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If Demon’s Souls is your favorite in the Soulsborne series, why should I be excited for the remake?
- Thread starter shtolky
- Start date
It needs to be experienced if you're remotely imterested in the Souls series.
Don't get drunk and fall on the hubworld blacksmith. That's my tip of the week.
Don't get drunk and fall on the hubworld blacksmith. That's my tip of the week.
I think the level design is stunning and stronger than the others. I don't really think of any of them as being duds whereas in Dark Souls 1 I could name multiple areas that are just not good like Lost Izalith. I think the horror elements make the overall mood and atmosphere much more interesting and unique compared to the follow-ups. Tower of Latria is incredible.
Beyond that, the core gameplay is the same more or less so it's not really any worse than the follow ups on that front. I think the weapon balance is better than Dark Souls 1 and allows for you to tackle the game with a variety of builds. I actually found DaS kind of underwhelming in comparison here. Stuff like ultra great swords felt usable and I remember the scaling on stats generally being better in Demon's too.
I also think the segmented levels works better with the multiplayer. Since zones are more clearly defined the summon system works better and I think invasions mesh with it better too. You know the paths players go through so as an invader you can really become one with the level and use it to make their life hell. The connected world in Dark Souls is cool but it also kind of loses this element because of it. I think this is a big issue myself, and it's a shame since I loved how the multiplayer in Demon's Souls really fleshed out the experience and made every play through different.
Beyond that, the core gameplay is the same more or less so it's not really any worse than the follow ups on that front. I think the weapon balance is better than Dark Souls 1 and allows for you to tackle the game with a variety of builds. I actually found DaS kind of underwhelming in comparison here. Stuff like ultra great swords felt usable and I remember the scaling on stats generally being better in Demon's too.
I also think the segmented levels works better with the multiplayer. Since zones are more clearly defined the summon system works better and I think invasions mesh with it better too. You know the paths players go through so as an invader you can really become one with the level and use it to make their life hell. The connected world in Dark Souls is cool but it also kind of loses this element because of it. I think this is a big issue myself, and it's a shame since I loved how the multiplayer in Demon's Souls really fleshed out the experience and made every play through different.
The lore is great, it has lots of variety and a really good pacing. The bosses are more unique and isn't just about getting good. You have to think more to defeat them.
The atmosphere is damn good too. It feels very different from the rest of the series.
My favorite game hands down.
The atmosphere is damn good too. It feels very different from the rest of the series.
My favorite game hands down.
I think there's also something to be said for the speed of Demon's. It feels pretty close to Dark Souls 3 in movement and attack speed, and I really prefer that style over the slower pace of Dark Souls 1.
Atmosphere. Some levels re horror stuff.
Getting to bosses s harder than boss fight.
Unique boss fight different than ones in later games.
More u die game becomes darker and harder. Npc phantoms start appearing if i remember. I loved this and was surprissed back in day.
Yurt.
Getting to bosses s harder than boss fight.
Unique boss fight different than ones in later games.
More u die game becomes darker and harder. Npc phantoms start appearing if i remember. I loved this and was surprissed back in day.
Yurt.
It can be cheesed. Demon's Souls difficulty scaled up (usually) with the sublevel in which you are in. You're not expected to do Boletaria's Palace on a single run,but to explore other areas as well. So you may tackle it doing 1-1, 1-2, then 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2 and so on.
Like, some bosses are infamous like Flamelurker but only if you complete his whole area at the very beginning with barely any level.
I also played all the Souls games except for Demon's Souls...will playing it feel a bit dated due to the fact that a lot of the bosses and enemies will feel repetitive because they probably used those designs for later bosses in the Souls series...for example that big dude in the DS trailer totally reminds me of the Iron Golem boss...will all the bosses feel like a re-mixed version of later bosses in the series?...or are there some unique ones?
As people have mentioned, bosses are generally easier and levels are harder than most Souls game.
By the time I played Demon's Souls Flamelurker was infamous already. I remember there's a shield to cheese the fight.
It has the most unique ones IMO. As other have said, many have puzzle elements, it's just not hacking & slashing.
One thing unique to Demon's Souls is that the red/blue phantom and invasion systems are tied to the lore, Dark Souls and its sequels just used the same system for commodity.
To be frank the asynchronous online stuff was amazing at the time and Demon's pretty much invented it.
This is my favorite game of all time. While it lay the foundation for future Souls games, it still did some things better than any of the later games. Here are some of those things
The structure of the world and levels. Unlike the later games which have nearly fully interconnected worlds, here there are 5 completely separate worlds that each is accessed from the hub location. This brings with it some advantages. Some people have already brought up how it allowed them to go all out and give each world a unique flavor and aesthetic, when they didn't have to worry about making one interconnected world feel wholly cohesive. But the biggest advantage to me is what this structure meant for the flow of the game. For most of the game, there'll be 5 different levels available to the player that they can tackle in any order. This actually makes the game MORE open to the player than the interconnected nature of Dark Souls. For me, as I really struggled with the difficulty of the game, it meant I could approach it by trial and error, poke and prod in each of the different levels available to me, until finally I was able to find a path of least resistance, that allowed me to progress. It actually made the game a bit similar to old megaman games. Often, I would find a weapon or shield or ring in one level that could hugely help me out in another level. None of the later Souls games have given the player so much freedom in choosing the order to go through them. This was uniquely possible in Demon's Souls, thanks to how its levels are structured in separate worlds
The level designs themselves are uniquely atmospheric in that they're not afraid to sometimes make the player feel absolutely miserable. As an example, the poison swamps of later games are a complete joke compared to vast swamp in 5-2. While it may sound strange, the levels being able to make the player feel miserable is actually a good thing, as it really helps ground the player in the dark and bleak atmosphere of the world.
While many of the bosses are not as challenging as in later games, every single one is unique in its own way. Whether it be arena layout, or a unique mechanical gimmick, each boss fight has something special that makes it memorable.
My final point is difficult to describe, and it may be one of those things that could only be experienced at the time, and which may be impossible for the remake to recreate. But the original game had a feeling of otherworldlyness to it. And a lot of it came from its imperfections. Why do the different NPCs have their own hard-to-place accents, when they're all supposed to be from the same Kingdom? I love the soundtrack because of how well it fits the game, but in many ways the compositions are lacking and unfinished. The instrumentation often feels amateurish. All of these strange imperfections combined to make me question the reality of the game. They made me feel as if I as well was being driven mad like the inhabitants of this world were driven mad by the presence of these horrible demons
I can't wait to see how this game will be received by new players. Even though I fear that some qualities of the original may be lost in a remake that seeks to rectify some of the imperfections of the original, I am so happy that its status as a high profile console launch game will be able to bring in a lot of new people to experience this masterpiece
The structure of the world and levels. Unlike the later games which have nearly fully interconnected worlds, here there are 5 completely separate worlds that each is accessed from the hub location. This brings with it some advantages. Some people have already brought up how it allowed them to go all out and give each world a unique flavor and aesthetic, when they didn't have to worry about making one interconnected world feel wholly cohesive. But the biggest advantage to me is what this structure meant for the flow of the game. For most of the game, there'll be 5 different levels available to the player that they can tackle in any order. This actually makes the game MORE open to the player than the interconnected nature of Dark Souls. For me, as I really struggled with the difficulty of the game, it meant I could approach it by trial and error, poke and prod in each of the different levels available to me, until finally I was able to find a path of least resistance, that allowed me to progress. It actually made the game a bit similar to old megaman games. Often, I would find a weapon or shield or ring in one level that could hugely help me out in another level. None of the later Souls games have given the player so much freedom in choosing the order to go through them. This was uniquely possible in Demon's Souls, thanks to how its levels are structured in separate worlds
The level designs themselves are uniquely atmospheric in that they're not afraid to sometimes make the player feel absolutely miserable. As an example, the poison swamps of later games are a complete joke compared to vast swamp in 5-2. While it may sound strange, the levels being able to make the player feel miserable is actually a good thing, as it really helps ground the player in the dark and bleak atmosphere of the world.
While many of the bosses are not as challenging as in later games, every single one is unique in its own way. Whether it be arena layout, or a unique mechanical gimmick, each boss fight has something special that makes it memorable.
My final point is difficult to describe, and it may be one of those things that could only be experienced at the time, and which may be impossible for the remake to recreate. But the original game had a feeling of otherworldlyness to it. And a lot of it came from its imperfections. Why do the different NPCs have their own hard-to-place accents, when they're all supposed to be from the same Kingdom? I love the soundtrack because of how well it fits the game, but in many ways the compositions are lacking and unfinished. The instrumentation often feels amateurish. All of these strange imperfections combined to make me question the reality of the game. They made me feel as if I as well was being driven mad like the inhabitants of this world were driven mad by the presence of these horrible demons
I can't wait to see how this game will be received by new players. Even though I fear that some qualities of the original may be lost in a remake that seeks to rectify some of the imperfections of the original, I am so happy that its status as a high profile console launch game will be able to bring in a lot of new people to experience this masterpiece
There are a lot of unique gimmick bosses in DeS. They may feel dated because their movesets and abilities are very limited compared to later bosses in, say, Bloodborne and Dark Souls III, but for the most part, they shouldn't feel like remixes of bosses that you've already encountered.
The remake doesn't excite me and i love demons souls. The atmosphere just feels different and the voices are weird. Just doesnt Feel the same from what I've seen so far
The stage based, tight level design is much more satisfying to me than the big open interconnected world. On that end as well, level design is just a lot better even outside of the preference for stages in my opinion. I like the art and world design a lot more in Demon's aswell.
The gameplay loop was just a lot more satisfying. You had 5 seperate paths you could explore at any moment, and these paths were all linear. If you were struggling on one you could just jump to another and you could always remember which paths you still needed to go down really clearly at any given time because you could just check what stages you cleared.
I also really liked getting souls in this game. A big thing with Demons Souls was every time you got a new boss soul you could take it back to the vendors in the hub and see what new spells it can be turned into and make a choice as to what you want to do with the soul. Where as in later souls games usually what you can do with the soul is "build one or two specific weapons that aren't that good and also can't be used by your stat build anyway". It really dampened the fun and excitement of killing a boss for the first time in all the later games.
Demons souls also has a significantly stronger and more interesting final boss than Gwyn the Parried.
People have also brought it up but: As it was the first game they were a lot more experimental in some design choices than they were in later games. Trying out things like world tendency. World tendency was a mess and its probably best the games got rid of it, but it was still a really interesting idea and if you weren't going online all the time and researching added another layer of mystery to the whole explorative experience.
The gameplay loop was just a lot more satisfying. You had 5 seperate paths you could explore at any moment, and these paths were all linear. If you were struggling on one you could just jump to another and you could always remember which paths you still needed to go down really clearly at any given time because you could just check what stages you cleared.
I also really liked getting souls in this game. A big thing with Demons Souls was every time you got a new boss soul you could take it back to the vendors in the hub and see what new spells it can be turned into and make a choice as to what you want to do with the soul. Where as in later souls games usually what you can do with the soul is "build one or two specific weapons that aren't that good and also can't be used by your stat build anyway". It really dampened the fun and excitement of killing a boss for the first time in all the later games.
Demons souls also has a significantly stronger and more interesting final boss than Gwyn the Parried.
People have also brought it up but: As it was the first game they were a lot more experimental in some design choices than they were in later games. Trying out things like world tendency. World tendency was a mess and its probably best the games got rid of it, but it was still a really interesting idea and if you weren't going online all the time and researching added another layer of mystery to the whole explorative experience.
are the bosses more difficult then the later Souls games?...other then a few bosses in the DS2 DLC and Sister Friede I've felt that the overall difficulty has gone down since DS1
yea, this area is also basically in Dark Souls 3, and as good as that game is, it's no where near as good as the prison area in Demon's
For me, it was the first game in the series I played since it was free on PS+ (I remember seeing the hype over the Japanese release but then fell off my radar). I actually got to the final boss but gave up at never beat them so I'm looking forward to finally doing that.
But more so, the areas and characters had a lot of personality and mystery to them. The improvements they have shown look incredible and I can't wait to see the rest of it. To get a game of this quality, and length, at launch is really something else and rare.
But more so, the areas and characters had a lot of personality and mystery to them. The improvements they have shown look incredible and I can't wait to see the rest of it. To get a game of this quality, and length, at launch is really something else and rare.
It's hard to describe how revolutionary Demon's Souls was is for people who weren't there at the time. It was an absolute breath of fresh air in terms of gameplay when it came out. The atmosphere was unparalleled.
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Generally speaking, no. However, since the game is deceptively open-ended in that you can go to any number of areas almost from the very beginning, it's possible you may end up running into a tough "late-game" boss at a relatively low level, a little bit like if you were to try progressing through the Catacombs right after completing Undead Burg/Parish in Dark Souls.
I like more the level design from the other Souls games. Demon's Souls is not the best souls game, but is the souls game i have better memories, maybe because it was my 1st Souls game, and was a great ride tryind to learn the game mechanics.
Bloodborne is my favorite for the combat, DS1 comes next for its great level design and some very iconic bosses, then Demon's.
Let's say you are terrified of the difficulty in these games (they are not impossibly difficult), or put off by obtuse nature of everything. Let's to off set that you end up using a guide to play through the game, and therefore you know what is coming most of the time. And still, despite knowing what is coming the game will manage to terrify you in a certain level, it will manage to give you the sense of foreboding in another, and if you are paying attention it will manage to surprise with its story.
Goodness. The Tower of Latria is pure nightmare fuel. In a good way.
Don't know how I'm gonna beat the Maneaters this time as I 100% used the cheese to beat them my first play through and then on my second I killed one using the cheese and barely made it alive fighting the other. lol.
To be fair I haven't played Seikiro yet but DS had an atmosphere different from every other game in this style that FROM has done. The world building is amazing and Shunsuke Kida's soundtrack is fantastic and atmospheric different than the rest of the rest of the games as well.
The mysteries, the candle-lit desperate places, the dreadful unknown, the ungraspable motions through which the places you visit and the people that inhabit them flow with... the intrigue, atmosphere, the stone and iron essentiality, the horrific, the deceiving, the grotesque... it's the pinnacle, and my favourite. In my book, it matches with stuff like silent hill and siren, ico and SotC. Play it.
Thing is, it deserved a real remaster, and they went for a remake, which seems to be what hollywood would do with it if given the chance 🤷🏽♂️
Thing is, it deserved a real remaster, and they went for a remake, which seems to be what hollywood would do with it if given the chance 🤷🏽♂️
I'm going to put aside that it was my first, that it was utterly new and mindblowing to me because I've never played anything like that, specifically in the era of hallway handholdy games...
What this game should still do well today, is that unlike Dark Souls big weird meanderingly connected world, Demon's Souls has several distinct connected areas. You take on a level and try to beat the boss. If you do, you can move on to the next level within that area. Though Dark Souls has the 'big open world', Demon's Souls gives the impression of a larger world where you're jumping into areas separated by some distance, instead of Dark Souls, where all of Lordran feels a little small.
Demon's Souls also has the best hub area, the best NPCs. The story and the areas feel more associated to each other, more of a complete package, where as Dark Souls feels like a mess of content with some lore thrown in after the fact. Demon's feels finished or rushed (despite the broken archstone). The story isn't cryptically buried. It's pretty straightforward and more pleasing. You can still dig around in the lore for a better understanding of the characters and world of course.
It also feels a lot more bleak in parts, but is overall more colorful and enchanting.
What this game should still do well today, is that unlike Dark Souls big weird meanderingly connected world, Demon's Souls has several distinct connected areas. You take on a level and try to beat the boss. If you do, you can move on to the next level within that area. Though Dark Souls has the 'big open world', Demon's Souls gives the impression of a larger world where you're jumping into areas separated by some distance, instead of Dark Souls, where all of Lordran feels a little small.
Demon's Souls also has the best hub area, the best NPCs. The story and the areas feel more associated to each other, more of a complete package, where as Dark Souls feels like a mess of content with some lore thrown in after the fact. Demon's feels finished or rushed (despite the broken archstone). The story isn't cryptically buried. It's pretty straightforward and more pleasing. You can still dig around in the lore for a better understanding of the characters and world of course.
It also feels a lot more bleak in parts, but is overall more colorful and enchanting.
This moment and song told me what I was going to be in for and that rush of adrenaline hasn't been matched for me until Nameless King in Dark Souls 3
People will go into very heavy detail about Demons Souls and why they love it. For me there are a few non spoilery things that I really like it when I compare it to other games by From. The first is that instead of a metroivania/open world vibe all the games after this one have. Demons Souls is level based. So you'll go to a "world" and you'll have to go through a set amount of levels until you beat it. This ends up letting you have quite a bit of freedom when it comes to beating the game. While the level progression in a world is tackled in a linear way (meaning you start with the first level in a world and can not move on to the next level until you beat it). The completion of the worlds isn't the same. If I start playing in world A and want to stop on level 2 in world A to start playing in World B on World B's 1st level. I am free to do this. This can lead to a scenario where you set it up so that you can beat all the final bosses for all the worlds pretty much back to back. I really enjoyed this really gave me a sense of freedom.
There are other spoilery things that are really cool about this game that sadly won't be the same for you OP. Some of the really great ides and plot points from the first Dark Souls are ideas either iterated on from their original appearance in Demons Souls. Or copy and pasted cause they nailed the idea the first time.
Also this game has a boss that has a move that literally de-levels your character if it hits. It is both rage inducing and utterly hysterical because of the balls required on the devs to do this.
There are other spoilery things that are really cool about this game that sadly won't be the same for you OP. Some of the really great ides and plot points from the first Dark Souls are ideas either iterated on from their original appearance in Demons Souls. Or copy and pasted cause they nailed the idea the first time.
Also this game has a boss that has a move that literally de-levels your character if it hits. It is both rage inducing and utterly hysterical because of the balls required on the devs to do this.
Yep. I still cannot believe I was actually able to beat that boss.
Ummmm, Bloodborne exists though? I loved DeS back on PS3, but nothing compares to Bloodborne.
The best part about Bloodborne is the random dungeons - may be cool to see DeS Remake incorporate something similar.
I recently played through Demon's Souls for the first time as well as Dark Souls 1 and 3 (gave up on DS2, I just couldn't get into it). It's a very good game that's worth playing but I still enjoyed my time with DS1 & 3 more, I can absolutely see why playing it back in 2009 would have been a revelatory experience though.
Biggest criticism is I can't stop reciting the level up dialogue. Just walking around the house going "soul of the mind..."
Bloodborne is still my favourite of these games.
Biggest criticism is I can't stop reciting the level up dialogue. Just walking around the house going "soul of the mind..."
Bloodborne is still my favourite of these games.
I think the reason I liked it more was because I felt like it had a better atmosphere than Dark Souls.
One of my favourite movies as a kid was The Never Ending Story, and seeing the fog consuming the world in Demon's Souls brought me back to that style of fantasy / visual imagary, so I liked it a lot because of that. I felt hopeless, a sole warrior stepping into the fog with a vein hope of saving Boltaria.
I liked that the game isn't directly interconnected because it allows the imagination to fill in more of the blanks. The world feels far larger in Demon's Souls, at least to me, even though it is smaller. Simply because the archstones only take you to specific points in the world, but they are not, the whole world. The areas individually still feature the same interconnectedness you might expect from a Souls game, but teleporting you about to completely unique environments leaves a lot of room for the imagination to fill the spaces in between.
Gameplay wise, it's largely the same as a souls game. I think it's a bit easier than Dark Souls on the whole, perhaps largely because magic is a bit more powerful. Even a little bit of magic on your build can go a really long way in most of the games boss fights.
One of my favourite movies as a kid was The Never Ending Story, and seeing the fog consuming the world in Demon's Souls brought me back to that style of fantasy / visual imagary, so I liked it a lot because of that. I felt hopeless, a sole warrior stepping into the fog with a vein hope of saving Boltaria.
I liked that the game isn't directly interconnected because it allows the imagination to fill in more of the blanks. The world feels far larger in Demon's Souls, at least to me, even though it is smaller. Simply because the archstones only take you to specific points in the world, but they are not, the whole world. The areas individually still feature the same interconnectedness you might expect from a Souls game, but teleporting you about to completely unique environments leaves a lot of room for the imagination to fill the spaces in between.
Gameplay wise, it's largely the same as a souls game. I think it's a bit easier than Dark Souls on the whole, perhaps largely because magic is a bit more powerful. Even a little bit of magic on your build can go a really long way in most of the games boss fights.
I will never get over that boss. It felt so comically evil my first time playing. On later playthroughs they got downgraded to just plain evil haha.
Can anyone comment on game length? What can new DeS players expect that are Soulsborne veterans? Longer or shorter than others in the series?
Dark Souls 1 is objectively a more refined game, but generally this.
Demon's Souls has a somewhat different atmosphere from all the others (people are concerned with whether or not Bluepoint will be able to capture it). It feels colder somehow. Might be the color palette.
Another big thing is the bosses. Most Demon's Souls bosses are initially imposing but have a gimmick you need to figure out. Two or three of them are just straight-up battles of attrition, and From decided to go in the latter direction for all the fights in the later games.
Demon's Souls just does things that the other Souls games don't. It was an experiment that wasn't always successful, but showed a heck of a lot of confidence in what it set out to do. It took everything from From Soft's previous legacy of action RPGs and re-contextualized it by changing the perspective and adding some inscrutable systems that made you wonder what was really going on.
While it's not necessarily the best From Soft game from a pure technical perspective, it's easily one of their best overall. People love to heap praise on Bluepoint, but I do not have much confidence that it's going to get even close to capturing the spirit of the original game. I don't see how it really can considering it seems that From Software has nothing to do with it. Look at what Bluepoint did to Shadow of the Colossus and you'll probably get a good idea of what the remake will be: technically the same game, but one that diverges so far from the original in terms of visual design and tone that they no longer feel like the same game.
Normally, I'd recommend that you play the original PS3 version first, if you can. That's kind of my default stance on any game and its remake or remaster, but if you're really excited about the remake, OP, you may want to just play that version and leave the original alone. I have a lot of confidence that the original game will hold up if you decide or get the ability to play that later than I have confidence that the remake will impress enough to make it seem worth it.
Essentially, if you were never going to play the game without the PS5 version coming out, then you'll probably enjoy it.
While it's not necessarily the best From Soft game from a pure technical perspective, it's easily one of their best overall. People love to heap praise on Bluepoint, but I do not have much confidence that it's going to get even close to capturing the spirit of the original game. I don't see how it really can considering it seems that From Software has nothing to do with it. Look at what Bluepoint did to Shadow of the Colossus and you'll probably get a good idea of what the remake will be: technically the same game, but one that diverges so far from the original in terms of visual design and tone that they no longer feel like the same game.
Normally, I'd recommend that you play the original PS3 version first, if you can. That's kind of my default stance on any game and its remake or remaster, but if you're really excited about the remake, OP, you may want to just play that version and leave the original alone. I have a lot of confidence that the original game will hold up if you decide or get the ability to play that later than I have confidence that the remake will impress enough to make it seem worth it.
Essentially, if you were never going to play the game without the PS5 version coming out, then you'll probably enjoy it.
Tower of Latria.
It's like Miyazaki did a dry run of Bloodborne with it. It is a very unnerving location. Few times I went to the most destitute prison cell in the area and spent a few minutes there just soaking in how depressing it must have been for the prisoner there. The game exudes atmosphere but Tower of Latria did even more so.
It's got great level design, though probably not on par with some of the later games. But the locations and lore behind them are very interesting.
Demon's Souls also has a more concrete story that's more easily digestable than the other games.
The bosses are also more unique, more about finding and exploiting weaknesses for some bosses rather than a straight up 1v1 (though it does have some of those too).
Demon's Souls also has a more concrete story that's more easily digestable than the other games.
The bosses are also more unique, more about finding and exploiting weaknesses for some bosses rather than a straight up 1v1 (though it does have some of those too).
It is Miyazaki's first designed game, cobbled together from a few initial ideas and brought together.
It tries many things and as a result has a ton of imagination in it.
While I think Dark Souls successfully refined that into a more polished and cohesive experience, Demon's Souls has this charm to it that none of the other games have. It feels like there's this unique unbridled creativity, partially due to the fact that each world is a completely different setting. The game is just layered in atmosphere.
It tries many things and as a result has a ton of imagination in it.
While I think Dark Souls successfully refined that into a more polished and cohesive experience, Demon's Souls has this charm to it that none of the other games have. It feels like there's this unique unbridled creativity, partially due to the fact that each world is a completely different setting. The game is just layered in atmosphere.