Speedrunning: An Interesting Way of Life
There are many ways to enjoy video games these days. You can play normally, competitions, have death counters, add difficulty settings, nuzlockes, etc… One of the many ways to enjoy gaming that doesn’t get enough spotlight is Speedrunning. So, what I am going to do is spotlight speedrunning and share some words from some amazing speedrunners and world record holders.
Speedrunning: A Way of Life
When it comes to the art of speedrunning, it’s a lot more in-depth than what most people think. It’s not your buddy Jace running through a dungeon really fast on Neverwinter leaving everyone behind type of thing. Speedrunners can put in a lot of work when trying to go for that World Record or personal best times. Hours can go into mapping the best routes when to get what items in a game, what frame to press the A button among other things.
Speedrunning doesn’t have to be all work and no play either though. There are many people in the speedrunning community that are very nice and helpful. They will always tell you to speedrun for your enjoyment and have fun with it. In the Suikoden community, for example, I know quite a few people all very nice and helpful. Each one of them motivates each other and they motivate the new people that come into the community.
Now, when we get into some great people in the speedrunning community, it might look heavily Suikoden-focused. That’s just because I personally know more of them. But speedrunning spans all games. From Pokemon, Mario, Suikoden, Final Fantasy, Octopath Traveler, to games even like Hearthstone’s PVE mode and many more. There is a game out there for everyone that might find themselves interested in potentially diving into speedrunning.
The Community
As I have mentioned above, the communities involved in speedrunning are mostly positive and great communities to be a part of. I know many people have probably heard about Games Done Quick (GDQ). The bi-annual event hosts a speedrun charity stream to raise money for different causes. They’ve raised money for causes like Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. Last year in 2021, Summer Games Done Quick raised $2,938,714.59 from 40,381 donations. They even managed to break some speedrunning World Records while the gamers were at it!
So, from raising money to being a welcoming community in general, they are very helpful. When going for a World Record a lot of work goes into it. People in the speedrunning community will try to find new routes that might help save time. There’s a lot of testing that happens in speedrunning. This includes trying out different routes, items, move usage, RNG, and many other factors. Everyone shares notes as well which is why I can tell you how helpful everyone is.
Most of the time, speedrunning notes are in-depth like which directions to walk, when to use a Pokemon item, and even which frames of the game to click on. The people work hard testing all this stuff out to make sure they have the best possible routes to try and keep that World Record. I know it does seem like work and it can be, but you can also speedrun for fun too and not always try to beat World Records.
Words from the Runners
I have managed to get some great people to participate with me in this article to give me their words and thoughts so I can share them with you.
My friend Srd_27 had this to say about speedrunning
One thing I have to say about speedruns, is that it’s a really fun way to explore a game in depth. You often find creative strategies that regular hardcore players aren’t aware of. For an example, I’ve done a lot of speedruns of the online card game Hearthstone’s PvE modes. There’s a lot of fun and unique strategies on it that almost no regular Hearthstone players know about.
There are few Hearthstone enthusiasts who didn’t know about these speedruns before, and they end up discussing a lot of these speedrun strategies on the community discord after they’ve seen my runs. These enthusiasts include people such as writers on an E-Sports news website and former pro players.
Some of Srd_27’s World Records are Suikoden Card Stories (Any%NG+) and Suikoden: Woven Web of the Centuries.
Another friend Seiglance, whom I have watched a lot said this:
Speedrunning is a different way to play games I love. What I’ve gotten out of speedrunning is a bunch of amazing friends and great communites to be involved with. The work put into speedrunning a game depends on the game. Some I’ve routed and still help route when new things are found. Others like Suikoden have already been routed, so I just use the notes and run through a couple times before starting.
I’d recommend trying speedrunning to people who were interested as a new way to play games they’ve played dozens of times. On top of the new way to play, there are a lot of great communities and people to meet.
My friend Seiglance currently holds the records for Power Rangers Samurai (Any%), Suikoden Card Stories (Any%NG), Suikoden Tierkreis (Any%), and 108 Stars.
Space Coyote On Speedrunning
Another amazing person I have met in the speedrunning community is SpaceCoyote and he had this to say:
I usually end up spending about a year per game, which sounds like a long time. In reality there could be weeks where I do nothing at all. On a normal week I might have a few hours to spare that I can look in to routing whatever current project I’m working on. I started streaming, getting involved, routing projects in late 2019 with Suikoden 3. Then worked on Suikoden 5 through 2021 and now it’s on to something else this year.
I’d recommend that anyone interested in speedrunning pick a game they enjoyed as a kid. Though I would especially recommend a game with a great soundtrack, because that can really keep you engaged while you’re mindlessly practicing or routing. Then, getting involved with that game’s community through Discord is usually the next step. So you can bounce ideas off of other people, learn from others’ mistakes, etc. The most important thing is to just have fun. If you’re not having fun, it’s going to be nothing but maddening for you.
Technically I have a lot of World Records. Most of them are uncontested, so I don’t really count those or even take them too seriously. But the 3 that I’m most proud of would be the following Suikoden 3 Any%, Suikoden 3 108 Stars, and Suikoden 5 108 Stars.
Even though SpaceCoyote doesn’t take all his records very seriously he has these records, Suikoden 5 108 Stars and all the records for Suikoden 3‘s 5 categories.
“The Record Monster” Z3R01337 Speaks
Last up on our list of amazing people is none other than the first person who got me into speedrunning, Z3R01337. When it comes to the art of speedrunning Z3R01337 had a few words to share:
Speedrunning is a fun hobby that has a great combination of collaboration and competition to it. I personaly speedrun because I enjoy figuring out the puzzle of how to do a run as fast as possible. I’ve always loved competition and speedrunning not only gives me that, but also gives me interesting problems to solve and features a great community to talk to about similar interests.
When it comes to how much work I put in it depends. Sometimes I’m really zoned in on something and put in hours every day. Some days I’m trying to improve my times, work on things to improve on in game, or make routes for the games I run. Othertimes, I don’t have much inspiration, so speedrunning takes a backseat to other things going on in my life.
If someone wanted to get into speedrunning, I recommend they pick a game they love and just try speedrunning it! That’s how I got into it. I wanted to replay Suikoden II for the 20th time or so, and I wanted to find a way to make it interesting for myself so I tried speedrunning it.
Now, when it comes to the speedrunning records, Z3R01337 holds a monstrous 10 records! He has records for Suikoden (Any%) Glitchless, Suikoden 108 Stars Glitchless, Suikoden 2 (Any%), Suikoden 2 108 Stars, Suikoden 4 (Any%NG+), Suikoden 4 108 Stars (NG+), Suikoden 5 (Any%), Suikoden Tactics (Any%), Octopath Traveler, All Main Stories (PC), and Final Fantasy XIII (Any%) (PS3).
Spotlighting the Speedrunning Community
As you have seen from the words shared here, there are benefits when it comes to speedrunning. It can add an interesting dynamic when it comes to playing one of your favorite games. You don’t have to focus on a World Record to speedrun and can have a blast with the community. These people do amazing work and definitely don’t get spotlighted enough. Games Done Quick has done amazing work raising money with its events and showing off some great speedrunners.
With such a great speedrunning community and it is “The Golden Age of Gaming-Pong Soul” overall you get events such as GDQ, Rpg Limit Break, and even Suikothon. If there is even just an inkling of your being that wants to get into this, it’s worth the shot. So many great people from all the ones above, Pokeguy, Gunnermmaniac, Aleksaster, Hyo24, as well as many others. You can find all these great people on their Twitch or YouTube channels having fun with the community. Start your speedrunning journey or maybe stay tuned for my first one!
