Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra :: Since the last Mario game I played was SMB2, I'll have to take your word for it.

[quote name="Fullofkittens"]It gives the impression of high difficulty. Now that I think about it, maybe this is because the most minor of minor characters can fuck you up really bad if they come at you when you're not ready. It becomes a lot easier after the first couple of stages (just like DMC3!) but at first it's just really tough because your attacks don't even hurt the easiest guys in the game, and trying to take out a demon with 2 point attacks is like, holy shit, he'll never die. The semi-random demon attacks make it a lot harder throughout, too. You can't ever use your God Hand on non-bosses because you have to save it for the occasions when the team of bad guys is joined by a demon. Still, there's difficulty and then there's difficulty. There aren't any parts of the game that I literally cannot do, because the continue system is so generous. It's indicative of how hard the game is, though, that you get massive bonus bucks if you use a small number of continues (it assumes that you will need to use a lot of them). I've gotten a lot better in this play-through, though, after I came to understand a key game mechanic: the best way to defend yourself against every enemy is to run up and punch them as they're winding up. If you're one on one with practically anything that strategy works.[/quote]