First things first, this game is fucking bananas... I wasn't exactly sure of what to expect, I thought it would be in the line of DMC, but its way crazier. That being said, I am now 3 hours in, on chapter 4 (out of i have no idea how many) and i notice im dying... a lot. I'm having a bit of trouble with the dodge / wtich time thing, sometimes i think i got the hang of it, and others i just fail at it. I actually started out fine getting gold statues at the end of the chapters and not dying, but the last 2 chapters, i used 3 continues and got stone statues (im not too fussed tho). So, is this game just hard, or with a steep learning curve, or am i just bad :D
 
Oh and 2 of the continues i lost were to quicktime events, is it me or are those a little unforgiving with the time they give you? :(
 
Mind you, I'm having a blast, the game is gorgeous and quite fun to play, even if the story is as bananas as the action.

I just rented yesterday and I too have died a lot. I was never good with these DMC style games but I'm still enjoying it.

It's normal. I got stone awards on most chapters.

On my first playthrough I died what seems a stupid number of times now, I think it's pretty normal. After I'd played through the game once though I found my number of deaths very significantly decreasing.

Yep, it's a hard game.

yupz

i feel kinda better now, cheers :P

yupp

I die the first time during most QTE's, but I seem to get a decent amount of Gold, Platinum, and Pure Platinum.

Definitely normal. Its the kind of game though, after a lot of dying you really do notice a big improvement in how good you are at the game later.

I recommend playing on easy first, and hoard weapons and money and then you can go back with upgraded weapons and play it on higher difficulties.

I started on normal, didn't die a ton (but still a decent amount), but got mostly stone awards.  Hard mode tore my ass up; I couldn't get past the second level without dying 20+ times.

i only died a few times my first playthru

Good stuff.  I was doing pretty good but it was either chapter 4 or 5 (where you fight the things with fire gloves and blue/white gloves) where I started getting my ass handed to me. 
  
A lot of those out of the blue QTEs kill me as well.