Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

Let me start by saying Demon's Souls is a superb RPG. It has a well designed combat system, an unique currency, an optional online component that allows cooperation or confrontation on the fly, memorable boss fights and real replay value.

Demon's Souls puts you amidst a magical catastrophe. The King of Boletaria toils with the souls arts have awakened a demon called The Old One, a soul devourer demigod. Its awakening has caused a colorless fog to engulf and erase several parts of the world and also brought minor demons to the land. Those demons hunt for souls in order to become stronger and to call the attention of the Old One. You don't have much of a choice, you need to become a demon yourself, seeking the soul power of the demons you slay in order to become strong enough to face the Old One and either embrace him or put him back to sleep.

This dark mood permeates the game. Every place is poorly lit, decayed, twisted and have a somewhat realistic art design. There are no bright colors on the armors, weapons and your character doesn't look like an anime. The demon you become is not visible in your skin, but in your soul. Expect no chocobos, no funny side characters and no jokes, everything on Demon Souls will have an aura of sorrow, most characters will be either cursed or vile. You will eventually meet characters that will try to set things right but their methods won't be gentle. It's not clear who's right or which is the path of the righteous and that's one of the features I enjoyed most.

Your character can be either male or female and you can choose one of several professions. Unlike most games, a profession in Demon's Souls is nothing more than an equipment set, a starting level and a choice of stats.

Your stats also dictate which weapons you can wield, which ones you be better at, the armor you can wear, how well you can maneuver in light and heavy armor, your spells and has many other effects on your game play. So, as everything is based on stats and leveling up is a choice of which stat to increase, you can pretty much develop the character as you see fit. The starting class will just provide you with initial stats and equipment that will suit your play style - or at least starting play style.

You will encounter magic wielding characters using curved swords, flaming weapons, pole arms, covered in armor or in rags, using a bow or relying solely on magic. The system does allow one to toil with it as one sees fit. Unless you increase only your strength and decide to use a weapon whose damage is based on dexterity, I don't think you can go wrong.

The demons you need to kill to call the attention of the Old One are the master of domains, closed areas accessed by portal located in a node called The Nexus. It's in The Nexus that you can upgrade your character, your gear and plan your next step. Each area is divided into three sections, guarded by a major demon (a.k.a. boss). Those sections have the same art style, atmosphere and mood - a huge mine, a poisonous swamp, a ruined castle - and it's crawling with demons, souls and treasures.

Defeating enemies will provide you with souls, which are used for pretty much anything. Blacksmiths will charge you souls for upgrading or repairing equipment, as will vendors for items and gear and it's also the currency required to level up. Though at first you really need to choose between upgrading your gear or leveling up, eventually the few hundred souls required to upgrade won't be a problem considering the tens of thousands souls required to level up. What's also interesting is that no one is interested in your loot. The weapons and armor you pick on field, upgraded or not, epic or not, won't mean a thing to any vendor. Everyone will only be interested in your souls. So, getting all the loot is foolishness unless you're actually considering using it.

Online play has an active and a passive effect on your game. When you play online, you'll often see the phantoms of other players as they progress. You'll watch then fighting, climbing up a stair and even waving at you. This might help you find your way around some of the levels but has no major impact. Another features that won't require any action from you will be bloodstains and messages. Bloodstains mark the place of death of a fellow player and will be scattered throughout the scenarios. If you activate them, you'll see the last 10 seconds of the deceased character's life. Several bloodstains near a cliff or close to an enemy are a clear indication of a challenge. I've been saved from traps and ambushes countless times just by watching other people die. Messages are texts that can be left by players to warn of traps, hidden passages or treasure or to give a hint or an advice. The text can be built using predefined words so there's no need to fear finding an insult or a curse.

A more active online component are blue and black phantoms. You start Demons Souls with a living character but death is not the end as you can choose to keep playing as a phantom. Phantoms have fewer hit points but increased damage and can take part on another living player's game. If you decide to help, you can leave a special message for a living player to summon you to their world. You'll enter it as a blue phantom and even though you can't loot, you'll get as many souls as the living player. Defeating a boss together will cause assisting blue phantoms to resurrect. If you decide not to help, you can invade another player as a black phantom. You won't be attacked by any monsters but expect other players and blue phantoms to hunt you down with a vengeance. Killing a living player will cause you to resurrect. So, being alive gives you more hit points and the ability to summon blue phantoms, but also make you a target for black phantoms. Being a phantom makes you weaker and allows you to help or kill another living player but you won't risk invasion. Pretty neat, eh ?

The effects of death are also responsible for the game being considered unforgiving and even brutal. Every time you die you lose all your unspent souls. A bloodstain will mark the place of your death and in order to regain your lost souls, you'll have to go back to the place you died and reclaim it. It won't be a problem if you fell of a cliff but it can be a pain if you died by the hands of a boss.

Demon Souls is artistically and technically impressive. Great graphics, a soundtrack that helps to maintain the mood - special highlight to the music on Maiden Astraea's level and the organ theme that starts once you beat all major demons - responsive controls and online component. The atmosphere is thick and palpable, it'll surely make you tense as each step can be your last.

The game has the right amount of story but some of the key characters responsible to tell you the plot details are very hidden, requiring you to explore the same setting several times or under specific circumstances if you desire to find them all.

Why haven't I given it a perfect score ? Some minor details. I feel that the game would be better if the plot was told by the characters in the Nexus. Also, the weapons are varied and each class offer an unique combat style but the crafts with major demon souls are not worth the effort, the same can be said by most miracles and some wizard spells. Those are very minor problems that prevented it from being a perfect game but it is a great game on its own right. I've currently played it 5 times with 3 different characters. I feel it's impossible not to recommend it if you're a RPG fan or if you enjoy games with a dark setting.