For anyone reading this: don't play the original mode. Playing alongside the AI is horrible and I really don't care about the in-game interactions. The LONE HERO mode is the way to go: the fights are harder, not having 4 proton beans in the screen at all times makes enemy patterns much more readable and enjoyable, and there's no ingame dialogue. This makes some moments awkward as the scenes with dialogue stay in there without much happening, and the difficulty becomes insanely unbalanced and jank at times... but you know what? It makes the game a decent time! (if you don't mind the jank)