In Search of Username said:
Most of the mechanics of Dark Souls. Seriously, they say 'At this bonfire you can perfom the rite of unhollowing' and give ZERO EXPLANATION OF WHAT THAT MEANS. I love the game's difficulty in general, but difficulty created by simply not explaining the basic concepts of the game at any point is just bad game design.
Did you figure out how to cast magic? Because that was what killed the game for me. I got to level 50-something and could never figure out how to use magic. No instruction beyond, "Oh, just equip a staff/spell." Okay, so why, when I equip said item, does my character stand there and scratch his head? I thought, "Oh, just increase my stats. Probably don't have the right point level for that." Nope. Increased everything magic-related, and still just head scratching. A tutorial would have been an amazing help--just a simple healing spell would have been enough. Instead, I try asking for help and got this:
"I don't want to ruin the game for you."
My friends, and anyone else I asked, gave me a vague idea of how to do it, but no one ever told me HOW to do it. The game was already ruined when every time someone attacked me, they could kill me from half way across the field. People would often ask, "How are you level 58 and don't know how to use magic?" Because the game never TOLD me how to use it. Clearly there was more to it than just getting a staff. Considering this, I'm surprised the game told you what button was used to swing your damn weapon. As you said, a game that is hard because it's HARD is fun (I like my Ninja Gaiden games), but a game that's hard because nothing is explained is not fun, it's annoying.
I gave up and traded the game in without a second thought.