I didn't find the boss encounters in this game were as hard as Dark Souls overall, but some of the areas themselves felt a lot more frustrating. Smoldering Lake and Irithyll (and dungeon) were the worst.

For this reason I was way more liable to summon in Dark Souls 3. I'm sure I'd eventually overcome bosses like Pontiff and the Dancer on my own, but I've already had my "Dark Souls" moment--long ago when I played the original the first time. I don't really have a need to stubbornly beat the game's challenges without help anymore, so I'll give a boss the old college try a couple times before just bringing in a Sunbro or two and walloping it with steel chairs.

The new frustration, for me, is the Dragonarmor fight. The real battle is against the stupid stuttering frame rate. At one point, everything stopped moving. When everything was back in motion, I was dead.

Those fucking crabs in Smouldering Lake, and that giant arbalest. And killing the crabs was completely pointless too.

Getting to it and shutting it down is the most pleasurable experience in the entire game. Making it through the Demon Ruins is also pretty neat. I just need to grow a pair and get those items in the lava. I wonder what they are, or if they're even worth the effort.

I stumbled upon it by accident. Although it did help out with the worm.

It took all the way until Nameless King for me to finally feel frustration. I felt annoyance at various points (bad poison areas still being a thing, fireballs and arrows clipping through geography still not being fixed), but that boss got me less frustrated with him and more at the game. The half second of either input delay or roll startup started to really get to me in that fight given how quickly they want you to react. As soon as that got in my head, I just started playing sloppy. I don't tend to get frustrated at challenge in these games, but rather when I start fighting design issues.

Anyway, I'm going to give him another shot after I've cleared some more of the game.