I like how most of the bosses and midbosses go the same way for me:
First try: briefly survive and get my ass handed to me
Second try: Survive longer, do some damage, start to figure out patterns and weaknesses, die anyway.
Third try: Brute force it using what I've learned.
Nightmare is probably the best example. I was actually thinking too much at first, trying to use the multi-tiered environment to my advantage. Eventually it just became alternating between charged shots, sensemove, jumping to dodge, and super missiles to the face.
By the time I got to the rematch with it, in just one try I managed to unload super missiles into it fast enough that it literally never got off the ground.
Seriously. It's supposed to climb a four-story shaft and then fall down it in its death animation. I killed it before it could even get airborne.
Also: I'm not finding the story as terrible as expected. It's still bad, but it's "action movie" bad, not "Sakamoto is an ignorant hatemonger" bad.
