Legend of Mana - Studying FAQ

Legend of Mana - Game Analysis FAQ

Q) What are you analyzing?
A) I'm currently studying a few things, mostly focusing on event triggers.

Q) Event Triggers?
A) There are 68 events in the game. Each one has various things that will trigger it to occur (or not).

Q) How are events triggered?
A) Most of them are due to placement of AFs (Artifacts) or completing other missions, or both. A couple are due to mana levels (The Wimpy Thugling, Pee-Wee Birdie, and Seeing Double).

Q) Why would you need to know these?
A) I need to know for the purposes of routing 100% runs.

Q) What is a 100% run?
A) 100% is defined as completing all 68 missions in the game in a single playthrough, successfully. Success is defined as seeing THE END after a mission and having it being marked on the log as a yellow circle (failure is marked with a yellow x).

Q) When will you be doing a 100% run of the game?
A) Not for quite a while. It's been way too long since my last one (2006!) and I would like to work on an improvement to it in 2015 sometime.

Q) What is your goal time?
A) I don't have one set yet. My current best is presently 9:59:10, which can be vastly improved. I figure a good time should be much closer to 9 hours. I say my first goal is sub-9:30.

Q) How many missions are easy to fail?
A) While I fail one in the Jumi and another in the Faerie storylines, most of them aren't too hard to fail. However, Treasure Map and The Nordic Snowfield are the easiest to get screwed over on.

Q) What other improvements can be made over the old run?
A) Not getting lost in the White Forest while doing Catchin' Lillipeas, for one. :P Getting a better weapon (which is being figured into the route) is another. While my initial plans years ago included going for Heishishoren (using a Saga Frontier II save), due to potential controversy w/ a NG+ debate I won't use that. I have other ideas though.

Q) What other factors will be big for a 100% run run?
A) AF placement and what what area of the world map I choose for my local map. Two AFs require placement next to water (AF Rusty Anchor and AF Torch of Coral) and one requires being placed on water itself (AF Pirate's Hook). Two AFs can be placed on either land or water (AF Brooch of Love and AF Sword of Mana). Everything else has to be on land.

Also due to the mana level requirements for 3 missions, I need to have AF Colored Blocks and AF Sand Rose both touching AF Sword of Mana. There is no other combination that would lead to having the full mana levels required.

Which AFs I get during missions will have a factor, but not as much. There is absolutely nothing missable, all that can be affected is when I get something. 0-2 means that I can get both AFs if I haven't gotten either one. 3+ means I only get the Primary AF.

Q) Can I see the current Quest Trigger progress?
A) Yes! Here is the link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JxRGGWvvMc7UCAo0BVPF7yHKYRGlb26HsbuC-rr3Euk/edit?usp=sharing

Notes about the document: Bold on the quest triggers means that these are suspect and need testing. Names under Primary AF and Secondary AF means these are the AFs I can get from that mission. Yellow spaces mean I get no AF there.

Q) I have a question that's not answered here.
A) Feel free to ask me in my chat. http://www.twitch.tv/sir_vg