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Yes, you read that correctly. I did another run of Shin Ankoku with one major change and a tedious amount of optimization. 15.43 is the time I received for my efforts. I'll only go into brief detail about the changes I made this time, but I should point out that another improvement hit me at around Chapter 15 of this run.The idea is to make sure Boa (who would've thought?) survives Chapter 12 and then replace Rena with him for the rest of the game. This would cut experience gain from that point on by about half, greatly reducing the time wasted in level up screens. It's also helpful that his growths are pathetic, because less stat increases on level up = less time spent. It also has to be Boa, because no other unit besides Rena will ever join with a C (or higher) staff level.
As for notable changes, look at my 16.57 plan and then make these adjustments:
1. Prologue-3 is solo Marth. Use one Vulnerary if necessary.
2. Rapier counter critical on the boss of Chapter 1.
3. Warp Marth to the boss in Chapter 7 and counter kill him. I used the save point for a Silver Sword kill, which required at least one critical, but you can afford the Rapier in this case (send it back and fish it out next chapter if you use it). This is the major change I mentioned earlier, and according to the results listing, it saved a whopping 23 seconds. For the record, this is HALF of the 16.57 version.
4. The first Warp staff will break during Chapter 11. Not a problem.
5. In Chapter 17, I had Jeigan weaken (a kill would've given him a level up, which is bad) the Warp Thief. Wolf grabbed two items from Jeigan (Wolf will now have four items) and finished him off. The Thief drops a Door Key and then the Warp staff, so you'll blow right past the Door Key message and then send the staff back. Genius, I tell you.
Note that I used Wolf because my Zagaro was dead. GameFAQs users would hate me for that.
6. Self-defense only for Chapter 19.
7. Swap Rena to one space below Marth in Chapter 20 and don't use Vulneraries. On Marth's second turn of running back to the right after visiting the village, have Rena swap the 1 use Warp staff with Hammerne and then repair it. Fetch it back on the next turn, before sending Marth to Lawrence (he's still cannon fodder). Do not use either of the save points.
8. Drop whoever is two spaces to the right of Marth in Chapter 25 and replace him/her with Ellis. Double Warp and win as usual, but remember to go for a one-hit kill on Medeus using Marth.
9. When a unit's movement menu comes up (attack, wait, etc.), pressing X will automatically select the currently equipped weapon/staff. It's not a huge deal, but I learned to use this at some point in the run.
10. Same as above, but I used Y to select the Fake Falchion for Medeus. Hoorah.
Finally, I'd like to note that the times listed in the results add up to 14.50. Sub-15 = WHEE!
P.S. MAGFest is going to be painful, if I go through with my plan to run the game for real while I'm there. This just set the bar far too low to be comfortable. That's good though, right?
