2017 speedyear

2017 was another fairly active speedyear for me, though I can't help but feel a bit unsatisfied with it. Although I PB'd in 8 different games (3 were entirely new, and another 3 were new categories for older speedgames of mine), I don't think I produced a single run that I can point at and say "damn, yeah, this one owns." In aggregate I'm pretty happy, I'll just need to return to these later on to improve them further. One unique thing about this year is it was fairly packed with on-site marathons (as opposed to online ones): AGDQ 2017, Calithon 2017, SGDQ 2017, and STR 2017. I even attended PAX for the first time and got to be a part its speedrun panel. In retrospect I actually have no idea how I managed to do half of the speedrun stuff I did given how busy I was IRL, but hey, everything worked out in the end.

My PBs below are listed in chronological order:

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New Super Hook Girl
Extra (v1.1) in 4:53
- This one's a freebie for 2017 since I got it in early January while preparing for AGDQ 2017. It's an amazing game and a super fun run, and even though there's still time to shave off I'm pretty content with it. The only issue with this run, if you can even call it that, is the fact that v1.1 features 'new' tech that grossly obsoletes this time. With that said I'd like to return to the game with the newly released v1.2 and get a real PB there, but I have no idea when or if I'll ever do that.

Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel
Any%, Freudia in 31:25
- I came back to this game in 2016 with heavily improved strats. I stopped playing after getting my first big PB though, so the run was full of slop; returning to this game in 2017 sought to fix that. The final product here is a pretty solid run overall, but there's still enough slop in it for me to want to improve it further (ideally mid 31:1x). I love this game so I'm going to run it again in the future -- I can say this without hesitating.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (US)
All Levels in 21:56
- For the longest time I thought I'd never even run this. The only reason I picked this up was because the Mario community was planning on submitting a warpless relay to SGDQ and I really wanted to have a chance participating in it. The SGDQ submission of mine was a total rush job, and I felt like I really underestimated just how grueling this run could be and was blinded by the simplicity of any%. I really want to go back to this game, both categories too.

Ikachan
Any% in 4:02
- There's some backstory here but I don't think it's worth telling. Anyway, this is a pretty cool game. Really short, nontrivial movement, has neat wall clips, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if another 15 seconds can be shaved off of this but I'm way too lazy right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbd71BgRzVw

Super Mario Bros. 3
Any% in 3:40
- This took a few hours. I'll come back for some more because I'm stupid.

Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith
Extra in 6:25
- Remember when I said I was stupid? Yeah. Ever since I routed and did runs of Lunatic back in 2016, I've always wanted to give Extra a shot. It turned out to be more fun than I expected, though still ultimately idiotic. I actually want to try shaving off another second or so from this for a really clean run, and I doubt it'd take much more time investment (which was already very little to begin with).

Super Mario World
No Cape, No Starworld in 34:47
- Alright. SMW was the game I used to get into speedrunning back in 2012 with super casual 11 exit races. I even learned 96 exit to some extent and did one or two runs back then, though they were really bad. I eventually moved on from the game completely and never looked back, but years later I noticed more and more activity with NCNSW and thought the category looked kind of interesting. I never thought I'd actually learn it, but for whatever reason I chose to bite the bullet after SGDQ 2017. The result? Honestly I think it's pretty boring to play, but it's not something I regret learning or running. I just wish I ended the year with a PB I could actually feel "done" with and not the time I have right now. I can safely say I won't be returning to SMW after retiring NCNSW. If I want to push a 2D Mario game more, I'd rather it be SMB2; if I want to learn other stuff on the SNES, well, I have my options.

Umihara Kawase
Longest Path in 13:38
- This is another category I thought I'd never pick up mostly because the two bosses in the route, of which involve waiting out approximately 5:45 worth of timers, made the run look awful. Well it turns out the run owns and the bosses aren't too big of a deal, or at the very least I can still manage to stomach them. Umihara is probably my #1 game I love the thought of devoting more time to but end up never doing it anyway. This time can go much, much lower, and I'm hoping I can find the motivation to bring it to sub 13 (or at least get close).