Recorded on the PC version at 30 FPS. Once again, I apologize for the occasional choppiness, but I've no idea what can be done about it.

The brief return to title after getting the shovel saves a few seconds compared to walking back (or the game over via repeatedly trying to leave the area early). With the manual backtracking option, you can save 2-3 seconds by digging up the acorn right as narrator Graham remembers "how it really happened", which would normally warp you to the start of the area, but digging up the acorn at the same time cancels the warp. It's a pretty precise trick, and is still 2-3 seconds slower than a quick return to the title screen.

I routed this chapter with Vee as my partner, as the timings pertaining to Neese were either tied with Vee, or in Vee's favor. Most notably, helping Vee with her puzzle is definitely faster than learning to play the lute with Neese, as is the rock jumping with Vee (happens when she's your partner, otherwise you get an intersecting path thingy with Neese as your partner, which I timed to be about ~11s slower).

Regarding the other choices, it is ~1 second faster to steady only Neese's shelf, instead of both (steadying only Vee's is a couple seconds even slower). I don't think it matters timewise which of the girls' items you choose to prevent falling. With regards to the vase, the time is also about the same for impressing either of them; however, even though the other girl's items don't need to be put back, whoever you helped will make an unskippable comment if there's something still visible on the floor, which costs time (thankfully, I was able to skip the bongos, as they only fall after putting Neese's other two items away).

I don't recall the timings for the other stuff on the individual outings with the princesses (clearing a safe path through the thorns, shooting the wedzel wolf, using brute strength for the bridge, and hogging all the goblin kills), but the actions chosen for each of them should be the fastest, even if most of them don't earn any favor with the respective princess.

Going into chapter 4, it looks like the times are about equal no matter who you end up with. If I had to guess, chapter 4 may slightly favor choosing Neese, but only by a second or two - not enough to offset the time gain Vee has in chapter 3 (and that mostly being the rock skipping thing). However, it remains to be seen which of the two girls will be faster for chapter 5, as well as the epilogue. That said, if Neese does turn out to be faster in the long run, much of this route could probably be re-used to compensate, just that Graham should propose to her first, her items would need to be put back instead, and winning the Moral Quarrel game with her. I'm not for certain, but doing the above things, you could still help Vee with her puzzle, and still end up with Neese. Everything else could be left the same, as your partner seems to be determined based on who you dance with, and the choices afterwards don't seem to matter (or at least not yet).

свернуть