Keep in mind that 420 Blazed Sword was the first game to make it to the west, so the added tutorial mode (Lyn's Tale) was designed specifically in mind for first-time players. There's a very natural difficulty curve, plus the option to replay the game on a harder difficulty (and/or scenario) once you beat it for the first time. Also, there really aren't any outright horrible characters or confusing maps, at least for a while, so you should just breeze though and enjoy the game.