- Ground locations include a medieval castle and an interstellar space-pirate vessel
- Fight with projectile attacks
- Can hide behind pillars/rubble
- Close-range melee combos
- Dash attacks
- Can take your time to explore in these sections
- Lots of hidden treasures
- Secret life-restoring hot springs
- “levels are frenetically paced and full of surprises”
- Sakurai calls this “escalating the situation”; piling action on top of action to keep players off balance and engaged
- Vehicle example: Exo Tank
- Grinding gameplay made possible by Palutena’s magical rails
- There are times in which NPCs appear abruptly to fight by your side
- Recurring villains like Dark Pit appear from time to time
- Constant stream of dialogue to give players a better idea of what’s going on
- Dialogue is usually between Pit and Palutena or Palutena and the villain at the moment
- Dialogue “works like a charm” because of “clever writing and strong performances”
- “necessary plot explanations and strategy tips are buried deep within a stream of smart, self-aware banter”
- There’s a moment in the game in which Pit finds an item from the first Kid Icarus and Palutena says that it’s less pixelated than she remembers
- A comrade-in-arms will express shock that Pit would be so reckless as to open treasure chests left in plain sight without suspecting a trap

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