I think so, although I'm not sure if it is just an illusion created by Dante's slow moves; the enemies tend to move quite slowly too in this game. He runs like he's negotiating a sea of toffee and you have to time his moves accordingly. It's definitely hardest if you move from playing one of the other games on DMD to DMC1 DMD because you'll be used to being fast.
Beating shadows isn't so hard unless there are two of them in a very cramped space and you can't see... in that case get used to their repertoire. They will attack based on what you do to them and how far away you are when you do it, but they do like to cycle through stab, flying axe and bite moves one after another sometimes. You just have to be patient on DMD with them I reckon, it takes more time but you don't wanna get hit so get familiar with how long they are open to attack for and all that. Know that after about four or five slashes of the core they will start trying to skewer you so jump away rather than try pushing it unless you're in a confidently large room. Those shadows in the small corridor and judge staff room were a total pain.
Oh, I also hear that the Nightmare B works well on shadows.
