Terrible game. The difficulty does not make it fun or rewarding, it does the opposite. You spend hours working on one boss, dying countless times and throwing the controller, and you finally kill it only to have an even harder boss show up minutes later. The small reward of accomplishment is quickly diminished.
The defense mechanics suck, you do some perfectly timed dodges and parries yet still get hit, do it twice and you're already dead.
The game is considered an open world RPG yet there is such little story, no map or freedom to explore, and very little customization.
I am astounded that this game won GOTY, probably one of the worst I have played. Waste of $40.