1. The Challenge
I don't know if you remember, but back in the day, before memory cards and all that jazz, if you got halfway through a game and lost all your lives, then that was it. You were dead. The game was over. And you were sent, in a flurry of foul language, back to the beginning. Even if you don't remember the frustration of losing your last continue in Death Egg Zone on Sonic 2, it doesn't matter. Demon's Souls does. Yes, it remembers very well. If you die in Demon's Souls, then you lose all of your hard-earned souls. Souls come from killing enemies and are your only way of levelling up your character, reinforcing your armour, and turning your piddling little tree-branch of a weapon into something that resembles a halfway decent sword. To lose them all just because some fetid cretin managed to get the better of you is pretty much devastating. Not only that, but when you die you're sent back to the beginning of the level. Also, when when you're resurrected, you are done so with only half of your life bar available to you. Oh, and the more you die, the harder the enemies get. How's that for a challenge? Now, I suppose that all of this can sound a little preposterous, I mean, who wants to play a game where the odds begin stacked against you and just get higher and higher with every miserable death? Who wants to be constantly reminded that they're not good enough, that they have nothing, and that they've just broken their fourth, forty-pound a pop, controller into tiny pieces? Me, that's who - and you will, too. Demon's Souls is never unfair. It has a set of strict rules that you must obey, but whenever you die it's not because the game is rigged, it's because you were careless, because you weren't good enough, because instead of taking it slow and engaging the enemies one by one, you tried to be the big man and ran directly into the jaws of death with your sword slashing wildly and a war-cry on your lips. You will die. You will lose. You will be battered and beaten and broken... but then there'll come a day, when the air is right and game-gods are smiling down on you, when you'll make it a little further. And when you're finally strong enough, clever enough, and you eventually manage to beat down that boss who's been torturing you for weeks with its unforgiving blows and life-ending swipes, and you're standing over its body, and the music dies around you leaving nothing but the breeze of Boletaria whistling in your ears, you'll know a joy so great you just might explode.
So that's number two in the "5 Reasons You Should Drop What You're Doing To Play" series. Hit me up in the comments below and let me know both what you think, and your greatest Demon's Souls victory. Next up there's going to be a little change of pace as I examine the reasons why everybody and their mothers should have played Shadows of the Damned.