Abuse Your Own Adventure - Episode 4: Get Your Kicks on Routes... Five and Six

Originally recorded: July 2, 2026 --- It's funny, I actually came up with this title ahead of time. I was worried I wouldn't make enough progress to actually use it though. But fortunately, I managed to power through and get two more endings after all. They're coming much easier now. Better yet, I've played through all of the "optional" levels now. So, I can focus entirely on optimizing my routes for the remaining playthroughs. That isn't to say that there weren't painful segments during this playthrough. In order to get to the Pure Dark route, I had to do another one of those DAMN vehicle destruction segments. That ended up eating the most time during this session by a wide margin, but I eventually succeeded and ended up getting the other Pure Dark route ending. That means I've tapered off the fringes. Getting the rest of the endings should be way more straightforward, right? Well, unfortunately, I made a boo-boo regarding the fifth stage on the "pure normal" route. Turns out, the Hero and Dark missions on that one are a pain in the ass. In fact, the Hero mission involves -- yes, that's right! -- DESTROYING ANOTHER VEHICLE! Man, I wanna punch the genius (geniuses? genii?) over at Sega Studios USA who thought these were a good idea in the mouth. In the end, I just ended up pivoting toward doing the neutral route again. Fortunately, getting the Dark Mission on that sixth level was easier than I was expecting to be... considering that completing it progressively makes the stage harder. Honestly, in retrospect, it almost seems like you're supposed to abuse the teleporter to do it properly. You know, since there's a warp pad right next to each objective. So, that's six endings down. Since I've only got the "Semi" routes left, KI recommended not leaving the switch over until the last minute. That way, I can just cruise to where I need to go with normal missions without any worries. In particular, they suggested switching over as quickly as possible... but I've got issues with that. For starters, Westopolis's alternate routes basically require an additional Hero or Dark mission to stay on track. More importantly, switching over before the fourth stage would force me to play two stages I never want to touch again: Mad Matrix on the Hero side and The Doom on the Dark route. That would make Sky Troops the ideal setting to switch over to Hero, while I could probably do that or Iron Jungle to get to the final stage of the Semi-Dark route. In other words, things are going to get pretty samey for the next couple of sessions. I'm going full optimiziation at this point. As a consequence, I'm hoping that I can get through at least two and a half routes next time. That way, I should be able to knock out the rest of the game in the session after that and finally put Shadow behind me. Wish me luck!