Demon’s Souls Preview

The folks over at RPGFan are offering up a closer look at Atlus’ soon-to-be-released PS3 action RPG, Demon’s Souls.

As you might expect from the existence of these choices, Demon’s Souls features a reputation system, which is known as Tendency. As you progress through the game, certain actions will lighten your Tendency, and some will darken it, and having either a light or a dark Tendency will open up things for you that aren’t available otherwise. As in some other games with a reputation system, having a dark reputation carries its own rewards, just as a light reputation does. And it’s not just the character that has a Tendency; each of the main areas in the world has its own Tendency as well. Your actions within a given area affect its Tendency, and you’ll enjoy benefits that come with both light and dark. For example, enemies in an area with a dark Tendency have more HP, but they also drop better loot. In addition, an area’s Tendency can open up or block off certain paths, which definitely helps the game’s replay factor.

Once you’ve beaten an area, you can come back to it and fight your way through again, although the boss will no longer be waiting for you at the end. Every enemy you defeat earns you “Soul Points,” and you’ll probably want all of those you can get, because they serve as both the game’s currency and experience points. It seems odd to think of using the same points to buy, upgrade, or repair your sword that you do to improve your stats, and only hands-on experience with the game will tell me how I feel about it in the end.