I see. I have a lot of PC games that I feel control much better with a gamepad. It's a third person action game with analog character movement. In this case an analog stick is far superior than WASD movement/modifier keys.
Well, one way has incredibly durable skeletons who can kill you in two hits, and another way has the same enemies that you fought in the tutorial... It's not that obtuse.
- Demon Firesage isn't particularly weak to fire. And what does it matter? You don't need a fire weapon to kill him. You also don't need to parry Gwyn to beat him, so why does it need to be spelled out? Although there is often a message by the door that says Try Parrying.
The game isn't really about trying a bunch of stuff until you find the "right" way to beat an area. If you think your best bet is to go everywhere and pick up every item, then you don't have a very good understanding of the character building mechanics. Of course the game does not go out of its way to explain its mechanics, and whether that is genius or bad design is up to you I guess. There are plenty of other games that hand-hold and don't have the time investment requirement of Dark Souls. I feel like Dark Souls respects the player much more than those games, because you truly do have the freedom to make your own choices.