Orayn said:
Challenging, moody, atmospheric action-RPG gameplay. I would describe the game as a sort of open world dungeon crawler, full of secrets, treasures, hauntingly beautiful scenery, and many, many ways for you to get yourself killed.
Oh yes.
You will enter Dark Souls as fodder, a weak and pathetic baby. You will be stabbed, crushed, poisoned and disemboweled, but what kills you will only make you stronger. Each death is a lesson, you'll learn about the placement of hidden trap or an effective method for defeating a tricky foe. It may not seem like it at times, but you will always be making progress, even when you lose a buttload of souls. And in the case of a game like DS, knowledge is more powerful than a minor stat boost.
Over time, you'll start to become more and more capable. Levels that once seemed so daunting will be a breeze after you'll learned it's ins and outs through sheer perseverance. The enemies that once made you cower in fear can be effortlessly dispatched with your honed skills and increasingly powerful weapons. If you have it in you, you'll graduate past being fodder and a survivor to a badass demon killing machine. That's not to say Demon's Souls was a cake walk, but there was a tremendous sense of progress from start to finish.
Succeeding in Demon's Souls was incredibly rewarding compared to modern games since I earned every goddamn drop of my success. I proved to myself that I wasn't just another mouth-breathing gamer who values instant gratification over a challenge. It felt good, dude.
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