Calling Rookie "the default difficulty' is doing the game a disservice.

[AchromaticSky]

Most people read that as "if you play only this difficulty, you'll experience the game as intended." Obviously that's nowhere near true, Rookie cuts off before the last world, has no TLB, and every single stage and boss is severely dumbed down. It's trivial to faceroll through it with no skill or strategy whatsoever. (Edit: a 1cc is a reasonable challenge, but including unlimited continues as one of the balancing factors seems to imply that's what you're "supposed to do", particularly to players new to the genre.) That's fine as an introductory difficulty, but judging by first impressions of players that don't understand the genre, they finish the game on Rookie and complain about the game being short and easy. At the very least, the ending of Rookie mode should push the player to play Experienced, and the ending of Experienced should push the player to 1cc the game if they want to fight the real last boss (while the concept of a TLB at the end of a 1cc run is pretty standard, it's not something non-shmup players know to expect.)

[krayzkrok]

Well, you know, not everyone is as good as you apparently are at the game. Rookie took me several hours and quite a few repeated attempts to beat (without touching continues), and was hugely enjoyable because it struck just the right balance between challenge and power fantasy for me. Now I'm finding Experienced to be considerably more difficult, barely able to get onto the second world most of the time, but getting better gradually. I think the main problem is not the Rookie difficulty, but the ease with which anyone can just keep hitting Continue until they "beat" it. That's robbing yourself of an experience, if you ask me.

[Ryan Dorkoski]

I think the OP is on to something. Or at least close. I am in *love* with this title, and am very frustrated that a ton of people 'think it is too short', or has 'little content'. They've totally missed the whole thing, and I'm trying to figure out why. Marketing? Idk. Maybe there needs to be some explanation of 'how to look at this game' or 'how to approach it'. I only say that because there are a substantial number of people that do one run-through on easy and think they've seen everything. Its a shame really.

[ColdWonder]

I found rookie very satisfying but I played until I won without continues it took about 5-6 hours.
If I wasnt aware that this game genre is ment to be 1cced. I probably would of completed it in thirty mins using continues and felt ripped off.

Certainly getting my money's worth trying to 1cc experienced.

[jack.anderson19]

I welcome choice in all games ... I'm not a kid with great reflexes anymore .