Yeah, the guys at the beginning have very little health, two Tiger Knuckles is all it takes to get rid of them.Damn, Ryo used the touch of death on the first four or five guys! It's times like this that I wish that I had a steam copy, so I could just use a quick mod to max out all of the moves. I want to give it a shot when I'm not busy.
From what I could gather, maxing out moves doesn’t change a whole lot. Only a few moves get stronger in the process, while most of them end up doing the same damage unfortunately…
I recommend you give the time trial a shot someday, it’s fun and addictive and makes you appreciate the combat system even more.