System Shock - get a Default Difficulty run below 7 minutes
It gets overshadowed by Doshin the Giant, but System Shock was my game (as much as any speedrunner can own a game). I had the immense privilege of singlehandedly routing (with minor feedback from gammadragon) what I consider to be the best video game of all time. An Old SDA Forum thread chronicles the routing that took place from December 2014 to January 2015 where I stopped after getting a 32:58 (which stands as a solid time with the knowledge of the game as it existed back then).
The game got a proper re-release with System Shock: Enhanced Edition in September 2015. This version added mouselook and custom binds which were already going to lead to saving time, but then itsubitsu discovered save bumping in March 2016, which meant that the game now required a complete reroute. From there, I was a bit lax in improving my time, and Fearful Ferret stepped up to claim world record for a few weeks. He later went on to do a run at SGDQ2016 and even gave itsubitsu and I shoutouts during the credits, which was ballsy given that I was already in very hot water with GDQ staff.
I later grinded System Shock: Enhanced Edition down to a very respectable 9:43.867 in November 2017. That stood as WR until the KEX source port came out and Hackasaurus_Rex slid in with a better time in January 2019 by taking advantage of the newer, faster ways to clip through surfaces the KEX source port allowed.
The WR is still held by Hackasaurus_Rex and sits at 6:38.849. I'm not sure if I can reach that given my old man hands and my inability to master the new way of clipping, but I can at least get sub 7.
Bomberman Hero - get a JP Any% run below 43 minutes, learn US Any% and get a run below 50 minutes
Back in the days of SGDQ2014, Bomberman Hero was being grinded out like a monster by Yashichi, Kirkq, and myself. I eventually ended up with the WR at 44:10 after everyone else lost motivation, but that was 6 years ago. It stood as WR for nearly 3 years until Squid bopped it by 2 seconds in April 2017. Since then, my time has slipped all the way down to 6th place as Yashichi returned and a new crop of runners with new strats overtook me.
I've never actually touched US Any%, but it's essentially the same game and run as JP Any%, just worse. It shouldn't be that hard to bop Kirkq's time from over 7 years ago now that the WR is over 2 minutes 30 seconds faster.
No More Heroes - get an Any% (NG Sweet) run below 2 hours 50 minutes
I was the first person to really visualize a NG route for No More Heroes. AdrianVG had been running NG+ categories for a while and he dismissed NG as being too slow. I forget the exact converstation, but he implied that it'd be around 6 hours. My first proof-of-concept run was around 4 hours 30 minutes, and WR now sits at 2:38:51 by AdrianVG.
The recent Switch remaster is faster, so here's to hopping that improving my current Wii version time of 2:55:48 isn't too hard.
Katamari Damacy REROLL - get an Any% run below 28 minutes
Katamari Damacy revived my interest in speedrunning back when it was fading in 2018. The game is just a delight to play, but I lost motivation after hitting my initial goal of sub 30 (a feat achieved by only 10 other people). I have more time to save, but I'm not too far from hitting that PB plateau, which I estimate to be a bit below 28 minutes. I figure the game is more than deserving of a last hurrah before I retire from it. And who knows? Maybe I'll decide to go further and roll into the sunset to compete with Harutomo, who just got a 26:57.
Commit to learning a JRPG
I've actually routed 2 obscure RPGs already (Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius and Chroma Squad), but those are WRPGs disguised as TRPGs. I want to dive in to a proper JRPG and either learn an existing route or create a new one.
