I bounced off the game a couple of times too. Once it clicks, though, you can't put it down. Same happened for me: ended up playing through the game three times and getting a platinum trophy after ~80h of playing after I had to put the game down three separate times.

If you want to get there, you will at your own pace. Don't feel bad if you don't, though. If FS is so adamant on not adding difficulty sliders, maybe it's just not meant to be