This is why you should never invite blue phantoms ;p.  Some people still play this game regularly who bought it the day it came out.  The easiest way to tell the difference between a veteran of DS who is very good at the game and someone who is not is as simply as their multiplayer session count.  PS: Only Demon's Souls Newbs think magic is overpowered.  Trust me when I say a properly built melee character with the right weapons and skills as a player will easily crush any encounter in the game and destroy mage players in multiplayer.

" Playing through DS in offline mode is the wrong way to play the game, you really rob yourself of the camaraderie of summoning and the absolute terror of the first few times you get invaded. But oh well. "

Playing through DS in offline mode is the wrong way to play the game, you really rob yourself of the camaraderie of summoning and the absolute terror of the first few times you get invaded. But oh well.

" @Enigma777 said:

" @Axersia: Playing Demon's Souls as anything but a pure melee character is taking the pussy way out.  "

I played as a pure Melee character and didn't have much trouble with him, though I think I've only fought him once. I don't remember if I ever reached him with my magic character before I stopped playing, but I didn't die that time either if I did.  I remember hearing people talking about the Maneater in the forums so I was cautious when I saw the name of the boss, but he didn't do much damage too me and his attacks were not that difficult to avoid. I think I wondered what the big deal was when the other one showed up and I got worried that new ones would keep showing up and that would be what was difficult about the boss. But when I killed the other one the whole thing was over so I went "Ok...that was easy."  Maybe I just lucked out with what patterns he used or something. "

" @Axersia: Playing Demon's Souls as anything but a pure melee character is taking the pussy way out.  "

I beat Maneater, but on the storm king I lost the sword you needed to use by accidently dropping it, so I cant beat him as a full melee character 

Why do people have so much trouble with Maneater? Did no one notice there's a big-ass brazier in the middle of the bridge you can use for cover? The only reason the Maneater is hard to beat is because it's the most broken boss in the game. I've encountered 2 instances of one or two of the Maneaters flying off screen and never coming back. I think the bug is triggered by casting Poison Cloud on them.
 
Also, I always get the impression that people who have trouble with the game are pure melee characters. I played through the entire game in offline mode and beat it in 24 hours at lvl 70. Old King Allant went down in 4 or 5 casts of Homing Soul Arrow, and the Penetrator went down in 2 casts of Fireball because I had Biorr with me (wouldn't be surprised if you can just hide in a corner and let him kill the boss for you, but I never tried that).
 
Hell, most of the bosses can't even touch you unless you get close to them. I'm pretty sure I actually went to go grab something to drink during the Fool's Idol fight (which ended up being the longest fight in the game for me).
 
But anyway, if you have any intention of picking up Dark Souls as well and magic is just as overpowered as it is in Demon's Souls, you really might wanna consider investing some points in INT and MAG and you should be able to breeze through the game.

I got stuck on Maneater... Stupid cloning asshole!

I beat demon souls also took 30 hours.

DEMON'S SOULS SPOILERS - WATCH OUT!!!
Last May a friend of mine convinced me Red Dead Redemption was going to be awesome and enticed me with his plans of getting a posse together and roaming the west in some multiplayer action. We both pre-ordered and got the game, and I started playing it right away. I loved the game and played it all summer long. However, I didn't see him online much at all, and after about three weeks of him not even logging on to XBL I started getting a little worried/frustrated. Had his wife finally had it and thrown the console out the window? 
No, no. He had bought Demon's Souls about the same time, and the game basically sucked all his time. When I got my PS3 several months ago, I knew I had to check this game out. I started playing off and on and was really digging it (still am by the way).  As for my friend, he said he was really stuck on the last boss and was taking a break from it.  A couple months ago as I was getting closer to the end he said, "hey - I'm going to hold off on the last boss until you are closer to my soul level. That way I can summon you and we can beat the last boss together!"  Great plan - sounds awesome!  One problem - I accidentally beat the game tonight.  Okay, so maybe I didn't so much beat the game, as the phantoms I summoned. Oops!  ;)    
I'd been playing the game for a few months without ever summoning other players, and I'd never been invaded up until this week. (I almost always played in soul form).  But after trying the Penatrator on 1-3 several times, I decided to try for some help.  That's what the feature is there for, right?  So I pulled a guy into help and just like that the Penatrator bit the dust. Then I went on to face the black phantoms in the next section. Archers down, no problem. First phantom down, no problem. Second phantom (pesky archer) gave me a little trouble because I got too close and pulled in the third phantom (big dude). After a few times dying and breaking my sword and shield on that guy, I decided to try for some help again. I summoned two phantoms and just like that the phantoms were down. Now, that's where I should have turned around. Instead I ran along behind these guys as they cleaned up.  And I cleaned up the loot!  One of them left at the dragon, but the other one led me all the way to the final boss (false king) and I am not lying when I tell you this guy beat him in less than thirty seconds.  I managed to get in four hits with my sword in a quick combo when he had his back turned, and just like that he was down.  I went on the end game, thinking the big hard boss must be coming up soon. But no - killed the real king (slug thing).  Even after that, I was still so sure that there must be more ...