Dark Souls

[Robotazy]

And it's harder than ever.

Originally Posted by Exerpt from Thierry Nguyen

A slight confession: I haven't made it further than a couple of hours into Demon's Souls. To be specific, I've never ventured further than the boss of 1-1 (the giant slime covered in spears and shields). It's not because I hate the game or think it's unfairly hard, as most non-fans tend to say -- it's mostly because extrapolating the skill and time it took for me to get past the first area meant that I would basically have to dedicate my life to the game to finish it.
I fear that the same sentiment might preclude me from getting into Dark Souls, the "spiritual successor" (which must be a legal thing, because based on the look and gameplay mechanics, this is for all intents and purposes a straightforward follow-up) to Demon's Souls. If even director Hidetaka Miyazaki talks about how he plans to make Dark Souls "better and more difficult," and to have your experience filled with "tens of thousands, or millions, of deaths," then I already have an inclination that Dark Souls might be a bit too merciless for me.



Then Miyazaki actually plays through a live demo -- albeit with a high-level and decked-out knight while not connected online. If the difficulty disclaimer hadn't swayed me aside, I think that I'd try to get into the game by virtue of its presentation. What I saw of Demons Souls was mostly dark and decrepit environments -- broken down castles full of claustrophobic halls. So when I see a highly detailed knight making his way through a grand (but still decrepit) castle nestled within a lush valley, my interest gets piqued. Other people and places that Miyazaki shows off include an "onion knight" (which I would have nicknamed "the Steel Stay Puft Marshmallow Man") wandering through an area called "the dark forest," an exotic/Asian-inspired knight traipsing through a level referred to as "underground hell" (which is full of lava), and a traditional knight navigating his way through the "trap road." The detail in the characters, combined with the distinct looks of the environments, and the creatures within (such as a sleeping red dragon curled up on top of a precarious bridge), makes for a great looking medieval fantasy game.

It's also no longer exclusive to the PS3 apparantly.

Only putting it here because that's who'll be most interested in it