Is Demon's Souls Hardcore?

Or does it just require patience?

We live in the ADHD age, where multitasking is commonplace and television shows have to pique our interest within 2 minutes or risk being passed over for 10 second YouTube snippets. Gamers, of course, are frequently thought of as the cornerstone of the ADHD generation. Look at the comments on most gaming sites and it's obvious that most commenters don't even finish reading the post they're commenting on, much less play the games under discussion with a critical eye. Not that there's anything wrong with playing games that way, but if there's one often overlooked reason for the rise of so-called "easy" games - games with few punitive measures or that emphasize flow over difficulty - it's that many gamers have no interest in being patient and watching an enemy's patterns before launching an attack. Yet this is exactly what Demon's Souls demands of the player.

It's interesting to compare Demon's Souls to God of War. Both games have a similar aesthetic and third-person hack-em-up style. Yet GoW-style games are basically button mashers. Aside from setting up for the occasional flashy combo you can hack and slash your way through the game with nary a thought of defense or anticipating enemy attack patterns. These games put the player into the psychological frame of mind of a raging barbarian. Perhaps that's the head space most gamers want to occupy. It is a fantasy after all - why have to worry about resistance or consequences? Kill, maim, destroy at all cost, with nary a thought for self preservation (there's very little chance of death anyhow).

Demon's Souls is the soft, exposed underside of God of War. Ostensibly you're engaging in the same behavior - kill, maim, and destroy - but not at all cost. Rushing blindly into battle leads to near certain death, even against enemies that are relatively weak against you. The price for failure is that you lose all the souls you've gained, and souls are the currency through which you become stronger and progress the game. Death isn't just a momentary setback that forces you to replay the game from a set checkpoint - it costs you all the progress you've made since you last "leveled up". There is a bit of grace involved. If you can fight your way back to the point at which you died you reclaim all the souls you lost, but you only get one chance at this. Die again and only the most recent death, and the souls lost as a result, can be regained.

The result is a game that borrows a page from the survival horror genre. Because death is costly and can come at any time if you're not careful the player has to slow down. Unlike survival horror, however, this concern for your avatar's well-being isn't in the service of fear per se (though the game is quite eerie at times). This concern makes you approach each fight cautiously and means you respect each opponent rather than thinking of them as expendable. There is something cool about needing to pause and size up your foe before every battle rather than thinking of them as a minor annoyance to be batted away. Even enemies far less powerful than you can and will take you down if you try to button mash your way through them. Sure, you may only have to strike them once to destroy them, but let a group of them surround you and they will repeatedly stagger you until you, literally, give up the ghost.

But this doesn't make for a difficult game. Heck, you can take down enemies much stronger than you if you are patient and watch their patterns (of course, if they can kill you in one hit it can bedifficult to learn their patterns!). So why has this game gotten such a rap for being "difficult" and "hardcore"? Have our gaming chops gotten so rusty that we lack the patience and intellect to analyze an enemy before we attack?

An interesting cross-case is Batman: Arkham Asylum. This game has - quite deservedly - gotten much acclaim and I don't recall reading any review that cited it for its difficulty. Yet the combat is similar in that it requires patience. Despite what most may think Batman is quite fragile - low level thugs can take him down with a few well timed hits so you learn very quickly to be patient with them. You have to utilize counter attacks because enemies can and will attack you while you're in the middle of dealing with one of their buddies just as they do in Demon's Souls. So why is no one calling Arkham Asylum "hardcore"?

Perhaps it's because combat in Arkham Asylum is specifically designed for you to be patient and counter - it's right there in the tutorial and the game makes it apparent when to counter thanks to Bruce Wayne's spider-sense like situational awareness. Or maybe it's because combat in Arkham Asylum is flashy. You are rewarded for extended combos which require patience to execute. Combat is also quite beautiful to watch - unlike Demon's Souls which looks good but gets stale quickly. These visual treats make the game seem easier despite enemies that are just as threatening and combat that requires patience rather than button mashing.

While I wouldn't go so far as to call Demon's Souls a thinking man's game its charm lies in the 3 P's - Patience, Persistence, and Pattern Recognition - rather than quick reflexes. Only in the ADHD age could a game be considered difficult for not rewarding quick reflexes above all else. If Demon's Souls is at all old-school it shows just how much the standards of gaming fun have changed since I got my GED.