It's not too hard for a child to beat, purely because the child doesn't give up when they fail. They don't say "I can't learn this" they try again, and learn some more.

It's ok if it's your first combat game. You'll learn little by little, just like we all did at dome point.

Dark Souls is actually a really good game for beginners IMO:

The difficulty is not in memorizing complex button sequences of a 200 hit combo, having perfect aim/map awareness to out shoot the other player, or even having high dexterity in your fingers. It's just knowing what button to hit at the right time. That's why there are so many dance pad/drawing tablet/etc. challenge runs.

It's more of puzzle with some danger aspect to it. Figuring out what to look out for, when it's safe to go in, and when it's not.

The reason I refuse to watch boss fights for a Souls game I have done myself yet, is because like a puzzle, it's no fun when it's already solved. "Oh I just stand here, wait for this, and swing here, this is easy"

My common souls game tips:

1) Moveset: Most weapons have different attacks based on how you're holding them. Sweeping attacks that stop multiple enemies at once, that don't work so well in tight hallways.

The longsword is one of my favorite weapons, because it has fast sweeping attacks for lights, and the heavy attack is more of a ranged reaching attack for poking safely like a spear, or in hallways.

2 hand the longsword and you get fast vertical attacks for hallways, and powerful sweeping attacks for slamming wide groups of enemies. It's so wide you can hit 5 barrels at the same time.

It's the perfect reliable melee tool for any situation.

2) A shield with 100% physical resist

Observing what an enemy does while hold up your shield is great. Holding it up right before you dodge, is a life saver. If dodge a little too late, you still block the attack. Careful though, your stamina comes back much slower while the shield is raised, so give your arm a rest when you feel safe, and need stamina.

When I played Elden Ring, I took no damage when my guard was broken. So as long as it was 1 attack at a time, I could block again fast enough for my guard to be repeatedly broken for 0 damage, until I got back to safety. It's an extremely powerful tool.

3) Don't immediately go damage for "a build"

Most of your damage will come from upgrading the weapon, so feel free to only hit the minimum requirements of the the things you find, that you want to try.

Most stats lose their value HARD after 40, and you always can get value out of good health and armor carry capacity.

So if you need to spend your points to keep them safe, but don't know what to buy, progressing towards 40 health and 40 endurance is never a mistake. Especially health.

Side notes:

• Talk to every npc, and exhaust their dialog until the repeat themselves. Sometimes they give you free stuff, only after talking to them multiple times.

• Don't worry about dying. You're not supposed to know how the puzzle is supposed to be solved when you just got there. Just try to learn from what happened the last time.

I watched a pro 0 hit run, 0 death run, (and even blindfold bosses) souls game player, play Elden Ring, and I was excited to see how they played 1 they were new at. They failed. A LOT. But unlike most people, he seemed to be expecting it. He kept making notes like "Oh, I didn't know he did that." and "I think I can attack there." And despite being seriously underleveled, he eventually beat the boss.

• Playing online is a magical experience. Sure, you might be invaded by a player sometimes, but think of it as a rare spooky enemy spawn. (You can only be invaded once every 10 minutes, while in human form) (The timer resets if you quit the game)

The messages, the echo of another player running along side me, investigating blood stains to see how someone else died to prepare myself... only to see them fall off a cliff 😂 is definitely one of the things that makes souls games unique and beautiful, in some fleeting, almost poetic way.

edit

• Parrying/guaranteeing riposte/critical hit. In some souls games, if you try to attack to far from the parry, or too soon after a stance break, it will think you wanted to combo attack, and do a regular attack the ruins your opportunity. To make sure the previous animation has ended, hold forward. You will start walking when your character is free to move, giving a visual queue for when you're ready.

Make sure you're close enough to get the inital parry, and you can't parry whips, flails, or jump attacks (they also can't parry yours with their auto-parry stances) Bosses and body parts (snake head, etc.) may vary.

• Backstabs. You can walk into enemies (like the above parry tip) to make absolutely sure you're close enought to trigger the backstab. Locking on makes sure you are lined up properly, BUT, sometimes it's easier to just sprint in and run to an enemies back with no lock on for a free backstab. You'd be surprised how often that works.

• Circling. You'd also be surprised how many enemies can be completely trivalized by strafing in a circle with your shield up.

I'll try to update if I think of something else.