An unforgiving game which will make you love it - if you decide to pay the required tribute to it, that is.
During your playthrough on Demon's Souls, you will visit a number of places through the Archstones; portals built to connect The Nexus with the most major places of Boletaria, prohibiting demons from using them though. These places are:
- The Nexus, a "stronghold" of some kind for people who weren't yet conquered by the soul eating demons, being a place that can be barely described as something between life and death.
- Stonefang, a mining city which provided mining capabilities to its inhabitants, said to be the home of the dragon whose flames gave birth to blacksmithing...
- Tower of Latria, a tower formerly built for worshipping purposes, to Latria, the queen. Later, Latria banished her husband, with him returning once the thick fog covered all of Boletaria to exact revenge, and forever doom this once noble place...
- Shrine of Storms, an island that used to be populated by storm worshippers, but now is only home to empty skeletons, with souls of the dead using them to roam the land. It's said to have the King of Storms flying above, guarding the land...
- Valley of Defilement, a place inhabited by those who were thrown away, left to rot in this poison and plague infested land. They kill every visitor on sight, offering his soul to the only human that showed them compassion...
This PS3 exclusive is simply one of the best games ever made. Why? I'll break it down for you.
Graphics are pretty much polished, and even though it was released on October 2009, they still are noticeable and beautiful, in terms of creating an atmosphere which immerses the player. The weapons and armors look fine (for the given era), and the character creation system is not too good nor too bad; after all, the game does not feature many cutscenes that your character is shown from top to bottom, thus this feature didn't get much attention from the developers.
The sound effects and dialogues/voice-acting are more than decent, but what's best in the sound piece of the game is its soundtrack. Wonderful, original music which sometimes scares you, sometimes pumps you up, sometimes prepares you, but always making you feel like you're going inside the game's world yourself.
It features a whole new, innovative online system, which lets you get some help from friendly, noble Blue Phantom players while progressing with the story, or get invaded by the infamous Black Phantoms, players who seek to regain their body in sinister ways. The Blue Phantoms may even help you beat a stage's boss, or just help you get to it. You can expell it at any time you wish, using a simple piece of equipment you get early in the game. Also, you can rate the Blue Phantoms based on their performance, from D to S (S being the highest), even if they left mid-game.
The skill combinations provided through the levelling system are mind-breaking, making the player extremely versatile and thus allowing for many different playing-styles. Weapons varying from the traditional straight swords, to Chinese curved swords and katanas, or strange, magical weapons and shields, as well as catalysts used to cast a wide variety of spells, or talismans, used to cast the miracles. Each piece of equipment is different, and non-unique items can be enchanted with magical properties via the blacksmiths. The unique parts may also be enchanted in a similar way, but without changing their original properties; simply enhancing them.
A difficulty that makes video games challenging once more is also a sentence that can describe Demon's Souls, a game that requires dedication if you want to cope with it, not in a demanding way, but in a challenging and thus rewarding way. Each time you finish the game, you automatically restart from the very first point of it, with everything you had in your previous playthrough (except for some key items, which were meant to be acquired in order to progress with the game), and the difficulty going up by approximately 8%. The non-forgiving game does not allow for any mistakes, and if it does, they should be instantly mended, otherwise death awaits. Should the player die, he/she will remain around in Soul Form, with half the normal HP, and some penalty over the World Tendency; World Tendency is the "karma" of the current world. Many factors can change it, but the most common is the player getting killed in Body Form a lot in a specific world, it will shift towards black, making the monsters stronger - but giving you better chance for some drops - and triggering some special world events. The World Tendency can also shift towards White, most notably by killing the stage's bosses. The whitest the World Tendency, the easiest will the monsters be to kill, but at the cost of a chance percentage for some drops. Some pieces of equipment can only be acquired by manipulating the World Tendency towards both ends, thus giving the player a challenge and a motive to start over after having finished the game, in order to collect everything available. The Character Tendency works in a similar way, but revolves around players and NPCs rather than monsters and deaths.
An epic journey is about to begin, and Demon's Souls succeeds in making you believe it. Being Gamespot's Game of the Year 2009, I can only say that it's an absolutely worthy title to bear, and the game totally deserves it.