Is quite possibly the hardest game I've played since NES games without the save function (Mario 3 anyone?)

I like the style, it's just insanely frustrating right now (just played a little over an hour) because I've died 6-10 times already. Losing all your souls is retarded, and having to back track through an entire empty level just to return to buy items is equally dumb. Yes yes, there are items to return, and im sure they get more plentiful later on in the game....

Also... NO PAUSE??? Seriously... No pause in a video game is an insult.

Considering there is no real danger of an ambush once you've killed anything, the lack of a pause isn't really a bother. Unless you like to pause in the middle of combat to regain your wits.

Considering the loss of souls, you can reclaim them by getting to the spot you died. If you die again, you've lost them for good.

Which class are you playing? People who play classes like Thief seem to have a world of trouble on their first play through. I've found that either a Soldier, Wanderer or Royal is one's best bet, at least until they wrap their head around the mechanics.

And except on very very few occasions, the further you progress in a level you'll open up shortcuts that lets you run back ot the archstone within seconds. Additionally, you'll find a vendor in each (or at least MOST levels). If you're having trouble there is a wealth of good information over at the Demon's Souls Wiki.

For my part I never really had trouble with the game with my Wanderer (with dex/end/vit build), except on one specific boss fight (Maneater). The biggest trouble I had with the game was originally overcoming the game's intimidation and allowing myself to venture and progress into worlds.

Best tips I can give are:

- Roll plenty if you got a light armor character
- Block plenty if you have a heavy armor character.
- Carry a slashing weapon (eg. Scimitar) and a piercing weapon (eg. Winged Spear)
- Be patient and make your strikes count. Button mashing will get you killed, this is not a hack and slash.
- Grind herbs in 1-1 early on and keep yourself fully healed. Get the Cling Ring from 1-1 for spirit form.
- Magic got me killed more times than I can count. Melee for the win.
- Upgrade your weapons properly, grind upgrade stones where appropriate.
- First level of each world is relatively easy

Ok... well I started as a thief. Blast.

I noticed the merchants in each level, also the minor shortcuts to go back to the stone. The pause is a problem, it's not a matter of wanting to pause, its that sometimes, **** happens and you need to pause. Phone rings, TV somehow gets turned off, controller battery dies ect ect.

Usually the engine at least freezes in game when you goto either the in game menu, or push the PS button. Neither of those work for DS. I like it though don't get me wrong. It's far and few between these days for 'hardcore' games where hiding behind a box yields you a full health bar after 4 seconds.

The only other problem I have, is for some reason my brain naturally associates the square button to be attack, and I keep wasting items or using them at the wrong time. I hope I can untrain myself from it.

I had the same problem early on, with the square button. I got better and better at it, but its still occasionally happened. Hopefully you'll get used to it too.

I see what you mean with the pause. It never really bothered me, likely because I don't get many phone calls and on the rare occasion I'll either let myself die or let it go to voice mail and call back once I'm safe.

As for the thief class, I can't help but advise that you either start over with another class OR start turning to better weapons than daggers. They are AWESOME for backstabs... but trying to line them up constantly will just get you killed. I found a Sharp Falchion to be very useful (requires Dex). Great speed, great damage. In the meantime you can get a Scimitar (similar but less powerful) in the first level.

Just to make you feel better, everyone I know who tried starting off with a thief have gotten their asses ended to them. I blew threw the game with my Wanderer. I then started a thief. I die A LOT. World 4 is almost impossible early on with thief. I tried adding magic to his arsenal and I still suck ass. If you get to the point where you're great at evading attacks and don't need a shield or buckler, you can try dual katanas for devastating and very fast attacks. Be mindful, Gripless and Magic Sword Makoto both drain your life (they hit like trucks though). You can get Uchigatanas and a Crescent Falchion early on in 4-1, if you can manage it (you wont with a thief :P)

I tried dual daggers, I can't work without a blocking mechanism for narrow hallways. I am however getting better at evading attacks. I ditched the dagger for a short sword, as that's the best I can afford at the time.

I need to finish Demon's Souls. I got pretty far, kinda stopped because trying to collect stuff to upgrade weapons started becoming grindy in a bad MMO kind of way. I didn't really find the game all that difficult after a while.

There are some hilarious references to Demon's Souls in 3D Dot Game Heroes.

Honestly, the only weapon worth dual wielding for attacking purposes are katanas because you attack faster by alternating hands (off-hand attack is uncanny fast). The speed allows you to make good use of the (tap)forward+r1 stun attack. Katanas also have the games best charging attack (backstep+r1).

For defense purposes, it is said the Parrying Dagger allows to parry more efficiently.

Others weapons have no real effect in terms of attack or defense as far as I know, though it can be useful to dual wield weapons that boost your mp or mp regeneration, or that offer other passive buffs.

Personally, I spent most of my time in-game two-handing my Sharp Falchion.

Honestly, once I shook off that sense of dread and intimidation, the game became pretty easy. There are only five creatures in the game that really gave me trouble: Mindflayers in 3-1 (until I discovered their melee weakness), Maneater (Boss), Giant Goblins 5-1. Meatcleaver Black Phantom in 5-2, and Red-Eye Knight.

I killed all bosses on my first attempt except Maneater who took me 30 tries, the boss of 1-4 who took me 2, and the boss of 2-1 who took me about 5.

As a thief, any skeleton mobs in 4-1 and 4-2 slaughtered me before I could do anything.

I chose magician because I'm cool like that.

I probably spent the most time on 4-2 (boss) before I finally killed him. 4-3 was a cakewalk in comparison.

3-2 I did with a friend who knew what he was doing and I had no problems.
3-3 I got lucky, a player character was the black phantom and he wasn't moving.

I died on maneater god knows how many times, but when I finally beat him it was amazing/satisfying.

The 3-3 boss (right after maneater) is one of the most amusing ideas for a boss fight in a game.

The Penetrator is pretty tough, so is flamelurker

The last boss is ughhhhhh, I lost three soul levels fighting him. I beat him by dodging + arrow pooping the entire fight because I didn't want to close range with him.

Demon's'ss'ss Ssouls

I can legitimately say Demon's Souls whipped my ass. I loved the concept, I just didn't have the patience to get past the first real level. I haven't had a game thoroughly trounce me like that in years. It was oddly satisfying to be humbled...

I'm getting it down now. I got the Scimitar, which was a world of difference. Also getting better at dodging and such.

Are the Red-Eye Knights the one's with the spear? There's one in the first world, guarding some tower, that DESTROYS me. There's nothing I can do, he runs right through my shield with his spear, and I can only dodge so long before he whomps me with his shield then impales me.

Suprisingly, the first boss (not the one in the tutorial who dominated me) but the Phoelanx or whatever, wasn't hard at all..

Also, **** dragons. I loved dragons until this game.

*burns to death, respawns, gets whomped by giant tail, loses tons of souls* FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

You can get your sweet revenge on the dragons later on

And yes, the Red-Eye Knight is the one with the spear. Just do yourself a favor and stay away from him, he'll one/two shot you until you're in the late 30s. They eventually get easier to kill, but will always hit like trucks. There are a few occasions where you have to fight off more than one at once heheh.

They're killable at a low level if you're really good at blocking and dodging. It takes a while though and I don't think it's really worth the effort since one slipup can kill you.

I went in, blade on fire, throwing stuff at him, shooting at him, and he still took me out. It just makes me want to get into that tower even worse..... I wish I could light my arrows on fire.

If I remember correctly, killing him doesn't gain you access to the tower. I believe there's a key or something you have to get elsewhere to actually get in.

Kinda-sorta off topic. I just discovered yesterday that Demon's Souls uses copy protected saved games, and so you can't copy them from one PS3 to another without going through the backup and restore process... Damn you Sony/Atlus!

What's the point of that? I mean really... Saved game files are worthless.

The point is that since you can't copy the saved game to a flash drive, you can't access it on a computer and edit it. Since Demon's Souls is a multiplayer game, they don't want people editing saved games and using that to their advantage in multiplayer I suppose.

The annoying side effect of this is that it screws over the person like me who just wants to put the game on a flash drive to copy it to a different PS3.