Mongrels, women and children!!!!

It is hereby my pledge, when I play this game, to take it carefully and strategically enough that people think I'm lying about how much I die

Gosh this thread is completely drenched with e-machismo posturing. A perfect example of why gamers are looked down upon as anti-social nerds. Pretty funny to see geeky jrpg gamers of all gamers (who are perceived as the geekiest of geeks by the alpha males of our society) act like e-tough guys. What is it with gamer nerds needing to be confrontational and aggressive behind a computer screen? I expect this kind of behaviour from a Halo or Call of Duty community (high-octane testosterone and what not) but to see it among the jrpg community is quite sad. As a self-proclaimed geek and long-time jrpg gamer, I'm ashamed that our community manages to stoop this low. Sure he made an unfair evaluation on the game (it's not a bad game per se. It does what it intends to do. It's just not for him and he's entirely within his right to disagree with From Software's game design philosophies), but is it necessary to attack him?

well demon souls is a game that's tough from many, though I disagree, many of my RPG friends didn't like the game either because of some of thr reasons you listed.

You have no right to complain about a game when you turn your attention to something else every 5-10 minutes.

strategy guides are one of the biggest gaming failures for the gamer. It completely removes the player from the game; for what? To get 3 more damage, or a slightly better weapon, or to beat the game in a shorter time? Why? Because you have other games to play? Which will be used with another guide? It's just one run after another and nothing is experienced. It makes the game predictable and reduces it to menial task mastering. It is by far the biggest travesty to the gaming experience.

Sure, if you're one of those people who do feel the need to use a guide, I have no foul intentions for you. But do not, DO NOT critisize it, because you have chosen to play it for some strange reason, and felt the urgent need to beat it in the shortest time possible.

He is in the very beginning of the game, and there are unforseeable disasters in every area. That area he is in is extremely treacherous and is only passed with that kind of death rate by sheer luck. Even if there is a warning beforehand from a blood stain, it does not equal a saved life. It is one thing to read a warning, it is another to know how to effectively survive the hazard.

^huh, the very reason i turned to a strategy guide is because of the game's horrible grinding mechanic. i wanted to try to play the game longer. if i didn't take the guide, i would not have played after the first death. you're too passionately against strategy guides for some reason that you fail to understand why people read them in the first place.

sure, some people read them for the pointless reasons you mentioned (getting better loot, whatever), but some of us read them because a game is not good enough to spend time on, but we want to give it a try to see the whole story because it seems interesting.

Video games are about fun. I can't imagine that it would be fun for a gamer who can't seem to figure out how to get past an area without outside help to try a gazillion times and keep at it just to save face with geeky rpg gamers on the internets. In the real world, people ask for help all the time so I don't see why getting help on how to pass a part you are stuck on in a video game is all that bad. Is it a personal failing for you if you have to ask a co-worker or manager to help you with something you are unsure about? "I'm too good to get outside help". That is e-macho posturing at it's finest. Men are less likely to ask for help than women. It's cave man, mine is bigger than yours mentality. Men don't like to admit to weaknesses and admit to being the beta to an alpha. And we are seeing this psychology playing out in the gaming community. Because gamers feel like they need to compensate and have something to prove.

You have to understand something, dying is part of the strategy in the game in order to manipulate world tendency so as to get all the items and fight optional bosses and such. Also, if you force yourself into soul form, you don't have to worry about being invaded. Also, if you force yourself into soul form, you can invade/help other players. Most of them have deaths from manipulating world tendency though, not from "dying".

Demon's Souls is amazing game. When I tell people about it, I tell them so long as they are patient, aware, and have a good sense of timing, they will do well in the game. DS is not a twitch-based skill game. As someone said, it's more methodical. With the exception of 5-2 (man I had a little trouble there), the rest of the game isn't even really all that difficult (for non-boss areas of course).

That said, all games are repetitive. I have friends who HATE games, all games, due to their repetition. The essence of your arguement against the game is that there aren't enough checkpoints. If that is really a problem for you, then there's really not much else to say to you.

DS does not hold your hand. DS says to you "shape up, or you're going to fight through these enemies another 50 times". Some people don't want to play a game that's going to challenge them, or push them to be a better gamer, so it's totally understandable that you and others don't/won't like this game and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I don't think you should knock on a game for that.

For most games, I'd say there's nothing wrong with using a strategy guide. It always detracts from the experience though. Imagine playing a game like Myst or 7th Guest or Space Quest (all those old-school puzzle and/or puzzle/adventure games) with a strategy guide. It would be pointless. Demon's Souls is similar because you ruin the overall experience with a strategy guide.

There are no other games I've played where I'm borderline fearful while playing. Watching out around every corner, walking into a new room with my shield up, and my thumb on the dodge button. Add that tension to a very dark, medieval setting, and you have an interesting atmosphere and game experience. The design to have to redo parts of the level are an important part to that atmosphere and experience. Without that design, the game would not be so dark or 'scary'.

Using a strategy guide also dulls down the darkness. If you know where all the ambushes are, you completely lose the tension. DS isn't like a FF game where you can use a strategy guide just to figure out how to go from point A to point B, and to get a good boss strategy. It just completely shatters the overall experience.