Yea, 2 blogs in one day, WHAT OF IT.  There might be a 3rd if I am truly that bored.

So yea, Demon Soul's.  A game you are likely to have heard much about somewhat recently, be it for good or for bad.

Story

Not gonna lie, there isn't much story, in fact all of it can be summed up in this video.

After that...you proceed to play the game, and not much more is said.  It is more of a silent story, somewhat like Shadow of the Colossus.  Yes there is story, but it is not told to you, more for you to discovery as you tread through the game. 

This could be a blessing or a curse to some.  I, for one, love a good story, and while this game is light on it, what is provided is enough motivation to keep me wanting more.  On the other hand, after that little intro, it's pretty much all gameplay for the rest of the game, no cutscenes to impede your march.

Gameplay

Ahh, the gameplay of Demon Soul's.  The bread and butter of this game.  Rarely does a game come along that actually introduces innovation in a way that makes a tried and true genre, action/adventure RPG, feel new while still retaining what you love about it.

I won't lie or sugarcoat it, Demon Soul's is hard with its fair share of confusing gameplay mechanics, most notably the tendencies (I will devote an entire section to describing what the tendencies are and how they work).

HOWEVER, it is not hard in the way that Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry are hard, where the game throws hoards of seemingly invincible enemies that require 30 minutes of button combos to fell.  No.  It is hard where it punishes you for every mistake you decide to make.  Which I love.

Punishment is an aspect often left on the bench in most games that are considered *hard*.  I often liken Demon Soul's to my very reason for existence on these boards, Monster Hunter.  Both of these games are viewed as hard by the casual player.  Thats because if you make one simple mistake, it could very well mean death.  In order to succeed you need to truly understand the game and its inner workings.

Not just grind until you can overpower your enemies with a flaming sword of fire+50.  Equipment helps, of course, but its more in your execution.  Do you take out the archer first? or the swordsman?  Do you sneak around them to backstab or rush them before they have time to react?  Things like this are what Demon Soul's is made of.

There are *origins*, which can be initially seen as classes, but they are not.  Your origin simply dictates what level you start at and what your stats are, THAT IS IT.  The magician class starts with more points to help with magic where as the berserker is all focused in melee. 

However, how you decide your characters stat progression is ENTIRELY up to you, so by the end of the game, all players are essentially on the same playing field, there is none of this * X class has an advantage due to some broken skill*.  Although this doesn't mean all players will be the same.  Playing as magic user will be a totally different experience than as a sword and board melee character.

There is a hub world called the Nexus, basically where you go to store items, level up, learn new abilties and find the entrances to the other worlds.  The worlds may be done in ANY ORDER.  World 5 is not harder than world 1, it is simply your playstyle which dictates diffculty.  World 3 is comprised of magical enemies, thusly, a mage will have trouble since they won't dont as much damage, but a melee user will kick ass there! provided they aren't hit with a spell first.

One final aspect I should mention now to prevent confusion in the coming sections is the form of currency in the game, souls.  Souls are used for EVERYTHING.  Purchasing items, upgrading weapons, leveling up.  Harsh, yes, but it makes you think much harder and plan out how you are going to play to make the best use of your souls. 

Death

There is a soul form and body form.  You start out in soul form, which means you do slightly more damage (25% I think...) but only have 50% of your max health.  You can see your full health bar, but can only obtain half of it, unless you have other parameters, such as character tendency or a ring, more on that later.  Killing a boss or invading player will give you back your body, allowing you to have full health. 

When you die, you are brought back to the beginning of the section of the world you are in.  So for example, you progress through the 2nd world, kill the 1st boss, you are now in 2-2 (second world, second section) kill the 2nd boss and you will then be entering 2-3 (second world, 3rd section).  Death is the same in both soul and body form, for the most part. 

Death in body form will reduce you to soul form.  All of your souls will be collected in your *bloodstain* a mark left by you in the general area where you died (if you died in an unreachable area, such as falling off a cliff, the bloodstain will appear roughly 10 seconds before you fell)  You have only one chance to reclaim your souls.  Make it back to where you died (all enemies are respawned) and collect your bloodstain, and huzzah! all is well.  However, if you die without collecting your bloodstain, you will be creating a new bloodstain, effectively erasing and losing all of the souls in your original bloodstain.  There is no difference in this effect between dying in body or soul form.  Just because you are a soul doesn't mean this mechanic is no longer in play.

Multiplayer

Shortly after killing the first boss, you should obtain a blue eye stone and a red eye stone.  Only soul forms can use the blue eye stone and red eye stone.  By using these stones, you are offering your services to a player in body form online. 

Example.  I am in 1-3 (1st world, 3rd section) and I just got on the phone with my friend who is playing the game and also in 1-3.  I am in soul form and he is in body form.  I place my blue eye stone in the corner of a courtyard (it can be anywhere, this is just for explanation) and since he is a body form, he will see glowing, blue writing appear in that area.  He walks over and accepts to summon me, and I am pulled from my game and placed into his, and thusly, coop has just been engaged!

It must be pretty awesome, playing as a body form right?  The ability to summon other players!  Wrong.  If you are in body form, then you are victim to the red eye stone.  If a soul form uses a red eye stone, they will be *breaking* into the game of a body form.  The victim has absolutely no choice in the matter unless you play offline in which case this can't happen.  As a red phantom, the enemies will not attack you, essentially making them your ally.  You can run past the host and into a mosh pit of enemies, forcing the host to engage both you and the enemies.

However, this is not to say that red phantoms have the upper hand.  The host has the ability to call allys in the form of blue phantoms (co-op) and since he is in body form he inately has more health.  If the host is killed, then the game treats his death as a normal death, your souls are left in your bloodstain and your day has officially been ruined.  The red phantom is then granted his body back, along with another benefit about to be touched upon.

Character and World Tendencies

I warn you, I only have a vague understanding of character/world tendency.  To absolutely know everything about it, check out the Demon Soul's Wiki

Character Tendency is a parameter that dictates certain optional events in the game and will affect a few weapons/how much health you are able to have.  I believe it also effects the droprate of items?  Not sure on that one.  It is raised towards white by killing uniquely named black phantoms, secret enemies hidden in the game.  It is lowered to black by killing innocents/becoming a red phantom and killing the host.

World Tendency is much more important.  World Tendency is a parameter that effects the difficulty of the game and certain events/secret areas in the game.  It is raised towards white for killing a boss/uniquely named black phantom/primeval demons.  White tendency makes the enemies weaker/less health, but also lowers the rarity/drop rate of items they drop.  Black tendency is gained by lowering the world tendency by dying in body form/killing the host as a red phantom.  This makes enemies much harder but also increases the droprate/rarity of items.

Note: World tendency is only for the particular world you are in.

You start out at neutral.  +3 will make you go to Pure White, -3 will make you go to Pure Black.  Only at pure white/black will special events/areas open up, usually granting you a unique, very powerful weapon. 

At pure white tendency, the icons for these worlds would be glowing very brightly, at pure black, they will be very very dark, much like that broken icon.  The same goes for your character for character tendency.

Obviously it is more complex than I make it out to be, but that is the very basic gist of it.

Final thoughts

Yes, the game is hard.  Yes the game can be confusing.  HOWEVER, the multiplayer is such an awesome experience, and there is nothing like finally downing a really hard boss and feeling that huge sigh of relief and accomplishment like, "YES!!! I FINALLY BEAT YOU!!!!"

Casual gamers and anger management cases beware, but for those looking for a challenging yet rewarding game to play with friends, there ain't nothing like Demon Souls.

You may or may not be familiar with a string of blogs I did part of a category called "Uknown Gems" which basically documented my favorite games from yesteryear.  *note* I am not done with that section either so there is still more to come eventually.

Well, I feel that its time to add a new category, *Shiny and New!* which documents my favorite "next gen" games that are more or less culturally relevant right now.

And so I begin this new segment of blogs with the latest part of one of my all time favorite series, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time.

Gameplay

For those who are unaware of what this series is about, its mainly a light platformer heavy on weaponry/action.  The name of the game here is weapon upgradability...that a word?...don't think so, but deal with it.  There is a metric buttload of weapons in this game, all cleverly designed, each with a unique feel and filling some sort of niche.  The fast firing, low damage gun? Check.  The huge explosive rocket launcher? Check.  Shotgun? Check.  Interdimensional-tentacle-monster-rift-opening-gun-of-doom? CHECK!

Those are only 3 of the massive amount of weapons, each with the ability to level up with constant use, gaining more power and eventually evolving into a better gun.

The game is 3rd person, and like I said before, has some light platforming, or rather in this games case, a decent amount of platforming.  You get rocket boots that allow you to *skate* across the ground or hover to the ground from a high fall.  These are what you generally use for the platforming elements of the game, which are pretty fun/clever/interesting.

There are also various armors to buy, gadgets to discover, a decent amount of collectibles (get to those in a minute) and sidequests to perform.

The game takes place over a series of planets, with an open world *hub* connecting each planet out in space.  You fly around in your spaceship, choosing to do side missions by exploring small moons with a spherical *twist* on gameplay (think Super Mario Galaxy) or by finding NPC's to help. 

You find small creatures called Zoni across the game, which upgrade your ship to give more firepower/defensive measures, as well as the ability to travel to new star systems.  There are also Golden Bolts (bolts is the form of currency in the game).  Gold bolts are used to purchase skins for Ratchet, changing his appearance (purely cosmetic, has absolutely no effect on gameplay whatsoever)

Nothing is more fun than walking into a room filled to the brim with enemies, unleashing a salvo of rockets and see an ocean of bolts fly at you through the smoke and carnage.

But that is JUST Ratchet's portion.  The game is split into 2 halves, trading off between the two several times throughout the game.  Clank's portions are more about puzzle solving, with this truly ingenious puzzle element where you perform an action, record it, and then do another action while your previous recording performs the one you just did.  If it sounds confusing, thats because it is.  Some of the puzles are absolutely mind boggling but they will make you feel like a genius if you complete them.

Story

One might think that story isn't big in a game like this, but the story is absolutely epic, in my opinion.  Of course I'm a fanboy, but aside from that, the story really is well done.  Not going to give away much, but it deals with time travel and Ratchet and Clank reuniting.  Along Ratchets travels he finds another member of his species, the Lombax, named Azimuth who knows what happened to their race (this is relevant because pretty much throughout the entire series Ratchet has been the only one of his kind)

Clank has been transported to The Great Clock, a marvel of science and sorcery located at the eexact center of the universe...give or take 50 feet.  Clank discovers that he is the heir to The Great Clock and begins learning the inner workings of it and how to maintain it, gaining time control abilities along the way.

In the middle of all of this is Dr. Nefarius, trying to claim The Great Clock for himself so that he can reverse time and make it so that villains always prosper and heroes always fail.  Nefarius is the true iconic villain in every way.  Maniacal laugh, delusions of grandeur, frivolous pursuits.  All the things that a real comic book villain represents are present in Dr. Nefarius and it really brings the game to life as all the antagonists from previous installments in this series were pretty meh worthy I found.

And of course I can't talk about a Ratchet and Clank game without mentiong Captain Quark.  A"so called" hero of the universe and often the source of the comedic gold that comes from this game.  Quark has been a mainstay throughout the entire series, and that sure doesn't change here.  Pretty much every line Quark has will make you chuckle, if not burst into laughter.

Final thoughts

Put shortly, this game is a must have for any PS3 owner.  The graphics are honestly the best I have ever seen, EVER, better than uncharted and killzone 2.  The gameplay is satisfying, story is epic, and it has a fair amount of replayability. 

Upon beating the game, you unlock a new game+ feature, where you play the game again on a harder difficulty, adding a bolt multiplier.  The more enemies you kill without being hit, the more bolts you get!  The game adds in a new level of upgrades for all weapons, giving reason for you newfound wealth. 

There are also the games own form of trophies/achievements called skill points, which must be discovered simply based on the name of each individual skill point.

I highly suggest this game to any PS3 owner, young or old, hardcore or casual.