Ugh. I feel like a broken record at this point, but Demon's Souls' difficulty is vastly overblown.

It just requires an approach that most gamers these days are no longer accustomed to. It's about patience and caution. It's a game that asks the player to risk something important in order to succeed. It's a game that wants you to learn its systems and understand the mechanics. Progress is not measured in traversing ground, it's instead measured by your understanding of the gameplay.

Also, pretty much everyone on this cast has severe, fundamental misunderstandings of what's in the game and how it works...too much for me to adequately address in a comment, but a good starting point would be Gamasutra's [url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25238]game design analysis[/url].

Rob "Serious Business" Savillo, ladies & gentlemen!

I'm with Rob.  All Demon's Souls really does at the beginning of the game is hold up a big sign that says "Be Careful."  As gamers, we're often used to being invincible superheroes that can blast through entire armies.  Demon's Souls just wants the player to pay attention and not expect to mindlessly wade through enemies. 

It's a shame so many people are turned off by the challenge, because it's not a cheap difficulty by any means.  There is only one unavoidable death in the entire game, and it's put there to move the story forward.

I loved the "recess" feel to the discussion of how to beat certain parts, and the community aspect of this game is one of myfavorite things about it! It takes me back to the days of strategizing over lunch about the best way to beat Level X in Zelda II, haha!

But I wouldn't call the game repetitive. It simply rewards you for learning from mistakes and punishes you for not.