As I am writing this review this game is already 5 years old.
I haven't even finished Dark Souls but like many I took a break, and the sequel is around so the plan was to play these games after finishing the sequel.But after a couple of beers with a friend who also loved his time with Dark Souls but also took a break, we decided to try Demon's Souls which I was planning to play after finishing Dark Souls 1 and 2.
I have to start with saying Demon's Souls IS harder then Dark Souls, there you had these "bonfires" which worked like checkpoints where you could rest, level up and later on do even more.
They were like safe havens and after playing Demon's Souls, I would say quite frequent.
In Demon's Souls these bonfires mark the beginning of the level and you won't see another one until you kill a boss, which there are many.
You use them to teleport to a hub where you level up, gear up, upgrade gear etc.
As you walk through the level you will open up shortcuts which makes it much easier to run through again.
You get Souls for killing or from items, which is the main currency. You buy things with it, level with it, basically everything.
If you die, the Souls will drop close to where you died, and you have to run back to get them back or die again and lose all of them (while killing everything you killed last time because most enemies re-spawn after you die).
I'm telling you all this because it's not something the game will explain to you in great detail, consider now how this reflects everything else in the game.
There are many stats to keep track off, remembering where to go when you rerun a stage and other "tedious" things.
Don't get me wrong, the descriptions tell you what items do for the most part, but it's your own responsibility to find out which NPC's can make use of them etc.
Honestly most of it is very logical, but I still recommend looking items up on the internet.
You will have the option to make weapons/spells out of Demon Souls, which weapons to upgrade until you can craft that sword?
The game does not tell you, which NPC does it for you? the game does not tell you.
You will also probably hate the button layout because you press the wrong ones in panic and the menu system which is filled with stats and tedious to use.
But as you go through the game you will be able to unequip and equip things very fast. It is clear that the developers want a game filled with items, weapons and armors for you to explore and try.
So what is it that I love about the game, even when I lost 1-2 hours worth of Souls several times, having to look things up to feel safe about my Souls?
Well I guess I answered it there, the game forces you constantly to think, to plan and give you great satisfaction when you defeated the odds.
Every button plays a crucial roll depending on how you want to play the game.
You want to be able to evade quickly? Well forget about that protective heavy armor that weights a lot.
You wanna have a longer reach? Better use a weapon that has it, it has low damage or you do not have enough stats for it? Will you ignore it or invest in it?
And some weapons you love, another person playing the game might hate it for the same reason.
Simply because all weapons have "unique" swing speeds, swing angles, thrusts, arcs, horizontal, vertical all better or worse depending on the situation.
But this is not a combo game, there are two main attack buttons but there is variations of those attacks and you can shield bash or parry.
When you start looking things up you will notice in forums a lot of experts telling you that the sword you love sucks because of the stats.
If you feel good about how the weapon handles and you are making good progress with it, I suggest you keep it and upgrade it.
Don't look on the internet for "best weapon" etc. look mostly if you can infuse it with a Demon Soul, so you know what weapon to invest in.
Give yourself a chance before looking at walkthroughs/let's plays.
The lore is very slim if you do not remember everything that NPC's say and guess what, they maybe lie to you.
But still I get more immersed in this world then any other game that tells me everything about everything.
You are nothing but a lost soul, given the chance to save the world from demons.
In this game something that appears to be simple might be a big part of a bigger lore puzzle, if you watch lore videos of this series you will soon notice that most of it is speculation because of lack of information.
The biggest surprise for me was that these are Japanese developers but they nailed the "dark fantasy" genre to the wall and I haven't seen other games of this caliber able to reach it.
The designs have thoughts behind them (of course not all) so even if you do not look cool the armor and weapons are very convincing.
It's the skill you gain that will make you feel cool, when you go back to previous stages and you dance around the enemies then you will feel cool.
If you have time to invest in this game, if you want a gaming experience few games have to offer in the last 10 years I suggest this game.
But remember, prepare to die.