A meticulous masterpiece of infuriating struggle to free the world from demons that started the souls legacy. If you're familiar with the concept, you know what the game is about. Still Demon's Souls, just like any other souls games, looks very different in its' own way. The combat system is smooth, the world is huge enough and has a lot to offer to explore with plenty of bosses. The graphics despite of the age are still stunning. This is the third game that justifies the purchase of older Playstation, in addition to PS4. So if you're a Dark Souls fan hesitating whether you will like the souls' predecessor, compared to later games, go ahead and buy it. This game was so much ahead of its' time it's still fresh.
7 Reviews
You will die!
Gazman0127 July 2010
Aside from your untimely death being a part of the excellent storyline (which if you are good enough you can prolong for a short period of time whilst becoming a tad richer in the process), you will find that this game is very unforgiving of any (and I do mean ANY) mistake, and so before long you will be pushing up daisy's like there's no tomorrow. Don't let this put you off though, as if you are able to learn by your mistakes I can guarantee that with a little dogged determination you will progress slowly through the game, and before long will be pulling off moves that will leave you feeling like the greatest Adventurer that has ever lived!
With this in mind, I urge you all NOT to be put off by the supposed difficulty of this game, as this is IMHO probably the finest RPG that has ever been written and is without a shadow of a doubt an absolute must for every PS3 owner out there.
One final point of note, to get the most out of this game you really do need to play it on-line (logged onto a PSN account), as this little gem brings on-line gaming to an all new level.
With this in mind, I urge you all NOT to be put off by the supposed difficulty of this game, as this is IMHO probably the finest RPG that has ever been written and is without a shadow of a doubt an absolute must for every PS3 owner out there.
One final point of note, to get the most out of this game you really do need to play it on-line (logged onto a PSN account), as this little gem brings on-line gaming to an all new level.
Demon's Souls is something beyond game-play.
honorhorror5 May 2010
I didn't quite let go of my skepticism about Demon's Souls especially knowing that it has gotten the Game of The Year Award of Gamespot, the website that ringed my bell the most times in recent years. That's the first time I got my copy of Demon's Souls. The fact is, this game is intentionally made for obsessive people, that one can easily dump half a day into the game-playing.
Trying to compare Demon's Souls greatness with other big titles is meaningless and effective-less. The charisma of the game almost entirely comes from the fact that it's uncompromising at all. When you finished the game for the first time and have a brief look-back at the levels you've passed, you will realize they are actually not as massive as they once looked and felt. That is to say, on your first tour to every level, you will probably die every first time at every next corner. In order to defeat one particular level, I've printed the walk-through provided by IGN on papers, and had to follow them almost religiously. I have been already wondering if the game designers meant to make a 100-hour training that will improve your perception, cognitive reflection, etc. It's that different. The other games rarely round up to this level of involvement for any gamers.
After beating Demon's Souls for the first time, although there are still literally tons to do in the 2nd, 3rd...playthrough, I chose however to let go of it. With every help you can get from others and managing to push 120% of attention and intelligence into it, you can also beat it. And, it's also a proof about a Chinese proverb, "No task is impossible because somebody will try to accomplish it."
Trying to compare Demon's Souls greatness with other big titles is meaningless and effective-less. The charisma of the game almost entirely comes from the fact that it's uncompromising at all. When you finished the game for the first time and have a brief look-back at the levels you've passed, you will realize they are actually not as massive as they once looked and felt. That is to say, on your first tour to every level, you will probably die every first time at every next corner. In order to defeat one particular level, I've printed the walk-through provided by IGN on papers, and had to follow them almost religiously. I have been already wondering if the game designers meant to make a 100-hour training that will improve your perception, cognitive reflection, etc. It's that different. The other games rarely round up to this level of involvement for any gamers.
After beating Demon's Souls for the first time, although there are still literally tons to do in the 2nd, 3rd...playthrough, I chose however to let go of it. With every help you can get from others and managing to push 120% of attention and intelligence into it, you can also beat it. And, it's also a proof about a Chinese proverb, "No task is impossible because somebody will try to accomplish it."
Demon's Souls is an extremely well made, dark, and captivating RPG.
silversurfer128812 March 2010
This game blew me away. First off, this game is not for the casual gamer. This game will punish you over and over for every small mistake, and the punishment can be overly harsh. Take a wrong step -- dead. Not see an enemy -- dead. Advance haphazardly through the levels -- dead. Many enemies are strong enough to finish you in 2-3 blows. This difficulty can make the game extremely frustrating, and gloriously rewarding.
The visuals are ambiance of the levels are fantastic. All of the worlds have a dark/foreboding presence to them, which is only increased by the slow/cautious approach that you must take the first time playing through the game.
The aspect that really sets the game apart, however, is the ability to team up/compete against other players playing through the very same worlds. At a certain point, you receive the ability to summon other players into your game or be summoned by other players into their game. This function is brilliant and loads of fun to use. Again, given the difficulty level, I often found myself hesitant to advance in certain sections until I found another player (or two) to summon. You can have up to two allies while playing. There are advantages both to being summoned and to summoning, so this mutually beneficial relationship works out great. In addition to helping other player in a co-op fashion, players can also leave helpful hints for each other. These messages can be read by all players on the Demon's Souls server. They disappear if no one recommends them, but linger around if other players recommend the messages.
In addition to summoning, a player can also invade another player's world, hunting the player down, immune from enemies, to combat and hopefully slay the opposing player. My heart sunk numerous times as I was fighting for my life as the words "Player XXXXXXXXXXXXX has invaded your world" flashed across the bottom of my screen. In a game where the difficulty level is through the roof, this bit of knowledge was rarely welcome (unless I knew I had the upper hand).
Overall, Demon's Souls is an extremely good, dark, and captivating RPG, but it's made fantastic by the continual online interactivity between players.
The visuals are ambiance of the levels are fantastic. All of the worlds have a dark/foreboding presence to them, which is only increased by the slow/cautious approach that you must take the first time playing through the game.
The aspect that really sets the game apart, however, is the ability to team up/compete against other players playing through the very same worlds. At a certain point, you receive the ability to summon other players into your game or be summoned by other players into their game. This function is brilliant and loads of fun to use. Again, given the difficulty level, I often found myself hesitant to advance in certain sections until I found another player (or two) to summon. You can have up to two allies while playing. There are advantages both to being summoned and to summoning, so this mutually beneficial relationship works out great. In addition to helping other player in a co-op fashion, players can also leave helpful hints for each other. These messages can be read by all players on the Demon's Souls server. They disappear if no one recommends them, but linger around if other players recommend the messages.
In addition to summoning, a player can also invade another player's world, hunting the player down, immune from enemies, to combat and hopefully slay the opposing player. My heart sunk numerous times as I was fighting for my life as the words "Player XXXXXXXXXXXXX has invaded your world" flashed across the bottom of my screen. In a game where the difficulty level is through the roof, this bit of knowledge was rarely welcome (unless I knew I had the upper hand).
Overall, Demon's Souls is an extremely good, dark, and captivating RPG, but it's made fantastic by the continual online interactivity between players.
it one of the most beautiful flawed game I have played
fh14728 December 2023
Demon souls is one of the more unique and interesting game. It is not balanced at all and has some weird ideas, but they are so interesting that I keep going back to the game because it has not been done in other games. What is done in this one.
This game is not really about combat. It's about outsmarting your enemies using dirty tricks and whatever you can to get to the end. New fromsoftware game feels like a combat game where bosses are primary reason you play it but is this it's the world design. It's the enemies on the way, it's all the little tricks. They used to kill you. It's just a journey through a disgusting and Beautiful World.
Because this game was seen at a failure of when it was developed it. Got to do all the weirdest things because it's already a failure. Why not go all out with the weird ideas and they did some of them are really unfail but they are so interesting that I had to play its and see words going.
Sad thing is the Combat doesn't feel good. It is kind of sad and it is workable. I mean I completed the game but it never gets a satisfying feeling of killing enemies because there reaction just didn feel good and the Combat has no pois mechanic so it doesn't matter how heavy my armor is I'm gonna get hits stunt .
But even if the boss fights aren't fun to fight but they are so imaginative and varied every one of them has a unique gimmick and mechanic to make them interesting to fight and the maiden astraea fights because of the music is gonna be in my mind the rest of my life.
It one of the most beautiful flawed game I have played.
This game is not really about combat. It's about outsmarting your enemies using dirty tricks and whatever you can to get to the end. New fromsoftware game feels like a combat game where bosses are primary reason you play it but is this it's the world design. It's the enemies on the way, it's all the little tricks. They used to kill you. It's just a journey through a disgusting and Beautiful World.
Because this game was seen at a failure of when it was developed it. Got to do all the weirdest things because it's already a failure. Why not go all out with the weird ideas and they did some of them are really unfail but they are so interesting that I had to play its and see words going.
Sad thing is the Combat doesn't feel good. It is kind of sad and it is workable. I mean I completed the game but it never gets a satisfying feeling of killing enemies because there reaction just didn feel good and the Combat has no pois mechanic so it doesn't matter how heavy my armor is I'm gonna get hits stunt .
But even if the boss fights aren't fun to fight but they are so imaginative and varied every one of them has a unique gimmick and mechanic to make them interesting to fight and the maiden astraea fights because of the music is gonna be in my mind the rest of my life.
It one of the most beautiful flawed game I have played.
Learn Everything By Yourself: The Game
dgggt24 August 2020
Great game, style, gameplay, with original mechanics, everything is at a good level. But the game is not player-friendly, and I'm not talking about its complexity in terms of the walkthrough itself, it's difficult in that it doesn't inform you in any way how something works here, where to find the object, what it does, how and why.
You need to learn everything yourself along the way, by trial and error, as well as with completion of the bosses, enemies and levels. If you don't look for info on the Internet, then just to understand HOW you can kill the boss, you have to spend a lot of time by trials and errors.
For this reason, I dropped game walkthrough, it is not interesting to play by the guides, and it's a big waste of my time to find out, it's not worth it, and in the end it won't bring so much pleasure.
You need to learn everything yourself along the way, by trial and error, as well as with completion of the bosses, enemies and levels. If you don't look for info on the Internet, then just to understand HOW you can kill the boss, you have to spend a lot of time by trials and errors.
For this reason, I dropped game walkthrough, it is not interesting to play by the guides, and it's a big waste of my time to find out, it's not worth it, and in the end it won't bring so much pleasure.
Demon's Souls – A Glass That's Half Empty: A Review
Sam_Bushman15 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
A Review by Sam Bushman and Dan Morrison **See our full review (including screenshots and our conclusions at http://whysoblu.com/?p=3697**
The game is divided into five worlds. Each world has two to three levels. Each level ends with a battle against a boss demon. The player can initially choose from one of ten classes for character creation. The character's class determines initial character stats as well as starting equipment. The player is given a sophisticated level of control over their character's appearance as well. Once created, the player goes through a brief tutorial and is then killed. This is where the meat of the game begins. As a dead soul, the player's avatar must complete the first level in order to reclaim his body and unlock the ability to spend "demon's souls" on upgrading his character's stats. This all-in-one currency also acts as money for purchasing weapon upgrades and items. The main selling point of Demon's Souls is the fact that if the player dies, he loses the souls hes collected by defeating enemies. This along with the many upgrades and purchases that require souls are the primary attempts at making this game difficult to master.
What we like about Demon's Souls
Sam: First off, I wanted to compliment From Software on their combat system. I found that when I was facing off against one or two other enemies, the fighting mechanics lent themselves to a very patient and controlled fight. When I fought against bosses or a single powerful enemy, I found myself analyzing their fighting style, their tendencies, and looking for holes in their attacks to lay that deadly blow. This was exhilarating and very rewarding when a foe was defeated. It managed to integrate the strategy and intelligence of a sword fight into the system instead of just brutishly hacking away. This was especially apparent when facing off against either knights or the final king boss of the first world.
Dan: Yeah, I found that to be true as well. When it came to one on one boss battles and single enemy encounters, the combat system worked very well. However, in mobs of enemies, the combat system seemed to be clumsy, mainly because it was hard to quickly do multiple tasks at once. The targeting system didn't always behave like you expected with multiple enemies either. Still, I have to say I really enjoyed the boss encounters in the game. They are definitely the highlight of the game. They were challenging but never impossible and were rewarding to beat.
Visually I thought the game looked amazing. This game had a great attention to detail. It handled interior and large outdoor environments very well and you got a great sense of size, especially on the castle map. It felt very dark and gritty which I liked. All the weapons had believable and unique animations. This helped give the weapons personality. It did not feel like I was swinging the same sword with a different skin, and I appreciate that. Enemy animations were also overall smooth and believable. Larger enemies had a sense of weight when they walked, and there was a distinct movement for each enemy. The sounds and music were acceptable and felt like they went with the world; the changes of the music during boss encounters is a nice touch.
Sam: I agree. This game was very pretty to look at...
**See our full review (including screenshots and our conclusions at http://whysoblu.com/?p=3697**
Bones we have to pick with Demon's Souls
Dan: The first thing that really bugged me was how short and useless the tutorial was. Sure you learn how to target and attack, but that's about it. By the time you are done with the tutorial, you are thrown into the real game, and I still didn't know how to do everything in the game. I quickly found on my first character that after dying 3 times trying to beat the first map, it was better to re-roll a new character than to try to salvage the current one as I used up all my heals and could not afford new ones or repair any of my stuff. Also, I should mention some classes start out a lot better than others. The barbarian starts naked with a club while the Temple knight starts with full suit of armor and a great weapon which you can play with the whole game though.
Sam: Well, I can't completely complain about the tutorial's length. It was refreshing that the game didn't bog me down with a long tutorial before starting. Many RPGs and actions games will force the player to devote 15 – 30 minutes of the beginning of gameplay to instruction and tutorial. I appreciated the fact that the game tried to get me in the action quickly. That being said, after the first level I did find that certain features and functions (such as how to aim a Bow and Arrow) would have been extremely helpful. I had learned some needed skills purely by accident. It could have been longer, but at least they tried to make is short and sweet.
Dan: Bows, spells and miracles were not covered in the game very well. While they are in the manual, their description is short and I really prefer all the stuff you need to know about your game....
**See our full review (including screenshots and our conclusions at http://whysoblu.com/?p=3697**
The game is divided into five worlds. Each world has two to three levels. Each level ends with a battle against a boss demon. The player can initially choose from one of ten classes for character creation. The character's class determines initial character stats as well as starting equipment. The player is given a sophisticated level of control over their character's appearance as well. Once created, the player goes through a brief tutorial and is then killed. This is where the meat of the game begins. As a dead soul, the player's avatar must complete the first level in order to reclaim his body and unlock the ability to spend "demon's souls" on upgrading his character's stats. This all-in-one currency also acts as money for purchasing weapon upgrades and items. The main selling point of Demon's Souls is the fact that if the player dies, he loses the souls hes collected by defeating enemies. This along with the many upgrades and purchases that require souls are the primary attempts at making this game difficult to master.
What we like about Demon's Souls
Sam: First off, I wanted to compliment From Software on their combat system. I found that when I was facing off against one or two other enemies, the fighting mechanics lent themselves to a very patient and controlled fight. When I fought against bosses or a single powerful enemy, I found myself analyzing their fighting style, their tendencies, and looking for holes in their attacks to lay that deadly blow. This was exhilarating and very rewarding when a foe was defeated. It managed to integrate the strategy and intelligence of a sword fight into the system instead of just brutishly hacking away. This was especially apparent when facing off against either knights or the final king boss of the first world.
Dan: Yeah, I found that to be true as well. When it came to one on one boss battles and single enemy encounters, the combat system worked very well. However, in mobs of enemies, the combat system seemed to be clumsy, mainly because it was hard to quickly do multiple tasks at once. The targeting system didn't always behave like you expected with multiple enemies either. Still, I have to say I really enjoyed the boss encounters in the game. They are definitely the highlight of the game. They were challenging but never impossible and were rewarding to beat.
Visually I thought the game looked amazing. This game had a great attention to detail. It handled interior and large outdoor environments very well and you got a great sense of size, especially on the castle map. It felt very dark and gritty which I liked. All the weapons had believable and unique animations. This helped give the weapons personality. It did not feel like I was swinging the same sword with a different skin, and I appreciate that. Enemy animations were also overall smooth and believable. Larger enemies had a sense of weight when they walked, and there was a distinct movement for each enemy. The sounds and music were acceptable and felt like they went with the world; the changes of the music during boss encounters is a nice touch.
Sam: I agree. This game was very pretty to look at...
**See our full review (including screenshots and our conclusions at http://whysoblu.com/?p=3697**
Bones we have to pick with Demon's Souls
Dan: The first thing that really bugged me was how short and useless the tutorial was. Sure you learn how to target and attack, but that's about it. By the time you are done with the tutorial, you are thrown into the real game, and I still didn't know how to do everything in the game. I quickly found on my first character that after dying 3 times trying to beat the first map, it was better to re-roll a new character than to try to salvage the current one as I used up all my heals and could not afford new ones or repair any of my stuff. Also, I should mention some classes start out a lot better than others. The barbarian starts naked with a club while the Temple knight starts with full suit of armor and a great weapon which you can play with the whole game though.
Sam: Well, I can't completely complain about the tutorial's length. It was refreshing that the game didn't bog me down with a long tutorial before starting. Many RPGs and actions games will force the player to devote 15 – 30 minutes of the beginning of gameplay to instruction and tutorial. I appreciated the fact that the game tried to get me in the action quickly. That being said, after the first level I did find that certain features and functions (such as how to aim a Bow and Arrow) would have been extremely helpful. I had learned some needed skills purely by accident. It could have been longer, but at least they tried to make is short and sweet.
Dan: Bows, spells and miracles were not covered in the game very well. While they are in the manual, their description is short and I really prefer all the stuff you need to know about your game....
**See our full review (including screenshots and our conclusions at http://whysoblu.com/?p=3697**
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
