My first attempt at getting back into speedrunning this game came with a softlock on 9-1 that I also managed to get a few months ago. I've uploaded both instances.

I haven't tried to recreate this intentionally, all I can say is that on both occasions I've been stood dead centre before the cutscene. I don't know if this can happen with the international version.

Here's a youtube playlist of the softlocks I could find on a quick search. The last one won't affect speedruns however as it occurs after the bonus mini-game.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbRwvxBLNBykC8lQ5EZrYs81X-dGhlkKl

Let me know if there's more I can add.

I was curious about the effect of regional differences on speedruns for this game. This is a possibly incomplete list that could affect times, please add if I've missed any.

From the perspective of the international release:

• [slower] Scene 5-2, Maruyama has 8HP but only 4HP in the Japanese version.
• [likely slower] Scene 5-2, Maruyama attacks randomly but in the Japanese version has a predictable pattern: can attack once after three tower cuts.
• [faster] Scene 6-1, the claw picking up the battleship moves twice as fast in the international release.
• [faster] Scene 6-4, the power ups are grouped together but in the Japanese version appear one after the other.
• [slower] Scene 7-1, Nasty Gatekeeper has roughly double the health.
• [faster] Scene 8-5, Twin Freaks has roughly half health (but also has a smaller hitbox).
• [slower] Scene 9-3, Dark Demon has roughly double the health.
• [faster] No dialogue boxes before boss battles.

Is there an argument to separate the any% category into the different versions, or do the differences roughly cancel to being negligible?