It is not really hard it is more an game that frustrates you,  not a kind game for people who have no patience;

Well I grew up in an era of the NES and SNES, so this wasn't so much a "hard" game as a "return to form."  you know, the good old days where a game was hard but fair as opposed to Halo and Call of Duty where...oops, some dude from three miles away that you couldn't see just headshotted you with a pistol!  good job! cheap deaths are not fair, in this game if you died it was becuase you sucked.  

I never did beat it though,  much as I loved it, I didn't have the patience and had to stop when I started working for the site here, so I've happily retired it.  I have something like three dozen incomplete games as it is, can't be stuck on massive, lengthy RPG's my whole life. 

Created new character, used the dupe glitch. Soul level 200 something. STR 99, Dex 99, End 99. Halbred 10 two handing. Pure white character tendancy in soul form... have to backstab the BP samuri in 4-2 3 times to kill him... one hit from him I'm dead.... The damage delt compared to the damage recieved is ridiculous... 1 hit should not kill me when I have decent plate armor and am an insane level in the first playthrough.

It seems to me that stats, armor, or weapoms really dont do much. Before I did the glitch I ran through 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 4-1, and 4-2 without leveling up anything and not dying except for when I got invaded and when i accidentally fell off the lift to get to the blacksmith.

Maneater and the fake king bosses. /thread