Demon's Souls

Someone recommended I buy Demon's Souls today and as a big fan of almost everything Atlus has ever published, it does seem tempting. It's also cheap as hell (but if I enjoy it, I'd be likely to buy Dark Souls on launch.) I've also heard it's really hard, but that's not a problem for me because I enjoy difficulty.

But I want to know from anyone who's played it what their impressions are.

I can't pass up an opportunity to promote one of my favorite games, so I'll make an exception for this thread; as a person who has played through it over 30 times across 3 characters, one of which I reached NG+^14 on before the game got too hard to continue on, I'd say if you like games that require a huge amount of learning you will get at least 500 hours out of it. At least. Death is the main learning experience, so if you shy away from losing progress I wouldn't pick it up, otherwise it's great. On your first playthrough and your first NG+ playthrough expect the biggest difficulty curves; first, the process of learning the enemy patterns, then the process of adjusting to NG+s 150% increase in difficulty over the top of the already incredibly difficult first playthrough for a beginner. It will also be good practice for Dark Souls, which many of the insiders are claiming is even more difficult.

If you want to get the absolute most from the game, do NOT look up any guides at all until you beat the game the first time. Not even on character builds. Then read a build guide after you win and laugh at how badly you made your first character, I know I did. Also, you can play the levels in any order, but I strongly suggest saving world 5 for last just because of 5-2, as 5-2 is hard for me no matter how many times I clear the game, and I can see how many would ragequit over it as I almost did when I was trying to clear it before clearing everything else; you need all the stat boosts and advantages you can get with it. Any other advice and I would be ruining the game's main selling point, so I'll just leave it at that. Highly enjoyable/frustrating puzzling and strategies needed for bosses and every last enemy as well, a handful of awesome NPCs in a torrent of total pimento NPCs, which again is a learning process to figure out which are on what side.

Basically, again, if you enjoy learning from mistakes in order to progress, this an incredibly good game, but it's certainly not for people with out at least a little bit of self-masochism ingrained in them at some parts.

What is the game actually like? I've tried watching some videos but it looked kind of resident evil-y to me, but what you're describing, specifically with "worlds", doesn't make it seem that way at all.

I mean, it's $20 so I'll probably get it, even if I hate it it's not a loss. But I'd like to know more of what to expect.

-snip-

Someone who has never played it will know what you're talking about. Make it for everyone.

@Sarah
You die a bunch, but it has a dark, rich storyline with good gameplay.

Been meaning to pick this up for a long time now. I love "Nintendo Hard" games and when I found out there's a sequel coming out, it gave me even more incentive to do so.

Also I'm pretty damn set on the "Self-Masochism" portion due to playing IWBTG and Super Meat Boy to death.

Been meaning to pick this up for a long time now. I love "Nintendo Hard" games and when I found out there's a sequel coming out, it gave me even more incentive to do so.

Also I'm pretty damn set on the "Self-Masochism" portion due to playing IWBTG and Super Meat Boy to death.

Nintendo hard... Isn't that hard...

Nintendo hard... Isn't that hard...

Hahaha, I think he means (S)NES hard, since we all know anything beyond that is nintendo easy.

What is the game actually like? I've tried watching some videos but it looked kind of resident evil-y to me, but what you're describing, specifically with "worlds", doesn't make it seem that way at all.

hrm. It's basically a 3D roguelike. Huge losses on death, death happens a ton, but once you learn what to do things start to go more and more smoothly. They give you rudimentary instructions at the beginning and after that it's not about the attacks, it's about when and where and what to use them on. But hey, at least you don't lose levels on death. Well, except for one way. .

Bosses in DS are BOSSES, all of them after the very first tutorial dungeon, 1-1. There are 5 worlds, with a central world, "Nexus", and you can access the other worlds via teleport rocks in the Nexus. You return to the Nexus when you die or you go back to the start of the world and can collect your body for your EXP (though if you die again it's gone forever, and you lose all saved up souls/EXP when you die, so spending as much as you can on leveling up/buying skill whenever you can is encouraged). There are 2 forms, body form and soul form; soul form has half of body form's life but much more attack, and dying in body form in a world lowers the world tendency...world tendency goes from Pure Black to Pure White, think of it as 7 levels, with +3 being Pure White, +0 being Neutral, and -3 being Pure Black. Pure White gives large bonuses to your HP in soul form and your damage in both forms, and Pure Black not only gives huge negatives to both it also makes the enemies MUCH stronger, and a new form of enemy called Black Phantoms can spawn which are 5-10x stronger forms of normal enemies and a few are special NPC Black Phantoms that will tear you apart on first playthrough, generally. Then there is the same graph except with Character Tendency (-3 to +3 again), where Pure White gives bonuses and is gotten by doing good things for the NPCs in the world, whereas Pure Black gives huge negatives and is gained by running around like an ass and killing all the NPCs (which is a quest chain for great rewards but the negatives can outweigh the rewards in a lot of cases unless you are farming materials...)

The game has awesome landscapes though; massive castles and ramparts, a mountaintop with a broken-down shrine, a swamp, a prison in a tower, and a mine complete with massive pitfalls, magma, and another shrine at the bottom.

Flonne pretty much got it all down. I don't know if there's much more I can add on, but I highly recommend the game. I picked it up sometime near the beginning of the year. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I quickly was pulled into the rather refreshing difficulty, open stages in each world, the unique twist on multiplayer and the interesting plot.

I started to like it so much that I recommended it to my friend and he picked it up and loved it as well. We are both currently very excited for the upcoming Dark Souls, despite it only being a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls.

It can get really difficult and annoying, but is very unique and can be fun.

Also, I think they shut the multiplayer servers down, so you're better off waiting for Dark Souls. Multiplayer was what made the game truly awesome, so if you can't do it it takes a lot out of the experience.

If you ever do get the game, though, AVOID THE PLAGUE BABBIES

THEY ARE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE CREATURES

Single player is fine as it is. The conservative type people will be playing the game entirely solo because playing co-op is risky business if you die. There is PvP but you won't go out to PvP until NG+ at the very least. That and if you play with randoms, you'll either play with people who don't know what they're doing or people who know everything.

Multiplayer isn't down in any case I believe. I just did some co-op with someone like half a week ago?

Herp, I thought they shut it down in March. Seems they're extending it to October.

The online servers are scheduled to be shut off on October 11, 2011. A quote from Aram Jabbari, who is the manager of PR and Sales, "We will support the online servers for Demon's Souls as long as we possibly can, and we'll be as transparent about the entire process as possible, hence us constantly updating folks as to what to expect."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon%27s_Souls

That's two more months, unless they see fit to extend it again.

Anyway, the game is still playable solo, but not having multiplayer means you're missing out on lots of fun stuff. Like invading someone else's game as the monk in the ridiculous hat, or annoying the hell out of invaders with your scraping spear. You also won't be able to see messages left by other people.

Top tier game that can be replayed over and over in my opinion. Definite addition to anyone's serious gaming collection especially at current prices.

Herp, I thought they shut it down in March. Seems they're extending it to October.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon%27s_Souls

That's two more months, unless they see fit to extend it again.

Anyway, the game is still playable solo, but not having multiplayer means you're missing out on lots of fun stuff. Like invading someone else's game as the monk in the ridiculous hat, or annoying the hell out of invaders with your scraping spear. You also won't be able to see messages left by other people.

The monk is pretty hilarious, so is invading people's worlds as Black Phantom. I know people that clear the game once and get black eyes stone, then re-clear up to that "certain part" where you can lose levels, de-level to level 10-20 with endgame gear and just enough stats to barely use it, then they just troll the hell out of beginners lol

Hahaha, I think he means (S)NES hard, since we all know anything beyond that is nintendo easy.

Bingo!

I was talking about this type of difficulty.

Great examples of "Nintendo Hard" are Super Meat Boy and IWBTG.

Bingo!

I was talking about this type of difficulty.

Great examples of "Nintendo Hard" are Super Meat Boy and IWBTG.

I was bored so I read through all the games they said were too difficult. The RPG segment is either incorrect or I was an exceedingly gifted RPG player as a child. Lufia II and much later, Odin Sphere, in particular. They were both pretty hard games but not impossible....OS's only real difficult part was Odette and her friggen 5frames per second attacks that lagged the game to all hell, and Lufia II's only hard part was an option postgame puzzle, correctly dubbed "The World's Hardest Puzzle", which took me without a guide 27 hours straight to clear, and miraculously zero broken controls. Also, DA:O was hard? Compared to what, seriously. I barely got a challenge out of that even on hard mode, it's the only one I honestly feel doesn't belong at all. Eternal Sonata NG+ certainly belongs on there, though, being a survivor of that particular hell.

Honestly, the hardest game I've ever played, which I'm currently still trying to 100% (not trophywise, screw those they are too luck based and time consuming), is Star Ocean 4's PS3 version, my god. Normal mode was kinda hard, universe mode was horrible, and chaos all the monsters suddenly have 3x invincibility mode chargerate, 350% all stats, the ability to parry and counter normal attacks, and the ability to counter your counter of their counter of a blindside attack, so aside from the fact that noncrits are 0 damage on them, all of their hits are going to be 1shotting you. My goal is 8wing Ethereal Queen, and just recently I beat 1wing Gabriel Celeste after an hour or so of getting massacred nearly as badly as Freya on 4D of SO3 did to me, so I feel like that goal may be out of my reach at this point.

I'm hoping Dark Souls beats it, somehow. October cannot come fast enough.

Hah, funny you should mention Odin Sphere as it is currently what I am (re-)playing, even as I type this. Belial is also hard as pomegranate.

Bingo!

I was talking about this type of difficulty.

Great examples of "Nintendo Hard" are Super Meat Boy and IWBTG.

Hmm, does Last Man series (which you've probably never heard of) and La Mulana's Temple of Hell count?

Hah, funny you should mention Odin Sphere as it is currently what I am (re-)playing, even as I type this. Belial is also hard as pomegranate.

I'm been holding off on replaying OS and La Pucelle in the rapidly diminishing hope that they will have remakes. Especially La Pucelle, which already has the vastly superior remake out on PSP in JP but NISA is refusing to port it even though they have an over 200 page thread requesting it on their forum.

I'm been holding off on replaying OS and La Pucelle in the rapidly diminishing hope that they will have remakes. Especially La Pucelle, which already has the vastly superior remake out on PSP in JP but NISA is refusing to port it even though they have an over 200 page thread requesting it on their forum.

Odin Sphere and Muramasa are supposedly getting HD PSN/XBL ports.