SSD in PS3
Note: This page describes a glitch, trick, or exploit. To see others, click here.
Explanation
Nearly all PlayStation 3 consoles were originally produced and sold with a user-replaceable mechanical 2.5 inch SATA hard disk drive (HDD) for the long term storage of data such as downloaded/installed games, save files, movies, etc.. These are standard computer components that can be purchased separately. The PS3's HDD can be fairly easily replaced with another HDD, but it's also possible to replace it with a 2.5 inch SATA solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs also store data like HDDs, but are generally much faster in terms of data read/write speeds.
Replacing your PS3's HDD with a suitable SSD can significantly improve load times when playing the PS3 version of Ōkami, by approximately 30-60s over the course of a NG+ Any% run. It can also greatly reduce fan lag, small inconsistencies in the amount of lag/delay the game has when closing the fan menu, which can make the timing for the KT Glitch much more consistent.
NOTE: Submissions to https://www.speedrun.com/okami performed on PS3 must disclose this in the run comments.
Suitable SSDs
The following SSDs are known to work well for speedrunning Okami based on reports from runners:
Directions
To replace the HDD with an SSD, the following external guides may be helpful. Follow one for your model of PS3. Don't forget to backup any important data you may have on the original HDD.
- Original: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/PlayStation+3+Hard+Drive+Replacement/3476
- Slim: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/PlayStation+3+Hard+Drive+Replacement/3476
- Super Slim: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/gaming/how-to-upgrade-your-ps3-hard-drive-1285911/2
Make sure that Okami is installed to the SSD and that you are playing from the installed copy rather than from the game disc.
Other Versions
The PS2 and Wii versions are not natively compatible with playing Okami off of storage other than the original game disc. Later versions (Xbox One, PC, Switch, and PS4) don't seem to see significant improvements in load times or reductions in lag from the use of an SSD, even through faster interfaces such as NVME. This is believed to be caused by some software mechanism in the game that prevents load times from being made faster by storage speed, though the mechanism for this is not well understood.
History
The first runner to identify the clear advantage to both load times and KT consistency provided by using an SSD on the PS3 version was Saunders Tech on August 13, 2021 during a World Record run of NG+ Any% in 1h 15m 18s. The community rules for were updated to explicitly allow using an SSD on the PS3 on August 18, 2021.