Did you spend that time trying to fight the Tree Sentinal (mounted knight boss) just in front of where you start? You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t unless you’re extremely skilled or masochistic. You can go around and find less dangerous enemies.

Depends on what you define as hard. Sometimes, simply dying a bunch doesn't mean a game is hard, Armored Core 6 for example. Yeah you can die a bunch in Armored Core 6, but a particular level can become downright easy if you have the right build for it, especially since the game actually encourages you to change builds consistently, since after you die you are allowed to change your build for a level. Experimentation, changing tactics, etc, is fun.

Also Dwarf Fortress, dying is fun.

Also for me, "hard" games would be stuff that are boring and grindy. Because they are literally hard mentally to play and maintain focus on lol.

I think you're missing something.

You don't have to engage with the angry strong monsters.

Video games have made us believe we are the heroes. In Elden Ring, we are specks.

Here's 2 tips:

1. Level up Vigor. Health is how you make early game easier.

2. Skip bosses. There isn't a hard linear progression path and different builds struggle with different parts of the game.