Dreams of Yesterday -- could use some guidance

So I started playing ST's updated version of DoY -- and holy cow, it's definitely a "classic" quest in the sense of having super-hard enemies and unclued combo flags everywhere. I just beat the haunted train station and am moving on to the next area (graveyard) but if anybody could give me some advice about what major items I should be able to find before which dungeons, that would really help. For instance should I already have the spike-proof boots? L3 sword?