FanBoy's Domain: December 2013

***SPOILERS AHEAD!***

It has been said that in this generation of gaming consoles(PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, ect.) that games are not as challenging or hardcore as they used to be. To an extent this is true. Games that tend to hold your hand through most of the experience even on the hardest of difficulties have become the norm, and even though we have had some truly amazing and innovative and amazing games release in this period of time many gamers yearned for the challenging game experiences of old, myself included. Then along came Demon's Souls. Released in 2009 exclusively for the PlayStation 3, Demon's Souls is one of this generation's best and most innovative RPGs ever! It is also one of the hardest, most challenging games I have ever had the pleasure of kicking my ass! :P

Demon's Souls is an action RPG set in a new fantasy world. The story takes place in the kingdom of Boletaria, ruled over by King Allant XII. Because of his greed and intent to continue his rule, King Allant performed a dark ritual of channeling the power of souls to achieve his goals. Boletaria experiences unprecedented prosperity because of Allant's actions, but soon a Deep Fog covers the kingdom's outskirts, and Boletaria is cut off from the rest of the world. Neighboring kingdoms send scouts to investigate what has happened, but none return from the Fog. However, one warrior, Vallarfax of the royal Twin Fangs, manages to break free of the Fog and is able to tell the world of Boletaria's plight. By channeling souls, King Allant awakened the Old One, and ancient all-powerful demon, which had been slumbering below a place known as the Nexus. With the Old One's awakening, the Deep Fog swept in and covered the land, unleashing hoards of demons within that feasted on the souls of mankind. Those that survived there souls being taken became insane and violent. With no way to stop it, the Deep Fog soon begins to grow beyond Boletaria's borders and into neighboring kingdoms. Many brave warriors from around the world attempt to breach the Fog and save Boletaria, but some succumb to the allure of the power of demon's souls. Many warriors are lost to the Fog. You play as one warrior that manages to breach the fog and reach Boletaria. Your goal is to defeat all the powerful demons that have overrun the land, and defeat the Old One and return it to its slumber...or succumb to the alluring power of demon's souls and bring the world to ruin. Demon's Souls' story brings a fresh new and exciting fantasy world to life, but elements of the story are sparse and most information is learned by talking to the many NPC characters that inhabit the game's world. The mysterious nature of the world's history as well as the back story leading up to these events really help to make Demon's Souls' story fascinating and mysteriously dark throughout!

King Allant doing his demon thing!

The Old One sure knows how to make an entrance! O.O

As you start up a new game you are able to choose between female or male. You then get to modify your character's appearance and traits, like hair-style and color, shape of your face, color of your skin, the structure of your face. It is a pretty robust character creation system! After that you get to choose your character's class. There are 10 unique classes to choose from: Soldier, Knight, Hunter, Priest, Magician, Wanderer, Barbarian, Thief, Temple Knight, and Royalty. Each class has it's own starting weapons, armor, magic and attributes and all have there own ways of achieving victory over this monster of a game. It is all up to you to find the right one!

After creating your character and choosing your class you are dropped into the tutorial stage where you learn the basics of the game. Combat is mostly simple. The R1 does your basic attack while the R2 button does a more powerful, guard breaking attack. L1 Button allows you to use your left handed weapon, like guarding with a shield. O button lets you sprint, roll, and step back. X allows you to interact with objects in the environment like dropped items and talk to the in-game characters. Triangle button lets you toggle between one handing or two handing your right hand weapon. Square button lets you use items in your inventory like healing herbs, magic restoring spice, or any other items you may have. Everything may sound easy but believe me it is NOT! At the end of the easy tutorial level you must fight the demon boss, Vanguard. he will beat the living shit out of you. More often than not, you will die when you get to this boss. He is strong enough to kill you in one hit. If you win against Vanguard(as if) you will be thrown into the world of Boletaria. When you die in the main game world or against Vanguard you will be thrown into the Nexus for the first time. The Nexus serves as a hub, allowing you to access any of the 5 worlds at your own pace after beating World 1-1. The Nexus lets you rest from your travels. Here you can get your weapons and armor repaired to get them back to peak condition. You can store weapons, armor and items for later use and to prevent you from getting overburdened by their weight. You can even purchase some basic items, weapons, armor, and upgrades to your gear. Some NPC characters in the Nexus will even teach you Spells(black magic) and Miracles(white magic) for a fee. On your travels in the game world you will encounter many more characters who may go to the Nexus provided you are willing to help them(or you can just kill them for what they have on hand)! If you help them some will provide you with greater insight into the world of Demon's Souls, and others like Yuria the Witch and Sage Freke will teach you very high level magic. There is just as much to do here in the Nexus as there is to do in Boletaria!

The Nexus, your hub to the world at large and your makeshift home throughout the game

In the game world itself you are in for some serious pain! Each World is very different and unique. Different tactics will be needed to beat each section and believe me, there is no sure fire way to win outright. Every enemy you encounter can, and will most likely, kill you in different ways. The enemy AI is quite smart and very unforgiving. Monsters like gargoyles, mind flayers, Red eye knights, Fat Officials, Skeletons and so much more will be the bane of your existence. Defeating each enemy may sometimes yield items. But it will always get you Souls. Souls serve as experience points to level your character up in the Nexus and they also serve as currency to buy items, gear and upgrade or repair your stuff. it can be tough to choose how you spend your Souls. However you spend your Souls you better make sure it is the right choice. Spending on the wrong thing can mean life or death in this game. And as much as there can be great rewards for victory, there are harsh punishments for failure and death. When you die you will be revived at the beginning of the level you are playing. Any enemies you failed to defeat will have there health revived. Worst of all is you will be stuck in Soul form. As a Soul you can still fight but your health bar will be slashed to a tiny fraction of what it was. When you die you also lose any and all souls you accumulated but have yet to spend on leveling up or items. These souls can be saved however. If you return to where you were killed you will find a glowing blood stain. Touching your stain will allow you to reclaim your lost souls, but if you die on your way back to your blood stain, you lose those souls forever.

Fighting in Soul Form sure makes you feel vulnerable!

Life and death can also determine the difficulty of each World. Each World's difficulty is determined by World Tendency. White World Tendency is achieved when you beat an entire World without dying in your body form too often, as well as defeating all three bosses in that World. Conversely if you die in your body form a lot you will get Black World Tendency. Each time you die in body form the difficulty will increase a little at a time. Each Tendency does have its own rewards however. Pure White World Tendency will open up areas that were previously closed off letting you find special items and gear as well as extra souls. Enemies will also be much easier but defeating them will yield fewer souls and they will drop fewer items. Pure Black World Tendency will make your enemies much harder to beat than they already are. They will drop more souls than before though, as well as rarer and special items.

Checking each area's World Tendency, essential in determining how you proceed

Even more difficult than the enemies you face in each area are the bosses. These bosses are some of the hardest and unforgiving you may ever face in your gaming career. Some of them are simply MASSIVE too. Each World has three bosses while World 1 has 4. Defeating each boss nets you a special soul which can be consumed to net you a ton of regular souls. However the soul of each boss has unique properties to it that can be exploited in different ways. Giving some of these boss souls to certain NPC characters will allow you to buy super high level and ultra powerful Spells and/or Miracles. One character however will allow you to use boss souls to upgrade basic weapons to super powerful and special weapons. Buying these special magics and weapons can go a long way to helping you attain victory. Well, not really! :P

O.O This game is trying to kill me

Perhaps one of the best features about this game is its innovative use of the PlayStation 3's online functionality! The game does have co-op and competitive multiplayer but not like any other game out there. On your travels in each World you will notice several blood stains. These are the blood stains of other players when they died in there own games. Touching these stains can be helpful as you see a phantom version of the player, seconds before they are killed. these stains can provide you with helpful hints as to what may lay ahead. Other players, as well as yourself, can also leave messages throughout the world. These messages range from helpful hints to pleas of help to co-op. In order to summon players to co-op you must be in Body form while your partners must be in Soul form. You or anyone else can then use an item called a Blue Eye Stone to drop a Soul sign. When it is touched you or anyone else is pulled in to a different person's game(or yours). The goal is basic: defeat the boss at the end of the area. When the boss is defeated you get to grade others or are graded on how well you or they co-oped. And anyone stuck in Soul form is instantly revived in there game! On the other hand, if you or someone uses a Black Eye Stone while in Soul form you can invade someone else's game as a Black Phantom or you can be invaded. The objective of the Black Phantoms is to find the opposing player and defeat them in order to be revived. Fights between living players and Black Phantom players can be real battles of attrition. You may also be out of luck if you are invaded by someone who is at a higher level and has some high level magic and weapons. Trust me you will sweat like crazy when you get a message alerting you to an invasion from a Black Phantom. Everything about Demon's Souls online component screams innovation and can be tons of fun(unless you get invaded)! :P

Other players can either be a good friend, or a big JERK!

As good as the game play and online service is the graphics are just as amazing. This is one richly detailed world! From poisonous swamps to a battle scarred castle there is so much visual detail to take in! It looks and feels like a real place! Weapons and armor also look very impressive. The design of the enemies and bosses is among some of the best I have seen in an rpg! Sadly the models for the characters are not that great looking. The sound design is also believable with realistic clanging of weapons and armor, to the sounds of the enemies and bosses, this game will sound amazing in surround sound! The developer did an amazing job to make sure this game was a treat to all the senses!

Despite the game's steep learning curve and often brutal difficulty, this is easily the greatest RPG I have ever played form this generation of games! It sure is one of the best games of all time as well! Demon's Souls is not for the faint of heart but it really should not be missed by anyone! Take the time to learn it's nuances and you will find yourself having a blast! Demon's Souls is certainly going to be a game I will never forget and will most likely continue to play for years to come! I can't recommend it enough!