Yeah, caster makes Demon and Dark 1 super easy in comparison to melee. My current Souls 1 run has me playing an almost pure fighter for the first time ever and not using any kind of ranged damage or attack spells. In the past I'd always run a battlemage type deal and melee with damage spells if it got tough. This time around all I have are the gravelord AOEs which have like, two uses and aren't actually that good except to show off by annihilating a bunch of smaller mobs. Using them actually makes things tougher because of the long cast time. So I've been forced to really learn boss patterns in a way I didn't in the past, and with the higher framerate I can keep up with it pretty well. Have one of the four Lord Souls down (Bed of Chaos) now.
As for the messages and whatnot, I gotta say, the trollyness of messages is off the charts now compared to the times I played the PS3 version in the past. Constantly seeing "illusory wall" messages in front of normal walls which just wastes time, "try jumping" next to death pits, and freaking "nothing here" in front of actual illusory walls and hidden loot. It's to the point where when I see a message, there's a greater than 50% chance that the opposite is true.
