Holy stinkers, some of these levels are just tough. I did use a hint or two on a few especially terrifying cases (I would probably never solve "Ice Flower Cave" or "Ice Flower Cave v4" if I didn't know you could place flo or grow east of the iceflower -- and I'd never find the spot to do it without using glitches if it weren't for the video... or killing the chomper in "Mystery Malfunction", I think the chomper was a tad too cryptic, tbh) but roughly 99% of the time I was doing everything myself without hints (including mapping out "Mystery Island", who thought THAT level was a good idea??) and without glitches (even brr-turn) and boy, oh boy, did it take me forever and ever.
I actually lost the results of my first playthrough when changing computers so had to start again
and blasted to pirate camp/sundog island in about 2 days because I was playing fast and because I remembered a lot of these levels. Then I needed to not only do the levels in Sundog Island, but solve everything I've left behind... and that is what REALLY took time, especially since a few levels placed relatively early in the game are comparable (difficulty-wise) to some of the Sundog Island levels. I mean, yeah, "The Corridor" is a genius level, but did it have to be as early as the jungle temple? I still have a savefile before "At the End of It All", so I might try to figure out the intended solution on "Rescue Mission" (because my solution was completely ridiculous) but since I got everything on all levels anyway, there's no pressing need. 100% accomplished.
And yes... MOFI really is hard. I think the biggest issue some players had was actually not the difficulty itself, but the difficulty curve -- in WA and POTZ it's relatively smooth, while in MOFI there are two significant difficulty spikes -- one in Kaboom Village/Jungle Temple (thankfully, a lot of the adventures are optional) and the other in Pirate Camp/Sundog Island. A few more adventures of in-between difficulty to prepare for the oncoming blow might have been nice, because both times you feel like you're reasonably on top of things and can figure stuff out and then suddenly... boom. The Sundog Island one was especially harsh.
Still 100% worth it, though, the puzzles themselves are sheer brilliance. Awesome game and I'm glad to have finally finished it, Loopy's secrets and all. With all coins, gems and stars in hand, I have finally Ended It All.
