this was my third playthrough. I chose to do it on hard mode, because I'm wacky. but uh, I dropped it because it's unironically too difficult for me. I might have fucked myself by also having random medals be part of this playthrough, but I'm not all too sure non-random medals would make a difference. the fact that hard mode was originally the game's intended difficulty is so wild to me. this shit sucks. every regular battle is ridiculously difficult. I know how to play this game. I'm not doing anything wrong. every regular enemy in chapter 2 can just kick my ass. I don't comprehend how this is so hard for me. I'm not new to this game at all.
not recommended on hard mode, unless you're one of those people that is good at like, Paper Mario TTYD challenge runs.