"Oh damn i didn't realize this was one of those anti-fun games. My bad. Forgot this game was made as a punishment to me specifically."

continues to gleefully play another 300 hrs

Jokes aside Its not that hard it just takes a lot of tries and grinding if you're not used to the style of game. That just means you can have months and months of consistent new gameplay if you keep at it though, which is cool for a videogame nowadays. I have 70hrs and I haven't even gotten the first great rune yet. (Get good?)
The atmosphere is gorgeous and the open world is really something special. I love the walking mausoleums. Great game, I'm glad i didn't have anything spoiled for me before i played. Lots of jaw dropping moments.
Sometimes the fighting feels like it was designed specifically to be frustrating but honestly I'm pretty sure thats a feature not a downside for most players of this game. For me its definitely a downside because i like my games to be relaxing but its just a personal preference.

Cant say much about the story because the game was too hard for me and i stopped playing before i could progress very far at all lol.