4. The Choice
Demon's Souls is a combat-heavy RPG, and like any RPG worth its salt, you get to design and build your character before you set off on your quest. Again, it's all very been there done that, but just when you think you've seen everything that its character creator has to offer, it throws up something new. Let me explain. To begin with you pick your sex, your race, your hair colour, the way your eyebrows twitch across your forehead, and then you pick your class. This ranges from soldiers and knights to thieves, priests and magicians, and your starting stats and gear are reflected by whatever class you choose. The thing is, once you begin the game proper, you can completely reinvent who your character is. No, I don't mean you can add a different set of eyebrow animations, or that there's a sex-change station deep in the Tower of Latria, but so far as your class goes, it's all down to you. In fact, they don't even call it a 'class' - it's called an 'origin', and like all origins, they only mark the place where you start, not where you're going to be. Over the course of the game, your brawny tank of a knight can grow into an intelligent, lightning-throwing wizard, before stripping back the armour and the tricks and to become a light-footed thief. Like I said, it's all up to you, and there's not a single character choice you can make that can't be undone - as long as you have the souls to pay for it, that is.