I didn't have issues with Kana backtracking in the church or hospital. In the church she seems to still go to the nearest resting room, and though I did catch some events in the hall of the hospital basement it seems she only chooses to rest there if she can't backtrack because she gets beat in the first room. I've had Kana lose in the first room of the church randomly sometimes and in those cases she retreated to the rest room next door. Even when I started my routes by going up first instead of right, she backtracked through the uncleared room to get to the rest room at least once and when i saw that it made me start by going right instead of up. Maybe my difference in experience is because the version I got on dlsite is different from the one here, but I don't really want to test that. Also I didn't have issues with Kana starting on the second floor of the hospital, she always started in the basement for me. That looks to be controlled by the switch next to the door outside the hospital.
On the topic of Kana's weird pathfinding, I have to say that I love how Kana still acts in unpredictable ways sometimes, like how she will jaunt off into a dark room of the church for no reason. I'm sure those times are bugs, but it reminds me of the Pikmin AI from the first game where they would do stupid shit and you had to somehow herd your army of cats to try to get off the planet alive. Except this time I'm trying to keep Kana safe and she's going off doing stupid shit and getting harassed for it, which not only makes her feel a little more like the agent of chaos she seems to be personified as but also introduces wrenches that I can't adequately predict or plan for which means I have to adapt on the fly. Plus it's endearing! She's so cute when she's talking about "following her intuition" when we know she making decisions randomly and then playing it off like she meant to do that all along. I also like how she says she doesn't like the maps too, in my head its because she can't read maps well and they confuse her so she just doesn't even try, maybe she has dyslexia? Who knows, but no matter what she's super cute.
I started my run last night and I beat the succubus at around level 6 or 7, fire and darkness catalysts with a combined +30 ish magic attack. I used the buff fire magic, cast the 70 mana darkness nuke which did half her health, she attacked me for a third of mine, then on the next turn I did the TP release to finish her off. That darkness nuke is fantastic, it easily does more damage than the TP release or MP release even with a little magic attack, though I haven't checked it against the fire nuke. I don't think I could quit the darkness catalyst though, I just love it too much. Now if my darkness catalyst was stolen by Lawrence, that would be the true NTR.
While I'm still in the first week, I only beat one boss so far. I'm toying with the idea of forcing myself to make an attempt at the boss if we make it to the room, but I kinda like the idea of having a decision available. Do I leave early and eat the anger increase, or do I gamble and try to beat the boss knowing i will lose 2 days if I fail according to my ruleset? For now I like having the option, but I may change my mind later. I'm also trying to decide if I should limit the number of orange spirits I let Kana fight. In my first playthrough I got the church a lot, and I kept routing her through the 2 oranges at the top since it was fewer rooms than the other route and I wanted her to get through it faster. I eventually amended my route to take us through 4 of the 5 oranges, and that built up a pile of cards to fuse in short order.
