The game barely tells you anything and can exceptionally brutal. This in a way makes it that much more gratifying once you complete/beat something.
Just in comparison, I just got done with Uncharted. While it looked great and was technically well done...I could not help but feel I was just running down a pretty path. Nothing challenging other than too many enemies VS not enough ammo.
In DS, they dont even tell you the path of the game. There are several branches/deadends to where you can beat the game and still miss like 40%.
Every enemy is like a boss, small guys on the way to the boss are just minibosses. Anything can kill you easily. Key is just waiting and pattern recognition.
Also, unlike other games that can have very basic or generic hitboxes...if I am infront at X time, I get hit...this game does not. Timing and weapon movement and enemy/yourself placement all add up to a hit or a miss. DS community even have a thing for it, called HitBox Porn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-gRtIbllw0 or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cF-NgCrcQs So like the first boss for example...I assume the tutorial boss you are referring to...the guy hunched over that you pull the sword out. You can side step him easier to your right rather than your left, as he swing from his right. When he transforms, he usually does a big opening swipe...forget which arm, but just strafe to the opposite side of said arm. Again just back to timing and recognizing the patterns.
And yea, supposedly Magic suck for like the first half of the game.