Looking for…

… A good action RPG similar to Demon's Souls, meaning it has such degree of challenge right from the start. Consider that I'm very bored of Diablo and its clones, and if it has good graphics (e.g. it's not in800*600 fullscreen ) it's a big plus. Do you guys have any suggestion? Or should I have to wait for Dark Souls? Thanks .

Haven´t played Demon´s Souls so I´ll be probably off, but going strictly by it being a good action RPG with good graphics and challenging to boot, I´d recommend Dragon Knight Saga which quite fits all these criteria when played on highest difficulty, though the game does become somewhat easier in its later stages.
Another would be G2: NotR, but you´ve most likely played this one already.

Originally Posted by Ball_Breaker
… A good action RPG similar to Demon's Souls, meaning it has such degree of challenge right from the start. Consider that I'm very bored of Diablo and its clones, and if it has good graphics (e.g. it's not in800*600 fullscreen ) it's a big plus. Do you guys have any suggestion? Or should I have to wait for Dark Souls? Thanks .

Demon's Souls is pretty unique in its approach to gameplay and challenge.

Some people consider The Witcher 2 an action RPG - though I'd personally call it a "pure" RPG for the most part.

However, if you pick the hardest difficulty level - it's pretty challenging for the first half of the game, and it is pretty combat oriented overall.

The only immediately challenging "action RPG" I can think of otherwise, would be Evil Islands. Though, come to think of it, it's not very action-driven at all

Risen, perhaps?

Hmm….

Ok, thanks guys but I just forgot to say that I've already played when they came out the first two Gothic, and also I just finished The Witcher 2 (such a beatiful game for me, even it's a bit short for my tastes ).
And of course I've already finished DKS too .

If you can be bothered with setting up ePSXe (the emulator for Playstation), you may want to check out Shadow Tower, which is an earlier game by From Software, the devs behind Demon's Souls. It's more traditional and, well, basic in a sense, but the dungeon design is quite good and the game itself is pretty hardcore and generally excellent.

Whoa, thanks man I'll look forward for this game, never heard of it. Btw, I played on first Xbox the two Otogi, and I found that DS took something from those two eh eh…

You might want to check out Blade of Darkness. It's not an RPG, but it has what I would personally consider the best melee combat that I've ever experienced by far. It is certainly a challenging game that requires you to always be alert, but the difficulty is also very well-balanced and fair - if you learn to be patient with the timing of your attacks, the game won't "screw you over" with any cheap deaths, and defeating an enemy is very satisfying since you have to do much more than mindlessly hack n' slash your way to victory.

Also, despite being 10 years old, the atmosphere has aged surprisingly well, which makes the exploration of each level quite engaging. It may not be an RPG, but it certainly is a well-designed, highly enjoyable game that is one of the best "dungeon-crawling" adventures that I've ever experienced.

Severance: Blade of Darkness comes to mind. It's an action-RPG with a melee combat system, and it's quite challenging. Not sure if it'll meet your minimum standard for graphics though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severan…de_of_Darkness

*Edit*Fuck.. Nerevarine had to post about it 3 seconds before me.

Originally Posted by JDR13

*Edit*Fuck.. Nerevarine had to post about it 3 seconds before me.

Oops…sorry about that! If anything, I guess two recommendations helps reinforce the idea that Blade of Darkness is a good choice

I'll overlook your impudence this time, but don't let it happen again.

Actually, Severance (that's its first name ) has few RPG elements, but indeed it's an action game, as you say…
The problem is running it in Win7: it crashed (after I patched it ofc)! Anyway, I'll try again. Thanks guys, good suggestion too.

To be fair, Demon's Souls wasn't much of an RPG either, imo.

Here's a thread that talks about running Severance in Windows 7.
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9401

Yes, you're right, but to me it's a nice hybrid, that finally offers something missing in these days: a challenge! Thanks for the link, I'm gonna check it out .

Many older games were not nearly as hard as we remember them, we were just a lot worse at games when we were younger (I remembered Mega Man 1 as being a hard game, up until I played it again…)

Anyway, Gothic 2 with NoTR has already been mentioned, but I'll second it. If you have not played this game, you should. It is one of, if not the, hardest CRPG that I have ever managed to finish (and probably deserves that titles as far as "played" goes as well). I would recommend playing Gothic 1 first, for its story & setting (that game is not a cakewalk either, but it is far easier).

Thanks Fnord, but what I was saying is that I just completed both Gothic 1 and Gothic 2, and for now I'm not interested in replaying them atm…
I was considering to play (for the third time) Gothic 3 with all fan patches, I still didn't finish it. What do you suggest?

Unlike the previous Gothics, Gothic 3 is not a hard game. It is a game well worth playing though, it has a nice setting to explore, and combat is relatively fun, but I found it to be relatively easy (of course I played through Gothic 3 just after I had finished Gothic 2 with NoTR)

G3 with the fan patches is worth a try. It gets good when you leave the coastal region. The combat didn't do anything for me, though, even after the fan patches.