Recommended order to clear stages in Demon's Souls?
Generally you want to plan your route based on your class. Each level has different equipment sets lying around for you to pick up. That having been said, I would personally go something like 1-1, 1-2 (1-2 is really quick), 4-1 (so you have access to a good farming spot, plus the regen ring and crescent falchion), 3-1 (there are 2 or 3 armor sets here, and it's not that difficult besides the damn Cthulu heads), then all of 2, the rest of 4, the rest of 3, 5, and then back to 1.
Once you get a little more experience, you're pretty free to go in whatever order you want. The power levels in the stages are all relative (the first section of each stage is weak, second is hard, then there's a boss), so explore a little.
I'm a Royalty and this is how I'm doing it:
1-1. easy level
1-2. tower knight is easy because I can cast / take cover when he shoots his laser
2-1. less linear stage where you need to pull a lot of levers... etc. spider is easy, since you can take cast / take cover when she shoots fireballs (you need to roll to dodge spider webs, or else you get really slow and can't roll)
2-2. this is really a maze, need to be careful and calm when jumping down wooden floors - flamelurker is an easy boss when being a caster (dodge attacks by rolling / cast while he attacks nothing)
2-3 dragon is easy, you use practically no spells to kill him, you need to destroy obstacles on the way to the magical arrow shooters (when you finish shooting the arrows, run up to the dragon's face and cast on him until he dies)
3-1 really annoying octopus monsters that paralyze you when at medium range and then grab you and kill you with their tentacles are walking all over the place, once you get the hang of it, it will be easy for you to kill them. You need to save the magician guy, sage freke for he will teach you most of your spells. (takes long to get the hang of it) this is a jail, cells are filled with treasure and/or bloodthirsty/retarded zombie prisoners. to kill fool's idol you must kill the old man in the second floor near the boss, even though he says he's just a humble servant (he's lying)
3-2 this level is really annoying because gargoyles can fly away from you and come back, and one-two shot you. Man eater was an extremely difficult boss for me, but once I grabbed the "Warding" spell I got him on the second try (he is a gargoyle/black spider thingies with faces/octopus man... monster. 2 OF THEM SPAWN!!!)
3-3 The Old Monk is an easy boss if you have old spice/fresh spice with you & food in case you get hit. Dodge his attacks by rolling / cast spell (preferably soul ray) and be aware of the balls which float over him, they lock on to you so when he summons them roll like crazy (if you don't have much endurance, wait for the balls to start coming towards you, and then roll) after doing this for a while you will kill him easily.
4-1 rolling skeletons are so annoying, i guarantee you will die many times until you get used to these and learn their tendencies (adjudicator is really easy, shoot at the head from above, move so he doesn't hit you and you'll have him before you can even see him fully)
4-2 watch out for nether ray attacks, they shoot huge spikes at you from the air and are virtually impossible to kill because they are so far away and it's difficult to lock on to them, and even if you do your spell takes time to reach them. there are also these ghosts that "Death" a mob found frequently through out this level will keep spawning until you kill him, then all ghosts will die too. Death gives 4.5k souls including the XP gained from the ghosts. ... haven't kill boss yet...
I haven't gotten further than that, but this is what I plan on doing next:
4-2
4-3
1-3
5-1
5-2
5-3
1-4
I hope this helps a bit.
This is a really old topic, but it's the top result in Google, so I thought I'd share my opinion.
I had a hard time with Demon's Souls back when the game first came out. After playing through Dark Souls (and DS2) and most of Bloodborne, however, the game became much easier.
As others have stated, the enemies in the second level for a given world generally have more HP and deal more damage than their counterparts. If you are able to kill a dregling in 1-1 in a single hit, it might take two hits to kill a dregling in 1-2. Keep this in mind as you progress through the game.
One more thing that I want to mention is that defense in this game helps quite a lot. I don't know the formula for how damage is calculated in Demon's Souls, but it seems as if the game subtracts your defense from the damage an attack is meant to deal to you. In other words, it isn't a percentage-based system.
I ordered the levels based on difficulty (easy -> hard), and arranged them into groups. All of the levels in a given group are similar enough in difficulty such that you may want to do them in a different order based on your build. For example, if you are playing a tanky, melee build, then 4-1 might be easier for you than it would be for a spellcaster.
Tier 1: During this first phase of the game, you will be switching your gear fairly often as you discover new items and refine your playstyle.
1-1: Cling Ring and Purple Flame Shield.
1-2
2-1
3-1
5-1
4-1: You may want to visit this place earlier as it's a great place to farm souls during the early parts of the game.
Tier 2
2-2
2-3 (just a boss fight)
1-3
3-2
3-3 (just a boss fight)
Tier 3
4-2
4-3 (just a boss fight)
5-2
5-3 (just a boss fight)
1-4
This is only my opinion. I must say that after having played through the entire souls series, Demon's Souls is the easiest. However, the real difficulty in a souls game is the learning curve. In other words, the first souls game you play will give you the hardest time.