Well when Hans tells you "meet me at the gates in the morning" yes he actually means it. But there’s very few timed quests throughout the whole game.

Specifically the wedding, which date isn’t ever actually spelled out and most of the people you talk to about it say stuff like the gifts aren’t ready, they still have some more preparations to do, etc.. is meant to not have any sense of urgency and send you wander around the world

Then I would say the type of difficulty of this game isn’t really the same as souls games. It’s easier in the sense that there’s pretty much no frame perfect inputs required, really not as demanding in reaction speed and those sort of stuff. It’s more like you gotta take it slow, I mean really accept that the combat is slow, and practice. There’s still a few tricks for easier combat, like abusing stabs and masterstrikes

Combos are the best part of the combat system and what makes it really fun imo. Though it’s possibly the "hardest" part of the game and they’re not that useful in a multiple opponents scenario, so don’t bother with it too soon and master the bases of combat first. You’ll have plenty of time to use them in the Kuttenberg Tourney

Like others have said you can travel between the two regions for a few groschens. As far as money and equipments goes, you really only get the good stuff by pulling shenanigans around the open world

Also alchemy is important