[StarSlayer]

Dark Souls, the spiritual successor of Demon Souls is around the corner.  I didn't get to play Demon Souls since it was PS3 and I have a 360 but supposedly it was an unforgiving test of player skill.  Most of you are probably slathering for Skrym but after seeing some of the 24 hour stream event on IGN I'm going to give it a shot.


http://www.gametrailers.com/video/bartholomew-trailer-dark-souls/719513
So anybody else going to attempt this brutal challenge of man verse game?

[Davros]

It's not on the Gaming platform of the gods....

[StarSlayer]

It's not on the Gaming platform of the gods....

ColecoVision?

[phatosealpha]

I may.  I actually bought my PS3 specifically for Demon's Souls.  While it's unforgiving nature wasn't exaggerated in the online talk, it's weak points were highly glossed over.  It was very grindy, and no way to turn off the 'inspired by griefers' multiplayer other then dying (and losing half your max health) or pulling the ethernet cord from the console.  Plus, despite all the "It's rough but fair", it's not always fair.  Camera screwjobs do exist, a bosses having level draining abilities stopped being acceptable exactly 2 seconds after it was invented.

Plus, some of it was brutal but fair - while at the same time being completely and totally unfun.   The entire swamp level was like that - more aggravating then challenging.

So, I'm kind of mixed on it.  The original was a good game - but while it deserved a lot of praise, it deserved much more criticism then it actually received.

I'll probably pick it up at some point - after a price drop or three.

[IronBeer]

I've not played the original Demon's Souls, but based on what little I've seen, it actually appears to be a spiritual successor to old-school kick-in-the-nuts-hard Roguelikes. Dunno. Personally, if I want to play something that's a tribute to oldschool hardcore, I'll simply play ADOM or Nethack or summat. That said, if people are willing to play such wickedly difficult and downright mean games, then more power to 'em!

[phatosealpha]

It's hard, but it's a very different hard then Roguelikes.   There's no malicious level generator that can put you in completely unwinnable situations, nor is the penalty for death starting completely over.  And while it has some "Arggh!WTF!" moments, death is usually more along the lines of "Oh, OK, so walking directly up to the giant man-eating, fire-breathing dragon surrounded by a pile of corpses wasn't a good idea.  That probably should've been obvious."

Like if you took an old school Zelda game, and made the monsters and traps as deadly as you'd reasonably expect them to be without applying video-game logic.

[Ransom]

I'm playing. It's great. Not as close to perfection as Demon's Souls was, I think, but that's hardly damning. I feel like it lacks the rhythm and sense of progression its predecessor had. The world strikes me as less compelling, too, and the mood less powerful, but they're growing on me.

It was very grindy, and no way to turn off the 'inspired by griefers' multiplayer other then dying (and losing half your max health) or pulling the ethernet cord from the console.

Hrm. I can't imagine playing Demon's Souls offline. The messages, bloodstains and ghostly players create a really unique atmosphere, and without the ability to summon phantoms or the risk of being invaded by them body form wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Also, for what it's worth, I finished the game without ever feeling like I needed to grind.