Being a dirty Brit sometimes has its disadvantages. For example, Demon's Souls was released in Japan and the US quite a long time before it had even been considered for a release in the EU region. Having bought the game in April whilst on a trip to Houston, I have only just managed to pop the disk into my PS3 very recently, and I regret not doing it sooner.
Part of the reason for this is that the games supposed epic difficulty kind of put me off. I am the kind of gamer that has a habit of attempting to snap my controller due to me perceiving a games imbalance towards me, the player (see the Fat Princess review). However, to my delight I discovered that Demon's Souls cannot be placed into the "What the fuck!?! That's Bollocks!!!" category.
Demon's Souls puts you in the position of an unnamed hero attempting to cleanse the kingdom of Boletaria from a horde of soul eating demons. These demons come in all shapes and sizes and are generally quite a nasty bunch. Your hero ventures through five varying zones, each with their individual grunts and boss demons.
You can pick from 10 classes that range from magic users to melee whores. Each start with their own specific equipment and soul level. Your character can be customized in terms of looks, and through stat points. You obtain souls throughout each area in Boletaria by killing monsters. These souls can then be used to upgrade weapons, repair armor, buy magic and miracle spells and upgrade your characters stat points.
Each time you spend souls on stats, your soul level increases, as does the soul price for your next stat upgrade regardless of what stat you upgrade. This means you have to put a fair bit of thought into what strengths and weaknesses you want your character to have, making the RPG element of the game quite deep and interesting. The equipment your character uses is also of importance. Should your character become overburdened wearing heavy gear, this affects your ability to move, sprint and dodge attacks so picking what you do and don't use could make the difference between you dodging a sword swipe or getting it shoved so far up your arse you'll need to invest in incontinence armor.
Those who say Demon's Souls is hard are both right and wrong. A better description would be that Demon's Souls is not for the stupid. If you attempt to run in Dynasty Warriors style, cutting through each enemy you encounter, you are going to find that your stamina will run out very quickly and swords a plenty will be stuffed quickly into your abdomen, face, legs and chest. To avoid this, other players throughout the world can leave you hints through messages on the floor. You can also touch bloodstains which replay the last moments of your fellow players. By doing so you can make sure you are fully prepared for advancing further into the level.
You need to get a feel for how your enemy moves, attacks and the equipment they have and then make a decision on how to take them out, otherwise you will be set on fire, impaled by arrows and spears, and each boss demon will take you out quicker than you can say antidisestablishmentarianism. This brings me to the main element of the Demon's Souls experience... Death.
Demon's Souls is one of very few games this generation where death actually means something. Unlike most titles that simply plonk you back to the last checkpoint you reached, dieing in Demon's Souls turns you into soul form. This means half your health bar, you start at the beginning of the level regardless of how far you got and all the enemies you've killed respawn. Wait, I haven't finished... You also lose all the souls you've earned whilst playing through and makes enemies harder to kill. That's right, it makes the game HARDER.
More importantly though, death is half of the experience of Demon's Souls. With each death, you learn something new about the game. Within the first world, I got a bit too overconfident (and ignored the floor warnings from other players) in my abilities and entered an area I shouldn't. This resulted in me being instakilled by a red eyed knight, losing 7000 souls and being reduced to 50% health in the 1 second process. It taught me never to ignore messages again. It also taught me how to fight those particular enemies in the future. The best thing about dying in Demon's Souls? It never feels cheap or unfair. Unlike in a lot of games where you can get half your health taken away by a cheap unaviodable attack, most attacks in Demon's Souls can be avoided with a timely dodge. But when you get hit, your health bar feels it. So I went back to soul form and tried to find someone to help or destroy a demon. However, playing in soul form isn't as bad as it sounds.
You are essentially told that the only way to regain your living form is to slay boss demons throughout the five worlds you will visit. While this is one method, it isn't the only one, and this is where the multiplayer elements of Demon's Souls come into focus. There is an item which brings you back to the land of the living, however these are rare and should only be used in certain circumstances. You can also leave a summon stone in the world and allow other players to call you into their world as a blue phantom.
If you successfully help them complete an objective, then you are returned to your world revived and with a helping of bonus souls. You can also invade another players world as a black phantom and kill them to return to human form. I'm the one usually on the receiving end of a black phantom ass whooping, rather than dealing them out but I can't always be a winner.
Another star of the Demon's Souls show are the environments in which you play through. The worlds in which you play are atmospheric and bleak and really do capture the sense of you being the only hero left in this world plagued with monsters. It also adds to that paranoia factor as you feel that an enemy could ambush you any moment, meaning I keep my shield up for the majority of the time I play. These worlds also have multiple paths and reward you for exploring the world, by offering you new items and equipment, or giving you harder enemies to fight.
The main attraction of Demon's Souls though are the boss fights. The bosses are huge in comparison to your character and fighting against them is brutal and painfully difficult. They will kill you in one hit if you're not prepared. But remember what I said up there? Each death is a lesson? With each death, you begin to understand how and when to attack. When a boss monster eventually falls, there is no greater sense of "I've done it!!!" in any game. I had that kind of feeling when I first completed Final Fantasy VII but I've felt a sense of accomplishment twice in one day by playing Demon's Souls.
Demon's Souls is the most unique game of this generation. It's unforgiving, it's punishing, and it will sure as hell piss you the fuck off, but the sense of achievement this game can bring is comparable to no other game on the market at this present time. Even creating the most epic level on LittleBigPlanet does not beat the satisfaction of making a Tower Knight falling on its arse and pounding it in the head until it dissolves away into the ether. Don't let the "hard" difficulty put you off. It's the best game I've played all year, and I regret not importing it earlier. I wholly recommend the Demon's Souls experience to anybody who enjoys a challenge and really enjoys gaming.
