This game is owning my ass more often than not and I'm progressing through it at what I would normally consider snail's pace, but I'm loving it :P.

It's an interesting gameplay decision that instead of going for the conventional mechanics where both you and your opponents can trade several blows before dying, up to 3 blows will usually do the trick (a bit more for large monsters).

It has a nice retro feel to it that somehow reminds me a little of Golden Axe.

Yea, the game is that right kind of difficult. It's not difficult because of bad controls, cheap deaths or ungodly aimbot calibur a.i. . There is nothing like that, just good solid game design that really challenges you. Once you figure out a section and make it to the next checkpoint, you really feel like you've accomplished something. It's not "thank goodness , I'm done with that section, man that sucked" but quite the opposite. You're just happy your skills improved.

It borrows heavily from Rastan.