Pokémon BDSP speedrun community allegedly tricked into revealing how to perform the Menu Storage glitch in Ver.1.1.3

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-01-14 15:07 JST)

Blaines, a content creator in Japan known for posting Pokémon-related content on YouTube, uploaded a video explaining how to reproduce the Menu Storage glitch with the latest version 1.1.3 for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The video’s comment section is filled with praises from viewers, but according to speedrunner Werster, this information was coaxed out of a Pokémon BDSP speedrun community member.

Game updates and bug fixes are sometimes more menacing for speedrunners than RNG factors. When a crucial glitch used to reduce time is fixed, speedrunners are forced to make changes to their routes. If the impact is too significant, speedrun categories are separated between different versions of a game. And in this day and age where auto-update is prevalent, keeping the game on the old version can be a challenge in itself.

Pokémon BDSP is no different, and the patches have greatly affected the speedrun community. While Pokémon BDSP is known for its abundance of bugs and glitches, the Menu Storage glitch has been a major contributor ever since the game’s launch. It’s an exploit where players can move their characters around while having the menu open. This makes it possible to skip various events and is used by speedrunners to greatly reduce their times.

The glitch was initially patched out with Ver.1.1.2, but another method was discovered to recreate it in Ver.1.1.2. Then, the new method was also fixed with the latest Ver.1.1.3 update (related article). Nonetheless, glitch hunters didn’t give up and had found a new way to reproduce Menu Storage in Ver.1.1.3 some time ago and kept it secret within the community to avoid getting fixed again. However, one of the members was tricked into revealing the information.

So today a video was posted about Menu Storage in 1.1.3 of Pokemon BD/SP.

What you may not know is the group of people who discovered this did so a while ago, and were deliberately waiting to disclose it publicly in hopes it would not be patched (ideally prior to Home support).

— werster (@wersterlobe) January 12, 2022

According to Werster, a stranger sent DMs to one of the community members asking for the information “with the pretence that ‘I’m asking you in DMs because I understand that you don’t want the info getting out to the world. ’”

Speedrun communities tend to be generous in supporting new speedrunners, but this time, that generosity backfired. “That stranger prompted turned around and sent it straight to Blaines, who posted the video on it that has gained notoriety today. That stranger is shown in the video (given a shoutout at the start).” In Blaines’ video, it is mentioned that a person named Kizu Darake brought Blaines the information.

Werster continued by saying, “Whether or not you agree with holding onto glitches to avoid them being patched, there’s a few things at play here that have pissed me off to the point of tweeting about it: Deliberately lying in order to coax information out of people and then going against their wishes? Gross. Deliberately posting the information publicly when you know the people who put in the work to find it are trying to prevent that? Gross. Not even crediting those people? Gross. Having to read comments on that video about how they’re a hero? GROSS!”

Blaines also commented on the situation, which doesn’t seem to mesh with the point of discussion.

i am now. honestly it doesnt make much of a difference. After home is out (we dont even know when thatt will be), they will patch is quickly anyway.

— Blaines  (@realblaines) January 12, 2022

Since the Menu Storage glitch can be used to clone Pokémon as well, it’ll likely be fixed sooner or later. It is reasonable to think that it is only a matter of time. On the other hand, Werster’s anger about being lied to is also legitimate. In any case, the battle between the developers and glitch hunters is likely to continue for a while longer.