1. I've been having this issue with the last few games I've done speedruns for (Slime Rancher, Touhou Luna Nights, Sonic Adventure DX and now Final Fantasy 1) and I always come across this issue where I love doing the run and practicing the first day, maybe two or even a week with TLN but then that excitement just kinda stops. Sometimes it feels like I have to do runs or I have to practice even if it's for half an hour but then I just hit this wall where it isn't new and exciting anymore. Yes I'm having fun but I don't have a drive to go through it as often as I should in order to get good and do the runs I want to.

Like right now I started to run Final Fantasy 1 only a few days ago after watching RPG Limit Break and I am having fun with it but today when I was going through the game to make save files for practice, I made it around half way before I just wanted to go do something else. I'm thinking about other games I can speedrun that are shorter or maybe I'd prefer this or that or I just want to go play something casually. I always end up taking a break with my runs/practice and never come back and it feels really bad. How often should I practice or even do runs, and how long for practice? Once a day for practice? Every other day? Maybe do runs whenever I feel like it but just continue practicing?

2. It took quite a lot of trial and error before I more or less settled on Final Fantasy 1 and it's really hard to describe why and why I continue thinking about running other games. I've thought about trying to run Mega Man, Final Fantasy 13 or get back into Touhou Luna Nights and it's been wearing me down and ruining my mentality. Maybe I'm just not enjoying Final Fantasy 1 that much if I'm thinking of other games, but I suppose I could always come back after trying other games but it's really hard for me to make that kinda decision.

Edit: I do want to point out I haven't actually timed any runs for a long time, I do have the idea that maybe timing my runs will make me have more fun and enjoy them more but I'm just kinda worried about remembering where to go or strategies before doing my runs, so I've been holding off on timing runs :(

I've been on and off trying to find a perfect game (for me) to speedrun, get good at, stream and generally just have fun with. Every time I try to go on this wondrous... headache inducing journey I always end up empty handed, and this has gone on for about a year even though I'm absolutely determined to pour my heart out into a game and be competitive with my times. Whenever I give up on searching it really does sadden me because there's days I feel close to my decision and others where my mind goes completely blank at the mere thought of picking a game. In order to give my close friends a break from me talking about my decision making process and to get more varied opinions and ideas on the matter, I'm posting this.

My experience in speedrunning isn't extensive. I used to do Pokemon Yellow, Refunct, Ori and the Blind Forest (or at least tried, never finished a run and didn't feel confident to push myself), Slime Rancher, A Hat in Time and multiple Final Fantasy titles. When it came to Pokemon and Refunct I ended up hitting against a wall way too hard and got burnt out pushing myself for hours and hours to push past it while not having much fun or feeling as though I can spend time doing something else (so that I wouldn't fall out of practice). Recently I gave Touhou Luna Nights a try and I enjoyed the game, but once I started looking into the route for any%, the idea of streaming it (interest in the game itself doesn't seem to be that high) and really thinking about it I feel like dropping it. Even though part of me still wants to do it, the other half tells me to find something else similar to it. I've gone full "dork" and made a spreadsheet at one point detailing thoughts on games. Detailing their times, genres, tech and if the game is active or not, but of course this never really helped.

My biggest issues when looking around are mixed, primarily it's settling on something I enjoy. I've heard to pick a game I love, but whenever I sit down and try to think about what games I love or that I'm nostalgic to my brain just shuts down and doesn't turn up anything. I can go down a whole list of games I've played throughout my life but picking the ones I love isn't easy for me, I can certainly go into detail about the games I dislike but not for what I enjoyed. Even when I find something nostalgic I end up finding reasons to not run it, for instance I'd spend almost every day of my young life playing Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on my GameCube but once I started to replay it and look into the route for Hero Story runs it just doesn't feel right in terms of controls or the idea of it after some practice. That kinda feeling has popped up for Kirby Air Ride, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Mega Man 2. I don't know if it's normal to feel that way or not but it's certainly bothersome.

I'm not sure where else I can look, I'm mostly just looking for either PC indie games or something from the N64-GCN era. When it comes to streams at the very least I'm looking for something that won't have me end up with 0 viewer streams since that's quite demoralizing. I don't want the speedruns to be extremely short (Refunct is a good example, runs lasting about three minutes) but not something crazy like Final Fantasy X with the WR at nine hours. The genre/style of game I feel like I'd enjoy the most is collect-a-thon, metroidvania/bullet hell, 2D side-scroller and/or JRPG. I'd absolutely appreciate any form of response whether it be opinions, suggestions or detailing your own experiences on how you found a game to speedrun. I've been feeling dread trying to figure something out so I'd love hearing from others about the topic.

Edit: When I brought up the idea of streaming, I may have expressed myself incorrectly about my thoughts on it. I'd like to stream mostly to interact with people while I'm doing runs. For example when I was streaming Refunct speedruns I had a couple viewers who were new to speedrunning the game, I was able to talk to them about it and show them tech. It felt great! As for why I want to speedrun it's just been something I've really wanted to do for the longest time. I remember watching old Mega Man speedruns on SDA back in the day and wanting to do that. Nowadays what draws me in is competing with others and the idea of self improvement with lowering a time. Sorry if the edit is written strangely as I wrote this after waking up.

I'm looking to start learning all time pieces but my biggest concern as a noob is using keyboard and mouse. I especially noticed this after going back to do some of the bosses that running to the left while sprinting and trying to dive is the most uncomfortable thing in the world. Should I find a different key to bind dive to in order to make it significantly easier or is that specific form of movement rather niche? I do have access to a gamecube controller with adapter so I could potentially use that if keyboard isn't ideal

I'm curious because I can't find anything about it

I've been having problems while speedrunning Pokemon Yellow. The last run I did had stutters, massive input lag, the game holding a direction even when I press a different key (like moving right even after I stop holding the key, it's not just one tile either but rather it keeps going for a few tiles or bumps into a wall), inputs being eaten even when I press A 10 times only one of them is registered. I don't believe it's the keyboard having issues because I can play other games just fine without ever experiencing such problems, it's only when playing on the pokemon yellow rom. Is there any way to fix this issue?

Hello! So I've decided to try out speedrunning, I've loved the Pokemon games throughout most of my life so I was interested in learning the routes and maybe stream attempts after a good chunk of practice (I know, typical story, yada yada). There's a few things I'm rather unsure on and stuff I'd like advice for.

A.) Aside from when and how you get Nidoran Male, what are the major differences with the routes in Pokemon Red and Yellow (I know some fights are different such as Sabrina's team being easier to deal with in Yellow than in Red and the grass patches in Viridian Forest, just looking to find some more major differences)?

B.) I did a practice run of Yellow just to learn the route and such, but when I tried to do it in Red I hit a huge roadblock with the Mt. Moon manip, mainly this one: . I've tried that manip for over an hour and I can barely get to TM01, what's some advice/tips for not only doing it successfully but to also do it consistently once I start doing runs?

C.) Is it normal to have notes when doing runs for DSum charts, stats to look for and strategy variations depending on the situation (e.g. crits, Vaporeon/Flareon in Yellow, DVs on the Nidoran Male)?

D.) What would be the easiest generation to speedrun? I've considered looking into Pokemon Crystal and Emerald but I'm still unsure

E.) After doing a couple "learning runs" in Pokemon Yellow (follow the beginner's guide while doing the run, consulting the guide when need be) and there's multiple points where I get uneasy such as trying to select moves as fast as I can. Same goes for inventory/item management or running out of items/pp. I start getting stressed that I'll make a huge mistake and will have to reset, what's a good way to alleviate this?