About the Walkthrough Progression

So I'm looking at the current walkthrough progression from place to place, and I notice that darkroot garden and darkroot basin are placed quite a while down the road, and in my opinion, at least Darkroot Garden (if not Darkroot Basin as well) should be placed before the depths and perhaps even the Lower Undead Burg. That's how I went and it made the Depths much less scary to have moss clumps on hand and I honestly don't think I EVER would have made it through blightown without a serious handful of moss clumps and blooms. Sure you can buy them, but why do that when you'll get a bountiful supply from Darkroot Garden? I've hardly used moss clumps since then.

Aside from the annoying titanite Demon, which can be killed with a range weapon or just run past entirely, Darkroot Garden is pretty well scaled for a soul level just coming out of the undead parish. At least it was for me.

Of course, the area behind the Gate of Artorias should be separated and done later since it's far harder than the rest of the area, but I'm not exactly sure when since I only did it once I needed to go to New Londo and that seemed a bit late.

The Basin is another question. I did it right after Darkroot Garden and while the Crystal Golems weren't too scary, especially when they could be killed with relative ease by getting them stuck off a ledge and slowly hacking/shooting away without much risk, dealing with them and the Hydra was rather difficult. I would say I was far underpowered to face the Hydra, and I only killed it by using the "shoot it behind a rock" trick, so while it's doable at low levels, it's kind of risky and not intended.

My final question is where to place the Lower Undead Burg. The enemies up until the Capra Demon aren't too hard if you're careful, and only have some bleed abilities, no poison. However, the Capra Demon was really hard for me, and I decided to not even face him until I had finished my business in Darkroot Basin so I'm unsure as to what level IS a good level to fight him. Additionally, right after the Capra Demon nearing the Depths, you come across enemies that CAN poison you, but they aren't particularly difficult and they are few and far between.

Your thoughts? Should DRG and DRB be relocated and if so, where to?

That progression is a beginner guide recommeneded by the developers themselves and is done so to provide a blend of lore cohesion as well as scaling. As a result, tweaking it for a first playthrough for an optimally tweaked challenge would undermine the story's progression which has more impact on the first playthrough. The intermediate and advanced route suggestions place the Forest significantly earlier in the path because it is assumed the player is not looking for lore cohesion at that point.

Wait... there's lore in this game?!?! Just kidding. But hmm, the lore didn't really seem to be so linear to me. I mean, the lore present in Darkroot Garden or Darkroot Basin isn't dependent on any lore from Blighttown and vise-verse; most of the lore in Dark Souls is more wibbly-wobbly, timy-wimy stuff. Like a giant bowl of spaghetti, there just isn't one noodle you can follow to reach the bottom of the bowl. In my opinion, there's no real linear series of places you can go to experience the lore from start to finish and even then there will always be stuff you miss the first time around. To try and do otherwise is, in my opinion, folly.

But, on that note, most beginners to the series this late in the game are probably more interested in the gameplay, and a progression that nicely balances gameplay difficulty for those beginners is important to me. People will pick up and be immersed in the story as is, without the need to direct exactly where they go and what to see. Honestly, if I were really interested in the story from the get-go, a walkthrough is the last thing I would want, since it would make me dependent on a guide to tell me what story to see, instead of me exploring this vast world myself.

But, that's just me. I'm not an organizer or anybody important like that, and I don't represent the community; this post was only to see what everyone thought about it. Clearly, we have one vote for, and one vote against changing the current progression (not that all votes are the same).

We just decided to go with From Soft's direct recommendation. If that is their vision, then we will respect it and present it in that order. I won't argue with the game's designers. Plus, they made it easier by sparing us the headache of organizing the pathway ourselves, which will always ultimately be a subjective experience. We will retain the progression exactly the way it currently is, but I do appreciate your insights.

Aight. Just thought I'd bring it up.