I am right in front of the first boss door, so I can't say much as to the overall difficulty of the game. I haven't died yet, though I came close once, but potions solve that problem handily.

I will say that this game's first few hours are much harder than those of the other 3D Zelda games, both in terms of enemies and in terms of overcoming the environment. It's nice.

I mean, it's not balls-out Vanquish hard or anything, but it doesn't need to be, at least not in terms of combat.

Yeah, I got lost in Farone woods, it's like a crazy maze. I also felt lost in the volcano area, but I finally overcomed it and now I am just in front of the second's dungeon door.

Next to OoT, Phantom Hourglass was the hardest Zelda I have played in since the move to 3D. But that was because I kept trying to rush through that annoying temple of the Ocean King.

I have to agree with Kyuubi Ricky SSJ2, Zelda 2 has been the hardest in the series I have played to date. (The long trek with the hammer was a pain in the but. The random encounters would often kill me.)

Though I had a hard time beating the original Legend of Zelda. My NES cart's battery backup did not work. The game would only stay saved for up to 12 hours with the NES off. (I was 10 at the time, so I didn't think about getting it exchanged for a copy that held a save, that's assuming the hobby store in my town would have exchanged it) So I had to start from the beginning almost every time I played it. This made me very good at running to the graveyard to get the master sword without completing any dungeons first.

Anyway Amazon just shipped my copy of Skyward sword. Can't wait! Until then let's see how many more hours I can pack into Skyrim before it sits on my shelf for a while.

i've died about 6 times or more now!

you really have to watch it with some enemies :D and the bosses take longer and more hits to kill! :D