Import Review: Demon's Souls

Games these days are easy. Most of them hold your hand and tell you exactly how to be a good little savior of the world. There was once a time when beating a boss or completing a stage actually meant something. Games were challenging. This was a time where there wasn't enough room on the cartridge or disc for tons of voice-overs or cutscenes, so the developers had to use other methods to keep you playing. Like making games hard so you got a sense of accomplishment whenever you succeeded. This design philosophy has been lost in recent years as gaming has hit an unprecidented level of popularity and therefore has made a push to appeal to the masses. This makes some of the veteran gamers feel left out. But once in a while, there comes a game designed specifically for the hardcore in mind. Demon's Souls is one of those games.

Demon's Souls is a PS3 exclusive Action-RPG from the Japanese developer "From Software", known for their niche titles such as the Armored Core series, Tenchu series, and the cult-favorite King's Field series. Fans of the King's Field games will feel at home as this is considered the spiritual successor to those games. In the game, you create a character and set out to slay demons and obtain their souls so that you can grow in power and hopefully save the Kingdom of Boletaria. If I were to draw comparisons, I could say that it plays like a mix of Monster Hunter and Zelda, but the game stands well enough on it's own to not need to be compared to such games. Read on as I tackle the main aspects of the game.

STORY:

This is not really a story-based game. The story is here for a little bit of background info, and that's it.

To sum it up, King Allant the Twelfth of Boletaria started channeling souls in hopes that it would lead his kingdom to prosperity. Well... Ol' Allant made a boo-boo. Instead, a dense fog fell upon the outskirts of the kingdom, effectively cutting it off from the outside world. All who entered the fog never returned. One guy, however, broke through and told everyone of Boletaria's plight. The souls of demons were unleashed and were causing havoc throughout Boletaria. As the story was told, many daring adventurers decided that they would travel to Boletaria in hopes to make a name for themselves. You play as one of these adventurers.

That's about as deep as the story gets, and you know what? That's entirely good enough. I think it's rather refreshing that it doesn't try to be as epic as Lord of the Rings or what-have-you. It gives you enough of a story so that you know what's going on and not have to worry about plot details.

GAMEPLAY:

Now, if there has been anything that has been said about this game outside of this review, it is this:

"This game is HARD".

And it is very correct.

Demon's Souls is not a game for the casual, nor for the easily frustrated. You will die. A LOT. I've not seen as much player-death in a game since the classic Shadowgate (WAAAY BACK WHEN). In the later half of the game, it is not uncommon to be one-shotted by a common enemy. Upon death, you lose all the souls, which are used for currency and leveling up, that you have on you. Now, if you make it to where you died, you can touch the bloodstain you left behind and gain them back, but if you die again on the way back (which is entirely possible as everything respawns upon death), they are gone for GOOD. Yes, unforgiving. Don't look for forgiveness in this game, you'll find none of it here.

While playing, you'll have two forms. Your primary form is your body form. Once you die, you respawn in soul form. While in soul form, your HP is halved (or if you get a certain ring, reduced to 75% of max) and you can only regain body form by killing a boss or using a certain item.

There are 5 different worlds, with 3 to 5 sections each. It may not sound like much, but believe me it's good enough. You'll be dying enough to make those sections last a good while. Also, each world has a "tendency". It's basically your average yin-yang type deal. Do good things in the world, and it will shift towards white. In white tendency, there are certain events that happen. Enemies will be easier, however they won't give as many souls as they would in neutral tendency. However, do bad things such as killing NPCs and the tendency shifts towards black. Demons will become harder, your soul form HP will be further reduced, and so on. Oh yeah, getting killed while in body form pushes the tendency towards black.

That's right. The game penalizes you for sucking. If it sees you're sucking, it will amp everything up and tell you to get better.

The boss battles are all pretty well done. They all scale from man-sized gargoyles to massive dragons and giant suits of armor. They're all really challenging too. Don't think a measly kite-shield is going to absorb a blow from a massive sword that is stories tall, or think that you'll survive if you get caught in some dragon's breath. It's not going to happen. Boss battles reward the wary, as often you will drop in one hit.

Also, I must touch on the multiplayer. It's one of the more unique approaches to online play that I've seen. Basically, unless you sign out from PSN, you're always online. It's really kind of an online single-player game for the most part, but there are some co-op opportunities. When adventuring out in one of the worlds, you'll often see apparitions of other players who are playing the game fading in and out of your world. You will run across bloodstains which you can touch and get a small replay (as displayed by a red apparition of their character) of how that character died.

By pressing select, you can drop a message for other players to read. It's all kind of pre-set, but there's a good variety of different messages you can leave. You can warn players of a trap or tough enemy ahead, or an unseen pitfall. It's all quite facinating.

As far as interacting with other players, it can be done in a few ways. In soul form, you can lay a mark on the ground once you get a certain item that will let other players summon you to their world as a "Blue Phantom" so that you can help them with their task. You can summon others into your own game once you're in body form.

However, running around in body form will run the risk of an invading player in soul-form, called a "Black Phantom", entering your world. It is their goal to put an end to your adventuring and assassinate you. You can do the same to others once you get the item required, and are in soul-form. The game keeps it within a 10 level gap, so you won't get invaded by a twinked out level 253 Japanese guy unless you're around his level. If you are invaded, the game will let you know when they enter your world. From then on, you must always watch your back. Many black phantoms wait until you're in a hairy situation and jump in to make it much worse. However, it is never too fun for a black phantom to jump in a game with 2 blue phantoms helping the host. There's safety in numbers, but one EXTREMELY SKILLED black phantom popping in at the right time will mow the host and the blue phantoms down. If a black phantom succeeds in their task, they are rewarded with a body-form revival.

GRAPHICS:

While not the most detailed, I think the graphics fit the game well. They're not ugly by any means, and are actually quite pleasing to look at. I especially enjoyed the armor and weapon models. None of them look TOO rediculous. Actually, most of them all look rather practical and realistic. There are only a few weapons in the game that suffer from the Japanese-Oversized-Mega-Weapon syndrome. The overall art direction felt great as well. I loved the cold and dark feel that was prevelent throught the game. The world isn't your atypical bright and colorful fantasy world, but rather a world of cold, damp castles and dark, dreary swamps.

SOUND:

Theres really not a lot of music in Demon's Souls apart from the song in the opening cinematic, the ambient tune in the Nexus (the hub of the game. The song here changes as you progress through the game), and the music in the boss battles. However, for a Japanese-developed game, the English voice-overs are rather exceptional. I would have never expected such high-quality English voice-work for a game that wasn't even guaranteed a release in English-speaking countries. The equipment sounds are well-done. I loved the sound of my plate armor clanking together as I wandered the halls of Boletaria Castle. My only gripe was that your character makes no sound while moving when they are in soul form.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

Due to the game's niche targeted audience, this game is far from a system seller. However, this game is a must-have for Action RPG fans who own a PS3. While it's difficulty will frighten away the casual, those who want a challenging game will embrace this game with open arms. I'd give it a 4 out of 5. For those who don't want to wait for the October US release date, the Chinese and Korean versions of the game come with English text and voiceovers and, like most import PS3 games, are region-free.