Demon’s Souls
I have a confession to make - I’m new to web meetings. Despite my room being filled with no less than three computers, two wireless hubs, and a slew of gaming consoles, I’ve never used my internet connection for much work-related things other than trawling the Thunderbolt forums. So then, it was with a little apprehension that I joined Atlus’ web demonstration of the upcoming RPG Demon’s Souls. What was I supposed to say? Would I look stupid in front of other journalists? However, these first-day-of-school jitters were calmed when Aram Jabbari, the Atlus representative showing off the game, described an enemy as a… well, I can’t really say.
Demon’s Souls is an action RPG that came out in Japan a few months ago. Thanks to its english voice acting, the game was easily imported by a few die-hard fans overseas; however, Atlus is now bringing it over properly, complete with a few menu translations that make the experience a tad less Engrish. Demon’s Souls quickly became notorious for its difficulty, so a better translation will be helpful for players blundering about in the game for the first time. The hack-and-slash gameplay is offset by a deep customization system, that allows players to level up any stat they want for the same XP cost, regardless of the class they’re playing. This means that a Barbarian could be taught magic skills just as fast as physical skills, leading to a nearly endless amount of possibilities for character creation.
However, it’s the online gameplay that seems to define Demon’s Souls. Instead of a normal multiplayer system like a friends list or matchmaking, Demon’s Souls searches for players looking for help with one of the game’s large regions. While this may make playing with friends rather difficult, the experience is geared towards helping other players, rather than a friendly goof-off session. Your partner can be rated after each mission, earning them extra XP bonuses for doing a good job. There is also a slightly more mischievous form of multiplayer - invading. A player can literally break into your game’s world and try to hunt you down. This may seem like a giant pain in the ass; but Demon’s Souls is designed to make sure invading players don’t get too cocky. The matching system searches for players within ten levels or so - meaning they could be ten levels stronger than our conniving invader. An attacking player could also stumble in on a group of three people doing a quest - and if they fail to kill their opponent(s), they are banished from that player’s world forever.
Death in Demon’s Souls happens often, and it is a major aspect of the game. When your character dies, you return in “Soul Form”, a respawned version of your character with less health and an unearthly glow. Much like Diablo 2, it’s wise to make a corpse run to recover your lost items. However, just returning to your body won’t restore it. Getting back into an actual living body requires defeating one of the game’s many bosses, or using an extremely rare type of item. According to Aram Jabbari, players will spend nearly half of their time being “dead”, depending on their skill. Normal gameplay can continue while in this Soul Form, so being dead isn’t so much of a hindrance.
There are lots of small details within Demon’s Souls‘ multiplayer that add a lot to the dungeon-crawling experience. Players can leave messages around the world for other adventurers to read, leaving helpful hints like “use magic for this boss” and other tips and strategies. These messages aren’t just for show; they can be rated by other people, voted up like a comment on Reddit or Digg. Each time another person votes your message up, your character is healed a little. Your death can also be useful to other travelers - bloodstains are left where other warriors have fallen, and interacting with these stains displays that player’s death animation. It’s an odd feature, to be sure, but surprisingly helpful, and not to mention just plain cool.
Demon’s Souls looks to be one of the most unique games hitting the PS3 this year. Its quirky multiplayer options are unlike anything seen on any system at the moment. We’ll see for sure when the game hits shelves later this year, but for now, it definitely seems like one to watch.
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