[fuzzer37]

> how did they figure out the theoretical best time in the first place?

Generally by trial and error and with a TAS, which is a "Tool Assisted Speedrun". Some people determined what all of the most optimal segments were, then programmed a computer to push the buttons at exactly the right time (down to frame perfect). So theoretically the current best time could be a local maximum, but with how long the game has been out for that seems unlikely.

This also led to a kind of funny thing where some runs were considered "TAS Only", only to be later achieved by a human in a real run.

[to11mtm]

I've been seeing this on some Castlevania SOTN tricks. I'm not sure whether this was done before or after TAS became in vogue, but while Some specific tricks are 'frame perfect', in that game you can use the map function to check your frame and slow it down. Yeah, it's still slower than a TAS, but if the time savings is substantial it's worth it.