Demon’s Souls may get a European release. Should you care?

The German ratings board USK had a listing for Demon’s Souls on their site, with full details, a rating (16+) and publisher listed as Namco Bandai. Since then the post has been pulled, but not before some intrepid internetites managed to get a grab of the evidence and make us all sit up and look hopeful. But why? What is it about Demon’s Souls that has had people harping on about it for over a year now? And should you care?

The answer – to the latter part, at least – is a resounding ‘yes’. Demon’s Souls is a unique experience for PS3 and is one we don’t think anyone should miss out on. While we would have been happy to recommend an import in the past, if it is indeed coming to Europe then you may as well wait. But definitely buy it.

But what is it that makes people rant and rave so much about the game? On the surface of things it’s a pretty standard hack-and-slash RPG, viewed from a third-person perspective and, generally speaking, not the kind of thing that would impress someone watching it being played. But scratch the surface and you reveal a world of depth; a game of compulsive replayability that will mercilessly take up dozens – if not hundreds – of hours of your time. Did we say ‘merciless’? Why yes – Demon’s Souls is a punishingly hard game. But this isn’t difficulty in the same way a Capcom game is hard: it isn’t infuriating. Every time you fail, you will know why – you didn’t block enough; you weren’t properly equipped; you didn’t run fast enough – and it rarely gets to the point where fury overtakes the feeling that the game just damn well beat you.

It’s a game that people over here bought on its Japanese/Korean release in February 2009 and are still playing to this day. A lot haven’t finished it, but none feel hard done by. Just about every single one of them, however, feel that Demon’s Souls is a fantastic game. It’s something special, and that’s why you should care that it may well be coming out in Europe.

But hey, if this all turns out to be nonsense, you can always import it.