Dark Souls is a game which thrives on its secrecy. The obfuscation of all information beyond the absolute bare essentials is one of the game’s most celebrated (and most complained about) aspects.
This creates an incredibly immersive feeling, for the player, as both they and their direct stand in have practically no information about the world, and must discover its secrets and intricacies in much the same way that a hypothetical “real” inhabitant of Lordran would. They must talk to other people, piece things together from the vague scraps of information littered about the world, and a lot of the time, quite literally bash their head against a wall to find invisible paths, blocked off with illusory walls. These walls, literal hidden paths, are only revealed by the player attacking them, and they are very often not placed in obvious spots, further boosting the sense that any corner or seemingly innocuous room could contain some great secret.
A player who comes to learn about the world and its intricacies is at a massive advantage when making their way through the game, just as any real person would be while exploring and interacting with the world.
The overall vibe that this creates serves to really sell the oppressive and downright hostile atmosphere of the world, and it makes the overcoming of the world not exclusively mechanical. While the player overcomes physical roadblocks in the form of enemies, the mental roadblocks they encounter, which they overcome through the slow accumulation of information, really helps to sell the feeling of conquering the world.
