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Every once in a blue moon a game comes along that challenges your abilities as a gamer.  Demon's Souls is one of these games.  With its enemies that one-hit kill you, and traps that are hell-bent on seeing you dead, Demon's Souls pulls no punches.  It is by far one of the most difficult and challenging games that you will ever play.  However, I will not declare that it's a game only for the hardcore.  No fellow gamers, this is a game that is only for those with an abundance of patience and devotion. 

No one should be surprised at this point of how difficult this game is; Atlus is not afraid to be blunt with gamers and have been very up-front about it.  So how do you review a game with such a high difficulty level?  How do you convince other gamers that this is not only a game worth playing, but is also worthy of spending their hard earned cash on?  It was a challenge I was ready to face head-on.  Taking a page from Atlus' book I have decided that I will be brutally honest and forward with my fellow gamers, and will let you decide your own fate.

Demon's Souls is a game that kicks puppies and slaps babies. Afterwards it stares you in the face and dares you to attempt to crawl through the depths of humiliation that you will undoubtedly be forced to endure. The tutorial is the first sign the game isn't messing around: you WILL die during the tutorial. There is no way around it. However it merely serves as a way to introduce you to the Nexus, so don't take it too personal.

The Nexus is the hub of the game, and allows you to choose your destination among five main locations, all with varying themes and difficulty levels. You can choose from any of the five worlds at any time to traverse through once you have made your way through 1-1; this definitely keeps the game from becoming too linear and gives the player a little bit more freedom to set their own pace.  Each world has it's own challenges to face, and poses new difficulties to overcome. 

Also in the Nexus you will find a blacksmith, a person to store items for you, and the Maiden in Black, the keeper of the Nexus who also serves as a contact point to acquire more soul power (experience levels).  You will be talking to her quite frequently.  Just as the King who corrupted the land in search of soul power, you too will find yourself in need of more as you greedily level up your stats to face the overpowering demons. 

The souls you collect from defeated demons serve as the currency  for the game; you will use them to upgrade weapons and armor as well as purchase items and trade them to the Maiden in Black for more soul power.  I was often torn between upgrading my weapons and updating my stats, as souls can be a rare commodity.  Note when you die you lose all of the souls that you collected, but luckily you have an opportunity to earn them all back by returning to your place of death and touching your own bloodstain. I found myself chuckling over this many times, because it was always fairly obvious I died at that particular spot for a reason.  So doesn't it stand to reason I would die at the same spot again?  Well, that's the point.