I have both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and I've hardly touched them. I've played more Demon’s Souls; I've spent at least ten or more hours into that, but when it comes to that game, that's hardly anything. I've spent at least five in Dark Souls, though I haven't really gone anywhere. I don't know, I know I can beat them if I take the time, and I do think those games are great, but for some reason I don't feel like putting all the time I need to into those. I've read about people going through them at level one, but I imagine I won't do that, not because I can't, but because since I haven't really played them, I can't even imagine doing that.

For me, I want to upgrade as much as I feel is needed, and the biggest problem is sitting for one session just going back and forth in the same area doing that, and I don't know how long it'll take me to want to go to a new section. I just hate the thought of not progressing for a long time. Should I just stop dilly dallying and get through them? The biggest factor in me not wanting to play them is just the time I have to spend playing the game in a small section without progressing further. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but as far as I can tell, the game isn't at all hard to understand. I don't have a problem with games that are long; just how these games make me stay in an area doing the same thing over and over until I'm powerful enough to progress.

Oh, and yes, I know Demon's Souls will be going offline sometime soon.

Yes

EDIT: Also, stop grinding in the same area over and over, just move on to someplace else. You probably shouldn't do 1-1, then 1-2, then 1-3, etc, but try 2-1 after 1-1 and things like that. If an area feels too hard just try somewhere else.

There should be no need to just sit around in one area upgrading. If you want to just play and beat the game, there is no reason to do a ton of grinding. Just play the games.

@NTM: You are never forced to grind, that's just a way to make it easier. Going through an area first try will give you enough souls for the next area easily. It's just hard to do so. The repeats of an area are just to learn the placements and attacks of enemies so you can pass through. That's not really different from other hard games with checkpoints.

Huh, I thought I was approaching it somewhat incorrectly. I guess I'll try to grind less than. Thanks.

@NTM: I can totally understand your approach to the game, it even feels at times like the Souls games push you towards grinding so you can advance. This idea however comes from 'normal' game design, something From Software simply don't do. After a while Dark Souls clicked for me and I realised I didn't need better gear or stats to progress, I just needed to learn new patterns and technique for each enemy. A little time consuming yes, also includes quite a lot of death...but far preferable in my opinion to killing giant rats for 20 hours so I can progress to killing skeletons for 30 more.