Demon’s Souls: A Refreshing Challenge

When was the last time you actually played a game you considered “challenging” but not “difficult,” “frustrating,” or “impossible”?  I just played one last night! It’s called Demon’s Souls, an import title for the PS3 that’s been featured on OLC twice already and will be getting a full review soon.  It’s a game that most are finding frustratingly difficult to the point of impossible… but they aren’t throwing their controller at their TV in disgust.  There’s something special about this game that makes you want to keep playing… something that makes it actually get more fun the more you play it… something that makes you feel like you’re getting better at it as you actually get better at it. It’s, in a word, challenging.

“Challenging” is not a word you can give to just any game.  In the old Atari and Nintendo days, games were still built with an arcade principle in mind – you have lives, you lose them all, you start over.  Games were never forgiving, you were lucky if you even got “options,” and game genie was the best thing ever.  You’d play the game, you’d suck at it, then quit (using game genie is quitting [purely in this context. I did also use it to simply extend replayability and have fun]) or you’d play the game, rock at it, and beat it, then never touch it again (not including game genie for this either.)  Basically, there was no actual challenge… it was just mindless playability.  You could learn controls, learn patterns, learn levels, learn whatever it is you needed to learn, and if you had good hand-eye coordination and fast response, you’d be good at a game.  Or you’d suck at it because it really was one of those impossible games.  But, yeah, not challenging.

This young Japanese lady can play Super Mario without looking.  Super Mario is not a challenging game.

Nowadays, developers are realizing arcades are dead and with them, arcade gameplay is dead as well.  Health regenerates, lives barely mean anything, difficulty is optional, saving is a requirement, instant satisfaction is necessary, casual market has grown, and the definition of “hard” is “make your death come easier, stunt your ability to kill, and just have fewer lives.”  No ramping up of AI intelligence, few games actually give you extra missions (Goldeneye/Perfect Dark were good for this), and the rewards for playing on “hard” doesn’t really offer much either.    So not only has challenge been difficult to find in gaming, but ever a reason to play on a hard difficulty has bene lost (not including bragging rights since that really means nothing.)  Thankfully, challenging games aren’t non-existant… they’re just hard to find among all the people who mistake their challenge for that of “extreme difficulty.”

Odama - Remember this little Gamecube title that was a medieval Japanese pinball war game with a mic?  Some said this game was impossible.  Some said it was retardedly difficult with a hint of ass-rape.  Most never played it to completion and few saw it for what it really was: a challenging video game.  See, Odama was something that you had to play over a long amount of time.  Losing initially is something that has to happen.  This is not a game you will simply be good at, it is a game you simply need to learn.  I’m not talking about learning patterns or levels either, I’m talking about an actual increase in skill at playing the game.  And not only does your increase in skill help you proceed through the game, but the game actually manages to scale in difficulty as you play.  It will constantly be throwing new challenges at you requiring the skills you’ve already gained.  It will consistently be fun even though you get stomped on over and over due to inexperience.  It is, I insist, a challenging game.

Osu! Tatake! Ouendan! – A required import for anyone with a Nintendo DS, Ouendan was the music game that made people break stylii in half with frustration.  Tapping to the tune, dragging with the beat, and spinning that goddamn wheel… it was addictive, it was fun, and it was, most of all, challenging!  I remember taking at least five tries before beating the first level and about 100 tries to beat the last, but I loved every single minute of that game.  Admittedly, it would become a game of memorizing how the song goes and where the beats land, but this would never be enough to help you through the game.  You had to really feel the music, really enjoy it, and really gain the skill and experience needed to continue through the game.  There was no leeway here, no way the casual audience could get involved, only pure gaming challenge.

Demon’s Souls – Oh yeah!  The reason I even wrote this article!  I don’t have to describe what this game is, you can read other articles for that.  I do have to insist that this is the most challenging game of the latest console generation.  I dare say it’s a required import for the PS3, especially considering that even though it has a full English translation, it’s not announced to be ported anywhere outside of Asia.  Everyone I have talked to who plays this game has had the same experience I had – They rush forward to play and kill and stomp and smash and level up only to discover they themselves are being killed countless times over with no real end in sight.  These people then realized the same thing I realized, you have to actually learn the intricacies of this game to play it.  You have to get better at it and in return you will be rewarded.  As you continue your journey, which is surprisingly open to whatever path you choose, you will be faced with increasingly difficult challenges.  You must adapt and get better, struggle through the hardships, and have a definite want to continue; and this entire adventure is incredibly entertaining and fun and, most importantly, the best challenge I’ve found in gaming in the past few years!

Hopefully this article helps give you a sense of what I believe the real definition of a challenging game is.  Perhaps this could even help you rediscover old titles you have that you failed to beat simply because you didn’t try to increase your skill at the game but instead just shoved it away in favor of another.  Or maybe I’ll get really lucky and game developers will realize what it is that makes a game challenging and I won’t have to have such a sparse list here!  Hey, a guy can dream, right?