...so help me do so.

There are lot of things in this game that I like: the humor that went into it, the artdesign, the basic concept. But I have one big issue with it; the combatgameplay, which is seems to be solely designed with the goal of causing the player as much frustration as possible.

I'm currently in Stone's flying fortress and got myself stuck in a section with a whole hord of enemies that will do one of two things the moment I go around a corner. Hit me with a bazilion magic blasts that'll both stunlock and kill me. Or hit me repeatedly with rushs that will also stunlock and kill me.
After dying and reloading a couple of times it suddenly hit me: I wasn't having any fun whatsoever playing this. Now I know that with a lot of patience I can get lucky and win this. But that's just it, I'll win through luck and abusing AI exploits. That's not exactly the most satisfying of experiences.

My problem is that combat feels completely unfair. Enemies can just hit you from out of nowhere with the player having no warning, nor the abilities to block anything.

Please note: this isn't a mindless rant. This is a call for help. I really want to enjoy this game, so how do you lot deal with the combat?