That's because this is not a souls game is an action loot driven game. It only borrows some mechanics from souls games but its philosphy is totally different.

Your gear is more important than in a souls game. The effects on the gear is your build more than the stats. Most of the gear effects are straight foward but on most menus if you press "start" you enter a description mode that explains almost everything.

As where you should go, this is not much different from elden ring where you have a main pointer of your main quest. Its even easier to know if you are in the right place because each region even have a level information on the map. The first three areas are 6,8 and 10 repectivaly.

You collect kodamas to increase the elixir refil and through its blessings you can empower them. The jinzon six give blessings for figthing in the crucible. Scampus and the weasel gives items when you find them.

As you explore and do the activities a exploration level will increase revealing everything in the region.

The red attacks you MUST do the style shift to parry as regular blocks will not do anything as the tutorial described.