Demon's Souls

Demon's's's Souls

While I was apprehensive about this game from the start, something was pulling me towards it way before it was released here in the states. Maybe because it was released by Atlus...Maybe it was because I haven't had an engaging RPG take over my life in quite some time (especially for the PS3)...Maybe it was all the riff raff about the difficulty and the black and white reviews... Whatever it was, I needed to form my own opinion on the game and I'm glad to say that purchasing Demon's Souls for the PS3 was easily the best purchase I've made all year for the console.

This titles is not only engaging, it's dark and inexplicitly addicting. I've heard comparisons to Ninja Gaiden, people saying they beat that game on the hardest difficulty so this game would be a walk in the park...But comparing the difficulty of these 2 games couldn't be more off. I felt Ninja Gaiden to have unusual spikes in difficulty, sometimes I just felt the Ai was "cheating" as at specific spots I'd have my ass handed to me, then I'd go back for another playthrough and wipe through the guys no problem. Demon's Souls is not like this, if you die it's because you were meant to die. Plain and simple. It's because you attacked just a tad too early/late, or you get frustrated and started button mashing (a perfect way to get your ass handed to you), or you didn't give yourself enough room from an enemy when using healers. It's like jumping into a relationship way too fast only to have the girl cheat on you and rip your heart out. Sure it sucks, but you GROW and LEARN from it. Next time in, you're going to bit more cautious eh? Now anyways... I don't want to spend too much time talking about the difficulty but at the same time I've been hearing a lot of "Casual players beware!" and what I want to say is that if you're looking an engaging experience, a thinking man's game or a game that's going to last you dozen's and dozen's of hours, don't hesitate on buying this.

Graphics and animations are spectacular. Every time you poke an enemy with a spear, or shove your blade through a knight's back, it couldn't feel more real as you watch the blood splatter and see their dead rag doll figures drop to the ground. Take off all your armor and guess what? You can now run a hell of a lot faster, which can be perfect when a dragon is flying above ready to roast your ass. Taking the time to move through an area slowly, figuring out a game plan, and having a good strategy is vital for your survival, not only the survival of your character, but the survival of your controller not being smashed to pieces. This game can get frustrating, but as soon as it does, put it down, and guaranteed the next day you're going to want to come back for more. That's one thing that always got me about this game, no matter how mad it made me, I just kept wanting more. I wanted try to kill that damn blue-eyed knight just ONE MORE TIME, and the first time I did it was like I struck gold I was so happy, and now, I can wipe the floor with those guys without taking a single hit. Live and learn.

Hitting R3 will activate the targeting system. Using this effectively is crucial, and can become a bit of a pain in the ass as sometimes you'll be right in front of an enemy, try to activate it, move backwards as you should be still facing the enemy with this locked on, and it won't activate...so you'll end up turning around running and bam, you'll get a nice fire bomb right to your back. So.. you gotta be careful about the iffy targeting system.

The amount of content in this game is astronomical. The weapons, classes, magic, miracles, items, souls, talismans, traps, enemies, boss's... I've barely even scratched the surface of all of these things, but can say with complete assurance that I won't be putting this game down any time soon.

Also, just a hint? BUY THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION w/ STRAT GUIDE. It's worth the extra money and from what I've heard, they're becoming very rare, very fast.