This game was dormant until I posted my awful first run lol. Glad I am part of the competition! Now I feel like this might be my new thing :).

Yeah I fully understand you bro. I find it fairer to leave unlocked weapons, relics and talismans out. If this was allowed before, I would've worked my way through the Gauntlet on the hardest difficulty, unlocked all the armour, weapons etc, then switched to Easy and then the game would be so much quicker. Plus I think equipping unlocked weapons and gear tends to slow down time a bit and isn't essential. My friend SpectralChimaera who speedruns Ys Origin has to switch weapons in his games as it's essential to beat some of the bosses.