Couple things.
You're right, it's probably just me needing to learn the system and get into the swing of things... but for that hour, the overwhelming feeling was that I was missing something and didn't understand it. There's the beginning where you're in the dream place or whatever... I'm just trying to understand the game play and download information, but then the menus and items were confusing. Felt totally overwhelmed. I died once and didn't know if I should start back up where I died or go back to the other place and do something there? I remember hearing that you lose things after death but couldn't figure out what that was.
I'm not blaming the game for this, it's more likely that I'm just not used to the genre, but the controls felt wonky. I get to that big guy with the axe, and I could not for the life of me stay clear of his attacks. I move back but not far enough, I try to go to the side and get caught on some box and can't get away. Feels like I kept getting caught on the environment. I get hit once and I'm almost dead. Should I use a spell? What spells do I have? What do they do? And do I even have time to cast one? I dunno, just felt like there was too much going on. Maybe I return to it at some point after studying a Wiki or something. Too many people enjoy this for it to be as bad as it felt.