Well, i've ended up buying Demon's Souls. Gametraders had a few copies, and i've heard a fair bit about it, so after doing a little more research, i went out and bought it, completely ignoring my general plan to stop spending money. I find that Gametraders is quite good for these kinds of things, and the guy who work at my closest oneis really polite and knowshis stuff, so he easily answered my questions regarding it. My copy is a Chinese copy, so while the game is in english, it runs perfectly on my PS3, even the online, but the game manual is completely in Chinese (which i can't read) which brings a great few obstacles before me, since i can't make sense of many things, and i have no reference guide to help myself (i had to learn the controls by experimentation). My consensus, after playing for two hours, is that Demon's Souls is good, but boy is it challenging.

Demon's Souls is an action RPG, where you control you own character and run around in castles and dungeons killing off monsters and levelling up, It brings up fond memories of Diablo, although a third-person manual action Diablo.

From the beginning, the game doesn't hold your hand, but puts you there and basically lets you figure everything out for yourself. You pick a class, choose your character's face, then get thrown directly into the tutorial, and into the game from then on. At first, while playing the tutorial level, i thought "Hey? What's so tough about this?", as i slew down the undead, working my way through the dungeon while i got used to the controls. Then, the first boss killed me in one hit. Well, i think that was scripted, but that essentially sums up how Demon's Souls can be; if you let your guard down for a second, or aren't quick enough to roll or guard, you will be destroyed in seconds.

Once you've died, the game throws you right into it. The basic story is explained, about a cursed country or something, and demons you have to kill and collect the souls of, but that isn't too important. What is is the entirespiritsystem. When you die (and you will, it is inevitable) you come back as a spirit, where you are basically the same, apart from a small health penalty which prevents your health bar from filling to the max, and are thrown right into it. To get your normal body back, and your maximum health, you have to kill off a main demon, which are basically the bosses in the game. Basically there are five regions, and each has it's own sections that you need to beat in succession. Each section ends in a boss (presumably, i only played for two hours) which lets you move on, and enemies only get harder and harder. Whenever you die, you respawn at the beginning of an area, with all the enemies there again. Any doors you have opened remain open, but all the enemies are still there, so you need to learn where enemies attack from, as well as how to best take them out. Dying happens a lot, but you learn with each death, learning what works and what doesn't, where enemies attack from and how to best deal with them.

Combat is simple in theory, but takes a good amount of skill to play well. You equip something to each hand, left and right, such as a sword and shield (or spear or bow or another sword, etc. etc.) R1 uses the right weapon and L1 uses the left hand (it blocks if you have a shield). R2 does a slower, more powerful strike, while L2 does a parry (if you have an appropriate wepon) which is very very important to survival. Basically, if you parry right as an enemy strikes you, you can quickly perform an instant-kill, taking them out quickly. The timing is hard though (barring the standard zombies) so you need to observe and prepare. Other than that, you can dual wield weapons, or use two hands on a sword or axe to do more damage. The combat is easy enough to get used to, but when enemies defend themselves and get very aggressive, you need to be quick and smart to survive. You collect souls by killing monsters, and you use souls to upgrade and repair equipment, to buy new items and weapons and to level up your stats, to eventually become a monster killing god.

Demon's Souls is online from the start (something i don't know how they control), but it works in an interesting way. People are simultaneously playing the same levels, and occasionallyappear as apparitions. You can leave messages on the ground which others can read, telling them where treasure is, or what dangers are up ahead, which helps considerably. There's nothing better than pausing and reading a message that reads 'Stop' then having a dragon fly directly overhead, burning the bridge you were just about to cross. Also, bloodstains appear where others have dies, and replay a few seconds before their deaths, showing their apparition running forward, battling invisible enemies.setting off a trap and dying, thereby warning you of danger ahead. From what i can understand, you can also join another player's game and team up to play through until the next boss, helping eachother out, and also regaining human form. Alterntaively, as i understand, you can invade another player's game and attack them, killing them to regain life. Neither had occured to me at early days (Although i walked past a summoning where a guy was waiting to join a game)

I managed to kill the first boss, a giant blob covered in smaller shielded blobs that threw spears, and am up to the second, a giant soldier with a massive shield, backed up by an army of archers, who promptly crushed me. I probably need to collect some more souls and level up my stats, otherwise i'll try playing through another area. I am having difficulty with some of the game's systems, such as the inventory screen and random symbols that are there on equipment and stats, but i can't read Chinese, and there doesn't seem to be any helpful documents to be found on any games sites, so i'll have to look harder.