Fastest speedruns in final fantasy games

[Zodiac Killer 99]

In the past few days, I have thought about this topic a great deal. I've searched online fairly thoroughly and I've, so far, found very little to help. Initially, I simply wondered how easy ODINS and HDINS were in the various final fantasy games, but then I began to wonder - which final fantasy game has the longest speedrun? And which has the shortest speedrun? There will obviously be a great deal of variance between games on different platforms, but this is mainly just to see if there happens to be any emerging pattern at all. I've added the dates the games were first released next to each of them too I've compiled the list to have the main games (I-XIII, X-2 and XIII-2 in the first list, followed by a few others in a secondary list; if you'd like me to add any others, I will ) I'd be very grateful if anyone could help me compile this list, as, though I have searched a great deal, it is very possible I have simply missed information. If you do happen to post information, please also add a link to some sort of evidence, be it a forum thread or something else. Thank you

Final Fantasy (1987) -
Final Fantasy II (1988) -
Final Fantasy III (1990) - 01:27:18 (NES - Jp)
Final Fantasy IV (1991) - 03:05 (SNES - US)
Final Fantasy V (1992) - 03:26
Final Fantasy VI (1994) - 04:46 (SNES - US)
Final Fantasy VII (1997) - 07:41 (PS1 - US)
Final Fantasy VIII (1999) - 07:58 (PS1 - US)
Final Fantasy IX (2000) - 08:32 (Ps1 - ...)
Final Fantasy X (2001) - 09:56 (Ps2 - US)^*1
Final Fantasy X-2 (2003) - 04:09 (Ps2 - US)
Final Fantasy XII (2006) - 6:35:19 (Ps2 - US)
Final Fantasy XIII (2009) -
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) -

final Fantasy Mystic Quest (1992) - 2:44:20
Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) - 04:22
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003) -
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (2003) -
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006) -
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007) -
Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (2007) -
Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System (2007) -
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (2007) -
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (2007) -
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (2007) -
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (2009) - 2:23:32 (WiiWare - ...)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (2009) - 4:12:55 (Wii - ...)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (2009) -
Final Fantasy Type-0 (2011) -


^*1Another file was used to import all 26 Al Bhed Primmers, there for the majority of the speedrunners have agreed that this run is considered to fall under the New Game+ category.

[Da_Cloud]

Added some times to your list, all are verified runs from SDA so those times can be trusted. Would want to give you an advise to mention the console version and region to each time as they can both hugely affect the time. Most known example is that these times are usually counted from the in game clock and as we all know the in game clock is messed up on most EU version (50hz vs 60hz, ect), leading to times that could easily be 10-20% larger on an equal run.


Noticed however that you're time on FF is almost 2 hours under the time mentioned on SDA. Wonder if you got a link to that run as I'd love to see how they done it o_O

[Zodiac Killer 99]

Added some times to your list, all are verified runs from SDA so those times can be trusted. Would want to give you an advise to mention the console version and region to each time as they can both hugely affect the time. Most known example is that these times are usually counted from the in game clock and as we all know the in game clock is messed up on most EU version (50hz vs 60hz, ect), leading to times that could easily be 10-20% larger on an equal run.

Thanks very much for the added times and footnotes Regarding the consoles, it was my intention to do this today once I logged on, so thank you for doing that for me

Noticed however that you're time on FF is almost 2 hours under the time mentioned on SDA. Wonder if you got a link to that run as I'd love to see how they done it o_O

Stupid mistake on my part, I saw the NES speedrun of "final fantasy", I did not, however, connect the 'US version' with it being the same game as the Japanese Final Fantasy III, in my tired state I simply assumed it was the US version of the original. Thanks for pointing this out, I'll delete it from the list Purely for interest, I'll post the link to the source here: http://archive.org/details/finalfantasy-timeattack-mookish

It also brings into question whether or not emulated games should be permitted on the list. I believe it depends on if the emulator gave a speed advantage, though I'd understand the viewpoint that they should not be included regardless of this.

[Da_Cloud]

It also brings into question whether or not emulated games should be permitted on the list. I believe it depends on if the emulator gave a speed advantage, though I'd understand the viewpoint that they should not be included regardless of this.

Personally I wouldn't allow emulators on an official list as its an variable that can affect the time. And if we want to look objectively at the times we on want the skill of a runner to be deciding for the final time.

The main thing with emulators sits in the loading times, which can be affected by the settings & specs of the pc your playing on. Usually you can get better loading times than the same game on a console, meaning you can always beat the time if you just mimic the run on a emulated version.