Haven't played that much of it but was pretty easy compared to God of War and DMC for me.

It was a difficult game but not impossible.

It's at a very.... enjoyable level of difficulty on Normal. Later levels really ratchet things up a bit. Great if you're an action game fan.

Much harder than God of War or similarly spectacle-based action game fare, but if you cut your teeth on Devil May  Cry and Ninja Gaiden then you shouldn't have much trouble with it.

Well, I have played some Hack n' Slash games in the past like DMC 1, 3, 3(Special Edition), 4, God of War I, II, III, God Hand (I think it's actually a Beat 'em Up), etc...

I finished DMC 1 on all modes, DMC 3 and 3 Special edition on all modes (getting an A, S or SS rank on all missions on all modes after practicing a bit :P I've played the original DMC3 for like 200 hours xD) And DMC 4 on all modes getting the best rank on every mission on every mode (PC Version of the game, played it over 100 hours, don't remember if the best rank was S or SS... kind of a disapointment after playing DMC3 :S difficulty wise at least).

I also finished God of War III in chaos mode doing a no upgrade run (without getting any gorgon eyes, phoenix feathers, minotaur horns, without upgrading any weapons or using any godly possessions). I did that twice, the first time I died hundreds of times and the second time I died like 83 times :P.

I did a Kick-me sign run on God Hand on Hard mode (You musn't use the god hand or the roulette wheel to do that)... doing this was hell for me xD.

When I started playing Bayonetta (played it on Normal the first time I played the game) I sucked and got killed many times and got a lot of Stone awards, lol xD I could've probably avoided using some continues if I used items but I prefered not doing so because it would feel kind of... cheap :P I still haven't used a single item in the game except for the "Red Hot Shot" that uses itself when you die.

Well... I've already finished the game on Normal, Hard and Climax and got all trophies... and now I've started the game on Normal again to try to get platinum awards... I still am not good enough to get platinum awards on all chapters (I got only 2) but I am waaaaay better than before... I don't die anymore and get gold, platinum and pure platinum awards in most Verses (not chapters T_T, I always end up getting gold awards for the chapters now).

I think that if you play the game long enough you'll get better at it and stop dieing all the time like I used to xD I've played the game for over 25 hours now. Bayonetta is hard until you get used to it... after that it will start getting easier and easier :P it's the same way with every other hack n' slash game.

In my opinion, the hardest game I've played from the ones I mentioned is God Hand... that game made me think I was never going to be able to clear it on Hard mode xD I used so many continues... The difference in difficulty between God Hand and Bayonetta hardest modes is big in my opinion because Bayonetta never made me think I wouldn't be able to clear the game in climax mode :P

Interesting opinions on the difficulty.  I thought GOW III was really easy but Bayonetta kicked my butt.  It's not even a close call, Baynonetta was much much harder than GOW III.  I guess people have different play-styles or something.

God Hand is probably the hardest game of those mentioned, yeah.

Especially Hard Mode.

Incidentally: also the best of them that I've played. Bayonetta is damn close, though.

I platinumed the game with hardly any difficulty.  Took the first bit to get the hang of it but then it just became second nature.

I don't think it is hard, as long as you know how to evade AND dodge offset (shuraba PKP will make things easier for you). Some Alfheims Portals are hard till you figure out an easy way. I got 1000GS in 25 hours and I platinumed in 14 hours (yea, I really like this game). :)

It's definitely harder than GoW. When I played the collection, almost all the combat was square square square triangle.