Prinny: You suck or I suck

I just played my first session of Prinny for the PSP and it's a great game that makes me want to punch it in the face.

The production values are nice. Enjoyable graphics, voice acting, solid controls, but the difficulty is just uncalled for. Even playing it at the casual difficulty setting which allows you to be hit 3 times before dying is punishingly hard ("Normal" mode is instant death). I don't mind the dying per se. In fact dying repeatedly makes sense in the context of the game world. If they had only made it so that when you die, you respawn where you died without resetting the environment/creatures then there would be no problem. As an example, when you are fighting a boss character (which often proves to be a formidable challenge), if you die you must start the fight over. This does not sound abnormal to other side scroller game designs, but the combat mechanic is close quarters sword fighting (think Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) and there is no alternative way to beat a boss. When you die the respawn/reset is quick, almost instantaneous thus the experience of the game becomes akin to running into a wall two feet away from you over and over again until you or the wall gives up.

These situations are so frustrating to me. When you find a piece of work that is well done but the authors make a fatal decision which makes the experience impermeable.