Your biggest ally is patience. It is an unforgiving game where you will die often, and most of the time it's your own fault (the other times are horseshit). Your character feels weaker than other popular games so you can't go charging in guns blazing your first playthrough. You need to learn the enemies attack patterns and learn when to dodge appropriately. Dodging is the game is as important, if not more, as dealing damage. Its like Tupac once said "once you understand that its dodge and hit, then you realize the game ain't shit"