The Xtortionist
Member
In 2010 I picked up Demon’s Souls based on critical and fan consensus. When the game released, it wasn’t on my radar in the slightest. After taking in the unending GAF hype, and checking out the media reception (which was also stellar), it was a no-brainer. The game was often described as “tough but fair”, akin to an old school Mega Man game, but in the style of a fantasy action RPG. For me, it was a no brainer. I mean, what could go wrong?
…well, everything, I guess. Demon’s Souls is the game that had me declare “fuck this shit” the most times, only for me to sigh and give it one “last” try, again and again. Yes, my first play through was with a Royaty character, and yes, I obsessively followed a walkthrough on GameFAQs. No, they didn’t help. I remember it took me upwards of an hour to make it past the first few Skeleton enemies in 4-1, and even killing the very first one was a lengthy struggle. And that was just a single level.
Needless to say, I eventually “got it”, and the series has been one of my favorites ever since. However, my first play through was a long time ago, and with the English version of Dark Souls 3 still a few weeks away*, I thought I’d use this time to make another run at the game. For this playthrough, I’m rolling a heavy armor sword-n’-board strength character. As of this time, I’m through the vast majority of the game, so here are my thoughts on what I’ve played:
1-1 - The Gates are Open
This is everything I want a first Souls level to be. Hidden paths, shortcuts, and interactions everywhere. This level is pretty fast and furious with what it throws at the player. From the dark ambushes of the first interior room, to the branching paths on the tower wall that can either lead the player forward, to a shortcut, or to an absolutely lethal Red Eye Knight, to the Ostrava encounter, to the dragons’ nest/bridge…this level provides both variety and a non-stop pace. Essential game items such as the Cling Ring and the Thief’s Ring are both found here; the one-two punch of opening the first shortcut and obtaining the Cling Ring gives early-game player empowerment like nothing else in the series. Also, there’s even the small Jade Hair Ornament quest to complete.
Phalanx is an interesting opening boss. On paper, it would make more sense to make to use the Tower Knight as the first boss due to its intimidation factor, but Phalanx is a more subtle test of the player’s skills. Emphasizing crowd control and skillful navigation, Phalanx is a breezy, but necessary skill check.
Final note for 1-1: Demon’s often gets a bit of flack for not having a connected, cohesive world, but Boletarian Palace as a whole displays a brilliant sense of scale and place. On the wall with the rolling balls trap, the player can see nearly all of 1-2, the building that 1-3 takes place in and around, and the tower of 1-4. While Boletarian Palace isn’t connected to Stonefang Tunnel, for example, it’s damn sure connected to other levels in its world, and these vistas do a great job in both contextualizing the playspace and foreshadowing future locations.
1-2 - Bridge to Somewhere
So, this level is pretty interesting. On one hand, yeah, it looks linear as hell. On the other, it actually has two paths through most of the level - one above and one below. What this level lacks in branching paths and secrets it makes up with for its unique environmental hazard (the dragon) and the resulting intimidation factor. Ostrava is also in a pickle here, and requires the player’s rescue. Crafty players can actually kill the red dragon with arrows, and the game even provides a bow on top of one of the towers to encourage this. It’s a demanding option, but I find some hilarity in its inclusion. The main trick for this level is figuring out that the dragon generally doesn’t torch entire segments of the bridge. For example, the dragon only breathes flames on maybe the last 80% of the last bridge segment, leaving the first 20% as a safe zone for the player. If a player tries to run the entire length, they’ll probably get incinerated, but starting from that safe zone leaves enough room to scrape by.
Tower Knight is the quintessential Souls boss. It’s big, loud, scary, and stacks the odds against the player - in this case, with its archer goons. But it’s also a walk in the park once the player, for lack of a better term, “gets it”. Dismantling the Knight’s rank of archer flunkies enables a one-on-one fight that mainly sees the player avoiding its AoE shield slams, and counterattacking its heels. One the Tower Knight’s boots take enough damage, the boss falls helplessly to the ground and is at the player’s mercy. Pro-tip: attack the head for maximum damage. This is actually a recurring theme with a few bosses, most notably Dragon God and Adjudicator. Thinking about it, Demon’s actually has a number of specific instances designed to empower the player. Anyway, that’s 1-2 down.
2-1 - Getting Harassed by Miners
The dreary atmosphere of Boletarian Palace gives way to the peaceful sunset of Stonefang Tunnel. There are a lot of neat tricks to the level design here; most notably how much of the level actually takes place in a small number of rooms that have multiple vertical levels to explore. Using switches to open new paths is emphasized here, with excursions to both remotely open a gate, and cool lava. The shortcut here is also neat, as it simultaneously unlocks Blacksmith Ed.
Armor Spider has a neat gimmick with how the player approaches it. The boss is in a circular room at the end of a long, somewhat-narrow tunnel, and the player must navigate the tunnel in order to fight it. Only problem is that the boss uses projectile flame attacks and movement-hindering webs as the player advances - encouraging pinpoint rolling (or just a big shield). Up close, the boss isn’t too much to write home about, but that approach segment still makes it a memorable encounter.
It should be said that, like all worlds in Demon’s, Stonefang Tunnel has something unique to offer certain character builds. 2-1 contains several unique bag-wielding miners that consistently drop many upgrade materials upon defeat. This is a huge boon to melee-based characters that are looking to upgrade their weapons as soon as possible. The level also contains a Crushing Battle Axe +1, which is a nice boost for strength characters in the early game. As stated, pretty much all of the X-1 levels offer items or even NPCs to fit certain playstyles. Latria contains enemies that drop MP-restoring spices, which are great for mages, and there’s also a sorcery merchant to be unlocked. Shrine of Storms contains a Crescent Falchion +1, which is pretty much the early game go-to for spellblade characters. And of course, Stonefang contains those sweet upgrade materials in abundance. They’re nice incentives to try certain levels over others, and the order will vary based on the type of character being played.
2-2 - *splat*
This is going to be short, since I only explored one part of the level, and that was basically the “shortcut”. Unlike most levels that have shortcuts within them, 2-1 opens up with a choice of two paths: go left for a longer path that’s generally safer, or head right for a shorter path that contains a potentially-lethal platforming section. I chose right because I’m such a badass, and I only died twice by falling to my death! Anyway, there literally isn’t much else to say here. Carefully fall down a handful of times, run through a short tunnel, and you’re at the boss. Easy, right?
..no. Flamelurker is no joke. I was rocking an asstastic Bastard Sword +4 that was dealing basically no damage to him. Even with my Purple Flame Shield, his attacks were draining most of my stamina with each hit. This fight is basically a no-frills slugfest that puts the player’s core skills to the test. Flamelurker hits reasonably hard, and most of his melee attacks produce an AoE effect. He can also close distance quickly with a leaping slash. However, he does get staggered when hit outside of an animation, so there’s that. After a grueling match, I got him down. Great fight.
2-3 - “…what was that noise?”
The final level for every world is a boss encounter, and Stonefang Tunnel’s has the player face off with the Dragon God. I’ve seen this fight get a lot of flack for some reason, and I don’t totally agree with it. Yes, the method of fighting him is a bit anticlimactic given his aesthetics. However, in reality the fight is really just a short stealth section that’s works totally fine. Avoiding the boss’ gaze by hiding behind pillars didn’t have any jank or questionable sightline detection when I played, so there’s that. After stealthily activating two giant ballistas, the Dragon God slumps over a cliff and is at the player’s mercy for the last few its. It’s an empowering way to end the fight that just feels good. A unique fight, perhaps not what players expected, but certainly not a terrible encounter on its own merits.
I also obtained the DRAGON BONE SMASHER for some reason here. I think logging onto the servers changed my world tendency to pure white or something. As a pure strength character, I’ll take it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
3-1 - Three Hots and a Cot
What’s left to say about the Tower of Latria? The atmosphere is suffocating, the level design is terrifically disorientating, and the Mindflayers are terrifying. This level generally emphasizes the skill of navigation rather than combat, making for some wonderful exploration. The main gimmick here is locating keys to unlock doors. There’s a nice section with the player almost moving into the line of sight of this huge arrow shooting machine to grab a key, and later appearing behind the machine, only to shut it off, is a gratifying moment.
Fool’s Idol is a fantastic boss imo. Memorizing trap locations is a unique challenge, and some pinpoint dodging is required to dodge her spell attacks. Just be sure to deal with the enemy above, first.
3-2 - Be Still, My Beating Heart
3-2 trades the narrow geometry of 3-1 and enclosed environment for…more narrow geometry, but flanked by a vast, open environment. The amount of open space here is kind of unsettling to me, to be honest. Anyway, there’s a large heart in the center of the area, and the gimmick here is to destroy two chains holding it up - doing so reveals the path to the boss. There’s a large swamp area underneath the level that contains horrors of its own, and the level design is very skillful here, with many shortcuts that don’t necessarily get the player to the boss quicker, but rather get the player back on the main path after making a detour for one of the chain objects. Also, fuck Gargoyles.
Also, dat heartbeat sound.
Also, dat droning sound.
…make it stop.
…pls.
Maneaters are our boss for 3-2. They generally use melee attacks, with a hint of ranged stuff mixed in. Like the gargoyles in the level proper, their AI is all kinds of fucked up. Sometimes they’ll fly around aimlessly for a while, sometimes they’ll appear to want to engage you in melee combat, only to lunge off the platform and sit there in the air looking all confused. Well, they’ll have plenty of time to think about whatever it is they’re thinking about, since they’re, you know…dead.
3-3 - Oh?!….ohhh……
Old Monk is supposed to be controlled by a human. There was a cutscene that played as I was approaching the boss room, so I thought it would be a human. Since it’s 2016 or whatever and nobody else is playing, he wasn’t. I think his AI rushed me with dual claws or something. I killed him quick.
4-1 - Spooky Skeletons
This might be my favorite level in the game. The skeletons are a ton of fun to fight. The atmosphere is pretty intense, especially when the flying Storm Beasts target you with their spikes. An illusory wall is required to progress, unless you kill the tough Vanguard enemy. You go on top of castle walls, into narrow basements, run along the side of cliffs, all while dealing with fun and challenging enemies. Bonus points for Snuggly being there. The Adjudicator Shield is sweet. Skeletons also give souls out the ass, which will be a recurring theme for world 4 (more on this later). Just all around an incredible level, even if the camera struggles a bit in the tighter quarters due to a lack of an option to disable auto-wall recovery.
Adjudicator is a great boss imo. It isn’t the most challenging, but it has an absolutely gnarly design, and multiple ways to fight it. Do you stay up high and pelt its head with arrows or magic? Or do you drop to the ground floor and engage it with melee, putting yourself at risk of being stricken by its giant meat cleaver? The boss room itself nearly feels like an enemy, which is a unique twist. Great boss.
4-2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd9PYIb0H2o
So, this playthrough enlightened me to the slightly fucked up game balance of Demon’s. Enemies in most levels give very few souls, so the player’s main source of income will be bosses. World 4 is an exception, with the skeletons in 4-1 giving a decent amount of souls upon death…but hoo boy. 4-2 is a whole different story. In most levels, I would approach the boss room with somewhere between 2000-5000 souls on hand. In 4-2, not even killing the first Reaper (which gives A LOT of souls), I had about 35K when finally getting to the boss room. Needless to say, I gained a lot of levels after that.
The level itself is essentially a linear gauntlet in which hidden Reaper enemies populate the pathways with endlessly respawning apparitions. The catch is that killing a Reaper will kill all spawned enemies associated with them, and net the player just an obscene number of souls. There’s some dangerous cliffside shimmying while contesting with skeletons and Storm Beasts, and the level ends with a uniquely white cavern with floating orbs of light that damage the player on contact.
The boss has another interesting gimmick - Old Hero is blind. This enables the player to use sound in order to sneak up on him, which is often essential, as he hits ridiculously hard. I believe his attacks were fully breaking my ~30 endurance guard with my Purple Flame Shield, and dealing about 1/3 of my life to boot. He feels more designed around being able to roll through his attacks, though I beat him after a tense battle.
4-3 - We AAA Gaming Now
Storm King is next up to be dismantled. Yes, this battle is essentially “press A to awesome”. Yes, it fucking works. After hours of challenging (and sometimes frustrating) gameplay, the player earns the right to blow off some steam. And this is it. After picking up the Storm Ruler sword in the boss arena, the player can rain death on the numerous Storm Beasts and Storm King with shockwaves that crack the sky. The power fantasy here is immense, the soul payout is immense, the player feels good, and that’s one more demon down. A little bit of this goes a long way.
That’s as far as I got, but I’m still loving Demon’s. The bosses are varied and unique, and the level design is consistently top notch. Didn’t even go into the amazing Nexus, or any game systems (encumbrance is blah, but whatever). Still have 1-3, 1-4, and all of world 5 left to do. Might update this thread with my thoughts if I get around to doing them. I hope everyone enjoys reading!
*except for Xbox One
