Set in a dark fantasy world, players take control of a hero who has journeyed to the fictional kingdom of Boletaria, which is being ravaged by a cursed fog that brings forth demons who feast on the souls of mortals. The game has been described as a spiritual successor to the King’s Field series of games. The gameplay involves a character-creation system and emphasizes gathering loot through combat with enemies in a non-linear series of varied locations. It has a unique online multiplayer system integrated into the single-player where players can leave useful messages and warnings for other players’ single-player game worlds, as well as joining other players in their world to assist and/or kill them.
From the Wikia:
"Demon's Souls is set in a fictional dark fantasy world, taking part mostly in the southern medieval kingdom of Boletaria, that has been consumed by a thick, mysterious Fog that is creeping ever out to blanket the entire world. The Old One, a colossal immortal flying Demon, has been awoken and with it Demons have come forth to consume the souls of men. Only when The Old One is lulled back to eternal slumber will the fog dissipate and the world be restored."
Challenging
Aesthetic
Variety
Aged a little.
So i hadnt played any souls/souls-like games until i played this in 2018, 9 years after its release. To be honest i was expecting a badly aged clunky game, but its really tight. The combat is fun and you have a lot of options for how you want to play. Theres huge enemy variety and each world has a unique style, both in aesthetic and mechanics. It looks really good for a game that old, the art design is pretty cool. Everything looks bleak as hell, half the enemies are straight up disgusting.
The main thing that put me off playing for so long was how often I was told its insanley hard. Its definitely not an easy game but the hype was over the top. Every time I got sloppy the game punished me, I had to die quite a bit at points to figure out a strategy and there were times I lost a large amount of souls to tricky areas. However it never felt unfair, any time I failed it was either because there was something I hadnt learned about the game/figured out yet or because I was being cocky/not sticking to my strategy. So it was always my own fault and never a bs mechanic or glitch. I honestly felt like most of the character progression was skill not levelling and I never had to farm. This gave me a huge sense of achievement when I beat anything I found hard.
Perhaps somewhat outdated at this point but this game is the flagship-title for the Souls series. At the time, having never played something like this before, I was blown away by how immersive the world was. The gameplay, the artwork, the story… It was an instant hit.