# Demons Souls



## Pedro Del Mar

Hi,

Had Demons Souls delivered yesterday. Read loads of hype about it being amazing, yet frustrating and very difficult but incredibly rewarding if you have the patience to see it through. Not actually had time to load it up and give it a go yet. Anyone else have the pleasure yet and what are your thoughts?

Cheers
Crooksy.


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## Devil's Advocate

I haven't played it, but it got rave reviews. The screenshots and videos I saw looked brilliant.

And yes, by all accounts, it is a ludicrously difficult game. But that's supposed to be part of the appeal.


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## Cayal

Great game but damn hard, though not as hard as advertised. I also got a little lucky, they have some days/weeks where it is easier or harder. I got through 2 or 3 bosses on the Winter Solstice which made it easier.


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## biodroid

Can't wait for this to be released in my country.


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## Pedro Del Mar

Had a quick go, only for a few mins and does seem very good


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## Pedro Del Mar

Can't put the thing down - been playing it for weeks anow and have to say it's very addictive!


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## R M Tobias

might have to grab it.


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## Pedro Del Mar

Started playing Assassins Creed 2 last night - very impressive so far


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## CyBeR

Playing 'Demon's Souls' right now, on and off since I've a tone of work to take care of for college. Damn fun game really...with all the frustrations. 

I've just finished the whole of Stonefang Tunnels, defeated the God and was baffled by how easy it was compared with the Fireluker battle beforehand. 
Also killed the Adjudicator, although that was a really funny battle as to how simple it was if you were a melee type. 
Right now I'm making my way through world 1-3 and I really really could use some online play now since I've fallen in one too many traps so far over there.


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## CyBeR

Just finished the game TODAY (long story short, lost saves back in December, couldn't muster the will to start over until recently).
35 hours of battles, grinding, farming and enjoying the best RPG experience in recent years.


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## Pedro Del Mar

Agreed, absolutely amazing game, took me a while to finish it but well worth the effort


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## Lemmy

*looks at his Demon's Soul cover and wondering if he should try it*


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## Jake Reynolds

Definiotely worth a try if you like your rpgs. Can be very repetitive (in that that there ar eseveral levels you will play over and over for souls etc), but a very good play nonetheless. And with Dark Souls announced for release later this year, it could be a good chance to familiarise yourself with the style, since you _will _be buying Dark Souls. It looks frickin great. 

Dark Souls gets official announcement - Eurogamer Videos | Eurogamer.net


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## CyBeR

Lemmy, if you do decide to start out, do post here. There are a few tips and tricks a beginner should really know so that the game may not be too unforgiving. This is one game where there is really no shame in asking. 

I've started on my NG+ playthrough now and am finding that the difficulty scales a lot more this time around. It's a pain to go through world 4 now since those bastards eat up HP like nobody's business (and my hinney is metal plated with Brushwood armor) and soak up damage like you wouldn't believe (Dragon Sword +5). But still damn addictive and damn fun. NG+ really feels like I'm playing the game for the first time and I need to relearn the skills I've dropped once I was too powerful for NG. 

Dubrech > I am so excited about *Dark Souls *like only a new* Legacy of Kain *game could make me (my all time favorite game is *Soul Reaver 2*). If they build up on this already exciting world and on the combat system, that will be one of the greatest RPGs ever produced. 
Who said RPG games for consoles need to be watered down to be any good?


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## Lemmy

Thanks, I'll give it a try this weekend. I've been too busy with Ratchet & Clank: A crack in time to play something else, even if Crack in time wasn't particullary good. It's not a bad game, but it's just the first one all over again with new levels, weapons and enemies. Sigh...

Anyway, I'll try Demon's Soul tomorrow and let you know how it went.


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## CyBeR

If you're just starting out keep well away from the Royalty class, or the Wanderer. Starting stats and equipment are ****. 

Instead a Knight or Soldier does well in the first few level. The Knight in particular sports a rather good set of armor that would be quite hard to get during the game. It's also about the best one (defense wise) that you can get outside of a Gloom Armor or Brushwood Armor.


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## Lemmy

Gah, my girlfriend showed up with a six-pack of beer in one hand, Crysis 2 in the other and a weird look in her eyes. Geez, don't you hate it when stuff like this happens? Guess I gotta put Demon's Soul on hold for a while longer. Oh, well.


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## Lemmy

So how come there's no Edit-button on this forum? Oh, well, guess I'll double-post. Anyway, we got sick of the endless "Cloak on", "Nanovision on" and all that every ten seconds, so we decided to give Demon's Soul a try instead. Crysis 2 isn't bad, but... "Cloak on". "Cloak on." "Cloak on." "Cloak..."  I KNOW!!!!


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## CyBeR

The edit button exists on a post for just a few hours after you post initially. After that it's generally assumed you won't be adding anything important to that. 

We'll be awaiting impressions. Me and my girlfriend are progressing nicely through NG+ and it's sweet. The difficulty ramps up pretty much and we're still desperately farming for a Pure Bladestone. I swear that skeleton that has it as a drop item is getting cheaper and cheaper about it.


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## Lemmy

Alright, first impressions: How the heck did this get popular?  No offense, but this wasn't particullary fun. We kept getting attacked from behind all the time, even when we made sure to attach all the enemies head on. Looks are not usually important, but these are horrible.

Still... it's not _all _bad. The controls are great, and I'm sure there's some sort of AI eventually. I guess it's like The Witcher. The game is decent enough, but it wasn't for us. We might give Dark Soul a try, but only if a lot of people love it. But we finally got a Mortal Kombat demo, and it's kinda hard to top that anyway.  Still don't know why Johnny Cage can punch Mileena in the nuts, though. Something you want to share with us, missy?


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## CyBeR

No one here said it was a particularly easy game hehe, now did we? And *Dark Souls* will simply be the same, if not more challenging from what I've seen in the trailers. 
The objective of *Demon's Souls* is to make you into a cautious gamer that knows the value of armor weight, stamina economy, slow advancement (the Tower of Latria has some really obnoxious pitfalls hidden in the darkness and it's almost impossible to spot them if you don't advance really carefully) and an equilibrium of magic and mellee. 

And I disagree about the looks. It may not sport the most amazing engine out there, but this game has a very unique and consistent visual style that helps build the oppressive mood of the world it takes place into.


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## Lemmy

I know it's not supposed to be easy, but this is ridiculous. When I think 'difficult', I think enemies I have a channelge beating, traps that requires precise timing and so on. If you play a game like Street Fighter on a high difficulty level or against people that's better than you, you will have a hard time winning, but it's still a fair fight. No one can do anything you can't. (except bosses, of course.) Demon's Soul felt more like giving the enemies unfair advantages and removing most of the few advantages you have just to make it artificially difficult. That's not fun at all. I don't mind endless waves of enemies, but I want a chance to fight back. I don't want enemies swarming in, beating them by chance and being kicked back the entire level if I fail. So sorry, but Demon's Soul wasn't for us. I'm sure it's a great game if you get into it, though.

And btw, unique and consistant visual style? Sure, I agree with that. Unique? It's endless stone corridors in stone castles. Consistant? Sure, once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Most people would call that repetitive and boring, but I guess 'consistant' works too.


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## CyBeR

I highly doubt you can come across an RPG with as much sense of self as Demon's Souls. I respectfully disagree on your assessment that the game is repetitive or boring, visually. 
The very first castle is wonderfully built to be just what it should be: an imposing fortress rendered dark and dank by the disaster that has befallen Boletaria. If you look across the empty walkways towards the valley you can see the giant city state nestled between the hills, almost peaceful and unknowing of all that takes place; smoking carcasses and vestiges of human activity litter the whole castle, showing a glimpse of what affairs there may have been before the whole colorless fog incident. 

Stonefang Mountain is a series of tight underground corridors where miners and mining equipment continue their droning for valuable minerals, almost unaware of you, an intruder, among them. Once you battle your way through the upper levels and then down the narrow, rickety walkways, you reach the galleries of the Bearbugs, tight and branching into several directions, littered as well with their shed exoskeletons. 

The Tower of Latria is one of the best RPG experiences I can honestly say I've ever had. Tight walkways surround a gigantic pitfall and dangerous, otherworldy guards patrol between the cells, their ominous bells telling of their positions. Prisoners reach out their arms and moan after you for release, crowding you in hope of either ripping a valuable trinket off you or simply for sweet release from their endless torment. The cries of the unjustly imprisoned follow you from floor to floor and the Fool's Idol waits for you at the very end, a vision of dangerous beauty.

About the other two worlds I will not comment. Suffice to say, *Demon's Souls* knows what it is and it never breaks character. You may find it boring to look at but the story of the game lies in its subtle details and how it shows you a world that you can believe in. 

And I never considered the game unfair. After the first few tries where enemies have showed me a quick way back to the Archstone I began playing quite carefully and slowly. I was rarely ambushed again and, death by death, I've learned the patterns of my enemies and their weaknesses. You can never win at *SSF IV* online if you turtle it out, but *Demon's Souls* demands it of you that you do turtle it out and be careful of each shadow, of each next corner, of each stroke of your sword. You are not invulnerable, you are not invincible, you are less than nothing for the demon hordes, but you can outwit them, you can outmaneuver them and you can outlast them. 
All it takes is patience and planning.


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## Lemmy

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Demon's Soul is a bad game. It just wasn't for us.

Mind if I ask how long you have been playing roleplaying games? (on computer; pen and paper doesn't count.) I've been a big fan all my life, from the early Might & Magic and Ultima-games up to today's sorry excuses for games. Sadly it seems roleplaying games are getting more and more streamlined and feels more like action games with roleplaying elements than actual roleplaying games. Even Demon's Soul is just an action game. Sure you pick a character, change your equipment and all that, but it doesn't change the fact it's an action game.

When I talk about roleplaying games, I mean games like Baldur's Gate, Elder Scrolls and so on. Games where you have great freedom and can do whatever you want, and even the main story is optional. Games where you get to explore everything from forests, hills, cities, graveyards, caves, sometimes even sending you to the underworld. And all because you want to, not because you have to.

I guess the problem is I'm too spoiled with games like that. They let you walk around wherever you want and see all sorts of scenery. Being stuck in a linear castle got a bit underwhelming, caves or no caves.


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## CyBeR

RPGs...welp...about 13-14 years I assume...tad more if you count the *Heroes of Might & Magic* games (not technically RPGs, but the elements are there). I love a good exploration game as much as I love a good action game, but I wouldn't put *Demon's Souls* on par with a simple action game. The growth of the character is too extensive to just call it a simple action game and that's that. 
*The elder scrolls*, the last 2, hold your hand too much. *Demon's Souls* to me is like the *Gothic* series: has a unique flavor and the combat is as difficult as you are prepared for it. 

Indeed, it's not am ample game. Exploration is there if you want to go off the main path, but  there's indeed little of that and it usually leads to handsome rewards. The Valley of Defilement comes to mind, where if you time your falls correctly through some rather dark corners, you can come out in a very difficult little area, but with high rewards and a shortcut to the end boss. 

Indeed, to each their own fancy.


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