There should be more games like Demon’s Souls

Imagine yourself approaching a ruined castle on a lonely island. The wind howls. Waves crash. Great beasts that resemble manta rays soar in the distance. You advance with care, peering behind your shield with your sword at the ready. A pile of bones begins to glow, and assembles itself into a huge skeleton bearing a curved sword that strong men would have trouble swinging with both hands.

The skeletal warrior begins tumbling towards you. When it gets close enough, it leaps out of its roll and swings its sword at you. The blade crashes against your shield and breaks your guard. Before you can recover and defend yourself, the skeleton strikes a killing blow. This is Demon’s Souls.

Sounds tough, doesn’t it? It is. And it gets worse. Many videogames put you in the shoes of an near-unstoppable badass like Link, Simon Belmont, Samus Aran, or Squall Leonhart. Developed by From Software for the PS3 and published in the US by Atlus, Demon’s Souls is different.

In Demon’s Souls, you are a single mortal for whom even death is not a release. If you think you’re invincible, or even that you can take just one hit, the game will prove you wrong — over and over again.

Every enemy has its own pattern, which you must learn to exploit if you want to get past it. Even the weakest enemies can kill your character if you’re unprepared or inattentive. Demon’s Souls does not pity the fools who rush into a room and let themselves get surrounded. Nor does the game coddle players who neglect their defense in their rush to kill the enemy

And what are your defenses? You have a shield. You can roll if you’re not too heavily armored. And if you let your stamina run out, even that won’t help you. Your best defense is your own intelligence and memory.

You see, most games start out easy and gradually become more difficult. Demon’s Souls is different. It starts out hard. You die at the end of the tutorial. If you’re really good, you can get in a couple of hits on the demon that kills you first, but you will die.

It gets easier, because you get better at the game. You learn how to move and defend yourself. You get to know the enemies, and learn how to keep them from kicking your ass. You find better equipment and learn to use it to your advantage. You adapt to the game instead of the game trying to adapt and cater to you.

My wife doesn’t like the game; the slow pace and unforgiving gameplay doesn’t appeal to her. But that’s all right. I can’t get enough of it, especially now that I’ve gotten to a point where I can really start developing my character. I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the realistic combat, as Demon’s Souls is probably the closest thing one can find to a fencing simulator. If you’re using a rapier and buckler, and can get the timing right, you can even parry an enemy’s attack with your buckler to knock the enemy off-guard, and kill him in a single blow with a riposte.

Try it. You might like it. Just remember to check the wiki, be patient, and have fun. When you get good at it, you’ll feel like a bad motherfucker even when you lose a fight.