It's not really that the enemies in Rainbow Butterfly Wood are much more challenging than thone found in the Underground Water Channel, it's more that these enemies just require different strategies to beat. I.e. walking up to them and attacking won't really work other than Monica vs. Himarra.
Each weapon has a max limit it can achieve in any of the elemental stats, so even after you meet the requirements to build up to the next weapon, you can continue to level it and boost its stats until it hits that cap, then you can build it up to the next weapon.
You've got way more patience than me, I just deleted it after trying to put up with the combat for only 2 hours. Maybe it's not fair to judge the game based on that little amount of time, but I genuinely cannot stomach the combat.
Pretty much Dark Cloud 2 does everything the original did but better, plus a couple new mechanics, all wrapped up in a more fun but also more interesting story. Dark Cloud 1 definitely has its fair share of good moments, but moment to moment you'll probably have much more fun with Dark Cloud 2. It's the Uncharted 1 -> Uncharted 2 jump.
What do you mean you can't go back to town? You can always travel back to Palm Brinks from the main menu.
You don't have to, but you would appreciate the game more if you did complete the first one, especially near the end of the game. But the story is more or less self-contained.
I've only had difficulty with two so far, but they were pretty annoying. lol
If you're not feeling the combat, I would recommend focusing on the Ridepod. With all the customization you can do in terms of both maneuverability and weapons, I would say Ridepod combat is definitely the most straight up fun combat in the game, plus the need to invent cool new parts pushes you to participate in the photography system as well.
