Thanks for the ridiculously useful info on rotation QTEs, Ebb. You can skip the game searching for other players to fill in the four way events by pressing 'B' to deactivate the countdown timer. The game progresses once it depletes regardless. If you aren't paying attention or fast enough then you can simply restart from last checkpoint via the select menu. You'll leave the session immediately and start from where you met them which is usually after the cutscene.

As for difficulty both players are locked in whichever setting the host is playing at the moment.

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