Dealing with multiple enemies at once

How can I best do this? I got back to the game recently after i quit a few months ago when fighting genichiro (not because i disliked him in particular, but because i felt i wasn't able to enjoy the game a lot at the time since i was getting a bit too annoyed). I was practicing a bit in the castle and had to fight the blue outfit wearing samurai, and the one with the hat, and they kept killing me because they were attacking simultaneously. I was pretty patient with parries but it takes so long to break their stance, and even then, another enemy might attack me while i try to go for the deathblow.

Should I really divide and conquer instead? In the past I would sometimes run back and forth picking them off one by one, but that just doesn't feel like as fun since it can be rather time consuming, but perhaps you're intended to play this way? I really want to like this game because I know I'll fall in love with it if I stick with it (the boss i'm most looking forward to is true corrupted monk)