I have seen this game is not measured in-game time, I think would it be most logical.

I don't know if it's for any specific reason.

Thank you.

I'll keep this thread open since it is a more recent discussion, but FYI there was a thread on this topic already that never got any responses. Overall, I'm open to feedback about changing the preferred time method, but I would need more comments from other runners before committing to any changes.

To be honest, it has been this way since before I started running several years ago and the community was not very active for a while so the tradition stayed, but I'm happy to discuss it now since more people seem to be running the game again.

The main reason for using real time as the primary ranking method is because there are places for player input that the in-game timer doesn't count. These are:

-Level selection
-Speeding up the cutscenes by holding down the attack button.
-Mashing through level intro screens.

These are all required inputs from the player that impact your time to reach the credits so there is some argument for real time being important for ranking speedruns.

As a side note, I've questioned before whether where we start the real timer is the best place. Personally I think starting on character select or start game makes more sense than gaining control of the character, so that can also be up for discussion also.

Alternatively, the in-game timer does count deaths and removes loading so it's a fair comparison on its own. It can also remove any inconsistencies with load times, as that may be a concern since we have many runners who use emulator.

In general, I don't want to make any changes without hearing from other runners, so everyone should feel free to reply to this thread to determine if we make any changes to the timing method.

Hello, I think that the game should be timed by IGT, while it is true that the game has RTA factors to keep the leaderboard timing method as it is, the game has been optimised a little bit compared to before and it would be ideal to change the timing method.
Also, as you mentioned before, there are differences in loading times between console and emulators, with some being faster than console and others slower than console, and this could give rise to runs with a good RTA time but poor execution and vice versa.

I think the same, in a run that I did years ago that led me to leave the game I did pb in rta but it was not pb for the game, which was absurd in my opinion, the most logical thing would be in game time, with that it would be removed many problems such as manipulation of consoles, accelerations in emulators ...

I've been interested in speedrunning this game for a while, but there doesn't appear to be many rules that would make the game fair competition. No rules on start and stop times. No rules on what emulators can be used. All consoles and emulators are on the same leaderboards. Etc. I agree that IGT would be better than RTA.

Great to see some new discussion on this game. As an aside, I created a community discord to hopefully make this game a bit more active and facilitate this discussion. I'd prefer to leave any rule changes to a vote if possible, so I'll create one for RTA vs IGT on the discord or this forum if enough people join and agree.

"I've been interested in speedrunning this game for a while, but there doesn't appear to be many rules that would make the game fair competition. No rules on start and stop times. No rules on what emulators can be used. All consoles and emulators are on the same leaderboards. Etc. I agree that IGT would be better than RTA."

This is on me. I was around when the game had a much smaller leaderboard and everyone had an understanding of the timing rules. For reference, I've updated the rule notes to reflect the current runs. Timing starts on the first frame of movement when you enter a level and the scene overlay appears. Timing ends on the last hit to the final boss, Caduceus. Preferably, people will also show the credits with their total in-game time. As I mentioned before though, I'm willing to hear out changes to the start time such as level or character select.

I mentioned it in another thread, but I'm no expert on emulator accuracy and wouldn't want to force that decision, but from my understanding the most accurate ones for Playstation are Bizhawk, Mednafen, and ePSXe. Regardless, I don't currently have the ability to determine what emulator someone is using, so that would be a formality anyway unless someone else here is willing to assist with verification.