A good strategy I used was to wield a spear as my weapon. It's a great weapon cause you can just keep your shield up giving you some protection while attacking at the same time.

Also try to keep your equippable weight below half so you can move around easier, as its more beneficial to dodge an attack than it is to block it. Hope that helps.

I hope you know that when you die, you can go back and collect the souls you lost at the spot you perished. If you die on the way to that however, you'll lose it forever.

Oh an even though some may say that 1000 souls is nothing, at the beginning of the game it's definitely something.

What DAM, i could of got those souls back if i knew that, oh well. 

Well at least you know what to do now. Of course knowing how things are, you're bound to die in the most ridiculous way possible on route to retrieving your souls.

true it only makes going back for them and dying even worst because the game teases you into to thinking you can get them back. 

you can also get people in to help you on levels i think,the game is pretty hard though,people claiming it isn't are being a bit silly