Okay, you sold me - I'm definitely hiring Mortilla to chop trees, slay demons, and bring world peace with minimum violence. Do you think they've got a spot in their schedule for me?
I tried playing again, this time managed to beat 2 loops (not cheesing the boar with the bug) before dying. I've been meaning to write how the jump doesn't feel like a true alternative to dodge rolling, because of how long you spend in the air and how little player control you have while airborne. Then I rolled the axe which turned out to be a gun? and you can spam it in the air to stay airborne forever?? and it turned out to be the most fun thing ever???? ...I guess my gripe now is "why did other weapons feel inferior to the point that beating a boss - without being a facetanking jackass - takes forever?"
I suppose it's a matter of being used to one type of gameplay or the other. 3d Souls-likes never resonated with me, but similar action games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Metal Gear Rising and Furi I enjoyed a lot. All of them give you either a dodge ability with invulnerability frames, a type of parry, or both, along with other special attacks and moves. Rather than limit the player's abilities (I tried dark souls once and it felt like the player was a lead balloon), they keep the degree of freedom high while making enemies and bosses harder and less predictable to compensate. With Aku no Mori, it felt like you had to know always when you can be around the boss and when you cannot. The jumps' timing and required force (for the boar fight) are precise. Jump too soon or too low and the boar will hit you before you can charge another jump. Jump too late and too high - you'll miss the opportunity to strike efficiently, so you'll either have to deal less damage and run away asap, or stay and endure one of its instant attacks. For the fly, it depends on your weapon (and gets really awkward with a melee one), but as you'll either have to use an accurate mid-air attack or a ground attack with wind-up that has enough reach, it really comes down to knowledge once again. There weren't many times when there was an attack coming at me which I didn't expect, and I had enough time to use my abilities to evade while still being able to damage the boss. Again, I assume it's the default for souls games where you have to know what the boss does firsthand and make precise inputs based on specific telegraphs, rather than be able to experiment and trust your gut.
Oh, and you've mentioned the bone's flame attack so I tried it against the fly. It worked, despite me losing most of hp in the process. Crossbow - I've managed to beat Boar with it without cheese, aiming still awkward but it's not terrible (and I never noticed the heal off of trees mechanic lol, idk if it matters since you stay away from the boar and never take damage anyhow). Didn't use it against the second boss, but if neither shooting it on the ground nor the sweeping attack hit the fly then it's going to be way too painful to fight. So yeah, it's not skill issue that led me to all the feedback so far, I hope!
(really sleepy so dunno how readable or objective this WoT is, but I couldn't stand to delete it all either. Anyway, as with other such texts, take what feedback you need and discard the rest)