Despite the fact that Pokémon Shining Pearl has only been out for a few weeks, a speedrunner by the name of Werster has managed to complete the game in less than an hour. An experienced Pokémon Shining Pearl player completed the entire game in just over fifty minutes, setting a new record for the game’s recent release. This astounding performance is one of the numerous world-record-breaking speed runs for video games, which are often accomplished through the use of flaws and cunning workarounds.
Two remakes of the popular Nintendo DS games Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl have been released, with the first being released in November of last year. Unlike their 2006 predecessors, these updated editions preserve the majority of the content from their previous iterations, with some new features such as Ramanas Park, which contains legendary Pokémon. Other improvements to the overall experience, such as an autosave function and speedier levelling, have been implemented. There is no change to the story or basic gameplay mechanics of the original games, albeit they do have a fully renovated art style and some newly recorded music tracks in comparison to those games’ predecessors. As a result, both games had to be completely re-created from the beginning.
It’s inevitable that a brand-new game will contain brand-new flaws, which YouTuber and speedrunner Werster took advantage of to complete Shining Pearl in under an hour. Trying everything he can, Werster begins the speedrun by skipping through the opening cutscene and character creation before selecting Piplup as his starter Pokémon. He then makes use of a menu flaw to skip through large sections of the game, including game staples such as the fishing function in Shining Pearl. Werster makes extensive use of this menu glitch, as well as variations on it, throughout this speedrun. He also appears to have taken use of a flaw that disables attack animations, which allows him to save a significant amount of time during the fight. Werster ends up skipping by the game’s last boss and cruising to the finish line, which makes for a funny conclusion to the speedrun.
We couldn’t possibly go into detail about the various bugs and strategies that Werster employed to set this new record, but suffice it to say that this achievement necessitated a thorough mastery of the game on a technical level. The game of Shining Pearl can take up to thirty hours to complete. Therefore Webster’s achievement of finishing in fifty minutes and thirty-six seconds is very remarkable. Considering that a blindfolded Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice speedrun video made waves earlier this year, it’s possible that a blindfolded Shining Pearl speedrun will be required to wrest Webster’s bragging rights away from him.
Werster is currently the undisputed champion of Shining Pearl speed runs, at least for the time being. However, while the majority of Pokémon enthusiasts would never want to lose out on any of the things that these games have to offer, witnessing a talented player fool the game in this manner is still a treat. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are still in their early stages, so it will be interesting to see if Werster’s record can be surpassed.
