Pain or Normal mode?

[Banana Sam]

Just want to know if it's worth it to play Pain difficulty for the first playthrough or if it ends up being too tedious for the effort.

[Melcadrien]

Pain mode has a number of differences and a different ending. I'd recommend Normal mode so you can get the feel of the game. Unless you like one save per save point.

[MegaLobsterFace]

Definitely normal first. Pain mode adds a lot of things that you wouldn't notice without doing normal first. Besides, with how many characters there are, you'll want to replay it eventually anyway, so do Pain Mode then.

[Yoshio]

normal first, i did pain mode on my third playthrough. It's not tedious at all if you know the game well but i can't imagine trying to put up with that if you are still learning.

[Shiloh]

I've just started playing the game and it's pretty irritating on pain mode, the lack of ability to save doesn't allow you to exit the game whenever real life calls or you get bored of it. Also, falling off cliffs is absolutely frustrating because of that.

[Shirsh]

normal, pain mode in addition to difficulty transform some content to other content (which impress less if you didn't know what it was previously).

[Fuhrer]

I wouldn't recommend ever playing pain mode, frankly. I went that route the first time through, and while it went alright, it was pretty annoying. The sole issue is having to manage the limited saves. It's not really challenging so much as not fun.

[Ajogamer]

Pain Mode's great on a replay, since it adds some extra spice to a repeat playthrough (through a bit of extra challenge and the unique area and end scene), and generally isn't too tough then due to being able to plan and anticipate, but like the others, I really don't recommend it for a first playthrough. It's both much harder then, plus there are a few scenes you can't see on pain mode (in particular, the intro to one enemy is different, and the Joyless end is only possible on a normal run), which I'd say are at least as interesting as the pain mode exclusives anyway.

I feel like the best choice is one Normal Mode run followed by one Pain Mode run, though if you are to do only one runthrough, I'd just make it normal mode, since you'll still be getting the full experience, plus it's how the game was originally intended to be played (Pain mode was added post-release, so was likely intended more as a bonus/hard mode for existing players).

[Crab Fisher]

Nah, play it on pain mode. I had a hard time, however I prefer when a game challenges me. People get more into things when they are doing something for a longer time (sieeng as how you'd spend more time buying food and minmaxing savepoints).

Most games suck when you can just breeze through them like its nothing. To me not interesting at all. :)

[wcc]

The most important element of this game is the story, not the gameplay. Choosing Pain Mode forces you to retry sequences, especially if you don't know what's waiting for you. That can ruin the experiene story-wise due to all the repetitions.