Demons souls doesnt explain any fucking thing. Theres a lot that would take incredible effort to figure out on your own, I think they intended for it to take a community to get things figured out together.

Its been a really long time but I remember theres a ring in the first area that lets you have a lot more health while unkindled or whatever they call it in that one. Its sort of secret, I think just before the first boss in that area you drop down a hole into a room. For me at the time this was a major boon.

I also found it way easier to start as a spellcaster. Many traps and fights are easier from a distance or by using magic to bait enemies out so you can fight one on one and avoid group ambushes. There really is so much trial and error in this one, you are going to get blasted and have to memorize it all.

There are a lot of NPC phantoms that only appear with certain world tendencies, usually full white or full black. Its really a major bitch to get everything because of the effort to manipulate it. I made it through most of the game without even realizing what was happening. I do remember in the last area farming flying manta ray things and using black world tendency to get more souls so theres that if you get desperate. Good luck!