I'm 27 years old and this game has blown me away far more than anything I ever played in my life, even when I was an impressionable kid. Demon's Souls came out of absolutely nowhere, and at last year's TGS most people were unimpressed, or they were laughing at the slowdown. I decided to take a chance and in spite of my tight student's budget, to pre-order the Asian version early this year, and boy do I thank God I made that decision today.
This one simply has it all, and it not only addictive, but also amazingly polished. I'm especially enamored by the creepy atmosphere, the best dungeon design I've ever seen (some of them are TRULY wicked!) and by the awesome physics-based combat engine, truly some of the best combat I've ever had in a game. Yes it hasn't got much of a story, but it wasn't meant to, it was meant to be a "show, don't tell" affair. There are just so many epic moments contained in it, and none of them are conveyed with a single word.
When I got my PS3 slim I discovered I couldn't transfer my 35 hours-long save from my launch PS3 with the borked Blu-Ray drive to my new unit because it was locked. I just started a new game and getting to the same point as I was before took about half the time, and it was an even greater experience than the first time.
I'm not sure it's my favorite game ever yet, I think I'd tend to be partial to something like Deus Ex or Tactics Ogre, but Demon's Souls really deserves the respect of any true gamer. Challenging, beautiful, haunting, intelligent, it's a work of art.
Sad that SCEI is almost guaranteed to never fund a sequel. Although it was made by a relatively small team at From and it has got legs, they probably lost money on it, and the game is plain too hardcore to have any sort of broad appeal.

Boo, got my hopes up :(

Hehe, it's quite the killer app, though.
If you get a PS3 and this game you'll feel like you've gotten your money's worth.
Ultimately it transcends platforms. It's simply a gem that any big RPG fan must play.

Me too. And thank you. That was basically the information I was looking for, but didn't find, in the OP.

I heard it's good but obscenely hard. I'd buy it if I had a PS3.

I mentioned PS3 two times in the original post...
Guys you're really depriving yourself of a really amazing game if the system it's running on constitutes such a stumbling block.
It's getting nothing but rave reviews on Metacritic, and praise from almost everyone who tried it. It started from nothing early this year and it got such big word of mouth that thousands began to import it and Atlus decided to go ahead and localize it because of this craze.
It's glorious! There's nothing that compares to the feeling of exploring those terrifying dungeons and being terribly afraid of getting killed or falling down.

I'm planning on getting a PS3 and this eventually. Reviewers can't say enough good things about it.
You ever thought about writing reviews, Chihaya? You're quite good.

I have no PS3, but my next-door neighbor does. (Better yet, it's one of the launch period 60 GB ones with the Emotion Engine still intact!)
I might look into Demon's Souls, but it's said to be the type of game that pulls no punches and will utterly make you its bitch. I'm not sure if I could cope with the inevitable frustration.

But not that it was a PS3 exclusive.
It does if it's a system you don't have.

I have been following this game for a while. It sounds really good, and not the normal sort of forgettable stuff Japan calls an RPG. I'd pick it up in a second if I had a PS3, but that's not going to happen in the foreseeable future (it's obscenely expensive here in NZ, I hate the controller with a passion, and I'm not going to buy a system just for one or two games that interest me).

I just watched some gameplay footage on the tube of you and it looks like it might be a bit better than the usual hack & slash game and definitely doesn't look like a shitty JRPG. Might have a look for it one of these days

Does it has undressed chicks? From how Sony is marketing its PS3 lately it does seem that any Triple AAA game should have at least some huge tits and spread legs to get approval from the SCE bosses, even with zombies and fantasy and demons et all within the mix :-D

The system doesn't constitute a stumbling block.
The PRICE of the damn system constitutes a stumbling block.
Right now, if I were going to spend $350 on gaming, I would put that money in to the "Build Zolgar's new computer" fund. (PC gamer through and through, and not made of money. when I want to build a new rig, I have to save for a while.)

Me, playing my friend's X-Box: "This controller is horrible. Why don't you get one of those new smaller controllers they came out with?"
Friend: "That IS the smaller one."
I actually have a 360 pad for my PC that I like well enough. It's not a great controller, but it's decent and not too huge, and I figured it was my only option if I finally wanted a gamepad that wouldn't break after three months. Console pads tend to be fairly sturdy.
Back on topic, though, I've honestly never once played a game that justified the purchase of the console entirely by itself (at least not while the console was current and thus had a triple-digit price tag; if you can get both the game and the system for $20, it's a different story, but then only if you don't mind the extra clutter). No game is that good. If Planescape: Torment had a $300 buy-in, I would never have played that, either.
I'm sure it's a great game, but it's very rare that I'm willing to spend even $30 on a single game. Ten times that - and the added stipulation of not being able to play at my desk on my computer, which I prefer to sitting on the couch or my bed playing on the television - is just not a price I'm willing to spring for.