WOOHOO! I finally made it past the first mission! And not only that, but I made it past the other 6 missions too! I must've really been in the zone!
So here's what happens: Once you finally figure out how to beat the first boss, so you can get past the first mission, the rest of the missions are just a matter of equipping the right weapons for the job. As long as you do that, the rest of the game isn't nearly as hard as the first boss seemed to be.
Now don't get me wrong, the rest of the game is still very challenging, but it's alot easier once you figure out what weapon combinations you need for each of the missions. Of course I had to do this by trial and error, and I still died alot even when I did have the right weapons equipped, but I didn't die nearly as much as I did on that first mission, trying to beat that first boss!
But here's where it gets very interesting: Once you complete all 7 missions, the game starts over again, but this time the missions are slightly different, and even more difficult than they were the first time! So clearly that's where it's all gonna get very hard for me now. I have no idea how many times the game is gonna repeat itself, but I still only have 2 different mechs to choose from, and there are empty slots for alot more than that! I don't think I even have half of all the different weapons yet. So obviously there's still a ton of replay value left in this game, if I can ever get good enough at it to master it.
I also scored very poorly on most of the missions too, so just because I made it past them doesn't mean that I did it right. I saw some ending credits after I completed the 7th mission, but I doubt that it's the best ending that I could've seen, and I know it isn't the real ending, because I still have alot more of the game left to complete first. I think it's cool how it rolls over and increases the difficulty on you though. It was already very difficult, so I'm afraid that it may become impossible for me. I know what to do now, but the details change just enough after it rolls over to keep you surprised. And of course the bosses become more difficult too, so believe it or not, that first boss can and will get even worse the second time around! Great, huh?
The only thing that I haven't figured out yet is exactly how the weapon system works. I have 2 empty slots on the top, 2 empty slots in the middle, and 4 empty slots on the bottom. So I can fill up all the empty slots with weapons, but there doesn't seem to be any way to switch between them all in the game. I still can only use the A button for the main weapon, and the X & Y buttons for the extra weapons. The B button is for jumping and flying, the C button is for the shield, and the Z button switches between manual targeting and auto targeting. The R button is for the dash, and the L button doesn't seem to do anything. I thought it would be for switching the weapons, but if it is, I must not be doing it right. So I'm not sure why I can equip all those extra weapons that I can't even use yet, but I need to know!
I was thinking maybe the extra slots are for what will kick in when whatever you were using before it runs out, but that doesn't seem to be it either. I can still run out of ammo with some weapons, and when I do, that button just becomes useless. It doesn't seem to be very obvious which weapons will be assigned to which buttons when you equip them either. So if anyone else has a full understanding of the way all that works, I'd love to hear it.
Now I don't wanna know which weapon I should use for what, or how all the other systems work, because I'd rather try to figure all those out by trial and error too. It's really amazing how customizable your mechs are, once you finally get past that first boss, so you can change it to your liking. I wasn't expecting that at all, so when I found out that the only reason that first boss was so hard was because I had weak weapons equipped, I fixed that right away! And of course you get more new weapons and upgrades as you go along too, so it's just as cool as it can be. This game totally rocks now!
Unfortunately though, the backup battery in my Saturn is dead, and I don't use a 4-in-1 for playing imports, so I just lost all that hard work and progress, and I have to start all over again from the beginning! But I'm not doing that until I take that dead battery out and get a new one put in there. So next time I'm totally gonna save all my progress, because the last boss is pretty hard! It's not too bad though, so I really think the trick is just getting past the first boss and completing the first mission. The rest of it seemed pretty easy for me, which kinda surprised me because I don't think I'm that good at videogames, but I guess I've just played enough over the years to learn a few of the standard lessons. I'm sure that helped me out alot with this one.
Anyhow, I just wanted to share my accomplishment with everyone here. Now I'm enjoying this game way more than I was before, and I was already enjoying the heck out of it, even though I kept dying on the first boss over and over again! It really is a sweet game, so I can't believe that it was never released here, or at least translated by someone by now. That's the only thing that I don't like about it, being unable to read all the dialogue. It has a ton of it, and I would love to know what the story is, but at least I can still enjoy the rest of it. I may have to try learning how to read some Japanese though. It really is annoying to know you're missing out on a game's story!