There's no getting around it- Xander is one of the most hardcore games in the monster-catching genre. Some of the endbosses can kill you in literally 4 seconds.
For action game fans, this is pretty normal, but if you're coming into this game from Pokémon, I can see how this would be a weeeee bit of a culture shock.
This is a bit of a problem because Xander has an intricate, funny storyline that non-masochists might still want to enjoy. So to alleviate this problem- there is now an easy mode you can select when starting a new game.