I don't have a lot of PS3 RPGs, so I'll take what I can get. Thankfully, Atlus' freshly announced Demon's Souls sounds pretty interesting, and the screens they sent look pretty hardcore.
Today they've announced that they've acquired the rights to publish Demon's Souls in North America. This is an action role-playing title that supports online cooperative play and PvP action. You'll be able to leave hints for other online players that follow you if you wish. Or not, if you want to be mean. I like the idea of being able to invade other players' games, though. A game that encourages you to be a dick sounds pretty fun, doesn'it?
The press release says that this is an open-ended game that you can play at your own pace with your own customized player. A World Tendency system changes monster strength and awards based on players' in-game actions.
Demon's Souls sounds like a game that you'd have to see to understand. I suppose it's good that Atlus says that they will be bringing this game to E3 to show off. We'll have more details for you in a few short weeks, if that's the case. For now, check out some screens below -- they look pretty badass.
About Demon's Souls:
King Allant the XII, the last king of Boletaria, searched tirelessly to expand his might. The Nexus, a great ice shrine nestled in the mountains, bestowed the power of the souls onto him, bringing prosperity to his kingdom. Still unsated, he returned again to the Nexus, where he foolishly awakened the Old One from its eternal slumber. This long forgotten evil, now wrought upon Boletaria, plunged the realm into darkness and fog. A mighty demon horde poured into the kingdom, devouring the souls of men. Champions from other realms learned of Boletaria's fate and sought to deliver the kingdom from evil; none would return from the cursed land. Called upon by a mysterious maiden in black, you go forth, the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness...
Contest:
6:40 PM on 05.20.2009
| 
Just to address the "open-ended" claim, it's more akin to choosing which order to do stages in older platformers. You've got several huge gameworlds subdivided into several areas each, with a boss blocking the path to the next area. You can take the gameworlds in any order and switch between them from the hub area, the Nexus.
There's a big Demon's Souls wiki on the tubes that people have been dying over and over to contribute to, so you can get a better idea of the gameplay concepts by looking at that.
Also, preorders are available on Amazon already :)
From the Eurogamer review, and qualified by a few of my friends:
[i]If that sounds unbelievably frustrating, well, yes, it can be. It's harshly punishing. But it's not unfair. Demon's Souls puts you up against impossible odds, after all - you're the only living thing left in the world, apart from the stranded, struggling survivors that you occasionally come across exploring some dark tunnel in the Tower of Latria, or down a forgotten mineshaft in Stonefang Tunnel.
The only thing to do is try again, and again and again, observing the demons' behaviour and the layout of the levels, learning the cruel tricks that the game plays on you to lure you towards death, until, finally, you're capable of winning.
Precisely because the odds are so stacked against you, precisely because the game sometimes seems to hate you with every fibre of its being, when you do finally kill the bastard f***-off enormous boss monster that ended you within half a minute the first time you approached it, the resulting heart-in-mouth euphoria is the purest kind of gaming thrill. Demon's Souls is about facing up to the impossible, and winning.[/i]
Thanks, Atlus. Keep 'em coming.
@Chronic Logic
Go to here, http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/online
The Demon's Souls Wiki is a pretty good resource on the game.
To save you from having to click over, here's a cut and paste on the online.
Messages
Demon's Souls offers a special kind of Educational multiplayer that acts as a tool for players to help other players. By utilizing a stock selection of messages involving monsters, locations, situations, items, and various other subjects, players can leave Twitter-esque messages on the ground for other players to view. Not only that, but these messages can also be "rated" by other players! Messages that receive high ratings can heal their writer and stay present on the ground much longer than incorrect or unhelpful messages.
To access the message menu, press Select.
Co-op
In Demon's Souls, players can team up with two(three?) other players online to form a trio of adventurers for a single level! The host (must be in physical body form) need to find a blue text marker (which is left by players in soul form using "Blue Eye Stone"). You can check how many times that player was online and their ranking score percentage. Then you can choose to summon that player, he will show up in its "blue" phantom form. After beating demon boss, the blue phantoms will be granted their physical body back, but will not progress in story (for example you will not get trophy for beating boss in blue phantom form, you have to beat it in your own game).
All three players receive Souls for their hard work and can team up to take out Bosses even faster and with better efficiency, but it appears that you may only play levels Co-Op in levels that have not been rid of their Boss Demon yet. When the Boss Demon in the Host's game is complete, the two Phantom adventurers who joined the Host's adventure return to their own adventures where they left off! As the Co-Op game ends, each player is permitted to rate the other player on a Grade system which carries with the adventurer. So other players can know how good (or bad) a certain player is.
PvP
Demon's Souls has a second stone though, it's called the "Black Eye Stone" and it has a slightly different function than the Blue Eye Stone. It allows a player to force their way into another adventurer's game to take the place of that area's Boss Demon! The adventurer who uses the Black Eye Stone becomes the "Black Phantom" and must either be defeated by the defending adventurer or kill the adventurer to gain Souls! Just imagine the terrifying fear an adventurer may feel when they come face-to-face with another adventurer, iron clad in the best gear, with blood-thirsty intent!
ps. if you fail to kill the host, or somehow die by environment of stage (falling, fireball in 1-x) but not by hosted or blue phantom, your lv will decrease by this will decrease your highest stats point and soul level.
I'm with jimbo.
Atlus + PS3 = AWESOME!!!
Also, sk33t :D
JUST
MADE
MY
DAY!
you can actually already get this game in english. But all the same i guess ill wait for the official US version after all i'll soon have cross edge to play anyway waiting won't be too hard.
Possibly the most creative game in a long while, even if it is grimdark rpg.
I hope the PVP shit doesn't get outa hand or anything as it sounds like the fat kids that log 20hours a day could just enter anyone's game, kill them with their uber weapons and make them level down....that sounds stupid.