Demon's Souls-For All the PS3 Players Out There LOLOL

[Trynant]

Okay, for all you PS3 owners out there there's this game you should know about called Demon's Souls.

What is it?
Demon's Souls is an almost-roguelike next-gen RPG/Action thing with based around old-school hack-and-slash with some pretty cool twists in gameplay.

Details?
It sounds simple. There are five "worlds" (read: big dungeon areas) with four-or-so stages in each. You go deeper into these worlds, killing monsters and bosses behind the monsters, slay them in a pretty random order, once you slay the demon bosses you fight the final boss, beat the game.

Okay...
Wait, don't leave yet! There's a twist. See, this game is hard. You will die, and die a lot. If you don't stay on your toes any enemy can ream your sorry ass from here to the next blue moon. Hell, the tutorial will undoubtedly kill you!

It's only when you die does the game truly begin....

Wat.
See, your character can be in two different states in Demon's Souls: living and spirit form. While in spirit form your HP is reduced by half or so, and in order to revive you must kill a demon or complete certain missions (get to that later). You can never get a "game over" in Demon's Souls, but when you die you do have to restart from the last checkpoint (they appear at the end of each level where you fought a boss basically).

Dying has no penalty but one big one: you lose your monies, well, "souls", the game's currency that you obtain via killing monsters. You need it for better weapons, armor, and even to level. If you die, your only chance of getting your monies back is by running back to your point of death, if you can manage it, and retrieving your lost souls. Oh, and you only have one chance to do this, or else you lose it all! This game has a vicious cycle of risk vs. reward that you must balance out with ever-so-much care.

Also, multiplayer.

Wat.
Demon's Souls is a multiplayer game, kinda. You start out the game by yourself, but if you have an internet connection, you'll be seing these white spirits blinking in-and-out of existence as you fight the demon du jour. These are actual players in their own game.

Messages are littered on the ground in your travels, placed by other players to give hints, warn others about traps ahead, call out for help, or just plain trick you to your doom. Bloodstains also will indefinitely litter the floor; if you examine them a red phantom will appear, showing how player's last few seconds of living before he bit the bullet, sometimes showing clues as to what dangers lie ahead, other times showing how bad it is to fall from high places....

K, can I actually group with other players? Isn't that what multiplayer is about?

Remember those phantoms from another world I mentioned? Well, once you obtain a certain item in the game, you can grab spirits from other worlds to join yours, appearing as blue phantoms, and team up them to beat demons in the head!

There's a flipside, though. Spirits can also opt to mark themselves as black phantoms, becoming your nemesis, and their mission is to kill your sorry ass. If they succeed, they revive and return to human form, leaving your sorry spirit out to get your monies back. Don't like it? Tough luck. This ain't your momma's hack-and-slash.

Umm...okay.
It's fun though! This game throws you in the deep end, and if you learn to swim you'll find an ocean of deep, addictive and demanding gameplay with beautiful graphics and a decent story to boot. Oh, and death. Lots of death. But lots of loots as well....

I'll believe it when I see it.
Fair enough! Here's some videos.

Opening cinematic!

(A little bit of spoilers!) The tutorial (it kills you dead).

Some co-op gameplay that's pretty far in!

Gamespot's review of the game!

So there you go. Let's talk about Demon's Souls.

In before "I wish this game was on PC/360" posts.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

First heard about this game via a youtube video of the guy beating the tutorial boss(was the japanese version). Apparently this boss is supposed to be unbeatable but their he is doing it all by his lonesome. I didnt know about the multiplayer though and that sounds really neat.

It was rather intriguing and I skimmed a couple of reviews. I might pick it up later in life

Thinking about it right now and that multiplayer component sounds really damn neat. Leaving notes for other players to see really sets the immersion factor. Course I bet you will get some notes that stat "lol hard boss is hard"

 

[Trynant]

First heard about this game via a youtube video of the guy beating the tutorial boss(was the japanese version). Apparently this boss is supposed to be unbeatable but their he is doing it all by his lonesome. I didnt know about the multiplayer though and that sounds really neat.

It was rather intriguing and I skimmed a couple of reviews. I might pick it up later in life

Thinking about it right now and that multiplayer component sounds really damn neat. Leaving notes for other players to see really sets the immersion factor. Course I bet you will get some notes that stat "lol hard boss is hard"

Well, the tutorial boss isn't unbeatable, just really f'in hard. Hard enough to make the average player think it's unbeatable. Really, it's more of a bonus if you beat him.

Spoiler

The next boss is just a cutscene that kills you anyways. But you get lots of loot beforehand.

As for multiplayer and leaving messages, the messages are written with a set of premade text where you fill in the blanks with various words (there's a **** up ahead, where you can fill in the **** with a choice of words like "ambush" or "dangerous foe"). Of course, some preset messages can be rather funny ("I'm in trouble! Please recommend this message!"). Turns out if your message gets recommended you get health back everytime someone does so.

Oh, and you need to beat the first stage of the first world (not just the tutorial) before co-op really opens up. It's a good way to learn the ropes of the game. The razor-wire ropes....

 

[dragonfliet]

This game looks quite fun (and that writeup was great), but it seems like something one needs to clear their schedule for. I remember the Ninja Gaiden games making me so mad I HAD to keep playing just to vindicate myself and this game would be along those lines (except eviler, from the sounds of it)

~Jason

 

[shadow_dragon]

Looks interesting but the music(singing) in the cinematic and in the tutorial vid seemed awful, irritatingly so.

 

[Trynant]

This game looks quite fun (and that writeup was great), but it seems like something one needs to clear their schedule for. I remember the Ninja Gaiden games making me so mad I HAD to keep playing just to vindicate myself and this game would be along those lines (except eviler, from the sounds of it)

~Jason

So far I'd say Ninja Gaiden and Demon's Souls stand on the same ground, maybe Ninja Gaiden being even the worse of the two! I haven't beaten Demon's Souls, however, so the final verdict is still out for now.

 

[Iron Archer]

I have the game and it's great. You start out one little guy facing a huge castle and there is no loading when you're in the level, yet you'll see the whole castle and end up on top of it and see areas you were in at the beginning of the level. It's very detailed and the moves you can pull off are simple yet intuitive. There are different classes so you can play to your strengths or experiment with other class types. To see some of the higher end guards come at you from afar is kinda nerve-wrecking since they can usually dispatch you with one strike. Successfully parrying an attack and following it up with an execution-type move is very satisfying, but if you don't watch your surroundings you can end up being overwhelmed. The cool thing is you can avoid some enemies but if they give chase they will continue to follow you and will not let up until you kill them. Currently I don't have internet at home so I'm limited to playing in offline mode. I can't wait to see what the mp mode holds.

 

[shadow_dragon]

can't find it on Amazon or play i'm guessing it's not out in europe yet. :S

 

[Trynant]

BUMP!

Well, I've gotten into Demon's Souls a little more, and I can say a few things.

• The game's aesthetics are wonderful. Not only are the graphics on par for this generation; the atmosphere and setting is wonderful. Demon's Souls is steeped in a western, medieval style that conveys a gritty and harsh mood that fits perfectly with the gameplay. Every swing of your weapon feels like it has an impact; every hit feels like it hurts.
  
  
• Demon's Souls is technically not as hard as some titles (e.g. the recent Ninja Gaiden games), but it is far more unforgiving. When you die, there is no loading your unscathed character from a cushy save point. No, instead you respawn all the way from either the beginning of a level or where you slayed a boss. Worse yet, if you die you lose all your souls (the game's currency), and you have only one chance to make it to the place where you were slain to get your monies. Die before you get to that spot and you lose all that hard-earned cash for good. Not to mention that if you die while in Body Form (i.e. you're a flesh and blood person) you resurrect in Soul Form with half health; the only way to revive is through rare, expendable items or by killing a boss (or other players, more on that later).
  
  
• While not as impossible as some points in some games, Demon's Souls kills you a lot. The moment you begin to make mistakes is the moment where the game will whoop your ass; get in over your head and you'll realize just how quickly monsters can kill you. So all that running-back-to-your-body I mentioned? That can happen often if you don't bring your A game to Demon's Souls. Be prepared or be dead.
  
  
• Online makes this game easier and harder at the same time. While online you can get hints from messages left by other players or from blood stains that show another player's last 10 seconds before they kicked the bucket. It's easier to get your body back because you can help another player kill a boss, resulting in your revival if you succeed. The game is harder, however, because players in Soul Form can invade your world if you're in your Body Form. If they kill you, they get their body back and you get shafted. Of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and you can just as easily invade other player's worlds and kill their sorry ass. TL;DR, online is far more complex than offline mode.
  
  
• What makes Demon's Souls so great is that you get a sense of accomplishment you get from conquering all its hardships. Sure, when you start out in the game you will get your butt handed to you, but that just makes you all the more badass when you can plow through enemies that were eating you alive a few hours before. Every slain boss in Demon's Souls feels like you've just beaten a lesser game. Honestly I haven't played any other game from this current generation that puts so much at stake and gives the player such a rush from winning. It rivals the feelings of your favorite sports team winning the championship.
  
  
• I beat the tutorial boss, a thing that is all-but meant to kill you. And I beat it with a melee character for that matter. I feel like a badass.
  
  
• Black Phantoms (players that try to kill you) either make you really happy or really angry depending on who wins and how well the fight with them went. Few things are more frustrating in this game than spending a ton of healing items against another player only to die after a grueling 30-minute battle. Then again, few things in any game are as epic.
  
  
• This game makes you afraid. It's brutal system of risk-versus-reward will make you fear for your character's precious money. Every corner is another danger, every monster is a threat. I hesitate to play this game more because of the risk I might have in losing all my gold.

In short Demon's Souls is a must-have if you own a PS3 and have even the slightest interest in action games. The thrills you get here are unique in this generation of games, where victories are practically given to the player on a silver platter. Not in Demon's Souls.

 

[Fuzzle]

This is one of the games I would pick up if I had a PS3. I'm a big rpg nerd, and I'll enjoy "hard but rewarding" games if they're challenging above frustrating, and rewarding above grindy.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

Now I am all for Ninja Gaiden hard and when the time comes I do pick this up I may unhook my ps3 from the interbutts till I get a firm handling on this. Nothing will piss me off more than some jerkoff slicing me vertical while trying to kill a hard as nails boss.

 

[Fuzzle]

That's a different kind of hard though. You don't lose hours of progress from dying in ninja gaiden, and it's just a matter of repeatedly running into a brick wall until you break through.

I like death penalties if the game is built around it in a way that gives you a lot of satisfaction for making progress, and makes me exclaim obscenities from dying. This is the kinda stuff I think is really rare and something that's more a thing of the past, and one of the reasons I'm curious about Demon's Souls.

 

[Trynant]

Now I am all for Ninja Gaiden hard and when the time comes I do pick this up I may unhook my ps3 from the interbutts till I get a firm handling on this. Nothing will piss me off more than some jerkoff slicing me vertical while trying to kill a hard as nails boss.

Actually players cannot invade your world if you are fighting a boss. Trust me, playing online is so awesome.

Spoiler

Except for one boss, that actually summons Black Phantoms during the fight.

 

[Trynant]

Yahtzee can't get past the second level in Demon's Souls.

It almost annoys me that he calls that a review of the game when he doesn't play the damn thing.

Great moments of recent:

A Black Phantom invaded my world and introduced me to the most annoying PvP weapon in the game: the Scraping Spear. Every hit of the spear does durability damage to equipped gear, meaning all the guy did to me was poke me until my weapons and shields broke, killed me when I didn't have anything that wasn't broken, and left me with no money when I needed it for repairs.

FFFUUUUUUUUUU-

Spoiler

I planted a blue soul sign in the Tower of Latria (world 3), looking for a guy in body form to recruit me during the level. Instead, I got summoned by the boss of world 3 and was turned into the final boss of the area. Yep, one of the bosses in Demon's Souls is an actual other player. Unfortunately the guy I was supposed to fight died to a regular monster before he got to me!

The Tower of Latria is really scary too; I'm actually intimated about going deeper into the dungeon because of its dark and moody atmosphere.

This game is still quite awesome.

 

[Mozi]

I was at friends apartment the other day and watched him play it. I don't think I could play this game without breaking a controller or two.

 

[Kantham]

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YOU DIED
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[Soggy_Popcorn]

I'm all for depth and difficulty and overcoming challenges, blah blah...

But this game sound like it punishes you just for playing the game. Think of it in terms of a positive feedback loop for the good player and a negative feedback loop for the bad player. It's essentially a cool looking RPG with CoD 4's helos flying around aimbotting you and making you even weaker.

No thanks.

 

[Neddaf]

This game, is amazing. It encompasses everything old school games had (frustration and challenge) with great reward.
<3 the demon's souls

 

[hal]

Insta-buy for me if I had a PS3. I read a bit about it as it picked up a few GOTY awards and it sounded intriguing, particularly the online component.

 

[Trynant]

I'm all for depth and difficulty and overcoming challenges, blah blah...

But this game sound like it punishes you just for playing the game. Think of it in terms of a positive feedback loop for the good player and a negative feedback loop for the bad player. It's essentially a cool looking RPG with CoD 4's helos flying around aimbotting you and making you even weaker.

No thanks.

You're partially correct. The game does indeed punish a player...if they play poorly. On the flipshide it rewards a player who plays well. As far as I have played, Demon's Souls is never unfair if you play by its rules. The only thing is that the rules of DS are somewhat unforgiving. And the game doesn't hold your hand and tell you everything.

You do get weaker and enemies get stronger if you die in body form--which a player who is playing poorly will not be in, kill good guys, or kill other players. On the flipside, you get stronger and enemies become weaker if you kill bad guys, fend off players trying to kill you, or kill giant immobile fish-type monsters (I'm not joking about that one).

The only part where there is a sense of "punishment" is perhaps fighting the tutorial boss. Which you're supposed to die to. And you can beat that boss if you're bad-ass enough at the game.

IMO the harshness of the game, or at least it's emphasis on playing well, really makes the game that much more epic. The deaths are epic tragedies, the victories against the big bad monsters are more glorious than the best that most games' final bosses.