I have uploaded the new notes for the Bad Ending which has corrected the previous mistakes and added more Direct power to Atsuma at the end-game. Remember you can always do one extra hand-in if you want to feel extra comfortable if you won more Casino Coins than necessary. I am pretty sure that the Bad Ending notes in the current form are finalized and won't change anymore so anyone can start speedrunning now. I will try and go for that 5:30 on Xbox 360 if possible at one point later this year. ;---)

Will you do Xbox Series X runs Deathtome and can that console be added to the game?

I doubt I will run any other version than 360 and One, but those runs will most likely be in the same category as Xbox One. We might need to change the name of the category if there are any runners from the future generations. Xbox+ or something like that. I doubt there will be much of a difference, sure maybe a small difference but the load times are very fast already.

I only play Enchanted Arms during winter season, so expect it to get broken soon. Will finalize the route for PS3 too.

I really want to run this on rpcs3 (ps3 emulator) but I see that emulators are banned :(

I mean, I understand that the emulators are faster because of loading times and fps boost but is it possible to have a separate category for this?

You can run it Phantom, but as you say it's an unfair advantage. Perhaps adding emulator as separate, but I don't know if there will be more runners on emulator besides you. You can always run and we'll see how to handle it if you post it here. Also if you have a PS3 with this game you can always record with a phone directed at the screen for instance. Even if low quality it'll be enough evidence. :) If you don't have a PS3, I get your concern.

Thank you deathtome, I'll run it then :) unfortunately I don't have a ps3 anymore!

Ok, I got my first (very bad) run on rpcs3!

Here are the save files : https://mega.nz/file/808SBDTI#G_RX6KvHyF4LeO2whnR-VLyIFGO-Xfh7DXMd25E_OmQ

and here is the video :

9h12h23 IGT after the good ending credit roll.

many major mistakes and the choice to not rely on golem bite me very hard :)

but now I have a feel of the game and I'm studying your run, I'll add menu abuse and run away from fights and also learn where are the NPC for the quests triggers!

Nice! I saw some parts of it. Looking at the speed it's ridiculous. Must easily save like an hour on real ps3 if not more. :) Casino is instant on save/load too.

If you follow my guide for PS3 version I am sure you will get a very good time! You should not fight random encounters at all to be honest. Even if you do at the end (see your Mystery Man level 37) and my Atsuma level and you will see there is not really a worthy difference.

I played PS3 version a lot so it should be kinda optimal. The only improvement I would think would be Lord of Earth in case you can go with riskier golem setup. The main characters are terrible in a speedrun. They only get good at the end with their final weapons when hitting level 40+ but that's not possible in a speedrun. At least Atsuma's final weapon you get for free from Blacksmith so he's the only good one. On Xbox 360 Yuki is kinda good for a few bosses but becomes bad late game. In PS3 the high level golems are the kings. :)

I might try to play on emulator someday too. It looked fun how fast it loads. Wanna know how much faster it is. You are a good player so I think you can beat my time on emulator with my guide easily. I have all info needed. But please run from all fights unless you farm EX (by letting golems die on purpose for 1 round before escaping). Only bosses are worth killing. There is an OK spot to farm on 360 with the shrine enemies but they removed it. The enemies were weak to poison and couldn't hit row #3 so it was a free win basically.

I am sure you save 3 hours if you run away and use golems all the time. ;) Atlas is the best golem in the game thanks to Mega Link for instant 100 combo points (MAX).

Ok, I got a new run!

7h50m33s IGT final hour of the game went so wrong :) But I'll analyze and train, I really want to do a good run some day!

Nice! The biggest issue I see is that you don't know how the combo system works. The biggest way to kill bosses is to have 4 characters who chain their combos together because each attacker deals more damage. I will give an example...

[4 people have 100 - MAX and will chain a combo next turn]

1. Atsuma deals 1000 damage with Stun Bead Flare (x1 - default damage)
2. Seraphim Deals 500 damage with Attack (x1,25 - 25% extra damage)
3. Floresia deals 250 damage with Attack (x1,5 - 50% extra damage)
4. Atlas deals 100 damage with Life Vacuum (x2 - 100% extra damage)

This means that you will deal 1000 + 625 + 375 + 200 = 2200 damage

If you instead swap to this order...

1. Atlas deals 100 damage with Life Vacuum (x1 - default damage)
2. Floresia deals 250 damage with Attack (x1,25 - 25% extra damage)
3. Seraphim Deals 500 damage with Attack (x1,5 - 50% extra damage)
4. Atsuma deals 1000 damage with Stun Bead Flare (x2 - 100% extra damage)

This would deal 100 + 312 + 750 + 2000 = 3162 damage

That's how I am able to one shot bosses kinda with Atlas because I know the two characters who deal most amount of damage. The highest damage dealer always last (often Atsuma or Seraphim).

You tend to start the highest damage attack (Atsuma's EX special attacks first which is a big waste). Often times it's better to wait until all 4 have MAX before a turn in case you know it's close (maybe two characters are at 80 and 93 so it's better to wait for next turn).

Also if you have two chars with combo you can save the MAX by doing healing/standby in-between attacks. That way they won't combo and you can still deal some damage without breaking the combo. 1. Attack 2. Heal. 3 Attack 4. Standby/Heal/Mega Link

That's why Atlas is broken. He can make you always have a full party with MAX combo after using Mega Link and then with Atsuma's Stun Bead Flare as 4th character will break the game. :)

It's a good run! Also Infinity sign is that you max out that specific stat first (Like HP (infinity) until it becomes grey, then you move to next EP (infinity) until that one becomes grey. Maybe you figured it out later, but if not then you know for next time what infinity means (just put all points available until it becomes grey).

I'm sure you will break 1 more hour off next time just by utilizing the combo system to the max. :D GG!

I didn't know about the combo chaining system! Now I can mesure Atlas power (I didn't before)

I'm thinking about a special route when after emperor of fire, and not buy Galirya but Baramon

problem with him is he do not have any kind of attack power but his "High barrier" skill is completely OP, very wide range (6 cells) and boost resistance by 50% of all characters (effectively doubling HP and also doubling healing on party) so it could replace the butterfly

Also it means that I do not have to invest in HP anymore (way less SP points required)

final party would be : Atsuma Lilly-lilly OR Odin (chosing Odin means fighting him with seraphim and it is quite hard but the dark damage on infinity in nice and the fight is doable with Baramon) Baramon (replacing the butterfly, so I would use items to heal if needed) Atlas (because now I understand how powerful it is)

I made a test run and it went smoothly, I did not die on toya & after (but did died many time on Odin because I was using seraphim)

If combo bar is full on all party members I should attack in this order : baramon, atlas, Odin(if Atsuma EX is available) and Atsuma

But maybe it is slower? (is it?) Is it worth a shot or should I stick with your strategy?

I was looking for a 50% damage reduction golem. Didn't think it exist on PS3 version. Oh man... In Xbox 360 Prill Cotton has 50% damage reduction which makes the game a joke. Sure go ahead man. Use it. Butterfly is used for healing mostly and insane damage and crowd control (skill 2 forced boss to attack Buttefly) to avoid hitting certain squares so Atsuma can survive when using Champ glove.

I am curious to see what you come up with but I didn't like Odin much when I tried him out. Defensive setup is going to be slower but safer. As long as you feel comfortable with the run. It starts being difficult at Lord of Earth and onwards. So if you can improve the route just change what you need by editing the notes of mine. Good luck, looking forward to next run.

I don't know if it's smart to remove Butterfly from the party ever. You need 2 damage dealers Lilly + Atsuma and Atlas for combo and a healer/buffer Butterfly (or someone else). I guess you can swap for Baramon but make sure it works. You will use more potions if so. If final battles Toya and forward is easy then stick with it. Whatever makes you not reset the fights often.

Also a secret tip is to use L2 and R2 more often. R2 for quick and easy battles like the ones in Domlen Ruins and L2 when 1 attack is enough to kill like Seraphim 1 attack (L2) to skip moves for rest of the party (no need to put standby x3 for instance).

there is only 2 golems with 50% armor in the ps3 version, the baramon in shop after emperor of fire and the other one is inside the beast shrine (knight avei) so... yeah... !

alternatively it is possible to get this skill with even a better range on raigar by defeating the god near the top of the sage tower but it adds a long boss fight, I do not think it is worth it in a speedrun scenario

You mostly need 50% damage mid game so yeah once Raigar's final skill is available it is too late. I don't know how I didn't know about this. Maybe Baramon starts with low level. There must be some reason I didn't test it.

Also Galirya is used for ninjas (killing all ninjas at the same time skips multiple death animations) and the oboro fights for aoe damage and easy comboing. It can never miss with combo. And Gargoyles are difficult to kill fast without life vacuum. But if you can survive or swap out galirya for other battles then go ahead. Mostly I think of getting easy 4 combos. That is why the placement guide exists. Anyway, it will get much easier now that you know more about the combo system. Test what works for you. I need to see this Baramon in action. Haha.

I did a new time ! 6h49m18s IGT :

I'm frustrated because of mistakes :

• casino was bad because I do not considered spinning twice each time !
• resistance HQ (went to the mines before completing scenario)
• junk city (I always forget to give the flute back to the boy before going to fubial)
• I used the spell "protection" against sayaka instead of "high barrier" resulting in death (skill name confused me...)
• didn't danced before queen of ice and I regret it a lot!
• had a long hesitation moment after emperor of fire because of new team and was considering putting yuki in team instead of butterfly (but went with butterfly after spending skill gems on yuki...)

Also considering not using as much skill gems before japan area is now way more easier with baramon (less chips required?)

Also I really want to get rid of Atlas for the final ice area of the game and put Odin (but I keep lilly-lilly & baramon), I could also replace lilly-lilly with baglenji but it does not seems worth it!

with the 50% barrier, Odin can legit solo Toya with automatic combat with his level 50 and have no weakness against any of his "reverse EX" or any of final bosses attacks (infinity hits neutral) also dark damage works well against infinity! I just have to fit 100Power,100Mind and 56Speed gems more in the playthrough! Also Atlas 4 slots did really not helped me with the high barrier set-up :(

the defensive set-up hit less but I have also way less to think so turns can go on faster!

even if the run is flawed, I like it and wish to upload it! how do I do? or maybe should I wait to make an ever better one? :)

Training for the final boss :

I still need atlas for the queen but not for toya (he can un-link me) and not for Infinity

Some mistakes :

Baramon do not need to survive the first phase of infinity (all the other phases are like an other fight) so I can let him die, it is faster

Also should have used the atsuma EX on the blue cristal to destroy it before doing the 50% damage reduction to infinity!

Edit : I just realized something, just before going to the queen's castle you can decide to go to bed (4th choice) it seemed to be the fastest but you can alternatively visit Karin OR Yuki OR raigar

For each character you will receive a unique consumable item that is completely OP :

Item Name : Black Stone (Raigar) Effects : Revives All Allies At Full HP Can save the run if final boss do not go well

Item Name : Bullet Pendant (Yuki) Effects : Fills up EX Combination for All Allies I think the formulation is wrong, not sure it it fills EX bar or combo bar or both, this needs testing!

Edit : Tested it and it recovers FULL EX & FULL Combo bar of all allies

Item Name : Flower Bookmark (Karin) Effects : Heal All Allies EP And HP (FULL)

Nice man, I added the run so now you can go and improve it if you like. I will try out the category one day so be careful. You can also swap out Lilly-Lilly for Odin if you don't want to change anything big. That way you could still use my strategies for the bosses. At this point you probably have figured out what you want to do. So just keep on killing the game man, and please try the Xbox version one day too. That version is easier once you have played PS3 version.

I have been poking inside game files recently to try to find exploits that can be use in a speedrun scenario

Some findings that can be useful or not :

Bingo & Slot machine in casino may be deterministic contrary to the roulette and understanding them might lead to earn money quicker and with less randomness

For exemple the last slot machine have more "7"'s than other 100chip betting machines and nailing down the rythm to align 3 seven to earn 50000 chips might be nice (4/16 + 2/16 + 3/16) : https://ibb.co/zsygK9M

Now for Bingo, I do not understand the logic yet BUT there seems to be one (this could be the quickest way to earn money), here is the model I viewed : https://ibb.co/6YXBBvC

Also not speedrun related but while I was diving into the game files I found some evidence that Sayaka and Oboro(maybe?) were meant to be played at some point in the game since their weapons are still in the game (not all of them are finished) : Sayaka katana's (no moonlight katana to be found unfortunately!) : https://ibb.co/zGr2t9M Oboro ninja weapons : https://ibb.co/c8DDyFB The queen's model : https://ibb.co/Th9HB4r

Yeah, regarding the Casino the Bingo & Slots are faster in case you are lucky. On real hardware (PS3) it takes you about 45 seconds to restart a failed casino gamble where you go all-in. So if something takes a lot of attempts you have wasted a lot of time. That's why I like roulette. Well, at least sometimes I like roulette. Most of the time I get bad luck. If you can find an improvement Bingo & Slots are most valuable before you get a lot of coins. If you manage to go from 500/1000 to 50000 coins by other means it would be ideal choice even if it fails a few times. Roulette becomes faster once you have a lot of coins already ~50K or optimally 100K so you can afford to gamble with higher chips. You can win 200K coins in one spin if you are lucky with about 20% probability once you have 100K chips.

It's cool to see their weapons. Sayaka would have been nice to have in the party. :D