Try a spear build, i played 150 hours with the Kusarigama and the moment i changed to spear the game became way easier. But tbh i only changed to it on NG+2.

@Zguvat
Lol I'm just shit at the game, I think. And I was pretty far in (got stuck fighting the spear boss in the Sekigahara level), so it's too late for me to respec.

@McBuscus69 its never too late bro, if you use Magyo and Ninjutsu the game gets easy. You have some scrolls that revive you 3 times and the sloth talisman will slow down any enemy making them an easy target. On human opponets use spear with the spearfall ability equipped.