I don’t know how to explain it well… I can give you an analogy. Think of it as trying to ride an alien ship. You comprehend there’s a system similar to our vehicles (control panel, Captain’s chair, screen, stop/start etc), but it doesn’t look familiar enough to operate on intuition alone.
I would enjoy a video of the gameplay, it can be easier to understand some moments by just seeing “a correct walkthrough”.
P.S. i just realised he game visually reminds me of Contra boss fights🤔