Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls is a mix of games, a slice of monster hunter, oblivion, and Onimusha. If you have played and liked any of these I'd recommend you give this game a try.

Story 7/10
I guess some can say the story is almost none existent, but through small pieces and interactions with the NPC's the player will start to understand what era this may have taken place and possibly where in the world. The time period this game takes place is very suiting for the story, dealing with demons, holy miracles, and magic's. The base feeling I got when playing this game was pretty solid, everything was quite believable, and the tone was suiting. Overall the story of Demon's souls is a meh kind of feeling; nothing really stands out about it.

Game play 9/10
Some say this makes or breaks this game. It is the finest point of the game though I don't consider it as fine as many say. Controls, quite flawless, it does take time to get accustomed to locking on and disengaging lock on to do various actions and tactics but that deals with the player's skill right? There is also a parry animation the player may do pressing the r2 button, takes much practice to be used effectively in real combat. This is one of the games where you really have to play the game to experience the controls and have a feel for it.

Clipping
When your large sword hits a roof and bounces off it still hits the enemy that is behind the wall.what a lie in animation, I feel pretty cheated here, it is actually an advantage to have my weapon hit a wall and still hit the enemy as the recovery animation is faster than the complete swing recovery....

Frame rates
A small problem but the more I have played the more I experience some of it. Not a huge problem but heck, sometimes it ALWAYS happens at the same point in the game and makes it very annoying, something they could really fix.

Enemies
Hard? Yes for players who lacks reaction and just doesn't learn from mistakes. My first stroll in this game was quite normal, it wasn't too hard but still of some challenge and easy well, I felt it was easy in some parts of the game.

Now, down to the real game play. There are at many times due and not due to the enemy/boss AI that made things very easy, able to abuse, and I call a glitch. I won't delve into what bosses, though many, can easily be pelted to death by ranged attacks. Bosses get stuck can't attack, run into a wall trying to tear the player apart but fails to do so. Another incident would be that the player can simply walk into the boss room, and snipe the boss to death behind cover. What's the point of this? Why not make the boss stand right in front of the players face at the start of the "boss battle"? This is quite a major flaw as the bosses are supposed to be called bosses due to the difficulty and fear they impose. Another major flaw with one of the bosses I found out after a while, an inconsistency that makes no sense at all, I hit the boss using 1 hit for 150 damage and it does not notice me, while I use the same 1 hit with a few buffs and do 400 damage and now the boss notices me and smashes my face in. This is a very weird inconsistency as I am using the same hit 1 hit but the effects are different just because of the damage. Common monsters as well, in some of the acts in the game there are times where you shoot them; they rush towards you and can't get you as you are on a slightly higher plane than they are. If they can't get you, why not just GIVE the player an item they may be dropping as the player is going to kill it with almost no effort and skill at all. I find that ranged players have overwhelming advantages to the melee player making the game easy if one chooses to use range which almost everyone will integrate into their arsenal of weapons. Overall game play is well done, besides from some of these points the stage/bosses are very well made and unique.

Weapons
There are many, many customizations as well. Each type of weapon plays quite differently. Here are some European straight swords, daggers, and large swords, as you can expect, the straight sword is fast but not as fast as a small dagger would be, and not as strong as a slow larger sword would be this makes sense and damage is proportional. There is also a stat called durability, proportional as well. European swords can without a doubt out last an Asian katana. Just like in real life a well made European straight sword will break a well made katana simply due to the weight and thickness of the blades.

Weapons 2 Customization
A very fine part of the game, almost every weapon can be customized to the players liking, some weapons when customized get added damage from the player's stats like strength. Other weapons can be laced with poison and some can even change into a different weapon. Every player can get what they want with this customization system.

Magic's and Miracles
A very interesting part of the game well at least for the magic portion is that the magic in this game takes slots, weaker spells take 1, stronger 2, and strongest 3, and of course you have a very limited number of slots forcing the player to think wisely of what spells they choose to "remember" in their slots. Miracles are very similar to magic in the aspect that they also take slots to use and have limits as well. This is pretty well thought out though the player will be pumping their intelligence stat quite a bit to be able to use either magic or miracle.

Graphics 8/10
Does its job and not much expected here. Everything looks nice overall

Online 5/10
Online is unique but it feels like a single player online game, with bloodstains that view players death don't really tell you anything when enemies start patrolling an area or the player has ran away from a pursuing enemy and is slain... quite useless. Player specters/ white outlined players are more of an annoyance than help...I can't see the enemies movement when they are in the god dam way. As for helping another player you have to be dead to do that and set up a "soul sign" can't reserve your "I am willing to help someone! sign but why don't I just join your game! It doesn't get that much harder anyway!" for your friends. When you are finished helping them you get revived and kicked out never hoping to really see the player again unless you message them ask them to die and help you with your acts, very primitive. Why not just have a party room stating what level and act you are on? Or even better automatically join a player's game that is in the same level. Finally something interesting, invading a player's game. This is only available when you're in soul form. The goal of this is to kill the corporal player and you get your body back. Not much there except trying to ruin an innocent person's game, this is for the evil! You can only get invaded if you are in corporal form as well. There is also an option to dual a player via a soul sign, wagering souls not very refined...why not make a challenging room rather than waiting in a spot hoping a player will come across AND accept. Overall online is very lacking to today's standards. To put it simply, it's a loner's game, when you need help you can get it, and when you don't you don't need to accept their soul signs.

Pure Music 10/10 Overall Sound/Music 6/10
Sound effects quite well done, many of the weapons, enemies make noises that suit them.
Music… I hardly heard any. Much of it is in boss battles, some of the "Boss Music" sounds nice as for most they don't pump me up as some should. Stage music, is probably one of my favorite things about RPG's, this game however has none! It would definitely spice up the mood for stages if there was music for them.

Playtime 10/10
You can keep playing NGs till you get bored the NG+ is limitless
The first play through a fresh player will take may vary due to the player skill, if they die a lot it then it will be a long time, for me the first play through was around 30-35 hours. Each NG+ gets faster and there isn't all that much to do in the main story.

Overall 8/10
Recommended for hardcore action RPG players, you will experience many deaths but no game over's. For those lacking reaction and experience in playing action intensive games refrain from wasting your money and time. Glitchy enemies took off a lot of points for this game, as well as the lack of music what's the point of making the music when for the majority of the game you don't even get to hear it. Online was something I was really looking forward to and playing with my friends, but this weird system disallowed that. Some flaws to this game but besides all of the flaws and glitches, Demon's Souls is one of the best action RPG's out there in the world let alone for the ps3, there aren't many games that can rival Demon's souls in game play.