Hard because of the bad design rather than difficulty
This game is good, but only for masochists...
It's really hard, definitely the hardest game I played, like ever. But what makes it WAY harder isn't just hard difficulty, it's poor design.
Camera works against you most of the time, lock on system is amazingly bad, you literally have to turn DIRECTLY towards your desired target for lock on to work... even 1% different angle won't work... 70% of the time your spells will hit invisible walls or curve around so they hit the corner of a building or a wall... or simply fly up or down instead of forward... (and yes, I do know sorcery spells are for long distance... which isn't that long btw)
Commands are unresponsive and movements slow...
Controls are bad and you can't change them.
For a hard game all these things are important to work good, so I personally couldn't overlook them.
It's not all bad tho... level design is great, game looks interesting. Graphic isn't the best out there... it's average standard, but that's good enough. Sound is ok too...
Game forces you to farm for souls, which I hate in every rpg... (so I never do it) or simply endure to the point where you can perform the item duplication glitch/cheat and get infinite souls and build your character to the max and buy all best items and equipment...
All in all... there are so many other games to play right now. Dark souls just isn't worth my effort...