Demon's Souls

Intro

For a japanese developed RPG, this game feels strange. It doesn't come with the 'usual' trappings of your regular JRPG. There are no androgynous teens with spiky, colorful hair. There are no pastel shaded blobs acting as monsters.  
In theme, visual style and environments - it's more reminiscent of older western rpgs like the Ultima series, the Wizardry series or the Elder Scrolls series. But filtered through the eyes of japanese developers.   
 

World

 The world is split up into 5 major areas - the Boletaria Palace, a mining complex called Stonefang, an insane asylum and prison, an isolated mountain pass shrine  and a fairly nasty piece of swamp area.  Each area has it's own distinct look and feel, mood and set of  challenges. The world isn't very pretty per se, the game itself is never going to win any accolades for best graphics ever, but there is a consistency and level of detail when it comes to creepiness or thoroughness that's really commendable.  
 

Gameplay

 This is not your Final Fantasy. It isn't your Elder Scrolls Oblivion either. At it's core, this is an action RPG. All your offensive or defensive actions are mapped to the should buttons of your Dualshock 3 - whether that be swinging a sword, raising your shield, parrying with a dagger or hurling offensive spells. Your reaction time, your timing and finger dexterity is all that stands between you and certain death. Enemies will attack without consideration to you being ready or not.    
  
"But can't I pause and issue commands?"  - No, you really can't. There's no way to pause the game, other than quitting out of it.   
 
You're going to have to spend a not insignificant amount of time strategizing over which weapons are effective against what types of enemies, and thanks to the non-pause, going into inventory management mid-battle will most likely leave you dead. But at least you're an experience richer, eh?  
 
You kill enemies - you get loot, souls (XP), and you progress. Until you die, whereupon you LOSE all souls you're carrying. You're returned back to the start of the level - and get one chance to reposess your lost souls, if you find where you die. Unfortunately, all the enemeis you previously slayed have respawned.  Only by returning to the hub world and talking to a character are you able to spend your souls to better yourself.  This creates an interesting risk-reward challenge - do I proceed through the level, try to finish off the boss and potentially lose all my souls, or should I return, level up and redo the level? 
  

Difficulty

 A lot has been said and written about the alleged 'EXTREEEME' difficulty. Yes, it's hard - but only from the context that we as a gaming species are not used to this type of games any more. We've been overly exposed to games designed to only offer a smoke screen of difficulty, whilst automagically checkpointing, quicksaving and helping us along the way. This game does not do that. This is game design as was popular late 1980s, mid 1990s. Saying the game is 'hard' is a bit unfair. Challenging, or punishing is more appropriate.  It consistently refuses to hold your hand, or offer guidance. It will punish you for being careless and sloppy. But learn these punishments, accept the constraints placed upon you,  thread carefully through the world and you'll get by just fine. A paranoid player may assume that the game is trying to do it's best to punish him, and make him suffer - and yes, that would be a true statement, but also proof that you're playing it wrong.  
 

Aesthetics

It's graphically competent - not much more than so. The worlds are amazingly designed - but the textures, animations in some instances could be better. It paint's a pretty believable, dark, gloomy world.  
The music is awesome - but what's even more awesome is the lack of music. There's typically only music during important events - such as boss battles. The rest of the time - silence. And this is very much needed, since you need most of your senses active and sharp to not fall into an ambush.  
 

Conclusion

 It's a punishing game if you're doing it wrong. Doing things right - it's an immense satisfaction completing difficult tasks. Downing the bigger boss characters, or completing the harder levels, with your hands shaking from pure adrenaline or nervousness is supremely satisfying. There's a good risk-reward balance.  It's not a perfect game, and I don't think it was ever meant to be. 
But, it's an important game. It's refreshing in this gaming climate to see a game that refuses to compromise, to settle for less, and deliver on what the creators clearly envisioned.  
In an era where most games are extremely polished, focus tested beyond repair, streamlined-to-be-accessible and 'safe' from a risktaking perspective, this game stands out like a shining beacon.  
Games must be allowed to take risks. Otherwise, the medium as a whole won't progress.    
 
And in this instance, the risk taking worked. There's literally no other game like this out right now. Buy it. Love it. It deserves it. 
 
( 4.5 / 5 )
 
(TL;DR version: Buy this game. It kicks ass. It's an important, curious vision of how games could be more often if creators were given the chance to create, and marketing and focus groups didn't have as much influence as they do. )