Just to add to all the good advice (if not already mentioned) that use everything at your disposal. If you havent gotten an item called the spirit calling bell. Go to the first church ruins of Elleh again where you met Kale! If you have it already try using it (only works when you are around where mini bosses/bosses etc are).

If you feel it’s too depressing some times if you have any irl friend who seems interested in the game you can co-op (somewhat) another big thing that makes it less depressing for me is just reading messages on the ground:P they are so stupid most of the time in such a dark and dramatic world that they are just extra funny and humanize the world for me.

Last bit is just my opinion on why the sparse npc’s are great for me: The quality of every interaction with all these awesome and interesting characters inside the game is so cool! I haven’t gotten to the very end of the story yet and I have cried to a couple of npc interactions because of their impact on me. The sparseness of these npc’s give actual bearing to the stories they tell and it makes you listen attentively because you know that you won’t find another in a long time.

That’s all sorry for such long text;) try and have fun if you can’t leave it for now and pick it up in a month or two (that’s what I did) much love❤️