Chrono Cross (PS) - 7:55:08 (good ending = 7:59:15) - Wesley Corron

Speed run of Chrono Cross in 50 segments, with two verions of the 50th segment to get both good and bad endings. Available in three versions: normal, high, and low quality DivX. Author's comments: First of all, I'd like to thank Professor_Plump, Genji, Arrow, and Enhasa for all the help/support they gave me. Of course, thanks to Radix, Nate, and everyone who posted in the topic as well. Thanks go to the people behind ePSXe (and plug-in makers) as well, since, without that program, testing strategies would have been much more difficult. Also, a very special thanks goes to Person Man, for writing the extremely useful "Element-Tech Location Guide." Now, to give a little history of how this run idea got sparked, we must journey back to the far off day of December 12th, 2005. On this day, I posted my opinions of Chrono Cross in the "Games That Are Too Long?" topic. Not long after, Arrow mentioned that he'd like to see if it could be done sub-7 (along with another game). I remember spamming him with private messages and eventually I was persuaded to make a topic about my efforts. At the time of making the topic, my times were around 11 - 13 hours. Of course, those times weren't exactly promising and so I at least aimed for sub-10. Mr_Nice_Guy posted that he would like to see the run since it wasn't released in his country...to which Enhasa replied "You could try emulation." I ended up thinking he was speaking to me (though he wasn't), but it worked out well. The reason it did so was because I had given a small attempt at a run on an emulator. I think Enhasa's comment helped bring my interest in finishing the attempt back, and so I did. This time, I managed to achieve my sub-10 goal (and then some) with a time of 8:57.27 for the good ending. In this playthrough, I collected Pierre's Hero equipment to make him a good fighter. It turns out be an inferior method of doing things, but I'll explain that later. Naturally, sub-9 was a great achievement for me and it helped motivate me to continue on with my attempts. 3 days later, I finished another emulated run with a time of 7:27.51 (good ending). This was extremely good news to me, since the Ultima Garden time is 7:16.01 (which Genji informed me of earlier). With this run came a ton of new discoveries, one of which being the need of a Feather very early in the game. When combined with the materials from a Profiteer Purse, you can get iron weapons before entering Viper Manor. This obviously brings a much needed damage boost and (I assume) greatly speeds up the fight with Lynx's shadow, since he won't use any element but a single Nostrum if you don't use any on him. Anyway, I think I'll post a summary of the segments now (and my thoughts on them). Keep in mind that I'll probably be repeating a lot of information if you've been reading the topic. Here goes: Segment 1 - Nothing much to see here. I start a new game and save outside Lizard Rock (North). The reasons are because I have a little trouble with the Komodo Pup you need to jump on and 65% is an awful hit rate. The homing bat in Fort Dragonia doesn't help either. Segment 2 - The usual slaughter of 3 Komodo Pups and their mother, since Serge is such a cold person (kidding of course). Luckily for me, the mother spit out a Feather without much work. I saved outside Cape Howl. Segment 3 - Enter Kid, a character whose accent bugs me and who I refused to use at all throughout quite a few earlier playthroughs. Sadly, she's necessary for speed purposes. I focus on Solt before moving on to Peppor and Karsh. After that fight is over, I let Kid join me (which could actually be a bad thing) and I go to Fossil Valley. I quickly thrash Solt and Peppor a second time before saving outside Termina. Segment 4 - Serge enters Termina on a mission to raid the stores. After buying elements at Lisa's shop, I speak to the statue dude and make my way to Van's mansion. I grab the Profiteer Purse and replace an Ivory Mail with an Ivory Vest before entering Zappa's shop (if my memory is correct). After tearing apart the Ivory Mail and Profiteer Purse, I'm able to forge an Iron Swallow. The rest is the usual recruitment of Pierre, auto allocate Serge, and saving outside Viper Manor. Segment 5 - The plan here was to focus on Ketchop, thus triggering FlameKnock and making the fight fairly quick. Afterwards, I fed 10 dragons, grabbed the Dragoon's Honor, took the Revive, checked my awful door code (9/9), and saved. Segment 6 - Neo-N-Bulbs hate ElectroJolt, enough said. Marcy was a little sloppy from what I remember, but it's not easy getting perfection that far into a segment. Same goes for the guard battle before the elevator. I saved outside Lynx's room. Segment 7 - The battle with Lynx's shadow is the main point of interest in this segment. I already covered the basic strategy for this fight, but I decided to throw in some elements late in the battle. Because of that, he skipped Nostrum and decided to go into an attack pattern. Fitting that only Serge survived this battle...with 7 HP. After getting to Termina, I placed Macha and Glenn in my party. I immediately left Termina (on foot) and saved. The reason being that I didn't want to screw up my element shopping or refinement. Segment 8 - All I did was max out my Tablets/Capsules, buy 3 AquaBall, and forge the Steel Sword. On the way to the fog, I equipped it and filled blanks on my grid before saving. Segment 9 - I made a detour to Marbule for 3 of each Turn element. The reason will quickly become clear. Segment 10 - The initial fight on Fargo's ship is skippable by running away, and so I did. Polly had no idea what hit him because of TurnBlue. Due to my great luck with Polly, I slowed down a bit on Fargo (I didn't want to screw that up). Before saving, I skipped the forced battle by running. Segment 11 - Fancy footwork in this segment. If you haven't seen my Wraith dodging trick in action, I won't spoil it for you. Good fun for the whole family. I save back where the segment started after getting "the key." Segment 12 - More fancy footwork. I screwed up by grabbing the PhotonBeam (which I never use) chest, but that's only a slight error. I save before DeadHead. Segment 13 - I ran from the forced fight and proceeded to kill DeadHead. I used my TurnWhite elements on Glenn and Serge until it was time to unleash X-Strike. I probably did it too late to avoid overkill, but who cares. I saved on the world map. Segment 14 - Trap shopping, of which I buy too many (though I make sure to get Magnify). I leave and go to Mount Pyre, where Solt and Peppor want to be beaten again. I focus on Peppor first because of his anger with Solt (the longer Solt is alive, the more chance Peppor has to help me). A lot of TurnGreen and green element abuse here. I managed to get a Sky Djinn Ring from one of the idiots (I have no idea which), which isn't something I had planned on. I saved before the Fire Dragon. Segment 15 - The first ugly battle with the Fire Dragon. I saved afterwards. Segment 16 - The battle with the Dragoons wasn't the prettiest (at least if your name is Macha), but the two important characters survived. Enjoy watching Marcy die a painful death (Magnify + MagmaBurst). Segment 17 - The Dragoon is a bit of a pain to fight because of his high defense. Of course, I had AquaBall and IceBlast, so I used them. Amazingly, I ended the fight without getting burned. Saved in the main room. Segment 18 - I HATE Taurosoid! Just killing in something that resembles decent time is good enough for me. I realize I could probably find out his exact stamina rate and attack up to 2 away, use a non-yellow element, and have some other character use Upheaval to force a counter-heal. This wasn't an option to me, and the counter-heal is quite effective for a crappy magic user (70+). FrogPrince will be an option in the improvement run though, because of Leena. I killed Taurosoid and shut down the crystal before moving on to the red room. I skipped all the extra stuff here and went straight for the crystal. Afterwards, I saved in the main room again. Segment 19 - GiantGloop isn't very hard and I remember the fight going well enough. Afterwards, I went for the yellow crystal to complete the first set. There are a few tricks to use in this room and I think I skipped one for sake of safety. First of all, don't rush into the rectangle that the bats patrol early. As long as you're behind one, they slow down to a crawl. Instead, estimate when to jump in to allow yourself to fly through without stopping (or very little slowdown). Second trick is the ability to cause a bat to do a 180 degree turn and leave you alone. This one is unreliable to me, but I think it's done by getting the bat to fly in a vertical direction (try on the way back from turning the crystal off) and dodging his attack. If done correctly, he'll turn around and you might be able to save some time by doing the first trick again. Segment 20 - Sun-of-a-Gun gets his own segment for good reason. He could easily kill my team and/or suck lots of time from me because of his defenses. I solve the damage problem by having Pierre use a magnified FrogPrince, easily killing the freak. This fight was nearly perfect from what I remember, so enjoy it. Segment 21 - This segment was a pain, pure and simple. First, I had to get to Bunyip while dodging all the enemies (which is NOT easy). Once that was done, I had to quickly kill Bunyip. I made sure to bring out the second form before he used Inferno (no trap set) and quickly use FrogPrince while the field was still magnified. After that, I don't think it was very pretty (TurnWhite attacks and such). I did manage to catch FreeFall though. After Bunyip came another round of "dodge the homing bat." After I teleported up to the top floor and sat through the FMV, it was time to kill two more bosses. Viper usually doesn't give me much trouble, but he decided to be a bit of a pain this time around. The battle with Lynx has an amusing moment or two in it because Pierre made him look foolish for a few seconds (thank you Hero Medal). Needless to say, I allowed a fairly ugly mistake in the distorted world, but I had a good reason. This segment is quite long and by that point, I wasn't taking any chances on that TotalChaos. Other than that, I saved outside Arni Village. Segment 22 - I love Lagoonates, but apparently Radius doesn't. TurnYellow + Dopplegang Lagoonate + attempts at a yellow field = a seriously dead Radius. Afterwards, I went to Termina and received my new boat. I saved outside El Nido Triangle. Segment 23 - Less than two minutes long, but it requires far more luck than one might think. Those fish guarding the Star Fragment are evil I tell you. I managed to get it and get out without a fight though. I saved outside Sky Dragon Isle. Segment 24 - MegaStarky isn't exactly a pushover at this point in the game, so he took a decent chunk of time. I replaced Sprigg with him and picked up my Plasma Pistol before heading to Marbule. I asked Toma about the Dead Sea and a freaking NPC got in my way as I was making my escape (quite painful to watch). I shrugged it off because of earlier luck and saved outside the S.S. Zelbess. Segment 25 - Things went well in this segment, besides my good luck in the rigged pointer game (I managed to hit east the first time). I saved time by letting the Sage through before speaking to Fargo and leaving while the Grand Slam guard was speaking to me. I saved before fighting the Sage. Segment 26 - No need to follow the Sage through his door, just use your own. The fight with the Sage might not have been the prettiest thing in the world, but it was decent enough. Don't use elements on him early on, unless you like him doing the same. I used a small time saving trick when it was time to get Garai's Keepsake. Simply stand right next to the door when told to wait for Radius and the scene will end faster. I saved on the Isle of the Damned. Segment 27 - Another annoying segment. First of all, that Will-O-Wisp fight is random (hope for no confusion). If you manage a good fight there, you still need to dodge the bone things twice AND get a good Garai fight (if you live at all). I saved in the Dead Sea. Segment 28 - I love the Dead Sea. In this segment, I heal Lynx, probably overkill Highwayman, and save right before Miguel. Not much difficulty after Highwayman was dead, since most of the enemies don't even try to get you. Segment 29 - As hard as Miguel is, I managed this segment on my second recorded attempt (I think). You may have already seen this battle if you've been keeping up with the topic by the way. Starky is such a nice guy. I make sure to heal Lynx and Starky before saving on the world map. Segment 30 - I originally planned this segment to cover the sewer and Roachster, but he proved to be quite difficult, so I changed my mind. Not much to see here besides a lot of dialogue. I save in the room that had the Revive in my first visit. Segment 31 - Obviously, pushing the far off barrel first saves time, so I did so. On the way back from tightening that valve, it might seem like I mock the SpearFisher a bit by walking. Later on, I get stuck behind slow Spearfisher traffic, but I take my chance to pass him as soon as I can...and man, that was extremely close. O_O Roachster was a painful fight (difficulty and time) sadly. I saved outside the torture room. Segment 32 - Long segment here, so the later fights got a bit sloppy. First up was Hell's Cook, who isn't really difficult, but he refuses to go down (high HP I guess). Lots of TurnBlue and blue elements of course. Next up were the 4 guards, which are always big wastes of time. After them came Grobyc, who actually went down fairly quickly if I remember correctly. Gulliot was the last one and shouldn't have taken as long as he did. Oh well, nothing segment killing to my knowledge. Lots of dialogue afterwards and I save after losing Harle. Somehow Viper replaced Starky in my team, costing me time in the next segment. Segment 33 - I switched Viper with Starky, went to Marbule, bought traps (ThundaStorm for good reason), and stole the Black Relic before saving on the Isle of the Damned. Segment 34 - Long flashbacks suck. Karsh's job was to use the ThundaStorm trap, since the pattern changes when one of them dies. In this case, it goes from Earthquake to ThundaStorm...much to my advantage. After the fight, I replace Karsh with Riddel and go shopping for AeroBlasters in Termina. I change worlds and save on Dario's island. Segment 35 - Equip lots of AeroBlasters, sit through long flashback, and burn Dario in horrible ways. No, I mean giving him burns was a top priority (and it took quite a few retries). If you're lucky, you can spit out a Magnify and use a level 4/5 AeroBlaster before Dash & Gash. On this attempt, I had great luck with that setup. I must warn you though, this fight is played in a "safe" way, only adding as much speed as I can without risking death. If long 2/2/2/AeroBlaster combos offend you in any way, kiss my butt. I mean, don't watch this segment. I save after all the talking is done. Segment 36 - I visit Earth Dragon Isle to put those lazy idiots to work. For some magical reason, Lynx tells them about a Rockroach being in the way (you'll see what I mean). Afterwards, I move on to Water Dragon Isle. I save at the first record of FATE I find. Segment 37 - The Sidesteppa is a serious pain, though he may not look like one. In this segment, I had great luck with him. The Water Dragon didn't go so well, but nothing major. I love my Mastermune, but I don't think he likes it. I save on my way to Earth Dragon Isle for the second time. Segment 38 - Rockroach killing sucks. Destroying the Earth Dragon is good fun for the whole family though. Enjoy watching him/her die a horrible death because of the Mastermune. I save outside Hydra Marshes. Segment 39 - Prepare yourself for what are probably the worst 3 segments in the entire run, this being the first one of the set. My goal was to beat up Beeba (one of which called a friend), kill Wingapede, trick Beeba into showing up again in the same world, beating him up again, going to Gaea's Navel, and saving there. That's literally how things went, but with the big mistake of throwing Leah into my party. WHY?! Segment 40 - To get Tyrano to show his cowardly self, you need to kill 6 groups of enemies. Luck is needed because you DO NOT want to run into one of the tribal freaks. I went for two Pterodact and four PreyMantis sets. I saved afterwards, with Leah still plaguing my party. Segment 41 - Goodbye Leah, never show your freaking face in my team again. I replace her with the ever useful Marcy and FrogPrince. Obviously, Tyrano feels Marcy's wrath. The Green Dragon was almost completely improvised, so if it ever looks sloppy, blame my quick thinking. I save outside Mount Pyre. Segment 42 - The battle with the Fire Dragon is a seriously tough one. If I remember correctly, most of the fight was planned (probably 3/4 of it). It's when I was on my own that I started to slip a little, and I ended up making a very stupid mistake. This mistake was casting TurnBlue on the Fire Dragon himself (I wanted Lynx obviously), to which I responded: "Fire Dragon? Sh**." I should also mention that this fight is the one where I experienced one of the funniest things I've ever seen in Chrono Cross. Marcy was poisoned with 7 HP or less and I had her use a blue element on the Fire Dragon's second form. Needless to say, the poison killed her before the counterattack. The funny thing was that she got back up (I think she was on the ground at the time) and took his FireBreath...kicking the bucket a second time. Talk about overkill. Anyway, I saved on Sky Dragon Isle. Segment 43 - Here's where the fun begins. I threw everything at the Sky Dragon from the start, so it didn't last long. Orlha isn't even worth a mention, but I'll just say she died a horrible death. I did all the other tasks I needed to do (99 Nostrums and 3 Panacea) before entering Fort Dragonia and saving in the main room. Segment 44 - Dark Serge was a joke in this segment (watch for yourself). I get Serge back (AH! Nudity!) and switch my two team members to Glenn and Viper. I do the Flagbearer trick 9 times (don't complain, I don't want to hear it) and grab the second Einlanzer. After that, I kick Viper out and put Starky back in. On to disc 2! Before saving, I equip the Dragoon's Glory, slightly better armor, and a Volcano trap. Segment 45 - This was one heck of a segment, since I did the entire Chronopolis area in one go. Vita Tres was a pushover that I tricked into helping me turn the field red for my X-Strike. PolisPolice managed not to kill anybody (go go super Starky!) and died quickly. FATE didn't go as well as the others, and I messed up by not using MagNegate like I should have, but overall I'm pleased. I saved outside El Nido Triangle. Segment 46 - RoyalJelly, meet X-Strike. I was gambling on an auto-heal for entering Terra Tower and it paid off. I saved at the entrance to Terra Tower. Segment 47 - Don't think of my late segment paranoia too harshly, I wasn't taking any chances. Sadly for the viewers, I didn't get any of my ladder glitches to work. It's always fun to watch those if you ask me. I saved outside the locked door. Segment 48 - Gravitor was the first victim on my list and he went down quickly (killing Starky first). Before fighting Luxator, I gave Starky RedField-3. Of course, I unleashed a red X-Strike on him because he's not my friend. Aquator was sub-par, I know. I saved back at the previous record of FATE. Segment 49 - TimeDevourer is a tough cookie. The basic idea was to use GreenField/Genie on the yellow form and beat him down with physical attacks until he turned blue. A red X-Strike took care of that form, but then the most dangerous of them all shows up: black innate. Luckily for me, he didn't give me much trouble and changed to his original quickly. This switch was bad news for poor Glenn and Starky, to say the least. Just take a look at the four digit number that hit Glenn (good grief!). I wasted time bringing Glenn back and so on, but I won the fight, so who cares? I grabbed the Chrono Cross (-7), healed, and saved outside Opassa Beach. Segment 50 (good ending) - This went really well, but I used Uplift instead of TurnYellow (dang it). Enjoy the "good" ending...if Kid would ever shut up with that annoying accent. -_- Segment 50 (bad ending) - I won't try to deny it, this segment is boring. If you only care about low times and don't mind my abuse of a harmless doom bringing creature, this one is for you. The plus side is the lack of Kid's speech. Anyway, it's time to completely switch subjects. I plan to improve this run sometime in the future, so if you have an idea (or get one from this run), don't hesitate to post in the topic or send me a private message. Same goes for any questions. I didn't document all the things I know about running this game in these comments, but I have no problem sharing. I hope you all enjoy this run.