Playing through this game for the first time felt like hell. It's like the game would detect when I'm having fun and it would pull some bullshit to make sure I suffer. It got to a point where I had to use an invincibility cheat on a boss's phase because I was getting so frustrated.
Once you actually pass the stages and get upgrades, you begin to have fun just looking for treasures and taking the routes you normally wouldn't. Don't play this game if you value your time.