I'm not trolling or anything, I'm honestly curious. Most of the reviews I've read place an emphasis on the old school difficulty aspect, but I haven't read anything truly exciting for me to try it out. Can someone explain a bit?

Atmosphere. Clever game mechanics. Feel-good moments. Great boss fights. Nothing really sticks out since it's a great game as a whole rather then the individual aspects of it.

Multiplayer is pretty awesome and distinguishable as well as the overall atmosphere and feel of the game. It also has pretty unique characteristics, and yeah, it does feel old school (maybe because of tis difficulty), which is awesome.

It's a From game, which usually means people either will love it or hate it. It seems that it got more love from reviewers this time.

" I'm not trolling or anything, I'm honestly curious. Most of the reviews I've read place an emphasis on the old school difficulty aspect, but I haven't read anything truly exciting for me to try it out. Can someone explain a bit? "

You mean the praise you're talking about doesn't explain why it exists on its own? It just goes all "PRAISE DEMON's SOULS" and leaves it at that? Meh, I'll never get these "why so and so" threads...

It's a dungeon crawler with some clever online features, beautiful visuals, deep mechanics and hard as nails. If you like dungeon crawlers, play it, if not, then no amount of praise should move you. It's simple really.

cool thanks for the (for the most part) friendly answers :-)

" It's a From game, which usually means people either will love it or hate it. It seems that it got more love from reviewers this time. "

Your experience  is that nobody likes any of their games? Pretty sure they've created loved franchises (at least until some fuck up in later parts) like Armored Core, King's Field, Tenchu, Otogi, and others...

I don't think it's necessarily that it's highly praised, just that people can appreciate the potential appeal of extreme difficulty, like the stuff Demon's Souls presents you with. I know I can't wait to play it.

People seem to like it because it is sadistic but in a non-cheap way (Kind of like Ninja Gaiden in that respect). In addition, it looks really nice and has a unique multiplayer aspect to it. 
 
If this wasn't a PS3 exclusive, I would pick it up for sure. I enjoy sadism.

i think the quick look shows that this game should of died of a long time ago. also the soul stuff is realy retarded.

" @Al3xand3r: People actually enjoyed the King's Field series? I remember getting the first one as a kid on the good ole psx.....that game was just horrible. IN MY OPINION. "

"i think the quick look shows that this game should of died of a long time ago. also the soul stuff is realy retarded. "

It's innovative, challenging, rewarding, and interesting.  It's a breath of fresh air in the modern games industry.  It's not perfect, and there are ways I can personally think of making it better, but most of those would involve the game being 10 times as long.

  I love this game, but I find the high praise given from so many outlets to be highly unexpected. Don;t get me wrong, it's a good game, but it needs more polish and more content. 
 
 A few misconceptions from the quick look: 
 
- You CAN regenerate MP, you just need to find a special ring. You can start with that ring if you choose the Royalty class. 
- Combat it's slightly different from each weapon and there's a move set and benefits for each weapon class. For example, thrust weapons can be used while having your shield up. 
- It's very important to keep your health 100% full at all times :). 
- Combat depends on stamina levels ( that green bar). That's not mentioned in the QL, understandably so. It's not just cutting dudes.  
- Losing souls it's not that much of a big deal. There's even item souls that can be used to add to your stock later, even if you fail. ( do so in the nexus, losing those would be silly :) )....I lost 14.000 souls this morning. I've lost over 60.000 while playing the chinese version....You'll eventually find ways to quickly gain souls later.
 - You can create shortcuts in every stage in case you die far from the start or at the boss. That's the way you make progress trough the stages. 
 
   It is a quick look tho, so I'm not saying all this to say anything against the GB crew. It's just that people are a bit to eager to say that it sucks, even if they haven't played it....Maybe it's because of the hype?, the game is a bit overhyped tho, i'll give them that :).

A lot of people started fellating this game back when it looked like it wasn't going to be localized and the momentum built up from there.

" Maybe it's because of the hype?, the game is a bit overhyped tho, i'll give them that :). "

" @Pipiporapa said:

" Maybe it's because of the hype?, the game is a bit overhyped tho, i'll give them that :). "

I'm actually surprised by the high review scores. This game didn't have any hype or attention before the reviews started to trickle out.  I think it just surprised reviewers, because it came out of nowhere.  But this game will probably not fare well in retail sadly.  It has zero hype among the general gaming public. "

" I'm not trolling or anything, I'm honestly curious. Most of the reviews I've read place an emphasis on the old school difficulty aspect, but I haven't read anything truly exciting for me to try it out. Can someone explain a bit? "

" @animateria said:

" @Pipiporapa said:

" Maybe it's because of the hype?, the game is a bit overhyped tho, i'll give them that :). "

I'm actually surprised by the high review scores. This game didn't have any hype or attention before the reviews started to trickle out.  I think it just surprised reviewers, because it came out of nowhere.  But this game will probably not fare well in retail sadly.  It has zero hype among the general gaming public. "

I was thinking the same. It's not over-hyped, not even hyped. It came out and reviewed well, and is gaining a cult following. Much different than mainstream hype that we all know and love. When I think of hype for a game, I think Halo as the poster child... while not many games (if any) could be held to such lofty hype machine heights (not a negative), Demon's Souls doesn't even scratch the surface. I also don't think there's such thing as over-hype, unless something completely lacks substance. This game definately doesn't lack substance... just mainstream appeal. "

I like the game a lot but it can be cheap at times, how cheap? i hear you say. Well imagine you have just paid a prostitute to give you a blow job, you walk into the ally, your pants come down. Bam! shes running away with your money and you can't follow because your pants are down, bad times. Yeah thats how cheap it can be.   

From what I've seen, this game isn't for me. I have no problem with difficulty, if it's done in an enjoyable way(Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is a prime example). Getting pushed back to the beginning of the level every time I die is not enjoyable. In fact, it doesn't even make the game harder. The enemies I have to refight are the same I fought last time, so all it does is make the game more time-consuming by forcing me to repeat everything, even the stuff I didn't have any problem with. Taking my time just for the sake of taking my time does not make me happy. It pisses me off. 
 
Then there's the fact that the combat looks dull. Incredibly dull. So basically, this is a game that's dull and frustrating at the same time. That's not a very good combination. 
 
But whatever, if you people like dullness and frustration, more power to you. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

This has been said before, this isn't a game for everyone.  I personally don't find losing all your souls when you die that frustrating since they're easily replaced.  There a lot of ways to prevent that from ever happening by being really cautious, reading all the messages, touching all the bloodstains to clue you in on what's waiting for you around a dark corner, and learning powerful defense buffs or 1 time auto-revive spells.  Its very a technical game with things like combat; breaking a foe's guard, wielding a large and powerful sword/axe that leaves you wipe open after attacking, or how your character can dodge faster with lighter armor.  If a dark fantasy  RPG with loot hunting, great atmosphere, and bosses that make you feel like you can take down anything when you're standing over their lifeless corpse (think Shadow of the Colossus) sounds interesting to you, then give Demon's Souls a shot. 
 

@Abyssfull 

" I'll let yah know, when its released in the UK :'( "

" @Fbomb said:

" @animateria said:

" @Pipiporapa said:

" Maybe it's because of the hype?, the game is a bit overhyped tho, i'll give them that :). "

I'm actually surprised by the high review scores. This game didn't have any hype or attention before the reviews started to trickle out.  I think it just surprised reviewers, because it came out of nowhere.  But this game will probably not fare well in retail sadly.  It has zero hype among the general gaming public. "

I was thinking the same. It's not over-hyped, not even hyped. It came out and reviewed well, and is gaining a cult following. Much different than mainstream hype that we all know and love. When I think of hype for a game, I think Halo as the poster child... while not many games (if any) could be held to such lofty hype machine heights (not a negative), Demon's Souls doesn't even scratch the surface. I also don't think there's such thing as over-hype, unless something completely lacks substance. This game definately doesn't lack substance... just mainstream appeal. "

Hype = Hyperbole = gross exaggeration. There is no such thing as over-hyped, or under-hyped, it's either hyped or it's not.  /end grammar nazi rant "

"But this game will probably not fare well in retail sadly.  It has zero hype among the general gaming public. " 

Too bad this game won't come out for PC.

I can't seem to figure it out myself, I think part of it must be machismo/dick measuring contest, 
 "This game is frustratingly hard, but I'm such a BADASS, HARDCORE GAMER that I think that's a GOOD thing!",  UGH!  
 
I think it looks pretty mediocre, but that's just my opinion. All I know is that Uncharted2 is getting MY 60 bucks!

" People seem to like it because it is sadistic but in a non-cheap way (Kind of like Ninja Gaiden in that respect). In addition, it looks really nice and has a unique multiplayer aspect to it.   If this wasn't a PS3 exclusive, I would pick it up for sure. I enjoy sadism. "

" I can't seem to figure it out myself, I think part of it must be machismo/dick measuring contest,  "This game is frustratingly hard, but I'm such a BADASS, HARDCORE GAMER that I think that's a GOOD thing!",  UGH!   I think it looks pretty mediocre, but that's just my opinion. All I know is that Uncharted2 is getting MY 60 bucks! "

For some reason I want to play this game so hard, fuck MGS, Infamous and Uncharted, I'd buy a PS3 only for Demon's Souls.

read some of its reviews? they explain why

After a solid two hours of playing (and restarting entirely once), I haven't even beat my first boss yet so that I can get out of Nexus. I haven't even figured out what I'm supposed to be going off to attack, because the only thing I've found is the red-eyed demon that obliterates you. That said, I'm surprised that all the reviews were "this is old school tough and if you can take the punishment, you'll be thankful in the end". From what I'd seen in videos, I actually expected a game with a lot of atmosphere, but dated graphics and everything else. I figured the "it's hard and it's old school and it's not another damn emo JRPG experience!" thing was supposed to cover up dated graphics.
 
Boy, was I wrong. The game is beautiful. The music, the atmosphere, the graphics. Right down to something I haven't seen anyone mention yet, which is how sweet some of the fighting is. There's nothing like deflecting a blow only to retaliate with your own sweet looking death blow (which various depending on the position and angle you're delivering it from). It's incredibly frustrating, but these little touches I keep discovering (not to even mention the great multi-player-ish experience built-in to make it feel just a little big larger and like more of a community than it otherwise would) keep making me smile.
 
I don't know how far I'll ever get. Maybe I don't have the stones to beat it. We'll see. But I definitely would love to see more games like this and less "push button to win" games.

This is was my first boss fight, I hope it can shed some light on what gives this game praise:
 
The first boss you encounter is Phalanx and it is one hell of a boss fight if you don't know his weakness and are a frail magician.  I probably spent about 15 minutes fighting Phalanx and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because I didn't want to lose my souls!  This is what makes the game so exhilarating.  The risk:reward factor.  I checked every message in the room Phalanx was in and none were helpful during my session.  It wasn't until about 10 minutes in that I learned that fire was his weakness.  I had been spending my mana killing off his numerous blobs (guards) trying to create an opening on him to attack.  I eventually ran out and I had to then do hit and runs on him because I could easily die in 3-4 hits and I was running out of recovery items.  I hid behind a pillar as him and his army slowly crept up to me.  I used turpentine, an item I had found earlier in the level, and applied it to my weapon.  This allowed my weapon to be coated in fire temporarily.  I proceeded to kill more blob guards and I followed up on Phalanx.  After peeking out from the columns and slashing away at his gelatinous ass for a few minutes, I had finally killed him and a huge wave of relief came over me.
 
This was the first boss of the game.   I looked forward to more.
 
It should be noted that all that came before this boss fight was equally as thrilling too.  The game just creates a really good sense of accomplishment simply for surviving because of the brutal "you die, you lose it all" rule (although you can recover lost souls if you return to where you died, and do not die again before you reach it).