The only reason I bought and played this game is because it was 59 cents on the Playstation Store, that said I did end up enjoying it for what it was worth. It is pretty typical for a walking simulator-style indie horror game, and most of the horror comes from the atmosphere than actual gameplay, but it does tell a story (through notes and recordings) that is interesting enough to want to see it through to the end. The gameplay consists mostly of walking around through a compound picking up notes and items such as keys that are used to progress the game. The game utilizes 3d graphics that are pixelated and so sometimes it is difficult to tell what something is or find your way around, especially as the area you explore gets darker. You will also have to solve very simple puzzles sometimes to advance with hints often found in the notes you read so it's important to pay attention. I had a good time with this one, simple though it may have been, and at the price I mentioned I more than got my money's worth.

A game on the cusp of greatness. The concept of a cinematic modern RPG still hasn't been fully realized to this day, and for this game to come so close all the way back in 1998 is impressive. However, it lacked a certain "wow" moment that would put it over the top. It has a cool intro, an interesting combat system, but then... nothing really changes. You just keep talking to people and doing the same combat pretty much the entire way through, with the story getting weirder but not necessarily more interesting until the last moments of the game. If you want to see an interesting piece of JRPG history, you should definitely check out Parasite Eve, but for everyone else I'm not sure it holds up well enough to be an exemplar of the genre.

A superb remake of a GOAT. For me, the artistry of Demon's Souls is in the level design and gameplay mechanics. These are preserved almost perfectly, and the high performance brings the whole thing to life better than the original. Even the most "Demon's Souls-y" patience checks in the game were unchanged - things that even other souls games nerfed because they were too much. To name a few:

-Bashing on a high defense enemy (bear-bugs) for minutes to kill it (and then moving on to 3 or 4 more)
-Farming for tons and tons of rocks from specific (sometimes rare) enemies for weapon upgrades
-Dragons that take lots of time (but not skill) to down
-A character that takes tens of minutes to kill, but can take you down in one shot

The stats and balancing appear to be the same, and NG+ is as brutal as ever. The only mechanic I can think of that was slightly nerfed is the swamp (by adding a difficult-to-find ring that cancels the mobility effects). All in all - this game retains Demon's Souls' soul.

Other aspects of the game are hit-or-miss: the sound design is remarkably good, the ost is blah, the voice acting was...ok, and the graphics and visual style are gorgeous. I'm a bit crestfallen by the ost, but again, none of these are absolutely essential for the Demon's Souls experience. This game was revolutionary for it's uncompromising gameplay and experimental ideas, and the remake is true to that vision.

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I'm kinda pissed about Doran's death yelp. Very unsatisfying in the remake. I'll get over it, though.

This game aced the most important aspect of a platformer: control of your character. It's remarkable how ambitious the controls were for one the first console games in 3D, and they're smoother than the peanut butter in a freshly opened jar. I felt pretty bumptious doing wall jumps and basic skips after a bit of practice, but speedruns show that full mastery of the controls makes Mario God-like.

The environments are kind of ugly, but so were most games in this generation (growing pains due to the transition to 3D). Some of them felt a bit empty, too. But the gameplay more than compensated for these issues even if it didn't quite feel like Mario's cartoon fantasy-land. To me, the most interesting levels were the ones with lots of moving parts and mechanisms, like Tik-Tok Clock and the Boswer levels. Those truly were awe-inspiring if you stop to look around for a moment.

Miscellaneous things:
-The creative goals to get the stars (rather than just "get to the end" or "kill the thing") were an amazing innovation
-I was crestfallen that the Koopa Kids were not in this game.
-The eel is straight out of a nightmare and discovering him is one of my favorite Mario moments of all time.
-Lakitu, after all, is your enemy.