I popped in Demon's Souls while taking a break from work. I've had it for months but hadn't played any of it yet. Of the 2 hours of it I played tonight, it all went by real fast.
It's like a Mega Man version of an action rpg, almost. You take things nice and slow at first, but you keep dying, learning the level layout, and in turn makes going through the level that much faster. Spear guys I had slight trouble with before now go down in just a few concentrated hits. Knights that I troubled with before weep when they see me! A section of the level that took 15 minutes before to clear now takes only 5. It's pretty rewarding and the soul system is addicting. I also enjoy how the game is defense-based, unlike almost every action rpg ever.
I got to a point where I amassed almost 3000 souls, I encountered this knight with a spear. He one shot me (faldfkjas;fja;dfs;dfa
) and I ended up trying to get to my corpse to get my stuff. But he killed me AGAIN before I could get to it, so I LOST 3000 souls. ;dsja;f Aside from that guy though, I haven't really had much trouble with the difficulty. It's pretty straight forward, it just laughs at you when you make mistakes (like that one above!)
One thing, though. I'm utterly confused about the game's structure. The level I'm in doesn't seem to stop ever, and there are no save points within them. Do you have to beat the levels in one go or something? Because once I lost my 3000 souls I started getting paranoid. I had no way to get into the Nexus without using that one item that takes you there (at the expense of losing souls). Thinking about it, it feels like a rogue like in that you have to delve deeper and deeper and survive each encounter, and you get sent to a central hub when you die rather than getting a game over.
But this dungeon won't end and the game won't let me have a break. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or an awesome thing. Probably a bit of both?
How the hell am I supposed to play the game? Get a bunch of souls, warp out to the Nexus, save, and go back to the grind?
Despite that little confusion, the game owns.