The weapons are mostly pretty fun (I wasn't a big fan of Tank Arsenal but it still had useful points) and the music actually just slaps the whole way through, utterly phenomenal soundtrack.

The boss fights are actually mostly fine I think, they're a bit twitch-reflex but they feel learnable enough for the most part.

The levels themselves though HOO BOY. I played on Normal, so I can't say if Easy changes this at all, but... put in a single extra checkpoint, and I think the length would be fine. But this goes by the old standard of 1 checkpoint mid-stage, and one before the boss, so you've just gotta slug it out with these gauntlets. Which, wouldn't be quite as big of a mark if it weren't for how much this game LOVES throwing instant-kill hazards around every obstacle with do-or-die platforming that you just have to learn by either sight-reading everything immediately or dying and marching your way all the way back to them. They're perfectly learnable, perfectly beatable - I just think they ask a bit much for how much a punishment failure is. Again, I think a second mid-stage checkpoint would, on its own, making the high-demand design a lot more enjoyable to learn and work through.

The final level is definitely the worst offender. The standard robot master gauntlet is fine, but they each have mini-stages beforehand which, hey, you guessed it, have their share of instant-kill hazards, and you have to go through them for any and every attempt at the respective boss. And then you have a 3-stage final boss (admittedly, the first stage is relatively easy) with a single baffling attack design in the 3rd phase. Like, everything about it would be mostly fine if not for the attack where it literally just walks at you and you have to Comet Dash or Rush Coil to get past it. I have no idea what the thought process there was.

Weirdly I think the best stage is Rainbow Man. Like yeah it's basically just a Quick Man laser gauntlet with some new mechanics, but it's by far the shortest stage and massively benefits from the shorter length.

I think it's still probably worth playing if its good points intrigue you, or you're less inclined to be frustrated at the rough edges on some of the levels. I mean, I did beat it, so it's hardly the most impossible game ever made. It's just a game with some irritating design at points that holds it back from being something I could more readily recommend.

as glad as i am to have played and 100%'d this game (minus doing all the quests because uh lmao no) i have absolutely zero desire to ever replay it. consistently tedious floor design that on one hand helps sell the danger of the labyrinth, and on the other, makes so much of the game a slog, and being the first game in the series they haven't quite refined the battle mechanics or boss design. the balance changes in the HD remaster, few as they are, are nice though.

the game isn't even hard either, especially with how busted Protector and Medic's defensive buffs are.

they did retroactively put The Battlefield That Never Sleeps for the superboss though so that was very cool