It's nothing personal, but Demon's Souls hates you.  It hates the sound of a child's laughter as he frolics through a field of flowers on a hot summer's afternoon.  It hates the smell of fresh brewing coffee, percolating in the early hours of the morning.  Demon's Souls hates the feel of a woman's touch, the enchanting vista of Hong Kong's skyline at dusk from Kowloon, and the taste of a perfectly chilled beer after a long day of work.  It hates everyone and everything privy to the concepts of enjoyment and happiness.  Needless to say, this game is not for everyone—it’s for no one, or so I first thought.

And that's quite alright, because at first sight, you're gonna hate Demon's Souls too.  Tell me if this sounds familiar: Evil fog envelopes fantastical kingdom(Boletaria, in the case of Demon's Souls), and none who enter return.  Robust character creator, providing the tools to mold yourself into anything from an epic Viggo Mortensen doppelganger to a nose-less Michael Jackson clone. Diverse class options, including lawful knight, backstabbing rogue, regal magician.  The full gamut of your standard array of Dungeons and Dragons adversaries, including, but not limited to, zombies, demon knights, and dragons.  Level up your hit points and intelligence, upgrade your weapons and armor, and deal with shady merchants that would fit perfectly into Resident Evil 4.

Ring a bell?  Good, it probably should. Demon's Souls hits all of your tired, stereotypical high fantasy, action RPG tropes.  In terms of the presentation of the game, there's a laundry list of things that just screams 'been there, done that.' If Demon's Souls was a book, the cover would feature a broadsword-wielding, half-naked Fabio, veins popping out of his flexed arms and his long locks of hair waving in the wind, as he stands atop a pyramid of dead orcs and skeletons.

But there's an old expression that your grade school teacher has probably drilled into your head, which advises “not to judge a book by its cover.”  In the case of Demon's Souls: The Book, that saying couldn't be any more true.  The game does hate you, but it isn't because it’s forcing you play through yet another medieval, 'save the kingdom,' snore fest.  With Demon's Souls, you quickly realize that, beyond its Fabio imbued cover, it chooses to be unconventional at every opportunity, brimming with new ideas and fresh concepts.  Some of these offbeat design choices are great, others frustrating, but all lead to making Demon's SoÍuls an extremely unique title.

The most obvious of Demon's Souls quirks is its uncompromising difficulty.  At a time in which games are actively reaching out to new audiences with various experience levels, implementing 'No Fail' modes or 'Cake Walk Easy' difficulty levels, Demon's Souls sticks out like a blistering sore thumb.  The devious little title is the playground bully and you're the new kid on the block—either play by its rules and like it, or get your teeth introduced to the decrepit cobblestones of Boletaria palace.