Early Dark Souls Players are in for an Unfortunate Surprise

Demon's Souls was widely regarded as a stellar entry in the action RPG genre, but it's remembered, above all else, for its absurd difficulty. Spiritual successor Dark Souls is by all accounts living up to that brutal lineage, but gamers who get their hands on a copy of the game before its official release date will find the scale tipping from hard to downright unfair.

Japanese blog Esuteru is reporting that the game’s developer, From Software, is using Dark Souls’ multiplayer features to assault early players with impossibly powerful Black Phantoms. As you can see from the below screenshot, the Phantoms sit at an ungodly Level 145, with all of their stats maxed out to 99.

In short, anyone who’s playing the game online this early is getting killed. A lot.

From Software will (hopefully) stop harassing its fans when the game officially releases tomorrow in Japan for the 360 and PS3. North Americans and Europeans will have to wait a bit longer for a reprieve, with their launches scheduled for the October 4 and 7 respectively.