>>116962
>they followed the shmup convention of giving the story some extra wrinkles on the second loop
Bruh, EX isn't the second loop, its like 5th loop hidden behind a collaborative ARG. Apparently the second loop story and beyond exists just because the dev's wife didn't want to test harder puzzles without more plot, and that kinda explains a lot
Actually, fuck it, spoilers, but trust me, its better to know this than to walk into it yourself.
First loop is Berserk, but bad. Gray wants to protect the princess, the princess gets pregnant with first antagonists child, the demons force Gray to save either the princess or the unborn child, she chooses the child. Second loop story is JUST average daily life of Gray rising that girl, then dying off screen, in the end the child rescues her mother from the void. Third loop is playing as one of the demons (based on lucifer because of course its lucifer, mixed with some buddhist bullshit that makes no sense) looking for the other demon, then they hug (please forget how they ate a ton of people in the first loop story, they're just cute anime girls, ok?)
Fifth """loop""" story is Gray restoring her demon/ai/whatever the fuck identity of void lord Add and fighting literally-who villain that did nothing throughout the whole of the previous how many loops. Some retcons that totally weren't planned. Bullshit anime references ensue.