A rather material update to my prior ramble on
Mistover...
This is based on a slightly outdated version (forgot to update my travel system prior to getting onto metered internet...), 1.0.3d, I believe it was, so things should actually be harder than they are now.
So the interface still drives me mad. But considering I don't travel with a mouse and using a touchpad is generally a prelude to failure, a pure keyboard interface works out perfectly fine here. But enough about that.
I've done ~10 maps so far, about 2/3rds on easy and 1/3rd on normal, and I'd have to say that the complaints about how difficult it is... are largely unfounded, as long as you're, uhm, playing it right. And by that, I mean utilizing your skills effectively, not blowing consumables, and not wasting too much time.
Utilizing skills effectively: Stuns are your friend. So is board control, as it means you can AoE. Also, manage your own side of the board-- there are combo skills that require units to be adjacent to certain other units, and some are
strong. My witch, which deals average damage, can open a fight with a full-board AoE that can knock off about half the life from a tanky mob, plus she gets lifedrain from it into the deal. Combo it with a hit from my spikers (one of which lunges, so it can only be used once without repositioning, the other of which requires a 'rage'-like resource... which is fine, since it can kill all non-boss mobs in one hit after my witch attacks anyways) and most fights are done in one turn.
On not wasting consumables: Remember how paranoid you were when just starting Darkest Dungeon, and you'd go in with twenty torches, forty rations, and a howitzer... for a stroll around the block? And by the end of it, you go into your dungeons with four rations (just in case some idiot didn't eat before showing up and got hungry two steps in...) and an extinguished torch for better loot? Yeah, don't play the former. Running out of light is annoying, but you can deal with it, and running out of food just means you stop regenning out of combat and start to degen. By going light on consumables and using spoiled consumables (low efficiency, chance of debuff), you can cut your costs down a lot.
Not wasting time: Saves resources, and if you're not playing on easy, mobs respawn over time. And don't give extra rewards.
There are still a few weird design decisions-- unlike DD, to teach new skills to your units, you need a unit with that skill in your roster already. Which, in my case, has largely meant recruiting somebody, learning the skill, discharging fresh recruit.* If you've managed to beat Darkest Dungeon on normal/hard, or at least get fairly far in it, you shouldn't have a problem here. (As a point of reference-- I've gotten to the Darkest Dungeon on normal, before I lost my save, and now play on Stygian modded to remove deathcount/timer fail... mostly until mid-tier dungeons whereupon I get distracted, and start a new file a few months later.)
*Literally. As in, the game itself kicks out the fresh recruit. For some reason.