Recently, Atlus announced that they would be bringing Demon’s Souls, a Japanese action-RPG, to North American audiences as a PS3 exclusive. Since the PS3 hasn’t exactly had a lot of titles in the role-playing genre, I was really looking forward to hearing more about it. Today while visiting Atlus on the E3 floor, I had a chance to watch a live demo of Demon’s Souls, and I must say, it’s not your typical action/role-playing game.

The first thing I was told about Demon’s Souls was that the game would feature character customization. I’m a sucker for creating characters, so this excited me. I didn’t get to see this feature being used, so I don’t know how deep it is, but it definitely makes things a little more interesting. The main thing that makes this game stand out, however, is the way that you interact with other players online. Players appear as “ghosts”, similar to the way you could see other players in your Fable II world of Albion. More interestingly, when dying, players leave “bloodstains”, which are basically red outlines of their bodies. You will be able to see how gamers have met their deaths before you, and hopefully try to not meet the same fate.



Another aspect of interactivity in Demon’s Souls is the messages you can leave for other players, and vice versa. For example, if you know an ambush is ahead, you can leave a message of warning for future adventurers (alternately, if you just wanted to mess with people, you could lull them into a false sense of security with a few simple words). I imagine this will really change the gameplay experience, making no two playthroughs alike, and that is a really intriguing feature.

The combat appears, from what I saw, to be very hack and slash.  According to Atlus, Demon’s Souls will feature both cooperative play and PVP. Up to three players can play cooperatively, which is certainly a unique feature for a game in this genre. I will have to get my hands on it before I make any decisions, but so far this game has definitely piqued my interest. It just seems like a very unusual and entertaining experience.



As I mentioned earlier, Demon’s Souls will be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. The game is coming out this fall, so it won’t be long before we have a full review. In the meantime, PS3 owners, it's time to get excited: the wait for a solid action-RPG may be coming to a close.