timing is done real-time, not in-game time. This is mostly because that's how the Japanese runners do the timing, but also there's just so much RNG in the game that it'd be really dumb to reset over some things (this is true for all monsters games, not just this one). I have considered in the past too about having a single-segment category, but I feel like the game is bad enough even with being able to reset.

Any% is the only category westerners have tackled, but the Japanese runners have done a beat the monster master category and a synthesize DarkDrium category. It could be fun, but they aren't taken seriously. We've also talked about all gates before as well, but I don't think anyone's ever done a run.

Quick question about rules and timing...

I'm practicing any % for an attempt at the leaderboard, but I'm trying to run it on an emulator so I don't have to buy all the hardware.

Are there any gbc emulators that are agreed to be valid as far as a speedrun is concerned? I was originally using VBA to practice with, but it seems like I should switch to either Gambatte or BGB for more accurate timings.

Also, are timing pauses allowed?