Well I beat him on both normal and hard and this was a long time ago when the game first came out I don't think he is that hard but he is a little challenging but all you have to do is get used to his attacks nothing els.
at the beginning you don't really need to do a lot once you take a few bars of health away from him then he gets a little difficult.
when he says perish try to stay away because fire comes out and surrounds him try to stay far enough so the fire doesn't hit you but try to stay close enough so when the fire goes down you can get a few good hits on him.
if you see the sky turn black and he is still on the ground hit triangle when you can you can take out some health like that.
If he is far away from you don't go near him he will disappear and try to get behind you should try to avoid that as much as possible.
also when he goes up into the air and starts shouting meteors or fire balls or whatever those things are you can avoid that easily or you can get behind him and get some cheap shots on him.
thats about all you need to know and to keep your health at full at all times.