I've never died so many times in a game before, and I've never felt so accomplished as a result of my victories.
Your character in which you create at startup begins the game in the Nexus. This central hub is connected to way stones that lead to each of the games worlds. In these worlds you progress the levels to reach the area boss and along the way you'll be battling mini-bosses and standard world specific enemies. Each world can be tackled at any time but it is recommended that certain worlds be traversed before others. The beauty of Demon's Souls is that the game doesn't tell you which worlds to enter or in what order save a quick hint as to the one you should start with. Even so, you certainly can enter any world you please to begin the game. In essence, your starting level character can beat any world at any time throughout the game but some worlds become more manageable as you level up and find new equipment.
When you kill enemies you collect their souls and these souls can be used to level stats, buy and repair and upgrade equipment, and purchase spells and miracles. The catch is, you simply can't use all your souls to level stats, you must find a balance between leveling everything else too if you want to survive this harsh universe. For example you might really need to upgrade your stats to use a certain sword, but in so doing you might forfeit an opportunity to buy a powerful spell, so you'll have to go off and collect more souls. There is a degree of grinding involved but it's never that tedious or taxing and it really is not necessary to complete the game. If you're a completion freak, you'll need to grind a lot. I was able to complete the game with little to no grinding, albeit it wasn't easy. Nothing in Demon's Souls is easy. The game scales from challenging to seemingly impossible. However, It is always fair.
You can be alive or dead in Demon's Souls at any given time. When you die you become a phantom. As a phantom you do a little more damage but you have less health and item drops are rarer than they would be if you were in human form. As you complete each world you get benefits for making that world black or white. This colorization is called world tendency. As the world tendencies change, you might find better items or encounter new enemies like black phantoms. These new enemies will drop special items. In order to obtain these bonuses, you must do things in each world as both a phantom and a human. It's great fun and it adds a nice layer of complexity to the game. While world tendency changes are not required to complete the game, they result in priceless advantages.
Demon's Souls can be played offline, but you'll be missing a lot. The most interesting feature of Demon's Souls is the death system, as I'll call it. When you die, you leave a bloodstain that other online players can touch that will show them how you died. This can be a life saver for you at times. Also, you can retrieve your lost souls after you die but you have to make it back to your bloodstain. The catch is, if you die on your way back, you lose all the souls you've collected. Other players in their parallel worlds will appear as white ghosts in your game briefly as you encounter them, so you can catch a glimpse of someone fighting in their world right beside you. Players can be called into your world to help, and come into your world to invade. You can only be invaded and invade yourself in human form though. By invading and killing other players you not only steal their souls, but reap other benefits as well.
There is one downfall to Demon's Souls, or I guess you could also see it as something great. For me, it took away from some of the fun to be had. I'm talking about bosses. The bosses are tough, really tough. But most bosses have a glitch where they can be defeated with little effort. To find out what these glitches are, you'll need to venture online. Whether or not these glitches were intended by the developers is unknown. But one thing is for certain, many of them haven't been patched as of this writing. For example one boss can be defeated by entering his room and not moving. As long as you don't move the boss will never pursue you from his position in the center of the room. Then he can be pelted with arrows and defeated. Another example is a boss that can get stuck on a structure in his room, allowing you to simply attack him without ever getting hurt. There are some bosses that have no easy glitch way to defeat them, and these bosses are going to give you a run for your money. You will die and you will die a lot. And by dying, you will learn from your mistakes. The game is never unfair or unjustly difficult. You determine how hard the game is by whether or not you've learned from your mistakes. Sure, you could go online and read about strategies for defeating every boss, and you'll need to at times, but I'd recommend giving them all a shot yourself first. You won't be recognized as a Demon's Souls champion if you played through the game with a walkthrough in front of you.
Demon's Souls is a tough game, and let me tell you, it's a breath of fresh air for this age of video games. Games nowadays are too easy and you rarely get your money's worth. Demon's Souls is worth every penny. If you're extremely skilled and lucky it can be beaten in about eight hours, but if you're a normal gamer going in for the first time, it will take you more like twenty to thirty hours to complete.
Demon's Souls was the most fun I've had with a game in a good long time. Dying so often was a shock to me because I've been so desensitized by easy games. Think of the hardest game you've played in the past and I guarantee Demon's Souls will be harder hands down.
If you're like me and looking for a challenge and for a game you can brag about beating, than Demon's Souls is your game. It's the initiation rite to becoming more than a mere average gamer. Demon's Souls will make you a hardcore gamer. But, you must get out alive to truly reap the rewards.
Have fun guys and good luck!