I've been putting off this discussion for so long as I feel like there are some very strong opinions on it, but I don't think I can put it off much longer. I miss running this game and really feel the need to address a few of my personal concerns, which I hope you all can alleviate.

As it currently stands, emulation is banned in all but five categories, three of which do not have any rules listed on emulation, and two of those are empty categories.

Why is emulation permitted for 99% and Magician Faust but not other categories? You do everything required of Any% and more for 99%, and Magician Faust is short the rest of Zenebatos and Mayfil onward, so it's truly not that different from Any% generally speaking.

Calling back to a previous thread on this forum, Deathtome once posted the following.

"You can't use any emulator because it will be different speed for each emulator. Also the emulator suggested by us are faster than the real console. So it would not be comparable to a real console run. Which is why you can only publish emulator runs in the individual disks section." - https://www.speedrun.com/the_legend_of_dragoon/thread/j87v6

Emulation has certainly changed in the last 5 years. The Legend of Dragoon is beyond stable on a number of emulators and while it may not run at the exact speed a console will, it is very clear that ePSXe and Retroarch (two emulators I have extensive experience running the game on) do not run the game faster than console. They are in fact slower.

So where is the concern that they might 'outpace' a console run? Even if they did, why not permit these in their own sub category. This would definitely require more data from multiple users to find which emulator would be best suited for speedrunning fairly.

I understand that creating categories or sub-categories for some instances like emulation where there is currently not an overwhelming amount of runners asking for it, much like the Level 30/60 categories, can result in smaller, individual leaderboards. However, banning it outright creates a wall between runners who want to run but can't use console and being able to participate in the competitive play that is running on a board.

Allowing emulation only broadens global access. Many people, like myself, have copies of this game that no longer run physically. Sure, new discs can be acquired, but why are we disallowing accessibility outright for those who have a passion for the game but maybe not the console hardware?

With the advent of the wonderful Dragoon Modifier and other mods/patches available, I can only imagine how many returning players might get a kick out of replaying their favorite JRPG and decide “Hey, I wanna speedrun this!” and then proceed to in a much more accessible format than finding the necessary hardware. Of course, they’d need to run on a vanilla version of the game, but I think you get my point.

Of course, there are concerns about fairness in emulation. Not all emulators are created equal. If separate sub-categories were created for the current active categories, perhaps confirming emulators and emulator versions could be permitted to keep the playing field level. Perhaps there must be settings shown at the start of a run or certain stats enabled in the overlay from the emulator being used.

Additionally, while I don't understand actual board management from a moderator standpoint, I do assume nested categories (like English/Japanese/Turbo/etc) are not infinite and would probably need to be managed differently for these kinds of changes. As a side note, I suppose, I'd love to be enlightened on how those are managed in the background, but it's kind of off-topic I guess.

In summary, many of the current categories feel slapped together and the rules feel inconsistent or unfair across the whole board. I'm hoping we can discuss and maybe adjust some or all of these things to make this speedrun community better.

For real though, what even is the background on this board? It looks cool, but it's definitely not The Legend of Dragoon.

I can't believe I've put off asking for so long, but can this be changed to match the game's aesthetic? I'd be happy to design something if it's a matter of effort. Or can we at least tile the box art or something?

Hope this doesn't come off as rude. I just feel like other boards look better and are more appropriate to their game.

I checked the upload page to confirm, but it doesn't show an option to submit a run for Version 4 (current download version available from the VGPerson translation page). I have an older version (2 I think) but I was wondering if there was a reason later versions aren't listed here. Is there something game-breaking that I haven't found yet or is this just a case of "old board"?

Thanks in advance for any information on this.

I don't see it listed anywhere about Difficulty requirements. Is any difficulty allowed? If so, I assume everyone has just run Easy because it's easier and thus faster. Lastly, are card pulls from shops, or any other beneficial elements, affected by Difficulty, or is it just AI "intelligence"/speed on Extreme Mode?

Thanks for answering any of these questions. I loved playing this game and I'm considering giving it a run.

Just started running this for fun. I wanted to know why VBA 1.7.2 is the only allowed emulators? Do other emulators cause glitches or unfair advantages? The main reason I'm concerned about using VBA is that overworld flying runs slow when approaching locations that can be landed in (cities, desert, etc.) I do not have this issue on RetroArch, so I'm not sure what I've done wrong in the set up. If other emulators are not allowed whatsoever, can anyone offer assistance with optimizing VBA 1.7.2 to run world map sequences properly?

Is it allowed, when emulating, to Save State near the end of the opening cutscene for faster run resets? Say for instance, if Blizzard doesn't drop from that barrel in the Tutorial Save Room? Or does a full Hard Reset need to be done for RNG reasons?