I like this game and I have criticized a lot in these threads, but the thing is that it sucks how a good game has been playtested that little and it has shackles and handicaps dragging it back.
I killed last judge, I killed all the beastflies, I killed Groal, I platformed through all the sections, I beat up all the difficult parts. I already have the "git gud" medal. And I can say this game has a lot of bullshit, artificial difficulty and it doesn't have the charm the first game had. Maybe with some patches it can recover, but it's clear the devs fall for the difficulty meme that shit like dark souls II or Elden ring has.
You can make challenging fights without enemy ganks, health sponges, acid pools instead of ground or one hit death attacks. There was no need. things like cogwork dancers or last judge were cool fights, and I wouldn't mind if they made them even more challenging with more comboed and attacks, but they are obscured by bullshit like backtracking.