Are you playing on PC? If so, did you have to mess around to get it playable? I heard that the PC port of Dark Souls was kinda terrible, but I'd like to see what all the hype is for myself.
Here's how I experienced DS - playing it on PC right off the bat shows a myriad of problems, big and small - resolution settings kinda faking the actual set resolution, stuttering, mouse cursor in-game and lock-on problems to name the most jarring. Not completely horrible, the game is still good enough to make you wanna play it, but after a while I deleted my first character because deep down I just wasn't so pleased with this game to really get connected to her.
However, after some time off, I decided to play again, this time fully modding it with necessary fixes and boy oh boy did t become an actual JOY to get destroyed in-game. Seriously, it was just after that did I realize how fluid combat system really is. No more game deciding to change targets mid-strike, no more plummeting to death because of 0.5s stutter. Also, I play it with keyboard + mouse and I see absolutely no reason to switch to gamepad.
So my advice - search for dsfix and dscfix, it will make the whole experience just so much better. Dunno how JoshuaFH managed to play without those two though, maybe it's hardware related.
I beat Dark Souls! Just me and my 15+ Large Club originally pilfered off a mutant barbarian, and I pound my way through all the bosses with relative ease. Just one tenderizing strike at a time, and a little help from Solaire.
Feelin accomplished, even though there is still SO MUCH CONTENT I haven't even looked at yet. Time to continue rolling through NG+ or a new character alltogether.
You know, reading your past DS-related posts, it feels like we are almost playing a different game... Like I'm loosing too much time grinding for souls and playing to carefully to dare and explore much... Dunno what I'm doing wrong, but it's really interesting. I should really get back to DS and finally finish it.