Darkest Dungeon has defeated me, and I’m ok with that.
I’ve been playing and greatly enjoying the new Radiant mode, which reduced some of the grind in DD, mostly in how many dungeon runs you need between a fresh recruit and one ready for the final dungeon, which in the original mode was simply way too many. Radiant isn’t any easier though, just a bit shorter on the most repetitive parts of the game. It’s a great addition, and makes a game that was a lot of fun but a bit too long, pretty much perfect IMO.
That said, I’m not going to finish it. I successfully beat the first (of four) final dungeon, but after two attempts wasn’t able to beat the second. I know I could, if I bring the right party with the right trinkets, but even in Radiant mode getting those specific characters ready for the final dungeon was just asking too much from me at that point. I had the town mostly maxed out, beaten all but two of the side bosses, and had basically seen everything in the game save for the final dungeons.
There is also no guarantee that, had I put the correct party together, I’d been successful anyway. The difficulty is high on the final runs, you can’t get stronger, and so luck (RNG) plays a larger role. This isn’t to say its all luck, or even mostly, but getting virtue on your first character is a massive swing, for instance, and that’s mostly down to the RNG gods.
So I went online and watched a video of the final encounter and the ending to the game, which was basically what I expected it to be. ‘Cheating’ a bit, but it closes the circle with DD for me, and I can move on, at least until the expansion is finally released.
Plus the final update to Battle Brothers is out (in beta mode), and oh god is it good.
Hardcore Casual 
I had a similar experience with that game. Except I was ready to do the Darkest Dungeon when it wasn’t in the game yet. Last week or so I watched Zeke on Twitch finish it up, close enough for me. I’ll have to take another gander at Battle Brothers. I don’t know if you’ve checked out Blackwake yet but it is pretty fun, save for the cancer kids (such is life).
If you haven’t played DD since they added the final dungeon, I’d highly recommend playing it again, A LOT has changed since you played.
I’ve seen Blackwake on Steam, but really don’t want to jump into such an early EA game.
I’ve dabbled a bit but my biggest time investment was when it was still early access. Maybe the Radiant update will make it easier on me whenever I give it another go.
As for Blackwake, I hear ya. But I also heard in Twitch chat (so its gotta be true) that it isn’t nearly as bad as some EA games. I had some fun in it last night, it seems like most things work properly, only thing I really noticed was a slight delay switching weapons. Like if you hit 4 but meant to hit 5 so you hit 5 immediately it will still pull out item 4, then you gotta hit 5 again to go to 5. Once you get a feel for it though and at least get a captain that isn’t mad about being alive it can be pretty cool.
i had similar experience (but before patch you mention). final dungeon was just too brutal and one wipe would destroy so much progress. having to level up guys back to max level and have just the right mix/equip while suffering things like the city invasion happening over and over just wore me down to not wanting to play.