It'll leave you battered and bruised, but the rewards are worth it.
In the kingdom of Boletaria, a demon has been awoken known as The Old One by a king who wanted power. He cursed the lands with a deep colorless fog that released dozens of lesser demons into the world and killed off most of humanity. Many people have desperately tried to go into the fog to drive off the demons, but none have returned. You play as the hero who will come to save the lands by destroying the Old One and thus lifting the fog from the world. As a story, there's not much else to it. You'll get some background knowledge into the events that led up to the present situation, but that's the extent of it all. The backstory is intriguing enough by itself, but the main storyline is mainly window dressing for the game and action.
The world they've built for this game is nothing short of spectacular. The gritty medieval setting is used to great effect, with some of the best level and art design I've seen in a long time. From the abandoned castles, the ironclad mines, and the shambling prisons, every level is unique and intricate, with many hidden passages and secrets to discover. All without any sign of texture pop-in or screen tearing, though in many fast-paced encounters, the frame rate does tend to drop significantly. It picks right back up afterwards, however, so this can be forgiven.
The game relies on action RPG elements, heavily emphasizing the use of armor, weapons, shields, and various enhancement items in order to improve your custom-built character. The R1 and L1 buttons serve to correspond with the appropriate arm. Depending on the item you're using, you'll either defend or attack. Certain magic items can be used as well, so you're not limited there. The directional pad allows you to switch between any weapons, spells, or item you allocate to slots within the inventory screen, which allows for a quick change should the situation call for it. You can lock on to enemies as well, but the camera angle used for this feature can only be described as awkward. Nevertheless, it is useful whenever you need to pick off numerous enemies.
This is not a game where you can run through a crowd of enemies and slay them all with the greatest of ease. This game is extremely difficult, and it wants you to know it. Even minor enemies will be able to chisel away at your health while you're left defenseless against the onslaught. From the grunts to the soldiers to flying enemies, the game offers an incredible variety of creatures just waiting to kill you. You'll need to dodge, block, and time your attacks perfectly if you want any chance of surviving even the smallest of encounters without getting hit or killed. Each time you're killed, you respawn at the beginning of the level. Every non-boss enemy also respawns, so you'll have to mow them down again, though this time you're more knowledgeable of their attack patterns, as unpredictable as they can be at times.
Each world has something called a Soul Tendency, which dictates how strong the enemies are and the areas you can go into in one run-through. The scale ranges from white (weakest) to black (strongest). The more time you spend in one area without dying, the whiter the tendency. The more you die, the blacker it gets, making the level that much harder the more you progress through, and the more suffering you're going to take in order to get to where you need to be.
Why endure this kind of torture, you ask? To collect souls, of course. When you kill an enemy, they give you souls, which are the lifeblood of this game. They're your currency to buy items and your experience points to level up all in one, and they must never be taken for granted. When you die (and you will…many times over), you'll lose all the souls you've collected along the way. You're given a chance to return to the spot you died and reclaim your souls, adding them to the fresh ones you've picked up, but if you die on the way there, those dropped souls are forever lost. This can lead to a lot of grinding, and that's what this game is for the most part: grinding for souls so that you'll die less and get the more difficult parts of the game. And you know what? It's satisfying once you get what you need and are able to withstand the hordes without dying.
Using the souls you collect will allow you to repair damaged weapons and armor, along with upgrading the ones you already have in stock. You can buy healing items, special buffers, and small equipment like rings with stat boosts with the souls you've collected. They're also used to level up your abilities, which are set depending on the character class you picked, like thief, soldier, priest, and many others. The number of items you can purchase will increase over time, and will get stronger and more effective as well.
The game also features a kind of multiplayer that's unique in many ways. You can use special stones to summon other players, called phantoms, to your server in order to aid you through the more difficult level segments. You can have up to two extra players on your server, and they will each collect their own souls as you do yours. Once they've helped you, you can send them away back to their server and continue with your game, or they can die and be sent back to their own server. You can join other parties as well if you request to be summoned and aid those players until your untimely demise or banishment.
However, later in the game, you'll encounter a much bigger threat. At times, you'll get a warning saying that a "black phantom" has entered your server. This is when you'll need to worry less about the normal enemies and more about the phantom. You see, a black phantom is a player that's out to hunt you down and take your souls. They can only be taken care of in two ways. The first is the traditional way, where you two fight to the death and you either get massacred or win by the skin of your teeth. The second way is to find a stone that banishes a black phantom…at least until the next encounter. These are the more challenging fights, as you're fighting other players with less predictable patterns. There's even a mandatory boss fight that has you engaging a black phantom. All of which creates a greatly immersive, unique, and rewarding multiplayer system.
As I've stated, this is a bruising game. You'll die many times, waste many souls, and leave your controller and sanity on the edge of destruction. But you know what? You'll go back for more anyways. Because once you understand the nature of this sadistic game, it will reward you, and the satisfaction is well worth the price. Couple that with great level and art design, incredible enemy variety, great customization options, and a unique multiplayer features, and you have yourself a cannot miss RPG title. It's daunting and terrifying, but well worth it.
Rating: 9 out of 10 (crushing difficulty, awkward lock-on, lackluster presentation)