People who don't like this probably don't like apricots and cherries and other nice things.

This is the HARD mode you were looking for. Except you get a cheat code in the ring of power. Still pretty easy but I just played this one after owning the base game for years and finishing it that long ago. It was stupendous.

And the final battle is what the base game should have had. Whoever was responsible for making it made me feel like I was in an epic struggle, not a movie cutscene with 5 inputs like the stupid main game ending.

People who don't like this probably don't like apricots and cherries and other nice things. This is the HARD mode you were looking for. Except you get a cheat code in the ring of power. Still pretty easy but I just played this one after owning the base game for years and finishing it that long ago. It was stupendous. And the final battle is what the base game should have had. Whoever was responsible for making it made me feel like I was in an epic struggle, not a [spoiler] movie cutscene with 5 inputs like the stupid main game ending[/spoiler].