I didn't play Demons Souls so I was no prepared for the ass beating.  

I'm barely into this game, just made it to the bridge with the dragon after getting ass fucked by the Taurus Demon over and over and over and over.   I'm going to go back to the area where the crow drops you off to explore a bit more, I think I missed a few places and people to buy stuff from

I love this game.    Death comes quick but oddly enough it seems fair, not cheap



Any tips for a new player?    

Take your time and prepare for each area before rushing in.
The best starting advice I can give revolves around getting the Drake's Sword early so here you go.

While you are in Undeadberg (the starting castle-like area) stop by the merchant and purchase a short bow and a bunch of arrows, like hundreds. Go back to the bridge with the red wyvern and run past the undead guys to go dead the steps to the right. Go down and to the left and kick the ladder down so you can have a shortcut to Undeadberg. Then step back into the under part of the bridge and shoot arrows at the wyverns tail until it falls off. This can take a shit load of arrows if your Dex is low but it can be done. Do not give up, the Drake's Sword with be the best weapon you will find for a long way into the game.

Once you get past  blight town you might want to start looking for another weapon at that point.

If your on PS3 add ShredGuitar and I can jump in through summonings and help you with bosses.

I played demon souls a couple of months ago so I feel your pain.  Starting out will require some strategy.  I first chose a useless class and it was all discouraging.

That game... ahhh. Yeah definitly get the drake sword.

Drink a beer, have fun dying.

You will most likely play through that game more than once, it is pretty cool.

I used a Thief build and first tried to dual wield daggers and got my ass handed to me regularly.

Estoc (as high as you can get it) + shield + ability to fast roll = hard to get beaten

Dark Souls is way harder than Demon Souls.

Having played Demon Souls it helped, but wasn't enough to be "good" in Dark Souls.

Taurus Demon on the bridge:  As soon as you come out of the white into the fight with him, run down the little stairs and turn right.  There's a ladder that goes up on the tower you came out of.  Use that to jump down to attack the demon.  Massive damage.

As for the rest, just play and get souls.  Level your character up and get some good armor/weapons.  The Drake sword is nice and very easy to get, just takes a lot of arrows.

Once you understand the controls you're good to go.

Just remember, block first, attack second.  Once you can parry and counter you'll be murdering everything.  

Once you're high enough, you can just run around and 2H kill everything lol, that just takes a while.

got the drake sword, got a decent shield now I just need to find some armor that is worth a damn.    I love this game.    

I managed to not get killed at all last night even though I was up against new enemies and stronger knights, I managed to one hit kill the armored boar that is inside the castle gates where the dragon sits.  

I love the slower pace of this

I made my way down the bridge underneath and shot the dragon....ALOT!!.  Poured myself some coffee and just kept shooting.  I shoot almost everything in a souls game.

Double tap

rang the first bell, not sure where to go so I went below where the ghosts are.   fuck that place.

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure you need to start venturing higher up into the monastery now.



I loved that game. Played through the first few areas for dozens of hours leveling up. Then I got to the gargoyle fight and got my ass handed to me more times than I could count. Got discouraged and started playing some other game that came out about the same time and never went back to it.  



 

I do not know how i did it but I beat the two gargoyles very fast and without dying.  

I just sat there like

I couldn't believe that I didn't die

I wish I could say the same! I never even downed one of the pair. I don't know what it was about them that was so hard, because I didn't have near the issues with the other bosses up to that point.



 

Summon the NPC knight to help you, sit back and hit them with lightning wands (or something, I forget).

The ghosts are fucking ridiculous.

Capra demon or whatever it is is a motherfucker,  you go through the white light and bam guy is already try to shank you