The game is, indeed, rather difficult, especially if you want to use a melee build. The hitstun isn't long enough, and healing is hard to come by. Of course, I may just be a scrub :P I was a bit sad that I had to go full ranged for the catacombs boss, because I love the heavy melee. But the boss is simply not made for melee builds, and guarding is almost pointless because you can't do it for very long, and getting hit makes you able to guard for even less time. I do like the parry system, however, just wish it stunned for longer.
The catacombs boss itself is also a biiiit unreasonable with the adds. Half the time I was focusing on them and praying the boss didn't get to me. I earnestly believe that the adds should either be their own separate phases (the boss waits to return until the adds are dead), and/or there are no more than two adds with the boss at a time.
Other than that, the difficulty is GREATLY subdued by the fact that death doesn't make you lose a thing and that it's both quick to return from and gets you back to full health. This is very generous, and I really appreciate it! The only problem is that this means enemies' health resets, which IS standard. This is especially painful for the catacombs boss; maybe consider having a mechanic where enemy health restores at a decent rate, but not immediately, so that if you get back fast enough, they haven't healed all the way? This does punish players who take the time to reconsider loadouts, though....
(Only other thing I'd like to see apart from even bigger belly max size is the ability to get as tall as the NPCs. Unless we're already "normal" heights and they're just freakin' giants because of what they are XD)