I’ve been playing this game off and on, starting over since it came out. I was a hardcore Bloodborne player, but also played a lot of elden ring and ds3. Sekiro never clicked, I thought it was slick and the action felt incredible but I just couldn’t get past the beginning. Finally I’ve broken through and am having a blast, and its all thanks to Armored Core 5. Thanks Armored Core 5 (I will not elaborate).
I never figured out parrying in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, so I spent the first few hours of Sekiro cheesing enemies by sprinting around them and taking pot shots. This worked up until the Blazing Bull before I got stuck.
I restarted the game, making a point of trying to parry the easier enemies. When I actually tried, I found the timing to be a lot more forgiving than the other games and you can even spam it a bit because the animation is so fast. Once I figured that out, I finally started playing the game correctly and ended up defeating every boss and mini boss.
I got stuck on the bull in one of my playthroughs too. This time he took me a few tries but it wasn’t too bad.