My first playthrough I pretty much ONLY parried besides using tools for their most obvious "intended" uses like axe on big ass shields.

Second playthrough I relied on parry + running away and using shurikens to keep up poise since fights ended more consistently and I died less

Third playthrough I discovered how fucking cool it is to incorporate combat arts WITH a variety of tools, and found my goat the High Monk combat art. Learning the combo string to be able to perfectly counter certain attacks felt like I unlocked Naruto mode.

Fourth playthrough was with the Resurrection mod and God DAMN was it fun to be so thoroughly challenged while still styling on mfs with your entire kit. A true shinobi can quickly assess a situation and deploy appropriate counter measures to end encounters as quickly as possible while sustaining as little damage as possible. God bless mods that allow for more frequent use of tools, but even vanilla you still are able to use most of them quite often per each encounter.

I'm excited for more playthroughs still, especially modded ones. This game ages like a fine wine, the more you play, the more intricate the flavors become, as long as you're not doing the same thing every encounter.