|
So, according to the Gametraders website, the closest copy of the PS3 game Demon's Souls in one of their stores is in Queensland.
I wanted the game, so I was thinking of ordering it from Amazon, since PS3 games aren't region-locked.
However, when I stopped in at Gametraders Carillon this afternoon, they not only had it in stock, but they're giving copies of the Artbook and soundtrack for it with the game. (And the soundtrack is really really good, so I'm rather pleased.) And in buying it there I was supporting a nearby shop with a very nice owner.
I was pleasantly surprised by the character customisation options. Your character is supposed to be fully customisable, and here's the thing: it really, really is.
One of the first things you choose is gender. Your choices are Male and Female - but the thing is, what you're ACTUALLY deciding there is more or less "does your character have breasts, because it affects which armour will fit". In the appearance edit, you can alter facial features to be as masculine/feminine as you want. You can go for pure androgyny if you want. You can choose how you look.
Another option is Origin - in this fabled land wherein the story takes place, do you come from North, South, East or West?
If you're from the North, you look extremely Scandinavian. From the South, you look southern African. From the East, Asian. From the West, Caucasian.
And since you have controls for affecting every facial feature really thoroughly (it has a slider to decide the brightness of your character's sclera), I think from there you could replicate the appearance and ethnicity of your choice.
It feels inclusive, to me. I don't know whether other people would be less happy with it, but it at least feels like they tried. (Although the range of available hairstyles is surprisingly limited given the rest.)
As for the gameplay: Well, I've pretty much just gone through the tutorial, so far. Word around the web and in the game store is that it's best described as unforgiving, but in a really cool way.
And the soundtrack is excellent.
|
|
So the thing about Demon's Souls is that it's an odd kind of semi-multiplayer game that is very very cool.
Other players appear in your game, as phantoms - you can't interact at all, BUT you can see them, which can give you tips about what's ahead. You can see them fight, you might see them run into side-passages.
And when they die, they leave behind a bloodstain. Touching the bloodstain lets you see the last few seconds of their life - so you can take a guess at what killed them, and perhaps avoid the same fate yourself.
You can also leave messages for other players, composed from a list of set phrases. The messages show as glowing glyphs on the ground, which subsequent players can read.
If a message was helpful to you, you can Recommend it. A recommendation on a message heals the player who left it, if they're online, and much-recommended messages persist longer in the world than overlooked ones.
Earlier I was playing, and I left a couple of messages around. One of them, a little distance before I got jumped by three skeletons, was: "Beware the enemy's ambush."
I stopped playing for a while earlier, and housemate.Dave is playing. I cooked and ate dinner, then came back to the couch, where I'm watching Dave play. (I was cooking for a while, because Dean is sick, and I cooked her dinner, but I cooked her something somewhat different from what I cooked for me.)
I saw him fight those same skeletons, then call up and Recommend the message - the one I left.
Obviously I'm not playing right now, since Dave is using my game on my PS3, so I don't get healed, but I still find myself having a little moment of squeeful delight that my message was recommended, after being helpful.
And he didn't even know it was my message. It was just a PATENTLY GOOD MESSAGE.
|
|
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}