Im currently enjoying there Blue Prince.
There's nothing else like it, it's challenging, and cozy.
If you like playing detective, and bring patience and like exploring and taking notes instead of hyper-focusing on one goal, it's tens of hours of fun.
Yeah, that's what I meant with having notes and pivoting: don't focus on one puzzle like that. Follow all the threads and when you get the chance to make this one happen, do it.
For things related to items, you have an option to make things easier, e.g. I stored the power hammer in the coat check until I got both the coat check and a room I knew I could use the power hammer in. In the like 5 runs in between I just did other stuff, there's always plenty to do.