I remember this was very unbalanced before. I hope that now dev fix it.
P.S. In the past, there is no way to make "no corruption, no lose run". I was forced to use arena to earn some money. I almost did it, but in the end, i forced to fight master, then, without a break, Alex. I beat Alex once, but second time i was exhasted and no way to beat him.
There has always been a way to make a route without corruption and without losing any fight but I had to know exactly what to do from the first battle.
1.- Manila does not have the pistol equipped, so the damage it does is a pittance.
2.- With the gun equipped you must start defending yourself to be able to accumulate energy to shoot that way you beat J.blue (always attack him first) and his teammates with 2-3 shots and if you are lucky even with 1 critical( you can accept his bribe that will make your life completely easier and then betray him by turning your back on him like the police do in real life which gives it an even more realistic and cool touch ).
I am fully aware that this fight has a margin of luck but 2-3 attempts or 1 with luck is achieved.
3.- For the next one with Pusher, just accept Michael's invitation and recover Hp and being alone it's quite easy to beat him by shooting him.
4.- Mason is another strong rival at the beginning but if you start the battle with the pistol at the police station and then in the alley at full skilsl you beat him.
5.-Burker sells cheap packages of food(Hp) and drink(Mp) at $100 that can be consumed in the fridge of the manila house. 5.-After you learn Kami it becomes a bit easier to fight.
6.-For me the difficulty is fine since it is not insufferable like other games of the style where you have to farm levels and money for hours just to be able to advance and even worse when you need to repeat events to raise your level of corruption. Since the issue of being without money and without equipment or level for criminals is realistic, since it is something that many police officers experience in real life and for this reason they are always tempted to become corrupt. And it reminds me a lot of the Law and Order series U.V.E( especially the beautiful blonde with gambling problems who ends up doing both sexual and police favors to pay off her debt. )
7.- There is always the Renpy version( which unfortunately stopped due to personal problems of its creator ) for the lazy and of course the power and money traps that are useful for when you repeat the game and want to try alternate routes. But from my point of view you really enjoy playing style games playing normally. And it even gives a touch of immersion since if you lose or win a battle( and that history continues its course with its due consequences... Something I miss in AAA games ), you transmit that feeling of joy or frustration and it is easier to put yourself in your role and enjoy the game more. It is my favorite game since its first version in 2017.
