So last night at around 2 A.M I beat the game I finally beat this awesome game. After hearing so much about this and the "sequel" coming out this year I decided to pick it up and its one of the best games I have played in a long time. I ended up being a soul lvl of 93 and I had most of my weapons and shields leveled up to the max. I have to be honest though this game isn't really that hard. I certanly had my "FUUUUUUUU.." moments where I lost some of my souls, but it wasn't impossible to complete by the time I did 4-1 and 5-1 it was a cake walk nothing killed me. Not even King Dorian was a challenge. So my question to you guys is what was your experience with it? Did you find this game hard or just challenging?

I absolutely loved this game. Demons Souls is the Eve Online of consoles. It gets blown out of proportion by previews, reviews, and people who never played the game in the first place, but in all honesty, is no where near as bad as it seems. 
 
I don't think it was easy, but it certainly wasn't this legendarily hard game people made it out to be. The only thing I absolutely didn't like about the game was the Prison. Fuck that place. Other than that, the only real problem I had with the game was the JRPG trope of failing to explain, in any meaningful way, how or why certain mechanics work the way they do. i.e. world/soul tendencies and things like that. At times it feels like I literally never would've understood or found certain things without having to go to an outside source (gamefaqs or something)

Congrats on beating the game. Took me awhile. Now play through a NG+, because that's way harder.
Demon's Souls isn't really a hard game, it's just punishing and requires a lot of memorization.

I bought it, put it in my PS3, had no idea what i was doing, took it out of my PS3, put it on a shelf.

I absolutely loved this game. Demons Souls is the Eve Online of consoles. It gets blown out of proportion by previews, reviews, and people who never played the game in the first place, but in all honesty, is no where near as bad as it seems.   I don't think it was easy, but it certainly wasn't this legendarily hard game people made it out to be. The only thing I absolutely didn't like about the game was the Prison. Fuck that place. Other than that, the only real problem I had with the game was the JRPG trope of failing to explain, in any meaningful way, how or why certain mechanics work the way they do. i.e. world/soul tendencies and things like that. At times it feels like I literally never would've understood or found certain things without having to go to an outside source (gamefaqs or something)

So last night at around 2 A.M I beat the game I finally beat this awesome game. After hearing so much about this and the "sequel" coming out this year I decided to pick it up and its one of the best games I have played in a long time. I ended up being a soul lvl of 93 and I had most of my weapons and shields leveled up to the max. I have to be honest though this game isn't really that hard. I certanly had my "FUUUUUUUU.." moments where I lost some of my souls, but it wasn't impossible to complete by the time I did 4-1 and 5-1 it was a cake walk nothing killed me. Not even King Dorian was a challenge. So my question to you guys is what was your experience with it? Did you find this game hard or just challenging?

Loved the game, at first was plowing through on my first try thinking how do people find this hard? (mind you this was world 1-1 where A LOT of people who have no patience give up) Then I met the Red Eye Knight on my first playthough man did he suck to fight :|
But so far I'm loving this game for my third play-through! Currently working on getting certain items and stuff (had to use outside sources for that info...) My only gripe I have with this game is the Valley of Defilement (I hate everything that has to do with it, Except Maiden Astraea's Theme!) that and sometimes the camera/lockon being screwy... Being a knight that now kicks ass is amazing (with Light Weapon/Cursed Weapon enchantments your weapons do crazy more :D) Still was lost on first playthrough, but now I'm glad it was through trial and error experience. 
 
Note: Flamelurker... his fiery ass on first playthrough was the worst boss I ever faught...until I met man-eaters :|

Just got my Platinum in the NA version a couple of days ago. Started the Chinese version a few hours later and my PAL version is waiting on the shelf.  
  
Love this game. :)

My favorite game this gen.  
 
and yeah the game didn't really get hard until new game plus. I didn't have a bow so I couldn't cheese the man eaters and fighting those fuckers legit on new game plus....you don't even know :(

I don't think Demon's Souls was "hard" so much as it was "not fun." While some might have argued the difficulty and extremely punitive death system were meant to heighten the feeling of loss and accomplishment, for many it just seemed like the game was wasting their time. After having several of the aforementioned "FUUUUUUUU" moments myself, I decided that my time would be better spent with a game that rewarded my time investment every time I played, rather just when I was playing well.  
 
Replaying the same small section of a game over and over until you beat it can be frustrating, but realizing that your last hour and a half grind has now vanished into a puff of digital ether makes the game not fun. I don't decry people who say Demon's Souls is a great game, but it is far and away not for everyone, and NOT simply because it is "hard."

I finished last weekend and began a NG+ almost immediately. This is easily my "Game of the Generation". Early in my playthrough, I found myself frustrated at losing ~5k souls halfway through a world, however, once I opened up 4-2 and could farm to my heart's content, that stress was alleviated. I played a royal/ranged class. I upgraded to soul arrow and firestorm and used the lava bow from distance. I am currently running through NG+ to play with both the world and character tendencies. The depth of this game is pretty extraordinary. I cannot wait for Dark Souls.

I just beat this game tonight, playing as a blueblood swordsman. The game really isn't that hard. Pvp can be fun at times, but a lot of the time it comes down to who can stunlock first. I am starting my NG+ now, just beat the phalynx. The one thing that pissed me off was how easy the final boss was... He didn't hit me once.

@kms_md pick up the sticky compound longbow, I use that in addition to my lava bow and it's glorious.

while i agree its not as hard as some people say. there is defo some moments when i put the game down and though about never playing it again.  
 
like the flamelurker. i find no fun im making my way through 30mins of boring tunnels killing oversized Bee's only too be killed in 4 seconds and have to do it ALL again. if it wasn't for the short cut of falling down the shaft at the start and the glitch that means the flamelurker can't reach you i think i would of smashed the disk to pieces and taken a shit on it.  

I've got just a few levels left (been slowly spreading the game over the last year and a half), and I think the difficulty is overblown. I've never run into anything that I haven't worked my way through. The bosses in particular, they are scary but I think I've gotten past each one in less than 10 tries (no cheesing, straight up melee). I don't think the game is as hard as it is demanding on the player. You have to have patience and learn from your mistakes. One thing that made things a lot easier for me was paying attention to the weakness of the enemies and using the correct weapons. There was nothing as futile as fighting Flamelurker with the dragon sword and taking off damage in 50pt chunks. I love how there are no checkpoints, gives a real sense of pressure and a sense of accomplishment when you clear a level. One of the best games I've played.

NG+ is freaking impossible man, goddamn I beat the game like almost a year ago and I still go back to it from time to time to continue playing(or at least try to) that character in NG+ but everything is ramped up by a factor of 100.
 
So I always go back, start grinding some souls only to die twice at some point and lose like 150k souls just like that, then I give up for a month or more and give it another try, I don't think I'll ever finish it in NG+.