Made it up to 7-2 on hard in one sitting for tonight. Haven't tried 7-2 yet, but I'll continue on tomorrow in my next play session where I hope to wrap up the game.
I don't find the game too difficult once you learn the mechanics, but I do find certain things just stupid as shit. There are blatant levels that instead of testing your wit... just have 100% random factors. These are usually on boss levels, after the check point when they go nuts on hard. You'll be trying to have successful patterns, repeat the same thing after you die, then you die before you even reach that spot, because of something like the boss pulling a block you needed to keep going up, even though last time it never fucked with that block. Shit like this pisses me off in ANY kind of game... do not have random factors like this that lead to player death.
As I mentioned the pillow system in the story is horrible on hard since you'll generally be on 2ish pillows at anytime. You have 2 attempts to make it to the check point from memory, pray random factor doesn't kick in, then you roll the dice to complete the second half of the level. Fail your # of pillows and you are forced to drudge through too many loading screens, and unskippable cut scenes, and it also ruins the questions in the confessional as well as pulling you out of the game experience. It should have been infinite pillows no matter what... or at least if you run out of pillows let me restart from the beggining of the level with the # of pillows I came in with.
As for the story, characters, etc I'm not jiving with it at all. Things like some of the confessional questions are stupid("Are all men stupid?" GEE WHAT A GOOD QUESTION), and a lot of the game is wishy washy about you are trying to be in the game. I'm being honest in my answers as Vincent, and even though you are steering him to good...he just lies anyway and is a douche. It makes my choices as the story is going on have no barring or impact, and if it's all just for a payout at the end, it makes the story as you play even more "meh," compared to previous Atlus game offerings.
There's a lot to just scrutinize this game over, and there isn't much here that makes this game worth its $60.00 price tag....Glad I rented it, even though Persona 4 is still my favorite game of all time. Jeff Gerstman's review which I just read a few minutes ago probably sums up my feelings about the game as well:
http://www.giantbomb.com/catherine/61-32367/reviews/
I hope Persona 5 is next. :/