Support NeoGAF

[EatinOlives]

I played the first half of Demon's Souls about a year after clearing Dark Souls 1, then went back to finish it over a year later, after beating both DS2 and Bloodborne.

I think it feels very much like a proof-of-concept/developer sandbox style of game when compared to the newer Souls games. There is a lot of experimentation in the game, and things that aren't as tweaked as tightly as they are in later games. Difficulty-wise, it's a lot less forgiving because its bonfires and shortcuts are MUCH rarer than they are in the newer games. Both level design and bosses are a lot more gimmicky in general and can be very hit or miss as a result. Combat animations feel floatier in general but the central feeling of deliberate slowness is there.

Many of the ideas that didn't work or weren't interesting enough simply weren't repeated in the later games, while the ones that did work were usually improved in some way.

Having said all that, it's still a good game - just not as great as DS1, or Bloodborne. I still think some areas in DeS (Tower of Latria in particular) is easily the most atmospheric part of any Souls game I've played, and feels super creepy. It's great.

I remember the two most brutal parts of Demon's is that 1) upon dying you lose 50% of your health (with a ring you can knock it down to only 25%), 2) all "bonfires" were directly following a boss and not a minute sooner. Each section was a "level" in the very video game-y traditional sense, in that if you lost at the boss you have to do the entire level again. This made shortcuts a lot more valuable and you quickly learned how to "speed-run" a level, knowing when you can run past an enemy and when you have to engage.

By far my most lamented recent change in the series is how damn close bonfires are to each other. There's zero reason to have bonfires literally 2 minutes apart in some cases. Many times you can make it to a boss after running for like 1 minute. Sometimes you spawn literally one room away from the boss. In Demon's the sense of dread was heightened in that the longer you traversed through a level, the deeper you had to go if you wanted your souls back upon death, and it always culminated into a boss fight that you were probably going to lose in your first try anyway, so it became a complex game of push-and-pull seeing how far into the level you should go before going back and banking your souls.

Ever since Dark Souls 2, if you're ever at a point where you might think "I have a lot of souls with me, should I retreat back to my nearest bonfire?" don't worry, they've more than likely focus tested a bonfire right around the corner. Hell, more often than not I encounter bonfires sooner than I want. They bother me because I obviously amass enough souls to buy items or level up in between bonfires, so if I encounter one I really feel like I HAVE to bank them, breaking up the pace of the game by having you teleport out to your safe area and restocking/leveling up/changing your loadout. It happens so often with modern Souls games that I never really feel any tension build up, as I know that I can very easily retrieve my souls within mere minutes if I end up dying.

Sadder that there were people in the DS3 OT last week complaining that the bonfires weren't literally right next to the boss rooms. Like, the bonfires are already very generously placed as it is and people want it even easier? SMH...

 

[The Flash]

Is Demon's Souls on PS Now? I really want to play it but I'd rather not have to get a PS3 to do so.

 

[Lunarwhale]

So well, like hot damn. I played it for the first time a couple months ago in anticipation for Dark Souls III and really loved the more arcade-y feel that it had. It's a lot of fun going through it and learning the ins-and-outs of everything. Its janky balance sort of adds to that in a way.

 

[silva1991]

It aged pretty well. I actually did a quick run 3 weeks before DS3(JP)

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I'm starting this next week and it will be my first Souls game. Any tips?

Do you want easy mode? Start as a Royal, collect the Thief Ring and Cling Ring in 1-1, go to 4-1 and suicide run to grab the Enchanted Falchion. Then just play normally and focus on leveling INT for spells. Your magic will destroy everything by the end of the game.

Otherwise, 100 physical block shield, longsword, and high endurance will be your best friend.

 

[GIANKRATOS]

Very well. I just recently made a pg just to invade a friends that was playing it for the first time (lol) and it's still fun to play, and the world is still really immersive.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I had it day 1 but never finished it until after beating Dark Souls. Even so, it compared favorably. It's still great.

 

[Zaventem]

Really damn good. Naturally faster than Dark Souls 1 and 2. IMO because of world tendency it's also the hardest. This game probably has the biggest spike damage.

 

[BouncyFrag]

Are there still people playing it online?

 

[Patrick Klepek]

I played the series in order of Dark Souls --> Dark Souls 2 --> Demon's Souls and had a great time with Demon's Souls. I'd kill for a remaster, though, since a PC version will never happen. Latria at 60fps? Lord help me.

Also, if you're interested in blasting through it just to see what it's like, magic is OP as fuck. I never do magic in those games, so it was a fun experiment.

 

[zewone]

Very well.

I preferred it's bosses and worlds to Dark Souls 3 and I'm not some Demon Souls fanboy.

DS1>DS2>BB>DeS>DS3

Even though I have DeS lower on my rankings, it's still better than 99% of other video games out there.

 

[Exr]

Its still fun but nothing will compare to the first time DS was released. Everything was so new, discovering things with others was so fun. Also invasions were way more tense back then....i feel for people that like Souls games but didnt play DS at launch, they missed out on a very unique experience.

 

[Fisty]

Are there still people playing it online?

Ive platinumed it 3 times since 2014 and was never able to find a summon buddy or invader. Its probably more beneficial to never leave Soul/Hollow form anyway since dying as a Human drops world tendancy and makes the game harder

 

[Akuun]

I remember the two most brutal parts of Demon's is that 1) upon dying you lose 50% of your health (with a ring you can knock it down to only 25%), 2) all "bonfires" were directly following a boss and not a minute sooner. Each section was a "level" in the very video game-y traditional sense, in that if you lost at the boss you have to do the entire level again. This made shortcuts a lot more valuable and you quickly learned how to "speed-run" a level, knowing when you can run past an enemy and when you have to engage.

By far my most lamented recent change in the series is how damn close bonfires are to each other. There's zero reason to have bonfires literally 2 minutes apart in some cases. Many times you can make it to a boss after running for like 1 minute. Sometimes you spawn literally one room away from the boss. In Demon's the sense of dread was heightened in that the longer you traversed through a level, the deeper you had to go if you wanted your souls back upon death, and it always culminated into a boss fight that you were probably going to lose in your first try anyway, so it became a complex game of push-and-pull seeing how far into the level you should go before going back and banking your souls.

Ever since Dark Souls 2, if you're ever at a point where you might think "I have a lot of souls with me, should I retreat back to my nearest bonfire?" don't worry, they've more than likely focus tested a bonfire right around the corner. Hell, more often than not I encounter bonfires sooner than I want. They bother me because I obviously amass enough souls to buy items or level up in between bonfires, so if I encounter one I really feel like I HAVE to bank them, breaking up the pace of the game by having you teleport out to your safe area and restocking/leveling up/changing your loadout. It happens so often with modern Souls games that I never really feel any tension build up, as I know that I can very easily retrieve my souls within mere minutes if I end up dying.

Sadder that there were people in the DS3 OT last week complaining that the bonfires weren't literally right next to the boss rooms. Like, the bonfires are already very generously placed as it is and people want it even easier? SMH...

I agree with a lot of that. I think DS1's and Bloodborne's bonfire/lamp placement was great in that you weren't right in front of a boss door, but had to learn a fast corpse run that wasn't TOO long. DS2 lost a lot of tension when you knew you could play super sloppy and burn Estus like crazy, since you only needed to survive to the next bonfire 5 minutes from the last one. Demon's Souls ones tended to be too long IMO.

I agree that Demon's Souls' archstone placement made the game feel much more tense for exactly the reasons you said. You want to press ahead but you know that your first encounter with a boss usually means that you'll die right away, leading to lost progress and souls.

But I found this tension also tempted me into playing more lamely than I otherwise would in other Souls games. When combined with the fact that DeS is MUCH easier to break/exploit as a game than the other Souls games, it means you become much more tempted to use those exploits as a way to try to do whatever you can to try to beat the boss on your first try. It's a set of conflicting messages in the game. On one hand, the tension is good, but on the other hand, the game almost encourages you to be lame because the game's difficulty hammers into you over and over that you're supposed to use *anything* at your disposal to survive because the world of a Souls game is not concerned about playing fair with you. And to many players (including me), "anything" means using something that you know is lame, like magic, or (in my case), magic armor to face tank the shit out of everything so that I could experiment without betting my life each time, which sometimes let me clear bosses on the first try and avoid the whole dying+corpse run thing altogether.

 

[Raven117]

Its still fun but nothing will compare to the first time DS was released. Everything was so new, discovering things with others was so fun. Also invasions were way more tense back then....i feel for people that like Souls games but didnt play DS at launch, they missed out on a very unique experience.

This is maybe my top gaming experience of all time (at lease as an adult).

I still prefer Demon's Souls more than Dark Souls. To me Demon's had a deeper focus on the difficulty of the level. (maybe it was because it was my first rodeo on that). Demon's IMO has the "hardest" levels...no check points...etc....Since I'm not the biggest fan of boss fights in general, and LOVED the tense levels (more so than any Souls/bourne) then Demon's gets my vote.

And yeah...those few folks at launch....we were few...we were vocal...and none of us had played anything like it before.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

the original souls game.

i feel like a lot of people forget that

Huh?

Who "forgets" that it was the first Souls game?

 

[Mupod]

It exemplifies the best thing about Souls games - if you're patient and cautious it's really not all that hard. But it never FEELS like a cakewalk.

Not perfect of course - bosses aren't great, that goddamn mine caves level SUCKS, and world tendency is a really dumb system. But overall absolutely worth playing.

 

[Razzorn34]

Demon's will always be my favorite. Mostly because the boss fights are part puzzle, part skill. The puzzle aspect added quite a bit of depth to each fight. There were generally easier ways to deal with bosses than what meets the eye. From has basically phased out that aspect as this series goes along in favor of more bosses where you just slash and roll your way to victory.

 

[balohna]

I've been playing it an Dark Souls 1 both lately. Demon's has some rougher animations and fewer nice graphical touches, but it oozes atmosphere and plays really well. Has a timeless look in a lot of ways, and the gameplay hasn't really aged.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Visually, it's eh. But design, playability, story, music, etc are all top notch. As long as you're fine with mid-tier visual quality even for the time then you get a huge kick out of it!

(I played it for the first time post Bloodborne.)

 

[Soriku]

It's missing some QOL things. Like you can't speed up or down ladders, can't do jumps, no bottomless inventory because of your equip load. Estus wasn't introduced yet. I would also say the combat is slightly clunky compared to Dark Souls 1. Slightly.

But in general it's not that dated.

 

[Hugstable]

Still very fun and some of the more interesting level designs in the series. Bosses can very depending on the person (those who like gimmick bosses more will like Demon's Bosses, those who don't, probably won't. Not much challenge really in the bosses). Still find people to duel with sometimes and there's always people playing, even if the number that are playing is much smaller today (though I think more are playing Demon's than Dark 1 PS3 currently, at least from what I've seen since I've played through both pretty recently)


I love Demon's alot and it was my introduction to the series, just crazy coming back to the game all these years later and finding out that the game that I had so much trouble completing back in the day, isn't actually all that bad, and it's probably the easiest of the Souls games (which in turns kinda makes it good for beginners) I would say, plus the fact that there is no real big enemies outside of bosses allows for people to learn the enemies. Most stages have a regular enemy, a buffed up version of that regular enemy, and 1 or 2 more assorted lesser baddies.

 

[Syril]

Compared to later games the design and the balance are a bit rough, but it has a unique structure compared to them too.

 

[InsaneTiger]

My first love; Bloodborne is my second.

 

[The Boat]

Still amazing in my book.

 

[QisTopTier]

Worst Souls game, still a good game

 

[TheBlackMarvel]

Should still play as well as any of the other Souls games minus a few QOL improvements.

Spoiler

Could really do with a drop rate re-balancing though...

 

[the black pearl]

I still really like the level design and atmosphere. The Nexus is GOAT. The controls are really responsive

You feel too weightless, though.

 

[1upsuper]

Very well. I actually only just got into the Souls series within the last year or so, and now I've played through all of them but DaS2. Demon's Souls was my favorite until DaS3. It's really an incredible game still.

 

[Boney]

It's still one of the best action rpg's out there but the difficulty curve is all out of control if you know the crescent falchion is so easy to get. Half of the levels aren't that good either, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2 and 5-2 are relatively boring levels with bad encounter design and enemies, but at least those levels bosses make up for the boring levels.

But as all souls games it's more than a sum of it's parts, in which everything works great in tandem. Audiovisual design is superb despite havok rag dolls, the sheer variety of weapons and play styles, the incredibly inventive online system, the mystery of the universe and the side quests as well as the punishing difficultly. It's not a perfect game but it stills stands out as something great that's not an awful focus tested videogame.

 

[Hugstable]

Also fuck the Scraping Spear lol

 

[Syntsui]

I could never get hooked by it tbh. I played it after playing Dark Souls and some of the mechanics and design decisions were just worse.

 

[ZeroTheShadow]

It doesn't. It's by far the worst souls game

 

[Akuun]

Also fuck the Scraping Spear lol

My first experience with that thing was when I

Spoiler

faced the Old Monk with some asshole using that spear. I didn't know what was going on until all my stuff broke. Still almost killed him by parrying him, but died in the end. Cost me 10k souls to repair when that was quite a lot.

Asshole.

 

[JetSetRadio]

Best souls game pre scholar by a mile.
Better than DS3 too.

 

[Red Liquorice]

The series has obviously evolved, but I still think the first holds up extremely well, it plays great still and in some departments hasn't been topped by what followed.

 

[Fisty]

Also fuck the Scraping Spear lol

Miyazaki's biggest dick move ever. Seriously that is the trolliest crap in the series.

Still the best game in the series imo. PVP was just ass if you saw that spear

 

[Navy Bean]

It doesn't. It's by far the worst souls game

Nah, Bloodborne is by far the worst souls game.

Demon's is the best, but it probably helps if you've not played the others first.

 

[The Artisan]

Huh?

Who "forgets" that it was the first Souls game?

I dunno, the fact that it was exclusive and largely unnoticed after its successor came around?

 

[Drencrom]

I replayed it before the release of Bloodborne last year and it still holds up.

It's still probably my favorite Soulsborne game, it just got something special that the other games lack.

 

[QisTopTier]

Demon's is the best, but it probably helps if you've not played the others first.

This statement makes no sense

 

[GwyndolinCinder]

Fantastically well, has my favorite boss in the series MA.
edit: read up and saw the other MA love,yesss gaf

 

[Skii]

It holds up extremely well.

It is still my favourite Souls experience simply because the atmosphere created has been absolutely unrivaled until Bloodborne came around. It was genuinely miserable. Far more miserable than Dark Souls and difficulty as a fat rolling knight was totally unforgiving. It just felt beautifully oppressive. I absolutely despised loading it up because I knew I was going to get destroyed in any new level I entered. The only "forgiving" level was basically 1-1 (your first area).

The music though is absolutely breathtaking. Every boss fight felt so unique because of the score. I can pretty much attribute any theme tune to its boss and I can't replicate that with any other Souls game.

Also, Tower of Latria is probably one of the best levels in all of gaming. It's beautifully designed, has ridiculous atmosphere and the boss adds to absolute dread you get from this area when you first realise she is unbeatable. It feels like you are just stuck in an eternal nightmare.

Miyazaki created something extraordinary with Demon's Souls and it will never be forgotten as one of the greats.

 

[Nev]

It's perfectly playable and enjoyable. It has fantastic level design -Shrine of Storms is probably my favorite level in the franchise-, the core gameplay is imo the best and more responsive after Bloodborne and really it's just as much of a perfect game as DaS and Bloodborne. If you love Dark Souls then there's absolutely no reason you wouldn't like this. It feels like a modern classic from the beginning. The only "flaw" is that it's shorter/smaller in scope.

Note that it's quite a lot faster than Dark Souls though, to the point that when you're used to playing Demon's and go back to Dark, the latter feels so slow that it's maddening until you get used to its slower pace.

It looks better than Dark Souls too, which isn't particularly hard since Dark Souls is hideous for the most part, and the artstyle and soundtrack create an amazing atmosphere that is much more unique than that of Dark Souls, which ended up being a bit more generic in a way.

There are areas in the Valley of Defilement (the original Blighttown) where the framerate can get absolutely atrocious though, and the bosses are not very hard if you've beaten the other games, especially Bloodborne.

Anyways, do yourself a favor, play the game and enjoy the original Souls goodness.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

Nah, Bloodborne is by far the worst souls game.

Demon's is the best, but it probably helps if you've not played the others first.

Nah, Dark Souls 2 is by far the worst souls games.

Bloodborne is the best, but it probably helps if you've not played the others first.


Wait. In mocking you I think I kind of messed up my point. Still probably true, it was my first and now forever my favorite.

 

[shortsFortallPeople]

the hardest and most tense of the Souls games.

Might be my favorite depending on my mood, that or Dark 1

 

[specdot]

Tower of Latria is still one of the best locations in all of the Souls series. The Old Monk fight was truly a groundbreaking moment in gaming. Heck all of the boss fights were great. Fool's Idol is still one of the most memorable boss fights for me in the series.

 

[GwyndolinCinder]

the hardest

Unless its your first, i cant imagine this being true for anyone, the game has evolved alot, these old bosses and tricks are laughable now

 

[The Artisan]

Nah, Bloodborne is by far the worst souls game.

Demon's is the best, but it probably helps if you've not played the others first.

bloodborne isn't a souls game.

 

[Navy Bean]

This statement makes no sense

It made sense in my mind before I wrote it lol...

World 4-1 is one of the best "levels" in all the souls' games.