I'm playing on hard difficulty and considering my limited experience with RPG, I think I'm doing quite good. I have played the souls series, skyrim and a bit of dragon dogma and that's it. Those are my only RPG experience. Even though the controls are nothing to brag about, there are 2 things that keep me going for more:
1. A lot of exploration.
2. Even the side quests are enjoyable to play, it's not boring and repetitive like most sandbox games this days.
I'm hook and I don't think I will play another game for a very long time.