Ok, so I simply cannot put this game down. Demon's Souls is the most relentlessly unforgiving, frustrating, challenging, and overall harrowing game I've ever played. Not once are you given a "break", and nobody is there to hold your hand through the countless hordes of enemies. Furthermore *every* enemy encounter needs to be treated as a life or death situation - whether it's a single light armored infantry soldier with a halberd, heavily armored night wielding a thick shield and long spear, or a giant enchanted skeleton carrying the largest axe you've ever seen, truly every encounter can end your life in the blink of an eye - and with it, all the souls you've collected... which in the upper soul levels can be *thousands*, as there's no way to "Store" your unused souls in a bank or other depository - you must simply carry them around until you have enough to purchase something, or level up. This can add a real sense of terror to the game, as you can potentially lose hours of gameplay in a single swipe if you're not paying attention... and that's no exaggeration. The aforementioned Axe will quite literally cut you down in a single blow, sometimes even if you manage to block it with a shield.

That being said, I had the most harrowing battle last night with the False King Allant - the Arch Demon of the Boletaria stage. This Arch Demon is particularly menacing as not only can he cut you down in a single strike, but he has a Soul Sucking maneuver that will not only kill you (just plain GETTING to him is a nightmare, let alone fighting him!), but he will drain an ENTIRE soul level from your character in the process. With my Wanderer class character at 131 soul level, this means I not only lose the souls I was carrying, but also over 100,000 souls it took to get to the level he just drained. Honestly after hours of play, that fear factor alone makes him a very worth adversary and creates a genuine sense of panic in battling him.

Fortunately the game makes great use of it's multiplayer feature - whereby as a player not in soul form (alive) can summon other players who have been killed and are roaming around in Soul form by leaving their Soul Sign on the ground for players who are alive to see. You can summon up to 2 players to help you through a particular area, and last night I decided to lift up my skirt, revive my player and summon a couple badasses to help me get to King Allant and destroy him.

All went smashingly - I managed to summon two GREAT players who helped me get all the way to King Allant (this alone takes about 20 minutes), and then the boss battle began. With 3 of us battling against this leviathan we could certainly take him down, whereas battling him solo would almost certainly lead to death, frustration, and lost souls and/or soul level.

Then, shortly into the fight, both of my summoned companions were slain, leaving me to attempt the battle single handedly with nearly 75% of his health still in tact. I considered using a shard of Archstone to get the heck out of there before something happened I couldn't fix, but a little voice in the back of my mind urged me not to... So, I hiked up that skirt a little higher and decided to attempt this battle solo.

My heart racing, I carefully studied his movements and did all I could not to think about the near 120,000 souls I stood to lose, on top of a Soul Level that he would surely find a way to drain from me - this collectively would equate to about 3 hours of play down the drain with no way to get it back. I buckled down and engaged him solo - and after a solid 15 minute chess-match battle, I emerged barely victorious - but victorious nonetheless, and without a single soul level drained.

This, honestly, was one of the biggest accomplishments I've ever felt in a videogame - and I've been playing games now for over 20 years. I got done with the battle and actually jumped out of my chair and let out a roar of accomplishment, heart still racing in my chest.

My dog thinks I'm a whackjob for sure, and I think he may have been concerned my head was going to explode.

This reminded me again just how much I love videogames - I truly, honestly, do.

Demon's Souls is certainly not for the faint of heart, or short of attention span - but it's an amazing game I would recommend to anyone who wants a truly incredible challenge.

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