I've had this for a few days now, and I can say it's quite a bit easier than the first one. The difficulty didn't start kicking in until about 1/3 of the way through (as far as I'm concerned, anyway) and a few other factors that contributed to the first game's difficulty have been adjusted:
Your shield won't break anymore.
You don't have to pay to save in this game, and can in fact save at any time, although you still have to restart your current stage. Checkpoints are more numerous than they used to be, too.
Grim will resurrect you for only one Death Coin each time, instead of boosting the price each time you die. However, the souls you need to collect in order to earn said coins are harder to come by in this game.
Maximo can save himself from near-miss jumps by catching the cliff-side with his sword, meaning fewer deaths by pitfall. However, because you have this safety move now, the designers put in lots more dangerous jumps.
I personally loved the first game. I like that frenzy that comes from being completely surrounded and just going apeshit to defend yourself. This one is really good, even though it loses some charm points for not being as closely related to Ghosts 'n Goblins. The Zin are cool, but don't have the personality of the skeleton warriors in the first one. Plus, it would be nice to see Maximo run into other G&G characters like Arthur or Firebrand the Gargoyle, for old time's sake.