No, because on games that are average difficulty, critics bitch about the games being too hard. 

Like I said in another thread, Dark Souls 2 is g oing to be a good game because of its combat system and design, however critics are going to rate it in the 90s probably because of the high difficulty.  Anything that is a really high difficulty, regardless if it's good or not seems to be hyped up by the press because high difficulty is the in thing now.

I personally dislike this new mechanic a lot. In Demon Souls you lost half of your lifebar when you were in your soul form (which you could make only 25% by wearing a ring) but that was a one time penalty. Its not like every time you died your lifebar got smaller and smaller.

This new mechanic will make me even more paranoid to do anything in the game. I guess it all depends how rare that replenishing item is because if it is really rare, this could break the game for some players...I guess they made the overall game easier which evens this out a bit but I still don't think this is a good mechanic.

Otherwise, I still need to get around to playing Dark Souls so it may take me quite some time to get to this game...

that's not possible, you can complete any level of Demon's Souls at lvl1 and with start equip, because the game is not character lvl/equip lvl dependend, it's only knowledge dependend (not really "skill", because there are no hard to execute moves/combos, it's just simple knowledge of enemy patterns)

No, because on games that are average difficulty, critics bitch about the games being too hard. 

Like I said in another thread, Dark Souls 2 is g oing to be a good game because of its combat system and design, however critics are going to rate it in the 90s probably because of the high difficulty.  Anything that is a really high difficulty, regardless if it's good or not seems to be hyped up by the press because high difficulty is the in thing now.

Is not basically what I said but with more words?xD

Looks like another winner, great end to a generation.