Just realized that K's been posting in the Dark Souls thread. The thread title is rather misleading.
Well, I just finished the game. I'm on my New Game + now at level 90, 98 hours in. This is one of the best games I've ever played. It has a few disappointments, like framerate issues in a couple areas, the ending I got (1 of 2) being a 10-second cutscene of basically nothing, and the last boss being excruciatingly difficult if you're taking him alone and don't have enough poise to avoid stumbling on some of his rougher attacks, but by and large I am supremely satisfied. Beautiful environments, great visual design, amazing-amazing-amazing level design, brilliant music, satisfyingly deep gameplay with loads of options, tons of weapons/armor/items/spells to use and abuse, and a crapton of different enemy designs and awesome bosses. The game seems almost to grow as you go through the end, even when you think you've seen everything, and I kept finding new surprises, including a couple of late-game shockers that blew my mind a little bit.
The story is very sparse, but it's there if you pay attention, read item descriptions, kind of feel your way around the world a little bit, there's more to it than what first appears. Not everything is explained, but that mystery is part of the draw. They do a great job of giving your brain little things to chew on and wonder about. No, it isn't "story" in terms of a strong narrative, but it adds a wonderful sense of place and makes the world seem more grounded than it might otherwise.
Also, the game isn't nearly so hard as people say it is. Sure, it can be rough in spots, and if you do stupid things you can make life a bit more difficult for yourself, but on the whole this is not a soul-crushingly difficult game. It's a good, mostly fair level of challenge, and all the obstacles are surmountable without making you want to commit suicide. The last boss is literally the only bit of controller-throwing frustration I experienced, and I did manage to take care of him in coop which was totally fun and didn't feel like a cheat or anything. There's something awesome about the coop and PvP in these games. I don't know why, but they're thrilling, I guess because of how limited the multiplayer systems are. Everyone feels legitimate because you can't listen to them talk and say stupid shit, you just have what's almost an NPC, and you try to watch out for each other and do your best, and there's no prejudice or irritation getting in the way. The PvP can be rough for sure, but I've had almost as many good experiences as bad, and have done a little invading myself and it's pretty fun!
So yeah, this blows out of the water nearly every game I've played in I don't know how long. Great, great game, and makes a lot of other stuff seem really stupid in retrospect. I did spend more time with Skyrim overall, but not by much, which shows you just how much there is to Dark Souls, and my heart was racing through a good number of those 90+ hours.
Pick it up! If you have any interest or curiosity, give it a shot.
EDIT - Reading over this thread again (also merged with the other one we had), a couple things:
Firstly, now that I'm so familiar with the game, I can say that the goofy image of the checkpoint progression is actually hyperbole. I mean, it could go that way, but if you did it that way first, you'd learn not to the second time. The undead with firebombs are pretty much optional and not a big deal, the black knight is avoidable, and before you even get to the dragon you can knock down a shortcut to the previous checkpoint that will get you right back to that spot if you die.
Also X, I'm playing a New Game + now and was back in the asylum, and I guess you weren't reading the tutorial messages. The one in front of the first boss literally tells you how to do the plunging attack, and it's two feet before the spot where you're supposed to do it.
