Exchord | Baten Kaitos 2 HD in 24:19 (Switch) @Exchord | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
There are still some mistakes, but it's a decent run. I think I'm done speedrunning this game for now.
Previous run (check description for anything not explained here):
youtube.com/watch?v=-dZ2fferK0M
I bought the Japanese version of the remaster on the Nintendo eShop. This version can be played in Japanese or English, while the western release cannot be played in Japanese. Unlike the GameCube versions, pressing A doesn't instantly make the full text appear. (Holding A speeds up individual text boxes but still leaves a delay between them, so mashing is generally faster.) Because Japanese text has fewer characters than English, this version can advance through text faster than the western version.
At 0:59, I press +, then start holding down right on the D-pad and press A. This makes the cursor scroll through the menu very quickly while changing the settings. After scrolling through the menu twice, I stop and turn off Encounter Cancel and Auto Battle. I found this to be faster than changing every setting manually.
Whenever there's a spirit choice coming up, I mash A and start holding B as soon as the screen fades back in. I then continue mashing A to save just a tiny amount of time. (When "skipping" a cutscene, the game actually gets extremely fast and clears text automatically. So any progress made watching the cutscene will slightly reduce the time it takes to "skip" the rest of it.) I forgot to do this on some of the Tarazed cutscenes, though.
6:41 - Albali escape with TLM: Sometimes walking through the trigger causes Sagi's text to appear, but other times it doesn't. If the text does appear, Sagi will walk a few steps to the right. I had a strategy that would put Sagi right between the trigger and the loading zone, but the text would ruin it quite often. So instead, I walk further left first and then inch my way back out of the loading zone.
I enter Rasalas right after saving on the Unknown Land map. There is one person at the back who sometimes walks past a trigger that stops Sagi, which may pose a problem when coming from anywhere else.
10:00: I save the game inside the cutscene trigger in central Mintaka. This sets up a different glitch for later. Then I press Y to close the camp screen and press A. (The A press prevents the delayed "exclamation point" interaction with the fence from messing up the rest of the trick.) Then I walk into the spot that corresponds with the little area down the stairs in Tarazed's blue flower room, and open and close the camp screen. Finally, I enter the save flower, pause and unpause, and hold B. I make sure to not touch the left stick because otherwise Sagi would exit the flower and disable the save option.
At 10:35, I forgot to turn off Encounter Cancel, so I had to pause again on the next map.
I enter the lower loading zone this time because it puts me right next to a Maw-Maw-Goo. Previously, I would encounter a sleeping Lanocaulis instead, but you have to be pretty close to the Lanocaulis, and sneaking tends to go wrong with the Pro Controller that I use.
Instead of dying and waiting for the camp screen, I move to the Rasalas marker on the map, start holding B, press X, and mash A for a bit. Then I hold left to reach the blue flower, open and close the save menu, enter the church, and load the second Mintaka file while exiting the church.
At 11:08, I mash A very quickly. Otherwise, the glitch may warp me to Cujam instead of Tarazed.
Between 11:00 and 12:00, you'll see frame drops and occasional video glitches. Those have nothing to do with what's happening in the game. It's a recording issue caused by a slow GPU in my secondary computer. I could use my main computer which does not have this issue, but then the recording would sometimes permanently freeze because this capture card doesn't seem to recognize the USB3 ports as such. Usually I only record short videos so this isn't a huge issue, and I don't feel like getting a different capture card at the moment.
At 11:21, I load the Mintaka file and gain control as the cutscene loads. (Note that this does not work directly after saving the warp file. I have to load any other file first.) Then I open the quest magnus menu, move the cursor right, and press X for a discard prompt. This gives Sagi control during the cutscene itself, allowing me to open the camp screen and transfer "the ability to skip" to another file. Then I can skip basically anything that takes away player control. The effect persists until I reach Baelheit. I use the trick again after the Baelheit fight. In total, it saves at least ~13 seconds.
There are ways to set up the "skip" trick in Dark Service HQ and the Emperor's Residence, but those take so long they practically don't save any time.
At 14:37, I get extra EXP, TP, gold, and battle time from the Maw-Maw-Goo fight since it didn't finish properly. It doesn't make any practical difference with Instant KO enabled, though.
There are still some mistakes, but it's a decent run. I think I'm done speedrunning this game for now.
Previous run (check description for anything not explained here):
youtube.com/watch?v=-dZ2fferK0M
I bought the Japanese version of the remaster on the Nintendo eShop. This version can be played in Japanese or English, while the western release cannot be played in Japanese. Unlike the GameCube versions, pressing A doesn't instantly make the full text appear. (Holding A speeds up individual text boxes but still leaves a delay between them, so mashing is generally faster.) Because Japanese text has fewer characters than English, this version can advance through text faster than the western version.
At 0:59, I press +, then start holding down right on the D-pad and press A. This makes the cursor scroll through the menu very quickly while changing the settings. After scrolling through the menu twice, I stop and turn off Encounter Cancel and Auto Battle. I found this to be faster than changing every setting manually.
Whenever there's a spirit choice coming up, I mash A and start holding B as soon as the screen fades back in. I then continue mashing A to save just a tiny amount of time. (When "skipping" a cutscene, the game actually gets extremely fast and clears text automatically. So any progress made watching the cutscene will slightly reduce the time it takes to "skip" the rest of it.) I forgot to do this on some of the Tarazed cutscenes, though.
6:41 - Albali escape with TLM: Sometimes walking through the trigger causes Sagi's text to appear, but other times it doesn't. If the text does appear, Sagi will walk a few steps to the right. I had a strategy that would put Sagi right between the trigger and the loading zone, but the text would ruin it quite often. So instead, I walk further left first and then inch my way back out of the loading zone.
I enter Rasalas right after saving on the Unknown Land map. There is one person at the back who sometimes walks past a trigger that stops Sagi, which may pose a problem when coming from anywhere else.
10:00: I save the game inside the cutscene trigger in central Mintaka. This sets up a different glitch for later. Then I press Y to close the camp screen and press A. (The A press prevents the delayed "exclamation point" interaction with the fence from messing up the rest of the trick.) Then I walk into the spot that corresponds with the little area down the stairs in Tarazed's blue flower room, and open and close the camp screen. Finally, I enter the save flower, pause and unpause, and hold B. I make sure to not touch the left stick because otherwise Sagi would exit the flower and disable the save option.
At 10:35, I forgot to turn off Encounter Cancel, so I had to pause again on the next map.
I enter the lower loading zone this time because it puts me right next to a Maw-Maw-Goo. Previously, I would encounter a sleeping Lanocaulis instead, but you have to be pretty close to the Lanocaulis, and sneaking tends to go wrong with the Pro Controller that I use.
Instead of dying and waiting for the camp screen, I move to the Rasalas marker on the map, start holding B, press X, and mash A for a bit. Then I hold left to reach the blue flower, open and close the save menu, enter the church, and load the second Mintaka file while exiting the church.
At 11:08, I mash A very quickly. Otherwise, the glitch may warp me to Cujam instead of Tarazed.
Between 11:00 and 12:00, you'll see frame drops and occasional video glitches. Those have nothing to do with what's happening in the game. It's a recording issue caused by a slow GPU in my secondary computer. I could use my main computer which does not have this issue, but then the recording would sometimes permanently freeze because this capture card doesn't seem to recognize the USB3 ports as such. Usually I only record short videos so this isn't a huge issue, and I don't feel like getting a different capture card at the moment.
At 11:21, I load the Mintaka file and gain control as the cutscene loads. (Note that this does not work directly after saving the warp file. I have to load any other file first.) Then I open the quest magnus menu, move the cursor right, and press X for a discard prompt. This gives Sagi control during the cutscene itself, allowing me to open the camp screen and transfer "the ability to skip" to another file. Then I can skip basically anything that takes away player control. The effect persists until I reach Baelheit. I use the trick again after the Baelheit fight. In total, it saves at least ~13 seconds.
There are ways to set up the "skip" trick in Dark Service HQ and the Emperor's Residence, but those take so long they practically don't save any time.
At 14:37, I get extra EXP, TP, gold, and battle time from the Maw-Maw-Goo fight since it didn't finish properly. It doesn't make any practical difference with Instant KO enabled, though.
