Welp I tried
Tried hard mode out, and the game utterly thoroughly chewed and obliterated my ass when I got to Elvis 1
Turns out brute-forcing encounters by mashing and praying your guard break hits ain't gonna do anything when everyone hits so hard and moves so fast. I'm pretty sure after 50+ deaths the game had enough and gave me some roulette cards so I could Dragon Kick him twice. At that point I realized continuing any further with my current playstyle would be the death of me and any enjoyment of this game.
And please don't interpret this as a jab at the game; I fully admit my playstyle is ass and got punished by doing so. Sadly, I don't have the faith in me to try to overcome that wall; I've seen what high-level gameplay could be and personally feel I can't reach that level of IPS or attention needed to get to that level.
In a sense, I'm happy to know my limits, and it does nothing to make this game any less amazing than it is