Demon's Souls to haunt North America

Atlus today proudly touted a dalliance with darkness, as the import publisher confirmed that it has picked up the publishing rights for the Japanese PS3-exclusive action-role-playing game Demon's Souls. Developed by From Software, the game was originally published by Sony Computer Entertainment International.

Set in the medieval kingdom of Boletaria, Demon's Souls calls upon gamers to cleanse the land of a demonic scourge unwittingly unleashed by the king in a misguided grab for power. Players will also be able to customize character skills and equipment to the task, relying on melee, projectile, and magic attacks to send the cursed creatures back from whence they came.

Online play is also going to be a focus of Demon's Souls. In addition to teaming up to hack through the single-player campaign, players will be able to invade other players' games, team up to revive fallen comrades, and leave hints and warnings for players in other games.

This isn't the first system-exclusive for From Software. The studio behind the Armored Core series also developed the Xbox 360 mech game Chromehounds, as well as this year's Microsoft-published action title Ninja Blade.

Demon's Souls is set for a North American release this fall and will be on display next month at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. For more on the title, check out GameSpot's hands-on impressions from last year's Tokyo Game Show.