Time to play 'Where's Zelda!', do hope that we at least get some interactions between Link and Zelda later on in the story and not have their reunion be the only time directly meeting outside of the opening.

After getting my paraglider back, I mostly explored the northwest portion of the map and took a brief dive into 'The Depths'. Really wish I didn't need to select the lightbloom seeds every 10 steps.

Found my first couple Dragon Tears, and honestly I find this less interesting to find then the memories in the prior game. Most of the time you can pretty easily find the pond by just running around for a bit. Also:

"Link, his strong, courageous, brave and of good heart."

Meanwhile I'm mounting Korok's to rockets and launching them into the stratosphere.

On that note, my biggest complaint is that your builds vanish if you stray even just a little too far away or when a cutscene triggers. I'm not sure whenever this is the fault of the outdated hardware or an intentional design choice, but it really discourages me putting time into making vehicles since I'll only have it for 10 minutes tops before having to part.

The result of adding GMod to the base formula of 'BotW'. Of course the ominous mural was covered by boulders; shame Link didn't pull out his bombs! Separated from Zelda (again) and left with but 3 hearts it's off the 'Great Sky Islands'. This serves as the tutorial stage akin to the 'Great Plateau'; I think I spent far longer here just playing around with ultrahand which is basically magnesis but now with super glue.

QoL improvements are welcome, but I find the omission of convenience elsewhere perplexing. Arrow types have been replaced with the ability to fuse any material to an arrow for different effects. In order to attach materials to an arrow, you need to open the quick menu and select it. Each. Time. While not as annoying in puzzle rooms where the usage is situational and one-time, it's a nuisance in combat and interrupts the flow. The lack of reworks to the melee combat are probably my complaints at the moment since that was most lacklustre part of 'BotW'. I know the combat's more based around your knowledge of the game's rules and that the bulk of it's depth lies in the interaction between the player's abilities / items and the environment, but flurry rush is too powerful of an option for so little required that simplifies most one-on-one encounters.

Though I've really enjoyed the new range of powers Link has. Creating abominations of science is fun, and 'Rewind' allows me to essentially create elevator anywhere. Favourite shrine currently is the once involving the construction of hot-air balloons.

I wonder if it's become a mandate at Nintendo to include at least some gacha element to their games because both 'Link's Awakening' and XC3 featured gacha machines to get items.

---------------------[Playing on 'Demanding']--------------------

Immediately upon starting I'm struck with the shocking revelation that most characters now talk, have dialogue, and even feature voice acting. Feel very conflicted about the decision, but I'm not ready to go in depth until further into the game.

As for my impressions regarding the gameplay, 'Sparks of Hope' completely overhauls the combat and exploration structure of 'Kingdom Battle'. The most notable positive change is that Mario isn't required to be on the team anymore. In 'Kingdom Battle' I'd often be working around having Mario in my team and it limited my strategies, so having the requisite removed opens so much more freedom for experimentation. The game makes a departure from tile based movement in favour for being able to move freely around an area. This does mean I'm less likely to accidently misinput and completely fuck up battles so that's welcome. Movement ends once you attack though so can't cheese the smasher type enemies as easily anymore.

Certain aspects have been streamlined and integrated with the new Sparks mechanic. Every character now only has one distinct weapon and a single 'signature' technique. Of course each is entirely unique and have different functions, but Super Effects are no longer tied to weapons rather are temporary buffs from Sparks, which allows you to pass the effects around to whoever you want giving much more flexibility. Likewise, several techniques from the previous game have been turned into sparks and be used by any character.

Also, visually the game is downgraded from 'Kingdom Battle' in my opinion.

Beat all the ultimate challenges and obtained 100% completion. Now I can finally say I've thoroughly played this game start to finish at least once, justifying a 5+ year purchase.

UC-1 and UC-4 weren't anywhere as difficult as UC-2, the toad escort level took awhile but it was a breeze mostly. UC-4 needed one retry but otherwise relatively easy.

UC-2 is what took a bit time, something would always go wrong during the last wave. To mitigate the issue with enemies piling up to fast, I got a sentry stuck on the top platform so it would denotate as soon as the first wave spawned. This made it drastically easier to kill them all before the final two waves. Even kept everyone alive so I'm happy with the end result.

Don't think I'll bother with the co-op levels. Prefer to get on with Sparks of Hope.

Backtracked through Lava Pits and completed everything there so now I'm left with only the ultimate challenges. They weren't particularly hard, some like 'No Pain, No Gain' required distributing power orbs to boost Luigi's team jump range and some trial and error before I beat it. I used Mario's Hero Sight (with obviously weaker blasters) to draw the smasher at the spawn close enough to push him into the zone and used Mario to throw Luigi in position to be bounced. Not sure what the "intended" solution is but it worked. The secret stage was baffling easy, I was well equipped but still.

I planned to finished more of the ultimate challenges today but I had to repeat UC-3 because the game crashed; worst of all on the winning turn. Managed to clear it though, albeit not as cleanly as the first attempt. Haven't found where UC-1 is yet, I presumed near the Ancient Gardens but I couldn't see any switches to activate.

Went all out clearing the rest of the main story; I put aside my qualms about doing levels with 'minimal upgrades' and spared no expanse on weapons. This meant that most of the final stage was fairly easy, with notable exceptions being 4-5, 4-8, and 4-9. Levels 4-5 and 4-8 are back-to-back gauntlets each ending with a Midboss. That difference is that they must be completed in a single attempt, which makes all the more frustrating when you need to reset.

Bowser Jr wasn't too difficult since he couldn't squeeze into pipes meaning you run circles around no problem. Still the 3 round limit for perfect required me to be more aggressive which resulted in me needing to try again after Luigi got squashed. I regret not using him in my team compositions earlier during my playthrough because 'Itchy Feet' gives a huge advantage at the beginning of levels, and 'Steely Stare' ability can deal some crazy damage especially when paired with Mario's 'Hero Sight'.

The next set of bosses were Lava Queen and the Bwaluigi / Bwario duo. 2 additional encounters precede the boss, and while they graciously recover your abilities before each; you don't get any chance to alter team setup between rounds. The enemies can usually be dispatched in 1-2 turns but that doesn't make it any less tedious on repeated attempts. The bosses weren't tough but stakes are higher if you mess up.

Which leaves only 4-9, the fight boss against Mega Dragon Bowser. Took a few tries to succeed while keeping everyone alive, managed to score a perfect score though. The main change to my approach was anticipating the enemy spawns and positioning my units to get rid of them pronto. Both Mario & Luigi were incredibly useful for attacking during the phase transitions. The ending was pretty anticlimactic and while the story wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I still found the "twist" that Beep-O's mysterious correspondent turned out to just be themselves from the future disappointing with all the build up it received. First of all, how did Beep-O and co. manage without the guidance of F.B? They wouldn't even have gotten weapons if not for the email (and you didn't even send them the best ones!?), and how do you transmit physical objects through an email anyway? If you could do that, why did you have me find the 'Goodness Relics' instead of just sending it? Yes, I know that F.B's Email was hacked by Bowser Jr. during this portion, but still wouldn't Beep-O in present time be aware he gets hacked and be able to give the statues beforehand? Why do the messages suddenly stop coming once you reach Lava Pits, did the previous Beep-O fail? Or did they simply feel it unnecessary to provide advice at that point?

The remaining objectives are the challenges and secret level in Lava Pits, and the ultimate challenges. I plugged away at UC-2 into the night, but kept failing at the last wave. I'm developing a concerning amount of hatred towards Boos and Rabbids.

Finished up Spooky Trails today; phantom was a fairly tough boss (to get perfect) mostly thanks the minions he keeps spawning. I enjoyed the musical roast fest he gave Mario.

After that it was just completing challenges and finding the secret stage both of which ramped up the difficulty. Not hard enough in that I can't win, but keeping everyone alive by the end. Found the Boos particularly annoying and bad RNG often led to me resetting. However, I still managed to clear them all with minimal weapon & character upgrades.

Only two more chests remain in Spooky Trails and I'll find them next session. I got held up trying to figure out how to access the chest near the clocktower, before noticing the cannon in the far distance.

Approaching the end now, feeling pretty confidant going forward.

Found 'Spooky Trails: World 3-4' surprising easy. I made a few miscalculations which didn't really affect the battle, and reached the area in 7 turns. Not sure why I struggled so much years back; looking at my save file I used (Mario | Rabbid Mario | Peach) so obviously not making use of vampire damage. I didn't bother trying to fight the smashers since I could outrun them anyway, and used peach's extra jumping range to cross the gaps between the level.

The following levels after that were quite easy as well. I did need to retry a couple of times on the 'Calavera' midboss because of poor hindsight and positioning (anytime someone died I would reset). Got lucky with the burn effect from Peach which let Mario take two shots with 'Hero Sight', and allowed me to finish him off in the next round.

3-6 introduces the 'Valkyrie' enemies and I just love their BIG machine guns. Experienced some bizarre flickering while picking objects that infected Beep-O, causing the area around them to periodically glitch. Closing and restarting the game seemed to fix the issue.

Fought my way through the remaining battles and faced off against the 'Icicle Golem'; a fairly generic (and easy-peachy) boss. This is where you acquire Peach and she's pretty good, with lots of HP and AoE heal on throws, plus a shotgun.

After this I backtracked to find the chests I was missing which took up probably a third of my session. I also took it upon myself to not upgrade any character's weapons for the challenges too mostly successful results. Admittedly, I seemingly got lucky on 'Chomp Alley' as all the chain chomps glitched and didn't attack making for a very easy escort.

At Spooky Trails now which is where I dropped the game last time. How will things turn out this time...?

Finished all the challenges in Ancient Gardens, obviously these are all the easier challenges in the game but both 'Quantum Leap' and 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' required slightly more thought (and levelling).

Received my first 'good' rating tarnishing my perfect record...it was the 'Gatecrashers' level where you fight Blizzy & Sandy. Annoyingly, if I had just better positioned Rabbid Peach to not get dashed into; he...she...they...it? would've survived. My victory is rewarded with another member to the team: 'Rabbid Mario'. His AoE dash can be a liability at times but I'll forgive purely for the shotgun and raw damage he can inflict. Also, Rabbid Luigi's 'Vampiric Dash' ability is absolutely busted once you invest some power orbs.

Bowser Jr caught me off guard with his "Daddy issues to repress" line; I cracked a smile.

Definitely one the strangest crossovers I've ever seen; played this years ago but dropped it halfway through.

Now that I think about it this game alluded to the Nintendo + Illumination collaboration on the Mario Bros. Movie. Rabbids in essence are the progenitors of minions and who helped make this game? Ubisoft, a company at that time (and perhaps to this day) known for churning out the same rehashed products just to score a quick profit. Illumination is similar in this regard stretching their films out into franchises; creating soulless sequels with as small budgets as possible to maximise profits. iT's AlL CoNneCtED!

Schizo rants aside; game is quite good. Honestly I like the interactions between the Mario characters and Rabbids (Rabbid Peach especially since they're hot). Completed the 'Ancient Gardens' and backtracked to collect extra chests and attempt the challenges.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Wrapped up the remainder of items; the last missile expansion I was missing turned out to be the most obvious one "hidden" under the bridge in Transport Tunnel B. I've probably walked across that bridge almost a dozen times during my playthrough yet I never thought to check under it. But with that I'd collected 100% of items and was prepared for the final confrontation(s).

Meta Ridley was visually cool and I liked how he flew around the arena and swooped in to bombard you with missiles. However, the way the boss is paced felt unbalanced with the last 10% of his HP taking up the back 2/3s of the fight. I get it's supposed to be a "You think this is over? The REAL fight starts now" kind of thing but Ripley only has 3 different attacks and once you've got the telegraphs down it quickly becomes monotonous as you follow the procedure of: [stun -> shoot -> repeat]. It's possible to hit their weak point with a super missile but the timing is very tight and I'd already exhausted my supplies earlier in the fight so I was stuck using regular missiles which took SO long. Overall, kind of lacklustre for all the build up it received throughout the game.

The area leading up to the battle with Metroid Prime seemed unnecessary to me. It wasn't long enough for the atmosphere to sink in (the constant swarm of Metroids don't help either) and at the same time it just interrupted the pacing to have me do some basic platforming.

As for Metroid Prime themselves I'll say the boss suffers from a lack of phases to spice things up much like the other bosses in this game. It was nice how the 1st form made use of the morph ball and that you had to keep switching visors during its 2nd to keep track of it. Though despite being one of the better bosses of Prime it still felt underwhelming.

This marks the end of my 1st playthrough of this game; if I do return to Prime I'll most certainly be playing on hard. I died a total of 6 times with half of those attributed to getting stuck in a hazardous substance and just dying to reset. I had to rely on an online guide for a few of the items I was missing but otherwise this was entirely blind.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Beat the Omega Pirate on my first (re)try today with relative ease so perhaps I was just having an 'off day'. The biggest change from my last runs was focusing more on the enemies that spawn while the boss is cloaked and only checking once I hear them laugh. Some RNG is involved because thermal & ice troopers are easier to deal with than the others. Emerging victorious with the 'Phazon Suit' they introduce Fission Metroids; the last variant on the log. They behave like regular Metroids except upon taking enough damage they split into two, each with a specific beam weakness similar to the troopers (yay...).

With this; I've reached the notorious endgame fetch-quest; something that I was aware of years before playing as it's frequently brought up in discussion. Thankfully, I'd already collected majority of the artifacts during my scenic ventures (I was lost) so finding the last remaining 4 was relatively easy.

However, considering I'm nearing the end of the game I figured "Might as well find ALL the items!". This proved to be significantly more frustrating as there is no means of tracking individual area completion on the map, and previously found items aren't even marked. I would scour the entire map only to give up and search for answers online to then be greeted with the realization that there wasn't anything left to find in the area I was. I adopted a rule that if nothing was found in 40 minutes I would go and look up where the items were because personally at that point it just isn't fun. I'm not asking for Samus to start talking to herself like "Hmm... maybe a super missile could break that pillar" but a simple percentage for single areas would've been welcome QoL.

To end on a more funny and embarrassing note. At some point after obtaining the power bombs I had come to the logic that they only destroyed wreckages and boulders not connecting that 'Bendezium' indicated which structures could be blown up. This means that I've unknowingly walked past several items that I assumed weren't obtainable yet.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Took a detour through Magmoor Caverns over to Phendrana Drifts to make use of my thermal beam on some of the ice walls seen last time I was there; collected a few artifacts along the away. One found by dumb luck while switching to the x-ray visor; and the rest through legitimate means.

Out of all the beams, thermal is definitely my favourite. It hits hard, fast and can even stunlock certain enemies. The other beam types have situational uses but thermal is my immediate choice for general usage.

After my long exploration session I returned to the Phazon Mines and arrived at the Omega Pirate which is proving to be a challenge. First encounter that's caused me this much trouble; dodging the boss' attacks is simple enough although they have a fair amount of range. However, what makes this fight truly agonising are the troopers; I complained on the previous log my annoyances with the enemy, but there even more infuriating here. I spent a considerable amount of effort trying to destroy the weapons on the pirates back but to no avail. Either they have unfathomably high health or can't be destroyed at all.

I'll take another swing at it next time.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Initially I was going to complain about the excessive backtracking to get the Gravity Suit, but I then realized that I ended up taking the long way around through the Space Pirate Laboratory instead of the convenient shortcut behind the South Phendrana Drift transporter. I just didn't notice the unassuming (cope) ice beam locked door, but I managed to snag a missile expansion along the way so not a complete waste of time. Gave me more of an opportunity to use the ice beam which is really fun, and I especially love freezing the flying pirate and shattering them with a missile; good stuff.

After that it was on my way to the Phazon Mines where I missed the Save Station and had to survive up until acquiring the 'Power Bombs' which was a little stressful. This is also where they introduce a slew of new enemy types including the various beam troopers and of course the Elite Pirate(s). I don't really like the troopers and found it a very contrived means of forcing the player to use different weapons, and it made those encounters boring since you had no real freedom in how you approached them. Although the concept of enemies reverse-engineering your tech to use against you is rather cool, I enjoyed how the game even pointed at the absurdity of Samus' morph ball and the countless deaths in attempting to recreate it.

As for the Elite Pirate; honestly quite underwhelming. His bulky but slow, I was able to avoid all of his attacks by just hiding behind cover and firing super missiles until they died. Hopefully the "Omega Pirates" prove to be a stronger foe. The rest of the Phazon Mines was fun though, lots of small puzzles between the action. You also obtain the grapple beam here and while admittedly I'm not sure of an alternative; having it be set on the same button as 'Lock-On' caused me to fall a couple times because it would prioritise the enemy across from me as oppose to my only means of not falling into lava.

I got turned around a few times by the games 'navigator' as well. I'd get an item and then assume: "OK, so now I should be able to progress" then get told to backtrack to get another item: "OK! Now I can progress" then return only then to be told to go over to Magmoor Caverns to receive the next item. The method of guiding the player via a map instruction is already somewhat frustrating but when that instruction is delayed it just becomes so much worse. The map is designed in a way that you can make shortcuts from the current objective to the next but if you decide to venture off that path it's really easy to lose sight of where you're supposed to go.

Keeping up with my negative streak; these chozo ghosts are really annoying. Thankfully you can just ignore them (most of the time) but the enemy respawns are overtuned.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Took another shot at the Space Pirate Laboratory and this time played with more caution. Got through with most of my health and actually obtained the thermal visor this time. I've heard complaints that the thermal vision is too blurry and while I kind of concur with that assessment, in some ways it provides an extra layer of challenge. The player(s) must acclimate in order to handle to the Shadow Pirate who can go invisible and hide in the corner ceilings of rooms. Though what killed me on my last run were the sentry drones, but I was more prepared this time and managed a get passed just fine. This area felt sluggish in parts because the amount of scannable objects; understandably to flesh out more of world and give the player insight into the pirates goals but when you end up stopping mid-fight to go and scan computers the pacing grinds to a halt.

After escaping the Space Pirate Laboratory comes the Thardus boss. They've got some pretty cool attacks but man... it just drags on and not enough new attacks are introduced throughout to keep the fight interesting and certainly not enough to justify the excessive length. Though perhaps this is partially attributed to me not using the charge combo which may have been key to destroying his body parts quickly (It was only recently provided to you so making it a key component would make sense). Alas, I defeated Thardus anyway and acquired the spider ball.

Routing a new path through Magmoor Caverns its back to Chozo Ruins where in you receive the ice beam, I found the Chozo Ghosts to be more annoying than hard constantly teleporting and just take far too many shots to kill (though again charge combos are probably the solution; you're even placed next to a missile recharge station). I'm supposed to go over to Phendrana Drifts to presumably collect the Gravity Suit but I got sidetracked and explored the underwater station on Tallon Overworld. Obviously I'm gated off from exploring past a certain point without the gravity suit but at least I found an energy tank. Well worth the travel I'd say.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

Progressed through Magmoor Caverns and reached the Phendrana Drifts; obtained the boost ball then backtracked back to the ship to acquire the Space Jump. I imagine backtracking will become a more common occurrence, but going back did allow me to explore the Artifact Temple and I collected another Chozo Artifact on my return trip through Magmoor.

I got stumped for a bit until I realized I had blow up the Shaman Chozo head with a missile. The ensuing boss fight (?) wasn't tough and got the Wave Beam. Though my feelings of dominance were subsequently tarnished upon arriving at the Space Pirate Laboratory. Difficulty just raised up a notch and I even died after getting the Thermal Visor so next time I'll need to repeat that entire section again.

Unsurprisingly the Space Pirates are infusing Metroids & even themselves with Phazon; I don't see how anything could go wrong here!

I did a little research as to find out if I missed anything thus far and in turns I didn't scan the 'Hive Mecha' so a 2nd playthrough already seems likely.

---------------------[Playing on 'Normal Mode']--------------------

I've committed the grave sin of buying a Nintendo Switch game digitally; breaking my streak of purchased physical copies. I just couldn't help myself and wait until it released over where I live. Now, the 6.8GB will forever remind me of my shame and lack of self-control over my own desires...

That aside the game so far is pretty good, featuring an updated control scheme from the original GameCube release. The game is still built around the 'lock-on' with mechanics like 'dashing' tied to it; so the ease of free-aim shouldn't affect the gameplay in any negative capacity.

The opening sequence was tight and action packed and gives you a taste of power before stripping it from you. It somewhat betrays the slower feeling of roaming across Tallon IV but nonetheless a great opening. If I had to bring up one issue so far its that the scanning does get a bit annoying given you'll practically be discovering new things in every next room disrupting the pacing slightly.

Interestingly after beating Flaahgra and leaving the Chozo Ruins the frequency of scanning decreases whenever this marks the end of the tutorial or that this specific area is devoid of scannable objects remains to be seen.

Route C is split between two characters - A2 and 9S - switching back and forth at the end of each chapter.

While A2's playstyle shares many similarities with 2B's; they do have a few distinct differences that separate them. Firstly the self-destruct is replaced with 'berserk mode' which enhances A2's combat abilities in exchange for gradual HP loss while berserk mode is active. The other notable difference is that A2 (seemingly) lacks the fast charge attacks that required held inputs; instead holding down square initiates a taunt increasing the strength of both herself and her enemies. Otherwise, besides these key changes A2 and 2B function nearly identically with being able to wield two weapons and have the same combo strings.

Tried my hand at the machine arena and just couldn't get pass it with the machines that I'd had. So dedicated a couple hours to finding and hijacking them to which my frustrations with the disabled lock-on continues. Thankfully I worked around it by looking for another machine that was easy to take remote control of; then proceeding to backstep my way across the map and hopping from body to body until I accumulated enough unit data.

Helped Emil recovery his memories and gained access to underground area beneath the mall. I imagine this quest carries much more weight for those who've played Replicant so depending on how I feel after this I might give it go.

Between the machine arena and finding lunar tears I had to pass through the forest several times and on each I heard the same repeated dialogue. Over and over and over again. Shouldn't the kingdom be in shambles and their troops left disarrayed following the King's death or did they not receive the memo?

Not that I mind entirely since the Blacksmith at the castle lets upgrade weapons to MAX level; my surplus wealth had to go somewhere.

Read through the trophy list as I typically and do and after having alluded me for awhile I looked up the "Not that I mind..." trophy. During 9S's tan I accidently triggered a cutscene that put his pants back on and was unsure if the time require pantless was accumulative or not (checked: Yes, it is).

Spent a large chuck of todays session combing the desert for lost artefacts from the old world. I overestimated the search area which resulted in me scanning far more of the desert than was necessary to complete the quest. But on a plus side; I'm rich now.

Happened to do some fishing while resource gathering around the Flooded City and caught a brand new pod to use. Pod B fires a laser and I need to vent my frustrations about this; why couldn't the pod program "laser" been called "beam" unless there's another program of the same name obtained later into the game; it would've made more sense calling it "beam". It even functions more like a beam than it does a laser and if you're reading this you may be wondering "what's your problem?" to which I reply: "fuck if I know!". Just seeing the display read "Laser - Laser" ticks me off.

Moving on, rounded up the remainder of the side missions left over from my last playthrough and at this point I think I've hit a block in further progression until I continue the story. Found the machine vs. machine arena which is a nice way of shaking the gameplay up.

But this brings me to discuss an issue I have with hard mode. In this difficulty setting lock-on is disabled leaving only auto-lock available. This doesn't gel well with 9S's hacking ability since it's reliant on locking on to enemies and makes him incredibly awkward to use at times in combat. I was reminded that machines could be taken over when I stumbled upon the arena. Because you can't lock-on; trying to remotely takeover an enemy from a distance is unreliable playing regularly and if you approach them closer to get a better chance they immediately aggro. This means I completely disregard a mechanic because it simply doesn't function without proper lock-on.

Passing through the Forest Kingdom elicits memories of its founding under the King's desire to form a family. A later memory shows the king having passed away and his subjects place a memento within a baby-like machine and vow to protect them until they grow into their next King. An earlier side quest from 2B's route revealed the King died of his own kindness giving body parts to his subjects until he could no longer operate.

Progressed the story up until the game gives the ability the fast travel and then spent the remainder of my session just completing side quests.

Took the liberty of raising the difficulty from [Normal] to [Hard] since the playthrough is mostly identical and figured the increased difficulty would freshen it up. However 9S's dampened melee capabilities means I'm maintaining my distance from enemies so it hasn't really effected the gameplay all that much.

Have to say I actually really enjoy the hacking and may even prefer 9S over 2B. Whenever this is a reflection on the quality of the combat or my poor taste (likely both) remains to be decided. Definitely unbalanced with the rest of the game though perhaps that was intentional to allow players to finish up content that missed out on the first playthrough.

Take Father Servo for instance. Regularly his bulky HP would take upwards of 15-30 minutes to bring down unless you were appropriately levelled which is unlikely due to how big the jump in LV is between each quest. But because hacking does percentage based damage the fights over in just under 2 minutes. Same can be said for the golden machines which when I first encountered in 2Bs route took over 20 minutes to defeat but hacking got the job done in a fraction of that time. Suppose I feel like this is cheating in a way as by hacking I avoid having to evade enemy attacks. Granted the bullet hell minigame substitutes the dodging you'd perform in the environment however this means skipping out on the boss specific moves and learning how to avoid those.

To continue on a critical tangent I don't think 48 stages is a large enough amount to carry the hacking through the entire game. Some bosses have unique hacking levels but often its taken from the list referenced above so bosses lack identity in 9S's route.

To mention some positives however, 9S also has unique side quests and I liked the goofy interactions within them. The reclusive son that doesn't want to leave his room locks himself away forcing 9S to hack it open; only inspiring the son to keep increasing the security and to create an unpickable lock. This pleases the mother who is glad that her son finally has a goal in life completely ignoring reason 9S tried to break him out in the first place. Likewise the machine who pretends to be stupid in order to exploit his fellow machines. The humour is lost in translation when describing it here in this log so you'll have to take my word for it.

Believe I'm mostly caught up on the stuff I missed during my first playthrough so next session I may go on and complete route B.