when playing zoe2, you're supposed to be dashing. always. the circles around jehuty tell you if there are incoming projectiles and from where, so you have to pay attention to those.
also, at times enemies will rush you with close range attacks and you're not supposed to mash square to fight back, since there are others and you'll eventually get hit if you cross blades. instead, you should dash out of the way and then attack them.
when fighting groups of different enemies, focus first on the mummyheads - the ones that excel at long range combat. get close to them and either throw them against each other or beat them with close range attacks. gauntlet iirc is also good against them to knock them out of their laser attacks.
if you think zoe2 is hard on normal, try playing on very hard. it's comparable to dmc3 on dmd, and there's still extreme on the pal version, which is even harder.
and the controls do not suck. you suck, himuro.
