Rules Updates:

1. In general we are no longer timing this game by IGT. Instead we are going to time it with the load time remover, if you do not wish to use it you can submit the RTA time with loads as the LTR time. any submission going forward that wants to use LTR must have video proof and must have the timer visible throughout the entire run.

"You are allowed to use the Load Time Remover for submissions to remove the time where the screen is completely black (such as going into or out of the menu) or any time the 'loading' message is in the bottom-right corner of the screen. (If you do not use the load time remover your time with loads removed will be the same as your RTA time). LTR timing is the default timing method."

This allows all runs on the board to remain where they follow the rules except for runs that were only submitted with IGT. Those are being left grandfathered in but are now at the bottom of the leaderboards. This is because the RTA time will always be equal to or worse than the LTR time.

2. Because we are using LTR time going forward the console split is no longer needed because the loading times were the whole point they were split in the first place (so the xbox runs are no longer on the leaderboard [This only affected me and I'm fine with them not being there])

3. I have added glitchless categories to the boards (read bottom of this)

4. I have also added a misc category for IGT timed runs (read bottom of this)

If you want any runs moved from where they are to a different part of the leaderboard please make a response here.

I have moved any person's top time from the old default category of it to the place it now best fits in the new leaderboard. (These were most of the Trevor mode any% PS2 sumbissions and 1 time from Any% Hector PS2 they are now in the glitchless categories where they fit better)

If you want any run re-timed you can either re-time the run to follow the new rules for the category and re-submit with a comment telling us what run you are re-submitting or you can ask me to re-time it (but it might take a bit of time before I can do it)

Due to console differences, I want to go back and time all runs on the leaderboard removing the load times. I intend to use a load time remover that was created for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, so we could combine the consoles in that game due to load time differences. I will add the tool to the resources and be slowly getting to runs as I have time... I intend to go from the bottom of the board up. I currently am only timing out the loads where the game says "Loading". There most likely will be some amount of human error in my re-timing of runs, as I'm not currently frame counting them.

for the 7th place run by PuffyPalace I timed it to 1:48:42.03 RTA, and 1:40:10.84 with Load Times removed. for 6th place by BlessyVF I timed it to 1:18:17.89 RTA, and 1:10:10.00 with Load Times removed. for 5th place by bananannah I timed it to 1:11:47.77 RTA, and 1:06:33.27 with Load Times removed. for 4th place by RazzberryBlitz I timed it to 1:05:17.57 RTA and 1:00:28.81 with Load Times removed. for 3rd place by kuyrah I do not have access to the video, the only time we have is their time of 1:04:58, and without the video I can't time it removing the load times. for 2nd place by LylatR I timed it to 1:04:39.28 RTA and 0:58:50.10 with Load Times removed for 1st place by Casj1357 I timed it to 1:02:03.09 RTA and 58:00.55 with Load Times removed

1. Fully complete all the magazines: this would be doing all the tasks from everyone so that all the magazines don't have the 'greyed out' pages. For easier verification, you could have anyone flip through all the pages of all the magazines.

It might be nice to put Rock Angelz, Forever Diamondz, and the Movie (the 3 games currently on speedrun.com ) into a series page. There are some other games that could be added.

The GBA games are very different from the PS2/GCN games at least for Rock Angelz and Forever Diamondz, so they should probably have their own category if anyone decides to do a run of them.

the premise is you have to fully complete all 3 of the magazines.

I would like to see a glitchless category made:

The number 1 thing to be concerned with for us (right now) is infinite height gain glitch(es). The currently only know way to do one is: Start with an Axe sub-class weapon equipped. Jump exactly 1 time Press the attack button Immediately (within 15 frames) pause the game Scroll to the equip menu Un-equip (in some way) the Axe Do NOT leave the equip menu Re-equip (in some way) the prior weapon Un-pause the game Press the attack button again Pause again Follow the steps after the initial pause and repeat until the desired height is reached.

That is the main glitch that can be abused. It allows:

• jumping over the barrier in the Mountains without destroying it (technically this is slightly different but has the same basic principle behind it)
• avoid hitting the switch for the stairs in Mortvia Aqueduct. (this will screw with the map slightly)
• skip shooting down the tower in the Aqueduct to make a bridge (the same thing can be accomplished with a damage boost)
• get out of the boss arena of Skeleton Diver up to the Bird ID room without fighting the boss. (In doing this the boss is never flagged as defeated and could potentially softlock you in the boss room; however, the Bird ID room is always open so it is possible to escape from there)
• Enter the Forest of Jigramunt without using Glide (this can be used to skip Skeleton Diver as well)
• Enter Cordova Town from the warp in the Aqueduct from underneath. (This can skip the Entirety of the Forest of Jigramunt, and is technically another way to skip Skeleton Diver)
• Enter a door in the Machine Tower that would usually require Time Stop
• Skip some rooms in the Infinite Corridor
• Enter Dracula's Castle without beating the Infinite Corridor (Since that skips the Infinite Corridor it also skips the Aiolon Ruins and all things involved in those areas)
• Skip any required use of Glide.

Technically the glitch can be done with any weapon, but you would either need to have something you can constantly hit or be cursed in order to do it.

Another thing I want to bring up about swapping weapons is: When you do a quick-step and then switch weapons, the quick-step will be cancelled and you can immediately do another one. The same thing happens with swinging weapons and potentially some other actions. The game has some situations where you cannot change weapons (for example after you have been thrown). If you are in the air and swing a weapon and then change to a new one you will no longer be able to attack with it, but if you switch to a weapon of the same name before un-pausing you will still be able to attack.

So I do want it to be restrictive on not allowing the abuse of the glitch, but not so restrictive that the culmination of things that allow it to work are also banned unless there is a valid reason to ban them.

I would like to know what decks would be good for the different tiers. Tier 1 the fastest thing I could think of would be to use Tremendous Fire on everyone to burn them with effect damage. In theory that should also work for tier2, but in tier 3 Yami Yugi has 4000 LP which would be using 2 more cards like Final Flame or Ookazi. Tier 4, 7, 15, 14, 13 everyone has 4000 LP. So I think a burn deck might still work on those tiers. I don't know what to make for the other tiers. My first thought was a mill deck, but I'm not sure if that would work well. I am thinking it might be worth it for tier 12 since everyone has 8000 LP. for the rest I don't know if a basic beatdown deck might be the best.

What do people think?

Normally the game prevents you from wearing skates inside, but if you put them on right before you enter a building it is possible to have them on inside I am convinced that it could be useful to save time in a few places: where you either don't go far enough that putting on the skates is slow, or when a building has enough movement inside that it would be better to be wearing the skates. In general if you leave a building while wearing skates you don't have to put them on again outside.

I was thinking about making this one of my next major projects, and I was wondering if anyone has notes for runs?

I most likely will be doing solo runs, and I am going to be on PS2 if that makes a difference.

After Testing some things I have now found out that you Do NOT need Hip Press to Get Hip Press LV2, so with that problem taken care of it is easy to get the IDs to the correct place, As for the special conditions you can still use a trick to switch IDs changing where the EXP and Evo Crystals go. That means that For PS2 and xbox Boss Rush should be close to the same (excluding RNG) I was told that the IGT does Not run in the loads for Boss Rush so there isn't an advantage to running either way {except faster loading on xbox, or a lot less work arounds to get the Correct Leveling on IDs for PS2} It might still be more beneficial to do the pause tricks though: If you use a Battle ID you are leveling you can give it the EXP and then change from it to collect Evo crystals (it is better to do this if it is a final evolution so you run no risk of accidentally evolving it.)

I know most of the time saves on xBox come from the much faster loading; however, I do want to know how much more time (if any) that the 'small' EXP change has on the xBox. Also how much going into the menu is going to waste do to the small amount of time it takes to open the menu and close it... (I am going to say roughly 50 pauses in the run)