Modern Otaku: Its about everything, see?

Well, I suppose its about that time, folks. Its been so darned busy lately, that I haven't had time to post anything more then excuses. People going on holidays, family emergencies, computer issues, upgrades; I've faced it all in the last week or so, so I'm pretty much worn out. However, for you guys, I'll do anything. Onto the review.

Demon's Souls is brilliant, as far as action RPGs go. Think of it as a healthy mix of Phantasy Star Online and Diablo, at its best. Now, just make it really hard, based on timing, skill and persistence, and your getting close. You would think for a japanese RPG of any type, it would have alot of backstory or dialog, but it really doesn't. Essentially, the King of Boletaria attempted to used the demon-powered abilities of Soul Arts (*cough*magic*cough*) in order to bring peace and prosperity to his lands. However, in his quest, he unwittingly awakened a deadly force; The Old One. Basically, the old one is a legendary beast, living under the land of Boletaria, who when awakened, goes on a soul-stealing tirade against humanity, using his minions, the demons. Essentially, hes our Cthulu. Anyway. During a quest (for whatever the reasons may be; decide whats what for your own character, if you want) you come upon one of Cthu--I mean, the Old One's minions, the Vanguard. Unless you are godly at timing and dodging (like me! *laugh*) you die. Yep, he just hits you with a huge, earthshattering axe, and you die. But hey, rest assured, this isn't the last time you'll die! Your gonna die a whole bunch of times! And get used to it, because thats how the game is. You screw up, you die. Enjoy. HAH! Anyway, your revived by the Maiden in Black ( creative name I might add. *snork*) who sets you on a quest to slay the demons, retrieve their souls, and send the Old One back to rest, forever. Or until the next time some bearded moron decides to use demonic powers for the good of humanity.

Either way, the game is tough, but doable, even alone. For the first week after I purchased the game, my internet connection (or perhaps my router?) weren't up to par to play online, so I had to solo the entire game. It took some effort, a bit of tact, some patience and just a little bit of soul (the game's currency, by the way) grinding to do it, but I beat the entire game by myself. But trust me, its far more fun with other people. The bosses range from laughably easy, to bone shatteringly hard. The best advice I can offer is to keep your cool, be ready to dodge, and to THINK. If you just charge in blindly swinging your axe or what-have-you, you will regret it, as your going to die, lose all your souls, and worst yet, your physical body. When you lose your physical body, you must fight as a soul. Souls only have 50% of their total health (75% with Cling Ring, an item you obtain early in the game), until you use a rare item to revive, or defeat a boss, or if you want to try your luck, kill a fellow player to steal his or her mortal coil. (Which is just dickish!)

The graphics in this game are magnificent for the most part. The only place your really going to notice a lack of quality, is during character generation, where your character, try as you might to fix it, just looks *lame*. The facial textures honestly suck. And no, theres no better word then suck. Player characters' facial textures don't even hold a candle to Oblivion, and that came out in what...2006?
Either way, the level designs are straight forward, with a few secrets here and there. The enemy and boss designs are nothing short of genius level, for the most part. As with any japanese game, there are a few slightly silly looking monsters; but don't let that fool you. Those little flaming lizards may be slow moving and adorable, but it really does hurt if he pounces on you.

The sound design is top notch. Every swing of your sword makes a satisfying swoosh! and a clang! as you bash it off the wall. Every step in armor rattles as you would expect it to. And best yet, any noises you make can be detected by enemies, so light armor actually has a purpose other then "something to start the game in, before you find full plate." The music also has a touch of love, however, it gets boring really fast, so its best to just ignore it, or let it sit in the back of your head. Even the all-too-important boss fights have boring tunes in the background; although a few are quite unnerving.

The controls are mostly intuitive, if a little slow. But the slowness if purposeful, I believe, to put an emphasis on timing and tact. Controls can be changed to your preference freely, excluding movement and camera controls, which are bound to the left and right sticks, respectively. The game is also controlled from a third person perspective, for the record.

Not to say that this game is awesome or anything; it has its issues too. There is a system, constantly at work in the game, called "Tendency". Theres two types on tendancy; World and Personal, which are both broken down twice, again. Black and White. Essentially what tendency equates to is allignment. World Allignment, and Character Allignment. These allignments effect certain special events in the game; which doors are locked, what characters and items show up during your travels and the such. I have very little experience (and even less patience for it) with it, and mainly choose to ignore it, as I only know how to effect tendency negatively, by dying in physical form. Its simply a feature that makes no sense to me, neither in its function, or practical purpose. For another negitive, the multiplayer functionality is cryptic and stupid. It lacks any intuitivity at all. Think of being in an instanced dungeon (ala World of Warcraft) constantly, and the only way to bring along a friend is to find his message scrawled on the floor, and then summon him into your game. Doesn't sound so bad, right? Alright, thats a given. But how about the fact that anyone can find that message and summon him into their game. That kinda sucks. You could spend a half hour trying to get your friend into your game, which is just not cool. I'm all for creative functionality, but in this case, it would have been better to just have a basic invite panel or something like that, so that you can privately invite your personal friends into the game. And whats the deal with the lack of voice chat, or even, hell, even text chat? My friend and I had to keep flipping back and forth to a PS3 chatroom just to chat, explain the situation, and formulate strategeys. That is just rediculous. "Well, they are ghosts, aren't they?" And so what? I'm already seeing dead people, why can't I talk to them.

Anyway, positives. Hmm.. well, as I mentioned earlier, you can PK (player kill). You use a black stone you find about midway through the game to invade(i.e: force your way into) another player's game to hunt down his body. During this time, monsters will not attack you; so its best not to attack them; they might be your only allies, seeing as the other player can invite two friends to help defend him from you.Dying yields no negative result, short of being pushed back into your own world. However, if you die from an environmental cause (falling of a cliff, being crushed by a trap or being lit on fire by a dragon or something.) you lose a single stat point, randomly. Doesn't sound like much, but since it costs exponentially more to buy stat points at the later levels, it can be quite detrimental. It may even disable you from using your favorite weapon effectively, till you buy back that point.

Without saying too much more, I give the game a 9/10, and suggest that if you have a PS3, and you've been looking for a real challenge (since most games aren't challenging anymore), to at least rent Demon's Souls and try it out. You wouldn't back down from a challenge, would you? Hmmmm? Haha!
~Ota-kun