Half of mine are too...

The other half are Ornstein and Smough before I got really pissed and erased them from Lordran forever >_>

Don't you forget them hallos, one mistake and you get destroyed, by a broken sword....

It feels like Dark Souls :'D

Fast travel from the start is good thing for those who find it tedious to navigate back and forth. No issue for me. The leveling up system got me by surprise since I didn't know the female character levels you up; a nice Demon's Souls touch right there.
Yes I am finding it more difficult than Dark Souls. I hope this difficulty remains consistent with the rest of the game (later enemies to be specific).
As far as visuals, it's not a big improvement over Dark Souls. I can recognize some small improvements but nothing like the developer said we'd notice when we first played it. Also, the sound is not perfectly at sync sometimes for me; it's not a constant issue, more like rarely, a sound would be off by a second or two (whether it's a bad guy dying or the sound of the sword slashing, etc.).

Finally, world/level/game design is all great. I'm only 3hrs in, at the second boss, but I'm already hooked but school is keeping me from continuing at the moment.

Picked up the game day one, I've got about 8 hours in so far. Started as "deprived" with the petrified thing as my gift. Just reached soul level 51, splitting my points between str, dex, vitality and endurance. Rocking a mace +4. Beaten 4 bosses so far. Enjoyed the hell out of every minute of it!

Very early impressions (just reached the start village).

Very dark at the start, first death was 5 seconds in, walked of the edge of the start plateau. Adjust gamma.

The tutorial area was a bit of a disaster as I 'missed' the first door on the left (went into my standard follow the right wall explore mode) and had no clue what the controls were upon reaching the first enemies. So I stand there pressing square and other buttons hoping something happens, death 2, and wasted half the life gems. (which I keep wasting as square for attack is hard-wired into my brain)

More random pressing later I discover R1 is cast spell, no clue how to aim it, death 3. Slowly approaching seems to guide the magic missiles the right way, that will do for now. A new clue says press L3 to jump when dashing. No clue how to dash, I try running and L3, nope, death 4. O seems to roll but can't figure out what the dash button is. I go up the ladder instead.

Anyway it wraps around and a bit later I decide to go in the first door on the left where I find the explanation for basic controls. I still die again trying to jump as I slide of a ledge on landing. And another death running too close to some big stone monster that simply grabs me. Going back there they turn out to be easy to kill using the terrain and casting magic missile a bunch of times. No clue what lying in the coffin is for, long load screen, no change. I die again exploring the water when I suddenly fall through.

Upon reaching the village some killer pigs try to take me out, but by now I know how to disengage lock on and dash away. I blast them for almost no reward. It seems there are plenty of ways to go from here. I talk to level-up lady, I'm lvl 11 already apparently, no clue what attributes to put where. This is probably where I screw up my character like I did in Dark souls with my first character.

First impressions, ugh it's ugly. Still it instantly gives me that itch to explore. Only working out that whole spreadsheet part of the game again is turning me a bit off. (Hence I'm on vgchartz while a big block of numbers is displayed on the tv screen)

but i likes me some swordfightin'. leaning towards swordsman.

The game is great. Definitely still feels like Dark Souls. I like that it's a lot smoother and the gameplay is tighter. There are some great new mechanics that they've added. I've down 10 bosses so far, 20 ingame hours though probably closer to 14-16 as I leave it idle. As for difficulty, as others have said, I think if you've played enough of demon/dark souls you should be able to move through this one at a solid pace. Not that it's easy, just that we've been conditioned for patience and observing the environment. Feels like there are tons more people calling out traps and treasures compared to when dark souls launched, so that helps as well.

They should definitely release on next gen, I already want to get it on PC as well. If a nextgen version came out, I'd sell to a friend and upgrade.

Amazing, now gotta go play some more cya!

can someone confirm if human effigy game mechanic is rubbish or not as things like that put me off

can someone explain exactly how it works

waiting for pc version