Make it stop

Posted by Jacob H. on 12th Jan 2011

We all know that demons are big nasty creatures from the other world that usually run around hurling some kind of fire, stealing bits of you or all of you or just your soul, and also think that your liver would go great with some ketchup. But did you know that even the lowliest demon has a soul? And did you know that these souls are valuable and also just as good as gold in some places? Think I've been huffing too much paint? Well then obviously you have not played Demon's Souls, the newest ATLUS RPG for the PS3.

The story, or what can be considered the story, revolves around the kingdom of Boletaria where the king made his kingdom powerful by using the powers of souls. Apparently he did so enough to wake the ‘old one', a great immortal entity from the time of the creation of souls. It shrouds the kingdom in a fog that no one can get through and releases hoards of demons that ravish the land of the people, stealing their souls to make themselves more powerful and eventually feed to the old one. Only one was able to escape to the outside world and tell everyone of the plight of the kingdom, spurring adventurers from all over to rush into the fog for fame or glory, to free the kingdom and take advantage of the power of souls.

First and foremost, one thing above all else should be mentioned about this game. It is utterly curb-stompingly hard. To get its point across, the game has you die at the end of the tutorial level and then forces you to go through the first area as a soul. Once you die, at this point or at any point in the game, you become a soul. As a soul, you can still move about and play just as you were when you had a body, with two changes. For one, your attack is slightly increased. This is not a massive increase but it does sometimes make a difference in a fight. Secondly, and the most important thing, is that your health bar is cut in half… you heard me, in half. Apparently souls cannot take any type of punishment compared to having flesh to get hit on. This is the main difficulty of the game but not the only thing.

As a soul, you have a few options of getting your body back. For one, defeating a major demon, or boss, gets you your body back, but as you can imagine this is difficult to do with half your life bar. Second, you can use a particular item that will revive you with a body, but these are a set number scattered throughout the game and once they are used up, that's it. Another way is the multiplayer option which I will get to. The main point of this is to force you to adjust to playing as a soul and to really try to avoid dying once you get your body back, but since dying is something of a hobby you get in the game, I suggest you get used to the idea as running around as a soul.

The game itself plays something like Fable 2 or Legend of Zelda. You use a 3rd person perspective to move around in a detailed area, usually with a free form camera to look with, and use the shoulder buttons to use various actions associated with your left and right hand. Often you will go with a weapon in your right hand and a shield in your left. Weapons can attack quickly for combos or a heavy attack to do more damage or break guards. The smaller shields are used for blocking and for parrying, which leaves an enemy open and can sometimes let you do a quick counter attack for massive damage. Larger shields can block more damage but prevent you from running or dodging. The game boasts a large amount of different weapons that all seem to be ripped right from history. They all seem to act differently too; Large weapons like swords or axes do more damage and hit more enemies but they are hard to use in tight spaces as hitting objects like walls or rails stops your swing. Short stabbing weapons or spears are good for stabbing at distance and for use in tight areas but also leave you exposed to side attacks. You have to keep in mind that all actions other then basic moving require stamina, and once it runs out you are a sitting duck, unable to block or attack until it refills.

The world is broken up into various areas you can reach through a hub world called the Nexus, a type of ‘in between' world between souls and the physical world. The nexus has people who can store your equipment, upgrade your weapons, sell you spells, give you advice, sell you weapons and items and such, and also level up your character (something you can only do after defeating the first boss in the first area). Here you also have access to the 5 worlds that make up Boletaria. Each world has several bosses and opens up deeper and deeper as you defeat the bosses in the levels, they also open up to secret passages and treasure cashes. Dying in these worlds or re-entering them respawns all the enemies in the area so you can use this to farm the levels for drop-items and souls. Later in the game, the levels can gain certain aspects like light and darkness that effects the levels in different ways, the monsters and items dropped, and even how much hit points you have.

The game's other main draws come from interesting new concepts. For one, the game has some multiplayer aspects as mentioned above. When in soul form, you can use an item which allows you to join another's game if they accept your invite. Up to 3 players then can run through a level and if you defeat a boss in someone else's game, you regain your body in your own game. You can also attack someone as a soul, being a ‘black phantom'. If you kill them, you get your body back but they lose one level, and if they beat you, you are sent back to your own world with no consequences other then using up the item needed to invade someone's game.

Besides active multiplayer, the game has passive multiplayer. When running through a level, you can see anyone running through the level as you do (which is why online is required for this game). As you watch them, the look like ghosts and they cannot see you, so you can watch where they go and discover items, ambushes, and secret passage ways. More importantly are the blood spots. You make a blood spot whenever you die, and returning to it regains all the souls you had beforehand, but if you die before reclaiming it, they are discarded and your old blood spot is replaced by the new one. You also see other's blood splatter around stages. Touching these will conjure up a red ghost that will replay the last few seconds of that character's life. This allows you to see just what someone was doing before they died, so it can show you where they ran into an ambush, or a trap they ran into, or a pit fall they fell through, saving you the trouble of falling pray yourself. You can also see other's messages (composed of pre-rendered phrases) that can help you or mislead you, and leave a few of your own.

The game obviously has some flaws. For one, the biggest flaw is probably its biggest standing point to begin with; the inherent difficulty. This thing feels as if it was designed to make the Japanese cry foul. Just the fact that you can only get your body back after you defeat the first boss, which you have to do with half of your hit points as a soul and cannot level up while doing so, is such a strain that it most likely will scare off most gamers starting the game. The difficulty in getting your body back after dying and the ease of dying (monster ambushes, cheap traps, pitfalls everywhere, other players able to invade at any time and trying to kill you) makes it a wonder why they would punish you so much for dying in the first place if it will happen so often. In a way it plays to the game and makes you want to play more, even if it is out of some sick spite, but still.

Another issue is the controls. They sometimes feel a little stiff and awkward, which is probably intentional due to the fact that your running about with armor and not feather-light. Another problem is a lack of information. Usually the game covers most bases and the manual is more used for quick reference, while in this one the manual is needed a lot as a lot of the aspects of the game are not explained. This is worse for some parts that are not explained for either. For example, the game states that you have to have a certain stat to use spells, and once you have that stat and have the spell, it says you can use it at any time. However, there is no way to simply cast the spell outright or select it. It does not tell you in the game or manual that you need a spell casting WAND equipped before you can use your spells, nor does the game offer to sell you one, requiring you have one drop as a random item. Another issue is the crossbow. The bows and arrows can be aimed but require both hands to use, but the crossbow can be used in one arm. However, the game does not allow you to aim with it, and firing from the hip is impossibly difficult. Instead, you have to lock onto a target with the melee-lock on before it will hit anything, and you have to be pretty close to do so and by then the enemies are usually running at you, leaving you with only one shot off before you get smacked. This is rather unfair as enemies can hit you with their crossbows at unspeakably long distances.

Lastly, the camera can be a real pain. You have control over it for the most part which is better then most other games but still sometimes the tight corners and right angle turns in such situations makes it impossible to see what your doing even with full camera control, as the camera cannot clip through walls. This is done deliberately in some cases, leaving you to be blind sided by enemies or traps just out of sight in blind corners, leaving you a sitting duck and sometimes suffering from a cheap death that would have been easily avoidable if the game only let you see what your character was facing at. And once more referring back to the lack of information, the game sometimes does not tell you where to go to get things done. After you beat the first boss, the black maiden guarding the hub-world tells you to speak to the ‘monumental' upstairs. For one, you have no idea what a monumental is. I assumed she was talking about the massive statue sitting above, so I ran up there only to find three levels with balconies leading in front of it, but nothing there. I ran up higher and found a ‘top score' area for the game server, but not a single clue to where to go. It was not until I looked it up on a FAQ that I found that the monumental was a small child hidden in a spot in front of the statue. There are 3 massive rows of dead druids sitting amongst candles and they all look the same. It's the one sitting amongst them hidden, yet sitting upright and with a small candle in front of him that you are supposed to talk to… well how is anyone supposed to know that? It's like looking for a funny needle in a stack full of needles without being told you need to find a needle!

In the end, the game is rather good… in a sick twisted sort of way. The unorthodox play style, the large assortment of weapons to find and upgrade, the interesting level system, the universal currency of souls, the dark and looming environments, the good atmosphere, and the interesting voice acting all seem to stand out. The multiplayer is also good and the bosses are memorable. Its only real downside is just how mind numbingly hard it is and how hard it's attempting to be. This game just screams ‘Don't play me' to anyone starting it out but opens up to a very deep experience once you get past the first massive hurdles. For anyone looking for a new type of RPG or something different and challenging, this is definitely a game to try. But regardless of what your looking for, there is one thing I have to say; Make sure you have lots and lots of patience.