Demon's Souls (2020)

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JaySevenZero
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Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Demon's Souls (2020) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by Tolkientaters »

Demon's Souls was half the reason I bought a PS5 and it didn't disappoint.

Blue Point really knows how to make a pretty remaster and Demons Souls is certainly no exception, it's still of the best looking games on the system. They did such a great job utilizing lighting in a way that really emphasized the fantastic visual designs. It might be the aggressively high fidelity, but I prefer the look and Atmosphere of Demon's Souls to the Dark Souls games. It has an aesthetic that's still pretty unique.

In terms of gameplay and overall design it's interesting to go back to the series orgin. The world tendency is an interesting way to add variation that generally works unless you're going for total completion. The levels are usually far more challenging than the bosses, which are usually closer to a puzzle rather than the pure combat challenge most of the interations would have.

It's also interesting to look at in Comparison to Elden Ring which streamlined and simplified a lot of systems to let the player get straight to the most satisfying parts with a lot more room for interpretation. Overall it's still a fantastic game that's well worth checking out if you ever enjoyed the Souls Series.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by ashman86 »

When it first launched back in 2009, Demon's Souls was easily the game I wanted to play most, but never could. I was newly married and trying to balance a new full-time job with school, and I was doing all of it on an extremely limited income. We couldn't so much as afford an internet connection in our one-room apartment, and I had to be extremely choosy in how I spent what little money I was able to set aside for games. Even more precious to me still was the time I had available to actually play them.

Maybe that's why, then, I didn't ever actually get around to Demon's Souls and resigned myself to adoring it from afar and being flabbergasted by the fact that all of my gaming friends had seemed to completely overlook the game. Of course, that changed two years later when Dark Souls released and suddenly everyone I knew was talking about this new style of RPG they had fallen in love.

So when I saw the game was getting a remaster for the PS5, it was a foregone conclusion that it would be the first thing I bought and played for the new console. Demon's Souls 2020 became the first SoulsBorne game I ever played to completion, both solo and in coop with several friends, and it kicked off long-deferred love affair with the broader series that saw me playing through it, Dark Souls 1 and 3, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring over the course of the next year and a half or so.

To this day, BluePoint's remake of Demon's Souls is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. It's a technical marvel that looks and runs flawlessly while the underlying game more than lives up to its legacy as the progenitor (I know about From's older works, but I still think it's an appropriate term) to one of the most popular sub-genres in gaming today. Can't recommend it enough.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by MattL »

Due to not having a PS3, I played the original Demon's Souls very late, after having already played Dark Souls 1 & 2 and Bloodborne. As such, when I finally picked up a cheap PS3 and Demon's Souls, I felt a bit underwhelmed. It seemed like a very rough, first draft and, honestly, if I had played Demon's Souls first, I don't think I would've ever tried any of Fromsoft's other games. Now, having played Dark Souls 3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring, Demon's Souls seems even more basic and archaic and I'm not sure I can recommend it to anyone, except as an experiment to see how the Souls formula has progressed.

Due to no fault of Bluepoint, Demon's Souls remains my least favorite Souls game, remake or not. That being said, I don't want to take anything away from Bluepoint. Technically, they did a wonderful job with this remake, despite a few odd artistic choices. I just think their talents could've been put to better use. Perhaps a Demon's Souls 2 from them instead, to include some of the modern advances in the Souls genre, would've been more interesting to me.

Three Word Review: Pretty, but pointless
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by markfm007 »

Demon’s Souls is an interesting game to come back to. It’s got a debut album feel, establishing a lot of the core features of a From game, but feeling rough around the edges, much shorter and less ambitious than later games. The biggest changes for me were the Archstones and the bosses. The Archstones are nice for the freedom they afford, but also lead to me having a bit of a lopsided experience. The first three shrines were more difficult but very enjoyable, and the last two were a bit tedious but also too easy. Where Dark Souls crafts a hero’s journey of lows and highs, Demon’s Souls can feel like a to do list where you eventually get to the chores you were hoping someone else would do.

The bosses are also noticeably different in their variety, and how far fewer are designed to be really challenging. It’s a nice change of pace, and there are some cool ideas and creativity here, like the Maiden Astraea and the Storm King. But in practice many of them end up being overly simplistic or poorly executed. It doesn’t surprise me From stuck to bosses more akin to the False King, Tower Knight and Armor Spider in future, even if that did lead to an eventual over-familiarity.

I have mixed feelings on the remake phenomenon overall. I feel like there should be a clear delineation between visual remasters and full on re-imaginings. This game, along with other Bluepoint ‘remakes’, sits somewhere in between. It’s an excellent remake, it’s gorgeous, especially with the classic filter. I could stare at the Nexus all day. But it’s essentially replacing a From game and removing some of its ‘From-ness’, and that doesn’t sit well with me.

Overall I liked Demon’s Souls a lot despite its unevenness. I like its world and its focus on exploration and variety to some of the more bruising gauntlets in later From games. It doesn’t hit the heights of others, but it is the first time I’ve immediately dived back in to replay and uncover its secrets.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by Wesali1996 »

After playing the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne to death I was extremely excited to see the Demon's Souls trailer alongside the Ps5 reveal. Since I hadn't played the original I was more than happy to put down my money day one for what would essentially be a brand new Souls game for me.

The variety of environments in this game was really a stand out. High up in the boletarian palace to the sewage ridden depths of the Valley of Defilement everything looks stunning on Ps5 with so many small details. While the levels were very fun to play through (2-1 and 1-3 being my favourites) the bosses I feel did show their age. Some of my favourites are the Armor Spider, Penetrator, Flamelurker, and Storm King. However most of the other bosses I think about such as Dragon God, Maneaters, and Lady Astrea I just found to be very annoying. Dragon God killed me more times than any other boss combined and I felt it wasn't due to a lack of skill. Maneaters are just laughable in my opinion and personally I think Bluepoint should have reworked some of this fight to make it work a bit better.

Overall despite my complaints about some of the bosses I found the game extremely satisfying and replayable, it was a pleasure getting the platinum trophy for this game. Umbasa.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by Taz »

When this came out I’d played and loved all of FromSoft’s Soulsy games except for Demons Souls, as I never had a PS3. I was very excited to go back and see where it all began, albeit in remake form.

To begin with, I hated Demon Souls. I was expecting a relatively primitive first draft of Dark Souls and I suppose that’s exactly what I got. I thought Demon Souls was a mean-spirited, horrible little goblin of a game and to some extent I still think that. Compared to Dark Souls this is inelegant, clunky and unfair. In a series that delicately balances challenge and frustration Demon Souls felt very frustrating and challenging in all the wrong ways to me at first. But I learned to love and appreciate it all the same by the end and in some respects this feels like a purer Souls experience to me now.

When playing these games I stick to what I know – I get a sword and shield and I whack my enemies. I don’t bother with magic. I seldom parry, relying on dodging instead. One of the many things I love about FromSoft’s creations is the freedom to tackle the challenges ahead in the way that you want. However, in Demon Souls, I found myself reaching for techniques and strategies I would never have considered in newer titles just to give myself a fighting chance against what felt like insurmountable odds. I used spells and I buffed my weapons with slime and resin. I regularly swapped between four different weapons based on what I was up against. It felt like I was engaging with more of the systems and mechanics than I had done in Dark Souls because Dark Souls let me get away with using an axe and nothing else. I think many of the challenges and opponents in Demon Souls have a more explicit weakness, or ‘intended solution,’ and this, for better or worse, meant I had to try new things.

I was surprised to find a Crash Bandicoot-style warp room in a Souls game and I definitely prefer the interconnected world of Lordran but one of this game’s strengths is the way it invites you to explore the five worlds in any order. I’d read there is an optimum / recommended order but I didn’t look at it. Forging my own path through this game was very satisfying; hitting a brick wall in one place and leaving it to explore elsewhere, only to return later when I’d grown more capable, felt a bit like a microcosm of Elden Ring.

I found the bosses very hit-and-miss, either in conception or execution. Flamelurker and Old King Allant were highlights. The Dragon God felt random in whether it saw me or not. The Maneaters are so broken, one of them literally just flew away and didn’t come back. One thing I’ve noticed is how the distance between the checkpoint and the boss fight has gotten shorter and shorter with each new FromSoft game. I really don’t like having to retread the entire level to get to each boss encounter in Demons Souls and I’m glad this approach has slowly gone out of fashion.

Demons Souls is a fascinating prototype of what became one of the most well-crafted and beloved action RPGs ever made, and one of my favourite games. I think Dark Souls perfected everything that this game started and as such I don’t think I’ll be revisiting this game as often as any of the other games in the FromSoft catalogue. Even so, I enjoyed my time with it and appreciate it for what it is; a mean-spirited, horrible little goblin.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by the_t_time »

I played the original Demon's Souls on PS3 and completely bounced off of it and could never get past the Maneater boss. Now, years later, I've become a total from software convert and have beaten every one of their games since Demon's Souls multiple times.

Needless to say I was thrilled when this remake was announced as I would finally be able to cross this last entry off my from software list; and by Blue Point nonetheless, who handled the stellar ports of the MGS series and Shadow of the Colossus. Unfortunately, where Blue Point's dedication to maintaining the source material served them well in Shadow of the Colossus (where the mechanics are simple enough that the jank lends to some of the charm), it ends up hurting them with this Demon's Souls remake.

The hard truth for me is that this game is extremely janky in a bad way. The AI of flying enemies is frustrating for melee builds, and getting a magic build requires you to meet bizarre world tendency requirements. Furthermore, after playing the rest of From's games, the rest of the enemies and boss encounters in this game are trivially easy for anyone who's managed to take down Gael, Isshin, or Lady Maria. While I appreciate the modest quality of life improvements that Blue Point has implemented, they simply are not enough and I really believe this game requires and deserves a more Resident Evil style remake to bring it into the modern era.

I'm glad the game is available for modern consoles, and I was happy to go back and revisit this game to see the seeds being planted that would eventually grow into some of my all time favorite games. That being said I will have to stick to replaying Dark Sould for my nostalgia fix. Even though I cleared way more levels in the remake than I was ever able to in the original, I am still after all these years unable to beat those damn Maneaters.
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Re: 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by Tolkientaters »

Tolkientaters wrote: January 9th, 2023, 1:19 am Demon's Souls was half the reason I bought a PS5 and it didn't disappoint.

Blue Point really knows how to make a pretty remaster and Demons Souls is certainly no exception, it's still of the best looking games on the system. They did such a great job utilizing lighting in a way that really emphasized the fantastic visual designs. It might be the aggressively high fidelity, but I prefer the look and Atmosphere of Demon's Souls to the Dark Souls games. It has an aesthetic that's still pretty unique.

In terms of gameplay and overall design it's interesting to go back to the series orgin. The world tendency is an interesting way to add variation that generally works unless you're going for total completion. The levels are usually far more challenging than the bosses, which are usually closer to a puzzle rather than the pure combat challenge most of the interations would have.

It's also interesting to look at in Comparison to Elden Ring which streamlined and simplified a lot of systems to let the player get straight to the most satisfying parts with a lot more room for experimentation . Overall it's still a fantastic game that's well worth checking out if you ever enjoyed the Souls Series.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (17.12.23) - 600: Demon's Souls (2020)

Post by Tleprie »

I just recently got a PS5, and shortly thereafter got Demon's Soul's for my birthday. I never had a PS3, so this is my first go with this particular Soulsborne game. Maybe it is that I am coming at it with a few others already under my belt, and I'm only a few bosses in, but this feels like the friendliest Soulsborne I've played. Not sure I can elaborate on that feeling much. I suppose one aspect I really like is being able to jump to a different world and keep making progress if I get stuck in the others.

I don't have the free time that I did in college, so I don't see myself 100%ing it like I did with Bloodborne. Instead it feels like a return to my first time playing Dark Souls, in which I would just amble about and if I made progress, great, and as soon as things start getting frustrating, I turn it off and go do something else. Of course there's still room for occasional hours-long late night weekend sessions, but most of my playtime will probably be in 30-90 minute bursts.

Cheers to volume 12!
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