About Demon’s Souls for the PS3
For those that missed E3, Demon’s Souls is an action RPG developed by From Software, for the Playstation 3. Publisher Atlus is currently readying it to be released in the United States. The game has experienced critical acclaim both in Japan and here in America, as many game reviewers have taken it upon themselves to import copies of the game. The verdict? We’ll have to wait until the game is released to get a large scale reaction from the public, but from what we can tell from a distance it looks like it should turn out to be something that many American gamers have already been waiting for.
The game’s premise involves a great kingdom in which demons are enslaved for countless tasks and commodities. This all goes actually rather well. Unfortunately, however, the King eventually takes things too far when he summons an extremely powerful demon that it turns out is beyond his control. You, the player, attempt to stop the rising forces of darkness, but are killed in the process, at which point your being is transported to the Nexus. The Nexus is essentially your gateway into every other area of the game’s world, via the area’s portals.
In terms of gameplay, Demon’s Souls essentially functions as a third-person action game. The R1 trigger is used for attacking and pressing the L1 trigger brings your other hand up to defend. Preferably, this hand will, you know, be holding a shield. Pressing the Cricle button performs a dodge roll and the D-pad is used for switching between inventory items(such as weapons) and skills(like spells) on the fly.
But one feature that has many people interested is the way the singleplayer mode makes use of online functionality. As you play through the game’s story, you can oftentimes see the ghosts of other players traversing their own dimensions, trying to complete their own quests. When they die, they leave blood on the ground, and you can interface with it to see a replay of how they died, giving you a better idea of how not to make the same mistake. On that note, when you die yourself it’s also possible to leave an eerie and sometimes cryptic warning for other players who are connected online.
Demon’s Souls is scheduled for released in the United States in Q4 2009.
