How many hearts do you need to clear Chapter 9?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

So uh... I lost my save file and surprisngly hit a wall after clearing somewhat half of chapter 9. Now I need at least 15 Hearts.

I once collected every heart in the game, now i'm not so eager to collect all of them again especially the crystal hearts are more of an annoyance to me.
So I fear that after the first wall, there will show up another wall which forces me to collect ALL Hearts even the annoying crystal ones. Will that happen?

[Brixxter]

You are required to finish all of the B-sides and find the hidden crystal hearts in the normal chapters. No other walls will block your way after that, but let me warn you, it's going to be hard. VERY hard.

[Tsushima Yoshiko]

15 hearts to be exact

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by Brixxter:

You are required to finish all of the B-sides and find the hidden crystal hearts in the normal chapters. No other walls will block your way after that, but let me warn you, it's going to be hard. VERY hard.

nah, beat them back in the day as well as the C-Sides, not harder than the first half of Chapter 9 in my opinion. Sure I could just use Assistant-Mode but that's a no go to me for whatever reason.

[5 AM]

If you’re really good at dashing tech you can skip the heart wall completely, so at minimum, you only need 4 hearts to clear the core and unlock chapter 9. Bear in mind, it’s not easy, and the wall can crush you if you’re too slow.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by alexandermce:

If you’re really good at dashing tech you can skip the heart wall completely, so at minimum, you only need 4 hearts to clear the core and unlock chapter 9. Bear in mind, it’s not easy, and the wall can crush you if you’re too slow.

Hey many thanks for that answer! You saved me quite a time. =)

[5 AM]

No problem. A super into a wave dash, usually gets me past the wall. Alternatively if you don’t want to spend a lot of time getting the hearts, you could always use assist mode. Personally, I like to make a second save file, renamed Radeline, just to mess around with the assist and variant options. 360 degree dashing, super dashing, low friction, 160% game speed, unlimited dashes, and invincibility are great if you just need to clear a chapter asap. Although, if you don’t have a joystick, 360 degree dashing might not work as well...

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by alexandermce:

No problem. A super into a wave dash, usually gets me past the wall. Alternatively if you don’t want to spend a lot of time getting the hearts, you could always use assist mode. Personally, I like to make a second save file, renamed Radeline, just to mess around with the assist and variant options. 360 degree dashing, super dashing, low friction, 160% game speed, unlimited dashes, and invincibility are great if you just need to clear a chapter asap. Although, if you don’t have a joystick, 360 degree dashing might not work as well...

Well, I have a simple principle to never ever use the assist mode, the same applies to emulators where I would by no means use savestates asides for the mere use as suspension saves. So this option was never present to me. I like games pure and without too much compromises and cheating is cheating to me, for whatever reasons.

[5 AM]

It’s not just assist mode, variant mode can make the game significantly harder if you feel it’s too easy. Invisible movement, hiccups, and no grabbing are a few extra challenges you can throw in, along side the increased game speed and super dashing. I mean, can you really call it cheating when you’re playing the game at a faster speed? Even just playing the earlier lavels on a faster speed can help you play through later levels on normal speed, though whether your reflexes can adjust is a whole other matter.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Ok never heard of that "variant mode" to be honest, how can it be activated? Just for curiosity, not sure if I wanna use it. Of course on the opposite site giving yourself handicaps is more interesting in my viewpoint but I have still a very puristic mindset when it comes to tackling games.

[NeoKat 🍃]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Ok never heard of that "variant mode" to be honest, how can it be activated? Just for curiosity, not sure if I wanna use it. Of course on the opposite site giving yourself handicaps is more interesting in my viewpoint but I have still a very puristic mindset when it comes to tackling games.

Get all the hearts. :>

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by NeoKat:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Ok never heard of that "variant mode" to be honest, how can it be activated? Just for curiosity, not sure if I wanna use it. Of course on the opposite site giving yourself handicaps is more interesting in my viewpoint but I have still a very puristic mindset when it comes to tackling games.

Get all the hearts. :>

Oh shoot!
Have they patched that in? I don't remember this as a reward for all hearts