Demon’s Souls Review

Let’s get this over with quick. Demon’s Souls is hates your guts and isn’t afraid to show it. Think of it like your very jealous ex-girlfriend who just found out you got a new girl.

Demon’s Souls
Developer: From Software
Platform: PlayStation 3 (reviewed)

If you’re not already familiar with Demon’s Souls your instant thought may be “Is it as hard as (Insert game that kicked your ass)”, and I’ll be happy to tell you that it makes that game look like a prostitute beaten by her pimp and left on the corner weeping. The first thing you may notice is that you can’t pause the game. I doubt it serves the function of immersing you in the game like Dead Space did but more along the lines of the developers thinking it funny that you can’t get a break from the onslaught of enemies seeking your blood. One of the key features of the game is the fact that souls you acquire from killing enemies are used to either level up your stats or purchase items, oh did I forget to mention that if you die you lose all of souls you currently had? Each time you die a bloodstain will be left that will allow you to get back all the souls you lost if you can get to it, and that’s a big ‘if’ since when you die you are sent back to whichever portal you started at and all the enemies are brought back to life as well. Remember that Red Eye Knight you just barely killed? Yea he’s back too and he’s ready for Round 2. Demon’s Souls also takes the phrase ‘auto-save’ to the next level by nearly constantly auto-saving anything you do. I’m going to let you know now that you better not try attacking one of the friendly NPC’s hanging around the Nexus for fun to see if they’ll attack back since chances are the game just auto-saved and when you load the game back up they’re still going to be pissed you introduced them to your halberd. Another factor contributing to the difficulty is World Tendency. Certain actions you do shift the tendency of the worlds from black to white which in turn open hidden areas, determine certain loot you can acquire, and change the difficulty. Dying in body form can cause the tendency to shift to black while defeating the boss can shift it to white. These means that you must decide whether to stay in Soul form or decide to instantly acquire your body form with an item since dying too many times in your body will cause the game to get even harder. While first playing the game I couldn’t stop shouting how cheap or unfair it was. Eventually I started to learn that the game isn’t cheap at all but extremely strict at how you approach things. Going in Rambo style will net you a quick trip back to the Nexus while careful planning and patience will reward you with the body of your enemy at your feet. You’ll learn a lesson from each battle.

Just remember that while playing this game you will die a lot which will cause an immense feeling of frustration when you lose over 20k souls simply because you accidentally turned a little early while walking up a flight of stairs and fall to your death. Have fun.

There are 10 classes to pick from in Demon’s Souls, but these classes offer nothing more than deciding what you want your starting armor and stats to be. After that you can choose to level your character in whichever way you see fit. Want to be a fireball chucking mage who has a wicked katana? Go for it. Want to be a knight decked out in heavy armor but proficient in casting buff spells? Sure. You can adjust your characters stats to fit your play style. Souls are used as experience to level up each stat which have a cost, but there’s a small catch. When you raise a stat you’re also raising your Soul Level which in turn raises the cost for every stat, even the ones you haven’t poured any souls in.

Your main interactions with NPC characters will take place in the hub world called the Nexus. This is a safe area where you can store equipments, buy new items, or learn miracles/magic. This is also the place where you will speak with the Black Maiden and level up your stats using your souls. Please note that you can still die buy falling off the stairs or dying to an NPC you attacked here so you should still be careful of what you do.

The melee combat in this game seems simple at first but when you take a closer look at it you see it has more to it. Each weapon feels different from the way your character swings it to the way you enter a situation with it. Walking into a narrow corridor with a halberd or spear won’t net you many hits since your weapon will just keeping hitting the walls so being keen of your environment is always smart. You can wield a weapon in both hands increasing it’s damage at the cost of slowing down the time to swing. You are able to equip a main weapon on your right and left hand as well as equipping a secondary weapon on both hands. One of my favorite things to do is dual wielding shields and go around bashing my foes. Rolling is a move you’ll soon learn as a reflex since it’s key to dodging your enemies. There are also your basic moves like blocking, back stepping, back-stabs, and parrying as well. Every action you perform will take a bit out of your stamina bar depending on the action. Keeping a keen eye on what move you’re about to do and how much stamina will determine whether you walk away victorious or not.

Now it’s time to talk about Demon’s Souls online mode. While playing the game you may have noticed various bloodstains around levels that are not your own. These are the deaths of other players playing the game who’s lives were cut short. If you walk on one of these bloodstains you can witness that player’s final moments. You may also come across ‘ghosts’ of other players playing the game at the same time you are. These come and go randomly and appear briefly. Also scattered are glowing messages on the floor. Going up to one of them will allow you to read a note left by another player to aid you. It may let you know of treasure up ahead or of an enemy ambush. Be wary though since some players are not as kind and may leave false messages that will tell you there is treasure ahead when it’s really a Red Eye Knight or will tell you to jump down a hole that’s safe when it’s really not. There’s a rating system that allows you to rate a message which helps weed out the bad ones, but if you’re feeling sadistic at the moment you can give the sneaky messages a good rating.

The other part of the online experience is the actual player interactions. Using a stone while in Soul form you are able to be summoned by a player in Body form to aid them in the form of blue phantoms to defeat the boss they require help with. A total of 3 players can get together to do this. Likewise if you’re in Body form then you can spot glowing marks on the ground and summon a player into your game. There is no voice or text chat in the game. Instead you are given a list of gestures to perform which surprisingly work fairly well. I’ll also mention that you can’t invite your friends into your game to aid you which would have been a welcome addition. There is a way to get your friends to summon you but it’s a little tricky. The rating system for messages is included for players as well so you can see if somebody is worth summoning or not.

The final form of player interaction takes the form of PvP(Player vs Player). You are able to literally invade another players game and take the form of a black phantom. While in this form enemies won’t attack you which is helpful when the other player is busy focusing on an enemy you can put a swift blade in their back. There’s a catch to being a black phantom though since dying to anything other than the other player will lower you by one soul level and the fact that the player who you’re invading may have summoned 1 or 2 other players to aid them. Feels safe knowing that there’s a level cap for who may invade your game. Nobody higher than 10 levels from you can enter which stops players who have been playing for a while jump into a player’s game who’s fresh and decimate them.

The music in the game fits the atmosphere perfectly. Every sound you hear from the groans of your enemies to your weapons clanging sounds great and is accompanied by a soundtrack that helps set the dreary mood and can jump up during key parts. If only the voice acting was as good. The VA’ing isn’t exactly bad, but it’s nowhere near good either. Instead of cringing at the VA’ing you’re more likely to chuckle at how bad it is. The graphics look great in this game. From Software really crafted a believable world with a western feeling. The levels are also really detailed which can also be said for the bosses which will leave you feeling disgusted at a few.

The Final Word
If you’re the type of gamer who just can’t stand losing all the time then this isn’t the game for you, but I still say that you should give it a chance since beneath all it’s blood-lust the pure satisfaction you get from besting a particular spot feels so much sweeter than anything you’ll get from a game. Demon’s Souls will also keep you playing for quite a while since my play through took around just over 25 hours and there’s a New Game+ ready for you when you’re done.

– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent