That sucks. I'm not into hack and slash games so idk most of them. DS1 in particular was really bad with checkpoints. Especially my first time through when I played blind and missed several hidden bonfires. I had to run all the way through the catacombs because I didn't know you can survive the drop into the area with the blacksmith guy. But even knowing all the check points it's still a pain to speedrun past all the enemies that respawn in several places to get to bosses like Seath or Nito. DS3 had some unnecessary bonfires (so did DS1 to be fair) but at least it had enough.
Hack 'n' slash games are kind of niche the way I see it. They're a bit more prominent with the internet giving more exposure to them with an infamous example being DmC: Devil May Cry and big names being made into hack 'n' slash games like Fire Emblem Warriors, Fist of the North Star, Hyrule Warriors, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or their characters being guests in other games like Bayonetta, Dante, Kratos, and Raiden have all been recent guest characters where Raiden's appearance was probably the least memorable since Playstation All-Stars wasn't that big from what I remember.
So, hack 'n' slash games can be divided into two types of games. Technically three since games like Diablo are sometimes called hack 'n' slash games, but they're mainly RPGs, so I don't know why they're sometimes called hack 'n' slashes. Anyway, the first type was the one I was talking about where they can be difficult, especially on harder difficulties, they have extensive move lists, and they're kind of like "singleplayer fighting games". For one, Ryu Hayabusa's move list in the Team Ninja Ninja Gaiden games is similar to a Dead or Alive character's move list which considering they're both made by Team Ninja is kind of expected. The second are more like crowd beat 'em ups where you do have a move list, there are bosses in some of the games, but they're mainly focused on you being able to destroy an army, rack up a massive kill count, and gameplay usually takes place on large maps rather than levels that you progress through like in God of War. Some of them are grindy as a result, but it's in a fun way where you can kick back and relax. Also, you can sometimes learn a bit of history or literature such as from the Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games.
For a regular playthrough, games of the first type aren't that bad. It's when you're dealing with harder difficulties or some of the older games that you might encounter some issues. I know people have said that Master Ninja mode for the Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 are hell, but normal difficulty is simply difficult.