It was not that short. It took me around 12 hours on the mild setting. I have an advice for you, do not start a new game on bitter. If you beat the game on bitter you will understand why. The challenge is insane, I got killed several times on stage 5 with all upgrades save for the last one on the Tsubaki MK 3. Just deflecting bullets will rape your sword gauge, it will go from fully charged to empty in less than 5 seconds. The enemies also time it so that as soon as one hit the other one hits you in less than 0.5 second. With a group bigger than 5 guys, you will take massive damage. I do not think you can beat the game without the infinite charge for Tsubaki. Another problem is money, the mission entry fee is higher and making money is harder. The last boss on bitter took around 125 charged strikes to die (1 charged strike is about 5 normal slashes). It took me 2 hours to kill the last boss (I avoided fighting him on mild and saved over on bitter).
Satan said:
"You are for ever angry, all you care about is intelligence, but I repeat again that I would give away all this superstellar life, all the ranks and honours, simply to be transformed into the soul of a merchant's wife weighing eighteen stone and set candles at God's shrine."
