Demon's Souls is a unique and challenging RPG with superb level design, terrific combat, and creative online play.
Japanese game industry icons like Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear) and Keiji Inafune (Dead Rising, Mega Man) have been heard bemoaning the recent decline of Japanese game design on a fairly regular basis these days. Perhaps that's why Japanese developer From Software chose a decidedly un-Japanese approach when crafting Demon's Souls, a game that embraces many Western RPG (WRPG) conventions (real-time combat, Tolkein-esque mythology, and swords and sorcery aesthetics). But there's one aspect of Japanese design philosophy that wasn't abandoned in Demon's Souls... the one thing that makes it truly special: the unforgiving difficulty.
Yes, Demon's Souls is hard. Harder than finishing Halo on 'Legendary' difficulty with nothing but melee attacks. Harder than the motor bike level in Battletoads. It's even harder than beating the famously difficult Ninja Gaiden on the 'Ninja Master' settings. But what makes Demon's Souls so special isn't simply the fact that it's so damned challenging, but rather the way that the game forces players to contend with their character's mortality.
In most games - even tough ones - if you fail to complete a given challenge, you'll find an abundance of hand-holding, second chances and do-overs (e.g. Bioshock's 'Vita Chambers'), where losing a life is generally as inconsequential as stubbing your toe. To the majority of game designers, minimizing the consequences of failure makes a lot of sense: you don't want people to give up and stop playing out of frustration, so why not just poop them right back into the game world with another shot at glory after they die?
Not so in Demon's Souls, where death actually feels, well... bad. Terrible, in fact. For starters, when you die you lose all of your experience, which doubles as currency, preventing you from buying or repairing gear or increasing your character's level. Making matters worse, when you return to the level again, all of the enemies have respanwned, and you find yourself in a weakened spiritual form which reduces your health meter's capacity. Considering you will be facing a variety of powerful boss monsters that tower over your cowering avatar, this penalty can be a bitter pill to swallow.
While Demon's Souls does let you reclaim your experience/money if you can make it back to the point that you last died, you only get one last chance, and anything that killed you is still there, fresh as a daisy, waiting to kill you all over again. And by the way, you can't save your game whenever you want, nor can you pause. All sales are final in the world of Demon's Souls. It's about as hardcore as games get.
Sound sadistic? It is, but the end result of this unforgiving game is an unparalleled emotional investment in your character's wellbeing. When playing Demon's Souls, if you come across a really tough looking enemy - and you will - it inspires a genuine sense of dread that can only exist in the absence of frequent checkpoints or easy respawns. Hell, I get scared when facing mobs of weak enemies in Demon's Souls. This fear makes players navigate environments with an incredible amount of trepidation and caution, making the game feel far more realistic than the vast majority of 'save anywhere' games in the genre. But when you do eventually succeed, the thrill of victory is unmatched. This is the game's brilliance: it's hard, but since nothing ever comes easy, your victories are sweeter than a glass of Manischewitz.
Though persistence is your greatest weapon in Demon's Souls, the game does throw you a few bones here and there. One of the best features, and where Demon's Souls truly innovates, is how the game approaches online play. While there's no voice-chat, there's a basic emote system, and you'll see faint, white ghosts of other players running around as they play the same level you're on. At later stages of the game, you can recruit up to two of them to join you in the fight, or choose to invade their game and kill them, thereby regaining your corporeal form. It's a great twist on the cooperative and player-versus-player mechanics that keeps Demons Soul' feeling a bit less daunting.
Even better, when a player dies, they leave a blood stain that you can activate in order to replay their demise. It helps you spot traps, anticipate ambushes, and is good for a few laughs here and there. There's also a cool hint system, allowing others to forewarn you of what lies ahead by leaving a glowing marker on the ground. You can leave hints of your own, and if another player reads recommends it, you get a small amount of health restored. It's a fresh new online model that numerous games will surely emulate in the coming years.
So if you own a PS3, and are up for a good challenge, I can't recommend Demon's Souls enough. Sure, it's not for the easily discouraged, but if you spend about 10 hours with the game, odds are you'll be hooked, and hungry for more. As much as I love Fallout 3, so far, this game is easily my pick for the RPG of 2009.