Dark Souls.

Just couldn't get into it at all. Hated the loss of stuff when dying. Hated the clunky combat.

Then I played Bloodborne which for some reason clicked. It's probably the health regen for more aggressive play that got me more into that one.

There I learned the main progress wasn't levels, but shortcuts and knowledge.

After that I went back to DS and found it much easier. Plus you can cheese most enemies by shuffling to get behind them and stabbing them in the back.