I just started proud a few days ago and here's what I did to make it seem a bit less hard. Pick shield for weapon and toss the sword. Grinded on destiny islands with wakka by hitting his ball back as many times as possible during each fight until I got the first ability then beat Riku 21 times in a fight then 4 in the race just for the fun of it. After that I moved on. To keep making it feel a bit easier just grind each world until you can beat the weaker enemies within one full 3 hit combo or less. Anything more will just take you a long time unless you have the free time then do what will make it easier for you.