NewlyRetired said:
IvanKaramazov said:
Instead of calling it Demon's Souls, they should have just named it You Died instead. That's the screen you spend the most time with.
I have heard the game is difficult and I reading up ahead of time to see if I can get a feel for some strategies and techniques.Is the game so difficult that you would not recommend it?
It's not as hard as what most reviews make it sounds like. After you've beaten a particular level, it's sometimes fun to go back and replay it and just see how it really isn't all that tough once you know what you're doing. For example, it took me a few hours to beat the first level after you reach the nexus my first time through. Now, even with a brand new character with ordinary stats and ordinary equipment, I can blow through it in 20 minutes easily. What makes the game hard is the following:1) There's a near-vertical learning curve at the beginning. Melee combat in this game is extremely satisfying, but it's also deep and there's a lot to pay attention to (enemy attack patters, when to block, when to strike, keeping an eye on your stamina bar, etc). Hand-to-hand combat is pretty hard at first until you get used to it, because the game really doesn't ease you into it at all. In most games, you would get a few easy levels at first with weaksauce enemies to teach you how the game works. Demon's Souls basically just throws you right into the thick of it after a bare-bones tutorial.
2) Every enemy you encounter is capable of killing you if you arent' careful. Even the pathetic little dredglings that you encounter going up the steps of Boletaria castle in 1-1. Most games will let you stumble through an encounter or two, but not this one.
3) You have to re-start the level every time you die. Everybody already knows about this facet of the game already, and it while it would be game-breaking in most other contexts, it works great here. It does increase the difficulty level though.
4) The game makes essentially no effort to tell you what various items do. You absolutely need to use a wiki to figure out what weapons are good and how to upgrade them.
Here's a good one.
You're doing the right thing by reading up ahead of time. Your first time through, you'll probably want to start as a Royal, because you begin with a good ranged spell (so you don't have to rely on melee combat right away) and a ring that lets you regenerate mana over time, albeit very slowly. Once you beat the first level, you can level up your character however you want, but having that ranged spell from the get-go helps a lot.
Edit: Another piece of advice: Play in soul form. When you beat a boss and get your body back, just commit suicide by jumping off a high point in the nexus. Yes, your HP are reduced, but that's not as big a deal as it sounds like, and you're more stealthy. The really important reason to play in soul form instead of body form is because if you're in body form, other players can invade your game, and they will kill you easil unless you really know what you're doing.
For me personally, Demon's Souls is right up there with Killzone 2 and Motorstorm
R as one of my favorite games of this generation. I've beaten it eight times with four different characters and I would guess I'll probably play it through once or twice more sometime. It's a really unique and well-designed experience, but its uniqueness means that it won't necessarily appeal to everybody. Usually I recommend giving it a rental first so you aren't out $60 -- or whatever this sells for now -- if you decide you hate it.