I finally beat this shit. Full disclosure, I got the "bad ending" so I didn't fight Sword Saint or whatever comes after The Owl. But I'm counting it complete. 99% of the time I hated my life playing this but the 1% where I entered the combat flow state is the best a game has ever felt. I wanted to finally beat this before Elden Ring and it only took me a full year of very slow progress. I think this is the last game at this difficulty I'll play until I'm retired or something. When Elden Ring comes out I plan on summoning people for every fight and volunteering my time helping others. I can't do this shit anymore. But I'm glad I did.