Demon's Souls (2020)

Gave up on Demon's Souls after about 10 hours. The runbacks are brutal enough, but running out of heals and having to farm more is just ridiculous and tedious. I can deal with difficulty but this is such an obvious thing that strikes me as bad game design. I know people love the punishing nature but I can't do it anymore.

I switched to Bloodborne and am having an awesome time, and although the lack of heal refills after death is still present, it's so much more manageable somehow.

It's a shame because I really loved the gameplay of Demon's Souls and the remake looked incredible, but this one single mechanic had me rage quit, list it on eBay, and I had it shipped out the very next morning.

This is the first time I've played Demon Souls as I didn't have a ps3 so I missed the original but I'm a massive souls fan and have religiously played all the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring.

It was fascinating going back and seeing so much of the blueprint for what would become a lot of the stuff throughout the entire franchise, even Bloodborne. And Bluepoint did an incredible job at making this remake look and run great while sticking to the original gameplay from what I can tell.

I will say that my excitement at playing a new (to me) fromsoft souls game was probably a bit too overblown and although this game is really great, it doesn't seem to have the magic spark that Dark Souls 1 has for some reason that I don't quite know yet, I'll need to do more playthoughs to refine that thought though.

4 / 5 Stars

it was still highly enjoyable. Playing it after more than a decade of games building on the core idea it was refreshing to play what felt like a simplified version of the 'earlier' games in the series. I'm not exactly sure how much shorter this entry is than other games, but I enjoyed this shorter experience and will sooner boot into a 2nd play-through because of it.

I didn't play the original, but add a comment if you did - I'd be interested to know how well this honours and improves on the original.

I had a lot of fun with this one! I came in expecting a good amount of clunkiness as I knew the remake was very faithful to the original release overall. And while I did find some of that here and there, what really impressed me was how nearly everywhere I looked, this game was bursting with creativity that is evident even nearly 14 years later.

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I kind of rant for a bit here, skip ahead to the RANT OVER if you aren't interested in some musings about how the gameplay has changed through the souls games.

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There's a part of me that really misses when souls games were a little more like this. When bosses were more about figuring out a puzzle or being slow and methodical rather than reaction time and pattern learning. I think this stopped after Dark Souls 2. Which is not to say that I think one style is necessarily better than the other; I love them both. Hell, Dark Souls 3 remains my favorite of the games. But after playing through Elden Ring last year, a game where I think FromSoft may have taken the difficulty a bit too far here and there, it was so nice to come back to a soulslike that played slower, more like the first Dark Souls.

Going back to what I was saying earlier about creativity, I think this came through the best in the way each enemy type and boss feels so unique. It's hard for me to think of many enemies that don't have something special about them, even in the early hours of the game. I had to switch around equipment I was using multiple times through my playthrough to get the advantage over the variety of weaknesses and resistances enemies had. And I mean that in the best way.

I still can't get over the boss that can literally drain your levels right out of you! Like that's so insane and something I've never seen before in an RPG, despite all my time spent in them. It's this kind of more "passive brutality" that I think has become more rare as newer FromSoft games have come out. Stuff like Plague in this game and Curse in Dark Souls are so interesting to me because they aren't as straightforward as other status effects. They do not go away easily and if you are unprepared you will pay the price, sometimes even beyond death.

===RANT OVER===

Among the five archstones I found five different flavors of decay. It was a little tiring how the majority of these areas were all pretty dark and rainy but otherwise there was a lot to like about the level design. Many of the levels featured very cool little pathways and loops that gave me a satisfying amount of freedom to approach the area as I desired without overwhelming me with options.

I'm sure I could go on and on about each of the areas but that'd take up too much space. I mainly want to talk about the most divisive one for both me and I believe the fanbase as a whole. The good ol' Valley of Defilement. In particular 5-1, The Depraved Chasm. As someone who truly believes that Blighttown is one of the best areas in the first Dark Souls, fuck this place. This slimy hole in the ground is cramped, dark, and absolutely swarming with enemies just waiting to squirm their way out of holes in the ground and walls to ambush you. I didn't suffer too bad my first playthrough but on NG+ this place totally sucked. It's so easy to fall off a ledge, get swarmed, or have one of countless other unfortunate deaths happen and unless you utilize some funky jumping/rolling tricks, there is NO shortcut to the boss.

I strongly dislike this level from a gameplay design standpoint and would be happy to never play it again (5-2 isn't nearly as bad imo). However, that said...

It's because of all these aspects that the Valley of Defilement totally nails the theme it's going for. Like despite all my frustration I can't help but marvel at how well they captured a city that exists as a literal garbage dump for the world above. To put it another way, The Valley of Defilement in Demons Souls is what The Gutter from Dark Souls 2 should have been. They got it right 5 years earlier. So it's hard for me to be too mad when the level is so damn good at being what it's aiming for.

There's so many awesome ideas at play here that you can see become fully realized later on in the franchise, so it's an easy recommendation to any fan of the later games. Even as a standalone title, it's easy to see why Demon's Souls managed to both enthrall and frustrate players back when it first came out. It's unforgiving, but provides such an awesome world to explore and fight through that I can't help but fall in love.

Just finished my platinum trophy a little ago! It feels great to finally cross this one off my list. Been a souls addict for the better part of a decade now and I never had a chance to play it. Now I can finally say I've finished my Soulsbournekiro Ring platinum trophy collection.

Will write up a review of it in a day or two probably. Just wanted to celebrate a little in the meantime.

Many years ago, on an old, fat, backwards compatible PlayStation 3, I played this niche little video game. A friend of mine said I should check it out so, after a day of lectures at Uni, I swung by GameStop on my way home and I picked it up. Little did I know the impact it would have not only on video games as an industry but on me as a player, and my tastes.

Demon's Souls will always be one of those games that occupies my memory, the nostalgic hues of my memory colour it in such a way that I could never force myself to perceive other titles. It is unique in so many ways, a truly special game. I love Demon's Souls, despite its numerous flaws, it occupies space in my heart.

This is, perhaps, a sappy way of looking at a video game, of all things. But it is, to me, the same way others view their favourite albums and films, a media love pure and true. The summer that I spent endlessly playing through multiple builds and several layers of NG+, the summer between my first and second years at university, the people and the stories, they're all still here in my head and my heart. When people talk about "are games art?" this game, Demon's Souls, is the reason I will always answer yes. I love music and movies too, but you just don't get something like this from these more analogue forms of media.

I'm getting long winded about this, but honestly, what is to be said that hasn't already been said? Demon's Souls, the forgotten ancestor of the Souls like, usurped by the multi-platform Dark Souls which gets all the credit for its progeny, is the mother that birthed a genre. Is it sloppy in places? Sure, but does that really matter?

This is a game with character, a game that stands out from the crowd, even amongst Souls-likes it has its own unique vibe. It fits in with the medieval fantasy paint-job of the Souls series and yet it is unique, the visual design and the level design are very unlike the Souls games that followed. Demon's Souls is the homo habilis to Dark Souls' homo erectus. Not as sophisticated, obviously, but an incredible development none the less.

Everything that follows, lays at the feet of Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, all of it, owed to this one progenitor, this one quirky little game that managed to establish itself as a cult classic. A foundational work.

I'm writing a ton of cliché but really, this game is all emotion for me. Sure, 5-1 sucks, the bosses are easy as cake, the tendency system is needlessly obtuse, the red and blue dragons have way too much health and are annoying, item burden is dumb, and the squid guards in Latria are bullshit. None of that matters though. The emotion and the legacy make up for all of it.

I just finished grinding the platinum trophy. Again. This game is remarkable. I hope that people who pick up this remake, who don't have reverence for the original, can find the same experience. I hope it retakes the forefront of Soul's fans minds, I wish it would hit PC so Souls fans who don't and have never had a PlayStation can experience it for themselves.

Demon's Souls was made for me and I was made for Demon's Souls. Umbasa.

I started the Souls games with Bloodborne then Elden Ring. So, it's safe to say that I'm not a Souls Veteran.

However, I've been a Monster Hunter player since the 3rd generation and I consider myself good in those kinds of games.

I managed to platinum Elden Ring so there's that. That said, I tried to give a Demon's Souls remake a new try. Regardless of my expertise in ER I still suffered a lot. And not because of the game's difficulty. Actually, it is an easier game than most other souls-like I've played, the bosses are easier, the levels aren't that hard and etc. However, some mechanics that were designed back in 2009 are way outdated today. I'll list some:

The inability to sell items, the repair mechanics and most of all,

The World Tendency:

I tought it was a good idea to use some stones to get my body to get some tries on the flamelurker and then, BAM, the world was black and it was just impossible to beat the boss now. For those who do not know (like me back then), when you die in your corporeal form, the "World Tendency" tips a bit to the black side (starts gray and can go all the way to black or white -- black means harder enemies).

After that, I decided to quit the game. I have some other games to play and I'm not that interested in overcoming those kinds of things anymore.

I didn't play the original and have played DS1&3 and BB prior to this.

Well the graphics are absolutely stunning and it is worth playing the game for the visuals alone. Just breathtakingly beautiful.

The gameplay is smooth - it feels very similar to DS3 from a controls and combat POV. Levels generally interesting and very varied, although some were particularly frustrating - Ritual Path and whatever the poison swamp is called, for example. The ability to switch from one world to another reduces the frustration significantly. Lack of boss shortcuts in a couple of areas was also a little bit annoying.

I found the bosses generally pretty easy. It's easy to see how much boss behaviour has evolved since this title was released. I was amazed how easy the final boss (I guess the second-to-last boss, strictly speaking - the False King) was to defeat, given that the Lord of Cinder took me 50+ attempts in DS3. Roll and hit worked almost every time and the bosses were way less relentless than in the later Fromsoft titles so there is almost always ample time to back off and heal.

Grinding for grass is a bit tedious, but I found this much less of a problem than Bloodborne as the bosses in this game were much easier than in BB.

Overall, beautiful beyond words, challenging, varied, very frustrating at times but overall a fantastic and memorable experience.

This game man, this game...

I started souls games with this game. I have played Bloodborne before. But i rage quit at the bridge where there are 3 dogs waiting to attack me. But unlike Bloodborne, Demon's Souls wrapped me with its arms. It didn't let me go. Sure, when i started to play first time, i got frustrated easily. But this is what Souls games do. You have to be patient and try again and again. After that when you got strong, the pleasure that you feel is unexplainable. You can feel your attack hit the enemy more beautifully, unlike many other games. This is a PS3 game when you look back through the history, But when you play it, it doesnt feel like it. It feels like a next gen game from the ground up.

I thank to From Software (for doing a core mechanic like this for beyond its time) and Bluepoint Games (for doing such a crazy remastered game like this and making all people call this game remake). The words become insufficient for describing this game. Thank you again. I recommend everyone to play this game. Also if you have time, you should play with every character and try different builds. Because all these characters and all these builds would make you feel that you are playing a new game but not the same game.

FYI : I got the Platinum Trophy :)

This game was such a great experience for me. Beat every boss was satisfying, the graphics was top notch, the gameplay was so engaging, the sound design was gripping and the story was... simple, but effective. I went with a thief build feeling like Robin Hood.

Some gripes I have is when you die (and you do a lot) those bonfires are so far away from each other and really you only get them when beat a boss. So that kind of sucks.

Overall, a great experience and a great time. Is this should be a must for your ps5? Depends, the challenge can brutal, but with patience you can persevere. A must ps5 game is definitely Ratchet and Clank.

Play this game.

Another excellent experience, probably the easiest of the From Soft games I've played so far but by no means a cake walk. More often that not, the areas getting to a boss room were a bigger struggle than the boss itself, the only two I really had repeated trouble with were Maneater and Flamelurker. Vast variety between worlds and level design made each area shine in there own way but lacked shortcuts at key points. The Nexus has a mystique to it that makes you feel like so much history is hidden within.

I love the flexibility of how much stuff is available from the start of this game in terms of loot and route decisions. It's nonlinear without being open-world, almost Mega Man-like in terms of potential upgrades and boss order.

Boletarian Palace, "1-1", I think is the best intro level they've done besides Yharnam. Tower of Latria, the jail part, was extremely fun and had an unexpected Bloodborne-y aesthetic to it. 4th archstone bosses were all great. 5th archstone was kind of a nightmare though and all 3 bosses were underwhelming. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

I cleared a lot of the game this weekend, but I feel like I'm about to hit a wall in terms of my stats and equipment. My most needed upgrade material (Bladestone) is apparently only found through random enemy drops... So annoying... I need to figure out how to item dupe. Lol

Level 1-1: Oh wow, the boss is so close to the spawn point. Wonder if this game always does that. (beats boss first try)

Level 2-1: Oh... oh man... okay.

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And yeah I have a PS5 now thanks to PS Direct, and it’s pretty sick. This and Astro’s Playroom are great so far.

By the way, if anyone wants an extra challenge, I can confirm that playing Demon’s Souls via PS5 Remote Play is the Dark Souls of Demon’s Souls.

Bluepoint strikes again by transforming an already beloved game into something even more beloved!

If you've played Demon's Souls back in the PS3, chances are that you'll feel, like me, right at home!

Everything is here, just as it was back then. The creepy atmosphere, the experimental systems, the challenging tactical combat mechanics, the great soundtrack, the cryptic NPCs, tough bosses, the raw anger you'll feel after losing 40k souls to a stupid death... Everything!

The difference is in the visuals, the performance and some very few quality of life improvements. Demon's Souls Remake is BEAUTIFUL! Probably the most visually detailed and stunning game I've ever seen. It even looks great on Performance Mode. Shit, even those unnecessary filters are pretty! Now combine this visual prowess with the bleak and difficult atmosphere of Demon's Souls, plus the insane redesigns from some creatures and NPCs, and you have yourself one of the most faithful remakes ever made.

Maybe too faithful, actually!

A few things could have changed, since remakes were supposed to improve on all things.

For example, the world tendency system is still a confusing mess, checkpoints are still annoying as hell, item descriptions could've been improved to give us a bigger sense of the lore and, DAMN... I really wanted that sixth pillar to be an ACTUAL level in the game. They could've given us that, right?

Well, you can't have everything in life...

Demon's Souls Remake is the BEST way to play a very good/very old game. Probably the best thing to spend money on, if you own a PS5. You owe it to yourself.

It's not Miyazaki's masterpiece, by any means. Far from it. But it's a hell of a good, weird and challenging ride.

Demon's Souls is a remake of a game made by Fromsoftware in 2009. This is the game that started it all, the beloved soulslike genre. The remake is simply perfect. The game looks gorgeous and plays flawlessly. I have never seen something as pretty as Demon's Souls in fidelity mode. The performance mode plays like bread and butter and i haven't experienced any frame drops at all. The game stays super loyal to the original. In conclusion this is good old Demon's Souls but patched, with added extras and it looks better than real life.

The game itself is great... and just great. I'm a big fan of soulslike games so there's no way for me to not enjoy it but I have my concerns. Firstly, this game forced me to change playstyles. I always play with dual katanas, just dual katanas. Demon's souls forced me to use a bow, a shield and spells on occasions. There's nothing wrong with it and I actually enjoyed it after a while of frustration but it can piss off people I guess. Some locations are just super hard without ranged weapons or something to cover you. Secondly, I didn't enjoy healing mechanics in this game at all. Either i didn't have any healing or I had too many. For the first half of the game i had to grind healing items to survive and trust me, it wasn't fun at all. In the second half of the game I had so much healing that I could heal infinitely and the game was too easy in that aspect. The balance of difficulty was just weird in general. For the first half i struggled a lot, changed play styles on occasions and I was out of healing and in the second half when i got some lvls from bosses and better gear i went to one hitting enemies and three hitting bosses super fast. Sometimes the game is unfairly hard and sometimes it's too easy. The game feels less rewarding to me in general, I can't exactly explain why but Dark Souls titles just felt more satisfying to me. Worth a mention that this game has the easiest boss fights of all fromsoftware games. Some of them were challenging but I first attempted more than a half, fifth archstone bosses didn't even deal me any damage. They include cool mechanics tho and it was very fun, I would just add a little fighting after the puzzle parts and they would be the best in the series. Basically after you get used to it, it's the easiest souls title, I speedrunned it at NG++ in 3 hours for the platinum. The game doesn't feature an option to respec your character and it hurts. I love to cosplay bosses and change playstyles in NG+ but i couldn't because i was stuck with my dexterity build. These are pretty much the cons, this game was the first soulslike title so it's pretty normal that it's in my opinion worse than it's successors, after all all my complains were fixed in future titles. And that's exactly why this game is a 10 out of 10 for me anyways, I wouldn't really complain if I haven't played improved future titles firstly.

To sum things up, this is good old Demon's Souls but on steroids. The game is patched, features extras (like reversed world or new items) and is easily the most beautiful game you can play right now. It shows the power and new functions of the PS5 (like adaptive triggers). If you are up for the challenge and you want to experience the game that started the soulslike genre then go for it, because it's worth every penny.

10/10

Umbasa!

~ Wo