How to change difficulty level?

[Aluxes]

I see 4 difficulty levels when choosing the game mode, but no matter what I do, it always resets back to normal.

[gonta STM]

For example, when fixed to " hard " mode,
1. Select " LEADERBOARDS ".
2. Select " hard ".
3. Select " BACK ".
4. ( Return to the menu screen. )
5. Select " ARCADE ".
6. Select " hard ".
7. Select " CHARACTER MODE " or " STORY MODE " or " VERSUS MODE ".
8. ( Game Start -> Character selection screen. )
9. Press ESC key.
10. Select " QUIT GAME " -> " YES ".
11. ( Return to the menu screen. )
12. Select again " ARCADE ".
13. ( It should be fixed to " hard ". )

[Precaria]

I can't change it either. Even after going to the leaderboards, setting another difficulty table, going to arcade character mode, exiting... Still the difficulty always resets back to Normal.

[Corn Liquor]

You can force it into hard/expert modes by editing the config file and setting write protection.

On Linux/Steamdeck the file will be located at:

*/steamapps/compatdata/366280/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/twinspri

On Windows it'd be:

C:\\<username>\AppData\Local\twinspri

I think. Search for "AppData" folder if you can't find it.

Edit the file: UserDefault.xml

Find:

<difficulty>2</difficulty>

and edit as desired. I think 1=Easy, 2=Normal, 3=Hard, 4=Expert. I don't know what it's setting but if it's true to Neo-Geo that value should go all the way up to 8 and make the CPU so hard that it cheats to win. Quarter maker mode.

Once you've set desired difficulty level make sure to write-protect the file so the game won't over ride the difficulty variable. There are a lot of other things you can modify via that file. All game config and most of game state seems to be there.