Was very much stuck and even more rusty when I picked up the controller, so I ended up traveling back to Crossroads and Greenpath to get my bearings back. Now I'm on the hunt for pale ore, mask and vessel shards and charms, which means sucking it up and fighting a bunch of optional bosses. Starting to get better at the boss fights, my strategy being loading up on soul/focus-based charms and finding moments to quickly heal up and taking my time/picking my spots for getting my hits in.

Based on what I'm reading, as far as "mandatory" stuff left to complete the base game, all I got left to do is 2 of the 3 dreamers and then the titular boss. I may have to/choose to get through a few optional bosses along the way.