‘Demon’s Soul’ is soft on story, but still hard to beat

At Columbia, classes have a pretty broad spectrum when it comes to difficulty—some classes curve to a C+, some to a B+, and some not at all. Those extremely hard classes are notorious for designing exams for everyone to fail. If gaming had one of those GPA-busting classes, it’d be From Software’s new action role-playing game “Demon’s Souls.”

Brutally challenging and designed for persistent failure, “Demon’s Souls” is a finely-tuned adventure that focuses more on the player’s growth and development than his or her virtual avatar’s.

Published in America by the always-venerable Atlus USA , “Demon’s Souls” was released in Japan last February, where it quickly became a cult classic. Transporting players to the medieval kingdom of Boletaria , “Demon’s Souls” lets players create a custom character—a (male or female) knight, mage , soldier, or a variety of other classes—and venture into the “dark fog” plaguing the land. There’s a very minimalist story revolving around a greedy king awakening an old demon and getting everyone in trouble, but the game’s narrative is restrained. Pick up a sword, axe, or pike and head out into five distinct worlds to vanquish the demon threat.

With seven months to build a reputation abroad, “Demon’s Souls” has developed a reputation for being hard as nails. It’s true: the game is really hard. But, rest assured—it’s not unnecessarily so. When the player dies­­-and the player will die a lot—the avatar simply loses his or her corporeal form and becomes a soul. Die as a soul, and lose your collected demon’s souls (the eponymous souls function as the in-game experience and currency metrics). While that seems like a steep penalty at first, eventually the joy of being a neurotic soul collector fades away and the player no longer feels so bad about losing a soul or two (thousand) here and there.

So why does the game need to be so damn difficult? Well, for one, it makes the game much more fun than players might think. They end up walking at a snail’s pace down incredibly dark corridors with their shields raised, stopping only to wipe the sweat from their actual and virtual brows, when a black phantom pops out of the darkness and kills them for what feels like the thousandth time. So, they die and start over. Next time, they know not to lollygag, they dodge appropriately, and they riposte right into the Black Phantom’s malnourished frame. Finally, they can feel proud. Conquering individual levels in Demon’s Souls is harder than beating most full games.

The best thing about Demon’s Souls’ high difficulty is that it stresses that—rather, demands—players learn from their mistakes and take it slowly. Throughout the game, their avatars get stronger and faster through leveling up, but, like a really good, classic, roguelikegame, the character development is the player’s responsibility. The gamer is forced to learn how to play the game better. They become more dexterous and nimble, learn to play smarter, and find out how to watch for enemy patterns and tells.

The game also has a suite of innovative online features, namely the unique message and bloodstain system used heavily throughout the game. As players progress, they can choose to inscribe messages with warnings or tips (or, of course, outright lies) on the ground for other players to read. Additionally, as players die, they leave bloodstains at the site of their deaths that a living player can activate to “relive” the dead player’s last few seconds. An astute player will take note of the bloodstains littered about and, coupled with the messages, play smarter.

If gamers are connected to the video game scene at all, they’ve probably heard about how challenging Demon’s Souls is. But they shouldn’t let that deter from trying this interesting game. It’s demanding, but it’s fair, and it sure is fun. Do note that the $60 price does not include the cost of replacing smashed controllers.