Hey guys, been learning this speedrun and I do really enjoy glitch hunting. Spent several hours the other day looking for stuff and while I came up empty handed on anything major I did find 3 things:

In the desert, don’t do the weather vanes in the intended order. For the purpose of my explanation, assume the normal (game intended) order each vane is called 1,2,3,4. Do them in this order 1,4,3,2 not only is this route slightly faster, but it forces a glitch that only makes you sit on the big/breakable weather vane ONCE instead of twice to trigger the cutscene. I sit on the top most blade (the one facing the #4 vane) and it breaks instantly. Overall I estimate this route/glitch saves approx 25-35 seconds.

In the final scene of the game it is several seconds faster (3-5 seconds) to end the game by sacrifice rather than jumping. This could change depending on the cycle you get though and how long you need to wait for the “person” ahead of you to sacrifice. EDIT: After doing runs tonight I can clarify that ending the game by sacrifice is NOT faster since the cycle, no matter how well you move, you can never skip in line fast enough. Jumping saves at least 8 seconds.

Lastly, and this may need some testing, but if you hold forward and mash jump in the opening to the final chapter cutscene (right before the ball turns into the bird mask) it makes one of the npc characters (and possible the playable character) start running sooner while the cutscene is still loading on the black screen. You will actually hear the playable character make his jumping noises while the screen is still black.