So after talking to Fulminato a bit yesterday about the Purple Maze section and about how all of the demons target MDF, I realized it might be possible to run through the entire section in one go. So I tried it out. Video below if you're interested.
https://youtu.be/0bbxzYJDNgs
It's just under 7 minutes so I might recommend watching it on a faster playback speed if you're interested since it is just running through this section in a roughly optimized way. I also wrote out a video description that includes where each of the fights from above are in the video if you want to skip around.
Feel free to count all of the times I do something silly like attempt to walk off the ledge into the abyss or miss the path... >.<'
Anyway, the fact that this is possible is interesting to me. I think that this section is a lot more balanced than some might initially think because of the potential for how frustrating this entire update can be for some people.
In terms of RNG, I don't think it could have been significantly worse. I could have taken 400 more damage in one fight and one more MP drain than I did. This would have made it even more tight than it was but I'd still have survived. Thankfully there is a health potion and a mana potion in this area.
In terms of someone exploring this place for the first time, I don't think the path I took particularly matters outside of removing unnecessary backtracking since you can't lock yourself out of anywhere. This run does require that you have equipped yourself with the right equipment, know what to attack each enemy with, and know which order to target them in. The whole update is based on this though. I don't think it is a stretch to have figured this out before making a serious attempt in this section. If you look at my walkthrough above I did it with only 2 fights with apparently awful choices in equipment.
Anyway this is not a defense of the entire update or anything. It's still going to be very frustrating for the people it is going to frustrate. I just thought this was interesting and I think it is a good thing that this is possible.