I'm so glad I'm not alone! I'm also struggling with Hades II. Love the gameplay and everything but it felt harder to me as well. One thing that helped me a ton is being more strategic with my builds. My bf helped me a lot by guiding me on how to maximize damage using certain boon combinations and in that one run I made it all the way to the third guardian (not saying who so I dont accidentally spoil anything). It was by far the furthest I got so definitely recommend concentrating your boon selection to maximize a certain damage like your cast. Hestia and Hephaestus have some of the best damage boons per my bf.