The vanquished become the Vanquishers: Demons' Souls Thread

[Altima]

so yes, as big of an RPG/hack n' slash/ custom character nerd as I am, I decided to pick up a copy of the game, after nearly shitting a brick when I saw the previews for this game while making a delivery to a friend of mine who works in gamestop. I must say, DAYAM this game is BEAUTIFUL! Most of the characters, and NPCs look pretty realistic, especially since it uses the Havok engine(half life 2, L4D).

All right, down to my mini-review on it.

Well, for starters, this game is published by Atlus, and they do a good job of putting out some fun dungeon-delvers/RPGs that'll keep me entertained for a few weeks, which is a good thing since I have ADHD-sorta. So yes, this is a sort of dungeon-y RPG video game, but it's very... unique.

For instance, this game sort of replicates an MMO, in that your game is connected to a server where in real-time, you can interact with other players in a variety of ways, though you technically do not "See" them at all. I mean sure, as you're walking through a dungeon, you'll see an occasional ghost or two, which means at that exact place, at the exact same time as you, another player is going through the dungeon. You also can leave messages behind that other playerrs can see, such as hints, or advice, or heck just a "help me through this part!" thing. Of course this game supports multiplayer, so you and a handful of friends can tackle a dungeon together, but there's a few strict things that multiplayer has to follow, for instance you can only join another player's game if they are alive, and if you do, then you are stuck in spirit form, which is a sort of "permanent" status effect.

The game has two major "statuses" that determine your capabilities. Either you're in your living body/alive, or you're in spirit form/dead. yes, this sounds weird, and you're probably asking "well, how do you play the game when you're dead/a ghost?" well, spirit form just severs your HP in half "permanently" until you use a rare revive stone, kill a giant demon(boss) or something else, which you'll have to figure on your own. So yes, it is hard to return to life, and even harder to stay alive. This game is brutal, and will have you in tears trying to advance just another 5 feet from your last bloodstain.

In the beginning of the game, most enemies can kill you in just one combo, if you haven't learned to block, or parry their attacks almost perfectly. even worse is that if you do manage to kill an enemy, there is always another one waiting for you somewhere else in the shadows. You'll have quite a challenge staying alive, trying to kill your enemies for their souls, which is the in-game currency/experience points. Yep, you use 1 numerical value to purchase, and upgrade your gear, or your character. The sad part is that if you die, you lose ALL your souls collected up to that point, and trust me, you will die. A lot. So you'll want to be careful to stay alive, and protect your precious hoard of demon souls. In the event that some random zombie you happened to forget about DOES ambush you, and strike you down, you can collect the souls you lost, but only if you return to the point of your death, without dying a second time, and collecting the souls form your previous corpse.

Now, with all that I've said that makes this game seem intimidating, it's not. I will admit, and others will agree it's no walk in the park of an RPG, but it IS a definite challenge, and a must-have for those RPG-whores that NEED some good action.



all in all, I'm madly in love with this game, because of it's blend of Oblivion-esque character growth/customization, with the skills, and reflexes of Monster Hunter, and the feel of .//hack's MMO feel.

Now, who else managed to get their Digi-paws on this game?