Just beat the first boss on the eighth attempt. Honestly, all I can say is that I'm glad I didn't re-buy HR for the Director's Cut version. I don't want to give them money for something that should have been fixed before the game shipped or, at the very least, updated for free afterwards. Fuck everyone involved in that decision.
Also, I somehow lost Ghost, not sure how.
I always play under the Take Out Everyone philosophy but I almost want to play through by going around everyone. I can't even imagine how easy and fast that would make the game. Of course, that would mean a severe shortage of Exp but it probably wouldn't be too bad.