It's a really good video, I love it. I hope this video breaks the preconception about walking simulations, and you're really good at it. I got a little teary-eyed as I listened to my part 😢 and thanks for including me!
My favorite speedrun is Pathologic 2 because you just get to the town, sleep in some guy's bed for 12 days straight, and then everyone dies and you go to purgatory.
Hey, I love learning about new games and speedruns. I looked a little into what you're talking about, and it looks cool! Can't guarantee I'll ever make a video about it but anything can happen. 🙂
@@Hakasedess Most people rely on entertainment and/or other pleasant distractions to relieve themselves of stress, keeping them productive contributors to the GDP. Entertainment has since ancient times always been essential to society.
Racing in a museum sounds hard tho, like imagine a mario kart map inside mushroom museum where if you want you can look on your own but in an online race it would be crazy since they usually have multiple floors and are connected in a way where you can see it all and end up at the start again making for a natural lap system
Speedruns are something I've looked at as love letters to games for a very long time now, and walking sim runs are no different. They show the utmost dedication and interest in a game, IMO, and have an added benefit of growing their own communities within playerbases. Thanks for making this! This was some really cool insight into some speedruns I'd never have imagined existing. I hope to see more people take interest in games like this for running. The ways to save time feel so much more interesting to me because of how inherently limited these games need to be.
Completely agree! I like your perspective that because of the limitations of these games runners have to get even more creative to find their time saves. Thanks for the support 🙂
I never understood why people didn't like speedruns. It would be one thing to feel offended at people playing the game as fast as they can on a first run, specially one as "stop and smell the flowers" as Life is Strange, but to speedrun you must REALLY like the game, know it upside down to add this extra challenge.
"What a waste of your life"- as opposed to speedrunning traditional speedrun games where shaving a second off the world record time is going to... cure cancer? discover extraterrestrial life? reveal the fundamental secrets of the universe? I don't understand this comment. Edit: To clarify because I'm certain someone is going to misinterpret my comment as "all speedrunning is a waste of time"- time you spend enjoying life is not wasted.
Agreed. I think those comments are ridiculous, if you're enjoying what you're doing and aren't hurting anybody, I don't understand how anybody can see that as a bad thing.
For some reason its easy for outsiders to see the practice of speedrunning as disrespectful to a game. I'd argue it takes a lot of love to want to pop open the hood, learn what makes the game tick and find a whole new way to enjoy the game again I think thats the main disconnect with those that dont understand speedrunning, both in general and on a case by case basis for various games.
I saw a comment from a game developer on this very video about that. It is unfortunate some see it as disrespectful, and I completely agree with you. It was even worse before speedrunning became mainstream, but I think more and more people every year come to understand it.
Yeah I think it's wild to say "spending large amounts of time to learn everything about something so you can play it at a high level" is disrespectful, it's like saying professional sports are disrespectful to the sport because you're playing well.
@@nicjoy4407a lot of people probably just think that playing fast = you don’t care. Like, if you’re trying to skip through a story focused game on your first play through, it comes off like you don’t care, but some people just don’t understand that speedrunners spend the MOST time in their favorite games and care more than the average person who just plays them once
Some (many, unfortunately) people seem to think speedrunners are just like "Wow, I love this game, but playing it is soooo boring so I'll finish it in 10 seconds instead of actually playing it!" or something. Like you'd sit down and practice QGA skip for 6 grimmillion hours because you DON'T care about the game lmao
@@craftergamer9058 I haven't watched Phoenix Wright speedruns but I assume it involves playing the game on a language which has the fastest dialogue, skipping as much dialogue as possible, and of course already knowing the correct and quickest way to proceed through a section while the average player would read most of the dialogue and spend a whole lot more time finding evidence and cross examining witnesses than a speedrunner.
As one of those 5 runners of Dear Esther (and many other walking sims), I just want to say thank you for this video. These games and their niche subgenre mean a lot to many people, and speedrunning them is more effort to optimize than anybody expects. It's a labor of love to run these games, and I think you did well to get that point across.
@@jobeespeedrun A speedrunner friend sent it my way since it's well known among various communities that I'm the one who plays/runs a lot of walking sims. 😂 Was pleasantly surprised and happy to watch. Keep up the great work.
As a Journey runner I wish nathan had seen your message before the video came out. Journey glitched really is a special case where the unintended mechanics turn it into a whole new game. Maybe worth its own analysis video ;) Still, great essay, thank you for including us! Will share.
Thanks for your support! I was disappointed as well, but that's the hurdle you must face when trying to contact runners. Journey is a beautiful game and I quite enjoyed the speedrun 😀 As for a possible future video? I wouldn't be against making it, but it would depend on how well I think it'd do in the algorithm. And Journey is unfortunately not a game for everyone. But I wouldn't rule it out.
For me, this video is actually one of TH-cam's masterpieces that will probably stick in my mind forever. I am sad this part of speedrunning often isn't acknowledged at all. Thank you for bringing back some memories of great games and a genre I love!
if anyone ever tries to tell me speedruns of Life is strange or similar choice/dialogue heavy games are easy I just wanna remind them how many choices the speedrunner has to remember to take the option that adds the least amount of time
Any speedrun is a valid speedrun in my opinion. If you're running a timer and try to go faster in a game, you are a speedrunner, no matter the game or how fast you are. The people trying to gatekeep this are the disrespectful ones. Speedrunning a game is a form of appreciating a game you enjoyed.
It’s great to hear someone talk about What Remains of Edith Finch, genuinely one of my favorite games as well but not one I hear about often due to it being a walking simulator
I had a similar experience as you when I tried to speed run Life is Strange. I had lost the ability to speed run my game of choice Celeste after a disability so I decided I would like LiS and it was definitely way more frustrating than I thought it would be. I just couldn’t do it
Beautiful video. I admit speedrunning narrative games doesn't make sense to me on a person level, but it's perfectly valid. It can start similar to the urge for fanfiction. You just need more of the thing because you love it so. But it goes in very different directions, of course
Awesome video that deserves more attention! As someone who speedruns a smaller-community game outside of this genre (custom levels in super monkey ball), it’s really cool to see others have the same sources of fascination i do, like the routing and discovery of playing an un-played category. Also, the bit about how perfectionist optimizing turns became really paints a picture of how speedrunning a game this “slow” can feel. Every game’s skill ceiling is as high as the dedication its players put into it, and when a game has less variables to optimize, those variables get pushed to an unparalleled extreme, which makes them insanely cool and different in their style of difficulty.
Thank you! Super Monkey Ball speedruns blow my mind, some people are so talented 😭 Speedruns with small communities are some of the most rewarding to grind for 😁
Your idea about creating a tribute to your favorite game and a new way to experience it makes complete sense to me, as I’ve done the same thing. My favorite game is Twilight Princess, and I’ve beaten the game 3 times each in completely different ways. After doing a 100% playthrough you think “What else can I do to allow myself to re-experience my favorite game again?” And that’s what speedruns and challenge runs exist.
this video is superb. ive been speedrunning many types of games for over a decade and its rare that i see someone who appreciates the level of optimization that can go into games that appear to be quite simple. your experience with edith finch is directly analogous to so many of my experiences in speedrunning that i rarely hear anyone verbalize
@@jobeespeedrun the game and the soundtrack were so good, it gives me massive nostalgia just to listen to it. It's my second favorite game even after more than 3 years and i'd love to play it again
I’ll probably never speedrun a game myself but watching speedrunners so thoroughly break games, especially otherwise simple games, is absolutely hilarious to me and I don’t see anything wrong with it at all - some people just can’t seem to understand that other people may think differently to them
@@jobeespeedrun how did you not notice it? I once tried my new buds playing days gone and I was looking for one of those speakers and I couldn't find it, after a couple minutes I noticed I had it backwards and fixed it
as someone who tends to run a lot of "hard to speedrun" games, this is really good!! i've always found myself speedrunning them because i really liked the game and didn't know how else to play it more and you really showed that here. nice work!
i only ever tried speedrunning casually, but i went with a walking sim just because it was one of my favorites, and only about 20 minutes long on a casual playthrough (Thirty Flights of Loving). by plugging in a controller and using the keyboard for movement, you can double the speed and get it down to 4 minutes, it’s fun! good video, good niche topic
Oooh! I'm thinking, right off the bat, with most of the games having unskippable cutscenes, the enjoyment will come from the difficulty in run optimitization.
I never thought of speedruns as a sort of love letter but it makes so much sense, I love seeing new perspectives on things Straight to my video essay playlist
Hey! That was an amazing video. I speedrun a fangame of one of the mentioned, (Yume Nikki's 'sequel' 2kki) and i can't agree more with your take on the people that choose to speedrun these games. Most that end up learning their respective games to that extent absolutely LOVE every corner this experiences have to offer. For me in particular, it's a way to reciprocate the love i feel for it, as being fast reachig certain locations helps me guide others to the same experience that made me fall in love with it in the first place. If there's anyone out there second-guessing if they should try speedruning a walking sim that reads this by chance, just let me tell you wholeheartedly; its one of the most fulfilling things you can do. Have fun doing what you love!
one youtuber i know speedran the gollum game, because he lost a bet. that run also mostly consists of climbing in linear sections, running and jumping combined with occasional easy riddles. but the run was interesting to follow, because in the perspective of a speedrun it was a completely different experience.
Great video! INFRA is one of my favorite games ever and it’s too bad it didn’t get mentioned, but the game being background video and audio is actually rather fitting for the game.
INFRA was unfortunately one of those games I discovered a little too late to have it be a significant part of the video. But the speedrun looks really cool!
I think there’s something to be said for speedrunning a game that is horrible for speedrunning. There’s a simple kind of joy and satisfaction you can take from doing something wrong that is a a massive waste of time that i feel like those joyless comments from the start are not taking into account. Great vid.
Watching other people speedrun games is often so entertaining, and can teach you a lot about how a game works. The speedrunning (and general) community for Stardew Valley is amazing and while I wouldn't meaningfully ever speedrun that game myself, I love seeing what other people come up with. Yes, it's meant to be a cozy farming sim, but the complexity of the game opens up so much space for different routes and different types of "achievements". It's really cool to see what others come up with for how to interact with a game I love. Can you play it while blindfolded? Catch all fish in one in-game day? Achieve 100% in 24h of real world time? It's so creative.
Thank you for making this video. I'm a speedrunner and TASer of Yume 2kki, a fangame of Yume Nikki that has the same goal as the original (collecting effects and exploring places) , but it's much much bigger. It takes a LOT of practicing, muscle memory and dedication to get good times on certain categories for this game (yes this game has many categories). Some of them (like reaching Spirit Capital) have some sections that are truly difficult and if you get them wrong, your run is dead. I just want to tell the people that think these games have no reason to be speedran, that usually there's a lot of going on under the hood with these games even if it doesn't look like it.
IMO it's one of the best walking simulators because there's A LOT of content in this game. I have dedicated this game a lot of my time and i was able to only explore 80% of it. You really should give it a try.
this video was AWESOME, thank you for this amazing content! I just saw it being recommended to me and didn't notice until the end you only had 1k subscribers. you deserve a lot more!! also, have a nice day!
Thank you!! Yep, been slowly growing subscribers for 2 years and in the last 6 months I've been really gaining steam! Here's hoping I reach 2k by the end of the year 🤞🏻
I just love how you did the same thing to those longer FNAF speedruns in a video about explaining a speedrunning a game people often roast others for speedrunning lol. There's no way to cheat the clock, and up until recently you couldn't even move.
Yeah lol. I put in a little piece of text to explain my thoughts further. Obviously, nothing wrong with spending your time doing that. It's just definitely strange to be competing over milliseconds in such a game.
You can technically speedrun the minigames and FNaF Pizzeria Simulator as they don't operate on clock systems, but it's pretty stupid and most high level play is about max modes (setting every animatronic to max in custom nights) and greenruns (using as little power as possible)
@@r3ked272 I've seen some of those videos from TheBones5. FNaF does have some cool challenge elements to it, it's just unfortunate that speedrunning doesn't fit into most of the games.
"Why would someone speedrun a walking sim". Honestly, for the sake of it. Say I just want to get a speedrun done, who cares if it's just a walking sim, heck, maybe even a visual novel.
I finished Infra a month or so ago, getting most of the photos and such, and for some reason it only just occurred to me watching this that it was a walking sim
It was certainly an edge case. I ultimately went to people I knew had played the game and asked them their opinions. I'd like to have played all the games I discussed but that's just not feasible. Glad you enjoyed INFRA 🙂
@@jobeespeedrun The Stanley Parable also deserves credit for being the only walking simulator I know of with an actual achievement for speedrunning. With how simple and short that game is (you can't even jump, so you don't have to learn how to bunnyhop!), it's very enjoyable to speedrun too.
With on how vast gaming is I think it’s ridiculous people still have issues with walking sims. The majority of them tell great stories and are great games to wind down with
I'd say that the main reason why so few people want to seedrun walking sims is because they are deceptively hard. Yes, games themselves are easy most of the time, but having so few mechanics and them lacking complexity, they are also lacking in bugs and exploits that speedrunners enjoy so much. That means that any sort of skips are so much rarer to find, and adding to the fact that in general these games take longer, it quickly becomes boring. While routing is more important because of that, it is also slow and requires less skill rather than memory to accomplish. All that, combined with peoples perception of these games as being easy, make it unappealing to speedrunner who want accomplishments, which i imagine a lot of them want.
I liked the essay, especially how personal this was to you. The addition of so many other speedrunners is also a highlight :) If you keep doing this, please consider having normal subtitles though. They were very distracting :(
I asked my friends in response to your comment what they think of the subtitles. One person agreed with you, Two were indifferent, and four liked them. Could you be more specific? What about them do you not like? Thank you for the feedback either way.
@jobee1360 I was referring to the use of word-by-word subtitles instead of the standard sentences - they are great for grabbing attention, but in my opinion they don't work well as an actual accessibility aid and they are a bit TOO distracting, which takes away from the original content. Also, the fact that they only show up half of the time isn't too good either. If your aim is to use written words to highlight points you are making, I would recommend having less of them and write them as full sentences. This would also allow you to highlight key words or phrases of the sentence in a different colour, allowing the viewer to pay extra attention to new concepts you may be introducing and explaining further into the video. If your goal is to have them work as an accessibility aid, they should be on screen at all times, be uniform, and also entire sentences. I would recommend using TH-cam's inbuilt subtitle aid for this purpose. I will also say it is extremely common in the TH-cam essay space to have both: full subtitles provided only through the TH-cam captions button (so those who don't need them can just not use them) and have sentences introduced inside the video to mark key points or quotes (as per your original video). Hope this helps.
I'm so happy you showcased the trash can jump in Jazz Punk. I speedrun the game and that is one of the coolest glitches you get to do running Any%. Once you get the timing down, it's not that hard either. Glad to see you showed Ragged Dan's video, not sure of the other ones, but great bunch of people all of the community for the game. More people should run the game. It is the opposite of a boring get from point A to point B kind of speedrun. Tons of fun.
Jazzpunk was one of the later games I found in my research (Had to ask a friend if he considered it a walking simulator). After seeing the game and its speedrun I really want to buy the game to play/speedrun it! Glad you enjoyed its inclusion 😀
this video actually introduced me to some interesting games, definitely going to try out the vanishing of ethan carter and what remains of edith finch!!!! love walking simulators, i have some kind of tradition of replaying night in the woods every autumn because it had a big impact on me and i always find something new in game and new ways to play it, never tried spedrunning but i definitely understand how it can be as meaningful as any normal walkthrough thank you!!!!
Glad to have introduced you to some awesome games! Love Night in the Woods, such a shame what happened to its creators. Edith Finch is a great choice 👍🏻
Thank you! One of my favorite speedrunning things to do is go to a game with only ~10 players and spend maybe 5-15 hours on a game to get a world record. It's the perfect length of time where I feel like I accomplished something difficult without having to grind for 50+ hours.
@@jobeespeedrun dont play it its really disturbing especially the dream world stuff and some parts are just depressing if it had a good satisfying ending i would recommend it but it doesnt
No problem! I personally hate when I'm watching a video and without warning it spoils a game/movie/etc. Making the video watchable for as many people as possible was a primary goal of mine. Thanks for your support!
Out of all the ones I have played so far, I have to agree. Beautiful game. I think my friend said it best: "Gone Home walked so that Edith Finch could run"
@@jobeespeedrun it's definitely an interesting one since there's a movement mechanic that makes movement faster, basically removing the walking simulator part
Talking about Tribute to favorite games reminded me of what motivated me to write detailed articles about them on Wikipedia. Playing them just wasn't enough, I wanted to share it with the world, help cement it in our culture.
I'll admit, I wasn't doubtful of speedrunning walking simulators before watching this video. However, I honestly thought the reason behind these kinds of speedruns were for more ironic and silly reasons rather than a serious or passionate reason. Initially, my first thought when seeing the title of this video was when I searched up a speedrun of Sonic.exe, (yes, that slop,) and I thought it was funny because you just hold right for most of the game casually. But after watching this video, I realized not only the point this video aimed to make, but also what a walking simulator REALLY is compared to how I've seen people use the phrase.
tbh INFRA is an absolutely cooked speedrun, its one of the more insane ones out there as well as having the only useful wallbug in any source engine speedrun as well as having black mesa style bunnyhopping, which is much harder than normal bunnyhopping
INFRA was one of those games I found while in the middle of making the video and regretted not finding it sooner. The speedrun looks really cool, but I was too far in to look too much into it.
a fun enjoyable game in a casual playthrough doesn't mean it will be a good speed game, but the inverse is also true. a bad/unfun game in a casual playthrough doesn't mean it will be a bad game to speed run. so just be cause walking sims can be boring for many, doesn't mean they will be inherently a boring speedrun. they can be very indepth as speed run techs are found and the nuances of the game start to show up.
That's a game I want to play and haven't gotten around to yet. Though as far as I can tell it seems more like a puzzle game than a walking simulator. Will definitely give it a shot sometime.
This was pretty interesting! I understand that urge to get the most out of a game that you love, making a tribute of sorts. (That said, what this video made me wish for most is physical copies of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Everybody's Gone To The Rapture.) I've never tried speedrunning before, but I have been tempted, once, to be a pioneer for a game that doesn't seem to have any runners at the moment - Astro Aqua Kitty. I bought the game on a whim from Limited Run Games and just loved it. There's some RNG in there but running the game would mostly be about routing. I don't know, it just felt like a game I could play time and time again and still have fun. Something to consider in the future, I guess.
Hey, that's a great way to speedrun games. Personally, I like it when a game has enough competition where I'll spend at least 10-15 hours running it, but not so much that it becomes a grind. Thanks for your support!
as someone who is so uncompetitive that I would get nothing out of beating someone's record on a speedrunning leaderboard, and be happy for anyone who beat me, the appeal of all speedrunning is a little lost on me haha. I can imagine any genre could be fun for people who like to do that
It's a fun past time! I recommend picking a game you enjoy, but also a game where the world record is less than 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, hour-long speedruns can be fun. But it's a lot harder to get into speedrunning when you have to carve out hours of your day for it. Have fun!
It's a really good video, I love it. I hope this video breaks the preconception about walking simulations, and you're really good at it. I got a little teary-eyed as I listened to my part 😢 and thanks for including me!
ur the best
@@dphdmn thanks 😁
oof me too, lol emotions are so silly sometimes. I gotta check out your runs. Very cool!
My favorite speedrun is Pathologic 2 because you just get to the town, sleep in some guy's bed for 12 days straight, and then everyone dies and you go to purgatory.
Hey, I love learning about new games and speedruns. I looked a little into what you're talking about, and it looks cool! Can't guarantee I'll ever make a video about it but anything can happen. 🙂
Pathologic fan spotted
Recently I was desperately trying to remember the name of that game series. I could remember everything but the name XD
The same strat works in the first game too
Racing inside a museum sounds pretty fun actually
All Exhibits%
😂
I saw someone do it once as a parody. Search MOMA speedrun on youtube, I think you'll find it
Behold! th-cam.com/video/Ctd_RJTe9tA/w-d-xo.html
If you want to visit the whole of the Louvre in one day, you'll essentially do an speedrun of it
“Is the point of these games not to enjoy them?”
People enjoy speedrunning
What's the point of playing games? Doesn't contribute to the GDP at all.
This guy gets it 😎
@@Hakasedess maybe contributing to the dev's country GDP assuming you bought the game
@@Hakasedess what’s the point if having fun at all
@@Hakasedess Most people rely on entertainment and/or other pleasant distractions to relieve themselves of stress, keeping them productive contributors to the GDP. Entertainment has since ancient times always been essential to society.
Racing in a museum sounds hard tho, like imagine a mario kart map inside mushroom museum where if you want you can look on your own but in an online race it would be crazy since they usually have multiple floors and are connected in a way where you can see it all and end up at the start again making for a natural lap system
That's certainly a way to think about it lol 😆
Although, imagine a Mario Kart map inside the Animal Crossing museum? Actually sounds dope.
You telling me no one thought of calling them Speedwalks?
I'm thinking about it now 😂
"like racing inside a museum" is such a killer quote
Speedruns are something I've looked at as love letters to games for a very long time now, and walking sim runs are no different. They show the utmost dedication and interest in a game, IMO, and have an added benefit of growing their own communities within playerbases.
Thanks for making this! This was some really cool insight into some speedruns I'd never have imagined existing. I hope to see more people take interest in games like this for running. The ways to save time feel so much more interesting to me because of how inherently limited these games need to be.
Completely agree! I like your perspective that because of the limitations of these games runners have to get even more creative to find their time saves. Thanks for the support 🙂
Exactly, and like, people shouldn't hate how others play a game, it's just dumb
I never understood why people didn't like speedruns. It would be one thing to feel offended at people playing the game as fast as they can on a first run, specially one as "stop and smell the flowers" as Life is Strange, but to speedrun you must REALLY like the game, know it upside down to add this extra challenge.
"What a waste of your life"- as opposed to speedrunning traditional speedrun games where shaving a second off the world record time is going to... cure cancer? discover extraterrestrial life? reveal the fundamental secrets of the universe? I don't understand this comment.
Edit: To clarify because I'm certain someone is going to misinterpret my comment as "all speedrunning is a waste of time"- time you spend enjoying life is not wasted.
Agreed. I think those comments are ridiculous, if you're enjoying what you're doing and aren't hurting anybody, I don't understand how anybody can see that as a bad thing.
The museum quote is hilarious because one of my favourite videos on this site is a speedrun of the museum of modern art
Matt Herzog if anyone's curious
God I love that TH-cam recommends MASTERFUL video essays that have below 1k views to me. Always a delight.
Thanks for the support! This was actually my first video essay so I'm glad to already be called a master at it 😂
We have the same fyp
The views already went 10 time this number... I think he'll get at least 100k with this.
@@ssebasgoo Here's hoping 🤞
For some reason its easy for outsiders to see the practice of speedrunning as disrespectful to a game.
I'd argue it takes a lot of love to want to pop open the hood, learn what makes the game tick and find a whole new way to enjoy the game again
I think thats the main disconnect with those that dont understand speedrunning, both in general and on a case by case basis for various games.
I saw a comment from a game developer on this very video about that. It is unfortunate some see it as disrespectful, and I completely agree with you. It was even worse before speedrunning became mainstream, but I think more and more people every year come to understand it.
Yeah I think it's wild to say "spending large amounts of time to learn everything about something so you can play it at a high level" is disrespectful, it's like saying professional sports are disrespectful to the sport because you're playing well.
@@nicjoy4407a lot of people probably just think that playing fast = you don’t care. Like, if you’re trying to skip through a story focused game on your first play through, it comes off like you don’t care, but some people just don’t understand that speedrunners spend the MOST time in their favorite games and care more than the average person who just plays them once
Some (many, unfortunately) people seem to think speedrunners are just like "Wow, I love this game, but playing it is soooo boring so I'll finish it in 10 seconds instead of actually playing it!" or something. Like you'd sit down and practice QGA skip for 6 grimmillion hours because you DON'T care about the game lmao
“Why would you ever parkour on beautiful architecture?”
They got a problem with walking sims, just wait til they find out ppl speedrun vis novels/Phoenix wright games
Literally how though?
Literally how though?
@@craftergamer9058 I haven't watched Phoenix Wright speedruns but I assume it involves playing the game on a language which has the fastest dialogue, skipping as much dialogue as possible, and of course already knowing the correct and quickest way to proceed through a section while the average player would read most of the dialogue and spend a whole lot more time finding evidence and cross examining witnesses than a speedrunner.
10:05 i love how the guy just zooms into the restaurant, makes the cake fall over and zooms back to the entrance
People really need to stop thinking that they have the right to tell people they’re wasting their life doing things that they enjoy.
Completely agree. If they're not hurting anyone and are enjoying it, there's no reason to ridicule anyone for any hobby.
I personally don't speedrun since I just play a lotta different video games but I will always admire speedrunners & there achievements
Hey, we love a speedrun ally 🫡
@jobee1360 I appreciate you saying and I appreciate your video!
As one of those 5 runners of Dear Esther (and many other walking sims), I just want to say thank you for this video. These games and their niche subgenre mean a lot to many people, and speedrunning them is more effort to optimize than anybody expects. It's a labor of love to run these games, and I think you did well to get that point across.
Thank you! It's awesome that this video made its way to you, I'm glad you enjoyed it 😀
@@jobeespeedrun A speedrunner friend sent it my way since it's well known among various communities that I'm the one who plays/runs a lot of walking sims. 😂 Was pleasantly surprised and happy to watch. Keep up the great work.
As a Journey runner I wish nathan had seen your message before the video came out. Journey glitched really is a special case where the unintended mechanics turn it into a whole new game. Maybe worth its own analysis video ;)
Still, great essay, thank you for including us! Will share.
Thanks for your support! I was disappointed as well, but that's the hurdle you must face when trying to contact runners. Journey is a beautiful game and I quite enjoyed the speedrun 😀
As for a possible future video? I wouldn't be against making it, but it would depend on how well I think it'd do in the algorithm. And Journey is unfortunately not a game for everyone. But I wouldn't rule it out.
@@jobeespeedrun That's quite fair, thanks for your response!
I had no idea Life is Strange could be speedran, now I’m more curious to try it out since I have all 5 episodes
For me, this video is actually one of TH-cam's masterpieces that will probably stick in my mind forever. I am sad this part of speedrunning often isn't acknowledged at all.
Thank you for bringing back some memories of great games and a genre I love!
Thank you! That is such an honor for you to enjoy my video to that extent. I'm glad I was able to bring back those memories for you 🙂
if anyone ever tries to tell me speedruns of Life is strange or similar choice/dialogue heavy games are easy I just wanna remind them how many choices the speedrunner has to remember to take the option that adds the least amount of time
life is strange is such a great game
Hated the first one, but LIS2 is still one of the best games I've ever played
@@helpfulapple3125 nah, the 1st one is my fav so far (I didn't finish the second and true colors 😔) the first ep bored me
@@helpfulapple3125 the second game is a goated game, but the first one will always be my favorite
2nd LiS was soooooooooooooooooo overhated.
And certainly not a walking simulator.
Any speedrun is a valid speedrun in my opinion.
If you're running a timer and try to go faster in a game, you are a speedrunner, no matter the game or how fast you are.
The people trying to gatekeep this are the disrespectful ones.
Speedrunning a game is a form of appreciating a game you enjoyed.
It’s great to hear someone talk about What Remains of Edith Finch, genuinely one of my favorite games as well but not one I hear about often due to it being a walking simulator
It's such a beautiful game 😔. I'm so glad it was free on ps+ for a month because I don't think I'd have played it otherwise.
I had a similar experience as you when I tried to speed run Life is Strange. I had lost the ability to speed run my game of choice Celeste after a disability so I decided I would like LiS and it was definitely way more frustrating than I thought it would be. I just couldn’t do it
Beautiful video. I admit speedrunning narrative games doesn't make sense to me on a person level, but it's perfectly valid. It can start similar to the urge for fanfiction. You just need more of the thing because you love it so. But it goes in very different directions, of course
Awesome video that deserves more attention! As someone who speedruns a smaller-community game outside of this genre (custom levels in super monkey ball), it’s really cool to see others have the same sources of fascination i do, like the routing and discovery of playing an un-played category.
Also, the bit about how perfectionist optimizing turns became really paints a picture of how speedrunning a game this “slow” can feel. Every game’s skill ceiling is as high as the dedication its players put into it, and when a game has less variables to optimize, those variables get pushed to an unparalleled extreme, which makes them insanely cool and different in their style of difficulty.
Thank you! Super Monkey Ball speedruns blow my mind, some people are so talented 😭
Speedruns with small communities are some of the most rewarding to grind for 😁
Fantastic video! Absolutely your best one yet and I can't wait for the next one
Thank you!! Excited to do more video essay type videos in the future.
Your idea about creating a tribute to your favorite game and a new way to experience it makes complete sense to me, as I’ve done the same thing. My favorite game is Twilight Princess, and I’ve beaten the game 3 times each in completely different ways. After doing a 100% playthrough you think “What else can I do to allow myself to re-experience my favorite game again?” And that’s what speedruns and challenge runs exist.
this video is superb. ive been speedrunning many types of games for over a decade and its rare that i see someone who appreciates the level of optimization that can go into games that appear to be quite simple. your experience with edith finch is directly analogous to so many of my experiences in speedrunning that i rarely hear anyone verbalize
Thank you! Always great to hear from fellow speedrunners 🫡
This video is so ridiculously good, i really hope the algorithm gives this guy the success he deserves
Thank you! I really appreciate that 😊
THE NITW SOUNDTRACK IS SO FUCKING GOOOOOKD AAAAAA
Night in the Woods absolutely has my favorite soundtrack out of any game. I use it in all my videos.
@@jobeespeedrun the game and the soundtrack were so good, it gives me massive nostalgia just to listen to it. It's my second favorite game even after more than 3 years and i'd love to play it again
I speedrun Edith Finch because it's the most efficient way to maximise my suffering
I love that game, but honestly yeah that's a way to do it😭
I’ll probably never speedrun a game myself but watching speedrunners so thoroughly break games, especially otherwise simple games, is absolutely hilarious to me and I don’t see anything wrong with it at all - some people just can’t seem to understand that other people may think differently to them
This is almost (?) niche and I’m all for it, I loved this video!
I also love walking simulators , they’re a great break from souls likes
7:18 Your headphones are backwards. The audio comes directly from the seal
Another comment suggested this and I just tried it. Yes my headphones have been on backwards for the last three years lol
@@jobeespeedrun might be time to retry with new headphone strat, might be what was keeping you from getting WR lol
@@jobeespeedrun how did you not notice it? I once tried my new buds playing days gone and I was looking for one of those speakers and I couldn't find it, after a couple minutes I noticed I had it backwards and fixed it
this was a really great video and oddly made me really emotional. keep up the great work!
Thank you!
as someone who tends to run a lot of "hard to speedrun" games, this is really good!! i've always found myself speedrunning them because i really liked the game and didn't know how else to play it more and you really showed that here. nice work!
Thank you!
i only ever tried speedrunning casually, but i went with a walking sim just because it was one of my favorites, and only about 20 minutes long on a casual playthrough (Thirty Flights of Loving). by plugging in a controller and using the keyboard for movement, you can double the speed and get it down to 4 minutes, it’s fun! good video, good niche topic
Oooh! I'm thinking, right off the bat, with most of the games having unskippable cutscenes, the enjoyment will come from the difficulty in run optimitization.
banger video, was an honor to be apart of this one! learned a lot about some of the other games in the genre with this one i must say lol
The Beginner's Guide is such a slept-on game. Beautiful game, it truly touched my soul
life is strange and ace attorney for example do seem pretty odd to decide to speedrun but it’s nice to see😅
I never thought of speedruns as a sort of love letter but it makes so much sense, I love seeing new perspectives on things
Straight to my video essay playlist
Hey! That was an amazing video.
I speedrun a fangame of one of the mentioned, (Yume Nikki's 'sequel' 2kki) and i can't agree more with your take on the people that choose to speedrun these games. Most that end up learning their respective games to that extent absolutely LOVE every corner this experiences have to offer. For me in particular, it's a way to reciprocate the love i feel for it, as being fast reachig certain locations helps me guide others to the same experience that made me fall in love with it in the first place.
If there's anyone out there second-guessing if they should try speedruning a walking sim that reads this by chance, just let me tell you wholeheartedly; its one of the most fulfilling things you can do. Have fun doing what you love!
Thanks for the support! It's always cool when I see fellow speedrunners in my comments 😁
How the hell do you speedrun 2kki lol?
I always love when people explain their passion in an interesting way. Loved the video.
I hope this video blows up. Great content Jobee!
Thank you! I appreciate that :)
Here's hoping🤞🏼
one youtuber i know speedran the gollum game, because he lost a bet. that run also mostly consists of climbing in linear sections, running and jumping combined with occasional easy riddles. but the run was interesting to follow, because in the perspective of a speedrun it was a completely different experience.
Great video! INFRA is one of my favorite games ever and it’s too bad it didn’t get mentioned, but the game being background video and audio is actually rather fitting for the game.
INFRA was unfortunately one of those games I discovered a little too late to have it be a significant part of the video. But the speedrun looks really cool!
I think there’s something to be said for speedrunning a game that is horrible for speedrunning. There’s a simple kind of joy and satisfaction you can take from doing something wrong that is a a massive waste of time that i feel like those joyless comments from the start are not taking into account. Great vid.
Watching other people speedrun games is often so entertaining, and can teach you a lot about how a game works. The speedrunning (and general) community for Stardew Valley is amazing and while I wouldn't meaningfully ever speedrun that game myself, I love seeing what other people come up with. Yes, it's meant to be a cozy farming sim, but the complexity of the game opens up so much space for different routes and different types of "achievements". It's really cool to see what others come up with for how to interact with a game I love. Can you play it while blindfolded? Catch all fish in one in-game day? Achieve 100% in 24h of real world time? It's so creative.
Loved the video and I didn’t know these kinds of games were speedran
this is an awesome video essay. thanks bro
Thank YOU for watching! I appreciate it :)
This just popped into my recommendeds. Great video :D
Thank you! It's doing really well in the algorithm today! Glad you enjoyed it 😊
“Low-key disrespectful” Too funny 😭😭
Thank you for making this video. I'm a speedrunner and TASer of Yume 2kki, a fangame of Yume Nikki that has the same goal as the original (collecting effects and exploring places) , but it's much much bigger. It takes a LOT of practicing, muscle memory and dedication to get good times on certain categories for this game (yes this game has many categories). Some of them (like reaching Spirit Capital) have some sections that are truly difficult and if you get them wrong, your run is dead. I just want to tell the people that think these games have no reason to be speedran, that usually there's a lot of going on under the hood with these games even if it doesn't look like it.
I've gotten a surprisingly numerous amount of comments from Yume 2kki runners. Never thought to play the game but I'm definitely considering it now 🤔
IMO it's one of the best walking simulators because there's A LOT of content in this game. I have dedicated this game a lot of my time and i was able to only explore 80% of it. You really should give it a try.
this video was AWESOME, thank you for this amazing content! I just saw it being recommended to me and didn't notice until the end you only had 1k subscribers. you deserve a lot more!!
also, have a nice day!
Thank you!! Yep, been slowly growing subscribers for 2 years and in the last 6 months I've been really gaining steam!
Here's hoping I reach 2k by the end of the year 🤞🏻
expected at least a hundred thousand subs, this is fantastically made! Subbed :D
also all the Night In The Woods music made me almost tear up omg, that soundtrack SLAPS
Thank you! Here's hoping for 2k by the end of December 🤞🏻
I just love how you did the same thing to those longer FNAF speedruns in a video about explaining a speedrunning a game people often roast others for speedrunning lol. There's no way to cheat the clock, and up until recently you couldn't even move.
Yeah lol. I put in a little piece of text to explain my thoughts further. Obviously, nothing wrong with spending your time doing that. It's just definitely strange to be competing over milliseconds in such a game.
@@jobeespeedrun
Lol. People are just mad weird, and love challenging themselves.
You can technically speedrun the minigames and FNaF Pizzeria Simulator as they don't operate on clock systems, but it's pretty stupid and most high level play is about max modes (setting every animatronic to max in custom nights) and greenruns (using as little power as possible)
@@r3ked272 I've seen some of those videos from TheBones5. FNaF does have some cool challenge elements to it, it's just unfortunate that speedrunning doesn't fit into most of the games.
@jobee1360 hey at least security breach is not only not time based but also hilariously buggy
"Why would someone speedrun a walking sim". Honestly, for the sake of it. Say I just want to get a speedrun done, who cares if it's just a walking sim, heck, maybe even a visual novel.
I finished Infra a month or so ago, getting most of the photos and such, and for some reason it only just occurred to me watching this that it was a walking sim
It was certainly an edge case. I ultimately went to people I knew had played the game and asked them their opinions. I'd like to have played all the games I discussed but that's just not feasible.
Glad you enjoyed INFRA 🙂
The internet is full of nitpickers.
The Beginner's Guide lets you bunnyhop and has motion blur to go with it. Can't get speedier than this!
It was one of those games I wanted to include more, but you only have so much runtime. It looks like a cool game!
@@jobeespeedrun The Stanley Parable also deserves credit for being the only walking simulator I know of with an actual achievement for speedrunning. With how simple and short that game is (you can't even jump, so you don't have to learn how to bunnyhop!), it's very enjoyable to speedrun too.
With on how vast gaming is I think it’s ridiculous people still have issues with walking sims. The majority of them tell great stories and are great games to wind down with
I'd say that the main reason why so few people want to seedrun walking sims is because they are deceptively hard. Yes, games themselves are easy most of the time, but having so few mechanics and them lacking complexity, they are also lacking in bugs and exploits that speedrunners enjoy so much. That means that any sort of skips are so much rarer to find, and adding to the fact that in general these games take longer, it quickly becomes boring. While routing is more important because of that, it is also slow and requires less skill rather than memory to accomplish. All that, combined with peoples perception of these games as being easy, make it unappealing to speedrunner who want accomplishments, which i imagine a lot of them want.
I liked the essay, especially how personal this was to you. The addition of so many other speedrunners is also a highlight :)
If you keep doing this, please consider having normal subtitles though. They were very distracting :(
I asked my friends in response to your comment what they think of the subtitles. One person agreed with you, Two were indifferent, and four liked them.
Could you be more specific? What about them do you not like? Thank you for the feedback either way.
@jobee1360 I was referring to the use of word-by-word subtitles instead of the standard sentences - they are great for grabbing attention, but in my opinion they don't work well as an actual accessibility aid and they are a bit TOO distracting, which takes away from the original content. Also, the fact that they only show up half of the time isn't too good either.
If your aim is to use written words to highlight points you are making, I would recommend having less of them and write them as full sentences. This would also allow you to highlight key words or phrases of the sentence in a different colour, allowing the viewer to pay extra attention to new concepts you may be introducing and explaining further into the video.
If your goal is to have them work as an accessibility aid, they should be on screen at all times, be uniform, and also entire sentences. I would recommend using TH-cam's inbuilt subtitle aid for this purpose. I will also say it is extremely common in the TH-cam essay space to have both: full subtitles provided only through the TH-cam captions button (so those who don't need them can just not use them) and have sentences introduced inside the video to mark key points or quotes (as per your original video). Hope this helps.
I'm so happy you showcased the trash can jump in Jazz Punk. I speedrun the game and that is one of the coolest glitches you get to do running Any%. Once you get the timing down, it's not that hard either. Glad to see you showed Ragged Dan's video, not sure of the other ones, but great bunch of people all of the community for the game. More people should run the game. It is the opposite of a boring get from point A to point B kind of speedrun. Tons of fun.
Jazzpunk was one of the later games I found in my research (Had to ask a friend if he considered it a walking simulator). After seeing the game and its speedrun I really want to buy the game to play/speedrun it! Glad you enjoyed its inclusion 😀
this video actually introduced me to some interesting games, definitely going to try out the vanishing of ethan carter and what remains of edith finch!!!! love walking simulators, i have some kind of tradition of replaying night in the woods every autumn because it had a big impact on me and i always find something new in game and new ways to play it, never tried spedrunning but i definitely understand how it can be as meaningful as any normal walkthrough
thank you!!!!
Glad to have introduced you to some awesome games! Love Night in the Woods, such a shame what happened to its creators. Edith Finch is a great choice 👍🏻
alternate video title "walking simulators speedruns are... Interesting?"
Rad vid, thanks again for including me!
This makes me want to speedrun some smaller games! Great video.
Thank you! One of my favorite speedrunning things to do is go to a game with only ~10 players and spend maybe 5-15 hours on a game to get a world record. It's the perfect length of time where I feel like I accomplished something difficult without having to grind for 50+ hours.
I can't believe this only has 600 views for such a high quality video!
Thanks! The video is actually up to 4.5k now 😭
It's my fastest growing video so far, so I'm really excited about it!
great video, glad i could be apart of it!
5:05 “by the end of this video, i will show you how interesting these speedruns can be, starting with:”
*clash royale ad plays*
I didn't choose the ad placements, I blame TH-cam haha 😆
12:35 Hearing the Sweetheart Castle OST from Omori legitimately startled me! That game has left me shattered!
I haven't played it yet, but Omori is near the top of my list of games I want to play in the future 😁
@@jobeespeedrun I want recommend you the game so badly, but I also don't want you to potential suffer like I did. Ignorance is Bliss as they say
@@jobeespeedrun dont play it its really disturbing especially the dream world stuff and some parts are just depressing if it had a good satisfying ending i would recommend it but it doesnt
Well done for the video! it turned out great
Thanks! Wish I could have had you on, but was glad I could show off your speedrun of Journey.
Thank you for spoiler-free video!
No problem! I personally hate when I'm watching a video and without warning it spoils a game/movie/etc. Making the video watchable for as many people as possible was a primary goal of mine.
Thanks for your support!
What Remains of Edith Finch is hands down the BEST walking sim out there
Out of all the ones I have played so far, I have to agree. Beautiful game. I think my friend said it best:
"Gone Home walked so that Edith Finch could run"
Through this video, I've realized how much I love walking sims
They're a great genre with some amazing games! Glad I was able to help 😁
I've been thinking of getting into the beginner's guide speedrun, great video
Thanks! I've heard good things about that speedrun.
@@jobeespeedrun it's definitely an interesting one since there's a movement mechanic that makes movement faster, basically removing the walking simulator part
@00:45 You forgot, "The Mental Illness" that's a big one no doubt.
What a amzing video, insane work
Keep going !!
Talking about Tribute to favorite games reminded me of what motivated me to write detailed articles about them on Wikipedia. Playing them just wasn't enough, I wanted to share it with the world, help cement it in our culture.
phineas and ferb ride again is the most broken walking simulator ever made you need to see it
People who say that speedeunning a game is a waste of time apparently never heard of the term „fun“
I'll admit, I wasn't doubtful of speedrunning walking simulators before watching this video. However, I honestly thought the reason behind these kinds of speedruns were for more ironic and silly reasons rather than a serious or passionate reason.
Initially, my first thought when seeing the title of this video was when I searched up a speedrun of Sonic.exe, (yes, that slop,) and I thought it was funny because you just hold right for most of the game casually. But after watching this video, I realized not only the point this video aimed to make, but also what a walking simulator REALLY is compared to how I've seen people use the phrase.
tbh INFRA is an absolutely cooked speedrun, its one of the more insane ones out there as well as having the only useful wallbug in any source engine speedrun as well as having black mesa style bunnyhopping, which is much harder than normal bunnyhopping
INFRA was one of those games I found while in the middle of making the video and regretted not finding it sooner. The speedrun looks really cool, but I was too far in to look too much into it.
a fun enjoyable game in a casual playthrough doesn't mean it will be a good speed game, but the inverse is also true. a bad/unfun game in a casual playthrough doesn't mean it will be a bad game to speed run.
so just be cause walking sims can be boring for many, doesn't mean they will be inherently a boring speedrun. they can be very indepth as speed run techs are found and the nuances of the game start to show up.
Amazing video man, you’re really good at video essays! Don’t really have much to say I just wanted to support
Hey, love the support! Every comment helps me in the algorithm just a bit more so thank you 😁
Walking simulator is my FAVORITE genre. there is a lot of my favorite games in it
Take your time with The Forgotten City. Its probably the perfect length for a walk sim.
That's a game I want to play and haven't gotten around to yet. Though as far as I can tell it seems more like a puzzle game than a walking simulator. Will definitely give it a shot sometime.
As someone who tried to speedrun 2kki. I can confirm that is more excited that it seems so
Only watched for about 5 mins right now but really entertaining video so far keep up the good content!
Good thing you didn't interview Nathan, he's an imposter, never made it to Tower!!!
This was pretty interesting! I understand that urge to get the most out of a game that you love, making a tribute of sorts. (That said, what this video made me wish for most is physical copies of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Everybody's Gone To The Rapture.)
I've never tried speedrunning before, but I have been tempted, once, to be a pioneer for a game that doesn't seem to have any runners at the moment - Astro Aqua Kitty. I bought the game on a whim from Limited Run Games and just loved it. There's some RNG in there but running the game would mostly be about routing. I don't know, it just felt like a game I could play time and time again and still have fun. Something to consider in the future, I guess.
Hey, that's a great way to speedrun games. Personally, I like it when a game has enough competition where I'll spend at least 10-15 hours running it, but not so much that it becomes a grind.
Thanks for your support!
as someone who is so uncompetitive that I would get nothing out of beating someone's record on a speedrunning leaderboard, and be happy for anyone who beat me, the appeal of all speedrunning is a little lost on me haha. I can imagine any genre could be fun for people who like to do that
Such a great video!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it ☺️
loved the video, now i want to try out speedrunning
It's a fun past time! I recommend picking a game you enjoy, but also a game where the world record is less than 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, hour-long speedruns can be fun. But it's a lot harder to get into speedrunning when you have to carve out hours of your day for it.
Have fun!
Yeah that’s exactly what i was looking for, i don’t want to spend all day trying to speedrun a game. I will try it out, thanks!
new sub btw
the best speedruns are Just Dance speedruns
💃🏻