[PS3] Demon's Souls

[image=http://www.psu.com/media/demons-soul/demons-soul-ss-1.jpg]

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the local online game shop, and saw they had restocks of a PS3 game called "Demon's Souls" imported from Asia. Catching my interest, I researched it further and decided I must have this game, so promptly ordered it. Having played it for the past two weeks, I've come to the conclusion that it's one of the best RPGs I've ever played. Has anyone else played it?

If not, it's basically a third person western style RPG developed by Japanese developer FromSoftware. By western style, I mean it's set in a European style high fantasy setting. There's massive castles, fire breathing dragons, plate armour, bastard swords and magic wands. You progress through a set number of "worlds" or levels, making your way from A to B, but there's secret areas and places to explore so while it's not completely open world, you never feel restricted.

You start off by selecting a character class - Soldier, Knight, Barbarian, Priest etc, all the basic D&D type classes. You can then shape your character's face, gender and name, and you're good to go. From there it looks like a typical third person RPG, but it's just beneath the surface where the game shines. What makes this game special is that it runs like an online MMO. There's no saving. When you die, you're taken back to the start of a level. If you quit, it restarts where you left off.

And this is where the difficulty kicks in. You can have levels that take 30-40 minutes to get to the final boss, only to die right at the end. There's no loading or checkpoints, you'll respawn right at the start of the level - losing all the "souls" of enemies you've killed along the way. Souls are used as currency to buy/upgrade items and level up your character. You can make your way to where you died and reclaim your souls, but if you die before you make it back, they're gone for good!

And that's the other special game feature. You'll spend most of the game being "dead" - or in "soul form", and the only way to claim living form is to defeat a level boss. While in soul form your HP is reduced and you take on a slight ghost appearance. Since you can die several times during a level before you even get to the next boss, even if you get living form back it doesn't take long to lose it again.

There's also some pretty neat online features.

1) While playing the game, you'll see occasional white ghosts of other players in the game. You can't interact with them, you can only observe as they appear and disappear for a short while, busy getting on with their own game.

2) Often you'll see blood stains randomly scattered around the place. Walk over one and press X, and you'll see the last few seconds of another player before they die. You don't see what or who killed them, just their last few actions and then they drop dead. It's kinda strange, and can be quite funny.

3) You'll also see glowing runes on the ground. These are messages left by other players. They take the forms of "Beware of ---- ahead" or "Watch for enemy trap". You can leave your own message, but you can only select from a list of predefined words. I guess this stops any spamming or vulgarity, but generally they're really helpful if you're a bit unsure about how to proceed. People are encouraged to leave messages, as if you rate someone else's message, it will replenish their health, so it helps everyone in the long run.

4) PVP. I've not got this far yet, but at some point you can turn into a phantom and "invade" someone's game and kill them. This happened to me once. I was busy minding my own business trying to complete a level, and got a red warning message telling me someone was invading my game. Being low level and not really wanting a fight I just jumped off a cliff and died. While you're in soul form, you can't be invaded. Next time I'll stick around just to see what happens, and not be such a coward!

5) There is a co-op mode, but from what I hear it can be quite difficult to set up with friends and I've not tried it yet, but I know it's t

 

Atlas has released this in the US now. Anyone seen it or thought about picking it up? There's also a new delux edition with art book, guide book and soundtrack that looks very tempting.

 

I will. I usually wait for games to go down as the pricing for console games this generation is ridiculous, but I will be picking this game up this week for sure. I want it bad.

 

This has just won RPG, PS3 and Overall GOTY at Gamespot.

 

Yahztee blasted this game for being too hard.

 

I heard it was very difficult, but also very rewarding. I read "you will die a lot" and it can be tough, but the "uniqe" online play is really something and the game itself is very rewarding.

I plan to pick it up once I finish ME2.