Level 2 fire requires you to be at Level 9, which would take you about two-three hours of mindless grind to get on Crysis. Otherwise, I think you should be either very lucky (while having perfect strategy) or at least level 8 to beat the first boss on Crysis without NG+. Very Hard, on another hand, isn't really a problem as long as you have healing, synthesis for upgraded armor and either fire Engram or sword.
As someone who likes challenge and tried Crisis difficulty on my first walkthrough (only to give up and restart), I can only recommend people to start from Very Hard and only change to Crisis after the first or second chapter and only if they feel that the game is too easy—it is not. I think Very Hard is the most enjoyable and balanced difficulty, at least at the beginning. There's a point to change to Crisis in the late game if you feel that the game became easier than you like. On another hand, you can't downgrade your difficulty from Crisis so if you're stuck then your only choices would be grinding and save scumming.
