The souls games are in essence a very well implemented puzzle. They require thought and planning and execution.
Making an easy or normal mode would be the same as if a rubick's cube had an easy mode, or driving on the highway had an easy mode.
The easy mode is just running blindly and dying, and then restarting.
The hard mode is anticipating what's around the corner and staying alive.
EDIT: I see someone talking about the dragon on the bridge. (also I believe you're talking about demon's souls because in dark souls you respawn right there)
Well, had you been paying attention to
A) the way up to the bridge, you see both dragons on a perch among smoldering corpses
B) when reaching the bridge, hearing loud flapping sounds and seeing the dragon fly over to the bridge
You might have had a good chance at realizing that the dragon follows where you go, and you have enough time to sprint the bridge after it returns to the perch.
The point is, In a souls game, your environment is important. It's not just pretty impotent scenery like in most games. If you see a fire torched room, chances are, you'll probably deal with some fire thing. If you see a lot of dead bodies, there might be something there. On top of which, you have all these messages from players who actually already died, usually telling you what to do, or seeing ghosts in their final moments.
Easy mode: messages from other players, ghosts, no soul loss from dying
Normal mode: messages from players, ghosts
Hard mode: no messages or ghosts, xp loss, level restart on death
