Antihero

15 of 326: At this point, the game seems to be taking mercy on me and is making me do the Neutral mission of The Doom. So while I still have to play The Doom, it doesn't hurt as much. Maybe by the end of the week, with enough persistence, I could hit 20, maybe 25 or even 30. I'm dyin' waiting for the Neutral aimed paths to open up. An entire part of clearing the library that consists of a straight charge to the goal, a man can dream...

Gimme the tedium! Bring it on, I can take it! Reloaded could've been a better ROM hack if they included a thing to keep the original grading stuff/keys, so I guess it's back to where I started. At least I won't lose any progress since it was roughly the same ROM anyway. The ROM hack seems designed for the 5 people who really really like Shadow the Hedgehog instead of people looking for a less tedious experience with the game. If I were more experienced, maybe I could make a fork of Shadow Reloaded suited to my needs, but I'd rather go vanilla.

It won't put a gigantic damper on progression, I think. Ntm if I wanna speed through things I've already seen or whatever, holding down TAB in Dolphin is right there. My goal by the end of this week is maybe up to route 20? I reached 13 yesterday, so it could be manageable.

So, I knocked out #13 of 326. Things so far have been great! Altered level design, less tedium, a few less objectives to knock out. But this comes at a price of A ranks being harder to get, which I don't mind the extra challenge... but it is rather annoying considering how easy they were to get before. Even bosses get a switch-up with how fast you have to be to A rank 'em. It's like I'm personally racing the developer's ghosts on the bosses more than I was before. Guess this is what I get for asking for a less tedious time with Shadow, but I could probably switch to the unhacked version of the game to get those A ranks if I'm very desperate. Chances are I'll try and get good, I do love me a challenge anyway.

So, I was thinking about it. After a few runs worth of playing, should I just get that ROM hack or stick with vanilla? Considering the fact I can skip cutscenes and there's less objectives, I'm almost eager to jump ship and play Shadow Reloaded. After all, it's way more than a QoL patch, this time replacing keys with Red Rings, making missions more challenging, and improving on specific vehicles. So while this will be less tedious and a bit less straining on me, I might choose to do it moving forward. After all, I've got better games to play.