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The Souls Retrospective | Easy Allies

Mikey Jr.

Mikey Jr.

Member
FPTRHcw.jpg



Welcome to the Easy Allies retrospective on the Souls series (Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls). Without further ado, Easy Allies brings you



The Souls Retrospective - Part I - Through the Fog

Thanks to a young director, a project that seemed doomed to fail instead leads gaming down a dark, yet rewarding new path.
CORRECTION: King's Field originally released in 1994. Our apologies.
Written by: Brad Ellis
Video Edited by: Brandon Jones
Click to expand...

Retrospective Part 1


The Souls Retrospective - Part II - The First Flame

A rich identity and strongly defined world elevate Dark Souls to be one of the most influential games of its time.
Written by: Brad Ellis
Video Edited by: Brandon Jones
Click to expand...

Retrospective Part 2

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Look forward to more retrospectives going through each of the Souls games.

If you are interested, their previous retrospective looked at the Deus Ex series.

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Deus Ex Part 1

Deus Ex Part 2


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You may remember their retrospective series when they were formerly Gametrailers. You can find a link to the archive playlist of their former retrospective videos here.


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The retrospectives videos were only possible because of Easy Allies Patrons. Check out their Patreon page to see how you can help them make more.


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Lastly, come visit the Easy Allies community thread!
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Duuude, this is exactly what I needed today.

Thanks!
 
U

Uno Venova

Banned
Brad did a great job with the script in this, a lot was working against this series and I'm so glad we ended up getting what we did.

Can't wait for the talk of the Dark series and Bloodborne.
 
A

ASilentProtagonist

Member
Miyazaki is such a legend. What an inspiring story he has. I can't wait for what he, and his team do next.

You guys do the best retrospectives. Looking forward to finishing this later.
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
That was amazing. And I can only imagine the goosebumps of DkS-fans at the end.
 
semiconscious

semiconscious

Member
kinda strange that they go from 'demon's souls released in japan, doesn't do well' to 'picked up by atlus, released in west' without ever mentioning the large number of western importers who i'm sure were at least partially responsible for atlus's doing this :) ...
 
J

jett

D-Member
EZA doing good work.

Demon's Souls is still by far my most memorable experience in this franchise, although that's probably true for whichever was your first game. Beating 1-1 for the first time is still the most satisfying moment I've felt in all of these games.
 
C

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
jett said:
EZA doing good work.

Demon's Souls is still by far my most memorable experience in this franchise, although that's probably true for whichever was your first game. Beating 1-1 for the first time is still the most satisfying moment I've felt in all of these games.
Click to expand...

Yeah it could be said that we're just trying to experience the magic of 1-1 again through all of these Souls games. It often comes close, but it's never the same.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
This was great, as expected.
Too bad that they didn't devote an entire intro episode to King's Field and Shadow Tower though, I think that would have been relevant. But that's quite a time sink so I understand why they went straight to Demon's Souls.

It's funny, had I been a Sony executive back then, I never would have greenlighted that game, so I completely understand why they passed on releasing it in the West. It took me years to really "get" the Souls franchise and actually beat Demon's Souls. But now I consider it my favorite PS3 exclusive. Dark Souls might be the better game but Demon's Souls will alway be my favorite. I was so fucking terrified in that damn tower. Best videogame horror experience.
 
G

Gojeran

Member
Just finished watching this. God I love this series. It's the series that made me a GT fan and I'm so happy EZA is back at it. Also it features DeS which is the GOAT so that makes it even better.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
I just watched it and it was pretty good.It actually gave me shivers at times.

My only issue is that they didn't mentioned that the game had already gathered a cult following due to word of mouth in the West even before Atlus got the publishing rights thanks to the Asian version being import friendly. I think that was a very crucial aspect for its success. If the Asian version didn't had English language and menus then i think the positive word of mouth in the West would have never existed therefore no publisher would have dared to publish it in the West.

semiconscious said:
kinda strange that they go from 'demon's souls released in japan, doesn't do well' to 'picked up by atlus, released in west' without ever mentioning the large number of western importers who i'm sure were at least partially responsible for atlus's doing this :) ...
Click to expand...

Yup very true.They missed to mention a very important "detail" IMO. ;)
 
E

epmode

Member
sublimit said:
My only issue is that they didn't mentioned that the game had already gathered a cult following due to word of mouth in the West even before Atlus got the publishing rights thanks to the Asian version being import friendly. I think that was a very crucial aspect for its success. If the Asian version didn't had English language and menus then i think the positive word of mouth in the West would have never existed therefore no publisher would have dared to publish it in the West.
Click to expand...

As someone that picked up the Asian release after reading one or two reviews and checking the GAF impressions, I completely agree. The hype was there well before Atlus licensed the game.
 
O

opticalmace

Member
Great video. Can't wait to see the Dark Souls one.

I got into the souls series with bloodborne, then dark souls 1 and now 3. My favourite two moments are probably 1) when you realize how interconnected the world is in dark souls 1 and 2) when you first see anor londo after slumming it for so long, also in dark souls 1.
 
A

arglebargle

Member
Thanks, I’ll watch tonight.

I have such good memories of demons souls release. I was visiting a friend and we went to best buy for a buy 2 get 1 free sale. Bought demons, brutal legend, and muramasa. I like all three games, but demons is clearly the prize. He took it first and played through. I got it later that year and started during a pure black world tendency event. I knew the game was supposed to be hard, but that was brutal.

In retrospect, the thing that strikes me is how bad I was at building a character. I have since played through all the souls games at least once and have come to understand how to actually build a reasonable character. I was terrible back then, but I guess we all knew a lot less about the systems. I powered through, even though it took me about a hundred attempts to kill the final boss. I should have just leveled a bit, but at the time I apparently felt banging my head against the wall was the best way forward.

jett said:
EZA doing good work.

Demon's Souls is still by far my most memorable experience in this franchise, although that's probably true for whichever was your first game. Beating 1-1 for the first time is still the most satisfying moment I've felt in all of these games.
Click to expand...

1-1 is a great level and set the tone for so many things that have become staples of the series. The relief after opening a shortcut, hard optional enemies, needing to move NPC storylines forward without really knowing what you are doing, blind falls to find items, those soldier enemies or whatever they are called.
 
S

Slime

Banned
Still astounding to me that that the King's Field and Eternal Ring guys became one of the most respected developers in gaming, and created one of the most renowned franchises of the last couple generations.

They were seen by most as that bottom-of-the-barrel developer that made janky PS1 and launch period PS2 RPGs. Armored Core got a bit of love, but everything else was almost universally derided. Demon's Souls was initially written off by most gamers and people in the games press as just another weird, awkward, slow mess destined for the bargin bin. Even Sony, the company that funded the project to begin with, fell into that hole.

Just an amazing reversal in perception. I acutally think the PS3's initial struggles with exclusive software helped it to get more attention than it otherwise would have.
 
A

arglebargle

Member
Slime said:
Still astounding to me that that the King's Field and Eternal Ring guys became one of the most respected developers in gaming, and created one of the most renowned franchises of the last couple generations.

They were seen by most as that bottom-of-the-barrel developer that made janky PS1 and launch period PS2 RPGs. Armored Core got a bit of love, but everything else was almost universally derided. Demon's Souls was initially written off by most gamers and people in the games press as just another weird, awkward, slow mess destined for the bargin bin. Even Sony, the company that funded the project to begin with, fell into that hole.

Just an amazing reversal in perception. I acutally think the PS3's initial struggles with exclusive software helped it to get more attention than it otherwise would have.
Click to expand...

ive gone back and played some kings field and eternal ring stuff since getting into the souls series. from this perspective, they were like halfway there. they needed the tech to catch up (the older games are slow), to switch perspective to third person, and miyazaki's magic touch. this is all revisionist, but you can see the current games in the old ones pretty clearly.

im not convinced demons souls was initially written off. i think it eventually got way more traction than anyone anticipated and transformed the studio, but reviews of it were positive from the start if i remember correctly..
 
T

TheDarkKnight774

Member
Loved it. And you can see the improvement in Brad's writing from his portions in the last Retro.

The parts that interest me the most in these is the origins and behind the scene aspects that they interweave into talking about the game itself. Using quotes and the research helps in that
 
F

Fat_Caddis

Member
Great part 1. Really incredible how a game with such a convoluted beginning would end up being such a influential force in gaming. I can't wait for part 2. Dark Souls is easily a top 5 game of last generation.
 
H

Human Trashcan

Banned
This video comes off more as an overview of the game for people who have never heard of it than an insightful look into its creation or analysis of its game design. Not really getting anything out of this that I didn't already know. There's also some questionable statements like "players can start as a number of classes each with unique abilities". The script feels pretty rough on the whole.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
Mikey Jr. said:
Never played the armored core games.

How are they?
Click to expand...

Armored Core 1 and its 2 expansions on PS1 is great. Played it for the first time a couple of years ago. Really tough, as expected, but surprisingly accessible even today. The mechanics are fairly simple. I recommend playing it as a PS1 classic on Vita if possible so you can remap the controls to a more modern two sticks setup. It works great. And the lore is fascinating. I've only played a couple of the modern ones very briefly. I'll get back to them one day.
 
A

AALLx

Member
Slime said:
Still astounding to me that that the King's Field and Eternal Ring guys became one of the most respected developers in gaming, and created one of the most renowned franchises of the last couple generations.

They were seen by most as that bottom-of-the-barrel developer that made janky PS1 and launch period PS2 RPGs. Armored Core got a bit of love, but everything else was almost universally derided. Demon's Souls was initially written off by most gamers and people in the games press as just another weird, awkward, slow mess destined for the bargin bin. Even Sony, the company that funded the project to begin with, fell into that hole.

Just an amazing reversal in perception. I acutally think the PS3's initial struggles with exclusive software helped it to get more attention than it otherwise would have.
Click to expand...

Hidetaka Miyazaki single-handedly put From Software on the map.

Armored Core 4 and For Answer, both directed by Miyazaki, are generally considered the best in the series.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
I enjoyed watching that video.

My personal history with the Souls games included playing Demons Souls in 2010 but writing it off after the first level because I wasnt having fun.

I tried Dark Souls a couple years later and couldnt get into that either, giving up at Undead Burg. My biggest issue with the games at the time was that the gameplay didnt feel good to control.

Fast forward another few years and I was extremely excited for Bloodborne. Picked it up at launch and was instantly hooked. Loved it so much I finished it many times. I wanted more and it was only then that I went back to Dark Souls and then Demons Souls and loved them all in 2016.

There's something in the Souls games which is really special and not everyone will see it the first time, I definitely didnt. It wasnt until my total infatuation with Bloodborne that I gave the older games a chance and fell in love.

Dark Souls 2 is still shit tho
 
D

DoubleTake

Member
Bronetta said:
I enjoyed watching that video.

My personal history with the Souls games included playing Demons Souls in 2010 but writing it off after the first level because I wasnt having fun.

I tried Dark Souls a couple years later and couldnt get into that either, giving up at Undead Burg. My biggest issue with the games at the time was that the gameplay didnt feel good to control.

Fast forward another few years and I was extremely excited for Bloodborne. Picked it up at launch and was instantly hooked. Loved it so much I finished it many times. I wanted more and it was only then that I went back to Dark Souls and then Demons Souls and loved them all in 2016.

There's something in the Souls games which is really special and not everyone will see it the first time, I definitely didnt. It wasnt until my total infatuation with Bloodborne that I gave the older games a chance and fell in love.

Dark Souls 2 is still shit tho
Click to expand...

That last part made me bust out laughing lmfao, did not see that coming haha

Anyway, gonna check this out and look forward to the next ones.
 
CGwizz

CGwizz

Member
Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the few examples of devs that are pure geniuses, The dark souls story and lore is probably the best ever created.

I hope we get a new series and not a dark souls 4, series ended perfectly with dark souls 3 and the dlc´s.
 
C

crimilde

Banned
Loved it, it's really well put together. I have such great memories of DeS and seeing this video gave me goosebumps once again.
 
P

Plum

Member
I've got so much nostalgia for the Gametrailers retrospectives of the past. Gonna wait until the full series is out before watching this, but I'm really excited nonetheless.
 
M

MadMod

Member
Amazing work, loved it, can't wait for the next videos. He's written around a dissertation and a half for this hasn't he? Like 15k words? Based off this, it should be a great series. Thanks Brad and the EA team.
 
T

TheDarkKnight774

Member
MadMod said:
Amazing work, loved it, can't wait for the next videos. He's written around a dissertation and a half for this hasn't he? Like 15k words? Based off this, it should be a great series. Thanks Brad and the EA team.
Click to expand...
I can't wait for when it gets to Bloodborne

One of the highlights of Easy livin super stream was not only the great Ian/Brad jolly co-op performance (2 people on one controller) was hearing Brad doing lore dumps while playing
 
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