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VGR #4: Demon's Souls
15 years ago
General
Been a while since I did one of these... and I got a real doozy...
Lately, I've picked up Demon's Souls, a 3rd-person action RPG that was made by From Software. Many people considered it the best RPG of 2009... does it stand up as such?
To put it bluntly... HELL yeah!
Lemme give you the basic story (all of which is given pretty much in the opening FMV for you). There is a kingdom (Boletaria) that has been going through hell lately. It was built over a resting place of an extremely powerful being... but now, that being is beginning to stir and it's causing a lot of problems. For one, a dense fog has envelloped the land around Boletaria and all who've gone out to explore it have vanished. As well, demons have begun appearing... pretty much doing what demons do. If a demon is killed, you gain it's soul, which can make you more powerful. Some people use this power for good, others grow mad off it's power and do what they can to get more, practicly becoming demons themselves.
One final brave soul has decided to brave the fog... but what is their true intentions? Are they here to save the world or plunge it further into chaos?
That, my friends, is up to you...
You play that "final brave soul"... and you choose what they look like. Seriously! Their entire facial structure is customizable, their skin, hair, eyes... customizable. You have a TON of potential here! You also have the choice of "classes" to begin as, each having some advantages to play style over the other builds, as well as different weapons to begin with. The beauty of this, however, is that you are not stuck at ALL with with what you can do. You CAN start out as a beefy barbarian, but while the game progresses, you can become a powerful magician. There are no limits to stat allocation in this game, nor is there a limit on what weapon each class can be. In a way, the opening "classes" are irrelevant. All that matters is your playstyle.
The game plays out of a centrala hub called the Nexus. This is where you go to choose the area to tackle next, to store items and most importantly, where you go to level up. Levelling up is not like other RPGs where killing monsters fills up an experience meter. No, instead, you collect the souls of your enemies and use them as a form of currency (seriously, folks... souls = money in this game). Talk to the "Black Maiden", and for certain amounts of souls, you can level up your stats. Be warned... as you level up, you need more souls to boost a stat.
Souls are also needed to make, upgrade or repair your weapons and armour at the blacksmith... though to upgrade things, you need materials you find from enemies. This, for the most part isn't too difficult to do, however.
Now, the storage NPC... he is VERY important. This game has some form of realism - you cannot carry everything you want and everything you carry has some weight to it (except souls, naturally). If your "item burden" gets too high, it becomes harder to dodge enemy attacks and so-on. This is where "Stockpile Thomas" comes in. He will hold onto almost anything you give him with no cost whatsoever... and he has an infinite storage capacity. This is good, because (unfortunately) there is no such thing as selling items.
There are 5 areas of Boletaria you can explore, each with about 3 or so sections you can venture to as you progress. At the end of each section is a boss - a demon with a rare soul that is commonly a difficult enemy to take down. It is not, I repeat NOT a good idea to go through each section of 1 area, then go to the next area and so on! First and foremost, you'll realize that you actually can't - after getting through section 2, you can't continue until you've killed more high-level demons in other areas... but more importantly, the difficulty pretty much is the same in all areas (section 1 is easier than section 2 in all areas... for the most part). Each area has a different theme and different enemies.
I have to warn you right now, ladies and gents... if you've heard about this game before, you probably would have heard one thing - this game is nut-bustingly hard! There are situations practicly set up for you to die if you don't pay attention and use some form of strategy to get through. Enemies try to ambush you, blow up TNT barrels with fire attacks when you get by... even high-level monsters (like dragons) try to nuke bridges when you attempt to cross (meaning you need to time your attempt and run like hell). Death is easy and you will die a lot. In fact, there is a tutorial stage at the beginning in the game where death is pretty much guarenteed at the end. This introduces you to the "Soul form" system this game has. When you die, you become a "soul". You can still fight as if nothing has happened... but your health bar has been cut in half. You are a bit stealthier, however. In order to get your body back, you need to kill a boss demon. If you die as a soul, you just pretty much die and come back as a soul as before with little concequence. Now, there is one other very large disadvantage to dying (as a human or soul). Any souls you were carrying at the time, you lose! Sounds like a real piss-off since you die so much in this game, but fear not! There is a way you can get them back! You need to return to the spot you died and touch a bloodstain that is glowing with souls. This is your bloodstain - indicating where you died. Touch it and all the souls you had when you died there return. But don't be hasty trying to get back there - if you die before reaching that bloodstain, that bloodstain (and it's souls) disappear forever, replaced by the bloodstain you just made in the location you just died at.
There is a lot more about this game that I could go into, but the rest is something you just have to see for yourself.
Score: 9.5/10 - MUST BUY!
Lately, I've picked up Demon's Souls, a 3rd-person action RPG that was made by From Software. Many people considered it the best RPG of 2009... does it stand up as such?
To put it bluntly... HELL yeah!
Lemme give you the basic story (all of which is given pretty much in the opening FMV for you). There is a kingdom (Boletaria) that has been going through hell lately. It was built over a resting place of an extremely powerful being... but now, that being is beginning to stir and it's causing a lot of problems. For one, a dense fog has envelloped the land around Boletaria and all who've gone out to explore it have vanished. As well, demons have begun appearing... pretty much doing what demons do. If a demon is killed, you gain it's soul, which can make you more powerful. Some people use this power for good, others grow mad off it's power and do what they can to get more, practicly becoming demons themselves.
One final brave soul has decided to brave the fog... but what is their true intentions? Are they here to save the world or plunge it further into chaos?
That, my friends, is up to you...
You play that "final brave soul"... and you choose what they look like. Seriously! Their entire facial structure is customizable, their skin, hair, eyes... customizable. You have a TON of potential here! You also have the choice of "classes" to begin as, each having some advantages to play style over the other builds, as well as different weapons to begin with. The beauty of this, however, is that you are not stuck at ALL with with what you can do. You CAN start out as a beefy barbarian, but while the game progresses, you can become a powerful magician. There are no limits to stat allocation in this game, nor is there a limit on what weapon each class can be. In a way, the opening "classes" are irrelevant. All that matters is your playstyle.
The game plays out of a centrala hub called the Nexus. This is where you go to choose the area to tackle next, to store items and most importantly, where you go to level up. Levelling up is not like other RPGs where killing monsters fills up an experience meter. No, instead, you collect the souls of your enemies and use them as a form of currency (seriously, folks... souls = money in this game). Talk to the "Black Maiden", and for certain amounts of souls, you can level up your stats. Be warned... as you level up, you need more souls to boost a stat.
Souls are also needed to make, upgrade or repair your weapons and armour at the blacksmith... though to upgrade things, you need materials you find from enemies. This, for the most part isn't too difficult to do, however.
Now, the storage NPC... he is VERY important. This game has some form of realism - you cannot carry everything you want and everything you carry has some weight to it (except souls, naturally). If your "item burden" gets too high, it becomes harder to dodge enemy attacks and so-on. This is where "Stockpile Thomas" comes in. He will hold onto almost anything you give him with no cost whatsoever... and he has an infinite storage capacity. This is good, because (unfortunately) there is no such thing as selling items.
There are 5 areas of Boletaria you can explore, each with about 3 or so sections you can venture to as you progress. At the end of each section is a boss - a demon with a rare soul that is commonly a difficult enemy to take down. It is not, I repeat NOT a good idea to go through each section of 1 area, then go to the next area and so on! First and foremost, you'll realize that you actually can't - after getting through section 2, you can't continue until you've killed more high-level demons in other areas... but more importantly, the difficulty pretty much is the same in all areas (section 1 is easier than section 2 in all areas... for the most part). Each area has a different theme and different enemies.
I have to warn you right now, ladies and gents... if you've heard about this game before, you probably would have heard one thing - this game is nut-bustingly hard! There are situations practicly set up for you to die if you don't pay attention and use some form of strategy to get through. Enemies try to ambush you, blow up TNT barrels with fire attacks when you get by... even high-level monsters (like dragons) try to nuke bridges when you attempt to cross (meaning you need to time your attempt and run like hell). Death is easy and you will die a lot. In fact, there is a tutorial stage at the beginning in the game where death is pretty much guarenteed at the end. This introduces you to the "Soul form" system this game has. When you die, you become a "soul". You can still fight as if nothing has happened... but your health bar has been cut in half. You are a bit stealthier, however. In order to get your body back, you need to kill a boss demon. If you die as a soul, you just pretty much die and come back as a soul as before with little concequence. Now, there is one other very large disadvantage to dying (as a human or soul). Any souls you were carrying at the time, you lose! Sounds like a real piss-off since you die so much in this game, but fear not! There is a way you can get them back! You need to return to the spot you died and touch a bloodstain that is glowing with souls. This is your bloodstain - indicating where you died. Touch it and all the souls you had when you died there return. But don't be hasty trying to get back there - if you die before reaching that bloodstain, that bloodstain (and it's souls) disappear forever, replaced by the bloodstain you just made in the location you just died at.
There is a lot more about this game that I could go into, but the rest is something you just have to see for yourself.
Score: 9.5/10 - MUST BUY!
