Irritated to say the least

Bought it when it released, and unfortunately... Haven't ever loaded it, until this week.... still in the beginning of the game, on the memories main quest, but have done 13 shrines, Have 5 hearts.

everything, in this game 1 shots me with 5 hearts... Currently have the.... soldier? armor set i bought from a village., Somehow I found 3 modest shrines and a hard one, before I found the easier one(I can almost beat the modest, i was a split second to slow when he shot his beam crap at me with one hit remaining...)

Some pointers would be helpful, I have stayed the Main quest for now and am just exploring, right now i am in the process of lighting the furnace for the ancient equipment guy since my inventory is full of the ancient pieces...