i just beat it with a puppet, lion, elephant, dragon, frog, and gold dragon. not too difficult but the puppet and frog were what allowed me to beat the game.
against everyones "i hate it" comments.... i actually liked it. and Taylor gives good advise... get multi front hitters if you can and strikers in the back and you and "almost" always kill the first row of guys... or get them pretty close to death fast. :)