Speedrun Bounty Announcement - I will be funding a bounty for Lunar 2 SCD's Speedrun World Record!

[RedHairGreenEyes]

https://www.twitch.tv/holysmith/v/170323499?sr=a&t=0s

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue for Sega CD has only been run 1x in history (by former Lunar: The Silver Star WR-holder Holysmith). The current world record sits at a whopping 13:14:59(!)

There are a lot of potential timesaves including exploitation of a menu glitch that could net the player any item...including ones that never made it into the game.

The title is one of my personal favorites. But since the speedrun is such a commitment, I've come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to run the game myself.

So I decided to offer incentive for anyone out there who would take up the challenge.

I will make a formal anouncement in a little under 2 months from now, but anyone in here will get a bit of an early advantage.

I am offering an instant $100 to anyone who can take the record under 12 hours. Even if by milliseconds. In addition, if anyone takes the record down be even 1 millisecond from its current time, they will be entitled to an increasing jackpot.

Starting on April 10th, 2023, I will begin adding $1 to the jackpot every day that the current record remains standing.

To recap -

$100 bounty for first runner to get Lunar Eternal Blue's speedrun under 12 hours.

Increasing jackpot of $1/day (begins 4/10/23) awarded upon the first new (verified) world record.

So in conclusion, I wish you all the best of luck. I can't wait to see what happens.

[Alunissage]

Are you specifying NA vs JP version? I'm pretty sure there are enough differences for that to matter. Not thinking of the Lemina Bug since that would take a nontrivial amount of time to activate because of the M requirement, but the enemies' stats are a bit different. I have a project to compare them but I haven't gotten too far yet. I do remember feeling that Borgan was harder in the Jp version because he cast Gravity Bomb more often, but that was probably 20 years ago that I noticed that.

(I'm not planning on trying this myself; I am the opposite of a speedrunner. I want to see all the text and do all the things every time.)

[RedHairGreenEyes]

Great question! And no, no specific version necessary. Whichever works best

[Kizyr]

I vaguely remember from Wind Waker speedruns that most in the speedrunning community consider selection of version to be part of the challenge (iirc, the Italian version of Wind Waker is optimal for this.... or maybe that's just from remembering "Pausa... Pausa... Pausa..." over and over while trying to activate the slingshot speed glitch).

Since speedrunning this game is in its infancy basically, coming from the POV of someone who knows tons about Lunar but not as much about speedrunning, seems a version-agnostic record makes sense here. I'd hazard a guess that the US/NA release is better, partly because of toning down difficulty a little (as Alun mentioned) and maybe there's a major skip possible with the Lemina Bug that'd make the grinding-for-MEXP worthwhile, although I can't think of what that would be. Progress tends to be locked based on both inventory and triggers of who you've talked to in-game.

[Alunissage]

Just FYI, in the enemies I have stats in both games for (which is all of them up through Azado Tower), most enemies have around 25% more HP in the NA version, and from the Illusion Woods on, ATK and DEF are boosted around the same amount. (This is different from SSSC, in which WD boosted the ATK but lowered HP as well as EXP and Silver). Some of the NA enemies also give less EXP, M EXP, and Silver in the NA game. And, of course, running from battle is by no means a sure thing, unlike in TSS. So battles in the NA game are longer, harder, and have lower rewards so you need more of them.

The Lemina Bug can first be activated in Larpa after Ronfar heals Lucia, but good luck accumulating 26756 M that early in the game. The next opportunity is the avalanche in Zulan Snow Cave, which at least is after a few bosses that give you some M. After that is Taben's Peak after defeating the Assassins in the sewer, and that's probably the best time since the Sewers give you lots of M. However...I'm not sure that the equipment obtained via the bug is worth the time. There are several weapons for Hiro and one for each of Jean, Leo, and Ronfar, but Jean's is a fan so can't be used after Horam. There's also a dress for Jean that adds counterattack and can be worn by both versions of her. So, I dunno -- the weapons would make battles shorter, but maybe not enough to compensate for the higher difficulty in the NA game. And there's the nontrivial likelihood of freezing the game while fiddling with the bug.

Of course, I'm looking at my archive of the DS Grotto from circa 2000, and I'm pretty sure things don't actually work the way they're described as regards item data and inventory (I mean, the effects, yes, but probably not how/why they happen), so there could be lots and lots to work with.