
When I finally switched to "easy," the actual medium difficulty, I murdered the final boss. Since "normal" demanded good combat performance and extensive exploration for items, I always felt like I was treading water - I typically earned barely enough currency to purchase the maximum possible amount of healing items between missions, almost all of which I typically needed to survive the missions, and never saved up or earned enough to purchase quality combat upgrades or bonus items which would have improved my experience. Unbeknownst to me when I started my playthrough, "normal" is the highest difficulty level, and I started to feel that toward the final chapters. My only complaint with this game is the difficulty options. Satisfying, huge-scale boss fights make you feel legitimately powerful and crowd-controlling common enemies looks incredible and feels weighty. The arcade-style level structure and variance (several are rail shooter or Space Harrier style you play an arcade shooter for a bonus at the end of each mission) keep the game lively and prevent action fatigue. The strange but quintessentially Japanese BDSM themes and cheaply enticing lewd imagery made me cringe as an adult man but the base gameplay is satisfactory compensation. The strange but quintessentially Japanese BDSM A powerful, frenetic and stylish game that has impactful action and ridiculous characters. A powerful, frenetic and stylish game that has impactful action and ridiculous characters.
