As I am taking back times in this game I can't help but notice that the rules say to just beat Gaia but on Hard and I believe Very Hard you must fight 1 more fighter. Just wondering what the rules will be for those 2 difficulties

The game length would be longer I think Sho would be the true final boss. I will switch the rules. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I did not do attempts on Very Hard yet.

I just did a run on Very Hard 1 Bout and Sho did not appear. Comparing to Nick's run the only setting is that I set my characters HP to 200 while opponent was on the default 100. Are you aware of the stipulations of Sho being there after Gaia? I would like to fairly compare against Nick's run

I think it has to do with no losses and clearing well. Ring outs might count against but again I don't have experience in the category. It might be because its 1 Bout, which is not the default. I think the time is fair if the settings are the same.

I'll refrain from uploading my Very Hard time until we can see what exactly causes it.

https://imgur.com/a/2v4l8Wu

Taken from the Battle Arena Toshinden Unauthorized Edition guide book

Sho appears to show up on Normal and above, haven't tested this myself but figured I'd let you know

Sho appeared any time after I beat the game on Hard or Very Hard. I think the only stipulation is he shows on Normal with no continues used but happened any time I got past Gaia. Maybe Gaia never beat me? Not sure id have to look at my runs.

I think any time that triggers the end screen should win. If you can figure out a way not to trigger Sho then it would be quicker so do that. I planned on losing once on Normal mode to dodge Sho for an any% Normal run if I got back to it.
That said maybe we make a beat Sho% too?
Tyler if you say you're dodging Sho on Hard an VHard Im not too sure on the mechanism though