# History of FF7 PSX CSR and related mods

How cutscene-reduced **Final Fantasy VII** (PlayStation) discs, optional scene
packs, the Highwind base, and encounter mods grew with the FF7 speedrunning
community.

**Public page:** https://individualcontributor.dev/history/

## Sources

Each log is ordered **oldest message first** (newest at the bottom of that file).
The three archives cover different windows — only the **discussion channel**
runs through **2026**. For one continuous read from 2022 through 2026-07, use
the [merged timeline](chats/all-messages-merged.txt).

| Archive | Description | Date range | Messages |
|---------|-------------|------------|----------:|
| [Merged timeline (all sources)](chats/all-messages-merged.txt) | Full chronological merge | 2022-08 – 2026-07 | ~3,000 |
| [CSR mentions (server search)](chats/2022-08-csr-mentions-search-messages.txt) | Search hits for “csr” plus related practice-tool posts | 2022-08 – 2025-05 | 150 |
| [CSR development thread](chats/2024-09-csr-dev-thread-messages.txt) | Forum-style thread where PSX CSR was built day to day | 2024-09 – 2024-11 | 1,355 |
| [CSR discussion channel](chats/2024-11-csr-channel-messages.txt) | Dedicated channel after the thread (**includes 2025–2026**) | 2024-11 – 2026-07 | 1,700 |

---

## Background

Any% on PlayStation is already a long fight with battles, routing, and
**field scripts, FMVs, and dialogue**. Runners used turbo, save states, and
written step routes. Other games in the community already had cutscene-reduced
builds (often nicknamed CSR). FF7 also had practice images and cutscene-reduced
experiments on other platforms.

This project applies the idea to **NTSC-U retail disc images** — three discs,
field edits (for example with Makou Reactor), and testing on emulators and on
burned discs for people who play on console hardware.

---

## Before this CSR: practice tools in the server

Search hits from 2022 onward show the server already talking about CSR-style
ideas and practice ISOs. **hopeproductions** shared a step-route-oriented image
(non-preemptable bosses removed, inactive step screens skipped, single-disc
practice so you are not swapping mid-session) and earlier CSR-style experiments
runners actually used.

Those tools aimed at a related goal: less waiting, more time on the gameplay
that still matters on a full retail disc. The later IndividualContributor CSR
line is a separate product with its own design choices (skill checks kept,
versioned multi-disc patches).

---

## Autumn 2024: a thread, then a flood of patches

**Late September 2024** — Work concentrates in a Discord thread. Patches start
as **PPF** against clean `.bin` files. Testing is on DuckStation *and* burned
discs (PS2 Slim, MechaPwn, the usual backup setups). The repo goes public under
Final-Fantasy-7-CSR.

An early announcement frames the goal for Any% and related categories (NMS, All
Bosses, and friends): cut the dead air, keep what runners still have to *do*,
and test on emulators and on burned discs.

October is rapid fire. Disc 1 gets iterative passes; Temple and other long
sections shrink; an optional **mid-run break** appears after Demon’s Gate and
then gets moved as people try different session shapes. Reactor 5 and disc 2
start to open up. When a trim deletes a movement cue runners rely on (for
example post–Jenova Death positioning), the next build often puts something
back. The loop is straightforward: someone finishes a stretch, notes a softlock
or a weird box count, and a new patch often lands the same day or the next.

Save states from old patches on new builds also create ghost bugs. Clean runs
and physical burns become the trusted checks.

### The disc 1 → disc 2 swap saga

Late October into early November, a problem shows up more clearly on hardware
than on some emulator paths: after **Jenova Life**, some **physical** swaps from
CSR disc 1 to disc 2 fail on PS2 (error behaviour, black screens, or needing to
reseat discs). The same stretch often continues without issue in DuckStation.

The investigation runs for several days with help from people in the channel.
People compare CSR burns to retail burns, try CSR saves vs clean saves, confirm
patched `.bin` sizes still match retail (so it is not a simple “file grew”
story), try mixing burned and retail discs, and test workarounds (for example
swap to a clean disc 2 just to load, then reseat CSR). Earlier practice CSRs in
the community had also hit console-specific edge cases (for example a known
lifestream hub issue on Hope’s line that needed an official disc briefly), so
multi-disc burns get careful testing.

Eventually the bug is traced with a **git bisect-style** walk of commits. The
smoking gun is not a dedicated “disc swap” edit sitting next to the swap script.
It is an earlier field change (around post-Motorball music / wait-frame
structure on a script that also participates in later disc-2 flow). A small
revert and restore of frames and music playback fixes the path. **10 November
2024 — v0.4.10** ships with the fix called out explicitly.

After that, the repo stops scattering many parallel version folders for
downloads and standardizes on “latest patch + git history.” Multi-disc behaviour
on real hardware stays part of how new releases are checked.

### What “skill check” means in this CSR

Through the same weeks the design gets stated out loud, over and over:

- Keep **player-required** moments: meaningful dialogue options, movement during
  cutscenes, known skips, and RNG-related windows (elevator mash text, List /
  FD material around sequences such as Aerith’s house and the waterfall).
- Cut or shorten **FMVs and mash-only** stretches when the scripts allow it.
- Test on both emulators and hardware when possible.

When a choice appears with the wrong number of lead-in boxes, runners say so.
Several releases **restore** boxes so muscle memory still matches retail. This
CSR base keeps player-required moments rather than removing every text box.
Other practice tools and the later Highwind base make different tradeoffs;
together they cover different preferences in the same community.

Unofficial time-tracking and feedback forms appear on the README around
mid-November. **~18–19 November 2024** discussion moves into a **dedicated
Discord channel**. The thread remains a historical source; the channel becomes
where day-to-day feedback lands.

---

## Channel era: categories, restores, and the sub-4 chase

Once there is a channel, playtesting never really stops. Releases tick through
the autumn and into 2025. A few threads of story keep coming back.

### Same CSR, different categories

People run more than one Any% flavour. **NMS** gets a written notes dump from
cornfed (church, house, reactor 5, train, Kalm flashback arc, Cosmo, Midgar
return — scene by scene). Those notes turn into real disc 1 passes. **All
Bosses** and side content (Wutai, Gelnika, Gongaga Turks) show the other edge:
a cut that is free time for No Slots can still be dead air for a category that
never needed the leftover skill-check scene. That tension does not get fully
solved in 2024–25; it becomes the later argument for optional packs.

### Trim hard, then put the cue back

The channel is full of tiny craft notes. Wall Market needs an orient box. Kalm
after photoskip cannot lose the soldier boxes — mash there and you softlock;
that is a skill check, not filler. Junon locker tutorial text comes partly back
so options are not a surprise. Highwind bridge after Rocket Town gets shortened
until Cloud is already standing and Red runs up, then Cid’s movement is checked
again because it drifted from retail. Gold Saucer entry, clothes shop running,
date tubes, Fort Condor chatter, Carry Armor and UWR corridors, disc 3 endgame
boxes, the naked-Seph FMV — each shows up as a clip or a one-line request and
often as a changelog bullet days later.

A recurring design question: how do you push toward **sub-4** without losing
the *feel* of places like the Gold Saucer cart? Shortening a scene is only part
of the decision; pacing and cues matter too.

### How much time does this actually save?

In late November 2024, **phek1200** estimates a full No Slots–style pace on
**v0.6.0** as roughly a **6h35** non-CSR equivalent — about **2h24** saved by
the CSR of that week. People in the channel do the arithmetic: a little more
trim and sub-4 on CSR looks reachable for strong paces, with some difference
expected between setups. Disc 3 gets an explicit “route done?” release
(**v0.7.0**) once endgame boxes and the last FMVs are under control.

**10 January 2025** — phek posts what the channel had been aiming at: a
**first sub-4 No Slots on CSR** (emulator, v0.10.0), with the usual runner
footnotes (minutes left on the table to Palmer, and so on). That run becomes a
reference point; more trims and cue restores continue through the spring as
other people grind toward the same number on their own setups.

### More hardware checks

Even after the big swap fix, multi-disc on real hardware keeps turning up new
cases. A later build regresses disc 2 load again; workarounds and version
checks return; Rocket Town–adjacent disc 2 content is implicated and fixed.
Midgar raid can lose a lot of talk, but the Highwind jump / parachute FMV stays
when movement is wired into the video. Music bugs after jumping back toward
Midgar show up on full NMS clears. Emulator and hardware testing both stay part
of the loop.

---

## 2026: “Why not both?”, packs, Highwind, builder, mods

By mid-2026 the CSR base is deep into the 0.14 line. Community talk turns from
“can this exist?” to “how many shapes should it come in?”

### Product split

A community pulse lands on **“why not both?”** — keep a skill-check CSR *and*
offer optional harder cuts for runners whose categories do not use every
remaining skill-check scene. That leads to a clearer product map than the older
casual “CSR / CSR+ / CSR++” names:

| Product | Role |
|---------|------|
| **CSR** (base) | Field trims with skill-check scenes kept |
| **CSR+ scene trims** | Optional extra trims **on CSR only** (checkboxes / all-scenes preset) |
| **Highwind** (base) | Separate aggressive short playthrough; **not** stacked with CSR+ scene trims |
| **Mods** | Cross-base gameplay layers (field and world encounter density, and more later) |

Early CSR+ ships as a bulk idea (Aerith house and Hojo FD scenes cut on top of
CSR v0.14). Within days the plan narrows: **CSR+ is not a second full base**.
It becomes individual **scene trims** (Aerith house, Hojo FD, CoTA / waterfall
with explicit List/FD changelog notes) so runners pick what their category can
spare. Highwind takes the more aggressive short-playthrough direction —
shorter corridors, freer Wall Market order experiments, less prison and stairs
filler — without changing the skill-check CSR base.

### Browser builder

**https://individualcontributor.dev/builder/** lets you start from your own
clean NTSC-U `.bin`, pick a base, optional CSR+ scene trims, and optional mods, and
download a zip (`.bin`, `.cue`, `APPLIED.txt`). Nothing uploads. Packs load from
GitHub Pages manifests on the CSR and Modding repos. The UI learns to separate
**packs** (CSR+ scenes) from **mods** (encounters on Unmodified / CSR /
Highwind). Console burns of builder stacks, including CSR+ on MechaPwn setups,
show up in channel testing.

### Encounter mods on real discs

Field and world **random encounter density** packs (Light / Standard / Dense)
ship from Final-Fantasy-7-Modding as engine layers. Light is pitched as closer
to a routed “few fights” feel; Standard nearer vanilla density; Dense for more
fights. A stack with the encounter add-on is tested on a **PS2 Slim burn**
through early game (including Guard Scorpion), which supports later optional
ideas such as battle fanfare or death-anim shortening as separate mods.

---

## Credits

jayrod316, awesomewaves, themattdavis, doumeis, uzuki7777, asleepyjake, katombaz, individualcontributor, .okamikaze, dashretro, wedgiroth, kumatv, muttski, .rendall, thebroodles, chuky500, kitkatbars, mcswirls, phek1200, musclebelt, teeejj0102, petfriendamy, kleinestennis, dylwingo, primitivedeath, lemon6559, blake.is.blue, rjthedestroyer, acezephyr, .theretrojay, cornfed, snake1982, luzbel, zheal, bigspill, fr3akzilla, hopeproductions

## Related links

- PSX Disc Builder: https://individualcontributor.dev/builder/
- CSR repository: https://github.com/individualcontributordev/Final-Fantasy-7-CSR
- Modding repository: https://github.com/individualcontributordev/Final-Fantasy-7-Modding
- Suggestions backlogs: `docs/SUGGESTIONS.md` in the CSR and Modding repos