Anyone else having this issue?  I played through Momohime's story on Shura, and finished it, but the game is nigh impossible with the majority of Kisuke's swords being big and slow.
 
Anyone figure out a way to efficiently use the bigger blades on Shura?

You'll just have to change up your style I suppose. I haven't played as Kisuke yet, but you'll likely have to do more blocking and waiting for openings. 

Just be happy you get to play the game right now :P I gotta pick myself up a Wii at some point..finally getting to a point where there are a few games coming up that I really want to play, and this being a major one.

I had mine last year sometime, and then I sold it because just like you stated, there was nothing really good coming out for it at it...it sat there for me and collected dust as I played my 360/PS3 or PC games. I sold it for way more than I paid for it though since they were in such high demand at the time, so I dont regret that..I just gotta pick another up sometime soon cuz there are things like this I now want to play big time.

Kisuke isn't harder, but he is [i]different[/i] - and don't let those damned reviewers fool you, they control nothing like the same!
 
The control inputs are the same, but quite apart from his swords, Kisuke himself moves somewhat slower overall - slower to attack, slower to dash, and slower to recover.   His advantages are that he has more HP, he hits harder, and his Secret Arts are awesome.
 
Long Blades hit harder than Blades, and Kisuke's Long Blades are pretty strong, in particular.  Don't feel like you need to spam attacks like with Momohime.  You don't need to hit a lot - you just need not to get hit.  On Shura, the initial attack with a Long Blade has maybe a 200 ms open gap (maybe, don't know exactly) where you can get hit.  Don't expose yourself.  If you feel like you're going to get hit, roll.  Set yourself up nice and safe and start your attack from a slightly farther distance away.  Don't land face to face next to a ninja and expect to beat him to the slash with Kisuke using a Long Blade - it'll never happen.
 
Air Combos and Rising Attacks are particularly nasty with Long Blades, as they have a nice long reach and you don't spiral down with the last Air Combo hit.
 
Kisuke's Long Blades also have kickass Secret Arts.  In fact, he starts off with the fantastic Cyclone!  Exploit their power whenever you can.
 
For my part, I actually started with Kisuke so I'm a little more comfortable with him.  Momo just takes freaking forever to take anything down until she gets decently leveled.

I disagree. I did Momohime on the easy dificulty, and now I'm doing Kisuke on Shura or Sura... whichever the hard one. Kisuke has still been a lot easier for me. I don't know why though. Maybe I'm getting the hang of how to actually play the game, while on Momohime's I just kind of hack and slashed. Plus the bosses seem so much easier on Kisuke's compared to Momohime's. I dunno. The boss with the giant foot was a pain in the ass. I HATED that one. Kept breaking my s-words...