Okay, I just beat Chapter 2 and...damn...I've died 7 times until now on Normal. And I missed around half the Verses in Chapter 2 (1 in the first chapter). Um...challenging? You bet! Unsurpassably hard? Not really. Tearing/Framerate Drops? They're definitely in the 360 version, especially the tearing. How noticeable? In Chapter 2 it was basically once every 3-5 seconds. Also, you can't buy shit early on. The first item menu you can buy stuff on has a weapon that costs 70,000 Halos while you barely have 20,000.
Is it good? Yes. It's pretty crazy. Do I like it? Um...I WANT to like it, but there's just something about it that's driving me away when it tries to pull me in. I can't really put my finger on it right now. I will say that once I have all these crazy ass techniques I'm going back to replay some of those levels because I feel I will be able to destroy them.