BBS No Loads

No Loads

Disc-based speedruns are hard. While older cartridge generations have pretty consistent load times across the board, discs have to rely on the amount of space on the disc, the speed of the laser (i.e. the speed of the console) and even what version and language your game is played in. BBS on 2.5 blows my mind just how inconsistent the loads are across the board.

In the beginning, it seemed like Super Slim was the fastest loading console for 2.5 BBS, followed by the Slim, then followed by the Fat. I believe Adamtimothy0, a very well respected runner of BBS who knows the game pretty darn well, believed that the Super Slim was theoretically 2-3 minutes faster than the Slim with the testing he did (there was a google doc made but I have no clue where it is now). However, as my time got more and more optimal and I began to compare to other top times, I didn't notice as much of a loading disparity between my Super Slim and Adam's Slim. Differing ideas popped up that all seemed viable, I even did some of my own testing, comparing my PB on Super Slim to Sonic's PB on a Slim and deduced Super Slim was 1 second faster than the Slim through Castle of Dreams. If you assumed this time save through the rest of the worlds of the run, Super Slim only saved a measly 10 seconds as a whole instead of a whole 2-3 minutes.

Finally, Adam did some exhaustive timing of his own (found here: https://twitter.com/Adamtimothy0/status/631576060442705921) and realized, unfortunately, that though there is a difference between Super Slim and Slim in terms of load speed, it is by no means consistent and it could be theorized that the load times are different on EVERY SINGLE PS3. Sonic even did testing between his Slim and Super Slim and found that his Slim is actually FASTER than his Super Slim. This is all very unfortunate, especially when you want your times to be comparable to others as well as accurate.

I decided to remove all of the loads in my 1:06:23 Aqua Crit Speedrun on Super Slim, as maybe achieving a way to compare to other peoples times. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won't, I still thought it would be interesting to do to just see what the time would be like if there were no loads.

Rules for Loads
-Completely Black and White Screens are considered loads, which is mostly transition screens between rooms and the loading of cutscenes and forced fights/bosses
-The exceptions to this rule are when you obtain a new Keyblade, Report, D-Link Forge, Tutorial screen, and a new Action Command (Doubleflight, Air Slide, etc.)

There weren't any rules for timing out loads when I did this, so I just thought these would work out best. If we continue to time out loads in other people's PB's, these rules could be changed or added to, this isn't my decision to make.

For now, enjoy. :P